DEV DIARY 5
ART OF WAR & MODS
ART OF WAR & MODS
Salve! I'm busy with fixing converted save, so please forgive me that I'm not responding to all your comments – I really want the AAR to start as soon as possible. Today we shall examine how „Imperium Sine fine” is going to work after „Art of War” release. We will also take a look at the mods I'm going to use during the campaign. This is the penultimate dev diary – the constant stream of modifications and fixes is going to finally end this week. And I have to say that I'm glad that instead of staring at code in Notepad++ I'll be able to finally write the story
Let's start with the map.
This is how the known world (Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East) look like at the start of the game. Know that it took 294 manual changes to provinces files to make the old converted save work again. But yes, at last everthing works and – after some fixing – it seems that there are no serious bugs, save for the vanilla ones of course. I'm not going to wait for 1.8.1 to start though.
Another change introduced by AoW is autonomy. Here you can see its effects on the Imperium – all themata in Africa are virtually cut off from the City and suffer 75% local autonomy (LA) penalty, while the rest of the imperial lands enjoy 20% LA. Why? Because I changed the way Dominate Empire (current government of the Imperium) works:
Code:
#Dominate Empire
monarchy = yes
valid_for_new_country = no
#bonus
land_morale = 0.05
global_autonomy = -0.10
faction = ki_nobles
faction = ki_clergy
faction = ki_peasants
min_autonomy = 20
}Changes in autonomy forced some minor changes concerning the imperial officials:
Code:
# PALACE OFFICIALS
# Parakoimomenos - ADM FACTION
byz_parakoimomenos = {
global_autonomy = -0.05
stability_cost_modifier = 0.05
}Some of the triggered modifiers were changed as well:
Code:
[u][b]# Pax Angelica Ambition[/b][/u]
byz_restore_ambition = {
stability_cost_modifier = 1
ae_impact = 0.50
global_missionary_strength = -0.02
}
[b][u]# Pax Angelica[/b][/u]
byz_restored_ambition = {
global_unrest = -1
global_autonomy = -0.1
global_missionary_strength = 0.01
}
[u][b]# Imperial Red Tape[/b][/u]
byz_huge = {
trigger = {
NOT = { stability = 2 }
}
global_autonomy = 0.1
global_unrest = 2
stability_cost_modifier = 0.5
}
[b][u]# Great Purge[/u][/b]
byz_huge_stable = {
trigger = {
stability = 2
}
global_autonomy = 0.05
global_unrest = 1
stability_cost_modifier = 0.25
}
Code:
[b][u]# The Reds[/b][/u]
ki_nobles =
{
monarch_power = MIL
modifier =
{
#Best
army_tradition = 1
#Good
core_creation = -0.05
war_exhaustion = -0.01
siege_ability = 0.05
land_morale = 0.10
#Worst
global_colonial_growth = -25
#Bad
global_autonomy = 0.05
naval_morale = -0.15
#Cost
global_regiment_cost = 0.10
}
}
[b][u]# The Whites[/b][/u]
ki_clergy =
{
monarch_power = ADM
modifier =
{
#Best
stability_cost_modifier = -0.25
#Good
global_missionary_strength = 0.02
global_tax_modifier = 0.10
global_autonomy = -0.05
advisor_pool = 2
#Worst
technology_cost = +0.10
#Bad
land_morale = -0.10
navy_tradition_decay = 0.02
#Cost
advisor_cost = 0.25
}
}
[b][u]# The Blues[/b][/u]
ki_peasants =
{
monarch_power = DIP
modifier =
{
#Best
idea_cost = -0.10
#Good
global_colonial_growth = +20
diplomatic_reputation = 1
trade_efficiency = 0.1
navy_tradition_decay = -0.005
#Worst
discipline = -0.05
#Bad
army_tradition_decay = 0.02
global_missionary_strength = -0.03
#Cost
global_ship_cost = 0.1
}
}So all in all in regards to local autonomy it works like this:
Autonomy bonus
-0.10 LA while in peace (vanilla)
-0.10 LA because of the government
-0.05 LA when the Whites have the most influence in the Senate
(-0.10 LA if „Pax Angelica” is triggered)
(-0.25 LA if Roman Ambition is unlocked)
Autonomy malus
+0.20 LA if „Imperial Red Tape” is triggered
(+0.10 LA when „Imperial Red Tape” is substituted by the „Great Purge” triggered modifier)
+0.05 LA when the Reds have the most influence in the Senate
So let's say on 11 November 1444 for some reason Imperium is at war, „Imperial Red Tape” is triggered and the Reds are in charge. This would mean these modifiers apply:
-0.10 LA because of the government
+0.20 LA if „Imperial Red Tape” is triggered
+0.05 LA when the Reds have the most influence in the Senate
So during war Imperium would gain +0.15 local autonomy each month. This represents the general problems with administration Imperium has which are additionally strained by a war effort and the Reds, who don't really care about collecting taxes in, say, Malta when the enemy is at the gates. Of course in the mid-game these maluses can be overcomed – hopefully- but in the early game they should prove to be another challenge for me
The LA malus also helps balance the Reds, who have pretty good modifiers (+5% discipline). Important – I'm still tweaking these things so it may change a little. Oh, and speaking about challenge I also made penalties for corruption much harsher:
Code:
[b][u]# Massive Corruption[/b][/u]
byz_corr1 = {
trigger = {
NOT = { stability = 0 }
}
global_tax_modifier = -0.10
production_efficiency = -0.10
global_trade_income_modifier = -0.10
}
[b][u]# Medium Corruption[/b][/u]
byz_corr2 = {
trigger = {
stability = 1
NOT = { stability = 2 }
}
global_tax_modifier = -0.06
production_efficiency = -0.06
global_trade_income_modifier = -0.06
}
[b][u]# Small Corruption[/b][/u]
byz_corr3 = {
trigger = {
stability = 2
NOT = { stability = 3 }
}
global_tax_modifier = -0.03
production_efficiency = -0.03
global_trade_income_modifier = -0.03
}
[b][u]# Corruption Eradicated[/b][/u]1
byz_corr4 = {
trigger = {
stability = 3
}
global_tax_modifier = 0.02
production_efficiency = 0.02
global_trade_income_modifier = 0.02
}That's about it – there are few other things which concern LA but I can't reveal them right now and few other things which AoW broke but which are fixed (Catholic-only HRE for example). One of the most important things is the minimum LA of the colonies created on the same continet on which colonizer has his capital (yes, the issue which makes everyone on the forum angry). No longer there is – pretty silly IMHO – minimum 50% LA floor; in fact there is no minimum at all, so colonies can go from 0% to 100% LA like every other province. Of course 75% LA distant overseas penalty still applies, but things like „I'm playing as Kongo and if I send my colonists on the other side of the river the new province gives me permanent 50% LA for the whole game” won't happen in „Imperium Sine Fine”. I'm sure that Paradox will fix this either way but why wait for 1.8.1 when all it takes is a simple change in defines, right?
There's also one profound change I made which doesn't really have anything in common with „Art of War” but I would like to hear your feedback sooner rather than later. Here are some of the Lucky Nations in „Imperium Sine Fine” (in random order):
- The Timurids
- The Horde
- Xenoi Xolal
- Mali
- Poland
- Leon
- Scotland
- Pisa
Oh, and I also changed xenoi National Ideas:
Code:
xenoi_ideas = {
start = {
core_creation = -0.33
global_manpower_modifier = 0.25
}
bonus = {
colonists = 1
# National Idea 1 = {
army_tradition_decay = -0.01
stability_cost_modifier = -0.15
}
# National Idea 2 = {
land_morale = 0.15
free_leader_pool = 1
}
# National Idea 3 = {
global_unrest = -1
global_missionary_strength = 0.03
tolerance_heathen = -3
}
# National Idea 4 = {
global_tax_modifier = 0.10
global_autonomy = -0.10
}
# National Idea 5 = {
technology_cost = -0.05
advisor_cost = -0.15
}
# National Idea 6 = {
discipline = 0.05
infantry_power = 0.10
}
# National Idea 7 = {
range = 0.5
culture_conversion_cost = -0.50
may_explore = yes
}Now I know some of you think that I must be crazy by taking so many precautions to make sure Imperium is rather weak and its enemies are stronger. You may be right, of course – but considering how good are Roman NI, how beneficial is the geographical position of the Imperium, how silly AI is and how boring it would be if I would just blob unopposed for 400 years I think that there is no reason to not use such obstacles. There are some things (modifiers, events, decisions, mechanics etc.) which can make Imperium pretty strong but – for obvious reasons – I can't really talk about them. So remember that your impression of me nerfing myself into oblivion is biased: you simply don't see all the good stuff hidden in the game files
MOD – Feudal Factions
Factions from Feudal Factions mod were covered earlier, so there's not much to be said here. I rewritten events from PPA so that each of the three factions gains influence based on:
- events from Feudal Factions
- events from PPA
- decision from PPA
plus obviously the Faction which „wins” the Senate Session gains +100 influence (via console). I won't use the option to manually increase their influence by spending monarch points, so which Faction is dominant will depend totally on the outcome of Senate Session and RNG.
MOD - PURPLE PHOENIX ARISIS
Well, when can I start? There were so many modifications that I think basically the whole mod was re-written. And I'm not talking only about localization files (all of them changed) or officials modifiers (all changed) – I'm talking also about events, images, decisions etc. To list them all means practically copy-paste all the code in this post, which is impossible. Some things were removed (like advisors or triggered modifiers based on ruler's MP) because they were obsolete, depended on long-abandoned mods or simply caused the game to crash (old faction system). Basically nothing was added per se, I was focused mostly on changing things and changes I made – like better unit and ships models for Imperium – were mostly not connected to the mod itself.
In the end, PPA is now well-tailored for the „Imperium Sine Fine” in almost every aspect – modifiers make sens in EU4 1.8, localization is based in the setting and decisions and events are balanced (lots of them were OP because they were written with vanilla Byzantium start in mind).
GRAPHICS AND UI MODS
I use Thick Borders v1.0 and Tooltip Font Mod too but I didn't change them in any way. More visible and distinct borders and bigger text in a tooltip is something I'm used to after usign these two mods for months (they are Ironman-compatible) and I have to say that it's hard to play EU4 without them.
Next time in „Dev Diary 6 – Finishing touches” I will list all the modifications which are worth mentioning (and I haven't mentioned them yet) before the AAR finally begins.
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