DarthMod Empire v8.0 Platinum Changelog feature

Battles Gameplay
Finally the BAI has become better than the average human player. The quest has ended....

• New formations make the BAI far more effective, especially in defense. Several adjustments to formations and other settings make the BAI to line up better, generally to behave much more efficiently and be more challenging. You should now notice increased difficulty even in custom battles. The New formations make the BAI to form also double or triple lines when needed, which is necessary when it commands a... 40 Unit army... the new feature of DarthMod Empire (read below).
• Much better melee mechanics resulting to more violent hand to hand battles and animations. Changes in unit movement and physics mechanics together with other settings provide much more dynamic melee, ferocious and violent, as realism requests. By improving a lot the melee and animation mechanics units become much more agile when fighting and also the BAI is benefited by being more responsive. Unit speeds and responses superbly balanced not only for more violent melees and better timed volleys but also for much less Siege Lag.
• Melee penetration increased to the extreme cinematic effect.
• Unit Vertical rank space increased to proper levels (Maybe it contributed to the Fort Lag).
• Several improvements to projectile physics and trajectories.
• Morale more dynamic (Units are affected more from musketing and cannon fire but do not shutter and can regroup). Native American morale increased for balance.
• Some repairs in the formations in the off sets to achieve even better BAI.
• Tweaked firing range for straighter AI musket lines and better Cavalry attacks.
• A small fatigue error penalty in naval battles is fixed.
• BAI should form better musket lines and be much less hesitant.
• Ships firepower and accuracy fine tuned and corrected in some cases (for example 2nd rate was showing less firepower than 3rd rate). This affects autoresolve which now should be completely error free and the real time battles which are even more realistic and challenging.
• Ships mass increased to have more inertia effects.
• Rocket and Mortar ships heavily capped.
• Cannon Range differs now according to caliber.
• Increased the damage of carronades significantly.
• Increased the Naval Cannons ranges.
• Increased the Naval Cannons hitpoints so that they do not get destroyed so easily.
• Naval Mortars and Rockets range decreased so that they are not overpowered in naval battles.
• Enhanced the naval physics (ships are affected more by tides and collisions).
• A small unbalance in unit cost upkeep for some 1st rates is resolved.
• Ships have more damage endurance for more spectacular naval battles, especially the heavy ships above 2nd rate which are big targets but can win now more evidently due to their general superiority.
• Infantry squares more resilient against cavalry.
• Re-balanced all the reload rates so to make the squares to fire more rapidly (they took ages and their reload rate is hard coded and cannot be changed specially) and the BAI even more responsive. Now the squares are more useful than ever and the BAI muskets more than ever without melee bug.
• Solid cannon shots have now shockwave effects for realistic impacts, just like in Napoleon: Total War. (Artillery accuracy reduced for balancing, DarthMod submods should update the Artillery Accuracy stat accordingly).
• Various unit balance costs and stats here and there. (For Causa Belli mod, Greek ships and new unit sizes must be adapted as any other shared unit stat).
• English and European factions Ship Marines have now the historically correct model (The Scrooge McDuck hat is over).
• Pirates and Crimean Khanate have now an enriched unit roster (In Vanilla it was annoyingly limited).
• Garrison has some upkeep cost to simulate the siege negative impacts to economy for the defender.
• Many units of minor factions unlocked for custom battles.
• Mortar and fixed artillery can now move slowly so that they are more useful and, for god shake, they could move. (Now when the attacker brings his mortars in range, you are in trouble).

Campaign Gameplay
Newer unmodded Total War games have inferior Campaign AI & Diplomacy than this!

• More aggressive CAI as you requested.
• Better CAI money management and more reasonable diplomacy.
• CAI should stay around its ports more often so to defend them more effectively.
• CAI should make more global invasions.
• CAI should develop and research more efficiently.
• CAI Land Auto-Calculation Improved (it should be more difficult to win sieges by autocalc and generally the losses seem more logical).
• Better Naval battles auto-calc.
• Several double entries in CAI handicaps have been erased. Probably this bug caused/enhanced the Turn Delay in late campaign and also some CAI handicaps may have been overridden by zero, such as research bonuses, so now research should be more rapid for the AI.
• CAI army and navy composition even better. All the special and elite units are preferred by the AI more.
• CAI should repair ships much more frequently.
• CAI should calculate correctly the necessary army size to counter the human player in the campaign open fields and sieges (Prepare to take heavy losses in the battlefield.
• CAI should disrupt and raid trade routes more.
• Major nations should now try more to make distant colonies and not to conquer bordering provinces. It was the age of colonization so they should do that.
• Major nations like Russia should focus on military & conquering more.
• Fleets canceling naval invasions and remaining idle should be fixed.
• Some very important diplomacy fixes which resulted in wrong (opposite) bonuses/penalties for alliance/trade breaks.
• The Native Americans and Minor nations support their allies more.
• Minister Diplomacy bonuses increased so their role to be more critical.
• CAI should evaluate more aggressively the inter-faction relationships in the mid-game and should try invasions than peace.
• CAI should send bigger stacks to capture a settlement.
• Diplomacy even more reasonable with Factions considering more the inter-faction relationships according to CAI type.
• Money should now affect more the CAI diplomacy.
• CAI will be more mobile across the campaign map and also this should affect positively the known Ottoman turn lag.
• Fortifications are now more expensive so that AI and Human player do not build them easily.
• The bug that prevented the Native Americans to build bowmen in Ultimate and Custom Campaigns is now fixed (This was caused by a Vanilla error). There is a small problem though. Since these are the Garrison Bowmen they cannot be disbanded manually and will be auto-disbanded after a siege battle. Nothing else could be done for various reasons.
• All campaigns have now starting Indiaman ship types removed (because they are removed from the game as all the ships can trade in DarthMod).
• Late Campaign repairs and enhancements (Sweden has now correct Victory Conditions and all Victory Conditions have been extented).
• In some campaigns the Thirteen Colonies are granted as Major Faction, affecting this way their CAI role accordingly.

Effects & Sounds
Empire: Total War had never that cinematic feel!

• The new effects (based on the BSM of Mech_Donald) are extraordinary, similar to those of DarthMod Napoleon. They are balanced so as to provide maximum smoke effects without much lag and will be enabled by default.
• There is also a new Lite BSM version that in fact is a much more improved old Heavy BSM version. It provides much more enhanced effects but with much less FPS loss than previously.
• Several fantastic musket sounds imported to mix superbly with the old musket sounds and to provide a unique battle experience and epic feel. These musket sounds are offered kindly by Shokh and are also used in his mod "American Civil War - The Blue and the Grey". In addition, Musket sounds are enriched with the magnificently recorded sounds of General Andy. You can find his standalone mod here: Twcenter.net (General Andy's Musket Sounds). DarthMod now uses possibly the best musket sound mix of the community.
• The Brigadier Graham Music Mod is enhanced and now the Deployment and Battle music tracks are not "Chill out" type but soundtracks which cause tension and cinematic feel. (The mod is free and not used for commercial reasons and all rights of the included tracks belong to their respected owners).

The New Launcher
The best that is ever created for DarthMod series!

• The new launcher is made from scratch by husserlTW and is much simpler and functional than the previous. You enable all your options from the front panel and you are ready to start the game. If you require more info you can find it in its included help section.
• All options have been specially fine tuned to follow the new gameplay base of DarthMod Empire 8.0.
• Projectile trails can now be enabled and are better than the "laser looking" vanilla.
• There is now again a No Fort Option created by Shokh (the developer of ACW mod).
• The RTI campaign has been removed because of bugs.
• You can now play Multiplayer with DarthMod Empire's excellent gameplay and gigantic list of units by enabling the Multiplayer option of the Launcher and searching for compatible players (Needs player testing).
• Now you can play the specially created single player 40 Unit Campaigns (up to 40 units in an Army and 30 units in a Navy).
  They are the following 95 (!) special campaigns:
  Ultimate Campaign Early (14 Campaigns)
  DME_40Units_UC_Britain
  DME_40Units_UC_France
  DME_40Units_UC_Austria
  DME_40Units_UC_United_Provinces
  DME_40Units_UC_Spain
  DME_40Units_UC_Prussia
  DME_40Units_UC_Poland
  DME_40Units_UC_Ottomans
  DME_40Units_UC_Russia
  DME_40Units_UC_Sweden
  DME_40Units_UC_Maratha
  DME_40Units_UC_Mughal
  DME_40Units_UC_Cherokee
  DME_40Units_UC_Iroquois

  Ultimate Campaign Late (15 Campaigns)
  DME_40Units_UCL_Britain
  DME_40Units_UCL_France
  DME_40Units_UCL_Austria
  DME_40Units_UCL_United_Provinces
  DME_40Units_UCL_Spain
  DME_40Units_UCL_Prussia
  DME_40Units_UCL_Poland
  DME_40Units_UCL_Ottomans
  DME_40Units_UCL_Russia
  DME_40Units_UCL_Sweden
  DME_40Units_UCL_Maratha
  DME_40Units_UCL_Mughal
  DME_40Units_UCL_United_States
  DME_40Units_UCL_Cherokee
  DME_40Units_UCL_Iroquois

  Grand Campaign (11 Campaigns)
  DME_40Units_GC_Britain
  DME_40Units_GC_France
  DME_40Units_GC_Austria
  DME_40Units_GC_United_Provinces
  DME_40Units_GC_Spain
  DME_40Units_GC_Prussia
  DME_40Units_GC_Poland
  DME_40Units_GC_Ottomans
  DME_40Units_GC_Russia
  DME_40Units_GC_Sweden
  DME_40Units_GC_Maratha

  WarPath (5 Campaigns)
  DME_40Units_WP_Iroquois
  DME_40Units_WP_Huron
  DME_40Units_WP_Plains_Nations
  DME_40Units_WP_Pueblo_Nations
  DME_40Units_WP_Cherokee_Nations

  UpRising (10 Campaigns)
  DME_40Units_UR_Iroquois
  DME_40Units_UR_Huron
  DME_40Units_UR_Plains_Nations
  DME_40Units_UR_Pueblo_Nations
  DME_40Units_UR_Cherokee_Nations
  DME_40Units_UR_United_Provinces
  DME_40Units_UR_United_States
  DME_40Units_UR_Spain
  DME_40Units_UR_France
  DME_40Units_UR_Britain

  Custom Campaign (40 Campaigns)
  DME_40Units_CC_Britain
  DME_40Units_CC_Thirteen_Colonies
  DME_40Units_CC_France
  DME_40Units_CC_Louisiana
  DME_40Units_CC_Austria
  DME_40Units_CC_United_Provinces
  DME_40Units_CC_Spain
  DME_40Units_CC_New_Spain
  DME_40Units_CC_Prussia
  DME_40Units_CC_Poland
  DME_40Units_CC_Ottomans
  DME_40Units_CC_Russia
  DME_40Units_CC_Sweden
  DME_40Units_CC_Savoy
  DME_40Units_CC_Persia
  DME_40Units_CC_Morocco
  DME_40Units_CC_Knights_of_St_John
  DME_40Units_CC_Maratha
  DME_40Units_CC_Mughal
  DME_40Units_CC_Mysore
  DME_40Units_CC_Italian_States
  DME_40Units_CC_Hannover
  DME_40Units_CC_Denmark
  DME_40Units_CC_Portugal
  DME_40Units_CC_Crimean_Khanate
  DME_40Units_CC_Venice
  DME_40Units_CC_Genoa
  DME_40Units_CC_Bavaria
  DME_40Units_CC_Westphalia
  DME_40Units_CC_Georgia
  DME_40Units_CC_Wurttemburg
  DME_40Units_CC_Dagestan
  DME_40Units_CC_Courland
  DME_40Units_CC_Saxony
  DME_40Units_CC_Cherokee
  DME_40Units_CC_Huron
  DME_40Units_CC_Inuit
  DME_40Units_CC_Iroquois
  DME_40Units_CC_Plains_Nations
  DME_40Units_CC_Pueblo_Nations
  DME_40Units_CC_Barbary_States
  How you play them? You enable one from the launcher and then you load it from the saves of the game.

• The Music and Drum & Fife addons are now pre-included in the mod (no need to download them separately).
• You can now easily restore the game status to Vanilla to play Vanilla MP whenever you want or to disable the mod for your own reasons (play a vanilla campaign, uninstall the mod completely etc.).

Read the previous changelog of the mod during its development history:
Link