Feedback & Feature Requests

[lyka0913]

for all the people who can read this.. try the TWH unit pack and chaploo gold unit.. and you will really enjoy the battles here.. i mean really enjoy..

@silven.. i wish more factions playable next update

[fingersmith]

for all the people who can read this.. try the TWH unit pack and chaploo gold unit..

my question is that are these unit packs balanced to run with silven's mod ??

[lyka0913]

yes they are, silven is balance with vanilla. only radious unit pack is not balance with silven

[Tullius Germanicus]

for all the people who can read this.. try the TWH unit pack and chaploo gold unit.. and you will really enjoy the battles here.. i mean really enjoy..

just tried out the unit packs you've recommended. Looks good so far. Thanks for the hint. Didn't see any balancing problems so far.

[lyka0913]

just tried out the unit packs you've recommended. Looks good so far. Thanks for the hint. Didn't see any balancing problems so far.

im so glad ive helped

[MKeogh]

My thoughts on Silven Total Improvement.

The good:

1) It's not a big mod with all sorts of unnecessary submods. Personally, I think that's a very good thing because a lot of the "big" mods make the mistake that "more" automatically means "better" when it really just means "more." Some mods just get lost in their quest to keep adding on more and more "chrome." Silven keeps it simple: tweaks of the BAI, CAI, and various economic/agent/military stats to improve the game. If the player wants to add on graphical or gameplay submods then the player is free to do so or not. It actually reminds me the terrific "The Rights of Man" mods of ETW, NTW, and S2TW which were a blast to play, but didn't get bogged down by including every submod under the sun.

2) Stable: Haven't experienced any crashes

3) Challenging: I started a Rome campaign on Very Hard and it's been a real struggle. I'm 70+ turns into the campaign with only two full strength legions fighting in Cisalpine against the Raeti and Nori, in Provincia against the Averni, and being threatened in both the east and the south by Athens and Carthage. Making money and keeping order even in Italia have both been tough. I particularly like how tight things have been economically which is always a huge plus for a TW mod.

4) Major nation survival: one of the few submods including in Silven is one that enables major AI factions to survive and form empires. For example, Carthage was not quickly overwhelmed by African nomads. However, it was odd to see Novo Carthago emerge as a major power by swallowing up all the African minors.

The "Bad:"

1) the Battles: I'm currently playing at "Hard" level, but the morale system seemed to be out the window at that level. I routinely have to nearly annihilate enemy units to get them to waver even levy/militia units! Unfortunately, battles all seem to be about "hammer and anvil" tactics which the BAI is terrible at both doing and preventing. Even my lower tier infantry units can fix any enemy unit for enough time for my cavalry to work around into the enemy's rear where it first chases off the enemy's missile units before starting to charge again and again and again into the rear of the enemy's infantry's units that are fixed upon mine. The repeated rear charges into the fixed infantry eventually wears them down and breaks them, but it takes time. That being said, I do really like how most of the silly "special abilities" of vanilla were removed.

2) Diplomacy: A lot of the challenge is coming from my inability to use diplomacy to avoid fighting wars on multiple fronts. As Rome, I'm really struggling to make trade agreements, alliances, or get anyone to agree to peace. When Syracuse cancelled our trade agreement during the 1st turn then I knew that I was facing a much more challenging diplomatic environment. I chose very hard campaign difficulty because the AI builds stronger armies, but the diplomatic penalty appears to be too severe. [The diplomatic situation may be the result of vanilla rather than any changes from the mod.]

Overall, I like a lot about Silven especially its being a less intrusive mod, but its battles all play-out the same way with armies being apparently filled with fearless automatons.

[cherryfunk]

Salve Silven!

In response to MKeogh's comments above, I have to say I think the battle lengths are quite good in this mod. I just recently came back to R2 after The Debacle (aka the launch) and first tried the two 'big' mods, Radious and DEI. With Radious I liked the battles, but the economy produced far too much money and far too many armies, making the campaign a real slog. With DEI I liked the new units and the tight economy, but the battles just took far, far too long -- having to fight battles in fast-forward mode is not my idea of fun.

I found some comments on Reddit praising STIM, so I gave it a try and so far am very pleased -- the battles feel just about right to me; there's plenty of time for maneuvering and flanking, and with careful management and the right use of your troops its possible to get a chain rout going and send the enemy scattering to the winds. Battles feel like they have just the right amount of 'heft' to them, if you take my meaning. Long, but not prolonged, with a crisis-point reached when suddenly things often turn rapidly against one side or the other.

Playing the CIG campaign, so far my only complaint is that the AI don't seem to be recruiting much cavalry, but I'm still in the early turns so that may change.

Well done Silven!

[Aruberikku]

DELETED

[Silven]

Thanks for all the fantastic feedback and constructive criticism. I just wanted to post a quick comment letting you all know that these comments DO get read, since if I stay absent for too long people start to worry that their thoughts are being ignored.

[Heytch]

Hey there, not sure if this is intentional, I noticed that when you play Balkan tribes, or atleast the Getae and Odrysian Kingdom, you can build dacian bowmen from artisans lodging, but as soon as you upgrade it to anything you lose the ability to recruit dacian bowmen, as far as I can see no other building has bowmen, except later on there is the heavy skirmishers/archers, but it appears the only building you can recruit regular dacian bowmen is from rank 1 artisans lodging.

[Oby]

I don't write very often but I must congrats you on your great mod. I tried few other overhauls presented on this site but I like yours best. Great balance and battle pace. With this mod and patch 14, I enjoy this product as a game(it's far from being any sort of historical sim) very much.

Thank you.

[yupper]

My thoughts on Silven Total Improvement.
1) the Battles: I'm currently playing at "Hard" level, but the morale system seemed to be out the window at that level. I routinely have to nearly annihilate enemy units to get them to waver even levy/militia units! Unfortunately, battles all seem to be about "hammer and anvil" tactics which the BAI is terrible at both doing and preventing. Even my lower tier infantry units can fix any enemy unit for enough time for my cavalry to work around into the enemy's rear where it first chases off the enemy's missile units before starting to charge again and again and again into the rear of the enemy's infantry's units that are fixed upon mine. The repeated rear charges into the fixed infantry eventually wears them down and breaks them, but it takes time. That being said, I do really like how most of the silly "special abilities" of vanilla were removed.

Agree with pretty much all of your assessments here. I was looking for an overhaul mod that didn't try to reinvent the game, come attached with all sorts of unwanted features or 100+ new troop types I don't need, or remove important features of the game like 'civil wars', but merely tried to polish and fix some things that always annoyed me about the vanilla game. Looks like Silven is the mod for me.

- I really like the revamped ship classes, which makes sea battles more sensible now. It was ridiculous in vanilla that you could literally rule the seas with only transport ships.
- definitely digging the major faction survival script. In almost all of my vanilla grand campaigns, Carthage loses it's capital to Syracuse or Rome. Their fate is noticeably different with Silven.

- the one thing that does really annoys me is the boosted morale. Like MKeogh, I've had instances where I've had to decimate an enemy unit down to single digits before it would even waver, even when they are being flanked on all sides. This turns even the most minor battles into a painful exercise because it unnecessarily stretches the battle when the winner is blatantly clear. It basically makes every battle into a 'slug fest' where things like maneuvering and flanking hardly matters. I get that the vanilla game battles moves too quickly and feels 'arcady', but I feel the morale boost in Silven needs to be toned down.

[Vinicam]

Agree with pretty much all of your assessments here. I was looking for an overhaul mod that didn't try to reinvent the game, come attached with all sorts of unwanted features or 100+ new troop types I don't need, or remove important features of the game like 'civil wars', but merely tried to polish and fix some things that always annoyed me about the vanilla game. Looks like Silven is the mod for me.

- I really like the revamped ship classes, which makes sea battles more sensible now. It was ridiculous in vanilla that you could literally rule the seas with only transport ships.
- definitely digging the major faction survival script. In almost all of my vanilla grand campaigns, Carthage loses it's capital to Syracuse or Rome. Their fate is noticeably different with Silven.

- the one thing that does really annoys me is the boosted morale. Like MKeogh, I've had instances where I've had to decimate an enemy unit down to single digits before it would even waver, even when they are being flanked on all sides. This turns even the most minor battles into a painful exercise because it unnecessarily stretches the battle when the winner is blatantly clear. It basically makes every battle into a 'slug fest' where things like maneuvering and flanking hardly matters. I get that the vanilla game battles moves too quickly and feels 'arcady', but I feel the morale boost in Silven needs to be toned down.

My thoughts on Silven Total Improvement.

The good:

1) It's not a big mod with all sorts of unnecessary submods. Personally, I think that's a very good thing because a lot of the "big" mods make the mistake that "more" automatically means "better" when it really just means "more." Some mods just get lost in their quest to keep adding on more and more "chrome." Silven keeps it simple: tweaks of the BAI, CAI, and various economic/agent/military stats to improve the game. If the player wants to add on graphical or gameplay submods then the player is free to do so or not. It actually reminds me the terrific "The Rights of Man" mods of ETW, NTW, and S2TW which were a blast to play, but didn't get bogged down by including every submod under the sun.

2) Stable: Haven't experienced any crashes

3) Challenging: I started a Rome campaign on Very Hard and it's been a real struggle. I'm 70+ turns into the campaign with only two full strength legions fighting in Cisalpine against the Raeti and Nori, in Provincia against the Averni, and being threatened in both the east and the south by Athens and Carthage. Making money and keeping order even in Italia have both been tough. I particularly like how tight things have been economically which is always a huge plus for a TW mod.

4) Major nation survival: one of the few submods including in Silven is one that enables major AI factions to survive and form empires. For example, Carthage was not quickly overwhelmed by African nomads. However, it was odd to see Novo Carthago emerge as a major power by swallowing up all the African minors.

The "Bad:"

1) the Battles: I'm currently playing at "Hard" level, but the morale system seemed to be out the window at that level. I routinely have to nearly annihilate enemy units to get them to waver even levy/militia units! Unfortunately, battles all seem to be about "hammer and anvil" tactics which the BAI is terrible at both doing and preventing. Even my lower tier infantry units can fix any enemy unit for enough time for my cavalry to work around into the enemy's rear where it first chases off the enemy's missile units before starting to charge again and again and again into the rear of the enemy's infantry's units that are fixed upon mine. The repeated rear charges into the fixed infantry eventually wears them down and breaks them, but it takes time. That being said, I do really like how most of the silly "special abilities" of vanilla were removed.

2) Diplomacy: A lot of the challenge is coming from my inability to use diplomacy to avoid fighting wars on multiple fronts. As Rome, I'm really struggling to make trade agreements, alliances, or get anyone to agree to peace. When Syracuse cancelled our trade agreement during the 1st turn then I knew that I was facing a much more challenging diplomatic environment. I chose very hard campaign difficulty because the AI builds stronger armies, but the diplomatic penalty appears to be too severe. [The diplomatic situation may be the result of vanilla rather than any changes from the mod.]

Overall, I like a lot about Silven especially its being a less intrusive mod, but its battles all play-out the same way with armies being apparently filled with fearless automatons.

I have to agree with you guys. The morale is too high. It's nearly impossible to win against good hoplites units without far greater numbers attacking them on all sides. Even some good 3 charges in their back is not enough to break some units, they fight till single digits... Also, I lost a battle and almost an entire army against some minor hoplites units and two elephant generals(don't remember the unit name), nothing can take down those elephants units, even when they charge spear infantry from the front.

Also, I have to agree with the diplomatic penalties... I can't end war with some minor factions, even when they are very weak. Only way to do this is besieging their last settlement. And some factions, even when they really like you or are a client state of yours, still refuses to trade.


One last thing that I don't know if it's mod related or not... I'm playing a Rome campaign, and Macedon has taken over Sparta and Athens. I tried to liberated then, but when I conquered their city the option to liberated didn't appear. Actually, the option don't appear for any city that I conquer, only way to restore old nations is to let the city rebel and take over.

[appollonian]

Not sure if this is the right place or not, but is there any indication on how this mod is going to work once Emperor edition patch comes out on September 16? Should I just assume now that it'll probably take a week or so to get this mod caught up? I just started playing Rome II again, and if I need to wait it's no problem... Just want to get my mind ready, ha.

[Reggum]

Well I don't no if CA introduced liberate for all factions, far as I know only the barbarian factions can do this.

[yupper]

Well I don't no if CA introduced liberate for all factions, far as I know only the barbarian factions can do this.

Dresden has a mod that extents many post-battle settlement options to all factions (including liberate and sack). It works great with this mod.

[Silven]

For those of you that mentioned some troop types seem to have rather high morale, are you using any other mods? Because in almost every case, all units morale in this mod is lower by some degree when compared to vanilla stats, especially for high-end, elite troops. In general morale penalties get heavier and heavier as the fight goes on too, as a result of army vs army ratios changing, fatigue, causalities, etc. The idea is that both armies are eager and willing to slug it out in the beginning, but as the shape of the fight becomes more clear and apparent, the will to fight for the losing side should falter. And in my own personal experience, this is generally what I see.

And I haven't messed with liberate/sack rules or options. The limited number of options based on which faction is conquering which faction, is present in vanilla.

[yupper]

For those of you that mentioned some troop types seem to have rather high morale, are you using any other mods? Because in almost every case, all units morale in this mod is lower by some degree when compared to vanilla stats, especially for high-end, elite troops. In general morale penalties get heavier and heavier as the fight goes on too, as a result of army vs army ratios changing, fatigue, causalities, etc. The idea is that both armies are eager and willing to slug it out in the beginning, but as the shape of the fight becomes more clear and apparent, the will to fight for the losing side should falter. And in my own personal experience, this is generally what I see.

Speaking for myself, I am not using any mods that edit BAI or units, just Silven plus Dresden's 'Sack and Liberate' and 'Seasons.' I've seen a lot of instances where outnumbered and overwhelmed units start to waver, then suddenly regain composure, even though their (or my) general is already dead. This can happen repeatedly during a battle, up to 5 or 6 times, and I habitually have to decimate enemy units like barbarian levies down to 30 - 40 men before they will route. I like the extended battle time but it's a bit much for my taste, because it significantly weaken the 'shock' of flanking maneuvers and more or less turn every battle into more 'slug fest' than tactical affairs.

[Heytch]

Speaking for myself, I am not using any mods that edit BAI or units, just Silven plus Dresden's 'Sack and Liberate' and 'Seasons.' I've seen a lot of instances where outnumbered and overwhelmed units start to waver, then suddenly regain composure, even though their (or my) general is already dead. This can happen repeatedly during a battle, up to 5 or 6 times, and I habitually have to decimate enemy units like barbarian levies down to 30 - 40 men before they will route. I like the extended battle time but it's a bit much for my taste, because it significantly weaken the 'shock' of flanking maneuvers and more or less turn every battle into more 'slug fest' than tactical affairs.

Agreed. Sometimes you just see really weird things. Outnumbered units fighting to the death. Superior forces suddenly routing. Taking multiple flank/cavalry charges and still fighting strong. I felt like morale was a lot more dynamic in earlier versions, it's sort of become a grind.

[yupper]

morale was a lot more dynamic

That's probably the best way to describe what I was trying to get at. It make perfect sense for units to 'slug it out' when they are face to face. Once they get flanked and/or surrounded, it should drastically reduce their ability to hold it together. I am eagerly awaiting the next version.