Frozen4 - HIP bugfix and balance patch for Frosty3

[Svatopluk]

I fixed many of the issues still present in the last released version of the Historical Immersion Project (Frosty3), with a focus on improved ai performance.

Download​

Directly attached at the bottom of this post.

Mirror: dropbox DOT com/s/swg849zl9h5rnfz/HIP_Patch.zip?dl=0

Main Features​

• Noticeably improved AI response to disease.
• Fixed councillor voting patterns.
• Fixed excessive Cadet Branch formation.
• Fixed a major bug that hindered AI rulers from passing laws.
• Overhauled difficulty modifiers for a fair challenge.
• Adjusted Imperial Decay that can be important but not insurmountable.
• Less purposeless, more purposeful AI plots.
  
  Tons of bugfixes and careful balancing nudges; see the full changelog below.

Full Changelog​

Spoiler: Changelog

v4

* Fixed a huge number of bugs (40+) affecting council voting patterns, mainly EMF and DLC targeted decisions. Friends don't let friends get castrated.
* Differentiated Glory Hound and Moneymaker centralization voting patterns a bit: Glory Hounds now care a lot but only about the topmost layer of vassals, while Moneymakers care about the entire feudal structure but to a lesser extent.
* Scheming Spymasters now only proc the faction prevention event on vassals that are actually part of conspiratorial factions.
* Increased the duration of the opinion effects of NOT taking prisoners after a siege, and of NOT releasing friendlies after a siege.
* Fixed a bug that prevented Crusader-equivalent traits from being considered Pious ones.
* Fixed Roger de Hauteville's and Gorm the Old's bloodlines. Their bloodlines now apply to themselves and their descendants.
* Adjusted Giant trait's localization to reflect the negative rather than positive sex appeal it provides.

v3

* Overhauled difficulty modifiers. They now have a wider range of more measured effects instead of an absurdly strong focus on army morale.
* Balance pass on Defensive Pacts. Realm size now matters much more when it comes to perceived Threat.
* Balance pass on Imperial Decay. Stronger effect on vassal opinion and vassal min levy, weaker effect on levy reinforcement rate.
* Non-personality-related conditions that prevent ai characters from starting fabrication plots now also apply to players.
* Buffed Nomad manpower.
* Zealot council members now consider coreligionists with Crusader-equivalent traits and positive piety as Pious in the absence of other factors.
* Zealous characters can now Fabricate Heresy against Highly Suspicious characters they dislike.
* Increased Prestige loss from the Court Anarchy trait.

v2

* Tribals and Nomads are now able to Shut the Gates if they have an appropriate place where they could conceivably retreat with their whole court. Decision is now available if any of the following is true: character is a Patrician, or personally holds at least 1 Castle anywhere, or capital holding is Tribal with Stone Hillfort fully built, or capital county contains a Castle holding (can be a vassal).
* Stopped ai characters from instantly Opening the Gates right after Closing the Gates, which made them unable to close it again and exposed them to epidemics.
* Slightly improved Shut the Gates logic. Unlike before, an epidemic in the capital now always qualifies as "an epidemic is active and close".
* Starvation modifiers after Opening the Gates now expire in less than a month (instead of ~2 months).
* AI rulers will now try to seek treatment every month if needed rather than randomly twice per year.
* More than doubled the chance of non-ruler ai characters receiving treatment if their liege has a physician.
* AI rulers are now guaranteed to search for a Court Physician if they are allowed to, have the wealth, and lack one.
* Court Physicians from the employment decision events now have their maximum costs capped (max 70 for the rare Wandering Genius), rather than scaling to potentially infinite cost.
* Fixed a bug in the Search for a Smith event chain specifically with the "Impressive set of jewels" option that made the event resolve instantly AND then fire once more.
* Improved performance compared to the previous version by having the ai check employment decisions less frequently.

v1

* Fixed two major bugs that caused ai rulers to constantly switch back and forth between two sets of laws, unable to pass anything meaningful.
* Improved the ai logic in adjusting demesne centralization laws.
* Fixed excessive Cadet Branch formation. Newly landed members of more prestigious dynasties no longer form cadet branches within months with near-certainty.
* Removed parts of Imperial Decay that affect the Emperor's demesne specifically. AI empires no longer inevitably degenerate after a couple of lost wars.
* Overhauled Employment Decisions costs, and taught the ai how to use them. Looking at 5 bachelorettes in your own kingdom now costs less than building a brand new castle.
* Loosened Pagan Reformation requirements, especially regarding Moral Authority.
* Increased Threat gain from wars specifically, and slightly reduced overall Threat loss.
* Standardized opinion modifiers for succession laws.
* Increased realm bonuses for elective succession laws where vassals hold voting power with a significant potential for non-dynastic succession (HRE, ERE, Feudal Elective).
* Increased the opinion bonus from Protected Council Appointments.
* Plots to Fabricate Treason and Heresy now have the same requirements for players as for ai characters. Players can no longer essentially revoke any landed title tyranny-free from any direct vassal. Can still fabricate treason vs enemies, foes, holders of titles the plotter has claims on, adherents of different religions, and really hated characters as long as the liege does not like the target.
* Plot to Fabricate Heresy Piety requirement relaxed.
* If the game rules are set to allow Custom Kingdom and Empire formation for the ai, then the same rules apply to the player and the ai. A normal ai ruler no longer needs 15x and 9x as much prestige as a player to form a Custom Kingdom and Empire, respectively.
* Added a missing alternative "count titles in realm" requirement to the Custom Empire formation decision.
* Adjusted Revenge plot weights. Characters are much more likely to plot to counter-assassinate in defense of family members, and much less likely to plot to kill "foes" they merely dislike. Murder plots based on tangible benefits like inheritance remain unaffected.
* Increased the chance of a sane ai character stopping to antagonize someone it does not hate.
* Zealot council members no longer vote to protect every publicly known demon worshipper that has 200 piety.
* Zealot council members now always vote in favour of joining the wars of their rightful non-wicked religious head, and against declaring war on their rightful non-wicked religious head.
* Wealth/Piety/Prestige ambition requirements no longer punish characters who forewent previous tiers. There is still at most one ambition per category that can be chosen at any time.
* Rebalanced councillor treasure hunt modifiers. Diplomats are slightly less hilariously bad, and Scholars are somewhat less obviously good.
* Restored inter-Muslim war of aggression monthly piety loss back to its vanilla value.
* Reduced Muslim retinue size bonus.
* Fixed Old English culture missing its cultural building (longbows).
* Tengri women can now be shamanesses by default.
* Standardized the optional Lucky Ruler trait bonus to equivalents of 2x powerful relevant traits.

Details​

HIP is an incredible, must-have mod for ck2 that vastly improves the gameplay experience compared to vanilla. This section is not meant to disparage HIP - on the contrary, it is because of how amazing HIP is that I feel the need to provide justifications for every change I made.

Spoiler: v4

• Fixed a huge number of bugs (40+) affecting council voting patterns, mainly EMF and DLC targeted decisions. Friends don't let friends get castrated.

Fixed bugs affecting several council voting patterns each regarding Recruit Prisoner, Move to House Arrest, Move to the Dungeon, Move to the Oubliette, Castrate, Blind, Judge, Kharijite Executions and Lollard Temple Revocations. Votes on Prisoner Transfers and Releasing Tributaries also seem fixed.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "I should get the title" selfish voting pattern from ever triggering.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "Council Stability" selfish voting pattern from ever triggering.
Fixed a minor bug regarding Zealot council members voting on third-party war declarations on heretics.

Spoiler: Technical

For future reference, my reverse-engineering attempt:

The target of the targeted decision is referred to by the relative scope of FROMFROM in the cases of: release_from_prison_interaction , execute_imprisoned_interaction , exile_imprisoned_interaction , transfer_vassal_interaction , offer_vassalization_interaction , release_vassal_interaction , retract_vassal_interaction , revoke_title_interaction , grant_landed_title_interaction , ransom_character_interaction , imprison_character_interaction .

The target of the targeted decision is referred to by the relative scope of FROMFROMFROM in the cases of: lollard_revoke_temple , recruit_prisoner , emf_prisoner_house_arrest , emf_prisoner_dungeon , emf_prisoner_oubliette , emf_prisoner_castration , emf_prisoner_blinding , kharijite_public_execution , emf_prisoner_zun_judgement , break_non_aggression_pact (already looked ok in HIP) , dissolve_alliance_interaction (already looked ok in HIP) , emf_prisoner_transfer (presumed) , release_tributary (presumed).

• Differentiated Glory Hound and Moneymaker centralization voting patterns a bit: Glory Hounds now care a lot but only about the topmost layer of vassals, while Moneymakers care about the entire feudal structure but to a lesser extent.

Glory Hounds now care about only the 2-6 most powerful vassals that they directly share a liege with. Moneymakers now care about 1-3 powerful vassals at all levels within the realm (i.e. they can vote to protect some powerful vassals of powerful vassals too). For example, when it comes to voting to imprison the 5th most powerful vassal of an Emperor, a Glory Hound cares but a Moneymaker does not; but when it comes to voting to imprison the most powerful Vassal Duke of a powerful Vassal King of an Emperor, a Glory Hound does not care but a Moneymaker does. Previously both types cared about 4-6 powerful vassals, with whether the voter had to share a direct liege with the target depending haphazardly on the type of interaction in question.

• Scheming Spymasters now only proc the faction prevention event on vassals that are actually part of conspiratorial factions.

In both Vanilla and HIP, Spymasters can discourage vassals from joining/creating factions (in the future) even if the vassal in question is not in any at the moment. This seems intentional, but a bit weird, especially when the Spymaster suggests threatening a supportive vassal while others are actively conspiring. With this patch the event can only fire when the vassal in question is in one of the conspiratorial factions: Independence, Claimant, Anti-King, Overthrow, Increase Council Power, Powerful Vassal Takeover, True Believers, Abrahamic Revolters, Lower Crown Authority, Instate Seniority Succession, Instate Primogeniture Succession, Instate Gavelkind Succession, Instate Feudal Elective Succession.

• Increased the duration of the opinion effects of NOT taking prisoners after a siege, and of NOT releasing friendlies after a siege.

A mediocre opinion boost for 1-2 years pales in comparison with the opportunity to ransom prisoners. With the opinion modifier lasting 3-5 years instead, it may look slightly less terrible. Correspondingly increased the duration of the opinion malus to 3 years for deciding to not release friendlies imprisoned by an enemy.

• Fixed a bug that prevented Crusader-equivalent traits from being considered Pious ones.

Bit the bullet and replaced 00_scripted_triggers.txt .

• Fixed Roger de Hauteville's and Gorm the Old's bloodlines. Their bloodlines now apply to themselves and their descendants.

The Roger de Hauteville bloodline now accepts, and gives a bonus to, Norman culture in addition to the Italian culture group. This way he and his historical descendants can benefit from their own bloodline.
The Gorm the Old bloodline now accepts, and gives a bonus to, Norse culture in addition to Anglo-Norse and Danish cultures. This way he and his historical descendants can benefit from their own bloodline.

• Adjusted Giant trait's localization to reflect the negative rather than positive sex appeal it provides.

The Giant trait provides -15 attraction opinion, but its description called it an "attractive trait". The description is now changed to match the effect.

Spoiler: v3

• Overhauled difficulty modifiers. They now have a wider range of more measured effects instead of an absurdly strong focus on army morale.

In Frosty3, on Very Hard, the player gets -25% army morale vs enemies that get +45% army morale. This resulted in absurdly cowardly player armies on Very Hard, while other difficulty effects were comparatively negligible: vassals loved you just as much regardless of difficulty level, there was a similar level of threat from internal factions regardless of difficulty, etc. So "Very Hard" had almost no effect on the actual difficulty of realm management - it just encouraged cheesing when it comes to war, as a supposedly even battle between similar armies was always doomed by the massive army morale effect, but even fights could always be avoided by just continually expanding vs weaker opponents.

There were also what that looked like bugs when it comes to the Frosty3 difficulty levels: the ai got a stronger Land Organisation bonus on Hard than on Very Hard, and there were buffs and debuffs to nomad manpower and growth but for some reason not to non-nomadic equivalents (levies).

Now with this patch, there is a wider range of more moderate effects on harder difficulties, to make the game actually harder in a reasonable way, to make cheesing both less necessary and less effective. There are debuffs to general and vassal opinion (to make internal factions and rebellions more of a threat), as well as to levies (both nomadic and non-nomadic) and taxes. The ai has the same morale bonus on Hard and Very Hard as on vanilla Normal, while player army morale is not debuffed at all. What the ai gets instead is a higher reinforce rate (but no higher levy size) and increased tax income.

• Balance pass on Defensive Pacts. Realm size now matters much more when it comes to perceived Threat.

Defensive Pacts were so rare in Frosty3 that I suspect that the realm size factor may have been accidentally set to 1/10 of what was intended. Overhauled the whole thing. Based on observer games with new settings, winning a major war for a kingdom-sized claim or HRE unification now gives around 10-20 years of Threat where Defensive Pacts can be formed against the conqueror, which seems roughly reasonable to me. County and even duchy-sized wars generally do not make a realm threatening enough for Defensive Pacts, although realm size matters a lot more now, so e.g. a large ERE that goes on a rampage of non-stop duchy-sized religious reconquest wars may slowly accumulate enough perceived Threat.

• Balance pass on Imperial Decay. Stronger effect on vassal opinion and vassal min levy, weaker effect on levy reinforcement rate.

There should be a balance where high Imperial Decay is definitely bad for the emperor, while making sure that a powerful emperor is never in a hopeless situation just because of Imperial Decay. Even if vassals hate the emperor and provide little levies, an emperor with a strong army from his demesne should be able to keep vassals in check and gradually reduce the decay.

• Non-personality-related conditions that prevent ai characters from starting fabrication plots now also apply to players.

Plot to Fabricate Treason and Plot to Fabricate Heresy now have the same requirements for players and ai characters. These are very powerful plots, so if players could use them when ai characters in the same situation cannot, it would be unfairly easy.

• Buffed Nomad manpower.

Nomads are rarely a big threat, often just a minor nuisance. As a nudge to try to help with this, buffed manpower by 25% relative to what it was before.

• Zealot council members now consider coreligionists with Crusader-equivalent traits and positive piety as Pious in the absence of other factors.

Also applies to equivalent traits from all other religions, like Valhalla-Bound, Sun Warrior, etc.

• Zealous characters can now Fabricate Heresy against Highly Suspicious characters they dislike.

Another way to deal with Highly Suspicious characters of Secret Societies, instead of just waiting for the Hunt Apostates job events to fire.

• Increased Prestige loss from the Court Anarchy trait.

When it comes to the Prestige of a ruler, it is hard to think of something with a worse effect than experiencing complete anarchy at the court. In Frosty3 it just gave a negligible -0.3 monthly prestige. Prestige effect increased tenfold.

Spoiler: v2

• Tribals and Nomads are now able to Shut the Gates if they have an appropriate place where they could conceivably retreat with their whole court. Decision is now available if any of the following is true: character is a Patrician, or personally holds at least 1 Castle anywhere, or capital holding is Tribal with Stone Hillfort fully built, or capital county contains a Castle holding (can be a vassal).

For Seclusion, a ruler needs a place where they could hole up for months with their entire court. Palisades will not keep a disease out. On the other hand, completely excluding even advanced tribes from shutting the gates seems too harsh. So as a middle ground, a fully upgraded tribal fort allows tribals to go into seclusion.

• Stopped ai characters from instantly Opening the Gates right after Closing the Gates, which made them unable to close it again and exposed them to epidemics.
• Slightly improved Shut the Gates logic. Unlike before, an epidemic in the capital now always qualifies as "an epidemic is active and close".

Small improvement to ai logic. A brave, stubborn, zealous and just ruler is somewhat less likely to go into seclusion, but that is intended.

• Starvation modifiers after Opening the Gates now expire in less than a month (instead of ~2 months).

Previously, the starvation modifier could persist for months, which seemed unreasonable.

• AI rulers will now try to seek treatment every month if needed rather than randomly twice per year.
• More than doubled the chance of non-ruler ai characters receiving treatment if their liege has a physician.

This should seriously improve ai survival. Most diseases end one way or another is less than 6 months, while in Frosty3 rulers only have a chance (~50%) to seek treatment once per 6 months. This resulted in ai rulers almost never seeking treatment. With this patch, most rulers who have a physician will seek treatment.

• AI rulers are now guaranteed to search for a Court Physician if they are allowed to, have the wealth, and lack one.
• Court Physicians from the employment decision events now have their maximum costs capped (max 70 for the rare Wandering Genius), rather than scaling to potentially infinite cost.

Another issue for ai rulers not receiving treatment in Frosty3 was not having Court Physicians. With this, now Dukes and above, as well as rich Counts will look for Court Physicians if they lack one.

• Fixed a bug in the Search for a Smith event chain specifically with the "Impressive set of jewels" option that made the event resolve instantly AND then fire once more.

Looks like a debug line remained in the code, which triggered completion within 1 day, which then made the smith effectively disappear for the rest of the event chain, which therefore fired the "smith is dead" event since he could not be found. Should be fixed now.

• Improved performance compared to the previous version by having the ai check employment decisions less frequently.

Probably does not matter on a modern computer. But in terms of priorities, it makes sense to check for disease-related decisions more frequently, while employment-related ones are less urgent.

Spoiler: v1

• Fixed two major bugs that caused ai rulers to constantly switch back and forth between two sets of laws, unable to pass anything meaningful.
• Improved the ai logic in adjusting demesne centralization laws.

If you turn the relevant notifications on in Frosty3, you can see ai rulers switch back and forth non-stop between the two lowest obligations levels and between low/medium demesne centralization literally whenever they can. The reason for this is a couple of logic errors (NOR behind factor=0 double-negates), fixed in this patch. This simple fix is a big improvement to effective ai strength, as they no longer waste all their piety when Muslim, and have the opportunity to pass laws they actually want (like abolishing council power) instead of just ping-ponging non-stop between a pair of laws.
While at it, also taught the ai to be smarter in adjusting centralization laws, so it can now dynamically increase centralization beyond Medium if it notices it is way below the vassal limit but near the demesne limit, and vice versa.

• Fixed excessive Cadet Branch formation. Newly landed members of more prestigious dynasties no longer form cadet branches within months with near-certainty.

Frosty3 imposes a limit of 500 prestige on ai characters attempting to form a cadet branch. The problem with this is that, due to dynastic prestige and the ai propensity to marry for prestige effects, even unlanded nobodies distantly related to a famous emperor can easily get to 500 prestige as soon as they get a title and a spouse. Being part of a renowned family should make dynasts less likely to branch off, not more. The fix here is to scale the requirements according to the rank of the dynastic head: 500 prestige is enough to form a Cadet Branch of a Count's dynasty, but they need 1000 prestige for a Duke's, 1500 for a King's, and 2000 prestige to create a Cadet Branch when the Head is an Emperor. In test games, this patch seems to work well: prestigious kings distantly related to an emperor form cadet branches, random counts with no achievements do not.

• Removed parts of Imperial Decay that affect the Emperor's demesne specifically. AI empires no longer inevitably degenerate after a couple of lost wars.

High Imperial Decay still severely debuffs vassal levies, opinion, troop morale, etc. However, it made little sense that a King's own troops from his own demesne virtually disappear as soon as he claims the emperor's title in a high Imperial Decay realm. In Frosty3, as soon as an ai Empire got to ~50-60% Imperial Decay, it was a death spiral to 100% decay with non-stop claimant wars where every successful claimant's troops vanish into thin air as soon as he "wins". A Franco-German Mega-Empire that spans most of Europe but can raise literally less than 500 dudes makes no sense. With this patch, high Imperial Decay is still really bad for you, but a strong king-turned-emperor with a large demesne has a chance to hold the line, gradually reduce decay, and potentially turn the empire around. This significantly improves ai HRE/ERE performance in test games, as the ai is generally worse at managing Imperial Decay compared to a competent player that can usually keep it in single digits. In other words, this change makes the game more challenging.

• Overhauled Employment Decisions costs, and taught the ai how to use them. Looking at 5 bachelorettes in your own kingdom now costs less than building a brand new castle.

Costs now scale between 10 when poor (same as inviting a courtier) to 30 when rich. Previously it was 25-100, which meant that it was essentially never a good option when you could instead invite someone with known skills and traits for 1/10 the price.
The new ai logic for these decisions is to only do it if it can definitely afford it AND if it desperately needs a relevant courtier. In Frosty3 one could see strong kingdoms and empires with 8-12 courtiers, many of whom were children. With this patch, if an ai ruler lacks good commanders and it has both the wealth and the income to not be bothered by the cost, it will hire soldiers using these decisions. A similar logic is implemented for hiring councillors if the ruler lacks anyone competent at court.

• Loosened Pagan Reformation requirements, especially regarding Moral Authority.

When moral authority is low, reformation (change) should be easier, which is how it was IRL with e.g. indulgences, and how it is in ck3. There are plenty of examples in history where a religion was reformed, so making it occur ~0% of the time in ai-only games is excessively harsh. In gameplay terms, a good comparison of pagan reformation is with requesting Mass Conversions: they provide similar benefits (both result in an "improved" religion and a step towards feudalization) but Mass Conversions are much much easier. A 1500+ piety pagan ai character is a rarity, so making it require 2500 piety in Frosty3 makes reformation in practice player-only, which is less fun than giving at least a small chance to the ai. Even with loosened reformation requirements of 1500 piety (still 2x Vanilla!) and 3 holy sites, ai reformation is expected to be fairly rare.

In test observer games I saw e.g. Wagadou control 3 holy sites but then mass-convert to Islam, Norsemen take over most of England and a bit of France but then mass-convert to Christianity, etc. A Mass Conversion is always easier; the requirements for Reformation should be harder than for Mass Conversion but not excessively so. If the stars align and 867 ai Wagadou gets a zealous ruler who does not request mass conversions AND fights off Muslim holy wars AND unites West Africa AND does not die from disease or plots before he can accumulate piety, then there is a chance for an ai African Reformation, but at that point I think they earned it.

• Increased Threat gain from wars specifically, and slightly reduced overall Threat loss.

Even with constant warring, truce timers are generally a much bigger limiting factor than potential Defensive Pacts. In Vanilla, when the only thing limiting your rate of expansion is Defensive Pacts, then you have already won the game (mopping-up is not what needs balancing). In test games with these harsher limits, even with chained holy wars, and non-holy wars in-between, as long as the enemies are not complete pushovers, it is hard to get anywhere near the 15% Threat where Defensive Pacts would start to form. So even this patch is arguably not enough to make Defensive Pacts really matter, but is probably a step in the right direction.

• Standardized opinion modifiers for succession laws.

40, "Expects to be the heir": Oldest child under Primogeniture. Youngest child under Ultimogeniture.
20, "Can expect land": Children under Gavelkind, Elective Gavelkind.
20, "Non-dynastic potential heir": Vassals under Feudal Elective, HRE Elective, Byzantine Elective.
10, "Potential heir": Dynasts under Elective Gavelkind, Eldership, Seniority, Aztec Elective, Pictish Elective, Tanistry, Dynastic Elective. Children under Turkish Succession.
10, "Estate has voting power": Feudal Vassals under Elective Gavelkind, Feudal Elective, HRE Elective, Aztec Elective, Byzantine Elective, Pictish Elective, Tanistry, Dynastic Elective. Tribal Vassals under Elective Gavelkind, Pictish Elective, Tanistry, Dynastic Elective. Temple Vassals under HRE Elective.
-10, "Unlikely to inherit": Youngest child under Primogeniture. Children under Seniority, Aztec Elective, Pictish Elective, Tanistry.
-20, "Oldest child may not end up being the heir": Oldest child under Eldership, Feudal Elective, HRE Elective, Byzantine Elective, Dynastic Elective, Turkish Succession.
-40, "Oldest child unlikely to inherit": Oldest child under Seniority, Aztec Elective, Pictish Elective, Tanistry, Ultimogeniture.

Overall this should make "bad" succession laws like Elective Gavelkind and Feudal Elective slightly less disgusting. Ideally there should be a sort of balance such that there is no succession law that is an absolute no-brainer to ditch (Elective Gavelkind in Vanilla) or a no-brainer to get (Primo mostly in Vanilla).

• Increased realm bonuses for elective succession laws where vassals hold voting power with a significant potential for non-dynastic succession (HRE, ERE, Feudal Elective).

20 Vassal Limit and 1 Demesne Limit with HRE Elective
10 Vassal Limit and 2 Demesne Limit with Byzantine Elective
10 Vassal Limit and 1 Demesne Limit with Feudal Elective

This should provide some incentive to turn a large empire elective, to provide a balance to the cost incurred by the risk of potential non-dynastic succession. It also helps to make ai HRE and ERE a bit less weak and unstable.

• Increased the opinion bonus from Protected Council Appointments.

A bit more incentive for enacting a "bad" law; the opinion bonus (20 instead of 10) is only for powerful vassals on the council, which is a very specific case.

• Plots to Fabricate Treason and Heresy now have the same requirements for players as for ai characters. Players can no longer essentially revoke any landed title tyranny-free from any direct vassal. Can still fabricate treason vs enemies, foes, holders of titles the plotter has claims on, adherents of different religions, and really hated characters as long as the liege does not like the target.

Plot to Fabricate Treason in Frosty3 essentially allowed the player to revoke any landed title tyranny-free from any landed vassal, by just repeatedly carrying out the plot until it succeeds (failure only affects the opinion of the target, which does not matter much once he is in prison). This was massively overpowered in favour of the player and removed most of the challenge of managing a realm, when you could easily unland any vassal that disliked you. With this patch, players can only start these types of plots when ai characters could also do so. This means that it is not possible to fabricate treason against a vassal that is loved by his liege - but you could for example saw dissent between them using your chancellor or mess them up with your spymaster first, and then fabricate treason. So planning, spying and antagonizing become more important, and managing a realm becomes more challenging in an interesting way.

• Plot to Fabricate Heresy Piety requirement relaxed.

After a century or so, pretty much every ruler that matters can easily have 250 piety, which made Plot to Fabricate Heresy nearly unusable. A major requirement of the plot is that the head of religion dislikes the target, which already indirectly takes piety into account, as high piety translates into a HoF opinion modifier that helps to protect the target.

• If the game rules are set to allow Custom Kingdom and Empire formation for the ai, then the same rules apply to the player and the ai. A normal ai ruler no longer needs 15x and 9x as much prestige as a player to form a Custom Kingdom and Empire, respectively.
• Added a missing alternative "count titles in realm" requirement to the Custom Empire formation decision.

The assumption is that players who explicitly decide to allow custom formation decisions for the ai want to play on a level playing field with the ai.

• Adjusted Revenge plot weights. Characters are much more likely to plot to counter-assassinate in defense of family members, and much less likely to plot to kill "foes" they merely dislike. Murder plots based on tangible benefits like inheritance remain unaffected.

Examples:

Deceitful Brave, 15 Intrigue, vs moderately disliked foe (-40):
Frosty3: 180% weight. Patched: 4.5% weight for murder.

Lunatic Impaler, 15 Intrigue, vs seriously disliked foe (-60):
Frosty3: 720% weight. Patched: 56% weight for murder.

Normal character without any traits, 10 Intrigue, vs "someone I kinda like (+20) is known to be currently trying to assassinate my son":
Frosty3: 0% weight. Patched: 50% weight for murder.

Honest character, 10 Intrigue, vs "someone I dislike (-40) is known to be currently trying to assassinate my son":
Frosty3: 3% weight. Patched: 100% weight for murder.

• Increased the chance of a sane ai character stopping to antagonize someone it does not hate.

Frosty3: 8-65% chance of stopping antagonism per 5-year pulse depending on ai_honor
Patched: 14-100% chance of stopping antagonism per 5-year pulse depending on ai_honor

These nudges are to try to limit the nonstop senseless bloodbath between supposedly sane characters who just slightly dislike each other. With at most 1 plot per character, and fewer purposeless assassination plots, high-intrigue ai characters can spend more time on plots that actually benefit them, like fabricating claims and killing off pretenders.

• Zealot council members no longer vote to protect every publicly known demon worshipper that has 200 piety.
• Zealot council members now always vote in favour of joining the wars of their rightful non-wicked religious head, and against declaring war on their rightful non-wicked religious head.

In Frosty3, Zealots vote against imprisoning/revoking/etc from known demon worshipper coreligionists as long as the culprit has 200+ piety. With this patch, Zealots will consistently support taking hostile action against known demon worshippers of any faith, and against coreligionists that are excommunicated, decadent or accused of apostasy.
While at it, also made Zealots vote less nonsensically when it comes to wars that involve e.g. a Muslim Caliph or a Reformed Pagan religious head.

• Wealth/Piety/Prestige ambition requirements no longer punish characters who forewent previous tiers. There is still at most one ambition per category that can be chosen at any time.

Previously, a character with 1001+ Prestige could not seek to Become Exalted if it did not Become Distinguished earlier, which seems like a weirdly illogical punishment. With this patch, the maximum limits for these kinds of ambitions are standardized to 200/700/1500, 200/700/1500, 200/700/2000 for Wealth, Piety and Prestige, respectively. The minimum requirements are to have achieved the previous tier or to be over the start of the previous tier.

• Rebalanced councillor treasure hunt modifiers. Diplomats are slightly less hilariously bad, and Scholars are somewhat less obviously good.

During the Artifact Hunt event chain in Vanilla/Frosty3, taking the -15 general opinion modifier with Diplomats is an incredibly bad option almost always (worse than being a known murderer!), especially when compared to the relatively meagre -25% tech growth penalty of using Scholars. One could argue that Scholars should in fact be the better option for artifact hunting generally speaking, just that the difference between the options should not be so huge that one is obviously the best while the other is obviously the worst most of the time. Diplomats opinion effect lessened to -10 (from -15), Spies plot discovery effect lessened to -25% (from -50%), Scholars tech growth effect increased to -75% (from -25%).

• Restored inter-Muslim war of aggression monthly piety loss back to its vanilla value.
• Reduced Muslim retinue size bonus.

Muslims rulers no longer constantly waste their piety on changing laws, so they can easily afford an extra ~50 piety per offensive inter-Muslim war (2 per month instead of 1).
Retinues are one of the more significant determinants of long-term success, and Muslims enjoying double retinue sizes in Frosty3 seems a bit too much (had 10k retinue in a test game in the early 900s starting as an 867 count). Reduced to "only" a 50% retinue bonus.

• Fixed Old English culture missing its cultural building (longbows).

Old English (Angelcynn) can now build Longbow Ranges while the Anglo-Norse (Englisc) have Housecarls as before. Previously Angelcynn had no cultural buildings due to an apparent bug.

• Tengri women can now be shamanesses by default.

There is evidence that shamanesses were not a rarity in Tengriism. See e.g. "Shamanism in Siberia", MA Czaplicka, 1914, and "Shamanism in Siberia: Russian Records of Indigenous Spirituality", AA Znamenski, 2013.

• Standardized the optional Lucky Ruler trait bonus to equivalents of 2x powerful relevant traits.

In Frosty3, while Lucky Rulers received a tax bonus equivalent to 20x Greedy!, their army sizes were relatively unaffected. This created a kind of bizzarre situation where these rulers with normalish levies were apparently bankrolled by God and relied almost exclusively on mercenaries. It seems more realistic and fun to imagine these rulers as champions of their people rather than as fountains of gold, so in this patch their tax bonus is reduced to "merely" the equivalent of 5x Greedy but receive notable military bonuses. Their bonus levy size now corresponds to 2x Adventurer, Reinforce Rate to 2x Peasant Ruler, Combat Rating to 2x Strong, Health to 2x Robust, Stats to 2x Genius, etc. Lucky Rulers are purely optional as a challenge / "hard mode", and do not appear in any game unless you specifically make them.

Installation and Compatibility​

Requires HIP as a dependency. Nothing in this patch is map-dependent, it only affects EMF. It does not matter what other HIP modules are installed.

Download the zip and extract it to your mod folder. Make sure both HIP and this patch ("Supplementary Bugfix and Balance Patch") are active in the launcher.

In the absence of incompatible mods, this patch should be safe to add mid-save, and should also be safe to remove mid-save. The reason for that is that this mod technically does not introduce anything new, just changes existing functions and values. This also means that, if you particularly hate a certain change introduced in this patch, you could simply delete the relevant file from your local copy of the HIP_Patch folder, and all the remaining parts of the mod should still function. Although, before that, I would recommend that you 1. give it a try and see how you like the balance in a real game, and 2. if something is seriously wrong, please explain the issue here so I can see if I can fix it.

Known to be fully compatible at the time of this writing: any purely visual mod, any purely musical mod, Artifact Search, Cities of Wonders (HIP Edition), all of LordMidas's ck2 mods, More Cultural Names (HIP Edition), MTA - Divine Bloodline, MTA - New Artifacts, MTA - Vice and Virtue, Mythic Artifacts, New Immersive Events, Prisoner Mrriage, Rich Childhood, VIET Events Reborn.

Should be compatible with other (sub)mods that do not touch the files listed here. For mods that do touch these files, a compatibility patch that includes the changes (relative to HIP) that both this mod and that other mod makes would be the solution.

Spoiler: Replaced files

common/council_voting/01_pragmatist_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/02_glory_hound_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/03_zealot_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/05_selfish_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/06_family_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/09_interaction_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/emf_faction_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/emf_friends_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/emf_lovers_pattern.txt
common/council_voting/emf_moneymaker_pattern.txt
common/laws/succession_laws.txt
common/laws/emf_demesne_laws.txt
common/laws/emf_obligations_laws.txt
common/objectives/emf_plot_fabricate_heresy.txt
common/objectives/emf_plot_fabricate_treason.txt
common/objectives/emf_plot_fabricate_treason_liege.txt
common/objectives/emf_plot_take_revenge.txt
common/objectives/wealth_piety_prestige.txt
common/religions/00_religions.txt
common/scripted_triggers/00_scripted_triggers.txt
common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
common/static_modifiers.txt
decisions/02_emf_employment_decisions.txt
decisions/emf_formation_decisions.txt
decisions/rip_various_decisions.txt
events/emf_cadet.txt
events/emf_disease.txt
events/emf_siege.txt
events/HF_sway_events.txt
events/job_offmap.txt
events/job_spymaster.txt
events/mnm_artifacts_events.txt
events/rip_physician_events.txt

Defines affected:

Spoiler: Defines

NDefines.NInfamy.REALM_SIZE_GROWTH_MODIFIER
NDefines.NInfamy.REALM_SIZE_SHRINK_MODIFIER
NDefines.NInfamy.WAR_REALM_CHANGE_VALUE
NDefines.NInfamy.INDEPENDENCE_REALM_CHANGE_VALUE
NDefines.NInfamy.INHERITANCE_CHANGE_VALUE
NDefines.NInfamy.VASSAL_CHANGE_VALUE
NDefines.NInfamy.INFAMY_DECAY_BASE
NDefines.NInfamy.MIN_INFAMY_DECAY
NDefines.NInfamy.MAX_INFAMY_DECAY
NDefines.NInfamy.MAX_INFAMY_PER_WAR_PROVINCE
NDefines.NInfamy.MIN_INFAMY_PER_WAR_PROVINCE
NDefines.NNomad.MAX_MANPOWER_POPULATION_MULTIPLIER
NDefines.NDiplomacy.INTER_MUSLIM_WAR_MONTHLY_PIETY_COST
NDefines.NReligion.REFORM_RELIGION_MIN_AUTHORITY
NDefines.NReligion.REFORM_RELIGION_MIN_HOLY_SITES
NDefines.NReligion.REFORM_RELIGION_PIETY_COST

Compatibility Patching Guide​

What to do if you find that your favourite submod and this patch edit the same files? You could make a compatibility patch: see the guide in the following spoiler. If you succeed in making a compatibility patch, you could post it in this thread for others to enjoy, and I will be happy to link it or give a shoutout.

Spoiler: How to make a Compatibility Patch

In this example I will show the steps needed to make a compatibility patch between Frozen4 and the current version of Norse Heritage Overhaul: "NHO Main Part13-01-21hotfixincluded.zip".

1. First we want to check if NHO and Frozen4 are compatible or not. To do that, we need to look through all of the folders inside "NHO Main Part" (extract the zip if you have not already). We are looking for any files that are also present in the same locations inside "HIP_Patch". You can also find a list of files with a chance for a clash in the spoiler above labelled "Replaced files". We find that NHO and Frozen4 share two files:
common/laws/succession_laws.txt
common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
but luckily the two mods do not edit the same defines. So while currently they are not compatible, we can make them!

2. Our compatibility patch is effectively going to be a new mod. So make a new folder in your ck2 mod folder (where all the other mods are) and call it something like "NHO-Frozen-Compatch". That folder will have our merged files inside it, which will make NHO and Frozen compatible. But first, we are going to need a .mod file to help load it. Create a new file in the ck2 mod folder (where all the other .mod files are) and call it something like "NHO-Frozen-Compatch.mod". Open this new .mod in a text editor and make sure its contents are:

name = "Compatibility Patch between NHO Main Part and Frozen"
path = "mod/NHO-Frozen-Compatch"
dependencies = { "NHO Main Part" "HIP - Supplementary Bugfix and Balance Patch" }

The name can be anything, though it is good to make it descriptive as it will show up in the launcher. The path needs to specify the relative location to the folder you created earlier this step. The dependencies have to be the names of the two mods you are making a compatibility patch for.

3. We need to set up the base files that will be in our compatch. These are the two files that clash between the two mods that we identified in step 1. So go inside the NHO-Frozen-Compatch folder and create a folder named "common", then inside the "common" folder create two sibling folders named "laws" and "scripted_triggers". The base files are going come from what NHO and Frozen both depend on: HIP. So we will copy the two relevant files from HIP to the same location within our new compatch folder.
Historical_Immersion_Project/common/laws/succession_laws.txt
needs to be copied to:
NHO-Frozen-Compatch/common/laws/succession_laws.txt

Historical_Immersion_Project/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
needs to be copied to:
NHO-Frozen-Compatch/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
We have succeeded in setting up the base.

4. We now need to merge the changes from the two mods into our base files. This is what will actually make the two mods compatible. We are going to need a merging tool. If you are tech-savvy and on Linux, I recommend vimdiff. If you are on Windows, I recommend WinMerge. Both of these are free tools downloadable from the internet. Using your merging tool application open 3 files for a 3-way merge:
NHO-Frozen-Compatch/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
HIP_Patch/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
NHO Main Part/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
Of the 3 files, we will be editing only our "base" (NHO-Frozen-Compatch/...). Make sure you do not touch the other two files! We do not want to modify the other mods, but create our own compatibility patch for them.

Your merge tool should now show that compared to our base file (NHO-Frozen-Compatch/...), "HIP_Patch" makes one set of changes (corrects "english" to "saxon", which fixes a bug), and "NHO Main Part" makes a different change (adds "scots" to Scottish culture). We want both sets of changes. So using your merging tool, make sure the compatch file:
NHO-Frozen-Compatch/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
contains both the "culture = saxon" lines in two places (this derives from Frozen), and the "culture = scots" line inside an OR block (this derives from NHO). In other words, the final file should have a section like this:

emf_province_is_saxon_english_building_culture = {
    OR = {
        culture = saxon
        culture = welsh
        culture = cumbric
    }
}

emf_province_is_scottish_building_culture = {
    OR = {
        culture = scottish
        culture = scots
    }
}

with the "english" under the NOR part of the emf_province_is_north_germanic_building_culture block (same file, just further down) also corrected to "saxon". Save the merged file as
NHO-Frozen-Compatch/common/scripted_triggers/emf_buildings_triggers.txt
and then repeat step 4 with the other clashing file:
common/laws/succession_laws.txt
The succession laws file has a larger number of changes in both mods, but the principle is the same: the file inside the compatibility patch folder should contain, relative to the HIP base, both the changes NHO makes (adding more cultures to be eligible for various succession laws like Tanistry) and the changes Frozen makes (overhaul of the opinion modifiers, and buffs to elective successions).

5. In the launcher, make sure our new compatibility patch mod is active, then launch the game and test if it works. If you can see cultural buildings for both Scots ("Scottis") and Saxons ("Angelcynn"), then it looks like the compatch for emf_buildings_triggers.txt worked. If Tanistry is both available to Russians (NHO) and provides 10 dynasty opinion (Frozen) instead of 5 then it looks like the compatch for succession_laws.txt worked. Congratulations on creating a compatibility patch!

Future​

I plan to watch this thread for at least a few days to see if anyone still cares about this old game. You can try to contact me here. But in case I vanish without a trace, here is a bit of future-proofing:

I do not own HIP, I cannot give any permission regarding HIP or any of its modules, I can only speak about the little bits of code I myself wrote for this patch.
I release everything I wrote for the "Supplementary Bugfix and Balance Patch" under the Creative Commons BY-NC license. This essentially means that you are free to use/modify/incorporate/remix/publish every bit I contributed as long as you do not charge money or claim that you made something that I did.

 

[Svatopluk]

The spam filter is preventing me from posting any links, writing plus signs under some circumstances, and writing the word mrriage without a typo.
So excuse me for those issues.

 

[IIngriDD]

Big thanks!
Most appreciated!
Will use this in my future upcoming playhrough.

 

[supercid87]

I appreciate it. Thanks! I think i noticed the law issue specifically. Odd back and forth switching going on.

 

[Pansloven]

Thanks for the work! It'll be years before CK3 is at the level of modded CK2, so this patch is a big help. If you could take a look at some other minor bugs that have been mentioned at the top of the forum it would be great (smith event bug, tribals can't close gates during epidemics).

 

[Lotussy]

yes <3

 

[Militantti Talitintti]

Any chance of a fix for AI characters only receiving symptom treatments (if even them) and not illness treatments? This was a major cause of concern in a recent game of mine which went on to experience the black death.

 

[MidasGrabbedMeByMy]

I plan to watch this thread for at least a few days to see if anyone still cares about this old game.

I care. Haven't even gotten CK3 yet as it seems so bare-bones in terms of content. CK2 with HIP is -- at least for me -- still the better option.

Your changes all seem to make sense. Great work!

 

[Svatopluk]

Posted a new version.

If you could take a look at some other minor bugs that have been mentioned at the top of the forum it would be great (smith event bug, tribals can't close gates during epidemics).

I fixed a Smith event bug now, which was probably what people complained about (the bug was not well described).

Tribals going into seclusion with their whole court is more contentious. Where would a tribal chieftain take dozens of courtiers for months, possibly a year, without outside contact? A large hut is not enough. With this patch, having access to a castle, or something almost like a castle (maximally upgraded tribal fort) allows tribal rulers to close the gates.

Any chance of a fix for AI characters only receiving symptom treatments (if even them) and not illness treatments?

Yep, should be much better now with the updated version. Once I started looking for it, it was clear it was a huge issue. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[G.Strategos]

We surely care and it's very much appreciated! Have you checked HIP's latest beta on GIT though? Probably more things were fixed with it. I already have the latest beta, but I don't remember which are the latest hotfixes they added before a few months.

PS
I suppose the full Norse Heritage Overhaul with all its sub-tweaks is compatible, right?

Thanks again for your work!

 

[Pansloven]

Posted a new version.


I fixed a Smith event bug now, which was probably what people complained about (the bug was not well described).

Tribals going into seclusion with their whole court is more contentious. Where would a tribal chieftain take dozens of courtiers for months, possibly a year, without outside contact? A large hut is not enough. With this patch, having access to a castle, or something almost like a castle (maximally upgraded tribal fort) allows tribal rulers to close the gates.


Yep, should be much better now with the updated version. Once I started looking for it, it was clear it was a huge issue. Thanks for pointing it out.

Thanks for patching the smith bug. Yeah, I'm gonna level with you, I'm just a poor corrupt Slav who likes to give himself a million gold pieces at the beggining of the game and just drape my family in gold. That's why I experienced the bug while ordering the most expensive jewels quite a lot.))) In other cases in my experience the smith quest worked as normal.

 

[G.Strategos]

Any news from the OP?

 

[Choorus]

Love it! That's the kind of modding hero we need, but don't deserve! Do You think bringing back the old, long duels is feasible?

 

[Svatopluk]

Posted a new version. The biggest changes are an overhaul of the game difficulty modifiers (a wider range of more reasonable effects instead of an absurdly strong focus on army morale), and an increase in perceived Threat generation for larger realms (Defensive Pacts were exceedingly rare in Vanilla/HIP, even when a massive empire was gobbling up all of its neighbours).

My main hope with this version is that playing on Hard or Very Hard difficulty will now be a good challenge, without feeling unfair or cheesy. The difficulty overhaul however necessitated dropping compatibility with the Cultural Bonuses (HIP) mod, as it also edits static_modifiers.txt . A compatibility patch could be made if people are interested. I added a relevant guide to my first post.

Threat generation is now several times what it was in Frosty, though in observer test games it looks to be working well: Defensive Pacts now tend to form when I would rationally expect it (e.g. an already sizable kingdom suddenly doubles in size), and disappear in around 10-20 years without major offensive war, depending on realm size and strength, which seems more-or-less reasonable imo.

Have you checked HIP's latest beta on GIT though? Probably more things were fixed with it.

There has been no update on the Open Beta changelog on zijistark's site since last July, which made me think that HIP development overall is "frozen". You are right though that on the EMF git site DelnarErsike has made a couple of changes since then. Most of these are minor though. I took a look at it now and the emf git beta looks compatible with my patch, so you should be able to use them together without any issues (the one place where we edit the same file relative to Frosty3, we both fix the same issue).

It would be nice to have all improvements since Frosty3 in one place, but I think integrating changes from the git repo into this patch here might be a bad idea. It would be rude without their permission (and possibly worse). I would prefer it the other way around: like I wrote in my opening post, the HIP team has my blessing to integrate my patch into the main mod if they want.

I suppose the full Norse Heritage Overhaul with all its subt-weaks is compatible, right?

It is not fully compatible. I only looked at "NHO Compilation (13-01-21)", which has two clashes: emf_buildings_triggers.txt and succession_laws.txt . As it is, you would lose the cultural buildings for Scots or for Old English, depending on load order, and would similarly lose either the expanded cultural succession law eligibility from NHO or my overhaul of succession law opinion modifiers and realm bonuses.

I do not want to have to make compatches for various submods I do not use myself, especially as compatibility patches would then need to be updated for every new version of every mod. But I do realize that it can be very annoying to have to choose between two mods which could in principle be compatible, but are not. So I updated the OP with a detailed section on how to make compatibility patches, using NHO as the example. I hope you find it useful (teach a man to fish...).

Do You think bringing back the old, long duels is feasible?

I have never seen long duels, so those must have disappeared before I started playing. Can you describe in detail what they were like? Are lots of people interested in this? (I make no promises here)

 

[G.Strategos]

There has been no update on the Open Beta changelog on zijistark's site since last July, which made me think that HIP development overall is "frozen". You are right though that on the EMF git site DelnarErsike has made a couple of changes since then. Most of these are minor though. I took a look at it now and the emf git beta looks compatible with my patch, so you should be able to use them together without any issues (the one place where we edit the same file relative to Frosty3, we both fix the same issue).

It would be nice to have all improvements since Frosty3 in one place, but I think integrating changes from the git repo into this patch here might be a bad idea. It would be rude without their permission (and possibly worse). I would prefer it the other way around: like I wrote in my opening post, the HIP team has my blessing to integrate my patch into the main mod if they want.

Oh, I totally understand. It would be nice if they'll ''officially" include your fixes in the mod since that would make your life easier and you could try to fix other things which they're not planning to touch etc.

It is not fully compatible. I only looked at "NHO Compilation (13-01-21)", which has two clashes: emf_buildings_triggers.txt and succession_laws.txt . As it is, you would lose the cultural buildings for Scots or for Old English, depending on load order, and would similarly lose either the expanded cultural succession law eligibility from NHO or my overhaul of succession law opinion modifiers and realm bonuses.

I do not want to have to make compatches for various submods I do not use myself, especially as compatibility patches would then need to be updated for every new version of every mod. But I do realize that it can be very annoying to have to choose between two mods which could in principle be compatible, but are not. So I updated the OP with a detailed section on how to make compatibility patches, using NHO as the example. I hope you find it useful (teach a man to fish...).

No worries, I'm not currently using the full version (map, cultural changes, laws, etc) I favor the smaller tweaks since it makes compatibility with other mods easier to handle.
Yeah, I know the feeling. It's surely tedious and impractical to satisfy every modding wish. Not sure if you're using the Dark Ages mod, it's one of the most famous additions for HIP. If you're using it, could you take a look at its compatibility with your patch?

Posted a new version. The biggest changes are an overhaul of the game difficulty modifiers (a wider range of more reasonable effects instead of an absurdly strong focus on army morale), and an increase in perceived Threat generation for larger realms (Defensive Pacts were exceedingly rare in Vanilla/HIP, even when a massive empire was gobbling up all of its neighbours).

My main hope with this version is that playing on Hard or Very Hard difficulty will now be a good challenge, without feeling unfair or cheesy. The difficulty overhaul however necessitated dropping compatibility with the Cultural Bonuses (HIP) mod, as it also edits static_modifiers.txt . A compatibility patch could be made if people are interested. I added a relevant guide to my first post.

Threat generation is now several times what it was in Frosty, though in observer test games it looks to be working well: Defensive Pacts now tend to form when I would rationally expect it (e.g. an already sizable kingdom suddenly doubles in size), and disappear in around 10-20 years without major offensive war, depending on realm size and strength, which seems more-or-less reasonable imo.

Sounds very interesting and I'd like to test your newest update since I'd very much like an increased game difficulty. I'd hate to lose compatibility with Cultural bonuses though, so a compatch would be really appreciated. I'll take a look at your compatching guide (thanks for including it). Though I haven't touched CK2 for ages and my coding skills are a bit rusty.

Cheers and thank you very much for your updates!

 

[Choorus]

I have never seen long duels, so those must have disappeared before I started playing. Can you describe in detail what they were like? Are lots of people interested in this? (I make no promises here)

Some time ago, the duels would have many events per duel firing, so the personal fights were way more epic. It got rolled back due to people wanting battles to be quicker.
Similar happened with the coronation events that were present in HIP before vanilla and were way better. Got rolled back too.

 

[Whizzer]

Some time ago, the duels would have many events per duel firing, so the personal fights were way more epic. It got rolled back due to people wanting battles to be quicker.
Similar happened with the coronation events that were present in HIP before vanilla and were way better. Got rolled back too.

The old Duel Engine was still very much random. It gives you no more control than vanilla's combat system, but can take ages, meaning combat lasts far beyond a big fight between two or more armies. It's a matter of taste, to be sure, but little more than that. A downside of the old events was the desyncs they tended to cause in multiplayer games.

 

[Choorus]

The old Duel Engine was still very much random. It gives you no more control than vanilla's combat system, but can take ages, meaning combat lasts far beyond a big fight between two or more armies. It's a matter of taste, to be sure, but little more than that. A downside of the old events was the desyncs they tended to cause in multiplayer games.

I've always considered MP in CK2 to be a masochist side-feature, but the point is taken. I'm mainly about more flavour in combat and more events per fight.

 

[Crimson Grog]

This looks great, I'll have to install it before I start my next game!

 

[waeq17]

Thank you so much for this mod and the tutorial. Both are so useful!