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Thread: Please read this before you play

  1. #1

    Default Please read this before you play

    This thread is here to remind you some frequently encounter aspects of the mod not entirely covered in the manual section. Some of them are known issues others are some tips for your campaigns..I will keep this thread closed in order to be able to keep all notes gathered in one page and be easily read. If anyone wants to ask something please do so either in bug section or in the thread “ Why it was done like this??

    PART A : KNOWN ISSUES

    1 ) Ui (User interface) limitations. Vanilla Ui has a very limited space to show active effects and unfortunately cannot be modded. The Vanilla Ui can show only 9 active factional effects while in our mod we have an abundance of effects that can affect a given faction .
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    The total amount of active effects may exceed even the number of 20 at a point in the game so as you all can understand many of those effects will not appear in the factional screen. The good part is that nearly all of our extra effects concern the scripted system we got linking battle results with Public order (See the manual’s Scripting section tab). So with knowledge of our system the player may not be able to see independently each active effect BUT he can follow the general idea. If you loose battles , land , armies , have many new war fronts then PO will drop even if you cannot see each individual effect . Winning battles, land , annihilating armies ,quelling rebellions etc will remove those negative effects or even gain many positive ones.
    Something similar is happening in the main menu of Faction selection. Only 3 of many starting effects appear. To get an idea on the specialization of each faction you should visit the manual again..


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Finally also in the same chapter (Ui limitations) is another issue. Final objectives (those required to win the game) are many more in Hellenika than in Vanilla. Again the Ui cannot handle all those regions and their boxes are shrunk
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    To overcome this problem you can click on each bog or small box and you will be navigated in the proper region. In the example below Elis.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    2 ) Unit card colours . We used a Yellow colour that makes it a bit hard to distinguish the selected unit. Unitl you get used to it it may be a small nuisance.. To know that the unit is selected please take a look ON TOP of the unit icon like shown below..In any case we plan to redo the icons and we will correct this problem in future updates

    Uselected
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Selected
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    3 ) Emergency war taxes . Factions with 3 or less regions have this feature activated. This feature makes upkeep 0 when inside the capital city. When the faction has more than 3 regions upkeep returns to normal values. This is a scripted mechanism and it is enabled when the army enters the town and disabled when the army leaves the town. In Boiotia’s case at the start of the game the army begins inside the city so although Boiotia has only one region the effect is not activated. To activate the effect and have the army cost 0 money while garrisoned you just need to exit city and re-enter it. Voila upkeep drops to 0

    PART B CAMPAIGN TIPS


    1 )Public Order Management.
    In Hellenika people reacts as classic Greeks . When you win all is good but if you suffer a setback you will notice a considerable impact into your factions public order. The bigger the loss the more significant the problems you will be called to face. Details on how you remove specific penalties are given in the manual but here i want to present you some pointers to make your life easier.

    First of all the battle fatigue system we got does not allow many defeats to pile up their penalties. So whenever a certain effect is triggered (like the loss of land) , if you lose land again next turn you don’t get another effect on top of the one you already have. It just “renews” the already existent effect . So if the effect is to last 4 turns and in the second turn you lose land again the PO penalty remains the same and only the turns are again 4 and do not decrease to 3.

    All PO penalties cause problems with 2 different ways.
    A ) Actual PO reduction and
    B ) Political Disturbance.


    How to remove those problems


    Actual PO reduction is a straight number (lets say -10) . This can be removed with all the conservative measures from temples , reducing taxes , using agents and edicts to winning battles .

    Political disturbance
    is trickier and needs special treatment. Political disturbance causes a PO issue according to the political views of the region. So if you get such a penalty in Athens where your political culture is dominant (90% Democratic) the problems will be small since they will affect only the 10% of the population and the actual extra penalty will be small. In regions though where political views are different than yours then you are in trouble. Kos for example is 90% oligarchic so there, the penalty can reach very high values on top the actual PO penalty (maybe -20 maybe more) . This penalty cannot be treated with conservative means only because usually they are not enough. Yes wins do reduce these penalties also but

    what other things we can do there ?

    A ) Strategic trick. Since Navy has a huge range in Hellenika it is advised to have a full stack of navy ready for a counter attack. You can have it threatening a fragile region while docked inside your port but NOT attacking. For example gather a navy in Naupaktos where it threatens also Anaktorio , Pronnoi and others. Keep this navy ready and if the enemy tries to defend those areas then move it into another threatening position. A full stack can easily take a small town. SO when you face a defeat you quickly counter all losses with a fast counter attack. With a victory like that you can erase all (or nearly all) penalties from the defeat. Also the newly acquired land will give you the opportunity to erase the penalties from a land loss or a minor defeat and even it erases the defiance penalty taken after a new war declaration . (defiance is removed also by completely annihilating a foreign army regardless size like crushing a rebellion for example). SO as long as we keep a fleet in counter attack position and battle ready we have beneath us a safety pillow

    B ) Use of Barrcaks
    Barracks are extremely valuable. They act as outposts or guard stations keeping the peace and this effect goes to the whole province (with the cost of some unit caps ) .Their main faction is removing the political disturbance penalties..Most factions start the game with rather few regions under control. There is somehow easier to keep PO since you can also use a land army in “force poltical peace” stance. As Athens though you are in a harder spot since you are too spread out..So you need those outposts. Those outpost remove a big part of this political disturbance factor and reduce PO problems considerably . In areas of high percentage of different political views and if those areas are hard to reach from your forces it is strongly advised to build barracks and sometimes maybe more than one. When you stabilize the region or are strong enough you can remove them and build something else. Athens anyway can afford economically few more barracks here or there..

    C ) "Enforce Peace" stance (previous forced march) it completely removes ALL Political Disturbance penalties in a province.

    D ) "Ostracism of Opposition" edict that also removes ALL Political Disturbance penalties in a province.

    2 ) It is very helpful to have next to you those PDF Downloadable-Printable documents of PO , Public Disturbance and Diplomacy related effects so you can quickly seek reference in case you forget something or is not shown in Ui :

    Effects List (HERE)
    Effects Interactions (HERE)

    3 ) Diplomacy.

    In Hellenika, with time, inevitably diplomacy deteriorates. As you grow stronger and conquer lands others will look upon you in envy. So it is wise to build your diplomatic relations and sign treaties early on. Also here, the treaties are not written in stone. Alliances are easily broken and very hard to fix. Use gifts often and throw money in the table for your treaties. Even in good relations sometimes for signing an agreement extra money should be given. Now some words of advice. Although we kept the same level of difficulty as in vanilla to sign a trade agreement or a non aggression pact Ai seems very reluctant to sign those treaties with the player sometimes. This is happening because a ) it may seek money from you b ) you are not strong enough to be considered a “threat” that can impose your agenda on them or usually c ) they plan to attack soon...

    4 ) Difficulty settings

    Your gaming experience in Hellenika differs considerably according to difficulty level . Not only with the known way (tougher economy , Ai boosts etc) but also with another unique way. Some scripted battles (historic battles like Mantineia, Dillion etc) will only happen depending your difficulty level or even if they happen then the facing armies will be different according to your level of choice. So for example Spartan invasion of Attica is completely different in very hard (2 full elite stacks of Spartan army in your backyard if you are playing as Athens) or in normal (1 full army stack and of medium quality in Attica) . Also some expeditions like the Eurilochos attack on the Western Greece may not happen at all in Normal level. This will not only help you tailor the game difficulty to your size but we also hope to increase the replayability of the mod since in different levels the player faces different challenges.

    5 ) Custom Battles

    Original Hellenika mod has very limited units available for custom battles. That is because some of the battle mechanics dont work in custom battle setting. In custom battles the units move much slower and the order system is not as in campaign. However with release a pack will also be uploaded that will unlock many units (not all available ) for custom battles and will fix a bit the slow speed.Use it only for custom battles and deactivate it for a campaign game. Make sure it Loads Before Hellenika
    Last edited by Phalangitis; March 29, 2016 at 02:18 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Please read this before you play

    Added notes for Diplomacy and difficulty settings to OP

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