Game enhancement/suggestion.

[Otterbear]

Hello again, Seether.

I thought that I saw a sticky for "Mod suggestions", but I must have been mistaken.
It may help you to have one, as it makes it easier for yourself and others to find them, and lessen the "chat-load" in other threads. (You may or may-not find that necessary.)

My suggestion:
The Third Age Total War mod,(as well as the many sub-mods - "Divide and Conquer" being one of the best IMHO, and still in active development), use, or rather DO NOT use, merchants, but rather an increase in money based on the amount and/or type of resources in each particular region. This is accomplished by either the use of mines in particular settlements/regions and/or scripting for the settlements within those regions. This eliminates the constant(at least in my case), struggle of getting/developing decent merchants, finding decent goods locations, and starting all over again, when your top-tiered merchants get bumped-off by a roll of the dice. *admittedly, from what I can tell, they don't add much in the way of income anyway, unless of course you have conquered half the map. *However; I could be completely wrong about the income they generate as I tend to play mods that have removed them.

This also adds reason to obtaining regions with better resources, and again, avoids the micro-management of merchants.

As a side-note; the developer of the Third Age Total War, sub-mod, Divide and Conquer(Arachir Galudirithon), has somehow managed to all but eliminate crashes. While they still occur, they are rare(at least in my case). Most mods are rife with them. How he/they managed it I have no idea. He has a great YouTube site, with some very informative videos. If you are not already aware.

If you haven't already - you seem pretty familiar with modding this particular game, might I suggest you take a look at what and how, the mods TATW and subsequent sub-modders, eliminated the Merchant aspect of the game. *They also eliminated "priest" as well, and rely solely on infrastructure to increase culture/religion. This does cut down on more micro-management, because if you decide NOT to use assassins, your rivals are spamming your regions with priest ect...just annoying IMO, It might cut down, or possibly add to, the length of the scripting to undertake such actions, but it would be nice. (I can eliminate the merchants from my personal game but, I'm unsure how much they actually add to the overall monetary gain each turn. I find it difficult to imagine the loss of 4-5 merchants making 100 wowoos each, to have that much of an impact. As I say, I'm not sure how it all ties together, so I'm hesitant to mess with it atm.

In any case, its not a game breaker...just a bit of an annoyance. I could forgo the use of merchants, but then I'm constantly worried that my math is wrong.

Thanks again for the Reps, and this great mod...Wish I would have found it a long time ago...OK, enough reading...get back to work.

[Gigantus]

In RotK merchants become more important the more regions you conquer because the trade income diminishes gradually until you are left with only tax income and merchant income. Which means it pays to develop your settlements to train hight level merchants and protect them with them spies and assassins.
It adds a challenge to the game, but it's possible to do without merchants.

The reason why DaC runs well is also the reason why they can't post their installation instructions here on TWC. Do watch that off site video and you will know why.

I am not sure what the reason was for removing merchants and priests, in my eyes it reduces the RPG element of the game, especially since you can easily switch religion with 'culture' as was done in TATW. It requires some attention to detail to implement them properly, so if you wish to focus the player's attention on the lore then it's definitely easier to omit the agents then to 'work them in'.

Here is a tutorial of mine that is dedicated to the recruiting aspect of agent management. Basically an 'anti agent spam' arrangement - the main argument (see your comment) against agents. It's implemented in RotK.

[Fahnat]

Is it possible to increase religion or cultural tension whend a city is captured?
I think being higher would make the scholars more important to spread their teachings in the mod.

[Seether]

Yes, although I’m not sure it should go much higher than now. Most times, when taking larger settlements of different ‘religions’, I have to eliminate a portion of the population, otherwise I get unrest to the point of rebellion.

[Fahnat]

Yes, although I’m not sure it should go much higher than now. Most times, when taking larger settlements of different ‘religions’, I have to eliminate a portion of the population, otherwise I get unrest to the point of rebellion.

That's the most weird thing about it. Shouldn't be the other way around?
Whend we took a city peacefully the public order should be better. While if you sacked the population should be really angry, while if you exterminate people the fear bonus appears that would prevent people from revolt, just like how it is already. It would be great if there was a way to change that.

[Seether]

I agree, but I’m uncertain if that can be changed. If it can, it definitely needs to be.

[MilesNDavis]

I would disagree... while shows and movies will have you believe that sacking and the likes destroys public order, that is not seen until much more recent times. The Mongols would really like a word with whomever created that standard in movies...

However, an excellent point could be made into saying that what this mod deals with are almost completely identical cultures bar the far north and southern states. If this was based off more of the Romance version rather than the historical records then the argument would be more than relevant - Lui Bei is of course the most obvious reason for that. However, historically, a mass wipe of the local population who vocally supported the other faction (especially when the 3 kingdoms were in full power) would not be uncommon. After doing so, the local population would not risk having another event like that happening and would rarely if ever try to rebel or even speak against the new administration.

[Gigantus]

Nothing silences dissent like silencing the dissenters

[Seether]

I would disagree... while shows and movies will have you believe that sacking and the likes destroys public order, that is not seen until much more recent times. The Mongols would really like a word with whomever created that standard in movies...

However, an excellent point could be made into saying that what this mod deals with are almost completely identical cultures bar the far north and southern states. If this was based off more of the Romance version rather than the historical records then the argument would be more than relevant - Lui Bei is of course the most obvious reason for that. However, historically, a mass wipe of the local population who vocally supported the other faction (especially when the 3 kingdoms were in full power) would not be uncommon. After doing so, the local population would not risk having another event like that happening and would rarely if ever try to rebel or even speak against the new administration.

Good point. While some of the population would be happy/relieved at a peaceful takeover, it would allow the dissenters to remain.

[Otterbear]

In RotK merchants become more important the more regions you conquer because the trade income diminishes gradually until you are left with only tax income and merchant income. Which means it pays to develop your settlements to train hight level merchants and protect them with them spies and assassins.It adds a challenge to the game, but it's possible to do without merchants.The reason why DaC runs well is also the reason why they can't post their installation instructions here on TWC. Do watch that off site video and you will know why.I am not sure what the reason was for removing merchants and priests, in my eyes it reduces the RPG element of the game, especially since you can easily switch religion with 'culture' as was done in TATW. It requires some attention to detail to implement them properly, so if you wish to focus the player's attention on the lore then it's definitely easier to omit the agents then to 'work them in'.Here is a tutorial of mine that is dedicated to the recruiting aspect of agent management. Basically an 'anti agent spam' arrangement - the main argument (see your comment) against agents. It's implemented in RotK.

Thanks Gigantus. Sorry, for the late response.I'm going to check out the tutorial you posted. And I think, I understand their/your reason for smoother game-play. Having made that minor adjustment, I'm guessing it will help with this mod as well. While I'm on the subject; I spend a great deal of time, waiting for diplomats(dozens its seems), to quit gesticulating, bobbing and weaving, and trying to bribe my governors. It really adds to turn times, and is bordering on tedium, and takes a great deal of fun out of playing this mod. Is there any chance that diplomats could be reduced to say two per faction? Even that amount could lead to potentially long turn times if they all decide that your governor needs bribing, but I'm on turn 130, and finding it harder and harder to continue, as turn-times are just mind-numbingly slow due to them. If not, I can remove them myself, I guess.As pertains to the tutorial; I will respond in that thread. I am currently playing as the northern barbarian(?), Hun tribes, and even if you turn off assassins, they do get the ability to recruit them. I'll have to double-check. I haven't recruited any, so it may be that they are there, but cannot actually be built.

[Gigantus]

The tutorial shows in detail how the restriction works, it can be applied for every recruitable agent. It is fully implemented in RotK (five agent types) with diplomats set to 3, check this section in the script: Faction Limits for Agents
There is always the option to shorten the bribe animation or replace it with an existing one, not exactly my forte - especially since the animation set up in RotK is a bit convoluted.

[Otterbear]

The tutorial shows in detail how the restriction works, it can be applied for every recruitable agent. It is fully implemented in RotK (five agent types) with diplomats set to 3, check this section in the script: Faction Limits for AgentsThere is always the option to shorten the bribe animation or replace it with an existing one, not exactly my forte - especially since the animation set up in RotK is a bit convoluted.

Thanks again, Gigantus.I guess I'll save the devs and let them leave the mod as is, and make any personal adjustments to agents I deem necessary, myself. Not a game-breaker if it can be done as easily as I think it can.I had thought about working on the diplomat animation, but reading other post, some time ago(perhaps old), I got the impression that it wasn't something that could be done. I'll have to look into that. (graphics and animations not being my forte either. )

[Gigantus]

Modifying the animation itself is possible but requires specialized knowledge. The EBII team shortened their animation but we have not been able to implement it so far into RotK.