I basically didn't explain anything in the release notes, so I'm going to take a minute to talk about a few things that aren't apparent or aren't documented anywhere.
1. F7/F8 do some unusual things; they tell your troops to put away certain types of ranged weapons or use alternatives. I put this into the mod because there are so many mixed-type troops in the game (like the Female Irregulars, Grenadiers, and so forth) and they really benefit from these commands.
2. You'll probably note right away that I'm using the new command system. It may take a bit to get used to the new commands, but I can tell you right away that forming your troops into multiple ranks is a big deal. You can actually make pike formations like the real thing, backed up by missile troops like the real thing, and the AI uses this stuff too (in a pretty basic way, mind you; I never claimed my AI was smart).
3. Yes, the Death Knights have a bunch of new features. Yes, the biggest one- the full-scale invasion of the Death Knights and being able to counter-invade them and save Calradia- is largely unfinished, unpolished, etc.
This was one of the big big projects where I ran into very serious kitchen-sink issues. With a team of mappers and artists and some support coders, it would have been possible to get it done, but I never have had any dedicated team for this thing and my few (fairly feeble) attempts to get a mapper who could meet my standards didn't ever work out.
IDK whether that will ever get resolved. We'll see what the future brings. For now, enjoy the encounters that actually work, they're really cool!
4. To get an Aleph, you need to hire somebody specific. Once you have an Aleph, it should be obvious how you get to pilot one. Do note that if you are piloting an Aleph, you do not get XP for that battle!
5. You want to turn on the fancy water if your PC can handle it, it's totally worth it.
6. The new metallic shaders look their best with the Bloom set to the medium setting.
7. Playing this mod in DX7 mode is a visual travesty and won't really raise your framerate very much, for most people. Most of the mod is CPU-bound, not GPU-bound, unless you have a really lousy video card. So go ahead, turn the visuals up to 11; if the game's running too slow, lower your battle size before resorting to DX7. I only recommend DX7 for people who can't get it to run at a decent framerate otherwise (usually people with really lousy chipsets).
8. ATi users should probably beware of using custom settings in the Catalyst Control Center for this mod. It's been debugged for most ATi / nVidia chipsets, insofar as I could test it, but it's still best to play it safe, especially if you see issues.
Anyhow, that's a brief rundown on some stuff that's unique about 1.5. Hope it's helpful and I'll add more later as FAQ-type things come in.
1. F7/F8 do some unusual things; they tell your troops to put away certain types of ranged weapons or use alternatives. I put this into the mod because there are so many mixed-type troops in the game (like the Female Irregulars, Grenadiers, and so forth) and they really benefit from these commands.
2. You'll probably note right away that I'm using the new command system. It may take a bit to get used to the new commands, but I can tell you right away that forming your troops into multiple ranks is a big deal. You can actually make pike formations like the real thing, backed up by missile troops like the real thing, and the AI uses this stuff too (in a pretty basic way, mind you; I never claimed my AI was smart).
3. Yes, the Death Knights have a bunch of new features. Yes, the biggest one- the full-scale invasion of the Death Knights and being able to counter-invade them and save Calradia- is largely unfinished, unpolished, etc.
This was one of the big big projects where I ran into very serious kitchen-sink issues. With a team of mappers and artists and some support coders, it would have been possible to get it done, but I never have had any dedicated team for this thing and my few (fairly feeble) attempts to get a mapper who could meet my standards didn't ever work out.
IDK whether that will ever get resolved. We'll see what the future brings. For now, enjoy the encounters that actually work, they're really cool!
4. To get an Aleph, you need to hire somebody specific. Once you have an Aleph, it should be obvious how you get to pilot one. Do note that if you are piloting an Aleph, you do not get XP for that battle!
5. You want to turn on the fancy water if your PC can handle it, it's totally worth it.
6. The new metallic shaders look their best with the Bloom set to the medium setting.
7. Playing this mod in DX7 mode is a visual travesty and won't really raise your framerate very much, for most people. Most of the mod is CPU-bound, not GPU-bound, unless you have a really lousy video card. So go ahead, turn the visuals up to 11; if the game's running too slow, lower your battle size before resorting to DX7. I only recommend DX7 for people who can't get it to run at a decent framerate otherwise (usually people with really lousy chipsets).
8. ATi users should probably beware of using custom settings in the Catalyst Control Center for this mod. It's been debugged for most ATi / nVidia chipsets, insofar as I could test it, but it's still best to play it safe, especially if you see issues.
Anyhow, that's a brief rundown on some stuff that's unique about 1.5. Hope it's helpful and I'll add more later as FAQ-type things come in.
