First Impressions + End Turn Error

[ERE_Friend]

What an amazing mod! I have been playing Medieval 2 and its mods since 2009 and recently got back into it. I downloaded Elder Scrolls just to give it a quick try and was quickly blown away by the quality. I am now 48 turns in. I chose the orcs because I liked their underdog status and starting position.

• I conquered the rebels at Heldorn and Dragonstar before another faction could get there.
• I allied with hammerfell and the nords so that my right and bottom borders would be secure.
• Waycrest declared war on me so I took two of their settlements to the left.
• Now I am consolidating my gains while slowly building an army at the isolated settlement up north so that it can start expanding.
• I would normally try to expand faster but it takes a very long time for new troops to become available for recruitment which means it takes time to build up forces and replace losses.

I appreciate mods that not only create a new map and factions but try to adapt the campaign mechanics to the mod's world.

• Guild missions with dungeons and special units give the mod Elder Scrolls flavor (although it's hard to spare troops for these quests).
• The natural barriers and chokepoints make the map seem less "flat" than a typical Medieval 2 game. Terrain feels more relevant and it's also easier to recognize Tamriel.
• Racial traits/unique units.
• Lots of unique events and faction relationships to capture the conflicts of Tamriel.

One Suggestion: I think this mod would be perfect if it had AOR. It's always been silly in these games that when you conquer a settlement it magically start producing the soldiers of your faction/culture. In Europa Barbarorum (Rome 2 mod, now Medieval 2 mod) there was very advanced AOR in which the farther you were from home regions and depending on the government type you could only recruit limited domestic units in conquered cities and had to recruit "local" troops of the defeated faction instead. This mechanic was so great because it made it feel like you were truly running an empire. Like the real Rome you had to assimilate and work with the people you conquered and your armies reflected that. I often had a core of Roman troops shipped in from Italy + whatever the locals produced to fill out my army. The Elder Scrolls has an empire and also deals with conflict between the races of Tamriel. It would fit the world thematically if the Waycrest cities I conquered produced human instead of orc troops.

My End Of Turn 48 Game Crash

Mod Version: 2.3
Game Log: attached
Save: I would attach it but it's too big for the forum
Error Message: 21:29:50.352 [game.script] [error] Script execution error for <if>, at line 8882, in mods/The_Elder_Scrolls/data/world/maps/campaign/custom/Stormcloak/stormcloak_script.txt:
I_IsFactionAIControlled needs a valid faction type.


when testing <I_IsFactionAIControlled> condition
21:30:04.285 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

I took a screenshot of line 8882 and the surrounding area but for the life of me I can't remember how to make thumbnails bigger in posts even though I literally did it above...


Here is the text of line 8882 and the surrounding area in the stormcloak_script.txt file. It looks like some of the lines above it might be relevant? I don't see a faction type missing.

;########### SLAVER SPAWN ###########
;spawn an army with the labelled Slaver character

monitor_event FactionTurnStart


if I_EventCounter dres_slaver_timer >= 20
and I_CompareCounter dres_argonians_allied = 0
and I_EventCounter dres_slaver_timer <= 60
and RandomPercent <= 25
and I_NumberOfSettlements russia > 0
and I_IsFactionAIControlled hungary
and I_IsFactionAIControlled milan
and I_IsFactionAIControlled sicily
and I_IsFactionAIControlled poland
and not I_PlayerHasMissionType SLAVERS_GUILD_MISSION
and I_CompareCounter dres_slaver_guild > 0
and I_CompareCounter dres_mission_1 = 0

set_counter dres_mission_1 1 <-- line 8882
set_counter slaver1_active 1

if I_CompareCounter dres_slaver_guild = 1
spawn_army
faction timurids
character random_name, admiral, age 38, x 369, y 74, direction S
unit cog exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end

campaign_wait 0.1

[Jadli]

Ah, thank you a lot for a great feedback! Glad you liked the mod.

Yes, more AoR units in a way you suggest would be great, but the mod is already at the units cap, so not many new units can be added (without getting rid of some other ones)... either way, tthere is already lot of various AoR and merc units, tho not exactly the same you suggest indeed....

Ah, thanks for the crash report, I will investigate for the next hotfix!

Were you able to get through the crash after reloading? If not, see the anti crash tips in the install thread on moddb, namely the compability settings...

[ERE_Friend]

I tried reloading several times the day I had the issue. It seemed the issue would not go away so I looked at the error log (I previously did not know the game even had one).

First try today today I got through the crash. I did not change anything in the game configuration. I assume the AI did something different during it's turn so it did not trigger this script. If the crash happens again I will turn off fog of war so that I can hopefully see which faction and/or army movement is triggering the issue.

As for AOR I am not suggesting new units, I am suggesting that factions be able to recruit units from other factions of they have conquered territory from that faction. For example if the Nords conquer the Orcs they would be able to recruit Orc units. Or do you mean that the unit cap is per-faction?

[Jadli]

Thats a very weird crash

Toggle_fow sometimes fixes the crashes as well, as apparently when you can(not) see something, it is not an issue anymore...

Yea, that is (or was in the old versions) partially done, but for similar cultures... like when Pelletine conquers Anequina, they could recruit their units... but Im not sure if I want to enable this for all factions, not sure if it would make sense... but will add more of it, when I have time (such as between bretons and so on), maybe The Empire could use it for all factions

[ERE_Friend]

Oh yes I forgot about toggling FOW. I will have to keep that in mind.


What I like about area of recruitment is that it simulates empire. If the Orcs conquer a Breton settlement it makes more sense to recruit Bretons than the Orcs who presumably don't exist in large numbers in that settlement. To avoid the factions feelings interchangeable and absurd scenarios like recruiting elite Breton units the turn after capturing the settlement there would need to be some kind of assimilation requirement. Elder Scrolls seems to handle this already with religion requirements for recruiting faction units. Perhaps this could also be applied to AOR. For example the Orcs can only recruit basic Breton units once Malacath observance is greater than 40%. And then more elite units after 70%. Perhaps there could also be another requirement, like a unique building that needs to be built to establish order/rule in the conquered settlement.


I know the above would be a lot more work, it is just a suggestion. Europa Barbororum came up with a unique version of AOR which enabled that mod to capture the feeling of empire more than any other total war game/mod I have played so I always have it in mind. However there is a lot unique/special Elder Scrolls does and I am excited to keep playing it.

[Jadli]

Yea, thanks for the suggestions, I will see if I can include some more stuff like this in the mod for the next bigger patch

In regards of units and AoR, I first mainly intend to make a similar script, that there is for the vampires and the undead/Mannimarco... so that one would be able to summon the daedra and so on, after perhaps building some temples, completeing special quests from Daedric Shrines and so on

[ERE_Friend]

Oh summoning after completing quests would be very thematically appropriate for a strategy game based on an RPG. Very cool idea! Also I have fought Daedra units and they are tough!