Does the protectorates version keep the big 3 from magically annexing their Protectorates?

[Lucius Tiberius Vorenus]

Your description of the protectorates.rar version of startposv1.4 with protectorates isnt clear.

Do you mean that without player intervention, all protectorates will stay protectorates, and wont be magically annexed on turn 2 or 3?

Or just the protectorate the player chooses to play, wont be magically annexed?

Personally, I think the vanilla version, where the big 3 just annex their colonies the first few turns of the game is total GARBAGE. If the game ever gets fixed, and AI is up to snuff, this will make the big 3 instant mega powers. Britain triples it's landmass.

In previous TW games, if something like this happened, it would put those countries in an almost undefeatable posture for the player. Because AI in Rome could actually kick your butt. I think it's not noticeable now, because the strat and tactical AI in Empire is so bloody horrible.

Imagine if Macedon, on turn 3 of your Rome campaign, magically annexes all of Gual. By turn 10 you'd have multiple full stacks of Gallic Macedonians ramming it down your throat in Northern Italy, when you're just able to afford your first formal, full 20 unit Legion(Pricipes, Triarii, Hastati, Javelinmen, Cavalry). It would be game over, end of campaign by turn 20.


I'd like to see the 13 colonies play out, ideally rebel and the United States rise. Hopefully actually see britain to have to fight someone on land, and have some sort of financial drain. They have a thousand ships every campaign, and the bloody Native Tribes NEVER go to war with them. So in essence, every campaign I've played up to 1750 or so, Britain has never had to fight a single land battle, due to the Naval invasion bug, and nobody ever goes to war with them in the America's, to include the French.

[Aegon]

They have a thousand ships every campaign, and the bloody Native Tribes NEVER go to war with them. So in essence, every campaign I've played up to 1750 or so, Britain has never had to fight a single land battle, due to the Naval invasion bug, and nobody ever goes to war with them in the America's, to include the French.

Yes, unless you are playing them... I installed the mod and my colonies over there are completely empty, there's not a single unit in them and the iroquois, the french and the Cherokee take that as an invitation. Especially the Iroquois are declaring war to me every time (I started the campaign again twice because I messed up the settings...).

It's funny though, the iroquois are friendly towards you and grant you indefinite military access while they hate the french. Yet they still prefer to attack me instead of the french.

All this is probably because of the usual "oh, it's the human player, we need to attack him at all cost"-AI-behaviour... If the AI plays as Great Britain, they don't get into any wars in NA and in Europe, they're untouchable for other AI nations. At the start of a Campaign with IS installed, great Britain has about three times more prestige than any other nation. At the very beginning!

I think it would be better if the protectorates remain in the game as independent nations...

[Tancredii]

The big difference between Great Britain "owning" the 13 colonies and being able to use their manpower is that it is more historical than having them independant. Although it is a fairly fine line.

Given the general bloody mindedness of the colonies leading up to an during the French and Indian wars leaving as protectorate but someohow making Great Britain have to take action ot protect the money they generate might be a more historical basis. To be honest there is little reason to fight a war with France with them as a protectorate.

When I have played as Britain I have been at war with all natives, the French and Spanish. So it works that way around. However the problem is probably as you say the naval invasion issue and strategic AI.

[Tancredii]

Yes, unless you are playing them... I installed the mod and my colonies over there are completely empty, there's not a single unit in them and the iroquois, the french and the Cherokee take that as an invitation. Especially the Iroquois are declaring war to me every time (I started the campaign again twice because I messed up the settings...).

Yeah AI is messed up in that regard. Historically the colonies were fairly lightly garrisoned anyway so no units is quite close to reality. Having to recruiit units for defence does stop Great Britain spamming merchants and stealing the trade lanes so it does acheive something I suppose.

[Aegon]

You're right there... And without any military units and the unit costs raised by quixote, there's actually a good chance for France, the Cherokees or Iroquois to stop the english early on despite their huge empire.


And I really hope the developers fix diplomacy or at least give us the modding tools which allow the community to fix these issues themselves. I'm tired of having my best friends attacking me and then refusing to make peace throughout the game.

[Groove74]

I loaded up the file for the protectorates. and I like what I see. I have wanted to play as the US/13 colonies starting in 1700. Now I have a 2 questions?

1. can the colonies ever become free of England and become a major nation?

2. the protectorates, don't have Victory conditions, is this normal with this Mod file?

By the way I love your work on this mod! feels like the day I can play as US in the full GC is getting closer ?

[cherryfunk]

In previous TW games, if something like this happened, it would put those countries in an almost undefeatable posture for the player. Because AI in Rome could actually kick your butt. I think it's not noticeable now, because the strat and tactical AI in Empire is so bloody horrible.

I have to disagree. Try a Seleucid campaign in RTR or RS -- you're far from undefeatable, in fact your empire is a huge liability since you can't defend it all...

[notger]

Protectorate annexation is not changed in the startpos.esf, AFAIK.

You might want to check out this: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=2325 .

If you use the prot-forever-scripting file, prots will not be granted to their owners.

[Skyline Pete]

I'd really really love to see a version of the startpos file that returns the Protectorate status to vanilla levels.
That way it leaves it up to the player to decide whether or not they want to include the protectorates as part of their territory.

Seems to be there's 3 ways people would like it to go with protectorates;
A: Vanilla - each of the big 3 must complete the missions required to have protectorate become their territory
B: As is now - protectorates become territory of the big 3 on the first turn, thus removing the 3 protectorates from the game entirely
C: Remove protectorates completely from their parent territory and let them run on their own so that players can play them as a minor faction

[Quixote07]

If you'd like the vanilla protectorate situation, just use the vanilla scripting.lua file you made a backup of. That's pretty much all it takes.

[Lazy Knight]

and if for some unknown reason you made no backup, you can just delete the file and use the steam option to get your game back in shape