[MOD] Imperator Invictus

[Emberfox]

Is it only me or does anyone else think the tribes consolidate too easy? By the time Ceasar pops up the Gauls are ruled by one tribe, same goes to other tribes in Britanny, Germania, Iberia and the Steppes regions.

Kind of. At the same time you have large parts of Iberia and parts of Gaul that never change because Defensive Pacts keep anyone from doing anything.

I think the issue for that is that war is to ..clear cut. Especially between smaller countries.
They only go to war if they will win and every expansion increases their power.
Since victory is always positive and defeat is always negative, larger ones will grow and grow and grow.

Which is, as I understand it, basically a problem of all Paradox games. Too stable nations and too clear victories..

 

[IsaacCAT]

There is an event where big tribes explode in smaller tribes. This will eventually happen to all tribes when the succession stability hit reduces their stability.

I cannot find on the wiki the event, but unless they transform to a Monarchy or a Republic, big tribes are not to stick around for long.

Events - Imperator Wiki

imperator.paradoxwikis.com

 

[Emberfox]

There is an event where big tribes explode in smaller tribes. This will eventually happen to all tribes when the succession stability hit reduces their stability.

I cannot find on the wiki the event, but unless they transform to a Monarchy or a Republic, big tribes are not to stick around for long.

Events - Imperator Wiki

imperator.paradoxwikis.com

I have seen the event a couple of times. But surprisingly often, tribes stay together. If it is stability bound, maybe the AI stab boni can prevent it?
Still, it should be more often and, quite honestly, also happen to non-tribes. A split instead of a civil war could massively reduce blobbing.
The idea would be that you kinda buff civil wars, maybe make them multi-sided if possible, and there is a "white peace" option/trigger that splits the realm.

The way it works now makes civil wars (and revolts) way to rare and somehow *never* really weakens the nation. Only if someone can make use of it *during* the revolt das it have an effect.

 

[IsaacCAT]

I have seen the event a couple of times. But surprisingly often, tribes stay together. If it is stability bound, maybe the AI stab boni can prevent it?
Still, it should be more often and, quite honestly, also happen to non-tribes. A split instead of a civil war could massively reduce blobbing.
The idea would be that you kinda buff civil wars, maybe make them multi-sided if possible, and there is a "white peace" option/trigger that splits the realm.

The way it works now makes civil wars (and revolts) way to rare and somehow *never* really weakens the nation. Only if someone can make use of it *during* the revolt das it have an effect.

Yes, succession crisis events could be used to break up big bloobs like tribes event.

Players that cannot assure a positive legitimacy for long time (https://imperator.paradoxwikis.com/Government#Legitimacy) or in a Republic making all parties below 30 Party Support may well find its kingdom explode in small kingdoms without the need of a civil war.

Civil wars as they are now, are only a distraction and a way to strenghten a nation unity, as loyalty is boosted when the civil war ends.

 

[Herennius]

I think tribal defense leagues have become tougher - but that already happened before and without the impact of Inperator Invictus: One of the last official changes was a limit for the mercenary stacks one country can employ at the same time. While it increases by size and certain techs, the nature of such a-per-nation-rule is that a offensive war of one/few tags vs. more one the defending side are harder to win - as the defenders likely can deploy more mercenaries to turn the tide.

 

[TheBrilliantBoolean]

Especially since Glavius I’ve seen more AI’s using their vast reserves of gold even as opms to hire dozens of thousands of Marc’s collectively.

 

[GoukaRyuu]

There is an event where big tribes explode in smaller tribes. This will eventually happen to all tribes when the succession stability hit reduces their stability.

Only problem with that is that all of the parts remain client states of the tag they broke from.

 

[Daspa]

Hello in advance I apologize if English is not good I use the google translator, the taurisci tribe (TSC) of the south-west of Pannonia has a Noric culture but the UP are of Carnia culture, I know it is not something of importance but I know weird when you check out that nation.

Another thing in the region of Gaul Cilsapina and Transalpina there are two cultural groups (Lepontico and Saluvia) that when you add the UP of all the tribes add up to more than 300 each, but lack a formable nation, it would be good to be able to form a new nation at the same time. unite all the tribes. I put this because I am one of those who likes to play with something different than roma and crush everyone.

On the other hand, I do not see how bad it is that some tribe is getting bigger, if it were not like that, it would not have any challenge to conquer them, that makes you use your resources to the maximum and without waste.

 

[Harald Fairhair]

Hello in advance I apologize if English is not good I use the google translator, the taurisci tribe (TSC) of the south-west of Pannonia has a Noric culture but the UP are of Carnia culture, I know it is not something of importance but I know weird when you check out that nation.

Another thing in the region of Gaul Cilsapina and Transalpina there are two cultural groups (Lepontico and Saluvia) that when you add the UP of all the tribes add up to more than 300 each, but lack a formable nation, it would be good to be able to form a new nation at the same time. unite all the tribes. I put this because I am one of those who likes to play with something different than roma and crush everyone.

On the other hand, I do not see how bad it is that some tribe is getting bigger, if it were not like that, it would not have any challenge to conquer them, that makes you use your resources to the maximum and without waste.

Problem is its easy already. If one tribe gets big it will have no oppsition untill Rome arraives. And when Rome arrives it kind of does not matter since they tend to steam roll. Only reason larger tribes forms historical was they bordered Rome in which they needed unity. When no large power existed the tribal peoples tended to fight for their autonomy.

And for gameplay it would be better that tribal areas are more destabled. I could chose a tribe an for a long period of time nothing happens by it self. Which useally means the player must drive the game himself. It would be better to add more unstable elements so the player can tacle them. Some exsamles on top of my head is the death of a ruler should have more impact here. Tribes are in general loyal to good rulers who have proved themselves, so the death of one should often (but not always) a catastrophe. Also the death of one is also death of alliances as the contract is between the rulers not the tribes.

 

[Daspa]

Problem is its easy already. If one tribe gets big it will have no oppsition untill Rome arraives. And when Rome arrives it kind of does not matter since they tend to steam roll. Only reason larger tribes forms historical was they bordered Rome in which they needed unity. When no large power existed the tribal peoples tended to fight for their autonomy.

And for gameplay it would be better that tribal areas are more destabled. I could chose a tribe an for a long period of time nothing happens by it self. Which useally means the player must drive the game himself. It would be better to add more unstable elements so the player can tacle them. Some exsamles on top of my head is the death of a ruler should have more impact here. Tribes are in general loyal to good rulers who have proved themselves, so the death of one should often (but not always) a catastrophe. Also the death of one is also death of alliances as the contract is between the rulers not the tribes.

It would already be a matter of taste, on the other hand there is an event: The Antigonid Cause Wavers, which I think divides the kingdom at the death of Antigonos I, if it does not control certain cities, for the tribes it would have to adapt it to the size of the kingdom and if they are Federated, Settled, or Migratory TribesIt. is surely complicated but there is this one idea

 

[Snowlet]

Dev Diary 33: Carthage Laws, Punic Republic Government Type, New Formables for Achaean League and Aetolian League

Salvete! It’s Hannibal_theCannibal again to talk to you about a few more of my side projects that I’ve been working on. This time, I’ve finally got around to working on content for the nation that I reference in my user name, namely Carthage.

It’s always struck me that for all the content and focus given to Rome and Carthage, as the namesake for the game we all enjoy and it’s primary opponent, the attempt to create complementary content for both tags is lopsided. Both nations have plenty of tag-specific content, including flavour events and 9 missions each. That said, when examined closely, I noticed that one of the biggest divergences in the apparent symmetry of the two nations is the unique laws for Rome versus the generic Republican laws for Carthage. It may seem on the surface to be a small point, but Rome’s unique laws, particularly its military reform laws, are some of the strongest in the game and play an important role in creating the steamrolling late-game monster we all know and love. My goal was to develop a set of custom laws for Carthage to simultaneously add some flavour to one of the most influential nations in the game’s timeline as well as adding specific bonuses that better model the strengths and weaknesses of the Carthaginian republic.

Just as with the Roman unique laws, 2 of the laws categories feature mechanical changes that actually deviate from the generic republican laws while the remainder are solely flavour-focused. Specifically, Military Reform Laws and Maritime Laws will receive some pretty substantial changes that will better enable Carthage to present a stronger military and naval danger to Rome (and the other tags of the western Mediterranean). Instead of the generic Republican military reform laws, Carthage will have the following:

(Default option) “Magonid Levy”
+5% Levy Size Multiplier
+5% Manpower Recovery Speed

“Bureaucratic Command”
+2.5% Levy Size Multiplier
-10% Mercenary Maintenance Cost
-25% Mercenary Hire Cost

“Xanthippan Reforms”
+2.5% Levy Size Multiplier
+5% Discipline
+5% Cohort Starting Experience
Can form Legion in Capital Regions

“Barcid Reforms”
+5% National Manpower
-15% Unit Attrition
Can form Legions in all Regions

The default military law has been buffed to match the Roman equivalent and references the Army used by King Mago to expand Carthage’s wealth and prestige. The second military law, originally focused on the nobility (war exhaustion reduction), has been replaced with a law emphasising Carthage’s penchant for utilising mercenary armies to great effect. The traditional military legion law has been replaced with a law that gives increased discipline, a reference to the military reforms by the Spartan general Xanthippus, who trained the Carthaginian army in the art of Greek Hoplite warfare. The final military law has been replaced with a law that gives increased manpower and reduced unit attrition, referencing the large armies fielded by General Hannibal in the Second Punic War that were able to time and time again surprise Roman legions by taking dangerous and rarely taken paths through hostile territory. I wanted to create some small bonuses in keeping with the Carthaginian military tradition without wildly changing the natural military progression. With these new laws, both players and AIs will have an easier time fielding larger armies that are better equipped to stay in the field. In addition to the military laws, new maritime laws have been introduced that generally match the bonuses enjoyed by the Romans.

(Default Option) “Citizen Navies”
+5% Manpower Recovery Speed

“Strategic Monopolies”
+10% Export Value

“Merchant Captains”
+25% Import Value
-5% Naval Maintenance Cost

“Trade Escort Policy”
+5% Integrated Culture Happiness


The 1st and 4th maritime laws match the Roman and Generic laws, while the 2nd and 3rd have been changed to match the Roman equivalents. Additionally, “Merchant Captains” law has been slightly buffed with the naval maintenance reduction to reflect the relative ease Carthage had fielding numerically larger navies in the first and second Punic wars.

In addition to new Carthaginian laws, Tudhaliya has been working on a new government type to better reflect the oligarchic/plutocratic hybrid republic practised in Carthage and Gadir. The working title for this government type is “Punic Republic” and will be the default government to Carthage and Gadir, but will also be available for all Punic puppets (like Utica, Thapsus, etc.) and releasable tags (like Carthago Nova). Placing great emphasis on the mercantile strength of the republics, the Punic Republic will feature the following:


1 Civic Idea Slot
1 Oratory Idea Slot
1 Religious Idea Slot

Idea Bonus:
+3 Capital Trade Routes
+4% National Citizen Happiness

The starting setup for Carthage:

The starting setup for Gadir:

The decisions for the Punic puppet tags:

Additionally, the Punic Republic will have two co-rulers or Suffetes, like the Aristocratic Republic. On top of this work, I’ve added some minor party objectives and faction impacts based on your interactions with the new government. I’ve also made some modifications to some of Carthage’s missions to reflect the new government options. Lastly, I wish to offer you a small teaser. Tudhalyia has some more announcements for other punic tags but those aren’t ready to be shared just yet. Know that there is more in the works though!

New formables - Achaean and Aetolian Leagues!

When reading about the history of Greece after the Successor Kings secured their respective realms, it’s clear that the various city leagues formed in order to prevent Macedonian and Egyptian encroachment. Used by the other Diadochi to fight proxy wars with one another, the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues were dangerous enemies that at times threw off the shackles of Macedonian overlordship and won military victories against greater foes. The leagues were, at different times, courted, bribed, or fought by the Hellenistic Kingdoms and ultimately, played pivotal roles in the wars between Macedon and the Romans as well as the Seleucids and the Romans. I hope to enable the possibility of this exciting part of history by introducing new Tier 2 tags, created by national decision, along with their own series of flavour events.

For the Achaean League, settled on the north shore of the Peloponnese, the great catalyst was the overthrow of the Egyptian garrison at Sicyon, which acted as a call to arms to resist the Macedonian kings in the name of Greek freedom. Many cities banded together, pooling manpower and gold, in order to present a united military front that would be costly to challenge directly. As such, I found it fitting to make the requirements to form the Achaean League very simple but also mildly challenging. Any Achaean or Arcadian tag may form the Achaean League at the cost of political influence provided the territory of Sicyon is not owned by any of the Diadochi. For any of these smaller city states, the thought of directly challenging the Ptolemaic Kingdom is a terrifying thought and so patience and careful planning will be required.

Upon successfully creating the Achaean League, players (or AI) will receive the standard rewards as well as free claims on every territory in the provinces of Achaea and Arcadia. All tags with 1 territory in the provinces of Achaea and Arcadia will receive an invitation to join the league, and if they do, they may become integrated or become vassals. Additionally, if the Achaean League is formed when they are a fledgling nation with fewer than 30 territories under their control, they will receive a massive boost to their levy size and fort defence to help them resist their intimidating neighbours (to simulate the scrappy-ness of the league fighting against larger opponents rather than buffing a player who went out conquering all of greece and crete before taking the decision). Lastly, I’ve put in an easter egg focused on Aratus of Sicyon, an Achaean politician and general who was a famous instigator in his time. I’ll leave it to you to figure out where and how to find this historical easter egg.

The Aetolian League, sandwiched between Macedon, Epirus, and the rest of Greece, proved time and time again to be a thorn in King Antigonus Gonatus’s side as ruler of Macedon. Their brazen military actions didn’t go unpunished yet Macedon frequently lacked the strength or political desire to conquer the Aetolians, preferring diplomacy to keep them at bay. The Aetolian tag in the game is a good starting point but I felt that to really get a feel for the strength of this league, a new formable was required.

To form the Aetolian League tag, you’ll need to control several important cities in Aetolia and Boeotia, have Aetolian as a primary culture, and a large amount of political influence. In many ways, the Aetolian league formable will resemble the Achaean League formable, granting extra pops, claims on the surrounding areas, sending an invitation for smaller tags to join the league, and offering a levy and fort defence bonus if the league is formed while the tag has fewer than 30 territories. And like the Achaean League, there will be a series of flavour events regarding the history of the Aetolian League as well as an easter egg focused on a famous Aetolian politician.

 

[Herennius]

Wow...I'm glad that I haven't done a Carthage run in IR yet. Will be my first project once Invictus hits us with new Carthage content! You rock as always!

 

[Meothar]

I am currently playing Baktria and it's really fun, so thank you for this mod! However, the Mauryan collapse just did not happen. Ashoka never became ruler because he died during the reign of Bindusara and under the later kings, nothing really happened. The blob was as strong as ever, ate some of the Indian nations, conquered East Persia from the Seleukids and can crush the revolts that happen here and there easily. I can beat them in a local war when they are fighting someone else and grab one province before they move their massive armies my way, but that's it. Is there maybe something not triggering because Ashoka died too early?

 

[athos-livys]

Hello everyone !

senate question …
It's 2022, the game has changed a lot since the last official updates and the Invictus mod, and I can't find any clear guide or advices on how to properly manage the Senate of the Republics. Is there anyone who really knows this subject? I guess on this threads should be some persons who know.
Is there a forum or other pages on this topic?

Last but not least : It's always good to hear, so I say it : thank you so much to the invictus team for your great job, done with passion and precision Hope it will motivate the devs to continue…

 

[Parcipal]

I am currently playing Baktria and it's really fun, so thank you for this mod! However, the Mauryan collapse just did not happen. Ashoka never became ruler because he died during the reign of Bindusara and under the later kings, nothing really happened. The blob was as strong as ever, ate some of the Indian nations, conquered East Persia from the Seleukids and can crush the revolts that happen here and there easily. I can beat them in a local war when they are fighting someone else and grab one province before they move their massive armies my way, but that's it. Is there maybe something not triggering because Ashoka died too early?

The Mauryan collapse, is, to my knowledge, not yet implemented into the workshop build. You'll probably have to wait a bit for that!
But also expect the Bactrian Content to change a... lot !

 

[kristoff]

O migthy @Snowlet & the rest of Invictus' devs, do you think maybe about some 'cursus honorum' mechanics for the republics in the future? Introducing the real Roman cursus honorum would not be even possible (and needed) in I:R, but I think this game seriously needs to restrict to whom, in what circumstances and with what consequences offices can be granted in the republic. For historical accuracy, immersion and to bring more life to internal politics and make characters and their ambitions and personal/party agenda more meaningful.

I don't come with a ready solution, but I think something along these loose ideas could be considered:
- allow holding offices and governoships only for characters of integrated cultures
- introduce minimum age needed to hold offices (different for each one) and governorships
- introduce additional restrictions/requirements for specific offices to bring even more flavour and political mini play (i.e. that an optimate can't be a plebeian tribune, that a censor office requires - besides a certain age also prominence > X etc.)
- rework bonuses, effects, popularity & prominence gains tied to each office
- introduce additional loyalty maluses if i.e. a character holding a given office is dissmised before X year-term, for a character of > X powerbase/prominence/age (maybe even mix of these) who was not granted any office so far in his career etc.

As for me, the current situation when you can freely nominate even some 16-year-old brat of distant culture conquered recently for a censor in Rome (or corresponding office in any other republic), dismiss/nominate anyone every day like no one cares or just ignore ambitions of politically powerful persons is an absurd. Not to say that without such mechanics it's far too easy to keep internal peace, every one happy and avoid risks like civil war.

 

[Snowlet]

Dev Diary 34: Rhodes, Central-Asia and Invasions rework
Salvete!
Today we’ll be talking about the result of the mission poll, a rework to the Central-Asian steppes and finally reworked (Steppe/Parthian) invasions with a formable to go with it, all of which will be presented to you by the India/Kush dev, Dementive:

A few weeks back I (Dementive) held a poll to help decide what mission tree people would want to play next. The results of the poll were as follows:

Rhodes won the vote by a pretty big margin initially, so Rhodes now has two new mission trees.
Rhodes in 304 BCE is in a very interesting position, still recovering from the nearly year long Antigonid siege of the Island, Rhodes finds themselves politically isolated and very weak. Their close ties with the Ptolemies was what led the Antigonids to invade the island in the first place, although these ties are not formal they may blossom into something more. Here is a look at the first mission tree:

This tree will take the player through the restoration of the island of Rhodes after the deadly Antigonid siege had left Rhodes in a perilous state. They will also expand the Rhodian borders to encompass much of the Aegean sea. Consolidating their homeland of the Sporades, dominating and developing Crete, and finally asserting Rhodian dominance over the Aegean Islands as a whole. Here is a look at a few tasks:

The second mission tree is a little bit larger, designed to have tasks to take the player into the end game. About halfway through the tree, after consolidating all of the Aegean islands and coastline, you will be able to form the Aegean League:

There are also many other interesting tasks that will keep the player busy until the end game, developing their lands, conquering new ones, and other fun tasks. Here is a look at some of them in the second tree:

That’s all for the glorious nation of Rhodes, now let's take a look at a brand new feature which will add a lot of flavour to many mission tasks.
Mission Pictures: I’ve found a way to display the pictures from military traditions and huge portrait pictures in mission tasks!!! So now each mission task will have nice visuals to give them even more flavour! Here is a look at a few of them in action:

It’s hard to see it here but these are really cool in game and make mission trees much more fun to look at and playthrough.

Steppe Rework:
The last content for today is a big change to the central Asian steppe regions of Sogdiana, Scythia, and the Himalaya. To start out minor changes have been made to the setup of countries shown here:

Massagetae, a Sakan tribe, has been added in previously uninhabitable territories, Sogdia and Tayuan have grown, Sakia has been renamed Tigraxaudia, and finally Wusun has been renamed to Amygria. A more interesting change is the new culture of Tayuan. Based on both Chinese and Persian sources the people of Tayuan were largely Greek, specifically “Ionian” Greeks (mostly deported to Tayuan from Asia minor by the Achaemenid empire hundreds of years before game start). By this time Ionian culture was largely mixed with the local customs though, to reflect this a few provinces now have Ionian culture and Tayuan’s primary culture is now Ionian.
Additionally, the Scythian culture group has been split into two, with the “Saka” group being in the west and the “Scythian” group being in the eastern pontic steppe.

Thanks to Shocky27 for helping research all of this and helping greatly with the setup changes.

Lastly, I've fixed/developed the steppe invasions into Bactria and Persia by numerous steppe tribes. To start off, the Parthian invasion has been reworked/fixed, it will now happen 100% of the time:

However, they won’t always win the war against the Seleucids but I’m looking for other ways to emulate the historic Seleucid collapse without railroading it too much, more on that in the future.
Next events to simulate the historic steppe “domino effect” of large scale tribal migrations westward which was kicked off in about 170 BCE when a tribe called Xiongnu created the largest steppe empire the world had seen up until that point. This happened off of the game map but the consequences of these events had huge ramifications on the territories of central Asia. Firstly, a tribe known as the “Wusun” was pushed west by Yuezhi migrations caused by Xiongnu expansion:

This happens about 100 years after game start, the location that they attack is very dynamic and can happen in a number of territories in the Tarim Basin. I’ve also made a new wargoal for up and coming steppe tribes: Horde Conquest, which uses civil war conquest mechanics and makes the AI very aggressive.
The second wave of steppe invasions will happen 5-50 years later and it will be much more impactful than the Wusun. The entire Yuezhi event chain and decision from vanilla has been removed and replaced with a more historically accurate and fun event chain. Similarly to vanilla, first a few Yuezhi pops will appear on the map in various territories in the Tarim Basin. Then if a player is in the area, and their primary culture is the Sakan or Bactrian culture group they will gain the option to embrace Yuezhi culture, changing their country and culture to Yuezhi. However, if a player is not in the area the Yuezhi will arrive somewhere in the Tarim with a large invasion force:

Very soon after the Yuezhi arrived in the Tarim Basin large numbers of Sakan people were forced off of their lands and decided that Bactria would be a good place to settle. Historically, this Sakan invasion of Bactria would be the end of Hellenistic presence in Bactria.

That’s all for invasions…for now.

Finally, there is a new formable nation in India for any country with Sakan primary culture which can be formed after conquering the regions of Maru and Gandhara: The Indo-Scythian Kingdom which historically ruled parts of the region.

Note by Snowlet: I wish to remind everyone that we do read every suggestion but as much as we would like to implement them. We are extremely limited in our abilities to code new things. Especially new mechanics and tying things together which aren't tied in Vanilla, as most players won't realize there is a new mechanic and/or the mechanic itself is impossible to intuitively display to a player. So while we do appreciate all the suggestions, know that we can only really implement content in-line with vanilla in 95% of cases.

 

[DragonTW]

Thank you for all your work in keeping Imperator alive and kicking Fabulous.

 

[nachinus]

This one was really meaty! Kudos!

 

[Aquila SPQR]

I think this game seriously needs to restrict to whom, in what circumstances and with what consequences offices can be granted in the republic.

The game has a "scorned family" system. Sometimes it's a bit difficult to find any acceptable family member for the job. If we restrict the available pool of family members - it could create serious problems.