uploading next version now.
it is now a good idea to look for those npcs, the plainsmen are easy, 4 tribes each with one npc in the tavern, and 1 in the castle of the tribe way out there. the hill people have 1 in the revadin (sp?) tavern, 1 in each of the "border" town taverns that are still on grassland, 1 in the market place of the town on the steppe, and 1 in the market place of the town right on the river (near the river crossing). 2 new npcs are in their own respective parties spawned at game start at the salt mine, defeat the parties to et the option of recuiting them (very tough battle, at least how i game test [solo]).
smith npcs will actually be personal smiths in your tribe/fort as well as the 2 new npcs.
the smiths will enable new troops to recuit for the auto patrols either by having them, or by teaching your troops better production methods (tribe), or building infrastructure (forges | fort). the costs associated with such are not implemented as they will take from tax revenue when implemented, also the tribe production values are low since the population isn't implemented (which will boost the tribe's overall production value).
talking to the person in charge of troops (captain of the guard for the fort/plains cheiftan for the tribe) will allow you to be able to create automaticly generating foragers (again boosted income not implemented), scouts, patrols, war parties, skirmishers (hill produces these instead of foragers, boosting slave numbers is part of pop. which is not implemented yet/plains produces these instead of patrols, no boost to income or anything).
a change to a few of the weapons, including knight's halbred, knight's lance and pole hammer, and the pikes (might be forgeting a couple).
the gunman npc starts in a blend of plains gunmen and hill gunmen of moderate level (comparable to native), the gunmen are excelent at taking on ranged units, but they lack any real armor. to tell which level of troop your facing look at the gloves for the hill gunmen, and the horses for the plains gunmen (3 different hill gunmen, 2 plains gunmen).
the hoplite npc starts in a blend of plains hoplites and hill hoplites of moderate level (comparable to native), the hoplites are excelent against cavalry and not too bad against ranged, they utilize group tactics (well not really, but they are good in groups and not so good when alone), it is fairly obvious about the diferences of these since there are again 5 types, the weaker hill hoplite uses native equiptment, and the beter hill hoplite uses a metal shield, black helmet (looks like the native black helmet, but is very strong), black greaves (like helmet). the plains stronger hoplite has a buckler (looks like nomad shield, but isn't), and the weaker doesn't have a sheild, also the other troop is a plains peltist, and thus uses javelins.
the gun that you can build can be used to defend in melee, the hoplite equiptment that you build weigh a lot so you move real slow when equiped.
the forges and the stable can be contracted out (disabled) in exchange for money (which you get once you stop contracting them out). the money you get is based on the amount of hours it has been contracted out and the level of the forge (the stables is just one level as the advanced form is a forge for producing barding).
a note on recuiting knights/nobles all you need is the barding forge as the knights and nobles are well enough off to supply there own weapons and armor.
also note that producing the better forges decrease the time needed to produce the forge type's item (weapon forge increases production rate for weapons, etc.).
with the hill horse smith you can get some new horses, basically a courser or hunter with war horse barding or charger barding. the steppe horse is unproducable for both sides.
well i am probably forgeting something, if i remember i'll edit this post later, and there is a lot of activity i'll do another post.
edit:
tried to make the hoplite spears/pikes unusable from horseback and still retain one handed ability on foot, but to no avail.
