This Is Madness 2 - Imperium Sine Fine (Interactive Mega Campaign)

[Andre Massena]

Speaking of game-conquering exploits I miss Prawnstar

 

[Zqrfmb]

I just noticed how good of a trading position the imperium really is in with its hold over the gulf of Aden, there may not be as much colonizing to push indonesian and chinese trade westward this time aruond, but you can bet that if the aztecs manage to swing around into those nodes, the imperium will rake in the profit. Plus they have an easy way into hindustan once the terra incognita goes poof. Really, that can be worth more than any buff Czoklet can give to himself and perhaps give him more of an edge than he gave to the AI.


Also: I don't know if you dealt with commerce and resources, but it might make sense flavor-wise to tweak the demand modifiers for slaves, since in This is Madness it seemed like all people of all creeds and cultures were enslaving one another, slaves are often at low demand due to the scarcity of ways demand can increase.

 

[Haldan]

The Golovin story going on is quite interesting!

Now, I had two ideas going on for creating a Swedish Noble House for the Senate. The first one was to play as the House of Stibolt itself, the Dynasty which was presumed to be destroyed after the death of Ioannes Stibolt by the hands of Imperator Alexios could have gone into hiding after their property was seized. The Stibolts could have re-emerged as Markos III rose to power, stalwartly loyal to him due to their hate against Alexios and the House Komnenos, aiding him in taking the latter down (maybe the ones to gain the property and position of Demetrios and CO?

The other idea was simply, a minor Swedish house that took refuge in Imperium after the fall of Sweden, earning power through servitude as Varangians, no doubt also Stibolt loyalists. Maybe they were spared, and instead humiliated, as House Stibolt was dismantled by Alexios, and hungry for revenge?

 

[scelestus13]

I'm thinking the xenoi are going to be far and away the most powerful, just based on the base tax of French and German provinces...

 

[Razgriz 2K9]

I've been meaning to ask, where'd you get that slick pic on the opening post?

Also, I've been meaning to try out an interactive AAR RP... problem is I have no idea where I left off in the CKII AAR... D:

 

[Paragonfilmgoat]

I am so excited to see the new challenges and victories for the imperium as the new senators,
Including my own House Zvonimir help lead the way towards the Reconquest of Europe.

 

[McGrey]

I see actually some potential in the smaller surviving realms, even in the hands of the AI. Particularly in the British Isles. If one of the powers is able to unite the scatter remnants and wait for good opportunities, we might even see a Great Britain (at least geographical, I don’t know if the converter gave the nations there the decision to form it political).

Pisa too has a good chance. The HRE minors are nice targets, Aquitaine too, if it isn’t allied to the Empire, and being a protectorate it has protection and some nice bonuses (techcost goes down to 95% through that alone).

At last, if one of the HRE members is able to unite that thing, he can become an important power too, although the historical rivals might make it very hard to get alliances and survive. (Edit: Are the historical rivals only for the "new" Bavaria or all HRE members based on the "old" Bavaria)

Now I definitely want that save to test that out, Nürnberg has gotten a real nice Coat of Arms.

 

[CzokletMuss]

Album Senatorium has been updated - welcome, Senators!

[size=+1]ALBUM SENATORIUM[/size]

[SIZE=+1]

1.	senator Hadrianos Raoul	played by: Attalus
2.	senator Ioannes Kantakouzenos	played by: MaskedPersonage
3.	senator Leontios Kastelos	played by: Leandor
4.	senator Lazaros Melissenos	played by: McGrey
5.	senator Theophilus Rhadenos	played by: viola
6.	senator Septimark Wedrovander	played by: Kingjerkera
7.	senator Anastasios VI Salamis	played by: ParrotGuy
8.	senator Decius Taurinus	played by: Ponce_The_Great
9.	senator Konstantinos Moustakas	played by: Andre Massena
10.	senator Georgios Tsoukalos	played by: Halocon720
11.	senator Leon Zvonimir	played by: Paragonfilmgoat
12.	senator Juan Cortez	played by: zqrfmb

[/SIZE]​

Since there was a lot of text to process, I'm sure I made some mistakes, so please tell me if you notice them.

Oh, wow. I haven't read any EU4 AARs except yours so far. I suppose I should check his out sometime.

Speaking of game-conquering exploits I miss Prawnstar

You should definitely check his accomplishments out.
Prawnstar? Is he also some kind of a EU superstar?

I just noticed how good of a trading position the imperium really is in with its hold over the gulf of Aden, there may not be as much colonizing to push indonesian and chinese trade westward this time aruond, but you can bet that if the aztecs manage to swing around into those nodes, the imperium will rake in the profit. Plus they have an easy way into hindustan once the terra incognita goes poof. Really, that can be worth more than any buff Czoklet can give to himself and perhaps give him more of an edge than he gave to the AI.

Also: I don't know if you dealt with commerce and resources, but it might make sense flavor-wise to tweak the demand modifiers for slaves, since in This is Madness it seemed like all people of all creeds and cultures were enslaving one another, slaves are often at low demand due to the scarcity of ways demand can increase.

Indeed the geographical position is really good from a merchant perspective. However, the imperial limes are very long which means that the Imperial Army has to be spread out and - as we saw in CK2 - there is an ever-present threat of fighting a war on two or evern three fronts simultaneously, so it has its drawbacks.

I didn't touch trade so far and I'm yet to figure out how to mod it but yes, bigger demand for slaves makes sense. In fact, I think I should give a huge portion of Europe controlled by xenoi slaves as trade goods but I'm not really sure where in the game files I can change this (and/or basetax).

The Golovin story going on is quite interesting!

Now, I had two ideas going on for creating a Swedish Noble House for the Senate. The first one was to play as the House of Stibolt itself, the Dynasty which was presumed to be destroyed after the death of Ioannes Stibolt by the hands of Imperator Alexios could have gone into hiding after their property was seized. The Stibolts could have re-emerged as Markos III rose to power, stalwartly loyal to him due to their hate against Alexios and the House Komnenos, aiding him in taking the latter down (maybe the ones to gain the property and position of Demetrios and CO?

The other idea was simply, a minor Swedish house that took refuge in Imperium after the fall of Sweden, earning power through servitude as Varangians, no doubt also Stibolt loyalists. Maybe they were spared, and instead humiliated, as House Stibolt was dismantled by Alexios, and hungry for revenge?

Interesting ideas - remember, you can join at any time

I'm thinking the xenoi are going to be far and away the most powerful, just based on the base tax of French and German provinces...

In the next dev diary you'll see the full scope of their might. Additionaly, in every test I did so far they got Lucky Nation status (I'm going to play with random Lucky Nations), so yeah. They are the Archenemy of the Imperium.

I've been meaning to ask, where'd you get that slick pic on the opening post?
Also, I've been meaning to try out an interactive AAR RP... problem is I have no idea where I left off in the CKII AAR... D:

From the Internet I don't really remember.
If I were you I would wait for "Charlemagne" and started a new CK2 campaign if you want to make iAAR

I am so excited to see the new challenges and victories for the imperium as the new senators,
Including my own House Zvonimir help lead the way towards the Reconquest of Europe.

Deus vult! Unless the Imperium falls apart

I see actually some potential in the smaller surviving realms, even in the hands of the AI. Particularly in the British Isles. If one of the powers is able to unite the scatter remnants and wait for good opportunities, we might even see a Great Britain (at least geographical, I don’t know if the converter gave the nations there the decision to form it political).

Pisa too has a good chance. The HRE minors are nice targets, Aquitaine too, if it isn’t allied to the Empire, and being a protectorate it has protection and some nice bonuses (techcost goes down to 95% through that alone).

At last, if one of the HRE members is able to unite that thing, he can become an important power too, although the historical rivals might make it very hard to get alliances and survive. (Edit: Are the historical rivals only for the "new" Bavaria or all HRE members based on the "old" Bavaria)

Now I definitely want that save to test that out, Nürnberg has gotten a real nice Coat of Arms.

AI did pretty good in some cases in CK2 (Leon, Mali) so everything is possible - and yes, the heretics have the decision to form Great Britain. Pisa... I hope I'll be able to destroy it quickly - for 200 years it was a pain in the imperial arse and it's about time to end this pathetic state. And to make it worse it's a republic - people electing their own ruler, what a blasphemous idea!

Which by the way reminds me of these wonderful passages from encyclical Mirari vos (On liberalism and religious indiferrentism, encyclical of pope Gregory XVI, 15 August 1832):

14. This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say.[21] When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit"[22] is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

15. Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again?

(...)

20. Nor can We predict happier times for religion and government from the plans of those who desire vehemently to separate the Church from the state, and to break the mutual concord between temporal authority and the priesthood. It is certain that that concord which always was favorable and beneficial for the sacred and the civil order is feared by the shameless lovers of liberty.

 

[Enlil]

I see actually some potential in the smaller surviving realms, even in the hands of the AI. Particularly in the British Isles. If one of the powers is able to unite the scatter remnants and wait for good opportunities, we might even see a Great Britain (at least geographical, I don’t know if the converter gave the nations there the decision to form it political).

Pisa too has a good chance. The HRE minors are nice targets, Aquitaine too, if it isn’t allied to the Empire, and being a protectorate it has protection and some nice bonuses (techcost goes down to 95% through that alone).

At last, if one of the HRE members is able to unite that thing, he can become an important power too, although the historical rivals might make it very hard to get alliances and survive. (Edit: Are the historical rivals only for the "new" Bavaria or all HRE members based on the "old" Bavaria)

Now I definitely want that save to test that out, Nürnberg has gotten a real nice Coat of Arms.

Pisa will succeed simply on the grounds that it is Earth's greatest nation.

 

[Paragonfilmgoat]

Imaneul Zvonimir's birth date should be 1369 not 1389. I think it was a miss-click in my original draft but it makes sense to fix other wise he would be having Kids at like 10 years old .

 

[Andre Massena]

You can change basetax and trade goods through the console, I believe.

 

[CzokletMuss]

Pisa will succeed simply on the grounds that it is Earth's greatest nation.

Heresy!

Imaneul Zvonimir's birth date should be 1369 not 1389. I think it was a miss-click in my original draft but it makes sense to fix other wise he would be having Kids at like 10 years old .

Fixed.

You can change basetax and trade goods through the console, I believe.

I was thinking about changing game files once rather than using tens of console commands every time I do the test run.

 

[ParrotGuy]

A few small mistakes with house Salamis (there are a few grammar mistakes but don't bother with those):
In the last part of the house history, can you correct "after the great purge of Salamis to after the days if Leon Angelos as we removed the purge part?
Also, why are there some * signs in the representative template?
Last thing, the text is written in a huge wall and is somewhat painful to read- I remember pressing enter quite a lot in the Email, but it's probably different in the forums, so can you press enter a few times in this huge wall of text so it will be easier to read?

 

[Attalus]

I'd say to put spoilers for each family instead of having this huge wall of text

 

[Zqrfmb]

All I have to say for my family is that I want to know if those provinces in Abyssinia culture-flip by the converter or by decision. If so, I might hellenize their name at a later generation.

 

[Ponce_The_Great]

Looks like we may have some trade wars and rivalries between the noble houses of the empire. As for my House Taurinus, just noticed that the Mongols seem to have a claim on our homeland in the Crimea, so things could get interesting for us (of course the Empire will protect us)

Our many international in origin senators reminds me of how Bolivia still has a member of its parliament representing the territory it lost in the 1800s, saying "We don't technically own it, but it is definitely still part of the empire and one day it will be ours once more"

 

[Andre Massena]

Looks like we may have some trade wars and rivalries between the noble houses of the empire. As for my House Taurinus, just noticed that the Mongols seem to have a claim on our homeland in the Crimea, so things could get interesting for us (of course the Empire will protect us)

Trade is for women and weaklings! Real men fight for their Basileus

Our many international in origin senators reminds me of how Bolivia still has a member of its parliament representing the territory it lost in the 1800s, saying "We don't technically own it, but it is definitely still part of the empire and one day it will be ours once more"

Like the Union flag in the ACW

 

[ParrotGuy]

Looks like we may have some trade wars and rivalries between the noble houses of the empire. As for my House Taurinus, just noticed that the Mongols seem to have a claim on our homeland in the Crimea, so things could get interesting for us (of course the Empire will protect us)

Our many international in origin senators reminds me of how Bolivia still has a member of its parliament representing the territory it lost in the 1800s, saying "We don't technically own it, but it is definitely still part of the empire and one day it will be ours once more"

The rivarly between house Zvonimir and house Kastelos is interesting. Seems like there are quite a lot of merchant houses.
Raoul is an interesting case for my house of Salamis as they greatly support exploration like Salamis, but they want it for expansion and Salamis for allies- it will be interesting to see if those two houses become allies or rivals.

 

[Haldan]

Interesting ideas - remember, you can join at any time

Which one do you think is best? After all, the Stibolts were important in the original story and I seek your glorious advice, mighty leader.

 

[CzokletMuss]

Which one do you think is best? After all, the Stibolts were important in the original story and I seek your glorious advice, mighty leader.

These are your Houses and I don't want to intervene in what you create, so no advice from me - sorry

A few small mistakes with house Salamis (there are a few grammar mistakes but don't bother with those):
In the last part of the house history, can you correct "after the great purge of Salamis to after the days if Leon Angelos as we removed the purge part?
Also, why are there some * signs in the representative template?
Last thing, the text is written in a huge wall and is somewhat painful to read- I remember pressing enter quite a lot in the Email, but it's probably different in the forums, so can you press enter a few times in this huge wall of text so it will be easier to read?

Silly mistakes - I'm gonna fix this right now.

I'd say to put spoilers for each family instead of having this huge wall of text

Simple yet brilliant idea

And concerning rivalries among the noble Houses: