Some minor issues in my Qart-Hadast campaign and a question about settlers

[DaanO]

Hey EB-Team

I'm a long time fan and lurker on the forums; I'm really happy with the release of EB II, it rocks!! Thanks for all the effort.
The reason I registered is not just to thank you though. I've been playing with Qrt-Hdst and I thought I should report some minor issues with the campaign. Note that I know nothing about modding or the inner workings of the game, so I might be blaming you for MII:TW problems. And please; I'm not complaining, I'm just reporting some issues which you might want to fix.

The first issue is a with command traits. My last turn, I had a general of mine fighting off three large Aruernoi stacks in three seperate battles, only barely surviving the whole ordeal. The thing is that next turn, I had a report in my faction announcements that that Family Member had gained the trait Good Tactician, thrice in the same turn after the Aruernoi battles. In the end only one 'Good Tactician' trait stayed, but I still feel like this shouldn't happen. I've had this several times in my current campaign, generals getting a double 'Good Tactician' trait but only keeping one; it don't know why this happens but it always feels to me like I'm being cheated out of a command star.

Secondly (though this might be a MII:TW AI issue) the campaign AI of the Seleucid is just being weird when it comes to navy and naval invasion. I took Rhodes, Crete and Cyprus for the glory of Ba'al, and all the islands, but Rhodes especially are being swamped by Seleucid fleets (as much as 15 fleets around Rhodes a few turns ago) and Seleucid stacks (2 or 3 of 'em, usually full). The thing is that they don't really attack. Sometimes they block my port on Rhodes, but then the stacks just do nothing for a few turns untill I make peace with the Seleukids again and the armies just keep standing here. The Seleukid stacks tend to rebel after X turns because they usually do not bring a General along. I can't even move outside of the City of Rhodes because the whole island is full of Seleukid stacks, though I haven't been at war with em for 10 turns.

Lastly, I also have a question. If an enemy takes one of my cities which has a Settler colony, does that automatically mean the colony in question will be destroyed? This happened to me in Massalia, where I lost 2 batches of settlers because the city rebelled against me; after I took it, the settler building was gone. It could just be that the Eleutheroi AI thought it appropriate to destroy the Colony.

Greetings,
DaanO

[Kull]

Secondly (though this might be a MII:TW AI issue) the campaign AI of the Seleucid is just being weird when it comes to navy and naval invasion. I took Rhodes, Crete and Cyprus for the glory of Ba'al, and all the islands, but Rhodes especially are being swamped by Seleucid fleets (as much as 15 fleets around Rhodes a few turns ago) and Seleucid stacks (2 or 3 of 'em, usually full). The thing is that they don't really attack. Sometimes they block my port on Rhodes, but then the stacks just do nothing for a few turns untill I make peace with the Seleukids again and the armies just keep standing here. The Seleukid stacks tend to rebel after X turns because they usually do not bring a General along. I can't even move outside of the City of Rhodes because the whole island is full of Seleukid stacks, though I haven't been at war with em for 10 turns.

Thanks. GRANTO is looking at this and might have a fix. Still testing. If it works, you'll probably see it in an updated CAI.

[DaanO]

Another (minor) issue I've come across is a graphics problem with the Iberian Medium Scutarii Cavalry on the battlefield. They work just fine on the battle map, but after one of 'em dies the sprite turns into a black box (big battles with a lot of these units mean a field filled with these lil' boxes). Everything runs smoothly all the rest, it doesn't cause any problems for the battles.

I might be over-reporting this, but I figured that if nobody tells you guys you can't fix it either.

Greets
DaanO

[Hummer]

I've had black boxes for dead units on occasion but I don't remember what units they were.

[Dago Red]

Not seeing any of these circumstantial issues in my campaign, but did lose a settler colony to Rome, just for the AI's turn and when I retook it with a relief force the Carthage infrastructure was gone. I expected this and it makes gameplay sense, though not common sense. Probably working as intended.

These all seem the least of any issues with a Carthage campaign -- as with any the battles are not yet up to spec and suffer many EDU-centric issues as well as animation issues. These are compounded by some bizarre unit stats in the Carthaginian roster. The most elite cavalry, though possessing a great charge bonus over their rivals have only a 16 (give or take 1) total defense which is much less than Gallic and elite Roman counterparts, yet Carthage's finest ride with chamfrons and other horse armor. Even though they lack a shield (not sure why) they shouldn't be so unbalanced when other heavy horse don't even ride armored horses.

Furthermore, this huge charge bonus, is dwarfed by the charge bonus given to even the most pedestrian hoplite! That is puzzling at best. Other issues remain across the board. The one elephant unit available costs 10,000 and 2,000 upkeep. That's just about the same for an entire Penteres capital fleet! The elephants are no where near worth it, making them a pointless addition (currently) unless you have a trillion dollars in the bank. Skirmish infantry are borked, etc.

Most significantly, the stated bonuses on most of the buildings do not apply. Building a training ground gives no experience bonus to troops. Increasing trade colony levels saw none of the +200 or more to income. Building the small temples even up to the 3rd tier seem to have no public order/happiness effect. An academy for 10 turns, then a 2nd tier upgrade to it for another 10 turns have given no positive traits or ancillaries to any of the 5 generals that have been staying in Qart Hadast.... the infuriating list goes on.

And yet, many things are well done, so much potential here. The beginnings of a great game.

[QuintusSertorius]

Skirmish infantry are borked, etc.

It's a throwing animation, projectile choice and range problem; a nasty combination which make skirmishers as they appear in unaugmented v2.01 useless. Same goes javelin cavalry, at least as far as the latter two. Fortunately, it's easily fixed with some EDU tweaks (which also includes giving secondary spear-users the right attribute so they're not useless against infantry, and speeding up cavalry a little). Not savegame compatible, in most cases, though.

[Dago Red]

Fortunately, it's easily fixed with some EDU tweaks

Agreed and already using your EDU mod, actually. The cav speeds might be a bit much for me, but everything else is exactly what is needed. Well done. These were glaring, priority issues, but like you said, easily fixed. Some of the other things will take a lot more time, and are more insidious (EDU changes to unit stats and attributes are straightforward, to me).

[QuintusSertorius]

Agreed and already using your EDU mod, actually. The cav speeds might be a bit much for me, but everything else is exactly what is needed. Well done. These were glaring, priority issues, but like you said, easily fixed. Some of the other things will take a lot more time, and are more insidious (EDU changes to unit stats and attributes are straightforward, to me).

Cavalry speeds in the first attempt (heavy 130% and light 160%) were certainly too fast, but I don't think the final set is (heavy 125% and light 135%).

[Dago Red]

Update... this campaign is essentially over. I played out a siege at Arpi 4 times, twice only for a short time before the game froze up into crippling lag. Other two times both "encountered an unknown/unspecified error" and medieval total war quit. This was after grueling run-the-clock out hour long battles to turn the tide against Rome on the Penninsula.

There are other issues with this level of city wall in general -- large stone wall I believe. Each time I have encoutntered them, whether my own as in this case (captured) or while attacking them, inevitably the units cannot pass through at least 2 of the 4 gates, but instead bunch up in front of them in a blob, meeting some invisible barrier. Could this be related to the bug crashing this siege??

Going to stab myself with Machaira in the face now.

[Sarkiss]

There are other issues with this level of city wall in general -- large stone wall I believe. Each time I have encoutntered them, whether my own as in this case (captured) or while attacking them, inevitably the units cannot pass through at least 2 of the 4 gates, but instead bunch up in front of them in a blob, meeting some invisible barrier.

the gates issue might be explained by entry 4 on this list

[Dago Red]

the gates issue might be explained by entry 4 on this list

Seems so. That's one down/explained! Though I would prefer if those gates were simply not there in the custom models, that way units wouldn't try to use them. That is the biggest problem.