New hints ???????????????

[Jxrc]

Well the farming issue can be improved by adding an adittional 100% upgrade and by making the upgrades cheaper.:

Might be easier just to change the base farming income of a province though. Adding a "100% upgrade" would require more time to build but that might be just want you want to achieve. On the other hand, I kind of get upset when the "60% upgrade" is destroyed when I have almost completed the 80% upgrade (takes you about between 7 and 13 years backward) so I can imagine than going back to 60% when I have almost finished 100% will not please me Not a big problem since it happens only once every ten campaigns ... moreover the time spent for that upgrade is compensated by the fact that there is no longer any point teching up stuff for boats.

The best way to improve the Sicilian position is to a) give them Naples in the early Era, which they should have anyway and b) reduce the tech level of Sicily to prevent them expanding too soon. The Siciliy to Tunisia connection is risky. You could do a Siciliy -> Malta -> Tunisia connection but it holds the same risks. The Sicilians ten to explode all over North Africa and wipe out the Almohad in a few years.

Fair enough but then you need a Naples/greece link otherwise they can only attack the Pope. Not that it would be undoable for an human player but that would ruin most campaigns if a papal resurgence takes place early in the game. To avoid that one could imagine to also make a link Naples/Serbia but that would be too big an advantage

Firstly any changes will only affect Early anyway. To change High and Late you have to edit the files again - though that's possible.

I understand that but it would be nice to have a consistent map if one can spare the time.

I've just realised that with the mod I play, I use a different map... Though I don't mind working on a version for the Vanilla map at some point. The map I use has an improved Iberia, Greece, Asia Minor, Near East and North Africa. It also has most of those suggested land bridges already in place. The province layout in those regions is different and Cyrenacia, Sinai, Finland, Switzerland, Rhodes and Malta have been removed altogether. Many new provinces have been added in the above regions however.:

Fine with me if the whole package can be obtained somewhere. What does happen to Swiss halbardiers with that map ?

Now all I need to do is get a new graphics card and get the game running...

Well do not buy anything "too new" or you'll end up in the Apothecary for a while