Game Mod - Nova Imperio Tero

[shieldwolf23]

Hi Guys! Shieldwolf here, I was hoping some of you could help me test this mod I have made, especially on gameplay and balance with regards to multiplayer. I have never played multiplayer before (more of a loner I am), so if someone could give me feedback on this game mod, I would be grateful. The file is here. Thanks in advance!

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After a few months of modding, I present to you Nova Imperio Tero, my first attempt to modify Empire Earth, geared towards a little bit of realism, while at the same time adapting a more or less tactical approach on game play and balance.

In a nutshell, Nova Imperio Tero (Esperanto for New Empire Earth, or NIT) have the following changes:

IN GENERAL

In NIT, citizens are built faster, and each can mine and forage resources 12 units at a time. The 32,000 popcap limit has also been implemented. All unit cost is made up of 2 resources: prehistoric units would have cost of Food and Wood or Stone, while more modern units would have Food and Gold as cost. Buildings would cost stone, wood or iron. All military units have varied costs, and almost no two unit have the same specs. Generally, prehistoric units cost less compared to modern units. Tech upgrades cost more, and Epoch advancements take longer.

All airplanes (except bombers) can hit air and land targets. Ships cost more, both in resources and popcap, but they are virtually indestructable by land forces, so they are a good investment (most of them have the maximum range, so surface bombardment can have a good deal of truth now). Cybers would now require both gold and iron (no more food, they don't eat!), and I have "made" at least 3 new units = Kronos, Poseidon Transport and C140A Arturus by having Zeus II available, and changing German Staff car and C-47 Cargo. All in all, a bunch of previously "unbuildable" units are now buildable.

Each unit you produce has its own advantages or disadvantages. Military buildings require popcap now (so no more endless spamming of towers and pillboxes), but relatively, they are more powerful. Heroes have realistic Hitpoints, but as of this release, I have cloaked them to avoid players intentionally targeting them. That might change (this cloaking), once some prove the thing unreliable in gameplay.

A. INFANTRY

1. Infantry has been divided to light infantry and heavy infantry. In most cases, light infantry are those infantry that are mostly unarmored, and have not so heavy weapons. These light infantry can walk through forests and scale cliffs. They can't damage buildings, nor ships.
2. Heavy Infantry are those infantry who are armored, and/or possess heavy weapons. As a rule, almost all of them cannot walk through forests and cannot scale cliffs. They are the only infantry who can damage buildings and ships.
3. Some infantry who historically fight under formations are classified as heavy infantry. This includes Shortswords, Pikemen, Grenadiers and such. But these units, owing to the sort of weapons they wield, still cannot damage buildings nor ships.
4. Some special light infantry can damage buildings and ships (like Sappers, previously called Sampson, and Vikings). These are exceptions to the rule.
5. No infantry can attack planes now.
6. Medics can only be created in hospitals.
7. Black Robes are cloaked.
8. Engineers can create AA towers.

B. CAVALRY

1. Cavalry (except chariots and elephants), cost only 1 popcap now.
2. Only the Horseman, and Moorish Cav can walk through forests, the rest can't.
3. Cavalry cannot attack buildings and ships.

C. SIEGE UNITS

1. All siege units cost more popcap, and usually are more expensive.
2. Trojan Horse is now buildable.
3. Anti-Tank vehicles are more effective now against tanks and armored units.

D. SHIPS & SUBS

1. All ships cost more popcap, and are more expensive.
2. Ship names have been changed to reflect historical ship categories.
3. Ships range are improved upon. Build times are longer though.
4. Cruiser class (gunboat, dardo and sagitarrian) can now attack land units, ships and buildings.
5. Frigate class can now be built in the Navy Yard too (as anti-submarine units are there).
6. Submarines are all cloaked.
7. Aircraft Carriers can create helicopters from Modern age to Nano. Nexus Carrier can even build Hover tanks in Nano Age.
8. Agincourt and Golden Hind now buildable.

E. HEROES

1. Heroes are cloaked.
2. Infantry heroes can walk through forests and scale cliffs (except armored ones).
3. Extra heroes (editor only) can be built in Castle Keep.

F. TANKS

1. Tanks are virtually invulnerable from light infantry (only anti-tank infantry can do significant damage to them).
2. Anti-air vehicles (halftrak and skywatcher) can now shoot land units, ships and buildings.

G. PLANES

1. All airplanes except bombers can shoot land and air units. All have realistic flight times (modeled on historical flight times).
2. Bombers create great damage, and have increased flight times.
3. Historical stealth units are cloaked (they are expensive though, since they are really hard to hit).
4. New Unit: C140A Arcturus, from C-47 Cargo Plane, is a Spy Plane, cloaked and buildable in the airport.
5. Reaper Gunship and Phoenix are both cloaked.
6. SeaKing II (now called Stingray), can attack buildings, ships and land units.
5. Red Baron buildable now.

H. CYBERS

1. Cybers cost iron and gold.
2. New Unit: Poseidon Transport (previously German Staff Car), can carry 2 passengers, is cloaked, and can submerge through water.
3. Kronos (previously Zeus I), land attack Cyber, with beefed up stats.
4. Zeus (previously Zeus II), sea equivalent of Kronos, can submerge through water and walk through cliffs.

I. BUILDINGS

1. Buildings cost a combination of either wood, stone or iron.
2. Military defensive buildings cost popcap now.
3. Wonders became more expensive.
4. Time Machine and Missile Base now buildable. Time machine, in particular, is able to create the "special units" of each epoch (though right now, I can only add those units through triggers, for all of them to show - this has got to do with Start and End Epochs).

OTHERS

- Arc Lamps and treasure chests are now buildable.
- More work needs to be done on Stard and End epoch, to have Editor Only units in their proper epochs.

I would need help on testing the Mod for gameplay and balance. Any feedback is appreciated here on this thread, or on the actual file upload over in EEH's Downloads section.

[Arntzen]

This sounds cool.

In NIT, citizens are built faster, and each can mine and forage resources 12 units at a time.

12 resources? Why?

All unit cost is made up of 2 resources: prehistoric units would have cost of Food and Wood or Stone, while more modern units would have Food and Gold as cost. Buildings would cost stone, wood or iron. All military units have varied costs, and almost no two unit have the same specs. Generally, prehistoric units cost less compared to modern units. Tech upgrades cost more, and Epoch advancements take longer.

Food, wood and stone for the prehistoric units was a nice idea.

All airplanes (except bombers) can hit air and land targets.

Does this include the fighter as well?

Cybers would now require both gold and iron (no more food, they don't eat!)

Never understood why they cost food haha

All in all, a bunch of previously "unbuildable" units are now buildable.

Full list of these would be appriciated

Military buildings require popcap now (so no more endless spamming of towers and pillboxes), but relatively, they are more powerful.

But with 32,000 pop cap is it really going to matter?

A. INFANTRY
1. Infantry has been divided to light infantry and heavy infantry. In most cases, light infantry are those infantry that are mostly unarmored, and have not so heavy weapons. These light infantry can walk through forests and scale cliffs. They can't damage buildings, nor ships.

Is Pilums considered light infantry? - Maybe they can finally be to some use.

8. Engineers can create AA towers.

Normal citizens can't?

B. CAVALRY
3. Cavalry cannot attack buildings and ships.

War Elephant can't attack buildings?

C. SIEGE UNITS
3. Anti-Tank vehicles are more effective now against tanks and armored units.

I think this balance was great in the original EE. AT own tanks.

D. SHIPS & SUBS
4. Cruiser class (gunboat, dardo and sagitarrian) can now attack land units, ships and buildings.

I assume, they can attack land/ships/buildings but suck at this. Am I correct?

6. Submarines are all cloaked.

Was this made because it's more realistic or because you gave ships better range?

F. TANKS
2. Anti-air vehicles (halftrak and skywatcher) can now shoot land units, ships and buildings.

Why? Also are they good at it or not?

G. PLANES
5. Reaper Gunship and Phoenix are both cloaked.

I like this idea

H. CYBERS
2. New Unit: Poseidon Transport (previously German Staff Car), can carry 2 passengers, is cloaked, and can submerge through water.

Interesting

4. Zeus (previously Zeus II), sea equivalent of Kronos, can submerge through water and walk through cliffs.

So a beefy version of Hyperion. I guess this will only be available in Nano?

- Arc Lamps and treasure chests are now buildable.

What is the meaning of these?

[shieldwolf23]

Thanks for the comprehensive questions Arntzen!

- On Citizens, what I mean is you can have a maximum 12 citizens in 1 given resource (like 12 citizens in 1 gold mine).

- On Fighters, yes, all of them, and the Hawker Typhoon too. The only plane that retained its limitation on attack is the Thunderbolt.

- On lists, I have all my modders' notes and new unit statistics in the same file. Soty or Ashrzr or any EEH admin is yet to approve of the file, so it's not currently showing up, sorry on that. All "extra heroes", like Tariq, Pericles, Herakles, Duke of Wellington, Grigor, Command Unit, etc. can be built in Castle Keep. The Golden Hind, the Agincourt, Zeus II are nice additions too.

- With the 32,000 popcap, it's really a tradeoff between having those much of units vs. the lag the game will experience. Based on testing, especially with a lot of players in a given game, it will lag too much if we have 32,000 popcap. For scenarios and controlled MP matches, I think a maximum of 500 to 800 popcap per person would be reasonable, and will not considerably lag.

- Yep, pilums are light infantry. And Rock Throwers too. Those two units would be good investments in this incarnation of the game.

- Nope, citizens still can create them. I retained them, since the Airplanes are powered now, and having players build defenses against those planes would be good for balance.

- War elephants can't attack buildings, yes. I was torn between having them attack buildings or not, but because my Attack Modes lack separation between attacking buildings and attacking ships, I considered that maybe, it's better for them not to be able to attack buildings. I'm willing to consider though if someone find it better if they can attack buildings.

- Ooooo, just wait until you see those ATs in action now. They REALLY own tanks now. Infantry (except AT infantry), would be useless against tanks.

- On cruisers, yup, they can only kill 1 ship if they gang up on it. The same goes for buildings.

- On sub cloaking, yes, that was part of the idea. The main reason though was well, they are really hard to find in real life.

- As to the AA vehicles, I liked the idea of a fast running, albeit armorless AA and anti-infantry vehicle, like what we see in Company of Heroes and Codename Panzers. They are really good at it, but they are pretty much vulnerable to return fire, since they have low HP.

- I got the Poseidon Transport only as a last resort I was trying to create a Catalina or a working C-47 transport, but I can't seem to have them work. I was playing some random nano game when I looked into the Poseidon unit and said, Bam! This is the unit I'm basing the Nano transport of. Bingo.

- Yes, you are correct. A beefy version of Hyperion, plus the ability to shoot down Air Mechs. Only in Nano Age, and pretty quite expensive.

- I have arc lamps and treasure chests buildable for persons who would be doing Alliance scenarios or City-builders. All of these units are editor only, so they will basically show only when the scenario maker makes them available. Treasure chests (the previous artifacts), would cost 1,000 gold, and a good way of simulating tribute to alllies and such.


Thanks again Arntzen. Once the file is up over in EEH, I'll update the OP and have the link posted here.

[lightnessking.]

3. Some infantry who historically fight under formations are classified as heavy infantry. This includes Shortswords, Pikemen, Grenadiers and such. But these units, owing to the sort of weapons they wield, still cannot damage buildings nor ships.

Will they get a morale bonus just like in cossacks?

5. No infantry can attack planes now.

Except anti air infantery right? Also partisans? They are the only imperial/industrial anti air units on land .

I really like the idea of towers/pillboxes costing popcap. Is there also a way to make artillery / mortars / any siege with area damage to shoot without 100% accuracy. (What I mean by this is that artillery always hit their target they are aiming for.)

[lightnessking.]

And could you add a direct link to the download page on EEH in your first post?

[shieldwolf23]

Hahaha.. Thanks on the infantry, I totally forgot Stingers and Missile Troopers. The partisan I made it so that it can't shoot the planes.

Sadly, no one seems to discover yet changes in morale structuring. I have heard some guys trying to simulate non-accurate missiles, but so far, no success on that one too. Regarding popcaps, I also tried having those popcap limits in buildings (since you can't operate buildings without people inside), but the game crashes. I think (and I'm fervently hoping) this mod would be an interesting change in EE gameplay.

And yep, the link in EEH is not yet up (Soty, Ashrzr or any EEH Admin needs to approve of the file before it shows up).

[lightnessking.]

upload the file with puush ^^ (if you install puush, right click the file -> press puush (it should pop up in your menu) and it will automatically upload to the website and copies the link to your clipboard.)

[shieldwolf23]

Thank you, I have never heard of puush, and now, I have installed it in my comp. EEH file download though is up. Kindly get the file here.

[lightnessking.]

i'll try this this evening or tomorrow, depending on how much time i got, since i also want to play some more GTA 5

[shieldwolf23]

Hahaha... Yes, take your time. Mine's Total War: Rome II, bugs and all.

[lightnessking.]

LOL, i've seen some hilarious vid's about rome total war 2. Enemies going back and forth hehehe.

[shieldwolf23]

Yes, some patches have fixed most issues on my end, but there is really something wrong with the AI's campaign diplomacy. But the graphics are amazing. Haven't tried GTA V though. GTA III was the last I have played on that series.

PS. I do hope it's ok to be out of topic, once in a while in posts, right? I don't want to be scolded.

[Captain Nemo]

Is this mod minded on offline or online play?

[BigRon]

can you add GRIGOR II (the mech grigor) ??? he could replace cyborg molotov as a hero

[shieldwolf23]

Is this mod minded on offline or online play?

I was hoping it can be for both, although I assume that Multiplayer would be really requiring serious balance. Hope some of you guys could help me out on that aspect.

can you add GRIGOR II (the mech grigor) ??? he could replace cyborg molotov as a hero

Command Unit (Grigor II) is editor only, but once the scenario designer allows it in the technology tree, it can be built, either in the Time Machine or in the Castle Keep.