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

[isthisreallyathing]

Is there a way to play this mod with just the UI adjustments and the updated perks? 

Everything else just feels like its meant for people who like things to be difficult for the sake of being difficult without any real logic behind it. Its really annoying how the AI is just flat-out better than you at everything, regardless of experience level. 

Also, why does the AI seem to have like 80% damage resistance? I just fought a battle where I had 4 skirmisher units against the AIs one. 3 of my 3 were in 75% cover and the AI was in the open. All 4 of my units got routed off with none of them getting more than 15 kills. What gives? Also why give the AI mega spotting cheats? I turned on the red firing arcs and the AI CLEARLY knows where my units are and moves to defend, it doesnt do that in vanilla. I literally just watched a cavalry unit teleport from one side of shiloh church to the other to discover my units. trash

Please give us a version of this without all the ridiculous changes, and I've already gone into the config files but its had no effect. 

Edited January 7 by isthisreallyathing

[Cobramys]

Hi Pandakraut.

Excellent job. Thank you very much for providing this mod.

I have just one question:

With the possible larger units are still optimal sizes for certain units regarding shooting ?

Previously it was ca. 300 -350 men for Arty, 350 skirmishers and horse infantry, 1800 infantry.

What are current values ?

 

Regards

Cobramys

[pandakraut]

On 1/10/2024 at 5:49 AM, Cobramys said:

Hi Pandakraut.

Excellent job. Thank you very much for providing this mod.

I have just one question:

With the possible larger units are still optimal sizes for certain units regarding shooting ?

Previously it was ca. 300 -350 men for Arty, 350 skirmishers and horse infantry, 1800 infantry.

What are current values ?

 

Regards

Cobramys

In the mod, adding more men always results in more total damage, though there are diminishing returns.

How large you decide to build in the mod is more determined by how many weapons you have available and personal preference on unit sizes.

The mod let's you make very large units, but this is more about choosing the size tier you want to play in. You could go through the entire campaign with 1.5k units for example. 

[dixiePig]

On 1/11/2024 at 8:37 AM, pandakraut said:

The mod let's you make very large units, but this is more about choosing the size tier you want to play in. You could go through the entire campaign with 1.5k units for example. 

fwiw: The historical reality was that

• "Union brigades averaged 1,000 to 1,500 men, while on the Confederate side they averaged 1,500 to 1,800. Union brigades were designated by a number within their division, and each Confederate brigade was designated by the name of its current or former commander." -- wikipedia.  For my own playStyle, I've capped INF for both armies at 2000 in the configFiles.
• The biggest ARMY ORG differences were in the size & organization of CAV and particularly ARTY, which changed dramatically throughout 1862 and stabilized by 1863.
• CAV evolved into raiding and reconnaissance units. I use them in UGCW for harrassing behind enemy lines, stealing supplies, picking off isolated enemy ARTY, and as a counter-strike to enemy INF attacks.
• ARTY was a hodgepodge of small, inconsistent units early on; There were only about 50 cannons total scattered randomly between the 2 armies at 1st Bull Run. There were 250 cannons in the Union army alone at Malvern Hill (the middle of 1862); well organized, consistently supplied, and under a central command.
• Legacy UGCW does a poor job of reflecting the critical evolution of ARTY during this early period, but you can emulate it a little by fiddling with the configFiles.
• 'Detached Skirmishers' (smaller sub-units of INF formations) were a standard artifact of INF tactics - serving as a support role to the BDE and useful for reconnaissance, harrassing, flanking, and delaying. Which is pretty much how they were used IRL. 
• What UGCW calls SKRM (skirmisher) units were often labeled as "RANGERS", historically.  They were rare elite troops : There were very, very few of them.  Ever. 
• Nonetheless the UGCW SKRM (Ranger) units are a handy way to build small, powerful fighting units when you have few weapons (as is often the case early in the game), but they are an 'unrealistic' a-historical anomaly.

 

Edited January 18 by dixiePig
clarification & follow-up

[dixiePig]

hmmm.  Have just started Crampton's Gap several times as US.

UGCW sez that I have 12 Bdes for the battle, but only allows me to deploy 4 units at the beginning of the battle (although it indicates that I should have 6) and then allows only 6 reinforcements.  I'm missing 2 Bdes.

Artifact / Feature? / Bug?

[dixiePig]

A  couple of under-the-hood questions:

1. If I park a weakened unit in entrenchment or fortification, will it heal quicker?
2. If a I re-merge a detached skirmisher with its parent unit, does the parent unit inherit the condition of the skirmisher unit (i.e. get stronger / get weaker)?
3. Does having 'more units' have any effect on firepower? i.e. If I detach a skirmisher and it flanks the enemy unit, then I probably have more firepower.  If I detach a skirmisher and it merely joins in firing at the enemy unit (without flanking) - does it have any additional effect simply because it is "an additional unit firing from a slightly different direction"?  I know that detached skirmishers are more susceptible to being destroyed in close combat, so I try to re-attach them when the enemy attacks, but - Do they have combat value beyond flanking fire and distraction?
4. Other than removing the enemy Army Commander's "aura" from his troops, is there any particular value in attacking the enemy Army Commander? 
5. At some point in the battle I often notice that my Army Commander is wandering on the other side of the map.  He has not been attacked; he just seems to have lost all interest in being a commander.  Is there anything I can do about this - or shall I just accept the fact that some of my Army Commanders are cowards?

also:

Is there any hope of fixing the 'map border problem'? When I attack an enemy unit, it often flees to the edge of the map.  Once there - It can be really, really hard to defeat.  This is counter-intuitive - and it is bad behavior.

• Can this artifact be fixed? i.e. There is 'no penalty' for fighting a unit on the edge of the map.
• Can it be replaced with an alternate behavior? s.a. The enemy unit is forced off the map.  It loses more casualties.  It may (or may not / dice roll) return to the map after a delay, but is weaker. 

 

 

Edited February 17 by dixiePig
follow-up

[dixiePig]

BUG: Recovery of Veterans when building your ARMY

Sometimes I need to disband a newly-built unit during the CAMP phase. If I used some troops from my Veterans pool to build the unit, I notice that they are NOT returned to the Veterans pool when I disband the unit.  This is:

1. Poor design
2. Illogical
3. Another excellent argument for implementing an UNDO function in the CAMP phase of UGCW

UNDO is a norm in the world of software applications.  It's expected.  (i.e. If the functionality is not there, then it's a bug.)

• The ability to undo an operation on a computer was independently invented multiple times, in response to how people used computers.  The File Retrieval and Editing System, developed starting in 1968 at Brown University, is reported to be the first computer-based system to have had an "undo" feature. -- wikipedia

I realize that we can't easily effect the lack of basic functionality of legacy UGCW, but is there anything we can do? I reflexively [save] often in UGCW.  But it still doesn't really work.  And it really does make the game much less fun.

[hcoopa]

Hello Panda. I really enjoy your mod playing years ago. I haven't played the game in a long time and tried the new version out. It's just not for me as I'm very casual playing. Is it possible you have the latest 1.26V available to download? Thanks!

[pandakraut]

On 2/6/2024 at 3:58 PM, hcoopa said:

Hello Panda. I really enjoy your mod playing years ago. I haven't played the game in a long time and tried the new version out. It's just not for me as I'm very casual playing. Is it possible you have the latest 1.26V available to download? Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bdhrdcok4vd60ow/RebalanceModV1.26.1GoG.zip?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvrzz5bhp65fhbf/RebalanceModV1.26.1.zip?dl=0

[dixiePig]

Despite criticisms (helpful, I hope) I am enjoying the newest version. Steady improvements. Having worked professionally as a usability practitioner for complex applications, I 'get' the challenge rolling out a series of changes for software that is in constant use ... Good stuff.

 

[Fenian98]

On 5/7/2023 at 4:52 AM, pandakraut said:

Updated to 1.28.4

Changelog Highlights

- A Major General Light difficulty is now available. When starting a new campaign and selecting MG difficulty, a prompt will show up prior to entering your name. 
This difficulty is the same as MG except the AI units will be smaller and less experienced. This should be closer to playing MG in the base game or in earlier versions of the mod.
- AI weapons quality throughout the campaign has been standardized to be closer to what is used on legendary.
- All config files have been reorganized and comments have been added in the files to indicate what values do.

- Bugfixes and minor balance changes.

-Save game compatible.

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

I've conceded defeat,I cant get beyond Day 3 of Chancellorsville,MG light,as my units are tired and undermanned. The CS have 3k,4k and one 5k attacking me,they just charge and rout everyone on their own. I'm facing 144K CS to my 120K across the whole battle,huge numbers,anyone else see that?. Anyhoo,I went into the config files (dont know what Im doing) to reduce the AI max infantry from 6K down to 3K/4K,clicked save but nothing happened. Do I have to start a new game for this change to take effect? Thanking you.

[pandakraut]

16 hours ago, Fenian98 said:

I've conceded defeat,I cant get beyond Day 3 of Chancellorsville,MG light,as my units are tired and undermanned. The CS have 3k,4k and one 5k attacking me,they just charge and rout everyone on their own. I'm facing 144K CS to my 120K across the whole battle,huge numbers,anyone else see that?. Anyhoo,I went into the config files (dont know what Im doing) to reduce the AI max infantry from 6K down to 3K/4K,clicked save but nothing happened. Do I have to start a new game for this change to take effect? Thanking you.

Chancellorsville scales badly because the player has 4-5 corps and the ai has 2. Adjusting the max ai infantry size is the approach I would recommend. You should be able to edit the file, save, then start the battle again(go through the corps deploy screen) to see the changes.

[Fenian98]

8 hours ago, pandakraut said:

Chancellorsville scales badly because the player has 4-5 corps and the ai has 2. Adjusting the max ai infantry size is the approach I would recommend. You should be able to edit the file, save, then start the battle again(go through the corps deploy screen) to see the changes.

Thank you!!! I think Ive edited it.....I'm gonna play Siege of Suffolk and Nansemond river again to see can I better my result and see if that helps. Its just a cracking game:)

[sol_ilya]

Excellent mod ! Thank you for your work! This mod make this game interesting for me again . Bought this game on release and now i have 900 + hours played on this game. 
I d like to have old mechanics of disbanding units after melee or fire. Sometimes it makes  too easy and not so realistic when a strong enemy unit after failed charge disbands having more than 1000 soldiers, sometimes it hurts me when my unit under heavy fire also disbands.  As I understand it is possible to change this back to vanilla. What variable is it and what value I need  need to set in config file so disbanding and surrendering units worked as in original game?

[Visitor1234]

Hi pandakraut, first of all, thank you for this great mod, it really took this game to the next level. 

I have a question: Could you please post the force size AI multiplier and the AI veterancy multiplier used in the balance settings. Lets say Major general Light is 1 and major general is 1.15 (if I understand correctly the patch notes), so what would be the multiplier for both of the stats at the brigadier general difficulty ?

I tried playing the on the Major general Light difficulty and found it too hard after the 2nd bull run - I enter a death loop where I get too many casualties  and not enough veteran replacements so my force quality overall degrades until I can't continue winning the campaign missions. Watched Gonzos videos and I kind of understand how it is done, but not in the mood to micromanage tons of detached skirmishers. 

Next I tried brigadier general (the middle difficulty) and found it too easy after I build my army (after 2nd bull run it is a walk in the park).

So I'm considering playing on brigadier general with modified AI force and veterancy scaling.

I want to use scaling parameters that would put me in the middle between brigadier general and major general light (if i pick brigadier general as a base should I input 1.1/1.1, 1.2/1.2 etc... as scaling values ?).  

So, could you help me with advice to this issue?

Sorry for the long post and thanks again for your effort.

Edited February 25 by Visitor1234
typos

[pandakraut]

On 2/22/2024 at 2:12 PM, sol_ilya said:

Excellent mod ! Thank you for your work! This mod make this game interesting for me again . Bought this game on release and now i have 900 + hours played on this game. 
I d like to have old mechanics of disbanding units after melee or fire. Sometimes it makes  too easy and not so realistic when a strong enemy unit after failed charge disbands having more than 1000 soldiers, sometimes it hurts me when my unit under heavy fire also disbands.  As I understand it is possible to change this back to vanilla. What variable is it and what value I need  need to set in config file so disbanding and surrendering units worked as in original game?

The shatter/surrender chances for when a unit is at 0 morale can be modified in the /Mod/Rebalance/ConfigFile

//Base surrender and shatter chances when at 0 morale.
zeroMoraleSurrenderChance
zeroMoraleShatterChance

You can turn it off entirely with 

updateShatterConditions

Not sure how well things will play with it turned off as a lot of the current battles are tuned around not having to grind units down to 10% remaining hp to shatter them. You may want to try lowering the shatter/surrender chance a bit first.

The system is designed so that when a unit is at 0 morale(broken) it starts making checks to see if it should shatter or surrender. There is morale damage resistance that applies as a unit gets closer to 0 morale to prevent it from being too easy to get units into that state. The better the units officer and stats the more damage the unit will have to take before it can start making checks. So for example a 0* unit can regularly shatter with quite a few men still alive, while a 3* unit will have to take a lot more casualties first. Being in melee also increases the chances as well.

[pandakraut]

On 2/25/2024 at 1:19 PM, Visitor1234 said:

I have a question: Could you please post the force size AI multiplier and the AI veterancy multiplier used in the balance settings. Lets say Major general Light is 1 and major general is 1.15 (if I understand correctly the patch notes), so what would be the multiplier for both of the stats at the brigadier general difficulty ?

MG light is the only difficulty that has a definitive number here because it was created by basically just applying the size and xp modifiers. It is -17.5% size and xp compared to MG. All the other difficulties have a variety of factors so there isn't a set number that will get you the equivalent. 

BG has increased battle rewards, higher weapon recovery rates, cheaper officers and such compared to MG. Several people have tried to do what you're asking about though. You either want to pick MG light and further reduce size and xp using the configs. Perhaps another 10-20% and see how that goes? Any config changes you make will stack with the default difficulty modifications.

Going up from BG is harder because the gap is so wide. Somewhere between 1.25-1.5 size and/or xp seems to be where people have ended up. But it may need some adjustment as you go.

[Aericles1775]

Hello all, is there a cheat that allows the user to change the perks on the the units? I like to test certain strategies using The commander perks and unit perks.

[Visitor1234]

20 hours ago, pandakraut said:

MG light is the only difficulty that has a definitive number here because it was created by basically just applying the size and xp modifiers. It is -17.5% size and xp compared to MG. All the other difficulties have a variety of factors so there isn't a set number that will get you the equivalent. 

BG has increased battle rewards, higher weapon recovery rates, cheaper officers and such compared to MG. Several people have tried to do what you're asking about though. You either want to pick MG light and further reduce size and xp using the configs. Perhaps another 10-20% and see how that goes? Any config changes you make will stack with the default difficulty modifications.

Going up from BG is harder because the gap is so wide. Somewhere between 1.25-1.5 size and/or xp seems to be where people have ended up. But it may need some adjustment as you go.

Thank you for the reply.

Just want to clarify another thing: 

I believe that I observed some really strange AI compositions after or around the Blackwater Heights\Rio Hill missions in the CSA campaign (AI is splitting to smallish brigades of around 600-700 after having 1500-3000 brigades on all the maps that you remade and in general the feeling is the AI is having lesser force). I was playing the campaign on brigadier general difficulty with 1.15 force and veterancy multipliers.  

So, does the AI force\quality multiplier works after the maps you already reworked or does the game revert to the default difficulty?

 

Edited March 5 by Visitor1234

[dixiePig]

On 3/4/2024 at 9:35 PM, Aericles1775 said:

Hello all, is there a cheat that allows the user to change the perks on the the units? I like to test certain strategies using The commander perks and unit perks.

'startingPerks.txt' allows you to set perks for US and CS units at the beginning of the game:

//----------------------------------------
//This can be used to select the starting perk for each of the players starting perks.
//For infantry units only 0 and 1 are valid options.
//0: Marching Drills
//1: Musketry Drills
//For artillery 0, 1, and 2 are valid options
//0: Horse Artillery
//1: Double Canister
//1: Improved Shells
//----------------------------------------
Loomis, 1
Scales, 1
Walton, 1
Woods, 0
Cabell, 0
Kemper, 1
Sigfried, 1

As you can see, I've set the starting perk for Cabell (CS ARTY) to //0: Horse Artillery, because that's my preference for all my ARTY.

Beyond that - I dunno.

Your suggestion for perk management sounds interesting, tho.

Here's a technique that works for me in the early stages of the war:

• Default advancement for INF: Musketry 
• Default advancement for ARTY: Horse
• When I start building new INF units, I load the good weapons into the Musketry units - no brainer - and arm the new (weaker) INF units with Springfield 1842's. 
• I use the strong-shooters for defensive firepower and use the weaker units for assault and counter-punch - the 1842's are good for that.
• When the 1842 INF units earn a star, I advance them to Marching Drills, so that - even tho their weapon may be so-so, they are even more effective in Assault.  This gives me a balanced force.
• When the strong-shooters earn a second star, I give them the Bayonet Proficiency perk.  When the 1842's (often armed with better weapons now) earn a second star, I give them the Musketry Proficiency perk.
• Now my troops are fairly balanced across the board in terms of firepower and assault.  I can concentrate on battlefield tactics rather than cherry-picking defensive and assault units.
• ARTY:  I prefer to have mobile Artillery which can move, manuever, and respond quickly.  Fire specialization comes later.
• CAV units are fragile-but-effective.  They often take substantial casualties and earn perks slowly as a result, after the first star.  No matter:  They have their own advantages, so I choose Discipline Training by default: speed and attack.

 

[dixiePig]

Useful Tool in the ARMY CAMP:

Keeping experienced officers with their 'home' units is a constant exercise:  They may be used temporarily to help 'kickstart' a newly-built unit or they may be sidelined for several battles when wounded.  This exercise gets more complex and difficult as we get more units and have more battles.

I have just finished Stones River (very early 1863) and already have almost 80 units in my Army.

The 'title' on a unit often does not correctly identify its current commander.  This MAY identify a previous commander who's been wounded, but often doesn't help.  I usually end up assigning a new commander and then replacing him with the current commander in order to get the naming right.

• You can select a unit's Battle History and then mouseOver the individual battles in order to find out who previous commanders were.  Helpful, but can be laborious.  Perhaps the interface could also indicate if a previous commander is dead?
• Suggestion: MouseOver an officer pops up a list of his previous command units (This is more complex with CSA naming conventions, but can be done). 
• Now I can 'match' by-unit and by-officer.
• Another alternative:  When a wounded officer returns to the Reserve pool, a button allows him to automatically [Rejoin original unit]

 

Edited March 6 by dixiePig

[dixiePig]

• PERKS:  What is the difference between "Stealth" and "Cover"?

esp for ARTY

[dixiePig]

The mod improves and becomes more fun over time, imo, as I become more adept at fiddling the config files.  Great stuff, PK.

A framing question:  Historically, the USA INF bdes were smaller than the CSA INF bdes (about 1200 vs. 1600), resulting in fewer, but larger divisions and corps in the Confederate armies.

I understand that the 'scaling' issues are complex, but if I adjust the INF maxSizes accordingly (US : 1200 / CS : 1600) in the config files, will the AI adjust gracefully?  I hope that - playing CSA - I might encounter a Union army that is the right total size, but is comprised of more-but-smaller Union units.    

• I currently have InfantryMaxSize for both armies set to 2000 and it makes for playable games, tho not quite as competitive as I might like. 
• I haven't messed with historical...SizeMultiplier, historical...AddStat, or any of the AIscaling...Multipliers. 
• I have set aiMaxStat currently to 50.

Suggestions?

Edited March 6 by dixiePig

[dixiePig]

Time to revisit The Usual Suspects in UGCW :

Wandering, cowardly commanding generals

• Corps commanders often run away from the battle area, without even being threatened.  Not a gamechanger.  Just stupid and annoying.

The Black Hole at the edge of the map

• If you drive an enemy to the mapEdge, it will actually  be harder to defeat them.  Stupid and annoying.

Moving or Firing? Your guess is as good as mine 

• I've had to restart battles often because my artillery units are marching bravely - if foolishly - directly into the enemy lines.  This is because the graphics for MOVE and FIRE are almost identical.  There is no obvious on-screen visual cue to differentiate between these two different commands. Stupid, annoying, and unnecessary.

Radical Concept:  UNDO during Army-building phase

• Doesn't really need to be explained - does it? Stupid,and annoying, because it's so necessary.

 

Edited March 29 by dixiePig

[Doubles44]

Hey, I'm having trouble getting the mod to work. I downloaded the mod and extracted it to the Data folder but it is not asking me if I wish to overwrite the Assembly-CSharp.dll and resources.assets, and when I load up the game with the folder extracted it does not work. What am I doing wrong?