VanillaMod 0.92 Current Worklog

I'm working on 0.92 in the background currently but it won't be up for another few weeks most likely.
However, this is a good opportunity for you to chip in your thoughts about changes and input further suggestions to make this mod better.

Please keep in mind that to keep to Vanilla, I will not be adding new factions or new religions. I may make the map more detailed at some point by adding regions, but the mapper hasn't gotten back to me in over a month so that is on hold for now. If you wish to lend your services in that regard, please let me know.

As I am only 1 tester, if you have any observations about mongol/timurid behavior, this is the time for you to comment. They run fine most of the time in my games, but I cannot vouch for it in general.


Done
- Changed AI money script. Now uses TurnEnd rather than TurnStart and playable non player factions now get florins based on number of settlements. 1800 before turn 40, 2600 after, for each settlement with the limit of 90000 until mid game and 120000 during late game. Made similar changes to slave faction.

- Made AI a bit better on campaign map, should take regions rather quickly and build its forces more concentrated. Sometimes still acts erratically however at certain points (outside my control).

- Changed rebellion mechanics. In general, armies are now 0.5% more likely to rebel at turn end. However, larger armies are now less likely to rebel rathern than more likely as they used to be. Captain-led stacks have a higher chance of rebelling rather than a lower chance as previously. Excommunication and death of a leader will for their current turns cause higher rebellion rates if authority or loyalty are low. Being close or inside a rebel faction causes nearby stacks to experience slightly higher rates of rebellion if no led by a general.

- Removed some AI bonuses in regards to rebellion. They used to have 25% chance of human players. They now have 50% chance of human players. This is both to reduce AI cheating but at the same time (due to AI stupidity) this remnant is important to its survival.

- Made bribery even more fluent after figuring out some more attributes. A highly skilled diplomat should have no problems bribing a 30k pop settlement now unless it has high loyalty or you lack the florins to do so.
Note that bribery cost is hardcoded to some extent. It is based on building and unit cost values so it cannot be lowered without making those dirt cheap as well

- Made a few minor adjustments to guild points

- Made major changes to faction relations. Relations when allied to several inter-allied factions will no longer stay at Perfect all the time without marriage alliance. Pope takes offence slightly faster and changed thresholds for release/execute.

- Rebalanced a few units (Lesser spears have slightly lower defense and attack values, changed some units boni vs cavalry)

- Reduced ship replenishment rates across the board so less ships are being spammed (and to show that it actually takes time to ready more ships). Mercenary ships can sometimes be a welcome addition now

- Added triggers for sally-type battles so they now also give Good/Bad siege traits

- Fixed an instance of an inaccessible resource at Metz

- Increased slightly the negative income effects of devastated tiles

- Decreased slightly the tax income from castles

- Horde factions (Mongols/Timurids) now always act efficiently in terms of advancing onto their next targets

- Made AI defend their settlements better

- Removed hardy attribute from genoese militia and retinue longbows

- Downgraded very_hardy to hardy on sherwood archers

- Added aztecs to playable custom battle fations

- Added adoption triggers for aztecs, mongols and timurids

- Reduced accuracy of composite and bodkin arrows minutely

- Decreased princess upkeep from 250 to 200

- Increased agent movement speed slightly

- Increased Mongol horde by 6 stacks and Timurids by 4 stacks

Made some final additions to the list.

Please have a read through and comment if you like. If there are none, I will be releasing the update within the next week after some more testing.

If you have time to test the changes for me in the meantime, please drop me a PM.

For ease of testing, the updated files are available here in the meantime. Its a 169KB archive that includes the data folder and its subfolders with files that have changed. To make it work, you need to have a working copy of VanillaMod 0.91 and then extract the archive's contents into your VanillaMod folder, overwriting when prompted.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?hu1wxdxcnnt (old link, use new one below)

FactionHeir,

I just stumbled across this mod recently, and like it very much. Especially the traits fixes, they should be included in every other mod I think!

One question:
Will this new version be compatible with the v1.5 patch? Or does the 1.5 patch only affect Kingdoms?

Keep up the good work. There are some other mods out there that look more glamourous, but yours actually fixes many things that are overlooked in other mods.~:cheers:

Thanks for the praise :bow:

The mod works for M2TW without Kingdoms, and as such will only affect the grand campaign started using the mod's shortcut (whichever way you set it up). You can safely patch to 1.5 I believe and still play this mod.

If you run into troubles or find the mod is not working properly for you, please let me know!

- Made a few minor adjustments to guild points

Not a problem with it, just something I noticed. In my first game with this mod (VH/VH) as Sicily, I moved to Jerusalem, upon taking it, next turn I was offered Horse Breeders Guild. Few turns later (No recruiting or retraining of horses) was offered The faction one, same thing few turns later, HQ of it.

I didnt recruit, retrain or build horse training buildings. :laugh4: Im not complaining though.

Yeah, this happened most likely because the Egyptians already had a breeder's guild somewhere and have been training cavalry in Jerusalem which they can with race tracks.

Guild points aren't reset (cannot be reset reliably) when one faction takes another faction's settlement, so if the settlement already had a high number of points towards a certain guild and you take it, you will be offered that guild.

- Tweaked diplomacy relations a bit more
- Increased number and replenishment of mongol/timurd recruitments
- Made castle libraries increase the limit for diplomats and spies
- Made caravanseries increase the limit for merchants
- Minor tweaks to battle aggressiveness
- Increased reliability of horde faction movements
- Gave horde factions 1 spy to start out with
- Reduced availability of "home country" conquistadores
- Delayed Rebel money until end of turn 14 and reduced amount
- Amended victory conditions some more

Under consideration:
- Adding Character Names Project to Mod (Optional)
- Adding Regions and Provinces to Mod (Optional)

Will upload the changes once I get some more time to test them.

Another testing release. Let me know if you experience any problems or oddities.

http://generalsun.dreamhosters.com/uploads/files/VanillaModUpdate092c.zip (old link, use new one)

Note that this also fixes the initial 0.92s faulty (old) strat map AI file.

great, give me the update just when i need to do work :laugh4:

Argh, I again managed to insert an old file in there. Really hate having so many sub modfolders that I forget which file I edited again!

New upload with fixed descr_strat (had an issue with muslim AI)

http://generalsun.dreamhosters.com/uploads/files/VanillaModUpdate092d.zip Old link. Get newest at the bottom

[edit]
Yeah, I should be working on my RL projects too that are due in under a week but I cannot concentrate on those...

Still making some finishing touches in terms of balance and small fixes.

- Increased Boyar Son missile attack by 1 and decreased upkeep by 10
- Changed EE Spear Militia class from light infantry to spearmen
- Reduced chance of obtaining RhetoricSkill while residing in city hall+ from 10% to 3%
- Minor tweak to siege behavior
- Minor tweak to guild points
- Changed consideration thresholds for GoodAttacker/BadAttacker/GoodDefender/BadDefender/GoodRiskyAttacker/BadRiskyAttacker/GoodRiskyDefender/BadRiskyDefender
- When obtaining GoodAttacker, a chance for Brave is now also included
- Battlefield Assassins are recruitable from normal assassin's guilds as well but in very short supply

As you will also be happy to know, a larger map version for VanillaMod is currently in the works thanks to irishron. :bow:

Fixes will be available in a full update within the next few days after more testing is done.

I gave the current worklog a quick spin, very fun!

Now I have 3 hours to do a full assignment...gah.

Still working on it, found a few things that might be the cause of some AI inactivity.

- Reduced tax income by 10% for all settlements
- Reduced trade base income by 1 for each trade building and upgrades
- Made a few adjustments to faction attitudes towards rebels and rebel attitude vs factions
- Made alliance a bit less robust
- Made papal relations more difficult to upkeep

Yeah Scotland has moved around a bit but only inside their province. Havent left it with anything, not even agents.

Bah, my british wanted a fight!

- Overhauled strat map AI majorly and battle map AI minorly
- Reduced income factor from farming
- Upped Merchant's quarter trade income by 1 point
- Capped out chivalry population growth at 3% rather than 5% (i.e. growth until helmet 6, after that only battle bonus)
- Very slightly reduced effect of each trade point on growth (from 0.12 to 0.1)
- Made catholics and muslims less likely to ally
- Delayed rebel cash until end of turn 17

Still working and testing, if you got any comments or criticisms, please do tell.

Thought I'd upload the newest update to share with everyone. As usual place either over 0.91 or 0.91+0.92 beta (any):

http://generalsun.dreamhosters.com/u...Update092e.zip

Will take a look at the end of the week.

If theres any particular issues/bugs you are not sure about, let me know and ill try to play that part of it.

if that made any sense :confused:

Well I just hope that the AI acts more smartly than in the earlier 0.92 versions and close to the performance or better of 0.91

new campaign, or it will affect current campaigns?

Well, money script and new mongol hordes only affect a new campaign.
The rest works in a running one.