[MOD] SoH 0.4

[Sleight of Hand]

I like this. :laugh:

Yeah, I played for an hour or so earlier and had a blast. I'm not sure how things will play out though; if Eadweard dies then I think the crown will leave my dynasty. Plus he's only abour four...

Vanilla 1.04c is officially out now. Apparently just a few necessary fixes that couldn't wait. (The only real difference from 1.04b beta is the sound reversion, which apparently fixes the crashes that were happening with the beta.)

Thanks for the heads-up -- I didn't know it had been released, but I will have to wait for Steam to update my version anyway.

In regards to reworking England for 0.5, I trust your judgment, based on your decision making in this mod so for.

Thanks.

I'm looking at a couple of other things, but nothing major. One of the things I'd like to do for 0.5 is re-balance a lot of the colors (counties/duchies/kingdoms/cultures).

 

[Theodotus1]

It would be nice to have the colors rebalanced.

EDIT: What's the correct checksum on your mod?

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Have you encountered any problems so far with 0.4?

I started a test game as Harold Godwinson (with the new elective succession) and managed to become 'the Great' by forcing both Harald and William to concede defeat, which gives you just enough prestige. Presumably that's what happened in my Harald game too.

I've been handing out gold and titles to keep my vassals happy, and so far my eldest son Godwin is the nominated heir. :laugh:

I'll see about re-doing some culture colors later today.

 

[Theodotus1]

I haven't had as much opportunity to play up till now as I thought I would have, but so far things seem fine.

I very much like having Hereford as part of de jure Wales. It seems like it will direct things historically, with the Welsh contending for the borderlands, and with Hereford (and by extension England) being drawn to pursue Welsh territory. And having the marcher counties be under a different de jure legal scheme from England proper seems to me to be a good simulation of the palatine (mostly independent) nature that was historically possessed by those counties.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Yes, that was very much my reasoning behind moving Hereford to Wales so I am glad you approve. It seems to be working quite well so far -- Wales should obviously not be a large kingdom, but including the Welsh marches seems a more sensible alternative than Cornwall and Brittany. :laugh:

I also much prefer having Anglo-Saxon England as elective... if you manage to win as Harold you need to try even harder than usual to keep your vassals happy, and it better represents the infighting between the powerful nobles who wish to succeed you. It's possible to have one of your sons nominated but it's difficult. Quite a lot of fun so far. In 0.4b I've slightly reduced Harold's starting army, so it's possible (but difficult) to win as Hardrade but if you choose to face him first - and the AI usually will - then William has a slightly better chance of winning.

I've managed to win as William myself, but in the second attempt my liege (Philippe of France) joined Harold against me so I quit. I'm not sure why that should happen anyway.

It's definitely much more balanced now, as it can genuinely go either way.

 

[unmerged(410903)]

Hey man. I like your revisions to the world so far. Hope this keeps up! Oh, I'd like HRE corrections as well, as I see you don't have many of those.

EDIT: The descriptions are messed up btw, i almost forgot to mention, is there a way to fix this?

 

[Theodotus1]

Yes, that was very much my reasoning behind moving Hereford to Wales so I am glad you approve. It seems to be working quite well so far -- Wales should obviously not be a large kingdom, but including the Welsh marches seems a more sensible alternative than Cornwall and Brittany. :laugh:

I also much prefer having Anglo-Saxon England as elective... if you manage to win as Harold you need to try even harder than usual to keep your vassals happy, and it better represents the infighting between the powerful nobles who wish to succeed you. It's possible to have one of your sons nominated but it's difficult. Quite a lot of fun so far. In 0.4b I've slightly reduced Harold's starting army, so it's possible (but difficult) to win as Hardrade but if you choose to face him first - and the AI usually will - then William has a slightly better chance of winning.

I've managed to win as William myself, but in the second attempt my liege (Philippe of France) joined Harold against me so I quit. I'm not sure why that should happen anyway.

It's definitely much more balanced now, as it can genuinely go either way.

It's possible to obtain a betrothal to a princess of France at the start of the game, which leads to an alliance, so maybe that's why France joined in.

Elective is definitely the most appropriate succession law for the Anglo-Saxons. I'm glad it works well in play.

I completely concur regarding Wales and Brittany and Cornwall. I can see having a Kingdom of Brythonia, but that would only be appropriate if Wales managed to reconquer all the land in England that belonged to the Britons before the Saxons arrived. That would be Brythonia, in my mind, and it would not include Brittany.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Hey man. I like your revisions to the world so far. Hope this keeps up! Oh, I'd like HRE corrections as well, as I see you don't have many of those.

Thanks for your kind words.

The Empire is on my list of things to do, though I must confess to knowing less about it than England and France. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them!

EDIT: The descriptions are messed up btw, i almost forgot to mention, is there a way to fix this?

The scenario descriptions? The two 1066 descriptions should show correctly, whilst the others should just say "Placeholder." That's WAD, but the others shall be included in 0.4b -- I may include another bookmark or two as well.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

I feel I should ask -- what are your thoughts on the de jure borders of the Byzantine Empire? Should Sicily be included? I look at it from the point of view that the kings of Sicily will generally start as independent, but they could still swear fealty to the Byzantine Emperor if they want to. I think it's good to have the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires bordering one another in Italy and Croatia even if Sicilian claims are a little ambitious. I did remove Syria and Jerusalem though because I don't see why the Frankish crusader states should accept the suzerainty of the Byzantine Emperor over the Holy Roman Emperor or the Pope.

 

[Theodotus1]

I concur about Syria and Jerusalem.

Regarding Sicily, it seems a little strange to me to have it be part of de jure Byzantium. Sicily was controlled by the Moslems for almost 200 years before the Normans reconquered it, and I think that interval combined with reconquest by westerners extinguished any residual affiliation with Byzantium. I don't really see westerners in Sicily as being any more inclined to swear fealty to Byzantium than westerners in Jerusalem would be. What other options can you think of for Sicily?

 

[Sleight of Hand]

I suppose you are right. I was always in two minds as whether to have it in or not, but I think it's probably better suited outside for the reasons you state. After all, a Norman ruling class would be more likely to look towards France and the Holy Roman Empire than Constantinople. I will remove it again in 0,4b :mellow:

Can you think of anything else, besides bookmark descriptions and culture colors?

 

[Theodotus1]

Nothing comes to mind for 0.4b.

However, I just saw a new mod for Wales-- Cantrefi: Wales Divided. Looks very interesting. Might well be something to incorporate into 0.5, along with your revision of England. It seems to me that if you combined this expanded Wales with a revised Anglo-Saxon England, you'd end up with the ultimate England mod.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Are you Welsh or something? :laugh:

I'll look into it -- thanks for the link. My intention is to start work on England later today.

 

[Theodotus1]

Born and raised in Texas.

But I've been to Wales. The landscape and its history left an indelible impression on me. And having a chance to change its history in the game is fascinating to me.

I'm curious as to what you'll think of the Cantrefi mod. I haven't had a chance to completely evaluate it yet. It looks like it would add a lot for a Wales or an England player, though I'm not yet able to judge its characteristics vis-a-vis historical accuracy. But I'd love to have more to do within Wales itself when playing as Wales, and if it isn't too imbalancing then adding in the changes in this mod would be a good thing. For instance, it would mean that a King of Wales would need to deal with vassals; whereas currently with only six counties the king can hold all of Wales in his own demense, except for the marcher lands, of course.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

You should definitely try a game as Harold Godwinson once I've released 0.4b -- trying to defend your shores from Normans and Vikings whilst balancing your vassals' tempers is pretty tricky, and the new elective monarchy gives you an extra dimension to think about. Very fun though. :happy:

I'll see what I can do about Scots culture, though I'm not sure how easy a split would be because I'd have to research loads of Gaelic forenames and surnames -- and I wouldn't have the first idea where to look, how the names go together and in all honesty it seems a lot of work. I don't like having Lothian as Anglo-Saxon though. That is just stupid.

 

[Theodotus1]

Maybe you can wait on an in-depth revamp of the Scots until someone does a separate mod on it, and then use that as a basis for the information. Just as the Saxon England and Cantrefi mods can be used as the informational basis for whatever changes you choose to make in those areas.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

I concur about Syria and Jerusalem.

Regarding Sicily, it seems a little strange to me to have it be part of de jure Byzantium. Sicily was controlled by the Moslems for almost 200 years before the Normans reconquered it, and I think that interval combined with reconquest by westerners extinguished any residual affiliation with Byzantium. I don't really see westerners in Sicily as being any more inclined to swear fealty to Byzantium than westerners in Jerusalem would be. What other options can you think of for Sicily?

The kingdom of Sicily is not just the island though, it is the whole of southern Italy, which was held by the Byzantine (or at least under their influence) untill shortly before the games starts. In fact Bari (the city itself) was only lost to them in 1071.

See the Catepanate of Italy

 

[Theodotus1]

The kingdom of Sicily is not just the island though, it is the whole of southern Italy, which was held by the Byzantine (or at least under their influence) untill shortly before the games starts. In fact Bari (the city itself) was only lost to them in 1071.

See the Catepanate of Italy

Good point.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Huh. I never knew that. o

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Maybe you can wait on an in-depth revamp of the Scots until someone does a separate mod on it, and then use that as a basis for the information. Just as the Saxon England and Cantrefi mods can be used as the informational basis for whatever changes you choose to make in those areas.

I suppose so, but it does feel like cheating to wait for someone else to do something. :laugh:

I'll see what I can come up with later. It can wait until I've finished England. Whatever I do I will have to use someone else's graphics though, because I do not have Photoshop / GIMP.