Moding a mod

I havn't managed to find any answers to my questions on these forums and as a newbie when it comes to modding, I'm now hoping for answers from more experienced modders. I also realize that I might just have been looking at the wrong places, and if so, please redirect me.

I'm currently playing the BigMap-mod and although I like it in most respects there are a few things I'd like to change.

1. Development is far to fast with the 1 year/1 turn-setting. I'm guessing this has to do with building times and the growth of population. How do I change them?

2. Dismounted feudal knights (and their dismounted equals of knight-less factions) are availible too early and by expanding the castle only. I would like them to be availible with the same buildings as the mounted version of the unit (stables).

3. Rebels are always too few in numbers and not at all aggressive. Any way of changing this?

4. Adding additional provinces. Any guides?



Thank you!

All right, lessee...

1) You can edit descr_settlement_mechanics.xml

All factor that affect pop growth (either positively or negatively) are listed as the SPF factors. All factors have a line that looks like this :

Code:

---

<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>

---

1.0 is "vanilla rate". If you decrease the modifier for base farming to 0.5, then all regions' farming growth rates will be halved. Same goes for farm upgrades and trade, which are the other big sources of pop growth. The rest of them (health, low taxes, happy buildings and governor I wouldn't touch and leave them at 1.0, but you may want to fiddle and tweak until you reach levels you're comfortable with.

2) That's all in export_descr_buildings.txt

Simply cut the bolded line here :

Code:

---

fortress castle requires factions { northern_european, mesoamerican, middle_eastern, eastern_european, greek, southern_european, }
        {
            convert_to 2
            capability
            {
                recruit_pool "Dismounted Feudal Knights"  1  0.4  3  0  requires factions { scotland, france, hre, denmark, spain, milan, venice, papal_states, hungary, }
                recruit_pool "Dismounted Feudal Knights"  1  0.5  4  0  requires factions { england, portugal, }
            }
                wall_level 3
                tower_level 1
                gate_strength 2
                law_bonus bonus 4
                recruitment_slots 3
            }
            material stone
            construction  3
            cost  4800
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades

---

and paste it :

Code:

---

barons_stables castle requires factions { scotland, denmark, hre, france, england, middle_eastern, eastern_european, greek, southern_european, }
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit_pool "Feudal Knights"  1  0.5  4  0  requires factions { england, scotland, france, hre, denmark, spain, portugal, milan, venice, papal_states, hungary, }
                HERE
 }
            material wooden
            construction  4
            cost  4800
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
                earls_stables
            }

---

(note that I snipped a lot of recruit_pools to make it easier for you, in the actual file the capability parenthesis are much more crowded)

3) Not in any easy to explain nor fast to do way, no. Rebels are basically coded to do nothing, build nothing, stay put and grow leaves. But you *can* increase the rate of brigands/rebel spawning in descr_strat.txt

Look for the lines :

Code:

---

brigand_spawn_value 20
pirate_spawn_value 28

---

Setting the values lower will increase the number of brigand stacks spawning. Counterintuitive but true.

4) Dunno, never done it.

Thanks a lot for the help so far. I'll get to it.. doesn't seem that hard with a little guidance. Just one thing bothers me about nr 3. Increasing rebel growth increases the number of rebel armies spawning, but not the size of them, right?