Garnier's LTC addon - v1.2

[Garnier]

This is a small addon that I compiled for LTC 2.3. Lusted is NOT responsible for this addon, so don't complain to him if you don't like it, complain to me .

DOWNLOAD LINK

This is just for my personal taste, not for historical accuracy or anything, and it only changes a few files. Here is the change list:

In v1.1:
1. Makes rebels and pirates spawn very rarely, almost never I think. (thanks to Lusted)
2. Makes armies unable to rebel
4. Makes all the mercenary units available earlier in the campaign, so they will be available closer to the time you can recruit their counterparts from your castles.
5. Adds more dust in battles (thanks to zxiang)
6. Removes torches from battle
7. Removes flaming shot/firearrows from the game.
8. 1 more recruitment slot for castles.
9. No recruiting siege equipment from castles.
10. Agent limit for spies, assassins and diplomats.
New in v1.2:
11. New setup in descr_strat, much better Italian army composition.
12. Guilds tweaked, so Thieves guild is harder to get, while horse breeder and mason guild are easier.
13. Export_descr_buildings tweaked so archery range has smaller recruitment pools (AI used too many archers for its own good), and smith line of buildings available earlier, and it is cheaper. Also, removed ballistas from the game and replaced them with catapults (in other words, when before you could recruit ballistas, now you get catapults).
14. Mercenary crossbows and merc pav crossbows removed from campaign.

Reasoning behind changes:
In v1.1:
I don't like having tiny rebel armies all over the place, they just get annoying. Same goes for pirates. Also I play with a houserule where I don't use generals to command my armies, because it makes the game a LOT more challenging and a lot more equal with the AI, so I didnt want my armies to rebel all the time.
I want to be able to use mercenaries before they become outdated.
I like dust, and I hate torches.. lol
I hate having all the AI archers shooting firearrows. Firearrows don't look realistic IMHO. Also now towers do not shoot firearrows, so AI siege weapons won't burn and make you win the battle easily. I find this helps the AI more than the player who can make as many siege weapons as he wants. This change does NOT remove exploding shot from cannons, though it does remove flaming shot from bombards etc.
The +1 recruitment in castles and no siege weapons in castles just makes AI armies better, because they make siege weapons in towns which means less militia, and more castle units because they don't use castle slots to make siege weapons.
Agent limit for spies and assassins means the AI wont be spamming the player with them. This got annoying sometimes to have tons of enemy agents all over. Same goes for diplomats sort of, it makes them more meaningful and vital to be used right.
New in v1.2:
I hated the italian armies of genoese crossbows and italian militia. Now they will use normal castle units mostly.
The AI ALWAYS had thieves guilds everywhere, so I made them harder. Now they will not. We will see what happens now, if another guild becomes too common or something.
The AI used too many archers, and for my taste I like to use less archers and more melee units cause the battles are more fun when its a melee and not chasing bands of archers all around the map. Now the AI will use less archers. Merc crossbows also removed since the AI used too many of these.





INSTALLATION:
Open zip, and copy the landstoconquer folder into your Medieval II Total War folder.

If you don't like certain things on the list, you can remove them easily:
To remove any change individually before installing, simply delete the following files from the zip to remove the changes respectively:

1 & 2 & 11: descr_strat.txt
4 & 14: descr_mercenaries.txt
5: descr_particle.txt & battlefield folder
6: descr_engines_torch_effects.txt & descr_torch_fire.txt
7: descr_projectile.txt
8 & 9 & 10 & 13: export_descr_buildings.txt
12: export_descr_guilds.txt

For example, deleting export_descr_guilds.txt in the zip before installing, will remove change #12. Deleting descr_strat in the zip before installing, will remove changes 1, 2 and 11 all together.

I also play with the BBB mod, and burreck's skins.

Any suggestions are welcome and I will consider any suggestions that improve the game.

Readme for 1.3 (in progress, nothing final)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is a small addon that I compiled for LTC 2.3. Lusted is NOT responsible for this addon, so don't complain to him if you don't like it, complain to me .

This is just for my personal taste, not for historical accuracy or anything, and it only changes a few files. Here is the change list:

In v1.2:
1. Makes rebels and pirates spawn very rarely, almost never I think. (thanks to Lusted)
2. Makes armies unable to rebel
4. Makes all the mercenary units available earlier in the campaign, so they will be available closer to the time you can recruit their counterparts from your castles.
5. Adds more dust in battles (thanks to zxiang)
6. Removes torches from battle
7. Removes flaming shot/firearrows from the game.
8. 1 more recruitment slot for castles.
9. No recruiting siege equipment from castles.
10. Agent limit for spies, assassins and diplomats.
11. New setup in descr_strat, much better Italian army composition.
12. Guilds tweaked, so Thieves guild is harder to get(even harder in 1.3), while horse breeder and mason guild are easier.
13. Export_descr_buildings tweaked so archery range has smaller recruitment pools (AI used too many archers for its own good), and smith line of buildings available earlier, and it is cheaper. Also, removed ballistas from the game and replaced them with catapults (in other words, when before you could recruit ballistas, now you get catapults).
14. Mercenary crossbows and merc pav crossbows removed from campaign.
NEW IN 1.3:
15. Recruitment slots for wooden wall changed to 1, recruitment slots for large stone wall changed to 2.
16. Faction standing altered, so on harder difficulty, your relations with other factions do not go down automatically.
17.


Reasoning behind changes:
In v1.2:
I don't like having tiny rebel armies all over the place, they just get annoying. Same goes for pirates. Also I play with a houserule where I don't use generals to command my armies, because it makes the game a LOT more challenging and a lot more equal with the AI, so I didnt want my armies to rebel all the time.
I want to be able to use mercenaries before they become outdated.
I like dust, and I hate torches.. lol
I hate having all the AI archers shooting firearrows. Firearrows don't look realistic IMHO. Also now towers do not shoot firearrows, so AI siege weapons won't burn and make you win the battle easily. I find this helps the AI more than the player who can make as many siege weapons as he wants. This change does NOT remove exploding shot from cannons, though it does remove flaming shot from bombards etc.
The +1 recruitment in castles and no siege weapons in castles just makes AI armies better, because they make siege weapons in towns which means less militia, and more castle units because they don't use castle slots to make siege weapons.
Agent limit for spies and assassins means the AI wont be spamming the player with them. This got annoying sometimes to have tons of enemy agents all over. Same goes for diplomats sort of, it makes them more meaningful and vital to be used right.
I hated the italian armies of genoese crossbows and italian militia. Now they will use normal castle units mostly.
The AI ALWAYS had thieves guilds everywhere, so I made them harder. Now they will not. We will see what happens now, if another guild becomes too common or something.
The AI used too many archers, and for my taste I like to use less archers and more melee units cause the battles are more fun when its a melee and not chasing bands of archers all around the map. Now the AI will use less archers. Merc crossbows also removed since the AI used too many of these.
Better diplomacy on harder difficulty settings.




INSTALLATION:
Open zip, and copy the landstoconquer folder into your Medieval II Total War folder.

If you don't like certain things on the list, you can remove them easily:
To remove any change individually before installing, simply delete the following files from the zip to remove the changes respectively:

1 & 2 & 11: descr_strat.txt
4 & 14: descr_mercenaries.txt
5: descr_particle.txt & battlefield folder
6: descr_engines_torch_effects.txt & descr_torch_fire.txt
7: descr_projectile.txt
8 & 9 & 10 & 13 & 15: export_descr_buildings.txt
12: export_descr_guilds.txt
16: descr_faction_standing.txt

For example, deleting export_descr_guilds.txt in the zip before installing, will remove change #12. Deleting descr_strat in the zip before installing, will remove changes 1, 2 and 11 all together.

I also play with the BBB mod, burrek's skins, the King's Banner Mod, and Salty's skins.

Any suggestions are welcome and I will consider any suggestions that improve the game.

[Garnier]

I found out how to upload the file to TWC, so now you don't have to figure out whatever file hosting site I was using, for those that don't like to do that. So first post is updated.

[Arksa]

Regarding the "no flaming arrows"-thing, does towers still shoot flaming arrows?
that "no rebellion" also helps the AI because they usually don't lead with generals and their armies sometimes rebelled because of that.

I might check this out. I also hate rebels.

[Garnier]

Regarding the "no flaming arrows"-thing, does towers still shoot flaming arrows?

Correct, towers do not shoot flaming arrows. I chose to leave it like that for now, because it actually helps the AI a lot in sieges. I used to always win because I would burn their battering ram or something, and then they would all get bottlenecked at the ladder or siege tower and be demolished. So far I like having no tower fire-arrows.

I will upload version 1.1 soon, which will automatically create backups of the standard LTC 2.3 files that it replaces, so you don't need to do it manually. I will also list which changes are in which files so you can easily remove the changes you don't like before installing it.

[jegui]

I may try it later specially the more balanced armies with no tons of siege weapons ;-)

[Ali_the_English]

Can I ask why you do not like the winter look on the campaign map?

[Garnier]

It is just ugly, at least it looks a lot worse than summer to me, so I prefer summer. I would remove winter from battles too if I knew how.

[Garnier]

I am going to make v1.2 after I get a little more ideas. I am going to change florence and/or bologna into castle[s] so the italians have castle units. This is a much needed change IMHO.

I also want to do something with the pikes so they don't only fight with swords. How would I, for example remove their secondary weapon, or make them use it less often?

And then I will reduce archer and militia recruitment pools if I decide to spend the time doing that (it takes a lot of work).

I may improve the settlements at the start of the campaign, but I am not sure.

Any other ideas that make the game more fun or just things that you have changed yourself, please let me know, for my sake.. lol

[Turbo]

You might want to consider eliminating all combat bonuses for generals in the traits file. The only combat one I use is the battlescarred trait. My generals get no command bonuses or battle bonuses. Traits are limited to managing settlements - law, squalor, etc. My edits give the generals better traits as govenors managing the provinces and worse traits if they are not in a settlement. This really plays to how the AI uses its generals.

The benefit on this is that it doesn't matter whether the AI attacks with or without a general, the odds will always be favorable to the AI. I find almost all battles to be difficult, sometimes impossible on VH. It is too easy as a player to gain significant bonuses over the AI captains just by developing their generals.

[Garnier]

Ah thanks! That is something I really wanted to do, just wasn't sure how to go about it. Could you send me your traits file and I will take a look at it.

[Turbo]

Garnier,

I am polishing up the traits descriptions to reflect the correct bonuses.

I like the changes you have with your mod of LTC except eliminating the winter look on the campaign map. Can you explain how I can reenable it?

You might want to consider adding stables as a buildable structure for cities in addition to castles in your mod. I think you can do this by eliminating the 'castle' that follows the name of the building and leave it blank. Pretty simple. A lot of factions need a cavalry oriented army to compete and are extremely weak in infantry. I would also make the dismounted mongol units as buildable from the equestrian structure not the barracks.

To eliminate the swords as a secondary weapon, copy a secondary weapon that has no attack bonuses and paste it over the pikes secondary weapon. Could you update this on your download when you are done? I'd like that as well.

[Garnier]

If you don't like certain things on the list, you can remove them easily:
To remove any change individually before installing, simply delete the following files to remove the changes respectively:

1 & 2: descr_strat.txt
3: descr_climates.txt
4: descr_mercenaries.txt
5: descr_particle.txt & battlefield folder
6: descr_engines_torch_effects.txt & descr_torch_fire.txt
7: descr_projectile.txt
8 & 9 & 10: descr_strat.txt

So before pasting the folder into your M2TW folder, remove the descr_climates.txt and you won't have that change.

[thecactusman17]

I don't know about you, but to me removing fire arrows would really hurt enemies defending a siege, especially early in the game when you might not have as many good units for moving up your siege equipment. My most common method of losing a siege is because I only had 1-2 good units for assaulting the gates/walls and they kill all my approaching siege equipment.

[Garnier]

I don't know about you, but to me removing fire arrows would really hurt enemies defending a siege, especially early in the game when you might not have as many good units for moving up your siege equipment. My most common method of losing a siege is because I only had 1-2 good units for assaulting the gates/walls and they kill all my approaching siege equipment.

It does make assaults easier for the player, but it helps the AI a LOT MORE, so in the end it is a harder game. Thats why I keep it. I can just wait an extra turn and bring twice the equipment, but the AI always attacks with 2 or 3 siege engines, and once I destroy 1 or 2 of them, the battle is won.

[Lightzy]

It is rare that a mod comes along and I completely disagree with every single change it makes congrats mate

[Garnier]

Right now I am working on a revamp of the italian start position. I am giving:

Bologna to Venice
Florence to Milan
Iraklion to Byzantium
Genoa to Rebels
Bern to HRE

Florence to Castle
Bologna to Castle

o The reason for this is to help the AI in that they don't handle spread out empires very well, to help milan and venice with their army composition (giving them castles), to help Byzantium survive, and I gave Bern to the HRE to compensate for giving Bologna to venice. The only faction that gains an entirely new territory is Byzantium. I will post some screenshots when this is finished, but I have started and it is working fine so far.

Along with this, I will be giving Italy some castle units to replace their starting militia in the Florence castle, and a few other very minor changes to other starting armies in these cities. No changes will be made to unmentioned factions.

These changes will be optional in v1.2 of the addon. I will be sure to run test campaigns before releasing it to make sure its CTD free, and to see how it works.


Any other suggestions for start positions are welcome while I'm doing this, if anyone has good ideas that are reasonable and not just whims.

[Garnier]

Heres the situation in northern italy now:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Garnier]

Well its working nicely, and I am loving the italian army composition. This is a completely AI controlled campaign. In the year 1195, this is all the venetian and milanese armies bigger than 2 units:



Now, I know many people won't like this change, because Italy historically was made up of city-states and used militia armies etc, but thats fine. I just like to fight castle units. Oh and Milan isn't conquering the world either, they have about 5 provinces by now, and are at war with venice.

[ImKyleJames]

think i'll pass. I like flaming arrows and Russian Winter! BURN BABY BURN.. then FREEZE!

[Garnier]

Remember, any change listed can be removed easily before installing, so if one or two changes you don't like, you can take them out but still use the rest.


I am working on adding one more settlement to the map right now, Coimbra north of Lisbon for portugal. I will make it a castle, and balance things out there, so Portugal is all in one place. With this change I will upload v1.2 I guess.