Questions to Modders : A major twist in the Philosophy of the game

[aleph2007]

Hello,
I would like to ask two questions to devs and modders about possible diplomatic changes in SS. These questions emerged from the talks we had ion this thread : http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=144046

1) Is their a way to force dying faction that are not necessarily in good terms with you (since you're destroying them) to choose vassality instead of necessarily having to destroy them ?

2) A step further : Is there a way to create alternate conditions of victory ? LIKE : 50 settlements held by you AND 3 of your allies (chosen at the begining of the campaign) Are the victory conditions hard coded or can it be done ?

The Basic philosophy behind it is to avoid the annoying (to me at least) and fatal evolution of the campaign toward a single player faction that invades the world and plays the last 50 turns over a quasi monochromatic map. This was fine for the Roman setting, but is just totally absurd for the middle age. The option cited above would maintain diversity on the map since alliances of countries rather than individual factions would fight each other.

What do you think of this ?
If it is possible, could the people that are interested by this idea contact me for joining in the creation of a mini-Mod ?

[Tsarsies]

1 - I dont think it is possible to 'force' a faction to opt to become a vassal state. although im not certain.

2 - You can change the victory conditions, but you can not have multiple conditions (as in and/or). if the conditions are hold 50 regions and eliminate france, you must meet both conditions, not one or the other.

[lord_mongol]

Though I like the idea, I'm not sure if this game is suited to it...

Historically, I totally agree that a monochromatic map is completely fictional. But I think the game and (especially) the mod compensate for this in the functions of gameplay. Turning off AI settlement management is a good way to simulate your lack of direct control over your territories. SS brings it too a whole new level, I had four cities rebel under a corrupt and disloyal family line in a previous game. There was a full scale insurrection that I was powerless to stop, resulting in my marching fresh armies in to put an end my rebelious nephews.

The main problem I see with the vassalage is that you cannot direct your vassals to do anything. There is no input which allows you to dictate terms of where and when to muster an army. So... That's a big deal, considering we are playing Total War. The Vassalage option would have to be more profitable than direct occupation and some sort of direction over vasal armies would have to be achieved before I think this would be useful.

[McCloy]

Yeah, in history, total conquest was rare. It was all about vassalage, tribute, alliances, etc.


I'd like to see a battered opponent plead for ceasefire, vassal status, and hand over tribute.

Last of all, when you approach an enemy city with a 20 unit stack, and there's only 1 or 2 units acting as the city garrison, it'd be nice to see them offer surrender, or an option for you to demand it. In history, it happened far more often than a real siege or blockade.

[BigJake]

I agree with what McCloy says.

+1

[aleph2007]

Hey apparently 1) has been partially achieved in this mod :

The Living Artificial Intelligence Diplomacy Mod by ramtha

I made a diplomacy mod of my own, because I felt all the other diplomacy mods didn't do anything good. (just what I think, maybe not you).

So now what I've done to the diplomatic ai, is made them accept offers, HUGE!!! offers!!!

Here's some of the stuff it tweaks...

1) When you are at war, and you wish to make the AI faction BOW DOWN to you, they WILL accept being your protectorate! Without even paying them anything!!! As long as you have a strength ratio of 3 times theirs then they will become your protectorate.

2)...

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86335

But it seems to have died a long time ago, :-)
Has anybody tried it ?