mod J & P Rebalance Mod by JonnyH13 and Pandakraut 05/06/2023 1.28.4

[pandakraut]

On 9/28/2022 at 9:29 AM, Andrew Milnes said:

that worked thanks ... could you help with how they should look on my Mac ? I follows the Mac instructions for steam but again could not get it to run

 

The mod file is in the contents folder and rebalance shows up in the mod folder is that right?

Sorry I overlooked this question. 

Yes the mod/rebalance folder should go into the /Contents folder. Unfortunately, my ability to provide support on macs is very limited. The instructions in the main post have been reported to work from other mac users.

[pandakraut]

On 10/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, ws7 said:

AIscalingExperienceMultiplier, =0 AIscalingWeaponMultiplier, =0 - with the staticMode ON  will it mean that the game uses the base/on date parameters, or will it reset the values to (0 exp level units/commander and only cheap muskets and 6 pdr)?

The default values of both of those are 1 since it results in no change to the defaults. Setting them to 0 will set AI units stats to 0 and give them the worst possible weapons.

On 10/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, ws7 said:

and lastly, I will not take up your time anymore (I will look into your discord more often):

Nothing wrong with questions here, though I am more likely to overlook posts or respond to them more slowly than on discord.

On 10/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, ws7 said:

is there any way to make the guns fire only the canister (ban on waste shell-fire)? it is probably difficult to remake the interface like this, but then may be a way to make duplicates for some guns, with a limited firing radius? Or is it also divided by an internal game-engine algorithm into shell and canister?

This was added to the mod a while back. You can use the hotkeys t and y to set the unit to only canister or on canister + shell. There are also buttons available(borrowed the supply infantry and supply artillery buttons from the supply wagon).

[pandakraut]

6 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

1. What 3* do you pick for your general? I usually go for cover, but the exp add seems good as well, how does that work? Does every unit in the range of the general get a 25% boost to exp?

Any unit in the generals aura gets 25% more xp from any actions they take.

6 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

2. Anyone have any good tips for Parker's crossing and Stones river? Parker's crossing was a pain before, but now it's just a drain on manpower with his 3* skirmishers firing on me from all angles. I get a 1.5 or 2:1 kill ratio, but lossing 4k men in a battle like this is a pain. At Stones river I allways manged to hold the right flank and drain the enemy, then counter and sweep them off the field. Now the Cav is outflaking me and even their rifle cav is charging my skirmishers in the woods. I will try some other things, but if anyone has any good ideas Iam open.

Parker's I always defended off point in the woods to the right. Since this battle hasn't been updated yet feel free to just adjust AI unit sizing and quality in the configs to what feels fun(no issues if you want to do this with updated battles as well.)

For Stones River you may need to fall back from your positions on the right to form a more concentrated line.

[Gilgatal]

Hello,
I also have black screen issue.
Can anyone give me a link for 1.27 version of the MOD i want to try does that one work for me.
I am strugling for days

[pandakraut]

On 10/14/2022 at 7:15 PM, Gilgatal said:

Hello,
I also have black screen issue.
Can anyone give me a link for 1.27 version of the MOD i want to try does that one work for me.
I am strugling for days

The install for that version and the current version should be essentially identical. Most likely one of the files in the zip did not end up in the right spot. Make sure you are extracting into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ultimate General Civil War\Ultimate General Civil War_Data. You should not end up with a RebalanceModV1.27.4.3 folder if you did it correctly. 

Here is the link to the older version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0neimnw0et3ebv/RebalanceModV1.27.4.3.zip?dl=0

If you're still having trouble let me know.

[PatriotASR]

Fort Stevenes...

I crushed the enemy in every battle. Cleared the field in all major battles (or at least 90% of his force), same for most "small" battles in the later game. I killed 90k at Gettysburg, 100k at Cold Harbour (each battle they had 400+ cannons), loss ration in most battles was 1:4-1:5 Now I am facing 5000 3* at Fort Stevens and 1200 men artillery brigades with my 1500 brigades.

I added the pictures for proof and help. Before Cold Harbour the enemy got (as the report said) 69.000 new troops. What I am supposed to do?

EDIT: I also have to add that the nerfing of artillery is good, but the ammo cost is horrible. I had to sell every spare cannon and rifle and take the money with reputation to fill my supplies after Mule Shoe and I have 10 logistics.

 

Edited October 24, 2022 by PatriotASR

[pandakraut]

6 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

EDIT: I also have to add that the nerfing of artillery is good, but the ammo cost is horrible. I had to sell every spare cannon and rifle and take the money with reputation to fill my supplies after Mule Shoe and I have 10 logistics.

Are you running 1.28.2 or one of the 1.28.3 test versions? There is a bug with the artillery resupply costs in 1.28.2 that would largely explain what you are describing.

6 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

Fort Stevenes...

I crushed the enemy in every battle. Cleared the field in all major battles (or at least 90% of his force), same for most "small" battles in the later game. I killed 90k at Gettysburg, 100k at Cold Harbour (each battle they had 400+ cannons), loss ration in most battles was 1:4-1:5 Now I am facing 5000 3* at Fort Stevens and 1200 men artillery brigades with my 1500 brigades.

I added the pictures for proof and help. Before Cold Harbour the enemy got (as the report said) 69.000 new troops. What I am supposed to do?

Some of the other changes appear to have affected this battle more than intended. Will try to get some kind of initial update into the next release. In the meantime I'd just use the /mod/rebalance/AIConfigFile to adjust it a bit.  Give AIscalingSizeMultiplier of .7 a try maybe?

[PatriotASR]

I am using the 1.28.2 and I didn't realise this was a known issue.

I will turn down the scaling for this battle, beeing outnumbered didn't bother me before, but for this battle it is impossible.

[PatriotASR]

1 hour ago, pandakraut said:

Some of the other changes appear to have affected this battle more than intended. Will try to get some kind of initial update into the next release. In the meantime I'd just use the /mod/rebalance/AIConfigFile to adjust it a bit.  Give AIscalingSizeMultiplier of .7 a try maybe?

I tried a quick battle (on fast, no micro), the numbers were 44kv66k and my lines just held. That should be the sweet spot.

[Chieftan]

I don't know if it is intended, but on Legendary mode in the Confederate battle of Newport News, the Union consistently have over 16k in troops, while I barely have over 8k. I suppose I am intended to turn the multiplier in the xml down? Also, only allowing 4 personal brigades for the level hurts a lot.

[pandakraut]

8 hours ago, Chieftan said:

I don't know if it is intended, but on Legendary mode in the Confederate battle of Newport News, the Union consistently have over 16k in troops, while I barely have over 8k. I suppose I am intended to turn the multiplier in the xml down? Also, only allowing 4 personal brigades for the level hurts a lot.

This is pretty normal for legendary. Will vary a bit depending on how many infantry units you create and of what size. If you'd prefer a bit easier version the configs are always an option. If this is your first attempt at legendary you may want to consider setting the size multiplier to .85 as a bit more of a stepping stone.

[pandakraut]

There have been some other players on the discord who have also had trouble with newport. Here are some the suggestions that worked for them.

Consider bringing a melee cav unit. They can help you clean up routing units so that they don't come back over and over. Just be careful about where you use them so they don't get shot too much in melee. And watch out for the enemy cav.

Try using the fortifications, they are significantly better in the mod and can help against charges.

Keeping an arty unit for the high morale shock damage can also be very useful. Though it is a bit of a trade off since it's harder to cover everything with only 2 infantry.

Hope this helps, good luck!

[PatriotASR]

So I finished the Union on MG. Except Fort Stevens where I really had to lower the scaling to 0.7 from 1, the rest was great. Chicamagua was a bit of a pain for my ally units (all the captures of my troops are from that battle), but the rest of the battle was fun to play. You made a great mod. One thing you could think about is the second day of Richmond, after I crushed them in the first day, the second was a walk over - literally. It would be fun if you could reinforce the CSA for the second day to make it work. The second thing is, would it be possible to show true casualties in multiday battles? The problem is (as you know) when you reinforce the casualties from day one are erased.

Is it possible that the artillery ammo bug disapears? I had huge problems at Chichamagua, Stones River and Mule Shoe, but non at all at Cold Harbour and other later battles.

Now for CSA.

[pandakraut]

2 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

Is it possible that the artillery ammo bug disapears? I had huge problems at Chichamagua, Stones River and Mule Shoe, but non at all at Cold Harbour and other later battles.

Did you update to one of the test versions at some point between those battles? At cold harbor you can capture enough enemy wagons that could solve the issue, but I would have thought the side battles after it were still a problem.

2 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

So I finished the Union on MG. Except Fort Stevens where I really had to lower the scaling to 0.7 from 1, the rest was great. Chicamagua was a bit of a pain for my ally units (all the captures of my troops are from that battle), but the rest of the battle was fun to play. You made a great mod. One thing you could think about is the second day of Richmond, after I crushed them in the first day, the second was a walk over - literally. It would be fun if you could reinforce the CSA for the second day to make it work. The second thing is, would it be possible to show true casualties in multiday battles? The problem is (as you know) when you reinforce the casualties from day one are erased.

I'll have to think on the multiday casualty issue. Maybe there is a way I can get it to work without reseting the units starting point. Though that may open up other bugs it was covering over. Will see what I can do.

Richmond day 2 is definitely a walk over. Should be able to make it more interesting once we get to updating it(will be a while.)

2 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

Now for CSA.

1.28.3 is nearly ready, hopefully we can get it posted this weekend.

[PatriotASR]

8 hours ago, pandakraut said:

1.28.3 is nearly ready, hopefully we can get it posted this weekend.

That would be awsome. But can I play Newport News with the 1.28.3 update, even if I played the Potomac river on 1.28.2? I got the best result since playing this game and I don't want to replay it.

[pandakraut]

22 hours ago, PatriotASR said:

That would be awsome. But can I play Newport News with the 1.28.3 update, even if I played the Potomac river on 1.28.2? I got the best result since playing this game and I don't want to replay it.

Saves are always compatible

[PatriotASR]

4 hours ago, pandakraut said:

Saves are always compatible

Any idea when the update will be available? I played through Newport News and it was not perfect, but not horrible. Countercharging tired my troops out and they were all very tired/exhausted so usless for the end, but it did lead to some nice captures. I started the 1st Bull Run and it's so diffeferent to the past that nothing I do seems to work properly.

I added a screen shot just before everything goes bad for me.

[pandakraut]

I ended up having very little time to work on getting it ready over the weekend. Will try to finish up the change notes and the package tonight.

The units in the west are just a delaying action. I wouldn't be further west than the edge of the river.

Edited November 1, 2022 by pandakraut

[pandakraut]

Main post will be updated later when Jonny has time but for now

Rebalance Mod V1.28.3 is now available

Steam: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yvjxgnp4n305j9s/RebalanceModV1.28.3.zip?dl=0

Good Old Games: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hhchd9jcrfy85n9/RebalanceModGoGV1.28.3.zip?dl=0

Changelog Highlights
- Campaign battles now updated through Fredericksburg.
- Units that are charging apply a morale regen penalty to enemy units that are not charging or in melee. If the enemy unit is moving, the penalty is increased.
- Artillery canister damage, cavalry pistol damage, and mounted carbine cavalry reload speeds reduced.
- Morale damage resistance increased from morale stat and several perks.
- General scaling reductions with higher reductions in specific battles.
- Improvements to several underused cavalry, infantry, and artillery perks.
- Static Mode: Optional mode that removes all scaling against player units. Instead the AI units are all set to a default size based on the current campaign date. Specific battles that normally have larger default sizes can exceed these size restrictions. 
    Player units are limited to same size as the AI.
    This mode is very bare bones and by default can result in facing larger units than the normal scaling algorithm. There is also little to no adjustment to sizing between difficulties, so adjustment using configs is highly recommended.
    This mode can be enabled in the configFile, the percentage size of the player units can also be adjusted there. By default the AI size caps out at 50% of the normal maximum sizes. Maximum sizes can be adjusted in the AIConfigFile if larger or different sizes are preferred. AIscalingSizeMultiplier will also continue to work to make adjustments to sizes.

full changelog is in the /Mod/Rebalance/Change logs folder

[dixiePig]

Hi PK.  I have been out of the loop for a few months, but just installed v1.28.3 and have enjoyed playing CSA during the past few days - am up to Cross Keys.  Many fine improvements.  Thumbs Up across the board. The battle dynamics are nice - the AI seems a little less knee-jerk in its behavior. The Fatigue Factor is a big plus. Relevant unit info (arms/leadership, etc) are informative and useful.  Tweaks to the perks are excellent.  The Alternative AI Battle Locations & Timing are a Big Win!

The distinction and changes in the replacement process look good, though one thing puzzles me: I can add Veterans to a relatively weak unit in order to increase XP.  But if I add Veterans to a relatively strong unit, the XP actually decreases.  I can see them not effecting the XP that much, but to actually decrease ...?

Overall, 'growing XP stars' is a bit more tedious and seemingly less intuitive.  I have never liked 'gaming the XP' in order to build value of the units in my army.  Am a little surprised that rookie units who perform well (and fight a lot) in battles do not seem to advance more speedily. BTW:  It seems to me that [same unit commander] + [participating in battles] x [over time] should be a significant factor in increasing a units XP.  By the same token, a seasoned commander (battles led) who is reassigned to a new unit should bring some extra unit XP with him.

I like the new importance of managing Veteran/Rookies and Wounded/Badly Wounded; It would be really helpful to have some on-screen graphical indicators to aid during the Replacements phase.  Perhaps a couple of bars to indicate # and type of replacements (the bar values change dynamically as you reinforce/build units).  There might be a "Field Hospital' perk, as well ...

Observation:  In earlier versions, i often had quite a few officers available in my Reserve (sometimes too many) - Now there are almost none : I need to purchase almost all new offices in order to grow my army.  Is there anything I can do (in Career?) to increase the number of officers in my Reserve?  As I recollect, Allied officers who were wounded in battle would appear in my reserve when healed.  No more?

The dynamics of Career choices are radically changed and will take a little getting used to.  The BEGINNING choices are even more dramatic, as a result.  Will it ever be possible to select a profile that is not based on the artificial groupings offered in the BEGINNING?  They establish a narrative that currently goes nowhere, and the choices are unduly constrained. Perhaps a compromise: i.e. 2 preset choices of 8 attributes + 2 wildcard attribute choices?  And/or even some 'consequences' : i.e. the choice of particular paths in the BEGINNING has impact on the CAREER options which appear later in the game (This already happens to some degree with the increased troop bonus when you choose Reconnaissance - smart move).  I know that's a Heavy Lift, but it would add even more variety.

Anyhow - v1.28.3 looks good so far.  Thanks to you, Johnny, and others for all the work.  UGCW is now a much livelier gaming experience.

Edited November 4, 2022 by dixiePig

[pandakraut]

2 hours ago, dixiePig said:

The distinction and changes in the replacement process look good, though one thing puzzles me: I can add Veterans to a relatively weak unit in order to increase XP.  But if I add Veterans to a relatively strong unit, the XP actually decreases.  I can see them not effecting the XP that much, but to actually decrease ...?

Strong units will generally have higher stats than the stats of your veteran pool, so when adding veterans the unit's stats will go still go down. However, the stats will decrease less than if you added recruits.

Since the veteran pool stats are the average of all casualties taken the stats will generally always be worse than your best units. This has the effect of making it easier to create and maintain 1* units, but harder to maintain 2 and 3* units. But as long as you're keeping your kills high and casualties low on your better units you can net a positive change in stats even after adding vets. Investment in training and medicine will assist in this process. If your high veterancy units end up taking too many casualties consider merging them with another good unit.

2 hours ago, dixiePig said:

Am a little surprised that rookie units who perform well (and fight a lot) in battles do not seem to advance more speedily.

A lot of the extraneous time has been cut out of battles which makes it harder to full clear this, this has a side effect of reducing xp growth, but I think the rate is fine at the moment.

2 hours ago, dixiePig said:

BTW:  It seems to me that [same unit commander] + [participating in battles] x [over time] should be a significant factor in increasing a units XP.  By the same token, a seasoned commander (battles led) who is reassigned to a new unit should bring some extra unit XP with him.

The bonus to a unit's progress towards the next star is determined by the officers xp and modified by the battles led bonus. So assigning a high ranked officer will still provide a significant bonus, as would assigning an officer with high battles led. I frequently assign high ranking officers to units to push them over the threshold to gain a star, though sometimes planning ahead by a few battles is necessary.

2 hours ago, dixiePig said:

I like the new importance of managing Veteran/Rookies and Wounded/Badly Wounded; It would be really helpful to have some on-screen graphical indicators to aid during the Replacements phase.  Perhaps a couple of bars to indicate # and type of replacements (the bar values change dynamically as you reinforce/build units).

It's not clear to me what you're requesting here. When moving the slider you can see the affect of the added veterans/recruits on the units stats already as well as the number of men being added from the respective pool?

2 hours ago, dixiePig said:

Observation:  In earlier versions, i often had quite a few officers available in my Reserve (sometimes too many) - Now there are almost none : I need to purchase almost all new offices in order to grow my army.  Is there anything I can do (in Career?) to increase the number of officers in my Reserve?  As I recollect, Allied officers who were wounded in battle would appear in my reserve when healed.  No more?

Allied officers appearing in the reserve was a bug that was partially fixed. Some still slip through now and again, but it's less consistent now that the bug is fixed. If you have more officers wounded the replacement officers can end up filling up the reserve a bit, but otherwise the only way to get officers there is to buy them from the academy.

3 hours ago, dixiePig said:

The dynamics of Career choices are radically changed and will take a little getting used to.  The BEGINNING choices are even more dramatic, as a result.  Will it ever be possible to select a profile that is not based on the artificial groupings offered in the BEGINNING?  They establish a narrative that currently goes nowhere, and the choices are unduly constrained. Perhaps a compromise: i.e. 2 preset choices of 8 attributes + 2 wildcard attribute choices?  And/or even some 'consequences' : i.e. the choice of particular paths in the BEGINNING has impact on the CAREER options which appear later in the game (This already happens to some degree with the increased troop bonus when you choose Reconnaissance - smart move).  I know that's a Heavy Lift, but it would add even more variety.

That section of the UI is unfortunately very locked down. There is little to nothing we can change there. While the constraints are arbitrary, I do think they have a decent balance of options. 

Tying the selections to later events is something we've discussed, but no definite plans at this point.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the new version overall

[dixiePig]

22 hours ago, pandakraut said:

It's not clear to me what you're requesting here. When moving the slider you can see the affect of the added veterans/recruits on the units stats already as well as the number of men being added from the respective pool?

I have no sense of HOW MANY Vets vs Rookies I have in the recruitment pool.  I'm just given a red indicator when I step over the Veteran limit.  It would be nice to know how many Veterans I have to available to assign - and some indicator of the changing totals.  A major enduring weakness of UGCW is the inability to UNDO many actions during the CAMP phase.  Am used to reflexively

 

doing periodic saves now, but it still sucks.  Assigning Veterans wisely is an important aspect of Army maintenance - and nurturing *'s. 

22 hours ago, pandakraut said:

Allied officers appearing in the reserve was a bug that was partially fixed.

As my programmer buddies used to say, "That's not a bug - It's a feature!"  As such, it's kind of a nice feature.  Might want to reconsider it, in some form ...

 

22 hours ago, pandakraut said:

That section of the UI is unfortunately very locked down. There is little to nothing we can change there. While the constraints are arbitrary, I do think they have a decent balance of options. 

As noted, RECONNAISSANCE has positive impact on the number of weapons offered in CAREER. TRAINING might have some effect on Morale - or the appearance of new Officers in the Reserve. ECONOMY might have some impact on the price of weapons. LOGISTICS effects the power and influence of Commanding General figures in the battlefield, etc

[pandakraut]

2 hours ago, dixiePig said:

I have no sense of HOW MANY Vets vs Rookies I have in the recruitment pool.  I'm just given a red indicator when I step over the Veteran limit.  It would be nice to know how many Veterans I have to available to assign - and some indicator of the changing totals.  A major enduring weakness of UGCW is the inability to UNDO many actions during the CAMP phase.  Am used to reflexively

Have you seen the tooltip when hovering over your total recruits? The information there has been expanded to show the totals for all the pools. I'm not sure if I can get tooltips to appear off of the veteran/recruit checkboxes but will take a look.

[KurtPanzer]

Hi, thanks for all your work! I am really enjoying 1.28.3, but it is crashing on opening on my laptop. It works fine on my older PC.

I'm using GOG and the GOG mod version. If I "repair" the game, then reinstall the mod it works fine.

Kurt

[dixiePig]

As noted before, altering the entry times and locations of AI reinforcements during a battle is a big improvement on variety and playability of the mod.  Am hoping that you can do something about first appearance of Union AI reinforcements in the CSA campaign battle of Gaines Mill:

They appear about 1:40 into the battle on the hill just above Boatswain Woods, the same time as the first CSA reinforcements appear at the upper left edge of the map. The problem is this:  As CSA, I have just successfully seized Boatswain woods.  Of course, I place screening units on that nearby hill, which is an obvious observation point (it even has a little eyeball on it).

• BEFORE:  This is the instant before the first round of reinforcements arrive

• AFTER: This screenshot is the moment at which reinforcements appear.  The new Union artillery can start firing on my troops in Boatswains Woods immediately, with fresh infantry and cavalry right behind.  I'd better get my cavalry out of there, pronto.  My reinforcements are barely visible at the upper left of the mini-map.

Without warning, a large mass of Union troops appear instantaneously (and miraculously) on that same observation point - and they are also quite close to my CSA troops in Boatswains Woods.

• There are the 'common sense' issues , like "How did the enemy get there so fast" and "Why didn't I see them?"
• There are the 'fairness' issues, like "My reinforcements have to travel all the way across the map" and "Yet these fresh enemy troops appear right on top of me"

I literally have to game the system in order to ensure that my screening units (who of course would be located on that hill) aren't wiped out immediately by the Union troops which inexplicably appear among them.

You've done a great job in providing some much-needed variety by adjusting the arrival location of AI troops, Pandakraut and Jonny.  Please fix this one, as well.  It's a really bad bug ... err ... "feature" of legacy/vanilla UGCW.