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(I) DYNAMIC INTEGRATION OF PROVINCES system
- this is the most complicated system in the SSHIP. You may compare it: in the SSHIP 097 the script.txt was .... long, while the new system alone is 80k lines long (with other modifications, the script counts now 150k lines).
- the structure of the code consists of
(1) a monitor that fires after a capture of each settlement (code-wise it means: each settlement has its own monitor with own counters, own conditions etc. - there are 199 monitors but only a few will fire each turn - depending on how many settlements were captured). This monitor a.) changes the name of the settlement after a capture (some 40% of provinces have coded such changes), b.) can spawn an army belonging to a faction traditionally owning the provice, or a rebel army (this is for H/VH difficulties), c.) increases Player Aggressivity Level (only VH difficulty).
(2) a monitor that fires for each settlement every turn (i.e. during the turn of the faction that owns it - 199 monitors that fire always, but only once a turn, and a big(ger) part of script for each monitor is not firing at all). It calculates turmoil points specific for that settlement, based on it's particular situation (how long ago it was conquered, what are certain historical events related) and the situation of the whole faction (aggressivity level, whether the FL has a crown, or whether he's got not-low authority; if the FL has just died, there'll be a one-time hit to stability that may prompt a riot or worse). It then tranlates those points it into a turmoil that appears in-game for the players. There're also penalties for the AI in the provinces that are outside historical influence of a faction. Furthermore, the un-integrated provinces will switch to the religion of the owner slower.
(3) ancillary coding in other places of the script.
- The Player Aggressivity Level mechanism is part of the system: each conquest of a province increases the level of how much both other factions (through diplomatic standing), and own citizens (through turmoil in all settlements) are anxious about your expansion. It increases exponentially: if the player doesn't wait enough between conquering settlements, the additional points of aggression accrue at a faster rate than before. The player must wait or do other things (building up the settlements, mopping up rebellions, maybe going on a crusade; this is also a perfect time to survive a change on the throne) for the tensions to subside. The punishment in the turmoil in the settlements should be really heavy at the highest levels of aggressivity. The information to the player is provided below in the bit of the script (the rest you can see in the other bits there is code for gathering the points, and for translating those points into unrest in settlement-specific).
- efficiency of coding: the number of monitors increased but not by 400 (2x199), but for perhaps by 250, as those 40% of provinces already had one or two monitors.
(II) BUILDINGS - overview of the changes:
* (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) all the buildings provide upkeep or incur costs:
-- the buildings either require upkeep or provide lump-sum income. The upkeep replaces the negative effects that were often attached to the buildings for the gameplay purposes: to deter the player from building everything everywhere. Now the player has to decide wheter investment is worth it as it costs not only the upfront price to build but also a continous costs for upkeep. In many situations, the benefits may not justify such costs. For instance, while schools will probably be worth their low upkeep in all settlements given that they provide +law, the universities will only be useful if used regulary for education of the generals. However, as the game progresses, the new historical events buff up the benefits of certain buildings (eg. the universities) and at some point they may became worth investment.
-- overall, the income for a settlement should stay roughly the same. This balance is achieved because the upkeep of certain buildings will be taken away from the additional income provided by other buildings. It might have not been achieved yet as not all the buildings have been adjusted.
* a few historical events that were added (Hanseatic Cog, Hansa Wars, Ascendency of Lubeck, Eldeguzids) or re-coded (those added in 097: Hanseatic League Expands, Confederation of Cologne) are utilised for coding the buildings or scripting other historic events, in particular the evolutions of the factions.
* missile building (providing archers and crosbowmen) moved 1 level up (starts in wooden castle, not motte-and-bailey; last level in a citadel)
* (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) a number of buildings have their names changed, icons and cards' pics replaced, benefits rebalanced, conditions or availability changed (see below).
* hidden resources changes:
- added: unique1, unique2, desert (explanations of their use is in the descr_region.txt file)
- removed: palermo, ireland, wonder5. The initially introduced "chude" and "scandinavia" turned out to be redundant and were not implemented.
* military buildings
-- kept in the mod as there're both castles and cities (what is different from OST system like in SS-HURB)
-- provide law bonus (very gradually: +1 every level)
-- military buildings in the castle provide positive growth, but in the cities they provide negative growth.
* in many buildings' capabilities there're a few options depending on the FL policy (eg. if the FL is "thinks_of_his_people" then Charity provide +1 Happiness)
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(IIa) REGULAR BUILDINGS CHANGES
-- Walls / Castle (core building):
(1) no longer provide the knights' units - this function has been moved to the Landowners line.
(2) Mongols: more public order in the conquered cities at the beginning of the campaign. It fades away so that in 14c. it'll get increasingly difficult for the Mongols to keep grip over non-steppe lands. Also other adjustments made.
(3) Given that (I) a certain level of farms (farms3) is required to build a stone wall, and that (II) this level is possible to be build only in non-desert provinces (technically: no HR desert), it is thus not possible to built the stone wall in such provinces. This means these settlements cannot grow beyond large town level. The same applies to the deep steppes (provinces with HR cumans), while normal steppe provinces can be upgraded if there's no nomad building (you have to demolished it to upgrade).
-- Roads:
(1) there are new names, new pics, and the benefits were rebalanced.
(2) the lowest level is now buildable already at the village level, while the upper have been moved to the more advanced cities.
(3) quite complicated conditions have be
-- Builders:
(1) this line is made out of two previously existing buildings: Carpenters, Stonemasons: they were merged.
(2) new names were added, benefits rebalanced (they are also more intricate benefits (eg. amount of money they provide depend on resources timber and stone in the province), new pics, next texts.
(3) two upper levels enables "quarring" of stone.
-- Farms
(1) two more levels were added, the logic is now different: first two levels are for non-urbanized provinces, then there's a land clearence, then communcal farms, and then various stages of Estates start. It is translated into their availability (eg. in the steppe or desert or far-north provinces) and benefits.
(2) The conditions for the fertility benefit have more intricated conditions: the bread-basket provinces of Egypt, Mezopotamia and also Andalusia and Sicily get higher numbers (in adition to the 097 dependence on the presence of a hidden resource river).
(3) Building times have been made much longer.
(4) There are new pics for most of the levels - sometimes taken from Rome TW, sometimes modified Med2 versions.
-- Churches
(1) had their benefits reviewed (provide law, not happiness) and simplified
(2) new icons and card pictures for the East European catholic churches, Greek orthodox churches, first levels of the Northern European churches. Icons and pics for the Orthodox chapels fixed.
-- Horse Racing:
(1) one new level added: Imperial Hippodrom / Sultans' Tracks (the lower level is now Emir) - this highest level possible to build only in Cairo, Constantinople, Baghdad, Cordoba, Palermo.
(2) the chain is now available also for the Byzantines and Georgia
(3) obviously benefits were rebalanced, new pics, next texts.
-- Schools & Libraries:
(1) lvl1 already buildable at large_town level (this will enable a few factions that don't have initial access to cities to prompt a schooling process in their generals).
(2) both building chains have new pics for Middle Eastern and Greek cultures.
(3) provide no positive impact on happiness, but on law.
-- Printing Paper
(1) whole line made available to all factions (but the highest level for the Muslim)
(2) additional level added (Parchment Manufacturer), available from the beginning of the game
(3) second level called Paper Mill, and only the third is Printing Press.
-- Mills:
(1) Water Mills have 3 and Wind Mills 5 different pics (depending on culture)) - actually a lot of work was put in this issue, sometimes there're different versions for buildable and already built situations.
(2) benefits and availability rebalanced.
-- Mines:
(1) 3 levels (with pics and descriptions) were added. They mine only metals, gold and silver, not salt or stone.
(2) benefits rebalanced, in particular they provide population growth, while giving health malus: netto positive, but likehood of a plague rises. (previously they'd negatively impact population growth, what was not really historical).
(3) mines are indestructible now (coded hinterland_mines)
-- Water Supply
(1) 5 levels (with pics and descriptions) were added.
(2) Aqueduct of Valens is now the highest level.
(3) It is possible to build this building in the castles.
(4) starting situation updated: most of the settlements start with a well/cistern.
-- Charity
(1) the whole chain made available to all factions: its role is to increase population and lower unrest.
(2) it replaced three building lines: orphan, monastery_castle, friar.
(3) new pics were prepared - different for each religion but pagan (so 3 sets: Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim).
-- River Ports: two new levels were added, benefits rebalanced, new pic added (from other mods), next texts.
-- Bakehouses have different names (Bakeries, Communal Bakeries) and their benefits were changed.
-- Taverns benefits rebalanced (more happiness, no negative health, but more unrest, fewer spies and assassins).
-- Ikoner line have much more complicated conditions for benefits for Georgia, Serbia and Byzantium.
-- Ports: fixed highest level (previously provided trade benefits only to NE factions), trade benefits lowered by 1 for each level. The names were slightly changed.
-- Warehouses: given that the number of sea export lines bonus doesn't work (it's hardcoded to ports), more trade boni added.
-- Brothel/Shisha Bar line provides less happiness, no additional population growth (but they do it through happiness), and provide income.
-- Money (former Merchant Bank)
(1) additional, first level added: Mint. Available for all factions in capitals, if the FL has crown. Some factions start with a mint.
(2) two other levels re-coded and descriptions rewritten; new pics added.
(3) several historical events were added - they will guide the evolution of availabilty and benefits.
* some buiding lines were removed:
-- Carpenters / Stonemasons - replaced by Builders.
-- Public Baths - this chain was entirely removed while their their benefits added to River Ports and Bakeries.
-- "imperial mercenary barracks" and "mercenary_barracs" were entirely removed, with the relevant recruitment moved to the ordinary builidngs, while landowners guard/council is available also to the Byzantines.
-- castle_bakery building line removed - now both castles and cities have access to the same bakery line
-- Hanseatic guild - replaced with regional building Hansa (see below).
-- orphan, monastery_castle, friar - replaced by Charity chain.
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(IIb) POLICY BUILDINGS:
* the concept was implemented partially before (Professional, Gallows and Tribute lines) but now it's getting its weight: these are buildings that largely define the place of the provinces (Landowners and Autonomy are exclusive, while Food Supply and Gallows are temporary).
* Landowners:
-- Professional building tree (Local Guard / Provincial Council) renamed Landowners and expanded to 4 levels (with new pics, new texts).
-- they take away a bit of income because the nobility is taking over it (there's no negative impact on trade because historically, the nobility were the main enginge for this trade to start).
-- they provide law benefits, and also buff for the agriculture.
-- The condition to build them are only farms, no technology buildings or barracks. On the other hand, they may be a requirement to build a few other buildings.
-- building chain is now available also to the Greeks.
-- nice pics made for: NE, SE, EE, ME.
-- recruitment reviewed and improved for England, Poland, Georgia.
* Local Autonomy buildings
-- 2 levels have been added: they exchange happiness (and, as a result, population growth) for law, trade, income.
-- pics and coding introduced.
* Tribute (former Food Supply) - more benefits for the receiving city, and more mali for those contributing.
* Gallows are available in both cities and castles.
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(IIc) REGIONAL BUILDINGS:
* this is a sort of buildings that buildability is limited not by faction, but by geography (hidden resources) and/or time (historical events). They usually have a few levels available for every faction, and certain levels available to only few or in certain locations - based on history.
* (new) Norman Stronghold:
-- it has six stages, three of which are the unique buildings (Palazzo in Palermo, Castel del Monte in Bari, Machio Angioino in Naples). New pics and icons, coding of effects, descriptions, placement of the initial buildings, scripting for fires.
-- in Palermo Palazzo dei Normani replaced the unhistorical Cathedral of Palermo.
* (new) Rus Monasteries
-- available in the Rus provinces (hidden resource russia and kievan_rus) for all Orthodox factions but also a factional building for the Rus factions (ie buildable everywhere)
-- it has 4 base stages plus 3 unique buildings (in Kiev, Novgorod, Pskov).
-- new pics and icons, coding of effects, descriptions, placement of the initial buildings.
* (new) Alcazar
-- available in the Al-Andalus for the Moors and the 3 Iberian Catholic factions (for the Moors it's a factional building (ie buildable in more areas).
-- it has 2 base levels plus 7 unique buildings (in Lisbon, Toledo, Granada (2 levels), Zaragoza, Fes, Tunis).
-- new pics and icons, coding of effects, descriptions, placement of the initial buildings.
* Hanseatic system completely re-done:
-- a new chain of (regular) building added, called Hansa Teutonica. It comprises of 9 buildings in 2 legs (one for the Hanseatic cities and one for the trading partners of those cities). All coding and pictures are new, fires of the unique levels scripted.
-- the very Hanseatic guild has been removed
* Chude Settlements: it will be available from the start in 16 northern provinces, but then will be slowly disbanded after the build-up of those northern provinces. It will be possible to rebuild them in 12 provinces, but it would be very lengthy (even if cheap) process.
* Bullring restricted to the Iberian Penninsula.
* Slavemarket building available all over the map for the Muslim factions.
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(IId) WONDERS (or unique buildings):
* only 1 such building may exist in the game, and only in one province (but there may be exceptions in the future, but not yet).
* most of such buildings are stand-alone in the EDB, but some are part of the regular building chains (eg. Aqueduct of Valens is a building in the water_supply chain).
* scripting for perhaps all wonders have been improved (conditions, benefits).
* for many wonders special scripts "Fire" are introduced. The player can experience that his "wonders" would be damaged / destroyed by the fire - and rebuilding would be needed. The likelyhood very low, and there're cool-off periods - so that a fire would be rather rare an event in the realm. Say, it may occur once in 100 years per "wonder".
* new wonders introduced:
-- Kaiserdom zu Speyer (4 levels, lvl3 is already built at the beginning of the game, but the building may burn down or be destroyed during conquests, so the player may see the other levels in game)
-- Stephansdom in Wien (3 levels, can be built after the Notre Dame event)
-- Marienkirche in Krakow (4 stages of building, possible to be built after event Ostsiedlung and further Poland evolution events).
-- St. Adalbertus in Poznan (4 levels, lvl2 is already built at the beginning of the game, but the building may burn down or be destroyed during conquests, so the player may see the other levels in game)
-- Stephansdom in Wien (3 levels, can be built after the Notre Dame event)
-- Mont Saint Michel in Rouen (4 stages of building, upper levels possible to be built after event Notre Dame).
-- Castle Rock in Edingburgh (4 stages, upper levels possible to be built after Davidian Revolution event).
-- Zoloti Vorota in Kiev (4 stages).
-- Uppsala Domkyrka in Sigtuna (4 stages + script for it to be buildable)
-- Campo dei Miracoli for Pisa (9 stages, starts with 3rd, but a fire is possible)
* a few wonders have undergone an overhaul:
-- Notre Dame - it has now 7 levels, instead of 1; there's a 2-levle script to start "Gothic Architecture".
-- Holy Sepulchre - it has now three levels to enable it to burn / be destroyed (the fire script added).
-- Umayyad Mosque - it has now three levels to enable it burn / be destroyed (the fire script added).
-- Kaaba - got the second level (Kaaba Masjid), for both levels new pics, adjustment in benefits.
-- Cathedral of Palermo replaced by the Palazzo dei Normanii (highest level of the Norman Stronghold building line).
-- La Mezquita - it has now three levels to enable it be destroyed or build upon the previous level.
-- Santiago de Compostela - it has now three levels and starts with the 1st - so there's plenty to be built.
* a few wonders were re-touched:
-- Bait al-Hikma is now the highest level of the university_education chain, not a separate building (still to be built only in Baghdad, ofc), it's pic has been retouched, and benefits adjusted. Not possible to build another university in Baghdad.
-- Al Azhar is similarly the highest level of the university_education chain, not a separate building (still to be built only in Constantinople, ofc), it's pic has been replaced with a better one, and the benefits replaced with similar to Bait al-Hikma. Not possible to build another university in Cairo.
-- Aqueduct of Valens is now the highest level of the water_supply chain, not a separate building (still to be built only in Constantinople, ofc), it's pic has been retouched, and benefits adjusted. Not possible to build another aqueduct in Constantinople.
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(IIe) GUILDS:
* a general note: it has been recently discovered that most of the triggers for the guilds are faulty coded in the Med2 engine. What follows - a general overhaul in the SSHIP would be needed. However, this will be one of the last things to do. For now, everything is kept in the previous, SS framework. Only some basic improvements were made.
- thresholds for acquiring the guilds have been significantly increased.
- some triggers added / modified, but it seems the guilds are still quite easy to get.
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) Hanseatic guild replaced by a regional building Hansa Teutonica.
- pics for the Masons and the Assasins replaced with some pics from the Rome TW.
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(III) UNITS & recruitment:
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) recruitment of any unit category of any faciton has been overhauled. This is one of the most imporant and most laborious changes.
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) extensive improvements of the mercenaries recruitment (availabilty, more areas analysed etc., esp. in HRE and the Balkans; more logical recruitment of the religious units; some fixes (eg. Armenia province do not appear twice in the file).
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) recruitment of ships reviewed and adjusted (the main change: availability of ships significantly reduced for the player).
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) recruitment of knights (or, more generally, the units made out of landowning elites):
-- only from the Landowners building line (not from the core castle/city building, as it used to be).
-- available in both cities and castles (no change here).
-- lower availability of units (re-fill of the recruitment pools is slower).
-- the maximum number of recruitable units is higher (you may keep large un-recruited reserve).
-- the AI pools regenerate slightly faster than the player's (additional coding made for the AI).
-- the bottom line for strategy: (1) build Landowners buildings to get heavy troops, (2) be economical with knights in battles (loses count: if you lose men then you'd wait long for the refill of the pools), perhaps do not disband them. (3) don't recruit everything once is available, keep it just in case of a dire need (you've got the guys handy but you don't pay upkeep). (4) before finishing a next level of the Landowners, recruit all the available knights, (5) if you lack knights, building a Landowner building is a good way to get new unit (every built building comes with 1+ units ready to be recruited instantly).
- recruitment of ships by the Hanseatic buildings updated.
- adjustments in the recruitment limits (eg. number of units to be recruited at one time) for: Castle core building, Barracks, Castle Barracs, Stables, Bowyer, Landowners. In general, they are higher and the way for the player will be to keep them high to be able to recruit units swiftly in case of an attack.
- trebuchets and mangonels can be recruited only by the player (which means you won't find yourself fighting against them in field battles), they will also be slower on the strategic map (slowing your entire army, obviously). This should prevent unhistorical battles with trebuchets shelling you like the 20th century artillery.
- recruitment of the Georgian units extensively analysed and overhauled (the roster still lacks at least two important units, so further changes are needed).
- recruitment of the Hungarian units from castle barracks analysed and overhauled.
- no more Military Orders' units recruitment as normal mercenaries.
- Magyar Cavalry recruitable also from the Grassland (ie nomadic) building.
- Kataphractoi are recruited now from the highest level of Mercenary Barracks (but not Imperial Barracks - this building has been removed).
- recruitment of Chude Militia will be from the dedicated building (ie it's recruitment removed from the barracks).
- name changes: Flagellants -> Armed Pilgrims, Religious Fanatics -> Pilgrim Militia.
- a few unit icons changed.
- unit Crossbow Militia has been removed (from now one, there's just one unit Urban Crossbow Militia, in-game called Levy Crossbowmen)
- unit Naffatun available also for the abbasid and turks (still from the alchemist building)
- units that were made Area of Recruitment (ie recruitable from in a certain geographical area by any faction that controls that area - both from certain buildings, and also as mercenaries):
--- Baltics: Lithuanian archers (Forest archers), Lithuanian skirmishers (Morass Scouts), Chude militia (Chudy)
--- Scandinavia: Bondir
--- Britain: Scots skirmisher (Galwegian Javelinmen), Irish kerns
--- Middle East: Kurdish Javelinmen, aor trasc javelin (Caucasus hillmen),
--- Africa: African tribal warriors (Sudan Warriors), Berber javelinmen
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(IV) MAP
* (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) two capitals of the provinces moved within their provinces to make it more historical but, more importantly, to make that area actually a space to play for the player and to make the AI behavior more rational (any big hole in the map that perplexes the AI):
-- capital of Sachsen moved much south-east and renamed (Hamburg -> Magdeburg: it is still for some centuries a dominant archbishopric in the east of HRE, and the northern HRE coast was overcrowded with cites: Bremen - Hamburg - Lubeck).
-- capital of Wallachia moved to the east and renamed (Severin -> Targoviste: it will be a capital in 14c, and in the game it serves as a gateway between the steppes and the Balkans).
* a few minor adjustments of placement of settlements (Brandenburg, Szekesfehervar, Gyulafehervar, Varad, Ascalon, Halab, Arta, Korinthos, Chandax).
* slight adjustments to placement of some ports:
-- Crete: to Chania space, Morea: to Modon space, Epirus: to Naupaktos space.
-- Westfalen: port of Bremen moved to the Wesermundung, Sachsen: port of Magdeburg (ex-Hamburg) moved south and a nice road is created by way).
-- Brest (so that of Rennes), Syracuse (Palermo), Limerick (Dublin), Slupsk (Gdansk), Kopenhagen (Roskilde), Sis (Adana), Tripoli (Gibelet), Baku (a bit south), Kutaisi (a bit north) - all to make the map more lively by creating additional roads.
* renamed a few provinces (eg. Tmutarakan -> Circassia, Heskif -> Diyar Bakr, Mosul -> Diyar Rabi'a, Edessa -> Diyar Mudar, Morea -> Hellas) and settlements (Aktobe -> Kiçi-Saray, Casteddu -> Calari, Oslo -> Ánslo).
* (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) changes in the borders of the provinces:
-- four provinces (Sidjilmasa, Tayma, Carinthia, Sarkel) made landlocked (their coastal areas were given to the neighbouring provinces) because of the historicity issues (these regions were historically not related to the sea) but also taking into account the number of land connections important for the trade income.
-- moved borders of Morea to include Attica and Boetia (and renamed "Hellas"); borders of Epirus and Albania moved east (to encompass also the mountains).
-- ownership of the island of Fyn switched from province Jutland (Ribe) to Sjealand (Roskilde)
-- borders of Ostfranken (ie Nurnberg) extended to the borders of Sachsen (ie means also cutting of Nordfranken from Brandenburg), the city of Nurnberg moved one space north to make the road network look nice.
-- borders of Schwaben (ie Ulm) extended to Ostfranken (Nordfranken trade cut from Bayern - but fear not, it's still very rich), a new ford created on the border with Bayern, and it all produced created two roads on either side of the Danube.
-- many small changes to the borders of the Krakow province plus a few bridged introduced on the Polish rivers (1 on Odra, 2 on Warta, 1 on Notec) so that the road grid is interesting (in particular: separate track directly to Poznan, separate track to Plock).
- Saqsin has now border with Derbent (as a result: no direct access to this sea for the great steppe province with Sarkel, they have economically little to do with the sea and coding will be easier).
- Urgench is cut from the Caspian as it was historically by the Kara Kum desert (again: easier for the coding purposes).
- Sharukan province is connected to the Bulgar province (so Aqtobe is cut from Ryazan) - more rational economic development those provinces.
- borders between Halab, Damascus, Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa provinces slightly modified.
- Baghdad province borders now Damascus province (so Al Ahsa is cut from Ar-Raqqa - the problem with Al Ahsa has always been it had too many trade connections and was getting hefty income).
* switches castle <> city (the end-goal is to make each region having access to a reasonable number of castles, 35-40% per region): Erzurum, Ani, Silves, Polotsk, Dyrrachion, Tarabulus, Rennes, Volodymyr turned into castles, while Prague, Corinthos into cities.
* after years of discussions on historicity in the TWC forum, two provinces were turn independent (Pamplona, Sinope) - Aragon and Byzantium will have to conquer them.
* fertility of the provinces reviewed again, lowered by 1 in all provinces and then lowered in a few.
* many adjustments in the placement of resources (esp. Seljuks, HRE, Byzantium, Anatolia).
* new hidden resource "slavic" placed in 36 provinces - then used in EDB for recruitment of the relevant units.
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(V) STARTING SITUATION
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) numerous adjustments to starting buildings, population etc. of all settlements (it was required by the changes in the buildings benefits and availabilty, by lowering of the fertility levels by 1 in all provinces, by lowering thresholds of upgrade of various levels of settlements).
- in particular, the lowered thresholds for the settlements' upgrades required a thorough review of populations and scaling it down.
- initial family trees have been fixed and updated (by Macaras).
- some regions (West Slavic, south Italy, the Balkans) have their religion %% reviewed (West Slavic: it was too high for Christianity while historically the religion came to the masses only in 13c., afater Lateranum IV; Italy: similarsly, it was still predominantly Orthodox, then Muslim, and only then Catholic; Anatolia: domination of Orthodox, less Islam).
- most of the initial neutral/rebel armies limited in number to 7-8 (so that the AI factions do not face too big problems to expand - large armies give the player an upper hand as he can rightly assess and gather the attacking forces).
- a few new, strong (but not too strong) armies in the neutral territories in Britain, France, and especially Northern-Eastern Europe.
- composition of the (most) neutral/rebel armies (initial and those spawned by script as support for the AI) reviewed and updated according to the changes in the units.
- each Faction Leader has a "policy" from the beginning of the game (in many cases this provides an initial significant boon for a faction in terms of money or public order).
- additional initial characters for a few factions (Serbia, Scotland) (by Macaras).
- many aging starting generals added for the factions that have so few that Man-of-the-Hour event would kick in the first turns of the game (the reason is to prevent large gaps in generations: they should die out in a short time, then the children should Come of Age and new children are born).
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(VI) SCRIPTS
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) unrest mechanism re-coded as described above.
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) optional new AI : Skynet (by z3n) updated by JLMP. This makes the behavious of the AI quite different than it was before (Germanicus' RBAI 5.7 updated by MWY and possibly other modders).
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) anti-snowball mechanism extended ...
- a number of settlements will change their names upon conquests (scripts added mainly for the Greeks, based on Georgios proposals).
- changes of the names of settlements re-coded to consume less processing power (i.e. one monitor for one settlement) and to provide information about changes only if such a change actually occured (if-clauses).
- "City Reveal" script fixed while the number of initial information is extended only a bit (it may be extended in the future - they player starts a game knowing about some cities important to his faction) - the mechanism was slightly bugged until now, would revel wrong tiles.
- scripts for Great Fires (described above).
- historical events either introduced or re-utilised for the gameplay purposes with the relevant scripts:
--- Latin universities
--- mint / bank buildings
- a few factions have some initial reforms/descriptions of reforms (this is ongoing, long-term modification with the view of introduction of reforms for all factions)
--- Ostsiedlung mechanics (for HRE, Poland, Hungary).
--- Georgia Evolution: 8 events scripted, pics, info windows introduced - given the changes in the recruitment, this system should work and the faction should be really unique.
--- 4 new events for Scotland to guide the evolution of military.
--- placeholders for Serbia Evolution and some scripting for Poland (but overall, these are only placeholders).
- invasion / uprising scripts for (1) Rum, (2) Fatimids, and (3) the Moors to support them if in trouble (similar to Scotland's William Wallace), also (4) Eldegusid invasions on Georgia and (5) QaraKitai mechanism for the Turks.
- some factional scripted mechanisms (Baqt for Egypt, Sankt Erik for Denmark, Latin Universities, Al-Idrisi)
- new historical events playing role in the scripts or in the buildings' conditions: Roles d'Oleron, Hanseatic Cog, Hamburg Rights, and a few more.
- added a few windows with information for the player about the gameplay.
- al Idrisi event made dependent on building Palazzo dei Normanni.
- script destroying buildings that prevent building other buildings is implemented for the AI factions.
- a crude anti-hoarding script added (if Treasury is above certain level, part of the money is taken away).
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(VII) AGENTS
- number of priests, merchants & diplomats eventually fixed (thanks to Gigantus advice and trial-and-error experience).
- the number of recruitable diplomats increases due to possession of the unique buildings in the initial capitals (not City Halls, as it was before).
- more merchants in the coasts of North and Baltic seas will be available due to the new Hansa Teutonica building (especially in later part of the game).
- number of the spies and assassins limited, in line with the limitations for the other agents.
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(VIII) TRATS & ANCILLARIES
- new trait for the admirals linking the fleets' range with the technological advancements (and also making some factions not so good at the sea: EE, mongols).
- corrections in some triggers, effects or descriptions when errors were spotted (eg. coward from battles won).
- a dozen of pics for the ancillaries were replaced (also PTs), a few new ancillaries added.
- some adjustments to the Crowns (certain unique buildings - not the cathedrals - are now alternative requirements to get one for: Byzantium, Serbia, Sicily, Venice, KoJ, Poland, Rus factions, Norway, Scotland, France).
- additonaly spawned AI generals will have Royal Bloods (should be conducive for preservation of the bloods).
- Loyalty of the spawned AI generals increased to prevent them from rebelling outright (what with scripted sieges may mean a CTD).
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(IX) PARAMETERS
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) thresholds for upgrading the city levels brought back to old levels for castles for: large cities (30k), minor cities (12.5 k), large towns (6k). Accordingly, the population benefit from the buildings have been reduced, certain buildings were removed (monastery line), and fertility levels were lowered for all settlements. Upgrading the settlements should still require employing a good general.
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) impact of happiness effects of the buildings on the population growth (<factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS_FUN">) has been slashed from 0.5 to 0.2. The result is: population growth is much more tied to the growth/health benefits of the buildings.
- impact of happiness from buildings slightly increased (from 0.4 to 0.5).
- impact of the garrison (ie number of troops) on public order halved and the upper threshold is set to 80%.
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) parameters for income has been significantly changed
- some adjustments in income multipliers from the mines.
- (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) all money paybacks for successful missions and also for interactive events have been doubled (given the overall increase of money in the game).
- retirement age for the umarried daughters lowered to 35 (from 45) - this should free the slots for children in many instances, allowing for late-age children - with the necessary adjustments in the family trees by Macaras.
- slower siege weapons on the campaign map: <siege_movement_points_modifier float="0.5"/> instead of 0.85 (it should be viewed in context of removing recruitment options for the AI, and of lowering the availability for the player - see elsewhere in the changelog).
- the Papal States AI has now "comfortable" attribute that should make the pope much more peaceful.
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(X) UI, GRAPHICS
- new pics (not on the map, but in the financial panel) for glass and cattle.
- banners for Abbasids and Georgia fixed.
- background tapestry for the Muslims a bit brighter, new tapestries for the Latins and the Greeks (by Ceph).
- a few movies added to be shown after certain cities are conquered (Cairo, Baghdad, Mecca, Constantinople).
- a few pips in the city panel (describing eg. religions or sources of income) replaced with other ones, some changes in names. |