[Official Submod] Limited Recruitment - Updated w/ Steam version

[quaz601]

one thing to note is that even if own half a province and the other half is client states or satrapies you don't get the full recruitment bonus, for example in a provience of 4 regions and you control 2 and 2 are satrapies you only get 2 slots, is there any way to add vassals to count as slots for recruitments meaning you get the full provience bonus?

[Chereye]

Funny how when rome 2 launched people complained how the AI was too passive, couldn't make big empires. Now you got people complaining because the AI can do something that was once complained about. Hilarious.

[Dresden]

Thats always how it is. Unfortunately it will never be perfect. But, I knew that when I increased AI aggression people would eventually forget that the AI was super passive originally.

[Asmodius]

Damn I wish I looked at this submod before my epic roman campaign..

Is savegame compatible or fresh start required?

[Dresden]

Its save compatible but it won't have the same results as if you used it from the start, obviously.

[moongate]

Dresden, this mod is in fact lower the difficult for players as the ai wont recover fast enough from a lost battle against player(saw ai keep recruiting from one region province, which means even slower recover from lost against player), while player can stack up a big army. I feel that if you want to incorporate this mod, you may also need to add conquest= public nightmare lite and realistic campaigning movement, or even raise the upkeep for player on higher difficulty setting, or the game will be even simpler than what it was in late game.

[stevehoos]

I have been seeing some very small armies from factions like Carthage, seems like they can't afford much.


Without the mod:
By turn 11, Epirus had taken Brundisium and Cosentia from Rome, which feels too fast. So I think you are on to something good with this mod though.

[St. Nietzsche]

Thanks for the mod Dresden! Great work as usual. This might be long, but I think its a comparison that highlights what this mod changes, and hopefully helps someone make a better decision.

Playing Armenia on H/N with PO nightmare lite ~35 turns in. Having recently played as Armenia on same difficulty up to about 80 turns with vanilla DEI I have seen substantial changes in the way AI acts.

Firstly they aren't as aggressive as they used to be, particularly the minor 1 province factions. In my previous campaign my two northern single province neighbors were quick to send their armies to my capital. This time around they actually made peace and we now have good relations with trade agreements. I even have a defensive alliance with one of them. And while not seeing a lot lands being exchanged, the major factions with I have contact with, do seem to be actively declaring war.

A quick recap of what's happened thus far

Pontus was quick to attack Cappadocia then ally himself with Trapezos and Bithyhia. They successfully finished off Cappadocia, and continued to go to war with Colchis. Sardes attacked and completely conquered Galatia, then Bithyhia. At the same time Crimmeria (Bosporus) declared on the Pontic alliance and conquered Trapezos. Which I saw as an opportunity and took from Crimmeria. Pontus was able to conquer Colchis, but lost it to Crimmeria soon after, and again I took the opportunity to take another province. Else where, though I don't have vision, I know that Epirus has been destroyed, as has Parthia. My southern neighbors the Media Atropatene have been at war with the Selecuids for some time now, but no lands have exchanged hands.

Comparison

The pace of the game is a lot more to my liking. I personally like to take my time, build my provinces, train my armies, then slowly expand. I'm not big on blitzing my way through the campaign. Last few campaigns I've started with vanilla DEI just seemed to me I had to conquer and expand hard and fast to keep up with everyone around me, or I'd be facing an empire much larger then me. Though this mod does seem a bit easier then my previous campaign, I suspect a lot of that comes from the fact that as Armenia I start with a full province. By turn 70 of my last campaign, Macedonia has consolidated Greece, created a league, and had taken over Asian Minor, while I was on my 7th settlement. Additionally Parthia all but conquered everything to the east of me and was at my doorsteps.

Other Examples from Previous Campaign starts (again vanilla DEI)


I played a Spartan campaign, where I took Athens, then Crete, and stopped for a while. ~40 turns in Epirus had conquered all of Rome and Sicily, Macedonia had taken over Thrace, half of Illyia, and pushing into Dacia. Pergamon controlled half of Asian Minor. I literally had no where to go with my two full stacks I was barely able to fund, so I decided to move on Pergamon since Epirus and Macedonia had a solid alliance. After bashing through 6 full stacks, away from my base unable to replenish my troops I stopped playing.

Tried another one with Macedonia. This time I figured I'd push hard at first then take it slow. So took over Thracia, helped Sparta finish off Epirus because I wanted to face Rome later, made peace with my northern neighbors and laid low. ~40 turns in the Suebia are knocking down my door from the north and look angry as hell!




Conclusion


I realize and understand that this is what some genuinely wanted, and that the vanilla game was greatly lacking. I can also see myself looking for something challenging like this in the future, but for now I want to be able to play at my own pace, and value immersion more then just hardcore challenge.

I'm still early in my campaign, but for those that don't like to be rushed I think this, together with PO nightmare mod, makes for a very rewarding experience. I don't play very often, but I'll try to keep everyone updated as I progress. Its still too early to judge the difficulty level as a whole, though the beginning part, at least for Armenia seems a lot easier, and the minor AIs as a lot more willing to cooperate and make diplomatic agreements. I don't know if this was intentional or a byproduct, but its nice.

[SCCOJake]

I didn't see anything in here, but is there/will there be a Steam Workshop version of this? I would love to try it out, but for some reason the downloads are in a format that I can't use.

Thanks!

[Dresden]

If you put the pack in your data folder and check "enable out of date mods" you should be able to use it without a problem.

[SCCOJake]

OK, it's showing up in the Mod Manager now, I'll give it a test run tomorrow. Thanks a lot, I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[Zonac]

Hi Dresden! I tested your submod now a little bit and I have to say it is really nice. Although I would change/include 2 things: First, Rome with its extra +1 recrutment space for each major city is to powerfull (not for the AI but for the player because it is too easy with rome) , instead you could move the tech which inreaces the recrutment capacity by one further down so that the romans could get supperior in recrutment very fast but not at the start of the game. Also some eastern faction could recive an extra +1 maybe?.
2nd, is it possble to decrease the unit replenishment rate? Or maybe the mechanics could be changed at all? Because sometimes I conquer a new settlement with 2 armies and loose 50% for example... but then next turn I am back at ~90% so I am intantly able to conquer the next region. Also it doesn't feel right that it doesn't change the replenishrate with the amount of units within a region.

[Master.Mind]

I love the submod, but I think garrision towns should get +2 recruitment (since one of the perks of the garrision town was the additional recruitment slot)

[Dresden]

Updated this and also added a Steam version for easy access.

[Zonac]

Hey Dresden! I made a quick check on your newest update and I am not sure if Rome works as it should be. But the other factions seemed to work properly. As an example for Rome on Normal: 1st turn: Italia: 4 regions + 1 for normal + 1 home province + 2 for every major city (brundisium) should be a total of 8 slots, but I can only recruit 7 units at a time. Also in Magna Greacia i have 4 slots even though I should have 3 if I am not mistaken.
Then I conquered Mediolanum (Cis alpina major city) and nothing changed with the recrument capacities..
As it is now it seems that the +1 for every major city in that province of the older submod is still working and the + 2 for rome is not, however the +1 for normal works.
By the way I use the standalone version

[Dresden]

In Italy, Rome should get 4 (regions) + 1 (home province) + 1 major city = 6 (For the player on Hard+ difficulty).

Any other 4 region province, they should have 5.

[Dresden]

Update - The script change (AI income bonus) may have been causing some issues so I removed it.

It will be present in 1.0, but as a submod it was problematic (especially since I used 1.0 scripts )

[stevehoos]

You are still planning on putting this sub mod in for version 1.0 right? It does wonders for slowing the expansion down, giving the mod a slower realistic feel/pace of history.

[Dresden]

Yes this will be in 1.0.

[MisterClever]

Submod: DeI Limited Recruitment

Steam Link: Limited Recruitment Submod on Steam

This is a submod based on yukishiro's Historcally Plausible Development Minimod

It limits recruitment based on region ownership in a given province (1 region owned = 1 recruitment slot). All factions also have a bonus 1 recruitment point in their home provinces (Nomads get 2). Rome gets 2 slots from any major city it owns. All fort variants of major cities for all factions also give 2 slots.

The player gets a +2 recruitment bonus on Easy and +1 on Normal. The AI gets a +1 on Very Hard and + 2 on Legendary.

Please let me know how this plays and, if possible, leave specific feedback. I am especially interested in how the AI expands and if it limits them too much. Also, how much harder it is for the player starting as a single region faction. Please also list the difficulty you are playing on with any feedback.

Sounds awesome Dresden, but just an FYI it's not compatible with your 4 TPY submod, as it seems to share a conflict on the handicaps file, perhaps merging them or something, since I have to choose one or the other atm