[CK2] Monk's Tweaks Mod

**Monk** · 10-22-2012, 15:43

Sheesh sometimes I forget how much I enjoyed playing my mod. It's just hard to find other mods that do everything I want, in the way I want, without going too far.

The ambitious features I wanted in the next version got a bit side-tracked as I tried to tackle the growing problem of the fatimids early game power. I think i got a bit too crazy in my ideas

So I am gonna tackle it a much simplier way in the future. I am updating my mod to work with 1.07 now. Largely due to me missing playing my vision of the vanilla game.

Also

Thank you for 350 downloads. That's awesome, and not bad for never releasing at Paradox's forums.

**Ibn-Khaldun** · 10-22-2012, 22:20

I will be waiting you new release. Tbh, this have been the main reason why I haven't updates my game to 1.07.

**Monk** · 10-23-2012, 14:56

Originally Posted by The King

I will be waiting you new release. Tbh, this have been the main reason why I haven't updates my game to 1.07.

Your words honor me.

I spent about 4 hours today trying to solve the Fatimid puzzle and I think I've got it. Rather than try to make an elaborate scenario at the start of the game, I just put the pieces in place and allow the AI to do the rest. It works beautifully.

NEW RELEASE

Version 0.4.0

Remember to completely delete old versions before installing!

Changelog -

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Lots of small stuff in this release that all adds up.

The Fatimid puzzle was much easier to solve than the Iberian problem, but it required looking at it from a different angle. Iberia was unbalanced, quite simply, because one side had WAY more troops. Balancing it out so both sides wouldn't steam roll was really hard. The Fatimid aren't the same really. Yes they have way too many troops but it's just a symptom of the main problem, which was the Caliph's overpowered demesne. He starts at 12/6, so the AI begins the game handing out EVERY title the caliph has to as many characters as it can. The result is an entire realm filled with happy vassals. It's essentially a free 60 years with every vassal at 100 opinion. I mean, talk about unfair.

From what we know about the Fatimid administration at this time period, things were literally falling apart. Racial tensions had effectively exploded between the various elements of the army and a full blown civil war was about to hit. That just wasn't possible to simulate in vanilla, and it's what I've attempted to create. The Caliph must now deal with powerful vassals of different cultures, all ambitious and itchy for a fight. To compound problems, the government in Cairo no longer has it's early CA advantage. The AI loves to push medium CA, i've removed that ability and returned the Kingdom of Egypt to autonomous vassals to represent just how much the Caliph's power had eroded.

The Fatimids are meant to be in dire straights as the game begins and I believe I have done so. I may have gone a bit too far with their decadence, but given how they were historically at this time, I don't believe so. This is their darkest hour and it will take a miracle for them to come out of it without losing a lot. That isn't to say I've made it impossible! But it is certainly a long shot.

I've also tried to balance the new Imperial Reconquest CB that the Byzantines got. Honestly, it doesn't make sense they would get that before they restored the Empire.. Not sure what Paradox was thinking there. They make all this effort to break up big empires, and then allow the Byz to blob quicker than ever before. Goodness. Now if you want to use that CB you MUST restore the empire first.

If you find any big bugs, let me know and I'll get on a hotfix ASAP

**Monk** · 10-25-2012, 22:19

New Release.

Version 0.4.1 -

Remember to completely delete old versions before installing!

Changelog -

-------v0.4.1---------

*Muslims now have the ability to declare holy war on Orthodox rulers again. They still cannot declare holy war on Orthodox Heresies, however.

*Fixed a potential crash issue caused by a mismatched dynasty tag in characters/egyptian_arabic.txt

*Fixed misplaced text in Imperial Reconquest CB

Minor bug fix version. Extended testing revealed two minor bugs I'd introduced by accident. Cleared those up. I also gave Muslims the ability to declare holy war vs normal Orthodox rulers again. That should give them a bit more of a bite against the byz and won't affect survivability of other heretic factions.

This will be the last version until a new patch/hotfix demands a new one.

**Monk** · 11-17-2012, 00:51

Quick note to say that a new, patch 1.08 compliant version will be up in the next few days. I haven't really had a chance to recode anything but will get an opportunity tomorrow if all goes well.

The current version is likely fine as I haven't tested it, but will probably cause oddities in a few culture related sections of the events due to the changes Paradox made. Play at your own risk, but it's best to wait for a new version.

**Monk** · 11-22-2012, 09:03

A couple of days later than I would have liked, but what can you do sometimes?

NEW RELEASE 0.5.0

Download here

Mediafire's acting weird so PM me if you have trouble downloading it, or something, and I will upload it elsewhere.

Code:

-------v0.5.0---------

!!!! 1.08 compatability patch !!!!

*Re-tweaked muslim invasion CB - now requires 600 piety, decadence requirement is still in place.

*Women can now lead armies and aspire to become Marshal.

*For a woman to be considered 'worthy' of command they must be either a brilliant strategist, or a skilled tactician.

*Women who have no marshal education can still lead forces if they have a marshal skill of 15 or higher.

*Contenders in the starting 'Fatimid War' now each begin with 500 gold to put even more pressure on the Caliph.

*Leon nerfs to bring them into line with the other Christian powers of the Iberian

Paradox would like you to know (they even put a little .txt file in the last patch!) to install your mods in a different directory from now on. They will still work in the old one, of course, but they can't seem to fix the replace_path bug while the files are there. Go figure.

From now on please install into documents\paradox interactive\Crusader Kings II\mod

If that folder isn't there, make it. also updated the readme file.

As for actual content there's mostly just some cleaning up in this update bundled in along with the ability for women to become commanders. I debated with myself a lot on whether or not I wanted to cross that line with the mod, but ultimately, decided to add it in. The current restrictions demand that a woman have either exceptional military education (Brilliant strategist OR skilled tactician), or that they have exceptional ability (a marshal ability of 15) to be considered worthy of being a commander.

My original goal was to tie women becoming marshals directly into requiring a certain law, preferably a succession law like Absolute Cognatic, but in the end I just couldn't figure it out. I know I am scoping it wrong but can't seem to get it right. I'll need to play around more to get it the way I want it, and sadly, it was taking way too much time. Maybe in a future release.

**Monk** · 01-07-2013, 23:45

I just wanted to offer up one last post saying thank you to everyone who downloaded this mod over its lifetime. With the release of The Republic coming up fast about to introduce a bunch of new features, i know that this is gonna break my humble little tweak mod and require a lot of porting work. I am about to undertake a cross country move in the next week or so I don't foresee me having the time to work on this. So I think this is a good time to discontinue tweaks mod for the time being.

Thank you again everyone who tried out this mod and offered up kind words as I experimented with changing the gameplay.

It was a lot of fun to work on.