While playing CKII and browsing the forums, I've picked up a lot of ideas about how to improve the game. They've been written down for quite some time, but now I'm finally going to act on them.
This project is going to take the form of various focused modules, each dealing with one particular aspect of the game. Eventually, this will radically alter most parts of the game, and if Wiz is OK with it, I'll loot my favorite bits from the corpse of post-Wiz CKII+ to make a comprehensive gameplay overhaul mod. The modules will be based off of vanilla CKII, however, and for those who don't want a cluttered mod list on their launch or the CKII+-y bits, I'll create a compilation of all the modules.
The currently available modules are:
-Culture
View attachment MMMMM Culture.zip
Modules in progress are:
-Religion
-Heresies
-Military
-Byzantines
-Steppe peoples
That's all for now. Thanks to all of those on the forum who have given/inspired many of these ideas, and thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice you can give about them.
Now - off to work I go!
This project is going to take the form of various focused modules, each dealing with one particular aspect of the game. Eventually, this will radically alter most parts of the game, and if Wiz is OK with it, I'll loot my favorite bits from the corpse of post-Wiz CKII+ to make a comprehensive gameplay overhaul mod. The modules will be based off of vanilla CKII, however, and for those who don't want a cluttered mod list on their launch or the CKII+-y bits, I'll create a compilation of all the modules.
The currently available modules are:
-Culture
View attachment MMMMM Culture.zip
The biggest change is that the mean time to happen of the vanilla cultural assimilation event is now 400 years. Historical or historically-plausible instances of major cultural change in areas at least the size of a duchy will either get MTTH modifiers in the existing event, or new events for that situation entirely. Completed features include:
Steppe peoples: All steppe peoples (Magyars and Altaics) will be able to quickly assimilate provinces of another steppe culture. MTTH is 2 years.
Slavs, Balts, and Finno-Ugrics: This uses the vanilla event, with a MTTH modifier dropping it to 50 years in cases of Balts and Russians vs. Finno-Ugrics (and vice versa). All West Slavs vs. all East Slavs also have a 50 year MTTH, but only before 1050. I might change all of this later to be dependent upon the spread of Christianity or reformed pagan religions.
Iberia: I worked off of the basis that Andalusian culture represents the melting pot of Muslim Arabs, Berbers, and Latin-speaking Christian Mozarabs. Outside of de jure Andalusia, where it is assumed that the Muslim population is greater, Portuguese and Castillian cultures can spread via events which will shift culture and religion in Andalusian provinces which are owned by non-Muslims, and which border Portuguese or Castillian provinces, on a 50 year MTTH. Catalan will spread at a similar rate to any coastal provinces in de jure Aragon which are held by Christians. This represents Christian colonization, the expulsion/retreat of Muslims, and the rapid assimilation of local Christian Mozarabs.
Within de jure Andalusia, provinces must be religiously converted before cultural conversion. However, without any Muslim component, Andalusian culture will vanish within months. The only way for Christian Andalusian culture to persist is if Iberia is ruled by Christian Andalusian nobles.
Sicily: Greek and Maghreb provinces in de jure Sicily will gradually convert by event to a new Sicilian culture (well, new if you don't count the current Sicily mod) if ruled by a Catholic. What is completely new is an extensive inventory of legitimate Sicilian-language names.
TO DO:
For the Mongols, I'll either add a melting pot Tatar culture, to represent the mixing of eastern invaders with local Turkic peoples, or just make the Mongols Tatar cultured, and have the cultural changes on the post-Genghis steppe follow naturally from the normal events.
I'm not entirely sure how to model the culture changes that took place in Anatolia, but it will need its own special events. For now, I did a quick hotfix by giving Turks vs. Greeks a MTTH modifier for the main assimilation event, provided they convert the province first. This represents much of the process, but IRL, the cultural and religious conversion of the region was greatly hastened by the relatively sparse population of inner Anatolia combined with the settlement of large numbers Muslim Turks in the area, so simultaneous culture and religion swap should be possible by event as well as culture-after-religion. Massacres by Timur played a major role in the decline of Christianity everywhere in west Asia, and I'd like to do something about that as well.
Steppe peoples: All steppe peoples (Magyars and Altaics) will be able to quickly assimilate provinces of another steppe culture. MTTH is 2 years.
Slavs, Balts, and Finno-Ugrics: This uses the vanilla event, with a MTTH modifier dropping it to 50 years in cases of Balts and Russians vs. Finno-Ugrics (and vice versa). All West Slavs vs. all East Slavs also have a 50 year MTTH, but only before 1050. I might change all of this later to be dependent upon the spread of Christianity or reformed pagan religions.
Iberia: I worked off of the basis that Andalusian culture represents the melting pot of Muslim Arabs, Berbers, and Latin-speaking Christian Mozarabs. Outside of de jure Andalusia, where it is assumed that the Muslim population is greater, Portuguese and Castillian cultures can spread via events which will shift culture and religion in Andalusian provinces which are owned by non-Muslims, and which border Portuguese or Castillian provinces, on a 50 year MTTH. Catalan will spread at a similar rate to any coastal provinces in de jure Aragon which are held by Christians. This represents Christian colonization, the expulsion/retreat of Muslims, and the rapid assimilation of local Christian Mozarabs.
Within de jure Andalusia, provinces must be religiously converted before cultural conversion. However, without any Muslim component, Andalusian culture will vanish within months. The only way for Christian Andalusian culture to persist is if Iberia is ruled by Christian Andalusian nobles.
Sicily: Greek and Maghreb provinces in de jure Sicily will gradually convert by event to a new Sicilian culture (well, new if you don't count the current Sicily mod) if ruled by a Catholic. What is completely new is an extensive inventory of legitimate Sicilian-language names.
TO DO:
For the Mongols, I'll either add a melting pot Tatar culture, to represent the mixing of eastern invaders with local Turkic peoples, or just make the Mongols Tatar cultured, and have the cultural changes on the post-Genghis steppe follow naturally from the normal events.
I'm not entirely sure how to model the culture changes that took place in Anatolia, but it will need its own special events. For now, I did a quick hotfix by giving Turks vs. Greeks a MTTH modifier for the main assimilation event, provided they convert the province first. This represents much of the process, but IRL, the cultural and religious conversion of the region was greatly hastened by the relatively sparse population of inner Anatolia combined with the settlement of large numbers Muslim Turks in the area, so simultaneous culture and religion swap should be possible by event as well as culture-after-religion. Massacres by Timur played a major role in the decline of Christianity everywhere in west Asia, and I'd like to do something about that as well.
Modules in progress are:
-Religion
The key new feature here will be Religious Tolerance crown laws. There will be three levels: Standard, Intolerant, and Tolerant. Standard will, of course, be the standard, and most realms at most times will stick to this. Its effects will differ depending on the ruler's religion. Under the Standard setting, Muslims will be tolerant of Christians and Zoroastrians, but intolerant of pagans and Muslim heretics. Pagans will be neutral towards everyone except reformed/unreformed versions of their own faith, except for Tengrists, who will be tolerant towards everyone who isn't a Tengri heretic. Christians will be tolerant of schismatics (other Christian parent religions), but intolerant of heathens and heretics. Switching to the Intolerant or Tolerant crown laws will do what the name suggests for all heathens, heretics, and Schismatics, though tolerance and intolerance will mean different things for interactions between different faiths.
Tolerating a faith will reduce revolt risk and opinion penalties especially from vassals of that religion, but foreigners will hate you less if you rule tolerantly over their co-religionists. Muslims will even have a heavy piety cost to pay to launch a holy war against foreign rulers who treat Muslim subjects well. However, if this tolerance is gained by liberalizing your crown laws, zealous coreligionists and the clergy will dislike you. You will also be unable to send missionaries to convert provinces of a tolerated faith. Tolerance will also increase the rate at which heresies (and, if you're an unreformed pagan, organized religions) spread through your lands.
Intolerance will increase revolt risk and relationship penalties, but allow you to send missionaries to convert provinces. In addition, the Intolerant crown law will allow dukes within your realm to use their chaplain to convert the unbeliever (only independent dukes can use their chaplain to convert without this crown law, and only independent counts will ever be able to use theirs). Other benefits of intolerance include a steady stream of piety (even if burning heretics is against the teachings of the Bible and Qur'an, that's not exactly what piety represents in game), a chance for provinces of a persecuted religion to turn to your faith even without the use of missionaries, and opinion bonuses to zealous coreligionists and members of the clergy. Downsides will include increased/easier holy wars by heretics and heathens.
As for how the AI picks the different laws, most of the time they will default to the Standard setting. Pious, humble, kind, etc. rulers will be more likely to go for full tolerance, but it will be a rare sight for the AI to do. Zealous, wroth, etc. will lead to intolerance. Culture will also play a role: Iberian Christians, due to their constant conflict with Muslims, will be more likely to be intolerant, while Turks will on average be more likely to keep to the Standard tolerance setting.
After all the tweaking, the end result of this system should be that Christian minorities persist for quite some time under Muslims, that Muslims vanish rather quickly under Christian rule, and that pagans will have a tough time balancing the tolerance that will prevent holy wars against them, and the religious zeal that will allow them to reform their faith.
Tolerating a faith will reduce revolt risk and opinion penalties especially from vassals of that religion, but foreigners will hate you less if you rule tolerantly over their co-religionists. Muslims will even have a heavy piety cost to pay to launch a holy war against foreign rulers who treat Muslim subjects well. However, if this tolerance is gained by liberalizing your crown laws, zealous coreligionists and the clergy will dislike you. You will also be unable to send missionaries to convert provinces of a tolerated faith. Tolerance will also increase the rate at which heresies (and, if you're an unreformed pagan, organized religions) spread through your lands.
Intolerance will increase revolt risk and relationship penalties, but allow you to send missionaries to convert provinces. In addition, the Intolerant crown law will allow dukes within your realm to use their chaplain to convert the unbeliever (only independent dukes can use their chaplain to convert without this crown law, and only independent counts will ever be able to use theirs). Other benefits of intolerance include a steady stream of piety (even if burning heretics is against the teachings of the Bible and Qur'an, that's not exactly what piety represents in game), a chance for provinces of a persecuted religion to turn to your faith even without the use of missionaries, and opinion bonuses to zealous coreligionists and members of the clergy. Downsides will include increased/easier holy wars by heretics and heathens.
As for how the AI picks the different laws, most of the time they will default to the Standard setting. Pious, humble, kind, etc. rulers will be more likely to go for full tolerance, but it will be a rare sight for the AI to do. Zealous, wroth, etc. will lead to intolerance. Culture will also play a role: Iberian Christians, due to their constant conflict with Muslims, will be more likely to be intolerant, while Turks will on average be more likely to keep to the Standard tolerance setting.
After all the tweaking, the end result of this system should be that Christian minorities persist for quite some time under Muslims, that Muslims vanish rather quickly under Christian rule, and that pagans will have a tough time balancing the tolerance that will prevent holy wars against them, and the religious zeal that will allow them to reform their faith.
-Heresies
Heresies will no longer be random province shifts that lead to whack-an-infidel conversion efforts. Each heresy will come with a specific set of circumstances determining when and where it will arise, and how fast it spreads. Most if not all will receive at least some unique flavor. For instance, Cathars will get female clerics, and enjoy good relations with Bogomilists. Mu'tazilites will get extra research points, while Salafists will get a penalty.
Rulers and clerics of the parent religion will treat a heresy cautiously at first, seeking to resolve it with peaceful envoys and diplomacy, but if the heresy refuses to die, the church will try to put it down violently, if the local ruler gives his cooperation. If he doesn't, relations with the Pope/Patriarch will deteriorate up to the point of excommunication. In the vast majority of cases, the heretics will meet a violent death, but I'd like there to be a small chance for there to be an early reformation/revolution if everything goes right/wrong, depending on your point of view.
This will mostly be a Catholic issue, as Orthodoxy really only had to worry about Iconoclasm, and Muslims generally only killed each other en masse over the Sunni-Shia split. Going along with this will be changes to how Catholics gain and lose moral authority, and possibly ways to model reform in the Catholic church. That will be harder to mod than anything else I have planned though, so this will come much later.
Rulers and clerics of the parent religion will treat a heresy cautiously at first, seeking to resolve it with peaceful envoys and diplomacy, but if the heresy refuses to die, the church will try to put it down violently, if the local ruler gives his cooperation. If he doesn't, relations with the Pope/Patriarch will deteriorate up to the point of excommunication. In the vast majority of cases, the heretics will meet a violent death, but I'd like there to be a small chance for there to be an early reformation/revolution if everything goes right/wrong, depending on your point of view.
This will mostly be a Catholic issue, as Orthodoxy really only had to worry about Iconoclasm, and Muslims generally only killed each other en masse over the Sunni-Shia split. Going along with this will be changes to how Catholics gain and lose moral authority, and possibly ways to model reform in the Catholic church. That will be harder to mod than anything else I have planned though, so this will come much later.
-Military
Cultural troops and tactics will get a major overhaul. Basically, the militaries of different cultures and countries should have significantly different makeups and tactics, and resulting strengths and weaknesses. Cultural buildings will no longer provide a little flavor for some, and unstoppable cheesy armies for others. Among other changes:
-Buildings
Cultural buildings will come in two tiers, and depend upon the culture of the province, not the ruler, as most major mods seem to do. The first will be very cheap, and provide a number of men comparable to the current 4th tier cultural buildings, and provide the troops with at least half of the 4th tier's stat bonuses. The point is to provide each culture with an immediately distinct army makeup - in 1066, the Welsh already had longbows, the French already had knights, the Byzantines already had cataphracts, etc. I don't know how this will fit into the Old Gods' new start date though.
Steppe peoples are fortunately getting a very good culture-building update in TOG. It's actually very similar to what I had planned, and the knowledge that you can use province terrain as a deciding factor in which buildings can be built opens up many new possibilities. However, I think I'll mostly stick to renaming the buildings nomad camps, upping the horse archers and light cav gained from them, and give them enough infantry recruitment penalties so that steppe provinces owned by steppe nomads produce only cavalry.
The Turks, and possibly the Persians, will keep the normal riding grounds, though it will likely be modified to some extent. Persians might get cataphracts - I know that in antiquity they pioneered the use of them, but I don't know much about medieval Persian militaries - if you do by any chance, please, speak up!
Finally, Russians will get cavalry-focused buildings, as all my historically-minded Russian friends tell me they should.
-Tactics
This is going to have a bigger effect on how wars are fought. Beyond efforts to make a balanced army ideal for most cultures, most of it is going to be culture specific, so I'll just describe the changes per culture:
Steppe armies will get more awesome events to go along with their new super-cavalry-heavy armies. If an ignoramus isn't leading their armies, engaging them on the plain is going to result in a lot of very deadly tactics. If you fight them on open ground, you're probably going to lose. If you fight them on open ground and they have a good general, you are going to lose. Forests and hills will take away the tactics, but not the good base states of horse archers. Mountains will, however, render them completely ineffective. There's also the chance for a special anti-Mongol tactic during river fights, but it requires a very good commander on your part, and a not-so-great commander on their part.
Longbows will be made less OP, but will be very strong on hilly terrain, and have a good chance to decimate any enemy army of any composition that has bad leadership. They'll get run down by knights under any competent commander, but if the enemy has a poor commander, expect to see devastation on an Agincourt level.
Schiltrons are getting nerfed on everything but hilly and mountainous terrain. Still great for defending Alba, not so great for conquering the world.
Other mountain-based cultures will also get very good mountain defense tactics. Georgians, Armenians, and Ethiopians will be able to defeat much larger forces when defending on mountainous territory.
Arabs, Kurds, Turks, and Persians will all get very good cavalry tactics, Turks especially, who will end up being something of a mix between steppe peoples and Persians in just about everything. However, all will be able to reliably defeat larger enemy forces if they have a good leader at the head of a cavalry-heavy army.
-Buildings
Cultural buildings will come in two tiers, and depend upon the culture of the province, not the ruler, as most major mods seem to do. The first will be very cheap, and provide a number of men comparable to the current 4th tier cultural buildings, and provide the troops with at least half of the 4th tier's stat bonuses. The point is to provide each culture with an immediately distinct army makeup - in 1066, the Welsh already had longbows, the French already had knights, the Byzantines already had cataphracts, etc. I don't know how this will fit into the Old Gods' new start date though.
Steppe peoples are fortunately getting a very good culture-building update in TOG. It's actually very similar to what I had planned, and the knowledge that you can use province terrain as a deciding factor in which buildings can be built opens up many new possibilities. However, I think I'll mostly stick to renaming the buildings nomad camps, upping the horse archers and light cav gained from them, and give them enough infantry recruitment penalties so that steppe provinces owned by steppe nomads produce only cavalry.
The Turks, and possibly the Persians, will keep the normal riding grounds, though it will likely be modified to some extent. Persians might get cataphracts - I know that in antiquity they pioneered the use of them, but I don't know much about medieval Persian militaries - if you do by any chance, please, speak up!
Finally, Russians will get cavalry-focused buildings, as all my historically-minded Russian friends tell me they should.
-Tactics
This is going to have a bigger effect on how wars are fought. Beyond efforts to make a balanced army ideal for most cultures, most of it is going to be culture specific, so I'll just describe the changes per culture:
Steppe armies will get more awesome events to go along with their new super-cavalry-heavy armies. If an ignoramus isn't leading their armies, engaging them on the plain is going to result in a lot of very deadly tactics. If you fight them on open ground, you're probably going to lose. If you fight them on open ground and they have a good general, you are going to lose. Forests and hills will take away the tactics, but not the good base states of horse archers. Mountains will, however, render them completely ineffective. There's also the chance for a special anti-Mongol tactic during river fights, but it requires a very good commander on your part, and a not-so-great commander on their part.
Longbows will be made less OP, but will be very strong on hilly terrain, and have a good chance to decimate any enemy army of any composition that has bad leadership. They'll get run down by knights under any competent commander, but if the enemy has a poor commander, expect to see devastation on an Agincourt level.
Schiltrons are getting nerfed on everything but hilly and mountainous terrain. Still great for defending Alba, not so great for conquering the world.
Other mountain-based cultures will also get very good mountain defense tactics. Georgians, Armenians, and Ethiopians will be able to defeat much larger forces when defending on mountainous territory.
Arabs, Kurds, Turks, and Persians will all get very good cavalry tactics, Turks especially, who will end up being something of a mix between steppe peoples and Persians in just about everything. However, all will be able to reliably defeat larger enemy forces if they have a good leader at the head of a cavalry-heavy army.
-Byzantines
This will mostly focus on making the City much more important.
Anyone within the realm who takes it can declare themselves emperor, usurping the imperial title and the county of Byzantion. If a foreigner takes it, the empire will collapse. If a Catholic ruler takes it, you get the Latin Empire and the various despotates. Any other ruler will usurp the title, but the empire will still fracture into independent doukes and despots. Orthodox conquerors will later have a chance of peacefully vassalizing these rulers.
Constantinople will also appropriately be much harder to siege through normal means. The Theodosian walls will be upgraded, with 3 different levels (4, if you count no building = total disrepair): The current building will represent the walls in a state of disrepair. The next upgrade will represent a state of complete repair, and will provide a much greater boost to defense. The last level will be a fortification of Blachernae, which will both add a fort level, and help to ward off siege events. Speaking of which...
Attempting to siege a Constantinople that is protected by well-maintained walls will lead to a situation similar to the Arab sieges: A whole lot of men dying from attrition, and not much progress being made towards taking the city. Siege events will be the main way to take the city. There will be different events for different types of sieges, and different factors will alter the chances of the events firing for a would-be conqueror of Rome:
Roman vassals will have the highest chances of taking the city. All it will take is better relations than the emperor with a few key individuals, or a successful plot.
Christian invaders have the next highest chance. They have a small chance of bribing a traitor within the walls to open up, but even for Orthodox this is unlikely. However, if the Golden Horn is open, Blachernae isn't fortified, and the merchant republics have a stake in the siege, some clever tactics with ships may lead to the enemy pouring through the gates.
Non-Christians will have next to no chance of opening the gates by intrigue, as no amount of gold is worth seeing the heathen defile the Hagia Sophia. With sufficient siege tech, though, it shouldn't be too difficult to punch a hole through a weak spot in the walls...
The popularity of the emperor's regime (based on local vassal opinion and city tax laws) will affect the likelihood of successful intrigue events, while Greek fire will totally prevent all sea-based siege events (and, if it's possible to code, give a substantial morale boost to the defenders, to represent the supply lines gained by complete control of the Bosporus).
Accompanying this will be more and improved plots and intrigue events for scheming vassals to take the throne. The emperor will also have to worry about palace coups launched from within the city itself, which can put a member of the local nobility, or a member of one of the more powerful dynasties, on the throne. Further in the distance, I'd also like to make the entire empire less feudal, along with Muslim realms. However, I don't really have any ideas on how to do it using the current game mechanics.
Anyone within the realm who takes it can declare themselves emperor, usurping the imperial title and the county of Byzantion. If a foreigner takes it, the empire will collapse. If a Catholic ruler takes it, you get the Latin Empire and the various despotates. Any other ruler will usurp the title, but the empire will still fracture into independent doukes and despots. Orthodox conquerors will later have a chance of peacefully vassalizing these rulers.
Constantinople will also appropriately be much harder to siege through normal means. The Theodosian walls will be upgraded, with 3 different levels (4, if you count no building = total disrepair): The current building will represent the walls in a state of disrepair. The next upgrade will represent a state of complete repair, and will provide a much greater boost to defense. The last level will be a fortification of Blachernae, which will both add a fort level, and help to ward off siege events. Speaking of which...
Attempting to siege a Constantinople that is protected by well-maintained walls will lead to a situation similar to the Arab sieges: A whole lot of men dying from attrition, and not much progress being made towards taking the city. Siege events will be the main way to take the city. There will be different events for different types of sieges, and different factors will alter the chances of the events firing for a would-be conqueror of Rome:
Roman vassals will have the highest chances of taking the city. All it will take is better relations than the emperor with a few key individuals, or a successful plot.
Christian invaders have the next highest chance. They have a small chance of bribing a traitor within the walls to open up, but even for Orthodox this is unlikely. However, if the Golden Horn is open, Blachernae isn't fortified, and the merchant republics have a stake in the siege, some clever tactics with ships may lead to the enemy pouring through the gates.
Non-Christians will have next to no chance of opening the gates by intrigue, as no amount of gold is worth seeing the heathen defile the Hagia Sophia. With sufficient siege tech, though, it shouldn't be too difficult to punch a hole through a weak spot in the walls...
The popularity of the emperor's regime (based on local vassal opinion and city tax laws) will affect the likelihood of successful intrigue events, while Greek fire will totally prevent all sea-based siege events (and, if it's possible to code, give a substantial morale boost to the defenders, to represent the supply lines gained by complete control of the Bosporus).
Accompanying this will be more and improved plots and intrigue events for scheming vassals to take the throne. The emperor will also have to worry about palace coups launched from within the city itself, which can put a member of the local nobility, or a member of one of the more powerful dynasties, on the throne. Further in the distance, I'd also like to make the entire empire less feudal, along with Muslim realms. However, I don't really have any ideas on how to do it using the current game mechanics.
-Steppe peoples
Most of their changes will come as part of other modules, but I'll make one that just includes the features for them. It will include, at the very least, much quicker culture change between steppe cultures, and reforms to steppe cultural buildings and tactics so that nomad armies are composed almost entirely of cavalry, and are extremely difficult to defeat on flat ground.
That's all for now. Thanks to all of those on the forum who have given/inspired many of these ideas, and thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice you can give about them.
Now - off to work I go!
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