[Feedback] Questions, Critiques and Requests

[DC0]

I don't know about the specifics of this area, but keep in mind that ancient climate conditions were different from the modern day.

Yeah, I've read about Ice Age, too.

Extremely different in many cases. "Modern" day being the operative word. And in modern times the northern Black Sea, not all too far away, freezes so bad the Russians were able to walk across it to relieve/counterattack during the siege of Sevastopol.

I was unable to find any historical reference for this. Would you please post here a link?


Anyway. I was inclined to find historical evidence for harsh winter.
In 1 century AD Ovidius, while in exile, wrote that Danube and sea has frozen due to harsh winter. But that is up there, 455 km to the North.


Later in 400 AD it is said that in Constantinople there was huge ice in the streets in spring because sea ice started to melt and move.
Constantinople is our area of interest.


Please notice time difference. Such harsh winter is really THE REAREST occasion. While in game I have every winter harsha winter in Turkey. Like in Scythia. This is nonsense.
And please note that Scythia is actually warm, too. It is our modern Krasnoidarskiy krai. It is like +2 Celcius in winter there. Snow is rare.


So, to sum up. Here is what S.Kuznets (Ukranian state inspector for Black Sea nature preservation) has to say about weather in his article:
"So, over the past 2,000 years, more than 20 “strong” winters have been recorded in the Black Sea region. The time interval between them is on average 75 years (in most cases from 60 to 90 years)."


Please note he writes about Crimea (in game Bosphorus) region. Which is, again 455 km to the north from Turkey (Bythinia et Pontus).

[Icarus Smicarus]

Yeah, I've read about Ice Age, too.

The bloody hell did you mean by this

[Dardo21]

I think he meant the colder period after the 3rd century.

[Dago Red]

I was unable to find any historical reference for this. Would you please post here a link?

I don't want to take this too off track into a WWII discussion, but the first I learned of this sea freezing over was in the excellent PBS/BBC series Battlefield, an exhaustive documentary series on WWII. I probably saw it in 2004 and this series is very hard to find now, let alone link to. The sea freezing over was decisive in getting masses of Russian reinforcements to try and relieve Sevastopol. Conditions prevented reinforcements any other way to get to the Crimea. They ultimately failed, and Manstein's German/Romanian 11th army destroyed 3 opposing Russian armies and took Sevastopol. But, instead of a month, this took over a year and depriving the German 6th army's push on Stalingrad and the crucial Caucuses oil fields of support from Manstein's 11th. And we know what happened there.

I did find this wiki article that details some of the initial reinforcements during 1941 and 1942 when this strait froze over:
"Stavka reinforced the Transcaucasian Front with nine rifle divisions. Soviet engineers built an ice road across the frozen Kerch Strait, enabling 96,618 men, 23,903 horses and 6,519 motor vehicles to reinforce the Kerch peninsula forces."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle...erch_Peninsula

Eventually, the Russians would counter attack again (party over this frozen strait I believe) and retake the Crimea, counter sieging Sevastopol. Russia is a very different climate of course, and though this sea is hundreds of km away, it's the same body of water touching Anatolia
I thought it worth mentioning in the context of weather in the region in "modern times."

[DC0]

The bloody hell did you mean by this

You wrote about ancient times when southern coast of Black Sea used to freeze. Considering that in my game, as I mentioned, I get harsh winter in southern coast of Black Sea every winter, I though you've written about Ice Age.

during 1941 and 1942 when this strait froze over

Oh. For some reason I though you've written about siege of Sevastopol of 19th century.

Anyway, it seems proven to me that while harsh winters did happen in southern coast of Black Sea, it is a rearest occasion happening approximately once a century. Not every freaking winter. As it happens in my game.

[Icarus Smicarus]

You wrote about ancient times when southern coast of Black Sea used to freeze.

No I didn't. And you don't get harsh winter every time, it's a 10% chance. Either your game is broke, or you're talking bollocks. Also, I think you're conflating "harsh winter" with "extreme winter", the latter only occurs in the more northern provinces. A chance of "harsh winter" is quite appropriate for the region IMO.

[volleyfire]

A few quick questions:
1. How does "adopt" work? It seems only available under faction leader's portrait. So you can only "adopt" yourself?
2. When running benchmark, my avg fps is around 85. The lowest ever point was at more than 50ish. However, in some battles, the game has huge lags. To the point where I can't even move my mouse. It usually happens when there is naval reinforcements involved. When fighting 2 full stack land armies, the problem is not as bad. But when fighting naval battles alone, it seems fine.

[Ptolemaios Soter]

Check the “tech-hardware tips and tricks” thread. My benchmark nadir is 35-40 and I don’t have any lag on large battles or naval invasions. For me, turning water way down and maxing most of the other graphic options helps.

[volleyfire]

Any way to turn off the clouds on the campaign map?

[Jake Armitage]

How does "adopt" work? It seems only available under faction leader's portrait. So you can only "adopt" yourself?
- 30 gravitas cost
- 10 gravitas to adopted
- 2 authority more than zeal (or the opposite, anyway it is written into intrigue's tooltip)
- there should be a cost linked to an hardcoded event, not sure though
- pick a family member (people who can have children), clich the intrigue and then a member of the ruling party (right panel into characters UI)

Any way to turn off the clouds on the campaign map?
you should find it inside this pack
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/tbkd...elvbif9/shared

[DC0]

And you don't get harsh winter every time, it's a 10% chance. Either your game is broke, or you're talking bollocks. Also, I think you're conflating "harsh winter" with "extreme winter"

Or I'm this unlucky. I definitely got two Harsh Winters (it was written in announcement) in Bythintia in a row. I got my troops there (including garrison) suffering attrition. I remember it vividly because I was conquering Bithyntia et Pontus after I dealt with Arche Bosphorus and it was critically important for me to have as much of my remaining troops intact.
My game doesn't seem broken overall.

Any way to turn off the clouds on the campaign map?

I use No Campaign Clouds. There is still precipitation, though. I wish it was removed, too.

[CadetNewb]

Well, I might as well just put on my helmet and say it: I have a question about phalanxes. But hold on! It's not that bad, I swear! I was wondering if it was possible to alter how quickly they put their spears into position once they stopped moving. Make the hoplites get their spears down a little faster?

I was actually playing around with some the other day and though it made sense for a pike phalanx to take time maneuvering and then lowering its pikes. However, it looked kinda silly with how the hoplites move around, stop and wait, and then point their spears at the enemy after a dramatic pause. Of the two, I would have thought the hoplites would have been comparatively nimble in lowering their spears, and I actually tried testing hoplites, short pikes, and long pikes side by side. Of the three, the hoplites are the fastest to bring their weapons to bear, but I think it's still 4-5 seconds of just standing there. To restate, is it possible to speed up how fast the hoplites lower their spears? How it is now strikes me as a bit silly, and makes the hoplites look comical when there's a raging battle at spear's reach from them.

[KAM 2150]

There is only single value for both hoplites and pikes and it cant be made separate.

[CadetNewb]

Thanks for the reply!

[kpagcha]

Valour is a Vetaran authority skill which gives "+1 experience gained by the general of parent army per turn". Does this refer to the general unit or the general character?

[Jake Armitage]

general character, but it's not a +1, it's a moddable value multiplied by champions zeal (if I'm correct, or one of the others 2).
Fact is that, as I tested it, the lower experience points you can get is 3 (and so I removed that feature in my submods 'cause 3 per turn is really too much imo)

[greywarden]

In past versions of the mod I could get away with never having more than 18 units in an army, with the average being 15-16. That increased the challenge and gave the AI a winning chance, and it was a lot of fun to do more with less.

It was somewhat like this:

- 8 units for defending armies
- 14-16 units for normal armies
- 18 units for when I wanted to invade a faction with only a single army

Now, for example, when I play as Rome, I need a minimum of 17 units to not get massacred against Celtic minor factions in pitched battles. This is not really a complaint because I guess battles are more accurate now, but I'm a bit confused about what happened.
What changed in the combat system? Why does my Hastati gets absolutely btfo vs barbarians unless I bring large numbers of them, when before I could hold the line reasonably well with five units?

Another question:
What's the reasoning behind minor factions being able to field two full stacks with elite units? Shouldn't one-settlement factions be insignificant because well, that's what they are? I'm curious.

I guess I see how you could justify the large armies, but a one-settlement barbarian faction fielding a ton of elite phalanx units seems very excessive and inaccurate.

And since I touched on the subject of phalanxes, the AI uses them in a really weird way. They always get in the middle of my front line (in-between my units) and I can easily flank them with my reserves.

I hope I don't sound like I'm roasting your design decisions, I love the mod and I have more than 800 hours on it. Keep up with the good work my man.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[Dead*Man*Wilson]

Hey gravewarden,

I'm going to let the big homies of the DeI team respond to the more technical feedback that you've provided (AI phalanx behavior), but I will say it's probably a stretch to say the Celtic minor factions in Cisalpia are fielding 'elite' units. I've gone up against the Insubres and Veneti type factions early on and they definitely field a particularly tough spear unit (Alpine spearman, or something)--but I don't think these are considered 'elite'--as in drawn from the upper population class, having superior armor, discipline, etc. They are, however, very tough to deal with. Definitely not easy conquests.

At this point in the mods development, the AI armies are pretty formidable--especially in 1 stack vs 1 stack, evenly matched battles. Even against minor factions, giving up the numbers advantage is tough proposition, unless your tactics are da bomb. Also, the overall battle AI is superior to prior versions. If you haven't already, make sure your battle difficulty is 'normal'. So what changed with the combat system? A LOT

As far as fielding full stacks--this is pretty much what the AI prioritizes to do with their money. The won't invest heavily into their economy or infrastructure, but they will spend money on solid stacks up to their imperium limit.

A lot of returning veterans from earlier versions have been thrown off by the many things that have changed over the last 5 years or so. I'd recommend taking advantage of the stickied preview and guide threads on here.

It seems like now the AI is providing you with a challenge, so it doesn't seem like you have to handicap your armies in order to give the AI a helping hand.

[kpagcha]

I've never got the hang of how new dynamic traits work, for example, how do you actually improve the intellectual trait? After many hours of DEI I swear I've never seen it develop. All I ever got to develop is the Commander trait by winning battles basically. But the rest?

[Dardo21]

Intellectual traits are upgraded by using the anciliaries that improve them as well as/or placing them in major city with a library (and spoiler: in a minor city with a medical public land building when 1.2.5 is released). The traits do improve by chance though, so it's not like you can time a certain amounts of turns for a char to progress, sometimes it changes really quickly, sometimes it takes quite a while.