Why oh why?

[Primative1]

Why does my relationship with the pope suffer when I defend myself, in my own province, from invading armies?

Why are other factions allowed to attack me, seemingly without any sanction from the pope?

Why am I rated as 'very untrustworthy' despite never having broken a treaty or even starting a war?

Why have the last 2 papal elections been won by a cardinal with less votes than the guy I voted for?

Why did I pay good money for this game because it's really starting to get me down?

[WhiskeyGhost]

1. Can be attributed to having a poor rep vs someone with a good rep (attacking you)

2. The pope does get mad at them, but it takes him a while especially if they have good standings with him.

3. Having a Dread leader, killing prisoners, exterminating cities, and using spies/assassins can have that effect, and using a war someone else started as a reason to expand frivolously makes you seem like the bad guy that was waiting for an excuse to be bad.

4. I've heard of this bug, not entirely sure why myself, maybe has something to do with traits or such (like maybe having a violent pope makes you have a base penalty? or perhaps difficulty of the game?)

5. Join the club :wall:

[Rhyfelwyr]

Why does my relationship with the pope suffer when I defend myself, in my own province, from invading armies?

As long as they are not at war with you their armies shouldn't cause you any problems, except maybe blocking your own armies and making them take the long route. Otherwise, if the enemy are there to invade you, let them declare war and suffer the consequences. It is a good point though, it is why people are calling for a "Get off my land!" diplomacy option.


Why are other factions allowed to attack me, seemingly without any sanction from the pope?

They may be balancing their rep with the Pope by building churches, having many cardinals etc. From what I've seen every Catholic faction takes a heavy hit on their pope-o-meter for declaring war on fellow Catholics.


Why am I rated as 'very untrustworthy' despite never having broken a treaty or even starting a war?

If you ally with many factions, then as soon as you brake the alliance with any one of them when they go to war with each other, you take a rep hit. Using spies, assasins, sezing rival merchants assets etc also cause you to take a rep hit.


Why have the last 2 papal elections been won by a cardinal with less votes than the guy I voted for?

Are you sure? I have never heard of this problem before.


Why did I pay good money for this game because it's really starting to get me down?

Its has its bugs but M2TW is still IMO one of the best games out there, and there's no-one to rival the TW series at all right now.

[Primative1]

Thanks for the replies guys;

1: HRE declared war on my a few years back & attacked one of my provinces. I gave him a beating on my own turf and next turn my relationship with the pope nosedived. He was more popular with the pope than I so I reckon that was it.

2: I'm currently trying to fight off 4 factions and am in the farcical position of having to allow the danes' ships to land armies in Britain 'cos to intercept them gets me excommed!!!

3: I did use assassins extensively early in the game but now I just concentrate on killing ai assassins. I thought a successful assassination was undetected by ai faction anyhow. I only use thieves to protect my cities & to act as mobile watchtowers. I usually ransom prisoners and sack cities, as this is was the way things were done historically.

4: Yep, this has definately happened at least twice. 7-4 and 5-4 wins for my guys resulted in a hostile 4 vote cardinal becoming pope.

5: Are there any good mods out there? I've seen as much of vanilla as I can stomach. I like a long game, EB is my fave mod (roll on EB2) for Rome.

[Ramses II CP]

Papal elections are sometimes bugged. Reload the save from the turn before and vote again; this should cause it to straighten out. I haven't sorted out what actually triggers it though.

:egypt:

[TevashSzat]

Thanks for the replies guys;

1: HRE declared war on my a few years back & attacked one of my provinces. I gave him a beating on my own turf and next turn my relationship with the pope nosedived. He was more popular with the pope than I so I reckon that was it.

2: I'm currently trying to fight off 4 factions and am in the farcical position of having to allow the danes' ships to land armies in Britain 'cos to intercept them gets me excommed!!!

3: I did use assassins extensively early in the game but now I just concentrate on killing ai assassins. I thought a successful assassination was undetected by ai faction anyhow. I only use thieves to protect my cities & to act as mobile watchtowers. I usually ransom prisoners and sack cities, as this is was the way things were done historically.

4: Yep, this has definately happened at least twice. 7-4 and 5-4 wins for my guys resulted in a hostile 4 vote cardinal becoming pope.

5: Are there any good mods out there? I've seen as much of vanilla as I can stomach. I like a long game, EB is my fave mod (roll on EB2) for Rome.

1. It could be that HRE had an alliance with the Pope or you did something else that turn to piss him off.

2. You can attack any other faction too, but eventually you're relations will go down. They probably haven't been as aggressive as you and probably never fought for too long before.

3. Sacking cities I think will slowly bring down your reputation as will not helping you allies from their enemies or breaking alliances even if done so indirectly.

4. I never head of this bug before, maybe take a screenshot of it next time?

[TheLastPrivate]

Answer to all your problems, as with real life:
You need to butter up the pope. Same for the election - often the cardinal from the papal states will become pope because he is favored by the previous pope. You can say its not fair, but so is life.
Again, some greenbacks...er, florins should do the job.

[Slug For A Butt]

I've had the same problem with a papal election recently. I outvoted evryone else on my own (by a good couple of votes) and somehow lost the election... the same screen showed that my cardinal had more votes and another cardinal had won the election.
If that isn't a bug you can bang me sideways and call me Sally. :wall: I had that election perfectly rigged too. Still...not a game breaker of a bug, but a little annoying nonetheless.

[WhiskeyGhost]

I've had the same problem with a papal election recently. I outvoted evryone else on my own (by a good couple of votes) and somehow lost the election... the same screen showed that my cardinal had more votes and another cardinal had won the election.
If that isn't a bug you can bang me sideways and call me Sally. :wall: I had that election perfectly rigged too. Still...not a game breaker of a bug, but a little annoying nonetheless.

Now that i think about it, the only times i encountered this was when an excommed faction (previously) or a dead cardinal (died on same turn as vote) happened. I think i had like 8 more votes on my side from my ally, but he managed to get excommed (and why i killed th previous pope, so he didn't hound me to break my alliance)

[imnothere]

i had some problem previously before with pope. but i restart a new game. now allied to pope, paying (pittance) tributes of 100 florins for 100 turns and obeying most commands and never initiate war.

previously i had bad reputation. and now? i have more allies (far away) off, Portugese and French attacked me then suing for peace. and in the process, I even gain a useful trait (wife-is-wise) for getting my heir to marry the Portugese princess. I've also taken Lisbon off Portugese despite the cancelled-crusade (Mr. Gregory died....grrrhh!) just prior to me hooking on the wise-princess.

as suspect, yes, do keep your relationship higher than the Danes. but the problem for me is that French is now allied to Pope so they have same relationship with pope as me (WTH, i knew i should have assassinate those diplomats when i could). I do believe that prior to taking the Lisbon and marrying the princess, Portugese keep attacking me and got excommunicated by the pope.

[Primative1]

I just went back to a previous save & it, pope fixes election that is, happened again. Xdeathfire - Where is a screenshot saved to and how do I upload it to this site?

The pope hates my guts, my rep is in the toilet and everyone I have a border with is at war with me. I may start my campaign again keeping everyones advice in mind. Thanks for all the advice from everyone - I think dread leaders, city sackings & lots of assassin use early on have been responsible for my current predicament. I havn't attacked another faction first at any point or broken any treaties. There does seem to be a constant erosion of relations with the other factions tho, I assume this is just part of the game.

I'd like to finish at least one vanilla campaign but can anyone recommend a decent mod in the EB mode just in case I get pee'd off with it.

Caledonian - I agree that the Total War series is unrivalled, but playing a few of the Rome mods has opened my eyes to the untapped potential the series has. RTR & EB are far superior to vanilla imho.

Sally, errr sorry, Slug - it's not a game breaker but it is one of a number of niggles that build up to major frustration

[Ramses II CP]

That's strange, I've had the bugged Papal elections three times and reloading from the previous turn worked. You didn't just load the autosave, right? It does an autosave in the same turn right before you vote, and that will give you the same result.

Otherwise, you got me. Time to assassinate the Pope and vote again I guess.

:egypt:

[Primative1]

That's strange, I've had the bugged Papal elections three times and reloading from the previous turn worked. You didn't just load the autosave, right? It does an autosave in the same turn right before you vote, and that will give you the same result.

Otherwise, you got me. Time to assassinate the Pope and vote again I guess.

:egypt:

I did load the autosave. I've started a new campaign now but thanks for the tip.

[TevashSzat]

I just went back to a previous save & it, pope fixes election that is, happened again. Xdeathfire - Where is a screenshot saved to and how do I upload it to this site?

The pope hates my guts, my rep is in the toilet and everyone I have a border with is at war with me. I may start my campaign again keeping everyones advice in mind. Thanks for all the advice from everyone - I think dread leaders, city sackings & lots of assassin use early on have been responsible for my current predicament. I havn't attacked another faction first at any point or broken any treaties. There does seem to be a constant erosion of relations with the other factions tho, I assume this is just part of the game.

I'd like to finish at least one vanilla campaign but can anyone recommend a decent mod in the EB mode just in case I get pee'd off with it.

Caledonian - I agree that the Total War series is unrivalled, but playing a few of the Rome mods has opened my eyes to the untapped potential the series has. RTR & EB are far superior to vanilla imho.

Sally, errr sorry, Slug - it's not a game breaker but it is one of a number of niggles that build up to major frustration

I think they got to the heart of the problem, excommed factions, but for future reference, you upload the file onto something like photobucket and then link it to the org usually under a spoiler by copying the code found in photobucket

[Primative1]

Just noticed that EB 1.0 has been released. Medieval2 cant compete with that & is toast. ((uninstalls))

[Rhedd]

Just noticed that EB 1.0 has been released. Medieval2 cant compete with that & is toast. ((uninstalls))What in the blue blazes is "EB 1.0", then?

[Ramses II CP]

The mod for Rome:TW. It's, umm, advertised on the Org's front page. :inquisitive:

:egypt:

[Slug For A Butt]

Sally, errr sorry, Slug - it's not a game breaker but it is one of a number of niggles that build up to major frustration


Agreed, it is frustrating.

Sally.

[Rhedd]

The mod for Rome:TW. It's, umm, advertised on the Org's front page. :inquisitive:

:egypt:
Huh. I've never been there. ^_^

Thanks.

[Primative1]

Rhedd - I would definately recommend checking out mods if you havn't already. The few that I have tried are all better than vanilla. If EB is not to your taste there are many other mods esp for Rome TW - I havn't checked out the mod scene for M2TW yet.

[Jason X]

re: m2tw mods ... i'm waiting for broken crescent, looks awesome.

[Meldarion]

The Long Road is probably the best MTWII mod for those looking to play a slow game. Its my favourite and actually rewards you for building up a trade infrastructure. Its also has some unit re-balancing and the added ability to recruit mercenaries from a city via a building. Also a few new factions to enjoy and larger map which causes zero slow down even on a low end graphics card.