Playing 1.1.0 in 2015 with AUM 3.5

[myarta]

Hey folks,

I'm just starting this thread to document my efforts. Swiss stopped making a specifically APETI version of AUM, yet he updated it in Feb 2015.

So this thread is for me to show my work for making 3.5 compatible with APETI.

Instead of doing a big analysis to start, I'm just going to start playing and spot fix stuff as I go. Otherwise it's not fun. Later, I'll release the changes if there seems to be interest.

Changes to apeti_modcore:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

• euro_marines (Marines) grown from 3/4th unit size to full unit size per my personal preference. Cost scaled appropriately (up by 1/3rd). Armor increased from 2 to 3 to match Line Infantry, because I can think of no reason that Marines have less 'armor' than Line Infantry.
• euro_grenadiers and euro_grenadiers_bearskin (Grenadiers) grown from 1/2 size to full unit size per my personal preference. Cost scaled appropriately (doubled). Note that you would just make your core armies out of these instead of line infantry now that there isn't a numbers penalty, but they cost almost double to recruit and about 50% more to maintain. I considered capping them to prevent all-Grenadier twinking, but I'll let the economy itself handle that (note that core APETI has a problem where when your empire gets big enough, the partial percent discounts on upkeep from weavers/ironworkers starts making your armies dirt cheap. But I really like the effect and there isn't a way to tell the system 'cap at 70% of base cost' so oh well

Changes to aum_emp_mod:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

• euro_marines_elite (Marines) and euro_marines_elite_late (Marines (late)) changed to display name "Elite Marines [(late)]" to justify their enhanced stats. Increased recruitment time from 2 to 3 to match APETI standards. Elite Marines set to 20% more cost, (late) set to 40% more cost. APETI marines are Accuracy 50, Reload 30, Ammo 15, while Line Infanty is 40/30/15. Elite AUM Marines are now 50/35/18 and Lates are 55/40/20. APETI Marines are 10 melee attack, 12 charge, 12 melee defense. AUM elite are now 11/12/13 and elite late are now 12/13/14. APETI were well_trained, left AUM as elite training_level. APETI had 13 morale, upped AUM from 12 to 13 for both units. To match APETI, added to skirmish mode and hiding in scrub. Left 'inspires allies' as an upgrade from the basic APETI marines that don't. Left fatigue resistance as another upgrade. Added can_shoot_while_moving91 to match APETI. Also APETI units have -1 spot distances while the AUMs all have it set properly. This might be a project for someone who understands this better.
• indiaman_late (Improved Indiaman) is balanced completely different from APETI standards. Adjusted MP cost up to a random value higher (do not care about MP battles where you decide to use Indiaman, lol), then adjusted its recruitment cost and upkeep to 20% over APETI basic Indiamen (massive jump from 675 -> 2707 for recruit!). Raised move points to equal APETI indiaman. Mothball and reactivate cost set to equal to APETI (no idea what this is). Left armament intact (9lber on original, 18lber_lr (long range?) on improved). Marksmanship nerfed way down from 43 to 30 (APETI Indiaman is 26). Reload rate nerfed way down from 32 to 6, same as APETI British sloops (but way faster than APETI native Indiamen which is 3). Didn't mess around with all the variables for hit points and critical points of various parts of the ship. There's a field for hull hit points (shown) which may just be informational only, with the 20+ fields that break down the individual parts being the ones that actually control survivability. it looks like the HP might take a hit compared to the regular Indiaman, but I don't want to mess with all these fields and balancing them. Cost is about right now, and with the improved reload rate and bigger guns it can probably survive the loss of hull strength a bit while still being reckoned an upgrade
• Nerfed all the AUM ships down to APETI values for marksmanship and loading skill based on equivalent ship classes with slight boosts for premium stuff
• Also changed all turns to create, create cost, upkeep cost, and move points for the AUM ships to match APETI. In general, prices went way up for initial building and down a bit for upkeep.
• As a side note, may need to buff hulls a bit or tweak crew sizes still

Old, wordy post:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

First up, I need to reconcile UPC 6.7. First, there are a some oddities in localisation.loc in APETI 1.1.0 (with 2011-03-12 hotfix), namely some keys that are in vanilla that are missing in APETI. I don't know if it will just default to the Vanilla version, but since we have almost all of the 32 thousand other keys, maybe these were just added in one of the newer Empire patches and not carried forward? Interestingly, the UPC is missing these values as well.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

 > "advice_levels_advice_item_title_144499981"> "advice_levels_onscreen_text_144499981"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanAli"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanAyub"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanBibi"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanSarwar"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanSoroya"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanWafa"
> "names_royalty_name_afghanistanZarghoona"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAamaal"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAfrah"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAisha"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAmal"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAmatullah"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAmeera"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesAzeeza"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesFaiza"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesFareeda"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesFatima"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesFawziya"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesFiryal"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesHaadiya"
> "names_royalty_name_barbary_statesIzdihaar"
> "names_royalty_name_inuitAtuat"
> "names_royalty_name_inuitNiriuniq"
> "names_royalty_name_inuitPanikpak"
> "names_royalty_name_inuitPuja"
> "names_royalty_name_inuitUluriaq"
> "quotes_quote_onscreen_168"
> "technologies_long_description_military_navy_underhanded_submersible_warfare"
> "technologies_onscreen_name_military_navy_underhanded_submersible_warfare"
> "technologies_short_description_military_navy_underhanded_submersible_warfare"

So I'm starting by forwarding those from Vanilla into my amalgam. Though the quote might have been omitted out of someone's dislike for that one quote: "Strategy is the art of making use of time and space.\n\nI am less concerned about the latter than the former.\n\nSpace we can recover, lost time never." Can't see why, though

Meanwhile, UPC has 6.8k more entries than APETI which is expected, but interestingly, it's missing four things:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

< "technologies_long_description_military_ordnance_horse_artillery"
< "technologies_onscreen_name_military_ordnance_horse_artillery"
< "technologies_short_description_military_ordnance_horse_artillery"
< "unit_description_texts_description_text_sp_ed_deaths_head_hussar"

More on that here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14655215

To save myself time, I'm just using the UPC version and figuring their descriptions can't be too bad, and just pasting in the four things it's missing (I remember horse artillery being blank on the screen last time I played -- now I know why!). I don't have a tool that will take the key-value pairs and merge 'All lines that are only in one file as-is + all lines that are in both by using the APETI version' and with stats to edit next I don't feel like writing up a script to do so.

Actually this is about as much patience as I had with it. I'll be back with stat info, and eventually a downloadable file.


UPDATE: Meh, that didn't work so well. I just pasted those four lines at the end of the TSV and tried to re-import it into PFM but it said invalid format, so I did an extract of the raw DB file from UPC and the UI.loc from APETI and put them together in a new pack, then added the missing four things via the UI in PFM and copy/pasting the key/value pairs. That version causes CTD on game load -.-

UPDATE 2: I had to change the pack type to Movie from Mod for my localisation merged patch, but that still wasn't it. I eventually got this working. Exporting the localisation.loc file and importing it into a new pack would just crash. So instead I copy/pasted the working UPC file and then edited the clone only in the manager. No export/import. Now you can use UPC and still see the descriptions for Horse Artillery (and for Death's Head Hussars). Yay. Way too much time for that one thing. Here's the patch in case you were really missing that description:

Stats patch forthcoming.

Yeah, I'm just gonna play and fix stuff

unit_pack_compatibility_project_empire_v6_7_english_with_apeti.7z

[PrimoTw]

I can only be very grateful for your patience and hardwork. For me, APE:TI stands as one great mod, even in 2015, as I'm playing it right now! Thank you so much!

[Dago Red]

One of the things I've noticed most with AUM compatibility is that there are often cost trade offs that make no sense, where slightly better units will cost less than another otherwise redundant unit of the same size. With unit caps, this still has a place in the game since you can reason that your most cost-effective troops must be sometimes augmented by these pricier options, but there's still room for better cost balances.

For role playing none of this is the biggest issue, but in the early and middle game when you have little money, it means making the practical choice every time. I put off trying to update newer versions of AUM because I've modded my EDU so much (lots of little tweaks plus adding and balancing the neglected Native American units) and I can't think about redoing it all anytime soon, but keep us apprised!

[myarta]

Yeah, they needed price harmonization. When I realized how many thousands of values I had to change for this, I adopted a more practical approach: I was only going to mod the things that I came across that were annoying problems, like price inconsistencies in the British infantry roster if I was playing as them. Harmonizing ALL the units for all the factions, I quickly realized was not going to be terribly enjoyable.

[Dago Red]

I did a lot of this for the Maratha Confederacy, along with adding unit cap limits. It's painstaking work, but when you look at it one faction at a time, it's actually somewhat fun. Doesn't matter which faction you play, the Marathas are a problem so they needed some nerfing (I don't know how to effectively adjust their income or tweak the manpower/supply numbers or I would have started there first).