[S] Scaedumar Mod - Beta version released

[DennisBergkamp]

The screenshots look absolutely awesome!
After installing the mod on my system, it doesn't look quite as good though... how can I make it look like that? Reflections for instance don't seem to work (even though the box is checked).

Which reflections do you mean?
The ambient occulsion (light reflections on the armors/weapons etc.) works for me on most settings.
The water reflections are affected by the fast water reflections afaik. Tick it OFF to get the realistic reflections in the water.
Dynamic lighting also affects the lighting a lot so make sure to have that on. Makes things come to live a lot more.

EDIT: Of course be aware that screenshots are mostly indicative and promotional so they probably will be taken on the highest settings with great lighting and from a nice angle. It will be highly system dependent if you can have the game look that good and still playable.

Cool, unchecking actually does the trick, thanks Yes, that is confusing indeed (as the other options are all "graphics enhancing").
And I do play it on close to the highest settings:

100% textures
1920x1080
2x AA
HDR on

Things still seem to look a bit different than the screenshots, but I guess it might just be different scenes and different times of the day. These are still the most impressive-looking graphics I've seen in a MnB mod, pretty awesome what is still possible with an obsolete-ish engine.

 

[Robis]

Well. I played a bit more tonight and now swadia work pretty good in sieges. Rhodoks attacked a Swadia Castle 500 v 400 and we defended very well. Most of kills were made by archers and crssbowmen but this means enemy infantry could not able to go over the walls, so infantry and dismounted horsemen defended succesfully. I dunno if this is because I gave a 2handed sword and a pick. Maybe it is just caused by the level of enemies and dfenders. For instance in open field 127 swadia v 66 rhodoks we got slaughtered very fast. THen I modified equipment and in ANOTHER open fight, with more balanced numbers, swadia killed easily rhodoks (that were all medium level units).
Again: I dunno if it's been the items, but I doubt it, but now swadia infantry started to work better.

About diplmacy. Swadia seems to fight on multiple borders. After fighting well against rhodoks, the war with Nords put them on the corner, losing 2 castles plus the capital Praven. Now they are at peace with Rhodoks and can focus on Nords. Let'see how it turns out. I bought a good enterprise and will join more battles to give them a help. It's sure that they are in the worst position on the map.




1 note about adding units: it will be save compatible if only you ADD units and only for the first time (if you change stats after having added them, this will be no more savecompatible and need a restart) . And they should be linked to already existing units, otherwise they won't appear in party templates. I dunno if you may add mercenary spawns, but I'm sure about faction units.

 

[possum]

Robis

if you added new troops, could you please upload your files?

EDIT:


the swadian vet. infantry is using bastard swords or morning stars together with shields. this items doesnt work well together, maybe they should get a real two handed weapon and/or a good one handed weapon

 

[Robis]

I did not add any new troop. I just add a 2hand sword and a pick to Swad inf and vet inf. That means now they have 1h sword, pick, bastard sword and 2handed sword and awlpike (infantry) and 1h sword, heavy bastard sw, morningstar, great sword and pick (veteran infantry). I did not test that much though. I don't know if the better results are due to equipment or level of enemy troops or the number of ranged in last siege. One thing sure is that they worked better for a couple of battles.


edit: all items changes are save compatible.

 

[possum]

ok,

gave the the same weapons and i removed the morning star and bastard sword from the vet infantry and added a spiked mace instead. now they have some good one handed, two handed weapons and one good blunt (knockdown weapon).

using a one handed/two handed weapon like the bastard sword or the morning star makes the weapon a lot slower, this could cause a problem in battles.

will start a new game (again  ) and see how this will work.

EDIT:

weapon changes are savegame compatible? thought that they require a new game to work. thats great

 

[Robis]

Maybe a knockdown weapon is too much .. they should still have a weak point

 

[MrExpendable]

Here's what I'm fiddling with atm:
- I equiped the Swadian infantry with different variants of maces among the other weapons, and the last two tiers receive spiked maces.
- Changed the blunt damage output of the spiked maces to pierce damage. Also increased them in price.

I have yet to test these changes, but I think that these small changes will give the Swads alot more 'bang' in their infantry. In my opinion, the Swads just needed more powerful weapons.

I tend to keep with a combination of maces and infantry swords for the infantry, and bastard swords and lances for their knights.

I think that the reason as to why Swads seem to be weaker is that most troops have become better equiped then before, and it's hard for Swads to deal with their counterparts because they haven't got very powerful weapons.

 

[Mazth]

I agree with that the AI does not know how to handle the one/two handers very when also having a shield available. It will mostly select a shield/1h combination which is seldom preferred, maybe with the morningstar for the piercing dmg. I come across the problem with my companions when I want then to have a shield for holding position in sieges and use a 2h for attack (if they use a shield on the attack they block too much and die, with 2h they do dmg and die ^^)

I like the maces on the infantry as it gives them more identity and keeps the shield/1h theme intact, while giving them that extra bang for their buck.
Giving them piercing attacks on higher tiers should be effective in countering the better equipement of the other units.

The afore mentioned item changes do seems to help, Swadi isn't pushed back anymore and are even trying to recapture Dhirim.

 

[possum]

Maybe a knockdown weapon is too much .. they should still have a weak point

i am also not sure if they will become to op now.

but the spiked mace has a 70 range and not all vet. inf will have it, it is one weapon of many they can have. if they become to strong, i will give them something else.

 

[Mazth]

Bring out the nerfbat!

 

[Robis]

I don't think we need to switch maces damage to pierce. It's enough to give them the military pick as I did. Very effective.

 

[MrExpendable]

Picks work as well, but I wanted to change the spiked maces' damage to pierce for two reasons:
1. They're spiked as their name suggests.
2. I wanted to have each faction to use a unique tradition of weapons amongst their infantry. Since the Rhodoks are already specialized in picks and cleavers, I thought that maces/sword combo's would suit the Swadians best.

So basically, I'm giving the Swadian infantry their equivalent of a pickaxe so they can stand their ground against their much heavier armoured Rhodok counterparts.

 

[Robis]

Oh well, I'll upload my equip changes (-> save compatible) to bring balance in game.
I worked mainly on infantries, focusing on the last two tiers.
Swadian
I took all the suggestions of the last two pages so, basically, no more picks and they have 1h sword, shield, mace (blunt damage kept), 2handed sword and a morningstar (this one just for the last tier, I though it's still a good weapon and useful in sieges). No more bastard swords. So sword + mace + 2handed
Rhodok
I think .. nothing !! They are awesome infantries. Last upload was good enough
Sarranid
Last upload was good. I just removed 1 two handed mace for the last tier (they had 2 equipped, reducing the chance to have a shield) and removed the pick with the sarranid iron mace. So sword (edit_ 1h iron axe as well) + iron mace +  2 kind of 2handed
Vaegir
Even here, I did not touch too much. I wanted to be sure inf had 1h scimitar (or sword for the medium tier) + mace + 2handed. All but last tier have sometimes an axe. A esthetic move has been switching the name of veteran and infantry to make them more professional 
Nord
Even here it was good. I just removed some incongruencies in equipment, for example Vikingr having low tier helmets or basic swords or low-medium armors. Now everything works properly.
Khergit
I found that their foot_lancer were almost unuseful on close combat. So I added a sabre to their equpiment. I dunno how much it will do but still better than just shield+spear.

So basically I changed swadian  euip and cleaned some incongruencies for the other faction units. Not a huge change at all

Download
As always save compatible
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3PBQU3GZ


Feedback appreciated

 

[possum]

looks good, downloading now.

 

[possum]

the vaegir hussars wear "mail boots for tableau" (item 620) with an armor rating of 1.

guess they should wear the normal mail boots with a ~31 armor rating.

checked all the other factions, the hussars are the only ones who wear there boots.

 

[Robis]

ok. fixed

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E69KVE7X

 

[Mazth]

Sword Sisters have cavalry as basic unit type but are infantry now. (I train them for fun as to have an amazon army one day =P)

I'll keep the mace dmg piercing for now. The dmg may not be very high but pierce is very effective so it will have its effect along the whole infantry tiers. Having so much pierce amongst the lower tiers might be overpowered, but I'll just see how things go.

I like keeping the morningstar on the veteran infantry, it is effective whether used one or two handed and it looks cool. Would be a shame if noone used it.

 

[Robis]

Morningstar is still used by vet infantry.
And the standard damage for maces is blunt, not pierce.

 

[possum]

Sword Sisters have cavalry as basic unit type but are infantry now. (I train them for fun as to have an amazon army one day =P)

can confirm that, they have a granted horse but no horse in the inventory so they spawn as infantry

 

[possum]

fixed the sword sisters.

i gave them a warhorse, troop.txt based on the latest robis upload:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EW0LVGY1