NotR (NR) Mod

[Doux]

I'm still working on my modification of Knights of Honour and it might not be finished before the end of this year, but I wanted to say something about my mod already and I do that here.

FEATURES

*Militairy units now have reduced walking/run speed when wearing heavier armour
*Defense is more common now, which should be more realistic and give longer battles
*halberdiers are the best armoured squads now
*kingdom advantages boni are tuned down a bit in favor of the AI
*AI build strategy changed to more fortifying & defense towns
*building effects changed -less food storage bonuses, reduced prizes for early buildings
*added Elvain's temple and the fortified watch (new look [new icon]), which replaced corner towers
*will include mapchanges of HR mod
*enforcer strenghtened, other boni also changed. experience boni to 100% max. removed maneouvre & learning in favour of the AI
*pagans now start with 5 kingdom power
*kingdom power - no definite changes yet
*added many quests from HR mod
*pagans now have no negatives, except that they cannot collect piety
*more realistic and fair land claiming of AI
*completion of cathedral (/mosque (?)) converts a province to kingdom religion
*palisade is now in 9/11 towns ready; town watch & training grounds common (which should all help the AI)
*war exhaustion to -5 max, happiness boni reduced somewhat

and more to come!

PLANNED CHANGES

*changed temple look (where's that RLE editor, by the way!)
*kingdom power! I'm not sure yet how. Reduce it's effect? Implement Angryminer's idea?
*added Pope names, marshal names, etc.
*new conversations, texts

//==> WORK IN PROGRESS <==\\

In the meantime I'd like to thank Angryminer and Elvain, because I could use many of their ideas and look at what they had modified.

The name might be temporary, but I think I'll keep it. When you know what the abbreviation is for, you'll see the files on these forums (or the other way around, obviously).

& Feel free to comment, add, criticise.

[Doux]

Addition:

For instance, Viridovix, in his mod Pigface, changed the game so, that the AI is helped, but realism (no horses for training) is lost. I won't go such a course. I want to
1. Strengthen the AI
2. Create more fun
3. And realism (after fun!) in the game

[Doux]

Also, I might implement Winrich von Kniprode's idea of the simplified militairy training buildings.
Armoury -> Advanced Armoury
Weapons Smith -> Heavy Weapons Smith
Fletcher

[Doux]

The above is now implemented whilst using 1 as-of-yet unused picture of a building (looks new).

I updated Elvain's temple picture to a new and I hope better one. Pagans now start with +5 Kingdom power, until I fix that power.

[weaz]

read : impressions, there are ideas for KP

[Doux]

Yeah, thanks, Weaz!

I encountered a nasty bug. Whenever the Emperor of Europe voting is about to come up, KoH suddenly leaves the game. Every time I reload the save game I have this. I'm not 100% sure it's the emperor of Europe election, but the game is underway for some time already and no voting has been yet. I'll have to focus on finding out what I did wrong, where, and in which file.

[Doux]

Bug is repaired now.

The soldier training works good, buildings of AI seem good too.
Morale levels are +1 now. Many units have a morale bonus anyway.
Corner Towers name is now to Wall Platforms, to give a noticable effect on the worldview. Catapults are an upgrade of these Corner Towers.

To be done:
*Kingdom power
*Conversations
*Recall Pope to court from Town (See German Forums)
*Maybe changing the Town Watchmen to archer units, for better results in sieges. Since I halved the food levels, sieges now are a bit fast won by the attacker.
*I might add (or was it a change?) the Baltic Cavalry.

[Doux]

Popes are now able to govern/convert/adopt provinces. Therefore, they can be educated with books too.

Also, many many minor fixes and changes which I'm now trying to list in one comprehensible file.

[Doux]

-Landlord and Builder are now more useful and give more effect.
-Heavier armour means a slower unit. There are some exceptions to this rule, but now Teutonic Knights are the slowest units in the game (by rights) and Cataphracts are slower too.
-Many unit stats have changed, attack, run speed, walk speed, cost, requirements. Defense is now much more common - shield&swords units have at least 5.
-Archers and Crossbowmen are weakened and their speeds are adjusted too.

[Nerfboy]

I find that in all the mod's I have tried the AI is weak, I guess that's obvious. But I find that they throw out armies that are weak in man-power or unit power, and they are easily duped in the battle screen. After I drop a wall, I place archers and ballistas outside and run an army in and out of the hole. Then the AI runs for me and I shoot them down, hardly ever losing a man.

I don't want to have 'deny' myself resources like in Pig Faces Mod with the horses. It seems the only way to have a game where you feel threatened is when you deny yourself stuff or make war with everyone.

Maybe you can make marshals cheap for the AI, or give them some kingdom advantages. I was thinking that maybe the AI can have a cheap marshal for every province they own. I know that people have tweaked over and over again - just thought I would add some feedback and see where you are going to take this. Good luck with your new mod - I look forward to trying it out.

[Elvain]

the problem is in aspects that are unmoddable (yet)

problem is that AI is hardcoded as completely dumb guy, so we improve everything waht's possible but reducement of this stupidity of AI is simply impossible. If you could solve the problem I think everybody would be thankfull to you

[Doux]

The AI is the weakest link of this game indeed, Nerfboy.

I don't like Viridovix' method of strengthening the AI either - one could for example make heavy units very cheap or easy-to-get, but that would reduce realism so much.

Maybe you can make marshals cheap for the AI, or give them some kingdom advantages. I was thinking that maybe the AI can have a cheap marshal for every province they own.Like Elvain said, such things can only be done by programming (or Viridovix' way). What we can modify is constants, texts and graphics.

But still, I hope I'll get far by modding some constants. It might be that the AI in the end doesn't turn out to be stronger at all, but I can try.

More comments are always welcome.

[Doux]

By the way - Popes won't be able to be educated anymore. It turned out that to educate a Pope, you would need somewhere around 2^32 books. How they hardcoded this into the game - and why, or is it a coincidence?,- I wouldn't know.

I hope that they accidentically made Popes unable to die from conversions too, otherwise your conversions could get so "expensive". I'll see if I can test that.

I want to add some confirmation dialogs into the game, e.g. for Exile_Knight - if anybody knows a way how to do this, please say so here. Theories are welcome too. I'll look around a bit in the files.

[Torun of Ottomans]

hi. i dont know how can i play this game online. Can u help me? i setuped the game but there isnt any person who is online

[Doux]

Welcome to the forums, Torun of Ottomans!

Firstly, try out the search function (http://forum.sunflowers.de/search.php?) and if you still have questions, then you can always create a new topic that has to do with your subject, but this thread hasn't got anything to do with it, altough it may have seemed easy and fast to post here, because activity is here.

Could a mod/webmaster move/remove this post and the previous, please?

[Nerfboy]

Is there a way you can make it easier for AI generals to use siege weapons? I know they probably get there skills at random, but if they attack my towns I romp them. I think if they had siege it would tougher and force me to come out from behind the wall. Just curious.

[Elvain]

the options for the AI and player are the same, but the AI isn't as smart as player.

[Doux]

-Make siege weapons always available, regardless of marshall skills
-Make them very cheap
-Make them have no buildings requirements

HMm, I actually like the first option - why would a marshal need a skill to use siege weapons? In medieval times, one wouldn't actually siege a town without siege weapons, I think.
I'll try out what effect this has - maybe the game becomes much more interesting.

The only disadvantage would be that towns fall more often that way - for AI vs. AI. Not for the player, because he would use the engineering skill anyway.

Thanks Nerfboy for bringing this to my attention.

# Confirmation dialogs can't be added, I found out. Hardcoded. And I still don't have a clue why the Pope needs like 4,294,967,296 books to be educated one level.

[Angryminer]

The pope propably needs "-1" books to be educated. A usual term to say "impossible!". But propably the amount of books needed to educate the pope is defined as always positive. If that's the case the -1 binary-wise equals the positive numer 2^32.
-1 binary: 10000....0000 (31 zeros)
2^32 binary: 100000.....0000 (31 zeros)

In my mods I usually don't give the AIs easy access to siege weapons.
1. They don't know how to use the siege weapons effectively.
2. They can't carry 9 squads + 4 siege weapons, they'll only carry 5 squads + 4 siege weapons. Which makes attacking a fortified city useless.
I think the KoH-world does better with less siege weapons. I try to give sieges an edge over assaults, because by definition sieges are much harder because there are high chances that the defending town will recieve reinforcements. That makes taking towns rather hard. But that is very hard to balance AI/Player-wise.

Angryminer

[Doux]

It isn't exactly 2^32 books I think, but rather a number in the 4 billion - or was it million? Anyway, your theory might prove right.

1. Yes, but in sieges they siege weapons always work for the AI.
2. That's a bummer. That means that the AI always follows the rule in difficulty.in2 then? Trains only 9 squads? Maybe by giving minimum_squads the number 13 would work then..

If it is impossible to overcome that problem of 5+4 squads, the game is better of with less siege eq. indeed.