Thursday, January 31, 2013

Fame-ous Update

And it's out! Please note that there still is an annoying bug that I couldn't fix yet, related to European houses, settlers and the AI... I will fix it, but it was taking too long so I released the update with it.

At this point I kinda recommend a re-installation of the game and mod, simply because some stuff has been removed from the mod and might still be present in your game and, well do it only if you think it's necessary, if you experience problems or things don't behave as I describe them.

So what does the update contain? Well, new stuff for everyone, Europeans, Natives, Asians, and Revolution civs.

Europeans got the new expected resource, Fame, which can be used on all kind of stuff, from Home City cards to techs and armies. The second thing Europeans got are Fort banner armies, which are basically the Consulate armies Asians get.
I don't think it was fair how Asians got so many units at once for basically free, since Export doesn't really cost anything. So, I added the Consulate armies to each corresponding civ, trainable at the Fort, changed their cost to gold and Fame, and voila!

Revolution civs and Natives got bigger training blocks. What does it mean? It means that I doubled the number of units they can train at once, from 5 to 10. Revolution civs get it for free and Natives get it from the new Confederacy Support tech. Natives can also call an Euro Expeditionary Brigade, similar to the Consulate ones, from the Native Embassy.
I really think that with these additions, Rev civs and Natives got a lot more stronger. Also, to help Natives, I made all cannon artillery unable to fire from point blank range, which means there needs to be a little distance between them and their target to be able to fire. This makes them very vulnerable to melee attacks.

Asians got some changes in Consulate armies. Just a bit. Not much to do here. They are too perfect...

I plan to take a new approach with Revolution civs, and make them what everybody wants them to be, full featured civs. I'm thinking to give them villagers, Imperial Age upgrades and all the stuff normal civs have. The purpose of Revolution will only be to play as a new American civ, like Mexico, Colombia or USA.
Still thinking on this one.

Other stuff the update brings can be found here...
- added the Miner as Mercenary on American and Asian maps
- changed how Fisheries and Town Centers are placed
- fixed some units with area attack damaging buildings (if you happen to notice melee units damaging buildings with their melee attack, let me know...)
- added a new resource for all Europeans, Fame, which has the following characteristics...
-- it can be gathered from Town Centers by Envoys (improves gather speed in Age4)
-- it can be used on Church and Royal Decree techs
-- it can be used on Royal Armies and Treasury Support cards, and can be exchanged for Shipments at the Capitol
- fixed AI building more than one set of walls
- units are (a little) less likely to get run over by trade units
- Natives can now train Scouts from the Town Center from the beginning of the game
- the Fort can now train armies similar to the Consulate ones; the cost of the army will be cheaper than the overall cost of all units from the army
- changed livestock units for some European and Native civs
- Natives now have WarChief pets enabled form the beginning of the game
- after Revolting, military units can be trained in blocks of 10, instead of 5 (also added to the Native Confederacy Support tech)
- added European Brigades to the Native Embassy for all Native civs
- artillery can't fire from point blank anymore, which makes them incredibly vulnerable to melee attacks, so protect your artillery!

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The big Fame update is coming really soon, I just have one annoying bug to fix, but before that I have another question for you all.

I was suggested to change how military units look, once again.
Instead of having them change their skins and/or models, basically their entire look, when upgraded (Veteran, Guard, Imperial and Native and Asian counterparts), now they will have all skins/models available from the beginning and have them randomized for the most variety possible.

This has both upsides and downsides...
The upsides are of course the nice visual refreshment and realism resulted from such a variety.
The downsides are that map natives (like Huron or Apache) and mercenaries have only one skin/model, which means no variety for them...
Also, players might get a bit confused and forget what upgrade they researched for their units.

And I plan to change this a bit, and have all units back to using the same skins/models once upgraded to Imperial, again trying to make it more realistic. It's normal to have rugged and uneven units in the Discovery and Expansion ages, but as you progress in time and become more advanced and civilized, you need to have clean and organized units, all using the same uniform. Sounds logical to me.

So, what do you think? Please vote in the poll.
Thank you.

76 comments:

  1. You did not answer, I proposed to make 0 pop settlers only for Native Americans
    Or propose to make improvements card (0 pop settlers) in all Home City

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. It simply has no place or reason to exist.

      Delete
  2. Speaking of unused units, what are your plans for Roger's Rangers? Currently they are only available at the consulate (which I hope has been fixed).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mandos, if the saker is the first age 2 cannon available to the Spanish, why is it that the artillery foundry is locked for the Spanish at age 2?

      Delete
    2. Wrong. The British can get them form the University, after getting the Royal Decree card.

      As for the Spanish, I thought I fixed that...

      Delete
    3. Okay thanks, I will just trying updating it again, maybe that will fix it, because it seems you don't announce releases anymore, so perhaps I didn't know. Anyway, thank you so much.

      Delete
    4. Well I don't have what to announce yet, I will soon.
      The Spanish one is indeed a bug and will be fixed with the fame update.

      But Roger's Rangers has always been a special, British Church/University thing.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  3. I really like your work
    Thanks dude

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the skins would be a great change. However I still think howitzers are too unbalanced in attacking land units due to its attack power. Just an opinion tho

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. I think having mortars attacking land units is a good thing, only that it's too powerful, therefore I suggest damage multipliers that decrease damage done against Infantry and Calvary units.

      Delete
  5. Is there any way to tell what version of the mod I have in-game? I'm not sure if the patcher is working for me. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you run it, it gives you no error and it says it's up to date, then you're all good.

      Delete
    2. Maybe I'll add something to distinguish versions this update.

      Delete
  6. Hey Mandos, what are your plans for the coutelier?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll probably scrap him...
      I mean, he doesn't fit really well. I tried to create a new, unique unit, but he is too inconsistent, visually and stats wise.

      Delete
    2. Speaking of units; after some research, it is claimed that the mounted crossbowmen were used as anti-infantry skirmishers. So I suggest that the mounted crossbowmen's reload time be doubled, and the multipliers changed to heavy infantry. The dragoons can still be added to fill the role of anti Calvary.

      Thanks for reading.

      Delete
    3. A good idea, if the French didn't already had 3 cav units, from which 2 are unique.

      4 cav units from which 3 unique to a single civ?
      Not in this lifetime...

      Delete
  7. what are the things you have deleted? and why?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...
      Various little things, like the Rifleman bug which was present for a long time, to fix it you had to delete a file.
      But I already talked about this a while ago so don't ask me what file.
      Search on the blog.

      Delete
  8. Hey Mandos, good job on updating the mod as always.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mandos, you what, wanted to play on ESO?
    your mod is not compatible with ESO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who said I want to play on ESO?
      I just want the game on Steam so it can help me mod better, since I need to re-install the game many times and having it on Steam would make everything much faster.

      Delete
  10. Hello Mandos, there seems to be no bugs so far but I have some questions and suggestions.

    1. Removing the coutelier HC card for the French; it just doesn't belong there. This will effectively scrap the coutelier because there will be no way in game to access coutelier.

    2. Removing the British age 1 barracks bonus. The bonus doesn't belong, at least not to the British IMHO, considering their theme is economic boom and early naval map control. Instead I suggest a new HC card called team cheap trading posts or team quick building trading posts for the British as their new bonus, since the Euro nations are not diversified enough.

    3. Perhaps make artillery pieces convertible when units get very close, such as melee range? That would make having cannons with your army a double edged sword and open new tactics.

    4. Allowing Calvary units to run through and damage enemies in trample mode, kind of like the trade cart. The current trample mode only gives AOE, but decrease the attack power of your Calvary, increases the damage dealt to your Calvary, and slows down the Calvary's movement speed, making it somewhat useless that it's never used. So I suggest this remake of the trample mode, after all it should be cool to see your Calvary run over the enemy position to trample them, not having them slow down to a trot and get slaughtered.

    You're going to hate me for this next one, but it will be my last attempt on the subject;

    5. And I think I found a way to reintegrate the Dragoon back into the French. By taking out the Hussars. Early or Late game, most people use the Cuirassier or the Lancer unit and completely ignore the Hussar when they either fast fort or colonial boom when playing as the Spanish or the French. So I suggest replacing the Hussar for the French with the Craniquer, basically turning the Craniquer into a ranged Hussar, but with slower reload, and without the range multiplier against heavy Calvary and artillery. Subsequently putting the Dragoon back into it's original place as the light Calvary.

    Thanks for reading, and good luck on getting a version of AOE 3 on Steam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are some bugs but I'm working on them.

      1. Yes, of course.

      2. Not a bad idea, but, isn't there already a card for that? Can't remember everything...

      3. Uhm... It's not bad but... It's too big of a change, people will not like it.

      4. Already tried it, not possible. Trade units can do that because they are tied to the trade route and nothing can stop them. I do want to improve trample mode but I need something else.

      5. I hate making hard decisions... Again, not a bad idea but a radical one. Will think on it.

      Thanks, but people don't seem to care enough about the mod to make a small contribution. And because of the Steam trading and because I saw many AoE3 for trade, it really is a small contribution. Just that I don't have what to trade for it.

      Delete
    2. You can always have a poll to see if the changes would be welcomed or not. Now I think most people think you already own your own copy of Age of Empires 3, which you do to make this mod, so they see no point in making the small contribution on Steam. It's also because it's 39.99 USD, 29.99 Euros (I think), which is quite expensive for people, perhaps you should wait for the Summer or Spring sale for it. Alternatively, you can put an Ad.fly link on the download, so when people download you gain a small ad revenue, allowing you buy it eventually. Or put in a donate button. But please have a poll for these options first.

      Thanks for reading.

      Delete
    3. Sorry for double posting, but for number 2 there is card like that, but it's for the Chinese. It gives them a free trading post cart and enables it to be cheaper. I am proposing the card be a team card, reduce cost and build speed.

      Thanks for reading.

      Delete
  11. Rather a bug, than a feature
    the transition to the 4age for U.S.A, proposed fort, but if a player has already built a other fort, this fort is no longer available
    correct me

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right, but, what if the player didn't build a Fort until then?
      Then he gets a free Fort without using a shipment, because the HC Fort costs 1 shipment.

      Anyway, the current USA civ will get scrapped.
      You gotta wait for more details.

      Delete
    2. all still have to raise the limit of the forts +1
      to be able to build it

      Delete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mandos, after playing a while, I notice some bugs or strange things, so I am now back with more questions;

    Units/structures cost inflations and are in-consistent, one of such is plantation, which is available in age 2 now instead of three, and starts from the original 800 wood and goes to 1200 wood after aging up to age 3 before going back down to 800 wood in age 4. Similarly, pikemen and crossbow men units are 44 food and wood in age 2, going to 40 food and wood in age 3, the dopplesoldner goes from 75 food 125 gold to 83 food 117 coin after aging up. Very strange to me as these price "inflation" were not mentioned in the newest update.

    Thanks for reading.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I made the Plantation available from Age2 because of the Rice Paddy, which is available from Age1 and it can generate Coin from Age1 so it wasn't fair for Euros and Natives.

      I said from the beginning of the mod that some small changes, like the Plantation age change, could not be mentioned.

      As for the price changes, WTF...? I don't even know what or where to look for...

      There is another big update coming with bug fixes and some nice improvements for most Europeans regarding Hussar uniqueness.

      Delete
    2. Hey Mandos, I wasn't asking about the availability ages of buildings, but the lowered age requirement fits quite nicely with the increased in price of aging up, although I wish age ups were back to their original price.

      For the price change bug, I am also baffled and is trying to reproduce these problems. These problems occurred while I played as the French and the Prussians.

      BTW, the icons (build hammer, treasure chest, farm steak) sometimes do not show up, and the game have to be reloaded for them to be fixed.

      Delete
  14. Hello Friend, this being very good mod.

    But there are things missing or needed. For example.
    :::::::::::::::::::: Artificial Intelligence - AI Mainly. ::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::

    1). The enemies explorers never can captured treasures or kill the guardians of treasure., People play in Skirmish mode. Be Single or multiplayer and one against the CPU. And there are always treasures in the Map. always . Only for you.

    2). The AI, Enemy CPU, built several walls walls, prevents the passage of troops, but I think this problem is already aware that is solved ....

    '' Capitol
    - Fixed AI building more than one set of walls''

    3). Enemy AI. No trained European mercenaries, only the Dove. and if it does it does in a smaller amount. The AI Need Train many Lansdknechts, Elmetis, Ninjas, Stradiots, Fusiliers, Black Riders. Etc.

    3). Most nations in Skirmish, ie only at the beginning creates AI armies, after a while concistencia decreases in generating more troops, I think that if you improve to imperial age, should be more difficult. Generate Large Armies..

    4). You could make the AI Generate variety of troops and large proportions of Diferent Units?.

    5). Population Could Set 250 for all Nations, and China with 270 population limit.

    6). The AI ​​is able to capture trading posts and create natives, You can to Improve Levels The legendary and attack in large numbers?.

    7). You could make or attempt to make the AI;;,; Take this possibility to attack in large squads at once?. Example., If pasaren five minutes and does not attack. But the sixth minute. will attack you with all you need ... and after consistent attacks, and no matter what I do have a strategy. but change the attack time intervals. generated so that troops and has also defended the city center.

    These details are important to better enjoy the Mod may say that it is very difficult to edit the AI. If I understand. but at least you can access it. You can add Fame resource, new mercenaries, Buildings, and the AI ​​is capable of creating new buildings and train new Merncearios like Dove. I also think you have improved the Walls,,,,, you could try to improve some of these 7 steps above please?, At least try. Mod is to improve, to make it much better. Since many play, people play in Skirmish mode.

    For you Attention.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there.

      Please stop asking for advanced AI changes, I am not an AI coder, I know only basic AI stuff, I can't achieve any of those suggestions, sorry.

      I tried many times to improve the AI but as you can see I didn't succeed very well.

      Mercenaries are very expensive and take too much population, if I make the AI use more mercs then they will have even smaller armies because they will spend resources and space on the expensive mercs.

      The maxim population in TAD is 250, you can't add more.

      Delete
    2. why not reduce the price of mercenaries?

      Delete
    3. YSHY, please play on higher difficulties, the enemy explorer do actually go hunting for treasure and the enemy makes plenty use of Mercenaries based on ages. There is no need for AI changes with the exception of AI on water maps.

      Roman, I agree with this, mercs should be cheaper in general.

      Delete
  15. Hi. Thanks for this massive update!!! I can't wait for the bug fixes !!! Thank you so much!!!
    Anyways, why do Americans not spawn envoys? Is this a bug or intentionally?
    Also, When I get the shipment for the command post into a command center, nothing happens.

    I guess Americans are going to have a massive change, so I'll just play with other countries (maybe Japan or England).

    Thank you SO much for this AWESOME mod!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, and thank you.

      Americans... They will kinda lose support. I plan on scraping the Americans I made. I tried so hard to make them perfectly fit into the game but I kinda failed. I simply am not happy with the results.

      So, I plan to remake how Revolution works, and make the Americans and other Revolution nations play like European nations, with villagers and unique units.

      It's a bit complicated and I haven't fully figured it out yet but more details will come soon.

      Delete
    2. I see. Thanks for your answer! :)

      Well, that's awesome!!! I always found the Revolution option very useless. When I first used it , I thought everything would change and I would have new soldiers , settlers , etc.

      Though, I got dissapointed by this. So I almost never used it (except when I had like 100 redcoats and 50 hussars).

      Anyways, I am really happy with this! Actually I enjoyed Americans VERY much!
      Just something I would love to say/ask! If you add Americans as nations (like USA or Brazil or Canada), make British change into USA please! I think it's lore friendly too. But I really want to play as British (my favorite European country) and then PUFF! I am playing with America!!!! LoL

      Anyways, I'll be waiting for the details!!!

      Delete
    3. Hi! I just played as Japanese and I trained some Miners (and Repentant Miners). None of them are able to gather gold from rice paddies (only from mines). Is this intentionally?

      Delete
    4. Ops... That's a bug.
      Th Miner should be able to gather all types of crates and gather Coin from mines, plantations and rice paddies.
      Will fix it in next update.

      Delete
    5. Whoa wait your scrapping the Americans? Whats wrong with them? I think personally they are a good faction to play with. One of the main reasons I grabbed up the mod in the first place :P

      Delete
  16. "Americans... They will kinda lose support. I plan on scraping the Americans I made. I tried so hard to make them perfectly fit into the game but I kinda failed. I simply am not happy with the results."
    Hm Mandos... Why you think you failed ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well... I didn't failed entirely but...
      You might know the plans I had to replace the Aztecs or Dutch with the USA to properly integrate it, and I did tests on these plans, they worked, but... The civ still feels cheap, unprofessional, unfinished, not as good as the vanilla ones.

      I am a perfectionist and I couldn't achieve perfection with the USA I made.
      Plus, as you might have noticed, I thrive for fairness and equality, and it wasn't fair for the other Revolution civs to be left behind.

      I will not remove the USA I made, but I will not work on it anymore either. Instead, I plan on using Revolution to properly create new civs, 8 new civs to be more exact. They will be similar to each other but different from their mother civs.

      This is a project for the future and I haven't fully figured it out yet.
      It's hard doing everything alone. But this is how I like it.

      Delete
    2. So what will You concentrate on next Mandos? Finishing the campaigns maybe?

      Delete
    3. Oh yeah, that...
      I think I'll start working on that but I won't mind my self too much with the "Fire and Shadow" home city because it's too fucked up and it would take ages to fix. I'll just improve the scenarios and civ.

      The TAD campaign doesn't really need too much work, it was well polished. Except for one thing that got stuck in my head since I first played it. In the India campaign there's an awesome cut scene where the map is really fucked up. Gonna certainly fix that.

      Delete
    4. Mandos: Hm, it's explained then...
      Although, the fun of new civs is when they do not look like vanilla...(Look Wotta, in example)

      Delete
  17. Having issues using the Americans. For some reason all my resources are in the wrong categories. Anyone else experiencing this?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Whn I buy the Envoy the unit doesn't appear even though it says the number of envoys I have on the unit pic. Is it supposed to be like that? Also, I'm against the varied unit skins and models.
    On a final note I'd also like to thank you a lot for creating this absolutely amazing mod. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jez... I don't know why the hell this is happening to other people, same with the Sioux villager.
      They work for me, I checked them over and over again and nothing is wrong, yet everyone except me has problems...

      I will have a look again but...

      Delete
  19. I will list all the bug's that have occurred while playing as the American's.
    1. Somehow I can't place forts?
    2. Consolation with other Civilizations is disabled presumably due to the Fame update.
    3. Like mentioned, Envoy's do not appear when bought.
    4. AI still build walls into my town. :C

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The American civ I made is not being supported anymore, meaning it will not get any fixes nor anything else.
      I said it a few times by now, I will try to approach the American civs from a different way.

      Delete
  20. "changed how Town Centers are placed"

    What did you change? I haven't noticed what you done. By the way, there's something wrong with rotating Town Centres, you can't build a rotated town it'll only build in its default position. Is that fixable? You can rotate it on a non-buildable area just fine but when you place on a buildable area it'll immediately return to normal.

    Also regarding Town Centres... Europeans still have the "Export" resource on the UI.. is that meant to be there? I reinstalled TAD and it still appears. It's kinda annoying since I can't see how much Fame I've got.

    "artillery can't fire from point blank anymore"

    This appears bugged.. at least for me. I've noticed artillery (more specifically Falconets) attempt to fire at close range, sometimes they deal damage, sometimes they don't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, so you didn't notice how you cannot place a new TC anywhere near your starting TC which is extremely obvious...?

      No they don't. When I first released the update it was indeed bugged but I fixed it 3-4 days ago.

      It depends, I made the minimum range 2 which means the enemy must be really close for the artillery to ne unable to fire.
      If I would have made it bigger then it would make artillery to shitty.

      Run the patcher, check everything again and report back.

      Delete
    2. No need for the rudeness now is there? If you detailed it in the release notes then I wouldn't of asked. I never build more than 1 TC so I obviously didn't have a clue.

      Ran the patcher, Fame is on the UI, rotating TCs... no?

      Delete
    3. I'm not really rude, I mean I am but, that's how I talk. You can look around and see.

      Rotating TCs is pretty impossible from what I've seen. Dunno why, it's just hardcoded.

      Delete
  21. Hi once again! I'm just playing with British and I revoluted. I have a new soldier/builder in the TC called Sapper and his icon is like Miner's, but he is missing his textures (is black). I can only see his hat and axe (like the miner). Is it my games problem or just a missing texture?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Damn it, what's wrong now...
      Gonna look into it right away.

      Delete
    2. Okay! Thank you! :)

      Delete
  22. Hi
    Don't really know where to post this, but anyway I had a suggestion for you: Can you somehow make it possible for the iro & Souix to do a holy macarena at the fire pit which will spawn deers or Bisons?
    But then you may want to remove the fulling mills card for the iro, because otherwise they will get too powerful because food n stuff

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excuse me, did you say "holy macarena"...? Because my mind immediately jumped to the Macarena song and I loled.XD

      Natives already have cards that spawn hordes of bison at the Town Center, if I remember correctly.
      Also, creating new dances is extremely advanced stuff and what I understood a while ago is that dances might even be hrdcoded, meaning you can't modify them or create new ones.

      Either way, I will not touch dances.

      Delete
    2. Yes indeed the Sioux are able to send a shitload of bisons, but the iros aren't. I already mapped out a very nice strategy spamming deers with the Iros :(
      Next question: can you add more cards like the bison cards the Sioux have for the Iros?

      Delete
  23. Hi! I have just noticed something. As a Japanese, when I build the Church which is being provided by the Dutch research at the Consulate, I can't use the Mercantilism research 'cause it requires 500 Fame :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that is a problem. I will make the Japanese one cost only gold.

      Delete
    2. Also, Skull Knights don't use their Siege Attack when they hit buildings.

      Delete
    3. Except if this attack is like a normal attack with their club-like things.

      Delete
    4. Yes, the Skull Knight building attack is a melee attack.

      Now, if you can, please help me with my latest community request. :)

      Delete
  24. That's great you released it! But, could you please make an .exe(or even a .rar) for it? The patcher doesn't want to work for me....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After I release the Town Center names update + an update to integrate a new building I will start to work on the TWC campaign and release version 5.3 with an installer.

      Why doesn't the patcher work for you? Try downloading a newer one, there's a link here and in the right side of the blog.

      Make sure the patcher isn't blocked by your antivirus and run it as administrator, it should work.

      Delete

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