Mercenary modifiers

[colinljx]

Hello, I'm trying to make mercenary more effective by adding a moral bonus (+2 or so), so can someone tell me whether it is complicated?

If yes, is there some other preferably easier ways to give moral bonus for the mercenary?
If no, how can it be done without giving bonus to standard army?

Suggestion/advice from experienced moders will be appreciated. Thx.

[DanubianCossak]

The only thing you could do that i can think of, is to increase the morale gain from maintenance from 2 to something higher that would make tech/decision bonuses (that merks apparently dont receive) very small and thus increase their combat effectiveness.

The modifier im talking about is in static_modifiers.txt .

[colinljx]

The only thing you could do that i can think of, is to increase the morale gain from maintenance from 2 to something higher that would make tech/decision bonuses (that merks apparently dont receive) very small and thus increase their combat effectiveness.

The modifier im talking about is in static_modifiers.txt .

That's truly unfortunate... Thanks for the info~ It's sad how the mercenary has a cost modifier but nothing else to make them very useful.

[AKronblad]

I don't get any mercenaries ever in any of my provinces in my mod. The ledger is just plain empty and just says "no units available". Anyone knows why that is? And any setting on global, country, province, or unit level to adjust to make it work?

[DanubianCossak]

Did you mess around with technology groups?

[AKronblad]

Yes. Two new groups. All old units gone, replaced by new ones.

What did I do wrong?

[DanubianCossak]

Im not 100% sure, id have to go through files take a look. Ive had a similar issue long time ago, problem is, i cant quite remember what i did to fix it >.<

Sry that i cant help you more >.<

[17blue17]

I had this a very very very long time ago also. At the time the tags did not have valid units to choose from. They were able to build some units despite this but were unable to build mercenaries.

I think we discussed the unit_type = command in another thread. Also the impact of a tag change goofing the normal working of the game until a save and full restart.

Also make sure the common country file for the new tag contain valid units for that unit type.

Also any custom units have to be enabled in land.txt

[AKronblad]

Hi there.

Yes, we had another discussion in a separate thread.

Strange thing is that regulary units can be recruited, but not mercenaries.

It's gotta to have something to do with preferred_units not being specified in common/countries files?

What is the purpose of the preferred_units by the way?

[17blue17]

Hi there.


Yes, we had another discussion in a separate thread.

Strange thing is that regulary units can be recruited, but not mercenaries.

It's gotta to have something to do with preferred_units not being specified in common/countries files?

What is the purpose of the preferred_units by the way?

The wiki says:

The military system is based on a model of "preferred units" for land units. Core provinces will produce preferred units. Owned provinces that other countries have cores own may recruit the preferred units of that country (even if from a different technology group). All the units already built will be automatically changed to the new preferred one, except for mercenary units.

I do think that if a tag change is involved with your question that a save and full restart could fix the problem as this is the only way to get the game to correctly reset things due to the tag change. Until this is done people have reported strange things with cores etc etc etc that all go away and are fix by the full restart. If you are still worried about your trade goods on reload then make an event based on regions to put the trade goods back on your empty provinces.

If a tag change is not involved then most likely the preferred units is the cause.

[DanubianCossak]

Hi there.

Yes, we had another discussion in a separate thread.

Strange thing is that regulary units can be recruited, but not mercenaries.

It's gotta to have something to do with preferred_units not being specified in common/countries files?

What is the purpose of the preferred_units by the way?

Yeah i think 17blue17 is right (as usual). If you add a new tech group, but you dont fill up the country file with correct units (from the same tech group) i think that causes units to disappear.

So for example ive had Golden Horde (mistakenly) set to use Ottoman list of units, instead of steppe one. Funny thing is, even though Golden Horde was in nomad tech group, in 1399. they were able to recruit first Ottoman unit (was it Yayas? or smt) but they were not able to upgrade them (Yayas > Azaps), and i think they didnt have mercs either (since i accidentally messed up other units as well).

So, try to make sure you have units from correct tech group set under list of preferred units. Another way to make sure its related to this, would be to find any country seems to work (if you have any that is) and to give its core in a province where you merks dont work. If they appear (and they should with new core) youll know 100% its this issue.

To answer your second question, system of preferred units is used to assist AI makes its choices. For example, on same tech level you could gain access to 2 different infantry units. In theory they could all have same amount of pips (even in similar categories) so AI could have a hard time "deciding" which one to choose. Probably, to avoid something that could be buggy (some kind of weigh system) they introduced this scripted version, which IMO a very smart move. Not only can you direct the AI in whichever way you want them to develop, this can also have a large influence over game balance - for example you could have an area where you want a small nation to rise against a bigger one (for historic reasons for example) and you cant give them more provinces, or increase base_tax etc, so you simply give them better units than their rivals have, and you script it so that they are the only ones who use these units. Naturally this system is not perfect, and presence of human changes everything, but still when it comes to over all world development, its a nice thing, specially so since human cant be everywhere at the same time.

[AKronblad]

Many thanks for advice guys!

Will look into preferred_units.