Mini-regions?

[Caleb ConDoin]

I love FOE, except for the mini-regions like in ETW which I hate. Is there any way to take out theses mini-regions or is there a sub-mod for FOE with out the mini-regions?

[HamilcarBarca]

Shame on you! The mini-regions are a tour d'force, bringing the second tier settlements into the strategic game for the first time!

H.

[Muizer]

Hehe, I don't think there's such a mod, but if people want to create them that's fine by me. What interests me more is exactly what you dislike about the minis?

[Caleb ConDoin]

Well it seems to be just an overcomplicated way of creating villages and the RTW engine is not really suited for that anyway. The biggest promblem is the annoying back and worth with someone taking over one small part and me having to capture it a thousand times again and again.

[Muizer]

Well it seems to be just an overcomplicated way of creating villages and the RTW engine is not really suited for that anyway. The biggest promblem is the annoying back and worth with someone taking over one small part and me having to capture it a thousand times again and again.

I think if you capture the surrounding major regions, you should be able to pacify the mini? As long as it's on a contested border, you should be prepared to either intercept the enemy and/or face them in siege battles with low grade defenses if you want to keep hold of the mini. If you can't leave them to their own devices, well that is in fact the intended effect.
That said, we don't want this going back and forth becoming an unavoidable drag. There has to be a strategic solution for the player, like the one I suggested above.

[Arkaeyn]

Which mini-regions are causing that kind of back-and-forth? I've only really noticed that in extreme extenuating circumstances, like if there's a bridge I'm using as a border nearby (like the one in northeast Iberia).

[Caleb ConDoin]

I don't want this to turn into a "I hate FOE" spam topic. I just want to know if anyone shares my views and if they had enough modding expertise to get rid of mini-regions for people who don't like them.

[Muizer]

I don't want this to turn into a "I hate FOE" spam topic.

I didn't think you were. I'm just curious about your experiences.

[Clearchus of Sparta]

I didnt think the mini regions were capable of revolting/rebelling.

I believed the concept was to make the mini regions useful in cultural conversions of the neighbouring regions to make holding the major regions more easy. The major regions are deliberately more difficult. There are two type of major region and the regions involved are different depending on which faction you are playing.

Basically all regions start with a huge unrest penalty but this penalty is adjusted based upon certain factors. One of those factors is whether that region you are trying to hold is culturally similar or opposed to your factions on lifestlye. For example, SPQR will have less trouble holding Italian cities than say cities in Africa. It is not impossible to bring the regions under control, but requires more strategic planning. History is littered with revolts and rebellions and this is the experience we were trying to re-create.

FOE is trying to bring a new experience to the game otherwise there would be no point. The mini region concept is closely tied in with the game balance and the consequences of removing such a large part of the game would require some serious testing to ensure FOE remains playable in a different style.

From our point of view, we wanted to see if was possible to provide a mod that "felt" like a new game. We know we will never please everybody and we do take feedback seriously, especially when its constructive. FOE is deliberately designed to make the player adopt a different stlye of play to the usual RTW experience with more emphasis on the campaign.

[Carados]

I didnt think the mini regions were capable of revolting/rebelling.

They can at least rebel if the region is surrounded by other hostile ones and you remove the whole garrison after you've taken it.

[Tony83]

Personally, I think the Mini-Regions are one of the biggest successes of FOE, as they add a level of strategic difficulty unseen before in a RTW game. Now you can no longer sit behind your stone walls and wait for the enemy to come to you, with impunity, with FOE you have to defend your satellites to preserve your income, or take your enemies to hit theirs, pretty much as it would have been.

[Pat89]

I don't think it is realistically possible to remove the mini-regions... Not only would the economy be be seriously unbalanced, you also would have more problems taking the main cities because the mini-regions influnce on them in removed. Also things like the campaign progress and the entire map have been balanced with those mini-regions.

But if you really insist on removing the mini-regions, I think the easiest way is to transform them to major regions: (Though I very srongly advice to leave it as it is)

1. Open data\world\map\campaign\barbarian_invasion\descr_strat.txt
2. Make a back-up of this file (very important to always make back-up!)
3. replace all instances of "id_2" with "id_1"
4. Go to data\world\maps\base and remove the map.rwm file or
   Use the launcher to delete map.rwm (button in the centre bottom)

Should be doable I think...

[Caleb ConDoin]

Actually you guys made me see mini-regions in a new light before I focused on the negatives and it does add some flair and strategy to the game now that I think about it....

[Clearchus of Sparta]

Actually you guys made me see mini-regions in a new light before I focused on the negatives and it does add some flair and strategy to the game now that I think about it....

Actually, I'd be interested to see what did happen if you made the change Pat suggested above, although I suspect Rome Total Suicide wouldnt be half the fun FOE is .

To be fair, there are so many engine limits we would love to bust, that even bending the engine like FOE does, is quite an achievement. There are plenty of concept casualties even in FOE that either just didnt work alongside other ideas, or didnt work as expected.

[Pat89]

Actually, I'd be interested to see what did happen if you made the change Pat suggested above, although I suspect Rome Total Suicide wouldnt be half the fun FOE is .

Same here

There are plenty of concept casualties even in FOE that either just didnt work alongside other ideas, or didnt work as expected.

Or didn't work at all due to the limits...

[Arkaeyn]

Just cause something was in Empire Total War doesn't make it crap.

Er, right?

[Caligula Caesar]

In fact, the concept of miniregions is said to have been invented before we ever heard of anything like that in Empire

[Tony83]

It was indeed matey, if you were to trawl the archives of our forum you would find references to the embryonic form of the idea going back as far as three years - and that's only what I've seen. It seems to have been a classic case of "Great minds ... " etc.

[Arkaeyn]

There are other games which have used similar concepts. Heroes of Might and Magic had some towns which could never be upgraded to cities, for example.

[Pat89]

Metro Naval Mod also has different types of cities afaik... Some are allowed to have walls others aren't.