★ TLR v1.9 Beta 7 - Download & Discussion ★

[tornnight]

TLR version 1.9 Beta 7 available

Updated April 2, 8:05 AM EST

Primary Download Here

Secondary Download Here


Your splash screen should look like this.


There is no installer for this release. An installer will be included in the final release.

This is just a simple zip file with the files in it.
Just unzip it to C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War

It won't overwrite your current game.

Execute it by running (Double Clicking):
C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\The_Long_Road_Beta.bat

What's new in Beta 1

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Armor based Era System
- Era System for bigger walls
- Era System for gunpowder
- New Building Scheme for barracks (Option 3 from the poll)
- Portugal Map Fixes
- Improved Battle AI
- Fixed Cardinals
- Population growth lowered
- Biggest Castle at start is a Wooden Castle (Keep style)
- Biggest City is a regular stone wall city.

Whats new in Beta 2

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Fixed Building Tree
- All new Campaign AI and Diplomacy
- Only Militia has free upkeep
- Crossbowmen can fire better from walls
- Improved AI Siege Formations
- Fixes to Cavalry getting stuck on rocks
- Additional minor fixes.

Whats new in Beta 3

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Various new provinces and faction starting situations
- More difficult independent provinces
- Balanced Units!!!
- Tweaked Battle and Siege AI
- Blood, Broads, and Bastards v1.9
- Reduced number of Inquisitors
- Other minor fixes

Whats new in Beta 4

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Adjusted Moorish/Spanish/Egyptian faction starting situation
- Balanced 2 handed axe Units
- Balanced gunpowder Units
- Balanced Byzantium infantry units
- Tweaked/Balanced Pikemen
- Some corrections to the recruitment tree.

Whats new in Beta 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Improved Campaign AI. More field battles.
- Campaign AI Fixes. AI no longer attacks just because it has an alliance and slightly dislikes you.
- Global Reputation will normalize a bit quicker.
- Fixes to Map for accessing West Africa Coast with early ships
- Unit cost/upkeep increased
- Adjusted starting situations for Sicily, Byzantium, Venice, Spain
- Diplomats now always recruitable. Town Hall type buildings give diplomat experience.
- Pikemen have weaker secondary attacks
- Elephant crew attacks corrected and cost/upkeep adjusted
- 5 new provinces
-- 2 in Iberia
-- 1 in the British Isles
-- 1 in Italy
-- 1 in Eastern Africa
- Other minor fixes

Whats new in Beta 6

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Burrek's Knights & Knaves.
- Burrek's Early and Late Era Reskins
- Dismounted Order Knights.
- WhiteWolf's Byzantium Reskin
- New Extended East Map
- Leader Names and Faction Start Fixes
- Resource Adjustments
- A plethora of new events
- City Title Ancillaries for all regions
- Maximum number of regions
- Many fixes

Whats new in Beta 7
- Campaign AI Upgrade (More aggressive and Intelligent)
- Rebalanced (Harder) Economy
- More unique Settlement Title graphics (Thanks acegogo)
- Unit Card graphics for some Independents
- Rebalanced Guild Acquisition
- Resource Additions and Fixes
- Crash Fix due to missing names
- Map Fixes
- Fix for Dead Ancestors Graphics

Whats not in yet
- New Mercenary Units
- Military Rank System
- Peerage
- Leadership
- New Factions
- Repositioning of Custom Battle Maps

Remember, I can't guarantee that the saves for this will be compatible with the final. Please give me plenty of feedback on playability, enjoyability.

Let me know if (Specifics please)
-the era system needs balancing
-diplomacy needs balancing
-recruitment needs balancing
-build tree is broken
-battle issues
-unit balance issues
-map issues

TLR Team

• Unit Balance, Building Balance, Economy Balance, AI Development, Map creation: tornnight
• City Title Artwork, Event Graphics: acegogo
• City Titles: Averroës & Lopus
• Resource Adjustments: Averroës
• Historical Events: Hissing Fauna
• Mercenary Upgrades : Admiral-Krause
• Realistic Family Names : Lopus
• Faction Starting Situations: Lopus

Contributors to The Long Road

• Big Map: Spurious
• Splash Screens, Blood Mod, Textures, Units: Burrek
• Battle AI Improvements: DarthVader
• Blood, Broads, & Bastards: Dearmad & Pnutmaster
• Byzantium Reskin: WhiteWolf
• City Title Graphics: Tokus*Maximus
• Everyone else in the forums who gave us feedback.

Hot Fixes
If you downloaded before April 2, 8:00 AM EST, please download the attached file for Hotfixes or download it again.

[Hissing Fauna]

Downloading. Eager to see how the beefed up AI will do.

[tornnight]

Non-Critical Hot Fix Added.

Basically kills a character denmark's 'Svend' that should have been dead at startup. All dead ancestors are supposed to get killed at startup.

Only helps if you start a new campaign.

[Phil Stanbridge]

I'm having a blast - but recruitment and upkeep costs are soooo high! I'm playing as the English this time round. I hope to play it all the way through You really have keep an eye on your economy - if you get more than a couple of units of mailed knights you'll be in trouble in no time at all. I guess this is what you aimed for in this release and it seems to be working well. Thanks!

So things I have noticed in this beta - merchants. They can earn next to nothing unless you move them to the other side of the map, and even then the earnings are way down on what they were before.

The recruitment costs are so high that the AI factions are using a single General as garrison in settlements - as am I!

[Sir Nicholas Altman]

Non-Critical Hot Fix Added.

Basically kills a character denmark's 'Svend' that should have been dead at startup. All dead ancestors are supposed to get killed at startup.

Only helps if you start a new campaign.

Where do you download this hotfix?

[tornnight]

Where do you download this hotfix?

At the bottom of the first post.

[k_161]

YES! today was a national holiday because of some elections,plus i just got my drivers license today and no THIS.Thank you .I wonder if 4/1 is my lucky day

[terralax]

great mod..total git to play, but better than a great challenge.

[Phil Stanbridge]

lol.. It's brilliant Torn. Absolutely. I have only managed to capture two settlements since playing, and I'm at 1112. I'm having to resort to raiding tactics just to sustain a half baked army

I may have stumbled across a bug but it's no show stopper. From time to time when you are presented with "reinforcing" missions these do not work. I've just had two that haven't worked, even though I have met the requisites.

But it's excellent. Thanks! I love the high recruitment costs and upkeep - it is effecting the AI as much as myself.

[Phil Stanbridge]

aaaaaaahhhh.. Another crash to desktop. I guess there's another problem.

[ruizbumkins]

I noticed the Byzantines have a new banner. Its pretty cool, but is there a way to change it back to the way it was? Also, do you plan on changing the color scheme of the Byzantines? I fought them and I don't think any of them were wearing purple (Vangarian Guards). I like it when each team has their own color scheme.

[Sir Nicholas Altman]

Nice job with the rebel unit cards in England but the guys in Dumfries, their unit cards and info cars don't match. They are some scotish independets. I noticed there are no victory conditions in game. It only says how many turns you have left. I can just continue my campaign as England in Beta 7 from 6, no problem?

P.S.
I just tryed to continue my campaign and its working only that I go in debt 12000 coins every turn. The upkeeps are to high man. It's ridiculos. I dont have a large army and have a lot of teritory. This way you will make the game soldierless (is that word in the dictonary?). I really like 1.9 beta 6. On Very hard its really good and interesting but now its kindda not fun anymore. I think I will overright the b7 and continue eith beta 6. I think this way you gonna loose lot of fans. This is the best mod I ever played but now, why??? Why, God why are the upkeeps so high?? Oh, why? Tell me?

[tornnight]

lol.. It's brilliant Torn. Absolutely. I have only managed to capture two settlements since playing, and I'm at 1112. I'm having to resort to raiding tactics just to sustain a half baked army

I may have stumbled across a bug but it's no show stopper. From time to time when you are presented with "reinforcing" missions these do not work. I've just had two that haven't worked, even though I have met the requisites.

But it's excellent. Thanks! I love the high recruitment costs and upkeep - it is effecting the AI as much as myself.

Reinforcing missions bug is vanilla. It is supposed to be fixed in Patch 1.2.

I noticed the Byzantines have a new banner. Its pretty cool, but is there a way to change it back to the way it was? Also, do you plan on changing the color scheme of the Byzantines? I fought them and I don't think any of them were wearing purple (Vangarian Guards). I like it when each team has their own color scheme.

You can delete the /data/banners directory to remove the banners.
The Byzantiums are no longer purple but rather something closer to red. They do have a uniform color more or less.

aaaaaaahhhh.. Another crash to desktop. I guess there's another problem.

Was there anything in the log? I haven't been able to get it to crash since I fixed the last bug. I ran the game through 2 entire campaigns on Auto.

Nice job with the rebel unit cards in England but the guys in Dumfries, their unit cards and info cars don't match. They are some scotish independets. I noticed there are no victory conditions in game. It only says how many turns you have left. I can just continue my campaign as England in Beta 7 from 6, no problem?

P.S.
I just tryed to continue my campaign and its working only that I go in debt 12000 coins every turn. The upkeeps are to high man. It's ridiculos. I dont have a large army and have a lot of teritory. This way you will make the game soldierless (is that word in the dictonary?). I really like 1.9 beta 6. On Very hard its really good and interesting but now its kindda not fun anymore. I think I will overright the b7 and continue eith beta 6. I think this way you gonna loose lot of fans. This is the best mod I ever played but now, why??? Why, God why are the upkeeps so high?? Oh, why? Tell me?

There is no telling what will happen if you use a Beta 6 save.

Try working up the economy before you start to recruit an army. There are various other tactics that can be used to generate income as well. TLR is supposed to be challenging. I'll wait and see what the general opinion is before I make it easier.

[St-Emilion]

Being a long time observer, I finally decided to post my comments about the mod. I hope this will help to add more balance/realism.

I play mostly as Novgorod. Uhh, I'm Russian after all, therefore I will only comment on the Russian campaign. With the version 7 of the beta I already noticed good improvements.

Kazaks:
1) This unit is so good that Rus should not be able to recruit it right away. It is by far more useful that any other unit Rus can recruit in 150 years of time. Therefore the access to it should be more... progressive.
2) Kazaks' cost is now reasonable, as well as reduced missile attack. In one of the previous versions Kazaks upkeep was ~120/turn which was way too low. Kazaks are a terrific unit and if used properly can match heavy European cavalry. The reduced attack is a good thing too, because I played several campaigns with 95% of my troops being Kazaks and in less that 100 years my empire began so big that no other faction could match it.

"Castle" buildings in the Cities:
I don't really understand why you guys allow the stables to be built in settlements. Now, the need for forts almost disappeared since most of the battles can be fought on a battlefield. If the recrutement of Kazaks, archer militia and other "castle" units are allowed in cities it becames too easy to expand quickly because all the goods units can be obtained right away from almost any settlement. I start with Novgorod and in 10 years already I have Pskov and Novgorod which can recruit Kazaks

Russian cities garrisons:
I often see Turkoman units garrisoned in cities such as Minsk, Kiev, etc. This seem innacurate to me. No Turkoman soldier, not even mercenary one would be 'employed' as a garrison unit. We are in 11th century. This simply cannot happen.

Starting position:
In the recent version 7 you have added Silk ressource to the right of Novgorod. Again, we are in 11th century, no silk was available in Novgorod at this time. Bear - yes, Fish - sure why not Baltic is close, but no 'oriental luxuries'. At this time the city was a wooden settlement/fort with most of the people wearing Bast shoes made from linden.

Pskov:
This settlement did not join Novgorod until 13th century, therefore it should not be included as Rus' posessions at the beginning of the campaign. AND it should be a Motte and Bailey, not a Wooden Castle.

Kiev:
The ancient center of Orthodox Russia. Doesn't look like one on the map. There are no buildings, not even roads, or port!, poor garrison. Kiev, even at this time was already a wealthy big city. It supplied the Varangs to the Byzantine emperor. I think it deserves a few buildings at the start as well as an elite garrison or a rebel army besides. Think of it as small Constantinople to seize all the importance of this settlements. Moreover, Kiev should should should have a large orthodox Church. The Orthodox faith spread from Kiev in 10th cent.

Pereslawl: Nothing there, but the name should be PereslaVl. (There is no W sound in Russian language ).

Beligrad: Beautiful city, heh. It just does not require the i --> Belgrad (Bel=white, grad=city). Btw they copied the architecture style from Constantinople. Remember those double white walls?

Mongols:
I have read a number of books about mongols and mongol Russia, and to me they are underpowered. They should be able to sweep the Rus. Please reconsider their Horse archer. It should be more powerful.


Well that's it for now. I hope I am not too critical - just want to help.

[Oldgamer]

Looks good, so far. I'm trying the game as the Scots, for the first time ever (MTW and M2TW). The challenge is high, but I'm moving towards "uniting the clans", if you catxh my drift!

I did have a CTD, just now, between Winter/1088 and Summer/1089. It might be the problem you mentioned earlier with Denmark, and require the hotfix. I DL'd it, and will try again.

[tornnight]

"Castle" buildings in the Cities:
I don't really understand why you guys allow the stables to be built in settlements. Now, the need for forts almost disappeared since most of the battles can be fought on a battlefield. If the recrutement of Kazaks, archer militia and other "castle" units are allowed in cities it becames too easy to expand quickly because all the goods units can be obtained right away from almost any settlement. I start with Novgorod and in 10 years already I have Pskov and Novgorod which can recruit Kazaks

Castles provide higher experience for troops. Experience is very powerful in battle.

1. AI can't change settlement types.
2. It's realistic. Cities could recruit all sorts of units.
3. The settlement is only a representation of the focal point of the province. A province will actually have many of both types of settlements.

Russian cities garrisons:
I often see Turkoman units garrisoned in cities such as Minsk, Kiev, etc. This seem innacurate to me. No Turkoman soldier, not even mercenary one would be 'employed' as a garrison unit. We are in 11th century. This simply cannot happen.

Good point.

Starting position:
In the recent version 7 you have added Silk ressource to the right of Novgorod. Again, we are in 11th century, no silk was available in Novgorod at this time. Bear - yes, Fish - sure why not Baltic is close, but no 'oriental luxuries'. At this time the city was a wooden settlement/fort with most of the people wearing Bast shoes made from linden.

Not silk. Look again, its Textiles.

Pskov:
This settlement did not join Novgorod until 13th century, therefore it should not be included as Rus' posessions at the beginning of the campaign. AND it should be a Motte and Bailey, not a Wooden Castle.

Kiev:
The ancient center of Orthodox Russia. Doesn't look like one on the map. There are no buildings, not even roads, or port!, poor garrison. Kiev, even at this time was already a wealthy big city. It supplied the Varangs to the Byzantine emperor. I think it deserves a few buildings at the start as well as an elite garrison or a rebel army besides. Think of it as small Constantinople to seize all the importance of this settlements. Moreover, Kiev should should should have a large orthodox Church. The Orthodox faith spread from Kiev in 10th cent.

When I create the Kievan Rus Faction, it will be the capital.

Pereslawl: Nothing there, but the name should be PereslaVl. (There is no W sound in Russian language ).

Hmm. I took the name from maps.

Beligrad: Beautiful city, heh. It just does not require the i --> Belgrad (Bel=white, grad=city). Btw they copied the architecture style from Constantinople. Remember those double white walls?

Apparently that is how it was spelled back then.

Mongols:
I have read a number of books about mongols and mongol Russia, and to me they are underpowered. They should be able to sweep the Rus. Please reconsider their Horse archer. It should be more powerful.

I agree that they should be powerful. Still working on that.

[Callawyn]

AI still unable/unwilling to take rebel provinces on islands. Not sure why this is a problem in TLR, as AI has no problem with this in vanilla or mods using grandviz's AI. Islands in the Med. and Ireland stay neutral indefinitely - until captured by the player.

[Callawyn]

Order / Unrest is meaningless in TLR.

Unrest from religious unrest, distance from capital, and enemy spies in your cities has been reduced to the point where order is meaningless. For example: 1st crusade, playing HRE, to Antioch. I take the city and 'Occupy' it, leaving a garrison of 1 half strength town militia. Despite the distance from capital (only 10 unrest Frankfurt - Antioch), despite the 0% Catholic for religious unrest (only 20 unrest from religion), despite the tiny size of the garrison and the fact that the province was just captured, had >100% order at normal tax rate.

Its almost impossible to have a city revolt in TLR, there's no point at all in converting religion, there's no need to worry about AI spies causing a rebellion in your cities, and cities captured far from home never require a strong garrison to help with order until some +order buildings can be constructed. You've essentially removed unrest from the game entirely, which removes all the decisions the player should be making to keep his cities from rebelling. Even presence of enemy/rebel armies seem to cause much less unrest than usual. Only the religious unrest from %Heretic can possibly cause a player any concern at all.

Cities with large populations and 0% friendly religion should require huge garrisons and low tax rates, and even then should be in danger of rebelling. There should be a need to get religion % to a reasonable level before you can reduce garrison to free upkeep level.

Cities far from your capital should require expensive garrisons to maintain order, due to distance from capital unrest, until the player can get some +order buildings constructed there, which would be worth prioritizing to allow reduction of garrison to free upkeep lvl.

[St-Emilion]

The Byzantine faction should have Adrianople. This era is the beginning of The Alexiad - Byzantine expansion under Alexios I. Rhodes as well as Crete should be Byzantine as well.

And I have a question, is it me or the Byzantine armies just keep walking around without laying siege to anything for like 20 years?

[Callawyn]

Corruption in TLR is brutal:

Any Empire in TLR will have radius from capital including 8-12 cities with 0-10% corruption, then just a few cities in a narrow band that have 20-50% corruption range, and then every other province will have 65-75% corruption. Losing 2/3 to 3/4 of your income to corruption is just brutal. There's really no point ever upgrading buildings in any of these settlements, since you'll never recoup the cost (excepting only granaries to up merchant agent limit, and barracks for free upkeep garrison units).

I can understand having higher corruption than vanilla, it definitely adds to the game. My question here is: Would it be possible to smooth out the curve a bit. Increase the radius of 10-25% corruption cities, and increase the radius where cities have 25-50% corruption. Currently, there's just too narrow a band where you have cities with corruption >0 and <60%, after a certain distance from capital, corruption jumps from very little to ridiculously high.