The first modded things I wish to add to the campaign

[Re Berengario I]

Actually the basic campaign is enough challenging on h-vh/vh but it's highly unrealistic on medieval history terms.

Basically what the AI is doing is continuously create clashes between states, but states didn't really exists in middle-age. Most of the fightings were made by the kings-emperors to keep their vassals in line.

The milanese faction is the perfect example, Milan and Genoa were both HRE vassals but they rebelled against the strict control (and taxes) Friedrich I wanted to put on them. The most effective states were the Kingdom of Sicily under Friedrich II and sometimes the Byzantin Empire under the rule of some good Emperor (like Basil II).

What I really like to have in my campaign is a continuos struggle to keep my state under my rule so I'd wish to modify some aspects of the game and I'd like to hear your opinion about them.

1) 2 turns = 1 year (already done), possibly with higher handicaps to fight in the winter season.

2) Adding a lot of new regions in the heart of Europe so total conquest in 50 turns will be just a sweet dream. I'd hope to have so many region slots as Crusader Kings but I think the hardcoded limit of 200 is still into.

3) Make rebels more active so they can also attack your troops or siege your cities. I'd also like them to have a "horde" behavior, like bulgars trying to plunder Costantinople. If rebel faction AI behavior is hardcoded this will lead to 4)

4) Create 2-3 new rebel factions, each from the most prominent cultures, that can take control of your cities through triggers if you don't keep them enough garrisoned or without a general in them. Having rebels as normal factions should also allow them to attack your other cities while the normal rebel faction seems happy enough to keep stacks of troops completely inactive (I loved the civil wars in the first MTW)

5) A trigger which gives a chance of decreased loyalty every turn you keep a general inactive into a city to mimic the struggle of most nobles to behave in an independent manner in their feuds.

6) A higher chance your Generals revolts against you if your faction leader have a small authority trait, it never happened to me on h-vh settings but I heard it happened frequently to other players, so your feedback is very important on this point.

7) Unique, distinctive buildings and units for most of the factions, like having Saint Sofia Basilica for the byzantines or better ships for the venetians and byzantines in early days.

8) It'd be a dream to have the forts like castles with them to not being destroyed after 1 turn if ungarrisoned but I fear it's hardcoded. Alternatively I could make the AI factions to keep them garrisoned through scripts, creating a peasant unit if there's any left inside but I'll have to explore if it's possible to use a custom tile in the fort location to show it like a small castle and not like roman fortified camps which didn't exist anymore in middle-age. Plus there should be a higher chance of rebelling for the units inside a fort to mimic the little vassals rebellions so frequent during that era.

9) A complete overhaul of factions to make them the most historic possible for the starting year which should be around 1066 (still to be decided). Obviously factions objectives and victory conditions will be changed to reflect overall balance, as for most of them the real victory would be survive!

Please flood me with other ideas and advices, especially from more experienced modders than me

[Agapeus]

3) Make rebels more active so they can also attack your troops or siege your cities. I'd also like them to have a "horde" behavior, like bulgars trying to plunder Costantinople. If rebel faction AI behavior is hardcoded this will lead to 4)

did u tried to change the values in "descr_strat" ? like in :
brigand_spawn_value 20
pirate_spawn_value 28
being the original .

or give more money to "slave" faction ?

my rebels at vh/vh sieged Nothingam !!! and latter attacked an army I send to release Bruge !!!

cheers

[Re Berengario I]

did u tried to change the values in "descr_strat" ? like in :
brigand_spawn_value 20
pirate_spawn_value 28
being the original .

or give more money to "slave" faction ?

my rebels at vh/vh sieged Nothingam !!! and latter attacked an army I send to release Bruge !!!

cheers

Tried both plus I gave them more troops in the starting provinces. They're waiting there still not moving a step outside their fortresses/cities, I just managed to make the rebel provinces very hard to be taken by the AI (which is a step in the right direction but still unsatisfactory).