sniggles

I wish i could drop in more often but life has been a bit hectic of late - damnnn real life - LOL.

I realise it's a formidable statement for a new topic from me after many months away but i don't use it flippantly and have done many days of testing first.

I have REALLY REALLY got back into the game recently and i have decided to bring my original 1.04b version up to date with many new ideas i have been having.

I love the SEE mod and what they have done - and i share a lot of ideas with Naz and Sul about the overall goal of our mods.

I feel there is still a place for my poor old original mod (when i have revamped it) because it can offer some players an alternative or addition to the SEE experience.

E.G. - Although it has no where near the excellent features of SEE it does have a fully functional WOTR and campaign mode and also the CAH works okay and you can save and load any games etc.

Many of these things i'm sure will be fixed over time with the dedication of the SEE team. They will probably expand on it - LOL

OKAY - now introductions are out the way and you all know what i am up to - i want to ask Naz and Sul if i can still post any ideas i come up with on this forum.

I really like you guys and everyone is so much more mature and sensible then the horrible EA forums.

What i would like to do is share my looong experimentation with the complex AI and hopefully give Naz and Sul some ideas to play around with and get everyones opinions.

For instance -

Let's talk THE BIG PICTURE - AI and FEAR!

The SEE team have kept the basic premise of my mod - DEFENSE

All our buildings and units are tougher and so battles last longer and allow you time to think and plan a strategy to hopefully ' OUT THINK ' the AI.

It was the original concept of my mod and why i got into modding BFME2 in the first place and why Naz got so frustrated with the game and startred SEE.

The only downside to this approach is that you lose the FEAR factor of enemy rushes to attack your base early on. We all remember the horrible vanilla game but it did have that sense of 'OH MY GOD' here they come already and KAPOW - all your base buildings are destroyed in seconds - NOT FUN but there was the element of fearing the AI and the possibility of early defeat.

We have lost a lot of that with our approach but gained so much more (try attacking there base early on - LOL - no chance you can rush them and win either)

For a long time i thought that this was an acceptable compromise and indeed it was a lot better then the vanilla approach with 'paper thin' units and fortresses.

NOW I HAVE HAD A BRAINWAVE! .......

I hope a lot of you who love this game can spare 5 minutes to read what i have done to bring that sense of FEAR and possibility of early defeat back into the game.

I have been tinkering with a way to keep the building and unit strenghts high and intact but somehow also get that initial FEAR of possible early defeat back into the game. I think i have really stumbled on a very good way to implement this without radically altering my own mod or the SEE file structures.

The approach is two fold

1) reduce the offensive capability of our defenses so that enemy units are not quickly slaughtered and can actually swarm over us early on and force us to use things like boiling oil or spiderling expansions to survive..

2) make money a much more critical aspect of the game early on so that low tier spells like industry and devastation (think that is what it is called - for harvesting trees etc) are really important to survive the early game period and you will need to think hard on what to buy - finacial mistakes should be devastating.


Okay - achieving target 1)

The answer for me lies in a most innocent set of macros that are so easy to adjust i don't know why we have avoided playing with them before.

The macros are in the gamedata file (water file in SEE) and are basically the ' delay between shots ' control macros for virtually all our base defences.

Have you noticed how fast every single battletower and fortress in the game fires! Just observe - it is pretty unrealistic as well for a simulated archer to fire that fast anyway (apart from maybe Legolas)

You could argue that it is a team of archers firing from the structure but that would mean multiple arrow trajectories (which is only reserved for garrisoned structures) - so in my opinion - fortresses and towers start with a single guard and he is really there to alert the rest of the army and hold off as many as he can untill you bring reinforcements or garrison some archers to make the structure effective (or build multiple towers in the case of fortress expansions)

By GREATLY lowering the delay between shot from milli seconds to actual seconds (1 to 2 seems good in my early testing) we have made our defence more realistic and not impegnable any more.
We have also kept the enemies base defense high since he will always have at least 6 battletowers and all his expansions ready for your onslaught later in the game (with everything upgraded).

In my test battles the TRADE OFF is definetely worth it and the effect on the enemy AI defence is hardly noticable (once it's base is up and running - pretty quick now)

In addition - although this is very optional - i have lowered the attack damage of all my fortresses and towers by about a third - but some of you might think this too extreme.

OKAY - target 1 achieved (in my humble opinion)



Target 2)

MONEY MONEY MONEY - i'm afraid it's time for BFME2 to feel the CREDIT CRUNCH! Why should we be the only ones to suffer! - LOL

The best way i have found to easily reduce our early money income without crippling the AI - is the MONEY_AMOUNT resource income values for farms, outposts and our fortress!

We are still becoming tooo rich tooo early in both the SEE mod and my original mod - money is an essential strategic aspect of the game and is just as important (and hard) to balance as unit strenghts etc.

Those early spells a lot of factions have to increase farm output or get money from killing unit's is just not as important as they should be.

WELL - not anymore - in my tests to really make money critical and important early on you have to reduce farm output by two thirds! TWO THIRDS - WTF - i hear you say!

Vanilla farm output is 30 (rising to about 40 with farm promotions/upgrades) and now i have reduced this to 10 (rising to about 14 at level 3).

Fotress and outposts can be reduced by half or left as they are - it is the farms reduction that is important.

This immediately radically changes the gameplay for the better for a number of reasons.

Maps with outposts are now much more important since you will want to keep control of them as an essential necessity to help with your income and also to prevent the AI getting rich too quick (delay it's attack untill you are ready etc) If you set the outpost income at 80 every 10 seconds compared to 10 every 6 seconds for farms - well - you see my point.

Can make for rather interesting mini battles all over the map as you struggle to hold these points (you really didn't need to bother before)

Also - in my testing - i find i am constantly on the edge of my required money needs in the early game phase and have to reaaly think what i want to upgrade or buy etc. - just as it should be!

It makes purchasing siege kegs or boiling oil etc important as you may not have enough money to get all your towers up and running and besides they fire slower now and do less danage - DECISIONS DECISIONS!

Your defensive structures are no longer so powerfull that once you have 2 or 3 arrow towers up and running (with fire) - you can literally go and make a cup of tea and leave the game running - I've done it - LOL.

In mid to late game though i still have adequate money but not so much that i don't have to worry about my income. Money is an important feature during the whole skirmish battle now as it should be.

In testing it really affects your income and buy strategy when the AI starts destroying your resource buildings - it didn't really matter before as long as you had 4 or 5 good level 3 farms protected by your fortress - WELL - not anymore - every penny counts!

OKAY - sorry to woffle on - i love this game so much.

Target 2 achieved (again - in my opinion and through many days of testing)

Right - be very interested in your opinions and i will paste the settings i am currently using below for anyone that wants to try them out and put the FEAR back into BFME2 and SEE.

IMPORTANT - most of you don't need to be reminded but for newbies reading this -

ALWAYS MAKE A BACK UP COPY OF ANY FILE BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT ANY CHANGES.

In this case the WATER.INI file.

Located in SEE / data / ini / default


Tower and Fortress attack timings i used......


#define GONDOR_STRUCTURE_ARCHER_BOW_PREATTACKDELAY 20
#define GONDOR_STRUCTURE_ARCHER_BOW_DELAYBETWEENSHOTS_MIN 1000 // 20 (in milli secs = 1 second)

#define GONDOR_STRUCTURE_ARCHER_BOW_DELAYBETWEENSHOTS_MAX 2000 // 50
#define GONDOR_STRUCTUR_ARCHER_BOW_FIRINGDURATION 20

#define KEEP_BOW_PREATTACKDELAY 20 // 5
#define KEEP_BOW_DELAYBETWEENSHOTS_MIN 1000 // 20
#define KEEP_BOW_DELAYBETWEENSHOTS_MAX 2000 // 50
#define KEEP_BOW_FIRINGDURATION 20 // 5


Resouce building income

#define ELVEN_MALLORN_TREE_MONEY_AMOUNT 10 // 30
do the same for other 5 resource buildings



Tower and Fortress attack damage - OPTIONAL

#define STRUCTURE_BOW_DAMAGE 50 // 75

#define KEEP_BOW_DAMAGE 50 // 75
#define KEEP_BOW_UPGRADED_DAMAGE 60 // 75


Be very interested in your opinion guys and give it a go - it may need some minor tweaking to make it more easier but it works.

Vetereran players like me and most of you should just try my settings for now - BOY - is it a challenge!

All the best,

Mark.