RFCEurope 1.1

[AbsintheRed]

I just hate this map

 

[Opera]

Are you having some issues?

 

[AbsintheRed]

Are you having some issues?

I hate the fact that I have to go with so inaccurate solutions
I guess I'm a bit perfectionist...
When I get more and more into details in the map, I always realize it again why I wanted to start a totally new one from scratch... and of course a sligthly bigger one

Nevertheless these inaccuracies have their advantages on this somewhat smaller map. In fact, that's why they are there in the first place.
For example Britain remains somewhat enlarged, so Scotland can get in as a playable civ.
I still don't like to use too many of these, just the unavoidable ones

Anyway, I'm slowly closing to a decision everywhere
The recent changes will be up in a couple hours

 

[Opera]

Ha, I can understand. The abstractions and simplifications you need to do for games can be annoying sometimes

 

[Spirictum]

Really nice all these new additions, I'm eager to test the game now. And the companies system from SoI is the right direction indeed.

I'm sorry for being not around here much for some time. Carnival time here in Rio de Janeiro has 1 of 2 effects in each and every person: You give in to it, getting out every day and following the masses street by street singing, jumping, getting drunk and trying to find someone to go to bed with, since the end of new year's eve (yeah, the street carnival starts just after the beggining of the year) up to next monday (after all, if carnival is already a huge holiday starting at the weekend and ending on wedenesday, why not including the rest of the week, the following weekend and also monday to the group? Monday is a perfect end date for people who LOVE Rio's carnival).

Or you just get PISSED because the city becomes infernal, all public transportation (that's already a big trash pile on wheels) gets overly crowded with drunk underages singing stupid phrases or making loud and annoying sounds (for the whole trip, as in this HUGE disorganized city every time you leave home you must endure a trip to reach your destination), with most of the important streets (the exact ones your public bus has to pass by) legally blocked to host the Street Carnival's Bands.

So most of my hours have been enduring carnival's traffic and getting to know all new "songs" and "music" the teenagers have been listening to. Not to forget we are in Rio's Summer, so temperatures are normally between 30°C (86°F) and 45°C (113°F). If this is not brain-frying I guess I must rethink what I've been ingesting.



And I must admit I found that SWTOR can be played for free , so the small time I have left I've been spending with this game (not that I love MMOs, but I love Star Wars, and I loved KotOR I and II).

Soon I'll resume the translation to portuguese, I'll PM you (Absinthe) when I do, specially for the work on the vanilla translation. Nice job with the updates

 

[AbsintheRed]

I made some significant changes in the past week, some of them are deeply connected so I didn't commit them in smaller parts, will rather do it in a big update.
The biggest changes are the removal of 3Miro's region system, the finally revised Egypt/Levant/Anatolia area, the inclusion of a strait system thus the Dardanelles and Oresund strait, and the new Ottoman starting situation. Also finding and fixing 2 major bugs with the help of edead - one also seriously hurting the AI (along with the previous region system), and one which caused most of the early CTDs in the mod.

Alright, the changes are on their way to the SVN (uploading right now)
Note that the city name maps are off, didn't update any of those
This is the current changelog:

Spoiler :

General changes:
- Spawn of Arabia moved back one turn, to 632AD
- Interface message when a resource appears/disappears within your cultural borders
- Interface message when wonders are destroyed/captured by you, by a known civilization, or from a known civilization
- Interface message for the preset religion spreads (same way as it is when religions spread "normally")
- Judaism got an additional random spread mechanics, with bigger chance for spreading in central european cities
- Dead civs won't show up on the scoreboard anymore
- Autoraze changes: if the city has 1 population, 60% chance to autoraze if culture is less than 10, 30% chance to autoraze if culture is at least 10 but less than 50
- All naval units can cross cultural borders during peace, except work boats
- Diagonal water tiles are passable for all naval units. The most important straits are represented this way on the map
- Removed 3Miro's AI regions, seriously hurt AI civs on the border of 2 regions, also every AI civ's units with somewhat automated functions (barbs, workers, missionaries, GPs, etc.)
- Ottomans spawn in Gallipoli (Dardanelles), so they have a connection between Europe/Anatolia. No second spawn stack needed, and Adrianople/Edirne doesn't flip to them
- Edirne becomes the Ottoman Capital if they conquer it before Constantinople, Constantinople becomes the Ottoman Capital whenever they conquer it (without stability hit)
- The Wattasid revolt moved to Fez province, so now Tanja in the Tetouan province (city on the African part of Gibraltar, with AA) is relatively safe

Map and province changes:
- Huge changes in the SE region: Egypt, Levant and Anatolia totally revised
- Smaller changes in the northern coast of the Black Sea, and in the south Balkans
- Revised rivers in and around Hungary, small terrain changes in the borders of the Carpathian-basin
- Removed the "lakes" (scattered coastline) from Dalmatia, it was strange with the new strait mechanics. Lake Scutari remains on the coast though
- Damascus is finally moved to a geographically more correct place (3S), obviously the Arabian spawn moved here
- The new map resulted in moving Jerusalem (1SW) and Constantinople (1S) too, along with almost all the preplaced Byzantine cities
- Changes in the preplaced Byzantine cities: Amastris instead of Nicaea (too close to Constantinople), Edessa instead of Aleppo (too close to Antioch)
- The most important remaining Byzantine cities (not preplaced in 500AD) are represented by towns: Nicomedia, Nicaea, Ephesus, Abydos, Ancyra, Attaleia, Aleppo, Trapezus
- New indy city Ras instead of Belgrad, spawns in 768 with the Serbian Principality (Rascia). Rhodes spawns as indy in 600 AD (Nomos Rhodion Nautikos)
- Egyptian city sites revised as well - realistic place for Alexandria, Cairo and Damietta, with better terrain and resource placement
- Balancing early food production near Constantinople, Alexandria and the Cordoban starting area - to be possible to make Cordoba the largest city for their 1st UHV
- Now that culture is passable on the sea, Orkney is back on the map
- Added the Dardanelles strait to the map, so the Ottoman spawn doesn't have to be separated into an Anatolian and European part
- Added the Oresund strait to the map - connecting Denmark and Norway will seriously strengthen the Norse AI
- New indy cities: Seville (spawns in 500AD as Hispalis, flips to Cordoba), Fez (780 AD), Beloozero (800 AD), Tanais (1392 AD, Timurid conquest)
- Added salt lakes (mesosaline and hypersaline) to the mod: Dead Sea near Jerusalem, Lake Tuz in Anatolia - same yield as coast
- Red Sea (the visible parts in RFCE) and Sea of Marmara are now coastal ocean tiles, instead of being fresh water lakes due to their small size
- The eastern part of the Black Sea got a line of coast tiles, the actual coast is only 1-2 tiles away anyway, and this way early ships can pass there too
- New provinces: Banat (representing the southern Banates of medieval Hungary), Holstein (buffer province between Denmark and Germany, also helps in the French first UHV)
- New provinces: Prussia (for the Teutonic Order/Prussia civ), Liguria (better to have a separate province because of the French UHV)
- Lots of small province adjustments: primarly near the new provinces, in Scandinavia, and in the Polish-Lithuanian-Kievan territories
- Both Alba Iulia / Gyulafehervar and Lubeck spawns 1 tile north, to follow the province changes

XML and text updates:
- Cities built outside the corresponding CityNameMap will get a civ specific name (no Persian names for Bulgaria for example)
- Portuguese translations by Spirictum
- Spelling mistake fix: Austria is called Ostmark instead of Östmark when vassal of Germany
- RFCE specific help texts for the handicap levels
- Translations for the Scottish and Magyar/Hungarian unit sounds
- Province Oppland renamed to Jämtland

Art and sound updates:
- Added theme files for the mod
- New HUD button for the corporation/company screen
- Austria has german unit sounds instead of the HRE ones
- Lithuania has polish unit sounds instead of russian (until we manage to get proper lithuanian sounds)
- New Scottish voice set by Annomander
- Irish Brigade got Celtic sounds, Highlander and Highlander Infantry got Scottish sounds

Balance:
- Moved spawn area of Germanic Barbarians west, now some of them will actually attack France instead of wandering in Germany
- Minor tweaks to the French and Cordoban barb spawns, further separating it for the human and the AI player
- Lowered barbarian activity in the North African area (now that barbs can attack targets farther away it could be overpowered on the African coastline)
- Slightly lowered the base duration of the occupation resistance
- Removed free wins against barbarians - this means some of the early barbs might have to be rebalanced
- Increased the maximum XP you can get from barbarians (not from a single battle, the total XP) - was 10, now there is no cap
- Lowered preset diplomacy modifiers, overkill to have 10+ relations there
- Now that free wins are removed, early barbs for Byzantium are somewhat reduced for the human player
- Plague of Constantinople will hit Byzantium earlier than before (late 6th century), thus it won't hit on the very same turns as the Arab spawn
- The French got some additional starting units (1 archer and 2 axemen)
- Burdigala and Tolosa (Bordeaux and Toulouse) start with less archers
- All naval units got one extra move (3: Work Boat, 5: Galley, Cog, War Galley, Gun Galley, Galleas, 7: Holk, Carrack, Caravel, 9: Galleon, 11: Frigate, Privateer, Corsair)
- Unit balance changes: Knights of St. John (+15% city attack, free march and medic_1 promotion), Paladin (no first strike, -15% vs heavy cavalry, +15% vs light cavalry),
Berber Cavalry and Ghazi (no city attack penalty), Boyar (no first strike, but has defensive bonuses), Musketeer (-1 first strike, +10% city attack, -5% city defence),
Templar Kinght (+1 first strike), Janissary (-2 first strike, +50% vs heavy cavalry, free march and cover promotion), Black Guard (can twarth spies, +25% city attack),
Corsair (+20% withdrawal chance), Highlander (free guerilla_1 promotion), Welsh Longbow (+25% vs archer), Huscarl (+5% withdrawal chance, free combat_1 promotion),
Condottiero (free tactics promotion), Varangian Guard (+25% city attack, -25% city defence, free amphibious promotion), Almogavar (free march and amphibious promotion),
Tagmata (free drill_1 promotion), Don Cossack (+10% withdrawal chance, +20% vs gunpowder, -10% vs heavy cavalry, -25% vs light cavalry, free combat_1 promotion),
Doppelsoldner (+25% city attack, +1 combat strength), Irish Brigade (+10% withdrawal chance), Stradiot (changed to be a light cavalry unit type, -1 combat strength),
Naffatun (+1 combat strength, -25% city defence), Nubian Longbow (-1 first strike chance, free drill_1 and drill_2 promotion), Zanji (+1 move, ignores terrain cost)
- Building balance changes: Moscow Kremlin (+1 happiness), Spanish Citadel (+10% trade route yield, -2XP for siege units), Cordoban Noira (+1 health, -1 production),
Ottoman Hammam (available with Arabic Knowledge), Norse Trading Post (+1 merchant slot), Venetian Arsenal (available with Optics, -25% naval unit build rate),
Austrian Opera House (+1 great artist point), Burgundian Winery (-3 culture, +10% culture, +5% commerce, +1 merchant slot), German Rathaus (-10% city maintenace cost),
Lithuanian Voivodija (-1 XP for land units), French Chateau (obsolete with Public Works), Jewish Quarter (-10% commerce, -50 production cost),
La Mezquita (-100 production cost, +1 free specialist, -1 gold from state religion buildings), Magellan's Voyage (-1 trade routes from coastal cities, +2 xp for naval units),
St. Basil's Cathedral (available with Chemistry, -10% GP modifier, -1 free specialist, +1 spy slot, +2 espionage points from state religion buildings), St. Sophia (-1 priest slot),
Cluny Abbey (+1 free priest), Palais des Papes (+2 happiness), San Marco Basilica (+1 trade route, -30% trade route yield), St. Peter's Basilica (no unhappiness in the city)
- Crete and Cyprus provinces are now stable for Venice, Banat and Wallachia are now OK for the Ottomans
- Province Banat is OK for Bulgaria, changes to unstable after the Hungarian spawn
- Dalmatia, Bosnia and Banat provinces are reduced to OK for Hungary after the Ottoman spawn
- Holstein is OK for the Norse, stable for Germany (but not a core, so won't hurt their stability if another civ holds it)
- For Genoa Liguria is core, while Lombardy and Tuscany are also stable, but not core
- Liguria is OK for the Franks, but changes to unstable after Germany spawns
- The province Prussia is unstable for everyone, at least for now
- The German first and third UHV requires Holstein too, the Ottoman first UHV and the Hungarian anti-Ottoman UHV requires Banat too
- Holstein and Prussia also counts in the Swedish third UHV, Prussia also counts in the Polish first UHV

Bugfixes:
- A couple fixes how the mercenary screen is called from the main screen mercenary manager button
- Fixed sound issues for Venice and Genoa
- Fixed bug where Judaism didn't spread to a second city in Poland
- Fixed stability calculating issue when some of the stability giving wonders were razed
- Fixed viewing issues with the GlobeView layers - now everything shows up without any problems
- Revised the hidden attitude modcomp, now every part of it should work (show up) correctly
- Fixed issue where AI built large number of settlers but didn't use them, also improvements in the settler move code
- Fixed critical bug, which caused most early autorun CTDs! - thanks to edead
- Fixed issue where all islands had the same area ID (which caused serious problems for the AI when to use naval/land movement)

Now it's your turn, I want as much feedback as I can read

 

[Spirictum]

I'll do the svn update now, or are you still uploading?

 

[AbsintheRed]

I'll do the svn update now, or are you still uploading?

Yeah, 5-10 more mins
Had to restart it, and my upload speed is a bit slow ATM for some reason
A lot slower than it should be

Soon I'll resume the translation to portuguese, I'll PM you (Absinthe) when I do, specially for the work on the vanilla translation

Of course, take your time

PS: Rio sounds fun

 

[Spirictum]

PS: Rio sounds fun

Oh yeah, you're right. Actually I thought like that some years ago. But I've been dating for some years now, and that's when Rio's carnival ends to you. Even dating, you shouldn't get your gf there, people have no restraints.

But if you're single, you couldn't ask for a better time, it's hot so expect some wet shirts (or bikinis, most Street Carnival's Bands are close or even besiding the beach). Just remember to have a sizeable group with you (4+ is good, better with one or more locals) and forget your wallet and anything precious where you're staying. Local Bandits are used to tourists, notably european tourists.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Upload complete
Also, attached the map with city name signs, in this post
Maybe it's interesting for some of you

 

[Spirictum]

Updated and starting my first game on Emperor. Let's see how I can handle the new ships with Venetia on Emperor. I hope I'm not crushed in the beggining

 

[iOnlySignIn]

Loaded a Sweden start. Monarch.

Edessa becomes Damascus after being captured by the Arabs, whereas the Islamic holy city is Tabariyyah.

AI Turks still doing awful, left Constantinople Independent and has Edirne as only city in Europe. I can't find a single Janissary in the World Builder - presumably they all died horribly as usual. I think the Ottomans need better starting stack(s), possibly with some Ghazis and Janissaries. Loosing its European starting stack really made the AI impotent.

AI Norse spams cities in Scandinavia but nowhere else.

AI Moscovy seems to be doing better than usual, becoming larger than Lithuania and founding St. Petersburg.

AI Burgundy is still stronger than AI France and founds Teutonic Knights as usual. I still think that the extra +5% on Winery is not necessary.

 

[iOnlySignIn]

Come to think of it, maybe we should just remove the Islamic Shrine from the game altogether. In the Holy City screen just display the Islamic Shrine as Mecca. That's how RFCE does it.

To compensate for that, just give Islamic Faith points an added benefit of providing Free Support for up to 25 Units.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Loaded a Sweden start. Monarch.

Edessa becomes Damascus after being captured by the Arabs, whereas the Islamic holy city is Tabariyyah.

As I said, city name maps are unchanged ATM
It's somewhat confusing in this case, but Tabariyyah = Damascus, while Damascus = Edessa
Ran a couple Arab starts, everything is correct but the naming

For correct names check the map I posted separately
It's the same as the map in the current SVN version, only with signs

AI Turks still doing awful, left Constantinople Independent and has Edirne as only city in Europe. I can't find a single Janissary in the World Builder - presumably they all died horribly as usual. I think the Ottomans need better starting stack(s), possibly with some Ghazis and Janissaries. Loosing its European starting stack really made the AI impotent.

Actually the second spawn stack is still there, in the end I didn't remove it
Anyway, they start on the very next tile to each other, on the 2 adjacent sides of the Dardanelles
So there is no problem with the recent changes

Having said that, AI ottomans obviously need a buff, in order to get powerful in the majority of the games

AI Norse spams cities in Scandinavia but nowhere else.

I also noticed that they prefer cities in Sweden and Norway than in Denmark in the early game
(but they also had cities in Denmark in my Ottoman test starts)
Their settler map has to be adjusted, will probably solve it

AI Moscovy seems to be doing better than usual, becoming larger than Lithuania and founding St. Petersburg.

good

AI Burgundy is still stronger than AI France and founds Teutonic Knights as usual. I still think that the extra +5% on Winery is not necessary.

The AI isn't powerful because of their gold, but because of their modifiers
That small bonus is for flavor, I would rather change them elsewhere

 

[simplicissimus]

Just started two games on monarch - one with France and one with the Byzantines - to check the barbarian balance in the early game as you mentioned it needs to be checked:

With France I didn´t recognize the removal of the free wins. I took Bordeaux and Toulouse with the two starting axemen without suffering a loss. With the upgraded axemen I also was able to conquer Barcelona, Marseille and Milan. Then I quit. What I also whitnessed was that the barbarian activities in the north around Paris seemed to become less. Only 1 axeman appeared there to engage my capital!

I played with the Byzantines just before Arabian spawn. They seem to have become a little more challenging. The barbarian lancer were able to destroy some - not only one - of my full-strength spearmen. Sinope was destroyed, Aleppo changed it´s owner a few times ´til it got destroyed as well and I was able to hold Caesarea with one last bowman only with some luck! Great fun! But until this time I was able to improve my empires´ infrastructure, captured Palermo and Naples in the west , and popped out many spearmen in the east so the reconquest was only a matter of time! Then I quit! Southern slavic barbarians are a pain in the neck but no serious threat. Could probably be even harder for my taste.

I also started a game with Poland. With the spawn of Lithuania who claimed one of my cities which I refused Germany als declare war on me to take Silesia. Luckily I was just building up knights to defend myself against the Mongols so I had no problem destroying the German invasion troops on the plains of Silesia. Right after that 2 times 2 Mongols spawned between Krakow and Warsaw but were no problem. The pope called for a crusade to help me against the paganic Lithiuanians. Just after the troops arrived another 4 Mongols spawned. So no problem this time as well and afterwards I conquered the rest of Lithuania. It´s around 1380 now and no more Mongols show up except those coming from the conquered Kievan Empire which I plan to take next. Warsaw is allready building the Kazimierz and I´m allready nr. 2 or 3 in food production.
In contrary to other observations here Burgundy was annihilated by France and the Ottomans allready have conquered Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire is about to collapse!

I also found a few minor mistakes in the text of the German version. If you wish correction where best can I put it?

 

[Spirictum]

I never enjoyed so much a game in RFCE.

I got a really good start with Venetia, barbs gave me 1 axeman and 2 spearmen for free upon spawn. With my 2 extra settlers I went to found Fiume (Croatia) and Tirana (Arberia). Raguza was held by Bulgaria with a single archer, so I took it with an axeman and a spearman I got for free. The byz were already becoming my close firends (to be stabbed later ), I gave them Lateen Sails for Engineering and Feudalism, declared war on Bulgaria their enemy, OB and so. Later they GAVE me Machinery for free.

When Hungary spawned I took care to put some spearmen on my borders so to be protected against this sure enemy. What happened after that was really surprising: They peace vassaled to me without being at war with anyone. The byz were taking heavy losses from barb activity, they even lost Constantinople and I almost got it without the need of a crusade, but they took the city back after a while. Genoa was at war with the byz when I declared on them to fulfill UHV2, and after I agreed on peace, I bought their peace with the byz. Just after that Genoa peace vassaled to me in the same condition as Hungary.

Here is where my game is, in 1218 AD, I'm getting Bonifacio for my vassal (it's french, Genoa could only grab Milan, and didn't even use a settler in Sardinia, they still have it). I can't see well the region between Burgundy and France, but it seems both of them are balanced. I got all crusades until now (the first, the second I redirected to Athens, the third I redirected to Cordoba - they are waiting my boats to cross Gibraltar and get Tanjah - and the fourth I've just took Alexandria from the Arabs).

I thought Emperor was way harder. But some things were strange enough for me to bring them here: The Vikings remained Pagans until now, the Arabs were crushed by the barbs, they lost Jerusalem countless times and got it back in the same or next turn. But the bizarre one was my Albanian territory being invaded by Selyuqs! That's right, Byz had a terrible time with selyuqs, they were not satisfied with Anatolia, they crossed through Constantinople (Selyuqs took it from byz), took Thessalonika and then came for Serbia(Indy), Albania(Mine) and Athens(Byz). My luck was that any selyuq units they brought died before crossing Serbia, and with their losses in both Athens and Serbia, they only got through with 2 Guisarmier and a Crossbow to me.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Just started two games on monarch - one with France and one with the Byzantines - to check the barbarian balance in the early game as you mentioned it needs to be checked:

With France I didn´t recognize the removal of the free wins. I took Bordeaux and Toulouse with the two starting axemen without suffering a loss. With the upgraded axemen I also was able to conquer Barcelona, Marseille and Milan. Then I quit. What I also whitnessed was that the barbarian activities in the north around Paris seemed to become less. Only 1 axeman appeared there to engage my capital!

Strange about the free wins... I tested it a couple times when implemented it, everything looked fine
Barbs int the area might be nerfed too much
Will look into both

I played with the Byzantines just before Arabian spawn. They seem to have become a little more challenging. The barbarian lancer were able to destroy some - not only one - of my full-strength spearmen. Sinope was destroyed, Aleppo changed it´s owner a few times ´til it got destroyed as well and I was able to hold Caesarea with one last bowman only with some luck! Great fun! But until this time I was able to improve my empires´ infrastructure, captured Palermo and Naples in the west , and popped out many spearmen in the east so the reconquest was only a matter of time! Then I quit! Southern slavic barbarians are a pain in the neck but no serious threat. Could probably be even harder for my taste.

Sounds good
Btw, you shouldn't have quit before the Seljuk attacks
For Byzantium that's the biggest challenge

I also started a game with Poland. With the spawn of Lithuania who claimed one of my cities which I refused Germany als declare war on me to take Silesia. Luckily I was just building up knights to defend myself against the Mongols so I had no problem destroying the German invasion troops on the plains of Silesia. Right after that 2 times 2 Mongols spawned between Krakow and Warsaw but were no problem. The pope called for a crusade to help me against the paganic Lithiuanians. Just after the troops arrived another 4 Mongols spawned. So no problem this time as well and afterwards I conquered the rest of Lithuania. It´s around 1380 now and no more Mongols show up except those coming from the conquered Kievan Empire which I plan to take next. Warsaw is allready building the Kazimierz and I´m allready nr. 2 or 3 in food production.

Looks more or less good to me

In contrary to other observations here Burgundy was annihilated by France and the Ottomans allready have conquered Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire is about to collapse!

I also experinced this
In my test runs, Burgundy made a hard time on France, with the latter getting the upper hand by the Ottoman spawn
Great news about the conquest of Constantinople
Byzantium should probably be nerfed though, they were superpowerful in a couple cases

I also found a few minor mistakes in the text of the German version. If you wish correction where best can I put it?

Great, thanks!
Just upload your text fixes here

 

[AbsintheRed]

I never enjoyed so much a game in RFCE.

Great!
I'm also experiencing this, the AI is much more challenging after the last few updates

I got a really good start with Venetia, barbs gave me 1 axeman and 2 spearmen for free upon spawn. With my 2 extra settlers I went to found Fiume (Croatia) and Tirana (Arberia). Raguza was held by Bulgaria with a single archer, so I took it with an axeman and a spearman I got for free. The byz were already becoming my close firends (to be stabbed later ), I gave them Lateen Sails for Engineering and Feudalism, declared war on Bulgaria their enemy, OB and so. Later they GAVE me Machinery for free.

When Hungary spawned I took care to put some spearmen on my borders so to be protected against this sure enemy. What happened after that was really surprising: They peace vassaled to me without being at war with anyone. The byz were taking heavy losses from barb activity, they even lost Constantinople and I almost got it without the need of a crusade, but they took the city back after a while. Genoa was at war with the byz when I declared on them to fulfill UHV2, and after I agreed on peace, I bought their peace with the byz. Just after that Genoa peace vassaled to me in the same condition as Hungary.

Here is where my game is, in 1218 AD, I'm getting Bonifacio for my vassal (it's french, Genoa could only grab Milan, and didn't even use a settler in Sardinia, they still have it). I can't see well the region between Burgundy and France, but it seems both of them are balanced. I got all crusades until now (the first, the second I redirected to Athens, the third I redirected to Cordoba - they are waiting my boats to cross Gibraltar and get Tanjah - and the fourth I've just took Alexandria from the Arabs).

I thought Emperor was way harder. But some things were strange enough for me to bring them here: The Vikings remained Pagans until now, the Arabs were crushed by the barbs, they lost Jerusalem countless times and got it back in the same or next turn. But the bizarre one was my Albanian territory being invaded by Selyuqs! That's right, Byz had a terrible time with selyuqs, they were not satisfied with Anatolia, they crossed through Constantinople (Selyuqs took it from byz), took Thessalonika and then came for Serbia(Indy), Albania(Mine) and Athens(Byz). My luck was that any selyuq units they brought died before crossing Serbia, and with their losses in both Athens and Serbia, they only got through with 2 Guisarmier and a Crossbow to me.

You know that emperor is not balanced
Yeah, stability and economy is somewhat harder, but barbs hurt your opponents very much, most times at least as much as you
In fact, I'm not even sure if Emperor is actually harder than Monarch ATM

I plan some changes in the level setup too, but it's low priority
For now, I will only keep balancing Monarch

 

[iOnlySignIn]

In my test runs, Burgundy made a hard time on France, with the latter getting the upper hand by the Ottoman spawn

Byzantium should probably be nerfed though, they were superpowerful in a couple cases

Usually only one out of Burgundy and France can survive into the 1400s. It's about 50/50 chance. In one Ottoman start I have a superpower France who controls the entire east coast of Iberia up to Almeria. I agree the balance between France and Burgundy is roughly OK.

Byzantium though, collapsed in 4 of the 5 games I loaded (1 Swedish start, 4 Ottoman starts), and in the 1 game it did not collapse it has not expanded beyond its starting borders. It sometimes dies to Venice & Diverted Crusade, as expected. IMO the only case where Byz becomes superpowerful is if it wipes out Bulgaria on spawn AND the Arabs collapse to Barbs/Crusades AND there is no Diverted Crusade.

In general I think we should maintain that Byzantium & Arabia are unlikely to collapse by Ottoman spawn. Otherwise the game is too boring for the Ottomans. The Balkans seems fine - EITHER Hungary OR Bulgaria would become really strong there and offer the Ottomans some serious challenge.

The good news is that Cordoba seems to be doing OK in most of my Ottoman spawns. They always manage to build the La Mezquita if they survive till that time, but they don't become a superpower that wipes out Spain either. They usually split Iberia in half with Spain at that point. I think the balance changes did the trick.

 

[Opera]

Playing as the Norse, I realized a few things things:

1) the Vinland goal is really gimmicky and not very interesting. If it were about settling Vinland with a real unit settler and then manage to keep the city, maybe. As it is now, it's about completing a colony project no one else risks completing before you. And you have to settle a crappy city in Iceland.

2) the conquest UHV is too deterministic. Why *these* areas? Why not just ask for a number of coastal cities to be conquered? This would allow for a more freeform way of completing this goal.

2) The uniques are really lacking: the UA is basically only a way to complete the Vinland goal. It's only other use is to shorten the path to the British Islands. While useful, this is underwhelming; the UB is a free promotion... +1 movement on sea. The Berserker is a great UU however.

3) The Norse could as well be called the Vikings as they have nothing representing their later history as Denmark and Norway. There isn't even any conflict with Sweden.

I'd suggest scrapping UHV #1, the UA and the UB. For the UA, perhaps the +1 movement for ships from the UB. On top of that, either Amphibious for all melee units or a bonus yield for the terrible terrain in scotland and norway.

I can't suggest anything yet re: UHV and UB besides that these be more of the Denmark era.