[Overhaul Submod] "Data Venia" (for DeI 1.2.5 - Updated 2020-01-20)
Thanks for voting us into 2nd position in the gameplay mods-category, over at the modding awards 2016!
Data Venia
(Latin for: I beg to differ (said before politely disagreeing with someone else))
Description:
This project started as a simple personal mod between friends in an attempt to keep the old battle balance from v0.x/v1.0-v1.05 since some of us didn't like the faster pace and the unit stat changes that were introduced in 1.1.
Little by little the mod grew as more and more stuff was changed in other areas than just battles. All in all this sub-mod makes the game tougher than ordinary DeI.
I will also take requests (limitation based on time availability/scope of RPFM knowledge) if someone wants a version that is slightly different to the base one (ie. different TPY setting, activate civil wars or similar stuff).
Only play DV at "Normal" difficulty, anything else will have vanilla DeI values and not the custom DV ones. "Normal" DV campaign difficulty is harder than Very Hard in DeI..
(The reason "Normal" was modified is because you can't set different difficulties for CAI and BAI in coop/head-to-head in multiplayer. This way you can play normal multi player with normal battles and a very hard CAI.
Currently supported campaigns:
Grand Campaign
Hannibal at the Gates
Caesar in Gaul
Macedonian Wars
Imperator Augustus (requires more polish but is playable)
Unsupported campaigns:
Rise of Republic (currently not supported but is going to be at some point, but in a different setting)
Empire Divided (don't know if I'll ever make it compatible)
Click the spoiler below for a complete list of Data Venias features (slightly outdated, for new features not added here yet check changelog in post 2):
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
"Data Venia" 1.2 New Features:
1.2 update!
Reworked supply scripts:
Higher supply capacities in all regions.
Several regions had their fertility rates replaced.
AI now consumes slightly lower supplies in owned territory.
Nomadic supply-stance was completely replaced by the barbarian one. No more starving steppe tribes.
Changes to agents/generals/admirals/armies:
All characters, armies and soldiers now require exponentially more experience to level up. This will make your characters and soldiers more valuable once they reach veterancy. The higher rank, the slower to get to the next level.
Agent caps increased, you can now have more agents than usual.
Some baseline dignitary/spy skills have gotten small bonuses.
Economy & building-changes:
All agent costs increased to balance out the new cap.
All buildings now cost 50% more to build.
Building upkeep has been removed from all buildings except for barracks, stables, workshops and military wharfs.
A complete change to how the building template for public order works. No more farms, amphorae-makers and bazaars that give -12 public order. Now the city/town-cores give higher amounts of -public order, illustrating that higher populations are more unruly. You don't have to risk a riot just because you make a farm any more.
All ships cost 50% more to build, but require 50% less upkeep. In a fleets case, the building of the fleet itself was the most expensive endeavour, while the marines fewer in numbers than land armies usually costed less in upkeep.
Starting treasuries are set to 12000. Spend your gold wisely. Build that building, stack those levies or grease the palms of the neighbours you don't want to fight with right away.
Faction-changes:
Lots of new emblems, banners and faction colours for various factions. Work in progress.
Lots of new confederation options (example Pontus, Sinope and Trapezos can confederate into the Mithridatic Kingdom. Parthia, Khorasmii, Dahae and Parthava can confederate into the Arsacid Empire. Steppe nomads can confederate into The Scytho-Sarmatian Horde. Dacians and Thracians can confederate into the Daco-Thracian Kingdom. Several greek (non-successor) factions can confederate into The Greek City-States etc.
All client-states have been removed.
Satrapies have been renamed into Tributaries, and now all factions can create tributaries - allowing for a much more dynamic campaign map.
Diplomatic-changes:
Slightly more aggressive AI behaviour.
Alliances etc now require higher relations. Trade is a little easier to get if you have access to resources. Pacts are turned off to stop the AI from spamming you with them mid to late game.
Releasing prisoners is now actually useful if you want to increase your relations with a faction at war.
Liberating a faction now nets 50% more green relations, should decrease the probability of the liberated faction declaring war on you (treacherous/devious personalities might still backstab you).
Gifts now give more relations.
Combat-changes:
The base for the combat-system is still the good ol' 0.x and 1.0 system but with several improvements and innovations.
Now the weapon your unit uses has a lot bigger impact on their effectiveness in combat. Swords give the highest bonuses against infantry, spears against cavalry, axes/maces grant AP to more quickly destroy heavily armoured units, slings have the longest range and most ammo, bows are better against armoured enemies, javelins are the best option against heavy armour and elephants.
Ammo amounts have been increased globally.
Flying Wedge charge bonus has been increased for more shocking charges.
Tougher to run through pikes when they're deployed.
Using a tweaked version of the 1.1 hoplite formation that works well with the AI, but slows your hoplites.
Better bows/slings have further range. This means that elite archers will outrange basic ones.
Romas got their gladius AP slightly increased.
All cav now runs slightly faster than before.
Ballistas, bolt-throwers and repeating bolt-throwers are now actually useful in inflicting casualties.
Towers in sieges/fort-battles do slightly more damage. The ship towers can now burn enemy ships faster.
Boiling oil has increased AoE and AP-damage.
Slightly more and larger traps available.
Larger groups of dogs per unit at higher expenses.
Increased morale and survivability of chariots to make them viable.
Miscellaneous-changes:
Several units have gotten their sizes revised.
Several mesh-changes to different units.
Ptolematoi keep their Egyptian religion with Hellenic influences, rather than the opposite system in vanilla DeI.
All fog has been deactivated for two reasons - armies quite seldom fought in fog and now you can use Aztecs lightning mod with DV and avoid the unplayable fog it sometimes generates.
Most general skills have had their durations increased, along with how many units they affect. Generals base "area-of-effect" range has also been increased.
"Data Venia" 1.1 Features:
Old battle balance (from v0.8-v1.05) with additional tweaks
Ranged combat
Range, ammo, damage/penetration, marksmanship and spread have been tweaked. Spread is higher now meaning that you will inflict more friendly fire if you simply shoot into large melee brawls. I recommend utilizing Flash's excellent "Concentrate Fire" ability if you want to avoid this. The best slings and bows got slightly better damage and accuracy.
Slings got longest range, good against unarmoured targets and has most ammo (also good for countering normal archers/horse archers). The most elite slingers (Baelric/Rhodian) got some extra range.
Bows (normal and mounted) are the best option against armoured targets.
All artillery has been tweaked. Further ranges, changed ammo amounts and accuracy. Now scorpions and polybolos are actually viable to construct as they are more effective in terms of range and damage. Also onagers/ballistas has gotten a revamp for their "Fire"-ball shot giving them an explosive impact effect. I recommend using the fire option when you shoot at enemy units, while using the normal shots when firing on ships or walls.
Formation changes
Added hoplite phalanx ability back to units fighting in that style and using those animations. It's a passive now and will inherently grant the unit a minor defense bonus just by being active on the battlefield (for those of us who missed the old toggleable formation).
Pikes have been revamped, range has been boosted, weapon damage halved while formation is active. They will kill enemies if engaged frontally after a while (which they should) but not at a super fast pace. As usual recommending to flank them or shoot at them. Balancing pikes is tricky as you don't want them to be too strong or too weak.
Slight tweaks to wedge formations.
Added formations to units that were missing them (example: several melee cavalry units missing wedge).
Morale
Units won't rout as quickly from rear/flank attacks now (this was a major issue when fighting on walls).
Generals have had their aura-size increased.
Generals will give passive bonuses to (mainly) morale and defensive/offensive stats, the more skilled general the higher bonuses to units in his vicinity.
Losing your general will now hurt your troops morale more than before (AI has a lesser effect since they sometimes charge with their general first). Keep him safe if you can!
Lots of minor morale tweaks in general.
Generals Abilities
Most abilities now have a longer duration and will affect more units around them, the group versions even more improved (example: Since "Second Wind" has a longer duration now it will actually make a difference in comparison to the old super short duration).
Overall unit stat changes
Several shields on units were switched/removed (example: removed all garrison archers invisible shields that gave them 5+ armour)
Several slings/bows were switched (example: all basic archers should now use the basic bow).
HP on certain units tweaked (example: Elephants hp was increased).
Units Armour has been tweaked (example: Catahpracts got slightly more armour now and naked barbarians got less) In general I've tried to keep the armour values as close as possible to how the unit actually looks. If they have cloth tunics and some animal hide shield then they shouldn't run around with 40 armour, same goes for nearly naked barbarians.
Chariots have been buffed making them more viable to build.
Dogs buffed a bit (still slightly weaker than old balance, use against light infantry, cavalry or ranged - they will die at a fast pace against heavy infantry).
Revamped amount of traps available in sieges and their hp (wooden walls have a lot of HP now).
Revamped siege engine hp (ladders will get burned fast now by fire arrows, I recommend building proper siege engines like a ram, siege tower or the "pyramid" thingy if you need to take an important city by storm and don't have access to ballistas).
Boiling oil does more damage and has a slightly larger AoE. Going through that will hurt you properly now.
Towers do slightly more damage and have slightly more increased range. Wooden towers have less hp and will burn faster.
All cavalry now has 120 men per group.
Stamina tweaks (Example: cav can run a little longer before getting tired).
Reworked weapon bonuses against cavalry/elephants. Now weaker spears (basic spearmen, levy spearmen, garrison spearmen) won't be as strong against cavalry (but still get a bonus against them), while medium/elite spears/pikes will be the best counter. Javelins and pikes is the best way to deal with elephants.
All garrison ranged units have gotten a rough 25% ammo increase, simulating the extra ammo available in settlements/cities.
Other various minor changes.
New unit(s)/changes to garrison
Garrison - changed some ranged units from javelins to slingers/archers for civilized factions. Barbarians will still sometimes have javelins in garrison.
New unit: Numidian archers (Basic roster bow and arrow unit for Carthage)
Deployment Zone
More distance between deployment zones to give enough time for formations, maneouvres, reaching preferred ground and intercepting reinforcements.
Campaign changes
"Normal" campaign difficulty harder than the default "Very Hard"
AI gets more money, more recruitment slots and won't be signing treaties with you as easily.
AI wields more armies, perhaps you were used to them coming with 1-2 armies before - they might now come with 3-4 instead. Prepare your defenses!
No more allying with half the world. AI won't be signing NA, military access or alliance treaties that easily with you even if they like you. Be on your guard!
This means you can now play on "Normal" in coop or head-to-head and still be able to enjoy "Normal" battle balance with a harder than "Very Hard" campaign balance. Previously you needed a separate submod to be able to enjoy this.
Army caps/Fleet caps/Agent caps
Both you and the AI have higher caps now. You can finally have governor-generals in several cities focusing on economic traits without tying your cap up on armies.
Agent recruitment costs increased by a fair amount.
24 TPY (Optional 12 TPY pack available in "downloads")
Seasonal effects now have more impact since each month is two turns. You should think twice before starting wars in winters up north or in summer down south as the results might be devastating.
Overhauled reforms, will now take more turns to reach.
Civil Wars
Deactivated since CA ruined the experience in their latest patch (optional pack available in "downloads" - adds back the default Civil War values from DeI, load before Data Venia).
Public Order/Culture
Slower cultural conversions
Slightly tougher to maintain public order when affected by raiding, culture differences, occupations etcetera.
Disabled Political Events
No more assassination spam, adoption spam or blackmail spam (hopefully). I felt this system was broken to begin with and due to it being hardcoded the only way (not including scripting) is to disable it. If the DeI team comes up with a nice solution in 1.2, I might reactivate it for the main submod (the normal civil war submod in "downloads" still has politics enabled).
Minor building-bonus changes
Giant public order minus from farms and the like didn't make much sense. I've decreased the -PO hit for several buildings meaning a stable province not experiencing wars, raids, cultural tensions, agent sabotage or extreme weather will be easier to maintain.
Tweaked army/fleet movement
Armies now move a bit slower than before. No more blitzkriegs and town-hopping. Plan your troop movements in advance, pay attention to seasons and supplies.
Fleets still move a lot further than land-armies.
Fortification stances tweak
20% movement points for Romans, 33% for Greeks/Eastern and 50% for barbarians. In overall the cost has been increased slightly since the AI has a difficult time beating a player in a fort, especially for barbarians who weren't known for producing many forts - while romans in comparison often ended up constructing a fort at the end of the day.
Zone of Control
Armies/garrisons now have a slighty further reinforcement range. You're not forced to hug your first army with your second one anymore to make sure both join the battle.
Smaller "Zone of Control". You can now march past an enemy city without being blocked by a giant invisible force field.
Veterancy
Troops/fleets now gain slightly larger bonuses from veterancy meaning your extremely battle hardened troops who survived dozens of battles should have a bit more badassery in them now.
Veterancy for troops/fleets takes longer time to gain. Work hard for those badass veterans!
Generals/admirals need slightly more experience to level up.
Edicts
You can now issue 99 edicts no matter what imperium level you are on, no more silly artificial limitations. Got 5 provinces? Issue 5 edicts!
Elite units availability
Some elite units moved up slightly to more advanced barracks/other buildings.
New confederation entries
More factions can now confederate.
Changed amount of points received per level for characters
You now get less points at the beginning (first two levels or so) but more points later and more points in overall in comparison to default DeI - simulating that the more experience you get the more options you have for character progression.
Possibly missed something as the amount of changes is large. When patching I will add patchnotes so people know what was changed.
To-do list:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Orange= Done
Orange= Work in Progress
Red = Planned
Purple = Undecided
Thracian visual overhaul
Include new faction emblems/icons/colours/banners
Create new units from scratch
New edicts
Rework the whole recruitment system pushing most elites up the recruitment tiers to create a "low-tier" early game
Adding wedge formation to certain barbarian infantry units for those "oomph"-charges (based on how barbarians from time to time did this to push further into the enemy)
Adding guerilla deployment to a bunch of barbarian units (mainly germans, celts/gauls, iberians and britons) to make their gameplay feel more different from the rest.
New music-pack with culturally themed soundtracks
Integrate the official AFP submod
Add % regional movement bonuses each time the city/town-core gets upgraded (illustrating upgraded roads in that region)
4TPY:
A simple submod that changes the Grand Campaign to 4TPY and reverts reform scripts to Dei's standard ones that are scaled to 4TPY. Also includes 4TPY historical events.
Smaller garrisons:
Mostly old sizes except for garrison cav that remains at 200, use if the new sizes impact performance too much for you or if you simply don't like strong garrisons. The pack is already renamed correctly so should be automatically placed before DV.
Big thanks to CristotheVicious (Co-creator) for teaching this newbie how to work in PFM, additional support, his hours spent on the submod and testing Dresden for answering questions when I've run into issues I couldn't solve and for all his hard work on DeI and the plethora of submods he has made for our enjoyment Litharion for the advanced supply system and PoR2, Magnar and the other individuals also involved in working on PoR2 and its amazing features Gunny/Kam for the old battle-system that made me like the combat in DeI in the first place
The DeI team as a whole and everyone else who contributed to the original mod in any constructive way Krixux for his original noCW mod. DonKanaalje for his original reduced movement mod. PurpleKalmar for the original Legendary Commanders mod, Admiral Nelson for the navy tree. MobJarley, Noif1988, Dominus,Murvaidavid, Ep1c_fail and Leo_Africanus for their excellent emblems. IVYS4URUS for the custom banner art (works perfectly with 41-units per army). DeusEx010101 for his excellent custom coloured icons. Carmen Silva/Marcus_Iunius_Brutus for their beautiful Ancient Women mod.
The players who were PM:ing and asking me to release this to the public, without your interest I wouldn't have released the overhaul!
Last edited by Ygraine; January 20, 2020 at 07:23 PM.
Reason: Updated original thread
(2nd position - Gameplay Mods-category - 2016 Modding Awards.)
[Overhaul Submod] "Data Venia" (for DeI 1.2.5 - Updated 2020-01-20)
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