mods

[BrotherCain]

i have personally played 781 hours on Empire: Total War, and yet never downloaded a mod, i know there is the death.mod, but i see alot of civil war mods, does anyone have links to get great mods or any suggestions on which ones to get.

[Jason]

http://store.steampowered.com

[TheScotsman]

Wow you are missing iut on alot becayuse the darthmod improved the game alot in every area

[BrotherCain]

how does the darthmod improve the game?

[walt]

DarthMod improved the game by adding many new features and effects whilst attempting to fix what was broken in the game. The DarthMod Empire for Empire: Total War currently includes,
> Different mass settings for increased realism in melee fights
> Better musket accuracy balance, making range a much more important factor
> Dagestan overprotectorship bug should be fixed
> The AI have been improved to attack, defend and form lines much more effectively
> Morale is much more dynamic
> Combat animation mechanics tweek, melee fights should look more brutal
> Unit Balance/Costs/Stats changed
> Major CAI improvements. CAI should repair ships more frequently, tries to disband unnecessary units, researches military technology more
> AI Cavalry will not attack so prematurely
> Formation improvements
> Ottoman turn lag issue possible fix
> Land and Naval autoresolve should be much more improved
> Artillery less accurate
> Adds hundreds of unique and new units
> Large amount of graphic and sound mods for weapons, artillery, smoke etc
> Adds selectable gameplay features

Source: http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-empire

[Red Warlord]

Darthmod also features (this is not just a contradiction of Walt, it's what I've seen playing darthmod, but it's still better that the vanilla etw)

Bad things or things that haven't changed in Darthmod
>SUPERPOWERED NATIVE AMERICAN ARMED TRIBESMEN!!!!!!
>Units can suddenly rout for no apparent reason, or just no reason at all
>Lag, Lag, Lag (because of BSM)
>Dagestan gets loads of protectorates for some reason
>AI still attempts to make huge perfect lines right through a large cluster of buildings
>AI, in all respects, is almost exactly the same as vanilla (aka stupid, crap)
>Autoresolve against Indian factions (especially Mughals) is hopeless, no matter what
>Diplomacy is still extremely stupid, annoying and illogical, just like vanilla
>AI cavalry love to charge right away!
>Many unit cards don't look anything like the units themselves
>Extremely unrealistic autoresolve battles in many circumstances

Good things in Darthmod
>Bigger Units
>No more 'Fixed Artillery' (artillery which used to somehow teleport to battlefields but once there could not teleport again until battle was over)
>Cool graphics, textures and skins on campaign map and battles
>England and France have lands in India at the start
>No more exclusive trade ships, all ship crews now understand the concept of money (all ships can trade)
>LOADS OF MONEY to start with, up to 50,000 gold
>All possible factions can be found in custom battles, even 'hidden factions'.
>Huge ship movement range, ships can sail all the way across the mediterranean and beyond in one turn
>Naval battles are more logical and realistic
>Garrisons that aren't just made up of really crap peasants, but include good units and mortars
>The whole atmosphere of the game is better
and much, much more

Sorry Walt, I don't want to discredit you, you are right in many respects, it's just that many things I have seen in Darthmod contradict what you say. Maybe you have a different version (I have version 8.0)

[walt]

I believe I have the same one bud. With regards to what you have said that's fine bud. I was simply listing what was mentioned on the page itself so as to not miss too many things. I've had some issues with the mod myself but overall am very happy with it.

[Red Warlord]

that's cool, I wasn't accusing you or anything mate

[BrotherCain]

ok, i have a HP laptop, regular steam files, i have installed 100's of mods for rome, medieval, mount and blade, etc, but for some reason empire just seems harder to install mods, i cant find any easy to follow steps, can someone explain how plz and i will be very grateful.

[walt]

What mods are you wanting to install bud. It's different for many of them. For DarthMod it's just a case of following the setup instructions and after that, simply using the DarthMod launcher rather than the Steam one.

Most mods will have full instructions on the page where you download them from. I myself only have DarthMod but if you post one you want, I can try help find a way for you to correctly install it.

[BrotherCain]

kk, darthmod really is the one i wanna try, almost 800 hrs of the vanillia version, lol i have a save game for every grand campaign and warpath campaign nation with 50-75 turns on each on very hard difficulty, so i need a change up....but ya so just install darthmod, and dont change the default folder it downloads to?

[Syrealle]

I personally would highly recommend Realism mod http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?1346-Empire-Realism. I have nothing but good things to say about the mod. I never experienced any bugs, lag or several things I've read about Darth mod w/this mod.

Good things:

Significantly improved diplomacy AI
Treaties mean treaties
Signficantly improved economics
(building a road costs massive manpower and money)
Improved recruitment for armed forces
(There arent 6-15 stacks of armies running around in Saxony)
No wall fortifications (except those regions that start w/them)
Much improved morale and morale modifications for a variety of reasons
such as having to wander all over the map and maintain cohesion, fire discipline, ect..
Improved battle AI. AI doesnt just wander around looking for loose change on the ground.
Larger units
Smoke improvements
Improved turn based economic improvements. You wish to build a 6th rate its not going to be ready next turn. You're going to have to plan ahead. 17th century shipyards didnt turn ships out every couple of months. It was built w/hand tools and craftsmanship.


Scrolling up one of the issues I have w/Darth mod is money. Starting money of 50k? Thats
absurd. Obviously we all know AI could be improved, but once your economics are taken
care of, basically the game is over. Its simply a matter of time. With the Realism mod, you
have to really be focused on what it is you wish to spend money on. You cant just go willy-nilly and build 4 stacks of armies in 3 yrs and control the map.

Theres more, but give it a shot. Its a really nice mod. Im very happy I gave it a shot, and that I gave it a week or so to get to know it. Once I did, I dont think I'll need to ever shop for another mod except maybe the Imperial Splender one, which is actually working in cooperation w/Realism now and maybe I wont even have to get w/that one too!!

[walt]

I myself have not had this starting money of 50k when playing DarthMod, so I don't know whether you can get that by simply ticking a box asking for more, or if it's dependant on a specific Faction / Difficulty. I quite like the units that the mod adds into the game and am curious as to whether the Realism Mod adds some in as well, I do quite like the sounds of it however "No wall fortifications" sounds a bit odd. The only benefit I could see there is if you are wanting to take over places and not wanting the challenge of a siege where as realistically people would build up their defences if they believed they were in danger

[Syrealle]

Yes, there are special units. Speciality units and region restriction units. You're not going to recruit line infantry from the North American Indian frontier territories. So you need to plan accordingly. Theres multiple changes that simply make sense. Such as, you can only recruit 8 grenadiers, because they were elite units in the 17th century. Think of it as theres only so many Green Berets, Rangers, Seal teams (or whatever country's special forces everyone posts from, I realize many posting are multi-national).
Or for an example theres only 1 of 1 101 gun- ship of the line available, because there werent masses of these types of ships sailing around the 7 seas.

As to the removal of wall fortifications. Personally I like it, and it was something that I hate about vanilla, and really one of the reasons why I went out looking for various mods in the first place. My gripe about wall modifications is this. Theres sooo many awesome, incredibly varied maps available to fight on and by 1740 or so just about every city is a seige in vanilla, and every region, or single region nation has 3 stacks, a walled garrison and one piddly little cloth weaving shop to support the whole thing. Thats crap. Here I am with my army and all Im doing is blowing down walls and watching line infantry walk thru breach tunnels. I personally much prefer them LINE fighting on various terrain with various features to use or use against other line infantry, cannon, and cavalry. Or they're simply laying in ambush surrounding a flag and watching wave after wave of AI units simply march into their fire to start some stupid timer that they've got no hope of every being around long enough to not rout.

The thing is. When playing vanilla and going against walled fortifications, more times then not I simply auto-resolved the battles because I hate(d) the seige fights so much. With Realism, I get to play out those fights. The results ultimately may still be with me winning 99% of the time regardless, but at least I get to see some gorgeous maps and have to apply some more thought into the fight then simply: blow a wall down, march thru a hole, sit on a flag for 2 mins while the AI scrambles around looking for a way to get down from the walls.

[BrotherCain]

ok whenever i try to download it, it gives me a window error message and then it just doesnt install...any ideas?

[CMDR Herne]

I recomend A Proper Empire - Terra Incognita which I am very pleased with. Haven't tried Imperial Spendour or Empire Realism as of yet.