Version 2.0 RELEASED // Archaon's Loyal Allies // Compatible with TA:TW 2.1

[Archaon]

The latest tweaks made a lot of difference! but you can see that all these tests are showing an excellent improvement on campaign progression!

Play with these changes and enjoy having proper alliances, enemies who hate you and refuse alliances every time, AI that acts according to lore, and focused struggle between good vs evil !!!

[gamevn]

Thank you for this sub-mod, +Rep. But I have a small question: Do I need to backup any file?

[Archaon]

Thank you for this sub-mod, +Rep. But I have a small question: Do I need to backup any file?

This only changes "data\descr_campaign_ai_db" and "data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_strat.txt".
Back these up if you wish to uninstall later.

Let us know your experience using the mod.

[El-Vi-Riachi]

I just had SE declare war on Rohan Turn 30, everything installed correctly.

[Archaon]

I just had SE declare war on Rohan Turn 30, everything installed correctly.

This wont stop neutral factions going to war....
Read the explanation of the mod..
If you look at the table, if SE and Rohan become allies (which they are not from start) then they will be good allies (probability of making a break alliance decision is 25% if the invasion is opportunistic).
So what you have experienced was intended.

If you want Rohan and SE in a stronger alliance, they MUST BE ALLIED first...

[gamevn]

What happens if Dwarves and HE declare war, while they are both Eriador's allies? In this sub-mod, dwarves and HE are not target, but they didn't like the other too; but both of them are good allies with Eriador.

I got into this situation once, while I was playing Eriador, before installed this sub-mod. The HE, I thought they were my "best friends", a "good ally" from the beginning, and "bang" they turn on me and attack form the rear, where I left with too little guard. It was an uncomfortable surprise

[Astor]

If I might make a suggestion regarding the primary enemy targets of several factions -
For Dale, I think the statuses of Mordor and Rhun should be changed, to more accurately reflect the long standing animosity that existed between Rhun and the Northmen.
From what I've read, there was no aggressive action taken by Mordor against Dale ever, as compared to the Easterlings who invaded the region during the War of the Ring.

For Rohan, once again I feel Isengard should be assigned the status of primary enemy, as compared to Mordor. I think the reasoning for that should be fairly obvious.

Of course, I'm speaking from a lore point of view, and you might have done this with balancing factors in mind. If so, perfectly understandable and congratulations on a
great job.

[Archaon]

What happens if Dwarves and HE declare war, while they are both Eriador's allies? In this sub-mod, dwarves and HE are not target, but they didn't like the other too; but both of them are good allies with Eriador.

I got into this situation once, while I was playing Eriador, before installed this sub-mod. The HE, I thought they were my "best friends", a "good ally" from the beginning, and "bang" they turn on me and attack form the rear, where I left with too little guard. It was an uncomfortable surprise

If two allies go to war, one MUST take the neutral stance with you.
It is random which one the AI chooses, at least there is no way to know how that decision is made.
If you want all 3 to be unbreakable allies let me know and i'll upload you a file to do that, otherwise the 'good allies' is best i can do for gameplay reasons.. everyone cant be 'unbreakable' as that will break gameplay...

In my game i started today, I am Eriador and allied to HE and not dwarves, dwarves and HE are allied, i will guard against Dwarves but i wont ally with them yet until i see them go to war with OOG or OOTMM.
Isengard are doing well so i am hoping HE will start warring with them soon so i can concentrate on the Arnor mission.

If I might make a suggestion regarding the primary enemy targets of several factions -
For Dale, I think the statuses of Mordor and Rhun should be changed, to more accurately reflect the long standing animosity that existed between Rhun and the Northmen.
From what I've read, there was no aggressive action taken by Mordor against Dale ever, as compared to the Easterlings who invaded the region during the War of the Ring.

For Rohan, once again I feel Isengard should be assigned the status of primary enemy, as compared to Mordor. I think the reasoning for that should be fairly obvious.

Of course, I'm speaking from a lore point of view, and you might have done this with balancing factors in mind. If so, perfectly understandable and congratulations on a
great job.

The secondary targets for 'good' factions were more the lore based ones, the Primary being Mordor for gameplay purposes. Basically, if at any point they come in contact with Mordor they will not hesitate to attack them with priority.
For Dale, due to Rhun being secondary, they will prioritise that as the top priority if there is no Mordor Army around.
So in early game, Rhun and Dale struggle quite a bit

[gamevn]

If two allies go to war, one MUST take the neutral stance with you.
It is random which one the AI chooses, at least there is no way to know how that decision is made.
If you want all 3 to be unbreakable allies let me know and i'll upload you a file to do that, otherwise the 'good allies' is best i can do for gameplay reasons.. everyone cant be 'unbreakable' as that will break gameplay...

In my game i started today, I am Eriador and allied to HE and not dwarves, dwarves and HE are allied, i will guard against Dwarves but i wont ally with them yet until i see them go to war with OOG or OOTMM.
Isengard are doing well so i am hoping HE will start warring with them soon so i can concentrate on the Arnor mission.

I hope all of the "good faction" (Elf, dwarves, Rohan, Gondor, Eriador - Arnor) are unbreakable or at least good allies , like the "spirit" of the LOTR. And it'll be more convenient if they are allies from start. Thank you alot if you can do this

[Archaon]

I hope all of the "good faction" (Elf, dwarves, Rohan, Gondor, Eriador - Arnor) are unbreakable or at least good allies , like the "spirit" of the LOTR. And it'll be more convenient if they are allies from start. Thank you alot if you can do this

I'll do a one like that, but I dont recommend using it.. Should have it uploaded tonight if work doesnt bother me too much.

[ShADoW]

That is actually a neat idea, have them be allies from the start.

[NSFW]

This looks really nice, thanks!

Excuse me for not having read through the whole thread, but does this mod also prevent good factions from accepting evil (especially orc) factions as vassals?

IMHO it seems really unlikely that any of the good factions would take even a badly beaten orcish faction as a protectorate. Sure the good guys are meant to be more merciful, even to evil, but are they really likely to be willing to go to war with another good faction just to protect an orcish nation?

For that matter I can't imagine orc factions accepting vassalage from good either (especially elves or dwarves!).

[Archaon]

This looks really nice, thanks!

Excuse me for not having read through the whole thread, but does this mod also prevent good factions from accepting evil (especially orc) factions as vassals?

IMHO it seems really unlikely that any of the good factions would take even a badly beaten orcish faction as a protectorate. Sure the good guys are meant to be more merciful, even to evil, but are they really likely to be willing to go to war with another good faction just to protect an orcish nation?

For that matter I can't imagine orc factions accepting vassalage from good either (especially elves or dwarves!).

Bets are off because i have not seen it or tried it.

Though the "want alliance" is set to false for all Orc Factions in terms of 'good' factions, and as a protectorate is an alliance i would have to conclude that the Orc faction AI will never offer or accept and alliance with a 'good' faction. (which should also include protectorate alliances).

[NSFW]

Bets are off because i have not seen it or tried it.

Though the "want alliance" is set to false for all Orc Factions in terms of 'good' factions, and as a protectorate is an alliance i would have to conclude that the Orc faction AI will never offer or accept and alliance with a 'good' faction. (which should also include protectorate alliances).

Thanks for the answer, but I think willingness to become/accept a protectorate may need to be set seperately from alliance preferences in descr_campaign_ai_db.xml.

It's possible that settting up a

want_ally="false"

statement is enough to do the trick, but this (pretty good seeming) guide I was checking out mentions

want_be_protect="false" :: do we want to be a protectorate of this faction
want_offer_protect="false" :: do we want to offer protectorate status to this nation

statements as well.

Wouldn't they need to be set up too in order to ensure that protectorates can't happen between orcs and good factions?

Either way, thanks again for your mod! It's very close to some changes I was planning on making myself, so you've saved me a bunch of time, cheers!

[Archaon]

Thanks for the answer, but I think willingness to become/accept a protectorate may need to be set seperately from alliance preferences in descr_campaign_ai_db.xml.

It's possible that settting up a

want_ally="false"

statement is enough to do the trick, but this (pretty good seeming) guide I was checking out mentions

want_be_protect="false" :: do we want to be a protectorate of this faction
want_offer_protect="false" :: do we want to offer protectorate status to this nation

statements as well.

Wouldn't they need to be set up too in order to ensure that protectorates can't happen between orcs and good factions?

Either way, thanks again for your mod! It's very close to some changes I was planning on making myself, so you've saved me a bunch of time, cheers!

I saw that there, in the reference section of the file, wasn't aware of that guide though to thank you very much for posting the link

I chose not to include the want_offer_protect="false" on purpose simply because it hadn't appeared in any form that i could reference. Thoughi had planned to use want_be_protect="true" for the minor orc factions toward Mordor - i haven't yet completed the full series of tests on it and am awaiting another member to get back to me whom was testing my modifications with me.

IMO the want_offer_protect="true" should only ever appear in very late game, and only if the faction is very large, but htere is a problem with that as the invade decisions for smaller factions contradict the decision to accept the offer.. want_be_protect="true" for example needs to setup for a faction that is of low financial score and few settlements.

I.E. if we 'know' the offer will only come from well off factions and only accepted by a defeated faction, then i would hope that is the perfect scenario and one players will be happy with.
But 'restricting' the offer is a lot harder that you might first thing, the want_offer_protect="false" set for default still provides the AI somehow to forge a protectorate in tests, the decision entry i am un aware of and i think some decisions may still be hardcoded..

On great thing i can hope to achieve is making it almost impossible for the player to forge an 'unlikely' protectorate. i Hope to be able to make the AI decision to decine difined tightly that they'll onl consider accpeting if they were to be defeated otherwise. though i am not quite there yet, testing is slow and un expected results keep popping up in the logs for protectorates..

[gamevn]

I don't want to press on but... is it done yet? ^_^! I'm going to play a new campaign. Thanks

[Archaon]

I don't want to press on but... is it done yet? ^_^! I'm going to play a new campaign. Thanks

As per the subject, Version 2.0 RELEASED, check the first post, has been released for a bit now

[gamevn]

As per the subject, Version 2.0 RELEASED, check the first post, has been released for a bit now

No, I mean the sub-mod special for me, with unbreakable allies

[Archaon]

No, I mean the sub-mod special for me, with unbreakable allies

Sorry, i didn't forget, just been busy 'on call' for work... thats 24/7 interuptions until Monday 9th 7am - happens to me once every fortnight.

I should get time to do this today

[Principe Alessandro]

I hope all of the "good faction" (Elf, dwarves, Rohan, Gondor, Eriador - Arnor) are unbreakable or at least good allies , like the "spirit" of the LOTR. And it'll be more convenient if they are allies from start. Thank you alot if you can do this

I don't like some features of this mod, I know that we need improvement in the diplomacy but not so strictly especially with mannish factions.

In the Tolkien's world man can be easily corrupted and turn evil so I think that isn't impossible a war Gondor-Rohan or men attacking elves. And not all Easterlings or Haradrims were evil and some of them fought for the good guys in the Silmarillon, even Dwarves fought for the dark forces as mercenaries and eventually they had a war with the elves.

And Saruman also fought for his own power and there was the possibility that he could betray Sauron.

In the Tolkien tales wasn't black and white as the LOTR movie suggest to us. The mod don't starts at the beginning of the ring's war and neither is attempting to recreate exactly this war.