Totally removing plague

[Emperor of Nowhere]

Does anyone know of a way of totally removing the plague from the game. I did a forum search and played around with the game files the way a few of the threads suggested but while playing as the Egyptians one of my cities still became plague infested.

[WImPyTjeH]

Does anyone know of a way of totally removing the plague from the game. I did a forum search and played around with the game files the way a few of the threads suggested but while playing as the Egyptians one of my cities still became plague infested.

Well, I always give my buildings a huuuuge health bonus and I don't have the plague anymore, but that's probably not the solution you're looking for.

[Bardo]

I'm also very interested in this question. It is important for our mod to remove the plagues, but I have not been able to get it.
I have tried changing the parameters of descr_disasters.txt (frecuency, season), I have tried deleting the content of this file, and even removing completely this file. All other disasters have dissapear, but plagues are still there.

[Thor the Bassist]

Are there any pre-scripted plagues that may appear from copied files from vanilla that may happen even if the random plagues are removed? (Just a thought)

[Dol Guldur]

Not all "disasters" are part of the disasters file. It seems they can kick in when certain circumstances arise, like having a city with a huge city's population (if you do not build the govt buildings). I do not know of anyone who has totally removed such disasters. I suspect some hardcoding is involved in order to control population.

You can of course rename and edit all the text and visuals and make it something else that diminishes population - though remember it can be carried by agents/armies.

[Spartan198]

To disable plagues, go into the descr_disasters file, find the plague entry, and make the bolded additions:

;event plague
;frequency 40
;winter false
;summer false
;min_scale 2
;max_scale 5

[Bardo]

It is not than simple, as Dol Guldur has said:

I do not know of anyone who has totally removed such disasters. I suspect some hardcoding is involved in order to control population

Are there any pre-scripted plagues that may appear from copied files from vanilla that may happen even if the random plagues are removed? (Just a thought)

I have tried deleting all disasters (or quoting with ;) from all the related files that I have found: descr_disasters.txt and descr_events.txt, from all the folders where I have found them: \data, \world\maps\base, \world\maps\campaign\, and I have done it for my mod, vanilla alexander and even vanilla rtw just in case... but no luck.

[Thor the Bassist]

I'd say you'll just have to upgrade settlements as soon as the population gets there - unless you can script it so that as soon as the population reaches the required amount the upgraded building is automatically built.

[Spartan198]

It is not than simple, as Dol Guldur has said

Funny, works fine in my game, no hardcoding needed. I've even tested it via the scripted "Plague in Macedonia" event. The event card itself came up... but no plague in Macedonia.

[HouseOfHam]

Eh? How do you script a plague?

Oh, nvm, it's console_command event plague x,y

But as far as I know that command does not work.

[Spartan198]

Eh? How do you script a plague?

Oh, nvm, it's console_command event plague x,y

But as far as I know that command does not work.

I'm talking about this (bolded), in the descr_events file:

; historical events and when they occur
;
; Events are followed by a category, and a label
; labels are used as lookups into historic_events.txt for title and body strings,
; and also as image names for the event picture
;
; Currently supported categories are:
; historic - Just generates a message
; volcano - triggers a volcano if there is one on the map at the position specified
; plague - triggers a plague in settlements at the specified positions
; emergent_faction - triggers the emergence of the given faction. This faction must be marked
; as emergent in descr_strat.txt
;
; event descriptions are followed by a date (year as offset from starting date, and season, summer/winter)
; and either a list of positions, or list of regions. Each position/region specification must appear on
; a seperate line below the date

event volcano eruption_at_etna
date 9 winter
position 104, 49

event plague plague_in_macedonia
date 14 winter
position 138, 67

Since it occurs at the same time, in every game, at the same settlement, it's clearly a scripted event.

[HouseOfHam]

Very interesting reasoning.

[Thor the Bassist]

Well by disabling the events you would stop plague's by events but you dont stop plagues by overcrowding. I recon plagues are actually in two forms - the event which is pre-defined in the descr_events.txt and the overcrowding which is hard-coded. You can disable the events but not the hard-coded stuff.

[wlesmana]

Logically, I'd say plague is affected by squalor instead of over-population. It's only speculation unless CA can help (which I doubt at this point) but it's a pretty logical programming.

So has anyone tried giving government buildings huuuuuge health bonus alongside with the same amount of population growth penalty? Maybe that could kill off enough squalor while not making a ridiculous population boom. Of course, it doesn't solve squalor in villages though.

[Spartan198]

Hardcoded or not, all I know is that I've been using the disable method I outlined in my first post here for quite some time, and haven't seen a plague since.

Very interesting reasoning.

Play a vanilla Macedon campaign and find out for yourself if you don't believe me.