This section is for anybody who's interested in the problem I've seen, or what I've done to make these files from the vanilla TATW V1.2 files.
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Making the Orc Factions (Mordor, Isengard, OMM) operate with a teutonic family tree
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THE THEORY
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I believe the intention, in TATW V1.2, is that the Orc Factions should survive as long as they have a general, & a province; Even if there's no designated heir a general will be promoted if the current leader dies, and the faction will continue.
However, Vanilla 1.2's descr_sm_factions.txt file had the Orc factions' (labelled as england, france & hre in-game) family tree entries defined as "no", which is the setting used by the Papal states in vanilla M2TW. Like the Papal states the Orc factions became invincible in campaigns started with these settings;
Even if their last province was taken, and their family wiped out, a new faction leader would still spawn for these factions on their next turn.
The fixed descr_sm_factions.txt released by King Kong in the bug fix thread at TW center.net changed the Orc factions family tree entries from "no" (ie Papal) to "teutonic". Presumably with the intention that they should instead act as the teutonic order does in Kingdoms.
However it's been quite widely reported, on the forums, that Orc factions seem to be dying rather quickly since this update &, in particular, if they lose their leader &/or heir.
I tested the Orc factions myself to confirm these quick deaths, and found that if any of these faction loses both the leader & heir designated at the start of the game, before either of these characters adopt a general, then the faction does indeed die. If, on the other hand, their are living adoptees, or anyone who's been adopted by an adoptee, then they will become faction leader, if one is required.
By this stage it was looking to me as if the Orc Factions had a family tree, albeit a very small one at the start of the game, so on a hunch I started looking at the files from the Teutonic campaign to see what CA did to get the Teutonic order's family tree working.
I found that as well as having the "teutonic" family tree entry in descr_sm_factions, they also had a family tree defined in descr_strat.txt, which (surprisingly) included a wife for the starting faction leader, & defined all the TO's other starting generals as his sons.
I did I bit of modding and testing, and through the course of it determined that, although the manual tells us that the TO has no family tree, it does in fact have one, albeit that it's a limited one which the player's not shown.
They don't appear to get offered wifes (or, as a result, have children) but the generals eligible to become leader or heir are limited to generals who are include in the descr_strat's family tree, or their in-game adoptees.
Bribed generals are treated just the same as factions with family trees would treat them, i.e. despite being general characters they're not part of the family tree by default, & as such can't become leader or heir.
I tested this by removing the TO family tree from the teutonic campaign's descr_strat.txt & found that they behaved exactly as the Orc factions in TATW are post V1.2 hotfix i.e. the faction died if both the starting leader & heir die before either of them adopt.
I think the reason why people are seeing Orc Factions die so easily at the moment, is that the AI may be getting a little confused. Two of the three Orc factions have a lot of generals, but only two "family members" each. I believe that either the AI is thinking of these non-family member generals as potential successors even though they aren't, & therefore not adopting new, *real* family members, *OR* that it's an issue to do with these factions' upkeep costs; general units are expensive so it might be refusing new ones because a) it's expensive, &, b) it's already got a lot of other expensive generals bloating it's upkeep costs.
These are my best guesses, but they're not much more than hunches. *shrug*
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SOLUTION
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The solution I've implemented is to give the Orc factions family trees and include all of the factions' starting generals in these trees.
By including them all in these starting trees it pretty much ensures that these factions really will survive as long as they have a general; Since, by definition, any of their generals are either going to be on that starting family tree, or adoptees of someone on it. The only exceptions would be bribed generals, & it's rare enough that they occur, let alone the chance that they end up being the sole surving general of a faction. Even in rare circumstances where this does happen, it would kill a faction with a normal family tree the same as it would one with a TO tree.
It's not an elegant fix, but it's the same method which CA used to make the TO work, so I don't feel too bad about it. The only thing which *REALLY* bothers me is the strange behaviour where, once a general has been designated as an Orc faction's heir he never seems to get promoted to leader, unless he's the only eligible general left.
It's probably something simple I'm missing but I've spent more time on this one point than the rest of the investigation, modding and testing combined! I believe I've tried most of the working alternatives which could be applied to descr_strat, & that I'm not doing anything significantly different to the way the Teutonic campaign's descr_strat is written, but I still haven't had any luck, and I'm starting to wonder if the solution is hidden in another file, or hardcoded.
If anyone knows what the answer to this is I'd love to know! My inner Geek is loosing all sorts of sleep over it! *grin*
V1.3- Unofficial "fix" for Orc factions dying too early -HERE-
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Originally Posted by TNZ
