removing border forts

[Tristrem]

i'm not a good modder, however I have tinkered around with mtw and gnome editor quite successfully before. I want to mod my game so that border forts are unbuildable to me and the AI. I hope this addition will make using assassins and spies more interesting. However I need help, because I do not have much experience modding the build prod 13.

[caravel]

i'm not a good modder, however I have tinkered around with mtw and gnome editor quite successfully before. I want to mod my game so that border forts are unbuildable to me and the AI. I hope this addition will make using assassins and spies more interesting. However I need help, because I do not have much experience modding the build prod 13.

Using the gnome editor you can set the building to be only buildable by the rebels. The rebels won't build it anyway so you won't see any more border forts. This is how CA disabled the original brothel and tavern in MTW and replaced it with the upgradable brothels and taverns in VI.

[Dutch_guy]

I think you'd be better off over here:

Alchemist Lab

Or maybe reading one of the modding guides over here:


Repository

[Deus ret.]

I want to mod my game so that border forts are unbuildable to me and the AI. I hope this addition will make using assassins and spies more interesting. However I need help, because I do not have much experience modding the build prod 13.

In terms of game balance, I'm not sure if that's too good an idea. In the meantime I don't build any border forts any more since defensive spies fulfill their role equally good and gain some experience on top of that. Given its usual quality of agent handling, the AI probably won't be able to compensate for the loss of border forts in that way, whereas you will (well, at least you may). ...just to put in my twopence worth.

[sbroadbent]

i'm not a good modder, however I have tinkered around with mtw and gnome editor quite successfully before. I want to mod my game so that border forts are unbuildable to me and the AI. I hope this addition will make using assassins and spies more interesting. However I need help, because I do not have much experience modding the build prod 13.

Over in the MTW: Subterfuge Guide thread I gave you the steps you'd need to do to remove the border forts. Was there anything you didn't understand about it?

Let me know what version of the game you are playing (with or without VI) and any mods you plan to play. I need to reinstall MTW after doing a reformat on my hard drive, so that I can complete the Subterfuge Guide. If you want, I can make the necessary adjustments, and send you the applicable files. Of course the best thing is to do it yourself so you learn how the files work.

As to making the game interesting, removing the border forts definately does that. Particularly if you also reduce the building requirements for the taverns and brothels (I usually drop each taven/brothel upgrade one level down). Once the AI notices you start to produce spies and assassins, they'll start to do so themselves. In my XL game the Serbs must have had a high valor spy/assassin in Serbia as any spy I sent over to reduce happiness got themselves killed the turn after.

The downside of removing both WT and BF's is that you don't get the happiness boost in the province when you build these. WT and BF's basically give a 50% boost. To compensate, I usually give the tavern and brothel upgrades small happiness bonuses. On the other hand, this can work in your favor as the AI doesn't have WT and BF's to boost their province happiness, thus making the AI potentially more susceptible to revolts.

[caravel]

No need to remove watch towers as they don't catch rival spies/assassins anyway. With regard to brothels, they already gives a happiness bonus I believe.

The problem with removing border forts is that the number of spies and assassins on the map will increase, and come the high period all of these invisible agents running around could cause a big slowdown. Also the AI is not adept at using it's agents intelligently, so it will keep moving them around, sending them into your well protected provinces and lose them. This is why I personally don't build border forts but I allow the AI to do so. I find that this works best.

[Ciaran]

The easiest way to disable the spy-catching ability of watch towers and border forts is simply to change the frontline_building entry from True to False (or is it Yes to No). SO they still give the happiness bonus, but enemy agents can freely roam your lands (and you theirs). It helps, though, to reduce the building requirements for the agent-producing buildings as well (I think I´ve changed the basic spy facility to be buildable with only an inn as a prerequisite, and then going up with the castle levels; Assasins take a bit longer, as they require the first castle and the basic spy building, I´ve done it this way because I like the RTW system where spies can be produced before assassins can)