Upcoming Patch Live14 Update

**Silven** · August 01, 2014, 09:50 AM

Just wanted to keep everyone posted and let you all know that an official update for STIM to CA Patch Live14 is in the works. The update was apparently released yesterday and I just found out about it 30 minutes before writing this. I haven't yet delved into the guts of Patch14 yet, so I don't know for sure just how long or complicated the update will be. But I hope to be done with it before the end of the weekend.

Thankfully, because I completely restructured the way the mod is designed and built the whole thing from scratch again for the LAST patch, all the hard work I put into it paid off. You can safely use the latest version of STIM with CA Patch Live14 while you wait for an official update to the mod in the interim. I can't speak to what changes might be getting overridden because the mod hasn't been updated, or possible imbalances that might be happening since figuring that out would take the amount of time it takes to simply update the mod. But in the meantime, while things might not work perfectly, the mod WILL run with the most recent version of R2.

**cherryfunk** · August 01, 2014, 09:59 AM

Great news Silven! I'm now unable to play vanilla or Radious or DEI after a playthrough of CiG with STIM. And from what I'm reading Patch 14 really has had a big impact on siege battles, which remains one of the main problems with R2.

One question: does STIM include any balancing to help the AI Rome faction so it doesn't get wiped out? I saw the comment below in a thread on the main discussion forum and wonder if I should also install this 'minor faction' mod on top of STIM? I think I'm not alone in hoping to be able to fight a powerful Rome when playing a non-Rome faction.

A mod that helps Rome greatly is the "minor factions minor" mod. It takes away the hidden bonuses to the minor factions so that they can't spam 2 or 3 full stacks when only having 1 city. They can still expand but not nearly as fast or as much. With this mod Rome won't be facing as many armies from the factions to the north and can more easily expand. I know that Rome should be able to do this without a mod but really increases the playability since you'll face a more powerful Rome. Just my two cents

**Silven** · August 01, 2014, 10:11 AM

This is from the OP of my main STIM description/download thread. I've personally seen a huge difference and gotten a lot of reports from other users that it makes a huge difference. STIM works by buffing the major factions, instead of simply nerfing the minor factions, which is a much better solution IMO. Hope this answers your question.

Originally Posted by Silven

-Script Put In Place To ENSURE The Long Term Survival Of Major Factions.

Huge kudos to .Mitch. for pioneering the scripting on this. A large part of the reason many major AI factions seem to crumble so soon and often in the campaign, is because the autobattle calculations done by the game are often way out of whack. And sometimes even when it makes sense that a major faction should lose a particular battle, we don't want them to so early in the campaign.

This new script will ensure that all 17 major factions have an automatic and guaranteed edge against minor factions.

The script will grant large bonuses to Major Factions when defending against Minor factions,
and it will grant small bonuses to Major Factions when attacking Minor factions.

If a Major Faction attacks or defends against another Major Faction, no bonuses will be applied, with the one exception of Rome.
Rome will receive small bonuses when attacking or defending against another Major Faction.
The script won't take effect if the player or his allies are in any way involved with the battle, or if the player is within range of seeing the battle.

Overall, this means Major Factions should only be wiped out by other Major Factions and the odds of them successfully expanding should be elevated.

Carthage will NEVER AGAIN be wiped out by Turn 30, and Rome will NEVER AGAIN be eternally confined to half of the Italian Peninsula.

Again, this development comes from .Mitch. and his original version of it with different bonus values can be found here.

In addition to the change mentioned above, all of the MAJOR factions (a total of 21) receive a hidden bonus to their income, ranging from 300 to 500 Denari.

This might not sound like much, but this income receives multiplier benefits of the tax slider.
These changes, combined with the food bonuses, will allow ALL factions to perform much better, while giving the MAJOR factions an edge.

**cherryfunk** · August 01, 2014, 10:48 AM

Love it!

I'll be jumping into a GC after the STIM update -- can't wait to see how R2 plays now, with the new patch14 AI improvements and STIM on top, we might finally have a Total War to be proud of!