Settling reforms

[Wolf Priest]

I have played two different campaigns (Nabatians and Numidians) for over 200 turns , yet I got stuck in both, as someone had brilliant idea that you need under 60% nomad culture to make camp into town, and you spread nomadic culture. I got close once (by doing everything possible to stop nomadic culture (or lack thereof)from spreading, including removing governors) and had 59% for two or three turns, but that's about it. Is there a way to salvage those games, as I had decently large kingdoms, but I can't progress. Why do I need farms in three exact cities that can't have them before I reform, so I can reform (spoiler, I have one each just in southern Arabia)? I don't know, I guess someone got drunk while programming. If some knows a way I can cheat in priest or something to change culture, I will appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I LOVE this mod, but this mechanic is asinine.

[Kull]

From what I can see, there's nothing wrong with the Nabatu Reform. I started a test game, and by T21 the nomadic culture had dropped from 75% to 66%. I didn't park FMs in the settlement (thereby driving up the culture) but put them to good use elsewhere generating income through raiding. Accordingly, I've already built the 2nd level of Nomad Farms, and by the time the population allows the settlement to upgrade to Large Camp, nomadic levels should be low enough to allow the 3rd level of farms and thence the camp conversion. As for the other element of the reform, building L4 farms in Bostra and Dedan is simply a matter of growing the population large enough so they can become cities.

I have no idea how you were managing this faction earlier but at this point you might try moving the capital somewhere else and building something in the Allied Gov line in Rekem as that will cause rel_x conversion and might be enough to drop the nomad culture percentages below 60.

[Kull]

And to close this out, by T30 I upgraded to Large Camp and by T41 the Nomad Culture had dipped to 57% and I was able to build NomFarm3, thus allowing the camp-to-city conversion and setting the stage for the 1st Reform at some point in the future. The only trick (which you might have missed) was that I had to destroy the L2 Herds building in order for NomFarm3 to appear in the build queue. Again, nothing special was done to reduce Rekem's starting culture, just omitting the placement of "high influence FMs" in the city (as noted in the Player's Guide).

[Wolf Priest]

First of all, I must admit that I, even though I have several thousands of hours in TW games, am not as proficient with M2:TW. It was extremely sub-par gameplay and time period wise, and I only started playing this mod to get some of my money I put in game. And, was it worth it, this mod is a literal work of art. I did not realize that influence spreads culture until too late, but my nomadic culture was still dropping. However, it suddenly stopped dropping, and I don't know why, only thing close to explanation is that maybe the adjacent province got converted, but I doubt it, as it dropped even with FM. Maybe there is some faction-wide effect? Be that as it may, can I somehow save my current game? I got it to drop to 64% but it went to 65% in a capital, and it is stuck on 60% in Palmyra (its called differently, but its Palmyra).
P.S. When I said that mechanic is weird, I did not mean 3 farms to get settled, its weird that I need them in 3 specific provinces. Then again, I am not historian, so I could be wrong. Hope I did not insult anyone on the team.

[QuintusSertorius]

Adjacent provinces do have a (small) impact on conversion/culture changes.

The point of requiring farms in multiple places is that it represents a widespread shift in the pattern of settlement in what that faction holds, not merely conquering somewhere that happens to have developed agricultural infrastructure.

[Kull]

I was a bit tweaked by the "asinine" comment, but we've been insulted before and if you set that aside and follow the evidence, sometimes a bug does appear. Anyway, I don't play the nomads much, so it was useful to see proof that one can get big drops in culture simply by not using those high influence FMs as governors. BTW, the player's guide is very useful and will tell you things like this - to include which buildings drive culture and by how much.

As for rescuing the game, I suggested moving the capital only so that you can keep your faction leader there (which has loyalty and other benefits for your FMs) because what's really needed at this point is to actively drive down the nomad culture in Rekem so you can finally convert the camp to a city.

And for that, the best bet is the Allied Gov system. Either Allied Democracy or Allied Oligarchy will drive the culture up to 25% "Eleutheroi" (the next level of either gov-type has the same 25% effect, so don't bother with those). Putting one of those in Rekem (actually only Oligarchies can be built in Camps) should get you down below 60%. Just be sure to destroy the Herds building after that happens, and you should see the desired Farm building appear in the buildable structures list.

[joh]

I'm sorry if i misread something or you already know this fact, but you need to raze the herds in the provinces to drop the culture as far as i know. I hope this little bit of information helps, or did i get something wrong there?

[Kull]

I'm sorry if i misread something or you already know this fact, but you need to raze the herds in the provinces to drop the culture as far as i know. I hope this little bit of information helps, or did i get something wrong there?

No, the herds building has no effect on culture. However, the higher levels of the Herds building prevent construction of the L3 Nomfarms structure, and that's why it has to be razed. Basically it's simulating a situation where the province is shifting from a nomadic/pastoral lifestyle to one that's more focused on settled activities. Hence the next stage which is conversion from camp to town.