Greetings! I am happy to announce that Roar of Conquest 4.0, overhaul of Stainless Steel 6.4, is now live and available for download! This article will be covering the changes made between version 3.1 and version 4.0 of ROC, not necessarily the changes between SS 6.4 and ROC; feel free to visit the mod page and look over the other articles for a better understanding of the changes made from Stainless Steel 6.4 to Roar of Conquest. Now, on to the changes!
Bug Fixes
Happily, I found no major bugs this time around; just a bit of cleanup in some messy coding here and there. There is only one, stand-out bug that is currently consistent in the mod, but I am happy to report it is simply a visual one and should not cause any crashes at all. When playing as or against the new faction, you will see a purple texture instead of a portrait anytime the battle is led by a captain or admiral. Unfortunately, I could not find out how to fix the problem, but it will not cause any crashes or affect gameplay, so do not be too alarmed!
New Faction: The Latin Empire
Here it is, a brand-new faction that was not part of Stainless Steel 6.4, the Latin Empire! While I did re-use visual assets from multiple other factions in the game, I'm quite pleased with how this faction turned out, and feel they do not look too bad on the campaign or battle map!
For a brief description, the Latin Empire is a small faction that starts out with the city of Constantinople and the castle of Adrianople. They are on unfriendly terms with the Byzantine Empire, and the Pope is not too pleased with them either. They are a Catholic faction ruling over a largely Orthodox populace, and they must be wary of expanding powers such as the Seljuk Sultanate, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Republic of Venice. I will release an article on their roster in the near future, so stay tuned!
New Units
The latest version of Roar of Conquest introduces 6 new units that were not part of Stainless Steel 6.4; most of them are for the new faction, the Latin Empire, with one extra surprise at the end. Without further ado, please welcome these new additions to the battlefield!
1) Latin Crossbowmen
Elite crossbowmen available from campaign start, they are an invaluable unit when dealing with the heavily armored Byzantines in the early game.
2) Latin Pikemen
A sturdy pike unit available after the New Era Event, (year 1300), these men are better than the average Pike Militia and good for holding defensive positions.
3) Latin Heavy Infantry
A strong shock infantry available after the New Era Event, (year 1300), these men provided great punching power to the Latin Empire's infantry core.
4) Latin Knights
An elite shock cavalry available after the Partial Plate Event, (year 1310-1330), this unit will help expand the borders of the Latin Empire greatly.
5) Dismounted Latin Knights
Available after the Partial Plate Event, (year 1310-1330) these men fight with mighty poleaxes on foot, making them a fearsome heavy infantry.
6) Mamluk Foot Archers
A strong and versatile unit for the Fatimid Caliphate, these men serve as excellent archers and deadly melee troops in equal measure.
Deleted Units
Unfortunately, Medieval II has hard-coded limitations on the number of unique units allowed in the game, and Roar of Conquest has always had the maximum amount the game allows. This sad fact means that whenever new units are added, others must be deleted to make room for them. Let us take a moment of silence to mourn these fallen comrades.
1) Norman Serjeants
2) Miles Pedites
3) Miles
4) Sherwood Archers
5) Marinai
6) Nubian Archers
Hopefully, these losses will not be too painful for anyone.
Bodyguard Units
One of the changes in ROC 4.0 is the availability of late bodyguard units. Originally, late-game bodyguard units were available from the campaign start from Citadels. Now, late-game bodyguards will now be available only after the Partial Plate Event, (year 1310-1330). The factions that are affected by this change are as follows:
- NE Late Bodyguard: (England, Scotland, France, Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Crusader States, Norway).
- SE Late Bodyguard: (Leon and Castile, Portugal, Aragon, Milan, Venice, Papal States, Sicily, Latin Empire).
- EE Late Bodyguard: (Novgorod, Kievan Rus)
- ME Late Bodyguard: (Almoravid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate, Seljuk Sultanate, Kwarezmian Empire)
- TO Late Bodyguard: (Teutonic Order)
Starting Region Changes
In order to balance factions out a bit better, the starting regions for some factions have been changed. In particular, these changes helped prevent the Cuman Khanate from always steamrolling in the East, and to make the Byzantines more stable, and thus a greater threat to the new faction, the Latin Empire. The specifics are as follows:
- Durazzo: now starts as Rebels instead of Byzantine.
- Athens: now starts as Byzantine instead of Rebels.
- Khlynov: now starts as Cuman instead of Rebels.
- Sarkel: now starts as Rebels instead of Cuman.
- Astrakhan: now starts as Rebels instead of Cuman.
Jihad and Crusade Targets
When going through the files, I decided to make some changes as to which settlements could have a Jihad or Crusade called on them. I made these changes to help balance certain things out; the biggest change you will most likely notice is that many of the settlements on the eastern most portion of the map are now valid Jihad targets. This means the Islamic factions will now be able to call Jihads against the Mongols from very early on in the campaign. The specifics are as follows:
- Constantinople is no longer a Jihad target. I noticed that the Islamic AI had a tendency to call jihads on Constantinople even when there were other valid targets far closer to their home regions, thus the change.
- Paris is now a Crusade target, which means France has to be far more careful about not getting excommunicated now.
- Urgench, Khiva, Konjikala, Gorgon, Damghan, and Paris are now all Jihad targets.
Knightly Order Availability
After receiving feedback from the community, I realized that certain portions of the campaign map had much greater access to the Knightly Orders than others, (mostly France), which gave these factions an unfair advantage over their neighbors. In order to balance things out, I decided that most settlements which could build more than one Knightly Order Chapter House would be reduced down to only get one type of Chapter House. With this change, people will still get the fun of playing with and against Knight Orders in a more balanced fashion. The specifics are as follows:
- London can no longer build the Hospitaller Chapter House.
- Metz can no longer build the Hospitaller Chapter House.
- Paris can no longer build the Hospitaller Chapter House.
- Dijon can no longer build the Hospitaller Chapter House.
- Venice can no longer build the Hospitaller Chapter House.
- Toulouse can no longer build the Templar Chapter House.
- Zaragoza can no longer build the Templar Chapter House.
- Naples can no longer build the Templar Chapter House.
- Valencia can no longer build the Hospitaller Chapter House.
- Cologne can no longer build the Templar Chapter House.
- Thorn can no longer build the Teutonic Chapter House.
- Frankfurt can now build the Teutonic Chapter House.
- Pamplona can now build the Montesa Chapter House instead of the Hospitaller Chapter House.
In play testing, these changes seemed to work rather well, and I hope you guys enjoy them.
Starting Diplomatic Relations
I made a couple changes for the starting diplomatic relations between certain factions to help balance the gameplay a bit better. The two major changes are as follows:
- When the player plays as the Byzantines on harder difficulty settings, the Seljuk Sultanate and the Byzantines do not start the campaign at war with each other.
- The Cuman Khanate and the Mongols now always start the campaign at war with each other, both when played by the human player or the AI.
So there you have it, the change log from version 3.1 to version 4.0 of Roar of Conquest! if you like what you see and would like to play the mod for yourself, you can download it here: Roar of Conquest 4.0 As to the future of the mod, I will not confirm anything for now, but...there is room for one more brand new faction in the coding limitations. Now, go forth and conquer!
