Command bonus for ai generals...Negative bonus for the Player - Actual Mod info

[Sleepysmoo]

Hey Guys,
Like many people, I often get frustrated in Medieval fighting what I like to call "The Captain armies". Basically, I rarely get attacked my armies led by generals, and when I do, those generals rarely have any freakin command stars. (This was in old 1.9).
I now know that in 2.0, there's been a system implemented to allow the computer's ai generals "a command bonus" based on a percentile system per turn. (As I understand it, every turn an ai general is given a chance to aquire a star, so that they actually lead well, and the player has a challenge).

However, though this is a good system, it's so unfortunate that CA has it hardcoded that you can't give the captains a leadership bonus. God, but what a difference that would make!

Well, I came across this in Lands to Conquor's forum. I think it's a neat idea.
Basically this guy named Klink came up with a negative command bonus for your generals. So instead of adding to computer bonus, it takes away yours.
In effect, this means that the captains of the world will have a better time fighting you. (You'll have less stars to fight those captain armies, though I'm not sure if it's possible to have negative command effects? I.E., the captains always have a leadership of 0, so does this trait make your general, if he already has 0, have a negative 1 instead? Or is it 0?
If you can have negative, then this would help you fight captains alot, since it would be possible for a general to finally be a worse leader than a captain.
If not, then at least when you fight, you'll have stars taken off yours. More balance.

I'll write the code here. This work is NOT mine. It's done by a guy named Klick. He gets full credit.

I did a negative command bonus people are free to cut and paste into their own export_descr_character_traits.txt:

;------------------------------------------
Trait NegativeCommand
Characters family
Hidden

Level Promising_Commander
Description Promising_Commander_desc
EffectsDescription Promising_Commander_effects_desc
Threshold 1

Effect Command -5

;------------------------------------------
Trigger PlayerNegative1
WhenToTest CharacterTurnStart

Condition IsGeneral
and CharacterIsLocal

Affects NegativeCommand 1 Chance 100

:-------------

If you get really brave, you could also add in something like this.

;------------------------------------------
Trait CommandBonusAI1
Characters family
Hidden
NoGoingBackLevel 1

Level Command_Bonus_AI1
Description Command_Bonus_AI1_desc
EffectsDescription Command_Bonus_AI1_effects_desc
Threshold 1

Effect Command 2
Effect Defence 2
Effect Attack 2

;------------------------------------------
Trigger The_AI_Sucks
WhenToTest CharacterTurnStart

Condition not FactionIsLocal
and CommandBonusAI1 < 1

Affects CommandBonusAI1 1 Chance 100

You can change the values of the traits to whatever you want. So you could give ai generals plus one star, (just command 1), and then add the negative trait system in, so that when you fight captains, you'll have one less star. If you fight generals though, you'll be down two stars. (If you just used 1 command bonus for the above trait. If you use more, then it will be more, as the negative one will also remove a star from you, while the ai gets plus..whatever).

As I said, none of this is my work. I know DLV has a star system in it, but maybe someone will find this useful. (I'm using it in my Rome Campaign, while I wait for the 1.2 patch).
Cheers!

[Re Berengario I]

It's like drying the sea to fish muscles.

I think a better and more logical method is to make a lot harder the process to acquire stars for the generals.

Plus there are other logical, and already successfully tested, methods to make AI factions more competitive. I can't explain them here because the matter is actually discussed between us AD-DLV and BBB mod developers and I don't wanna talk for other "collegues" and influence their choices.

[Sleepysmoo]

Oh well. It was just an idea.

[Byg]

Oh well. It was just an idea.

It's a good idea, I have long been advocating 0 stars for human generals and anything similar is welcome, to me at least.
I use a trait system for my own use that knocks excess stars off and I add it to any mod I use. It is very complex, but to put it simply, anything over 3 -lose 3, anything over 6 - lose 6. There's also ways to get ta few back. So here you can get higher stars for a while, but not for long. It averages out that most generals are at 1 - 3 stars. Whatever method you use, losses with generals at this level vs average ai generals with 6 stars are about 1/3 if the ai isn't being too stupid.

I like the command levels to jump around a bit and suprise me, but ultimately you could use something like:

general has 1 star -reduce by 1
general has 2 stars -reduce by 2 etc

in your triggers and then you will always have 0 stars

For best of both worlds, so that general star traits are worth chasing, make the above only kick in a couple of turns after gaining any stars. So you better make the most of them while they last.