Discussion and Ideas

If you have any new ideas or sugestions please post here:

i would say that some of the longer land bridges be removed, i mean should France be able to just cross into england? its far too easy, and removes the advantage of a safe UK.

mh, I find the France Uk landbridge important, but there are some I think are exagerated like Italy ajaccio is to far to be a landbridge.
In 1500 I would agree that landing in england would be difficult, but in medival times it was no problem landing armys with small boats without the enemy knowing.

yea, thats fine, the scots crossed my lands to get to denmark, i LMFAO to see both of their armies get OWNED by rebels.

Salutations!
After I don't remember how many turns campaigning with England, I can tell likes and dislikes:
Likes:
-Princesses are easier to marry.
-Cool skins and battle features (blood, sky, ecc)
-When sieging a faction, the nearest army from that faction always arrives to help.
-Characters and agents can now travel longer distances.
-Improvements having 'Man of the Hour'
-More regions.
-Improvement on incomes.

Should improve or fix:
-Huge Armies, better, the chance to keep our preferences in game setting every time wanna be played again.
-Armies abuse from artillery, specially catapults and ballistas. This is serius, fellas. Neither other mods or vanilla have this unpleasent condition.
-Years as in vanilla.
-Building costs more reasonable as well as time to get the buildings ready.
-England France landbrige in my opinion shouldn't be there. (option for a naval invasion is disabled?)

I hope you may consider this
Cheers

Ideas:

Catapults:
Problem:Too powerfull in field battle (In fact, they weren't used in field battles at all, but computer AI seems to like them, and with more catapults in one unit, fighting AI Armys is rather "WWI: Trommelfeuer" than medieval warfare.

Possible solution: halve firing speed fpr all catapults and the early artillery. Double damage vs. buildings instead (to make sieges not to take too long)


Ancillares/Traits:
*We need more positive traits/ancillares. It's very easy to loose attributes, but very hard to accumulate. In general, Chars should become better through ancillares, not worse. Esp. Piety and autority need a boost.

New/more ancillares:
*Oriflamme for France. + 1 commando
*Holy lance for HRE. +1 command (donTmix it up with the holy lance from edessa. This one is the lance of constantine)
*Reichsinsignien for HRE (Crown, sword): +1 or +2 autority
*For all dukes of the HRE -1 Loyality to reflect the structure of the HRE.
*Crown of Andrew for Hungary: +1 autority

Ancillares that boost Piety for generals:
*Preacher: +1 Piety, requires small church
*Monk: +2, requires Abbey
*Theologian: +3, requires great catherdral

Reduce effect of adultresses. Having an adultress was common in a time were marriage was a matter of politics, not of love. Alot of nobles even founded famous bastard lines. No one would fear someone for heaving an adultress.

Adultress: -1 fertility
Foreign adultress:-1 popularity, -1 fertility
She-man: - 1 morale, -1 chivalry, -1 popularity, -1 fertility.

*Re-do the corrupt/aesthete-traits. The game starts checking at 15000 goldpieces, but tht's much too low. In RTJ, it'snot uncommon to have 100.000 (and nothing the next turn...), and all family members turn into greedy aesthetets, as unable to lead a settlement as armys.

*Fertility should be raised/more marriages. Most of my royalfamilys die out after two generations.Thy just do nor marry or don't have any children.

Blancing:
*Balance Quakapulu-Units: They are even stronger than french lancers, having superior armour and the ap-trait with their second weapon. Reduce armour. Turks were really not known for Uberarmour, and what they wered did not match the european fullplates.
*Those french two-handed dismounted noble Knights have a very low attack-value: 9 compared to 14 for sword-fighters. (Yes, they have ap-feat, but even fighting agains an enemy with arour 10 this means only effective attack of 14). Units of higher levels should rely be better than low-level units.
*give armour to pikemen and late hellebardiere. They did in fact wore somthing like a 3/4-plate.

the AI spamming arty (sorry, bf2 player) is a game bug/flaw not just this mod. it is rather annoying, and it should be fixed, however, the obvious counter is a good cavalry flank.

I know, but with the rTJ-Modification, the effect gets worse. In vanilla, a AI Army with three units of ballista fires with 6 (it was 2 catapults per Unit, right?) catapults to me, now it's 12.

Originally Posted by Cymera

the AI spamming arty (sorry, bf2 player) is a game bug/flaw not just this mod. it is rather annoying, and it should be fixed, however, the obvious counter is a good cavalry flank.

Hello,
Sorry but it get worse on this mod. besides it behaves too powerfull and awesome accurate when shooting.
I remember on vanilla, large artillery armies only come up on late period and they are very balanced when firing. 2 or 3 machines are ok but 6, 7 or nine and shooting from everywhere (as seen on RTJ) is excesive.
You say good cavalry flanks but what about week cavalry factions such as England?

as for the dismounted knights, the animation has a GREAT effect on the power of a unit, not just the attack value, they might be too weak but if they had the same attack as regular swordsman, they would be too uber. Also, i agree with you on the artillery, the AI must be stopped!

what about English knights? not the best granted, but with AP axe in melee, they can slaughter crews. (im assuming of course)

Don't get me wrong gents, this is a problem, it is annoying, i don't like it anymore than you do, BUT in the meantime till it gets fixed, there are ways around it (i guess )

what about relegating catapults and trebuchets to siege equipment?

So that they must be built like ladders and siege towers. Iirc, siege machinery was usually built at location

Nice idea.Is this possible?

Originally Posted by Crazy_Ivan80

what about relegating catapults and trebuchets to siege equipment?

So that they must be built like ladders and siege towers. Iirc, siege machinery was usually built at location

That is one of the best ideas I have seen in a while. IF ONLY!!! What would be even cooler is if you would be limited on your seige approach pending on the type of general you show up with.

Example: Show up for seige with generic captain you can only make rams and ladders.

Show up with general or family member with no unique trait or skill can only built rams, ladders, seige towers, ballista.

Show up with general that has siege expert trait or siege retinue guy (forget the name) can build anything that you have the tech to build.

Well that my thoughts to add to you excellent idea. IF ONLY!!!

@Vracor > very interesting idea, it'd no doubt be an ideal solution. If it's possible to do it

that would be WICKED if possible, i would even implement that in RTW if that were possible.

Indeed, it would be excellent

it would be perfect, but (I dont know for sure now) these things are often hardcoded. But I already see it in my dreams

Assuming you have a little time to read, rather than list out things, I'll elaborate on my ideas/suggestions so far:

1) Artillery
Issue: I'm already seeing 2 Ballistas and 2 Catapults in the French armies I'm facing, turn 35, VH/VH. Combined with the increased range in this mod, they are inflicting >10% casualties on me when I am moving full speed ahead on the attack, level ground, before my knights can flank. Then I have the problem of the crews not routing when I charge them from behind (discussed in the other thread).

Suggestion: a) Make siege weapons spawn 1 every 5 (or more) turns, like you have with other good units (makes them harder to retrain when taking losses, no?), the justification being that it takes a long time to learn how to work these things properly and they're expensive things to build and maintain. b) Give them 20 men and not 40 so when I'm peppering them with longbows they don't just keep ripping me up. c) If you can, only allow the Ballista Maker appear after an Archery Range/Equivalent Militia Barracks has been constructed in the settlement. This would demonstrate how a faction has progressed in the science of missile warfare. Start Constantinople with a Ballista Maker as the Eastern Roman Empire would have retained some siege weapon technology. d) Only allow the Ballista Maker in Cities; Catapults, Trebuchets, Cannon foundries only in Fortresses+. e) Finally, increase their movement points to that of infantry (siege weapons were broken down and drawn in carts by horses, so they shouldn't have less MPs than infantry). This will hopefully stop the AI bringing up his artillery all together, following the main army, hence part of the cause of the "mass arty" armies we see.

WRT a post above, catapults and trebuchets were built and tested in a workshop, broken down, packed and transported along with medieval armies. AFAIK they were too complex to build and test once an army was in place to besiege. It's true that siege towers, ladders and most rams were built at the site of the siege, but I know for a fact that it took a lot of expertise and often the right raw materials to make the more complex missile weaponry.

And what do you do with Cannons? Those certainly weren't made on site and the more accurate ones were vital battlefield weapons in the late middle ages.

2) Land Bridges
Issue: Landing 2500 men, 500 horses and enough baggage to support the army (and often the king) would take more than just a few small boats IMO. The Cog unit carries 50 armed men as a warship, you could jam it with let's say 100 for a short trip...ergo, you'd need 25 Cogs just to get your men across the waterway plus maybe another 20 to get your horses and supplies across (that's 45 large boats). You'd need more small boats than at Dunkirk!

Also, the English Channel may not be very wide, but the wind tends to cooperate with the English and blows south!! (Not all the time, but seemingly whenever there's an invasion imminent).

Vanilla's use of land bridges negates a major defensive feature of the British Isles, Sicily, Corsica/Sardinia, Southern Spain and, of course Asia Minor. It would be like making the Alps passable in twice the number of spots. If the HRE wants to invade England, let them build a fleet. Sea power must count for something!

Suggestion: remove all landbridges in the game. Even if you were able to restrict land bridge passage to small armies only (to simulate the small boats scenario), people would just break up the armies and reassemble them on the other side. As it is I block the land bridges with units stationed in forts because I'm sick of the French marching into southern England and the Scots crossing my territory to invade Europe when I have the Channel patrolled by 2 large fleets. "Small boats" might work once for a surprise attack, but I don't think the commander of Wessex would let it happen over and over again after the first invasion. Also, it would stop Crusader armies from marching through Asia Minor and force them to go by boat, making island fortresses like Rhodes, Cyprus, Crete and Malta more important, which I think is more realistic?

If that's not an option, what about making a land bridge take up all a unit's movement points? That way you have to end your turn on the coast, and then it takes you a whole turn to cross the land bridge. This simulates the preparations for hiring boats, assembling, embarking/packing, then disembarking on the other end.

I'd personally still prefer no land bridges in the game.

3) Blood, blood...everywhere!
Issue: The weather part of the blood & weather mod is cool...but it looks like guys are being shot up with an MG42 when they're hit by even peasant archer arrows. Actually it reminds me of paintball. The disappointing thing is you see clouds of blood and then the soldiers keep marching, red from head to toe but still standing!

Suggestion: seriously tone down the clouds of flying red mist and the 100% red soldiers who can still run and fight. Or put up a sticky on how to remove that portion of the mod.

4) Archer effectiveness vs unarmoured and lightly armoured troops
Issue: Earlier today I had 4 x 120 Peasant Archers shooting into 150 Peasants and it took them forever to kill them off. 480 arrows multiplied by what, 15 or 20 salvoes? Against Town Militia they didn't even kill 100 of them.

Suggestion: Archery versus unarmored troops with no shields should be absolutely devastating, even if it's Peasant Archers doing the shooting. Even accounting for the horrendous accuracy of the Peasant Archers, the sheer number of sharp pointy things moving through the air at 100mph should obliterate anything that doesn't have a shield or armour to protect themselves. Maybe this can be tweaked and balanced so archers can rip apart unarmoured troops as IRL? Light infantry should also suffer more than they do as there's only so much of your body you can hide behind a small shield.

5) Longbow rate of fire and increased range
Issue: Longbows still only get 4 or 5 salvoes off before enemy infantry closes, and, while they can shoot quite far, they seem to have less than their historical range. If I'm defending, I'd think my longbowmen (being experienced archers) would get off as many accurate shots as possible rather than this ritualistic Tai-Chi style shooting they currently have. It also becomes a huge issue when the enemy rushes in with 6 units of archers/crossbows and get within range of my longbows (who are backed up as far as they can go). Rather than upping their rate of fire against the enemy missile units, they still do their methodical routine and lose men.

Suggestion: I believe Lusted has redone Longbow ROF so they reload and shoot faster and he increased their range? I haven't tried his mod yet. Will it be included in 2.0?

6) The Map
Issue: For me, the map - with so many settlements - is too small and too crowded. I know Sstucker13 is working on a new map, but the current one literally gives me a headache, with all the settlements and characters. I've run into bottlenecks so many times with armies and diplomats that I've had to bribe neutral armies so I could clear a path through northern Italy to the Balkans.

Suggestion: BigMap is too big for my tastes, and later in the game the AI takes forever to do its moves. Something perhaps 25% bigger than the current map could probably work?

7) Money script
Issue: Does the AI's add money script + Ultimate AI create world wars? I used Ultimate AI 0.8 with the Winning Combo mod and things worked very realistically. Maybe there are issues with the money script and Ultimate AI, but it's turn 30 and everyone's at war with everyone else. Even the Muslim factions are fighting each other and all of Christendom. Perhaps having a bottomless money source causes an arms race, and once they're at "Supreme" military strength they go nuts? The 1st Crusade - around turn 25 - does nothing to help this.

Suggestion: since I have no idea how this works, I can't suggest anything other than some balancing you're probably already working on!

8) Un-bribable Rebel "Nobles"
Issue: Even with 60,000FL in my treasury I can't get "Guillaume of Crécy" to join my faction. He and his miserable little band of 380 Rebels. The Middle Ages was all about bribery, treachery and compromise, in addition to total war. Very few rebel nobles would have ignored the kinds of terms I offer these guys.

Suggestion: if possible, make Rebel characters easier to bribe. While I can't offer them lands and titles in a negotiation, facing my 2,500 man army and basically staring death and destruction in the face, it should be a lot easier to bribe them. 60,000FL is like 3 Citadels! I just bought Caernarvon from the Scots for 10,000FL!

9) "Bargain settlements"
Issue: That brings me to my next issue. It might be an Ultimate AI thing, but it's too easy to buy settlements. Considering the upgrade costs in RTJ, buying Caernarvon for 10,000FL didn't even cover the Scots' costs of upgrading it.

Suggestion: maybe speak to GrandViz to see what can be done to make buying settlements more expensive?

10) Jerusalem, Antioch and the Crusades
I believe these 2 major settlements start off as Rebels, correct? They happen to be the most likely targets of the 1st Crusade (although Cairo gets it too). Seeing as though the Fatimids or Turks generally take either Jerusalem or Antioch before turns 25-30, calling a Crusade at that time generally pits all of Christendom against one or the other, which creates a 450 turn war for the human player of that faction. If so, then either:

a) start the settlements off in Fatimid and Turk hands respectively so they can build them up and create large garrisons (maybe you can script large garrisons for them as long as they remain in faction hands); or
b) start them off as rebel settlements with lots of good, experienced units like you do for Dublin, for example, plus a rebel faction leader. This would make them harder to take. Also write in a couple of rebel armies that are "camped" out by these settlements. This simulates the field army that supports the garrison and also the paramilitary types who harrassed pilgrims.

This should make the 1st Crusade much harder, as it was (in addition to the difficulty of holding Jerusalem, which you've already included - bravo!)

11) "Bureaucrat" character
Would it be possible to mod in a Bureaucrat based on the Diplomat character? This is an expensive professional administrator who can work with or in the place of a governor. Moving him into a settlement reduces squalor, increases health, increases tax revenue, reduces distance to capital penalty and corruption. Requires a high level civic building to recruit, and it expensive to maintain, but his effect is eventually a return on the investment. Max agents = maybe 50% of no of settlements?

12) Aggregating armies
Issue: I still see far too many small armies and am able to isolate and destroy them too easily. I think there are noticeably more small armies than there were with BigMap, perhaps because of all the settlements being close together in RTJ. Is this something you have still noticed?

That's it for now...thanks for reading!

nice list, i agree with a lot of what you say there. The only thing i disagree with is the blood, i don't like the clouds of blood, but the stains look better then vanilla in my opinion (though just a little exaggerated) thank you very much for taking the time to do this!

BTW Ramm check out v1.0 of the full weather mod by horsearcher.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=72240