Factional, provincial and buildings readme
This
readme covers the changes made to provincial infrastructure, attributes and
ownership, with notes regarding specific points of interest. In addition, it
covers changes to the trade system, with short descriptions and explanations
where necessary. Finally, the major changes and additions to buildings are
described and detailed where necessary.
Starting positions:
Faction
availability and viability:
All factions are available for play, except the Papacy.
Many
new factions have been added to each of the campaigns, some of which are only
present for one or two campaigns, and many of the original factions have
undergone significant, sometimes drastic, changes to their overall starting
positions as well. In addition, there are hundreds and hundreds of changes and
additions to starting infrastructure, trade goods, land values and mines, all in
an effort to give the major factions a measure of financial viability with
which to start out the campaign, and thereby make them more balanced and
competitive.
Glorious
Achievements:
I have toggled GA’s off for the mod’s campaigns, meaning that they are not
an option on the campaign selection screen. It is possible to add GA’s to the
mod, but it would require extensive modifications to the GA text file. I may
add them for the public release version of the mod, though it would be nice if
someone would volunteer to take on this task for me.
Provincial
ownership:
With
the new strategic map and new factions, the best way to take in all the changes
is to study the strategic map in the campaign selection screen.
The
change which may strike you the most is the low number of Rebel-controlled
provinces. As I studied
the original game files, read player comments and gained personal experience, I
came to believe that the Rebel provinces were severely negatively affecting the
actions of the AI factions in the first several turns of the game, which we all
know are the most important of the entire game. I believe that the AI
over-reacts to the extra starting units allotted to Rebel provinces, producing unneeded
cheap defensive units to defend itself. This sets off a chain reaction that
quickly engulfs every AI faction in the game, producing a mini arms race
similar to what the world saw in the first decade of the 20th
century. This results in factions which can’t develop their infrastructure
properly, if at all, due to unit upkeep, with no way out except by attrition
from warfare. I believe that this explains why almost every faction in the original game was poverty-stricken within
the first ten turns in almost every game. To test this yourself, you can
alter the poverty-stricken messages you receive during diplomacy to something
you will easily recognize. These messages are found in the events text, I
believe, though you can also simply run a search of the Loc\Eng folder for the
words “poverty stricken”, and they should appear.
Trade and Provincial relationships:
Nicaea
now connects to Macedonia rather than Constantinople (Thrace), to restrict invasion of Constantinople
to the west, as it was historically.
Wessex
and Flanders are no longer connected, since invading
England from mainland Europe has always hinged upon control of the English Channel.
Scotland and Ireland are now connected via a land bridge. This
should help end Ireland’s isolation and enable the new Celtic faction to be more dynamic.
The
City-State of Venice can only be assaulted by
land via a bridge from Verona. This should help create the real-world circumstances
which allowed Venice to maintain its independence for so many centuries.
Note: Savoy is not a coastal province, despite the narrow
connection shown on the map. Savoy was extended to the sea to make it clear
that it completely separates Italy and France, and is thus a very important province
strategically.
Trade Routes are a new resource, required to
construct Marketplaces, which can increase a province’s income in the same way as
mines. Though primarily used in land-locked provinces, a few coastal areas are
so strategically located that they can have Marketplaces as well as Merchants.
These provinces are Thrace, Venice and Gotland. Please note that inland provinces can no longer
construct Merchants.
Significant
changes were made to the sea regions,
including the removal and addition of several, along with alterations to
existing seas to accommodate these changes. Two seas, the Ionian and Marmara,
were removed to help the AI keep trade connections to Venice and
Constantinople, which are crucial to the survival of their owners. Other seas
were expanded to occupy their former territory.
The
new Frisian Coast should significantly help
the HRE, as it will enable the
Germans to defend their coastline without threatening the French, English or
Danes. The new English Coast will enable the
English to do the same along their eastern shores. The combination of these new
seas marks the North Sea as deep water, while making it a key strategic region,
just like the deep water zones in the Mediterranean. The division of the Baltic should bestow similar benefits to the Teutonic,
Novgorod and Russian
factions, while leaving the rich trading province of Gotland open to invasion from multiple
directions.
The
Sea of Cadiz was removed in order to split
the map into northern and southern halves for ships that can only travel along
the coast. This was done
to make it more difficult to establish over-sized trade networks that would
skew the game's economic model.
In
order to conquer the entire map in the High era, Southern and Eastern European factions will
need Carracks, the only vessel available in
the High era which can travel over open water. (Please see the Units notes readme for details.)
Military
bonuses:
Every
province now has a unit valour bonus, since I and many of you enjoy the
strategic aspect that this brings to the game.
For
provinces whose governorship bequeathed a general’s
star, the AI would always grant them to its highest-ranking available
general. This could, and often did, produce disastrous results in cases like
Constantinople and Denmark, whose incomes were vital to the survivability of
the faction. Thus, I have allotted general’s stars only to poor provinces. I think this has the added
effect of making those provinces more valuable to control.
Building
and General changes:
The Buildings page of the v4_stats spreadsheet contains a detailed listing
of the specific changes made by the mod, with
the yellow background signifying values which have been changed. It was originally by AFlorin,
which I also obtained from the .org site. The major changes are listed below, and
I urge you to take the time to read through them.
New
Buildings:
Several
buildings have been taken from the Viking Campaign
for use in the standard campaigns.
1)
Marketplaces are a
new line of buildings which increase income in the same way as mines. They
replace Merchants in land-locked provinces.
2) Pagan
Shrines and Sacrificial Altars have been added to the game
as Shaman
Shrines and Temples.
I hope that these will help the Mongols hold down provincial
rebellions. In addition, Mongol-specific units have the same ability to affect
the faith of the population as Priests
and Bishops.
3)
Abbeys have been
re-named Crusader Chapels, require a Monastery, and are needed to produce the Polish Knights of Dobrzyn.
4) Forest
Clearings have
replaced the generic 40% Farmland Improvement, and been re-named Crop Rotation. This improvement was indestructible in the Viking Campaign, and
I hope this property holds true for the standard campaigns. This is also part
of my attempt to keep the AI from over-developing poor provinces.
Note: Try to check out my new description for
the 80% Farmland Improvement, Improved Yokes. I think you will find it as
interesting as I did when that story was related to our class by one of my
engineering professors.
5)
Muster Fields,
with the requirement of a Castle and the 60% Farmland improvement, are
now the requirement for Peasants. I then gave
either Christian/Pagan or Muslim peasants region bonuses in the most fertile
provinces within their homelands. This encourages the AI to construct the
buildings needed to produce the peasants, with the effect that it puts a high
priority on the economic development of these rich regions. Finally, I then set
the Peasants’ priority levels close to zero. As
a result of this, the AI now almost never produces Peasants.
Unique Buildings:
Over a dozen more buildings are now unique, and have also had
major changes made to their requirements and/or effects.
Royal Palaces, Siege Engineers, Foundries and Gunsmiths are all
now unique. Thus the only way to control more
than one of them is to capture a rival’s. Ships
no longer require Foundries, and artillery
pieces no longer require Gunsmiths. These rules were enacted to prevent the AI
from building hordes of missile units in non-Homeland provinces. Note: In the case of Gunsmiths, the captured building must also be
within your Homeland in order to construct units in it.
Office Buildings, meaning those that bestow offices upon completion, are now unique. Too, they no
longer require Royal Palaces. This way, you may have more than one city
eligible to build these improvements. This includes Cathedrals and Grand
Mosques.
Universities
now produce twice
the income of Cathedrals, and also increase
population loyalty, though they too are now unique.
New Requirements and Restrictions:
A
number of structures have had such major changes made to their various
properties that they warrant individual entries here.
Ports require
a Castle, while Inns
require a Keep.
Merchants now
require a Keep and a Port,
Merchant Guilds now require a Merchant,
Castle and Shipwright, and Master Merchants require a Merchant
Guild, Citadel
and Dockyard. This was done to keep the AIs
from building higher-level merchants in provinces where they were probably not
equitable.
Land-locked
provinces can no longer construct Merchants, and thus require
Trade Routes in
order to construct trade structures, again to keep the AI from making
poor decisions.
Admiralties
have been re-named Repositories, and bestow acumen instead of command. Admiralties were
obviously supposed to affect ships, but I guess the developers couldn’t get it
to work properly. They no longer require Ports.
Military Academies are
now restricted to the Turks, since Janissaries are the only units in
the game which require them, and buildings only benefit units which require
them for construction. Their building requirements have been changed to a Castle and Ribat, since the Turks
would seem to need more than one of them, and the previous requirements were
unique. Note that the construction
pics for Academies, Admiralties
(Repositories) and Constable’s
Palaces have been changed.
Master-level buildings
now give various bonuses rather than the standard valour increase. I tried to
match the bonuses to the general deficiencies present in the troop classes
produced by each structure. Please see the spreadsheet
for specifics.
In
addition, Orthodox and Muslim factions now need Militia
buildings for their units, just like Catholics.
Also,
the Russians need Royal
Courts for their heavy cavalry units, just as Catholic
factions do, since their society was at least as feudal as any in Europe.