some comments and ideas

[unmerged(15247)]

i am always busy with life and playing mods and never time to write; i will make an exception:

first; i used to play the new "mymap" a lot and for a while did not pay attention to this slick mod; BUT eventually i did becouse.how? the ageep on "mymap" is FANTASTIC and very complex; i love all those nations , etc; however that made the game very BUGGy as too many things happening , etc

therfore for the past few weeks i switched to ABBERATION...since 2 years ago it has EVolved! BESIDE the easy gameplay, no buggy things, etc i looked carefully at all event files since i am a SUCKER for events; i even switched a totally alteratedRANDOM EVENT file..was thinking to upload BUT for some reasons it just does not run properlly even if all is technically correct; however i think is the fact that almost every event has bad boy outcome of some kind?

MORE TO THE ABERATION FACTS NOW: generally i love the event files and mostlly DO trigger; some specifics i want to add: i ALWAYS PLAY ON "HARD" AND "coward" AI frustration sort of speak, hehehehehe. i will be very critical;i hope it helps; i GENERALLY speak from a "game play" perspective in single player....

-"vinland " seems a complete waste of time ; only gets ai involved in pointless ai wars; no fun if you ask me and not viable to be human playable, etc.( i LOVE minors, but the ones that MIGHT have "some" future)

- i played ALL major aberation countries, at least for 200years; mameluks followed by caliphate are the most well done. what i mean by that us that the game does not become eventless like mot the other countries; there are new possible ways of "evolving" and expanding;

- from the previous; ukraine is buggy eventwise; always crash if somehow "cossacks hetman" gets released; still in the release file AFTER the republic of ukraine forms

-union of khalmar very fun for 100y or so but then gets dull..
-finland has some good ideas but very isolated as game play....and no late events to keep you busy...
-with eire i managed the record inflation; by 1550 i had 30 inflation ( i thik ever record for me in any mod since years back when i mastered eu2 well). why so? becouse the expensive colonisation and those annoying events of "concentrting on colonies"; always had over 5 auto loans ; and the imposibillity to go above 5 serfdom got me nuts! that i drped the game in 1600's...in eu2 terms low serfdom in late game stops expansion dramatically as you all probablly know by now.....
- scotland bored me fast becouse its norway connection; logically would be to make events with regard to the island itself in my opinion....at least SOME MORE AS such.....
- cordoba would be the best example as "undeveloped" why i say that: there has been a lot of effort to make it a very fun playable nation and it SUCCEDED FOR THE FIRST 150YEARS OR SO...then literally all posibilities eventwise go DEAD unlike egypt wich keeps having inovative intreasting events.....i have played mamelks 4 times ALREADY untill 1700's a least....
-dichali: a lot of events but somehow not many trigger....gave up on it
-ben zaa...lovelly until european arrive with a superior GOD SEND tech....
-maya ; VERY intreasting, but if chooses to stay pagan= NO EVENTS.....even if othewise not much to do do late game...
-the region of inca; a whole pile of "nothing" to look foward too....
-mali; good concepts but i will wait until it gets a lot MORE events...same for maroco and ashanty maybe?
- asia= DEAD as a game play to me...and god damm manchu KEEPS HAVING 2 CAPITALS IN ALL BETAS.....lucky that they rarelly get the capitalS sucked to couse crash( i neer checked if it starts with 2 capitals since i have no starting maps in game) but after 1500's i always see it with 2 capitals....
-bohemia has an AWSOE START but there is nothing to do when dust setlles...
-france region RARELLY gets its complicated events triggered becouse ai does not folllow human logic of layig them down maybe?
- hansa league......dull becouse TOO powerfull; quicklly loosing interest.
-teutonics..INTREASTING CONCEPTS until the crusade; then dull + once lost almost ALL my territories by a forced event; that was NO FUN....
-order of crescent; SUPERB except no options for a player run country to expand anywhere or as a matter o fact do anything else after 1550's....PLEASE make it a country like caliphate and beeing a CHALANGE to caliphate would make BOTH countrie intreasting IF byzanthum dead and european cores, etc....
- hungary; always makes a lot of noise as ai but with no clear , intreasting options; the small event file made me never play it so far...
-the crusade in spain finally works but NEVER seems to have an outcome as something to after....
-genoa and sicilly always ends up irrelevant and NEVER i seen any of the as ai winning the competition; the connection events to byzanthum have no real meaning as well....
-byzhantum; i suggest getting that event file for byzhantum somwhere hee on the mods forum; THAT is something that would make byzanthum a country to be played all 400 years...so far in aberation gets dull as well by 1600's even if not as bad as other nation...
-golden hore; big dissipointment; simplly annoying as ai as there i never an outcome .even if it disspears ukraine NEVER gets it ot past it...dead eventfile after 1500s it seems as well IF a human runs it...
-i would suggest new nationS in siberia corridor..a whole bunch of nothing to do there....why not rsurect the possible old mongol khan's empire...possibility i say....
-india always DULL AS HELL . the 2 nations there vassal each other constantlly and then the whole game they keep on "sleeping".LOL
-ethiopia, zanj,nubia...very few events but PROMISING ones if they get much MORE expanded, etc....
-bavaria; no real chlange since hansa has such bad military sliders for example...a lot of germans make bavaria dominant fast only hungary keeps it in check
-savoy; actually never played it becouse the event file seems irrelevant to my taste.
-burgundy; few PROMISING events and nothing else...
-south france has some events that makes sure nobody wins basically,not even a human, hehehehehehe
-telcemen I LOVE IT as much as mameluks or caliphate BUT no events after the revolt ones and the posibility of making a muslim empire in sicilly is practically non existent YET
-kingdom of jerusalim; no real options eventwise and as a game play....there are FEW events but even those deal with "relations"; as ai against the powerfull caliphate it needs more then that; and its cultural "gains" are a joke as a gameplay.the egypt option impossible to do and even if so, it comes too late to get a game balance against caliphate wich always is on the role as any nations in eu2 mods should always be no? hehehehehe :
-il khanate; VERY INTREASTING TO ME but its religious options did not YET made me willing to play it; and the initial bb makes it impossible for me to have fun with this country since i always play on very hard option=VERY slow bb decrease
-ruthenia ; NEVER seen it except in the event file...
-swabia; intreasting nation and position but no real events
-hudson nation; good start but no real events yet...
- no russian minor that actually can make a diffrence one way or another

a few suggestions: please make more "historical" events with OPTIONS that have bb decrease or increase; that would generally keep a player busy and intreasted, etc...
-continiu development of "historical" nations adiacent to cordoba/egypt/caliphate/il khanate....for example the 3 provinces orthodox vassal of il khanat would make an intreasting nation to play provide it would have the chance to expand and convert cultures for example...
-remove vinland; simplly annoying nation with no gameplay contribution other then nostalgy...i am canadian as well

i would have more small details to say/add; i will be back after i am starting a new mameluks simulation)))))

 

[MattyG]

beregic,

Wow, first of all, thank you for taking the itme to play through so many of the nations and to pass on your comments. Too few players do this.

Please refer to the mod as Interregnum. Aberration is dead.

Sorry about the bugs. I try as best I can to code corectly, but I get little time for playtesting myself and rely on others to find the problems. One of the reasons that the mamelukes and Caliphate are so good is that we have two serious playtesters and idea-people who favour that region. Their commitment shows.

Before I respond to your comments, some general points from me.

1. Successor states

It's quite true that Ruthenia and France and Occitnia are hard for the ai to form. Part of the reason for this is that we design with an eye to the MP environment, where creating these states needs to be a challenge, not easy. This is especially the case for France and the ai ought to rarely form it. That's the 'official' history. If we ever did another scenario for Interregnum, France will not have formed. Ruthenia will have, however, and so would Occitania. So, I will look at ways of making them a little easier for the ai to create, or to sharpen the ai files.

2. No Late Game Events

It's true, the game is very short on events after 1600. Just no one around to write them. But it is also hard. We aim for the game to have a less deterministic path, but then this principle would lead us to ever more large and complicated event files. But more than that, with the 'history' so open ended, it is hard to conceive of events that make sense and that don't seem too forced. Finally, as we are still trying to fill in the world and ensure the first 200 years are bug free and interesting, the 1700s will just have to wait.

3. China and India

I have neither the time nor the historical knowledge to build an alternative history here replete with events, monarchs and leaders. The countries are not normally selectable (unless you have an earlier beta) and are intended only to be tougher and a little more unusual than the vanilla world. No apologies from me. I can only do so much.


Now to specific nations.

Golden hore. Tee hee. OK, yes they are not necessarily fun to play if expansion is your style. They are tricky and full of revolts. Not every country can be stable with nice leaders and monarchs. But the storyline is interesting and they CAN rise above it all later on and recalim much of what they lose. or they can form Turkmenistan.

Savoy. Me, I like Savoy's lineages and the toguh choices you have to make. It is a great challenge from the MP perspective, deciding whether to be French Italian or Occitan. But it doesn't have many non-lineage events, that's true.

Bavaria. Intentionally strong at the outset. We are still building that file, as you may be aware. But it's a poor choice for SP. It's like playing Spain or England in vanilla. Too easy. Especially because a player can win the crusade against Cordoba, and then the Emperor kinda takes over ....

Dichali. At what point did you give up on it? It is BORING before the Europeans arrive. How could it not be? It's isolated. All the events to that point are elections, plus the civil war. Which events did not fire?

Ukraine etc. I'll twek the events and the revolt.txt file. I guess I need to play that one through to iron out the bugs. And I'll try and make Ruthenia easier for the ai.

Vinland. Here's the problem. I never wanted it in the mod, but others did, so I deferred. But then nobody ever did any work on it, except me. So it is stuck where it is. I am for removing it at this point, as I do not feel inspired to write the events for it to live and breathe.

Eire. Some people complain about Eire. But you need to understand and accept the reality of Gaelic Law and how significant and unchanging it was. All I can say is that if it frustrates you, don't play Eire. But we are not changing this representation of it: the game already has 100 countries that all have the same political structure. One which is very different and intriguing is welcome. However, I think you are right that they need more events that give them colonists. The low innovative helps, but the random event could be 'free citizens make for the new world' and be tied to a law that grants freehold title to land, something that does not exist in Ere herself.

Cordoba. Hmm, well, I thought there were quite a few late game events. maybe only in some of the paths, like the Malwas. Any suggestions on events for us???

Asturias. Not many events, yes. Just ones related to relations, cores, cultures. Just haven't had the time.

Scotland. Boredom is a matter of opinion. But the design was to not have it too focused on conquering England. That said, there are the Yorkist revolts, the relations with Wessex, the succession in Wales, the religious issue, culture changes, moving the capital south. I don't really think its very Norway focused at all. All the Norweigian events evaporate after 50 years. And Scotland has events that go right up to 1800.

Inca. No one has an idea of what to do with it, except that it not be vanilla.

Mali Yes, needs more events. Glad you liked the ones we did write.

Tlemcen. Calipah promised more events but never wrote them and he's dropped off the face of the earth. Again, glad you liked what we did do. It's one of the most challenging to play. I have sucked at it several times ...

Genoa and Sicily Interesting comments. This is probably a matter of their ai files that they do not do well enough. I can see the ai generally not being able to cope with the naval requirements of Sicily (the ai SUCKS as naval actions and invasions) but Genoa ought to be stronger and do better, especially now that it has earlier explorers. But you are right that I have never seen them do very well, and all the 'majors' ought to enjoy an ocassional amazing success. As for the Byzantium events, these are largely for the MP environment.

Maya. The lagan thing was there only for the principle of it. I wanted players to be able to keep themselves pagan if they really wanted to, and not to be forced to convert. I don't advise it. Converting is waaaaaay better.

Hansa. Powerful in SP. Much like bavaria, they are too good in the hands of a player. Not so in MP, where their far-flung holdings and desireable CoTs make them a target. They don't often do brilliantly as ai, however. But we don't design countries only so that players can't abuse them and win the game. If a player can get a WC with vanilla Benin ....
Swabia. Still being written. Has lots of events and can create Lombardia.

Byzantium. I don't agree. Byzantium has an event file that goes all the way to 1800. Far from dull. Things get really interesting after 1600. Civil war, expansion, revolution ...

Order of the Crescent. Given that it can only come to exist through an event, it was clearly not design for someone to play. I am glad you enjoyed it all the same. Making it more playable would be very very low on my list of priorities.

Bohemia. Essentially unchanged from Aberration. Haven't put any time into working on it. It is expected to die off, so no one really bothered.

Brittany and Burgundy. Yep, lots of ideas, no time ...

Il-Khanate Intended to break apart. The hated Mongol bhuddhists cannot be expected to keep their sunni persians under foot forever, and they must either convert or collapse. That is the way of things ...

Mongol Nation This idea has been raised before. I like it, but no one has done the hard work of designing it. Like China, India and sub-saharan Africa.

Russia There's still a strong feeling that any big nation that forms in the east is just 'Russia' under another name. Part of the reason why Ruthenia should not form too easily. Aberration and Interregnum are not supposed to mirror the real world too much No Spain, England, France etc. So, this is a design feature.

"Historical" events. I am not sure what you mean by this. This is an alternative history mod. The historical events wouldn't really make much sense.

Looking forward to discussing all this with you some more, and thanks again.

 

[unmerged(15247)]

for the moment i can not private message so i will have ask you if have an email that receives tested games...

my comments were intended to be very critical; however it is GREAT work for what it is already; obviouslly nothing will get perfect ever just like with anything else

 

[MattyG]

for the moment i can not private message so i will have ask you if have an email that receives tested games...

my comments were intended to be very critical; however it is GREAT work for what it is already; obviouslly nothing will get perfect ever just like with anything else

I read your comments as you intended them and did not take it personally. I would love to have the time to do more work on the mod and have every country fully detailed. Alas, no time and too little help.

gibsonmathew@yahoo.ca

Please make sure that you zip or rar the savegame files.

How are things in Toronto. I lived there for a while and my wife's family is there, so we visit at least once a year. Nice town.

MattyG

 

[unmerged(15247)]

by "historical" events i mean NOT random ones; as gameplay the "Fix" events could be considered "historical" no? sending some save files right now maybe will help to see a few things, etc

 

[unmerged(15247)]

another thing i am convinced of:

having random events "off" actually makes game MORE enjoyable; unless "mp" game the random events are only annoying becouse they always try to "balance" the game; especially works against ai

without random events all my games in this mod are getting more intreasting in long run becouse ai sucessfully makes TOUGH decisions of one sort or another and decisive outcomes more likelly)))

 

[unmerged(15247)]

How are things in Toronto. I lived there for a while and my wife's family is there, so we visit at least once a year. Nice town.

MattyG

wow nice)))) well, inflation is hitting preatyy hard right now if look around carefully ; all consumer prices have gone crazy...p
wich area of toronto u know?

 

[MattyG]

wow nice)))) well, inflation is hitting preatyy hard right now if look around carefully ; all consumer prices have gone crazy...p
wich area of toronto u know?

I lived in the Annex a while, but Laura's family is from Lawrence/Yonge and her Grandma lives in Oakville. Of course, hung out downtown, Kensington markets, beaches, places like that.

 

[MattyG]

another thing i am convinced of:

having random events "off" actually makes game MORE enjoyable; unless "mp" game the random events are only annoying becouse they always try to "balance" the game; especially works against ai

without random events all my games in this mod are getting more intreasting in long run becouse ai sucessfully makes TOUGH decisions of one sort or another and decisive outcomes more likelly)))

Intruiging.

Which beta are you using?

Most of the negative random events don't trigger for the ai, but when you turn off the optional randoms you get the subsidiary set of randoms, which in the more recent betas includes all of the ai help events. What this means is that in this situation, the chance of the ai getting one of its help events increases dramatically. So, you are likely playing against an ai that is getting loads of inflation decreasing, tech-increasing, stability-increasing events.

The second thing to remember is that there are many random events in nation files keyed to specific conditions, like a civil war. These will now be much much more likely to occur, and could be a little over the top. like the inflation decreasing dirham events for the Caliphate one the paper money finally gets established.

 

[orimazd]

I played Tlemcen once. It was fun, and there aren't any other nation in Europe that are British red (BTW, thanks MattyG for changing the Blue Horde to Blue...next time I play a game I might make the White Horde white just for the fun of it...)

BTW, I suggest possibly stealing AGCEEP's Mongoria (sweet sowa poke!) just to take up the space.

I have a random question. What happens in Interregnated history with Tamerlane? I never thought about it until I bought and read a book about the scary dude a few weeks ago. Are we assuming that the injury that left him lame on his right side in our world killed him in Interregnum (IIRC it was very close)? I mean, I could come up with a million ideas about that, just like with everything else. Not that you want me to, because ideas are a penny a million here in most places and it is the coding that is especially important.

 

[unmerged(15247)]

Intruiging.

Which beta are you using?

Most of the negative random events don't trigger for the ai, but when you turn off the optional randoms you get the subsidiary set of randoms, which in the more recent betas includes all of the ai help events. What this means is that in this situation, the chance of the ai getting one of its help events increases dramatically. So, you are likely playing against an ai that is getting loads of inflation decreasing, tech-increasing, stability-increasing events.

The second thing to remember is that there are many random events in nation files keyed to specific conditions, like a civil war. These will now be much much more likely to occur, and could be a little over the top. like the inflation decreasing dirham events for the Caliphate one the paper money finally gets established.

sended you a bunch of saves ziped, by email; check out the comments and maps; might give certain ideas; presentlly working hard on the sicilian connection

 

[unmerged(15247)]

Intruiging.

Which beta are you using?

Most of the negative random events don't trigger for the ai, but when you turn off the optional randoms you get the subsidiary set of randoms, which in the more recent betas includes all of the ai help events. What this means is that in this situation, the chance of the ai getting one of its help events increases dramatically. So, you are likely playing against an ai that is getting loads of inflation decreasing, tech-increasing, stability-increasing events.

The second thing to remember is that there are many random events in nation files keyed to specific conditions, like a civil war. These will now be much much more likely to occur, and could be a little over the top. like the inflation decreasing dirham events for the Caliphate one the paper money finally gets established.

always used the new beta, the same day you release it; atually i find it annoying that each beta has its own folder and therefore i need to set simulation message settings each single time

about random events lets say this; every time i turn eyes around ai has revolts WHILE AT WAR( few times related to WE, but when a war just starts; troops move over border...boom...capital is in revolt back home, lol, sen it TOO MANY times ); just a single revolt can make ai loose compleatlly its focus and armies are running around,back and forth to nowhere; i am watching ai waring very closelly especially when allies are at war ; and so far that is a clear observation i made in any eu simulation so far.

not sure about the ai codes but it is very simple; unles a "fixed" "historical" event that has revolts; no random events simplly keeps ai focused; and only a human can confuse their armies; even then i noticed something intreasting; ai will keep sieging a mountain province it managed to get to; even if there are troops overunning its capital ( regarding the exploit of posting 1-2k's in capitals so ai lifts its sieges= buys siege time to the human)

 

[unmerged(15247)]

after compleating sicilly ; now i am working n genoa; nice going about catalonians events; how come nothing comes out of the cairo invasion event? will keep posted;

any particular country needs a test?

 

[unmerged(15247)]

all the saves sent from the genoa chapter;"autosave" is due to the fact that twice had the crash in february probablly a buG;

the 4 saves are a detailed progress of the republic; things to look for and that stand out:
-middle east various countries and its religious compositions
-hungary annexing eire DIPLOMATICALLY( now thats a complete fantasy, grrrrrrrrr)
-colonial dynamism

personal reccomandation:
- "the pillars of herculers" event ; its outcome triggers for cordoba but not for genoa( would be nice to trigger regardless as loss of trade OR gaining cores
-sharay sultanate and its many capital and religious options; that is one aspect that would be nice to be implemented for MANY other countries; it really creates aviable ALTERNATE progress;
-outcome events for controllinng north african coast; at present only sicilly gets such

"bugs":

-whomever controls rome; its events trigger TWICE each (popes events)
-twice triggering manus events in brazil

 

[unmerged(15247)]

see bug sectioion as wel; a gew more things i noticed or thought of
-how about getting many events from agceep mod? many minors here DO have sometimes MANY events, however in agceep those minors rarelly do survive to have those events even "come up"; there are many events there that do NOT need modifications since many involves relations or sliders movement.....
- those events would especially be usefull in the inca zon for example if ANY of those useless "names" manages to reunite;

just an idea; i do not think agceep guys would mind to do that no? this mod is really good as it is; just needs some more spice