Recent content by Ron Losey

OK, Merlkir ... you're a jerk.

Lynores:  you want to set up RCM scale for this thing, contact me by PM.  I think we understand each other now, and there will be no problems.

Meanwhile, and to everybody in general:  I'll be somewhere else.  

I'm sick of forums and people and having to defend everything I say, even if it's a simple statement like "He told me he was working on it a couple of weeks ago."  So before I get angry and decide to quit helping at all, I think I'll just go back to my policy of never even reading anything on the Taleworlds boards, and only posting on MBX if the question is directed at me, or in bug reports or the like.  That would be better than waiting until I get totally upset, in which case I could disappoint a lot of RCM fans if I completely discontinued my involvement here.

So goodbye annoying forum.  Contact me by PM over at MBX if you're looking for me.

Merlkir said:

isn't there an ignore function that filters posts by "ignore" tagged people?
Maybe a posting ban in this thread?
Seriously Ron, don't you have like a thousand other mods to "help"? Lynores has managed quite nicely without your long annoying posts, I'm sure any details can be sorted through PM as he said. This is my favourite "look forward to" mod, just cut the spam a bit, please.

Click to expand...

We sorted it out by PM ... our differences were linguistic, not ideological.  (Statements were not being taken in their intended context, either way.) 

Thanks anyway, Merlkir... it's always a lot of fun to annoy you.

And yeah, I have about a dozen mods to which I provide one small but very critical detail - the damage model, and related balance issues.  When I'm not actively doing that, I try to get in on some of the discussions on the aforementioned mods ... sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn't ... and, like anything, sometimes somebody takes something the wrong way.  But it helps me get the feel of the mod and the intentions of those involved, which in turn helps when it comes around to my turn to provide the aforementioned critical detail.  It's not a perfect system, but it's what I've got to work with.

The alternatives being that either I A) stop providing help on damage models, which would disappoint and annoy a lot of people, and create work for others, or B) provide this help but avoid the forums as much as possible ... which has mixed results as well, as I found out after avoiding the Taleworlds forums for almost a year.  (Being "out of the loop" makes the job harder, for sure.)

But "B) avoid the forums" is VERY tempting, to be certain.  I may try that for the next 20 years or so.

imsorry said:

I can't load this Fahnenträgerhelm.dds in texture. I guess my computer doesn't recegnize this ä here. does anyone know how to fix it?

Click to expand...

Someone else had this problem, over on the MBX board. 

You can change the name on the .dds, and all relevant references in BRFEdit.  Instructions to do that are in the MBX thread. 

Or, you can try to get a version of your operating system that does recognize the character (might be as simple as loading a new character set in language options, depending on what system you are using). 

Or you can wait for the next version, when such will be renamed to prevent future difficulties.

Llew2 said:

HardCode said:

Okay, I'm having a heck of a time finding any sources that state the names of the troops and weapons used. Everything I've found just references "slings" or "swords" etc. I'll give this a bump and see if anyone else could help with authentic names of weapons and/or troops in ancient Egypt.

Click to expand...

You might check the bible.

Click to expand...

No help there.  References to swords, spears, bows, and chariots.  No specifics at all related to Egyptian equipment.  The few references that seem to be specific terms (a coat of brigandine, a javelin, a brass helmet) are in ancient Hebrew, and so nobody knows exactly what the term implied... plus none of them specifically refer to equipment from Egypt.  You will get no help there.

------------------------------------

The Egyptology section of the Louvre is considered to be the best in the world - they have a few well-preserved weapons from the period, if you can find pictures of them.  I've seen that collection, but it was years ago.

Lynores said:

Now that's a beautiful, polite text right there. Wasn't hard was it? 

Seriously though, yeah I'll be wary about the blades.

Click to expand...

Oh, I get it ... you want me to lay it on kind of thick, instead of just coming out and saying "Don't get the blades too freaking big, because most people screw this up big-time, and I figure you will too if I don't say something."

In the western United States, they tend to make fun of people who lay it on too thick.  Most people find it insulting or patronizing, or at least wish people could get to the point.

Another page for my comparative civ lecture notes.  This is good material. 

The shot speed determines how fast the projectile drops.

I lowered shot speed on the crossbows because the faster ones were skipping - passing through targets without registering a hit - on some machines.  This, in turn, meant I had to lower shot speed on the smaller ones too ... and I may have got it too much.

Then again, how much range do you expect out of light crossbows that can be drawn with one hand from horse?  The crossbow is notoriously inefficient anyway (short draw length means the projectile can't get up to max speed before clearing the weapon), and early European ones more so than most.  Even modern crossbows seldom give you more than 100 yards of effective range (and a projectile drop of four feet over that distance), and that's with steel springs and compound pulleys that make them ten times the weapon of their 1400's counterparts, plus light projectiles compared to those old anti-armor bolts.

Try aiming higher.  You can still get decent range out of them, if you take the drop into effect.  That or get a bigger crossbow.

Lynores said:

I have no problems with people correcting me, I wouldn't be pestering all the researchers in this thread if I did. Enough of this, though.

Click to expand...

Sorry ... it's my job.  I teach comparative civ.  I get paid to say something whenever somebody makes a statement that is unclear or incoherent (or even questionable)... and subsequently criticized if I fail to do so (as I do often enough  ).  After doing it for enough years, it becomes a habit. 

-------------------------

Anyway, back to something you said earlier on the scale ... the grips looked small, but be careful not to get the blade too large if you're rescaling the whole thing.  First, all the weapons in Native were huge (their butcher knife was like two feet long) - not good for historical accuracy - don't base any kind of opinion on that.  Second, weapons in games tend to look a little larger in-game than they should, for some unknown reason.  (Probably the same reason that alpha channel cutouts grow between the editor and the game ... but I can't explain that either.)  It's VERY easy to get things looking too big, even if the actual size of the model is correct.  Scale carefully ....

That has been today's public service announcement. 

If you want realism - reality is that war can be either very lucrative or very expensive ... usually both.

A realistic outcome would be that a person could make a lot of cash on loot after a battle, but unless you were specifically ambushing undefended caravans or something, the expense in troops lost would probably erase most of the gains.  Either in cash value to replace the troops, or time to train them, or in increased risk as a result of your now reduced military status (plus the fact that you are making enemies), the cash out-flow from direct conflict between armed units usually about equals the input in the long term.

Short term and on an individual basis, it can be much more erratic - you could make a fortune or you could be killed.  These extremes are what produces the long-term balance.

Problem with Native, however, is that both of those outcomes were reduced.  Not only could you not be directly game-over killed, but with the damage model, the chances of the player character even being hurt or in danger of losing a battle were small.  (Most everybody could just kill everything solo, without the help of their troops.)  To balance it, loot was reduced to nothing - you kill 20 guys, you get one rusty sock.

Now, you fix the damage model (RCM, for example) so there is real risk of casualties, and then the low loot percentage is screwed up and you continually run out of money no matter what else you do.  That will doom the player to never getting better than a dozen guys beating up bandits, and in turn takes a lot of the life out of the game.  Even save-and-restore-until-you-win tactics won't make you any money.  That just plain hurts.

Lynores:

I don't mean to be offensive, if I point out some element of grammar, history, or just general elements of life that are incorrect, annoying, unclear, or just needing a comment.

As for the one about being ignored, I was just trying to keep the joke going for a couple more lines ... I thought most people would see that as humor.  If it helps, I'll add little icons       when I'm joking, just to make sure.  (Heck, how could anybody take that as offensive, stating that being ignored by most people was normal?  How could anyone take that as anything but comic relief?  In any language or culture?  I mean, the fact that most people ignore most other people is one of the oldest jokes there is. )

As for incorrect word use - I expect others to correct me if I say something stupid, inaccurate, or generally incoherent.  If I fabricated a non-English word like "scalemail", I would expect somebody to ask me what the devil I was talking about... if for no other reason, just to make sure that everybody did know what I was talking about.  (Better than operating on unclear instructions, you must admit.)  

It's not meant to be offensive, just educational ... and I would expect the same in return.  If I screw up the name of some Greek item, feel free to return the same.  I won't take offense, and would in fact appreciate the help.

However, if you don't feel the same way, just ask ... because a year ago, I quit posting stuff over here due to people being excessively unreasonable or angry and interrupting work - and if anyone is angry over anything at all (with anything I said, or just in general), just say so, and I'll never come near here again.  (And if anybody wants my help with damage models, they can contact me by PM over on MBX.)  Because I try to help, but it won't hurt my feelings to not be here.

Lynores said:

Yeah, there's too few of them. I'd need a miracle to find a good sample. Reconstructions are off, anyway.

Is it me, or do those sword hilts look small?

Click to expand...

Nope, they really are small, its not just the hilts, the whole models need a bit of rescaling. Off the record, I'm more a fan of the katana and ninjato myself.

Click to expand...

One historian/linguist to another, I should point out that the term "ninjato", as you just used it, makes no sense at all. 

The term itself translates "assasin's blade", as in "No, it wasn't really a battle - he fell to an assasin's blade."  It is a generic expression for a weapon intended for murder, and does not reflect a description of any particular type of weapon.

The straight-blade swords popularized by Hollywood were chokuto-katana ... an older design than the curved blades (pre-1100 AD, generally), but one that kept reappearing after the clay tempering was developed.  Most of those swords made after 1100 or so were done to demonstrate the skill of the swordsmith, and were used as temple offering swords.  There are few examples of anyone actually carrying them in combat, although some of the sohei (warrior-monks, temple guardians) may have borrowed them from time to time.  (Ceremonial weapons have a funny way of becoming combat weapons if the situation suddenly deteriorates....)

There is no record of any of the major schools of shinobi-jitsu (espionage ... later termed "ninjitsu" - assasination) prefering particular blade designs.  At least not before Hollywood got a hold on them.

That said ... I do like the chokuto-katana, although I do not currently own one.

We wouldn't want to set a bad prescident - making Greek history so accurate and then saying something completely nonsense about Japanese history.  Especially since some of this mod's biggest fans have also been involved in the development of Onin-no-Ran ... one of the few other mods with a level of attention to historical accuracy equal to this one.

The Northmen did a lot of engraving on sword blades (but they also scattered rune-stones all over three continents, so they might have thought too much about signing things).  Not sure about the Greeks ... so few blades from the period have survived that it would be tough to prove how common it was.

Is it me, or do those sword hilts look small?  I mean, I have big hands, but I like my sword grip to be at least an inch in diameter.  (Part of why I prefer Japanese swords - you can get both hands on them.)  Some people prefer the smaller grips, I suppose ... but it's worth thinking about, at least on future ones.  Another quarter-inch of leather strap wrapping those grips wouldn't hurt them.

I'll go ahead and ask the next question on that - do you actually have a lord, or are you completely independent?  If you do have a lord, who?

(This data will no doubt be necessary in finding the bug.)

Money being harder to come by ... that seems backwards of realism.  Realistically, if you bother to kill some guys in a sword fight, you'll probably take the time to strip them of anything of value.  Therefore, loot should probably be a lot higher than what you see in Native (where you kill 20 guys and get one rusty sock - apparently leaving a dozen useful blades, that were just there a minute ago, on the field).

Adopting the RCM will make money harder to come by in general, because you will have more casualties among your troops and you personally won't be able to solo as much stuff (unless you're really just butchering defenseless guys).  We saw this in TLD, as well as having to redraw the loot percentages in OnR (and the dev version of Holy War) around it.  Even with loot set to a flat 80% of what was on the field, money was still hard to get in OnR - and that's about 40 times what it was in Native, by the time you finish with all the calculations for the troops getting a share.

Be warned - the "money harder to come by" issue is about to be solved, and way over-done, before you even touch it.

Highlander's working on his Wild West mod right now ... He'll come back to this eventually, or build something new that incorporates it.  Don't panic just because there isn't a daily sign of progress.

I mean, the idea of a stone-age mod is just too good to let it completely die.

Yeah, well, those temples and such are another story.  They're going to be hard on poly count no matter what you do.

Also, if both interior and exterior of a building have to be modeled together, that makes things tough.  If they can be done in different scenes, it's easy to eliminate - but for urban combat sequences where you need archers in the windows, that blows the whole low-poly thing out of the water.  Suddenly you have hundreds of stairways and windows and bits of furniture that all have to be modeled over an area of dozens of city blocks, and ... ouch.

I don't think you can LOD scene props, can you?