Bactrian Colonization Bugged?

[Shatov]

Hey guys,
I'm at turn 216 and I can't get Settler Towns as Bactria. I've held off on building native colonies, so my Empire is about to start falling apart. I've managed to build a Hellenistic Metropolis, but almost 30 turns later I can't build any more Hellenistic Polei or, more importantly, settler towns, so I can't even get Bactria to get the next government upgrade.

I'm just really confused as to how Settler Towns work right now. I saw it once as a constructable option maybe 20 turns ago,but I think the save might have been corrupted because it got stuck on a Carthage turn.

I'm really puzzled. I thought you got a Colonization point every 4 years for every Metropole? I had a huge Pergamon game with the last pre-2.3 build and managed to Hellenize everything.

EDIT: I did process_cq on my Hellenistic Metropolis because I was impatient, that might be a problem.

[QuintusSertorius]

You can't use process_cq on anything managed by script (ie Hellenistic colonies). In any case, that won't have any impact on the script. The messages stop after turn 64, but you still accrue points.

Where are you trying to build them, and what governments do you have in those? Have you cancelled any, or had any sabotaged while being contructed? If so, you lose the point you spent and it doesn't come back.

[Shatov]

I haven't built any polities or colonies apart from the Metropole in Baktria. I've never seen a Settler Towns in Baktria apart from the weird autosave load.

I reloaded to a save before I auto cqued the Metropole. I'm going west to Persia, conquered by the Parthians, to try to get another Metropole. Otherwise I'm giving up. No signs of being able to build colonies yet.

Is there some kind of UI command so I could have a colony point?

[melvidh]

Is there some kind of UI command so I could have a colony point?

If i understand you right, the only way to know you have colonies points avaliable ( besides the messagge that stops popping at turn 64, or doing some maths knowing the mechanics of how you get them) is open cities screen and see if you have a building that requires points avaliable for construction. So no UI window anywhere telling you that info.

Regards:

melvidh

[Shatov]

I'm confused. The settlers buildings don't show up in the building tree. Does that mean anything?

[rhavviepoodle]

If you have no colony points, the settler building and the minor polis will not show up in the building browser, because their prerequisites are scripted, like QS mentioned. I know they will still show up in a camp's building browser if you switch to the city tab (which itself is perhaps an unintended feature).

[Colos1987]

If AI turn seems 'frozen', it is very likely that a faction is turning into horde mode. Sometimes this can up turn processing time by several minutes. In your case, the Carthage turn was probably upped because they horded the Numidians.

I'm no Bactria specialist, but I think there are certain gov forms that may exclude settler towns. Check the guide for it.

[Sar1n]

Allied government=no colonies, supervised native=native colonies, IIRC. It's that simple.

Another problem is the way colony points are stored, AFAIK you lose them on loading the game.

[QuintusSertorius]

Another problem is the way colony points are stored, AFAIK you lose them on loading the game.

They shouldn't be.

[Genghis Skahn]

Allied government=no colonies, supervised native=native colonies, IIRC. It's that simple.

Another problem is the way colony points are stored, AFAIK you lose them on loading the game.

I don't think that's true, and if it was, it'd be a major issue. I seem to have no shortage of colony points as the Boii(granted, I have 3 confederations at this point, so 3 points every 32 turns). If that was true, I'd definitely not be able to build lots of the colonies which I'm building.

[QuintusSertorius]

I don't think that's true, and if it was, it'd be a major issue. I seem to have no shortage of colony points as the Boii(granted, I have 3 confederations at this point, so 3 points every 32 turns). If that was true, I'd definitely not be able to build lots of the colonies which I'm building.

And they all use the exact same mechanics, even if the frequency is different. The game doesn't dump counter values between sessions, they're saved.

[Shatov]

I restarted. I played a lot nicer with the Seleuicids to get colonist points and now have mini polities in Marakanda and Oskobora so I should be able to get some more points when I'm ready. Do non-metropoles still contribute to colonization points at all?

[QuintusSertorius]

I restarted. I played a lot nicer with the Seleuicids to get colonist points and now have mini polities in Marakanda and Oskobora so I should be able to get some more points when I'm ready. Do non-metropoles still contribute to colonization points at all?

Three of the second tier do, but not the smallest.

[Ivir Baggins]

I restarted. I played a lot nicer with the Seleuicids to get colonist points and now have mini polities in Marakanda and Oskobora so I should be able to get some more points when I'm ready. Do non-metropoles still contribute to colonization points at all?

Eventually those two regions will get to 49% Hellenic (long time though) and you'll be able to upgrade them to the standard Polis, after which you'll have enough to grow colony points.

Or wait for Baktra to get to 69% Hellenic, which again will take a while.

[rhavviepoodle]

I believe the Seleukid fetch quests can get you up to four batches of colonists. Part of the fun with Baktria is strategizing and rationing those colonists so that you can bootstrap into a proper settler economy. Fully helenizing a province takes four settler batches (one for the initial polis, three for each level of colony building), which isn't very efficient. What I tend to do as Baktria is build settler cities in the capital to push the metropolis quicker (which takes two of the four settler batches), and for a second helenizable province I'd say snag one from the Seleukids, preferably already with a t1 polis and t1 colony. Persepolis is perfect, since it starts with both of those, and thus you won't need to invest more than two more settler batches to eventually build a metropolis. Persepolis is also a good spot to install a Basilike Patris, which makes yet another reason to conquer and helenize it.

It is generally going to be quicker to establish three second-tier poleis than it would be to establish a metropolis, so it boils down to a judgment call. I prefer to have recruitment hubs, and metropoleis inevitably fit the bill. The other reason I might suggest building up metropoleis is that if you don't start early, it'll probably be turn 200 before you see your first metropolis. Without a metropolis, I really tend to feel like a C-list Greek factions, so I suppose in part I make that choice for myself.

As others in the thread have pointed out, you can also simply wait it out and eventually get the 49%s in Oskobara and Marakanda (or the 69% in the capital), but it will take quite a while. My understanding is that because Oskobara and Marakanda initially belong to Baktria, there is a gentle push towards Greek culture there. I generally wouldn't suggest the "waiting it out" strategy for foreign provinces, though. At that point it's easier to brute-force it with colonies. Keep in mind that high influence governors push influence better than low influence governors.

[Shatov]

Yeah I restarted and spent a lot more time playing nice with the Syrians. I've now conquered India, pushing towars Mesopotamia and I've got a pretty decent colonization engine going.

Can only full Satrapies get Basillike Patria btw?

[rhavviepoodle]

I want to say that AS and Baktria can install Basilike Patris in Indian provinces as well as Satrapea provinces, like you mentioned. I want to say that Baktria can install BP in any of their Homeland provinces, regardless of whether it's a satrapy or not.

This is off the cuff, and I haven't played Baktria in a while, so I might could have my facts wrong here.

[QuintusSertorius]

Yes, only Satrapies can upgrade to Basilike Patris. And you can only have up to 3 of them (depending on how many provinces you have), same as all the other Hellenistic factions.