Overview
For quite awhile now, our team has been very hard at work on 1.1 for DeI. It was always our plan to have 1.0 be our baseline release and then take time to work on more complex and interesting changes to the mod. The time taken for 1.1 has allowed us to come up with some very interesting and fundamental design changes and entirely new systems for the mod. This will be a short overview of some of the things we have planned for 1.1, but many are still a heavy WIP so remember that. We will be releasing much more detailed Previews of each of these new overhauls/systems in the coming weeks, but we wanted to at least announce some of the exciting things on the horizon. And, no, we do not yet have a release date
Supply System
- Litharion has been hard at work designing an entirely unique and custom-made supply system for armies in the campaign. This will serve to add a layer of depth and complexity to the campaign map and strategy to army movement/placement.
- The basic way to describe the system is that armies will have to maintain supply lines to their home regions. These supply lines can be affected by many things including diplomatic relationships, sieges, seasons, etc. If the army loses the line of supply, that army will have to begin foraging for supplies. The various stages of supply lines and foraging over the course of turns come with more severe effects for the army. That army can even go into attrition.
- Various things are setup to help with the system, including supply carts, supply ships, buildings that act as supply depots, etc.
- As regions are used up of their supplies, their fertility is affected. If a region becomes used heavily it will be decimated and various effects will result for that region.
- Navies also have supplies and must return to port to replenish them. Also, navies can act as supply help for armies to reinforce them with supplies while on campaign.
- Barbarians and Nomads have a different system that is less based on supply lines and more based on region foraging.
- There is also an overall faction effect for how many armies are supplied for that faction. This plays into the local and global food system.
- The AI is also affected by this system but not as heavily in some areas (because they simply aren't programmed to understand the system itself).
- Some images of the Supply System in action (remember these are WIP shots):
Naval Overhaul
- One area of the game we have neglected for a long time is the naval battles, mainly because they always felt permanently broken to us. However, good news is coming with this overhaul
- Naval battle mechanics have been changed so that they are much more realistic. Ships move at more realistic speeds, will mainly try to board/ram and are very hard to catch on fire.
- Naval units and the units inside them have been completely redone from the ground up. Cultures have their own unique Marine units and ships are more melee-oriented to represent how naval combat actually worked (mostly boarding, ramming) rather than being a ranged inferno fest.
- Naval ship variants have been redone to make them much more customized and interesting based on the culture.
- New naval mercenaries have been added to the various historical sea regions.
- Historical naval powers have more advanced rosters. Barbarians (other than Illyrians) have very limited rosters and capabilities.
- Transports have negative effects for their troops in combat while at sea. Also, now that we have custom naval units, we can alter their stats accordingly so that true navies will always beat a transported army at sea.
- Some screenshots of the new naval units and battles, including Rome, Illyria and Egypt:
Animations and Battles Overhaul
- Hoplite animations have been completely redone. Instead of having our lack-of-formation hoplites, you will see true hoplites in their phalanx as they should be.
- Roman sword animations have been redone. They will march as proper Romans and then form up into their historical formations, using their gladius as they actually did.
- Triarii and other early Roman elite spear units have special animations, including an "at rest" one. Other animations from vanilla have been improved also, such as elephants.
- Many battle system changes including a missile overhaul, multiple improvements to combat pace and unit balance, etc. This is a WIP and more details will be in the Battle preview.
- Preview of some of our WIP Animation changes:
DLC Mini-Campaigns
- AOR is now fully functional in all DLC campaigns.
- Starting units, garrisons and army compositions fixed in all campaigns.
- CiG - 3 new playable factions with custom chapter missions, intros, leaders, etc - Tarbelli, Cantiaci and Massilia.
- HatG - 2 new playable factions with custom chapter missions, intros, leaders, etc - Massilia and Masaesyli.
- Various improvements to the campaigns to make them truly a part of DeI.
- Completely new campaign based on the WoS map - Macedonian Wars
Recruitment System Overhaul
- Most units have been moved down 1 tier in the barracks line. This means elites are available earlier and the AI now fields more varied and interesting/elite armies from the start.
- Training buildings have been removed, Tier 3/4 barracks now have some of the bonuses from the training buildings. Training techs have more specific, unique effects.
- Increased cost/upkeep for elite units, decreased for levy units (to add more of a gap between the two).
Major Factions Boost
- Major historical factions in the Grand campaign have received survival help. This includes factions like Rome, Carthage, Seleucids, etc.
- Our own version of the autoresolve script has been added to help some of these factions, along with financial aid for specific factions when AI.
- New CAI personality changes to add variation between the faction/culture types. Also improved CAI in general.
- Results are much more viable and expansive major powers in the campaign.
- Here are some examples from 3 different campaign tests run over a period of time (still have variation, but certain factions are now viable/expand):
New Units
- Scythian Roster overhaul to make them more unique and less use of other units from different factions.
- Celtic minor factions have been reworked to have much more variation among them depending on location. This includes completely new Veneti units.
- Other possibilities that are a WIP include Boii and Suebi roster updates/overhauls.
Other Improvements
- Load time/performance improvement
- Autoresolve improvement
- New load screen images added
- Incorporated FlashHeart's concentrated fire submod
- Increase income from slaves, decreased PO negative from them
- And many, many ....MANY other changes