New hints ???????????????

[caravel]

If that can be done, that would be great but a little balancing exercise would probably be need to keep the game "accurate" so that a difference remains between historicaly rich provinces and others. If that is doable, adding a port could trigger the application of a multiplier of the trade income. At first glance I would say 1.5 but it would need testing. Increasing the basic trade and agriculture might also be required if one wants to tech up but on the other hand it might be more accurate if not enough cash is available to buid anything at anytime (feels weird to have fortresses all over the place after a while)

Well the farming issue can be improved by adding an adittional 100% upgrade and by making the upgrades cheaper. The trade issue only needs the trade goods items values to be increased in proportion so the wealthy provinces remain so.

Crusades will be much tougher for the human player without navy but that is not a bad thing at all. Would'nt it be a good idea to compensate that a bit and allow the successfull crusader to produce its own crusader units in Palestine, Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli to make an attempt worthwile ? This would make the gamble tempting enough .... Doing the same for the German in Prussia and Pomerania could also be an option but perhaps it's too big of an advantage. Perhaps Livonia is a bit more reasonable.

This is one of the great benefits. Crusades are harder to pull off. In vanilla the player can create a link of fleets to the province, add lots of units to the crusade and then drop it into the target province in a single turn. The AI simply cannot do this.

If on your way you could modify or delete the useless bonus for some provinces (the one about the dismounted knights ...)

That's easy enough. In the past I've removed all bonuses from the map, because they cause the AI to go berserk trying to tech up to train a particular unit at the expense of everything else.

- might be a good thing to add a few connection from Sicily otherwise a Sicilian campaign will be quite hard ... Attacking the Pope after a few truns is tough ... Connection from Naples to Greece would help the Byz too much in Early. I would at first glance suggest a connection between Sicily and Sardigna. Another solution is to add a connection from Sicily to Tunisia (Sicilian GA Goal) but the risk would be that the Elmo reach Rome after a few turns (unlikely in the Early period during which they usually take a beating but possible in High). Spaniards can do the same, but having Naples as Spanish possession is not inaccurate ...

The best way to improve the Sicilian position is to a) give them Naples in the early Era, which they should have anyway and b) reduce the tech level of Sicily to prevent them expanding too soon. The Siciliy to Tunisia connection is risky. You could do a Siciliy -> Malta -> Tunisia connection but it holds the same risks. The Sicilians ten to explode all over North Africa and wipe out the Almohad in a few years.

- some GA campaign will become more than difficult, for instance the French in Early and the Aragonese in Late (even though the connection Sicily/Sardinia would help). French in High will be tough since they cannot get any reinforcement except if new crusades are launched but that is basically the reason why the kingdom of Jerusalem did not survive.
- the connection from the three byz Islands should be made in such a way the they work in for the High Period. I would suggest to connect (i) Crete to Naples, Greece and Rhodes (ii) Rhodes to Nicea and the other two Islands and (iii) Cyprus to Rhodes and Tripoli.

Firstly any changes will only affect Early anyway. To change High and Late you have to edit the files again - though that's possible. The Greece -> Naples connection is one I had forgotten. That one is quite important.

It's true also that these regions were isolated. They did not have this kind of reliable shipping connecting them, nor supplies and troops ready to ship in at a year's notice.

I've just realised that with the mod I play, I use a different map... Though I don't mind working on a version for the Vanilla map at some point. The map I use has an improved Iberia, Greece, Asia Minor, Near East and North Africa. It also has most of those suggested land bridges already in place. The province layout in those regions is different and Cyrenacia, Sinai, Finland, Switzerland, Rhodes and Malta have been removed altogether. Many new provinces have been added in the above regions however.

Now all I need to do is get a new graphics card and get the game running...