Good sir Bran Mac Born,
Thank you for your efforts to bring realism and challenge to this wonderful game! I have a few clarification questions and comments regarding the 7.1 version. I played NTW3 v7.1 + your SPC 7.1 mod on a clean Vanilla install from Steam. After a couple days, I decided to try out LME 4.2 to compare. After trying that out the past week, I would like to try NTW3 again when you release the 7.2 SPC update. Here are my questions and comments:
1. What file is the campaign completion data found in? If I restore Vanilla, I do not want to have to complete all the campaigns again on Vanilla to get to the next one. I am not sure if I would actually go back to play a Vanilla campaign but it's good to know.
2. How can I get the Target Zones to appear with your mod? As mentioned above, I ran a clean install with no other mods. I tried unchecking and rechecking the Target Zone box in the in-game options and restarting the game, as well as manually editing the preferences.txt file. Perhaps this was completely disabled for realism?
3. Playing as the French on the Europe campaign from your launcher, I noticed some light infantry did not have the light behavior ability. I believe they were standard chaussers. I also found skirmishers who did not have the plant stakes ability either. Is this by design, unlocked by techs, or user error/buggy installation?
4. Battery sizes in your mod are stated to be +1 piece from the NTW3 7.1 settings, but I found my French batteries to still be consisting of 3 pieces for foot and 2 for horse arty. I believed I upped the campaign unit size modifier to try to see if I was simply under the necessary troops numbers to man the guns, but still had standard foot with only 3 canons. Also, I cannot remember if your mod has a flatter trajectory + bounce for round shot on standard field guns. I want to say yes, but I have tried different mods and some of these details get jumbled in my head.
4.5 From what I have read, Napoleon's standard batteries consisted of 8 pieces for foot, and 6 for horse arty. I assume your mod and most others scale this down to roughly half size to maintain somewhat the scaling of gun/troop ratio since the regiments/battalions of infantry and cav are likewise scaled down in the game. However, I would like to be able to have those 6-8 gun batteries and bump up the troop count to get a properly sized division on my screen in SP. I have tried and failed a little while back in tweaking the projectiles and unit stats land tables through PFM, so I am a bit wary of trying to do too much myself.
5. Trade ship caps were very low from what I can recall. Even for the lowest merchant ship. I admit I didn't play this mod for dozens and dozens of hours, so maybe this is a simplification that creates a better trade balance without spamming ships every few turns. Can the cap be increased in-game through techs or more ports? Was this user error/installation issues?
I would very much appreciate responses to these so I am better informed when I give NTW3 another go. I have tried LME 4.2 and Darthmod and find both to be too fast-paced in battles. Sure it is nice to be able to get a few battles in during an hour, but I love this game because it is so cinematic and can be so real. But watching an entire division troops carrying 50 pounds of gear run faster than Usain Bolt for a mile doesn't quite add up. I always think of Pickett's Charge or Fredericksburg (ACW buff here) where troops got shredded by artillery before they even had the chance to then be decimated by infantry. But on Vanilla and other mods, troops might take a couple few hits while walking a mile on open ground under constant arty fire, but it is far from the devastation that occurred historically. Much of this is speed related, which is why I really want to figure out what can be done with NTW3. This speed is so much better and the battles are much more dynamic. I also love the canister graphic.
I think that's pretty much all I have for now. Thanks again for your efforts and I apologize if I have not provided enough detail or have clear user error on my part.