[CK2] Equality and Balance

[amega]

First and foremost I would like to say thank you for putting this together. The extra effort you put into Iberia is immensely appreciated. I personally enjoy the portion of the map because of the engaging turmoil of the region. Your modification made it pleasantly enjoyable.

I was wondering if any one could point me in the direction of how I can modify holdings in provinces. I ask because I would like to mod for one, just starting out really, but I would like to do AAR's and I would like to make a few modifications to enhance my back drop for a story. However every time I reverse engineer the txt files for holdings I just get a greyed out box. Any links would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in Advance.

[Monk]

First and foremost I would like to say thank you for putting this together. The extra effort you put into Iberia is immensely appreciated. I personally enjoy the portion of the map because of the engaging turmoil of the region. Your modification made it pleasantly enjoyable.

I was wondering if any one could point me in the direction of how I can modify holdings in provinces. I ask because I would like to mod for one, just starting out really, but I would like to do AAR's and I would like to make a few modifications to enhance my back drop for a story. However every time I reverse engineer the txt files for holdings I just get a greyed out box. Any links would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in Advance.

I am glad you enjoy my efforts. I like to think I am helping the game reach it's potential just a bit. It is never fun as a player to be limited to where you can and cannot play due to overbalanced game mechanics. As for your question:



Messing around with holdings isn't that difficult but can be a little time consuming if you aren't careful. It took up a lot of the early portion of this mod, i think I spent a month or so just removing one holding at a time in Iberia, watching how it affected balance. Talk about tedious. Before we begin you may want to install notepad++ or turn off your operating system's tendency to hide file extensions. It will make modding SO much easier, trust me. Both can be found through a simple google search. Notepad++ is a free coding program which will save your eyes from a lot of strain.

Anyway. GO to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Crusader Kings II\history\provinces (i have steam, it may be slightly different if you have gamersgate version) and locate the file you want to mess with. Each of these files represents a province on the game map and tells the engine how to interact with it. As an example lets look at Oxford.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

# 22 - Oxford

# County Title
title = c_oxford

# Settlements
max_settlements = 5
b_reading = castle
b_buckingham = castle
b_oxford = city
b_abingdon = temple

#b_banbury = castle
#b_aylesbury = castle
#b_eynsham = castle
#b_wallingford = castle

# Misc
culture = saxon
religion = catholic

# History
1100.11.11 = { culture = english }

Any line that has a # is a comment line and can be ignored, the engine will not read these lines. Here's a short explanation of what we're looking at:

county_title: This tells the game engine which title file to look into when linking this province to a title. 'c_oxford' has a corresponding file in the titles folder, but we can ignore that for this.
max_settelments: This is how many settlements the province can hold by default. Have you ever noticed that some places have only one vacant holding, but others have something like 6? This little modifier is why.
b_reading = castle: These are the actual holdings within the province itself, in this case, the Barony of Reading is identified as a castle and is the primary settlement for this county. Make sure that the first in this list is always castle, or it will change the title to a republic or prince-bishopric.

Every holding within the file that does not have a # mark in front of it will be read by the engine and created at the start of the game. Right now, Oxford starts with 4 holdings, one in the primary slot and three below that as baronies. If you wanted to tell the game to load more baronies for oxford it would literally be as simple as removing the hashtag, making sure you're not over the "max settlement" value and simply running the game.

If you want to add in a new custom barony, well, that's slightly trickier. But not impossible!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

# 22 - Oxford

# County Title
title = c_oxford

# Settlements
max_settlements = 5
b_reading = castle
b_buckingham = castle
b_oxford = city
b_abingdon = temple
b_gotham = city

#b_banbury = castle
#b_aylesbury = castle
#b_eynsham = castle
#b_wallingford = castle

# Misc
culture = saxon
religion = catholic

# History
1100.11.11 = { culture = english }

Marked by bold I've added a new custom city, in this case, Gotham, but you can name it what you want really. Save and close the file.

Now that we've told the province our city is there, we need to tell the game's title system it's there too. If we don't, our new custom city won't show up and we will be treated to just an empty box. Next stop is landed_titles.

Go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Crusader Kings II\common\landed_titles

Open the file up in notepad and do a control + f to search for c_oxford. This will take us directly to where Oxford is in here. Your search should bring you to something that looks very close to this.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

c_oxford = {
color={ 255 115 15 }
color2={ 255 255 255 }

b_oxford = {
}
b_wallingford = {
}
b_abingdon = {
}
b_buckingham = {
}
b_banbury = {
}
b_reading = {
}
b_aylesbury = {
}
b_eynsham = {
}
}

We wanna change that by adding in our custom barony,m a simple paste and tidying up later...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

c_oxford = {
color={ 255 115 15 }
color2={ 255 255 255 }

b_oxford = {
}
b_wallingford = {
}
b_abingdon = {
}
b_buckingham = {
}
b_banbury = {
}
b_reading = {
}
b_aylesbury = {
}
b_eynsham = {
}
b_gotham ={
}
}
}

And we're done! Save and close the file.

The next step is localisation, as without it, Gotham will appear in our game as b_gotham. Not very interesting. Localisation will allow us to tell the game engine what we want that file to show up as.

Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Crusader Kings II\localisation

Create a new file and name it whatever you want, for the purpose of this, I named it gotham, but you could easily name it "mylocalisation" and fill it with all localisation calls for your personal mods. The game doesn't care what the file's name is. Make sure the file saves as a .csv.

Here is what the localisation should look like:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

#CODE;ENGLISH;FRENCH;GERMAN;;SPANISH;;;;;;;;;x
b_gotham;Gotham;;;;;;;;;;;;;x

Save and close. Boot up your game.. and, well, that's really all there is to it.



Happy modding.

[Monk]

Next version is the final release before The Old Gods. I am done messing with it, all I need to do is play it a bit and make sure I haven't broken things that I didn't mean to break.

I figured out how to give women armor and to force armor on anyone commanding an army, which has been bugging me for the longest time. Yes, you're a king, but put your armor on for god's sake! It's a small change but it's a very good one imo (that could be my motto for this mod)!

I have also put final touches on the Fatimid start. Each 'contender' now has a little retinue of troops tied directly to them that functions much like William the Bastard's retinues do, only far smaller. These forces are more than enough to ensure the start is incredibly volatile for the Caliph, and make the ensuring civil war even bloodier. I wanna test it some more but so far it's been a fun change.

I don't know if I will mess with the Byzantine or Seljuk starts much. I know they are the strongest factions at the 1066 date but they effectively civil war for the first 50 years of gameplay from what I see. Making any changes to their current balance without destroying them would be problematic.

At any rate. Thank you everyone who has downloaded and played this new version of the mod. It's quite humbling to know people enjoy my particular flavor of CK2. Here's looking toward the next version and starting the balance cycle all over again with a new start date!

[amega]

Monk...
I am moved, your help was above and beyond the call. You are by the bottom of my heart "a cut above the rest" Thank you very much.

[Monk]

!!! NEW RELEASE !!!

Version 1.0 (that's almost twice the number of the previous version!)

Remember to delete old versions completely before installing new ones!

Changelog:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-------v1.0-----------

*Women of exceptional skill may now wear the armor that Paradox so kindly made for them.

*Armor is now automatically applied to all characters in command of armies.

*Raised the threshold needed for high martial characters to wear their armor when not in command. Now requires martial 20.

*Muslim women may no longer command armies, nor can they wear armor.

*Final Fatimid rebalances:

-Emirs of Aswan, Damietta, Sinai and Damascas begin the game with levies specially tied to their characters.

-These levies function exactly like those used by William the Bastard and Harald of Norway

*Massive Longbow Volley tactic has been rebalanced.

-Now provides a 320% increase to light-infantry attack, up from the previous 120% nerf.

-Can now only be used by very talented commanders, 14 martial along with proper culture is required

*Mongol Retreat and Ambush tactic has been rebalanced

-Now requires a martial skill of 12 to be considered a viable tactic.

Notes about this version:

It's been almost 10 months since i started modding CK2. In that time my original inspiration for this series of mods has evolved from simply wanting the ability to have a woman chancellor to a more balanced and stable vanilla experience without the need for a huge overhaul mod. Balance through practical, lightweight and simple means was the name of the game from day one, and I like to think I've kept true to that since I started. It's with no small bit of pride that I present what I consider the final, feature complete version of my mod: Version 1.0, and with it the final tweaks for the 1066 start date.

Armor and female commanders:

The blacksmiths of Europe and the Mid-East have been working at full capacity to give every character a full set of armor! No longer is the wearing of armor restricted to high martial men. Anyone who has a high martial skill (threshold set to 20) may now wear armor outside the battlefield, and everyone wears it while leading troops. Women never wear helms, however, as the basic helm Paradox made was meant for male characters. It simply does not look right when sitting on female portraits. Without making a new one there's not much I can do there.

Muslim women can no longer lead troops on the battlefield. This was a bit of an oversight initially, but in practice it turned out to be a "get out of decadence free" card for any Muslim dynasty. Since unlanded women do not contribute to decadence it felt really overpowered to allow them to lessen it by fighting in battles. For lack of a better solution, Muslim women can no longer serve as commanders no matter how capable. Women of other religions can still command provided they have exceptional ability.

Fatimid changes:

The vassals of the Fatimid Caliph now control significant portions of his army. This will now hopefully simulate the historic ethnic tension that nearly tore the Caliphate apart at the game start and is accomplished by using a system similar to the one already in use by the game. The same system that William the Bastard and Harald Hardrada use for their invasion forces is what the caliph vassals use for their civil war forces. This, combined with the previous changes to the mamluks, provides for a much more difficult position for the Caliph at the start of the game.

Two wars are now very common to see in the early years of the game. A war for control of the throne of Egypt, which then inspires spiraling independence wars. The system in place is very dynamic and can go a huge number of ways, as beyond the coding of characters and army strength, I have included no behavior scripts to tell the AI what to do. I simply let it do what comes natural. Do not be surprised if in some games the Caliph defeats his usurpers, while in others he falls. The trend leads to a much weakened Sultanate of Egypt from my observations, and holding together the Fatimid dynasty through decadence and betrayals is now a feat to behold.

Tactics:

I've only attempted to balance two cultural tactics in my mod because, from my perspective, these are the only tactics which can serve to radically alter game balance. Mongol and English tactics were far too good before I touched them, and now, they require at least a bit of 'skill' on the part of your characters for them to be as effective. Longbow tactics got lowered a bit too far in the previous release, I think, as the base volley that anyone can use is a 300% increase. Longbows now enjoy 320% effectiveness but require a very talented commander to coordinate. Mongol tactics now require a talented commander of 12 martial to use, rather than just any idiot with a bow.

New Screenshots:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Future Plans:

Hard to say, beyond a few radical ideas and hidden quest chains I'd love to implement, I've done all I want to with modding CK2. I plan to keep this mod series updated with future paradox patches and am eager to see what new interesting gameplay mechanics Old Gods bring. If that requires some balancing, I'll be sure to give it a go.

I tested thoroughly but as always if I find a bug later I'll hotfix it as soon as I can. If you find a bug, please don't hesitate to tell me. My contact information is in the readme, I would also welcome bug reports here in this thread.

Thank you for the continued support and interest.

Monk...
I am moved, your help was above and beyond the call. You are by the bottom of my heart "a cut above the rest" Thank you very much.

Thank you. It was my pleasure, I was happy to help.

[Monk]

!!! NEW RELEASE !!!

Version 1.01

Download Here. -- Compatible with paradox patch 1.091

Remember to delete old versions completely before installing new ones!



Minor bug squash update.

changelog:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-------v1.01----------

*fixed Casus Belli strange behavior for Catholic Holy War

Notes about this version:

Discovered a really odd bug allowing holy wars to be declared on Orthodox characters if you were Catholic. After declaration, the war would just end instantly, netting you nothing but wasted time, piety and a free cooldown modifier for your trouble. I think i misplaced an OR = tag in the last update that caused the oddity.

Normal behavior should not allow the holy war CB to be used against Orthodox rulers at all if you're catholic.

Fixed now.

Update should be save game compatible with previous version, only thing that was changed was the CB file.

[xploring]

Thanks for the updates. I have been playing and having fun with this mod for awhile now (only Ireland though). The new armor looks really nice, esp. for women who used to go to battle in dresses, which looked a bit strange.

[Monk]

Glad you're still enjoying the mod series xploring.

Thanks for the updates. I have been playing and having fun with this mod for awhile now (only Ireland though). The new armor looks really nice, esp. for women who used to go to battle in dresses, which looked a bit strange.

I know right? Forcing armor for commanders is such a simple change I am surprised more mods don't do it. If i had to guess, it's likely because the actual variable is a bit hidden away. Found it after a bit of searching in the interface files.

It took some experimenting to get it right but it was well worth it