Thanks again for the feedback and here are my anwers:

1. No need for different stats, the differences of artillery units manifests itself in the projectile and abilites. The crew men were trained similar and therefore have similar stats.

2. Iron Brigade is a bug. I simply forgot to cap it.

If you look close enough, you see a visual difference with the western units ;) - confeds have frock coats mixed in, and the union soldiers have sometimes a black hardee hat.

I'm not a fan of different stats for confed and union units. The game should be still balanced. You should win by using better tactics and not because your units have better stats. And I don't think that people pay so much attention on which unit has which stats during a heated battle. Therefore different stats only make the game confusing. And one point more or less does not make so much difference.

And everybody says that the confederate soldiers had a higher morale then union soldiers.... to be honest, I don't buy it. Confed soldiers are no superhumans. For every outstanding confederate regiment i will find an union regiment which fought just as well.

Ok, First thing is - I'm a Union man, and I understand that there were no "super confederates".

But it's not about the different regiments, both sides had hero units. And that's what unique units are for - the Empire total war Civil war mod there are ton of them. It's about the majority of both armies.

First of all I must say, that what I proposed - For the balance sake as well! But the thing is - just making units equal and call it balance is the simplest way. And it's not right to pick simple ways, in my book.

The Trick is - to make the Both, differ and balanced at the same time. If you'd read my feedback carefully, you would see that. What I propose is to give them both strong and weak sides! And for both factions their own!

Because right now, the only difference the both sides have is the color of their uniform, so to speak.

Even though I prefer union, I would like to try Confederacy as well, to feel something different. And there is nothing different between them literally.

What I suggest is to make the factions unique feeling. With both strength and weaknesses to balance out.

Union would be better trained armed and equipped.

Confederacy would have famous fierce melee skills and morale.

And both would have east\west variations that would differ too!


The balance would be made on mutual differences, rather then on complete similarity.

Simple balance is boring.

Complex balance is entertaining.

On the point of how to make - It's your call, I only gave an example. I know that Confederate "Super morale" is something of a myth. In a lot of situations, Union soldiers exampled an almost (sometimes literally) suicidal bravery.

But even myths are usually based on something. To speak frankly, even the Idea of fighting much superior in every point Union, would make rebels quite brave to begin with.

And they are known for much more successful melee charges through the whole war.

So I suggest giving them morale boost just for the sake of the balance. Since you'd have to seriously reduce their range for the history reasons. I mean the volunteer units, since if you put in known unique units, you'd have to give them proper arms, and rebels did have rifles.

That's why i suggested reducing it to 120 instead of 150, to give a picture of mixed weaponry they had.

And most southern militia had smooth bore so I suggested making it around 90-100.

And most of union militia would have their morale reduced for sake of balancing out good armament.

It's pure logic, + a compromise with a "popular opinion" on "token" characteristics of both sides of the conflict.

What I'm trying to say is that just making them totally equal is BORING. Differences could variate, but right now - the feel totally the same.

It's up to you, if you want to make changes.

And believe me - it does make difference. God, look at the Empire TW version! It has the difference. And Napoleon too! Why Shogun 2 deserves less?

Listen, my whole point is - it should be both tactics and strength/weakness thing! Because that's what the real life was like. Good planing INCLUDES using your forte, and enemy's weakness. That's what the warfare actually is.

And the battles would be much more heated that way - because the differences in both stats and tactics would force people to invent new ways, to think and endure, to win by planing and wit.

Right now... Well the game is too predictable. If unit's stats are the same, it's all about positioning, not your abilities.

What I suggest is to make the mod, in which a successful charge could make the whole difference of battle. Right now - it doesn't.

It's becoming repetitive more and more. And there's nothing good in it.



On the point of artillery - as I already said, rifled cannons were both longer shots, and more accurate then smooth bore guns. That's a scientific and historical fact.

And howitzer should be more like howitzers. Right now they are simple cannons. I understand, that's a problem of the game engine. Both Empire TW and Napoleon already had this mechanics, there were cannon\howitzer difference by default, and from what I see - Shogun 2 lacks it.

But srlsy! Right now - 6lb guns, 12lb howitzers and 12lb napoleons have the same stats. That's ridiculous! I got the shell difference, but it's still not enough - you could make a poll on it, I'm sure people would support me on this.

On a crew point - well it's kind of what I said before - better guns (on the both sides) were usually given to the better teams that performed better then others. Especially with trophy guns of the confederacy.

But on the other hand, since TW already has exp stats, it's not that important, probably.

Though I'd still suggest increasing smooth bore guns reloading speed, for the reason of historical accuracy.


And you didn't answer me about the cap for unique units. I got that Iron brigade is a bug. But what I suggested is, for the time being, since the mod lacks unique units, to give the games more diversity - to cap regiments to 2 units, and brigade - for 4 units each. Just for the sake of fun. :D

Oh! and one more thing! Ammo! Yeas, Ammo! Confederates should be, overall, less supplied, than Union - That would really both make sense and make games more interesting - Rebels would strife for the quick victory, until their resources vanish, federals on the opposite, would want to drag the battle on, to force Confederates to either charge or withdraw.

I don't suggest reducing it by half (it would probably only make sense for militia), but even slightest reduce would make the difference.

And to balance it out - you could make rebel units a little cheaper!

It would be really nice.

You have good points (I like the ammo idea!) but still want to comment some things.

1) Stats and complexity

Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that my stats are perfect atm, but my philosphy regarding stats is "simplicity before complexity" - because complexity makes the game... complex.

Good that you mention the ETW: ACW mod. The approach of the last team is exactly what I DON'T want to do. They added a lot of "named" regiments with minimal stat differences, which is fun for the acw nerd ("I choose the 1234th texan regiment because they did so well at the battle near my hometown") but not for normal people who simply get confused by the mass.

And do complex stats really make a difference on the battlefield? I tend to believe it's more a mental thing... It feels like complexity and fun, but in the end most people just stuff units together and place them somewhere in the frontline and let them shoot. (And to be honest, i don't get your critique that placement is more important then units... Commanders don't think "♥♥♥♥, there are the Tigers, which unit should i choose?!" They think, "Damn, the enemy seized the highground, how can i throw them back?")

So before i fiddle around with different stats, i will add specialised units and abilites for the factions to give them a unique feeling. For example the union will get lancers and the lightning brigade, the rebels a "rebel yell" etc. In this area i'm very open for suggestions.

2) Artillery

I agree that some pieces need different stats, like the howitzers and 6lb. Because they are "early" and therefore should get worser stats. But i think with stats of smoothbores vs rifled guns you are mixing two different things.

One thing are the technical specifications the other thing are abilities of the crew members.

The technical differences of smoothbores and rifled guns are already implemented in the mod, and you should not just look at the stats, but rather on what the units can do and what not.

I have to say, that I think you are quite unfair about my artillery system. The stats are the same yes, but the pieces itself have very very different abilites! Have you noticed that 3in Ordnance grenades don't ricochet (while 12lb napoleon does), or that Howitzers are very useful in broken up terrain, while 10lb Parrotts are not? On the other hand Parrot guns have a powerful percussive shell, while 3in guns have shrapnel shot.

3) Conclusion

So, thats my ideal setup. Not that historical, but each unit has abilites which gives them a unqiue feeling. Before i fiddle around with arbitrary unit stats (which i already do btw, zouaves have better melee skills then line inf) i prefer to add units with special abilites or weaponary, which have their worth in different situations.

Again, I'm not saying that my actual setup is perfect. It's the absolute minimum of what is needed to have interesting sp&mp battles. Next step is to flesh out differences and add faction specific units and abilites. I think that just editing stats without visual guidelines (like zouaves = good melee) makes the game confusing.

Greetings

Prim :)

I dunno if this is the place to talk about bugs but for some reason when in the Custom Battle screen selecting units when you mouse over any N&S unit a giant grey box takes up most of your screen, and in the battle, the units have no names. Makes learning the units nearly impossible

Swicht to english localisation and see if you ahve other mods installed in your data folder. Try to verify the game files.

Sorry for not replying, I'll do big and complete answer soon.

hi! very good job with this mod :)-- but i have noticed that the state militia units equipped with smoothbore muskets have the same range of the units with rifles... ok they have less accuracy and roload time but i think the difference is not proportioned with the actual difference... i would suggest to reduce at list the range of the smoothbores to 100, with a gun of that type to hit something farer then 80m is almost impossible

Some of the American units on my screen carry a confederate flag instead...Is there a way to fix that?

Originally posted by Milkman:

Some of the American units on my screen carry a confederate flag instead...Is there a way to fix that?

Heres a screenshot: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=854953582

Not really, that's a bug which appears for no good reason.

I can't play either side i downloaded it twice but i can't play the Union or the CSA

Just curious, do you installed shogun and fots from DVD or direct download from steam?

@Primergy the Great you should make these usable as foreign aid in the fall of the samuri DLC campaign so they can used in the single player cause that would make this mod even better

I think it would be cool to add marines, like those who were fighting at Fort fisher and other naval battles in which the Union landed by sea and fought on land. Confederate marines, sure, but there were only a few thousand Confederate marines, so Union marines definitely, confederate marines I wouldn't mind either. I also encourage the inclusion of navies, which aren't in yet I don't think, I haven't checked in a while.

Also, militia should maybe have shorter range. They have smoothbore muskets but the same range. I like the decreased accuracy which is good. Something I would LOVE would be custom maps for this mod. I know there are a few, but I would love more, but I understand those are probably difficult to make. I would like maps of Gettysburg. There is a Gettysburg map, but it's so small it's unrealistic. I mean numerous maps, maybe a Gettysburg map series. Those are all the suggestions I can think of, and I don't know how realistic they are but they're all things I'd like to see.

Came looking for a fun ACW game for Shogun 2, found it. The only thing is, I really came looking for first-person artillery, and you don't seem to have it. This makes me sad.