Shogun 2: Darthmod - Opinions

Has anybody tried this? The reason I ask is because I have never played a total war game due to the horrid AI stories. I was looking into shogun 2 which gets 'ok' ratings for AI it seems (meaning its shit) but came across the darthmod which apparently makes a lot of stuff, including the AI, better.

How true is this? Is it decently challenging with the mod? Should I stay away from the total war series in general?

 

The answer to your last question is an obvious "yes".

 

In Shogun 2, at least, the AI army is capable of walking in a straight line maintaining cohesion , something that you can't say about other Total war games and there isn't horrible bugs like the one that make AI units walk in circles on the other Total War games, if you want something more than this you are going to need a AI mod.

 

AFAIK there are no actual AI changes as far as intelligence goes, just it makes different unit combinations (it made too many bowmen originally IIRC), while removing some of the cheats. At least I certainly couldn't tell anything different, still just as brain dead on the campaign map as in the tactical.

I stay away because he's the kind of modder who write shit like "adjusted melee combat for more cinematic battles", and "improved projectiles" in his update notes. Like he can't even be assed to tell you what he's doing, just does shit and calls it cinematic/improved. Probably the perfect person to get a job in a PR role for EA but the last person I want in charge of game balance. A good balance mod should give me the impression that the player was prepared to write their thesis on exactly why each mechanic change needed to be changed and how it was was changed in the best way. Not add "improved balance" to their bullet points.

 

While he did some great work on the BAI and a little on the CAI in RTW his modding always pissed me off because the fucker cannot not wank himself. If you want copious amounts of Darh Vader all over your TW experience go for it.

After RTW his modding also has taken a turn for the worse in that he's pissed away anything concerning balance for 'cinematic' gameplay and then drowns everything with feature creep. I.e. more wankery.


Any mod for RTW that simply enhances BAI and CAI? I'm thinking of giving that one another go and would like vanilla with simply a (however slightly) improved AI.

 

The battle AI got quite decent in Napoleon and it's OK in Shogun 2. It does a decent job at regular battles (although it does tend to telegraph its moves), but has some horrible brain-dead moments during sieges.
The campaign AI on the other hand is piss poor and relies hevily on crutches like extra money (which I don't mind) and conjuring up units from thin air when you're not watching (borderline absurd unless you cover the area with + line of sight ninjas) just to stay competitive.

I haven't touched Darthmod since Rome, so I can't really say anything about it.
I remember the battle AI felt improved in some minor way, but I couldn't get past all the star wars wankery he pasted over the loading screens.
From what I see, the brief file description isn't really helpful shows that Darth has become a prima-donna recently.
If it unfucks sieges and campaign AI, it should be good, but I'd rather look elsewhere.

Now, to the question, should you stay away from total war series in general, if you tried Shogun 2 vanilla and liked it, you should be able to form a decent opinion, cause it's one of the more polished vanilla TW titles.

 

I don't use Darth mode, two things really piss me of on vanilla total war games: units die/flee way too fast and the ai don't use advanced formations, generaly , the AI only make a single battalion line making it easy to be flanked. I remember that on Rome Total war alot of mods inproved the ai in terms of formations, Darth mod make the Ai use different formations on Shogun 2?

 

I remember when he modded Empire and he talked about how he was refused a job over at CA and was all butthurt about it. All he pretty much did with the Empire mod was changing different values in the files that you could actually change. Talk about modder-ego.

 

Depending on what you want. Real time AI is always gonna be inferior than non real AI.
The AI is ok for a computer game I guess, but more than any other reason I enjoy seeing huge armies and lots of dudes killing each other... Personally it is quite worth a try.

 

I can't say I understand the Shogun 2 AI at all. It's the only recent TW I've played, and it seems to be extremely simplistic.

For example, when they're defending a castle, the enemy troops quite literally don't do anything except alternate between standing in one place and running from one corner of the castle to the other. They almost all die to my archer spam in every single siege, every single time. Even if they have various cavalry troops and whatnot, they never come out to rush my archers or position themselves in such a way that they can't be hit by arrows, or anything really.

Does Darthmod fix that even a little bit?

 

Bs

Anyways what im getting from this thread is to stay away from TW in general

 

Not in the slightest. And in FotS you get long range artillery to make it more silly. The hardest battles in FotS end up being those DEFENDING a castle because it's the only time the AI is actually aggressive

He got butthurt again recently when CA didn't invite him to a meeting for S2 modders. Even though they specifically stated it was for the modding tool developers who they wanted to talk to, which he is most certainly not.

 

That's disappointing to hear. Do you know if the issue is that the AI can't be modded/expanded on or is it just not a priority?

 

I've never modded Shogun 2 but I'm pretty sure that if it was possible it would be pretty damn high on the priority list.