Recruitment dev topic

[SigniferOne]

Alpaca, I find your Focus idea highly creative, big props on that.

What was wrong with the levy script size? I mean once you take into the original large size, what about these new ideas (rural/urban) made it balloon much more? (I'm trying to remember the details of how it worked...)

Also like the low replenishment idea. Any concrete examples with campaign tests about that?

[alpaca]

Alpaca, I find your Focus idea highly creative, big props on that.

What was wrong with the levy script size? I mean once you take into the original large size, what about these new ideas (rural/urban) made it balloon much more? (I'm trying to remember the details of how it worked...)

Also like the low replenishment idea. Any concrete examples with campaign tests about that?

Well the levy script how I had planned it would need quite a few executions for each settlement/unit/faction combination. Add to that additional changes to the unit weights for different buildings and the like and you quickly end up with hundreds of thousands of lines of code, not all of which can be easily created with automation.

The main problem is not the size per se but the time I can spend on other features which are more interesting (because as I said I'm not even sure that I want to limit the player so harshly). In addition it could be that the script will stop the player from doing anything for a few seconds whenever he triggers it, and that's not very good, either.
I realized that the levy script was mainly interesting to develop, but it's mediocre from a gameplay point of view. Since I have to be somewhat economical with my scripting time I dropped it.

The low replenishment right now is mainly a concept, I haven't played more than maybe 20 turns into a campaign yet because I have to do some work on the AI and features before really going into testing things, but so far it felt quite interesting to actually be forced to be careful about not losing half of your army on one front because this would mean you'll be open for backstabbing on the other side. Incidentally, it also makes stable alliances more interesting and since I'll try to make the AI heed marriage agreements most of the time, they'll become very important for keeping your back free from danger.

[SigniferOne]

I forget, the only way increase or change pool replenishment %, is by script right? Or is there some building attribute that I'm not remembering at the moment.

Also, would be nice to brainstorm how farms might affect replenisment % along with the population rate. That would be really awesome, all of this adding up to a much more realistic portrayal of the realities of the world.

[alpaca]

I forget, the only way increase or change pool replenishment %, is by script right? Or is there some building attribute that I'm not remembering at the moment.

Also, would be nice to brainstorm how farms might affect replenisment % along with the population rate. That would be really awesome, all of this adding up to a much more realistic portrayal of the realities of the world.

Didn't quite get what you mean there. If you're basically asking how this is coded: It's only using complex conditionals for the recruit pools in the EDB.
However, this will only work if you use a building with no other bonuses, which is another reason for the focus building tree.

Interesting idea about farms influencing recruitment. I didn't get around to properly work on tech trees yet but I have a growing feeling that I should

[SigniferOne]

Didn't quite get what you mean there. If you're basically asking how this is coded: It's only using complex conditionals for the recruit pools in the EDB.
However, this will only work if you use a building with no other bonuses, which is another reason for the focus building tree.

I see, so you mean something like:

recruit spear_militia AT CERTAIN RATE if event_counter CERTAIN_RATE =1
recruit spear_militia (same unit, in same building) AT HIGHER RATE if event_counter HIGHER_RATE=1

?

That's probably a better idea than using scripts. As you know, you can lower or raise pools using scripts (at least in Kingdoms), but that's probably less efficient, and more time consuming, than just defining it in the building using event_counters.

Another idea I thought of just now, that would utilize the ability of changing unit pools: if something bad happens, a script would set those pools to zero. Let's say you link it to barracks, and if barracks is destroyed (sabotaged by a spy) then all of the recruitment pools in a city become null, since units cannot train or muster there anymore.

Interesting idea about farms influencing recruitment. I didn't get around to properly work on tech trees yet but I have a growing feeling that I should

Wouldn't that be nice if very high farms development would guarantee that your troops would replenish faster? I think that's a cool addition to an already great idea.

[alpaca]

The thing isn't about farms giving better bonuses but about how a "farming" building should be implemented in the first place. Building farms wouldn't be quite what you do to increase agricultural output, it'd rather be stuff like passing decrees to settle people in unsettled or sparsely inhabited areas, building granaries, developing technologies and so on.

What I mean with the recruit pools is stuff like this:

recruit_pool "crossbow_militia" 0 0.002 0.5 3 requires factions { all, } and building_present core_building and building_present_min_level control_level control4 or building_present ai_control

But yes, these can be linked to event_counters, too. I'd like to create some random events with that stuff.

I don't intend to keep spies in the game as spies by the way. They're just too powerful. I'll reveal the whole map at the start of the game, then you'll have to make do with diplomats (who will have a larger line of sight than in vanilla) but are capped to a certain limit. I'd like a system best where I can restrict spies to, you know, spying, but I didn't see a way to do that.
I'll probably also limit assassins somewhat because their sabotage ability is ridiculous, too. One assassin can disable a building, so it should be pretty expensive (let's say at least as much as it costs to repair the building).

[bovi]

I'll probably also limit assassins somewhat because their sabotage ability is ridiculous, too. One assassin can disable a building, so it should be pretty expensive (let's say at least as much as it costs to repair the building).

That's not realistic. It won't take as much resources to train a saboteur as it takes to make a whole building. Probably you could even just recruit some low-life that had nothing to lose. Saboteurs are used because they are effective, despite their rather low chances of success (or at least of getting away after the sabotage). If you want to make it harder for them to succeed, I guess a few law bonuses in settlements will fix that easily and would IMO be better than removing assassins in general.