SS 6.4 Chivalric foot knights recruiting gone in late game?

[Morgan63]

I am playing as France using Kingdoms Gold and SS 6.4. I am on turn 412, year 1511 Chivalric foot knight recruiting just disappeared in Fortresses. I now suddenly on this turn have no options to recruit Chivalric foot knights, or any other sword knight units in any fortress. They are now only available now in Citadels.

Is this a bug?
Did I hit a hard limit on the number of those units?
I did just get the invention of the Musket a few turns ago, so I might think these units were now considered obsolete, but why would they still be available in citadels? Why are mounted knights still available? No new muskets units have been made available, I still only have only Arquebusiers in huge cities with fully advance tech tree.

Anyone know?

Any help would be appreciated. I stopped playing for now in case it is some problem and I have to fix something or back track to an older file.

[jurcek1987]

Don't worry it's not a bug, I just checked export_descr_buildings.txt and found this entry at fortress level:

recruit_pool "Dismounted Chivalric Knights" 1 0.15 2 0 requires factions { france, } and event_counter FULL_PLATE_ARMOR 1 and not event_counter first_watch 1

This means they're not available in fortresses after first watch event (turn 378). Other factions don't have that restriction, only France. Don't ask me why because I'm not one of the developers, I'm only reading the game files. I would guess they are phased out in favour of superior Noble knights who are only available to the French. FYI you can make changes yourself if you want, for example if you still want to recruit dismounted chivalric knights in fortresses just delete "and not event_counter first_watch 1" entry and any changes you make in export_descr_buildings file (located in SS6.3/data folder) are save game compatible.

Oh and just a small suggestion, SS6.4 is quite old and is no longer being developed. I highly recommend you try one of these great submods: SSHIP or Titanium.

[Morgan63]

@jurcek1987 , thanks a lot for that detailed answer. It is kind of weird that all the primitive troops are still available (peasants etc), but the 2nd best sword troop is gone. Noble Knights are only available in Citadels for me, and I have no citadels in the middle East, so I now have no access to any sword units there. I am also expanding eastward into Russia, at Kievs expense (they attacked me ruthlessly) and will have to ship all my sword troops from Sophia or westward Citadels, as none of the expanded areas that I seized had more than fortresses.

So yes, I think I will follow your advice and edit that file.

Also not to quibble, but just so we have the full picture: I went back and checked and I had Chivalric foot knights in Fortresses as late as turn 410. But I did apply a fix or 2 so maybe my file reads differently. I have never looked. I will post after I go in and look.

Thanks again for the help!!!

[Morgan63]

@jurcek1987 Ok, I went in and looked and mine says the same.

I see that a lot of other factions sword units are gone with "first watch 1" event as well, so now I am conflicted on what to do. I don't want an unfair advantage (It looks like Kiev gets to keep their dismounted Boyar troops from Fortress beyond first watch). I Guess I could understand that knights go the way of the Doto bird, as they did in history, but my best ground troop option from fortresses is now Volgier, and all the primitive troops that I have not bought for over 300 turns are still there? How would they be more viable historically? Oh well.

I have been trying not to cheat and bump populations up through edit commands, to get more citadels, but I might have to make a few exceptions so that the game does not turn into me spending huge chunks of time moving troops far eastward, from my citadels.

I welcome any opinions on the matter.

[jurcek1987]

I can see plenty of non cheating solutions: you can try developing citadels yourself without cheating. It's hard but not impossible. Or capture the AI citadel nearest to the frontline since it's much easier for the AI to grow citadels. The easiest option is to use mercenaries. And if all else fails you can always transport units from Europe by sea, it's much faster then by land. And since you're already in the pike&shot era you'll probably find halberds far more useful than swords against late era heavily armored opponents.

[Duck of Death]

1511... 'knights' were kind of going out of style.
People had guns at this point... bad guns, but still.

'knight' was starting to become more of a title and less of a lifestyle.


Related note:
You know they practically lived in that awesome armor?
Crapped in it, slept in it sometimes.

That had to be some smelly stuff!
In bed with the wife? Nah, just remove the cod piece.
You thought wearing underwear was a pain? Holy crap!!!!