Next Update v1.0 beta - info leaks and sneak peaks

[Magnar]

This thread will list what we expect to have included in the next update of Vae Victis and any other relevant info.

Here is a WIP change log of what has been completed and what is being worked on for the next update of VV v1.0 beta

The release of this update has been pushed back a long way to allow for more long term content eg buildings and tech to be included in it.

Please continue to give feedback and bug reports so we can further improve this mod

Change Log v1.0 beta

Remaining Start Factions:
Garamatians (research)
Meroe (research)
D'mt (research)
Albania, Colchis, Iberia (units need to be put together)
Cappadocia
Maurya (waiting on more model stuff)
Brutti
Commagene
Sinope
Trapezos
Iazyges
Vaccaei
Arecomici
Albocenses
Galatia




In addition to these facitons, a number of factions are being reviewed and reworked including:
Celts
All Hellenistic
Romans
Thracians
Iberians


Faction Roster Overhauls (37/47)

(Ready For Next Update / Total Remaining)

Cyrene
Bactria
Pontus
Pergammon
Dacians
Cimmerians
Massalia
Scythians
Sarmatians
Saka
Persia
Media
Media Atropatene
Susiana
Aria
Parthava (given parthian roster)
Sagartia
Mauri
Massyli
Massaeyli
Nasomones
Libya (rebel faction)
Britons
Seleucid
Macedon

New Mechanics

- General Attribute Overhaul

Tweaks & Bugfixes

1) morale bonus from formations eg hoplite, pike wall, shield wall etc reduced from a % to a constant amount
2) reduce the range impact on thrown weapons for being mounted. The speed of the horse was not factored in the original system which would have greatly helped with impact velocity
3) Increase the AP of medium and lighter javelins
4) Reduce accuracy of towers
5) fixes to integrity script
6) Changes to some faction uniform colours
7) Dacian roster overhaul (19 units) (credits to ciu and lob mods for assets)
8) Cimmerian roster overhaul (22 units)
9) Fixed Etruscan hastati missing sword
10) Fixed etruscan axemen
11) Attacking from the shield side of a unit will now be less effective while attacking form the non shield side will be slightly more effective
12) Unit size overhaul
13) Massalian Senators increased from 300 to 600 as per Strabo
14) Massalian Politcl Council added called "Timuchi"
15) Missile Block chance reduced by fatigue and being under missiles causes units to fatigue more.
16) Fatigue recovery speed increased both at rest and walking
17) Army integrity recovery in own territory doubled
18) Turns in foreign territory before integrity reduced now equals generals authority level and is increased relative to authority
19) Fixed an error with roman unit stat calculations adding a bonus for a secondary weapons
20) reworked how lances, long spear and long lances work with cavalry. Cav with such weapons should now be a bit better in charges and more reflective in melee
21) Lighter equipped units now attack faster than heavier equipped units making them slightly more able to meet them in combat
22) cavalry adopt a charge pose 15m earlier
23) Reduced level 1 barb garrisons by 3 units (max lvl 1 garrison is now 12 units without additional buildings)
24) reduced level 1 eastern garrisons by 2 units (max lvl 1 garrison is now 12 units without additional buildings)
25) reduced level 1 greek garrisons by 2 units (max lvl 1 garrison is now 12 units without additional buildings)
26) reduced level 1 roman garrisons by 2 units (max lvl 1 garrison is now 12 units without additional buildings)
27) african skins removed from carthaginian units.
28) Prima cohorts officer changed to eagle standard
29) Reduced ai food bonus
30) AI recruitment cost reduction reduced
31) Fixed thracian and bithynian unit texts
32) Cavalry shields now block only 1/3 as many missiles as infantry shields as they do not cover the horse and in r2, killing the horse is the same as killing the rider
33) stats changed for all previously released eastern cultural units
34) general attribute overhaul
35) more garrison fixes
36) regionless faction attrition reduced to 0
37) income from sacking greatly increased
38) Skirmisher javelin ammo increased (costs also increased to match)
39) Replenishment in regions where a unit can be recruited increased from 5% base to 20% base
40) New Unit Card Style
41) Fixed lusitani devotio cavalry
42) Aksum name changed to Yeha
43) Khoresmii changed to Choresmia
44) Edicts completely reoverhauled
45) Unit costs and upkeep completely overhauled
46) Epirus reworked
47) Ptolemeys reworked

Currently being worked on and approximate status


- Garamates

- Romans (More unit improvements)

- Faction Trait Overhaul (initial planning)

- Meroe (Research almost complete, models and textures being worked on)

- Building overhaul (Rome finished, now working on carthage)

- Scripting stuff (when DeI's supply system is finished it will be implemented) + plus more uniquely scripted mechanics

- UI stuff (Brand new unit card style from Melcor and ROMAL)

- Arachosia/Maurya (models and textures still to be completed)

- Unit Size Overhaul

- Technology Overhaul (Rome)

- Resource Overhaul

- Agent Attribute Overhaul

- Ancillary Overhaul (early implementation phase, planning finished)

- Completely reworked startpos (new starting armies, buildings, characters, factions, start poitions and lot lots more)

- AoR system

[General George S. Patton]

Should be some new 3d models added in there to right?

Also there will hopefully be a reworked roman navy, faction campaign intro videos, historical battles with our units, new main intro video, and some tweaks to battlefield buildings.

[kamikazee786]

is there any ETA on when this hotfix will be released and will there be some new shield textures to replace some of the vanilla ones ?

[Magnar]

is there any ETA on when this hotfix will be released and will there be some new shield textures to replace some of the vanilla ones ?

Im working on it atm, hoping for a release within 1 - 2 weeks.

It will not include any new content only fixing balance and bugs for the current release. New content will be in the update after that and will contain a whole bunch of stuff.

[Sir_Pee_Alot]

Should be some new 3d models added in there to right?

Also there will hopefully be a reworked roman navy, faction campaign intro videos, historical battles with our units, new main intro video, and some tweaks to battlefield buildings.

Nice thats what i like to see. Units ok that you get with almost every release in every mod but the things that are needed to make the campaign better with building/styles UI changes new agent system or government system or general overhaul that are the things im waiting for. I want to have the epic feeling back where i get sucked in to my campaign and love it all the way.

You guys are doing a great job keep it up and this mod is the best and the only way to play RTW II.

[Magnar]

updated op with a running list of bugs and balancing that is finished and ready to be included in the next hotfix update.

[The Wandering Storyteller]

Good stuff!

Consider adding more dilemas and events forcing the player to change his ways in the campaigns. I have a feature which could be added but it depends on what you guys think.

[Magnar]

Good stuff!

Consider adding more dilemas and events forcing the player to change his ways in the campaigns. I have a feature which could be added but it depends on what you guys think.

That is something we definitely plan to do in the future.

[La Tene]

7. Halved building costs (to encourage the ai to build more) and increased build times by 50% to compensate.

Awww.. I like high build costs. I was hoping CAI personalities could be adjusted to promote more building, and I was assuming that if AI recruit slots were reduced then they'd have more money in their pot making builds more likely.

[Magnar]

Awww.. I like high build costs. I was hoping CAI personalities could be adjusted to promote more building, and I was assuming that if AI recruit slots were reduced then they'd have more money in their pot making builds more likely.

its not definitely going to be halved thats just what we are testing atm to see how the AI acts. Just looking for the best way to get the AI to develop a) balanced armies and b) its settlments

The OP stuff to do with balance is just to let you all know what we are currently trying.

the bug fixes are definitely going to be included.

[La Tene]

K

As for recruit slots I'd just suggest that the difficulty slider might effect this very minimally. Difficulty handicaps can really hurt realism and I think recruit slots are the most potent example of this. IE: on harder difficulties AI faction lands will seemingly be producing an endless horde, especially with reduced AI costs in effect. I actually think slots should stay at either 1 or 2 for both the AI and human across the difficulty spectrum. Personally, imo.

[MattyCakes]

Is the Iberian building chain going to be looked at re: units or is this going to wait until you guys include AOR and reforms? At a certain point barracks and such just add bonuses but none of the roster available in custom battle.

[Magnar]

Is the Iberian building chain going to be looked at re: units or is this going to wait until you guys include AOR and reforms? At a certain point barracks and such just add bonuses but none of the roster available in custom battle.

now that you brought it up i can look at it, wasnt aware that it was an issue

[zeddtakashi]

Are you guys still keeping the garrison sizes the same? Its still abit crazy there, especially for small towns and not cities.

[Magnar]

Are you guys still keeping the garrison sizes the same? Its still abit crazy there, especially for small towns and not cities.

Garrisons should not be 20 units strong, that was a bug.

If you see any settlements with garrisons that strong please report them in the bugs thread. The hotfix will fix garrisons for a number of factions, mostly Carthage and rework the composition of Greek garrisons

[La Tene]

A quick prediction: very hard and legendary will still be extremely difficult even with these new values for recruit slots and garrisons. -25% build costs sounds good but I'm not sure +2 build duration was needed - perhaps +1 would be better (converting settlements is a real challenge). A note points out that the AI got further reduced build costs - I noticed that the difficulty slider already gives large discounts to the AI, I'm concerned it may be too much.

I just hope you'all play test thoroughly at vh and legendary because while I know you're taming the handicaps my educated guess is that AI factions with 4 slots and the other bonuses means legendary is still an un-doable challenge. Alternatively it could look like this: normal: 2/2 hard: 2/3 vh: 1/3 legendary: 1/3 (of course legendary has the distinct handicap making it, legendary still)

I used to always play legendary because I like the save game restriction, but at 1/4 I don't think I could - it'll be defense of the homeland all the way through.

[Roach]

Yeah, I gravitate toward legendary/hardcore myself, but I realize that the experience for the average person is more important than mine Hopefully in time we can find levels that make both playable and challenging in their own way.

[Magnar]

If you are playing rome or a hellenic faction there will be more recruitment slots opened up with the military buildings so getting 2 recruitment slots shouldn't be too difficult.

We will be doing some testing with these changes but would like to get the hotfix released within 1 -1.5 weeks. We are aiming for the hotfix to be a step in the right direction and not a 100% balanced campaign. With more community feedback after the hotfix we will continue to refine further until it is just right.

[Magnar]

So this is the current plan for the hotfix:

On the 13th (provided no delays) we will add a link to the test version of the hotfix version of the mod (v.601) for those who wish to help with balancing and further testing.

It will contain all the items listed in the OP.

If further things need to be fixed or tweaked, then we will upload further updates.

When we are satisfied with the feedback and have fixed all the bugs that can be found, then we will update all the other packs.

If you wish to play the test pack please put all your feedback and bug reports in this thread.

[Magnar]

I have just uploaded the hotfix version and added the download link to the OP.

This version contains changes 1-93 in the OP change list.

I have released it here instead of officially to get feedback on the balancing and to find any additional bugs which may have been missed.

Please post all feedback relating to the test version of the hotfix update in this thread.