Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Improvement Mod version 5.4

After almost an year later the newest installer powered release has arrived! Its the biggest update ever and it couldn't have been possible without the mod's patcher. The patcher is also one of the main reason's for why I need to release this as fast as possible, because the 5.2 patcher cannot connect to the content server anymore creating problems for a lot of new players.

Is it the last big update? Probably not but I can't promise anything right now, lots of things going on and, well I just realised how damn fast time passes and I don't know how much I'll work on the mod in the future.

Remember that if you've used the patcher before then this update is nothing new to you, still for those interested here's what the update changes:

- tweaked the AI military
- added a new USA HomeCity
- added moving wakes for all naval units
- fixed ships space blocks, which results in better formations, better maneuvering for canoes and overall more realistic naval battles
- Aging Up changes
-- starting with Age3, Minutemen, Warriors, Irregulars and Peasants get damage and HP bonuses with every age
-- the Colonial Age (Age2) now costs 800 Food and 200 Wood; more changes are planed for Age1 and Age2
-- each Age increases villager limit by 10, made possible by the increased max pop (see below)
- fixed ranged cavalry melee attacks; enemy units must be very close for the ranged cavalry to switch to melee
- improved mercenaries distribution on Asian maps
- the Winked Knight can now only be obtained through the German Command Centers card
- improved/tweaked/updated the "Blood, Ice and Steel" campaign, scenarios and cutscenes
- added butterflies to berries and cherry orchards...
- melee cavalry now fight more dynamic and realistic
- European Houses can now train and manage livestock like Livestock Pens
- the Livestock Pen is now the East European food producing building, replacing the Bakery
- all newly created European Home Cities now get the Royal Decree card for free
- added the Miner as Mercenary on American and Asian maps
- 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...
-- there is a small continous trickle of Fame for all Europeans
-- it can be gathered from Town Centers by Envoys; Aging Up rewards Fame
-- it can be used on Church and Royal Decree techs
-- it can be used on special 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
- important changes made to Revolution!; after revolting...
-- you can still train 10 Settlers
-- military units can be trained in blocks of 10, instead of 5 (also added this to the Native Confederacy Support tech)
-- you get a new infinite Factory card, although Factory build limit is 3
-- Outpost build limit is increased by 4
- 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!
- all European politicians are unlocked from level 10 (wasn't fair before)
- added the Lancer to the Dutch (the Spanish Lancer is still better)
- changed how European Minutemen and Asian Irregulars work, now they are infinite but you can call out a new group only after the previous group got to 1 HP
- added the Black Powder Boat to all Native civs
- added historical names to Town Centers for all civs
- further improved all Revolution civs; Revolution is now a very viable option
- added the Sowar to the Ottomans (the Indian Sowar is cheaper to upgrade)
- enabled another AoE2 lost feature, height bonus attack damage, which means that units which are on higher ground, like hills, do slightly more damage to units that are on lower ground
-- the bonus is very small but its there
-- the higher the ground the bigger the bonus
-- if you thought this was already enabled you are mistaken
- improved and tweaked all vanilla and TWC campaign scenarios and most cutscenes
- added Hotkeys for all  the new units and buildings added by the mod
- further improved civ bonuses, each European civ is now more unique (read each civ's description for more info)
- fixed the Japanese Monks' healing animation
- increased maximum population capacity to 300
-- House, Village, Longhouse, etc. build limit increased to sustain the increased population; Teepee's now sustain 5 pop
-- you start with 200 max pop and each Age adds another 20 pop to the limit; the Chinese and British get 40 free pop in the Imperial Age
-- you can achieve 300 pop only by researching the Reformed Government tech and by building all available Town Centers
-- the Reformed Government tech now also makes villagers to use no population space
- when advancing to the Imperial Age, Europeans can chose a main political party, each party researches for free a powerful Imperial Age upgrade
-- The Liberal Party researches for free Immigrants
-- The Conservative Party researches for free Aristocracy (Peerage and Spyglass)
- all map native units upgrades are now researched for free once you reach the required Age
- added map territorial Control Flags, capture them to generate more experience points
- Longbowman upgrades and all Mortar, Hand Mortar and Morutaru upgrades now increase maximum attack range (balanced the Mortar a bit more by decreasing its max range and having it re-increased with upgrades)
- added water treasures on American maps (similar to the ones on Asian maps)
- Asian War Tents can now heal nearby units (mini Field Hospitals)
- when destroyed, defensive buildings (Outposts, Castles, Warhuts, etc.) spawn a few Levy units (Minutemen, Warriors, Irregulars)

If you have problems with the UI not displaying resources correctly go to "Options" and press the "Restore Defaults" button!

I thank everybody who played and helped me improve the mod, you are all great and remember, if you find bugs, report them! :)

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Revolutionary

The next installer powered update is close and this time I mean really close, a week away at most, I know I said this before in the last months but this time I really mean it.

So, this is your chance to get involved into the mod's last minute development and add an awesome, revolutionary idea!
And by revolutionary ideas I don't necessarily mean things no one has done before in any other mod, I mean radical, game changing ideas, like the increased population, the control flags, water treasures on all maps, the new euro resource and so on.

Note that the game has many restrictions modding wise, not everything can be made, but if you have an awesome, radical idea don't hold back and share it, it might just be possible and cool enough to become real!

I'll delay the installer release a bit if necessary but if I see no activity in this topic then I'll go ahead and release it earlier.