Module System Overhaul

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

That's to be expected. My system was based on musket line combat so I didn't want troops breaking immediately after a single volley, or routing immediately when there were too many enemies.

In ranged combat with my system it is entirely possible to get separate routs in specific areas, but in pure melee combat the troops are usually bunched up in one area so it's a lot harder to make the routing more than just a single group routing all at the same time.

 

[Autolykos]

Good to know. Then I'll do a few tests with ranged-only armies and see how those turn out...
Although, what I want to see there is mostly the difference between Napoleon and ACW. Well-drilled troops in ranged combat rarely ever rout, even when lots of their friends die; they only break when charged - this made many battles in the ACW shockingly bloody compared to what happened previously.
I guess the abstract danger of getting shot is a lot less scary than a few hundred dudes coming at you right now, trying to skewer you with their bayonets.

 

[imado552]

Good to know. Then I'll do a few tests with ranged-only armies and see how those turn out...
Although, what I want to see there is mostly the difference between Napoleon and ACW. Well-drilled troops in ranged combat rarely ever rout, even when lots of their friends die; they only break when charged - this made many battles in the ACW shockingly bloody compared to what happened previously.
I guess the abstract danger of getting shot is a lot less scary than a few hundred dudes coming at you right now, trying to skewer you with their bayonets.

well you said it more drilled more experienced more times almost died so...i think its normal lol

and i see so the honor is giving them the high moral but why do i have sometimes routs is it normal ?

 

[Autolykos]

For now, party morale doesn't affect battle morale at all. I'll probably introduce it soon, but getting it to work properly without making the code slow or unreadable is a bit fiddly. And even at 100% party morale, they should still run if the situation is bad enough...
(Also, it helps to keep your troops together before charging. Otherwise, some guy with a quicker horse will run ahead, find himself surrounded, and promptly turn tail - shouldn't be too bad, he'll recover quickly when the rest of your troops follow. But it creates disorder.).

 

[imado552]

For now, party morale doesn't affect battle morale at all. I'll probably introduce it soon, but getting it to work properly without making the code slow or unreadable is a bit fiddly. And even at 100% party morale, they should still run if the situation is bad enough...
(Also, it helps to keep your troops together before charging. Otherwise, some guy with a quicker horse will run ahead, find himself surrounded, and promptly turn tail - shouldn't be too bad, he'll recover quickly when the rest of your troops follow. But it creates disorder.).

yes that's what i like to hear more strategies because you know charging will have consequences (so no more cavalries sent to their deaths)
and i can't wait to see what's gonna be the result
(and just a question can you maybe increase the spawning points for troops and such since the map looks kinda empty)

 

[Autolykos]

(and just a question can you maybe increase the spawning points for troops and such since the map looks kinda empty)

Which map, and what troops? If you mean bandits, manhunters, etc on the campaign map, I can move the maximum number from the script to module_constants, so it's easily changed. Also, they just take a while to spawn. It's usually one party every 36 hours until they reach the maximum (16 per type, for bandits), and IIRC a few more are spawned when the game starts. Which means they take almost three weeks to get to their full number, and maybe even a bit longer because they also get hunted down by lords. I'd rather not increase the initial value too much, since I don't want to drown low-level players in bandits (but maybe I'll increase spawning rate on higher difficulties; most people who still play M&B should be pretty experienced by now and can deal with a bit more challenge).
It might also feel less, since they now patrol a larger area (because they have two spawn points now). So maybe that also means I should spawn a few more.

 

[imado552]

It might also feel less, since they now patrol a larger area (because they have two spawn points now). So maybe that also means I should spawn a few more.

my point !

 

[Red Serf]

I've been playing this for a few hours now, after being driven away by the first version "starting quest bugged". I have to say two things, ask two and suggest yet another two, in case you are taking suggestions:

For the compliments:
-The sword sister stuff is really nice, it kinda help to lore up a little the presence of plate armored lasses running around.
-The polearm shop in Zendar is simply amazing. Every player passing by should give it a try, got several good deals there.

For questions
-Will you touch the bit of the module system about ships and navigation?
-Are the undead part of the game now? I've had no luck finding them. And what about the black khergits? i recall that they are a unit in the game already, simply not present.

For suggestions
-Scour the brf for unused items? there are a few old weapons, some shields, a plate armored warhorse, a squared pavise shield, and maybe even some of the items from old game, still present on items_1_meshes. They would spice up the game a little bit
-Hiring slavers from salt mine fella? would be useful

 

[Autolykos]

Sure, bring in the suggestions! I want to make the most from what TW has given us, and I'll probably miss many important issues or good improvements on my own.

Ships are not first priority now (there isn't much use for them on the Native world map), but since I intend this as a base for other mods, I'll include them eventually. They seem to be about 80% functional as is, anyway.

For Undead, they are a bit of an easteregg, so I'll spoiler it
(I didn't want the player to encounter them if he doesn't want to):

Spoiler

- Talk to Alhazar (the guy who sells guns) at Four Ways Inn when you have at least 15 intelligence
- He'll talk to you about a weird book he's found, and wants to sell it
- Buy the book and keep it in inventory (if Alhazar leaves, you will not get the chance to buy it again)
- Pillage and raze a village
- There is a chance this will make the player read from the book and raise a few dead peasants as zombies

Black Khergits are simply the Elite Upgrade of Brigands with Lamellar Armor, I think. Talk to one of them while having the armor in your inventory. If you want the whole list, search module_scripts for "initialize_troop_elite_upgrades".

I already included a bunch of items that I found a mesh of. There are many more, but most unused meshes are rather ugly and/or don't fit the game's art style. I listed a bunch of their names in module_items, but only as a comment (might have missed some, though). If you know of any good ones I didn't put in, let me know. I'll add more when I encounter them browsing the BRFs, of course (like I just did with the new Vaegir Helmets).

Hiring slavers is something I could put in, yes. I don't think Manhunters or Sword Sisters should work as mercenaries, but slavers just might. Or maybe allow you to hire (from) their parties when you encounter them on the map? They shouldn't sit around all day waiting for someone to hire them; after all, they already have something better to do...

Thanks for all the feedback, anyway!

 

[imado552]

Ships are not first priority now (there isn't much use for them on the Native world map), but since I intend this as a base for other mods, I'll include them eventually. They seem to be about 80% functional as is, anyway.

that's what (i think ) all of us the modders need ; if you finish it and make it 100% usable then i'll love you for a very very long time (no homo here just honest feelings XD)
and a suggestion how about rather then hiring the slavers hire their slaves
that would be a good idea since they don't wanna let their members leave while the slaves stay(they will think what's the point of being a slaver now)

 

[Autolykos]

And the next update is complete.

I'm now mostly happy with the morale system. It takes party morale (and individual troop morale) into account, and I've done a bit of fine-tuning to the parameters. I've also added the code of my simplified system, but it isn't activated. Replace "common_battle_morale_check" with "simple_battle_morale_check" to do that.

I've also started on the new system for merchandise. It doesn't use hardcoded functions any more, the items are in part based on what the owner's troops use, and the quality is influenced by town prosperity.

Then, I've stumbled upon a few half-finished Custom Battle maps. I fixed the entry points, repaired the worst problems with the AI meshes (might use a bit more tuning, though), touched up some ugly parts of the maps and added images for the selection menu. I've also noticed that it is completely trivial to allow starting Custom Battles from the enemy's side, so I put that in as well.

Finally, I've included imado552's and JhonBrazil's suggestions on Bandits and Slavers.

Enjoy, and thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[Red Serf]

And the next update is complete.

I'm now mostly happy with the morale system. It takes party morale (and individual troop morale) into account, and I've done a bit of fine-tuning to the parameters. I've also added the code of my simplified system, but it isn't activated. Replace "common_battle_morale_check" with "simple_battle_morale_check" to do that.

I've also started on the new system for merchandise. It doesn't use hardcoded functions any more, the items are in part based on what the owner's troops use, and the quality is influenced by town prosperity.

Then, I've stumbled upon a few half-finished Custom Battle maps. I fixed the entry points, repaired the worst problems with the AI meshes (might use a bit more tuning, though), touched up some ugly parts of the maps and added images for the selection menu. I've also noticed that it is completely trivial to allow starting Custom Battles from the enemy's side, so I put that in as well.

Finally, I've included imado552's and JhonBrazil's suggestions on Bandits and Slavers.

Enjoy, and thanks for all the great ideas!

Hey, this is pretty good! Gotta like your commitment to this mod. And also, thanks for including the slaver's stuff. Now, if you allow me to give you a few more ideas, I recall a old mod, where amidst other things:

-You could offer yourself into mercenary service for kings and lords, as long as this faction was at war with any other (just like vanilla mercenary service, but you have a dialog option to offer your services to the lords, instead of searching around for lords who are looking for mercenaries.

-  Farmers, village defenders and "walkers" actually fitted their origins (for example, when raiding a sarranid village, you would fight villagers dressed in robes and turbans, same for the farmer parties that travel back and forth between village and city)

-The secret chests for the strange/ samurai armor and weapons set where placed in the right towns (as of now, the only one you can find without editing is in Rivacheg). each chest only gave access to a few pieces of the set. This could be exploited to add OP gear, test weapons, etc to the game.

-You could provide, via dialog option with village elder, escort to villagers to town/village, earning relation points upon returning. It was a easy task, but with a relatively long repeating time. The player was required to await in the city for the peasants to do their thing on the city, and then carry then back to the village.

-The hired assassin could attack in more places (villages, city streets), making it a little more unpredictable (no longer need to enter the tavern fully armed. I do think that this concept could be exploited, adding belligerant drunks on the night, whores (no sex bull****, just add up morale, losing -1 renown per use., spend a hour on the town)
Would this be interesting for this mod?
Also, about the items, i'll be back soon with the directions for them. The main one is the plate-armored horse, there are mainly some sword variants unused, and two or three long military scythes.

 

[imado552]

And the next update is complete.

I'm now mostly happy with the morale system. It takes party morale (and individual troop morale) into account, and I've done a bit of fine-tuning to the parameters. I've also added the code of my simplified system, but it isn't activated. Replace "common_battle_morale_check" with "simple_battle_morale_check" to do that.

I've also started on the new system for merchandise. It doesn't use hardcoded functions any more, the items are in part based on what the owner's troops use, and the quality is influenced by town prosperity.

Then, I've stumbled upon a few half-finished Custom Battle maps. I fixed the entry points, repaired the worst problems with the AI meshes (might use a bit more tuning, though), touched up some ugly parts of the maps and added images for the selection menu. I've also noticed that it is completely trivial to allow starting Custom Battles from the enemy's side, so I put that in as well.

Finally, I've included imado552's and JhonBrazil's suggestions on Bandits and Slavers.

Enjoy, and thanks for all the great ideas!

thanks! and i'm glad that you are committing to this work ! Respect!!

Hey, this is pretty good! Gotta like your commitment to this mod. And also, thanks for including the slaver's stuff. Now, if you allow me to give you a few more ideas, I recall a old mod, where amidst other things:
-You could offer mercenary service for kings and lords, as long as this faction was at war with any other
-farmer parties, village defenders and walkers where fit to the local culture
-the secret chests for the strange armor set where placed in the right towns (as of now, the only one you can find without editing is in Rivacheg (Northern coast, vaegir lands).
-You could escort villagers to town/village, earning a relation point
-the hired assasin could atack in more places (villages, city streets) all during night
Would this be interesting for this mod?
Also, about the items, i'll be back soon with the directions for them

[list type=decimal]
[*]you mean you (as a king or a lord) can offer mercenaries a job as to be in your service for amount of time if so that's a cool idea indeed
[*]i really don't know what you mean here (maybe you mean the recruit type change depending on the owner if so i really do hope he can add that)
[*]skip (have noting to say about that)
[*]that's really indeed great idea to add since i think most mods will make good use of it (you can as well escort you villages to safety when in time of wars to not damage your economy)
[*]i think that should be a low priority since why assassins would want to attack in daylight and uncover them selves (maybe do what VC did try to find out who tried to kill you quest)
[/list]

 

[Red Serf]

And the next update is complete.

I'm now mostly happy with the morale system. It takes party morale (and individual troop morale) into account, and I've done a bit of fine-tuning to the parameters. I've also added the code of my simplified system, but it isn't activated. Replace "common_battle_morale_check" with "simple_battle_morale_check" to do that.

I've also started on the new system for merchandise. It doesn't use hardcoded functions any more, the items are in part based on what the owner's troops use, and the quality is influenced by town prosperity.

Then, I've stumbled upon a few half-finished Custom Battle maps. I fixed the entry points, repaired the worst problems with the AI meshes (might use a bit more tuning, though), touched up some ugly parts of the maps and added images for the selection menu. I've also noticed that it is completely trivial to allow starting Custom Battles from the enemy's side, so I put that in as well.

Finally, I've included imado552's and JhonBrazil's suggestions on Bandits and Slavers.

Enjoy, and thanks for all the great ideas!

thanks! and i'm glad that you are committing to this work ! Respect!!

Hey, this is pretty good! Gotta like your commitment to this mod. And also, thanks for including the slaver's stuff. Now, if you allow me to give you a few more ideas, I recall a old mod, where amidst other things:
-You could offer mercenary service for kings and lords, as long as this faction was at war with any other
-farmer parties, village defenders and walkers where fit to the local culture
-the secret chests for the strange armor set where placed in the right towns (as of now, the only one you can find without editing is in Rivacheg (Northern coast, vaegir lands).
-You could escort villagers to town/village, earning a relation point
-the hired assasin could atack in more places (villages, city streets) all during night
Would this be interesting for this mod?
Also, about the items, i'll be back soon with the directions for them

[list type=decimal]
[*]you mean you (as a king or a lord) can offer mercenaries a job as to be in your service for amount of time if so that's a cool idea indeed
[*]i really don't know what you mean here (maybe you mean the recruit type change depending on the owner if so i really do hope he can add that)
[*]skip (have noting to say about that)
[*]that's really indeed great idea to add since i think most mods will make good use of it (you can as well escort you villages to safety when in time of wars to not damage your economy)
[*]i think that should be a low priority since why assassins would want to attack in daylight and uncover them selves (maybe do what VC did try to find out who tried to kill you quest)
[/list]

Check back, I've edited the message out, removed some typos and rewrote nearly everything to be clearer. Also, about the horse:

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/Qa7yZmG

It uses the same texture from the mailed warhorse:

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/RG0w5Xn

That means that it is also compatible with the sarranid warhorse texture

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/RjldiDc

Also, the sarranid warhorse mesh has a chaffron (horse "helmet" thing) that is compatible with the normal warhorse:

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/v9sNf7L

Maybe this one could be a new variant to the game?

 

[Red Serf]

I'm so sorry for the double posting, but I think that this is worth mentioning, since it is kinda of a bug report

-I've noticed some stuttering on battles. It is not a matter of unit numbers (when i first noticed, i was running a 17x17 on the custom battles, and i can easily manage 300+ on my notebook). Especially on the Frostbite peak map.
-There is no longer notifications for kills, damage dealt, accuracy, attack direction. I've tested it, and it happens on the new custom scenes.
Also, would you be interested in new items for this mod? By that i don't mean slapping OSP stuff all around. I've been doing a few multi-meshing around, and came up with things like this:

Spoiler

I gave it to my mercenary cavalry, and damn, they look fine on it. If you like it, i could email it to you.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

-There is no longer notifications for kills, damage dealt, accuracy, attack direction. I've tested it, and it happens on the new custom scenes.

Press L during battle to make sure these messages aren't simply getting buried beneath errors or debug spam.

 

[Red Serf]

-There is no longer notifications for kills, damage dealt, accuracy, attack direction. I've tested it, and it happens on the new custom scenes.

Press L during battle to make sure these messages aren't simply getting buried beneath errors or debug spam.

Damn weird game. When i opened it to test this, it was actually working. Also, no noticeable stutter. Thanks anyway jacob.

 

[Autolykos]

Thanks for the input; sorry that I'll disappoint you on some of them.

You could offer yourself into mercenary service for kings and lords, as long as this faction was at war with any other (just like vanilla mercenary service, but you have a dialog option to offer your services to the lords, instead of searching around for lords who are looking for mercenaries.

If you're talking about Freelancer Mod, that's not going to happen. In its full extent, it's a pretty major change from the original game, and a simplified version would be similar enough to the Mercenary quest that's already in the game anyway. Integrating mods that introduce completely new stuff to the game should be a decision everyone makes for themselves. I'm not trying to build a second Floris here, I only want to repair and expand abandoned stuff in Native.
If it's just that you can offer the contract from your side instead of hoping for a lord to do it, sure, why not. Only condition should be that the faction is actually in a war. You don't get paid for strolling around the countryside...

Farmers, village defenders and "walkers" actually fitted their origins (for example, when raiding a sarranid village, you would fight villagers dressed in robes and turbans, same for the farmer parties that travel back and forth between village and city)

In part, I already did that (the Khergit and Sarranid village walkers are a lot better dressed than before). For giving every village the proper farmer type - sure, why not. I might simply rename the Faction Recruits and touch them up a little.

The secret chests for the strange/ samurai armor and weapons set where placed in the right towns (as of now, the only one you can find without editing is in Rivacheg). each chest only gave access to a few pieces of the set. This could be exploited to add OP gear, test weapons, etc to the game.

I'm a step ahead of you there. Happy hunting!

You could provide, via dialog option with village elder, escort to villagers to town/village, earning relation points upon returning. It was a easy task, but with a relatively long repeating time. The player was required to await in the city for the peasants to do their thing on the city, and then carry then back to the village.

I might be missing something, but I kinda don't see the point. To me, it looks like an extremely tedious and boring quest that pretty much only serves as a cheap way to grind relations. Besides, you can already babysit your peasant parties and help them out when attacked. It should even give you a relation boost with the village (if not, I'll patch that in).

The hired assassin could attack in more places (villages, city streets), making it a little more unpredictable (no longer need to enter the tavern fully armed. I do think that this concept could be exploited, adding belligerant drunks on the night, whores (no sex bull****, just add up morale, losing -1 renown per use., spend a hour on the town)

Again, completely new stuff is not what I'm trying to do. I admit that I kinda set a bad precedent with the new locations because I didn't want to leave them empty, but I don't want to make a habit of it.

Also, about the items, i'll be back soon with the directions for them. The main one is the plate-armored horse, there are mainly some sword variants unused, and two or three long military scythes.

Thanks for reminding me of the plate-armored horse. I now remember seeing it somewhere, but I seem to have forgotten about it. The swords should already be in the game (I added about a dozen of them). The scythes, I don't remember seeing - I'll take a look and add them if they're of decent quality.

Your armor looks nice, but I won't include it (again, no completely new content unless it's necessary to repair old content).

 

[Red Serf]

If it's just that you can offer the contract from your side instead of hoping for a lord to do it, sure, why not. Only condition should be that the faction is actually in a war. You don't get paid for strolling around the countryside...

Yes, yes. Exactly that. Would make mercenary play through a little easier.

In part, I already did that (the Khergit and Sarranid village walkers are a lot better dressed than before). For giving every village the proper farmer type - sure, why not. I might simply rename the Faction Recruits and touch them up a little.

Thanks!

I'm a step ahead of you there. Happy hunting!

Good! This is going to be fun. I haven't scoured the module system files, and only gave txt a quick look on Morgh's editor, so i'd have never knew that. Thanks again!

I might be missing something, but I kinda don't see the point. To me, it looks like an extremely tedious and boring quest that pretty much only serves as a cheap way to grind relations. Besides, you can already babysit your peasant parties and help them out when attacked. It should even give you a relation boost with the village (if not, I'll patch that in).

Indeed, it is a better solution to just patch that.

Again, completely new stuff is not what I'm trying to do. I admit that I kinda set a bad precedent with the new locations because I didn't want to leave them empty, but I don't want to make a habit of it.

Thanks for the clarification. I was asking myself while writing if this was the case. Regardless, this mod is getting better every release, and I'm looking forward for updates.

 

[imado552]

can we have a WRECKED version of this mercury19 ?
thanks !