v 0.400 test version can be downloaded

[nijis]

I'd welcome any feedback on the three game modes, playable if you host on your own computer.

They are:
Player caravan
Player battle
Fief defense

The version number is 0.390.

If you want to play in North Africa or Asia, set first team faction to the Caliphate, the Khanate, the Middle Kingdom or the Dharmic Protectorate

http://www.mediafire.com/?ealrfzcc9aane3v


In fief defense, try to keep the raiders away from your livestock in the pens
In player caravan, guard or raid the caravan as in the earlier version.
Player battle is more complicated. You can take over one unit of troops and give commands for the entire army. "M" provides a menu of what you can do.

Look forward to hearing from people!

 

[RalliX]

Sweet!
Downloading.

 

[JabdiMelborn]

I'd welcome any feedback on the three game modes, playable if you host on your own computer.

They are:
Player caravan
Player battle
Fief defense

The version number is 0.390.

If you want to play in North Africa or Asia, set first team faction to the Caliphate, the Khanate, the Middle Kingdom or the Dharmic Protectorate

http://www.mediafire.com/?ealrfzcc9aane3v


In fief defense, try to keep the raiders away from your livestock in the pens
In player caravan, guard or raid the caravan as in the earlier version.
Player battle is more complicated. You can take over one unit of troops and give commands for the entire army. "M" provides a menu of what you can do.

Look forward to hearing from people!

...Download, some feedback soon...-_^

ciauz^^,
Jab

 

[JabdiMelborn]

...There is not connection between servers and site...
...i have taken one mission (pressing "u" as it was asked to me), but at the end nothing appeared on the "View Event"...

...and, cannot be mounted on a War Horse by pressing "F" when using the class Militem for a lack of riding skill...

ciauz^^,
Jab

 

[nijis]

Thanks! I'll fix the militem's stats.

When you host your own game, you don't connect to the web (and shouldn't get the mission message). You get 20k gold to spend, but it's a test game that doesn't count for accumulating gold and renown.

 

[nijis]

Ah -- I should have been more clear.

In order to play the new modes, you should host on your own computer rather than start a server.

If you start the server, it will probably just give you the old caravan/livestock raiding modes.

In the future, you will be able to accept missions from NPC factions on the website, and then start those on the servers. But you need to have access to a part of the website which is still being tested.

 

[JabdiMelborn]

...I'm quite sure to have seen a "caravan class" to choose on caravan mode, and i was playing on multiplayer test_server...

...this evening i`ll make new test to try if all new 0,400 features are available on multiplayer too and not only on hosted game, as you write...

ciauz^^,
Jab

 

[Ariel]

Alright, time to reinstall warband...

edit:
Whoa! Player battle, is amazing, can't wait to play against an actual player with this. But it's really hard to win right now, each time I advance my army right under the nose of the ennemy's army, and that I launch the final charge against the demoralized enemy, my own moral start to drop like crazy, and my army retreat to the other side of the map! Dudes, we were winning, why you retreating?

But really, I love the feeling so far, being able to take your cavaliers to launch an attack against the skirmisher, ordering a charge, pushing your opponent back, regroup, attack...

I just wonder if having a retenue still is necessary in this kind of mission, since you basicaly you have a whole army, and, at least against the computer, it's kinda unfair since you can put more pressure on a designated flank

Also, when you take controle of a formation, let's say the skirmishers, you take them somewhere, tell them to hold, I think that when you take another formation, the skirmisher are falling back to the army, instead of holding.

 

[nijis]

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for the kind words!

Re balance, it is supposed to take several assaults for the attacker to be able to confront the defender on an even footing -- like Hastings, for example, where you assault, fall back, and assault again. From a realism perspective, attackers' nerves did frequently break at the last minute. From a gaming perspective, it extends the length of play and give an incentive to skirmish beforehand). It might pay to make that more obvious in the instructions, and also make it clearer why this is the case -- placing the defender on a steeper hill, for example.

But some rebalancing may also be necessary.

The idea with the units is that each human player can only control one -- making it still a challenge for several players to defeat the defender. This is why you lose control over skirmishers, for example, when you change formations. But I could reconsider that, particularly if it still proves to be very difficult for the attacker.

I thought I had disabled retinues for player battle. I'll check that.

 

[RalliX]

Alright, just got done with my first couple of battles.

The first one, I failed utterly by routing my own men when I attacked too early. I also noticed that retinues are indeed still enabled.

I think that you should be able to maintain control of a proportion of the army equal to 100/# of players.
This way, if there's only one player, he can do as he pleases. But if there are two players, they get half of the formations each, and so on. Down until there is one formation per player.
There's also the issue of who is going to command the army as a whole, if someone is going to.
In addition, a more accessible command interface would be preferable. Something like the SP one.

On the second battle, I suffered some skirmishing losses at first, but then when the enemy threw all their skirmishers forward, I personally slew many of them. I then proceeded to slaughter a bunch of the defenseless spearmen as a hc, leaving them weak and vulnerable.

Finally, I routed the enemy.
It's a very fun game-mode, and probably intense with more players.

Spoiler

 

[nijis]

Thanks! I'm glad it was a challenge.

Re the interface, I agree that it is tedious. One problem with an SP-like system is that 1) there are too few unreserved keys (and for some reason that I do not recall, the original SP system is disabled in this mode, and 2) a new list of hotkeys is difficult for the player to remember, so I want to have a single key "m" that brings up a bunch of options on-screen.

To have the player control multiple units might be tricky to script. One idea, however, is to have it so that when only one player commands, unit placements are "sticky" -- ie, if you put skirmishers in place, they will stay for a while.

 

[RalliX]

I see your point about the hotkeys.

Having troops stay on the location where you order them is much preferable, as it allows you to set up advanced/flanking maneuvers.

I think the best thing you could add to this game-mode would be a button that allows you to select formations from a distance, rather than having to ride or run all over the field.

Some kind of point and select system. Or a system which selects based on the formation's army position, which you have so generously already set up.

For example, instead of riding up next to the formation, maybe you could add a list of the formations available into the M interface. Click on the icon/name of the formation, and then command it.

 

[Golradir]

Looks interesting, we oughta try this together soon rallix

 

[nijis]

My thinking on these points

1) I don't want to make command and control too easy, like in the TW series. Command and control is difficult -- I have accompanied US forces on combat operations, and even with Blue Force Tracker, radios, and highly disciplined units that have trained together for a very long time, it's hard to get too fancy. With medieval armies in particular, the operating principle is to Keep It Simple. There is a good, rational reason why frontal assaults were the tactic of choice -- it wasn't just a lack of imagination, it was often the smartest thing to do.

The army commands are supposed to give a commander the ability to choose simple tactics for the entire force. It might be possible to add more of them.

That being said, the morale system already encourages a center of gravity, and I don't want to make things too frustrating.

2) In terms of gameplay, I don't want to give army commanders a reason not to have player deputies enter the game. If a new player pops up and the commander then loses control of half their force, that would discourage rather than encourage multiplayer play.

I'm not sure how to get around that. One idea again might be to make formation placement sticky for a short period at least.