Hiding information of AI army composition

[Jurand of Cracow]

Hi Guys,
I'd like to make player's life harder in battles by withholding the information about the AI army composition. This would make scouting during the battle more useful and could provide sometimes feeling of a surprise.
I don't think there's a possibility to hide the number of units in any army. But is it possible to make information on the units and number of the troops more difficult to get?
This concerns two issues:
- info gathered on the map by characters and agents: is there a parameter which tells how much a spy / a general etc. can gather about the enemy army?
- info given at the beginning of a battle: I think the player can always get a precise info about the army before the battle (just by clicking on the army he starts battle with). Is it possible to make this info unavailable?
cheers
JoC

[Gigantus]

I suppose if you know your way around the m2tw.lnt file you might be able to remove the display area for the info. Wouldn't hold my breath, though - lot of this stuff is hard coded.

You could also script disabling of player action\input when the pre-battle window is displayed and start the battle without further input from the player, not sure if that will suffice.

[Jurand of Cracow]

I suppose if you know your way around the m2tw.lnt file you might be able to remove the display area for the info. Wouldn't hold my breath, though - lot of this stuff is hard coded.

You could also script disabling of player action\input when the pre-battle window is displayed and start the battle without further input from the player, not sure if that will suffice.

Thanks, Gig!
I think that some pre-battle information is interesting for the player (well, if I see relative strenghts 5-2, I do autoresolve. But if I see 1-3, then I play it by myself), so unabling it would be inferior solution.

What about the other question: "info gathered on the map by characters and agents: is there a parameter which tells how much a spy / a general etc. can gather about the enemy army?"

cheers
JoC

[Gigantus]

Parameter: from my experience it's a matter of proximity which is linked to the distance the character can 'see'. The closer the character or agent gets the more detail he is able to gather, starting from a general army strength (question marks in unit fields) to a detailed list of traits. Same with settlements, the most detailed info is from a spy inside the city\castle.

[Jurand of Cracow]

Parameter: from my experience it's a matter of proximity which is linked to the distance the character can 'see'. The closer the character or agent gets the more detail he is able to gather, starting from a general army strength (question marks in unit fields) to a detailed list of traits. Same with settlements, the most detailed info is from a spy inside the city\castle.

Yep, I also do think so. However, I've also think the characters/agents can see more or less details perhaps depending 1) their stats, 2) a kind of parameters for the game.
So the questions are:
1) what stats come into questions (LineOfSight for the characters?)
2) what are those overall parameters for everybody in the game, and are they programmable or hardcoded?

As far as the info before the battle is concerned: one may create a houserule (I'd add it to my set of houserules): you don't click on the check enemy just before the battle so that you don't know precisely who is in.

[Gigantus]

LineOfSight is simply that: the viewing range, best to note if the character is inside enemy territory\FoW. Very unlikely it influences ability to see details beyond simple range considerations, eg seeing max distance objects earlier.

I haven't come across any coding relating to this, even a watch tower has certain 'spying capabilities', and think that's it's simply the distance from the queried object that determines details obtained. Never tried it myself (and it might be other versions of Total War), but having a spy in your army apparently allows you to see an armies intial position on the battle field during the deployment phase.

Edit: if there is a definition for the 'check enemy' field\button then it could be disabled via script, but I can't recall having come across it.

[tmodelsk]

I 've played with LineOfSight for agents & generals a bit. I did hidden trait added for every agent & general with LineOfSight -4 or similar. Or it could be added for player agents only.
It significantly enlarges Fog of War, lowers line of sight -> so it works.
But I have not found a way to limit watchtowers line of sight. Same for cities, but IMO cities have reasonable sight range.

[Gigantus]

Towers and cities will have a hard coded value, never came across a file that has anything like that for them.

[Heskey]

I'm no fan of agent spam, or agents in general really as the games have gone on - too much micromanagement... But I understand the concept of a game being about 'choices' and every decision should be a trade-off rather than a certainty.

I think watchtowers that the player has to build are preferable to the over-use of spies to keep a watch over your territories, but I don't think these should either be A.) automatically present on the campaign map, or B.) so cheap to make that it doesn't require any thought.

Fog of war is as much as a game mechanic as spies/watchtowers are, so I think "auto-watchtowers" are a cheat. And they're never where I'd place them for maximum benefit.

An alternative is a passive presumption that a region's lord would have watchmen on the borders, so making FoW off by default ONLY within the borders of an owned region would allow you to see everything that goes on within your lands, but not a square beyond it.