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Thread: Foothold in India: The Great Game 1.3 - Linux compatible

  1. #1

    Default Foothold in India: The Great Game 1.3 - Linux compatible

    The thread moved here

    Version 1.3 is out - Now Linux compatible

    Foothold in India: The Great Game


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th century British and Russian Empires over influence in Asia, primarily in Afghanistan, Persia, and later Tibet. The two colonial empires used military interventions and diplomatic negotiations to acquire and redefine territories in Central and South Asia. By the early 20th century, a line of independent states, tribes, and monarchies from the shore of the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Himalayas were made into protectorates and territories of the two empires.
    Foothold in India is a light overhaul modification, addressing the problems of vanilla Empire while staying true to its spirit.

    It is a modular project, with all '.pack' files acting as independent modules that can be applied in any combination with each other or as standalone modifications.


    The original project

    Tired of having to begin every campaign with conquering India to contain the Orange Plague, I analyzed the reasons behind Marathas consistent rise to uncontested power:
    1. Unfairly strong starting armies
    2. Very good generals, which only get better
    3. Very strong troop roster, with easilly accessable well above average linear infantry and mailed lancers
    4. Insanely rich starting provinces
    5. Very capable initial cabinet and ruler
    6. And last but not least, only one weak enemy in the whole India


    The fact that India is divided between just 2 real powers [the passive Mysore and Netherlands don't count] allows Marathas to steamroll the Mughals, conquering all the rich territories and eventually become an economical [and thus military] superpower.

    The most natural solution to this would be introducing more players into the subcontinent - that way we decrease the risk of emergence of one dominant local power conquering all the provinces. Taking all of the above into account I decided to simply give the whole eastern and southern shore to Britain and France which deter Marathas from annexing these territories and are able to compete with them. This is not historically correct, since Europeans only began conquering India on a grand scale later during the century, but this solution is much more robust than trying to make the AI do naval invasions, and should balance out the game gameplay-wise.

    Attention: No hybrid startpos methods were involved! All changes are done by simply editing the existing startpos, replacing all the IDs, only touching enough of the BDI to make it work etc. I tried to ensure the mod is bug-free as much as possible, but if you notice any - please share!


    Download


    Small mods collection

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Aside from Foothold in India, I'm sharing a collection of small modifications either created by me or adapted from other projects, which include unit packs, bug-fixes, formations and unit sizes, AI changes, and more.


    The highlits are my unit packs for minor factions of Crimea/Caucasus and Maghreb (Northern Africa), as well as a mod allowing Barbary Pirates and Buccaneers to shoot pistols and throw grenades. The packs are designed to provide a unique playing experience, keeping the rosters limited, making the player come up with ingenious playing style.


    All the mods in the package are designed with compatibility in mind and can be used as standalone mods or in combination with each other and/or Foothold in India startpos.


    Patch6: A conservative community bug-fix compilation

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Patch6 is a compilation of bug-fixes. It's aim is not to change the gameplay or rebalance the game, but to only fix the most apparent bugs and oversights as conservatively as possible while staying true to vanilla.


    What is included:




    More mods

    Works good with:




    Vanilla + Foothold in India changelist:
    • Bengal and Orissa are now British
    • Carnatica and Hyderabad are now French
    • Marathas are now practically a one-region state, but it is still in a good enough position to expand
    • Two Mughal armies and one Mughal general are reassigned to Britain and the troop types replaced with British East India Company
    • Two Maratha armies and one Maratha general are reassigned to France and the troop types replaced with French East India Company
    • Initial European armies in the subcontinent include few line infantry/cavalry and many colonial militia, pikemen and provincial cavalry, resembling other colonial armies in the game at 1700
    • Orissa now has a minor governor's encampment
    • Bawdy houses in Bengal and Carnatica are replaced with church schools
    • Bengal, Orissa, Carnatica and Hyderabad now have a fraction of Christian population
    • Both Britain and France now have historical governors of India for that time - Josiah Child and François Martin. Some of their traits represent historical truth, but some are added only to make the provinces less rebellious
    • Optional submods nerfing Bargir Infantry included
    • All factions except emergent and American protectorates are unlocked in main campaign



    The Great Game Campaign changelist:

    • Admiralties in Denmark and Barbary States.
    • Emergent Bohemia (replaces Hessen).
    • Caucasian and Crimean starting armies replaced with units from the Caucasus unit pack.
    • Ottoman capital moved to Ankara (for gameplay concerns: the AI tends to defend the capital better, and Anatolia is a more important place than Rum, since it has a school and is a vast major province).
    • Carlos II is 99 year old (so that the Spanish Succession War starts faster).
    • Readjusted AI, making all factions fully functional (in vanilla, minor factions are almost inactive).
    • Readjusted diplomatic relationships, primarily between Eastern factions, to make them more dynamic.

    ...and more.
    Last edited by ilia_r_s; April 26, 2023 at 08:20 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Hi everyone! The new update is out. You can find the changelist in the description.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Fixed line of sight bug.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Thanks for your work on this. Is there any chance you could combine this startpos with the one that doesn’t allow any new city walls to be built. I think the game plays much better with no city walls and open field battles. Thanks.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Looks like I got it going with the no new fort mod. Playing as Sweden to see how France and Britain play on their own as well as seeing how the Maratha progress.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Hi irish437!

    Did you use Shokh Hates Sieges? It should be compatible indeed.

    As for removing the forts and city walls, I believe, you can easily remove the city walls in region capitals using Alwyn's guide, but removing the existing forts outside the capitals (such as in Finland and Carnatica) could be quite complicated and include some CAI records editing as well as editing the records of the armies located there.

    Please ask me if you wish me to remove the city walls for you.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Thanks for the reply. Life got busy for me so just returning to the game after years away. I have a version of brans campaign and ai battle installed as well as the Hates sieges mod and ornamentum. Your startpos seems to work with everything. I’m only 4 years into the game so I have to see how everything plays out. Looking to basically just defend my borders as Sweden to see how the rest of the map plays out with this. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Sweden campaign 1714 on hard/hard. Pretty good so far. Just made peace with Denmark after a 10 year war. I took Norway from them but they kept the pressure on me with many naval invasions and blocking my trade ports. I had to sue for peace and give them some technology or my economy would have been completely crippled.

    Still at war with Russia and it’s a stalemate right now but I better get peace fast they have stacks of armies within their country. They are also fighting the ottomans in the south but I think they could overrun me if they went all out.

    In India. The Maratha and French are Allied and just locked Britain out. Mughals still own the north. Mysore are still alive and Netherlands still has their island.

    Good campaign so far. One oddity. Prussia is off the European continent and is located in North Africa now only one region. Although they are constantly naval invading Northern Europe where Poland expanded. They have been fighting for years.

    Good campaign. Spain and Britain are fighting in the colonies. France is holding its own over there.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Nice! Great to hear the mod is making some difference. Thanks for the report!

  10. #10

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Small update. Had a nice battle against Russia in Sweden to stop them from pillaging the country side. Full stack vs. full stack. I sacrificed my cavalry to take out their cannons. I didnÂ’t have any cannons in the battle. Pretty intense fighting and I won the field just barely. Liked how the Russians made me come to them because I was the attacker.

    Anyway after the battle which I killed their 5 star general. I sued for peace and they accepted along with a trade agreement.

    Fast forward 3 years and russia has amassed huge armies at least 8 full stacks that I can see. With 4 of them camped out at the Sweden border. They are allied with Denmark and Britain.

    Denmark declares war on me. I call upon the ottomans and Poland to assist expecting Russia and Britain to join the Fray.

    Russia and Britain declined and my Allies joined in. I was shocked that my AllieÂ’s supported me and denmarks AllieÂ’s left them in the lurch. I donÂ’t think that has ever happened before to me.

    Did you adjust diplomacy at all or is that brans work? Pretty enjoyable campaign. Going to attempt to crush Denmark next session.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    I intentionally didn't touch the AI at all. The idea of the mod is to simply provide a new startpos for vanilla to counter the orange plague and make the game more diverse and enjoyable. The startpos should be compatible with Bran AI, so if you have the Bran AI installed alongside, it's probably it. If you don't - well, I suppose you're simply having a lucky campaign It actually happens from time to time. The AI in Empire is not consistent, sometimes it performs poorly and sometimes it suddenly plays better.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    That is true. Every campaign is different that’s what makes it so hard to test. Seeing a lot of good stuff in this campaign.

    I will be interested to see if Britain attempts to reinvade India after having been kicked out.

    France is weakening. The United provinces own Paris so it will be interesting to see if France can hold its India territories.

    I don’t think I have ever seen a European nation ever naval invade India before against the ai. Really hoping I see that in this campaign.

    Seeing lots of naval invasions. Poland is crazy active.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Thanks a lot for your great mod, Ilia. The adjustments you've made are all very reasonable and I have enjoyed much more fun and much less 'orange' campaigns thanks to them. Your mod even works with the (close to vanilla and excellent) 'Absolutum Dominium' mod, even though some of the eye candy is not displayed (character portraits and campaign map landmarks like i.e. Sanssouci not showing). I tried (and miserably failed) to edit AD's Main Campaign startpos.esf according to the adjustments you've made, my main problem probably is not being able to identify the correct settlements, armies and characters in the CAI segments (I use ESFEditor 1.4.3).

    On the other hand, you do not by any chance also play AD and have a corresponding startpos.esf flying around anywhere...?

  14. #14

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Hi ghostinthemaxim. I'm very happy you enjoy it! I advise you against trying to edit the CAI in ESFEditor yourself, unless you're ready to put tremendous effort into making it work without bugs - the hardest thing here is manually creating the new governorships, since neither Britain nor France has a governor in India in vanilla. I'm using taw's tools to convert everything to (and from) xml format, keep track of the changes I did in source control and have the mod in my github repository. I recommend you against trying to use the same approach unless you're a professional software developer and/or have a huge drive to mod the game yourself. If you are, you can get some advice either on twcenter or, possibly, on scaniaviking's discord server. As for Absolute Dominium: my internet connection is quite and I can't download it right now, but I suppose it also replaces the startpos.esf. If it does, then you could probably just make similar changes in it to what I did in mine. It is quite labour intensive, and I can't promise you to apply similar changes to Absolute Dominium, but I'll download it and see what can be done.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Thanks for the quick reply. Even though I do have some experience using ESF Editor and Pack File Manager, my skills indeed are quite limited. So I'll just hang in and wait if you'll find the time and motivation to create a startpos.esf for Absolutum Dominium, and if not, thanks anyway.

  16. #16

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    PS: By replacing Foothold in India's startpos' CAMPAIGN_ENV/CAMPAIGN_MODEL/PORTRAIT_ALLOCATOR with the one from Absolutum Dominium the correct character portraits are showing now.

    Additionally, by replacing respectively editing entries in CAMPAIGN_PREOPEN_MAP_INFO, CAMPAIGN_ENV/CAMPAIGN_MODEL/WORLD/FACTION_ARRAY/FACTION_ARRAY/FACTION/CAMPAIGN_PLAYERS_SETUP and CAMPAIGN_ENV/CAMPAIGN_SETUP/PLAYERS_ARRAY/PLAYERS_ARRAY Absolutum Dominium's victory conditions, faction descriptions and playability for minor factions are enabled now.

    So in essence the only (perceivable) thing still not working properly with Absolutum Dominium are the eye candy landmarks on the world map (Versailles, Sanssouci etc.).

    Thanks again for your mod and additional input!

  17. #17

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Hi ghostinthemaxim. Glad that you were capable of sorting it out! Meanwhile, could you please tell which version of Absolutum Dominium you are using? Is it 6.1 or Jacobite's Uprising or something else?

  18. #18

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    It should be the one coming with Jacobite's Uprising (date of last edit of startpos.esf: Oct 22 2022). The segments I copied into Foothold in India's startpos.esf come from the startpos.esf from the campaigns/main folder.

    BTW: In the meantime under region_manager/regions_array/region I also replaced the line_of_sight variables for starting regions of minor nations to make them playable without the FOW bug (or almost without it: i.e. some fleets might be invisible before you click on them for the first time, but can be accessed via the list menu).

  19. #19

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Hi ghostinthemaxim. I investigated the Jacpbite's Uprising startpos, and it seems to be somewhat different from vanilla. For instance, Spain has better armies in America. Also - and that doesn't allow me to simply apply my changes to the startpos using git - the IDs of all factions, regions, armies, characters etc. are re-generated, and it would take a lot of time for me to go through all of them again. If your approach with replacing parts of my startpos with Absolut Dominium works - you could probably stick to it.

  20. #20

    Default Re: Foothold in India

    Alright - thanks for your efforts. I will do that. The missing eye candy buildings are really negligible and AD and FII in combination for me is just the best of two worlds.

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