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JonnyH13's Mod Alpha 2 (Defunct!)


JonnyH13

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I am currently more thoroughly testing and rebalancing the weapons since the previous version is rather excessive in terms of damage (the artillery is way too powerful and each weapon has a damage scale which I cannot edit as of right now so I have to adapt to it).  Once I am finished with this, (won't take too long) I would need to go through the campaign to be able to figure something out.  It would be nice if people also played through the campaign and game me feedback.  I do not have all the time in the world after all.  

 

The unfortunate thing is I have yet to find where the efficiency effects on unit sizes are so that has not changed.  I will say though that anything approximately over 2/3 max size or so will suffer noticeable reductions in fire damage.  

The AI is timid (and rightly so in some situations, it might change though) and it might lead to easy early victories but with the lack of casualties, the AI army grows and it will one battle down the line surprise you.  

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  • 3 weeks later...
5 hours ago, JonnyH13 said:

I've posted it in the Steam forums yet while some people know, there are not enough.  Perhaps I should ask Darth if he could pin my mod onto the front page of the forums.

Going to give this a try on my CSA Legendary campaign. At the last battle before Stone River atm.

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On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 12:37 AM, JonnyH13 said:

The lack of interest is very disheartening...

Not so much "a lack of interest" as it is, this group was very active during the design phase of the game, but I've now noticed that since it's gone "finished" the activity on this site, and likely with the game, has slowed quite a bit.

That said, I have just finished a campaign and didn't want to implement your mods/changes in the middle of what I was doing.

I think if you can reply to @Aetius with as much information as requested it would / could help others to understand as well.

Frankly, myself, I'm a realism kinda guy, I would love to recreate battles as they happened with casualties being more comparable to reality, and not this outlandish and crazy numbers applied in the game.

But I suppose that would require a complete rewrite of the AI.  :)

Edited by A. P. Hill
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9 hours ago, Aetius said:

Jonny, can you describe what your goals are with the mod? And a bit about how you're going about it?

Right now I aim for a more realistic style of game as well as making it more challenging for the player in the right way.  Players should be using more tactics and strategy rather than simply perfect the blob charge and win all the time.

However due to some restraints on my knowledge on how to mod as well as lacking some tools necessary to mod extensively, I have to make some compromises right now.  

Here is what I can do for sure with what I have right now:

  • Mod weapons
  • Mod the Campaign rewards (the money, the manpower, the Reputation)
  • Mod the Rep Shop
  • Mod static (IE scenario or AI) Brigade sizes and their stats before scaling

Here is what I think (but am not sure) I can do:

  • Mod Condition and Morale effects
  • Mod Size Efficiency effects
  • Mod Collateral Damage

Here is what I cannot do currently:

  • Mod how battles work (IE the map, starting locations, phases, etc)
  • Mod in new battles
  • Mod User Interface
  • Mod the Shop and the weapon availability
  • Mod in New Units
  • Mod the AI (I have the tools but not the knowledge how)
  • Mod whatever else that is not listed above

I currently have the weapons where I want them to be.  Yes Melee is much higher than in base game and is more devastating but it is up to the player to either retreat like historically done or stand and fight.  With the changes to the weapons, the AI can either be more timid or more aggressive depending on what weapons they have.  

Overall Casualties will be lower and some battles might be won with little casualties for either side but in the major battles it may be much more difficult.  

I am currently in need of feedback on the campaign.  I do not believe my experience is a good way to build a campaign off of as I might make it too hard for everyone else.  

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Good mod! 

Tried historical malvern hill as confederate on normal and won, still a lot blodier than the historical battle. 9k southern souls vs 15k norther souls perished. The nice thing tough is that the snowball effect is not there anymore, when the AI is geting encircled and keeps trying to fight back and just throws away his men, would rack up 20k+ casualties for the enemy at malvern hill and lose like 7-8k myself in vanilla. It would be nice if you could mod the moral and stamina and make it longer to regenerate both to make it even more realistic. 


 
Edited by nisse
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Hi JonnyH13.

Could you tell us which program do you use to open the resources.assets file? or how do you mod it? I'm trying by reverse engineering (or plainly pure guess) to discover some facts from the mechanics. Accessing the code will help much.

I'm halfway of posting some data. Would be nice to comment.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by LAntorcha
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I use HxD to open up the resource assets and use some information found here http://forum.game-labs.net/topic/20327-tentative-guide-to-modding-this-game/ as well as information I found on my own.  HxD does not automatically decrypt the file though but there are other tools that can do it.  Also I use dnSpy to edit the actual Assembly.CSharp file that houses the game mechanics itself though I have not touched this yet.  

 

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Some notes i wrote for my own:

- Some facts may be obvious, others may not... Just note what i found. May be helpful for new players.

  • Unit Cost = Men x Weapon Cost
  • Men does not cost money, Weapons do.
  • Once you give a name to a unit it sticks to them until manually edited. No more surname tags.
  • No Command rating difference between Unit types (just lesser ranks cannot command Infantry

nor Cavalry).

  • Raw Infantry with 0 Xp Major starts at 76Xp.
  • Raw Arty/Skirmishers with 0 Xp Captain starts at 66Xp.
  • Raw Arty/Skirmishers with 0 Xp Colonel starts at 96Xp.
  • Neither Division Leader nor Corps Commander do affect starting Unit Xp increase.
  • Units Xp is calculated as follows:

((Brigade Leader Rank * 10) + Rounding(Brigade Leader Xp/10)+56) + 10% from the Commander's Train Perk.

Where Rank is a number between 1-7 (1 being Captain, 7 for Lt. Gen.)

image.png.9fc8875b1863e3bca38781d1993af789.png

  • Each increment of 100 points gives you a new Perk, so Max being 400 with 3 perks and a full 100 Xp white bar.

I'm making an Excel table just to calculate the Total Perks Bonus to make an idea of what a Unit will end up looking like.

Also, this does not take Kills and Losses into account. The more Kills the more Xp gained. You can check Unit Kills in the Battles Fought window (the graph button beside the Unit's name). Also i think there could be a Win/Draw/Lose Xp Bonus between scenarios.

Edited by LAntorcha
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Men can cost money in some situations (cavalry).  

I think I did see the equation for total XP and the XP of Officers and their effects somewhere in the Assembly.CSharp file though I still am not touching that file yet.  

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Thank you for the link. I recommend you to use CheatEngine or Artmoney programs. Cause you can Hex Edit, but you can also find data, search for hexadecimal or text string, change values, inject code, etc... So the process could be something like this:

  • Note the Real Values you are looking for (i.e. Range 200).
  • Open CheatEngine or Artmoney and search for that value.
  • Hex Edit Csharp like you did, changing some unique number (i.e. 777).
  • Search again with CheatEngine or Artmoney for that weird number (777).
  • Once you find the location is just a matter of catching eye for data structures like those.

 

On the other hand... I think Command Rating formula may be mistaken... let me check some numbers.

I'm guessing that the Command Rating of a Unit is calculated something like this:

Average Recruits Bonus (hidden number) + (More Weight * (Brigade Leader Rank * 10) + Xp rating) + (Less Weight * (Division Leader Rank *10)+Xp Rating)

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Here's two attempts as the Confederates on Legendary to win Potomac Fort.

Pros:

  • Melee cavalry works well - probably too well. They are extremely deadly chasing down routed units, but will take a lot of damage hanging out in front infantry or skirmishers, and moderate damage on charges. I suspect that with some experience and at full size, they will be too powerful, along the lines of three brigades of cavalry being able to charge and completely destroy a 2,950-man brigade in one go.
  • Condition seems to last longer and recover quicker. I'm not sure if that's the mod or not.
  • Melee combat is indeed deadly, but causes routs so quickly that it doesn't really get a chance to do damage.

Cons:

  • The reduced range on the artillery means you can't target the gunboats in Potomac Fort, which means you are constantly taking artillery fire from the rear with no way to reduce or suppress it.
  • Platoon fire from fortifications is almost entirely ineffective, I believe because it is happening at the old speed and not the new speed.
  • Volley fire against fortifications seems way too strong, though it might because the return fire is ineffective.
  • 6 pounder fire even at close range is ineffective at pushing back attackers - it does quite a bit of damage, but seems to have little to no morale impact.
  • Shell fire from 6 pounders does very little damage (maybe normal?).
  • Melee cavalry, when told to attack, acts like mounted infantry - they close, fire, and then wheel away. They will only close to melee if told to charge. (Should it work this way?)
  • The rapid volleys interfere with movement. Not sure this is a bad thing.
  • Fire from the rear and the flanks seems to have a much lower morale effect, perhaps due to lower damage.
  • Skirmishers are almost invulnerable if they are in cover.

What this battle ends up becoming is a slaughter - your units surrounded by enemies, taking volleys at point-blank range, and eventually succumbing to a charge once their morale has been wiped out. I think it might be possible to eke out a win on Potomac Fort by using skirmishers to delay and distract the attacking units, because the skirmishers are so strong. I think the biggest problem is the complete ineffectiveness of fire from the fortifications - you can't hold them off if you can't damage them, but you have to remain in the fortifications to have a chance in melee against their vastly superior forces.

 

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17 hours ago, Aetius said:

Here's two attempts as the Confederates on Legendary to win Potomac Fort.

Pros:

  • Melee cavalry works well - probably too well. They are extremely deadly chasing down routed units, but will take a lot of damage hanging out in front infantry or skirmishers, and moderate damage on charges. I suspect that with some experience and at full size, they will be too powerful, along the lines of three brigades of cavalry being able to charge and completely destroy a 2,950-man brigade in one go.
  • Condition seems to last longer and recover quicker. I'm not sure if that's the mod or not.
  • Melee combat is indeed deadly, but causes routs so quickly that it doesn't really get a chance to do damage.

Cons:

  • The reduced range on the artillery means you can't target the gunboats in Potomac Fort, which means you are constantly taking artillery fire from the rear with no way to reduce or suppress it.
  • Platoon fire from fortifications is almost entirely ineffective, I believe because it is happening at the old speed and not the new speed.
  • Volley fire against fortifications seems way too strong, though it might because the return fire is ineffective.
  • 6 pounder fire even at close range is ineffective at pushing back attackers - it does quite a bit of damage, but seems to have little to no morale impact.
  • Shell fire from 6 pounders does very little damage (maybe normal?).
  • Melee cavalry, when told to attack, acts like mounted infantry - they close, fire, and then wheel away. They will only close to melee if told to charge. (Should it work this way?)
  • The rapid volleys interfere with movement. Not sure this is a bad thing.
  • Fire from the rear and the flanks seems to have a much lower morale effect, perhaps due to lower damage.
  • Skirmishers are almost invulnerable if they are in cover.

What this battle ends up becoming is a slaughter - your units surrounded by enemies, taking volleys at point-blank range, and eventually succumbing to a charge once their morale has been wiped out. I think it might be possible to eke out a win on Potomac Fort by using skirmishers to delay and distract the attacking units, because the skirmishers are so strong. I think the biggest problem is the complete ineffectiveness of fire from the fortifications - you can't hold them off if you can't damage them, but you have to remain in the fortifications to have a chance in melee against their vastly superior forces.

 

Melee cavalry are meant to

be potent and the early war units are too poorly equipped and trained to handle them early on. However as the war progresses, charging from the front against decently trained and equipped troops should end badly (or at least I intend for that to happen, they may need some adjustment). 

With the melee cavalry range set to 100, yes they will stop, fire, and retreat unless you charge.  I allowed this because I am thinking of the 30 years war pistol cavalry doctrine of riding nearly point blank, firing, the retreating. I personally prefer this method over galloping at everything (even though it could work). You can still drag arrows through the enemy. 

I did not yet touch condition and personally I am trying to emulate the UGG condition-morale system as it is much more harsh than base UGCW.  

It is intended for melee to take a position rather than kill enemies. Yes you could keep charging forth and keep pursuing the enemy but with how I intend condition to affect morale this shouldn’t be feasible later on. 

The power arty range is intended and I cannot edit the positions of the ships. So I have tried (and most likely failed) to make them have 0 range. I need to figure out how to fix that. I haven’t really had a problem with the shops doing too much damage imo  

I haven’t edited the fortifications yet and I’m not sure if I can. I have won this battle both using them and not using them though so it should be possible to win though with great difficulty.

The cover and damage reduction of the fortifications needs to be updated. If I could I’d change it to what it is in the custom battle. 

I have gotten 6lb to do 40 or so kills per volley but I had to position them relatively close to the enemy. Height plays a role here so put them on top of the fort walls. Canister also helps as well.  You need to move the arty from it’s fortification slot though as it makes them useless. 

Muskets need to be used at close range in order to get the most damage out of them. They also have less range than rifles too. The rifles later work better.  

Firing while moving personally is not a problem. One can use the hold fire button when you need the brigade to move somewhere quickly. 

Skirmishers are meant to be more effective than line infantry in shooting but not melee. They are meant to be very hard to dislodge by fire when in cover so you have to charge them or avoid them or send your own skirmishers as was historically done. Also think about the real world difference in efficiency between line infantry who wait for orders for moving and firing and are rather large targets and harder to coordinate while skirmishers have free fire and can take cover.  Had one side or the other had adopted loose order formations early the they would have had a large advantage. 

Ill try to change the fortifications when I can as well as try to adjust some thing listed.  

EDIT: Another thing I can do is change the unit sizes for that battle as well as the other changes.  It is a static battle anyways so I can make it somewhat easier than the rest of the campaign.  If I could switch this battle with the Custom battle I would do it though. 

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I don't think it's the fortifications themselves that are the problem, I think it's the way the unit fires from the fortifications - they appear to be firing at the same speed as before, instead of much more rapidly. This allows the enemy units to walk right up on them and volley fire while taking minimal damage, instead of getting quickly ground down by rapid fire from the fortified unit. I would think that the "by platoon" fire rate would be taken from the unit's weapons and skills, but apparently not - or there's something else going on.

I'm putting some thought into how to handle the changes, and I'll try again this morning. I plan on exploiting the cavalry's pursuit advantage and the skirmisher advantages to fight a delaying action instead of trying to hold the fort - we'll see.

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One of my strategies for the 2nd phase is to position my troops so that if they do charge they can be flanked.  Also I have not currently fixed the multiple engaged melee penalty and I am not sure if it is fixable.  You might need to detach skirmishers in the middle of a melee against multiple brigades to even the odds a bit. 

I know the AI and how it thinks really well so I know certain positioning of troops can affect its decision making.  Make it worry about its flanks and it will not attack too often.  

 

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