Aeimnestus Ancient Naval Warfare & Realistic Combat mod (Current version 1.5)

[GODzilla]

That's pretty clever! And only now did I notice that you named the file differently. Pretty cool. Thanks for that.

As for the mod manager, I had it ready anyway. Just in case...I knew that sooner or later, many mods would switch from movie to mod format.

One last question though: When I start the game once with the mod manager, that means it automatically makes the entry for that mod and I don't have to use the mod manager again. Is that correct?

[GODzilla]

/edit: forum again...

[Nalatroz]

Yeah. I believe so.

[GODzilla]

I'm trying to figure out whether the mod is working or not. For instance in the startpost it is mentioned that the "ship based onager has been significantly reduced in power", yet whem comparing the actual unit stats with the one in the encyclopedia (these do not change) it has the same damage.

I guess the only way to make sure - I mean apart from simply trusting you, which I really should - is to see how transport ships perform and one cannot these those in a custom battle. Have to wait until I encounter them in the campaign. ^^

[jethro]

@ Nalatroz: thanks a lot for your compatible version, just downloaded, really what I was looking for... It saved a lot of my time instead of doing it by myself...
Regards,
Jethro

[Nalatroz]

I'm trying to figure out whether the mod is working or not. For instance in the startpost it is mentioned that the "ship based onager has been significantly reduced in power", yet whem comparing the actual unit stats with the one in the encyclopedia (these do not change) it has the same damage.

I guess the only way to make sure - I mean apart from simply trusting you, which I really should - is to see how transport ships perform and one cannot these those in a custom battle. Have to wait until I encounter them in the campaign. ^^

Yeah the ship only version doesn't contain the modifications to the ship bound onager for some reason.

EDIT

For those that want Naval_Only with the changes to the Onagers on the ships:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9m56tntdjjteno3

It saved a lot of my time instead of doing it by myself...

Took me about a minute to do.

[GODzilla]

Ah okay. So...just the transport ship nerf and mass changes? I'm okay with that, especially the transport ship. This thing singlehandedly ruined my very first naval experience in the game, I hate it.

Thanks again. Time for some +rep.

[mattebubben]

cant seem to download the full version (thats the 1 in the attachment aint it?)

[Nalatroz]

Try right clicking the download and selecting "save link/file as".
The Server is all kind of battered right now.

[mattebubben]

Sorry double post and thanks for fast reply.
Will try again tomorow.

[jutajata]

That's the best battle mod so far! The battles are very immersive and realistic, the only thing I wuld ask is that the tweaking on the battle camera is not good, personally I prefer the original, but the rest is great! If you could increase the distance between soldiers would be awesome!Keep the great work!

[Aeimnestus]

Small update: I've been working hard and apologize for not releasing a smaller update on monday. When I tried the forum was so slow and I kept getting error-500 messages. But I am proud to say I'll be releasing the new version soon! As a surprise, this release will have fully reworked Roman and Carthaginian navies!

Here are the preliminary patchnotes:

Land Changes:

Special ability changes:
- Removed most "fantasy" special abilities from the game, except those from the general.

Appearance changes:
- Changed the height of every unit in the game to be more realistic to one another.

Missile changes:
- Reworked slingers and archers to be less deadly. Their main value is their added morale shock to units under fire, though over time ranged units will still rack up kills.
- Slingers do more damage than archers, but have lost armour penetration. Archers have retained some armour penetration, allowing them to eventually wear down armoured units, though they are not at all effective at it. Both archers and slingers have had their ammo count increased. Javelins are the most destructive ranged weapon when they hit, but have less ammo (7, down from 10, based on the historical accounts of velites carrying 7 javelins), far less range and are less accurate.
- Ranged mounted/naval units have more ammo than their foot-versions, but less accuracy.

Morale changes:
- Base morale is higher, units fighting and winning combat gain a sizable morale boost.
- Units under fire, suffering from being attacked in the rear, and/or fighting and loosing combat suffer a more significant reduction in morale.

Battle Camera Changes:
- Fixed the camera zooming in so far that the player can see a layer of water below the ground.


Naval changes:

Roster changes:
- Removed all ships with onagers/catapults from the game. The only artillery ships that can be used are Ballista Quinqueremes.
- Completely reworked the Carthaginian and Roman fleets. They still have access to the same ships as in the vanilla game, but with more realistic crews: Roman quinqueremes with hastati/principes and later on legionaries/legionary cohorts, Carthaginian tower quinqueremes with phoenician archers, etc.
- This does result in a less diverse naval roster. Although there is still the same choice of ships, the amount of different crews is reduced. In time I will add more diversity.

New units:
- New unit for Carthage: "Phoenician Marines". While Carthage employed mostly mercenaries for its land armies, their navy consisted of citizens. Phoenician Marines are medium infantry carrying a round shield, short sword, and javelins, well trained for marine landings and boarding actions.
- New unit for Carthage: "Phoenician Heavy Marines". Consisting of the wealthier Carthaginian citizens, armed in the fashion of hoplites and stationed on the larger and more valuable Carthaginian ships. No true historical account, but for variety's sake and not unlikely.
- New unit for Carthage: "Phoenician Archers". Citizens trained as archers and employed in the navy. Based on accounts from the war between Carthage and Syracuse, where Carthaginian crews are described as shooting arrows at the greeks.
- For now, you will only see these new units as crews on your ships in naval battles.

Naval combat changes:
- Ship stats reworked: reduced the turn rate for some ships to be more realistic.
- Larger ships have had their hull points increased significantly, making them very resistant to ramming from smaller ships.
- Note: Ships being unable to move and unresponsive to orders after getting rammed is bug/mechanic within the game that I cannot change

Naval boarding completely reworked:
- Boarding is far riskier. Killing the enemy crew takes much, much longer now, and thus leaves the boarding ship vulnerable to ramming or allies/enemies joining in the boarding for an extended duration.
- Larger ships carry more soldiers, smaller ships carry less. No longer can you overtake a Carthaginian septireme with a single Roman trireme. The number of soldiers on the ships is based on historical examples where available. Romans have a large advantage in boarding because they pack on average 20-50% more soldiers on their ships than the other nations.
- Note: Initiating boarding itself is still as ridiculously easy as before, this is not something I can change.

Known issues:
- Some ships with melee-orientated crews are listed under the "missile" category in custom battles and vice versa.
- Roman and Carthaginian ships have a massive advantage (in boarding only) vs ships from the other nations.
- Ship cost has not been rebalanced yet.

[jpinard]

You're a damn genius. Thanks!

I do have to ask though... is the AI any worse with these changes?

[Aeimnestus]

You're a damn genius. Thanks!

I do have to ask though... is the AI any worse with these changes?

So far the AI hasn't performed better or worse. It still does stupid things, yet sometimes surprises you. I did loose a large custom naval battle after a Carthaginian trireme prevented my hexareme from boarding their septireme (admittedly I wasn't paying attention to the center at that moment, otherwise I would have had my hexareme ram the trireme), who then proceeded to ram and sink my quinquereme who was boarding one of their quinqueremes. Then two of my ships caught fire, and from there it became an unsalvageable loss.

[NeonCrayon]

Why did you remove catapults from ships?
They added more diversity and strategy to navies and are historically accurate anyway

[deathval]

I have been noticing that my ranged ships when called to ram will stop about 10 feet away from the target ship and not ram. Anyone else notice this?

[The Border Reiver]

I have just seen this mod and I am intrigued; so have downloaded it

I checked every post and can't find whether this has been asked yet? Is it possible for land units defending against a sea invasion force to rush the ships and engage the troops disembarking? It doesn't seem possible so far, but can this be modded in to your knowledge?

Also could we possibly rethink the removal of catapults as Neoncrayon said they have historical precendent.

Well done, and i'll post soon on some battles.

[Lithuex]

Could we get a naval only version for the fully updated version?

Thanks.

[Enasteron]

+1 rep Really great addition! Thanks a lot for fixing the naval warfare. Keep it up

[Aeimnestus]

Why did you remove catapults from ships?
They added more diversity and strategy to navies and are historically accurate anyway

Catapults in the form of onagers were probably never used on ships. The recoil would make them completely unsuitable for naval use. The only artillery-like weaponry used on ships were ballistae (giant crossbows propelling round marble stones like cannonballs) and lighter engines like scorpios and variants to those.
Note also that the ballista on the ships wasn't meant to sink other ships, it was mainly meant to kill crew.