MTW Pocket Mod: Units, Buildings and Unit Stats

[Kralizec]

Assuming the AI does require border forts they could be made an additional prerequisite to the keep (possibly with border forts as an additional prerequisite to the Citadel).

Now that's a good idea I hadn't thought of

The problem lies in the fact that castle upgrades can be teched up and up with no other buildings required, which is wrong in too many ways. You can potentially build a fort and keep upgrading it until it's a fortress, constructing nothing else whatsoever. Such structures should depend on the farmlands upgrades, among other things, and perhaps making those considerably cheaper is the best option?

I'd make the castle upgrades* themselves cheaper rather then the farming upgrades. That will make people think twenty times before upgrading Cyreanica or the Sahara to citadel level, wich is silly.
*and also make the defense upgrades (ie curtain wall and ballista towers for the keep) mandatory before you can upgrade to the next castle level, as well as making these defenses somewhat more expensive. This will prevent players from upgrading to citadels and fortresses too quickly.


For the royal courts: maybe it's possible to insert a new agent type that acts like an improved emissary, that's trained at the royal court (just like Cardinals and Orthodox bisshops are basicly just improved bisshops and priests)
Alternatively it could be used like a prerequisite for the Chancellary and some of the other higher-up government buildings.

Why is "lancer" an unrealistic name? It's kinda bland, but not moreso then "plated knights" or anything else I can think of at present.
If they're going to be added to all factions, I do suggest that the valour bonus in an Iberian province is indeed implemented.

check the post count!

Better not reply to this post then, my dark prince

[Deus ret.]

I'd make the castle upgrades* themselves cheaper rather then the farming upgrades. That will make people think twenty times before upgrading Cyreanica or the Sahara to citadel level, wich is silly.
*and also make the defense upgrades (ie curtain wall and ballista towers for the keep) mandatory before you can upgrade to the next castle level, as well as making these defenses somewhat more expensive. This will prevent players from upgrading to citadels and fortresses too quickly.

the idea about additional requirements sounds good. However the question is if the AI will build them on its own, since fortification upgrades usually do not enjoy a high priority with the AI. And I don't quite get the point why players wouldn't want to upgrade to a fortress in the Sahara if fortifying a province actually becomes cheaper.

For the royal courts: maybe it's possible to insert a new agent type that acts like an improved emissary, that's trained at the royal court (just like Cardinals and Orthodox bisshops are basicly just improved bisshops and priests) Alternatively it could be used like a prerequisite for the Chancellary and some of the other higher-up government buildings.

An upgraded emissary also sounds good, it would be interesting to see, though, as to how this could be reflected in-game. The difference between bishops and cardinals is mainly in conversion speed (and they don't profit from valor levels except against assassins), the distinction between mere inquisitors and grand ones in burning chance and range of targets. Since of all the emissary's duties only one seems to be tied to valor afaik (bribery missions, at least that's my impression), it would maybe suffice to provide new emissaries with a valor bonus, similar to the one given to spies and assassins. Given the emissary's role in the game, I'm having difficulties in imagining a broadening of his competences in an 'upgraded' version.

[caravel]

...also make the defense upgrades (ie curtain wall and ballista towers for the keep) mandatory before you can upgrade to the next castle level, as well as making these defenses somewhat more expensive. This will prevent players from upgrading to citadels and fortresses too quickly.

Not sure about this. This won't stop the AI from doing what it's doing. It will still advance through those tech levels in order to get to it's objective, in this case +1 pikemen. I'm confident that if I had made all upgrades part of the tech level, the French would still have raised that province to Citadel abd still teched up to pikmen.

For the royal courts: maybe it's possible to insert a new agent type that acts like an improved emissary, that's trained at the royal court (just like Cardinals and Orthodox bisshops are basicly just improved bisshops and priests)
Alternatively it could be used like a prerequisite for the Chancellary and some of the other higher-up government buildings.

Improved emissaries won't work. The only difference between, i.e, bishops and cardinals is the faith propogation AFAIK. Emissaries don't propogate faith so their abilities are unchangeable. The only way to improve them is to have building upgrades that increaese their valour (as is the case with assassins and spies). So it may be possible to use the court buildings to increase the valour of emissaries. Though personally I would use buildings such as the chancellory, admiralty and university etc for this purpose.

Why is "lancer" an unrealistic name? It's kinda bland, but not moreso then "plated knights" or anything else I can think of at present.
If they're going to be added to all factions, I do suggest that the valour bonus in an Iberian province is indeed implemented.

All knights are pretty much Lancers, it seems strange to have a tech tree of: Feudal Knights -> Chivalric Knights -> Lancers. The Lancers in MTW are also fantasy, and shouldn't be restricted to the Spanish. Lancers in the true sense, is how the later lance wielding cavalry of the 18th century are often described.

the idea about additional requirements sounds good. However the question is if the AI will build them on its own, since fortification upgrades usually do not enjoy a high priority with the AI. And I don't quite get the point why players wouldn't want to upgrade to a fortress in the Sahara if fortifying a province actually becomes cheaper.

The AI will build them if the build prod file is modded to encourage them to do so, and should do anyway if they have to build them to build something else.

An upgraded emissary also sounds good, it would be interesting to see, though, as to how this could be reflected in-game. The difference between bishops and cardinals is mainly in conversion speed (and they don't profit from valor levels except against assassins), the distinction between mere inquisitors and grand ones in burning chance and range of targets. Since of all the emissary's duties only one seems to be tied to valor afaik (bribery missions, at least that's my impression), it would maybe suffice to provide new emissaries with a valor bonus, similar to the one given to spies and assassins. Given the emissary's role in the game, I'm having difficulties in imagining a broadening of his competences in an 'upgraded' version.

[Kralizec]

And I don't quite get the point why players wouldn't want to upgrade to a fortress in the Sahara if fortifying a province actually becomes cheaper.

As of present there's absolutely no reason why a player wouldn't upgrade their castles in "dirt" provinces (well, if you really want gold armoured Saharan cavalry )
If you needed to upgrade to 80% farming before building the citadel, the Sahara or Cyraenica would probably be your last province to upgrade, because the farming upgrade there will take an eternity to return the costs.

[Deus ret.]

As of present there's absolutely no reason why a player wouldn't upgrade their castles in "dirt" provinces (well, if you really want gold armoured Saharan cavalry )

In fact well armoured (=upgraded) light lancer cavalry has become one of my favorite unit types....not really sure about Saharan cav though

If you needed to upgrade to 80% farming before building the citadel, the Sahara or Cyraenica would probably be your last province to upgrade, because the farming upgrade there will take an eternity to return the costs.

seems like I missed that point....the whole issue makes much more sense now . good idea, not sure about how the AI will react to it, though.

[Kralizec]

Btw, I already modded the pikemen stats myself in my own game and made Flanders the province that gives the bonus. However I realise that I haven't looked into what building gives another valour bonus.
If I have both the militia and spearmaker at lvl3 (same as you, Caravel), how do you edit the prod11 file to make the militia lvl4 building give a valour bonus?

[caravel]

Btw, I already modded the pikemen stats myself in my own game and made Flanders the province that gives the bonus. However I realise that I haven't looked into what building gives another valour bonus.
If I have both the militia and spearmaker at lvl3 (same as you, Caravel), how do you edit the prod11 file to make the militia lvl4 building give a valour bonus?

I'm not sure about this myself. It may have something to do with the order in which the prerequisites are listed, i.e.

"{horse_breeder2, spearmaker3}"
"{spearmaker3, horse_breeder2}"

It can't be the higher level building of the two as there would be cases where both are of the same level, i.e.

"{horse_breeder3, swordsmith3}"

It can be tested of course and I will try it later.

Still doesn't get away from the problem of the AI teching up a province for the valour bonus unit though.

I'm not sure about requiring the farmland upgrades either, as the AI would then have to tech up to 80% farmland to train +1 valour Saharan cavalry in Sahara, which would be pointless. The other option is to make the farming upgrades alot cheaper. At present they are stiflingly expensive wheras trade can be cheap and easy, returning massively. The AI is bad at trade (because it's bad at shipping), but won't have a problem upgrading it's farmland. The horse breeder upgrades could also be made cheaper (half price?). This would negate the wastage of upgrading farmland in provinces such as the Sinai, Sahara, Cyrenacia and Arabia. Every horse breeder upgrade would depend on the previous horsebreeder and the same level of farmland upgrade.

Forcing at least the watchtowers for the keep upgrade would work. Also a church could be forced before a castle can be built, this would serve to push up the loyalty and faith propogation in AI provinces which at present tends to be quite unpredictable. Militia buildings should also be a requirement. If you don't have a decent size militia then a castle upgrade shouldn't happen. The upgrade to a castle reflects (an invisible) rise in population that would need better policing.

Another good one would have been the trader in order to force the AI to trade, but since all provinces don't contain trade goods that won't be possible, unless a new generic very low income trade good could be introduced and added to every province as a default, enabling at least the basic trader to be built. This could then form the prerequisite of the castle upgrade.

Also another point. The indestructable "forest clearing" in the VI campaign. I would like to know how this is made indestructable, as It would be good if all farmland was indestructable, as farmland itself is quite literally destruction (clearing of trees, filling in of lakes, levelling of land etc) that is very difficult, if not impossible, to completely undo.

[Kralizec]

Also another point. The indestructable "forest clearing" in the VI campaign. I would like to know how this is made indestructable, as It would be good if all farmland was indestructable, as farmland itself is quite literally destruction (clearing of trees, filling in of lakes, levelling of land etc) that is very difficult, if not impossible, to completely undo.

Not sure but I think that may be hardcoded. Vikinghordes XL mod replaces 40% farming with forest upgrade (20% --> forest clearing --> 60% --> 80%)

[naut]

A bit off topic,

If I have both the militia and spearmaker at lvl3 (same as you, Caravel), how do you edit the prod11 file to make the militia lvl4 building give a valour bonus?

Column 17:

"{},{},{},{UPGRADE_VALOUR(n)}"

Where n is any value.