Mercenaries

[JFD]

Mercenaries updated to v3:

• Added the option to turn off the changes to the Mercenary Army policy (good for mods that completely remove it), as well as to disable Jiayuguan Fort.
• Fixed an issue with EUI and tech tree support. On that note, added a 'Technologies_JFD_MiscEffects' table in order to better support adding those 'star' icons to the tech tree (they were otherwise hardcoded).
• Added the following new contracts: Janissaries, Outlaws, Wild Geese, Fortit Industries (thanks Kesler!), and Outer Heaven.
• Added the following new contracts which may be disabled in the user settings (as they offer uniquely Mercenary units outside the standard line, which I don't like): Black Riders and Varangian Guard. (I'll possibly add the Doppelsoldner and Swiss Guard in the future, once HRE and Papal States have been updated) (thanks to Zwei883 for doing all the work for the Black Riders, which I just incorporated, and, of course, thanks to Jan for the artwork).
• With CBP, Mercenary Contracts is no longer deleted (reduces CTDs).
• Fixed an issue where the White Company, unlocked at the Renaissance, was obsoleting at the Medieval Era... Also fixed an issue where they were 2 stars instead of 5.
• Significantly reduced the gold and faith costs of taking out Merc. Contracts. Thanks to Jan for the feedback! Let me know if it's too much/still not enough.
• Reduced the rating of the Hetairea from 4 to 3, in order to differentiate more from the Varangian (both share the near Capital bonus - though Varangian's is stronger).
• Fixed an issue where Mercenary Contracts were not being created if you began the game with Merc. Contracts already unlocked.
• Fixed an error where the 'Extended Contract' notification would display how many turns the extension was for (10 on standard), instead of how many turns total was left for the Contract.
• Fixed an issue where with E&D the Persian Cataphract would show up as 'Create the Savaran Cavalry' - dunno why this unit needed to be a unique unitclass, but whatevs.
• Because the AI doesn't pay maintenance (user setting) on their contracts, I've upped the cost of their Contracts a bit. Huns were getting a bit out of hand... But please let me know how things go (you won't, but whatever).
• Sons of Mars contract now costs Gold, as I don't think there's anyway I can make it cheap enough Faith-wise that early.

100/238/150 turns between three auto-run games. No crashes. No errors. So the mod seems pretty stable (Aztecs took out some Hwacha, Huns took out 7 contracts )

 

[TPangolin]

Thanks for the update! I wonder if this works in sync with Contextual Unit Names to produce some really funky units.

 

[zwei833]

Hello, JFD. Could you please give me a creadit too? since I'm the author of Black Rider's unit model.

 

[JFD]

Yes, of course. Sorry for forgetting.

 

[Kesler]

All I want now is a scenario set with flintlock to rifled warfare. Nothing like gunpowder weaponry...

(Basically, I'm still waiting for EE )

 

[JFD]

Now, if only I had done it

 

[Kesler]

Oh, you don't get to say anything Mr "I'll get Lithuania updated at some point"

 

[zwei833]

Bug report:
It seems that Vangarian doesn't get its re-texture.

 

[JFD]

Oh, you don't get to say anything Mr "I'll get Lithuania updated at some point"

Lithuania only hasn't been updated because re-designing it is a nightmare and a half, and other mods have just taken priority. A JFD Enlightenment would be long out, and without an erroneous Manor at Sovereignty of all places

Bug report:
It seems that Vangarian doesn't get its re-texture.

Quick update to fix. (test to be sure; I can't as I'm running an AI game).

 

[Natan35]

So... Nothing to fix my CTDs. Hopefully it'll work nevertheless.
Anyway, great update!
(Though what you mean by significantly reduced? They weren't that expansive)

 

[JFD]

There are no CTDs caused by Mercenaries. I checked several times, for several hundred turns. That said, there are definitely with ExCE. I've been working all day to try and narrow down the cause, and I think I have it traced to resources and shipwrecks.

Jan found that too expensive, and argued that they needed to be reduced by at least half.

 

[zwei833]

JFD, do you change the description of the Mercenary Army policy?

 

[JFD]

I do. Is it not working?

 

[zwei833]

I do. Is it not working?

Not working when I use none-english language. It seems that you change the text of the original description, and since it is the same tag, it will be replace by the original text of other language.

 

[JFD]

Ah, I didn't actually consider other languages. I'll remedy that. Thanks.

 

[heinous_hat]

Is it possible to exclude civilian units (specifically workers) from the mod's option to disable rush buying for units?

It's sort of fun to have to acquire workers through other means (if you don't want to waste ), but I suspect not having the buy option may hamstring the AI in the early going.

Worker contracts would also be interesting... something representative of of 'debt servitude' or slave purchases. But it would need to be available before Writing to address the shortage in the early game. It's particularly noticeable playing marathon games.

Good stuff, enjoying your mods.

 

[Kesler]

If I may input my own two cents.

The thing about workers is that they are a long term investment. If done well, you can use the same worker from the start all the way to the end. And they almost always have something to do. Improving your land, building roads, connecting resources.

Soldiers are very situational. You need them for specific purposes, and typically (unless you're a crazed warmonger) there will be down time in between combat.

Mercenaries are perfect to augment your army in specific ways. They're designed for short term usage, for situations where your army may lack that "ommph" they need. And eventually, they'll disappear, hopefully soon after your latest military campaign is over.

Workers don't work like that. If I were playing, I would want to build the workers once. That way, I wouldn't need to keep rehiring them throughout the game. Additionally, unlike your army, you don't typically need a giant wave of workers immediately. Worker contracts would only be plausible during the early game, when building them takes a long time. But the window of usefulness is so small(As you would need to be in a situation where you have spare gold but not a lot of production), it may as well not even be there. You might as well just buy a permanent worker to keep forever.

 

[JFD]

Is it possible to exclude civilian units (specifically workers) from the mod's option to disable rush buying for units?

It's sort of fun to have to acquire workers through other means (if you don't want to waste ), but I suspect not having the buy option may hamstring the AI in the early going.

I can add the option to disable civilian units separately from military units in the next version. However, in vanilla, the AI doesn't actually purchase things with gold.

 

[heinous_hat]

Ah, well if that's the case, I guess it isn't really a big deal. I assumed the AI used the buying mechanism like the player. Thanks for considering it, either way.

I agree that worker contracts would be of limited utility... really only as a stopgap solution for the opening bit of a long game (and perhaps add some historical flavor). But if the AI isn't hurt by the lack of purchase option, it wouldn't serve much purpose. The scarcity is more interesting anyway.

 

[wgeurts]

I'm currentely having all technologies go whack when I use this mod on its own. The backgrounds dissapear and when you have to select a tech none show up. Further more the tech tree is empty. I'm using only this mod, have verified my files in case of corruption, have tested vanilla civ v (with the expansions) and no problems there and it therefore seems there's something wrong with the mod itself.
Version 2 worked, however version 3 seemed to break it for me,