[Submod] Battle Dynamics Reworked for DEI (Mar 07 Update)
WARNING: Don't use mods that changes kv_rules with BDR! Even some animation mods (like 'More Bloody Animations') change kv_rules to make melee_secondary_attack_probability =0 (this way no death occur without kill animation), and this affect BDR a lot!
-------------------------------------------
Battle Dynamics Reworked for DEI
We don't want weak enemies, we want worthy blood and glory. We want battles to be remembered.
I present you Battle Dynamics Reworked (BDR) for DEI. It is a collection of personal tweaks aiming to get as close as possible to a challenging and rewarding battle experience.
Spoiler for DOWNLOAD:
Below you will find the mod features detailed and reasons behind the changes.
Units Movement (walk/run/charge speeds and acceleration)
In BDR units are faster. They walk faster and run faster. They march like warriors eager for blood, not crawling like sick peasants. And when they run, they run for good! No more slow motion charges. You have less time to think and positioning. Also, there are enough differences between light and heavy units speeds to make skirmish viable.
Run speed represents a speed the unit can maintain with relative confort for a given amount of time. Light units can sustain higher speeds for longer. Charge speed is run speed + a fraction of unit acceleration. This fraction is smaller for a light unit compared to a heavy one, that way we can properly represent the momentum the unit weight give it at the final sprint before the clash. While a very heavy (slow) unit increases substantially its speed in the final stage of a charge, a very light unit (already fast) don't increase it at all.
All changes regarding speed, acceleration and decceleration aim both for balance and realism, trying to make units movement more natural and fluid, confortable to watch, without lose the focus on practical matters. Also, I tryed my best to make the numbers translates into animations free from glitches (like a unit moving while it's animation already stops to move - sliding - because the decceleration value is too low for that particular unit animation). The game imposes us limits on that, thou.
Units Survivability (melee defense and hit points)
After some time trying to realise what's the real problem with the AI behavior at battles (BAI), I have found that the major issue is that BAI can't react well to the players' maneuvers. BAI tend to stick with a given order until it's done, so if a given unit receive an order to engage another unit, it will keep fighting this unit until it manage to rout them. With high unit survivability (low killrates), the player can use few units to make long and thin lines that will hold the enemy enough time for him to use the rest of his units to maneuver to the flanks/rear of the enemy's lines and proceed with the slaughter we are all familiar with.
There is little we can do about BAI behavior itself, but we can do something about the holding time of the player lines: making unit survivability lower (i.e., reducing mele defense and hit points) lines hold less, so BAI can archive its goal (rout the player unit) and go to the next order. So, that's how things are at BDR: units have lower melee defense and reduced hit points. Killrates are higher and lines break faster.
As lines break faster, the player can't use few units in streched lines to pin the enemy anymore. In fact, most of the time he will need his extra units as reserves to fill the gaps. So, no more free flank maneuvers right from the start: you need to manage your units carefully and wait for the opportunities now. The lines don't break faster to the point you can barelly handle it, however, just faster enough to alow the AI to behave better, freeing it's units to be assigned to new orders, so it can react to the player maneuvers. Or, better: even make maneuvers of its own! My jaw droped while I watch AI flanking me after rout some of my main line units! As a good side effect (not realy intended, but a welcome surprise), you can now see units routing during the course of the battle (not only at the end) and comming back to the action if you manage to cover the retreat and avoid the disband.
Shields (melee defense and armor bonus)
A shield is made to block. It can reduce the impact of a blow that even then will hit the man behind it, yes, but this is more about the handler action and other factors (covered at Damage Mitigation, bellow) then about the shield itself. The shield is good to avoid the hit, either from a melee or missile weapon. An actual hit for game machanics purpose is a good stroke, something that bypasses the target defenses (including shield) to land with real effect; something the shield couldn't stop (i.e.: melee defense or missile block chance fails to prevent). From that point on, it is all about attacker's weapon and target's damage mitigation (see bellow) to define damage.
So, in BDR shields have no armor bonus. Shield melee defense was a lot reduced too, as shields are tools to defend its handlers, not defense by itself. Compared to a unit melee defense base, the protection a shield can provide should be just a bonus, not the major portion of the that unit melee defense stat. A shield is useful even at the hands of an untrained user, but alone should not protect a person who don't know how to defend itself more then a trained soldier would do without a shield.
New Concept: Damage Mitigation
Rome 2 has a particular way to deal with damage: instead of make a damage roll, it makes an armor roll and subtrat the result from the weapon damage. Problem is: if the target unit don't have any armor, the damage it takes is always equal to the attacker's maximun weapon damage (a constant). So, nothing but armor matters to define damage. After a hit is scored, the target is suposed to stand still, waiting for the weapon to strike always with its full potential, unless he has some armor. An unarmored unit can try to avoid the hit (a previous roll), but once it was hit, it's done: full damage. Thing is: wepons don't strike with full potential all the time, even unarmored targets. The efforts to mitigate the weapon impact, and even luck, should matter.
To proper represent those until now ignored variables, BDR presents you a new concept: Damage Mitigation. It's the unit capacity to reduce the damage over itself after a scored hit. It represents partial dodge, parry or block, natural toughness and luck (it's a random value generated by a roll, after all). Armor adds to Damage Mitigation. Units, weapons and armors were tweaked to proper work with the new system. That's it: now units don't have to be sitting ducks only because they don't wear an armor!
Now that you know what is BDR, you are welcome to enjoy it.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Alexandre Lange
