[Submod] Age of Hellenism for DEI

[Fluke]

v1.3 of this submod is a masterpiece Seleukos, congradulations! I am 75 turns into a Pergamon campaign and have the highlands of Galatia and am observing the world around me. The Seleucids are the dominant force on the campaign map. Macedon is also mighty and have taken all of Greece, Thrace and Alexandria as well.

One thing that is still all too common with regular DEI is that Carthage is being picked apart in Spain, forcing them to loose ground everywhere else. And is it my imagination or have the AI turn times speeded up quite a bit? Your newest CAI changes must have done this. I really think these new CAI changes are going to make a lot of the non-sensical AI behavior go away.

I can't wait to play a Roman campaign and have a real challenge as I move east. If I was Rome in my current campaign I would be scared going that direction.

[Gioseppe]

I just started playing this mod. I love it so far. Is there a way to play with vanilla city names?

[L.ANNIVS]

Hi Selevkos! Many thanks for the update, I'll start a new campaign soon, playing with CT, KAM's Experimental battle pack & AE by Dardo.

I've modified by myself some DB tables too using PFM for personal taste, trying to adjust a bit AI's behavior, in cai_personalities, cai_personality_occupation_decision_priorities, diplomatic_action_faction_restrictions, diplomatic_action_subculture_restrictions... I miss too much DAIA!

I'll test on the campaign these changes and if all goes as intended will report here.

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

really like what you've done here, especially with regards to the satrapies. they were such immersion and gameplay breaking nuisance in vanilla. thanks for sharing and keep it up

Thanks Sarkiss. Good to see you around here. Hope you are doing fine in these strange times.

Like everyone else, I'm stuck indoors due to Covid-19, so I finally gave this a try. I'm very impressed! The Hellenic factions are very tough now. Playing as the Ardiaei, the Antigonids are still alive at turn 50; I've never seen them survive past turn 20. Syracuse is winning its war against Carthage and claimed the whole of Sicily.

I'm not sure how you did it, but the AI ACTUALLY RESPECTS MY BORDERS! Often, when they're at war with a faction across from me, the AI will just march it's armies through my lands without hesitation and eat up all my food. But to my shock, this no longer happens. Macedon and Athens are at war, but I own the region that separates them (Larissa). None of them attempted to cross into my lands, and Athens actually attempted an amphibious land AROUND my territory to get at Pella.

This quarantine just got a lot less boring!

Thank you for your feedback, Devodians! Though, I think you might be overstating a bit the impact of my mod on your campaign. I haven't, for example, changed anything related to CAI-factions respecting the player's borders and I think in standard DeI the CAI doesn't really cross player's borders that much unless it has the military access. Glad to hear, though, that Macedon is doing fine these days.

v1.3 of this submod is a masterpiece Seleukos, congradulations! I am 75 turns into a Pergamon campaign and have the highlands of Galatia and am observing the world around me. The Seleucids are the dominant force on the campaign map. Macedon is also mighty and have taken all of Greece, Thrace and Alexandria as well.

One thing that is still all too common with regular DEI is that Carthage is being picked apart in Spain, forcing them to loose ground everywhere else. And is it my imagination or have the AI turn times speeded up quite a bit? Your newest CAI changes must have done this. I really think these new CAI changes are going to make a lot of the non-sensical AI behavior go away.

I can't wait to play a Roman campaign and have a real challenge as I move east. If I was Rome in my current campaign I would be scared going that direction.

That's good to hear, Fluke! Though, I'm surprised to hear you saying that the turns go actually faster. I changed a couple of CAI values that apparently allow CAI factions consider more options per turn which in my understanding would increase the turn time. I think I've noticed in my campaign that the end turns go a bit slower, but maybe it was just a wrong impression of mine.

I just started playing this mod. I love it so far. Is there a way to play with vanilla city names?

Hey Gioseppe. Yes, there is. Open the mod pack, go to text/db and there you will find several localization files. There is one for the provinces, one for factions and one for cities. You may delete any of those if you prefer and then you will get the standard DeI names.

Hi Selevkos! Many thanks for the update, I'll start a new campaign soon, playing with CT, KAM's Experimental battle pack & AE by Dardo.

I've modified by myself some DB tables too using PFM for personal taste, trying to adjust a bit AI's behavior, in cai_personalities, cai_personality_occupation_decision_priorities, diplomatic_action_faction_restrictions, diplomatic_action_subculture_restrictions... I miss too much DAIA!

I'll test on the campaign these changes and if all goes as intended will report here.

No problem L.ANNIUS! Go ahead with your modifications. Just be a bit careful once you modify the cai_personalities table since I've modified that one, too. And if you want certain factions to thrive then it's actually better to allow them to take the territory instead of just liberating, subjugating, etc. Kind of like CAI-Rome does it in the standard DeI. Let me know if you need any help with that.

[Gioseppe]

Thanks Seleukos. Started a Nabatea campaign and I am having a lot of fun so far. I was afraid Egypt and Seleukids will become too strong too early but so far everything seems ok. They are both having a lot of trouble actually.

[Devodians]

100 turns in, and some interesting developments have happened. The Seleucids have actually been completely destroyed, because they were fighting the Galatians, Egypt, and Parthia all at the same time. I guess that even with the buff, they'll still lose if overwhelmed with sheer numbers. Speaking of Parthia...your buff has worked, because they have REACHED THE BLACK SEA! Their empire stretches from Bactria to Anatolia, actually becoming the superpower they historically were! I'm able to trade with them for the first time in any campaign I've played, and I'm playing as the Ardiaei!

Something else that I loved to see, the map around the Mediterranean has been divided into distinct power blocks and coalitions; I don't think there are any "independent" one city factions left. I control Illyria, Macedon/Athens, and Thrace (the Getae and Sparta are my allies). Rome has Italy, southern Gaul, and northern Spain, and is closing in on Carthage's last holdings. Syracuse has Sicily and Africa. The Ptolemies have a vast empire, including a lot of former Seleucid territories. The Galatians are allied to Pergamon and control all of Anatolia, Syria, and Armenia. The Bosporans subjugated most of the Black Sea. Basically, I can't attack anyone anymore without causing a world war!

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

Thanks, guys, for the feedback. This is actually very helpful since I don't really have time myself to play multiple campaigns to see how things work under different circumstances.

I'm glad to hear that thos major factions do well and that the campaign pans out in an intereseting manner.

What worries me, however, is to hear that the Galatians can cause the actual damage to the Seleucids, or that Syracuse can take down the Carthaginians. This isn't really intended and I think I might have overdone that a bit once I lowered the bonus to the defensive autoresolve for major factions.

Regarding the Seleucids, in my current campaign they've done really well and they actually run over the Ptolemies within the first 50 turns or so. I have, therefore, decided to let the Seleucids fight on more or less equal terms against other major factions such as Macedon, Ptolemies and Parthia so that we can still see different outcomes on the campaign map with every campaign we play. Otherwise, the game becomes too linear what has a negative impact on the mod replayablity. I think, though, that the Seleucids might at the end of the day need more help, otherwise they will never really do well with all the enemies they have.

I will most likely release some balancing patch within the next few days. Meanwhile, keep, guys, the feedback coming. It's very useful to me to hear your opinions.

[Devodians]

I think a few factors contributed to the unlikely turn of events in my campaign. Carthage was fighting both Syracuse and Rome. The latter probably had several large navies and completely cleared the seas for Syracuse. I also think that since the Galatians have a very sword/melee focused roster, that might have helped turn the auto resolve script in their favor. That and the fact that they were also fighting two other beneficiaries of your script (Parthia and Egypt).

[Fluke]

Seleukos, in my campaign, like yours, the Seleucids are dominant. They have laid waste to the Ptolemies. But I have also experienced Syracuse taking Siciliy. I believe Carthage just has a really tough time with their Spanish possessions. Maybe buff them over there a bit?

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

All right, I see. That's good to hear, guys, that the Selucids can do well and that we get different outcomes in each campaign. It does, indeed, make sense that if the Ptolemies and Parthians double up on them then they should struggle. I will also look into that Carthage thing, thanks!

[Gioseppe]

Seleucids got destroyed before turn 50 in my Nabatea campaign but I am still not sure they need a buff. Both them and Egypt are having a lot of problems in the start but that's understandable. We formed a great coalition against the Seleucids and it's normal that they had a difficult time. I am sure that if the diplomatic circumstances were different they would be the dominant force.

Once again thanks. I am really enjoying the submod so far. I will post an update when I see how is Parthia doing.

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

Hey Gioseppe,

You are playing as Nabatea, right? It's honestly a bit weird they got so overrun.

What other mods are you using?

[valerius karamanus]

Here is my report as Media Atropatkan.

-- First 25 turns: Seleucids launched a great offensive to Anatolia, annihilated Galatians and Cappadocians.
-- 25-45 turns: Armenians made themselves the sick man of the east, half dozen factions including me, proved too much for them. Seleucids got the lion's share from Armenia. They also got Trapezous.
-- 45-60 turns: Seleucids went berserk on poor liberated-Parsa, but competed head to head in Phoenicia againts Ptolemies. Parthians were destroyed by northern nomads and Parthavan aggression. Parthava became the dominant state in Iran.
-- 60-80 turns (now): Seleucids, thinly stretched from Persian Gulf to Central Anatolia, are at war with almost every faction between Nile and Caspian Sea. They are losing ground in Syria mainly to Nabatean-Qidri-Saba alliance. Our relations also have been sour for some turns. I suppose they wont last long, because I'm planing to get the new sick man's eastern borders to myself... :)

Very interesting to see their rise and fall. Great work Seleukos! Enjoyable stuff.

[Gioseppe]

I am not using any other mods. They actually did well against the initial attacks from me and Egypt. They started having problems when we got Pergamon, Galatia, Armenia and Media Atropatene on our side because they were attacked from all sides. They still held for a while but they broke when their satrapies rebelled and we liberated Cilicia and Tyros.
As I said, I don't think they are weak and I really like this submod. They were in an impossible situation because everyone focused on them and them only.

[jeanlannes]

Hi. I'm using your beautiful mod with the others you suggest (cultural Tensio et al) and I would like to tell you about playing with Colchis. I've played with them several times so it's not a one time event (in fact, I use to play DEI just with three or four factions again and again whereas barely play with the rest).
To put it in a few words, almost everybody hates me. Everytime I like to play slow, developing my only settlement, attacking no one, and usually every neighbour declares war on me. On my actual game I tried to focus in commerce so I send my spy to discover factions to trade with. Not only all of them rejected trade with me, but a few turns after contacting with them they declare war. I´m talking not about Asia Minor factions, which I concede they may have interest in conquering me, but factions like Thessaly, Athens, Sparta, Ptolemies and even Rhodes and Cnossos (factions absolutely far away and with arguably expansionist interests). Apart from the usual invasions from Bosphorian Kingoms, neighbouring greek colonies, capadocians, attalids and galatians I've had to face naval invasions from the two mentioned islands. It's not the difficulty of defending from almost everyone what annoys me, but the absurdity of it.

I always play in normal difficulty so it's not what I expect to happen. I wonder if being a costal faction is what makes every other faction consider the option of attacking me. If any of you plays with Colchis ,do you have a similar experience? Can you give me some advice to change it?

Thanks for reading.

[GyJIeBeP]

observation. Lost 50-60 moves. Seleucus was demolished.He had 10 + enemies. All because of its global traits are aggressive.game We play 2 game-30 moves, Seleucus while holding, but the enemies are already 6-8. I watch Rome, it has 8 + enemies , in Europe kicking barbarians and in Greece holding out against the Macedonia, Athens and Sparta, they are 3 against it. And it almost does not bear losses, can we weaken its auto-calculation a little? Until not forgot, he possessing Appolonia and Larissa with 12 teams for move hired until 20! This is definitely one of the reasons for his skating rink. Can also reduce by -2 at least? 8 units for 1 move from 2 cities.Yes, and the autoboy in his favor is wild. The rome is too strong.

[Fluke]

Seleukos, should the mod be compatible with the new public beta?

[Jake Armitage]

yep, 100% compatible

[Fluke]

Thank you Jake!

[Agrez]

my essential mod with DEI cant play without it love ya man and 1000 thanks for this <3