[SUBMOD: a Slower Paced DeI Campaign] TESTUDO v.1.7 + Custom Packs [upd: aug.09/20] - OUTDATED

[Jake Armitage]

I've just tried both with autoresolve and battle and didn't have a crash.
did your general died during the battle?
think that you have inner pc issues, can't see another solution tbh

here is the post manual battle save
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ljhbd...ttle.save/file


also... you're having a rebellion in the 10th turn
that's not good, do something for you PO, like removing taxes in that region, enacting the civil intrigue and placing rpg units
otherwise you'll just loose more money for recruiting useless armies

[Swarbs]

General didn't die, and it doesn't crash when I autoresolve, only when coming from the battle back to the campaign map. I figure it may be something with the PC, but have turned down all graphics settings and made the changes recommended in the DEI hardware thread so not sure what's causing it.

PC spec is:

AMD Ryzen 5 2600
16GB 2933Hz DDR4 RAM
240GB ADATA SSD
2GB AMD Radeon R9 270X
550W PSU

I know the graphics card is getting on, but I'd have thought it'd be ok for DEI on low settings, particularly given Rome 2 can't really use more than 3Gb of VRAM. Any ideas what else might be causing the problem?

For the rebellion, I'm usually not that bothered by an early one. It's easy to defeat with the garrison and a few more troops, and Egypt needs some early to defend against the eventual Seleucid attack. Also the PO gain from rebellions and the military crackdown after you kill the rebels helps in the long term imo. That region in particular starts with around -30 PO loss per turn, so there's almost no way to avoid a rebellion without spending even more than you need just to fight the stack of weak units.

[Jake Armitage]

Have no idea what could 'cause the issue, it was everything fine with me loading the save game, checking around for possible bugs and playing the battle.
Could be you have something hidden but active and the steam manager is loading it.
Play the campaign form the save game I uploaded and see it it's a one time crash or if it is repeating

[Vardano]

Hi Jake, thank you for being so dedicated and immensely improving my favorite submod haha. Will the next version be save compatible?

[Jake Armitage]

more than dedicated I use it as a mental exercise, there are a lot of things to be organised and to be weighted, it's a cool hobby at the end

dunno yet if it will be technically compatible, I always suggest to start a new campaign

[Vardano]

I know what are you saying.

Should I wait for a new update?

Do you play with Huge pack? What else do you use with it?

[Jake Armitage]

Update will come a couple of weeks after dei 127 def release I think
A month? surely not less than 2 weeks I think
Current testudo is mostly fine, has wrong 2nd tier pop balance, but you can play with it if you are in that playing mood

I play with huge yeah, no other packs

[Swarbs]

Have no idea what could 'cause the issue, it was everything fine with me loading the save game, checking around for possible bugs and playing the battle.
Could be you have something hidden but active and the steam manager is loading it.
Play the campaign form the save game I uploaded and see it it's a one time crash or if it is repeating

So I deleted a few old packs from my data folder, also set the game to DX9 mode and that seems to have fixed it - played the next battle from your save on the battle map and it was fine.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to test it with any more battles, as the AI is being very passive towards me, but not other factions. I've played the campaign till turn 50 (start of Beginners Luck 3) and no one has declared war on me. Nabata and Atropakan have each taken three or four regions off the Seleucids, and Epirus, Sinope, Pontus, Scythia, Thyni, Saba, Odryssion and Trapezos have all been killed. It seems like I'm the only one being left in peace. Is the AI normally so passive for so long? I'm starting to have problems with economical trust and corruption as I've nothing to spend money on!

[Jake Armitage]

yes it's normal to be so long, but you'll see that passiveness is relative
mostly with factions as ptolemaics, campaign is really slow
if you don't like the pace and its features leave this submod 'cause it's been made this way
or try by playing a 1 region faction

also, could be that some of the submods you had bugged some scripts for the first part of the campaign, can't say.

[Swarbs]

yes it's normal to be so long, but you'll see that passiveness is relative
mostly with factions as ptolemaics, campaign is really slow
if you don't like the pace and its features leave this submod 'cause it's been made this way
or try by playing a 1 region faction

also, could be that some of the submods you had bugged some scripts for the first part of the campaign, can't say.

Ok, thanks. Hopefully it's a bug from the first part of the campaign, will start another and see what happens.

I don't mind the AI being quite passive, although it does seem a bit too much that the AI is killing other factions and attacking large ones like Seleucid and Carthage (attacked by the Ighamenids) but leaving me completely alone.

I really like the design of the mod, and the pace, particularly the economics, politics and RPG changes. It makes it more difficult to manage a faction and economic and political decisions become more important. Unfortunately, in my limited experience, the passive AI kind of took that difficulty away, as I could just spend and spend on managing the economy and politics without worrying about war.

[Jake Armitage]

Gonna work on some low level stuff for the next update, let's see if I can handle AI diplomacy a little better.
Not an easy thing to be balanced though, previous testudo versions were harder, some at the point it was too frustrating as a gameplay.
Keep in mind that there are some Testudo Weight packs that will make your campaign harder if used.

[Swarbs]

That would be good - I don't think a massive change would be needed. The AI already seems fairly aggressive towards other AI players - I started a new game and Kryenaike dowed the Nasamones, whilst Seleucids ended up at war again. Also the AI was much less willing to pay for trade, so I guess I did have some screwed up scripts the last way through.

But no one dowed on me throughout the beginner's luck phase again, despite almost all the surrounding factions having stronger stacks than me throughout that period. I agree you don't want the AI being overly aggressive towards the human, but it seems odd that they are more aggressive towards each other than the human player!

Also, it might be worth looking at the duration of the missions, particularly those to research a tech. A lot of those seem to have vanilla weightings, so you get a mission to research a tech in 6 turns when they all take at least 9, for example.

[Jake Armitage]

yeah I never bothered with victory conditions/missons.
maybe one day but if I'll do them I'm gonna build something different from scratch (ror666 will have something for that).

I think that AI passiveness is also due you being ptolemy, a strong faction by default.
But yeah, it's a little too passive, I noticed that this summer when I played a 1.7 campaign.

[thor85]

Hi Jake, I started a new game with 12tpy but I didn't see that the DEI 12tpy submod is also required. I added it now after few turns, but seasons keep changing every turn, as in 4tpy. Can this be fixed, or I must start a new game?

[Jake Armitage]

You'll need to start a new game, sadly you can't change tpy in a saved game
maybe with saveparser but I have no idea honestly

[Swarbs]

I think that AI passiveness is also due you being ptolemy, a strong faction by default.
But yeah, it's a little too passive, I noticed that this summer when I played a 1.7 campaign.

That's probably part of it, although the AI doesn't seem to have a problem declaring war on even stronger factions like Carthage and the Seleucids. Also, I wasn't all that strong for much of the time - only one full stack split in two armies. Even Kyrenaike and Nasamones had more and they decided to dow on each other when my Libyan regions were easy pickings!

Thanks for looking at it, looking forward to the update for 1.2.7

[Vardano]

Feedback time, I play as Athens N/N, Huge pack and nothing else.

140+ turns have passed and I got all Greece, Macedonia and Pulpudeva (Macedon took it and I took it after them). I have also liberated Ardiaei.
It is funny that Rome was not at war with anyone except of Epirus (which was destroyed early) until I declared war at them and around turn 85 or something and took Apollonia from them.

I have to stop here, Rome was and still able to send 2-3 full stacks constantly, they have besieged Pella and only my military genius saved us from boring red. I actually tired to fight those battles, is AI not handicapped by population mechanics at all? I could not catch a breath, until I brought full stack unparalleled Athena's fleet and started to sacrifice Roman armies one after another to our beloved god Poseidon.
I honestly don't think I could control that spam for too long without fleet. By the way AI is sort of good when it has only one enemy, but it is still can not evaluate that in its current war with me it needs more fleets and not armies...

140+ turns and Rhodos, Syracuse, Liguria and many others are not at war with anyone and Massaila is simply rocking, I think they are bigger than Rome or equal.

Last time I played Testudo there were not any of its submods so I have to learn all of this too. I really love what you have done Jake, almost every aspect matters in a meaningful way, but I still struggle with some intrigues, it seems I can't benefit at all from some intrigues because of negative values like the one to boost economical stimulation or political surveillance. It seems trade off is just not worth it. I also can't appoint my best generals as Field Officer because there is no one have have higher stats than them.

You have mentioned it but I do struggle with second Pop.

Interesting to mention that once I have build some sort of a solid economy, Testudo protection have expired and now I have some penalties, just in time. When I look at Summary table, there always some big penalties and I can't really counter them, but anyway I will soon be ready to end Roman nonsense.

Thank you, it is pure enjoyment.

[Jake Armitage]

Good to know
I also remember you being one of the first guys reporting something like 3 years ago...

There are still many things to be fixed and in need for change, that's for sure.
And since I'm now able of modding the game pretty extensively... I'll probably be able of giving better choices regarding the strat part of the gameplay.

[TheLonelyEmperor]

G'day Jake mate, I noticed you said earlier in the month that a update would be following dei 1.7
Is that still true you reckon?
I don't mean to annoy you at all, I'm just trying to figure out if I should start a new long term campaign some time soon or wait it out a few more weeks until Testudo gets a new update.

Glad to see your still around mate, appreciate the hell out of what you do!

[Jake Armitage]

yeah, true, waiting for 127 full release for working on some parts though
don't expect anything surely for the next 2 weeks