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Mod: Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics 5.0

This mod makes changes to the game's battle related AI.

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File Instructions:: Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics

Version 5.0 - Creation Date: December 2, 2007, Release Date: December 2, 2007

This mod is registered in TWC Database of TW Modifications.

This original project is not an open source, it is a freeware - you can use freely all files included for your personal use only. To release in public the officially published version of this mod or any part of it that is originally developed by me (and it doesn't matter if un-modified or modified) is possible only after my written permission.

Description and Using Medieval Total War 2: "Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics"
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This mod is a modification of 4 original files from MTW2: "descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml", "descr_formations.txt" and "descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt", and also reformated "battle_config.xml" file is included. These files define the way in which the AI creates group formations of units in the battles, some features of the battle AI, Human Player formations and speed of units in respective types of terrain. They were expanded and tweaked for more challenging AI and more variety of the AI behaviour during the battles. Don't be afraid of any irreversible damages of your game's installation by implementing of this mod - you can simply remove it at any moment by copy/paste of your original archived files.

This version has been developed and thoroughly tested on the MTW2 1.2 platform (official patch 1.2), but it should be fully functional with leaked MTW2 1.2 pre-patch too eventually.

This mod should be fully saved-game friendly, but nothing is ever 100%, so use only the archived games to be sure you don't lost any information.

The key features:
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This is next step of battle mechanics that have introduced in version 4.0 the various attack formations for MTW2 platform in such manner like it was in RTW. Many modders has claimed that they had created a set of different attack formations for MTW2, but thsi formations have not been used in game, because the engine have use them only in the deployment phase of the battle, and from the start of the battle, only one of them was used in every case.
However, this new feature is revolutionary for the MTW2 game engine to such extent that the apparent new bug in the game's hard-code is de-masqued, as compared with the RTW engine. I have been trying to find out any solution for avoiding the bug caused by introducing the set of new attack formations for MTW2 engine, which is causing passive defensive AI formations. However, I have not been sucessful in this my effort, so the better attack is on cost of more passive AI defense also in version 5.0 of my AI formations for MTW2.

With this technological break-through, I have been able to introduce the fully functioning attack formations of mine from RTW platform, including the so-called "small ones". The impact on the gameplay in battles is huge, in my opinion, compared to vanilla, and also as compared with all other formation's battle mechanics released to-date. There is one exception - CA has decided to remove "pursuing" formations from MTW2, so my small pursuing formations from RTW cannot be used, and the cavalry is a bit less flanking than in RTW with my formations from this reason. Nevertheless, you will have a lot of work to cope with e.g. Mongolian cavalry also in MTW2 with these new AI formations.

The key features of this version of my AI formations for MTW2 are as follows:

- modified the original "Triple line" AI formation template by CA to be able to define various attack formations as explained above ...
There are two new faction-specific historical formations in version 5.0:
1. Byzantine formation for byzantium, and
2. Crescent formation for turks, egypt and moors

- included and partially modified almost all my "RTW formations" for open battles, siege and bridge battles and small formations where applicable (i.e without "pursue" ones) from version 7.0 of my RTW AI formations project. By this way I am introducing also on the MTW2 platform the AI formations of the 3rd generation (i.e. the ones which dont change only placements of units for respective factions, but they are changing the functionality of the units and the whole battle dynamics (as for the theory to this look at the respective threads to the RTW project in TW center forum).

- redefined also several "formation independent" settings in "config_ai_batle.xml", which create overly more aggresive AI behaviour during battles. It was very difficult to find out only the several ones from the huge number of all possible combinations of parameters, the results are relativelly optimal, but I dont state that still better settings of these or some others parameters in this file doesnt exist. Altogether, they are a bit more enhanced compared to the vanilla or previous versions of this mod ...
Quite concretely, the sending the archers forward to attack in each situation is diminished in version 5.0, but not entirely removed, because sometimes it is desired feature.

- included also new HP formations based on the ones, which I have developed already for MTW2 Demo - in fact it was the first modification for MTW2 platform ever released and it was released still before the full game official relase.
In this newer version I have implemented two complex formations on the position 5 and 6 (two universal ones, the 1st is based on the CAs original tripple line form the AI fomrations, the 2nd one is in fact my own Universal Attack formations from Open battle section of the AI formations version 3.0 ...)

- redefined the movement modifiers, another thing, that was developed for MTW2 Demo already - it is not something hugely original, but it is creating more variety compared to MTW2 vanilla, similarly to various MTW2 mods

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Installation Instructions:
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1. Copy all 5 files from SBM 2.0/data folder to /data,
or alternatively to the "your mod"/Data/ subfolder.
2. If you dont use them included in "your mod", you need to install these 5 files via "file_first" option in cfg file or via -mod mymod switch or ShellShocks MedManager - it is all possible and should be fully functional, but I personally prefer the "hexediting" of the data pack (you can do it also for convenience via MedBattleSelector program by ShellShock) because of the theoretically best performance .... Feel free to install it in your preferred way ...
3. You can freely combine this mod with parts of the Battle mechanics by other authors - if you use only the files, which are not included in this my mod, you could obtain very interesting combo without any lost of the functionality of my project .... You can combine it with the parts of the same files too for your personal usage, but be careful in this, because you must know exactly what you are doing. The game is very sensitive on these files, and you could create hidden CTDs by this way. Again, you can do this, but you must know exactly what is the respective part of the code for ...

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The Most Important Changes\ Update Log of previous versions:
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12/16/2006, version 1.0 - original version
7/6/2007, version 2.0, for MTW2 with patch 1.2 only
7/8/2007, version 3.0, merged the main principle of the version 1.0 (mutually independent formations for attack and defence) and functionality in defence of the version 2.0 (via a lot of my own formations migrated from RTW platform)
9/15/2007, released version 4.0, which introduced various attack AI formations used indeed by the MTW2 engine

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Known limitations:
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Naturally, this mod is incompatible with other mods of the "descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml", "battle_config.xml", "descr_formations.txt" and "descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt" files or mods, which have these mods incorporated. Otherwise, no incompatibility issues are known in this stage of the development. However, it has not been systematically tested with all available mods for MTW2 1.2.

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File Name: Sinuhets_Battle_Mechanics_5.0.zip		Author: Admin
File Size: 39 KB		Files Added: 9,382
Downloads: 319 (1 last week)		Author Downloads: 16,154,064 (85,047 last week)
Posted: 03.12.2007		Supporters: n/a