[MOD] Crisis of the Third Century

[Diskianterezh]

Steam : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2858320715
ParadoxMods : https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/58325/Any
Last Update : 07/08/23 -- Invictus compatibility update 1.7 04/01/24

As the mod now evolved from a "several events and modifiers" to a complete submod with more complex mechanics, I am opening this forum thread to keep track of errors and questions.

Crisis of the Third Century is a submod of Simple IR Timeline Extender by TinWiz : https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/mod-simple-i-r-timeline-extender.1175609/
It aims to add balance to the natural inflation of bonuses from technologies and the resource flow of a thriving nation so that the challenge remains until the end date of the mod. Loyalties, characters management, money, everything in 700+ have usually become trivial, and often you just have to watch your blob grow larger and larger. However this era was historically rich of events and tragedies that have pushed the most powerful empires to the brink of chaos. Coupled with events of Simple IR Timeline Extender such as barbarian invasions, epidemics and the birth of Christianity, this mod add new mechanics, modifiers, events and challenges, many things to challenge your big blob, and hopefully push it close to collapse to prepare a CK3 conversion.

Going forward, I have many ideas i hope i could add in the mod to spice up megacampains.

Features :
- A new Monetary Crisis system inspired by the historical one will bring challenges to Great powers. New decisions, events and inventions around it.
- From ~800 and beyong, civil wars will be more disastrous to your empire.
- From around the third century timing, new mechanics and events can trigger :
* Republics will begin to face political instability, leading eventually to their reform in monarchies. Oppose it, or accompagny the reform.
* Monarchies are subjected to a risk of Military anarchy, leading to generals crowning themselves emperors... or worse
----> Dozen of events added to manage any consequences of the Anarchy
* Low stability will trigger an internal collapse, forcing your country to slowly lose control over your governorates. This makes stability a more central number, as any event now can hit it pretty hard, drawing you to multiple instances of the collapse.


Is this compatible with Invictus 1.7 ?
Yes it is, and I recommend to play with it

What is the mod load order ?
Last, after Invictus and Simple TE

Can i activate the mod on the middle of my game or should i start a new game with it ?
There is no "technical" problem to introduce it mid-way, as in : this should not crash your save. However, the mod introduce some new inventions in the civic and office tree, thus by introducing it, you will shuffle all the invention around in your tree. It is therefore recommended that you start from scratch, but feel free to try and see how it goes !

Is it possible to do something about X empire ? It's always too powerful.
The aim of the mod is to hit your empire with a stick, the larger you grow, the larger the stick should be. However, it should always be possible to shine and flourish despite the difficulties, by careful planning. Furthermore, some countries (like Rome) are very powerful, and it is difficult to target them without breaking everyone around it. Things should however be a little bit more difficult for them compared to vanilla.

How to get rid of the Third Century Modifier ?
You can't, as this modifier works like a "patch" to nerf the natural inflation of bonuses from techs and wonders due to the extended time of gameplay, and is here to symbolize a new era of trouble. Every nation is subjected to this modifier, so everyone is equal to the crisis.

This X mechanic is confusing and badly implemented
This is totally possible, as i am trying a lot of things and can fail miserably. I am however largely helped by any feedback you could provide. Do not hesitate to post any strange thing you encountered (from your leader killing himself to a monetary crisis triggering where it should not) or even things you think are not clear enough.

Big thanks to @TinWiz for letting me submod his project, and to the Imperator mod community for their constant share of knowledge.

 

[IlikeTrains]

I think it's worth to mention, this submod is fully supported by the converter, alongside Invictus and Timeline Extension.

 

[pi4t]

Is this available outside steam, for those of us who bought the game from other stores like GOG?

 

[Diskianterezh]

Is this available outside steam, for those of us who bought the game from other stores like GOG?

I just released it on Paradox mods here : https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/58325/Any

 

[CapnMunch]

I have a suggestion for an alternative internal collapse result for tribes- perhaps the pops of an unintegrated culture could become a migrant horde under a new tag? It’s still just +1 tag overall, but it also results in at least some cultural upheaval (and in the late game, that’s pretty rare); and it adds some Migration Period flair.

 

[Diskianterezh]

The mod is updated for Invictus 1.6a

Not much change, only few shared lines were updated.

As always, there should not be any error, but please report anything you encounter.

Edit : Mod is now updated for Invictus 1.6c and the respective TE update

 

[Tarkus8]

Hi Diskiant, it's me from the Steam comments, I'm gonna upload the autosave which crashes while loading. The mods I'm using in the respective load order are:

- 2.0 Better UI
- Clear Sky 2.0
- Fog Remover
- Imperator: Invictus
- Timeline Extension for Invictus
- TE: Crisis of the third century

The other savefile (mega_campaign_006) is stable but after some time, some years, the game crashes and I can't continue. If I disable the mod I also lose a lot of technology researched so I'd rather not do that.

In any case, apart from the issue I'm encountering, the mod is great, it is a little bit too difficult at times but I guess that's somewhat realistic. So, thank you

EDIT: Actually, the mod is disabled on mega_campaign_006, because I tried to continue playing without crashing. So I'm also gonna attach the previous save file which had the mod enabled from the get go (005)

EDIT 2: I might even be wrong that this mod is the cause of the issue, but considering that disabling it allowed me to play a little bit more before encountering the crashes led me to believe that. If your mod is not actually the issue, then I apologize

 

[Diskianterezh]

Hi Diskiant, it's me from the Steam comments, I'm gonna upload the autosave which crashes while loading. The mods I'm using in the respective load order are:

- 2.0 Better UI
- Clear Sky 2.0
- Fog Remover
- Imperator: Invictus
- Timeline Extension for Invictus
- TE: Crisis of the third century

The other savefile (mega_campaign_006) is stable but after some time, some years, the game crashes and I can't continue. If I disable the mod I also lose a lot of technology researched so I'd rather not do that.

In any case, apart from the issue I'm encountering, the mod is great, it is a little bit too difficult at times but I guess that's somewhat realistic. So, thank you

EDIT: Actually, the mod is disabled on mega_campaign_006, because I tried to continue playing without crashing. So I'm also gonna attach the previous save file which had the mod enabled from the get go (005)

EDIT 2: I might even be wrong that this mod is the cause of the issue, but considering that disabling it allowed me to play a little bit more before encountering the crashes led me to believe that. If your mod is not actually the issue, then I apologize

Thank you for the files, I'll check that this evening. If you have a way to trigger the crash so I can reproduce it easier, i'll take it. If you can link the error.log (that should be in the log folder beside the save folder) that is produced upon the crash, that's even better - but I'll try to get one.


On a side note, i saw several report of some crash on Invictus, so there might be a problem on it. But it could be added on top of other minor code potential problems that could be incrementally added to finally crash it, thus i will verify the code.

 

[Tarkus8]

Thank you for the files, I'll check that this evening. If you have a way to trigger the crash so I can reproduce it easier, i'll take it. If you can link the error.log (that should be in the log folder beside the save folder) that is produced upon the crash, that's even better - but I'll try to get one.


On a side note, i saw several report of some crash on Invictus, so there might be a problem on it. But it could be added on top of other minor code potential problems that could be incrementally added to finally crash it, thus i will verify the code.

Thank you for the support. I'm actually continuing my playthrough using the 005 save which is a bit earlier than the others and haven't had any issues so far, so all's good there. There was no specific thing that apparently specifically triggered the crash. That autosave won't load, while on the 006 save it looked like after reaching a certain date the game just crashed, every time.

The error.log is attached here, but as I said I've played a bit with the 005 save so I don't know how relevant it is now... If I knew of this file before I'd have attached it on the previous post, but oh well, better late than never I guess

I apologize again if your mod isn't the cause of the crash, and thank you for all the help

 

[Diskianterezh]

Thank you for the support. I'm actually continuing my playthrough using the 005 save which is a bit earlier than the others and haven't had any issues so far, so all's good there. There was no specific thing that apparently specifically triggered the crash. That autosave won't load, while on the 006 save it looked like after reaching a certain date the game just crashed, every time.

The error.log is attached here, but as I said I've played a bit with the 005 save so I don't know how relevant it is now... If I knew of this file before I'd have attached it on the previous post, but oh well, better late than never I guess

I apologize again if your mod isn't the cause of the crash, and thank you for all the help

I checked your error log and corrected some minor errors, but i couldnt find what made you crash. The error log is erased and recreated when you restart the game, so if you crash, the error log of the crash should be given before reloading the game, else the log of the crash will be erased.

Keep me updated on any crash you might encounter !

 

[CapnMunch]

This mod still works and still slaps. Makes playing the otherwise blocky late game of IR a blast.

 

[goodcigar]

Plague events?

Any way to simulate the wealth of Pops? The collapse of the Roman hoi mesoi (middle class) after the great Republican era conquests and all the slaves/wealth that poured in, extreme wealth inequality, ultra rich plutocrats, massive slave plantations that replaced/displaced the common Roman farm owner who then migrated to the cities, conservatives refusing to allow necessary major political/economic reforms, is what led to political instability and extremism which resulted eventually in political assassinations (Gracchus) and civil war (Sulla/Caesar). Good book about this would be The Storm Before The Storm by Mike Duncan. Rome is the ancient superpower republic that went through the whole process of Anacyclosis.

The city of Rome itself also became huge and dependent on food imports/the public grain dole.

Also a major element of the Empire's collapse was the "barbarian" population and how the Romans treated them. Barbarians migrated to the Roman world. They were treated as second class citizens. Pops should be able to have two cultures at once, Roman and Barbarian. These Pops should have dual loyalties or be suspected of having dual loyalties. Romans did not like Barbarians but in the late years of the Empire they needed them. The Roman military was increasingly a Barbarian force and offices were held by Romanized Barbarians. Barbarians were treated very badly and betrayed by the Romans many times and it backfired terribly many times.

The recent History Channel series (Barbarians Rising) did a good job showing this I think.

 

[Diskianterezh]

Plague events?

Any way to simulate the wealth of Pops? The collapse of the Roman hoi mesoi (middle class) after the great Republican era conquests and all the slaves/wealth that poured in, extreme wealth inequality, ultra rich plutocrats, massive slave plantations that replaced/displaced the common Roman farm owner who then migrated to the cities, conservatives refusing to allow necessary major political/economic reforms, is what led to political instability and extremism which resulted eventually in political assassinations (Gracchus) and civil war (Sulla/Caesar). Good book about this would be The Storm Before The Storm by Mike Duncan. Rome is the ancient superpower republic that went through the whole process of Anacyclosis.

The city of Rome itself also became huge and dependent on food imports/the public grain dole.

Also a major element of the Empire's collapse was the "barbarian" population and how the Romans treated them. Barbarians migrated to the Roman world. They were treated as second class citizens. Pops should be able to have two cultures at once, Roman and Barbarian. These Pops should have dual loyalties or be suspected of having dual loyalties. Romans did not like Barbarians but in the late years of the Empire they needed them. The Roman military was increasingly a Barbarian force and offices were held by Romanized Barbarians. Barbarians were treated very badly and betrayed by the Romans many times and it backfired terribly many times.

The recent History Channel series (Barbarians Rising) did a good job showing this I think.

Plagues are already here in the Timeline extender mod (which is mandatory, and Crisis is its submod)

The whole late antiquity-early middle age era is so rich that we would need an entire new Paradox game to emulate it. However we (with Tinwiz) are only able to mod and twist files in order to "bend" Imperator and simulate this era (up to 476), we have great hopes in WTWSMS mod of CK3 for the other years of early middle ages.
Meanwhile, i'm progressively adding more layers to add new mechanics (without breaking the whole game nor destroying the player experience) in order for social/economic/political crisis.

The money crisis system is a system i imagined back in my early Invictus days (with Jphiloponus) and is supposed to emulate the cause of the wealth crisis and thus the middle class /plutocrats- while keeping it natural and dynamic so any large empire (not only Roman) can experience it. Of course its not that perfect, but i'm quite happy of it : its dynamic, happen in any situation, and you have to use every other mechanics of the game to manage it : laws, cultural decisions, management of the cultural population, conquest, vassalization, technologies, events (where the wealthy oppose your economic reforms), and ultimately the aftermath consequences of the Solidus.

The Barbarian question is quite interesting but such system is mechanically limited. Right now, there is a base system (with base game barbarians), TE events (barbarians flooding from the north) and Crisis' simple yet efficient consequences (get invaded, big stabhit, possible collapse). I plan to maybe check and expand it later, but again, this is a complicated matter and things are quite ok for now.
Thanks for the ideas tho ! I'm reading a lot to get the good combinaison and dynamics and will surely add those to my desk.

 

[Diskianterezh]

After a break of several months, interspersed with few patches, I plan to get back to coding to implement some new ideas for 1.3. Mainly internal politics linked to the implementation of the Solidus (currently represented by a magnificent -10 malus to character loyalty, but which should be replaced by something more consistent and dynamic).
I won't give a date, as I don't have a deadline or time dedicated to the code.

In the meantime, here are the contents of 1.2.1, which balances a few digits and adds more content on the monetary crisis.

Balance :
- I removed the political influence cost from the mine control invention. This felt quite weird to pay for an invention first, and also filled the error.log with pages of non-critical errors
- Giving military advantages to the army will no longer prevent your only general from asking benefits, but it will instead decrease the chances. Also, lonely generals can ask benefits under 60 loyalty instead of 50.
- Raised a little bit the trigger bar for collapse of the currency event (you might destroy your currency a bit more before enjoying the modifiers)

New :
Feedback and saves I've received have taught me that the intrinsic workings of the currency crisis are often complicated to understand and manage. And very often the lack of action leads economies to plunge deeply with no way out.
So I've added several series of more or less independent events that will be triggered when the maximum modifiers (deflation or currency crash) are reached. These events can be 'beneficial' and help you get back on track (against concessions),

or flavour events that make you feel the consequences on the economy and help you ... to collapse. There is also some other effect of when non-efficient leader tries to make financial reforms :

(Some reference to the Diocletian reform)

These additions should add content and avoid ending up with a huge blob doing nothing for 100 years because of penalties.

Solidus reform change :
The Solidus is the ultimate monetary reform : once you managed to unlock the last invention of the monetary laws (civic tree), the one unlocking the Aurelian reform, you can pass the Solidus monetary reform. Historically it was one of the final act in late Roman era - early Byzantine era who managed to stabilize the crisis. In the game I've simplified it as a reform that 'solves' the whole problem. Once the solidus has passed, you no longer need to worry about the currency crisis.
Right now, since 1.2, once you have the Aurelian reform law and no monetary modifiers, you can take the 'Solidus' decision and trigger an event chain that will ultimately give you the Solidus modifier. I found that rather boring and instead removed the decision and reforged it into a mission tree (yay!)

Here you can see the Solidus tree as a rather simple tree : in the middle you have the three main phases that will each trigger the removed original events. If you just want to quickly gain the modifier and dont take that mission slot too long, you just have to take those three steps : they have the same requirement and duration than the previous event chain, about 6 years.

However i added those two mission path right and left for managing the two aspects of the monetary system : Deflation left, and silver crash right.
Indeed, you need to have no Deflation nor Silver crash to be able to pass the middle main path. But it is totally possible that you have a hard time at reducing Deflation or Silver value. Fear not ! These two mission path will give you simple and progressive objectives to progressively guide you on the good path : having the right law, taking some cultural decisions, and finally once you managed to reduce the correponding crisis, the final task of the branch will give a great modifier, very useful for keeping the economy together.

Here "Mastering values" will give you a modifier, which although a small bonus, will give you an appreciable boost to your economic balance for 40 years! This will make it easier to obtain the prerequisites for the central branch.

The other branch will give a shorter modifier, but all the more powerful because it will passively adjust the value of the silver !
There is overall a dozen of events added around this overhaul you might encounter.
This should help managing this system if you want to pass the Solidus. Also, dont forget that the Solidus itself, although really useful as it delete all the monetary problems forever, is not a very fun modifier and come with some nice penalties in return !

This update should be available in the next days, once I've updated the mod with the latest version of Invictus.

 

[indyandrew]

Is there a way to get the version from before the Invictus 1.6.1 update? Trying to play some saves made before the update with the Old-Invictus 1.6 version and it's crashing on load.

 

[Diskianterezh]

Is there a way to get the version from before the Invictus 1.6.1 update? Trying to play some saves made before the update with the Old-Invictus 1.6 version and it's crashing on load.

I would say to reload a previous version : you go in version notes tab in steam, and chose a previous version to downgrade to.
But you would also get the bugs of this previous version

 

[indyandrew]

I would say to reload a previous version : you go in version notes tab in steam, and chose a previous version to downgrade to.
But you would also get the bugs of this previous version

I see the change notes tab but unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's any way for me to rollback versions there.

 

[Diskianterezh]

I see the change notes tab but unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's any way for me to rollback versions there.

indeed that might be an mod-owner thing to rollback the live version of the mod, i apologize.
i'm afraid there is no real way, except from me to re-upload an entire previous version - which i don't think i have anymore.

However, can you upload your error log when it crashes ? I could have an eye on it and tell you which part of the code you could deleted for it to work.

 

[indyandrew]

OK that'd be great, although I don't know that it's really this mod that's causing the problem. There were three mods I was using that were updated since I made the saves; yours, INR - Invictus, and Imperator Invictus - More Cultural Names. More Cultural Names had a gihub I was able to get the old version from but yours and INR I only have the updated versions of.

 

[Diskianterezh]

OK that'd be great, although I don't know that it's really this mod that's causing the problem. There were three mods I was using that were updated since I made the saves; yours, INR - Invictus, and Imperator Invictus - More Cultural Names. More Cultural Names had a gihub I was able to get the old version from but yours and INR I only have the updated versions of.

Do not forget the Simple timeline extender !
Usually such crashes on loading (without even managing to see the map) is made when some mods are touching at the map. Invictus regularly change the map and territories, i made sure that mine is not affected nor touch any of that. If your crash is "i cannot even load the game", it might be that and i would look at the other mods.
The error log does not indicate anything wrong from my mod, i can only see :
[10:33:38][jomini_script_system.cpp:169]: Script system error!
Error: custom_tooltip effect [ Unknown loc key restore_roman_military_traditions ]
Script location: file: decisions/IRCK3_decisions.txt line: 712

which is from memory something that is in the timeline extender

And some map calculation bugs.
I would definetly look toward mods that use the map in their code.