STEAM WORKSHOP
Compatible with 100% of other mods!
Requires a new campaign start!
DESCRIPTION
Does it annoy you that in your campaigns you never get to face the legions of Rome, having arrived at Italy only to find they've been destroyed by a minor faction early on...
Do you get upset that you never get to face the forces of Carthage, seeing that they've been destroyed by an African tribe a few turns in...
Do you want to play a campaign where you know you'll one day have to face the mighty hordes of the Suebi, that you'll always have to face a mighty Roman Empire and that you'll have to one day deal with Eygptian armies.
If you want to play a campaign where major factions remain alive, and aren't endlessly destroyed by the small minor nations that always seem to wipe them out early on, then this is the mod for you.
But Wait!, I hear you say, there are a million mods that try to make Rome strong with cash injections, stat boosts and countless mods that try to keep Carthage alive by weakening the African tribes.
How many mods can guarantee you will be able to face the major AI's you've always wanted to fight and see grow though? Just this one.
All other attempts either don't work, only work a short while or are unbalanced. Simply giving Rome a million gold for example doesn't work, and will only serve to screw up things like diplomacy and create issues with stack spam etc. and giving Roman troops insane stats unbalanced the whole campaign.
So what does this mod do?
Quite simply, it makes it impossible for a Major AI faction to be destroyed by a Minor AI faction, AI Rome can still be destroyed by AI Carthage however, as can all other Major AI factions be destroyed by other Major AI factions. Players actions are obviously totally uneffected, this only applies to the AI.
How it works?
Done via scripting this mod provides an autoresolve bonus (all AI battles are decided via autoresolve in a campaign FYI) to all Major AI factions if they are facing a minor AI faction. This means you'll achieve two things, a Major AI technically cannot be destroyed by a Minor AI (unless certain conditions), and the Major AI factions will likely expand and grow larger more easily.
There are a number of checks in place however to make sure this system doesn't become both visible to the player and too intrusive so as to spoil a campaigns flow or make it too predictable.
-If the player can see the battle on the campaign map, that is to say the two armies are within visiual range of the player, this system will not take effect and the battle will play out normally.
-If there are two opposing Major AI factions in a battle, the system will not take effect.
-If the player is involved in the battle, and autoresolves, the system will not take effect.
-If one of the factions involved in the battle is the players ally, the system will not take effect.
This may be too intrusive as is for some players, however the whole point of the system is that essentially anything can be happening in the Fog Of War anyway, so why not make sure the major factions survive in the meantime?
Customization Options
Settings
Optional - If you create a settings.txt file in your "Total War Rome II\data\campaigns\main_rome" folder you can specify certain customization options to the script. Simply place any of the following commands on a new line in the file to activate the setting:
DefensiveBattlesOnly - This will make it so that the script only works for major factions in defensive battles, not when they are offensive. This will if in effect help to limit the major factions growth, but will still keep them alive.
NoVisualRestriction - Enabling this option will remove the script feature that prevents the script working for any battle within the visual range of the player. If this option is in effect the script will work for all battles (excluding offensive battles if the above option is also supplied).
Custom Factions
Optional - If you create a factions.txt file in your "Total War Rome II\data\campaigns\main_rome" folder you can specify to the script the list of factions that will be considered "Major". Simply create the text file and input the following list into it, removing or adding the ID's of any factions you like, these are the ones currently used by default if no factions.txt file is found (all playable factions), you will need some modding knowledge to get the correct ID's for other factions:
rom_rome
rom_carthage
rom_roxolani
rom_massagetae
rom_scythia
rom_ptolemaics
rom_macedon
rom_baktria
rom_seleucid
rom_athens
rom_sparta
rom_epirus
rom_galatia
rom_nervii
rom_boii
rom_arverni
rom_parthia
rom_pontus
rom_iceni
rom_suebi
Error Logging
If you suspect something may not be working, you can check the log.txt file created by the script in the "Total War Rome II\data\campaigns\main_rome" folder.
Feedback highly appreciated, thanks.
~Mitch