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{{Decius Taurinus, rises, he quickly stuffs a roll inside his mouth and downs a cup of wine.}}

My interests are in the strength of the empire. My homeland sits upon the edge of the empire, we of the House Taurinus have shed our blood and given our skills and strength to defend the Empire, holding Taurica and the forgotten lands of the Empire on the northern coast against the Hordes from the East. I would be inclined to support the military reforms the empire needs, but it appears that there is not enough support for such reforms and so I will support the Administrative Reforms as the most likely to succeed and still very necessary for the strengthening of the Empire. I hope that from this meeting we can form a Reform faction devoted to the continued Renewal and Success of the Empire

House Taurinus votes yes for the condemnation
House Taurinus votes for the Administrative Ideas (With a specific idea to be selected later)

{{Departs briefly to attend Mass and returns a short while later to make dinner plans to celebrate with his like minded senators the completion of the first senate session}}
 
I believe that I said my arguments- there is nothing else for me to say.
I would like to thank Leontios Kastelos for his support and give him my promise that I will support him next time.
The House Salamis votes FOR the proposed resolution.
The House Salamis votes FOR the Diplomatic ideas (Exploration).
 
{{Georgios rises for a third time.}}

"House Tsoukalos votes FOR the proposed resolution.
House Tsoukalos votes for Diplomatic Ideas (Exploration)."
 
May we retake Cairo. I am no merchant, and I proposed trade solely to help us prepare to retake Aegyptus and all other lands lost to foreigners, for the merchants may have a... peculiar lust for gold *glances at Leon Zvonimir*, but the gold they bring in keeps the forges hot, the farms plowed, and the roads in repair while we make ready.

The house Cortez votes FOR the proposed resolution.
The house Cortez votes FOR the Diplomatic Ideas (trade or exploration).

{{I know I didn't go heavy-handed with spanish.. or any-handed at all, but I'm surprised the lack of a proper roman name didn't attract any flak}}
 
Septimark's Vote 1st session:

*Septimark stands to give his vote.*
I see were the senate stands. I will not attempt to hide my dislike of the situation. I still see that this senate still clings to traditions that broke our empire the first time, but our beloved emperor has given us truly farsighted choices. Therefore this is where the House of Wedrovander stands
Aye to the condemation
Abstain from the voting of the Ideas
May God guide us to a better day and long live the emperor.

{{I have to admit as well this has been fun but I still think the rules and things we can do need a little more work but the format has some solid functionality. As for names I'm the most barbarian and yet have the most roman name here. It certainly says something doesn't :p.}}
 
Does the rules mean us plebs can't post during a vote, then? :(
Obviously you can :) I would prefer for claritiy's sake to have only votes posted in this thread during the voting but I won't forbid you from posting.
I'm a fan of the AAR/story, but have no interest in role play.
And that's why I want this AAR to be perfectly understandable and interesting even for people who skip all the Senate Sessions. Normally there will be 1-2 Sessions per month at most, which means c. 5 days of Session per 20 days of normal posting. It's just that the AAR hasn't even began really ;)
{{ And normally our benevolent AAR writer must make a summary of each session according to the rules :p }}
Ahem, yeah, about that - I guess I'll have to abandon this idea. Such summary would take much more work than I anticipated (imagine editing all 5-6 pages of this discussion) and it would be all for nothing since I don't imagine anyone would read such long stenograph from the Session. I will have to come up with something else.
{{ As long as we speak like that, it must pose no problem }}
Exactly - you can't speak in-character during voting after you vote. I want to keep the distinction between in-character and out-of-character clear.
{{I have to admit as well this has been fun but I still think the rules and things we can do need a little more work but the format has some solid functionality.}}
I know - that's why we're doing this :) I'm going to make some changes to the rules after the test Session is over.

[size=+1]***
Only 4 hours of voting left.
[/size]
 
The arguments have been exchanged and there not much to add to them. But in the spirit of the long senatorial tradition let me say, that it is an hornour to serve the Empire together with so much dedicated and different minds, for only diverse minds can bring solutions for the problems that plague us and the hardships that stand before us. We might not be of one opinion and the atmosphere at times be a bit... hostile. But in defiance of our differences we were able to compromise. Although, not on the same compromise.

Nevertheless, let us conclude the vote and leave the hostilities behind in the arena of the Magnaura. I hereby invite all present senators to a humble feast in the city-mansion of my House after the closure of this session of the Senate. I might not be able to fest you with such exotic things like the hornoured Leontios would be able to do, but I've send for the best delicacies from the whole of Greece.

May Gods wisdom lay upon us and St. Markos protect us, my vote is as follows:

The House Melissenos votes FOR the proposed resolution.
The House Melissenos votes FOR the Diplomatic Ideas (Exploration).



{{For the future senatorial sessions, please lengthen the time for the votes a bit. It's only due to me being sick and sitting at home, that I'm able to cast my vote in time.}}
 
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{{For the future senatorial sessions, please lengthen the time for the votes a bit. It's only due to me being sick and sitting at home, that I'm able to cast my vote in time.}}
I will! Even better, I will want all of you (Senators) to give me your impression concerning the rules, the organization, the Session etc. as soon as this is over. I know that things needs fixing and that's why we do this test/tutorial Session in the first place :) Though since most of us (?) live in different timezones, compromises are going to be necessary.
 
[size=+2](TUTORIAL) SENATE SESSION ENDS[/size]

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Illustrious doux Maximos Komnenos, President of the Imperial Senate and Prefect of Konstantinoupolis, in the name of the Sacred Emperor Markos III Angelos, basileus basileon by the Grace of God, king of kings and rulers of rulers, Caesar Augustus of the Romaioi and all Men, Autokrator of the Holy Church and Protector of the Christendom hereby annouces that the voting has ended.

The results of the voting are as follows:


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[size=+1]Illustrious doux Maximos Komnenos, President of the Imperial Senate and Prefect of Konstantinoupolis hereby annouces: [/size]

- that the RESOLUTION proposed by Caesar Augustus Autokrator Markos III Angelos concerning condemnation of xenoi and their agents responsible for brutal murder of megas domestikos Demetrios Komnenos HAS PASSED;

- that the SENATUS CONSULTUM proposed by Caesar Augustus Autokrator Markos III Angelos concerning direction of development of a new legislation (National Ideas) HAS PASSED;

- that the Imperial Senate has decided to propose DIPLOMATIC IDEAS as the chosen direction of a new legislation to His Imperial Majesty Caesar Augustus Autokrator Markos III Angelos.

[size=+2]This concludes the (TUTORIAL) SENATE SESSION[/size]


May Saint Markos bless the noble Senators.

Signed,
Maximos Komnenos



[size=+1]***[/size]

First of all, I have to congratulate you – this went extraordinarily well and was a lot of fun to read and (hopefully) to participate in. You really managed to capture the atmosphere of the setting :)

As you probably noticed, the rules are still a little rough on the edges. That's why before I'll make a summary of the Session and revise the rules I would like you to tell me what are your impressions. What you liked the most about the way Session is organized? What annoyed you the most? What would you like to change? In what way? Was there enough time for both parts of the Session (sorry, Andre Massena!)? Please answer to these questions and share your opinion so that I can make the rules better suited for the Session – in the end, having fun is the goal of all this and bad regulations surely will cause trouble.

Second of all, I have to admit that although I was hesitant to enable factions from the start, after seeing how they spontaneously emerged in the first few hours of the Session I think it's only fair to make them official and implement them in the story AND game.

And that's why I'm going to use Feudal Factions mod during the EU4 campaign:

7BCECD52FDDC8CE41BD2F2735627359F360AC605

This small mod is perfect for three reasons: it's very uninvasive, it works and it's not overcomplicated, which alas can't be said about factions in PPA. For obvious reasons, I'm going to modify it a lot so that it could seamlessly merge with modifications I made to the exported save and world of „Imperium Sine Fine”. Here's an example:

CHANGES TO THE MILITARY FACTION

vanilla MIL faction (name - "The Nobility")
good modifiers: +1 diplomatic relations, -25% regiment cost, +1 yearly army tradition, +15% national manpower
bad modifiers: +1 revolt risk, +15% stability cost
vanilla description: "The nobles were of the highest caste in society. Supporting them will result in a larger, cheaper military, and improved diplomacy but at the cost of a more decentralized state."

modified MIL faction (name - „The Eagles”)
good modifiers: +1 yearly army tradition, +10% land morale, +1 diplomatic relations, -0,01 monthly war exhaustion
bad modifiers: -1 colonist, +20% land maintanance
modified description: „The Red Demes. This faction consists of Senators interested in stronger Imperial Army and greater emphasis on diplomacy. The Reds however tend to neglect exploration and their army-focused policies come at the cost of greater budget expenses.”

The basic idea is that whichever faction enforces its policies during a Senate Session is going to get free +50 boost, which should allow it to dominate the imperial politics for a long time. Feudal Factions mod introduces also bonuses and maluses to factions influence by modyfying dozens of vanilla events, so even if said faction „wins” one Senate Session, it doesn't mean that it will rule unopposed until the next Session. I'm going also to come up with Senate integration and more options like faction leaders, faction meetings, Byzantine officials from PPA nominated by the Emperor and so on. Of course this is all work in progress and since the factions are going to be used by you, I'm open to ideas and suggestions, especially concerning bonuses and maluses provided by each faction (cool names are also welcome).

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Which leaves me with one question to ask: would any of Senators be interested in participating in a private subreddit dedicated solely to the Senate? I chose reddit because I'm familiar with it and it's really easy to use. And to those not interested in the Senate, expect new dev diary today.
 
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I think that all in all everything went very well. The fact that not everyone was of the same opinion, there was scheming and all and that political factions emerged by themselves (be it out of pragmatism or idealism) was fun and proved, how well the concept of the Senate can work.

As I said, I would make the voting a bit longer, I think 24 hours would be good, giving everyone time to post. Also: Since you tell us the time for the voting in advance it would also be good if someone, who already knows that he hasn't time to post in this time frame could send you a PM with their vote in advance and so it can be counted.

Concerning the factions: Formalizing them and putting them into the game so to speak is good, and I'm really interested in what exact rules you/we come up with. I just would prefer, if we aren't bound to a faction, but will be able to change between them in different senate sessions. While I think that over a long term certain preferences would emerge in the habits of the Senators, they might for some proposals willing to throw in their lot with another one.
 
Ok, this seems great :)
I really like this whole thing- it is really fun, something that brightens the day. Like honorable McGrey said, 24 hours for voting sound better. I was in school today, and if I didn't have a smartphone I wouldn't manage to vote.
And yes, flexibility with changing factions can be good. It would be great if there is some mod or another way where we can see the factions and all of the existing Senators, change our own faction or character (when he dies), and pretty much manage Senate. But it sounds like too much :)
However, there is one thing with the factions which bothers me-
I think that from what we saw in this Senate session, the military faction doesn't really care for Diplomacy- that's more of a thing for the trade/exploration faction, as we advocated it.
So I think that the Military faction should an additional military bonus while the diplomacy either goes to exploration faction or to no one.
And about reddit, well I don't really know how to use it but yes, I can try it :)
A few questions and requests:
1. In this faction system, do we actualy see which Senators are in each faction?
2. When my character dies (or is, er, replaced by another family member), do I need to sent you another representative application so you can replace them?
3. On the same note... Can you inform me when (if) the first colonial ship departs? It may change the course of events for my character. I have something planned.
 
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1. I thought the senate session went very well.
2. A new dev diary? Fantastic news!
I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

I think that all in all everything went very well. The fact that not everyone was of the same opinion, there was scheming and all and that political factions emerged by themselves (be it out of pragmatism or idealism) was fun and proved, how well the concept of the Senate can work.

As I said, I would make the voting a bit longer, I think 24 hours would be good, giving everyone time to post. Also: Since you tell us the time for the voting in advance it would also be good if someone, who already knows that he hasn't time to post in this time frame could send you a PM with their vote in advance and so it can be counted.

Concerning the factions: Formalizing them and putting them into the game so to speak is good, and I'm really interested in what exact rules you/we come up with. I just would prefer, if we aren't bound to a faction, but will be able to change between them in different senate sessions. While I think that over a long term certain preferences would emerge in the habits of the Senators, they might for some proposals willing to throw in their lot with another one.
Yes, the scheming was marvelous :) I'm convinced now that making this AAR interactive was a good idea.

Longer voting is definitely a good idea and 24 hours seems reasonable. Voting in PMs isn't a good idea however - I want the voting to be public and avoid all the problems with "I sent you my PM why didn't you get it?". I may allow for "giving" your vote to another member of your faction or faction leader.

Yes, factions won't be very formalized and you will be allowed to freely change between them. Only the faction leader won't be allowed to do so for some time after he was chosen/nominated.
Ok, this seems great :)
However, there is one thing with the factions which bothers me-
I think that from what we saw in this Senate session, the military faction doesn't really care for Diplomacy- that's more of a thing for the trade/exploration faction, as we advocated it.
So I think that the Military faction should an additional military bonus while the diplomacy either goes to exploration faction or to no one.
And about reddit, well I don't really know how to use it but yes, I can try it :)

1. In this faction system, do we actualy see which Senators are in each faction?
2. When my character dies (or is, er, replaced by another family member), do I need to sent you another representative application so you can replace them?
3. On the same note... Can you inform me when (if) the first colonial ship departs? It may change the course of events for my character. I have something planned.
Good point, I'll change that. Reddit isn't great but it would be nice to have a convenient place for some scheming discussion not bound by forum rules I think.
1. Not in game but I will make a table on the first page of the thread.
2. Yes although it should be a formality.
3. In January or February 2015 probably :p You'll certainly notice this when it happens :)

I'm really interested in your feedback concerning the rules, guys!
 
That was really fun, and it was not even official :D
Voting should be 24hours as McGrey said, to let everyone vote
I don't know much about Reddit and what for ? The Senate Sessions will be on reddit instead of the thread ?
I'd better stay here on the forums but if it could help for the game why not.

How will the factions leader be chosen ?
 
That was really fun, and it was not even official :D
Voting should be 24hours as McGrey said, to let everyone vote
I don't know much about Reddit and what for ? The Senate Sessions will be on reddit instead of the thread ?
I'd better stay here on the forums but if it could help for the game why not.

How will the factions leader be chosen ?
Alright, it shall be 24 hours long.
I was thinking about it as a place where faction meetings could be hold.

I don't know yet :)
 
DEV DIARY 3
XENOI & THE FAR WEST


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Salve, citizens! Today we will finally take a closer look at the main enemy of the Imperium and cause of all the pain and misery in Europe and the whole known world – the soulless xenoi. But what does the word xenos or xenoi even mean?

Wikipedia said:
Xenos (Greek: ξένος, xénos, plural xenoi) is a word used in the Greek language from Homer onwards. The most standard definition is "stranger." However, the word, itself, can be interpreted to mean different things based upon context, author, and period of writing/speaking, signifying such divergent concepts as "enemy" or "stranger," a particular hostile interpretation, all the way to “guest friend,” one of the most hallowed concepts in the cultural rules of Greek hospitality.

Xenos can be translated both to foreigner in the sense of a person from another Greek state) and to a foreigner or traveler brought into a relationship of long distance friendship. Xenos can also be used simply to assert that someone is not a member of your community, that is simply foreigner and with no implication of reciprocity or relationship. Xenos generally refers to the variety of what a particular individual can be, specifically guest, host, stranger, friend, and, as previously mentioned, foreigner.
In „This Is Madness 2” the term xenos is used in a different context however. It was best explained in „This Is Madness” (CK2 AAR) by the bishops of the Holy Church during Ecumenical Council of Hierusalem in the year 1400:

The Holy and Ecumenical Synod, gathered together in Hierusalem by the decree of our most religious Augustus Basileus Autokrator Leon VIII Angelos, to the bishops, presbyters, deacons, and all the people in every province and city:

[size=+1]Canon I (Place of xenoi in God's Creation)
[/size]

The sublime God so loved the human race that He created man in such wise that he might participate, not only in the good that other creatures enjoy, but endowed him with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face; and since man, according to the testimony of the sacred scriptures, has been created to enjoy eternal life and happiness, which none may obtain save through faith in our Lord Iesus Kristos, it is necessary that he should possess the nature and faculties enabling him to receive that faith; and that whoever is thus endowed should be capable of receiving that same faith. Nor is it credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him to receive it. Hence Kristos, who is the Truth itself, that has never failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He chose for that office 'Go ye and teach all nations.' He said all, without exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith.

The Enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God's word of Salvation to the people: he inspired his satellites who, to please him, have not hesitated to claim that the xenoi of the Far West should not be treated as dumb brutes created for his service, pretending that they are capable of receiving the True Faith.

We, assembled here on this Holy Synod, consider however, that the xenoi are truly soulless beasts and that they are not only incapable of understanding the True Faith but, according to our information and what was proved during last decades on innumerable occasions, they desire nothing more but to exterminate good Christians.

By the authority of this Ecumenical Council and the Holy Church we declare all the xenoi the Enemies of Iesus Kristos and servants of Diabolos. These creatures are but a pathetic mockery of the holy form of man, created by God in His image, a blasphemous soulless corpses created by demons whom they serve. For Our Lord, knowing of their existence far beyond the seas, decided not to bring Gospel to them because they are not human nor they possess an immortal soul. They can not attain salvation nor can they hope for God's mercy, as what many suspects their are remnants of the giants who once inhabited earth. For it is said in the Holy Bible (Genesis 6: 5-7): „The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

(...)

As soulless instruments of the Diabolos in his desire to destroy beloved children of God, which is proved by countless atrocities committed by them including blasphemous and terrible human sacrifices to their false dark gods, the xenoi should be considered equal to vile and dangerous animals incapable of reasoning and devoid of love, kindness, justice or any other virtues or feelings. Being born damned by God, it is a great displace of mercy when one of the xenoi is made a slave, for this act elevates them from their miserable condition of men-beasts to the status of a slave. But no condemnation should be expressed to those who are not merciful for them, for no man can sin against the soulless.

We hope that with blessing of Our Lord these tormented creatures will be put out of their misery whenever soldiers of Kristos encounter them.

But enough with the (alternative) history lessons – it's time to focus on the xenoi in Europa Universalis 4. Before that however, let's talk for a moment about probably the most game-changing tweak that I introduced to the exported game – Administrative Efficiency.

Administrative Efficiency in „This Is Madness 2”
I decided to move the Administrative Efficiency modifier from tech levels 23, 26 and 29 to levels 17, 20 and 23. What does it mean game-wise? The Administrative Efficiency reduces the impact of province base tax on overextension and warscore cost by multiplying the overextension with (1 - ADM efficiency), allowing for much larger territories to be conquered at once. This means that the first -25% bonus comes in 1609 (ADM lvl 17), not 1687 (ADM lvl 23). This in turn means that in 1687 most Great Powers should have -75% AdmEff bonus, which means the last 150 years of the game will see huge changes on the map and much more decisive wars. We're talking about -75% bonus to province warscore cost, so every major war after c. 1687 is going to see dozens of provinces change hands, especially when fighting overseas. Which is only fitting for a setting like this in my humble opinion.


[size=+2]***
XENOI XOLAL (Aztec Empire in CK2)
[/size]

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Since the days of the Sunset Invasion the soulless xenoi conquest was unstoppable and no realm could resist for long against the power of the invaders – no realm save for the Imperium Romanum. At the start of the EU4 campaign it's been almost 200 years since the arrival of the savages from the Far West and Europe is almost unrecognizable. Mighty kingdoms of the past like England, France, Castille, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and many others have been wiped out from the face of the earth. For generations millions of Christians were sacrificed to the Dark Gods on top of Aztec pyramids, with their beating hearts carved from their bodies with obsidian blades to satisfy the hunger of daemons whom xenoi serve. The few remaining Latins are now slaves to their bloodthirsty masters and it seems that there is no hope for Christendom. All that remains of the Old World is now the Imperium and a few much smaller realms, which are either Roman allies like Kingdoms of Poland and Aquitaine) or traitors of the Throne like German Reich and Republic of Pisa, which betrayed not only the Angeloi but God himself by allying itself with the invaders – an unforgivable crime.

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In game terms, xenoi are immensely and almost ridiculously powerful. Their realm is enormous and encompasses half of Europe – the better half concerning basetax. The xenoi call their dominion „Nochtlaca Xolal” which in Nahua means „Land of (all) the People” (nochtlaca = all; xolal = land) but Romans call it just „Xenoi Xolal” or „Land of the Xenoi”, which IMHO is a cool portmanteau of Greek xenoi and Nahua xolal. Speaking of estethic changes (name: Aztec → Xenoi Xolal) I also changed vanilla color assigned to AZT (green) to a more proper dark red (color = { 48 149 21 } → color = { 190 0 0 }).

Xenoi Xolal is the main enemy of the Imperium and we will (hopefully) spend the whole EU4 fighting the Aztecs. Considering that:
1) I'm a rather good player;
2) exported save is horribly unbalanced anyways;
3) I would like to have a challenge;
4) story-wise, the xenoi are incredibly powerful;
5) AI achieved something unique in CK2, that is conquering half of Europe and keeping it together for 200 years.

I decided to really buff the Aztecs. Really, really buff. What converter gave me has been changed so much that basically xenoi are twice as powerful as they were in exported save before my changes. So how exactly powerful they are, you'll ask – well, let's take a look.

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First of all, Xenoi Xolal is mind-bogglingly gigantic. Their total basetax is bigger than this of the Imperium, the Horde and the Timurids combined.

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This however was what converter gave me – my changes in this aspect were limited to giving them as vassals several small splinter chiefdoms which broke off in CK2 (Karelia, Lappland, Vasterbotten). I also gave them province of Madrid which for some reason was exported as province of the Imperium.

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Xenoi Xolal has also Republic of Pisa as its protectorate and guarantees the independence of Khanate of Lithuania. All of this was introduced to reflect why Aztecs didn't attack some territories story-wise (game-wise it's just silly AI) and why some tiny OPMs could break off the Aztec realm (which game-wise is just effect of a succesfull rebellion in CK2 but story-wise makes no sense). This means that effectively they start the game in 1444 as powerful as France would be if it had Austria, England, Denmark and Castill under personal union AND it was the HRE emperor which WOULD be completely OP if not the fact that Europe is dominated by equally giant realms (Imperium, the Horde and the Timurids to a lesser extent). Those three however doesn't have the painful Distant Overseas modifier to huge chunk of their provinces.

But there is more.

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I didn't like the vanilla Aztec ideas (both from „Art of War” and from converted save with „Sunset Invasion DLC” active), so I made my own. They are much better as you can see and in fact they are excellent – they were created by mixing and expanding bonuses from converted save (with SI on) and some of the best ideas of vanilla OP countries like Ottomans, France and Russia. The result is this set of ridiculously good ideas, which is only fitting for a realm so immensely powerful.
Of course there are more changes, amongst which the most important are:

1. changed vanilla „Empire” government modifiers
vanilla: Empire (+5% morale, +20% vassal tax)
→ modified: Empire (+10% national tax, +10% manpower)

2. changed vanilla Aztec religion
vanilla: +15% land morale, -1 revolt risk
→ modified: +2,5% discipline, -1 revolt risk

I also gave High American tech group (which starts at level 4 in all tech groups while the rest of the world starts at level 3) better units – I used the stats from „The CK2-EU4 Converter Improvement Project” mod seeing that they are updated to a current version of EU4 unlike the stats from vanilla converter. Xenoi Xolal is also considered a Lucky Nation in every test I made due to its size and strength. As a quick reminder to you, these are the bonuses received by Lucky Nations according to EU4wiki.com:

Lucky nation rulers have a bonus of +1 to their Admin, Diplomatic and Military skills. Additionally:
Administrative
  • Administrative Tech Cost -2%
  • Chance of Heir +25%
  • Global Revolt Risk -1
  • Yearly Legitimacy +1
  • Yearly Republican Tradition +1
  • Missionary Strength +1%
  • Stability Cost Modifier -10%
  • Available Advisors +1
Diplomatic
  • Diplomatic Tech Cost -2%
  • Global Trade Power +10%
  • Colonist Success Chance +5%
  • Spy Offensive Chance +5%
  • 25% reduction to aggresive expansion
Military
  • Military Tech Cost -2%
  • Maintenance Free Leaders +1
  • Leader Fire +1
  • Leader Shock +1
  • Defensiveness +10%
  • Manpower recovery speed +33%
But there is more.

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Since Xenoi Xolal is so flipping big, the savages have access basically to all resources (trade goods) avaible in the game, including copper, gold, iron, ivory, cotton, sugar, tobacco, cocoa and so on. This means that xenoi control a huge chunk of international trade, which in turn means...

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…that they receive A LOT of production leader bonuses. That's right, this is what they get on top of the Lucky Nation bonuses. To make things worse (or rather more challenging for me), since Aztecs control trade routs between the Far West and Europe, they are able to steer trade in a most beneficial way possible from the day one of the EU4 campaign:

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By the way this is not me, it's AI which moved the trade capital to Antwerpen during one of my tests. Or haven't I mentioned already that I'll be playing on Hard Difficulty (agressive AI against human-controlled countries)? Because I will.

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National Focus aka Old Save Bonus
Religious Idea Group (first Idea Group from vanilla list made by Paradox).

Historical rivals and friends
Historical rivals: Imperium, Poland, Scotland, Ireland, Bavaria, Ilkhanate, Aquitaine
Historical friends: Pisa, Lithuania

And that's about it. This is the monster the Imperium will be facing. I have to admit, now that I'm writing these words I realized that perhaps I went a little overboard BUT it doesn't really matter. After all, no matter how many thousands of xenoi warriors or how OP bonuses Xolal has, the Imperium Romanum has God Almighty on its side. Plus it only makes sense to make the „bad guys” immensely more powerful than the „good guys” in grimdark setting like this. That is assuming you don't consider the conflict between the Imperium and xenoi to be a case of Black and Grey Morality in the first place.

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One thing is certain – if the xenoi win, the continuation of the story in Victoria 2 is going to be much, much more bleaker than anything what has happened so far in „This Is Madness”.


[size=+2]***
THE FAR WEST
[/size]

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These two screenshots from „This Is Madness” is basically all that is known about the Far West when EU4 campaign starts – and I intend to keep it that way. That's why I have to introduce a new concept: unlockable dev diaries.

Unlockable Dev Diaries

I made some changes to the Far West - in fact, I made lots and lots of changes. However, if I were to reveal all of them now this would completely ruin the surprise and the atmosphere of the AAR. I want you to wait for the news brought from across the seas from brave explorers just as eagerly as the characters in story will do. I want both the readers and Romaioi to await for confirmation of their theories in anticipation. In short, I want you to be as clueless as the characters in game are in respect to the Far West and other regions.

That's why when for instance the Far West is going to be explored for the first time by Romaioi – and only then – I will release a dev diary concerning said region or state(s). This doesn't mean I'm going to mess with the game after the campaign starts. As I said before, I want to rig the start and then let RNG loose on this world. Everything may happen therefore and although I will know the changes I did in various parts of the world, I won't know what's happening in terra incognita either. Once discovered, I will post a regular dev diary dedicated to a said state or region in which I'll explain all the changes I made – it'll be even more interesting to compare my fixes to what happened in game since the year 1444.

However, there is one small shard of the Far West „visible” to the Imperium since the very beginning.

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Iceland is the only (known) xenoi state which is not under control of what Romans call Xenoi Xolal. The other splinter realms from the Aztec dominion were made vassals of the Xolal by me but I decided to leave Iceland independent. Why? Well, I didn't want Xolal to go over its diplomatic relations cap plus Iceland is sufficiently remote and of little value to be ignored by xenoi. I did however gave Xenoi Xolal cores on the island. What's funny is that it was the first place to be overwhelmed by the xenoi during the Sunset Invasion.

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Save for these cores, I haven't made any changes to Iceland – no special ideas, no buffs, nothing. It's just one more oddity in the collapsing world consumed by hatred, violence and blind devotion to whatever is considered to be a divine will by cruel and tyrannical rulers keeping the masses in ignorant obedience.


That's it for now. Please keep in mind that any changes I've made so far may and probably will have to be tweaked again after the release of „Art of War”, even if only because of the huge number of new provinces added to the game. As always I encourage you to post your suggestions, because now is the best time to do so.

Next time: changes to exported Imperium Romanum and my personal tweaks to Purple Phoenix Arises (awesome mod by dorimi).


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The Senate session was really fun, I think. It's good to have all the plotting and scheming and the like going on behind the scenes.

As for the Dev Diary, I think that the changes you made to the Xenoi really help them become the monster they were in CK2, and I do like the idea of unlockable dev diaries.
 
Awesome! I thought that the CK2 part of This Is Madness was simply amazing, but this is becoming even better! :)
It seems like you make the Aztecs a huge challenge- are the Timurids and the Horde so weak that you can actualy ignore them and set your sight on the Xenoi?
Also, do you think that if the horde was still strong and held the lands that the Timurids took from them, they would pose a challenge?