Now some important facts about this mod.
Well, it started over a year ago and since then it has been continuously updated, as often as possible. From the smallest change to the biggest, I like to get updates out as fast as possible for people to enjoy.
At the beginning the mod was focused on adding lots of unused stuff like buildings from campaigns and fixing minor bugs. But I had many other ideas for all kinds of improvements, a lot of work but it had to be perfect.
What can you expect from this mod?
Anything and everything from new civilizations, units, maps, game modes, soundtracks, improved visuals and so on, this is a pretty big project.
The first place where this mod appeared and where it started to make a name for itself was AoE3 Heaven Games. Since it's release my mod had the most downloads, comments and highest ratings in the modding section from the website, which motivated me to go even further, making the mod bigger and better with each update.
If you want to know what the mod is all about you can find more info and detailed changelogs here on ModDB or on the mod's blog (link bellow).
While I work completely alone on the mod, over time I did use ideas from the community and accepted/requested help with various things from people who support my work.
I also used stuff from other popular or less poplar mods, from ideas to a little bit of content when I could not make it myself. Credit was given where it was necessary.
I don't know what more can I say, so if you have any questions be sure to ask.
If you want to keep an eye on the mod then be sure to check the mod's blog from time to time, I'll try to keep the mod active and working as much as I can.
Complete changelogs in the "Features" tab, here on ModDB.
Check out the mod's blog and forum for more details!
If you want to play the mod with other people try the Steam Group!
Thank you for your time and I hope you will enjoy the mod.
This is the best mod i've ever played on AOE3TAD ....lately i was so boring playing this game,cause everything is the same and there is no variety!! but after this mod, i change my opinion! everything is so real and i love the units in the US cilivizations and all new buildings! Everything is just brilliant! I can't wait for the new Improvement Mod!!
Excuse my impudence, I do not have the patience to read the whole changelog or anything else.
I just want to know how this mod effects multiplayer gameplay?
Regards :)
Uhm, it affects it the same way it affects singleplayer...? I mean it's the same game, just played online.
And before you ask, yes, you can only play with other people who have the mod. And yes, it still works on ESO.
Mandosrex, this mod is fantastic! I have been playing it for months and love it, especially after you changed the trade units causing damage issue. I also like that you lowered the cost of aging back to where it was to start; the game moves that much slower when the age requirements are high.
I have two issues with the American civ, which I generally love: they have no plantations, and are not viable as a late-game option because they depend on trade route and factory coin in order to stay alive. I'd really like to see them have a plantation as a build option. Second: the command center does not have any fame units in the armies section. Why have the envoy and the fame resource if there is no way to spend the fame you collect? I love the fame resource, and it's fantastic for getting oodles of units on the field for European civs, and for making the battles that much more interesting. But the Americans need a way to spend it other than techs and aging. I played a game with the Americans on Large Great Plains and I was baffled by the command post only having coin mercenaries and no fame units. If any of that makes sense to you, I'd sure appreciate some feedback. I love this mod, and the American civ is functional and working, for the most part. With these two tweaks, they should be 100% good to go as a viable option in single player skirmishes or multiplayer games. Thank you for bringing us this awesome mod. You've made this classic game WAY more interesting.
Hi there friend, glad you like the mod.
I'm gonna answer to your concerns but first I want to clear something out, when I started making the American civilization it was my main focus and most of the work went into it, but when I realized all that work still didn't make the civ perfect because of annoying and stupid modding limitations, I abandoned the civ. Limitations like not being able to make an American AI, not being able to add the civ to the civs creation menu and so on, including the fact that they use both Fame and Export. The reason for that is the small unit rooster the americans have, thus they need Export to get units from European allies. But at the same time they also use Fame because the game treats all new civs as being European so yeah... Plus they also share techs and stuff.
Though, I think you gave me an idea... Hmm, so I could remove the Consulate and instead make European armies available at the Command Post for Fame. Yeah, that could work. I'll do it now and you'll be able to test it next patcher update, in a day or two. I hope you are using the patcher.
Now, regarding your other problem, I didn't knew that they don't have Plantations anymore... Will fix it.
So look out for an update soon and then report back, if you want of course.
Thank you for playing.
Thanks Mandosrex! It doesn't matter to me if the AI never uses it or if they aren't selectable as a new homecity. You gave us Philadelphia in the available civs list already so there's no reason why they can't be used.
I appreciate you having a look at those issues. It's really cool that you are willing to make changes to keep this civ functional and useful for the future. I like the idea of having the American civ, but there were just a few things that needed to change to keep them viable. I will be eagerly awaiting your next download. I have a link to your github source so I just download the zip when you change something on the mod. Works great for me.
Thanks again Mandosrex, you're the best!
Not only did I fixed all those problems, I also greatly improved the civ! They now have easy access to all revolution units (militia, black powder wagons and gatling guns; which means they now also have falconets), access to the new War Camps (via the US's Commander upgrade card) and I also removed the Consulate while adding a good selection of foreign armies to the Command Post for them to recruit for Fame.
The update is up, please try it and tell me what you think.
The faction plays much better with the changes you made. And I agree with removing the consulate, but you still have 3 consulate/export cards in the American homecity deck (Good Faith Agreements, Intervention and Diplomatic Intrigue). Those cards should be removed and replaced with something the civ can use. But other than that, it looks massively improved, and much more fun to play. Thanks again Mandosrex!
Ah ****, I forgot about those. Actually, another great idea you gave me! More foreign armies from the homecity!
Dude, you saved this civ and right before I was gonna release 5.5, good job on reporting these problems.
This is what happens when people are not afraid, or lazy, to comment and suggest things.
Thanks and have fun.
You do all the hard work implementing these changes, so the thanks should go to you. I have been playing RTS games for a long time, and the work you've done to make this game better is really fantastic. I'm glad you are working on this mod, and subsequently, making AOE3 way more fun to play. I appreciate you being willing to take comments and make gameplay changes out of them. That's rad. I love the American civ, so I'm glad to see it operating in a balanced and fun way. I'm all about that ranged infantry. Haha. I look forward to downloading your next change, and thanks again Mandosrex.
Hey Mandosrex, I have noticed something that I only I may find odd: I'd like it if the Aztec town center could fire and arrow instead of a gunpowder projectile. Aztecs have zero gunpowder in their build tree, and (historically) were only the victims of it, not the wielders of it. The town centers should be like the war huts and noble's huts, which all fire an arrow. The other two native civs should both have gunpowder though. Just a thought, take it or leave it.
Well yeah but you see, Warhuts and Nobles Huts are different buildings from Outposts and Forts, and thus they use different codes to work, but the Town Center is the same for all so I hope you understand.
I was just curious. Gotcha. Thanks for the quick reply.
Hey Mandosrex, Japanese shrines no longer attract animals. Only the Wonder attracts animals.
Yes, uhm... I've worked a lot on the AI lately and some of it's problems, namely it's food related problems. The AI is extremely stupid in general but is specially stupid when it comes down to gathering food.
The european AI is the most problematic, and the reason behind it's problems is my fault. I wanted to make buildings more useful, to have more purposes and so I removed the Livestock Pen from europeans and made houses train and herd livestock.
The problem here is that the AI, stupid as it is, now thinks that houses generate food and they send their villagers to gather food from houses (although impossible) instead of building AND using mills.
There aren't any perfect fixes for this problem, I tried everything. The most obvious and suitable fix would be to remove livestock from houses and add back Livestock Pens to europeans but only over my dead body will I do that. So I tried other tricks and, well right now I'm still working on it.
What has all of this to do with Shrines, you ask? Well, I also noticed how retarded is the AI around Shrines, not the japanese AI but its allies. When animals are attracted by Shrines they become untargetable, so not only the japanese are not allowed to hunt them, anyone from the game is not allowed to hunt them. But the AI will keep trying nonetheless because hunting is the main source of food for the AI and so you will see idling villagers around Shrines because they can't kill the animals...
You can still herd livestock on Shrines (the AI will not try to kill allied livestock) but not hunting animals. The reason I left the Shrine Wonder able to do it is because it would have made the Wonder weaker otherwise which I do not want either.
Do you see the amount of **** I have to deal with here...? It's hard man, really hard. The props of working alone I guess...
I hear you dude, and don't get me wrong: I'm tremendously grateful for the work you do. I know how hard it can be to do a huge project like this by yourself. It usually takes a substantial team of modders to get anything done, and you are just one person.
I just want to help. If I notice something weird that is happening, I will step right up and bring attention to it, because it's useful for you to hear what kinds of gameplay issues there are with your mod. I would hate to see strange errors go unrecognized, and then have a detrimental impact to the game itself.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. It sounds like reconfiguring the AI is a big part of the problem. Let me know if my comments are bothering you, and I will cease. Thanks again Mandosrex!
Oh hell no man, keep them coming, it's great. I just hope I don't bore you with long responses.