TATW Hotseat Balance Patch Beta 0.21 RELEASED
I've finished the first version of a balance patch. The actual changelog is so long that i gave up on it a while ago but the highlights can be found below.
Why this patch exists and how it fixes the balance issues of TATW
Anyone who has played this mod knows there are serious issues with the auto-resolve (AR) battles. TATW was a mod made to play battles, not auto-resolve them, but as a result it broke the autoresolve balance in the mod. First it is important to understand how AR works.
To simplify the calculation:
A battle is fought 1 unit vs 1 unit over multiple rounds until a winner is calculated (morale for one army will break in most cases). Units will fire ranged weapons a number of times dependent on how fast their opponent can move and how fast they can fire. The distance that units start apart is defined by the calculation. Once the units meet in melee they fight until one unit is destroyed or fails their morale check and flees.
Armour-Piercing!
TATW players know that armour-piercing (AP) units are extremely effective. This stat allows the unit to cancel half of their opponents armour stat when calculation the AR battle. This is a huge advantage and explains why the Dwarves, who have good melee stats to begin with, are so much better than all other factions in AR)
It is important to note that only some of the armour stat(s) are halfed - this includes the base armours (there are 2 layers of armour stats for all units but most only have one used since the second is considered flesh) and shield armour (shields only offer protection against attacks from the front but for AR I don't believe this has any effect except on units fleeing). Units also have a Defense Skill stat which reflects their ability to avoid attacks and defend themselves - AP has no affect on this stat. You'll notice that fewer infantry have AP stats but now cavalry do.
How have these issues been addressed?
What I have done to address this issue is change unit stats based on a formula that roughly (AR is too complex for me to model!) resembles the effectiveness of a unit in AR and how much a unit should cost based on this. The math is boring so I will provide some real examples.
Ranged units (archers, throwing weapon units) rarely were used in TATW hotseats. This is because the AR calculation only allows them to fire arrows a few times (based on the speed of enemy units) before they enter melee. Since archers are usually poor in melee they have a poor AR performance. To fix this, I greatly increased the ranged attack stats of all ranged units so that when the AR calculation is made, their ranged weapons have more impact on the result. This makes them highly effective against poorly armoured and low morale units who can be shot to pieces before they move into melee.
Cavalry (mounted) units are the least used in TATW hotseats. This is because the AR calculation is heavily dependent on the number of soldiers in a unit and Cavalry, which are small units, are the most expensive unit type in the mod. To address this issue I increased the number of soldiers in each cavalry unit. I also greatly increased their other fighting stats numerically and by making them AP because the AR calculation does not fully factor in the tactical advantage of Cavalry's mobility. No TATW player simply charges all of their Cavalry units into the front of their opponent's army so I had to make Cavalry much stronger to reflect this! These changes are also reflected in mounted General units who, aside from their leadership stats, were otherwise useless.
Melee infantry units are the best in TATW AR because of the calculation's focus on melee. Melee infantry have the best melee stats of all unit types (especially Dwarves!). I didn't make many changes to these units because I changed the other types. Some Orc units had slight stat reductions because of their superior number of soldiers in each unit.
Hotseat Patch 0.2 Changes
· Improve balance of Isengard vs Rohan match-up and Harad+Mordor vs Gondor. Rohan and Harad had units removed from their starting rosters to prevent a rush attack against their opponent.
· Remove Mordor horde spawn when defeated
· Added military unit recruitment buildings to some factions to help with balance and add flavour. For example, Rohan now has access to better cavalry, Elf factions have access to better units and Minas Tirith and Umbar become great places of recruitment for their factions right from the start.
Hotseat Patch 0.1 Changes
· Completely re-worked unit balance. Ranged and mounted units now have value with their improved auto-resolve. Unit cost and upkeep re-worked as well
o Ranged units can deal significant damage to enemies. Effective against most (particularly units with low armour values) but weak against strong melee (foot or mounted) units
o Mounted units are tough and can deal significant damage. Effective against all units except spearmen or pikemen
o Spearmen and pikemen are strong against cavalry but are weak against other infantry
o Non-spear or pike wielding infantry are effective against spearmen and ranged units
o Trolls are very effective against infantry but cavalry can counter them
· Removed barracks event – now all units will be available from the start, provided that the necessary buildings to recruit them have been built
· Added population growth bonus to farms and increased other population growth bonus buildings. This will increase income and allow players to potentially upgrade settlements sooner.
· Fixed Mumakil recruitment bug. They should now be available after a Mumakil Training Ground has been built.
How to Install:
You can simply copy the files attached to this post and replace the existing game files. I would recommend making back-ups of your current files being replaced.
Instead of changing your existing install, or if you want to keep your vanilla TATW install, I would recommend making an extra install of the TATW mod. Here are the instructions courtesy of Emperor of Hell:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...erent-submods)
Instructions to install the balance patch:
· Unzip the archive to a location of your choice. Install 0.2 first, then install the 0.21 files
· Make backups of the files you are about to replace!
· Export_descr_buildings
o This file goes in your TATW folder in \mods\Third_Age_3\data and should replace the existing file there
· Export_descr_unit
o This file goes in your TATW folder in \mods\Third_Age_3\data and should replace the existing file there
· Descr_events
o This file goes in your TATW folder in mods\Third_Age_3\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
· Descr_strat
o This file goes in your TATW folder in mods\Third_Age_3\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign and should replace the existing file there
· Descr_sm_factions
o This file goes in your TATW folder in \mods\Third_Age_3\data and should replace the existing file there
Files:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ib...0.2%282%29.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2a4sr8ua18xwga7/0.21.rar
Originally Posted by Nice
