Settlement Growth

[Streen15]

I remember someone once mentioning how they 'temporarily' fixed the settlement growth issue. Can someone link me to this / make a copy of their file? It's really sad to see citadels / huge cities by turn 80 ...i'd like to temporarily remedy this until 1.1 comes out.

I hope this isn't too much to ask .

Thanks

[Col Poutting]

I have a question:
In my current campaign as Abbasid (H/VH) i'm now in year 1193, and using toggle_fow to have a look at the geo-political situation, I see that KOJ, Kwahzerm, Ghorid, Gahzni, ERE, Rajput and Ayyubid all have at leats 1 citadel.
My problem is, even when putting a full chilvalry gen in a castle for the whole time, I still am not able to upgrade it to a fortress...... I now have Aleppo and Mossul, but none of them has enough pop. to get to a fortress..Mossul has slightly over 8200 pop growing at +0,5% with a full chivalry gen inside (all possible farms built....)

I find it quit unbalaced them having citadels and me not even a fortress... And I dont feel like cheeting... The other thing is I wonder how the AI manages to get citadels so early...

[Bernem]

their generals have traits that reduce squalor quite a lot

[Darvist]

You want traits that reduce squalor the most like benevolent ruler and such. Although farming output will help reduced squalor is almost a direct pop growth increase. High chivalry will help. Trade increases pop growth as well. One of the factors in growth is trade and buildings, why Baghdad grown so fast i think. If most building are build however a fortress will reach citadel on its own eventually abet slowly. Roads and docks won't make the pop go up noticeably faster since the increment wont be enough but it will make the .5 growth your getting now last to 17k and not end at 15k for example.

I don't know about others but the Kwahzerm Citadel gets a growth bonuses from trade and that combined with POP bonuses for higher setting make them get it faster than you can unless your concentrating on it. Its taking long in my ERE game cause they start with lower pop.

[Streen15]

I thought this was a given problem that settlement growth among the AI is too fast...?

If so, I could have sworn I remember reading a post where someone actually temporarily fixed it by changing something in their code that has to do with farming output / population growth increases...

No one knows anything about this?

[Heinz Guderian]

I thought this was a given problem that settlement growth among the AI is too fast...?

If so, I could have sworn I remember reading a post where someone actually temporarily fixed it by changing something in their code that has to do with farming output / population growth increases...

No one knows anything about this?

Do you remember reading it before 1.05 came out?

[Streen15]

Perhaps, I downloaded BC a while after its release, so I don't know if that's the case. Although, I do witness a lot of 'huge' AI settlements with the 1.05 patch installed, as opposed to my smaller ERE settlements - but it seems that's normal for ERE as someone previously posted.

Was this already corrected in the 1.05 patch then?

[Faris ad Din]

descr_settlement_mechanics.xml - in your data folder. Do not simply double click the file - it is an .xml file and Windows will try to open it with Internet Explorer instead where you can't edit it. Right-click on the file and open it with Notepad. Oh yeah, make sure to make a backup of the original altered file somewhere and LABEL THE FOLDER where you keep it.

Anyway, here are the snidgets that affect settlement growth:

There are three types of factors it seems: "SPF," "SOF," and "SIF." I am not sure what they mean, but looking at the contents of the file the first one pertains to population growth (probably "settlement population factor"), the second pertains to public order (probably "settlement order factor"), the third pertains to income (probably "settlement income factor").

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<factor_modifiers>
<factor name="SPF_FARMING_LEVEL">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.7"/>
<city_modifier value="1.0"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="6"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_FARMS_BUILT">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.5"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="10"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_HEALTH">
<pip_modifier value="0.5"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.5"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="6"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.5"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="4"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_TAX_RATE_BONUS">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="1"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS_FUN">
<pip_modifier value="0.5"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.5"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="6"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_GOVERNORS_INFLUENCE">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.5"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="4"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_TRADE">
<pip_modifier value="0.2"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="4"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_SQUALOUR">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
<castle_modifier value="0.5"/>
<pip_min value="2"/>
<pip_max value="22"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_PLAGUE">
<pip_modifier value="0.75"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SPF_TAX_RATE_PENALTY">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
</factor>

You can kick up the numbers there for your campaign, even even out the factors between castles and cities (BC has lowered growth bonuses for castles). Yeah, those were two "evens" in a row.

The following is in the end of the file and gives the numbers needed to upgrade cities and castles. You can toy around with those numbers as well to make it easier to upgrade settlements.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

<population_levels>
<!-- city -->
<level name="village" base="500" upgrade="1500" min="400" max="2500"/>
<level name="town" base="1500" upgrade="5000" min="400" max="6000"/>
<level name="large_town" base="5000" upgrade="10000" min="400" max="12500"/>
<level name="city" base="10000" upgrade="20000" min="400" max="25000"/>
<level name="large_city" base="20000" upgrade="40000" min="400" max="50000"/>
<level name="huge_city" base="40000" min="400" max="100000"/>
<!-- castle -->
<level name="moot_and_bailey" base="500" upgrade="1000" min="400" max="1500"/>
<level name="wooden_castle" base="1000" upgrade="2500" min="400" max="4000"/>
<level name="castle" base="2500" upgrade="9000" min="400" max="12000"/>
<level name="fortress" base="9000" upgrade="18000" min="400" max="24000"/>
<level name="citadel" base="18000" upgrade="36000" min="400" max="48000"/>
</population_levels>

By the way, you can also note the sections pertaining to corruption and devastation which I have long felt were already too high in vanilla and are way buffed in BC. I nerf the coefficient (don't mind my fancy words) factor numbers down in my campaign as I feel corruption based on distance sucks and armies are prone to cause too much devastation even when you don't want them to.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

<factor name="SIF_CORRUPTION">
<pip_modifier value="1.5"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="1000"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SIF_ENTERTAINMENT">
<pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
</factor>
<factor name="SIF_DEVASTATION">
<pip_modifier value="5.0"/>
<pip_min value="0"/>
<pip_max value="1000"/>