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Thread: NEW! SSHIP ver. 0.98 - March 27th, 2024 - DOWNLOAD HERE

  1. #1

    Icon4 Plans and ideas

    Plans and ideas - also requests for help from fellow modders: for minimods or other work



    How to help us in developing the mod:
    - write descriptions for the Piazza del Duomo - see here - some historical orientation in the Medieval Italy required.
    - re-write description for the Agriculture (Farms) - there's 7 levels, and they should differe between cultures. - some historical orientation in the Medieval economy would be welcome.
    - make a proof-reading of many buildings (in the export_buildings.txt) - no need for coding skills, just native-speaking.
    - re-code and re-draft the Provicial Titles' ancillaries (only 1/3 is done as for now) - laborious, good command of English needed, but comparatively easy in coding, as the Ancillaries are easy.
    - replace the all-factions ancillaries for the ME culture with the Muslim ones. They may be re-used from the Broken Crescent, or just copied with another pic-face (eg. Medic, Musician, ...) - easy in coding, as the Ancillaries are easy.
    - review and analyse triggers for the "great people ancillaries" (list if these is in the campaign_scipt.txt) - easy in coding, as the Ancillaries are easy.
    - draft the texts and the code for the Conqueror mechanism for other cities - easy in coding, but good orienation in Medieval history needed.
    - copy and adjust "Fire" scripts for the other unique buildings (for now, they're coded for 4, but we've got another 10+ possible for coding) - not so much coding skills necessary as it it a replication of the existing code. Good starting point to get orientation in how the script works.
    - upload saves from the games you've played.
    - we need somebody to manage the mod's website on the Moddb forum. It'd also be good to make an updated presentation of the mod on that forum, mainly by coping and editing stuff from the TWC webpage to the Moddb - good knowledge of the mod required ;-)

    NEEDED: MODDERS & MINIMODS
    Modders' work we need but in the team we've got nobody to do it:
    - strategy map elements: importing some interesting stuff from the other mods we have permission from, eg. on resources' models.
    - replacing graphical elements of a faction with one from another mod (ie Rum).
    - replacing one faction with another one (and creating of that one: Suzdal-Volodymyr).

    Ideas for fancy minimods if anybody would fancy:
    - unique settlements on the campaign map - perhaps for Sin_ , provided he keeps up the heat;
    - turning Almoravids into horde and re-making them to be Almohads (assets are already available in the base Stainless Steel mod);
    - mechanisms to merge factions into one (Aragon-Castille-Portugal, Poland-Lithuania, Denmark-Norway) - similar to the Hispania in the Middle Ages or DAC5 mods (disputable, as it is not possible with limit of 31 factions but we are not going to turn the mod into IWTE project).
    - adding 2nd tier crowns as foreseen here.

    TO DO LIST

    Continuous work
    - impovements to the units (kostic work).
    - AI and diplomacy mechanisms (Macaras work).
    - technical improvements and bug-hunting (Belovese improvements)
    - factions' historical evolution - now each faction has own part in the script.txt and we code historical events that impact on the game.
    - balancing parameters of the game, especially the amounts of money available for various factions. Continous work.
    - re-touching icons and pics of the buildings that are in-game.


    (I) Near future

    (x) Buildings that are in some advanced state of preparation:
    - new St Sepulchre - the pics are prepared, but I need to draft desciptions.
    - the Pfalz building for HRR - pics are ready, code is not.
    - descriptions of the buildings that do not have those (Var, Gniezno) should be drafted - if there's somebody willing to contribute, just write descriptions and I'll introduce them.

    (x) Recruitment
    - irregularities in recruitment from the Castle Barracs, the Stables and upper levels of Ranges - this needs to be further worked on, they were unfinished, in contrast to the City Barracs that are quite comprehensively re-coded. This is a continous work, recently (July 2023) barracks and ranges for Georgia and Byzantium were reviewed and adjusted.
    - the mercenary recruitment should be further worked on, perhaps along with a review of the rosters and making of the AoR units.
    - review of the Muslim Landowners' recruitment.

    (x) Traits
    - traits of the admirals need to be recoded in the EDCT so that no trait is given right after the creation of the ship, but it is only after the first battle. This will enable merging new ships into the existing fleets without a need that already existing ships are docked in a port right when a new ships is built.


    (II) In the medium term


    (x) Buildings:
    - regional buildings for a few factions that still do not have own: Turbe for the Muslim factions.
    - pagan temples - all LT will be merged into one building line, and the Tengir will be the same for both castles and cities.

    (x) The aggressivity system - based on some reports, it does not work at times or maybe it doesn't work at all. To be worked on, along work on the AI and diplomacy.

    (x) The Mongols
    - recently we've seen in the games that they behave quite easonably on the map - take over large sweaths in 13c, but they stop where they should.
    - a few mechanisms to make the player's life easier were already introduced: (1) the AI / diplomaciy have been adjusted, (2) availability of the troops from the Landowners buildings, (3) massive uprisings once they expand beyond 30 settlements.
    - futher work is needed: (A) their invasions should be recoded according to the plan, lowering the number of armies and letting them invade territories more away from the player (eg. if the player is Kiev, then more Mongols go to the Near East, if he is the Turks, the Mongols armies go rather to Russia), (B) possibly review of the units: stats, availability, names etc.

    (x) The princesses
    - remake of the traits: list of the traits, and the triggers as the NoGoingBack bug still lingers in this part.
    - review of the script giving the player possibilities to marry princesses with foreign bloodlines (if it's needed - not sure about it).

    (x) The political system
    - review of the policies of the FL - there're seven, they do work but a review may show when they don't.
    - review of the FL traits to get rid of one sources of crashes due to BecomesFactionLeader bug.
    - review of the civil wars mechanisms - it works now, but it should be reviewed, and eg. switching off the system once the player has a large faction.
    - the loyalty / authority system (including Regent - Usurper - Civil war) - need deep analysis and revamp, also analysis how it works along the Next Heir system. Currently, the Next Heir works pretty well, so this is not a pressing task, even if this system is / should be the jewel of the SSHIP.

    (x) Automatic garrisons
    - it has been reported that the AI factions may collapse while the player / another faction undertake a raid behind the lines - this would require introduction of automatic garrisons (ie appearing once a settlement is attacked, but disappearing afterwards). Not difficult to be introduced, as many mods have it, but it'll require devoting like 4 units to this end, and some work of @kostic, then myself.
    - four units to be prepared by kostic.
    - coding of the script.

    (x) Military Orders
    - the list of units that are (or should be) recruited at the Military Orders' building will be reviewed, the numbers adjusted.
    - the related traits and ancillaries should be reviewed.

    (x) Map changes
    - moving settlements - in a few cases the capital settlements could be moved and the borders adjusted.
    - possibly: replacing certain provinces with those more needed.
    - borders of provinces need to be adjusted when issues are spotted.

    (x) Debt mechanism adjustments - if decided so.


    (III) Long-term projects

    (x) Buildings
    - many buildings that are currently in the mod are planned to be modified in one or the other way (22 are slated for deletion or fusion with another, recoding, more levels, different icons etc).
    - the guilds - they are vanilla and easily obtainable, plus the bugs in the vanilla coding have been identified. Like 5 years ago I've made a blueprint to remake them, but haven't prioritised it since.
    - the artillery buildings - fusion of various building chains into one or two.

    (x) Units
    - a thorough analysis of rosters in conjunction with the historical evolution of factions' events, with significant changes that will lead us away from the base Stainless Steel system.
    - thorough analysis and review of the stats of units - comparisons of similar units, adjustments.
    - more units will be made AoR (available in particular territories but for all factions) - @kostic is constantly working.
    - descriptions of the units updated - they are being updated constantly, but this is a vast task (500 units!) plus needs also cross-checking for consistency.

    (x) Traits
    - certain categories need to be further worked on (health, psychology of generals). The overall goal would be to limit their numbers.
    - probabilities of traits gained after battles should be adjusted to the situation when there're fewer battles over a lifespan of a general.
    - assassins - reported to be too powerful in the Middle East, killing off entire armies (reported by one player, to be verified).

    (x) Ancillaries
    - Provincial Titles - they work (all 199) but only one-third has been reviewed, names adjusted, new texts included etc. - it should be done for the other two-thirds, time permitting.
    - unique ancillaries - they need to be reviewed and adjusted. One may also introduce the set for 14th. century we got from a Tsardoms modder.

    (x) A project: Religion and conversion
    - priests / cardinal / (anti) pope system might be analysed how does it work now.
    - the Orthodox Patriarch introduced by VineFynn in 2019 should be analysed as well.
    - adjustments in conversion speeds analysed.

    (x) A project: Education remastered
    - education is quite fleshed-out part of the mod, so there's no pressing need for further work. But I've got ideas.
    - merging schools and libraries into one building chain;
    - introducing separate building line for Schools for the Muslim - then introducting script removing the non-own-religion buildings (but: the Orthodox and the Catholix share the same schools, so it cannot be done through temple_ prefix, but through the script). This needs, however, to be analysed: should Bait al-Hikhma be instantly destroyed if the player conquers Baghdad, or should it be left for his decision?
    - possibly introducing new unique buildings into those chains: univesities in Paris, Bologna, Constantinople; if there'll be separate building chains then also Fes, Kairouan, Corduba, Salerno.
    - remake of the triggers for traits and for ancillaries (books!) to take both changes into account. Quite an extensive work.


    (IV) In the end-phase:
    - a script giving a player a choice to require a general present in the settlement to initiate building/recruitment (similar to those present in SS-BGR or BC-BS mods). It will not make turn-times longer, but should be implemented after all new ideas are encoded in the "Provinces" script.


    Post-1.0 theoretical projects:
    - the siege system - remaking traits to make a new system, as discussed a few years ago.
    - enable High and Late eras (1236, 1390) - changes in factions and map will be necessary.
    - add religions - Shiia, possibly also Tengir.
    - religion script - enabling Lithuania to change its religion (iirc, it is in Broken Crescent).

    COMLAINTS AND REQUESTS FROM THE PLAYERS

    Quote Originally Posted by QKuhlmann View Post
    Diplomacy mechanics on vh: There is a point system with with reputation-penalties for aggressive explained in a popup-window. I like that too but could not find a possibility to look at my standings. It would be good to have a king's trait to add more transparency. Could not restore my reputation from "dubious" though.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    The mod is still doing that incredibly annoying thing where I sally forth successfully, yet my "camp" gets looted, implying that I've lost the siege and my settlement has been sacked when it clearly hasn't been.
    How poweful are the assassins
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Quote Originally Posted by JB59114 View Post
    Playing with the june version as the fatimids.
    Noticed that you can recruit a lot of assassin early on.
    Unfortunalty all of the muslim faction (zengids, abbasids even the seljuks who are my allies) have begun to target me specifically.
    Evrery turn my settlements are sabotaged, cost me almost 9k per turn to repair every building, almost unplayable.
    I know that the muslim world was very unstable for this time period and the assassin could represent the influence the hassassin had at the time.
    But imo, we should reduce the availabilty of this type of agent for the reason I evoked.
    Quote Originally Posted by Mev View Post
    I love the mod, especially the slowness of it. Having to take your time to build everything instead of bumrushing every thing as fast as possible.
    Assassins are outrageously powerful though; i can just cripple entire armies by taking out their commander, and the same has happened to me. I just lost 3 of my family members who were administering cities in 2 turns to some 4 star assassins. How am i supposed to lead armies if all my generals get killed off?
    Quote Originally Posted by William the Silent View Post
    The real issue with the assassins is, I believe, that they survive their attempt far too often. So with 4 assassins you can attack 3 turns sometimes.
    And 4 assassins with chance of only 10% (1 in 10 chance) have 12 tries: that is almost for sure a succesful hit.
    I've killed many generals like that. It's like using a drone swarm.


    Disband mercenaries due to debt consequences
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Quote Originally Posted by Jurand of Cracow View Post
    Descriptions of the units (and traits and ancillaries) are created by hand, so they have no relation to the coded tags. Many are still from the base Stainless Steel. The tag "mercenary_unit" is visible only in the EDB file.
    The issue you're signalling is an important one. We need to think about it in the team. Thanks, it's exactly what we're looking for in playtesting - to tell what's not discernible by the modders (btw, this was also the case with the vassals - something that looked liked a good mechanism turned out to be an exploit of the player at best).
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    What is the tag or distinction that determines who doesn't get disbanded? "Peasant militia" would seem to be exactly the sort of thing that isn't disbanded, which is why it didn't make sense to me when they all vanished. Is the description incorrect? On the other hand, some of the units that are legit mercenaries were not disbanded - various types of ranged units for example.
    9 times out of 10 when my mercenaries disband, it's because my king has died. There's a massive expense for the new king, unrest raises and subsequently drops income in an unpredictable way, and even though I'm making money, I just barely fail to climb out of debt by the next turn. Once the mercs disband, the already high unrest goes through the roof, and it's basically game over. Thanks for considering a change; it'll address a major Death by RNG issue.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jurand of Cracow View Post
    ad.1 - due to a certain mechanics in the Med2 engine (you don't need to make 30 versions of the same unit, what is laborious and we've got plenty units that would require this work which is done by @kostic - and thanks him for this work ;-), they have the attribute. However, they're recruited from the barracks as they are just peasants called to the arms - then it's no. Making them pure mecenaries (ie recruited from land) is excluded because it'd be ahistorical. All in all, the current system is a compromise. I think it depends how do define "mercenaries". In the Med2 engine terms - recruited instantly in the land, not from a building.
    ad.2,3 - the current way consists of systematic warnings (for both being below 1000, and below 0), and of possibility to go into debt for 1 turn. It was considered as a kind of alternative of a more extreme way - once you are in debt, your mercenaries disband. Having a threshold not 0, but -10000 is possible, and actually easy to code, but it was decided to follow 0 as it is easy to grasp for the players. There's a few warnings for the player that 0 is really 0, he should be aware of the consequences:
    {INFO_WARNING_MERCENARIES_BODY}\n If your treasury runs empty, (most of) the sell swords will abandon you! \n\nOne turn before your mercenaries disband, you will receive a warning. You have to get out of the red immediately. Otherwise, some of the units that you have recruited as mercenaries will indeed abandon you. Even if you had not recruited mercernaries, some of your the units recruited in a "normal" way serve as mercenaries and these will abandon you as well.\n\nThe bottom line: given that there are often unforeseen additional expenses (e.g. weddings, adoptions, funerals), you should always have a few thousands florins sitting in your treasury at the end of turn. Running on deficit can also cause your generals to develop bad traits such as Mean with Money, and morale of your troops will not recover.
    {INFO_WARNING_MERCENARIES_TITLE}Soldiers Serve for Money!
    {WARNING_DEBT_BODY}My Lord, the situation is most dire! If our coffers run empty, some of our troops will abandon us. In addition, our generals are likely to develop unwelcome traits if they are forced to govern and lead without the necessary funds to do so properly. \n\nTo prevent this from happening, you may raise taxes in the cities, set administratively-minded generals as governors (this will increase revenues), or strike profitable deals with other factions. You should also check your expenses and consider cutting some of them. For example, you may disband some units or cancel recruitment, or you may cancel ongoing building projects, even though this will result in some net loses (you'll get back less money than you've paid). \n\nThe most important point to remember is that armies abroad create significant costs – on the move, at sea, and while besieging. Check your generals' traits to find out how much you are paying for foreign expeditions. Recalling armies home will cancel these costs. \n\nRemember, it is always advisable to have a few thousand florins in your treasury in case you are offered a guild, an interactive event occurs, or rebels show up, forcing you to recruit some troops. Some events (e.g. a new general coming of age, a marriage) may also empty your coffers rather unexpectedly.
    {WARNING_DEBT_TITLE}Impending Debt!
    {MERCENARIES_COMPLAIN_BODY}\n\nMy Lord, due to our treasury's dwindling reserves, our hired mercenaries have begun to complain that their wages are not being paid on time. We must resolve our financial issues at once, or the situation may grow worse still...\n\nWarning: if you do not get out of debt this turn, all of your mercenary units will disband on the following turn.
    {MERCENARIES_COMPLAIN_TITLE}Our mercenaries need payment!
    Nevertheless, it doesn mean we cannot go for another threashold, like 2000 or 5000? To allow the player a situation when he cannot recruit anybody anomore but still retain all his troops. The longer I think about it, the more positive I am. Given that it's possible to plunge into debet just because a new general come of age, or that 5000 for the crown is untenable, or any unforeseen even happened, and given your, @Gaku, arguments (the mercenaries are usually paid in the first round, it's rather other expensens that are left unpaid), I'd allow for a lower threashold.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    1. Do the Saxons count as mercenaries then? If so, can they get stats suitable for mercs rather than peasant militia?
    2/3. They weren't waiting at all, because they got paid both turns that the nation is in debt. The merc upkeep is paid whether you are in debt or not, as is the unit upkeep for all units while you're in debt. The nation being in debt has no bearing on whether they are paid.
    So in effect, they got paid both times, and I could have continued paying them, but they disbanded anyway for reasons other than not getting paid?
    Alternatively, if the mercs are supposedly not being paid while I'm in debt, then I should be reimbursed 100% of the upkeep costs of all mercs when I go into debt. which will not only allow me to come out of debt faster/easier to thereafter continue paying them, but also put the game into line with what is being claimed.
    In reality, the mechanic should be changed. I get that you want to punish players for going negative, but the reasoning behind this event is nothing besides showing the player a middle finger. being 1000 florins in debt causes 15000 florins worth of mercs (who would have continued getting paid regardless) to disband simultaneously. Why? because reasons.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jurand of Cracow View Post
    1. types of units that get disbanded... yes, this is just byproduct of using the mercenary_unit attribute for other reasons. And the Magyar Cavalry uses this attribute, while the Nobles don't. Should probably be better explained, maybe better coded. It's one of the consequences of having not enough modders, and too many hardcoded limits :-(
    2. consequences of debt - you're warned before hand, it was enough to disband a knightly unit in this case. The mercs were wating for the whole year (2 turns) for their money, no wonder they dispersed.
    3. the threshold - there's already one - it's 0 florins.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    All of my Saxons, which are supposedly "peasant militia", disbanded along with the "mercenaries". As did my Magyar Cavalry, which are the backbone of my army and take an eternity to recruit. Wait, hold up... My Magyar Cavalry disbanded as "mercenaries", but my Magyar Nobles didn't? Is that intentional? If so, why did all of my other elite troops disband? In any case, my army is gone, and I'm surrounded by OP warmongering scumbags.
    This feels like being hit with an overdraft fee by the bank for being 35 cents in the red, except they foreclose your mortgage, repossess your car, and shoot your dog while they're at it.
    Instead of losing your mercs for being in the red for 2 turns, it should be based on a threshold - maybe 10,000 florins. Even if you're in the red, the fact that you're paying back your debt means the mercs are actively being paid. So whether you're in debt or not should have no bearing on the mercs until you reach some critical limit.



    Last edited by Jurand of Cracow; March 23, 2024 at 04:24 AM.
    Belovèse's Toolbox: export text files to spreadsheet, detailed unit stats
    Stainless Steel Historical Improvement Project (SSHIP) team member.
    Mini-mods: diplomacy and relation/reputation - detailled unit stats

  2. #2

    Icon4 Opinions and Reviews

    Opinions and Reviews



    This is a part reporting on the experience from playing the 0.98 versions of the SSHIP mod. There were two major releases in 2022: April and September, and two in 2023: June and August.
    Mind that many issues reported in 2022 have been fixed. In particular, for the 2023 version there's the Next Heir option that (should) solve the Regent / Civil Wars issues. Also the Mongols should be tamed through the changes to the AI, decreased recruitment pools (basically, only in the steppes), and a special script prompting major upheavals once they are a big empire.
    If you have played a game with the mod, leave here your opinion!

    Quote Originally Posted by dnzunlu View Post
    Nice, man. I wouldn't bother writing feedback if there wasn't such a cool dev team taking time to really listen to feedbacks. Keep doing ya thing.
    Quote Originally Posted by helmersen View Post
    I just wanted to say that I went into this mod a bit skeptical due to the scripts that may or may not have been fun, and because I was so used to the original Stainless Steel version. But I have to say, you guys have exceeded my expectations, and BECAUSE of the amazing scripts, events, new buildings, difficulty modifiers, units, factions, the new map, etc etc, it's like I'm discovering Medieval 2 all over again. It's a fantastic mod that just does so much right, and even though I really miss the presence of forts (I love putting them down), I understand the reason for their removal (although an option would have been nice). In summation, I just wanted to thank the modders and team members for your work - this truly is an inspiring mod and shows what Medieval 2 really should have been. Huzzah!
    OPINIONS on the 2023 version

    Quote Originally Posted by adeperry View Post
    Hi, I'd like to put on record my very extensive thanks to all who have contributed to this brilliant mod. I've been playing M2TW since it came out on CD ! Played SSR for absolutely ages, then moved on. For reasons unknown, looked at the M2TW forums a couple of months agos and stumbled on this. Downloaded it - and haven't stopped playing it since.
    Initially, noodled around with various factions for a few turns to get a feel of units and buildings. Started a France campaign intending to make a go of it. Rushed to the ports in my normal way with a large army. A few turns later the shattered army staggered back to the stagnate Paris, to beg on the streets within a ruined economy. And I loved it ! SSR never whooped me that bad!
    It has totally re-invigorated, re-ignited my love of this game. You have all done a FANTASTIC job. Thank you.
    Quote Originally Posted by XinoFumeiro View Post
    I never thought I'd say this after playing Hearts of Iron 2, but this might well be the best game I've ever played. I ignore the amount of hours I've spent on it, but no matter what other games I try, I always seem to get back to this. Well done guys for making the most addictive and realistic game I've played in my life.
    Quote Originally Posted by William the Silent View Post
    I am enjoying this mod very well. Except for the CTD's mostly on the Independent Sovereignties, but untill now I've always been able to move on to the next turn by trying several times or making a restart.
    How to stay in the Popes favor is hard to understand sometimes. I once had 7 favor points; I got attacked by HRE with 7 favor points too; I destroy all of there armies on my terratory, but I get repremanded by the Pope and end with 3 favor points, while HRE still has 5. And the Pope was from my faction.
    The only reason I can come up with is that I was allied with Pisa that had 2 favor points.
    Assassins are great tools to get rid of Inquisitors and foreign generals. I attack my target with 6 and end up killing the target in about two turns.
    The Assassins do not die very often if you miss your target. So you have more chances.
    For killing prisoners you get punished in the mod, by losing your Crusader Units. But terror was also used to prevent enemies to come back or rebellions to reappear. For remaining peace.
    William the conqueror once had prisoners from a rebellion mutilated as a warning.
    I tried it on the RHE in this mod, but it doesn't have any effect, because they keep coming back for more after every defeat and punishment

    Looking forward to more developments.Great Mod.
    Quote Originally Posted by tomberry View Post
    Great experience so far. Turn 210.
    I restarted the Denmark campaign and took care of my reputation and its a completely different game.
    Rep is everything! Especially when you are small.
    After beating Norway, the HRR betrayed me again, but this time I was prepared.
    After 5 crushing defeats at the walls of Ribe they got excommunicated and my best buddy the pope called a crusade against Frankfurt
    With whole Europe against them, they fell apart very quickly and I had time to build and develop.
    Now Im trying to get my King crowned and have conquered all necessary provinces.
    Quote Originally Posted by beermugcarl View Post
    It was the June version 2023 version.
    That in part is why I chose to play on H/H. I hadn't played medieval 2, especially not modified versions of the game in a long time.
    And honestly, this version of the game is quite damn difficult. H is slightly too easy, but VH is very punishing. Took multiple restarts to develop a good "opening" strategy. For instance, on the second England playthrough, I found ignoring Scotland and Ireland made my life so much easier. Whilst in the first one, I lost the chance to beat up a weak and small france, and now every war is a horrible slog with a France spamming the "feudal" units at me.
    Maybe that's a good level of balance though, I couldn't just jump in on VH and have success. I had to restart and develop a better plan.
    Quote Originally Posted by vovery View Post
    4. On population growth in general: I like the changes made from the September to May version. Building up Norwegian cities and castles is now a lot slower, and requires good chivalrous generals. On the other hand, Norwegian castles are now very hard to grow, at turn 70 Bergvin has only about 3700 people and Skara only 1600. For comparison, Anslo (made it the capital on turn 1) is currently at 9300. Lund, which Kong Magnus took from Denmark at year 1159 or 1160, boasted a population of almost 14 000 by the time of the Battle of the two Magnus'. Sigtuna sits at 2700 something, as it has been of lower priority, and has thus been governed by the not-so-great administrator Burislev.
    5. I actually enjoy a lot that the Jarl's aid isn't working in this version! It makes Norway much more challenging; you have to plan your campaigns very carefully. I now think the Jarl's aid would make it too easy for myself. Would it be possible to have the small faction aid optionable, or turned off for the player? I started a Lithuania save before this Norway save, but got a bit bored as money was pouring in so much after taking only Hrodna and Riga. Or perhaps make the aid faction-specific, like for example Portugal might need the help even when played by the human?
    6. The Stavkirke is a nice building to have especially for conquered cities, as it helps with public order. I was however pondering, whether the Stavkirke building line should replace the regular church building line altogether for Norwegian settlements, as it feels a bit funny to have two churches even in small towns :-)
    Quote Originally Posted by PishPosh View Post
    When I first played Medieval 2, I played on hard/hard difficulty. I won generally won it and was confident enough to try hard on SSHIP. Granted I'm still probably new but I trust my gut.
    Turn 330 my neighbours have expanded to such a degree that they are spamming stacks of Feudal Knights at me, and all my alliances fell apart despite high reputation. Battles are exceedingly difficult and I rely purely on cavalry as the Hard battle difficulty means that Enemy Heavy Infantry will always win in a melee. It doesn't help that the bulk of my forces are militias and levy, unable to really field armies of troops higher quality than professional due to my many enemies and the need to spread forces thin to cover them all.
    If I can't change the difficulty mid-campaign, are there any tips for my painful HRE campaign? Should I start going on offensives by now.
    Quote Originally Posted by eyelurker View Post
    If there is one thing i like about SSHIP is definitely the economy and building. Increasing your economy is still tied to which one give me the most money(mostly Roads and Trade fleet in a good trade hub)but building something like Market actually increase your economy and not like vanilla where you question why 75% of building are something that you will never build.
    The only sad thing is as much as i enjoy building in SSHIP the tavern still suck.
    Edit : I forgot the most important about the economy. The army budget and economy are actually well balanced with expensive army, limited budget and slow expansion compensated with high income. I find the game less fun if the economy forced you to expand which this mod didn't do.
    Quote Originally Posted by romulus_aeneas View Post
    Probably one of the best campaigns in Medieval 2 Total War and its mods. For any lurkers wondering why to play this faction in SSHIP: as the Abbasids youÂ’ll spend the first 175 turns surviving against overwhelming odds to restore the caliphate as the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and the Levant against a diverse set of enemies including the Seljuk empire, the Zengids, the Fatimids, Georgia, the Sultante of Rum, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Byzantium (and thatÂ’s just by turn 175 and not including the myriad of Crusader armies youÂ’ll encounter). Then the real fun begins. As you finally get your feet underneath you, the Mongols arrive. This is one of the few campaigns in any total war campaign that maintains its intensity through 300+ turns. There is no reprieve. You will not find yourself bored after 100 turns when you control Iraq and Syria thinking the snowballing is about to begin, because to your west is a resurgent Byzantium stronger than you with the nomadic threat from the east still to come. What a wonderful campaign. Cheers to everyone who contributed to this projectÂ’s development and this campaign in particular. A complete joy.
    Quote Originally Posted by Djangoo View Post
    I am just here to say thank you for keeping the game and the mod alive.
    It is amazing what you have done with the mechanics given.
    Real compliment to the AI. I played first time VH/H Byzantine Empire and the AI was extremly agressive on all fronts. They did coordinated backstabbing attacks, but they never felt unfair. They gave up when I slowed down the agression and just castled for a while., they would accept peace and only attack me again 10 years later when they build up again and often attack where I pulled away my forces.
    I was in constant war with the turks on the east, now they are finally gone (im turn 220), Serbia was backstabbing me from turn 1 but I can not beat them, I was able to get alliances with HRE and by trading regions I was able to secure peace on the western part of the border.
    Hungary was a problem until they became Vassals of HRE, now they are peaceful. My biggest rival are the crusader states now (above me in power). I am at 24 regions, crowned, survived a civil war and probaly stop if I manage to get Jerusalem.
    btw I recently played for the first time a paradox game, CK3 and this mod felt more immersive to me than a Paradox Grand Strategy game.
    Diplomacy in CK3 is ridicilous and Alliances are overpowered (allies sailing all over the world for your ittle claim with all the militeary forces). Also character traits in CK3 seems to be entirely genetics/education, here in this mod your actions really matter. Really a shame about the hardcoded family limitations.
    if you are interested in that little rant: https://www.reddit.com/r/ck3/comment...diplomacy_ck3/
    So for me this mod is more immersive than CK3 a GRAND STRATEGY game, I think this is a compliment.
    Quote Originally Posted by Timotheus View Post
    I am still playing my first campaign and I've to say: WOW what an awesome mod! I LOVE IT, you really caught the feeling of brutal medieval age, I play as Hungary because Kingdom Come: Deliverance inspired me to play as the hungarians. It is an challenge!

    OPINIONS on the 2022 versions

    Quote Originally Posted by Waluk View Post
    Hey all, this version is really great. Started with HRE, since this is the faction I know the most. Played for 200 turns without a single crash. I love all the changes so far. As HRE you get enough diplomats, so you can actually cover most of your lands. A bit harder to get assassins, but that's better IMO. The amount of agents is perfect so far. By turn 200 the map is still 90% historical. The new icons are amazing, had to get used to them for awhile, but they are crisp and reveal greatly what the unit is supposed to be. While places that should increase in population size get bigger, some settlements stay small for awhile, also very historical and a bit slower paced than before, I like it. A couple of small things were a bit off, I get Serbian Nemanja dynasty event every turn, for the past 100 turns or so. I don't hear any horns when rallying troops as before, kind of got used to those, but thats nitpicky <img src="images/smilies/emoticons/original.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" smilieid="21" class="inlineimg"> Some units on the battle map have some weird stripes coming out of them, I believe those are upgraded mailed knights for HRE. Overall 10/10.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    It feels like a completely different game with the slower recruitment pools. I generally like the changes. a lot of balancing. the different melee units have actual pros and cons now, instead of just being universally better or worse.
    The only problem I'm having is that Magyar Cavalry are so restricted. in effect, only available in one province.
    The Byzantines attacked, so time to restart. (They just randomly blockaded me for no reason to declare war? wat?) They're completely unbeatable under these circumstances. Aside from that, the campaign was going great.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    It occurred to me that the recruitment slowdown changes the game in the same way that "marathon" timescale effects Civilization. You get more actions per universal unit of recruitment. Since this also applies to the AI, it means they can't out-recruit your actions like they could in the last version. Or put another way, you and the AI both have to be more careful with your units, because you can't replenish them instantly like you could before. And since the AI is generally worse at managing units on a macro level, this makes it much easier to win against comparable factions by out-microing them. On the flip side, if a nation that greatly outclasses you declares war on you, it means you're stuck with what you have and can't spam units to deal with the threat.
    Over all, I do like the changes. In some cases it makes the game way easier (you can run circles around comparable factions). and in others way more tedious and difficult (trying to reinforce losses, dealing with OP factions).
    Quote Originally Posted by JB59114 View Post
    1) As I said before the muslim faction does not have the same amont of details compared to the western one, the models provided by broken cresent are good and historically accurate but they lack in details and are little bit weird (some of the muslim cavalry men have strange shaped arms for exemple), my advice would be to enchance the existing models with more details.
    2) The late era units (like gendarme or pikemen) have vanilla like models and textures, they could be improved by having a deal with the modding team behind Tsardom total war, they have one of the best units skin overall concerning the italians, serbs, hungarians and turks (14th/15th and 16th century included).
    3) Also the mod doesn't use at full capacity the skin mechanics used by med2: the upgraded norman knight don't have new skin reflecting the evolution between mail and brigandine. Most of the units skin are centered toward the 13th century.
    JoC comment: I suspect Gaku has set up a Hanseatic building in Brugges and this has left some imprints
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    What the is this complete ? This is the second time in 3 campaigns that I've had a civil war rip away my capital, and the second civil war in under 5 years in this campaign. How the is this game-breaking even possible? My king's got high authority, he's the direct heir of the last king who won his civil war, and then you throw another one at me? The game's not hard enough - you have to put me 25,000 florins in the hole and delete my army, too? While I'm stuck in a war that the AI refuses to peace out of, no matter how many of his OP ing units I release? 230 turns in, and another campaign goes in the . this. Just like last time - I take 1 irrelevant province from a nation that won't peace out, and then my whole nation falls apart. In a game called "Total War" - where apparently I can't wage war. Oh but the AI can with it's endless stacks - which I have to fight, take losses against, and then release because muh diplomacy. They can take whatever the they want without penalty. Me, though, I get a civil war for no goddamn reason. ing stupid . How do I disable these dumbass civil wars?
    Quote Originally Posted by Waluk View Post
    Before I would be bathing in millions of florins, after turn 200 or so, now even with cca 80k per turn, still can't beat the corruption to go above 150.000 florins or so in treasury. I love that But that's HRE, smaller factions may not be so prosperous. Map is still 70% historical around turn 300. Yes, the Byzantines have conquered a lot of the balkans, also a lot of Poland and Ukraine, but at the same time they are losing badly in asia minor to Mongols. Someone said it's a bit less aggressive, but I guess I kind of like that. The invasions I had from english upon Loven were brutal, same with Serbia attacking Freiberg. No amount of florins would convince the attackers to stand down. Had to win those very narrow fights, but the wins made them so much better. It's without a doubt, the best SSHIP version so far. Stable, challenging, and lots of stuff under the hood. Love those new building s BTW.
    Quote Originally Posted by Waluk View Post
    had only one crash in 300 turns.
    Quote Originally Posted by yoba99 View Post
    I love roman late (well, 150 turns, not very late ) units - tagmata, italian mercenaries, gasmulii, flamethrowers. However, I have the worst succession crisis every time I get to turn ~100. Now I have a basileus-usurper, but he was co-emperor for the whole time previous guy was in charge - why is he usurper??? He had 10+ loyalty, no negative traits beyond heir presumptive. What is even worse, both of his sons are bastards (I needed an alliance with Pisa against Venice, but their princess was really gross ), so all the hard work I put into crowning previous guy is now done for. Killing off bastards is a poor choice I assume, so probably have to suffer through, drop a couple provinces in outermer and serbia, and groom my bastard and next heir (here's to hope the bastard not gonna make more bastards).
    Quote Originally Posted by Gaku View Post
    Yeah, well I'm just over here playing Sim City. I almost never go on offensive wars. Maybe 5% of my wars are offensive. and anything I can do to keep from getting dogpiled is a plus in my book.
    Also, when it comes to garbage units, I can't count how many times having spare units has completely saved my ass. Even if it's just something as simple as having some extra towers shooting at enemies during a siege, or being able to take out an extra tower or battering ram without risking my general. Or being able to sally during a defense and encircle the wall-scaling troops, without risking a valuable unit routing/dying. I can't just say "whoops! my general died! I should re-do that battle!" or "if only I had one extra unit in that battle!" I get one shot, so I have to play super conservative, meaning more units than would otherwise be necessary.
    Quote Originally Posted by Djangoo View Post
    I'm playing Leon on hard right now and I have to say the mod is outstanding!
    Warhammer III made me actually want to play the older titles again haha.
    The quality of life coming with this mod is amazing, especially to a returning player: easy install, no crashes, the pop-ups explaining and no sub mods needed! First time I played a mod and didn't feel the need to install several submods, wow!
    You did a good job also making some features of BYG IV more simple, especially the Council thing with only some generals being able to recruit stuff was annoying.
    Can't comment about the lategame since I'm only around turn 35 and unfortunately don't have a lot of time to play anymore. The challenge level is well balanced so far. The moment I allied with HR empire, Portugal (ally) and Aragon attacked me at the same time which was cool. Moores agreed to ceasefire luckily.
    Definitely trying to do a crusade to Jerusalem, (the best feature in M2) and then report back.
    Quote Originally Posted by Konstantinos XII Rhomaios View Post
    Just wanted to drop and let you know I have been having an amazing time playing this mod! The team is absolutely amazing and I love the community here. Thank you for all of your hard work, it is truly appreciated over here!!!
    Quote Originally Posted by opaxite View Post
    Turn 200 here. My Faction Leader, a 82-year old dreaded war veteran who used to make whole armies run has been completely senile for almost 20 years now. He insists on getting military education that he keeps forgetting the next turn. The whole family who used to celebrate and respect him now resents him deeply and prays for his demise. The princess I've been stalking to marry to my next heir has grown past child bearing age. 10 out of 10 experience, absolutely recommended.
    Quote Originally Posted by Djangoo View Post
    I played until turn 150, once I took Tunis, a Jihad was called against it. Unfortunately I never managed to get crowned. Anyways, it was a very enjoyable and balanced experience, the AI was very reasonable. At the endgame I wished I had set the difficulty to very hard, AI could not do anything anymore against the stacks, but I probably would not have survived the early game then.
    Highlights:
    - coordinated attack by Portugal and Aragon in the early game (backstabbing me)
    - married heir to a muslim princess while on crusade, this made him a muslim himself and triggered a civil war once he was king
    - war against HRE (they attacked me probably because AI considered me a threat at this point)
    - crusader states holding their own
    -one of the very rare times in (modded) Medieval II times I got kicked out of a region after conquering it in a crusade (Alexandria), I didnt send more support and couldnt hold it (uprising drove the armies out and they defeated me in open battle)
    The historic events make you want to play longer, will definitely try again on very hard with a small faction again and try to go turn 200+.
    Quote Originally Posted by dijenek999 View Post
    Hi Guys, thank you for great mod and constant improvements. I am returning player. Last time played version 0.92 or something near that. Version 0.98 is really nice improvement and it is also much harder on vh/vh.
    Temporarily playing with Georgia, year 1254. It is really hard position, but very fun. Had lots of problems with Cumans at beginning and hardly survived for 40+ years. They Bekh units were quite hard to fight on open terrains so i was defending behind walls most of time. Also, i am enyojing this new combat Ai. It is big improvement from version 0.92. Now i am surrounded with Mongols and Vizant, two biggest forces right now. Have alliance with Mongols but not sure for how long , and war with Vizant. Don't have high hopes, but looking for how long i can survive .
    Also played with Serbia but didn't last long, and had some error very often. With Novgorod i manage to get to turn 80, but Litvanians were too strong for me.
    ....
    Here are also few remarks from my Georgia campaign that i found interesting. I am around turn 260.

    1. In year 1260 maps and faction positions and spreading looks nearly historical which is really great (screenshot below). Norway and Lithuania looks strong but they are still around Baltic. No crazy spreading from Scotland .
    2. Regarding re-emerging factions. I saw Leon re-emerging 5-6 times. Hungary also re-emerged and had nice come back. Now they holding 4 provinces. Also saw one re-emerging of Poland, Rum, Zengids. What i didn't saw are Sicily, Crusaders, Cumans and Great Seljucs. I guess re-emerging of Cumans and Great Seljucs are not historical after Mongol conquest but wondering is it possible? Also wondering is it possible for Crusaders to come back?
    3. I had few 3 marriage alliances so far - Zengids, Great Seljucs and Byzantines. Zengid one is even proposed by AI at beginning of game. That was a bit surprising for me.
    4. I lost Trapezous by Byzantines after 8 turns of siege. So after end of last turn of siege it was a bit surprise for me that there is no final battle where my city army is forced to run out to fight enemy, but i lost whole army and Byzantines took the city. I think i like it this way more because it is harder for player, but didn't know that could happen .
    Quote Originally Posted by Konstantinos XII Rhomaios View Post
    Konstantinos here again, I think one of the things you guys have totally knocked out of the park is the recruitment system. I've finished up my Spanish campaign and started playing around with the Sultanate of Rum. Both start off small so you really have to manage your money and your army. Once the recruitment pools start to fill up I like to dismiss my "standing army" and only recruit when i'm put on the defensive or initiating a war. Peace and war time have two distinct feelings with one being prosperous and the other being a real nail biter lol. I think you guys did a great job with making recruiting an army feel like calling your banners.
    Quote Originally Posted by hazman232 View Post
    Turn 195 loss as Hungary VH/VH. This is the only Total War experience which can prevent me from snowballing and maintain challenge even after 200 turns. By turn 60, after an unfortunate accident that saw my king killed in a minor skirmish and the civil war that followed, I was down to my final city. My royal family was turned completely wretched and deformed by a stubborn witch. by turn 160 I had taken back my empire from the Byzantines and the Qipchaks and forged powerful alliances with a new and modern army. By turn 195 I had lost it all to a rampaging Holy Roman Empire whom had already vassalized my neighbours Poland and Venice. I only wish they had offered me the same choice.
    As always I had an absolute blast and can't wait to do it all over again.
    Quote Originally Posted by William the Silent View Post
    I've been playing SS6.4 once in a while for several years, but I never noticed the existence of SSHIP.

    So I installed it and gave it a try, because I like challeging games and it looks promising with all the historic detail and the character building.
    I played England a little to learn the mechanics and I loved the whole game.

    So then I started as Novgorod.
    Man that was hard (at medium difficulty only): first to get your economy going without a diplomat. I captured two small castles in the west and Polotsk. But then the plague hit me twice and killed my heir, the pagans from the west kept attacked me from west and north and somehow kept blocking my trade routs and killing my income. I fianally got a diplomat (by spending 14000 on buildings). I only can afford one army to beat the pagans. So finally I defeat their army to stop the raids and take Riga, but now my Ally Russia attacks Novgorod all the way on the other side of my kingdom while my army is in Riga.
    Nice move!
    It's an endless struggle to just get by. One general has won 5 battles, but still has only one star fighting against 5 star generals.

    If this is what "ruling a kingdom" was like then, the mod has succeeded.
    Great job.

    The CTD's happen mostly at the end of the turn cycle, but I can always continue after restart (continue campaign).
    Quote Originally Posted by William the Silent View Post
    I've been playing maybe 150 turns on this mod, but I love it.
    The historic info, gameplay, challenge, experience, feel of the game is great.
    You guys deserve a reward.
    Same kind of feeling as when I played EB1 on RTW, before it became absolete.

    LONG REVIEWS

    Quote Originally Posted by opaxite View Post
    Some observations after 380~ turns
    I am having a blast and the game still feels fresh. As Kingdom of Poland I am roleplaying, so conquest is not my primary goal. There are no dominant factions except Mongols, whom I keep pushing out towards the Caspian sea.

    I am playing normal/normal difficulty. At this point, with 20~ regions, I can easily field around 6 full stack armies. The main threat being abovementioned Mongols, whom I still fear, and keep reconquering provinces I've liberated. Waiting for the right moment to besiege them in a settlement is my go to tactic and I'm still learning new ways of dealing with them.

    I have never been this invested in a campaign for this long. The mechanics introduced by this mod are on spot! Big thanks to everyone who made this possible, I hope you keep improving this incredible mod and more historical fans find their way to play it.


    What keeps the game entertaining

    [1] Somewhat accurate historical map
    This has already been mentioned many times, I think the mod strikes a perfect balance. Factions keep surviving, or are brought back with the resurrection mechanics. From other threads I sometimes see a faction "go wild" and conquer half of Europe. This tells me every game is unpredictable and for me, this is the main "immersion keeper".

    [2] Gradual unlocking and historical events
    I keep reading through most of the scripted historical events. It feels amazing when I get a message that new pavise shields start to appear, and later I see that I'll be able to train a new unit! I am hyped to see how the unit fares in battles, how it looks like with armor upgrades, etc. It feels like there's always something fresh to come, ane even after so many turns, the game doesn't feel stale.

    Thanks to this mod, I've started listening to Brief history of Poland podcast and read a book on History of the Bohemian Crown. It feels rewarding having the Piast family in the game, and then learning about them in the podcast.

    [3] Custom buildings
    I'd never think of such a clever way of introducing the Hanseatic league or German orders to the game. Especially the Hanseatic League feels like a gradual progress that develops over a long time and makes an otherwise uninteresting area very entertaining (even though in the game, no kind of danger ever came from the Baltic sea). The custom units is a welcome bonus and many germanic knights have fought in my ranks over the years. I wish the custom churches would also add some flavour, but that's for another thread.

    [4] Crown mechanics
    Love all about it. Took me a long time to achieve the crown, and it feels like I've earned every piece of it. Wish it would also change the FL title to King, but that's not really an immersion breaker.

    [5] Province Titles, Ministerial Offices, Book Ancillaries
    The Provincial titles feel very prestigious and the most accomplished family members are rewarded with the best titles. I made it a custom when a new King is crowned to gather all family members in Poznań for a "council", where titles and ministerial offices are granted. Love also the "Stripped of titles" trait, feels like a great way to punish embezzlers, drunks and other characters who have somehow ashamed the family.

    I've modded the game to make all ancillaries transferrable, so characters can have their Provincial title visible in the first place. Sometimes, it's a bit tedious to manage the 8 ancillaries limit, especially when books start to appear. But they add a nice flavour and uniqueness into the game. (The images for the books could use some love, right now they look like covers rather than actual books (I'm offering my help with that though, I push pixels for a living))

    [6] Character traits development
    In general, it feels like I have a lot of control over how characters develop. There's some actions and consequences that I still need to understand better, sometimes they feel underserved, like getting the Poor disciplinarian trait from simply occupying a conquered settlement, or the Harsh taskmaster developing quickly when you use all your movement points. But over time, I've become more attentive towards the mechanics, and it actually adds more flavour to the game as well.

    [7] Princesses, Noble Ladies and Family tree management
    I am pretty happy with how I managed to develop my family tree and all the foreign blood in my lineages. I only allow marriage to the most accomplished family members, and they can only marry either a foreign princess, or a noble lady. The Noble Ladies are incredibly useful when I need to keep a certain lineage going, and the frequency is right. For every generation, there's one foreign princess and one noble lady available.

    I have never managed to marry my princess to a foreing king or heir though, it seems logistically impossible. Adding foreing generals is a bit tricky, too, as they (or their sons) tend to become usurpers. I let most of those branches die out, but I still keep one really good lineage going. It actually adds a lot to roleplaying and feels like there's some competition inside the family and the sons want to prove their worth.

    In general, I'm getting great sons these days, some 7 generations later. Haven't managed to develop chivalry too much, but that's one of my current goals.

    [8] Merchants
    This mod has finally made merchants meaningful. With the Merchants Guild HQ a and FL traits some of my merchants now make over 10k a turn, and make a significant portion of my earnings. There used to a bit more challenge while developing this, nowadays it's just replacing dying merchants, but I don't really mind.


    What feels underwhelming

    [1] Crusades
    I love the crusades mechanic, but hardly ever partake in a crusade these days. There's little to no challenge, punishment or reward. Most of the targeted settlements and factions are very weak, the Crusader states keep a strong foothold in the area, 380 turns in. The problems are following:

    1. Most of the christian factions participate, so there's little to no danger for the crusading army to venture in the area. Eventually you see this one targeted settlement surrounded by 4 crusader armies, so it's just a matter of who gets to besiege it first.
    2. There is not enough reward: All I ever got from Crusades was an experience bonus for mercenary units I have to disband afterwards because I won't maintain them (can't replenish), and a "Pilgrim to Jerusalem" trait for one of my general, which added 1 Piety.
    3. Not enough punishment: Simply ignoring the crusade means I lose a bit of favour with the Pope, and that's it. There's no real risk: He won't excommunicate you for it, you don't get any negative traits or disadvantages.
    4. Not enough challenge: As mentioned, the crusades are mostly unnoposed, even if I get there first. Fielding a full stack army only to find an almost empty castle somewhere in the desert is just underwhelming. Where's the glory in that?
    5. It is mostly just a logistics nightmare and negative traits risk: I have streamlined getting there and with the extended crusading army range, it only takes me measly 2-3 turns via a sea route. But getting back takes the best years of a young general's life, during which he'll just stagnate, and mostly risks negative logistical traits, diseases, and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere.


    [2] Mongols and Vassalage
    Historically speaking, many countries became vassals or tributary states of the Mongol Empire, but in the game, Mongols tend to anihilate everyone. Not sure if anything can be done about this.

    [3] Religion and Clergy
    I started writing this down, but will start a different thread here. I think there's some potential for extending the mechanics, and will appreciate feedback.
    Quote Originally Posted by QKuhlmann View Post
    Hello everybody. Shortly before the advance of the new January-Version I would like to give feedback to my campaign with the Republic of Nowgorod, which now arrived in the year of 1307, turn 351. I played on h/h with the actual version 0.98 and no modifications.

    First of all, the fact that I proceeded this far shows, that the gameplay was always thrilling and revardig for me. Throughout the many hours of gameplay I never got bored. The richness of features and the constant feeling, that though my empire was growing slowly I never really was safe, was a great motivation to move on and in my experience this is quite seldom for a total war mod. So in general I think, that this mod is pure gold. So, congratulations and many thanks for your work so far!

    Campaign History: In early game I had constant trouble with Lithuania and the Kievan Rus, with short periods of peace in between. This was especially exciting, when both enemies attacked at the same time, and you had to choose your steps carefully. First mayor success was the conquest of Kiev, Chernigov and Pereslawyl in a small window of opportunity, which broke the neck of the Rus, who are now still dwelling in the far east. With Lithuania I was in a defensive position for a long time, until another window of opportunity allowed my to conquer their capital and everything north of it, reducing them to Twangste, which later fell to the HRE in a crusade. All in all that kept me very busy in the early game. Attacks of the enemies, especially the Lithuanians, were often well organized, with big armies attacking three of my bordering cities at the same time with the danger of doom, when you lose. That was really great. Later I had constant trouble with the Qipchuks and then of course, after a long period of suspense, with the mongols.

    Diplomacy/Reputation: I like the diplomacy system very much, especially the feature, that you earn reputation by treating captured cities and enemy-soldiers in a kind way. So, you only take hostages or pillage conquered cities, when you have no other choice (which sometimes is the case) and build up your reputation by being kind in better times, which makes it a lot easier to trade alliances. A long lasting alliance with Hungary was very rewarding in the game both for the Nowgorod and the Hungarians, who became a real superpower in this game, building an empire from Moldavia to the Baltic Sea.

    Civil wars/Uprisings: I survived three civil wars and one Lithuan uprising. Because I did not take care of the kings bloodline I often got Usurper Kings of doubtful heritage and skill. The civil wars though never lasted long and never got me on the false foot, so they were quite easy to handle. What I liked, was the difficulty, to hold peace in former Lithuanian Cities. So, the sudden death of a good Governour in his 50ies can course a real serious crisis for the whole empire, if you have no one to replace him properly.

    Familiy members/Coronation: As I said I did not care about the bloodline, so I had constant trouble with the quality of my Kings. Also, there were times, when many children were born and then a whole new generation could take over and there were times, when there was a real lack of new family members for a long period, so you have a big empire with governors from 40 to 70, a senile king and no replacement in sight, so you are afraid of the future. I am okay with that too. In never got my king crowned though. Right now, I seem to fulfill all conditions, but maybe my king, who first was a regent, then an ursurper and then got accepted and is now quite old but “fit for the crown” has issues in his past. Who knows? My question here is: Is it necessary to conquer all regions shown in the faction window or only the central ones represented in darker color?

    Mongols/Balance: I think the Mongols are an issue difficult to balance in the game. For historical realism they should be overpowered, but I think they are a little bit over-overpowered in 0.98. But I am not really sure. As Novgorod it went like that: First they were a relief, because they attacked the Qipchuks and all of the qipchuk armies that constantly attacked me in Kiew all of a sudden headed eastwards, so I knew: now it starts. They destroyed the Qipchuks then quickly and bordered with me. They did not attack but made trade arrangements. So the long time of suspense began. I developed three big armies in Kiew and surrounding, the Mongols destroyed Gerorgia within two turns and destroyed the Abbasides too. Then they destroyed the Crusader State. Catholic Christianity tried to fight back with two or three crusades, but only with about three factions participating, maybe because of the lack of priests, which will be dealt with in the next version. The crusaders were smashed by the Mongols and then they went against the Selchucks and the Eastern Roman Empirie, which was one of the worlds superpowers at this time. Meanwhile they attacked me. As I had time to prepare, I managed to hold them back with constant heavy losses, but they went through Minor Asia like butter, conquered Constanitople and invaded the Balcans. Moldavia became a place of horror, invaded by the Mongols, Hungaria, the Eastern Romans and me, who was quickly pushed back. Of course the Mongols won. I then managed to make peace with the Mongols to have a little break but because of that they attacked Hungaria and quickly threw it out of the Balcans. Now, in 1307, they own nearly 60 regions, are successfully invading Hungaria and I will have to declare war on them just to save my long time ally by taking a part of their military power against me. But I don’t know if that would stop them. They are so overpowered and the KI-Factions seem to have no chance against them. This is an issue for the late game, which is quite hard to deal with I believe.

    Historically the Mongol Empire would split into 4 realms fighting each other. It would be a dream, if that would be possible to represent in the game. But I doubt it, and so maybe it would be a solution to give the Mongols a harder time to ensure public order in their empire, so that they would be weakened by civil wars in the late games and other factions and the player have a chance to push them back. Also, maybe to make the other factions more hostile, so that the mongols could not take one after the other, as they do it now. As it is now, they destroy faction after faction and then the map lacks of diversity in 1307. (There were a few rebellions against them, but they always quickly dealt with them)

    But nevertheless: A real great experience! I am looking forward to the new version! When it is out, I will try a campaign with Poland to build the Polish-Lithuan Union
    Quote Originally Posted by Alex_TotalWar View Post
    I am having a very enjoyable campaign currently as Denmark, almost 150 turns in now. I prefer to play a relatively slow campaign and role-play; my campaign difficulty is Hard.
    The mod is playing quite well for me; I try to add some constructive input on my experience:
    - I have observed a decline in the number of cardinals; at the lowest it was 3 but the number has since rebounded to 6. It has not been a bother to me so far.
    - Due to the recruitment times and perhaps the costs, defeating an enemy field army is impactful to the balance of power in a war, certainly over the short term.
    - I think your decision to disable the AI's siege weapons is the right call.
    - Building decisions have a strong impact on city development, growth, and income.
    - The education and battle experience system is working great. I did disable some of the battlefield dread inducing checks after a battle.
    - Aging and death can be very painful. Why does it always seem that the good die young? I have a totally useless 75 year old wanna-be crusader general that I "had" to drop off in Greece because he was slowing down my fleet. He just.... wont..... die.
    - I still haven't figured out how to manage my family tree. This is especially true this campaign, because my 2nd King of Danish blood had 4 daughters! Any tips would be appreciated.
    - Mongols have not invaded yet so I cannot comment on their invincibility.
    In general I am finding that my decisions are having a strong impact on character and Kingdom. Great job and looking forward to the next iteration!
    Quote Originally Posted by QKuhlmann View Post
    Hello developers,
    I found some time to play with the latest version (May 17th without the Scotland patch) in the last days, so here is my feedback. I played Poland until the year of 1198, vh/vh. Here is the save: https://mega.nz/file/nvJFzCQC#RU7YDt...43uJvgeKb4E4oc

    In General:
    This is to my opinion a really great Medieval Mod. I am an experienced but casual TW-player for many years and I have to say that the testing of SSHIP was one of my best experiences, that keeps me interested in the game. One has to make careful decisions, that really matter and there was no boredom in the 130 rounds I played so far. Capeau!

    Reputation:
    I managed to keep my reputation high mostly by releasing prisoners and by not acting evil. Only in desperate situations I stepped aside from this rules, knowing that it could have serious repercussions. For me, the knowledge, that alliances are really important and that backstabbing is much more unlikely, when you have good reputation, adds much to the game. As Poland, you have to rule Stettin for instance, to get your King crowned. But conquering Stettin leads to trouble with the mighty and much stronger HRE, so you have to build a stable alliance with them first to avoid doom.

    Merchants:
    They are much weaker in the new version, maybe a little bit too weak, although they were quite overpowered before. My two merchants are trading amber at the Ostsee, which is a really profitable resource. One is a quite capable merchant (8/10) and makes about 550 florins, the other one is not so talented (4/10) and makes about 110. Maybe you should tweak them a little bit, so that they matter but not to the point, that was before the new version. My financial situation as Poland was constantly tense in the game, so 800 or 1000 florins instead of 550 would really matter.

    KI-behaviour:
    This is a decisive topic of course. I had constant trouble with Lithuania in the early game, they attacked without provocation at round 13 or so. Once you conquer Twangste, they will attack from time to time but also agree to peace in between wars. One decisive moment of the campaign was the backstabbing from Kiev and attack of Lithuania at the same time around Round 66. That turned a relatively reasonable campaign into a very crazy and risky one, with dead family members, heroic victories, the acceptance of characters from outside, (that I always rejected before) because of simple need, the interruption of building the economy and, to the end, the doom of Lithuania and conquer of one Castle of the Kiewan Rus. Then of course the need to stabilize the new situation. Later I made a stable alliance with Kiew, but the conquered Lithuan Provinces were constantly and well organized attacked by Novgorod. Also Norvegia attacked from Stettin. The attacks of Novogorod, a not so powerful faction, were extremely well organized. Always coming with family members, 2 or 3 great armies and attacking the two bordering provinces at the same time, so I really had trouble. But so far I kept the HRE calm and managed to make an alliance thanks to the negotiation of an extremely charming princess and 5000 florines. Also, it was possible to by peace and trade from Novgorod, although it was “demanding”, with 3000 florins at one point.

    Rebellions/Public-Order:
    Shortly before I stopped playing yesterday I experienced a Lithuanian rebellion. Their former capital was ruled by an extremely capable but now aging Lord, who I sent to put down am army of rebels and who did not make it back to town in time. That simple, avoidable mistake caused a serious crisis for the whole realm, the town rebelled (from public order 55%) to Lithuania, the faction reemerged and now I have to deal with a full Lithuanian doomstack, while the HRE, although allied, is threatening me in the west. A very thrilling situation. Very good mechanics here!

    Conquering abroad:
    The mechanics work, it costs much money to conquer abroad. This is simply a good and realistic feature, I think.

    Mechanics according aggressive player-style:
    Here I experienced some kind of a bug: when I conquered Stettin from Norway, provoked by a Norwegian attack, this happened: I got a message, that I conquered 5 provinces so far, which was true. At the same turn, I got a message, that my playing style was too aggressive, causing rebellions throughout my realm, suggesting to slow down. Also about 7 “resistance” messages in my provinces popped up. That was certainly not right, because Stettin was the first province I conquered since the war in round 66, that was 30 years ago. Certainly not an aggressive playstyle. One turn later a message came, that the seat of power in one of my provinces was removed to another place, an my faction heir, in his 40ies, who conquered Stettin, died at this unusual age. But no seat of power was removed. Anther turn later, a message came, that I now conquered 15 provinces, which is obviously not true, and another message, that I had successfully slowed down my conquering and the rebellions would now stop. This seems to be bugged scripts.

    Loyality:
    I experienced the betrayal of one of my characters in the early game around round 25. Unfortunately I did not realize the circumstances of the betrayal but only saw it a few years later. Maybe he was married off by a foreign princess. He was an important figure, 19 years old, not disloyal (I think 6/10 loyality), intelligent, firstborn son of the King. Had to carry on without him. Maybe I sent him to another town and he was caught on his way. I looked into old saves and tried to reproduce it, but could not find the reason.

    Priests: Cardinal College is getting empty again.

    So, I hope that helps a bit and I thank you so much for all the thrill and fun I had with this campaign so far.
    Best regards QK

    Last edited by Jurand of Cracow; January 14, 2024 at 12:03 PM.
    Belovèse's Toolbox: export text files to spreadsheet, detailed unit stats
    Stainless Steel Historical Improvement Project (SSHIP) team member.
    Mini-mods: diplomacy and relation/reputation - detailled unit stats

  3. #3

    Icon4 New version is online!



    INTRODUCTION


    For some excitement and information before playing, have a look at various army-related mechanisms coded in the mod, advice on conducting diplomacy, a list of the unique buildings, a list of the regional buildings, examples of historical events, all complicated issues related to the crowns (then read in-game descriptions - it's not easy to get a crown!), or infos related to the provincial titles, ministerial offices, books, court ladies, African buildings and units, forts and watchtowers, siege machines.

    Beautiful pictures to be seen in the mod are presented here, while some events are to be seen here. The main graphical improvemnt of the mod is undisputably the KCC submod, ie the @kostic re-work of a number of units. Additionally, the pics of the buildings were very carefully re-touched or created for the mod, and the issues like the borders of pop-out windows, or the icons in the settlement panels were improved as well. Many resources on the campaign map were also replaced by the nicer models imported from other mods.

    The jewel of coding in the mod is Dynamic Integration of Provinces (well, you can appreciate it if you do modding ;-). The most visible effects will be an additional unrest in the newely conquered settlements that will then subside very slowly, but steadily. The opportunities provided by coding situation in each settlement in
    each turn separately makes it fit to be used for other purposes, eg. uprisings or invasions (large like Catalan and Bedouin, small like Breton one). A counterpart of this script (or rather pre-counterpart) is the code defining what happens after a conquest of each province (re-naming of the settlement, getting buildings damaged, spawning rebel armies of loyalists with proper composition - this should be a speed bump for your conquests).

    Mind that there is a number of economic mechanisms in the game: from anti-hoarding script, through additional expenses (coming of age, marriages, changes on the throne, costs of the crown, costs of the armies in foreign lands, costs of going on a crusade), through the impact of traits, through the upkeep of the buildings, to the radically increased costs of the units.

    There is also a number of historical mechanisms that involve several interdependent events or special mechanics: historical changes of the names of the settlements upon conquest, Universities (leading to the Latin Christianity factions being able to build universities), Printing Press, Hanseatic League, Mongol decline.

    The faction evolution started to be coded, with Byzantium, Georgia, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, and England having many events coded, even though only in Byzantium, Georgia and Poland there's some mechanism leading to the reforms.

    The issue of Usurpers / Regents appearing too often - and the prevalence of civil wars bursting out in the wake of such unfortunate succession - is limited if you choose the Next Heir script that is included now in the mod. Mongols will be able to create large empire but should be somewhat limited (with a new script by @Macaras) and thus beatable by the player. The AI agents should appear in reasonable quantities, and the college of the cardinals should be constantly peopled (we've fixed it!).

    Before you start you game: be aware how do the difficulty levels differ, and what bonuses do the AI factions get. Which faction to chose if you're new to the mod? Some discussion is here. If you're bothered by technical issues ("the mod opens in a small window..."), refer to this thread. The turn times shouldn't be very long, after optimisation on the scripts by @Belovese.

    Anyway, visit the sub-forum where all threads on the SSHIP mechanics are collected.

    Once you play a game, please upload you save in this thread - it will help us to improve the mod!

    If you're interested, the table of contents of the script for this mod looks like this:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Code:
    ;===================== CONTENTS ==================================================
    
    
    ;--- HELP FOR MODERS
    ;--------  Technical advice
    ;--------  Advice on moding this SSHIP script
    ;--------  Ideas for further modding
    
    
    ;--- TECHNICALITIES for script
    ;-------- Reveal everything ( shift + r to trigger)
    ;-------- Test trigger ( shift + t to trigger)
    ;-------- GameReloaded monitor for safe reload & log information
    
    
    ;--- CAMPAIGN SET-UP (terminated at turn 1)
    ;-------- Difficulty set-up: counters & infos, king's purse adjustments
    ;-------- Set-up of counters for eras, leap years, etc.
    ;-------- Mongol Decline Script (MDS) (1) : set-up of counters
    ;-------- Reveal Settlements that are Already Known for factions
    ;-------- No offensive battles for captain-led armies
    
    
    ;--- COUNTERS SET AT EACH TURN
    ;-------- Beginning of each AI turn: zeroing counters, setting AI & difficulties
    ;-------- Beginning of PLAYER turn (PreFactionTurnStart)
    ;---------- Counters for factions set-up
    ;---------- Other counters set-up (eras, leap year, debt script)
    ;---------- Aggressivity system (1): decrease of counter, info windows
    ;---------- Spoils of War (1) : generosity counters
    ;-------- Beginning of EACH FACTION turn: setting counters for faction, religion, culture, size, excommunication; size of player
    ;---------- Excommunication status
    ;-------- "FactionTurnStart" for player (moment before moves, but after setting up counters)
    ;---------- Spoils of War (2) : zeroing generosity counters
    
    
    ;--- MONITOR "FactionTurnEnd FactionType slave"
    ;-------- Scripts common for invasions mechanisms (decrease purse, countdown of counters etc.)
    ;-------- Mongol Decline Script (MDS) (2) : counters each turn
    ;-------- Number of captured settlements
    ;-------- Factions close-to-collapse information window
    ;-------- Earthquakes
        
    ;--- NOTIFICATIONS & HISTORICAL EVENTS (pop-out windows)
    ;-------- Info depending on difficulty
    ;-------- Info depending on religion
    ;-------- Factions' initial historical info pop-up
    
    
    ;--- AI SUPPORT
    ;-------- Destroy AI buildings that prevent AI from funding other buildings
    ;-------- Spawn of Armies at the Beginning
    ;-------- Spawn of Fleets at the Beginning
    ;-------- Scripted Early Sieges with Additional Armies
    ;-------- Additional Fleets Throughout The Game
    ;-------- Additional General if there're Too Few
    ;-------- LINK_FACTION_AI Script
    ;--- AI FACTION REEMERGENCE SCRIPT   (11000 lines)
    
    
    ;--- BATTLE RELATED
    ;-------- Spoils of War (3) : size of armies, number of battles (with info for player), PostBattle money (camp looted)
    ;-------- Change of Leader Battle Models (moment: Becomes FL / FH)
    ;-------- G5 BAI STUFF (22000 lines)
    
    
    ;--- ECONOMY
    ;-------- Player's treasury size counter & anti-hoarding mechanism
    ;-------- Additional Costs (Change of Capital, Supply, NewNobles, JoinsCrusade)
    ;-------- Mercenaries Disband Due to Debts
    ;-------- G5 Faction Economy Script
    
    
    ;--- INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS   (5500 lines)
    ;-------- Small scripts for diplomacy
    ;-------- Aggressor Tracking Script (if and how many on-going war were inititated by a faction)
    ;-------- "New mindset of a new AI Faction Leader" - reset of diplomatic standing
    ;-------- Aggressivity system (2) : deterioration of diplo standing after capture of a settlement (GeneralCaptureSettlement)
    
    
    ;--- FACTION LEADER
    ;-------- Choose next heir
    ;-------- Civil war after usurpation (Armies & Duration)
    ;-------- Change on the throne counters & costs
    ;-------- Crowns (ceremony, costs, upkeep)
    ;-------- FL Policies & Counters (EDCT -> counters -> EDB, script & other)
    ;-------- FL Faction Killer (for each faction monitor CeasedFactionLeader / BecomesFactionLeader - to be recoded)
    ;-------- King's Right Hand tracking (Near_Loyalty)
    
    
    ;--- BUILDINGS
    ;---------- Buildings completed / existing - counters
    ;-------- REGULAR BUILDINGS
    ;---------- Racing Track
    ;---------- Universities - catholic evolution
    ;---------- Printing Press
    ;-------- UNIQUE BUILDINGS
    ;---------- Kaiserdom zu Speyer
    ;---------- Stephansdom in Wien
    ;---------- Marienkirche 1 in Krakow
    ;---------- Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
    ;---------- Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
    ;-------- HANSA buildings
    ;---------- Hanseatic System
    ;---------- Hansa buildings fires
    ;-------- SOUTH ITALY buildings
    ;---------- Al-Idrisi
    ;---------- South Italy Building fires
    ;-------- Military Orders (Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic, Santiago)
    
    
    ;--- PROVINCES
    ;-------- Provinces activated on SettlementSelected
    ;-------- Capture of Settlements (change of name, armies spawned, buildings damaged, counters: _turns_in_our_realm, aggressivity)
    ;---------- After capture: what happens in 199 settlements                            (28000 lines)
    ;-------- Settlement Situation (unrest due to conquest, occupation, weak leader, player's aggressivity; rebellions, raids)
    ;---------- Settlement situation this turn - script for each of 199                    (56000 lines)
    ;-------- Wars over historically contested provinces (Bohemia, Jutland)
    
    
    ;--- UPRISINGS
    ;-------- Scotland Mobilizes
    ;-------- Bulgarian Uprising (098 deactivated)
    ;---------- Catalan Company
    ;---------- Bedouins
    ;---------- Prussians
    ;---------- Cymry
    ;---------- Vlachs
    ;-------- Rebellions in troublesome regions (spawn of slave armies: Austria)
    
    
    ;--- INVASIONS
    ;-------- Eldeguzid invasions of Georgia
    ;-------- Turcoman Help for Rum
    ;-------- Berber Help for Moors
    ;-------- Makurian Help for the Fatimids
    ;-------- Steppes Untamed - Nomadic Tribes Help for the Cumans
    ;-------- Qara Khitai
    ;-------- GOLDEN HORDE (MONGOL INVASIONS)
    ;---------- Mongol Decline Script (MDS) : trigger event
    
    
    ;--- FACTIONS' HISTORICAL EVOLUTIONS
    ;---------- Coat of Arms event
    ;---------- Ostsiedlung event
    ;---------- Info on spheres of influence (activated on SettlementSelected)
    ;-------- Catholic Factions
    ;---------- Poland Evolution
    ;---------- Hungary Evolution
    ;---------- Kingdom of Jerusalem Evolution
    ;---------- France Evolution
    ;---------- HRE Evolution
    ;---------- England Evolution
    ;---------- Scotland Evolution
    ;---------- Norway Evolution
    ;---------- Denmark Evolution
    ;-------- South-European Factions
    ;---------- Venice Evolution
    ;---------- Pisa Evolution
    ;---------- Sicily Evolution
    ;---------- Spain Evolution
    ;---------- Aragon Evolution
    ;---------- Portugal Evolution
    ;-------- Pagan Factions
    ;---------- Lithuania Evolution
    ;---------- Cumans Evolution
    ;-------- Orthodox Factions
    ;---------- Byzantine Evolutions
    ;---------- Serbia Evolution
    ;---------- Georgia Evolution
    ;---------- Rus Evolution
    ;-------- Muslim Dynasties
    ;---------- Seljuks Evolution
    ;---------- Rum Evolution
    ;---------- Almoravid Evolution
    ;---------- Zengid Evolution
    ;---------- Abbasid Evolution
    ;---------- Fatimid Evolution (Baqt, Fatimid to Ayyubid, Ayyubid to Mamluk)
    
    
    ;--- CHURCH, ANCILLARIES, PRINCESSES
    ;-------- Church Titles
    ;-------- Ecumenical Patriarch
    ;-------- Great People Ancillaries
    ;-------- Noble Lady Spawn Script
    
    
    ;--- NATURAL DISASTERS
    ;-------- Floods
    
    
    ;--- INTERACTIVE EVENTS
    ;-------- Great Trade Fair
    ;-------- Great Tourney
    ;-------- Troubadours
    ;-------- Great Councils
    ;-------- Pirates
    ;-------- Financial Support for the Crusaders
    
    
    ;--- MISSION SCRIPTS
    ;-------- Payback after LeaderMissionSuccess (units)


    The questions we're looking for the answers to are, among others, as follows:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    The questions about the parameters in-game:
    (1) the re-fill of the recruitment pools (ie: how often you and the AI can recruit another unit) - is the number of units available in game ok, or there're still too many? In particular, do you see differences for the knights units?
    (2) how fast the AI builds up the settlements - we've noticed that in the 200-turn saves all settlements are at the level of fortress + or large city +. There's been some modifications of the parameters aiming at slowing down this process. So how does it look now? Or maybe the changes were too extreeme and the AI is not able to build up the settlements?
    (3) the speed of conversion of the provinces - it was deemed too fast and significant change in one parameter was made. How it's now? (for the player, but it concerns also the AI)
    (4) relative amounts of income from various sources, eg. do you see the reason to invest in mines? or do you see the merchants as an importans source?

    Particular issues we're interested in you experience with and opinions on:
    [A] Armies that emerge after a province is conquered (when you conquer - there'll be an AI army, while sometimes you'd be given an army when the AI conquers something).
    [B] The evolution of Notre Dame (Suger, Notre Dame builldable etc) - have you seen it and when, were you able to build other stuff after it happened?
    [C] The evolution of the Latin universities (Bologna uni...) - there are a few events related to it.
    [D] Special uprisings and invasions - have you seen them (eg Prussians in Poland, Bedouins in Africa, later in the game - the Catalans).
    [E] Regional buildings evolution (Var, Hansa, Norman Stronholds, Rus Monasteries, Palazzo and many other) - have you experienced the progression? what do you think?
    [F] Relative abundance / deprivation of the the missile troops (archers / crossbows / horse archers) - is there a balance or not?
    [G] The princesses - it the script working for you? How do you assess the number of them in-game? Do you marry them off or use as diplomats?
    [H] Supply traits and associated costs (and additional cost in general) - does it make any change to your game? Maybe the price should be higher?
    [I] Traits: number of the battles / of years as governor - does you check it, or you'd consider it redundant?
    [J] Pictures: have you comments (specific/general) on the pictures that accompany the events?
    [K] How aggressive the AI is? Does it start the wars? How often? Are there many wars between the AI factions?
    [L] Have you seen the AI Faction Leaders with crowns?


    A review of the 0.98 version



    A review of the 0.97 version

    Last edited by Jurand of Cracow; November 29, 2023 at 03:21 AM.
    Belovèse's Toolbox: export text files to spreadsheet, detailed unit stats
    Stainless Steel Historical Improvement Project (SSHIP) team member.
    Mini-mods: diplomacy and relation/reputation - detailled unit stats

  4. #4

    Icon4 NEW! SSHIP ver. 0.98 - March 27th, 2024 - DOWNLOAD HERE

    The most recent version of the mod: DOWNLOAD : SSHIP 0.98 March 27th, 2024.

    [] This is a standalone version - you don't need either the previous one or the base Stainless Steel. Just unpack the files into the mod folder, et voila.
    [] This version is not save compatible: if you load a save started in the previous version, you will encounter crashes often, as well as other unpleasant phenomena.
    [] It's always good to read the descriptions of the mechanisms drafted for the ver. 097 - you can find them in this link. Some info may be outdated, so read the links above.
    [] You may choose difficulty level you prefer, here are the benefits you'd get. The recommended one is VH with a strong faction. There should be no problem playing with Huge unit size.
    [] Turn times should be between 30 and 50 seconds. This has been confirmed by a few players, and is achieved thanks to @Belovese optimisation work. Later in the game, when you can see many units moving around the map, this time will be longer.
    [] Keep in mind that this is a beta version, ie. a work-in-progress, and as such you might encounter balance issues and elements needing more polish (or overhaul).
    [] As far as the CTDs (crashes-to-desktop) are concerned, this version is very stable. Nevertheless, bugs happen and even entire saves may be irreperably bugged. This makes keeping a number of saves from the past turns being a good idea (I usualy save after each turn). Have a look here how useful it can be:
    Quote Originally Posted by greywarden View Post
    I just managed to check a few days ago, fortunately my older save is just a few turns away from the crash and now its working normally. Thanks!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Quote Originally Posted by opaxite View Post
    Sadly, I've encountered a strange gamebreaking bug.
    Once I end my turn, the game freezes on Portugal's turn.
    It's 1311, can anyone check if the're getting it, too?
    Here's the save.
    Quote Originally Posted by kostic View Post
    Indeed, same observation on my side!
    As there is no longer the possibility to see the log in this version, I have no idea of ​​the problem...
    Quote Originally Posted by opaxite View Post
    Thanks for checking. I've learned to make multiple saves, this occured on turn 360.
    When I reverted to turn save on turn 357, I was able to proceed to turn 362 without issues.
    Quote Originally Posted by opaxite View Post
    Update: No problems occured in 20+ turns after reverting to an older save. I can continue my game!


    DOWNLOAD and INSTALLATION
    INSTALLATION:
    • Use the link from the beginning of this entry.
    • This is a stand-alone, just unpack it into the mods folder, no other (previous) installation is needed. Don't download SS6.4 or previous versions of the SSHIP.
    • Any of your previous saves is bound to crash at some point if loaded with this version - we've removed a few buildings.
    • If it is the first time you're using a mod in Medieval 2, have a look below for mode detailled installation instructions.


    Thanks to TSJ, there's also a video how to install it:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    You may also have a look here (even if Galu talks about a different mod (DAC), the essence about LAA is valid for the SSHIP).

    Have a look at the installation advices for ver. 097.

    WHAT'S IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT-AFTER-NEXT RELEASE

    UNITS:
    - tbc

    RECRUITMENT
    -tbc

    BUILDINGS
    - St Sepulchre in Jerusalem - 5 levels - under construction...

    TRAITS AND ANCIALLARIES
    - tbc

    SCRIPTS

    - perhaps "Mercenaries disband because of debt" script will get a lower limit (like -3000) - to be decided.
    - Script preventing sally out exploit - see details here. under construction ....
    - the Cymry (Welsh) raids - in 3 player's provinces - in the "Prussian" style.
    - Vlach uprising system - massive script that will prompt rebellions in the Balkan provinces (counting probabilities in each province separately), and count the tensions at the level of whole region culminating in a massive uprising as it happened in AD1185.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    NEW IN THE 2024 RELEASE
    What does this update really change:
    - a number of units' appearanceS (KCC mod continuation).
    - Camp Sacked mechanism adjusted: money gained from the battles fought ersonally increased more than 5-fold. This income should now become important for the gameplay.
    - Military Orders' buildings and mechanisms reworked.
    - regional buildings added for the Muslims and the HRR.
    - map has been redesigned for Hungary and in a few other places.
    - texts proof-read.

    UNITS:
    UNITS' MODIFICATIONS MADE BY KOSTIC

    --- Feudal knights + ug1
    --- Dismounted feudal knights + ug1
    - fixes of units by @kostic:
    --- Spearmen'spear
    --- Italian cavalry militia for serbia
    --- Feudal knights for Sicily
    --- New images for the prussian archers including hungary
    --- New images for Feudal knights and italian cavalry militia
    Units rework
    - Slav levies
    - Transilvanian peasants (saxons)
    - Changing the horses of the eastern bodyguards(Rus-Kiev-Lithuania-Serbia)
    - Chude militia (turn javelins into spearmen)
    - Mounted Crossbowmen - also for Jerusalem, France and Hungary
    - Mounted Sergeants - also for England, Poland and Hungary, Denmark and Norway
    - Arab Cavalry - also for the Abbasids
    - Axe Militia - also for Poland, Hungary
    - EE Crossbow Militia - also for Lithuania (after some urbanization)
    - S Peasant Archers - also for Serbia
    - Merchant Cavalry Militia - also for Serbia
    - Urban Crossbow Militia - for Scotland and England (when the faction expands outside Scotland)
    - Halberd Militia - for France, Norway, Denmark - the same reason
    - Change the square shields of the Italian militias
    - Italian cavalry militia (texture for serbia)
    - Images prussian archers for Hungary
    - Dismounted boyars
    - Boyars
    - Spear Militia (for Lithuania)
    - Mounted Sergeants (for Scotland)
    - Light swordsmen for Aragon, France, England, Jerusalem
    - Pavise Crossbowmen (for Hungary)
    - Late Pikemen (for Jerusalem)
    - Portuguese Arquebusiers (for Scotland)
    - Dismounted Arab Cavalry (for Abbasids)
    - Adath cavalry militia ug2
    - Dismounted/Norman knights (textures for Hre, France, Jerusalem)
    - Rus bodyguard/Serbs bodyguard
    - Porte-étendards XIIIe
    - Officiers XIIIe
    - Swabian swordsmen (unit to think about: either late with two-handed sword, or from the 13th century but one-handed sword)
    - Slavic levy archers
    - Slavic spearmen
    - Spear militia (EE_spear_militia)
    - Forest archers
    - Dismounted druzhina
    - Druzhina
    Lot of new images_info and unit card's
    - a few changes of the names of the units (Kasogi -> Steppe Infantry, Dismounted Cuman Militia -> Cuman Warriors, etc.).
    - descriptions proof-read by @Michael Westen, @j.a.luna, @ birdie.

    RECRUITMENT
    - improved recruitment from Castle Barracks for France, England and especially Hungary.
    - improved recruitment for a few units from Stables (Scouts, Turkopoles, Turkmen).
    - Military Orders recruitment re-coded etc. No big changes in overall availability but now it's much different: every unit from the same building.

    EVENTS & SCRIPTS

    - Camp Sacked mechanism adjusted: money gained from the battles personally foughts increased more than 5-fold. This income should now start playing an important role in the early game: wars are fought not only for conquest of new provinces, but also to win victories that give good traits for the generals and money for an investment surplus.
    - added script destroying Tourney buildings, Military Orders' buildings, Art buildings and Iconers in the settlement conquered by the Muslim factions.
    - possible bug of adding too much support for the AI in additional units (related to leap_year_counter) fixed.
    - notifications on both embezzlement (ie funds taken out of the treasury if there's too much in it), and on costly army abroad limited to 1 every 4 turns.
    - texts proof-read by @Michael Westen, @j.a.luna, @ birdie.

    BUILDINGS
    - Kaiserpfalz - only for HRR: 5 levels plus 2 unique buildings (Aachen, Ingelheim)
    - Holy Place - only for the Muslim factions: 3 levels plus 3 unique buildings (Kubbat as-Sahra in Jerusalem, Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Mosque in Mosul)
    - Chapter Houses - only for the Catholic factions: instead of 4 different 2-level building chains there'll be one chain "Military Orders" consisting of 4 levels. This will result in less congestion in the settlement that were meant to host 3 different orders. Everything re-coded in: script, EDB, EDA, EDCT. Phasing-in of various Orders coded. The Templar-destroyed script removed, but the increase of negative effects of the Orders when the faction grows should prompt the player to destroy the building himself. See here.
    - slight changes to the icons for buildings in the chains: Water Supply (Wells, Cisterns), Var (various levels), farms, River Ports (new pics for the ME), builders ME, chapels NE, the Kiev cathedral, the Vienna cathedral, the Mont St Michel.
    - increased benefits from Autonomy buildings.
    - prices and building times of churches/masjids adjusted.
    - descriptions proof-read by @Michael Westen, @j.a.luna, @ birdie.

    TRAITS AND ANCILLARIES
    - additional places for crowning: Rome province (HRE), Var lvl 9 Visegrad (Hungary), Mosul (Zenghid), Cologne (HRE).
    - some PTs adjusted to the recent changes in the provinces' capitals.
    - Stripped of Titles mechanism fixed, gain messages added, additional pop-out window added.
    - Oriflame relic for the French FL added.
    - descriptions proof-read by @Michael Westen, @j.a.luna, @ birdie.

    PARAMETERS
    - parameters for the assassins have been nerfed, see here.

    STRATEGIC MAP
    --- have a look at this entry with maps
    - in a few places passages opened (Olomóc to the west, Poznan to Stetin, Kutatisi to Samtshe, Arta to Peloponesus and to Boitia, Arta to Thessaly), and also the 20c. lakes are are cut down (next to Sarkil).
    - significant re-designing of Hungary: Esztergom changes into the castle of Eger (with much lower population), Szekesfehervar, Varad and Gyulafehervar moved a bit on the map, Szekesfehevar is now the capital and home to the Var unique building.
    - some re-desing of Ruthenia: the Bug river moved west (4 space), and Volodymyr moved there as well, borders the Volodymyr, Turov and Halych provices adjusted - as a result it looks more historical, and the roads created by the engine are better in my eyes (more like a grid, with more map now potentially involved into play).
    - Poznan (Wielkopolska) got a chunk of land to the west (Ziemia Lubuska) and has a border with and a road to Brandenburg - what is very historical, plus adds a trade connection (at the expense of Wroclaw, but it is already rich enough);
    - adjustments in borders: deep Scandinavia (between Bergen and Sigtuna, also Sigtuna-Kalmar), Finland has border with Rostow (a special plot of land in the north of Novgorod), small changes in borders between Thessaly and Beotia, Adrianople extends now over the Hellespont to have land trade with both Nikaia and Smyrna, borders of Ankyra with Nikaia moved west, and Ankyra with Sinope as well (there's now a road from Ankyra to Sivas, adjustments of Attalaia borders (there's a road from Attalaia to Konya) - in general the movement accross Anatolia should be easier and this part should stop being a dead end;
    - borders of Hasankeyf and Edessa provinces adjusted, and also cutting the trans-desert road from Baghdad to Al-Ahsa.
    - rivers: Nysa (Neisse) added in Lusatia, Veria in Macedonia, a few rivers slightly redesigned (Elbe, Maros, Tisa, Hermos, Prut), a few fords added or moved to enable the roads or simply passing of forces.
    - an invisible river between Barqa (or rather Alexandria) and Tripolitania will prevent the AI armies travlling along the coast.
    - also moved: Kalmar one space direction to the sea (it's truly on the shore now), Brandenburg one space North.
    - a number of resources moved so that they are (at the same time) (1) (more-or-less) historical, (2) are not staying on the road, (3) are located rather deeper in the interior to make as much of the map living as possible.

    NEW IN AUGUST 2023
    What does this update really change:
    - major revamp to the recruitment of the units, including cutting down the AI knights' pools;
    - debuff to the population growth AI bonuses at lower level of the settlements to prevent the phenomenon of the AI upgrading settlements too fast;
    - costs, building times, and upkeep prices of many buildings adjusted;
    - parameters defining the pace of religious conversion of provinces significantly lowered;
    - Hungary historical evolution added, along the regional building.

    UNITS' RECRUITMENT
    - additional recruitment pools for Knights for the AI factions cut down. As a result, a player should discern that the AI fields fewer such units.
    - recruitment slot added to the unique military buildings (Narikala, White Tower), while the number of slots from the core buildings (walls, castles) is lowered (second time the same fix for the same trap we've fallen in the past... ugh). The new Var building provides an additional slot.
    - 'Ruthenian archers' are now available in the Rus lands (while Hunters are removed from there - I'm not sure it's a good solution, maybe the Hunters should be the base unit, the Ruthenian a better one?) for all factions, with Rus and Lithuanian factions having additional pools' increases.
    - recruitment for Rus factions in the castle barracks re-coded.
    - some updates for the recruitment provided by the unique buildings (additional recruitment pools: this should result in your capital providing you much more units than the other cities).
    recruitment of the Georgian castle barracks reviewed, with the pools' refill lowered significantly, and crossbow units available mainly outside Georgia.
    - adjustments of the Byzantine recruitment of the crossbow units (much fewer in Byzantium, Armenia and Georgia, none in the Middle East, while more elsewhere).
    - adjustments to the city barracs of Byzantium and Georgia, with Scutatoi units added to Constantinople.
    - HRE can recruit now both sword and axe dismounted mailed knights.
    - recruitment of the Grenadine Crossbow Cav adjusted (apart from the Alkazars in Africa, only for the Muslim).
    - recruitment of the Fedayeens is limited only to the Muslim factions.
    - prices of the Swiss mercenaries (3 units) adjusted.
    - a number of other recruitment adjustments and fixes for castle barracks, stables and ranges - for the later types of units (those available after 200-300 turns). It usualy consisted of lowering their availability (eg. no more 0.67 parameters, but 0.16 etc).
    - fixed a few recruitment errors in the Barracks (thanks, @j.a.luna)
    - marginal recoding of the recruitment pools for the KoJ chapter houses recruitment.

    EVENTS & SCRIPTS
    - AI and diplomacy adjustments - ongoling work as usual.
    - Bedouin invasions - added 6 lacking settlements (for the total of 28), added recruitment pools' depletion after an invasions, warning infos for the player will work, description of how does it work added.
    - Catalan invasions - added 4 settlements (for the total of 19).
    - the Prussian raids - in 5 player's provinces, plus a 'settlement rebels' system in Twangste.
    - some changes to the anti-hoarding mechanism (ie money), also to the texts explaining what's happening.
    - quite significant re-coding of the Military Orders (perhaps for the first time from the v.092) - the mechanisms should work now, the requirements are now more-or-less reasonable, there're fall-back triggers etc.
    - England evolution: events re-coded from being in the historical events file into the script, which will enable making them soon conditional on something the player does.
    - Hungary evolution: events re-coded from being in the historical events file into the script, a few new added, also new conditions and consequences introduced.
    - fire script for many 4 unique buildings re-written to include a smoke over the settlement where it occured, to provide the player with a window pop-out with the relevant information, and to fix one detail that made the script causing crashes.

    MAP
    - slight modification of borders in South England, in Auvergne, next to Lyon, in Russia.
    - significant modification of province borders in the Zagros mountains, a river flowing from the north deleted to make the pass passable, a ford added: now there's a road from Hamadan south to Wasit, and also from Hamadan west to Baghdad.
    - settlements moved: Nurnberg (slightly north), Firenze (slightly south-east), Kernave (slightly north-east), Chernigov (quite much to the east, also the ford has been moved), Riga (a bit to the east, to be on the river), Hamadan (a bit to the west);
    - some resources moved around, silver in the Tatra Mts. added.
    - settlement of Valladolid moved to became Salamanca, the borders around modified, also names of the provinces adjusted.
    - remake of the Serbia region: settlement of Nis moved to became Belograd, settlement of Ras moved as well with much modifications to the borders.
    - some changes of placement of resources in those modified regions.

    BUILDINGS
    - Var building - regional building for Hungary, 9 levels.
    - debuff to the population growth AI bonuses at lower level of the settlements to prevent the phenomenon of the AI upgrad settlements too fast. First observations tell that it works - you still see large towns in the 13th century, not only large cities and citadels.
    - costs, building times, and upkeep prices of many buildings adjusted (in particular: for the upper levels of settlements the costs increased, while the building times decreased).
    - as usual: pics and icons for a great deal of buildings retouched or replaced, eg. for the farms for different cultures (esp. for the lower levels).
    - 'Autonomy' buildings no longer have faction-wide negative impact on trade.
    - the "Builders" buildings provide now upkeep, not income (unless in the provinces with timber and/or stone).
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    PARAMETERS
    - parameters defining the pace of religious conversion of provinces significantly lowered (this potentially might be a major change, please watch out how the situation will evolve).
    - the likelyhood of the spawn of a rebel/loyalist army after capture of a province increased from 66 to 86 percent (still only for the VH difficulty, but seems an important change: now you'll be lucky to avoid this loyalist army).

    STARTING SITUATION
    - castle of Nis (now: Belograd) made independent; Byzantium loses a few units stationing there.
    - depletion of initial recruitment pools for certain heavy units for the Moors, HRE and Byzantium, and for Scouts in England and in HRE.
    - added many future princesses to the family trees (ie kids below 14 that over the course of the game will become princesses).
    - some slave armies in Persia got their composition adjusted.
    - Turkish armies in Persia got their generals, a few added in the passes of the Zagros Mts.

    FIXES
    - fixed many mechanisms that mixed up the use of small and CAPITAL letters in the script.
    - camp sacked mechanism fixed and should work now.
    - support for smaller factions mechanism fixed.
    - warning of an imminent Bedouin invasion fixed.
    - Hattin event improved with fall-back coding.
    - disappearing recruitment slot issue solved (additional slots added to the unique buildings to compensate somehow - described above).
    - Byzantine Renaissance and the disappearing Contaratoi issues solved.
    - Aleppo earthquake fixed.
    - (Next Heir really works as it worked already in June version).

    NEW IN JUNE 2023

    UNITS
    - a number of units reworked and made AoR (ie they will be available for all factions, with broad recruitment - these units will appear frequently in your campaigns): Scouts, Syrian auxilliaries, Daylami light infatry (recruitment still to be done: Ruthenian archers).
    - units added to other factions (ie they can be recruited by these factions, what seems to be historical): Archers for hungary; Arbalest militia for hungary, england, scotland, serbia; Pavise spearmen for serbia (recruitment still to be done: Halberd militia for jerusalem; Armored Swordsmen for jerusalem; Cuman horse militia for hungary, Armored sergeants (for hungary, scotland), Sergeants spearmen for hungary, scotland).
    - units reworked: Mailed knights ug1 (bug mesh), Ne & Se bodyguard ug1 (same bug mesh), Adath sword militia ug1, Light sworsmen, Norman knights, Dismounted norman knights, Caballeros hidalgos, Welsh longbowmen, Lusitanian javelinmen, Levy javelinmen (no more mercenary unit & made for Aragon, Spain, Portugal & Slave factions).
    - new horse: for the Scouts.

    UNITS' RECRUITMENT

    - AoR units: Scouts will be available in most of the Northern Europe (also from cities); Syrian auxilliaries will be available in the Near East in quite large numbers for the Christian factions; Daylami swordsmen will be available in the Near East and Persia for all factions (becoming a mainstay infantry in early era for the Turks, Abbasids and neighbours).
    - all mercenaries' recruitment prices were adjusted to take into account increased amount of money in the game (ie. higher budgets) - the last regions to undergo changes were Africa and the Middle East. The whole review of mercenary prices is thus concluded. In the future, there'll be more historical diversity changes, but they'll be much less significant than the work done sofar.
    - Berber units - recruitment reviewed and adjusted so that they're AoR units: available from both cities and castles, the only source are the Ksar and Alkazar buildings (plus some are available as mercernaries, ofc).
    - African units (ie those 3 left in the mod, reminder: the 2 other are planned to be replaced and currently are not recruitable) - recruitment reviewed and slightly adjusted; recruitment is now Oases - what also means that they're available from both cities and castles.
    - recruitment of the Serbian units in the castles' buildings significantly improved (also fixes to other factions, like Hungary, England).
    - recruitment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem units slightly improved, including Canons of the Holy Sepulchre (also this is now a free upkeep unit in Jerusalem - you should garrison the city with them. The issue of their historicity - two-handed swords in 12th?! that's stupid - is left for modifications in the future).
    - recruitment of the "Marinae" units moved to ports, they're made available in the Holy Land, and for the KoJ around the Mediterranean sea. Overall, their availability is limited. Still, it's kind of fantasy unit with wooden maces. If anything, they should be crossbow units - to be done in the future.
    - Afghan Javelinmen are prepared for removal as it was very, very similar to the Kurdish Javelinmen and the Turkish Javelimen as far the functions and geographical availablity are concerned.
    - "Prussian Axemen" are made again mecernary-only unit available from Northern Germany, Poland and the Baltics. They will show up only after the Teutonic Knights emerge, so in the early 13th century. Similarly, "Vlach Axemen" are again mecernary-only unit available only in the Balkans (not a Hungarian factional unit).
    - descriptions of many units modified, esp. for Poland.
    - the upper levels of the landowners buildings will provide fewer initial units (ie those available just after conquest or building a new level) : before it was growing with the level of the building: 1,2,3,4, now it will be 1,1,1,1. The gameplay result should also be such that the AI faction will find it easier to expand as the rebels won't be recruiting like crazy (what was the case before..).
    - the Peasant units that have lingered in the descr_rebel file and could be spawned as brigands or rebels were deleted - so the should not appear in the rebellions anymore. Also the units given as payback for succesful missions should be better (even though it's another task to be done in the future).
    - prices, availability, buildings to be recruited from of a number units adjusted.
    - other bugfixes for various units (incl. descriptions, or double recruitment possibilities - this is a continous work).

    THE MONGOLS
    - @Macaras has made a script breaking up the Mongols once they're overwhelming faction (what we've seen in the games, is the Mongols creating an empire made up of half of the map).
    - replenishement pools of their units lowered accross the board.
    - in particular, their noble ("knight") units:
    (1) can be recruited only in the steppes (HR cumans) and turkic lands (HR turks)
    (2) even their highest level of Landowners building provides very limited number of those units.

    BUILDINGS
    - Oasis - regional building available in 9 desert provinces (Africa, Middle East, Persia - for all factions). This is where you can recruit the Bedouin units.
    - Kasr - regional building available in 8 African provinces where the Berbers lived (for all factions). This is where you can recruit the Berber units.
    - Stavkirke - regional building in Scandinavia (all Christian factions), factional building for Norway.
    - Petrova Crkva - unique building for the Orthodox in Ras (significantly increase recruitment pools for Serbia!).
    - The Great Crane - uniqe building in Gdansk, coming rather late (14th century).
    - Palazzo - regional building for Italy (combined with slight recoding of availability of Norman Stronghold building), it has a few upper levels: for the cities of Venice and Milan.
    - review of benefits of certain buildings (eg. Farms will provide more benefits from grain after Scythe historical event; the recruitment slots of the core buildings reviewed).
    - the military orders have the same buildings in both cities and castles (before there're two building lines - one was removed) - this a beginning of a revamp that should end up with having only 1 line of this building.
    - some prices and building times adjusted (notably, the core building: walls and castles, but also many other).

    SCRIPTS
    - "Next Heir" mechanism re-instated (option for the player, should be a major change for the players' experience, but choose wisely!).
    - "No offensive battles for captain led armies" script introduced (option for the player).
    - "Camp sacked after battle" script completely rewritten (and fixed - it actually didn't work).
    - Bedouin invasions : events plus scripted stochastic raids in 20 provinces around deserts (well, 6 needs to be coded).
    - Catalan company invasions : events plus scripted stochastic raids in 15 provinces where historically it could happen (High era - you won't see it for some time in the game); a nice window showing the spot where a particular invasion happens will open for the player.
    - "Factions' Historical Evolution" script part: (1) all factions have it now, even though many just with one script: rescue money when the capital is conquered, (2) a dozen of faction-related historical special events was introduced, (3) many fixes to factions' evolutions scripts.
    - Settlement Change Names After Conquest - a few more got new version, many fixes accross the code.
    - financial support for each faction if it loses it's capital - for both the player and the AI, but this should bolster up esp. the AI as losing the capitals is extremely harmful.
    - improvements to the aggressivity mechanism - still to be seen if it works.

    BEAUTIFYING CHANGES
    - a number of Cephalophore's pictures for the Middle Eastern factions added.
    - 20 unique pictures assigned to the initial or scripted generals (Bedouin generals, intial: Almoravids, Poland).
    - numerous retouches of the building pics - this is a constant work, when I open the game and don't like something, I just edit it again.
    - many units that underwent modding by @kostic have obviously new pictures and icons.

    LESSER IMPROVEMENTS
    - the traits of the generals leading rebellions after conquest of a province (sometimes they provide an army to the player) have been modified so that they have all the necessary traits, and would be (marginally) useful also for the player;
    - initial Princesses will have slightly better stats, a princesses for many factions added (SE factions, KoJ, Serbia, Moors;
    - initial composition of Almoravid armies adjusted, also some changes for KoJ, Georgia and other factions.
    - map: borders of Cologne changed a bit, resources in the neighbourhood repositioned slightly.
    - some texts changed (eg to be more explicit about the difference between growth and health as features of the buildings).
    - costs of changing capital scale up with difficulty and size of the faction (see description while hovering over the relevant button).

    AI & DIPLOMACY
    - another round of adjustments in scripting the diplomacy and the AI decisions - by @Macaras;
    - the bonuses (discounts) provided by the core buildings for construction for the AI has been significantly increased - the AI should be able to undertake construction of the buildings even in situation when it fields large armies that upkeep devours all of its money (from the other side - bankrupcy - it is saved by the from the anti-bankruptcy script: as a result it will have not enough to recruit new units but enough to finance new buildings). It the building is damaged, there's an script fixing it within 4 turns - otherwise the AI keeps on having the damaged buildings.
    - the small AI facitions will get additional initial funds (similar to the player - but only the player can chose to give it up).
    - as usual: further improvements in additional recruitment for the AI when very small faction.

    ANCILLARIES
    - a dozen of pics of ancillaries replaced by new versions.
    - many pics were edited to provide the background's colour similar to the window's background (ie blurred dark yellow).
    - the 3 missing Provincial Titles added (now all provinces have PTs).
    - as usual: fixes to some bugs in the triggers, benefits and descriptions.

    AGENTS
    - the AI factions will recruit priests also at the lower church levels (the player still cannot before significant events take place (founding of the Franciscan / Dominican orders);
    - recruitment of priests for the pagan AI factions reviewed;
    - recruitment of diplomats slightly adjusted;
    - in case of a few factions that received new unique buildings in this patch (i.e. Serbia, Pisa, Norway) recruitment of the intial agents moved to those buildings.

    FIXES, FIXES
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Quote Originally Posted by Belovèse View Post
    Just fixed a huge typo where pl_ec_id was used as an event counter when it should be used as a regular counter.
    Bovi's tool is very usefull for picking this, in the scrip.error.log file it outputs.
    or the Notre Dame not buildable if the player is not France.
    or the availability of the crown for Rum
    or a list of issues here.


    NEW IN SEPTEMBER 2022
    Changes between version of April 4th, and this one - September 8th.

    UNITS AVAILABLE FOR MORE FACTIONS:
    - for Byzantium: Urban crossbow militia, Axe militia, Georgian light archer.
    - for Kiev : Berdiche axemen
    - for Jerusalem : Georgian light archer
    - for Abbasid and Turks: Naffatun

    REWORKED UNITS
    - Scouts
    - Urban spear militia
    - Levy archer (add armor level)
    - Italian cavalry militia
    - Axe militia
    - crossbow militia (now different from urban crossbow militia/levy crossbowmen)
    - Merchant cavalry (better protected)
    - Norman serjeants
    - Saxon huscarls
    - Sergeants spearmen/armored sergeants (now different from spearmen)
    - crusader knights and pilgrims (slight changes)

    UNIT ICONS: a significant number of unit cards have been redone in order to better match the units on the battlefield.

    AI AND DIPLOMACY
    - some mechanisms for AI when the player has many neighbors, preventing everybody to attack at the same time,
    - the factions which are traditional enemies are little more focused on each other, also they may start wars by naval invasions,
    - some other tweaks and adjustments,
    - diplomacy guide.

    RECRUITMENT:
    - missile units availability significantly lowered through:
    (1) moving the building levels up one castle level (eg. Bowyer used to be available at the castle level Motte&Bailey, now it is available at level Wooden Castle),
    (2) lowering the recruitment pools' refil rates (reviewed for most of the factions, although not all);
    - major review of the recruitment from the Barracks in cities - lower recruitment pools refill, more systematic set of units, for many factions (less for the Muslisms);
    - as mentioned above: major review of the recruitment from the Ranges - lower recruitment pools refill, unit progressions fixed, availability of the archers limit for some factions, while for the crossbowmen for the other;
    - AoR units' recruitment also more systematically reviewed, with the refill rates more often lowered (0.07 to 0.05) than increased (just in few cases). Note that the AoR recruitment is the same for any settlement level (ie it does not increase with urbanisation). Some factions have special bonuses for the refill rates in their own provinces. Also some units moved to that category of AoR in recruitment.
    - African units - recruitment for units disabled, for the other made more logical (they're all AoR now, as well).
    - prices of units - adjusted for many units, especially those with mercenary attribute.
    - units' stats - very few adjustments.

    BUILDINGS:
    - pics of many buildings retouched (this is an ongoing process)
    - a few more builing lines added (eg Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Castle of Angel, Vilnius Castle - see the relevant threads),
    - many unique buildings provide additional refill for the units recruited (ie: many factions will see increased recruitment in their capitals, but not elsewhere: Palermo, London, Paris, Vilnius, Zaragoza, Pisa, Venice, Jerusalem, Tbilisi, Poznan, Kiev etc.).

    PICTURES BY CEPHALOPHORE - many of them, see in his thread.

    OTHER:
    - adjustments in the initial population number / set of buildings for number of settlements;
    - a few factions get initial boost to income before they own 3+ settlements;
    - some usual additions: new historical events, new names in the script changing names upon conquest etc.
    - faction evolution scripts reworked for a few factions.

    BUGFIXES
    - as usual: many small bugs fixed
    - major improvement to the conquest of settlement script (the rebel armies will appear in the right provinces).
    - pop-out windows fixed for: albigensian cruusade, settlement conquest, warmonger, Moscow established and other

    NEW IN APRIL 2022
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (I) DYNAMIC INTEGRATION OF PROVINCES system
    - this is the most complicated system in the SSHIP. You may compare it: in the SSHIP 097 the script.txt was .... long, while the new system alone is 80k lines long (with other modifications, the script counts now 150k lines).
    - the structure of the code consists of
    (1) a monitor that fires after a capture of each settlement (code-wise it means: each settlement has its own monitor with own counters, own conditions etc. - there are 199 monitors but only a few will fire each turn - depending on how many settlements were captured). This monitor a.) changes the name of the settlement after a capture (some 40% of provinces have coded such changes), b.) can spawn an army belonging to a faction traditionally owning the provice, or a rebel army (this is for H/VH difficulties), c.) increases Player Aggressivity Level (only VH difficulty).
    (2) a monitor that fires for each settlement every turn (i.e. during the turn of the faction that owns it - 199 monitors that fire always, but only once a turn, and a big(ger) part of script for each monitor is not firing at all). It calculates turmoil points specific for that settlement, based on it's particular situation (how long ago it was conquered, what are certain historical events related) and the situation of the whole faction (aggressivity level, whether the FL has a crown, or whether he's got not-low authority; if the FL has just died, there'll be a one-time hit to stability that may prompt a riot or worse). It then tranlates those points it into a turmoil that appears in-game for the players. There're also penalties for the AI in the provinces that are outside historical influence of a faction. Furthermore, the un-integrated provinces will switch to the religion of the owner slower.
    (3) ancillary coding in other places of the script.
    - The Player Aggressivity Level mechanism is part of the system: each conquest of a province increases the level of how much both other factions (through diplomatic standing), and own citizens (through turmoil in all settlements) are anxious about your expansion. It increases exponentially: if the player doesn't wait enough between conquering settlements, the additional points of aggression accrue at a faster rate than before. The player must wait or do other things (building up the settlements, mopping up rebellions, maybe going on a crusade; this is also a perfect time to survive a change on the throne) for the tensions to subside. The punishment in the turmoil in the settlements should be really heavy at the highest levels of aggressivity. The information to the player is provided below in the bit of the script (the rest you can see in the other bits there is code for gathering the points, and for translating those points into unrest in settlement-specific).
    - efficiency of coding: the number of monitors increased but not by 400 (2x199), but for perhaps by 250, as those 40% of provinces already had one or two monitors.


    (II) BUILDINGS - overview of the changes:
    * (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) all the buildings provide upkeep or incur costs:
    -- the buildings either require upkeep or provide lump-sum income. The upkeep replaces the negative effects that were often attached to the buildings for the gameplay purposes: to deter the player from building everything everywhere. Now the player has to decide wheter investment is worth it as it costs not only the upfront price to build but also a continous costs for upkeep. In many situations, the benefits may not justify such costs. For instance, while schools will probably be worth their low upkeep in all settlements given that they provide +law, the universities will only be useful if used regulary for education of the generals. However, as the game progresses, the new historical events buff up the benefits of certain buildings (eg. the universities) and at some point they may became worth investment.
    -- overall, the income for a settlement should stay roughly the same. This balance is achieved because the upkeep of certain buildings will be taken away from the additional income provided by other buildings. It might have not been achieved yet as not all the buildings have been adjusted.
    * a few historical events that were added (Hanseatic Cog, Hansa Wars, Ascendency of Lubeck, Eldeguzids) or re-coded (those added in 097: Hanseatic League Expands, Confederation of Cologne) are utilised for coding the buildings or scripting other historic events, in particular the evolutions of the factions.
    * missile building (providing archers and crosbowmen) moved 1 level up (starts in wooden castle, not motte-and-bailey; last level in a citadel)
    * (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) a number of buildings have their names changed, icons and cards' pics replaced, benefits rebalanced, conditions or availability changed (see below).
    * hidden resources changes:
    - added: unique1, unique2, desert (explanations of their use is in the descr_region.txt file)
    - removed: palermo, ireland, wonder5. The initially introduced "chude" and "scandinavia" turned out to be redundant and were not implemented.
    * military buildings
    -- kept in the mod as there're both castles and cities (what is different from OST system like in SS-HURB)
    -- provide law bonus (very gradually: +1 every level)
    -- military buildings in the castle provide positive growth, but in the cities they provide negative growth.
    * in many buildings' capabilities there're a few options depending on the FL policy (eg. if the FL is "thinks_of_his_people" then Charity provide +1 Happiness)


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (IIa) REGULAR BUILDINGS CHANGES

    -- Walls / Castle (core building):
    (1) no longer provide the knights' units - this function has been moved to the Landowners line.
    (2) Mongols: more public order in the conquered cities at the beginning of the campaign. It fades away so that in 14c. it'll get increasingly difficult for the Mongols to keep grip over non-steppe lands. Also other adjustments made.
    (3) Given that (I) a certain level of farms (farms3) is required to build a stone wall, and that (II) this level is possible to be build only in non-desert provinces (technically: no HR desert), it is thus not possible to built the stone wall in such provinces. This means these settlements cannot grow beyond large town level. The same applies to the deep steppes (provinces with HR cumans), while normal steppe provinces can be upgraded if there's no nomad building (you have to demolished it to upgrade).

    -- Roads:
    (1) there are new names, new pics, and the benefits were rebalanced.
    (2) the lowest level is now buildable already at the village level, while the upper have been moved to the more advanced cities.
    (3) quite complicated conditions have be

    -- Builders:
    (1) this line is made out of two previously existing buildings: Carpenters, Stonemasons: they were merged.
    (2) new names were added, benefits rebalanced (they are also more intricate benefits (eg. amount of money they provide depend on resources timber and stone in the province), new pics, next texts.
    (3) two upper levels enables "quarring" of stone.

    -- Farms
    (1) two more levels were added, the logic is now different: first two levels are for non-urbanized provinces, then there's a land clearence, then communcal farms, and then various stages of Estates start. It is translated into their availability (eg. in the steppe or desert or far-north provinces) and benefits.
    (2) The conditions for the fertility benefit have more intricated conditions: the bread-basket provinces of Egypt, Mezopotamia and also Andalusia and Sicily get higher numbers (in adition to the 097 dependence on the presence of a hidden resource river).
    (3) Building times have been made much longer.
    (4) There are new pics for most of the levels - sometimes taken from Rome TW, sometimes modified Med2 versions.

    -- Churches
    (1) had their benefits reviewed (provide law, not happiness) and simplified
    (2) new icons and card pictures for the East European catholic churches, Greek orthodox churches, first levels of the Northern European churches. Icons and pics for the Orthodox chapels fixed.

    -- Horse Racing:
    (1) one new level added: Imperial Hippodrom / Sultans' Tracks (the lower level is now Emir) - this highest level possible to build only in Cairo, Constantinople, Baghdad, Cordoba, Palermo.
    (2) the chain is now available also for the Byzantines and Georgia
    (3) obviously benefits were rebalanced, new pics, next texts.

    -- Schools & Libraries:
    (1) lvl1 already buildable at large_town level (this will enable a few factions that don't have initial access to cities to prompt a schooling process in their generals).
    (2) both building chains have new pics for Middle Eastern and Greek cultures.
    (3) provide no positive impact on happiness, but on law.

    -- Printing Paper
    (1) whole line made available to all factions (but the highest level for the Muslim)
    (2) additional level added (Parchment Manufacturer), available from the beginning of the game
    (3) second level called Paper Mill, and only the third is Printing Press.

    -- Mills:
    (1) Water Mills have 3 and Wind Mills 5 different pics (depending on culture)) - actually a lot of work was put in this issue, sometimes there're different versions for buildable and already built situations.
    (2) benefits and availability rebalanced.

    -- Mines:
    (1) 3 levels (with pics and descriptions) were added. They mine only metals, gold and silver, not salt or stone.
    (2) benefits rebalanced, in particular they provide population growth, while giving health malus: netto positive, but likehood of a plague rises. (previously they'd negatively impact population growth, what was not really historical).
    (3) mines are indestructible now (coded hinterland_mines)

    -- Water Supply
    (1) 5 levels (with pics and descriptions) were added.
    (2) Aqueduct of Valens is now the highest level.
    (3) It is possible to build this building in the castles.
    (4) starting situation updated: most of the settlements start with a well/cistern.

    -- Charity
    (1) the whole chain made available to all factions: its role is to increase population and lower unrest.
    (2) it replaced three building lines: orphan, monastery_castle, friar.
    (3) new pics were prepared - different for each religion but pagan (so 3 sets: Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim).

    -- River Ports: two new levels were added, benefits rebalanced, new pic added (from other mods), next texts.
    -- Bakehouses have different names (Bakeries, Communal Bakeries) and their benefits were changed.
    -- Taverns benefits rebalanced (more happiness, no negative health, but more unrest, fewer spies and assassins).
    -- Ikoner line have much more complicated conditions for benefits for Georgia, Serbia and Byzantium.
    -- Ports: fixed highest level (previously provided trade benefits only to NE factions), trade benefits lowered by 1 for each level. The names were slightly changed.
    -- Warehouses: given that the number of sea export lines bonus doesn't work (it's hardcoded to ports), more trade boni added.
    -- Brothel/Shisha Bar line provides less happiness, no additional population growth (but they do it through happiness), and provide income.

    -- Money (former Merchant Bank)
    (1) additional, first level added: Mint. Available for all factions in capitals, if the FL has crown. Some factions start with a mint.
    (2) two other levels re-coded and descriptions rewritten; new pics added.
    (3) several historical events were added - they will guide the evolution of availabilty and benefits.

    * some buiding lines were removed:
    -- Carpenters / Stonemasons - replaced by Builders.
    -- Public Baths - this chain was entirely removed while their their benefits added to River Ports and Bakeries.
    -- "imperial mercenary barracks" and "mercenary_barracs" were entirely removed, with the relevant recruitment moved to the ordinary builidngs, while landowners guard/council is available also to the Byzantines.
    -- castle_bakery building line removed - now both castles and cities have access to the same bakery line
    -- Hanseatic guild - replaced with regional building Hansa (see below).
    -- orphan, monastery_castle, friar - replaced by Charity chain.

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    (IIb) POLICY BUILDINGS:
    * the concept was implemented partially before (Professional, Gallows and Tribute lines) but now it's getting its weight: these are buildings that largely define the place of the provinces (Landowners and Autonomy are exclusive, while Food Supply and Gallows are temporary).
    * Landowners:
    -- Professional building tree (Local Guard / Provincial Council) renamed Landowners and expanded to 4 levels (with new pics, new texts).
    -- they take away a bit of income because the nobility is taking over it (there's no negative impact on trade because historically, the nobility were the main enginge for this trade to start).
    -- they provide law benefits, and also buff for the agriculture.
    -- The condition to build them are only farms, no technology buildings or barracks. On the other hand, they may be a requirement to build a few other buildings.
    -- building chain is now available also to the Greeks.
    -- nice pics made for: NE, SE, EE, ME.
    -- recruitment reviewed and improved for England, Poland, Georgia.
    * Local Autonomy buildings
    -- 2 levels have been added: they exchange happiness (and, as a result, population growth) for law, trade, income.
    -- pics and coding introduced.
    * Tribute (former Food Supply) - more benefits for the receiving city, and more mali for those contributing.
    * Gallows are available in both cities and castles.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (IIc) REGIONAL BUILDINGS:
    * this is a sort of buildings that buildability is limited not by faction, but by geography (hidden resources) and/or time (historical events). They usually have a few levels available for every faction, and certain levels available to only few or in certain locations - based on history.
    * (new) Norman Stronghold:
    -- it has six stages, three of which are the unique buildings (Palazzo in Palermo, Castel del Monte in Bari, Machio Angioino in Naples). New pics and icons, coding of effects, descriptions, placement of the initial buildings, scripting for fires.
    -- in Palermo Palazzo dei Normani replaced the unhistorical Cathedral of Palermo.
    * (new) Rus Monasteries
    -- available in the Rus provinces (hidden resource russia and kievan_rus) for all Orthodox factions but also a factional building for the Rus factions (ie buildable everywhere)
    -- it has 4 base stages plus 3 unique buildings (in Kiev, Novgorod, Pskov).
    -- new pics and icons, coding of effects, descriptions, placement of the initial buildings.
    * (new) Alcazar
    -- available in the Al-Andalus for the Moors and the 3 Iberian Catholic factions (for the Moors it's a factional building (ie buildable in more areas).
    -- it has 2 base levels plus 7 unique buildings (in Lisbon, Toledo, Granada (2 levels), Zaragoza, Fes, Tunis).
    -- new pics and icons, coding of effects, descriptions, placement of the initial buildings.
    * Hanseatic system completely re-done:
    -- a new chain of (regular) building added, called Hansa Teutonica. It comprises of 9 buildings in 2 legs (one for the Hanseatic cities and one for the trading partners of those cities). All coding and pictures are new, fires of the unique levels scripted.
    -- the very Hanseatic guild has been removed
    * Chude Settlements: it will be available from the start in 16 northern provinces, but then will be slowly disbanded after the build-up of those northern provinces. It will be possible to rebuild them in 12 provinces, but it would be very lengthy (even if cheap) process.
    * Bullring restricted to the Iberian Penninsula.
    * Slavemarket building available all over the map for the Muslim factions.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (IId) WONDERS (or unique buildings):
    * only 1 such building may exist in the game, and only in one province (but there may be exceptions in the future, but not yet).
    * most of such buildings are stand-alone in the EDB, but some are part of the regular building chains (eg. Aqueduct of Valens is a building in the water_supply chain).
    * scripting for perhaps all wonders have been improved (conditions, benefits).
    * for many wonders special scripts "Fire" are introduced. The player can experience that his "wonders" would be damaged / destroyed by the fire - and rebuilding would be needed. The likelyhood very low, and there're cool-off periods - so that a fire would be rather rare an event in the realm. Say, it may occur once in 100 years per "wonder".
    * new wonders introduced:
    -- Kaiserdom zu Speyer (4 levels, lvl3 is already built at the beginning of the game, but the building may burn down or be destroyed during conquests, so the player may see the other levels in game)
    -- Stephansdom in Wien (3 levels, can be built after the Notre Dame event)
    -- Marienkirche in Krakow (4 stages of building, possible to be built after event Ostsiedlung and further Poland evolution events).
    -- St. Adalbertus in Poznan (4 levels, lvl2 is already built at the beginning of the game, but the building may burn down or be destroyed during conquests, so the player may see the other levels in game)
    -- Stephansdom in Wien (3 levels, can be built after the Notre Dame event)
    -- Mont Saint Michel in Rouen (4 stages of building, upper levels possible to be built after event Notre Dame).
    -- Castle Rock in Edingburgh (4 stages, upper levels possible to be built after Davidian Revolution event).
    -- Zoloti Vorota in Kiev (4 stages).
    -- Uppsala Domkyrka in Sigtuna (4 stages + script for it to be buildable)
    -- Campo dei Miracoli for Pisa (9 stages, starts with 3rd, but a fire is possible)
    * a few wonders have undergone an overhaul:
    -- Notre Dame - it has now 7 levels, instead of 1; there's a 2-levle script to start "Gothic Architecture".
    -- Holy Sepulchre - it has now three levels to enable it to burn / be destroyed (the fire script added).
    -- Umayyad Mosque - it has now three levels to enable it burn / be destroyed (the fire script added).
    -- Kaaba - got the second level (Kaaba Masjid), for both levels new pics, adjustment in benefits.
    -- Cathedral of Palermo replaced by the Palazzo dei Normanii (highest level of the Norman Stronghold building line).
    -- La Mezquita - it has now three levels to enable it be destroyed or build upon the previous level.
    -- Santiago de Compostela - it has now three levels and starts with the 1st - so there's plenty to be built.
    * a few wonders were re-touched:
    -- Bait al-Hikma is now the highest level of the university_education chain, not a separate building (still to be built only in Baghdad, ofc), it's pic has been retouched, and benefits adjusted. Not possible to build another university in Baghdad.
    -- Al Azhar is similarly the highest level of the university_education chain, not a separate building (still to be built only in Constantinople, ofc), it's pic has been replaced with a better one, and the benefits replaced with similar to Bait al-Hikma. Not possible to build another university in Cairo.
    -- Aqueduct of Valens is now the highest level of the water_supply chain, not a separate building (still to be built only in Constantinople, ofc), it's pic has been retouched, and benefits adjusted. Not possible to build another aqueduct in Constantinople.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (IIe) GUILDS:
    * a general note: it has been recently discovered that most of the triggers for the guilds are faulty coded in the Med2 engine. What follows - a general overhaul in the SSHIP would be needed. However, this will be one of the last things to do. For now, everything is kept in the previous, SS framework. Only some basic improvements were made.
    - thresholds for acquiring the guilds have been significantly increased.
    - some triggers added / modified, but it seems the guilds are still quite easy to get.
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) Hanseatic guild replaced by a regional building Hansa Teutonica.
    - pics for the Masons and the Assasins replaced with some pics from the Rome TW.


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    (III) UNITS & recruitment:
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) recruitment of any unit category of any faciton has been overhauled. This is one of the most imporant and most laborious changes.
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) extensive improvements of the mercenaries recruitment (availabilty, more areas analysed etc., esp. in HRE and the Balkans; more logical recruitment of the religious units; some fixes (eg. Armenia province do not appear twice in the file).
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) recruitment of ships reviewed and adjusted (the main change: availability of ships significantly reduced for the player).
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) recruitment of knights (or, more generally, the units made out of landowning elites):
    -- only from the Landowners building line (not from the core castle/city building, as it used to be).
    -- available in both cities and castles (no change here).
    -- lower availability of units (re-fill of the recruitment pools is slower).
    -- the maximum number of recruitable units is higher (you may keep large un-recruited reserve).
    -- the AI pools regenerate slightly faster than the player's (additional coding made for the AI).
    -- the bottom line for strategy: (1) build Landowners buildings to get heavy troops, (2) be economical with knights in battles (loses count: if you lose men then you'd wait long for the refill of the pools), perhaps do not disband them. (3) don't recruit everything once is available, keep it just in case of a dire need (you've got the guys handy but you don't pay upkeep). (4) before finishing a next level of the Landowners, recruit all the available knights, (5) if you lack knights, building a Landowner building is a good way to get new unit (every built building comes with 1+ units ready to be recruited instantly).
    - recruitment of ships by the Hanseatic buildings updated.
    - adjustments in the recruitment limits (eg. number of units to be recruited at one time) for: Castle core building, Barracks, Castle Barracs, Stables, Bowyer, Landowners. In general, they are higher and the way for the player will be to keep them high to be able to recruit units swiftly in case of an attack.
    - trebuchets and mangonels can be recruited only by the player (which means you won't find yourself fighting against them in field battles), they will also be slower on the strategic map (slowing your entire army, obviously). This should prevent unhistorical battles with trebuchets shelling you like the 20th century artillery.
    - recruitment of the Georgian units extensively analysed and overhauled (the roster still lacks at least two important units, so further changes are needed).
    - recruitment of the Hungarian units from castle barracks analysed and overhauled.
    - no more Military Orders' units recruitment as normal mercenaries.
    - Magyar Cavalry recruitable also from the Grassland (ie nomadic) building.
    - Kataphractoi are recruited now from the highest level of Mercenary Barracks (but not Imperial Barracks - this building has been removed).
    - recruitment of Chude Militia will be from the dedicated building (ie it's recruitment removed from the barracks).
    - name changes: Flagellants -> Armed Pilgrims, Religious Fanatics -> Pilgrim Militia.
    - a few unit icons changed.
    - unit Crossbow Militia has been removed (from now one, there's just one unit Urban Crossbow Militia, in-game called Levy Crossbowmen)
    - unit Naffatun available also for the abbasid and turks (still from the alchemist building)
    - units that were made Area of Recruitment (ie recruitable from in a certain geographical area by any faction that controls that area - both from certain buildings, and also as mercenaries):
    --- Baltics: Lithuanian archers (Forest archers), Lithuanian skirmishers (Morass Scouts), Chude militia (Chudy)
    --- Scandinavia: Bondir
    --- Britain: Scots skirmisher (Galwegian Javelinmen), Irish kerns
    --- Middle East: Kurdish Javelinmen, aor trasc javelin (Caucasus hillmen),
    --- Africa: African tribal warriors (Sudan Warriors), Berber javelinmen


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    (IV) MAP
    * (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) two capitals of the provinces moved within their provinces to make it more historical but, more importantly, to make that area actually a space to play for the player and to make the AI behavior more rational (any big hole in the map that perplexes the AI):
    -- capital of Sachsen moved much south-east and renamed (Hamburg -> Magdeburg: it is still for some centuries a dominant archbishopric in the east of HRE, and the northern HRE coast was overcrowded with cites: Bremen - Hamburg - Lubeck).
    -- capital of Wallachia moved to the east and renamed (Severin -> Targoviste: it will be a capital in 14c, and in the game it serves as a gateway between the steppes and the Balkans).
    * a few minor adjustments of placement of settlements (Brandenburg, Szekesfehervar, Gyulafehervar, Varad, Ascalon, Halab, Arta, Korinthos, Chandax).
    * slight adjustments to placement of some ports:
    -- Crete: to Chania space, Morea: to Modon space, Epirus: to Naupaktos space.
    -- Westfalen: port of Bremen moved to the Wesermundung, Sachsen: port of Magdeburg (ex-Hamburg) moved south and a nice road is created by way).
    -- Brest (so that of Rennes), Syracuse (Palermo), Limerick (Dublin), Slupsk (Gdansk), Kopenhagen (Roskilde), Sis (Adana), Tripoli (Gibelet), Baku (a bit south), Kutaisi (a bit north) - all to make the map more lively by creating additional roads.
    * renamed a few provinces (eg. Tmutarakan -> Circassia, Heskif -> Diyar Bakr, Mosul -> Diyar Rabi'a, Edessa -> Diyar Mudar, Morea -> Hellas) and settlements (Aktobe -> Kiçi-Saray, Casteddu -> Calari, Oslo -> Ánslo).
    * (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) changes in the borders of the provinces:
    -- four provinces (Sidjilmasa, Tayma, Carinthia, Sarkel) made landlocked (their coastal areas were given to the neighbouring provinces) because of the historicity issues (these regions were historically not related to the sea) but also taking into account the number of land connections important for the trade income.
    -- moved borders of Morea to include Attica and Boetia (and renamed "Hellas"); borders of Epirus and Albania moved east (to encompass also the mountains).
    -- ownership of the island of Fyn switched from province Jutland (Ribe) to Sjealand (Roskilde)
    -- borders of Ostfranken (ie Nurnberg) extended to the borders of Sachsen (ie means also cutting of Nordfranken from Brandenburg), the city of Nurnberg moved one space north to make the road network look nice.
    -- borders of Schwaben (ie Ulm) extended to Ostfranken (Nordfranken trade cut from Bayern - but fear not, it's still very rich), a new ford created on the border with Bayern, and it all produced created two roads on either side of the Danube.
    -- many small changes to the borders of the Krakow province plus a few bridged introduced on the Polish rivers (1 on Odra, 2 on Warta, 1 on Notec) so that the road grid is interesting (in particular: separate track directly to Poznan, separate track to Plock).
    - Saqsin has now border with Derbent (as a result: no direct access to this sea for the great steppe province with Sarkel, they have economically little to do with the sea and coding will be easier).
    - Urgench is cut from the Caspian as it was historically by the Kara Kum desert (again: easier for the coding purposes).
    - Sharukan province is connected to the Bulgar province (so Aqtobe is cut from Ryazan) - more rational economic development those provinces.
    - borders between Halab, Damascus, Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa provinces slightly modified.
    - Baghdad province borders now Damascus province (so Al Ahsa is cut from Ar-Raqqa - the problem with Al Ahsa has always been it had too many trade connections and was getting hefty income).
    * switches castle <> city (the end-goal is to make each region having access to a reasonable number of castles, 35-40% per region): Erzurum, Ani, Silves, Polotsk, Dyrrachion, Tarabulus, Rennes, Volodymyr turned into castles, while Prague, Corinthos into cities.
    * after years of discussions on historicity in the TWC forum, two provinces were turn independent (Pamplona, Sinope) - Aragon and Byzantium will have to conquer them.
    * fertility of the provinces reviewed again, lowered by 1 in all provinces and then lowered in a few.
    * many adjustments in the placement of resources (esp. Seljuks, HRE, Byzantium, Anatolia).
    * new hidden resource "slavic" placed in 36 provinces - then used in EDB for recruitment of the relevant units.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (V) STARTING SITUATION
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) numerous adjustments to starting buildings, population etc. of all settlements (it was required by the changes in the buildings benefits and availabilty, by lowering of the fertility levels by 1 in all provinces, by lowering thresholds of upgrade of various levels of settlements).
    - in particular, the lowered thresholds for the settlements' upgrades required a thorough review of populations and scaling it down.
    - initial family trees have been fixed and updated (by Macaras).
    - some regions (West Slavic, south Italy, the Balkans) have their religion %% reviewed (West Slavic: it was too high for Christianity while historically the religion came to the masses only in 13c., afater Lateranum IV; Italy: similarsly, it was still predominantly Orthodox, then Muslim, and only then Catholic; Anatolia: domination of Orthodox, less Islam).
    - most of the initial neutral/rebel armies limited in number to 7-8 (so that the AI factions do not face too big problems to expand - large armies give the player an upper hand as he can rightly assess and gather the attacking forces).
    - a few new, strong (but not too strong) armies in the neutral territories in Britain, France, and especially Northern-Eastern Europe.
    - composition of the (most) neutral/rebel armies (initial and those spawned by script as support for the AI) reviewed and updated according to the changes in the units.
    - each Faction Leader has a "policy" from the beginning of the game (in many cases this provides an initial significant boon for a faction in terms of money or public order).
    - additional initial characters for a few factions (Serbia, Scotland) (by Macaras).
    - many aging starting generals added for the factions that have so few that Man-of-the-Hour event would kick in the first turns of the game (the reason is to prevent large gaps in generations: they should die out in a short time, then the children should Come of Age and new children are born).


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    (VI) SCRIPTS
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) unrest mechanism re-coded as described above.
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) optional new AI : Skynet (by z3n) updated by JLMP. This makes the behavious of the AI quite different than it was before (Germanicus' RBAI 5.7 updated by MWY and possibly other modders).
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) anti-snowball mechanism extended ...
    - a number of settlements will change their names upon conquests (scripts added mainly for the Greeks, based on Georgios proposals).
    - changes of the names of settlements re-coded to consume less processing power (i.e. one monitor for one settlement) and to provide information about changes only if such a change actually occured (if-clauses).
    - "City Reveal" script fixed while the number of initial information is extended only a bit (it may be extended in the future - they player starts a game knowing about some cities important to his faction) - the mechanism was slightly bugged until now, would revel wrong tiles.
    - scripts for Great Fires (described above).
    - historical events either introduced or re-utilised for the gameplay purposes with the relevant scripts:
    --- Latin universities
    --- mint / bank buildings
    - a few factions have some initial reforms/descriptions of reforms (this is ongoing, long-term modification with the view of introduction of reforms for all factions)
    --- Ostsiedlung mechanics (for HRE, Poland, Hungary).
    --- Georgia Evolution: 8 events scripted, pics, info windows introduced - given the changes in the recruitment, this system should work and the faction should be really unique.
    --- 4 new events for Scotland to guide the evolution of military.
    --- placeholders for Serbia Evolution and some scripting for Poland (but overall, these are only placeholders).
    - invasion / uprising scripts for (1) Rum, (2) Fatimids, and (3) the Moors to support them if in trouble (similar to Scotland's William Wallace), also (4) Eldegusid invasions on Georgia and (5) QaraKitai mechanism for the Turks.
    - some factional scripted mechanisms (Baqt for Egypt, Sankt Erik for Denmark, Latin Universities, Al-Idrisi)
    - new historical events playing role in the scripts or in the buildings' conditions: Roles d'Oleron, Hanseatic Cog, Hamburg Rights, and a few more.
    - added a few windows with information for the player about the gameplay.
    - al Idrisi event made dependent on building Palazzo dei Normanni.
    - script destroying buildings that prevent building other buildings is implemented for the AI factions.
    - a crude anti-hoarding script added (if Treasury is above certain level, part of the money is taken away).


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    (VII) AGENTS
    - number of priests, merchants & diplomats eventually fixed (thanks to Gigantus advice and trial-and-error experience).
    - the number of recruitable diplomats increases due to possession of the unique buildings in the initial capitals (not City Halls, as it was before).
    - more merchants in the coasts of North and Baltic seas will be available due to the new Hansa Teutonica building (especially in later part of the game).
    - number of the spies and assassins limited, in line with the limitations for the other agents.


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    (VIII) TRATS & ANCILLARIES
    - new trait for the admirals linking the fleets' range with the technological advancements (and also making some factions not so good at the sea: EE, mongols).
    - corrections in some triggers, effects or descriptions when errors were spotted (eg. coward from battles won).
    - a dozen of pics for the ancillaries were replaced (also PTs), a few new ancillaries added.
    - some adjustments to the Crowns (certain unique buildings - not the cathedrals - are now alternative requirements to get one for: Byzantium, Serbia, Sicily, Venice, KoJ, Poland, Rus factions, Norway, Scotland, France).
    - additonaly spawned AI generals will have Royal Bloods (should be conducive for preservation of the bloods).
    - Loyalty of the spawned AI generals increased to prevent them from rebelling outright (what with scripted sieges may mean a CTD).


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    (IX) PARAMETERS
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) thresholds for upgrading the city levels brought back to old levels for castles for: large cities (30k), minor cities (12.5 k), large towns (6k). Accordingly, the population benefit from the buildings have been reduced, certain buildings were removed (monastery line), and fertility levels were lowered for all settlements. Upgrading the settlements should still require employing a good general.
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) impact of happiness effects of the buildings on the population growth (<factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS_FUN">) has been slashed from 0.5 to 0.2. The result is: population growth is much more tied to the growth/health benefits of the buildings.
    - impact of happiness from buildings slightly increased (from 0.4 to 0.5).
    - impact of the garrison (ie number of troops) on public order halved and the upper threshold is set to 80%.
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) parameters for income has been significantly changed
    - some adjustments in income multipliers from the mines.
    - (SIGNIFICANT CHANGE) all money paybacks for successful missions and also for interactive events have been doubled (given the overall increase of money in the game).
    - retirement age for the umarried daughters lowered to 35 (from 45) - this should free the slots for children in many instances, allowing for late-age children - with the necessary adjustments in the family trees by Macaras.
    - slower siege weapons on the campaign map: <siege_movement_points_modifier float="0.5"/> instead of 0.85 (it should be viewed in context of removing recruitment options for the AI, and of lowering the availability for the player - see elsewhere in the changelog).
    - the Papal States AI has now "comfortable" attribute that should make the pope much more peaceful.


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    (X) UI, GRAPHICS
    - new pics (not on the map, but in the financial panel) for glass and cattle.
    - banners for Abbasids and Georgia fixed.
    - background tapestry for the Muslims a bit brighter, new tapestries for the Latins and the Greeks (by Ceph).
    - a few movies added to be shown after certain cities are conquered (Cairo, Baghdad, Mecca, Constantinople).
    - a few pips in the city panel (describing eg. religions or sources of income) replaced with other ones, some changes in names.


    THE LONGEST GAME SO FAR
    .
    Last edited by Jurand of Cracow; Yesterday at 03:47 PM.

  5. #5
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
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    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Games played with the 2023 version of the SSHIP mod.

    May
    * June
    ** August.



    ** The only known (and probably the only ever) finished SSHIP game: Scotland 855 by SIIhouette -----------------------------------------------



    More pics somewhere here.

    **Novgorod 64 by vovery: 5 provinces, 20k income

    See here.


    Quote Originally Posted by vovery View Post
    I have an enjoyable Novgorod VH/VH save going without taking the financial aid, currently at around turn 60 I think. I have to admit I had to restart the campaign once with a small alteration to my strategy to get new children earlier, as Novgorod starts with a packed family tree (no, I didn't run any generals to their death haha). I can post a picture tomorrow when I get home.

    Here are some things I noticed are quite necessary early on with Novgorod:

    - Polotsk is a castle with a decent population, I took it from the rebels as my first deed with the initial armies on turn 3. The rebel army outside usually wanders northwest of the bridge on the very first turn, so you can isolate the siege fight against the garrison army only and deal with the outside army later on. In my second save that army actually wandered towards Riga after I had taken Polotsk, so the Lithuanians had to deal with them.

    Once I had a castle and got it under control by building an orthodox church, I built a range to get my hands on those nice Ruthenian archers. My advice is to build the next level of farms there next, because after when they are completed, you can build a landowner building to get a second source of those precious Druzhina cavalry.

    - A key difference between my failed campaign and the restart was to take Kolyvan next fairly early on. I think I conquered it at around turn 14. By that time the Lithuanians have usually tried to take it already at least once, which will have weakened the garrison.

    Expanding to a fourth settlement aids in two ways: you have a better possibility to get new children, and Lithuania doesn't get to grow their force too much by expanding to four or even five settlements (Kolyvan + Twangste) before you get your economy running.

    - Regarding the economy: two buildings in Novgorod are essential to build as soon as possible. I opted for a port first to enable sea trade and quicker movement of troops via the northern coast, and right after built the roads. The latter bring a whopping 600-700 more income from trade, so even though they take 10 years to build, it's definitely worth it.

    The two initial merchants you have at the beginning can generate a monster income once trained. I had to make my own house rule to not move them beyond my neighbours or their neighbours (e.g. not to the mines in Prague or the capital of Hungary), but even then they generated a total of 6k/turn at highest when one was at the mines near Krakow and the other one at the slaves near the border of the Kievan Rus and the Cumans. My initial merchants are now in their decline, but in the meantime I've been able to build my economy, and fight the Lithuanians.

    - Although the family tree is packed, there's room for making moves. Once I achieved trade rights with Poland and Denmark, I married the first princess to the heir of Denmark for an alliance and to get rid of her from limiting the birth of new children. The princess that comes of age was married to Oleg Chernigovskii. The one general outside the family tree, Gavril Ovin or something, usually dies quite quickly, if you don't let him have any battle commanding experience. These events, combined with expanding to four settlements, made new children pop up for every married general: Vselovod, Svyatoslav and Oleg.

    I also made Vselovod and Svyatoslav command at least one battle early on to try to prevent them from acquiring bad traits. After that it was in the hands of fate on when those two would die. I got lucky, and Svyatoslav lived very old, and by then the newborn son of Vselovod had come of age to become the new heir. Vselovod is still kicking as a totally senile old fool with almost ten battles commanded, but I'm guessing his departure is only a matter of turns.

    - After I took Polotsk and Kolyvan, the relations with the Lithuanians were already poor, and they attacked soon after in Pleskov and Polotsk before turn 20, maybe at turn 18 or so. I think the war waged for 13 years total (26 turns) before they offered a ceasefire after the Kievan Rus attacked them too. At times this war was very tough, as the Lithuanians could wield quite good armies even with three settlements only, but siege defenses are easier than going on the offense. One or two defenses were so tight I wasn't sure if I would survive, but most of them were under control. Together with the small random rebel armies appearing granted the possibility to get a lot of battle experience for the generals.

    At around turn 34 or so I went on the offensive, and took Riga from Lithuania. And as I said, some time later (~10 turns) Lithuania offered a ceasefire because they were occupied elsewhere. The peace wasn't durable though, and they attacked me again already.

    - A long war with Lithuania helps you get your repuration high by releasing prisoners most of the time. I've found Kievan Rus won't be backstabby when you have a high reputation, and are at war already with someone else. In my failed campaign I made peace with Lithuania earlier, which made them fight with Poland. With me not being at war for an extended period of time made the Kievan Rus attack in that save at around turn 38 already. In this new campaign we're still allied at turn 60.

    - What I've found necessary for successfully defending against Lithuania are watchtowers and spies to let me move my small armies in advance. Once you take Polotsk you get access to a second spy, and while your armies are still small, the merchants start to generate good income + port and roads are built in Novgorod, you'll continuously stay over 20k of wealth, which makes it possible to build up your settlements, replenish armies, and build watchtowers.

    - For most field fights against Lithuania two troops are always needed, a general and one unit of Druzhina cavalry. The early infantry of Novgorod is quite bad (barring the dismounted Druzhina, which have too high of an upkeep to make me recruit them), and serves mainly as a wall to enable flanking with heavy cavalry.

    In siege defenses the troops are enough to hold the line, because Lithuania seems to prefer attacking Pleskov and Polotsk + occasionally Novgorod. In Pleskov I always let the enemy take the gate, and park my infantry in the middle of the hill. In Polotsk the fight usually takes place at the gate with one junior militia on each side being enough to hold enemy ladder and siege tower units in place for long enough. Novgorod has actually been one of the harder settlements to defend because of the lack of archers, and overall lower garrison, but depending on the size of the attacking army I either try to hold the main gate or withdraw to the narrow streets already before the fight begins.

    Novgorod 168 by greywarden: 11 provinces, 75k income

    **Kievan Rus 107 by one: 9 provinces, 33k income

    **Kievian Rus 303 by Horse crossbowman: 23 provinces, ?k income
    Quote Originally Posted by Horse crossbowman View Post


    VH/VH. Very strange mod and very very very punishing sometimes. Upkeep cost and low unit avaliability are big problem yet its manageble and i even like it as you kinda forced to recruit whatevery you can to fight your wars and its not always top tier elite troops, gives you some variability in unit roster. But my main problem was logistics penalties and armies without generals both of which makes reinforcement and movement even within my own borders very tedious task. And also need to keep huge militia garrisons in all big towns. Rebellions always one turn away lol. And also annoyng small AI armies that wander deep into your territory and besiege settlements just to cripple your economy (cursed nomads!). Also I like how reputation, different cultures and constant agressive wars affect your control over subjects and settlements.
    Sooo.... I had to restart a couple of times before I was able to unite Rus as one entity and eliminate Novgorod and Lithuania. Both of them died relatively quickly within 20 turns and werent a big problem even combined as a fough both of them at the same time. Qipchaq horde was contained but it took me almost 40 years and countless destroyed stacks of elite nomads (i was constantly attacked by their equivalent of feudal knights but it was somehow much worse than knights as their Bekh Druzhina armed with bows so i had to fight entire armies of mounted and dismounted well armored long ranged archers) before they left me in peace. And even then every 4-5 years they sent a stack to attack Ryazan just because why not and then immidietly peace out after loosing that stack. Luckily mongols arrived and saved me.
    Then i had strange period of 20 years when my faction didnt have any children at all and i ended up with almost 20 60-80 y.o very senile extremely brutal lords (i assume that senile trait that gives them minus to chivalry just add them dread instead) and had to wait till new generation arrive. Then i had small war with Hungary (alliance for 50 years, reliable partner, never butchered a single christian? lets cross the mountains with 3 units and try to take Halych). And then... then I met Greeks and oh boy they love me so much that the moment war with Hungary was over they send legions of troops after my lands in Moldova and Hungary and continued to do so every few years no matter alliances I have, truces and that I just destroyed their army of a similar size. Nevermind other fronts and giga war with Jerusalem and HRE. Byzantine Emperor ignored all of that and personally led 5 stack army to cut my counquests of a previos 30 years because... I have no idea why.
    Also Mongols in this timeline decided to not invade Rus - they wandered around a little and then went for middle eastern muslim factions destroying Seljuks, Abbasids and that small muslim faction in Syria and prior to that Qipchaq horde. No idea how France was destroyed. Fun little campaign and hardcore modification indeed! Not sure if I continue this one as limitations at times feel too punishing.

    Lithuania 57 by vovery: 6 provinces, 16k income
    Here's roughly the path for that save:

    1. Took Goroden on turn 2 (name was changed automatically to Hrodna, don't know if it's intended for Lithuania or if it should apply only to the Rus/Novgorod?).
    2. Took Riga by turn 6-8 I think & fought some rebel armies wandering the lands.
    3. Hungary offered alliance, accepted.
    4. Was able to focus on taking Twangste, as Novgorod didn't get through from Kolyven to Riga to possibly attack me due to a tough rebel army of ~12 units standing on the border of Kolyven and Riga. It took them many many tries to beat that army, I had my spy watching nearby.
    5. As I wasn't attacked by anyone yet, I decided to attack Poland, and took Plock. Poland was at war with my ally Hungary, so the relations with my ally were improved to amiable.
    6. Poland sent only a weak army to try to retake Plock, beat them off easily.
    7. At some point Novgorod finally attacked on the capital, Kernave, but only with an army of ~10-12 units. Beat them off easily. They agreed to a peace after about 2-3 turns of my peace offerings.
    8. Poland must've been busy with Hungary or something else, so once I had gained some strength in Plock, I went for Krakow. The total units Poland had for the defense of their capital was maybe ~13-15 in 2-3 different armies (one garrisoned, others nearby). The fight happened on the field, as Poland attacked the besieging army on their turn. There happened to be a nice farm with some fences on the battlefield, where I was able to position my troops for defense, and won the battle even though I lost maybe ~35-40% of my men. There were no localist armies spawned after either conquest, which was fortunate, as I wouldn't have had enough men to survive those.
    9. Poland didn't even try to retake Krakow, they must've been hit hard by losing their wealthy capital. After many turns of trying, Poland agreed to a peace.
    10. Just on the very last turn before the save, Kievan Rus attacked Krakow with an army of ~10-12 units. Beat them off easily by sallying out, they had only one Druzhina cavalry unit and two Druzhina infantry units, and no archers at all.
    11. Overall, felt like I got quite lucky on many occasions, and it might be difficult to achieve the same situation again so quickly. And had I played longer, I'm expecting Novgorod and Poland would've attacked in a similar fashion like the Kievan Rus just did at the end. Fighting 2-3 simultaneous wars would've been hard even with a stable economic situation.

    Some remarks on early Lithuania:

    • The unit roster is very strong and versatile right from the start! The horse skirmishers are a precise counter against heavy enemy cavalry, whereas Lithuanian raiders can deal with enemy javelin cavalry, and ducal cavalry can deal with enemy archers and light infantry. Giltine's Chosen are a monster of a troop; lowish recruit and upkeep costs, free upkeep in settlements with an altar for Giltine, high damage & armour, and good traits. At times they feel even a bit overpowered at least for the early game. There's basically no reason to recruit the heavy axe unit available from Lithuanian landowners once you get 2-3 settlements with an altar for Giltine built, as the landowner unit costs about 1,6k to recruit, and is even a bit weaker by stats.
    • The movement bonuses Lithuanian generals have are nice, and once you've built dirt tracks, you can quite easily defend various settlements with generals and different cavalry units from central settlements like Kernave. The only worry I had was Twangste, as it's a bit isolated compared to the other settlements, and Lithuania doesn't have access to ships in the early game, but fortunately no one attacked it.
    • Pagan priests/shamans develop very slowly, and human-played Lithuania is inevitably going to steadily lose religious foothold in its settlements, even with many priests patrolling the lands. But this didn't provide any problems in the early game, and on the lands taken from the Poles, paganism is actually on the rise again. A big problem was when my best shaman turned into a heretic, and I didn't even dare to try exorcism on him, as he has full piety. He's actually still there near Riga, and even my best shaman would have only a chance of about 25% for the exorcism. Not worth the risk.
    • The diplomatic situation in the beginning of a Lithuania save is enjoyable, as it offers various options for the player after taking nearby rebel settlements. You can wait for Novgorod to attack you (they will at some point, as they start allied to Kievan Rus, and have pretty much no other directions to go to except west), or attack Poland or Kievan Rus, as both of them start at war, the firstly mentioned against Hungary, and the second against the Kipchaks.
    Quote Originally Posted by Macaras View Post
    Vovery, thank you for the report! I think though that if you continue playing you may be surprised because the difficulty will raise. In the first 50 turns there are some mechanisms still working that will make player's life easier: Lowered invade priority (until turn 50), additional lowered invade priority if you are already in war, even more if you are at war with 2 enemies (until turns 100 and 150), allies more trustworthy (until turn 70). I think that with your reputation of Untrustworthy at this point you may soon become a target for some other faction I think your way of starting a campaign is the most effective, sometimes there is no other way then to erase some enemies from the map since the very beginning otherwise they become too much of a problem later. I wish we had some scripts that will check the player's faction and adjust the starting armies, so these kind of blitzkrieg in the very beginning would be impossible. That's maybe something to add to 'to do' list.

    Poland 103 by QKuhlmann: 7 provinces, 20k income

    Poland 133 by QKuhlmann: 9 provinces, 25k income

    **Poland 77 by William the Silent: 6 provinces, 16k income

    **Poland 77 by Radoslav from Bielitz (crash): 11 provinces, 28k income

    Hungary 252 by OlaszV: 11 provinces, 75k income

    *Hungary 117 / 43 /23 by Gaku



    Read AAR here, interesting
    .

    **Hungary 430 by Gaku: 46 provinces, 230k income -----------------------------------------------




    And here you can read a review that says you shouldn't play it so long, or at all, or Gaku would have it better to quit early

    **Hungary 335 by Gaku: 43 provinces, 200k income -----------------------------------------------
    ]

    **Hungary 96 by timothy: 15 provinces, 40k income

    *Norway 125 by vovery: 5 provinces, 11k income

    Read the conclusions here.

    **Denmark 96 by Edofcan: 15 provinces, 31k income

    Quote Originally Posted by Edofcan View Post
    Now I started a game as Denmark on vh/vh (SSHIP 0.98, August version). The upload is from turn 96 with 15 regions and an income of 31k.

    My plan was to take out Norway and conquer Magdeburg and then slowly build up while defending against the HRE. Later I wanted to go for the British Isles and only take the victory provinces at the Baltic Sea once I had my cathedral to get the crown (for which I sadly had to transform my well located castle in Roskilde into a town) - so as to not have too many fronts to fight on.

    The first part worked fine: I took out Norway, was excommunicated for that, but I had to be fast. As expected, the HRE attacked Ribe and Lübeck, but as it was early in the game, it had no reserves and so Magdeburg and Bremen were easy pickings for the naval counter-strike of my expeditionary forces. At which point the pope beautifully intervened and the war with the HRE ended. Now I could build up my defences in Bremen and Magdeburg, the only castle the HRE had had in the North.

    However, then Poland attacked. First it went for Danish Lübeck, then it took neutral Brandenburg and attacked Danish Magdeburg as well. I had hoped leaving Stettin and Brandenburg to Poland would satisfy them and it would look for a fight elsewhere, but no, it continued its attacks relentlessly, even to the point that it was excommunicated by the pope. So I had to take Danzig to split up its forces, and after that Brandenburg and Stettin. Blessed (pagan) Lithuania then attacked Poland from the east and - I couldn't believe my luck - proposed an alliance with me, which I of course fullheartedly accepted.

    **Denmark 296 by Santico: 10 provinces, 27k income

    **Scotland 160 by ForGondor: 9 provinces, 25k income

    **Scotland 210 by Mocho41: 10 provinces, 38k income - CTD

    **England 325 by Waluk: 15 provinces, 122k income -----------------------------------------------

    England 304 by vancea: 22 provinces, 143k income -----------------------------------------------


    *England 294 and 351 by William the Silent: : 26 provinces, 106k income -----------------------------------------------

    *England 245 by beermugcarl: 16 provinces, 77k income
    .
    Looks a nice game, not so easy for the English, but not difficult either (well, the English position is always safe, it's not Hungary or Jerusalem).
    The map is quite balanced, with many factions, many medium size, some re-emerged. The Mongols haven't expanded much - what may be sign to them being too nerfed.
    There are many large cities and fortresses - to be decided if it should be corrected somehow. On one hand, it's 250 turns so an average player would be about ending the game, so the size of AI settlements is ok. On the other hand, the game could last for another 550 turns - this could be spent to build up the cities...
    There are many troops around, but not besided one place everything is acceptatable. (Near Wroclaw there's a large concentration of the Polish troops, strange.) Interesting is the situation of Serbia - perhaps reemerged, but giving a challenge to Byzatnium - and also strong position of the HRR, with troops on many fronts.
    As it's the May 2023 version, there's a bug in Sigtuna and there're many Eric shrines, what is hillarious.
    As a modder I really like that the upkeep trick works. I mean: income from the buildings is always positive but only at time very high. So building another building that gobbles up some upkeep while adding just 5% happines may be a consideration for the player if he really needs it.
    Income from the mines seems to be low, but remember that they're providing also flat income recorded as buildings.
    Income from the merchants is low but still a merchant in Kornwales makes over 1k, while being very close to the capital - so maybe it's possible to make more..
    Recruitment seems as ok as it can be - in the future I'd problably do some balancing for the prices.
    I don't see as many princesses as there're in the past.

    *England 295 by JB59114: 23 provinces, 110k income
    -----------------------------------------------

    *England 119 by Beermugcarl: 19 provinces, 76k income

    **England 204 by Michael Westen: 26 provinces, 97k income
    -----------------------------------------------

    **England 153 by ?: 17 provinces, 62k income

    **France 353 by Goffredo85: 15 provinces, 130k income -----------------------------------------------

    **France 167 by kostic: 15 provinces, 42k income
    Reported here.

    **France 172 by kostic: 0 provinces, 0k income
    Reported here.

    *HRE 500 by PishPosh: 23 provinces, 160k income -----------------------------------------------

    **HRE 134 by Edofcan: 41 provinces, 180k income
    Quote Originally Posted by Edofcan View Post
    This upload is a game as the HRE with SSHIP0.98, August version, on vh/vh. I stopped on turn 134 with 41 provinces and income of 180k, just as I received the crown for the first time.
    This last turn, I took Rouen from England and the plan would be now, as crowned HRE, to conquer France and Italy, secure the Spanish Mark, and finally move against the ERE.
    Other notes: There was a civil war, which was a nice flavour; I could reconquer lost territories (5 cities revolted) fast as my border armies were at hand; however, this created aggressiveness points, which I had been trying to reduce for ages.
    My borders are safe and easily defensible; I refrained from taking any Hungarian settlements to keep a buffer to orthodox Serbia and the ERE; kept a Venetian buffer to Sicily and Serbia; and a Aragonese buffer to the Muslims in Spain. Also left the Danish capital intact so as to not create an imbalance in Scandinavia. The only nation I had to destroy was Poland, as it kept declaring war and sending large stacks of very capable troops, even after it only had a town (Danzig) and the castle at Plock left.
    I love the idea of creating bloodlines with all the benefits, so my Habsburg line has now French, Nordic and Italian bloodlines incorporated. Sadly, when I tried Eastern Orthodox marriages, this ruined my heir's ability to be crowned (he had zero piety as he converted to orthodox), so I reloaded an earlier save-game pre marriage. Would be nice if I could re-convert him or increase the chances of his wife converting instead somehow but haven't found out if/how this would be possible.
    In the beginning I expanded fast into rebel territory; I never declared war. Still I had constant warfare from around turn 14 to turn 83, at which point my borders where solid and nobody attacked me for long. I like that I had to fight for this.


    Kingdom of Jerusalem 211 by Macaras: 23 provinces, 145k income

    Kingdom of Jerusalem 117 (132) by sklavoris: 26 provinces, 120k income

    At the start of the campaign, I first took the neutral settlements around me like Damascus, Sission and Malatya. Then fought the Fatimids, conquering First Cairo and Damietta then Alexandria, afterwards I made peace with them, but they attacked me a couple of times from Qus, so I've taken it from them. Meanwhile I've managed to take Aleppo while it was not heavily guarded and I managed to push bad the Zenghids. Calling a crusade on Mosul so a friendly catholic nation would hold it and be a buffer between me and them. At the same time the Sultanate of Rum semi-regularly attacked me in Sission. And at some time a jihad was called on me. I managed to defeat one or two of the armies, but the Moors managed to conquer the city, only to be recaptured by me a couple of turns afterwards. This led me to war with all muslim factions around me, and Baghdad and the Zengids attacked a couple of times in Al-Raqqa and Aleppo. But I managed to peace them out. I've managed to marry a Seljuq princess making a lasting alliance with them. Then I slowly defeated the Sultanate of Rum, when Byzantium attacked me, so I started slowly pushing them out from Anatolia as well. The Zenghids recaptured Mosul from the Germans so I called another crusade on it and the French took it. I've left the fatimids in Mekka and their other region in Arabia, and surprisingly for me they managed to take out some settlements from Bahdad, including the city itself and regaining some power. Then the pope called a crusade on their settlement above Mekka and thats why Sicily has it. Afterwards I've captured Constantinople and now I'm slowly pushing the Byzantines from their Balkan settlements. Georgia are their allies and from time to time attack me, but I try to peace out with them as I want them as Christian ally in the ME.
    I also try not to conquer settlements which are deep inside land territory as ships help me with mobilty a lot.

    Few other pics of this campaign are to be seen in this entry.

    *Kingdom of Jerusalem 247 by Beermugcarl: 40 provinces, 260k income

    Venezia 398 by krekker: 25 provinces, 192k income -----------------------------------------------
    .

    *Venice 131 by Beermugcarl: 18 provinces, 90k income
    a few interesting things here: Polish rebellion in Nuremburg, Abbasids destroyed (Marrakush is Moorish, only a bug signifies black borders), the Cumans are doing quite ok, so are Scottland and Portugal, and the Papal States have 3 provinces - although it may be because of the human players, I don't know

    *Venice 174 by OlaszV: 18 provinces, 98k income

    *Pisa 388 by Valerius Karamanus: 23 provinces, 141k income -----------------------------------------------

    Pisa 279 by Fishmalk: 25 provinces, 155k income
    .

    Sicily 132 by Beermugcarl: 21 provinces, 86k income

    *Sicily 73 by j.a.luna: 7 provinces, 24k income
    Reported here.

    **Papal States 157 by kostic: 18 provinces, 53k income
    .

    **Castile and Leon 337 by a Dictators Cigar: 14 provinces, xk income -----------------------------------------------

    Reported in this entry.

    **Serbia 63 by ?: 16 provinces, 48 income

    **Serbia 400 by Waluk: 15 provinces, 120k income -----------------------------------------------

    **Byzantium 120 by Djangoo

    Byzantium 419 by Ebrauc: 68 provinces, 468 income -----------------------------------------------

    *Byzantium 136 by macaras: 22 provinces, 99k income
    Here is his report in the AAR section. You may learn that the Byzantines are not so easy as they're attacked from diffent sides.

    **Georgia 291 by Subutai: 17 provinces, 57k income

    **Rum 377 by Dictators' Cigar: 17 provinces, ?k income -----------------------------------------------
    See here some extensive reporting.


    **Zenghids 80 by JB59114: 9 provinces, 43k income

    **Zenghids 254 by JB59114: 16 provinces, 100k income

    **Abbasids 178 by eyelurker: 32 provinces, 240k income

    **Abbasids 180 by Waluk: 11 provinces, 78k income

    **Cumans 75 by a Dictators' Cigar: 0 provinces, 0k income
    .


    **next 1 by one: 0 provinces, 0k income
    .


    Last edited by Jurand of Cracow; March 26, 2024 at 02:29 AM.

  6. #6
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Cracovia
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    8,451

    Default AARs with 2022 version

    Games played with the 2022 version of the SSHIP mod.

    Here are 39 examples of the empires created by the players with the September 2022 version of the SSHIP, and uploaded on TWC - many thanks for all (de facto) testers!

    Novgorod 351 by QKuhlmann: 14 provinces, 84k income -----------------------------------------------

    Norway 79 by vovery: 5 provinces, 13k income

    Denmark 217 by a Dictator's Cigar: 10 provinces, ?k income
    See description here.

    Denmark 181 by Alex_TotalWar: : 10 provinces, ?k income

    Poland 360 by opaxite: 16 provinces, 130k income -----------------------------------------------

    Poland 257 by Macaras: 16 provinces, 76k income
    ..

    Hungary 306 by Gaku: 14 provinces, ?k income -----------------------------------------------
    ..

    Hungary 223 by Gaku: 14 provinces, 5k income
    .

    Hungary 234 by Gaku: 16 provinces, 89k income

    Hungary 195 by hazman232: 0 provinces
    Quote Originally Posted by hazman232 View Post
    Turn 195 loss as Hungary VH/VH. This is the only Total War experience which can prevent me from snowballing and maintain challenge even after 200 turns. By turn 60, after an unfortunate accident that saw my king killed in a minor skirmish and the civil war that followed, I was down to my final city. My royal family was turned completely wretched and deformed by a stubborn witch. by turn 160 I had taken back my empire from the Byzantines and the Qipchaks and forged powerful alliances with a new and modern army. By turn 195 I had lost it all to a rampaging Holy Roman Empire whom had already vassalized my neighbours Poland and Venice. I only wish they had offered me the same choice.
    As always I had an absolute blast and can't wait to do it all over again.

    HRE 104 by Nemesis: 16 provinces, 80k income

    HRE 200 by Waluk: 18 provinces, 100k income

    HRE 340 by Waluk: 20 provinces, 169k income -----------------------------------------------

    HRE 142 by meltorizor: 28 provinces, 132k income

    HRE 321 by EmperorAlex: 16 provinces, 98k income -----------------------------------------------
    ..

    France 463 by valerius karamanus: 34 provinces, 268k income -----------------------------------------------

    France 108 by Kostic
    You may read the story of this kingdom here and in the following entries.

    France 218 by K_med2

    Quote Originally Posted by K_med2 View Post
    VH,VH difficulty I've played with.
    I've used Norman Sergeants quite often in the beginning as an elite unit. They cost 572 Florins per turn but allows you to confront both heavy cav and heavy infantry. I've used 3 or 4 units of archery unit (2 of 3 crossbow militia and 1 archer(French)) unit in my full stack armies. I've tried to use same Mailed knights in different armies in different battles to reduce army upkeep in general. This helped me a lot for winning against HRE. The rest of my army, my main line infantry, were consisted of Spearman unit, it has 11 defence and 330 Florin upkeep. If you fully upgrade their armor (to the gold armor), they will have 14 defence; which is a very very high number for unit of 330 Florin upkeep, they become very decent unit.
    My main tactics were as follows:
    When beiseged, I attack with my full stack garrison to the enemy; mostly tryed to bring the fight in front of the walls where my archers and towers help me to kill of the enemy.
    Both in siege and open battles, I usually try to cripple the enemy's cavalry with 1 or 2 units of Breton cavalry. After this either they dispatch their cav (sometimes general) from their main army or try to fully commit an assault on my main army. If they dispatched their cav and possible general's bodyguard I easily kill them with crossbows, spearman etc. The remaining infantry was very easy to surround and force them to flee. If they commit a full assault on me, I've lots of spearman and 3 4 units of archery units, I generally won the battle, maybe after killing the enemy general.
    Additionally, I've tried to use more cav than enemy if possible. Or a combination of 2 heavy cav and 2 Breton cav. Please note that one breton cav's missile count is enough to entirely kill a mailed knight unit of 60 person. OR you would cripple (reduce their man count to 15-25 men) 2 units of mailed knights instead completely killing an entire unit that will benefit more I guess.
    In the very beginning, I took out most Rebel settlements and kicked England out of France. England attacked me in the very beginning, but I completely kicked them out from France. Later on HRE tryed to invade, after I've won the multiple invasions of HRE and England sometimes (they bring their full stacks to Rouen; but they have one armada hence they can only gather 1 full stack army near Rouen), I took out Toulouse and Bordeaux from Aragorn, they're already weak faction, they were challenged by Moors and Castille in Iberia. As far as i remember, even they offered me a peace treaty. With these two extra cities (one of them was citadel ), i did not have diffulties with economy and invaded Britain with my almost full stack armies. After some point my economy was so powerful that I did not have any difficulty.
    Quote Originally Posted by K_med2 View Post
    In the game Notre Dame didn't seem to provide particular benefits, so I did not invest to it too much (. I guess that was bad choice for the low piety. I didn't know that Mont Saint Michel was related to piety but i guess so. I am not French; i was just wondering how is like to play with a central European faction, with less archery units. Archery units are indeed allows you to win battles with very less losses, however i still used them very often in the campaign. The difficulty was VH/VH. But I quickly kicked England out of France and kept stable relations with Aragon. But there was a time I had very hard time from Holy Roman Empire, moved mostly all my power to their border but I've managed to keep them from the original French cities. I think after the 3rd time I've repelled them, I took out their less defended nearby settlements like Speyer, Frankfurt etc. But crippling the Holy Roman Empire took about 100-120 turns. Additionally, I've used lots of spies to open the gates in the first time that I've sieged a settlement; because the Pope does not allow you to siege settlements for more than 1 turn . So spy usage was essential in my progress. A similar advance also happened for capturing the south and middle of Britain. After the England launched an 3rd invasion that I've repelled, I've captured Bristol and Norwich, waited for Pope's ceasefire, then quickly took out London within th first turn after the Pope's mission finished, again with the help of spies.
    The current problem actually I've been facing is the following: Now I am pretty powerful, nobody dare to attack me. Hence my faction heir has no chance to improve his capabilities and his authority. The game killed due to old age (64) that guy while crusading Valencia (to improve piety, I requested Crusade, I was going to gift to Papal States after the conquest.) However he had "tidy and clean" trait which allows the character to live until 75+ ages. After this point, the game picked a very low authority and low capable faction member to be the heir. Even though I kill the uncapable heir or king; the game started to always pick the most ill and least capable family member. The latest heir was so ill that he barely moved from his city to the nearest Rebel force in 7 turns, a healty family member would do that travel in just 1 turn. That is the point I guess I stopped playing . In short, due to lack of wars, I was having hard time about my average family member quality. Maybe from the very beginning if I was more curious about the royal line and wish I've started improving Rheims from the very beginning. For most of my campaign, there was no general in Rheims. It stayed as a large town for most the first 150 turns. I was late about the requirements of "crown", it was so late that royal line was disrupted. The below picture shows his movement range and one his illnesses. All of the medieval illnesses are found in his traits He is ugly, cruelly deformed, some other illnesses and leprosy. As far as i know, leprosy illness is developed from the childhood, but he got leprosy illness in his 40's as i remember.
    Attachment 368741
    However, I have very powerful family members with their wives being the French princesses with too much charm. To improve my heir quality, I've married my princesses with the strongest militariled minded and militarily educated, compat proven family members. However, the game never picks them for faction heir. Indeed I tried to keep the princesses that I've married with them to have full legitimate nobility ( like mother is noble, not just a courtesan).
    I will add the latest save, if you ever look one more time. Currently my family is even broken or the mod is trying to generate a civil war so that a new accepted royal line will be formed. I don't know what to do other than leaving the campaign play
    Quote Originally Posted by kostic View Post
    @K_med2: Your experience is all the more interesting for me as I am currently pursuing a campaign with France, myself in VH/VH. I'm at 1186 and you could see my progress in the thread of screenshots/campaign maps.
    What's good is that I didn't play the same way as you, remaining at peace with the English for a long time. The HRE began attacking me seriously around 1160 and has not granted a ceasefire until today, so it has been my constant adversary for 26 years !
    That's what I like about this game: each campaign can be different even when using the same faction.

    Flaws that I have not yet noticed and which seem to be demotivating for your campaign:
    1 - be forced to go through the spy to capture a city because the pope threatens excommunication from the first round of siege
    2 - the degradation of the royal family for lack of wars and the fact that the heirs are chosen by the sickest generals
    3 - the inflation of the treasure to the point of no longer fearing any opponent
    In my case, the battles follow one after the other (almost only against the holy empire) and prevent me from building. Almost all my money goes into recruiting units.
    Quote Originally Posted by K_med2 View Post
    Actually i was never the one who started the wars including Aragorn and England.I remeber i disbanded or moved most of the non free upkeep units from those borders( Rouen and south of france), i guess that was the reason that they tempted to attack my less defended but relatively developed cities. I suggest you to be careful with England, their last invasion attempt was very serious with full stacks mostly composed of miles/miles pedites. As i remember, they managed to take Rouen, they battled the city just 1 turn after they saterted sieging. However iwas able to kill most of their heavy inf in the siege battle so that my late relief force easily managed to take the city back, even using autoresolve battle. So long story short be careful with them, maybe you can even use Rouen as a bait then you can invade London. If you manage to take London, it will give you 10k florin per turn that will seriously help with the economy and war with HRE. Also i had good kings with good exploring abilities; in just 1 turn the good fighter king was able to come to paris from the HRE border. However he was called battler, that is why i was attacked by those two factions.

    And for the unable to develop due to war with HRE, i suggest you to build roads or farms whenever you find extra construction money. Because technically with thr same amount of florin, you will be developing your cities for longer turns and try to be active in the war, whenever you have the opportunity try to take out their border settlements, they have 4 good settlements very nearby to each other. After you captured them, they won't be able to cause you much problem. Also it is very pity that other than France, nobody (poland, norway, italian states) attacks them. That is also making them a harder enemy to reckon with

    Yes, i agree with your comments for my campaign. Wish i could have invested more on religion and i wish i would have only invested in legit family members, maybe kill the others.

    I have one last question unanswereed: is there a way for a FH to know whether he will be a regent/usurper or a legitimate king?? The same question also goes for all male family members. Can we know exactly who is legit and who is not, 100% percent ??


    Venice 49 by MikeFriks

    Venice 104 by Co22
    ..

    Sicily 202 by perun74

    Castille 150 by Djangoo

    Aragon 160 by Mr_Sneeze
    ..

    Aragon 68 by kostic

    Portugal 92 by ?

    Almoravids 111 by SkyrinV

    Almoravids 190 by a Dictator's Cigar
    See description here.

    Serbia 61 by vovery

    Romaioi 236 by dfz
    see more pics here.


    Romaioi 175 by yoba99

    Quote Originally Posted by yoba99 View Post
    There is two viable strategies at the start that I figured out over replaying first 20-40 turns over and over for 6-8 times (I really like both this mod and byz roaster). Number one - completely crush Rum sultanate in first ~5 turns. That is easily attainable, leave garrison at Dyrrachium, collect your troops from everywhere else + train more pronoiars on the way, use fleets that you get at the start, figure it out how to do it fast. You can also buy mercenaries in rum regions, but it is possible to play without them and without bug abusing. If you do it fast - Rum gets no time to conquer Caesarea and the anatolian region is yours to conquer. However, this tactic gives advantage to Georgian and Crusaders kingdoms, as they will have more free land to conquer and you soon will have share border with them. Second strategy that I came to prefer more is to let Rum sultanate get Caesarea. You do mainly same thing as in first strategy, but stop for 2-3 turns after getting Ancyra. Use your spy in anatolia to find out when they get Caesarea, and then take Iconium. After that I'm pretty sure you can push for peace, maybe they will ask 1-2k gold for it, but its really worth it. Keep medium sized legions in both Ancyra and Iconium, disband or relocate mercenaries and pronoiars (leave 2 units of pronoia + whatever else in each town to be safe, oh and probably you will have to "let them have it" after getting the both towns to manage public order better).

    Meanwhile you doing that you should also get your boats to Chersoneses and take everyone but a single unit of spearmen from there to conquer Sinope. Cumans gonna send stack after stack after stack for that settlement, it is near impossible to defend it from them at this point in the game. If you dont really mind - make sure that Nikiphoros Vryennios (yes, that one I assume, although I haven't read anything about him being a governor of Chersoneses) stays in Chersoneses for a turn, and then you can give title "strategos of Chersoneses" to your governor in Sinope, you can start right after taking it, appoint another general as governor of Sinope and the transfer said ancillary from Nikiphoros to him, as he is very old and gonna die in ~10 firs turns or even sooner, and bonuses of said title are enormous, helps growing any settlement. After that you can take Trapezous, but yo will have to do it fast as Georgia tries to take it at the start of the game as well. Obviously, you will have to leave a garrison there.

    Next move is to build up your economy. If you left Rum alive with only Caesarea in possession, they will go for surrounding rebel towns, and then for Crusaders kingdom. Let it be - its nice to have a weak buffer state between you and crusaders at the start. If you destroyed Rum completely - well, make sure to take Caesarea and Sivas, but I never managed to make a Alliance with Crusaders (or a lasting peace), so keep some troops ready for next war.

    I will assume that you choose to keep Rum alive as a weak buffer. Next you want to focus on building up your cities. Mix quick building with long projects like roads and farms so you would have most of the settlements busy. If you have some leftover cash - convert Chandakas and Attaleia to cities, little to no point in castles there. Do not go in for Targoviste - cumans will attack and you need additional income to protect it (and you dont have it right now). Instead build up barracks and bowers in Tarnovgrad and Adrianopolis, also build Alchemist's lab in Adrianopolis = flamethrowers, man. Cumans will always come for Tarnovgrad and sometimes also attack Nassios. Always keep a full stack at Tarnovgrad and a half stack at Adrianopolis. As soon as you fight off another cuman horde - merge, replenish from Adrianopolis, retrain wounded in Adrianopolis. Make a good bower building in Adrianopolis and Italian traders building in surrounding cities - soon after you will get access to Gasmuli = crossbowmen with stakes. As cuman hordes consist mainly of horseback archers, you know what that means - stakes right after the gates, easy win. I never managed to pay off cumans or make a lasting peace treaty with them. In first ~150 turns they never attack other NPC and other NPC never attack them, so you are on your own. Their settlements are small and produce little to no gold, so its really pointless to go and conquer them. If you do - remember to destroy nomad encampments after settlement reaches goal for grows, as it prevents you from building carpenters (required for upgrading walls).

    After getting a steady flow of cash you can start preparing a legion for invasion of Italy. Start with Skadar if normans own it, if serbia owns it - leave it for them and take Bari instead. This is also a good time to ally yourself with Pisa and Hungary. Also some time before that Venice gonna start blockading random ports, not much you can do about. Southern Italy is a real cashcow that is easy to protect with a half-stack in Bari + garrisons in Napoli and Regium. Don't go for Rome, not worth the trouble. After that continue building up economy and start preparing for war with Rum.

    Couple of little advices:
    1) Check buildings in every settlement you take, there is stuff like slave bazar or nomad encampments that have negative impact and its better to get rid of them.
    2) Make sure to train your symbasileus, you REALLY don't want to have a faction leader with authority <4.
    3) Oh, and if your symbasileus is a illegitimate heir or usurper - get rid of him. Make sure your symbasileus married with children, you don't want a civil war.
    4) Send your new young generals to Constantinople and keep them there until they are 18-20, so they can get the best education.
    5) Build up those watchtowers! At least on the borders. I prefer them everywhere so I can see my whole realm (and every rebel army that spawns).
    6) Don't marry your princess to a fathimid general turned to Catholicism if you dont want to ruin your campaign.


    Romaioi 97 by yoba99

    Rum 340 by murats987

    Rum 364 by faroo

    Georgia 299 by Macaras

    Kingdom of Jerusalem 140 by SkyrinV

    Fatimids 83 by SurfinBird
    Quote Originally Posted by SurfinBird View Post
    A strong faction, even the units being STATS behind and you generals weaker than the crusaders.
    Attachment 368752
    Attachment 368753
    Attachment 368754
    Attachment 368755

    Fatimids 263 by kostic
    ..

    Abbasids 149 by a Dictator's Cigar
    see here for more pics and some text

    Abbasids 161 by minhnd6789
    ..


    YouTube AAR Poland (voice in Polish)
    Last edited by Jurand of Cracow; August 11, 2023 at 04:14 AM.

  7. #7

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Already downloaded, can't wait to try. Was just finishing my frankish campaign.

  8. #8
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
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    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Quote Originally Posted by Waluk View Post
    Already downloaded, can't wait to try. Was just finishing my frankish campaign.
    Upload a save anyway in the thread on the April version.

  9. #9

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Great stuff sship team!!! Is it savecompatible with my old english campaign? Or i need to delete the old sship version and install the new version with my save archive.
    ABOUT UNITS:
    -For byzantines, why have they axe militias and georgian archers? I understand that urban crossbow militias were the italian influence in Constantinople and other cities...
    -Naffatun also were used by Byzantium( greek fire in grenades)
    And about archers... I think is historical add Welsh longbowmen at the beginning of the game as AOR unit( also welsh spearmen) in Wales region, and after (+50 turns?) They could be recruited in more english regions ( London, York, Bristol...)

    - I understand that georgian light archers are as AOR units, not a factional jerusalem unit, for a factional unit Jerusalem should have Turcopoles as horse archers and also as foot archers, who were Muslims converted to Christianity and Christians born in Muslim customs who fought for the Crusader states but in the most Eastern form (archers and horse archers), a unit called "Poulains" (see Broken Crescent mod) could also be created who were second or third generation Christians born in the Levant fighting for the Crusader states, different from the Crusader knights and troops that came from Europe...

    On the other hand with the new version I will be able to modify the EDU, descriptions and unit stats for my minimod.

    THANKS TO SSHIP TEAM AND JURAND FOR THEIR HARD WORK!
    THE MORE YOU SWEAT NOW,
    THE LESS YOU BLEED IN BATTLE!!!



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  10. #10
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
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    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Not compatible.
    Byzantines and other factions get access to those units only in the regions where these units could be levied (kind of AoR).
    Welsh longbowmen / English Archer Militia - all to be reviewed in the future. For now, there seem to be too many archer units. They should be replaced by one another.
    Turcopoles - yes, agains, it's to be reviewed.

  11. #11

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    It feels like a completely different game with the slower recruitment pools. I generally like the changes. a lot of balancing. the different melee units have actual pros and cons now, instead of just being universally better or worse.
    The only problem I'm having is that Magyar Cavalry are so restricted. in effect, only available in one province.
    The Byzantines attacked, so time to restart. (They just randomly blockaded me for no reason to declare war? wat?) They're completely unbeatable under these circumstances. Aside from that, the campaign was going great.

  12. #12
    Khevsur's Avatar Senator
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    Icon5 Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    j.a.luna

    Georgian Cavalry helped Byzantines several times.There would be Georgian Cavalry in Jerusalem as well.

    After the conquest of eastern Georgia(The Mongols could not conquer Western Georgia because of swamps and deep forests), the Mongols took many Georgian horsemen to the wars of conquest

    Archers of Georgian(Kartvelian) origin were probably Lazi (Tzanni) Archers from Trebizond. I do not know about the presence of Georgian archers in the army of other countries
    Last edited by Khevsur; September 12, 2022 at 09:02 AM.

  13. #13
    kostic's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    The file size is even smaller than last time. I hope that the event image files prepared by @Cephalophore are integrated !
    I find it hard to do without them as they improve the historical immersion.

  14. #14

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Another question about units, in the current version, where is possible recruit african archers, african spearmen a d african javelinmen, only see sudan warriors in the barracks in my egyptian campaign...
    THE MORE YOU SWEAT NOW,
    THE LESS YOU BLEED IN BATTLE!!!



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  15. #15
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
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    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Quote Originally Posted by j.a.luna View Post
    Another question about units, in the current version, where is possible recruit african archers, african spearmen a d african javelinmen, only see sudan warriors in the barracks in my egyptian campaign...
    African Archers and Sudan Warriors are normally recruited (Archers from the ranges), Afr Spearmen are mercs (iirc), and the Javelinmen were disabled.

  16. #16

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Is this version compatible with the submod KCC 0.9.5?

  17. #17

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Hello to the modding team, love your dedication to this game and I have had a great time playing it in the past, I'm just about to start a new campaign but I have a question:

    1. In every campaign I played the AI would usually attack my cities/castles with forces similar or slightly larger than my own, even though they have troops to spare. But why? If the AI is trying to win they should try to guarantee their victory and attack with full stacks or at least triple the size of the defensive force if possible. Is this a MED2 engine thing?

    Anyway I'll be jumping into a new campaign, thanks for the work you guys put into this dumb 16 year old game

  18. #18

    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08


    Welp, Rum destroyed in turn 4 - after me taking Ancara stupid AI takes all his forces to Kaiseri and I get Konya in a relatively easy siege fight

  19. #19
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
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    Default Re: [DOWNLOAD] SSHIP 0.98 version 2022/09/08

    Quote Originally Posted by King Frederich I View Post
    Is this version compatible with the submod KCC 0.9.5?
    KCC is included in this version.
    Mod leader of the SSHIP: traits, ancillaries, scripts, buildings, geography, economy.
    ..............................................................................................................................................................................
    If you want to play a historical mod in the medieval setting the best are:
    Stainless Steel Historical Improvement Project and Broken Crescent.
    Recently, Tsardoms and TGC look also very good. Read my opinions on the other mods here.
    ..............................................................................................................................................................................
    Reviews of the mods (all made in 2018): SSHIP, Wrath of the Norsemen, Broken Crescent.
    Follow home rules for playing a game without exploiting the M2TW engine deficiencies.
    Hints for Medieval 2 moders: forts, merchants, AT-NGB bug, trade fleets.
    Thrones of Britannia: review, opinion on the battles, ideas for modding. Shieldwall is promising!
    Dominant strategy in Rome2, Attila, ToB and Troy: “Sniping groups of armies”. Still there, alas!

  20. #20

    Default Re: Bugs Reports & Technical Help

    Hi sship team, i found a bug in my english campaign with new versio (september), I get desktop crashes when I reach the rebels turn and I can't get past turn 88, I have to say my save game is the old version (April) and I cut and paste it into the new version to continue it, it didn't give me any problems until After a few turns, I leave you the necessary files.


    Ingleses.rarsystem.log.txt
    THE MORE YOU SWEAT NOW,
    THE LESS YOU BLEED IN BATTLE!!!



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