Squalor

[therother]

One thing perhaps pounded into the ground but which I don't remember seeing is that, AFAIK, when you make a water building, it doesn't show up as affecting the bottom/negative side of the Details, just the positive/top side. Which is to say it only counters squalor, it doesn't directly affect it.

Indeed. I think, personally, it would make more sense if it did actually directly affect squalor. But it doesn't, or at least I haven't been able to discern any noticeable effect, and I've been looking pretty hard!

I suppose it makes no difference in the end, as the effect of squalor does not seem to be compounded - it increases in predetermined steps based on population and Government building - so it matters little to the squalor level when you build the government buildings: it will drop back to the level, appropriate for your current population, it would have been had you build the new Government building as soon as you could. However, as the table above shows, you start to pay an extra penalty, both in growth rate and public order, for such slovenly practices, and it gets pretty steep.

Pray tell - what does 'therother' mean? Sounds like a couple of words jammed together - or is it a British term? Er sorry - I meant a Brittania term.

It's just an old nickname, and given the relative paucity of nicknames I had as a kid, I didn't have much of a choice when I was deciding on usernames 10+ years ago. So it has kinda stuck with me, especially online.

BTW, it's pronounced "The Rother", not "The R Other" as some seem to think!

[therother]

Right, these are the population levels for various levels of squalor with the Governor's Governor’s Palace:

Headings are the same as before:

Sq% 	Pop	Diff	Men/PO%  Comment
5	1500			
10	3000	1500	300	
15	4500	1500	300	
20	6000	1500	300	Normal Pop Levels
25	7500	1500	300		|
30	9000	1500	300		|
35	10500	1500	300		v
40	12000	1500	300	Can upgrade to Pro-Consul's
45	12750	750	150	
50	13500	750	150	
55	14250	750	150	
60	15000	750	150	
65	15750	750	150	
70	16500	750	150	
75	17250	750	150	
80	18000	750	150	
85	18350	350	70	
90	18700	350	70	
95	18750	50	10	
100	19050	300	60	
105	19400	350	70	
110	19500	100	20	
115	19750	250	50	
120	20100	350	70	
125	20250	150	30	Again, the growth penalty decouples.
130	20450	200	40	
...

[Scipio]

So is anybody gunna mod squaker to be less devastating? It is really starting to piss me off.

[therother]

So is anybody gunna mod squaker to be less devastating? It is really starting to piss me off.

Well, I'm not a hardcore modder, but the only thing I could think of that's easily accessible is to mod the traits, so that ever general who's ever in a settlement is given -10 squalor or so.

I've haven't fully tested this, so if you try backup your files.

Open home/data/export_descr_character_traits.txt, find this entry

   
    Level Great_Builder
        Description Great_Builder_desc
        EffectsDescription Great_Builder_effects_desc
        Epithet Great_Builder_epithet_desc
        Threshold  36 

        Effect Influence  1 
        Effect Construction  15 
        Effect Squalor -3

Change Effect Squalor -3 to whatever you want, and perhaps remove the other effects.

So you could change it to:

    Level Great_Builder
        Description Great_Builder_desc
        EffectsDescription Great_Builder_effects_desc
        Epithet Great_Builder_epithet_desc
        Threshold  36 

        Effect Squalor -10

Then search further down for:

 Trigger governor_building
    WhenToTest GovernorBuildingCompleted

    Condition GovernorInResidence

    Affects GoodBuilder  1  Chance  20

Change to:

Trigger governor_building
    WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd

    Condition Condition EndedInSettlement

    Affects GoodBuilder  36  Chance  100

If you want the game to display the right figures, you'll need to edit the appropriate line in home/data/text/export_VnVs.txt

I've had a quick check and it seems to work quite well. A few only get Excellent Builder, but that's better than nothing I suppose. The Great Builder guys put a 80% Public order cap on squalor, even in the largest of large cities, and will eliminate it in all but larger Large cities. It's crude, I know, but hopefully it'll tide you over until one of the modders gets into gear.

Remember to backup those files, and - if RTW's files are anything like MTW's - be sure to put exact the right spaces, tabs, etc in the file. Do one thing at a time, and check that RTW still loads. Run the game with the "-show_err” command for help if you make a mistake. CA says that it should give you more information about what went wrong in the error checking.

Edit: You could also mod a health building, but that would just counter the effect, not reduce squalor itself. I suppose you could mod the health building to actually combat squalor. The advantage of this would be that you could remove the mod without affecting the game, whereas all family members in the game are permanently modified in the mod below. Also squalor could be tackled in all your settlements without the need for family members.

For example, in home/export_descr_buildings.txt:

        sewers requires factions { ct_carthage, egyptian, greek, roman, }  and building_present_min_level market trader
        {
            capability
            {
                population_health_bonus bonus 1
            }
            construction  2 
            cost  800 
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
                baths
            }
        }

And edit the population_health_bonus bonus to something larger. You would either want to mod the upgrades or just remember not to build them as it would remove your extra bonus. You might also want to let the other factions in on the scheme.

[Longasc]

good work. I will comment after i understood everything.

[Akka]

Is it possible to mod the game so that squalor only have half the loyalty effect it has right now ?

[CrackedAxe]

I'm just a couple of decades into my Briton campaign, and it concerns me that I cant upgrade the cities here past the minor stage, but the population keeps on growing. Is the squalor going to spiral out of control?