[MOD] Medieval: Conquests

[mastrude]

Three of my settlements were conquored in one turn? In one at least I don't see any invader at all. All of them had inhabitants. Several, at least had tools in inventory. Several of them, at least, had stockades.

No custom game. Standard map.

EDIT: Then one of the three settlements were burned down by my Winemaker who had become a barbarian! And my only armed man was killed by a bandit. And two of my workers were killed by another bandit.

The way this game is designed it takes a long time to buy any weapons! I can't have my settlements get wiped out in the meantime, after I've built stockades but before I can equip them with anything but tools!

I guess to survive in this game I have to have a farmer standing in the village square with a shovel in his hand, to ward off deadly deer! when I did that, none of the settlements was conquered by animals! (Pained smile. Is there a smiley for that?)

Can it be the case that if the population limit is reached, it won't let you complete a coastal merchantman?

Later in the game, my archer stepped out of my stronghold to kill a black bear, and one of those deadly bucks conquered my settlement with everyone inside it, stockade an all. One wonders why those bucks have such a high combat strength. What I should have done, obviously, is go after the dangerous buck and left the black bear alone.

This.... is.... irritating!

My ports are all blockaded, I can see 6 different bandits on the map, a marauder just burned down my capital, even though there were 5 toons in it, I'm besieged by animal armies. "They are coming! We cannot escape!"

To sum up, I'd say you have figured out how to make a game insanely hard, on the easiest setting. As the old joke ("Elk Turd Pie", it's named,) finishes, "It's good though!"

My game wants to default to the Caribbean map, I saw. That may have been the setting.

 

[Commander Bello]

The really jerky interface is gone. I have no idea what happened. When it slowed like that I was exploring with a scout and it took like a second (or more?) from I pressed the key to move until it started moving.

We've had such a problem once during TAC development. If I recall it correctly, in that case it was due to pathfinding when a land unit was "cut off" from the way to any "home settlement" (even, if the unit was not marching home, but exploring or doing something else).

Edit: this "cutting off" could happen due to a new settlement founded in a bottleneck area and simultaneously not having open borders with the settlement's owner, or due to enemies blocking such a bottleneck or due to an unit being placed on a different continent.
In total, the symptoms were quite similar to what you have described.

 

[Kailric]

Three of my settlements were conquored in one turn? In one at least I don't see any invader at all. All of them had inhabitants. Several, at least had tools in inventory. Several of them, at least, had stockades.

The thing is, none of that should be happening. Bandits and Animals should not be conquering cities. Is it possible you have a save just before all this happens. I can then follow the AI's thinking and why it overrides all the checks and conquers a settlement.

If the bandits/animals are making things to difficult I would turn them off in the player options and then test out the game that way.

Can it be the case that if the population limit is reached, it won't let you complete a coastal merchantman?

No, this is not the case. Are your coastal merchants not being built? You do need 30 tools to build that ship.

My game wants to default to the Caribbean map, I saw. That may have been the setting.

I would not use any custom maps with this mod unless they are designed for this mod. Like the Caribbean is full of swamp land but swamp land in M:C is only good for raising sheep sense there is no Sugar resource.

 

[mastrude]

I would not use any custom maps with this mod unless they are designed for this mod. Like the Caribbean is full of swamp land but swamp land in M:C is only good for raising sheep sense there is no Sugar resource.

The map that is used is neither the Caribbean map not the "new world" map I think, but the map you generate.

 

[mastrude]

Is it possible you have a save just before all this happens. I can then follow the AI's thinking and why it overrides all the checks and conquers a settlement.

Nope. I just got creamed and started a new game all the autosaves were lost. I have never seen so many bandits, predatory animals, marauders, and coastal raiders in one game. This is your easy setting? I'm glad I didn't play the hard one.

 

[mastrude]

I have a problem now where I received the Spice Route perk and that shows up as a choice for my ships. When I press the Spice Route button, the ships just sit there in the same spot until a coastal raider shows up and kills them. How is this supposed to work, anyway?

EDIT: How can I defend my six settlements with a total of 50 weapons? I have quit another game. I'm on turn 140 and I haven't been able to trade for weapons once. The combination of no weapons and an insanely violent environment is... puzzling to me.

I'm going to be playing something else for a while.

 

[Nightinggale]

I would not use any custom maps with this mod unless they are designed for this mod. Like the Caribbean is full of swamp land but swamp land in M:C is only good for raising sheep sense there is no Sugar resource.

Swamps could be useful though. They produce peat and tar. Heated tar is also referred to as oil and was used for defense. I wouldn't say swamps will say almost useless forever. It really depends on the idea for the right implementation.

The combination of no weapons and an insanely violent environment is... puzzling to me.

What puzzles me is that you are beaten and I can play just fine more or less without considering the bad guys. In fact my complain is their absence. I have started two games and both times I started right next to the native vikings and I get messages saying the vikings killed an animal or barbarian. They are so good at it that it rendered my hunter useless.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

I think for the spice route to work you have to find the red at the edge of the map first, the same thing happened with my first ship until I realised it wasn't moving

 

[Kailric]

I have a problem now where I received the Spice Route perk and that shows up as a choice for my ships. When I press the Spice Route button, the ships just sit there in the same spot until a coastal raider shows up and kills them. How is this supposed to work, anyway?

I am thinking you need to explore with the ship first to find the "Europe" plots. Look at it like this, when you "discover" the Spice Route through trade points its like you heard about it. You then have to go out and actually find it for yourself. I can add at some point and make it so you are auto reveled a Europe plot, then your ships should auto sail there.

EDIT: How can I defend my six settlements with a total of 50 weapons? I have quit another game. I'm on turn 140 and I haven't been able to trade for weapons once. The combination of no weapons and an insanely violent environment is... puzzling to me.

Ok, I checked the code and Bandits/Animals are not even allowed to attack cities. I had made it impossible until I sorted out their issues. So, I need you to give me a save right before they take one of your cities.

You can defend your settlements at the start with Tools. Start trading with the locals for tools. Workers can kill any animal and most bandits wont cross a Worker with his mean looking axe. You can also use tools to make Armed Peasants. Soon as you research Manoralism you can make Huntsmen. They are great against those animals.

If you can't defend your six settlements then you shouldn't spread yourself so thin. In actually Medieval history during the Dark Ages people didn't venture out much at all. Bandits and wild animals where always a threat and people where afraid of the unknown.

Like I said, try turning off animals in the player options and see how it goes.

 

[Kailric]

Swamps could be useful though. They produce peat and tar. Heated tar is also referred to as oil and was used for defense. I wouldn't say swamps will say almost useless forever. It really depends on the idea for the right implementation.

I had an idea for swamps, with inventions of the iron plow and the harness farmers where able to drain swamp lands and make them good for farming. So, we could add in the ability for workers change swampland to farmland.

What puzzles me is that you are beaten and I can play just fine more or less without considering the bad guys. In fact my complain is their absence. I have started two games and both times I started right next to the native vikings and I get messages saying the vikings killed an animal or barbarian. They are so good at it that it rendered my hunter useless.

Yeah, I want to add in Poaching as a Diplomatic agreement. You can demand the natives stay off your land, or you can ask for the rights to hunt on other peoples lands. Hunting was a big deal back then and poaching was a serious offense punishable by death. Lords had game preserves that only they could hunt on.

Also, I want to add that when Natives kill beast they get Luxury Food added to their city that you can trade for.

 

[raystuttgart]

So, we could add in the ability for workers change swampland to farmland.

That feature is already contained in Religion and Revolution.
You could simply adapt the implementation for your mod.

 

[Nightinggale]

I had an idea for swamps, with inventions of the iron plow and the harness farmers where able to drain swamp lands and make them good for farming. So, we could add in the ability for workers change swampland to farmland

Iron plow? To my knowledge swamps were made usable not by plows, but by windmills, which used the wind to power pumps, which drained the land. Steam powered pumps (starting from 1734) didn't come out of nothing. Originally they made it possible to drain mines placed too far from streams, which made watermills impossible and windmills too unreliable. However it didn't take long until steam became more powerful. The oldest preserved steam pump from the 1780's has a capacity of 12 tons/minute and it takes the water from the bottom of a mine and all the way to the surface, obvious far more than any wind/watermill can provide.

 

[Kailric]

Iron plow? To my knowledge swamps were made usable not by plows, but by windmills, which used the wind to power pumps, which drained the land. Steam powered pumps (starting from 1734) didn't come out of nothing. Originally they made it possible to drain mines placed too far from streams, which made watermills impossible and windmills too unreliable. However it didn't take long until steam became more powerful. The oldest preserved steam pump from the 1780's has a capacity of 12 tons/minute and it takes the water from the bottom of a mine and all the way to the surface, obvious far more than any wind/watermill can provide.

Well, there you go. Yeah, I prolly have it all confused. I know plows and harnesses made it possible to tame land they couldn't before.

In M:C windmills and are added to the city as a building that improves manufacturing. It could be that windmills in a city allow workers to drain swamps in the city tiles.

Also, the I never adjusted the Animals mod for its spawn rate depending on difficulty. This is something I can do though fairly easily.

 

[Nightinggale]

I know plows and harnesses made it possible to tame land they couldn't before.

The iron plow has less resistance in the ground, meaning the horse has to pull less to plow the field. This made it possible to plow the fields, which were too hard to plow previously. In a sense it's the opposite from swamps because it's usually dried out dirt, which made it that hard. The iron plow is a bit late for a medieval tool as (if I recall correctly) it made it's impact in the 18th century and early 19th. It still only made one ditch, which were unchanged until around 1880 where steam started making 8 at once in a really clever setup. The heavy engine (often around 20 tons) was on the road and pulls a 350 meter rope connected to the plow. Plowing was then a two engine job driving on roads 350 meters apart where they took turns pulling.
Today modern tractors drive on the soil, which damage it due to being compressed and they make 6 ditches even though they aren't driving faster than the steam approach. They do it with one man instead of the 3 needed for the steam approach.

Edit: found one in action, though I think they came bigger than that.

Link to video.​

 

[Kailric]

The iron plow has less resistance in the ground, meaning the horse has to pull less to plow the field. This made it possible to plow the fields, which were too hard to plow previously. In a sense it's the opposite from swamps because it's usually dried out dirt, which made it that hard. The iron plow is a bit late for a medieval tool as (if I recall correctly) it made it's impact in the 18th century and early 19th. ]

I can't rightly remember where I got the idea of the Iron Plow to use it in my mod. I know I must have read it some where but I did find reference to "Heavy Plow" or the moldboard plow, in a couple of my books. "Around 800 A.D., new iron-bladed plows were invented to prepare the heavy, \damp soil of northern Europe for planting. Known as heavy plows, they had wooden frames and three iron attachments called plow-irons. The third piece, the moldboard, tipped the turf over to form a neat ridge"

Actually, I just remembered where I got Iron Plow from, my book The Timeline Book of Science. In that book they say around the year 1050 "More efficient iron plows are used in northern Europe instead of wooden plows."

 

[Nightinggale]

I can't rightly remember where I got the idea of the Iron Plow to use it in my mod. I know I must have read it some where but I did find reference to "Heavy Plow" or the moldboard plow, in a couple of my books. "Around 800 A.D., new iron-bladed plows were invented to prepare the heavy, \damp soil of northern Europe for planting. Known as heavy plows, they had wooden frames and three iron attachments called plow-irons. The third piece, the moldboard, tipped the turf over to form a neat ridge"

Actually, I just remembered where I got Iron Plow from, my book The Timeline Book of Science. In that book they say around the year 1050 "More efficient iron plows are used in northern Europe instead of wooden plows."

I'm not a plowing expert or plowing historian. However I do find it likely that metal plows can be invented several times, each time a better than the last. The key here is even though it's invented, it isn't the same as it's used. I find it very likely that plows suffer from the same issue as mill cogwheels.

Mill cogwheels originally had teeth made of wood (both water and wind). Iron teeth were introduced, which lasted longer and could handle a bigger load. It wasn't a sure winner even though it looked like it because the miller could replace broken wooden teeth himself while iron teeth needed the attention of the blacksmith.

I know for a fact that some improvement happened to the iron plow in the 18th century. In order to really improve crop production the men in charge (the lords of the land?) actively "advertised for"/moved blacksmiths. Nobody would invest in an iron plow unless there were a blacksmith nearby to repair damages and at that time many rural farming communities didn't have local blacksmiths. Maybe the great breakthrough wasn't the plow itself, but rather the fact that farmers dared to invest in them because all of a sudden they could be maintained/repaired.

 

[Kailric]

I'm not a plowing expert or plowing historian.

Me either, In the mod there are two plows being invented, a moldboard plow and the iron plow. I never liked having two plows invented but lacked an alternative. I think the Iron Plow should just be replaced with "Heavy Plow" and something else put in the moldboard plow spot or just removed.

 

[mastrude]

In the attached game, you load it and it asks you what you want to build in Florence. If you say Winemaker's Shop, a panel pops up which is all black, and the game is hung for you.

 

[Kailric]

In the attached game, you load it and it asks you what you want to build in Florence. If you say Winemaker's Shop, a panel pops up which is all black, and the game is hung for you.

Thanks mastrude for the bug report. I squished it! Change out this file here and you should be good to go...

View attachment 353982

The problem was the Banking tech has no portrait attached to it and when it tried to get it it caused a problem. Not sure how any one else got though that bug.

PS Looks like your doing quite well in the game

 

[Fullerene]

I really like this mod, I think it's quite brilliant.
However, I felt it was missing European map scenario, so I'm trying to build one.

For some reason, the scenario build by worldbuilderfile crashed after few turns, no matter if I'm building scenario with world builder, notepad or some other editor. But I founded good workaround by building scenario with python script. Since I'm forced to build scenario with python, I'm going to create some events too.

Scenario will start around ~500 AD. It will be bit semi-historic, going for too exact start year isn't necessary, because Europe was so fractured at those times. Also, all tribes are playable from the start, no matter whether they really existed at that time yet.

Events will include for example:
Rise of Islam: (spawning Arab soldiers, and declare war for Byzantines)
Turkish migration: (similar to Arabic expansion, units appearing for free)
Viking age: (Scandinavia will gain some boats and warriors, and go for attacking all over Europe)
Mongol Invasion: (later in game, Mongols will invade Europe with experienced army)

I'm still early stages on the way to the final version, so I don't put a download yet.
It's hard to build scenario that plays it the way I want. I'm also balancing between decision whether I want Cities and Empires at start be well established, or gameplay to be more like on random map, starting with almost nothing. Also one problem might be that Byzantines are so far ahead other civs at the start (before Arabs will invade).

I've got few small questions:

1. There seems to be no Cows or sheep appearing on map using randomized resources. Do I need to add some with python, if i want the map to have randomized resources?
2. Does map need to have "Acces to Europe" tiles, if all civs are changed to land based starts? Ships appearing from nowhere in Red Sea is not wished behaviour.