Building cost modifier?

[Setsuna]

There's nothing I can find that explains this in-game. I've tried searching the forums (Via google), the wiki, the game files, and I am stumped. On the wiki there is a reference to a "build_cost_modifier" but I can't find a line like that anywhere in the files.

I'm wondering because my building costs are higher than the base values found on the wiki and in the game files. I thought maybe this was due to low stewardship, but if that has that kind of effect it isn't mentioned anywhere I can find. If it's a trait it's not mentioned in the game or files.

Also seems odd that the cost is displayed in green (I found a screenshot somewhere where the costs are displayed in white.) I'd think green would be for a positive modifier.. Nevermind, it's not green anymore, now I'm wondering if I imagined it.

 

[Setsuna]

After giving another try at searching the game files and trying just "building_cost" instead of "building_cost_modifier" I found the culprit.

Apparently at some point this line was added in defines.lua:

BUILDING_COST_MULT = 0.5,             -- Increase to the build cost of all buildings that cost GOLD

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be under some kind of "YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG AND ARE BEING PUNISHED" area, it applies to everyone. Why was this added. Were buildings really supposed to be this pricey all of a sudden? That is a rather huge increase. A Level 1 University is now 900 Gold instead of 600. And none of this is documented anywhere which made things extra confusing.

What does everyone else think, should this modifier be there? If you don't care about Ironman, would you mod it out? (Assuming you can, I'm a little fuzzy on whether you can mod things in the defines.lua file.)

 

[Nuklearius]

#

 

[Zsrai]

Yes, the devs made a blanket increase across the board quite a few major patches ago. It's intended.

 

[Setsuna]

Isn't a 0.5 multiplier halfing the cost and not inreasing it?

You'd think that, but no, it increases the costs for reasons I don't really understand since 0.5 is also used in the same file to reduce the amount of attrition the AI armies take on higher difficulties.

Yes, the devs made a blanket increase across the board quite a few major patches ago. It's intended.

Yes I get that they intended it, but I get the impression around here that Paradox intentionally did a lot of things that players don't agree with, and I'm wondering what people think about this change. I couldn't find any discussion about it before finding out about the change. After finding it I could only locate one reference to it.. in the Wiki thread, where someone said they should probably update the new building costs in the Wiki. -_-

 

[Oyubi]

This isn't a particularly bad change imo.

In the late game lots of holdings are completely maxed out unless they're new holdings. This is especially true with mayors who end up sitting on 1000's of ducats. I think its because there's lots more cash in the game than there was in the original version. Trading in particular adds huge amounts of extra cash while raiding seems to be a net positive if they siege down the province they raid.

If you didn't increase costs the by mid game you would end up with every minor barony tier vassal being able to buy a mercenary company when it rebelled. Right now mayors and some bishops can do this by the late game.

 

[Zsrai]

You'd think that, but no, it increases the costs for reasons I don't really understand since 0.5 is also used in the same file to reduce the amount of attrition the AI armies take on higher difficulties.


Yes I get that they intended it, but I get the impression around here that Paradox intentionally did a lot of things that players don't agree with, and I'm wondering what people think about this change. I couldn't find any discussion about it before finding out about the change. After finding it I could only locate one reference to it.. in the Wiki thread, where someone said they should probably update the new building costs in the Wiki. -_-

I don't think there was a big discussion when it happened, beyond a few people being caught unawares. There sure isn't now, since this was changed WELL over a year ago. More like two. I'm not sure why you're so worked up about this, to be honest.

This isn't a particularly bad change imo.

In the late game lots of holdings are completely maxed out unless they're new holdings. This is especially true with mayors who end up sitting on 1000's of ducats. I think its because there's lots more cash in the game than there was in the original version. Trading in particular adds huge amounts of extra cash while raiding seems to be a net positive if they siege down the province they raid.

If you didn't increase costs the by mid game you would end up with every minor barony tier vassal being able to buy a mercenary company when it rebelled. Right now mayors and some bishops can do this by the late game.

It's mostly this, IIRC. They upped the amount of gold floating around in one of the major patches (SoA? TOG?) and rebalanced building costs (and merc costs) appropriately.

 

[Setsuna]

I'm not sure why you're so worked up about this, to be honest..

Probably because of the manner I learned about it. The combination of the lack of documentation and the way it's implemented in the game makes it seem like a hidden penalty (I wish Paradox had just bitten the bullet and changed the base costs.) Everything I could find suggested buildings were supposed to be a certain price, and the fact that mine alone seemed to be more expensive for the past couple of weeks made it feel like something was wrong with my game (I actually contemplated a re-install to "fix" this.) I think that kind of poisoned the well!

 

[Rags17]

What does everyone else think, should this modifier be there? If you don't care about Ironman, would you mod it out? (Assuming you can, I'm a little fuzzy on whether you can mod things in the defines.lua file.)

Yes you can mod this - in fact a mod consisting of nothing more than a revised defines.lua file is probably the simplest mod you can create. While you're at it you can very the numbers for lots of other things too, such as how much of a person's gold you get when you banish them, max diplo distance etc.

Probably because of the manner I learned about it. The combination of the lack of documentation and the way it's implemented in the game makes it seem like a hidden penalty (I wish Paradox had just bitten the bullet and changed the base costs.) Everything I could find suggested buildings were supposed to be a certain price, and the fact that mine alone seemed to be more expensive for the past couple of weeks made it feel like something was wrong with my game (I actually contemplated a re-install to "fix" this.) I think that kind of poisoned the well!

My guess is that rather than editing dozens and dozens of building costs they just decided to add a line in the exe file that a multiple of the cost per the number in the defines.luafile. A quick solution, if messy and very opaque.