Making catapults, trebutchets and ballistas unavilable.

**Barry Lyndon** · February 02, 2012, 07:17 AM

Greetings,

Is there any way to mod the game files so that the AI stops recruiting catapults, trebutchets and ballistas all together? The enemy tends to use them in 90% of all field battles, which ruinbs the balance. Can I, for example, mod the files so that catapults, trebutchets and ballistas become to expensive for the AI to recruit? If so, could you please point me to the relevant folder and what I should do with it.

**Ferdiad** · February 02, 2012, 07:26 AM

C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\SS6.3\data
export_descr_unit

Code:

type             NE Ballista
dictionary       NE_Ballista      ; Ballista
category         siege
class            missile
voice_type       Heavy
banner faction   main_missile
banner holy      crusade
soldier          NE_Ballista_Crew, 16, 4, 0.8, 0.30
officer         northern_captain
engine           ballista

attributes       sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, artillery
formation        1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health      1, 1
stat_pri         1, 1, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_mechanical, piercing, knife, 15, 1
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         55, 3, ballista, 280, 50, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, none, 0, 1
stat_sec_attr    ap, bp, launching
stat_pri_armour  3, 3, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour  0, 0, flesh
stat_heat        1
stat_ground      0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental      11, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 6
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        1, 500, 150, 90, 70, 370, 4, 90
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models NE_Ballista_Crew
ownership        england,  norway, scotland, hre, france, denmark, portugal, spain, aragon, venice, milan, sicily, papal_states, teutonic_order, jerusalem, eastern_european, greek
era 0            northern_european, southern_european
era 1            northern_european, southern_european
recruit_priority_offset    -25

Code:

stat_cost        1, 500, 150, 90, 70, 370, 4, 90

Change the highlighted parts to make them more expensive. 500 is the recruitment cost, 150 is the upkeep.

**Kaidonni** · February 02, 2012, 07:46 AM

The only problem with making them more expensive is that the AI still won't recruit other units, they'll just expend their resources on the siege units...

**Ferdiad** · February 02, 2012, 07:49 AM

No, the AI take cost into consideration, you could aslo change the recruit_priority of the unit too.

**Kaidonni** · February 02, 2012, 08:22 AM

Maybe to be on the safe side the recruit_priority should be modified, then. You can't trust the AI...every little helps.

**Lazy** · February 02, 2012, 09:54 AM

The AI has so much money he will produce them as long he has enough money and they will be available for building...
In my opinion the best way is to:

Originally Posted by Kaidonni

Maybe to be on the safe side the recruit_priority should be modified, then. You can't trust the AI...every little helps.

But... if in a settlement the others units are not available to be build ( they have been built and need to replenish ) the AI will still build those siege engines...

If you want to remove the "mixing" completly you must go into export_descr_buildings.txt
Now that´s a bit tricky... you can change the training requirements for ballistas... ( there is more then just one... but all have "Ballista"/"Catapult"/"Trebuchet" in their name )

Search for all "Ballista" and add the bold part at the end of the line

Code:

recruit_pool "NE Ballista" 1 0.05 1 0 requires factions { bla, bla} and not event_counter some_event 1

now you go for "Catapult" and "Trebuchet" add again add at the end of the line the bold part

Code:

recruit_pool "NE Catapult" 1 0.05 1 0 requires factions { bla, bla} and event_counter some_event 1

Now the AI will be able to train ballistas ( but NOT catapults ) until this event happens...
after this event occurs it will be not able to train ballistas anymore... but catapults will be available!

This way you can prevent the mixing of ballistas with catapults and trebuchets!
Do that with all "Ballista"/Catapult"/"Trebuchet"!

I forgot the exact folder where the events.txt file is... somewhere inside data/world/...
This is where you have to choose an event... it does not really matter which one!
Perhaps it should not be so far from the beginning of the campaign as you do not want to play with ballistas only for 100 turns!

If you want this restriction only for the AI you have to duplicate ( copy and paste ) the whole line and add to one of them:
"and not some_event 1 and is_the_AI"... the AI part is spelled wrong...
but you can make a search for "AI" inside this file and you will find the right expression very fast as it is mentioned there some hundred times

**Barry Lyndon** · February 02, 2012, 01:57 PM

Thanks for the help all, I'm looking into it.

Maybe to be on the safe side the recruit_priority should be modified, then. You can't trust the AI...every little helps.

How do I change recruit priority?

**Kaidonni** · February 02, 2012, 02:25 PM

Search for recruit_priority_offset in export_descr_unit.txt in your SS 6.3 data folder. Negative numbers mean less units of that type will be produced, and positive numbers the opposite (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...riority_offset). It will probably take some fine-tuning to get it just right so that the AI uses siege equipment, but don't spam the blasted things.

PS: Third post down in my search link is where I got my information from. Anyone else care to let me dine on their brain?