four changes I want to make for the sake of realism, can someone direct me?

[Seth_Logan]

Hi,

I've been playing RTW for years and EB since I've bought a stronger, faster laptop. I really enjoy the realism that EB gives over RTW and I spend many many hours playing out campaigns.
Although the costs and upkeeps, even the availability of units has been increased dramatically with the introduction of EB there are still three things I want to change, which I was able to do with RTW (well 3 out of 4) but I'm unable to find in EB:

1. I want to increase the upkeep costs of all units from 20% (now I believe) to between 25 and 50% (not sure yet, any tips/reasoning?).
2. I want to increase building time to correspond with the tiers meaning a tier 3 unit will take 3 turns to build and a tier 5 unit should take 5 turns.
3. I love the fact that there are more merc's available, but I want to encourage their disbandonment (by me) so I would like to increase their upkeep as well; is there an easy way of identifying them in the files?
4. I want the minimum settlement requirements for raising armies to be at least 2.000 to 400 now.

The reasons I'm so into changing these charactaristics is the fact that for me personally I feel there is hardly any penalty anymore in loosing a battle on the battlefield. This is the case for the AI player as well. Too many times, when I do lose a battle, I just spawn new troops in rediculous amounts in an even more redicolous speed. Of course I could "roleplay" but I would prefer to have all factions to have the same limitations. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Cheers,

Logan

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

How about increasing the recruiting time for all units, so it takes 2 turns to recruit a cheap unit, and 4 turns to recruit an elite unit? That would really affect the AI dramatically.

[Seth_Logan]

Well... for the sake of realism I could argue that levies or emergency troops should be easily available. Like Hoplitai Haploi or Ascensi. I can see that happening. But I would think that training and arming Principes could and should take longer than Leves, or Toxotai... Therefore I want to fiddle with all the recruiting turn numbers. Incidentally; even though I try not to blitz or conquer fast, that more often than not happens sooner or later. Having an army build much slower should help in that direction too.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

The first three that you are looking for are listed in your export descr units folder under EB/Data. The key to all the numbers thrown about should be given on the top, then just is the tedious work of editing it all (and in some cases trying to figure out which names are which, especially with eastern units). However, be aware that some mercenary units are also factional troops for various factions, take Babylonian Spearmen, Hyrkanian Hillmen, Scythian Horse Archers, etc as examples. This will make recruiting those units and maintaining them in armies a pain not only for you, but for the AI.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Try this guide:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?88859-Guide-The-Complete-EDU-Guide-%28WIP%29

[vollorix]

But all Roman troops before the professional legions were levies - citizens of Rome, inhabitants of Latium, depending on their social status ( the richer were Princeps, and the most experienced veterans Triari ). They had to equip themselfs and therefore were very instantly available. Plus Romans used the troops of once defeated rivals, who now were their allies, the Socii, to complement their Legions, especially to boost up their cavalry numbers, while sharing a part of loot, and/or gained land with them ( even at a costs of their own soldiers ). That was the true power of Romans, the ability to raise numberless troops and campaign for a while, returning them then back home and disbanding them when the harvest time would come.

Concerning mercs: i know exactly what you mean, but exploiting things, especially in EB, is quite silly, if you think about it - as some one on this forums once said: EB is an experience, if you want to be cruelly efficient and simply win, you can stick around with vanilla. You should simply restrict yourself, make some house rules, and always take into account the consequences for the AI behavior. Example: The AI doesn´t really care what the upkeep of a unit is, the most important things are their strength and men power. Making units too expensive in upkeep would let some, especially minor AI factions, go instantly bancrupt, were no scripting money would help, and condemn them to passivity.

My approach, though i have not yet made the changes to the merc pool, was to allow the particulary the Romans, to hire their core troops, except Triari perhaps, in Latium, but i am not yet sure, if other factions, campaigning there, couldn´t abuse the availability of those troops....

But, anyways, all you need to do is go to "export_descr_units", also called EDU, and change the recruitment time and any farther values you would like to, using a notepad ( or better notepad ++ ) to open the text documents. You can find the explanation for all the values on top of the list. If you are using the "Trivia Script" you would need to change the "export_describe_unit_sp_backup" files. Definetly save the original files if you mess up with something!

[Cambyses]

I suspect you will want to test some of those changes in order to see what impact they will have on the AIs behaviour before modifying all the files. While some of these might be great restrictions for a human player they might lead to some mighty peculiar behaviour from the AI. Especially given its habit of recruiting stacks and sending them to stand around doing nothing for turns at a time. Also, I would have thought you might need to modify the starting positions of many factions in terms of what troops they have. Some of the barbarian factions will go bankrupt immediately with your proposed changes and never recover or expand. Maybe only edit the unit upkeep costs for the faction you intend to play and leave the AI as is?