There isn't really a problem of playing together, beside's the version number there's also a 4 digit lettercode which denotes an internal version nr. If those are the same, you can play with people that have the mod, as we have tried before, the only issue is that you cant use the sort version function 'see-only-games-with-your-version- in the game list.

Still gotta ask gsc about this, we'll see i guess. Also need to ask about 1.4 patch, cause i got no hope that we will get help from cdv for this.

Do you know who RUKA clan was in contact with when they provided their changes for the 1.4 patch, cause their name is mentionned in the credits, so they must have been close. Could you ask for me? Sort of knowing who to send a mail to @gsc to increase chances.

btw, catch me on msn if you got some time, gotta few pics to show and want your opinion.

Regards

E.A.

I do not see an email for him, but you can PM him on the ruka site. His home webpage is the cossacks2 page at GSC. So possibly you can reach him there.

Are you saying that we can play online simply by knowing that the other player has the same setup?

If this is so then we could publish the translated files and allow people to play?

Daddio

I tried registering on their forum, got a confirmation mail, clicked on it, could log in, but euhm, when i try to post, i get a message back that i need to login or smth. So that's why I was asking you to ask them for me.

Btw, can't remember where i read it, but RUKA General, does he work with GSC now?

Yes, thats exactly what i said. However, i was talking about my mod cause i was replying to your first question in this thread. For the patch its slightly different (i presume that's what your aiming at with your question), because they have a new engine in the patch. So by releasing just the file's will not enable you to play with people who have the russian patch.

Releasing the translated file's, without that engine on the 1.3 version will leave it to a 1.3 with updated 1.4 file's. The result is that only people who have those translated file's will be able to play with you.(its actually more then just translated file's, there's also fixed md file s in it and various others).

The result will be mostlikely that when your on the 1.3 server with those file's in your game, other people will join your game ( cause they can, it will say your game is a 1.3 game) but on starting it will generate synch errors because they are on the original 1.3

I'm highly against releasing just the translated file's without the proper updated engine for 1.4. It will create confusion if you ask me, people will not understand why they have synchronisation errors if they play with people without those files, etc....you will end up explaining the story over and over again to people who will complain about it.

Daddio, what I suggest at this point is this:

Remember i wrote on the internal forum we should write GSC about it and ask with gentle persuasion to fix the 1.4 engine so it plays on the english versions. Preferably signed by cdv people, just to add more weight to the request. But, nobody of cdv replied to that suggestion i made, so can't say I'm too happy bout it, they coulda have replied just with, no sorry, don't think we will do that or smth along those lines.

I'v been waiting a bit to send gsc a mail, wanted to group up my questions to them first, instead of bothering them every month with a mail, but i guess it's time for a mail.

I'll make a draft and ask cdv if they will support the request. If they don't , i'll just send it in my own name this week.

Btw Daddio, been experimenting a bit, you think it would be nice to have a 'general unit' which acts as a 'command center'? If your formations break and the soldiers start running like mad around, instead of going to your base the other side of the map and causing lag, how bout having a general near your army, so the soldiers return to his vicinity and reduce lag? I positive sides to it, but it may unbalance the game a bit aswell. Not sure, your opinion pls.
Got a thousand-and-one more ideas and questions but I'll stick to this for now.

Regards

E.A.

Is it possible to copy engine settings from my Russian copy of 1.4, and place that in a mod download for English?

This option is used to good effect in the Gex, EW mod. But I think it is workable in the Hawks style of play with battles.

But I see a few problems with it in C2. First when a troop breaks it has received looses, and it will take replacements in order to build a new formation. so the troops will be in limbo, until ether new troops are built and sent to them, or they are sent back to barracks. Both actions take away from the game, and add to the micro managing.

I do have a suggestion though, Due to the limited amount of space on maps might I suggest that you have upgrades in the buildings rather than requiring that a new building be built. An example would be that once a TC is built, you could have an upgrade button in the TC that increases the speed of peasant production and adds 240 to the pop limit.

You could do the same with each building that is normally build multiple times. House, large house, barracks etc.

I would also upgrade the durability of the building also with these upgrades, If most of your housing built into one house, a single howie hit could wipe you out.

With this you would need a quick reference guide to show what is about to become available without going to each building to look. (I currently have a peasant on hotkey and that shows all buildings and cost) I would even say that this could still be done with peasant, but a fkey menu would be nice.

Too often you spend way too much time trying to find a place to build that 2nd or 3rd TC, house, barrack, etc. and very often I was not able to build a fortress for lack of enough ground. And of course the game doesn't stop while you are doing all this searching, and you are being attacked the whole time.

Daddio

About the engine settings, are you talking about Enginesettings.xml? If so, well yes, you can put any file up for upload, but note that anyone who doesnt posess that file will have synch errors. I just quickly breezed over it, but there's quite some entries and didnt see immediately whats different between the 1.4 version of this file and the 1.3.

I'm all with you when it come's to minimizing the amount of buildings taking away play space on the map.

I have already done some tests towards this. If you look at one of the pictures i send you couple days ago, the one with the French buildings on (238.bmp), you will notice that there is no palace and no academy, both buildings are so huge in size, and as you mentionned can be a pain, if you need to place them on the map when space is limited due to all those villages on the skirmish maps.

What i intend to do, is to use a smaller building to act as a academy, put upgrades in it ( like CI), and mostlikely cut the palace all toghether and put it in the list of buildings you can add trough the map editor for spicing up your map.
I'v also made a bunch of upgrades, some of them you mentionned aswell ( increasing peasant speed, increasing peasant building speed,...
I'v limited the amount of townhalls aswell. It's gonna be either 2 or 3 max. When it come's to houses, only the small one will be buildable, and mostlikely will set up a few upgrades aswell to increase population it can lodge. I'v also changed the pricing so you get compensation for not having the bigger houses. Will add durability upgrades as you suggested.
Do you prefer having all upgrades grouped in the Academy, or rather on the building they apply to ( eg, peasant upgrades in townhall, economy in storehouse, military upgrades in blacksmith & barr & stable, housing upgrades in the houses?

Just these 4 changes already provide a lot more space when playing. It's also very likely that i will limit the construction of defensive forts to 1 per nation and not 4 different one's, especially that fortress is ridiculously large. Each nation their own unique fort and a tower (2) and a blockhouse (2?).

When i play tested with the new upgrades, it all went too quick, had too much resources ( too much gold & stone), horse upgrades for faster production too much,...so will take some time to balance it all out.

On a separate note: as usual, still learning how to use all the inbuild functions. Ran in to the unitability editor, which is like an advanced unit editor to allow you to set up any unit ability you'd like. Very similar to the well known upgrades from CI & AC, but with new options.Most of them haven't been used. I'm thinking of stuff like, if a general unit is nearby, your formations get a boost of morale withing his area or even allied troops get a boost of morale from him. Maybe set up a few unique nation bonusses aswell, to distinguish one nation from another.

Anyway, as I'v said before, more ideas then time to implement them...

E.A.

If your interested , current upgrades i'v been testing, though some will change and be deleted and possibily others added or moved to different buildings,...:

These all look great, baby a little overboard a little though. Will just have to do a lot of testing to get them right.