Stacks of Units

[swhunter]

As playing GCS
In RS1.5 i see close to 23 stacks of Romans attacking lower Greece.
and a few smaller stacks around mace.

Now in RS2.0 is there anything being done to reduce this ?
or is it because playing on hard Med / hard med ?
My only concern with the new map is Not having the stacks as EB.
That is my only complain.

what should it be placed at, to have a good battle, but not fighting against 23 or 30 stacks in the same location.

Also this is played at 0 recruit. maybe it should be placed at 1 turn ?
Yet still having a good fight.

also the diplomates keep trying to have peace then turn around at the next turn to declare war.
Are we fixing this also in RS2.0 ?
or can it be ?
thanks...

[dvk901]

1. No. The nature of 0-turn recruitment is stacks of armies. The people who don't like that play 1-turn. Which is why the option is provided.

2. Diplomats.....a pet peeve of mine, because I maintain their behavior is unhistorical, and their numbers are ridiculous. Even with the price raised in RS1.5, there are still more diplomats than armies. They are hardly even worth anything, nor do you have to worry about losing one or 'where that diplomat went'..you just build another and let the lost one die. I've seen 5-6 diplomats hovering around worthless cities for ages trying to bribe them...I just think they should be horrendously expensive so that they actually play some role other than swamping the map.

[swhunter]

I think that is a good idea on the diplomats.
Maybe just have two for each capital at the start .
Then very expensive,say about ( $ 6,000 ) that the a1 will not go after them so much.

On the stacks ..you see i never played with the 1 opinion yet.
It Still will give a good amount of armies right ? When you start to build.
I say later in years maybe 15 you could have 4 to five stacks comfortably ?
I hope our map ( RS2.0 ) isn't like EBS map, where you have small armies even in 15 years later.
Anyhow thanks for the reply!

[Faridus]

you're right DVK,
the other thing i noticed the AI infatuation with are assassins, the AI seems to generate a lot of them. but in my campaigns, they actually try to assassinate characters.

[dvk901]

One of the things that's askew about the diplomats, spies and asassins is the fact that there is no maintenance upkeep for them. So basically, you pay a paltry price for a diplomat and get 30-40 years of service out of him. If you consider the RS1.5 price of 2500 denarii, that works out to 84 denarii per year that diplomat cost you (for 30 years) and at the tremendous gain of trade and treaties. It just doesn't make any sense. The price should reflect an 'average lifespan' of some length that takes into consideration the true cost and value of the guy. Same with asassins and spies.....well, maybe they could be less, cause they get killed more.....but still, an average life for each.

[century x]

IS there anyway to put an upkeep for the Diplomats?

[Faridus]

i totally agree, i'm sure it was quite expensive to support a group of diplomates, their expenses, the bribing they had to do (which obviously comes from the state treasury and not the diplomat's pocket!!!), so in my opinion, increasing their maintenance fee is not unreasonable. even assassins, they don't go out kiliing people for free, so they should be expensive to hire. one can make the same case with spies.

EDIT:
actually i think there is an upkeep fee for the diplomats and spies/assassins, it's just very low, i think 50 bucks for the diplomat and 1 or 200 for the spies/assassins.

[dvk901]

You're right, and it's ridiculously low.

[Gotthard]

No reason we can't raise it... I think it's the same as vanilla.

[edit]

Although cheap spies work out VERY WELL for the AI, it's another reason it's so hard to take Barbarian towns. I was getting a lot more rebellions until I started placing multiple spies in my town to kick out their spies. Really helped unrest. Since the AI isn't hampered by unrest, cheap spies don't help the player, and vastly help the AI. I'd say leave it alone, or make some optional changes here.

[MarcusTullius]

Optional changes in this department (spies) are a good idea but diplomats need a drastic increase in upkeep levels.

Would it not be possible to remove diplomats and add interaction with factions directly? Like an embassy style thing? (just an idea, although its probably not possible)

[dvk901]

Optional changes in this department (spies) are a good idea but diplomats need a drastic increase in upkeep levels.

Would it not be possible to remove diplomats and add interaction with factions directly? Like an embassy style thing? (just an idea, although its probably not possible)

Dang!!!! That's a GOOD IDEA!! I wonder if you can recruit Diplomats in a building 'other than' the palaces? I know when I tried to make them only available in AORS they just disappeared from recruitment! (Anal RTW!)

But what if you had to build an 'Embassy' first....or how about some REAL hurt. You put it as an option in the 'civil order\military' building you have to build. Choose one way in the tree and you get 'a diplomat, spy, assassin'...and nothing else. Choose the other way, and you can build units.
Ha! Stupid AI would probably kill itself doing that. LOL

Still, this merits some more thought........

[cherryfunk]

I'd say just increase the upkeep cost, it's moddable I think.

Would it not be possible to remove diplomats and add interaction with factions directly? Like an embassy style thing? (just an idea, although its probably not possible)

Interesting idea, but how could that work?

[MarcusTullius]

I was thinking of moulding the diplomat function (i.e the scroll that opens up when you talk to another faction) into a building and tying it to the building when its is made. So if you opened up the building it would automatically go the diplomats scroll concerning a certain country...

Problems with this:
*Could all the factions be tied to one embassy in your capital?
*Could the diplomat function be effectively rolled into a building?
* Would the AI be able to effectively utilise the buildings?

(I fear the answer to one or more of those is a firm no )

Essentially, i was hoping to eliminate diplomats altogether and get the player more in control of what happens....no more weird unbroken alliances, an end to the masses of diplomats covering the map and standing round twiddling their thumbs outside one town

I'll give it some more thought, ideas very welcome....

[rory o'kane]

if that was the case, you'd need like 17 embassies (assuming the free factions can't be negotiated with)...

[MarcusTullius]

if that was the case, you'd need like 17 embassies (assuming the free factions can't be negotiated with)...

I was thinking of rolling it all into one as 17 embassies (obviously!) would be impractical....pretty sure it cant work though

[rory o'kane]

unless you coded in some sort of interface with the faction buttons on it?

[MarcusTullius]

unless you coded in some sort of interface with the faction buttons on it?

Thats what i was thinking of....almost like the factions scroll that we have at present but for diplomacy instead....just need to know if it was possible from a modding point of view :S

[dvk901]

You probably could do something like this with a script, but interface stuff I'm pretty sure would be a no-go. Heck, RTW wouldn't even let me get rid of the 'Senate' button in RS1.5.....

[MarcusTullius]

Hmmm, i'll try to think of some way else to make this work.....

[rory o'kane]

how about replacing the function and name and icon of that senate button?