V1.21 Rebuild-ProblemFixer BETA testing thread

[Carl]

Alright, I'll try to make some comments.

I was a little surprised when I saw it because they are the second level infantry after spearmen ( and they appear no better) and because their stats when so different to their mounted version...

WOW, hadn't realized they where so far up the tech tree. Good catch, thanks.

I am at 1204 and the world is an interesting place... We hold a large empire in northeast Europe stretching into the steps. The Russians hold the steps, the Truks hold the land to the east of the Black Sea, South of them and stretching into Asia Minor is the Mongol empire. The Byz hold their traditional lands plus much of what was Venetian lands. The Pope hold most of Northern Italy including Venice. The Danes hold their homelands plus all of what was the HRE. The Hungarians hold a few provinces to the west of the Black Sea. French lands are divided between France, Spain and the English. Spain also hold most of Iberia including the former Portuguese lands. The Moors hold all of North Africa and Baghdad. The Scottish hold all of Britain and Ireland. The Middle east is divided between us (the Polish), the French and the Mongols. Egypt holds it's traditional lands and Arabia...

Thanks for that, useful info. Denmark is honestly turning into something of a problem, as is the AI Poland ATM. Gonna have to look into them as they seem to rip HRE and Hungary and Russia to pieces between them and from that point onward's they are nearly unstoppable for the other AI factions.

I have been at constant war with the Hungarians (and have recently had the resources free to actually go on the offensive against them). I have been fights the Russians for a while too and have force them back with many battles to their starting lands and further east... I was vassals of the Byz for a long time, but for now I am a vassal of the Danes.

We hold Jerusalem and Acre in the Middle East and have been fighting the Egyptians for a long time to keep them. We assisted the French in taking Damascus and the Mongols hold Antioch (I am allied to both the French and Mongols). This has taken some pressure off me.

I plan to secure myself against the Hungarians and the Russians before seeking Independence again.

Hmm, interesting tactic, becoming a vassal. How tough have you found the Hungarian Forces to deal with then? And if they've been easy, how much of that is down to the towers on cities/castles?

I.e. is Hungary a Major threat against you when you get to Field battles?

I have also noticed that Bombard are frighteningly accurate. Where they always like that or have you altered them?

Yes, Flaming ammo has very high accuracy, same with exploding cannon shot. Bombards ARE quite low anti-infantry damage compared to Cannon/Culverin/Basilisk's though, so these are definitely the more anti-personnel pieces. Whilst Bombards remain the better anti-building artillery.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post yet Carl -- been quite busy with work recently and just today got the chance to dig into PF a bit. Anyway, started a campaign as Portugal (short victory conditions) on VH/VH. A couple initial observations / questions.

Thats Okay, you've got involved and thats the main thing.

- The zero starting cash is interesting. My understand was that it (along with the large garrisons) was meant to slow blitzing, but in the case of Portugal (income starts in the red even with max taxes), it has almost the opposite effect. You have lots of troops and little money -- you have to throw them at something immediately. The rebel garrisons are certainly buffed however, though that may have two unintended side effects:

I noticed myself recently and have tweaked Portugal's income accordingly.

a) The rebel AI seems much more prone to sallying (because its generally better than my initial forces in the strength calculator). This actually tends to speed up initial territory acquisition, as the player can often beat the sallying rebels (player has a general to help with morale and has calvary for formed charges in the open plains in front of the walls). Consequently, I found myself getting towns on the turn I siege them, without having to contend with the towers or starve the AI out. On the first turn, for instance, I sieged Zaragoza and the AI immediately sallied, leading to a heroic victory for me (700 killed, 90 dead). Maybe giving each rebel town a rebel general would help?

Perhaps, fortunately the upcoming patch is supposed to make sallies by the AI much harder to kill. That may help and I may be able to do the odd thing to help. A general for each settlement might help, but it's a lot of extra work to add in as each general on the map needs a different name and you have a limited choice of possible names.

b) Because of those big rebel garrisons, the other factions are much more tempting targets for early warfare. While its not great for diplomacy, I'd rather hit Cordoba and fight 2 units than Zaragoza and fight 12. Is there any way to encourage the AI to garrison better?

True, but this is more a British Isles/Iberian issue. Most places the other factions are far enough away that the rebels are worth grabbing first instead. Also the patch is supposed to improve garrisoning behavior.

- Did you change the mechanism for unit experience? After my first battle my general and 2 units of Jinetes were at 3 bronze chevrons each with only light casualties (both Jinete units were around 35/40 men left). Seems a bit excessive, I'll keep an eye out to see if it recurs.

That bit isn't moddable, I suspect you just got lucky or something. But let me know if it happens again.

- Diplomat/princess movement speed is wonderful.

Thanks.

- Spy/merchant speed seems excessive -- spies can now scope out 1-2 provinces in a single turn, and merchant "knockoffs" are now much more common (I use the ter, "knockoff" to describe the situation where a merchant is ordered to move onto a resource that is covered by fog of war at the beginning of the turn. If the merchant can reach the resource in the turn and it is occupied by an enemy merchant, the merchant "knocks off" his enemy and gets the resource without having to attempt an acquisition).

The Merchant "knockoff" thing you mention is something new to me, wasn't aware that was possible. For spies it doesn't bother me overly as their main job is to open gates and check the composition of armies/settlement garrisons. Something they can only do once a turn anyway. Thus i'm more interested in them being able to rapidly reach their target than how much actual running around they do. But if someone else has something to say on the matter, please let me know, I may well have missed some important point.

Anyway, having lots of fun -- great work!!! I'll keep you posted.

Glad your enjoying it.


I've seen all 3 waves of Mongols and no CTD. But something from Bangaroos first post stands out at me all of a sudden.

Its not on the first wave as they arrived a few turns ago.

AT first i thought you meant that the First wave had come and gone and the second wave was their/nearly their. But this sounds more like it was a very short time since the first wave.

Thats the actual CTD error that the Hotfix I sent out fixes. Be aware that the Hotfix is NOT save game compatible, the campaign script is only looked up at the start of a campaign, so if it's faulty then as the CTD causing one was then the fault will continue to exist in the save game data no matter how much you change the script file.

So to me it sounds like you applied the fix and missed my comment about it not being save game compatible. No offence BTW.