Sengoku-mod - Fedual Japan mod preview/test

Sengoku-mod

This is a preview / test of a feudal Japan mod I've been working for some time. It's a historical mod that includes an unhealthy number of players & clans and features like armies, leader succession, dynamic vassals and more. It is more or less feature complete now - everything you see below is implemented and I'm down to testing/balancing now, and perhaps adding more events.

UPDATE:
Version 1.0 has been released, get it here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=505673



Features overview

- A mod with 2 Scenarios, 56 Players and 70 Clans; play in feudal Japan as one of the great clans such as the Oda or Tokugawa, or as a small one such as the Chiba or Omura
- 200+ historical daimyo (clan leaders), leader units, dynastic succession
- 800+ historical warlords (generals) with their own XP & Promotions to lead multi-unit armies
- Vassals & fiefs: grant captured towns to your vassals, turn your generals into vassals or create new vassals from subjugated provinces
- Improved diplomacy: Trade agreements, Military access, Alliances, Hostage agreements, Diplomats, Fame and Honor
- Improved espionage: Universal Espionage, SuperSpies modcomp, Assassinations of Leaders, Warlords & other characters, Tarnish Reputation, Sabotage Units
- Appropriate soundtrack, sound effects for buildings, units, diplomacy etc.
- Speed: despite the large map with 56 players, the mod is fast and efficient (no MAFs)

Diplomacy

New diplomatic treaties include:
- Trade Agreement (trade between cities)
- Military Access (right-of-passage for military units)
- Alliance (like defensive pact, but isn't broken by war declaration)
- Exchange Hostages (non-binding non-agression pact)

Breaking agreements decreases the player's Honor and subsequently worsens diplomatic relations with others.

Diplomat units can be trained and set to your neighbors' cities to provide +1 bonus to their attitude. Additionally, they can investigate cities.

The AI makes use of the new features and will seek large coalitions against the winning player.

Daimyo & Generals



- Daimyo is a special unit that represents the actual clan leader; he is always leading the Hatamoto unit (his elite retainers)
- When Daimyo dies, a new leader emerges; fame & honor is decayed, AI behavior changes, new leader unit is created
- There is a limited number of heirs available to each clan; the last one is not represented by a Daimyo unit, so that he cannot die
- Generals (Taicho) are Great Generals that do not provide free XP to units; instead they earn their own XP and Promotions
- Both Daimyo and Generals have a chance to survive when defeated in battle; if this happens, they re-appear in the nearest city
- Generals who survive also have a chance to betray their lord and join the enemy
- Generals' loyalty depends on their leader's Honor, their own Honor promotion, as well as Itengrity and Deception traits of the lords involved

Vassals & Fiefs



Whenever you capture a city, you can return it to the original owner as per BTS rules. However, you can also grant it to any of your vassals or allies. Moreover, some cities can be used to re-create destroyed clans or create completely new vassal clans. It is also possible grant a captured fief to a General with Ambition promotion.

Fame, Honor, Legitimacy



Fame affects diplomacy, depending on other daimyo's attitude towards expansive players. As you become more powerful and famous, other leaders will become more likely to either join you, or form an alliance against you. Fame increases by capturing cities, building certain wonders and completing historical quests.

Honor affects diplomacy and loyalty of your generals. It is affected by traits, random events, building certain wonders, declaring wars, breaking diplomatic agreements, having your spies exposed and more.

Fame & Honor are partially inherited when leaders change.

Legitimacy is a measure of your success as the conqueror and great unifier of Japan. It depends primarily on total Land and Population, but is also boosted by funding religious buildings, maintaing high Honor, controlling Kyoto or having the support of multiple vassals. Deposing the current Shogun and achieving a Legitimacy score of 100 is required to win the game.

Espionage

Espionage Points are universal, so you don't have to micro-manage EP weights against 50+ players. Consequently, the purpose of Espionage screen is only to provide information on your total EPs and mission costs.



Some missions have been added and removed. The new additions are:
- Investigate City: a mission equivalent of the passive ability; does not cause the Spy to escape upon completion
- Assassinate Special Unit: kills a Clan Leader, Warlord, Great Person, Diplomat or Missionary
- Sabotage Unit: damages a combat unit
- Tarnish Reputation: reduces the Honor of the target player

The mod includes a modified version of the SuperSpies modcomp (Spy XP and Promotions) and the BetterSpyEscape modcomp (Spies escape to a nearby city, rather than the capital).

Events

The mod features a number of historical and random events and quests to spice up the game.



Download

Version 1.0 has been released, please check the official thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=505673

Notes:
- when you start the game, it may take 2-3 minutes to load due to the number of players & units; turn times and save/load times are fine, however
- at this point the game is balanced with the 1549 CE scenario in mind; the 1567 CE scenario wasn't really tested
- if you update SVN version frequently, it's almost guaranteed to break save-games at this point

More screenshots



Credits

Whoa, massive .
Already suspected something like that from the image gallery, but had not expected that you're soo far in.

Oh, did you take any features from the HotK mod, or is everything your own?

The_J said:

Whoa, massive .
Already suspected something like that from the image gallery, but had not expected that you're soo far in.

Oh, did you take any features from the HotK mod, or is everything your own?

Click to expand...

From HotK I borrowed some buttons and plot list enhancements, and also the idea to use potraits from Koei games, and to use armies at all. Outside of CvMainInterface.py, the actual code for leaders & armies is my own; it's simpler from the one in HotK, no legion screens or leadership levels from Koei games etc.

Wow! I love it! The units are amazing, as are the new features and concepts! Amazing SDK Changes! Exclamation Points!

I really look forward to trying it. It looks kinda like Total War: Shogun 2. That is a good thing.

Are you going to release any of the completed units? Everyone would love that if you did.

This looks HUGE!! The number of modifications are tremendous!

I've taken a peek already, it does look interesting to play!

I don't want to be rude, but I've noticed some text mistakes, some...

Do you plan to add city names, wonders and/or techs? I might be able to help on the History and Japanese.

Voyhkah said:

Are you going to release any of the completed units? Everyone would love that if you did.

Click to expand...

At some point... I'll have to replace all the banners, because currently they show the player's flag, which outside of this mod would just always show the flag of Japan. But whether they're posted separately or not, everyone is of course free to use these units.

Osakasayama said:

I don't want to be rude, but I've noticed some text mistakes, some...

Click to expand...

Nothing rude in it, feedback is welcome Obviously I don't know Japanese though I know that there are several different romanization methods, and sometimes I've just chosen one randomly.

I've seen Nagae Yari, Naga-yari and Nage-yari... Is Nagae and naga is OK, but nage wrong? I'll change it.

Morutaru (mortar) and Kihohei (horse artillery) I found in glossary of Japanese military terms, which included Sengoku stuff, but wasn't limited to it. Kiba Teppo is definitely more fitting. As for the mortar, maybe I'll just use English here.

Wikipedia says Higoyumi (Sanbonhigo) was developed c. 1550, so that is not a bad name to use. I'm also looking for a better name for "Improved Teppo Ashigaru", which sounds rather silly. Alternatively, I was thinking about only using base names, and replace unit upgrades with promotions... no weird unit names this way.

Bujinkan - I know it's the name used by the modern MA organization, but I recall reading the name was used for schools (traditions) of ninjutsu developed during the Sengoku period. Previous name I used was simply Ninjutsu school, since it's only pre-placed in Koka & Iga and only provides XP bonus to Ninjas for all but 1 faction (Iga).

Do you plan to add city names, wonders and/or techs? I might be able to help on the History and Japanese.

Click to expand...

Map/cities are complete, there isn't really space for more, but if you spot something odd, let me know. More wonders & techs could be added, as long as they belong to Sengoku & early Edo periods. So help is welcome, and thanks!

Nice work Embryodead

Congrats for the release edead!
Even if this is "only" a preview atm
It was already more than promising a year ago... now I don't know what words to use
I'm sure it will be one of the best mods for civilization!

Even though I haven't played it (I didn't saw this mod before now), this is one of my favourite mods already.
I can't wait to download and play it when I'm back home.

I would love to be part of the testing team before the first official release.

Ran a quick test, the mod is more than awesome
Very atmospheric, and already very enjoyable, even in this beta stage

Couple questions:

• Is it intentional that some of the rebels in my territory spawn as Ikko Ikki units when I'm at war with them? If not, it's probably caused by the close colour pattern IMO
• I couldn't build Gun Factory in any of my cities. Is there a prereq which I missed somehow? In one of my conquered cities there was already a Gun Factory built, and I could build the units it enables (even Improved Teppo Ashigaro, which cannot be built with a Trading Post) in that city. Also, the AI had plenty of Teppo units, even when I couldn't build them
• Also have no idea how to build Great Temples. Without them it's hard to keep your Honor high. I couldn't build any with plenty of cities, temples and monateries while having Buddhism as a State (Clan) Religion
• I found many of the civics unreachable. 4 of the more advanced ones (Familiy Council, Ikki, Independent Farmers, Temple Economy) are not tied to any of the techs, so there is no possible way to switch to them. Am I missed something here? Or are those specific to some of the civs? Maybe they are tied to a specific date?
• This is related to the previous: do you plan to add more techs? Maybe for those civics? I finished off the tech tree ~150 turns before the end of your timeline. It's not necessary a problem in a mod like this, but a couple additional techs probably won't hurt...
• You said there is a dymanic vassal system in the OP. How is it dynamic? You can choose to cancel one of your vassals? Or "trade" them? I didn't find anything regarding vassalizations
• Finally: I think there is something wrong with your first city's cultural expansion. Maybe it only happens with a conquered city, not really sure. But instead of getting all the BFF of the city, it only expands a couple tiles

EDIT: Cheched your SVN, I played with revision 99
And not sure if that matters, but I was with the Miyoshi Clan

EDIT2: Never mind the civics. Realized all of them are only for the Ikki civs
Kinda leaves you with a little few civic choices for a base civ though...
Also, maybe you should add a civilopedia description and some tooptip info about this for the new players

AbsintheRed said:

Is it intentional that some of the rebels in my territory spawn as Ikko Ikki units when I'm at war with them? If not, it's probably caused by the close colour pattern IMO

Click to expand...

It's intentional, and also works if you play as Ikko ikki. There were many independent rebel groups, but they more or less worked with the central temple of Ishiyama Honganji and answered its calls for help when it was attacked.

I couldn't build Gun Factory in any of my cities. Is there a prereq which I missed somehow? In one of my conquered cities there was already a Gun Factory built, and I could build the units it enables (even Improved Teppo Ashigaro, which cannot be built with a Trading Post) in that city. Also, the AI had plenty of Teppo units, even when I couldn't build them
Also have no idea how to build Great Temples. Without them it's hard to keep your Honor high. I couldn't build any with plenty of cities, temples and monateries while having Buddhism as a State (Clan) Religion

Click to expand...

These buildings can only be built by the appropriate Great Person:
Great Egineer -> Gun Factory
Great Monk -> Great Temple
Great Missionary -> Seminary
Great Scholar -> Confucian Academy
Great Spy -> Den of Spies
Great Poet -> Heroic Epic
Great Merchant -> Nanban Quarter

It's easier to keep Honor high by giving fiefs away to your vassals.

I found many of the civics unreachable. 4 of the more advanced ones (Familiy Council, Ikki, Independent Farmers, Temple Economy) are not tied to any of the techs, so there is no possible way to switch to them. Am I missed something here? Or are those specific to some of the civs? Maybe they are tied to a specific date?

Click to expand...

These civics are limited to Ikki civs, the religious rebels/zealots.

This is related to the previous: do you plan to add more techs? Maybe for those civics? I finished off the tech tree ~150 turns before the end of your timeline. It's not necessary a problem in a mod like this, but a couple additional techs probably won't hurt...

Click to expand...

If there are ideas for more techs and what to do with them, yeah. The timeline is really supposed to end at 1600 or so, the extra 20 years is added because it's nearly impossible to win by Unification that early with all but the strongest civs.

Finally: you said dymanic vassal system in the OP. How is it dynamic? You can choose to cancel one of your vassals? Or "trade" them? I didn't find anything regarding vassalizations

Click to expand...

It's dynamic because you can create new vassals in several possible ways and reward them with cities. It may be easy to miss, because the option appears only when you capture a city (click to zoom):


1. In some locations, you can create new vassals or re-create destroyed ones. For instance, when you capture Tamon, Yamato, you can create the Tsutsui clan. When you capture Himeji, Harima, you can create the Kuroda clan.

2. If you have a general with "Ambition" promotion, you can give him any captured city to turn him into your vassal player. You'll lose the general but get a loyal vassal with his own army, e.g. Shibata Katsuie, the GG, becomes head of Shibata clan. There's around 30 of these but you won't always get them, especially with a smaller clan.

3. Whenever you capture a city, you can give it to any of your vassals.

4. You can also give cities to vassals through the domestic screen, but that's limited by proximity.

5. In total there's 14 clans that are not on the map but can be created by conquest or by promoting your generals. The AI also creates new vassals this way. All of these actions increase Honor.

AbsintheRed said:

Kinda leaves you with a little few civic choices for a base civ though...
Also, maybe you should add a civilopedia description and some tooptip info about this for the new players

Click to expand...

There is Concepts section in the Civilopedia which explains most of this (not the Civics though, and not the Vassals either apparently).
EDIT: Added the info to civics screen, so it displays like tech requirement.

As for limited choices, they have to be limited - I mean, it's 70 years and one country, which transformed from decentralized feudal system into more centralized feudal system...

Embryo, is the create a vassal feature from puppet states or your own version?

"GFC Errror: Failed to initialize primary control theme"
I keep getting this, no matter where I place it.

stolenrays said:

Embryo, is the create a vassal feature from puppet states or your own version?

Click to expand...

I've written the vassal mechanics myself. From what I can see, puppet states allows for something similar (new vassals/gifts through city conquest popup), though here you get more options e.g. vassals from generals, multiple vassals to choose from, and gifting through domestic screen.

Civciv5 said:

"GFC Errror: Failed to initialize primary control theme"
I keep getting this, no matter where I place it.

Click to expand...

Make sure the mod folder is "Sengoku", it will only work with that name.

Interesting. I'm going to compare the two dll's and maybe merge some of your stuff. Where do your instant vassals come from? In puppet states, they come from any unused civs in the civilizations.xml file.

stolenrays said:

Interesting. I'm going to compare the two dll's and maybe merge some of your stuff. Where do your instant vassals come from? In puppet states, they come from any unused civs in the civilizations.xml file.

Click to expand...

Well, it's a fixed-map historical setting, so it's not going to work well for random map mods. Possible vassals are loaded with a python callback, and selected based on city location (clans are associated with specific cities), whether you have a general that can be turned into a vassal, and some other misc. conditions, mainly in CvCustomInterface.py.

Thanks for the clarifications
Everything is clear now, and I'm having much fun with the new mechanics

embryodead said:

These buildings can only be built by the appropriate Great Person:
Great Artisan -> Gun Factory
Great Monk -> Great Temple
Great Missionary -> Seminary
Great Scholar -> Confucian Academy
Great Spy -> Den of Spies
Great Poet -> Heroic Epic
Great Merchant -> Nanban Quarter

Click to expand...

Maybe you should also add this to the GP part of the concepts:
Wasn't that obvious, since Great Artisans can also rush/build some other buildings
(Family Altar for example, and it's buildable without Great Artisans too)

If there are ideas for more techs and what to do with them, yeah. The timeline is really supposed to end at 1600 or so, the extra 20 years is added because it's nearly impossible to win by Unification that early with all but the strongest civs.

Click to expand...

As I said it's not really needed IMO
Could use a couple more techs, but not necessary at all
Don't add anything if it feels too "forced" on the mod

It's dynamic because you can create new vassals in several possible ways and reward them with cities. It may be easy to miss, because the option appears only when you capture a city (click to zoom):


1. In some locations, you can create new vassals or re-create destroyed ones. For instance, when you capture Tamon, Yamato, you can create the Tsutsui clan. When you capture Himeji, Harima, you can create the Kuroda clan.

2. If you have a general with "Ambition" promotion, you can give him any captured city to turn him into your vassal player. You'll lose the general but get a loyal vassal with his own army, e.g. Shibata Katsuie, the GG, becomes head of Shibata clan. There's around 30 of these but you won't always get them, especially with a smaller clan.

3. Whenever you capture a city, you can give it to any of your vassals.

4. You can also give cities to vassals through the domestic screen, but that's limited by proximity.

5. In total there's 14 clans that are not on the map but can be created by conquest or by promoting your generals. The AI also creates new vassals this way. All of these actions increase Honor.

Click to expand...

Actually this was clear
I was asking if there are any other base vassal rule changes planned
IE: cancelling or "trading" vassals somehow.. it always bugged me that vassals are that permanent in vanilla BtS
IMO it would fit nicely in the scope of the mod, and into your already changed vassal concept