"Valhalla" The Hotseat Community Tavern

[Fernandez_1492]

Anyone wanna play a "no rules" hs?

[The Norseman]

But I have to talk to StouFf before I can decide anything regarding factions etc.

[StOuFf]

alright as you may have noticed me and Mr. Norseman are going to start one or two htoseats to get things going here.

first we thought of a Skip a Few HS but it is quite difficult to get a balanced map if the AI is charge. We could though if people are fine with having the strongest faction AI to balance the game a bit.

second idea is to start a late era SS6.4 HS in which we take 8 neighbouring factions and make them playable AND we limit the regions which can be conquered around those 8 factions.
this would allow a fast paced and action paced HS which i prefer to be honest.

@ Fernandez: a hotseat without rules isnt possible i think as for example the deafed troops rule would sureley mess things up for the ones later in the turn order. jsut one example.

what do you guys think? Or do you have yourselves some ideas for a SS6.4 HS?

Me and Norseman would try to admin thsoe hotseats if the participants are fine with us playing in it aswell ;-)
IF there is somebody who is not willing to paly but would admin the HS for us we would highly appreciate that.

[invicta]

Skip a few (Late Era ) is always better: HS lasts relatively few turns compared to a sp campaign. That way at least settlements will have developed a bit more, being capable so to support more armies
and recruit units at a faster rate. I already gave my suggestions to create a more balanced campaign, are the one I gave some post earlier and are based on my experience in creating UDS which was fairly balanced.
All you need to do is reinforce 2-3 times Crusader state to not let them die before turn 50 or 60 at least, disband Mongols armies the way I indicated so that both Cumans and Kwarezm are alive.
And keep an eye on France, which tends (in some campaign) to get overpowered. It's important that no factions dies.

About 8 neighboring factions: a skip a few would be a bad idea imo, in such case. Being too tight, some player wouldn't even get the times to set himself up before getting destroyed.
Also , imo in cutting the rest of the map also the relatively AI factions should get destroyed.

[The Norseman]

Just a question. If I were to take control of France and/or for example a minor faction like Scotland. It wont effect them negatively or anything will it? And what command do I use to spawn armies for Crusader states for example.

And I still havent been answered on this:

Oh and I have a problem after Ive started the hotseat with H/H. When I for example choose Scotland first and England, the introduction message from the team comes where it says the difficulty is hard, but when I end Scotlands turn and come to Englands turn the same message comes, but it says that the campaign now is medium for some reason...

[invicta]

Just a question. If I were to take control of France and/or for example a minor faction like Scotland. It wont effect them negatively or anything will it? And what command do I use to spawn armies for Crusader states for example.

And I still havent been answered on this:

You took control of factions just in the turn you need to adjust them (or so I did).
You don't want to control them all along.

What I did in UDS is:
1-start the HS with all the potentially playable factions as humans (basically every faction with exception of Kwarezm and Cumans so that they coudl take AI bonuses, since in any case no one was going to choose them.). Maybe add some units (like 10-15) to the Byzantines to be sure they don't die.

2-As soon as I get the the first turn (Venice), I turn every faction on AI with exception of Mongols. On turn 1, 3 and 5 I disbanded all the Mongols troops. After turn 5 I turn Mongols too to AI and let the game run.

3-Between turn 10-15 I take control of a faction (usually Crusaders) to see how things are going. Usually Crusaders are the one who needs help. It may be also worth to check how HRE and France are doing. Usually all the other factions can survive as long as those 3 factions are kept under control (I did 4-5 trials when creating UDS and that how it worked for me). Usually a turn take on my pc about 1:30 to complete, so I waited aboud 10-15 minutes.

4-After this I wait about 20 turns (so after turn 30) to check again on Mongols (I disband at this point 40% of their armies) ,Crusaders (I give them one or 2 full stacks of Elites units (as they get usually hit by Jihads) and see that neither HRE is dieing or France is getting overpowered.

5-Repeat the same process every 20 turns checking those 3 points (but Mongols shouldn't need any additional shaving).After turn 50-60 you might let Crusades die or giving a little extra help to survive a bit longer (but do not let them prosper: they're a particular faction which shouldn't be playable, 'cause it's too much overpowered). Between turn 60-70 all the factions should still be alive. Don't forget to make saves: the game crashed to me while being totally controlled by the AI. Try to make a trial this way and see what happens.


I don't know the answer to the other question. I didn't notice your problem (but I might have had the same, and not been so careful as you). And I think I started UDS with H/H

[The Norseman]

Whats the command for Genoa? I cant find it in Descr strat or anywhere... never mind! it was milan!


but how do I add units for factions such as Byzantines and Crusader states? whats the command?

[Vipman]

Norseman maybe it remained milan from vanilla???

i found this command on google...
create_unit <settlement/character_name> <unit_id> <opt:how_many> <opt:exp/armour/weapon>
the unit_id can be found in EDU most probably, and i found this command: list_units <character/settlement name>
it could give the unit_id's of units in that army/settlement


Last night when trying to fall asleep a "brilliant" idea came to my mind, must be because of seeing you try to balance the skip a few, by editing the descr_strat and leaving every faction at the start with only 1 region (it's capital) and all the other regions be rebel.

It seemed a nice idea, but i've just looked at the descr_strat of the main campaign of CCM2 and well... it's huge So it'll probably just remain an idea.

Though now i realize i must have took the idea from checking this BattleAxe mod fernandez was talking about, there was an arena campaign, 8 factions with 1 castle and to win you have to control the castle in the middle... About the other campaigns, besides the weird changes to the map, all factions (including new ones) have pretty balanced rosters, lots of infantry units added but some are generic (eastern swordsmen/spearmen, like that, not quite unique)

[invicta]

i found this command on google...
create_unit <settlement/character_name> <unit_id> <opt:how_many> <opt:exp/armour/weapon>
the unit_id can be found in EDU most probably, and i found this command: list_units <character/settlement name>
it could give the unit_id's of units in that army/settlement

Exactly as Vipman said, in particular remember you need to us ethe same name as it correspond in the EDU file.
for instance to add 5 venetian archers in Venice with 3 exp, 2 arm upgrade and 1 weapon upgrade youd' write in the console:
create_unit Venice "Venetian Archers" 5 3 2 1
Note the use of the ""

Last night when trying to fall asleep a "brilliant" idea came to my mind, must be because of seeing you try to balance the skip a few, by editing the descr_strat and leaving every faction at the start with only 1 region (it's capital) and all the other regions be rebel.

It seemed a nice idea, but i've just looked at the descr_strat of the main campaign of CCM2 and well... it's huge So it'll probably just remain an idea.

Problem is that rebels do not develop settlements that much as factions, thus the main advantage of a skip a few will be lost

[The Norseman]

Alright I got this map now and Im pretty happy with it. Mongols are still strong and pushing the Khwarezmians which again are pressuring Turks and Egypt and Turks is pressuring Egypt as well. In Europe things are pretty balanced. The minor factions have a good position to expand as almost all of them have quite a few armies at their borders, ready to invade any given realm. What do you guys think?

[Loose Cannon]

Thats sort of the problem. Many of the minor factions are located on the iberian peninsula. But anyways here are some: Scotland, Grand Duchy of Kiev, Lithuania, Norway, Aragon, Castile, Portugal, Denmark, Sicily, Genoa. So 10 factions it seems. Its either this or just start on turn 1 late era...

That's what I was planning to do. Quit reading my mind! you could add Poland to that List and the Teutonic Order.

Oh and I have a problem after Ive started the hotseat with H/H. When I for example choose Scotland first and England, the introduction message from the team comes where it says the difficulty is hard, but when I end Scotlands turn and come to Englands turn the same message comes, but it says that the campaign now is medium for some reason...

It always defaults to medium. easy to check in SS-move your capital and it only costs 2000 not the 5000 scripted. That's a known issue/bug that's unavoidable unless you write a new script with only ONE diffficulty level.

My concern with Skip a few and a Small Factions game is that AI controlled small factions will not have expanded much like in your last map. And the large factions will be well developed now. You say they quite a few armies but are the armies any good?

And "Milan" was never changed by King Kong in the files needed so you have to use "Milan" when modding "Genoa" I guess he forgot.

[The Norseman]

By the looks of it all the minor factions have some very decently upgraded castles and cities and their armies have quite alot of experience. I can check again tomorrow though... I just hope people are interested enough to join!

[invicta]

Alright I got this map now and Im pretty happy with it. Mongols are still strong and pushing the Khwarezmians which again are pressuring Turks and Egypt and Turks is pressuring Egypt as well. In Europe things are pretty balanced. The minor factions have a good position to expand as almost all of them have quite a few armies at their borders, ready to invade any given realm. What do you guys think?

It seems a good map to me.
Which turn is this one? 60 like the others?
Mongols won't be a problem, you don't have to worry imo (as long as you disbanded troops like I said).
They'll still be powerful, but Kwarezm will be ready to react.

[The Norseman]

yep its turn 60! Ill create a thread later today and start up the save. How do I start it up btw? Its turn 60 and I am mongols. Do I just turn all the factions who are going to be humans to humans in game? or must I use clear_password "faction name" to enable people to put their own passwords in? I obviously have to wait for players to choose their factions first!

Im thinking 10 factions sounds good

Norway, Denmark, Aragon, Portugal, Lithuania, Scotland, Kievan Rus, (maybe Sicily?) Venice and Genoa

[Vipman]

And "Milan" was never changed by King Kong in the files needed so you have to use "Milan" when modding "Genoa" I guess he forgot.

because it's work for nothing to rename vanilla milan to genoa... and it's pretty intuitive they're the same...

@Norse no Byz?? I want teh byz to face hungarian, ottoman, mamluk and all those eastern hordes

i'll consider joining... managed to combine partitions and i just installed SS... i'll play in sp a bit to see if i've re-evaluated my opinion about large maps

[invicta]

yep its turn 60! Ill create a thread later today and start up the save. How do I start it up btw? Its turn 60 and I am mongols. Do I just turn all the factions who are going to be humans to humans in game? or must I use clear_password "faction name" to enable people to put their own passwords in? I obviously have to wait for players to choose their factions first!

Im thinking 10 factions sounds good

Norway, Denmark, Aragon, Portugal, Lithuania, Scotland, Kievan Rus, (maybe Sicily?) Venice and Genoa

If this is the selection, I would like to try Venice
If Byzantines are included, I would like to try them.

About your question: first let people choose their factions. Then on Mongols turn 60, you turn those factions to Human and start the HS with turn 61.
Also it would help if you can make bigger and more detailed ss like in UDS. To do that add this line in the [video ] section of the .cfg file of the mod:
tga_width = 5120

Also it would help if you draw the borders of the un-conquerable area

[The Norseman]

Well the thing about Byzantium is that it is not a minor faction. It has superior troops and is close to some of the richest and largest castles/cities in the game. I had to jump in the middle of the game though and give Byzantium a little hand in their battle against Hungary because they were almost defeated. Byzantium has a pretty easy expansion from their current position as hungary has moved all of their men north or they have been defeated so all cities in Greece are there for the taken. But at the same time Sicily has a big army there so it could even stuff out, but only if it attacks... We should wait and see what people want for their factions. You can start PMing and VMing me telling me which faction you want to be out of the 10 chosen and you can also say "if we can play blabla I would rather play as them." Its just so we dont get too much spam in the thread Ill be making.

Ill post a high resolution map later today!

[Onix]

I want to try Byz. Or Lithuania. in fact, I'm very indifferent which faction to take, but I don't want fight in England or Italy.
most important for me is a Family tree)

[n00bsky]

What rules will be there?..

[The Norseman]

Ill put up the rules later. Which faction do you want to be Onix?