Game enhancements

[prince_blucher]

Been playing this game for over a week and am really enjoying it! I like the 1805 and 1808 campaigns mainly.

I'm going to download your mod now Kirk...am I correct that I just replace the \data folder with the contents of your "data (Mod Files)"? I shall ignore the "Data (Backup Version 1.0)" folder yes?

Thanks! Looking forward to the upgrade of CNAW!

Oh by the way, what is Napoleon in Italy like as a game?

[Agathosdaimon]

Napoleon in italy is a gem, it is a perfect tbs combination of campaign operational level and then tactical battles that you can do or auto resolve. The auto. Resolve is pretty good too and the ai gives a detailed log of the unfolding of the battle, but the tactical is alot of fun and nearby forces on the campaign map can sometimes turn up or not in the battles - heaps of commanders and units .the only flaw is that some people might have a hard time getting it to run smoothly on a newer OS - i run mine on windows 7 but one has to play around with compatibility settings. It has a number of campaigns too and the Ai is very good

Cnaw is alot of fun i agree, i have applied the mod but find that some of my ship units have missing images, so that they are invisible in production queues and on the map - i am not sure how to fix this and whether this is caused by the mod

[prince_blucher]

Thanks for the feedback on Napoleon in Italy, much appreciated.

What are your thoughts about Crown of Glory: Emperors Edition - if indeed you have that game? In your opinion, what is the best Napoleonic war-game out there (and why)?

Thanks again Agathosdaimon!

[Agathosdaimon]

good question - I think Crown of Glory is superb too - actually it may be perhaps the best all encompassing and beautiful of the games in teh genre.
Unfortunately there is no one game which covers it all in this genre, they all have their pros and cons. I think the best one may be the old Battles of Napoleon by SSI - it had heaps of add scenarios of historical battles and the AI was excellent - really tough, -

all teh games MATRIX sells are among the very best i think and then of course HPS sims and John Tiller has his napoleonic battles games, though his formula simple and eschews much of the aspects of command structures and such.
Frank Hunters Campaigns on the Danube is perhaps one of the most realistic in terms of fog of war and it makes for thrilling gameplay really, an operational chess game where you cannot even be sure of where your own pieces are

- that, napoleons campaigns and the Histwar games may be the very top of the chain in my view of current games that offer something realistic in terms of commanding armies with the limitations of the time, no total war god like view of everything

[prince_blucher]

Great insight Agathosdaimon, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I am interested in Crown of Glory:Emperors Edition myself, maybe I'll take the plunge soon! I've not heard of some of those games you mentioned!

We could really do with a new (or at least updated) Napoleonic war-game!

Edit: What's the tutorial like for CoG:EE? It's a shame about the lack of you-tube playthroughs for novices like me.

[Agathosdaimon]

Hmm i cant recall at the moment if cog has an ingame tutorial, and am away from my home computer to check. I found myself having to read the manual

Yes i am hoping someone out there will do a new napoleon game soon - my continual wish is that someone would redo empire interactives Wargamer Napoleon 1813 . That game was released in 1999 in a broken state however it is by far the most ambitious and visionary napoleonic title ever released. With a staggering amount of detail and a comprehensive operational campaign coverijng the 1813 campaings in germany in detail. It was also scaleable real time and with fog of war and good ai and also tactical battles that were just as detailed. It is my spiritual favorite of all napoleonic era pc games, and what wargamer set out to achieve represents i feel the ideal against which all other games in the genre are to be measured

[operating]

No wonder you get no sleep, you are busy over here too! [:)]

[Agathosdaimon]

yes, i am hoping that Kirk23 can make good on updating this great game further - though i am still unsure how that will be possible as matrix have explained to me in other forums -over at slitherine that the developer ran off with the code and gave up on games or something and so the game is stuck as it is

- though i think the new lordz team should just go and create Napoleon at War 2 - i will happily do an 2d art for the game!

[Uncle_Joe]

Anything actually happening on this?

[dumbkauf]

How can one still get this MOD, the link is inactive on gamefront?

[kirk23]

New link for 1805 mod.

[dumbkauf]

Thx Kirk [8D]

[kirk23]

Ok a year has passed since I last did anything with this game,well I'm back to modding it and I will be making a new updated 1805 Campaign download available for anyone who still plays the game. I have been working on adding all the missing art to units in the game, as an example,the USA now has art done for Heavy Cavalry,Privateers & Bomb Sloops.Just in case you start to panic, the USA won't be starting the campaign in 1805,I think they join in 1812 if I'm not mistaken,any way the screen shot is for demonstration purposes only showing the new USA art in the game. I also will be looking to add new Commanders for USA & Spain etc.[:)]

[Ostwindflak]

I still play off and on. I actually played for a bit a couple weeks ago. Thanks for the continued work on it!

[kirk23]

Cheers! Is there anything you would like to see added to the game?

[kirk23]

Spain now has an Admiral![;)]

[kirk23]

I don't know how many gamers agree with me on this,but I would like to try and change the start date for the main campaign game to 1803.

Because at the start of the Napoleonic wars it was only Britain and France that were at war!

Austria & Russia etc joined them in 1804 I believe, chances are the game will be hard coded,meaning that I can't start the scenario 2 years earlier,if that is the case,then I will change the starting units positions about,especially down at Gibraltar,where the battle of Trafalgar is due to begin on game turn one.
I personally don't like that setup,so as of the scenario start date of 1st October 1805 all these ships will be elsewhere scattered all over the map,meaning that Trafalgar won't happen,since the game is a what if and not historical.

I will also try to see if I can remove the blockage to free movement between the mediterranean and the Atlantic,caused by the Port at Gibraltar, I intend to move the port hex,so that the blockage is removed,I would also like to add a port at Malta if possible.[;)]

[Ostwindflak]

One issue I have seen time and time again is the AI in the later half of the game. It only produces infantry. It never makes artillery or cavalry. Once I have destroyed the cavalry and artillery it starts with, I never see anymore, just hordes of infantry. It doesn't matter what side the AI is playing either.

Is there a way to fix that or is that something hard coded too?

I also see a mismanagement of the AI's generals. They will leave good generals in unimportant towns while I am cutting through the rest of their army. They will sit and wait for you to come to them, or just go around them and they will never move, letting themselves be cut off. Perhaps there is some code for the behavior of AI units overall that might fix this?

[kirk23]

I will see what can be done about the AI strategy.

But what I can do is add a new naval unit,the Sloop is cheaper than a Frigate,its faster than a Frigate, and its better at looting enemy Merchantmen.[;)]

NB: There is room in the production screen to add 3 more Land Unit Types if anyone would like more added please let me know.[:)]

[kirk23]

A British Sloop in company with a Privateer, at sea hunting for enemy Merchant ships somewhere in the Atlantic![:D]