x3 Unit Costs and Upkeeps

[CanOmer]

I play Rome TW and its mods since 2004. Right now my favourite mod is Europa Barbarorum. Because unit cost and upkeeps are higher than other "big" mods. So, battles are more rare. This is important to me, because too many battles makes the game boring.


I decided to make this much higher; 3 times! I tested it 4-5 times with different factions. First years are hard, but after several years it is OK. The real benefit is for middle and late of course; there won't be too many full stacks. :)


To download: http://www.mediafire.com/?z216wz5jx55aaau


Copy DESCR_MERCENARIES.TXT to ..EB\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\ folder


Copy export_descr_unit.txt to ..EB\Data\ folder


Remember to backup first!

[Ludens]

Thanks for sharing this.

One question, if I may: has this affected the performance of the A.I.-controlled factions? IIRC the A.I. will try to fill its recruitment queues before spending money on infrastructure, so I wonder if this slows A.I. teching. The steppe factions in particular should be hit by this.

[CanOmer]

These are from my long campaigns with this X3 costs mod;
(All of them on VH-H settings.)

Bactria


Carthage


Casse

[vartan]

Pahlava seems to be progressing alright. But nevertheless, I wonder the same thing Ludens does. How is tech affected? Have you tried a general survey of city tabs across the map using the spy command?

[CanOmer]

I did not control all you mentioned. But I can say few things;

- First years AI may not expand as fast as before.
- AI uses cheap units in first years, may be decades.
- Cities grow well, script gives enough money to develop them I think. With less armies, population becomes bigger also.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

This looks like a mod that will make VH campaign more playable in the later stages - well done and good thinking!

I won't be using it myself, though, since I never play VH campaign - too hard for me, I prefer M campaign and slow progress.

[CanOmer]

This mod also can be use when you begin to think there are too many battles in the campaign. First time I did this; my Romani campaign which is started default unit costs and upkeeps is now in 233BC. And I tired of fighting every turn with same enemies. Now I am using x3 unit costs and upkeeps. So, there are less stacks and less battles, battles which are significative.

[fallen851]

Very interesting idea. I too like less battles and less stacks to make battles more significant.

[fomalhaut]

is perhaps x3 costs and upkeeps a little much? what about 1.5, or 2? I think more testing on this is necessary to make sure that development doesn't go down, where the AI just buys a bunch of crappy units instead of a bunch of expensive ones, yet still doesn't have paved roads.

the fundamental idea is great, for I hate the mid-late game stack fest of agemai or other elites just over and over. I want to feel like one battle was a big deal, rather than a daily occurrence.

[vollorix]

I think increasing the unit training time x3 is quite a good idea for itself, i´ve done it, and it seems to work quite well. Didn´t touch the costs and upkeep, though: why should the money matter, when the time is the actually limiting factor? Also, i didn´t stop at 3 times: some units take 4, most elites 5 turns to recruit.

Just my two cents.

P.S: the merc prises schould be adjusted, though, i think, since the AI loves mercs ( on H/VH ), and with long recruitment times it will take all it can. But, one thing has always to be concidered: the "larger" and, therefore "richer" factions get incredible advantage because of the costs increase, esp. at the beginning.

[fomalhaut]

larger factions should have advantages, though, no?

[auboy105]

I also like this idea and have tried your mod but agree that 2x cost is probably better with increased training times as the AI does not seem to build very much with 3x costs...

[vollorix]

@ fomalhaut: Large factions already have the advantage of way too many provinces from where they can pump their troops. But i have to say, that i´ve changed my descr_strat concerning the max. movement points, and therefore the larger factions, here especially Seleucids, have now extremely powerfull base, since they can move their troops really fast through their territory.
@ auboy105: The AI is already obsessed with pumping out units with most men in a unit, therefore you see so many Lugoai and Pandodapoi; making them 2 turns has it´s advantages, but also could mean you´ll meet huge armies of levies most of the time ( i did this for Gauls with Lugoai, but, on the other hand, Aedui, Arverni, and Pontos, iirc, are the only ones who can recruit them at all ( they are more of garrison/homeguard unit, and won´t be spammed by conquerors ).