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Thread: Blub Campaign Mod

  1. #1
    BLuBMuZ's Avatar Civis
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    Icon3 Blub Campaign Mod

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    Highlights




    • Reduced cost, squalor penalty and food consumption from all the buildings, some minor improvements here and there
    • Almost halved the research points
    • Improved agent chances and worsened AI/human chances
    • Increased armies and agents cap for the higher levels on Imperium
    • Unlimited edicts
    • Inceased loot income and decreased upgrade cost for conquered buildings
    • Improved Dilemmas and Incidents by increasig chances of positive and decreasing chances of negative, removed mad generals
    • Halved mercenaries upkeep and some variant to Roman units roster and military barracks and ports chains
    • Cavalry now moves like in Med2
    • Balanced ranged weapons and some stationary defensive weapon


    EDIT: I think i'm somehow neglecting this thread, just thought about it after finish to update to Emperor Edition
    The mod is dramatically changed as the game is in those months. I just kept the criteria which moved me to write this mod, added new ones and continously improved it.

    Now i need to found the time - and energy - to update this description to the new additions i made.

    Given the frequent patches and small updates i make, i prefer just give theSTEAM link
    Details

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Campaign




    Buildings and their Effects
    The key of my mod, together with technologies.

    • Cost reduced progressively from 10% for the cheaper to 30% for the most expensive.
    • Halved the squalor penalty in all the building but the military related
    • Eliminated the squalor penalty for all the farms and livestock and introduced a small subsistency bonus instead
    • Eliminated the squalor penalty for all the research buidings introduced a small culture bonus instead and doubled the research output af the Roman Forums and Temples of Minerva
    • Halved the food consumption from buildings, eliminated from research and water related buildings
    • Introduced a small culture spread bonus for all the Temples but the Nomads. Some already has it.
    • Extended the bonus for gold, wine and purple-dye from single Province to All the Provinces, but slightly reduced.



    Reflection: Rome created its Empire thanks to organization and technology, so:

    • For Rome made useless all the buidings for military training and armor/weapon improvement by assigning those tasks to the 2nd tier siege building (the ones of the first tire already give the base improvement) and anticipated the technology to unlock this building to engineering\ siege_improved_defensive_artillery
    • For Rome given to the Auxiliary barracks some improvement for archers and horses now accessible only to some Barb faction.
    • For Rome given to the military ports the improved hulls disposable only to the Ellenic factions

    I presume that similar changes can be applicable to the Ellenic factions too and I can do it upon request, possibly with some details. In terms of game balance I don't feel it's proper.
    In the end, Rome conquered all in history, so they has some advantage.


    Effects of Taxation
    Worsened the effect of taxation anger, but improved the effects on growth.
    The first to compensate – partially – the improvements on buildings, the latter to have a faster growth.


    Research
    We can finish a Campaign in some 100 turns and researching all the techs would need 445 in theory (considering 100% all the game). An average 200% between the start and the end of a campaign means over 200 turns to actually research all the techs. It doesn't makes sense!
    My aim is to reduce it to around 150 turns.
    Research points were progressively reduced from 30% to 55%, with an average reduction of 48%.
    Thus it should be possible to research all the techs before the end of a Campaign.
    I already cited in the buildings paragraph the only variation I made aside the above one: anticipated the 2nd tier siege building and the 4th tier Temple of Zeus to engineering\ siege_improved_defensive_artillery.


    Diplomacy
    Varied few values about the willing to accept/propose trade agreements, to ease those agreements both with the human and between AI.


    Difficulty Handicaps
    Changed the success chances of spies and agents. It should be easier for the human and very difficult for the AI. Between IA nothing changes. I tested extensively, but it's not easy because it still implies a random factor. AFAIK it works as intended.
    In any case, I suggest to always have a spy preceeding an invading army and have some more agent around.


    Attrition damages
    Very important. Since patch 3 is enough to pass through an attrition area – even in own territory – to have serious damages on the troops, even to completely lose units. Until now I haven't found a way to restore that damage only to an end turn in those areas – as it was before patch 3 – ro to reduce it.
    Thus I've set to zero that option, meaning that the attrition areas won't produce any effect.
    I also slightly reduced the siege attrition (both active and passive) and increased the homeless attrition.


    Campaign Variables

    • Increased some limits:
      • 20 armies at max level
      • + 1 agent (each kind) at max-1 and +2 agents at max
      • increased the number of edicts for any level, actually there're no limits

    • Added 1 reclutement point for Rome if choose Empire
    • Increased the income from looting a settlement on conquest: before you used almost all the gold from looting to repair the buildings. And you even needed to wait 1 turn before to convert them.
    • Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible to modify other conquest options.
    • Halved the cost and time to rebuild buildings of different cultures. My opinion is that a conquest must be a prize, not a burden. Anyway some charge remains, but it's more acceptable.

    To note that the Romans are particularly disadvantaged in this game, under this aspect: the only faction with same culture are the Etruscans, then to west and north of the Alps all are Celts or German and to the east most factions are Hellenistic.


    Dilemmas
    Premise: chances of event happens are very low. I for me, have seen really few in some 8 campaigns I played (not completed). So I doubled the chances of positive events a not touched the ones of the negatives, but one which I made impossible (roman surgeon, very annoying).


    Traits
    Not much here, there's already a good mod about that. I've just changed the script which made crazy all the Roman Generals.


    Incidents
    I should have eliminated all the disasters like earthquakes, pestilences and such and increased the chances of positive events.


    I hope to not have made mistakes on the above 3 points, being random tests won't help much.


    Agents
    Slightly increased the Campaign map movement for all the agents.


    Changed way of recruitement and upkeep costs for many units

    • First observation: in Rome 2 Rome has no archers, unless they conquer certain territories and build the appropriate building there. Historically wrong! Rome has archery units (well trained and equipped) like all the armies until gunpowder. I not bothered to create a new unit, so I used the Cretan Archers. They use a composite bow, like the real Roman Archers (I gathered informations) and they're close for culture... perfect. All the aux barracks will give to Rome Cretan archers.
    • All the Roman support ships now field Cretan archers insead of the useless Leves and Velites
    • The default recruitement unit is now Hastati or Legionaries, no more Leves
    • Modified many upkeep costs:
      • Mercenaries, now is around the 50% of the hire cost (before it was almost the same... crazy)
      • The upkeep cost is by default about the 20% of the recruitement cost, except for some few units for which it was too low and for some for which it was unreasonably high. I aligned it to units with similar recruitement cost.

    • After patch 5 there's no more reason to change the recruitement cap for some units. It's OK as is.
    • Ports: 4 are definitely much. 2 would be OK, 3 are still much, but we must live with that. To note that Barbs have 2 kind of ports, Easterners 3 and Hellenics 4 like the Romans. For now I changed only the Roman ones.
    • It's no more necessary to build the drydock chain, since I've set the units recruitable on the drydock to be recruitable on the small military port, with the same progression. The drydock remains, but becomes useless.



    Units stats
    I've only changed a few units because of some inconsistency.

    • Comparing i.e. an Equites with a Legionary Cavalry while upgrading you can see that they have the same stats or even some worse for the latter. This happens for many Roman units and the improvement in the armour doesn't compensate. Surely it's not worth the increased recruitement and upkeep costs and the upgrade cost. This is absurd, mainly if you compare with Rome 1.

    So I took Hastati and Equites as base units and improved the stats which needed to be for their replacements. Nothing too big, just a few points, to make things look good.


    If you report those same problems for other factions i'll gladly change their stats.



    • Increased ammo for Roman siege weapons: Romans were renowned for those weapons, while many factions here shoudn't even have them. This is the minimum.
    • Eliminated the “pilum-like” behaviour from many melee units. AFAIK only the Romans used this tactic. I left it to the axemen and hillmen, which is reasonable to presume used some little axe to throw to the enemy.



    Armed Citizenry
    I changed all the units like Roman Plebs or Roman Leves with next tier units, like Spears or Velites (or similar according to faction). For Romans I changed Roman Plebs with Equites, because i've seen that almost all the factions have by default a mounted unit in the garrison army.


    Experience for Generals, Armies and units
    I reduced the experience points needed to gain promotions. I doesn't make sense to have 9 levels for a General if he dies of age before arrive to 5 even if he fights and win every 3 turns.
    Same for Armies and Fleets: even if they don't die by age, they won't NEVER arrive to the 9th level. Now thay can do it!
    Small adjustements for agents, only the higher levels.
    About halved the XP needed for land units and another half (around 25%) for naval units.


    Battle


    Battle units
    Small adjustements for few units but increased appreciably all the mounted.
    Important change: now cavalry runs roughly like in Med2 respect to infantry.


    Projectiles
    Very important factor. I gathered informations ed actually slingers has a longer range than bows.
    I needed to consider also some balance factor, at first that they're a base unit for many factions and that they're very cheap, so:

    • Increased the range for all the bows, in the order: composite, curve, long, normal. Please note that the longbows here are not the same for which the English were famed, nor the composites were the same use by the Mongols.
    • Reduced the range for slingers. Storically inaccurate, but see above
    • slightly increased the javelins range, only for game balancing
    • reduced range and damage of Scorpions
    • reduced widely range and damage of the Scorpion Towers and similar, definitely OP
    • increased slightly the reload time for the flaming arrows
    • reduced widely reload time and damage for the boiling oil and reduced the incediary damage from “vert high” to “high”.



    Nothing more for now. I hope you enjoy this mod!
    Last edited by BLuBMuZ; September 21, 2014 at 07:19 AM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Looks really interesting! I'll load it up and give it a try!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    When i click on attachment, just the new window with white pixel in middle load up. How do i download this mod?

  4. #4

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Quote Originally Posted by mmarekk11 View Post
    When i click on attachment, just the new window with white pixel in middle load up. How do i download this mod?
    Press ctrl + F5 repeatedly on that window until the download appears.

    Your mod looks interesting, btw ^^ nice job!

  5. #5

  6. #6
    BLuBMuZ's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzkrieg80 View Post
    I dig the name :O)
    Blub it's me
    Quote Originally Posted by mmarekk11 View Post
    When i click on attachment, just the new window with white pixel in middle load up. How do i download this mod?
    I uploaded my mod here because this is the habit, but it's now pointless with the new Steam Mod Manager.
    I think that we can just advertise our mods here if we have them on Steam.

    I think it's a problem related with the server.
    Last edited by BLuBMuZ; October 22, 2013 at 03:05 PM.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Blub - interesting mod. I'll hold off installing though until after CA finish their patching of the vanilla game. I suspect CA allowed modding to take place so soon after release of game to allow people to try out different values for variables to see how that affected the game. (IE do their development for them.) One issue I would have with your mod is the assumption that people want to rush through a campaign in 100 turns. So I'd prolly want to change the technology research times amongst other things. I prefer a more leisurely approach to my games - I got to AD199 on an Iceni campaign using patches 1-4. Didn't meeet any of the victory conditions mainly as I refused to sack perfectly good settlements.

  8. #8
    BLuBMuZ's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Quote Originally Posted by Used2BRoz View Post
    Blub - interesting mod. I'll hold off installing though until after CA finish their patching of the vanilla game. I suspect CA allowed modding to take place so soon after release of game to allow people to try out different values for variables to see how that affected the game. (IE do their development for them.) One issue I would have with your mod is the assumption that people want to rush through a campaign in 100 turns. So I'd prolly want to change the technology research times amongst other things. I prefer a more leisurely approach to my games - I got to AD199 on an Iceni campaign using patches 1-4. Didn't meeet any of the victory conditions mainly as I refused to sack perfectly good settlements.
    The 100 turns i needed to win as Rome in my first campaign (actually second, the first was some 20 turns to see how it works) are not due to my mod. I probably made a few changes here and there, but not so deep as i did in this version.

    I presume that being so fast is an habit acquired playing Civilization 4 for the CFC HoF and other competitions where - basically - only a fast finish count. Thus my style with any game is to move fast, mainly in the opening. A good and fast opening creates a snow ball effect which affects all the game.
    I know that this is not the best approach to fully enjoy a game, but i'm afraid this is stronger than me.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    BLuBMuZ- Really enjoying this mod - all seems nicely balanced and suits my style of play. Well done!!

  10. #10

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    BLuBMuZ - are you going to be updating your mod for Patch 7? I've really become addicted to it!

  11. #11
    BLuBMuZ's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Quote Originally Posted by WilliVonBill View Post
    BLuBMuZ - are you going to be updating your mod for Patch 7? I've really become addicted to it!
    Just uploaded!
    Thanks for you comment.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Quote Originally Posted by BLuBMuZ View Post
    Just uploaded!
    Thanks for you comment.
    You, sir, ROCK!

  13. #13

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Hi! Loading screen=crash, with(no conflicts) or without other mods. Patch 7, all DLCs. Any idea? Really want to try.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Quote Originally Posted by Kulivlad View Post
    Hi! Loading screen=crash, with(no conflicts) or without other mods. Patch 7, all DLCs. Any idea? Really want to try.
    Did you download from the link in the first post or did you subscribe through Steam Workshop? Don't know if the linked version in first post has been updated or not, but I'm using the updated version from Steam Workshop without any problems.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    Yes. You are right! First post: "Last edited by BLuBMuZ; October 22, 2013 at 02:09 AM." Steam version works OK now. Thanks!

  16. #16
    BLuBMuZ's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    For all interested, i just uploaded the updated mod to patch 8.1, with some nice addition: the Eagle is back in the main screen, some script changes and much more, mostly focused on Rome and Hellenics factions.

    I'd better remove the download link on the first post, better use Steam, so you're sure to be up to date.

  17. #17
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    Default Re: Blub Campaign Mod

    I almost forgot about this thread, time to bring it back to life. Link to Steam provided in the first post, fully compatible with EE.

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