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...

[Jxrc]

Well the farming issue can be improved by adding an adittional 100% upgrade and by making the upgrades cheaper.:

Might be easier just to change the base farming income of a province though. Adding a "100% upgrade" would require more time to build but that might be just want you want to achieve. On the other hand, I kind of get upset when the "60% upgrade" is destroyed when I have almost completed the 80% upgrade (takes you about between 7 and 13 years backward) so I can imagine than going back to 60% when I have almost finished 100% will not please me Not a big problem since it happens only once every ten campaigns ... moreover the time spent for that upgrade is compensated by the fact that there is no longer any point teching up stuff for boats.

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.

Fair enough but then you need a Naples/greece link otherwise they can only attack the Pope. Not that it would be undoable for an human player but that would ruin most campaigns if a papal resurgence takes place early in the game. To avoid that one could imagine to also make a link Naples/Serbia but that would be too big an advantage

Firstly any changes will only affect Early anyway. To change High and Late you have to edit the files again - though that's possible.

I understand that but it would be nice to have a consistent map if one can spare the time.

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.:

Fine with me if the whole package can be obtained somewhere. What does happen to Swiss halbardiers with that map ?

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

Well do not buy anything "too new" or you'll end up in the Apothecary for a while

[caravel]

Might be easier just to change the base farming income of a province though. Adding a "100% upgrade" would require more time to build but that might be just want you want to achieve. On the other hand, I kind of get upset when the "60% upgrade" is destroyed when I have almost completed the 80% upgrade (takes you about between 7 and 13 years backward) so I can imagine than going back to 60% when I have almost finished 100% will not please me Not a big problem since it happens only once every ten campaigns ... moreover the time spent for that upgrade is compensated by the fact that there is no longer any point teching up stuff for boats.

Good point. Base farming cannot be adjusted globally however. I find that lowering (halving in fact) the cost of the farming upgrades usually has the desired effect, rather than simply increasing farm income on a per province basis.

Fair enough but then you need a Naples/greece link otherwise they can only attack the Pope. Not that it would be undoable for an human player but that would ruin most campaigns if a papal resurgence takes place early in the game. To avoid that one could imagine to also make a link Naples/Serbia but that would be too big an advantage

Yes he Naples/Greece link is vital.

I understand that but it would be nice to have a consistent map if one can spare the time.

I've only ever worked on the Early era so that's pretty much all I can deliver at present. Making all the changes for the high and late eras as well is a huge amount of work: One day.

Fine with me if the whole package can be obtained somewhere. What does happen to Swiss halbardiers with that map ?

The Swiss are based and emerge in Tyrolia. Switzerland did not really exist during that time anyway.

Well do not buy anything "too new" or you'll end up in the Apothecary for a while

Tell me about it... I'm on the hunt for something like a Radeon X800 for a reasonable price. So far no luck.



-Edit: This thread reminds me of another I was involved in some years ago. That one turned into a mod...

[Jxrc]

Good point. Base farming cannot be adjusted globally however. I find that lowering (halving in fact) the cost of the farming upgrades usually has the desired effect, rather than simply increasing farm income on a per province basis.

Yep. There must be something like 20 ways to make it work. Just a matter of finding the right balance. Don't know if somebody has already made his homework in that field but I would not be surprised if someone already had.

I've only ever worked on the Early era so that's pretty much all I can deliver at present. Making all the changes for the high and late eras as well is a huge amount of work: One day.

Fair enough. I was just hoping that some "cut&paste" of the changes could be made in the High period map. Fascinating how easy things look when you do not have a clue

The Swiss are based and emerge in Tyrolia. Switzerland did not really exist during that time anyway.

Well, there must have been some guys with sticks and cows up there even then.

Tell me about it... I'm on the hunt for something like a Radeon X800 for a reasonable price. So far no luck.

A problem that I have avoided by just enver upgrading a PC but just buying a new one each time. The difference is price is not that huge if you get a good dealer (price for the tower and cooling system basically) and it avoids loads of problems. Space becomes an issue after a while though (I now have an Mac Classiq from 1990, a 160mhz pentium from 1995 for very old games in DOS , a 1GHZ Atlon that still use for MTW and a Pentium IV that I was using for work and RTW but that is now broken - hard drive failure ). Problem is when a graphic card does give up on you. I had to buy the cheapest invidia card that I could find and downgrade the default pilots to be able to play MTW. Should buy a fourth one if I want play MTW2 and/or ETW but the comments I read so far have failed to convince me to splash the cash. Perhaps when the extension for ETW comes out, that usually the moment when the CA games become ok (except for some glitches like all kings dying at 56 when VI came out)

This thread reminds me of another I was involved in some years ago. That one turned into a mod...

At least being technically inept protects me from such risk

[caravel]

Yep. There must be something like 20 ways to make it work. Just a matter of finding the right balance. Don't know if somebody has already made his homework in that field but I would not be surprised if someone already had.

I personally believe that adding an STW style trading/income system will work best and the AI will be able to hande it without much issue. The vanilla game falls down because adding the principle source of income to only a single building means that when the province is invaded that source of income invariably get's razed automatically or in the case of trade gets cut off by the random nature of shipping lanes... If there are more than one income generating buildings in a province then this is less likely to happen. I would have income coming from the following:

Farmland upgrades
Mines
Ports
Traders
Churches
Cathedral
Mosques
Grand Mosque

It does not have to be a huge amount of income, but a reasonable amount per structure.

A problem that I have avoided by just enver upgrading a PC but just buying a new one each time.

Well I don't buy PC's, I've always built my own - but I do usually have a second PC hanging around. At present I do have one, but it also needs a graphics card - and anyway I do not want to have to run two PCs.

[Jxrc]

I personally believe that adding an STW style trading/income system will work best and the AI will be able to hande it without much issue. The vanilla game falls down because adding the principle source of income to only a single building means that when the province is invaded that source of income invariably get's razed automatically or in the case of trade gets cut off by the random nature of shipping lanes... If there are more than one income generating buildings in a province then this is less likely to happen. I would have income coming from the following:

Farmland upgrades
Mines
Ports
Traders
Churches
Cathedral
Mosques
Grand Mosque

It does not have to be a huge amount of income, but a reasonable amount per structure.:

Seems reasonable enough. IIRC, some religious buildings give an income in the VI campaign.

Well I don't buy PC's, I've always built my own - but I do usually have a second PC hanging around. At present I do have one, but it also needs a graphics card - and anyway I do not want to have to run two PCs.

Seems reasonable enough too ... except if you sometimes feel the need to play Might&Magic V ... It seems that I have just made an embarassing confession