VanillaMod Suggestions thread

[FactionHeir]

Are you sure you haven't modded some files?
Since 0.91 at least (probably since 0.9) the triggers are as follows:

;------------------------------------------
Trigger knight_crusader_vnv_trigger
    WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd
    Condition AgentType = priest
          and I_CrusadeInProgress
          and IsRegionCrusadeTarget
          and CharacterReligion catholic
          and TimeInRegion > 1

    AcquireAncillary knight_crusader chance  33 

;------------------------------------------

;------------------------------------------
Trigger priestinit4
    WhenToTest AgentCreated

    Condition AgentType = priest
          and SettlementBuildingExists >= cathedral
          and Trait PriestLevel = 0

    Affects PriestLevel  1  Chance  100 
    Affects NaturalPriestSkill  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger priestinit4_orthodox
    WhenToTest AgentCreated

    Condition AgentType = priest
          and SettlementBuildingExists >= cathedral_o
          and Trait PriestLevel = 0

    Affects PriestLevel  1  Chance  100 
    Affects NaturalPriestSkill  1  Chance  10 

;------------------------------------------
Trigger priestinit4b
    WhenToTest AgentCreated

    Condition AgentType = priest
          and SettlementBuildingExists >= jama

    Affects NaturalPriestSkill  1  Chance  50 
    Affects Dogmatic  1  Chance  50 

;------------------------------------------

So as you see, muslims cannot get Bishop nor crusader knights.

[Johan217]

Are you sure you haven't modded some files?

Uhm... possibly

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Thought I might add a few minor gripes & suggestions.

I do get a lot of Papal elections, something in the order of every 3-4 turns. Wow! Imagine the repetitive scenario Pope calling a crusade on an excommunicated faction capital or maybe Rome and 3 turns later the crusade is cancelled. I would like to see more papal elections so that factions aren't excommunicated for pro-longed periods but perhaps something between vanilla and vanillamod setting would be ideal. BTW which file do I mod to change this?

The guild offers don't seem to have any logic. The first guild I get offered was a Templars and never was on a crusade. I kind off liked the vanilla settings as it gave some faction specific guilds or at least guilds that are more likely to appear with certain factions. With vanillamod I have more or less each & every guild offered and I feel this reduces challenge b/c its the player which ends up with a headquarters for almost everything. It also reduces inter-faction guild diversity.

Not too much else that I have come across to gripe about. I did however restore normal build times as I do prefer a slower paced game.

Very dynamic campaign map with key settlements constantly changing ownership and power waxing & waning among factions.

[FactionHeir]

Hmmm not sure how to address those, but I'll try

Papal elections: How far are you in your campaign that they happen so frequently? How many cardinals do you have? I haven't changed anything with the papal elections so I'm wondering if it could just be the starting cardinals taking turns at becoming pope and they all being around 60 years old by then. I suppose if you want more elections, you want to reduce the max age of characters from the default value and/or make it even harder to get priestly traits (->fewer cardinals)

Guilds: Some settlements have a high base chance of getting a guild historically. Those will mostly always end up with a certain guild unless you reject it the first time or so. As for the rest, they are based on points. Even in the unmodded game, you could get templars and the other order chapters if you did not partake in a crusade. In fact I think I raised the importance of crusading relatively. Still, another factor with orders is that they tend to appear more often in regions bordering other factions of a different religion and if you are declaring war against islamic faction or have a high chivalry governor for a given settlement. Overall, I rebalanced the points needed for each guild and what allows you to obtain a certain guild to prevent the AI ending up with only thieves and merchants guilds.

Let me know if there's something else in specific that you feel could be improved though.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Papal elections: How far are you in your campaign that they happen so frequently? How many cardinals do you have? I haven't changed anything with the papal elections so I'm wondering if it could just be the starting cardinals taking turns at becoming pope and they all being around 60 years old by then.

I'm on about turn 80 but I doubt I have many cardinals as I only recruit priests on a need to basis. Exactly how many I'm not sure as I don't pay much attention to this part of the game. Guess its just a freak then.

Guilds: Some settlements have a high base chance of getting a guild historically. Those will mostly always end up with a certain guild unless you reject it the first time or so. As for the rest, they are based on points. Even in the unmodded game, you could get templars and the other order chapters if you did not partake in a crusade. In fact I think I raised the importance of crusading relatively. Still, another factor with orders is that they tend to appear more often in regions bordering other factions of a different religion and if you are declaring war against islamic faction or have a high chivalry governor for a given settlement. Overall, I rebalanced the points needed for each guild and what allows you to obtain a certain guild to prevent the AI ending up with only thieves and merchants guilds.

I'm aware its based on points but in a vanilla game I would only be ever offered Templars if I rejected St Johns a couple of times and been on at least 1 crusade. Its unusual b/c it was the first guild offered. Another example would be Portugal having a woodsmen guild before the English. Heaven forbid!

In the vanilla game I had good success reducing the AI having only thieves guild by removing the Spy-on-settlement trigger and by reducing points for spy missions. This gave AI majority merchants & explorers guilds.

[FactionHeir]

Its chance based really if both guild requirements are met. Which faction did you play and what factions did you border, and the settlement where you were offered the templars was bordering which settlements? What governor did it have?

Regarding woodsmen, in the unmodded game only England could get it. Now any faction can (but only England can get the unit from the building) if they recruit tons of missile troops.

I played around with removing some spying triggers early on before releasing the mod and as you describe, the outcome wasn't great with the AI just getting explorer and merchants guilds. With the current system, it can get unit guilds which actually result in it having stronger units to send against you and the woodsmen/swordsmith guilds will make battles tougher too, so I can't really complain

[Johan217]

In the bug thread I read something about obsolete units. Maybe it's an idea to tie recruitment to in-game events.

E.g.:

recruit_pool "Mailed Knights"  1   0.2   2  0  requires factions { england, scotland, france, hre, spain, portugal, milan, venice, papal_states, sicily, } and not event_counter gunpowder_discovered 1

This way, no more new units of Mailed knights after a certain point. A bit like the Marian reforms in RTW :-)
I think this would definitely be an option for ballista's and catapults, that are basically useless for sieges as walls become stronger later in the game. Same for "era-specific" units like mailed and feudal knights. Also, maybe link late units like arquebusiers, and cannon to an event well after 1400. I get the impression they are available too soon after the gunpowder event, so there is not much point in the early bombard or gunner units.

Maybe also revisit the mercenary pool. Landsknecht Pikemen seem to be available from 1170 onwards, which is way too early (you may easily add 200 years to that). Same for mercenary arquebusiers, that are available right after the gunpowder event.

And finally a trick I used in my install: remove all ships for the Papal States. I got tired of the Pope conquering African shores. Now he stays - more or less - where he belongs.