BGR-V 20150324. Byg's Grim Reality (Supply & Command Series): Guides, Updates & Optional Extras

[Jurand of Cracow]

I'm aware that BGR V is not compatible with SSHIP, but is BGR IV?

No, it's not, but many (most?) of the BGR features / effects of the BGR are in the SSHIP through other means. See the comparison here. Some

[waeq17]

No, it's not, but many (most?) of the BGR features / effects of the BGR are in the SSHIP through other means. See the comparison here. Some

Thank you very much for the information and link. I have thoroughly read the comparison; impeccable work.

[WilliamTheConq]

I have a problem concerning BGR V.
When I try to start a campaign it won't start, and when I try to set up BGR V, I can't choose Gracul No Mercy Ai without it switching off when I validate my inputs.
Could someone please help me.

[z3n]

I can upload a working version of SS with BGRV enabled. However, it also comes with some of my own modifications to it as it was a seperate submod called The Northern Crusades.

This should not affect you very much, aside from changing a few portraits if you play a faction other than the Teutonic Order / Lithuania / Poland / Russia.

[WilliamTheConq]

I would rather want to know how you got it to work. But if you don't know why it is mine doesn't work, I guess you could send the working version to me.
Though I would rather not have any other modifications to it, please.

[z3n]

Getting it to work required modding, which I doubt you want to do.

I'll edit the uploaded version into this post soon as it finishes.


link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11XR...ew?usp=sharing

[gregg84]

Hi, so I pasted the Data folder into SS folder as instruction says but then once I choose BGRV in the launcher and try to start new campaign I am being pushed back to options view (the campaign just doesn't start). Does anyone have any clue why it might be so?

[mikedelbridge]

Hi all, absolutely loving this mod. One thing that has just started though is that I keep getting an "unspecified error" during siege battles that causes the game to stop working. Anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to fix it? I have not tried using the CTD fix just yet.

Edit: Seems to be field battles as well.

[mikedelbridge]

Hi, so I pasted the Data folder into SS folder as instruction says but then once I choose BGRV in the launcher and try to start new campaign I am being pushed back to options view (the campaign just doesn't start). Does anyone have any clue why it might be so?

Hi, did you manage to work this out? I did a reinstall of the game and am now getting the same issue.

[pckopat542]

Hi, did you manage to work this out? I did a reinstall of the game and am now getting the same issue.

SAME ISSUE

[Steward Denethor II]

Blasphemy!

You are a human with an inbuilt learning capacity. You dont need stars awarding for succeeding. Not even novices require more than 3 stars. Any more is complete overkill which eradicates the very difficulty this mod has worked so hard at increasing. If you have more you may as well simply use auto-win.


Regarding the other question about recruitment, see the second from last paragraph in the BGRV thread.

I agree with the poster more instead of Byg. I like this mod but I really think generals should have command stars. Yeah it makes the game easier but if generals don't get bonuses for victories it reduces the value of a really great one and building a good general is one really fun part of Medieval 2. That is the one thing I did not like about this mod.

I tried a game as England a couple years back, I did manage to destroy Scotland but it was very close with William Wallace. One turn delay they may have retaken Edinburgh and beaten me back.

[granazis]

hello to all
reinstalled SS6.4 and BGRV , if you run ss setup and choose BGRIV in early campaign everything is ok

but if you run ss setup and choose BGRV in late campaingn when starting the game it doesnt start.

Has anyone any idea how to fix this???

[Rafaelvdervaart]

hello to all
reinstalled SS6.4 and BGRV , if you run ss setup and choose BGRIV in early campaign everything is ok

but if you run ss setup and choose BGRV in late campaingn when starting the game it doesnt start.

Has anyone any idea how to fix this???

Hi, this mod is compatible only with Late Campaign.

[Rafaelvdervaart]

I am now playing a campaign as the Byzantines. I have reached the turn 80 already, without losing a single city. Currently at war against the Fatimid Caliphate, the Kingdom of Hungary, The Republic of Venice and the Moorish Caliphate (they declared war on me by raiding my ports, LOL). I have secured my borders by being allied with both Novgorod Republic and the Kievan Rus and giving away few cities to them such as Zagreb and Kutaisi (the AI is less likely to attack another AI so that not only buys you time but helps you to spread your own religion, Orthodox).

My current settings are Gracul No Mercy AI, BYG V, G5 combat system (I am not sure if that is the correct name) and that is it.

My strategies are as follow:

• Centralize the power on the hands of your emperor and the prince so you can consolidate manpower at Constantinople
• Give lands to local nobles where you can easily transfer manpower to one of the central cities (e.g. train soldiers in Nicaea only to be disbanded at Constantinople).
• Avoid wasting manpower anywhere except for the 1M cost units such as Toxotae, Acnitae and Turkish Archers so you can disband just to retrain them. Use the manpower you have to train better equipped and experienced soldiers in Constantinople and distribute your forces accordingly.
• Mind the composition of your forces so you can always outmatch your opponents. Bring horse archers or Mounted Acnitae to your army to snipe down enemy's generals, some heavy cavalry (including your powerful generals) to charge their forces and Archers + spearmen to absorb their overwhelming forces.
• Never forget the Siphatonoe (the flame thrower guy) and place some of them in key bordering cities.
• Convert anything to city except threatened locations where you would definitely want a Fortress or Citadel to enjoy the 2-3 layers of defense

[Rafaelvdervaart]

I know that traits were severely nerfed on this mod. However, I'm struggling with one in particular "Hale and hearty" as it seems that your char can only decrease in value in this particular trait, in other words, can only become sick and lose HP (Ghastly and Gaunt or Deteriorating Health). From my experience, your general can never recover until a normal health level (no HP deduction nor gains). It seems that this trait is related with having a public bath + being sieged at the same time. Any ideas on this?

Edit: Found this link that explains Hale and hearty traits: https://www.honga.net/totalwar/trait...m&c=all&page=8

Of course the Hale and hearty bonus were removed aligned with the mod's philosophy, however it seems unfair that your level on this trait can only drop and not even recover to normal.

[Jurand of Cracow]

iirc, Byg disabled all traits other than his so you need to live with it. Actually, it was the main reason I haven't played BGR-V more than once, and why I perceive BGR-IVE to be better than the (more advanced) BGR-V

[Rafaelvdervaart]

iirc, Byg disabled all traits other than his so you need to live with it. Actually, it was the main reason I haven't played BGR-V more than once, and why I perceive BGR-IVE to be better than the (more advanced) BGR-V

Yeah I get this, I could live with it if only the trait system were working fairly and decreasing the general's health upon a proper situation for that (e.g. being struck by plague, besieged for several turns or other events). However, I came to find that this is a bug that triggers once I place any general in Constantinople, regardless of his previous health conditions and in a matter of a few turns his health will drop from level 4 (11 points) to level 1 (1 point only) hence getting Ghastly and Gaunt. I tested that with 3 different generals in a timeframe of 10 turns without any impact of outside event whatsoever (no siege, no plague) and all of them got this trait. The worst part is that this city is the healthiest one with all advanced buildings and only generals sitting there are getting this trait.

Therefore, it can only be a bug/broken mechanism that I have no idea how to address it.

[Heskey]

EDIT: This post was originally longer and posed many questions, but having spent a good 5-hours researching/trawling this thread and various spin-off points, I've redrafted it to assist others (and no doubt my future-self) with the answers I've since found (rather than the questions I initially posed).

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BGR V (BGRV_150324 - latest) is incompatible with Meloo's Bug Fix Compilation v1.27. However, Many elements have already been incorporated within BGR V.

This means you cannot install BGR V on top of Gigantus' 'Compilation Installer', as this compilation installs Meloo's Bug Fixes. You'll need to install SS6.4 via the older '5x .bin' installation method.

I don't yet know what effect, if any, the 'Stainless Steel Hotfix 5' has on BGR V, but it appears to be compatible insofar as you can start a campaign after applying it.

Byg's last post was on 5th July 2016 referencing loss of BGR files, so I think we've had the best and seen the last of him.

Treat the manual as a guide. Do not take it as gospel. Dauntless07 said in 2017 that certain values are clearly incorrect. He suggested he may update the manual, but this hasn't been done (EDIT: I am now attempting to do this). In addition to the erroneous manual, there is a 'Tips & Additions to the Manual' spoiler in the BGR V post (#3) that does as the name suggests. Furthermore, this thread is littered with various hints/tips not covered elsewhere. There is no collation of these, but from reading at least the last 20 pages, here are some things I've gleaned:

1. Your priests are at risk of converting to heresy in low-religion home territories. Keep them in the associated settlement. Preferably swarm low-religion regions with multiple priests to ensure rapid conversion.
2. Manual refers to siege engines taking 12 turns to build, but in-game it is 2. Potentially an old line that wasn't removed, as elsewhere it specifies most units only take 1 turn (1 month) to recruit.
3. Manual says religious war tax is 400 per turn but now seems to be 200. Consequently, crusades are less financially crippling.

If using, Dooz' AI Recruitment Priority Fix must be copied to ...\Medieval II Total War\mods\SS6.3\data\campaign\sub\BGRV. This may get overwritten each time you run SS_Setup, so choose your campaign preferences carefully, make a note of them, and subsequently launch SS via SS_Launcher to avoid accidentially overwriting it with the original file. I wasn't impressed with this in 2019, but on review I potentially didn't install it to the correct path.

Finally, recommended settings are:

• VH/VH
• AI of your choice (Savage seems to get a good press)
• BGR V
• No AI Starting Army for BGRV (Byg Recommended. SS added additional starting armies, and more still at approx. Turn 10 - BGRV removes one of the waves as standard (can't recall which), and this option removes the 2nd. This option is recommended to encourage the AI to manage its finances from the beginning and recruit within its means, rather than being financially crippled by what it's given.)

Optional settings I'll also be using (for future reference), are:

• No Cheating for BGRV
• Normal Event Speed for BGRV (less characters & technological advancement, but realistic passage of time and military campaigns)
• Permanent Arrows
• G5 ReallyBadAI Battle System v5

In the spirit of Byg and the words of the Forsaken; suffer well!

PS. My 'Unit Detail' defaults to 'High' every time I close the game. I've tried setting the preferences file to read only, tinkered with the file, and in-game settings. Nothing seems to make it stick. All other settings are high but this consistently drops one level of detail. Unsure of the difference, and unsure if it's a BGR, SS, or M2TW thing (as didn't think to check until after I'd installed everything). Would be interested to know if others experience the same, and if so, whether you've found how to fix it.

[Gigantus]

I did a repack of the Stainless Steel installation that includes Meloo's Fix. Could you please try and see if the same happens there?

And the 'crash to menu' indicates an issue with the descr_strat file which is normally detailed in the log, in case of the repack the log is the default log (system.log.txt) in the root of the main game. Look for an entry with [error] at the very end of the rather long log and copy it here with 5 lines before and after it.

It will also help if you could tell if you made any other changes in the set up - I believe you need to chose an AI setting but otherwise everything else is optional.

[Heskey]

Hi Gigantus, thanks for replying. The original version of my previous post covered a troubleshooting step-by-step guide of which versions/methodology/order I tried to finally get BGR V working over the past 2 nights and the common denominator was Meloo's Bug Fix. I completely edited my previous post to remove all the questions/issues I had, and replaced them with the answers I subsequently found to save readers time.

Also, when I read back the last 10 pages or so of this thread (pg. 190-200), there were about a dozen references about Meloo's Bug Fix not being compatible. Embarassingly, I even said it myself in 2019 only a few pages back. My previous version of the post linked to them.

I don't have the repack installed now because of this, so am unable to get you the system.log.txt info, but I can confirm that re 'changes in the set up', this consistently occurs whether you choose just a campaign AI & BGR V (in that order as Byg says to do), or additional BGRV-only compatible options too.

The incompatibility is most definitely between the bug fix compilation and BGR, making your repack in its current format unusuable for BGR players (and maybe SSHIP players too - I'm not playing it so can't test, but have seen similar references in its thread).

Potentially have it's install be an optional tick box with an explanatory note during setup, then all players can still use it?