[Religion and Revolution]: Mod Development

[raystuttgart]

Hi guys,
I am back again.

I will need some time to get things sorted.
There have been lots of changes by Schmiddie, our partners and the modmodders.

 

[Schmiddie]

Hi Folks,

today I would like to share some new developments of our mod.

I have made a big overhaul of all military unit graphics of the 8 European Nations! The changes contain five major parts of the unit graphics and units itself:

1. New unit graphics for nearly all military units:

Screenshot of some of the new graphics for Spain:

This is the beginning of a new era since nearly all of the original graphics of TAC have been improved and removed now.


2. The military Buttons: There will no longer exist buttons for the military units as you know them resp. related to the civilian settlers. The buttons of the regular military units are now related to the function of the units (horse = cavalry, gun = infantry, cannon = artillery). Stars and crowns will show the strengths and/or if this is a unit of the player or the king.

Furthermore this means that the buttons for all nations will be the same now. This contains a cange related to the "city management" graphics as well. There exists only one version for every military graphic for every nation - no difference here between the nations. This is acceptable since the player will see this graphics only in the Europe Screen.

Due to the fact that we have implemented so much units the buttons for all units were hardly to handle in an acceptable manner and more and more buttons have been indistinguishable.

A screenshot of the new buttons (not all are currently used ingame):

3. New Infantry unit: I have implemented a new infantry unit: The line infantry has arrived in the New World. Originally an idea of my mod-mod I have now implemented it in the main mod.

4. New military professions: All regular military units (apart from artillery) are no longer units but professions now, so that we have the following professions now:

- Profession Townguard
- Profession Colonial Infantry
- Profession Line Infantry
- Profession Cavalry
- Profession Dragoon

The king has his own similar professions. Every profession has its own specialist with his own advantage/bonus. The single veteran units "Veteran" (player) and "Regular" (king) have been removed. This will give us more space for the development of the military part of the game.

5. Cuirassier has been changed to Cavaly: Due to the fact that a "cuirassier" does not really fit to the era and region of the mod I have changed "cuirassier" into "cavalry".

The changes are already uploaded to the SVN.

They have been tested and work well so far.

Please note that due to this massive changes all potential mod-mods will have to be adjusted. I have changed the names of all military units, professions and UnitArtDefs so that no mod mod will work with this update without adjustment in future.

Kind regards

Schmiddie

 

[agnat86]

Amazing work, Schmiddie!

One thing though: there now is a colonist named "Colonial Line Infantry Soldier."

Maybe that's a little long. How about "Veteran Infanterist?"

 

[Commander Bello]

Great work, indeed.

I love especially the new buttons.

 

[Schmiddie]

Amazing work, Schmiddie!

One thing though: there now is a colonist named "Colonial Line Infantry Soldier."

Maybe that's a little long. How about "Veteran Infanterist?"

No, the "Veteran Infantry" is the specialist for Colonial Militia Profession. Furthermore we have "Royal Line Infantry".

Maybe "Line Infantry Soldier" would work...

 

[vetiarvind]

Looks really good! About the "Professional" soldiers, would they have to be trained or is there a Lbd going for them? So, once I lock my unit as a "dragoon" and get some experience and a "professional" promotion, i will not be able to easily change him to another type?

 

[agnat86]

The king has his own similar professions.

BTW, why is this? I've looked into the colopedia and the "royal" professions seem to do exactly the same thing as their "colonial" equivalents. Why not use the same professions then both for colonial and royal forces?

 

[agnat86]

Also, a balancing question: isn't line infantry a little strong now? For just 20 extra blades, they give +5 strength instead of +3, as well as an additional close combat bonus.

Maybe increase their yield requirements to, for example, 80 Guns and 50 Blades? Or otherwise reduce their strength to 4? 5 strength seems really powerful.

 

[Schmiddie]

The specialists can become a specialist in their own orofessions by LbD or due to education/training (University). due to LBD a colonist will become the specialist related to the profession he currently has (e.g. colonial militia = will become specialist veteran infantry).

However, every specialist can be used in another profession as well, they are not "locked" just for their own profession. However, the start bonus of every unit is different.

 

[Schmiddie]

BTW, why is this? I've looked into the colopedia and the "royal" professions seem to do exactly the same thing as their "colonial" equivalents. Why not use the same professions then both for colonial and royal forces?

I have thought about it - but then I'm not able to give the professions different names (so far there were two different professions for infantry: Musketman (named musketman) and soldier (named royal musketman). I have only extended this System to the other professions as well! It would be strange if a royal soldier would have a Profession "colonial militia"...but the professions of the king are locked for the Player - so you just have to ignore the professions of the king.

 

[Schmiddie]

Also, a balancing question: isn't line infantry a little strong now? For just 20 extra blades, they give +5 strength instead of +3, as well as an additional close combat bonus.

Maybe increase their yield requirements to, for example, 80 Guns and 50 Blades? Or otherwise reduce their strength to 4? 5 strength seems really powerful.

I have not tested the balancing yet. Iam open for suggestions.

 

[agnat86]

I have not tested the balancing yet. Iam open for suggestions.

Well, I think it would be good to lower their combat strength. Because now, in almost every respect it is better than Cavalry.

If you turn a cavalry into a line infantry:

• It gets +1 Combat Strength
• It gets a combat bonus against mounted, melee and gunpowder units
• It now receives Defensive Bonuses
• You get 30 Blades and 50 Horses

And the only possible disadvantages are a loss of speed, but only if you have De Coronado, and it becomes a gunpowder unit instead of mounted, which may be an advantage or a disadvantage.

It would be a shame if no one would ever see the graphics you made for all the cavalry.

Also, if European players get (relatively) easy access to a 5 Strength unit, natives will be even less of a threat than they are now.

So my suggestion:

• Reduce their Strength to 4
• Have them require 50 Blades and 50 Guns
• Maybe they shouldn't receive defensive bonuses as well (so that players will have an incentive to make light infantry, even in late game when there are enough blades available)
• Give Cavalry some extra bonus to make sure both 4-power units require different strategies.

 

[vetiarvind]

Personally, I am not for the inclusion of "line infantry" as a producable unit. Maybe as a mercenary or "purchase-able" through the dock as it was in the Scmiddie's edition mod-mod. But of course, your decision

 

[agnat86]

Personally, I am not for the inclusion of "line infantry" as a producable unit. Maybe as a mercenary or "purchase-able" through the dock as it was in the Scmiddie's edition mod-mod. But of course, your decision

Well, as a mercenary they would have to compete with Hessians, Native Mercs, Continental Guards, Rangers and Conquistadores. They would have to be different enough from those.


I like them as a profession, we just need to make sure that they don't make other professions obsolete (like Cavalry and Light Infantry).

 

[vetiarvind]

^Yes, but they should be expensive if they are produceable. 50 guns, 50 tools, 50 blades (similar to cuirassiers w\o the horses) would be nice. Also, i agree with agnat86 that strength 4 makes more sense. 5 would def. be OP. Other bonuses seem fine to me. Maybe things like -25% in jungle\forest terrain would be a nice modifier too. After all, line infantry did best in pitched battles.

 

[agnat86]

Maybe things like -25% in jungle\forest terrain would be a nice modifier too. After all, line infantry did best in pitched battles.

Exactly, that is the kind of change they need. That way, colonial mititias are suitable for the wilderness, and line infantry for siege combat or combat in the open field. They need to have different functions in the game.

 

[Commander Bello]

I strongly recommend giving the change from units to professions a second thought.

The AI is very weak in assigning military professions. A typical behaviour is sending a promoted military unit to a city, dropping all weapons and working as field worker or whatever (I have even spotted general-lead troops as pioneers or worse, as missionaries in the past). As soon as the need for a military unit arises, it takes the unit which it thinks it can spare - which in many cases is not the military unit.
In the end you may have the promoted unit work somewhere and a weaker unit do the defense (in the worst case).

 

[vetiarvind]

I strongly recommend giving the change from units to professions a second thought.

The AI is very weak in assigning military professions. A typical behaviour is sending a promoted military unit to a city, dropping all weapons and working as field worker or whatever (I have even spotted general-lead troops as pioneers or worse, as missionaries in the past). As soon as the need for a military unit arises, it takes the unit which it thinks it can spare - which in many cases is not the military unit.
In the end you may have the promoted unit work somewhere and a weaker unit do the defense (in the worst case).

One bonus of giving them a "profession" status, is that now it becomes harder for indentured servants and petty criminals to become professional soldiers. In the older versions, you could just make use of them the same way as free colonist. I think it's a great idea! Just needs to be balanced well.

 

[Nightinggale]

The AI is very weak in assigning military professions. A typical behaviour is sending a promoted military unit to a city, dropping all weapons and working as field worker or whatever (I have even spotted general-lead troops as pioneers or worse, as missionaries in the past). As soon as the need for a military unit arises, it takes the unit which it thinks it can spare - which in many cases is not the military unit.

That's one more thing to add to your list of wanted AI improvements

 

[Commander Bello]

That's one more thing to add to your list of wanted AI improvements

True.
But it's not only a chapter, it is a whole volume of its own.