Can you recommend a mod or a combination of mods for the game ? Thanks

I've played a lot of TW recently, mostly Empire and Napoleon, but I did play a Shogun 2 campaign. I've been using Darthmod for both Empire and Napoleon, but I played Shogun 2 vanilla. I don't think you could go wrong with DM for S2, but I haven't personally tried it.

Have you played the standard game? If yes, what is it about the standard Shogun 2 that you don't like? Just asking since I've put in over 1,000 hours of game time in Shogun 2 but never used any mods.

Panzer,

Thanks for the headsup.

Have not played the std game. Planning to buy it soon. Played STW 1. Loved it. Loved the Sengoku period and all that it entails.

Just heard a lot of folks grumbling about how diplomacy could be more polished in STW2 and how Darthmod fixed a lot of that and other bugs. So I thought I ask here.

Shogun 2 is good, very polished and focused in my opinionation. If you love that era, you will like the game I am sure. That said, I found diplomacy essentially pointless. Compared to other strategy games, I find diplomacy in TW weak. In essence I see it as 'how long can I put off having you attack me?'

The main problem as I see it in Shogun 2 is the Realm Divide, which renders all attempts at diplomacy moot, at least in my view.

However, you will get new physics, graphics, units, campaign and battle AI. I'd recommend playing vanilla first and see what it is about it you would like to change, if anything, and go from there.

Darthmod tends to unpoop all the TW games.

"Realm Divide" fits right in with the history of the Sengoku Jidai period though.

Any single clan that became too powerful as was the case with the clans of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Tokugawa all met fierce resistance from the rest of the smaller clans. In the game you just had to make sure that you built up enough armies and navies and had them properly deployed and ready to fight once you set off realm divide.

Yes, and if realm divide occurred when any of the AI nations reached the threshold I'd have little problem with it. And I don't have much of a problem with it anyway, other than it makes diplomacy mean little.

Panzer,

When you say vanilla do you mean the stock original release? Or are you playing Rise/Fall of the Samurai expansions?

I have Shogun 2 with Fall of the Samurai stand alone...looking to getting back into it. Might give them a try vanilla first.

I just meant un-modded. I played Shogun 2 and both the Rise of the Samurai and the Fall of the Samurai add-ons.

Thanks guys. I'll give vanilla a go.

Some games like Total War I've not modded at all, despite a large modding community. Others like Skyrim I've modded a little, but relatively insignificant compared to what some people do. Then there are the games like rFactor, Arma, and Strike Fighters that I have quite a lot of mods for.

It seems to be a factor of type of game as opposed to ability to mod for me. Strategy games I just don't really mod much, I barely used the ST mod for Sins of a Solar Empire due to balance issues. FPS games the mods tend to veer towards either more maps or TC's that make it into a whole new FPS. Flight sims it's about more units or graphical effects. Racing sims it's about more cars or tracks. RPGs it's usually something simple like fix this bug or get me a great weapon or place to live.



The Jedi Master

Got it.

I just re-installed it last night and will give vanilla a go. I usually look for mods first thing with the TW series...I haven't played vanilla in a TW game in a long time. Shogun 2 was very polished however...my only complaint being the lack of variety of units between the clans.

I'm a huge fan of the series though. I skipped the first Shogun and Medieval because I didn't have the horsepower to run them so Rome TW was my first and I loved it...set the hook. I've owned all of them since then through Rome II...that one didn't take with me so much. I passed on Attila and the next installment Warhammer isn't something I will likely get.

I really wish they would release an official DLC or game based on the Civil War. The Empire Civil War mod is decent but has issues.

I dont know if you have any interest in the historical time period covered by the game (395 AD to 476 AD) but if you are I highly recommend you getting it and especially if you can catch it on a good sale. The graphics are much improved over Rome 2 and there are some new gameplay elements like nomadic/horde factions where instead of having settlements each army has its own self-contained buildings and economy. I had a blast playing as the Huns. The internal faction politics are also more detailed and complex but in a good way!

There's also a really great DLC for Attila called "The Last Roman" which starts in 533 AD. It's centered around Justinian and Bellisarius trying to reclaim the land lost by the former Western Roman Empire.

Attila does require more out of the PC than Rome II, which itself required more than Shogun 2 did.



The Jedi Master

Actually, that is not quite true. There has never been a large coalition opposed to a single powerful clan. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu all had strong alliances to fall back to.

Nobunaga's coalitions after he invaded Mino and destroyed the Saito clan more or less remained intact. The only time a crucial ally switched sides at a crucial time was Asai Nagamasa, but he had older and closer ties to the Asakura clan, which made him attack Nobunaga.

His main enemies were mostly the Warrior Priest of the Hiei and Honganji. Nobunaga was so successful because he had a strong ally in Tokugawa Ieyasu, and mangaged to destroy his opponents in a piecemeal fashion.

Hideyoshi was a clever diplomat, which won him the title of Taik�. After he managed to get rid of his main rivals, Shibata Katsuie and Nobunaga's sons and heirs, he basically inherited Nobunaga's position. He also managed to make Ieyasu back down and support him. Hideyoshi's main adversary after that was the H�j� clan, which he eliminated with the help of the Tokugawa.

Tokugawa Ieyasu met the stiffest resistance after Hideyoshi's death, where he had to fight an alliance of Western clans at Sekigahara. But he had his own alliance of Eastern clans at his side, so he was not alone against the rest of Japan like the game presents you with.

A realistic game mode would be for the player to create a system of coalitions that are actually meaningful, and then fight as one entity against an opposing coalition, like in the "Fall of the Samurai" addon.

LOL I installed everything and *bang* I got hit with the dreaded 'STW2 would not launch' bug.

Having googled the problem, this is apparently a fairly widespread issue with STW2.

Why can't these people make a game that don't require you to backflip and jump through hoops to get running ? Maybe I'm spoiled by Witcher 3. Oh well, another round of trouble shooting

I can't remember the last time I got that bug.




The Jedi Master

Did you just install the vanilla official game and DLC's or did you install mods as well?

Vanilla with official DLCs (Fall of Samurai etc).

I googled and there's a lot of complaints on the TW Boards and Reddit about the problem. Some suggestion of fixes. Worked for some, did not work for others including me. I don't know. Oh well. I'll drop it for the moment and come back to it another time.