The Sword of Islam: RFC Medieval Middle East

I've got one question to those that played a game or two: do you see the cities of Konya (in Anatolia) and/or Acre (in Palestine) founded or are they missing? I can't really reproduce what The Turk reported, i.e. Seljuks of Rum always start at Konya in my games. Acre I've seen not founded once due to culture from Sur.

I saw them in both of my games.
 
A few more comments:
1. It is a bit strange when playing as an Indian faction and Daylami Axemen use the same art as native Indian troops.
2. A minor thing but could the barb units that spawn as part of an invasion be given unique names? Such as Kara-Khitai Horsemen when they invade? The unit is still the horse archer, they just get unique names in python. (Look at the Hunnic Invasions in Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire for an example)
3. Any reason why the KoJ found and start at Acre? Acre had already existed prior to the KoJ and it would make more sense for them to start at Jerusalem, where you know, there capital was. I think making them a military spawn like the Zengids would fit them the best.
4. Gujarat (Indian with rainbow flag) are a bit shafted by their lack of Iron unless they expand into Sindh but thats a bit bad for stability, especialy when Sindh spawns. All attack units need iron and the Chitagor source of Iron is swallowed up by Malawi culture.
Perhaps make Kshatriya warrrions not need iron but make them more expensive? That would fit with what I know about traditional indian armies. Huge levy masses of peasants with a few super elite proffesionals.
4.5.. Give one of the Indian factions the longbow as a UU? They were pretty heavy users of it and it is in quite a bit of their mythology.
 
Just wanted to say that I have another 2 pages of notes on its way, but I'll let you finish responding to the last two sections (which are the longest), before I post these up.

Also Acre was the capital, but they didn't change it to Jerusalem, (which they should, just like the Ottomans always change their capital to Constantinople when they capture it in RFC)

And I realized what happened with the Sultanate of Rum, basically one of those barbarians came and destroyed their capital, upon spawn, so they were moved to somewhere else.

So hurry up finish responding to the rest, and I have more coming shortly ;)
 
I don't believe the "Religious Law" civic is working as intended. It doesn't appear to be increasing GPP.
 
I am really enjoying this mod. I'm amazed something like this can appear almost fully formed, and it's clear a lot of effort has been put in.

I played as yemen, going for the uhv. It actually turned out suprisingly easy, especially since i never had to bother any other civ. I had to reload once, after i worked out how to get the sufi order in my cities in time (incense and an ok religion score). It was also a bit tight becoming the sherif of hejaz, since i didnt realise i needed medina as well, and me and the fatmids ended up attacking the city (held by rebels) from different directions at the same time. The 3rd uhv was a bit of a joke since i found 3 coffee resources in my borders.

I was playing this on the original version (middle dificulty), so with the new patch the barbs might make things harder. Once mecca was mine money was no longer a problem and i ended up being able to have a profit at 100% science by building the spiral minaret and running aristocracy.

Perhaps the uhv could be changed to stretch yemen a bit, since i managed to get a uhv by taking only 2 cities from the barbs. I dont know too much about the rl history but could the coffee resources be moved to some other place? Anyway, these are just my thoughts and i had a lot of fun playing this mod.


A few other things which have been mentioned in the thread.
- The kingdom of jerusalem had its capital in tripoli. Didnt really make sense.
- I caught tamar refering to herself as isabella in one of her conversations
- A few leaders dont say anything (ie. they have a blank text) when i first met them
- I got a mercy on the battlefield event with the rebels. I'm not sure if that is meant to happen.
 
I am really enjoying this mod. I'm amazed something like this can appear almost fully formed, and it's clear a lot of effort has been put in.

I played as yemen, going for the uhv. It actually turned out suprisingly easy, especially since i never had to bother any other civ. I had to reload once, after i worked out how to get the sufi order in my cities in time (incense and an ok religion score). It was also a bit tight becoming the sherif of hejaz, since i didnt realise i needed medina as well, and me and the fatmids ended up attacking the city (held by rebels) from different directions at the same time. The 3rd uhv was a bit of a joke since i found 3 coffee resources in my borders.

I was playing this on the original version (middle dificulty), so with the new patch the barbs might make things harder. Once mecca was mine money was no longer a problem and i ended up being able to have a profit at 100% science by building the spiral minaret and running aristocracy.

Perhaps the uhv could be changed to stretch yemen a bit, since i managed to get a uhv by taking only 2 cities from the barbs. I dont know too much about the rl history but could the coffee resources be moved to some other place? Anyway, these are just my thoughts and i had a lot of fun playing this mod.


A few other things which have been mentioned in the thread.
- The kingdom of jerusalem had its capital in tripoli. Didnt really make sense.
- I caught tamar refering to herself as isabella in one of her conversations
- A few leaders dont say anything (ie. they have a blank text) when i first met them
- I got a mercy on the battlefield event with the rebels. I'm not sure if that is meant to happen.

They start at Acre. I think in your game Acre isn't found/captured/destroyed. So the Palace went to the second city. (in this case Tripoli)
 
A few additionals remarks :

a) The mod does not work with french parameters (I think it is the same for other non-english languages) : it does launch but after no text is displayed.
Of course, I totally understand no transalation has been made, but maybe a few modifications would make it compatible (it may be a more complex, I don't know ; in that case you should specificy a civilization with english parameters is required)
It is not a problem for me (just have to put the parameters on english), but it could be a barrier for some non-english people which would quickly try your mod and then think it does not work.

a) My second game : I've played one hour as Armenia, which seem a much more interesting civilization for beginning. I was expanding well, and was about to launch the orthodox cathedral for first UHV... when I've realized that a specific science was necessary. Ok, It was totally my fault, but i'll make a second try.
Regarding the 2nd UHV, the control of lesser armenia implies to go at war with byzantine empire, no?

A final remark : I think the cultural victory parameters hasn't been modified. Is it possible to achieve it, or the mod has been designed for historical victories mainly?
 
I'm having trouble running the executable. Could somebody be so kind as to upload the mod folder it creates to somewhere (perhaps the downloads section of this forum) so I can try it out?
 
Well, as it turns out i didnt win the yemen UHV despite having all the requirements listed in the civilopedia. I checked victory.py and found that i actually needed five coffee resources to win. Given that i could only find three on the whole map, something must be wrong.
 
I've had a lot of fun so far with this mod.

I noticed one error: when I found a city as Jerusalem south of Aqabah, I get a city name error, i.e. the city is named an error. I can still play the game and rename the city, but it's a minor error that I thought the creator would want to know about.


P.S. The exact location is two tiles north and one tile west of the dates.
 
I'm having trouble running the executable. Could somebody be so kind as to upload the mod folder it creates to somewhere (perhaps the downloads section of this forum) so I can try it out?

What trouble do you have? BTW the exectuable is actually an archive, you can open it with 7zip and extract it on any system, without launching the exe.
 
1. It is a bit strange when playing as an Indian faction and Daylami Axemen use the same art as native Indian troops.

This is a limitation of the CIV4 Unit Art Styles - which is hardcoded; that is, all axemen owned by your civ will use your unit art. This can be overcome by making all mercenaries "unique" units, but that means adding ~80 or so units to the XML, basically scrapping the BTS Art Styles system and going back to Warlords, by having 8 types of axemen, 8 types of swordsmen etc. Currently this works only for those few rare units, i.e. Daylami Tribesman has its own art, but all the generic units don't.

3. Any reason why the KoJ found and start at Acre? Acre had already existed prior to the KoJ and it would make more sense for them to start at Jerusalem, where you know, there capital was. I think making them a military spawn like the Zengids would fit them the best.

The fact that a city existed prior to founding doesn't really matter - I mean, all those cities founded during the game actually existed since ancient times. KoJ starts at Acre because it's a free spot so they can properly spawn w/ a settler, and it was their later capital, so it makes more sense than any other city apart from Jerusalem; they can't start at Jerusalem because the city would be wiped. I've coded the conditional spawn mechanic to avoid wiping cities, but using it for non-conditional civs is problematic - if a human player owns Jerusalem prior to Crusader spawn, he will lose it without the possibility of refusing a flip.

The AI is too stupid to handle a military spawn without any flipping (Zengids do flip cities, but a player can refuse them all). Units tend to get stuck and not attack, unless they're barbarian. AI gets particularly confused if it has no cities. I can play with it but I'd expect they at best capture one or two cities, and then garrison all units there.

Also, Kingdom of Acre is the vassal name for KoJ.

4. Gujarat (Indian with rainbow flag) are a bit shafted by their lack of Iron (...)
4.5.. Give one of the Indian factions the longbow as a UU? They were pretty heavy users of it and it is in quite a bit of their mythology.

Makurians already have longbow as their UU. I'll check the iron though I did not have this culture problem when playing as Gujarat.

Named barbarians: done! Will be in next patch.

---

a) The mod does not work with french parameters (I think it is the same for other non-english languages) ... in that case you should specificy a civilization with english parameters is required)

I did specify it in the first post actually i.e. it says the mod works with English language only ;)

Regarding the 2nd UHV, the control of lesser armenia implies to go at war with byzantine empire, no?

Sometimes, yes. Byzantium starts with no cities in Lesser Armenia, it's very possible to found Malatya and/or Karin before them.

A final remark : I think the cultural victory parameters hasn't been modified. Is it possible to achieve it, or the mod has been designed for historical victories mainly?

It's UHVs mainly, but cultural victory is enabled. The settings are the same as in RFC. I don't really know if it's possible to win this way, I suspect it may be difficult for some civs. At least, I never tested cultural victory balance.
 
Visual Performance (Eye Candy):
1. Merkurios LH, looks quite bad, I think you can find a better one, in his animation, he looks mentally challenged, if you could find another LH for Merkurios, I think that would be best ;)
2. Your background picture in the Title Menu, should look nicer, just having some text, which doesn't look to nice, isn't that appealing, when you have time, I would encourage you to making it look grander.
3. The Safavid Leader, Shah Abbas, looks excellent, but I think you should change the background, I know I will try for my mod I'm trying to create, but if you could put him near some famous monument in Isfahan, I think that would be the best. For example this photo, would make a good background: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1344153
4. Harun Al Rashid LH, looks quite bad, in its lack of originality, if I were you, I would definitely be looking for a replacement
5. The city of Sur, in modern day Lebanon, is NOT part of Palestine, I would have to encourage you to change the province to Phoenicia OR at the very least Greater Syria, and the up side to this, is that due to the regions high number of Catholics, you could have a unique unit, called the Maronite Archers, (kind of ripped from MTWII), which can help to the defence of the region, once the crusaders arrive.
6. What happened to the physical Silk Road? In RFC there is an actual road, leading from China to Europe, that should be the same here as well, with a road (which actually is already their), that leads from the Hindu Kush, all the way to Constantinople (runs through Baghdad), not to mention its really easy to implement, and I would advice you to do it, as it would look quite nice.
7. You should name the Barbarians. I'm not sure how to do this, but in RFC Europe, they were able to name the barbarians as Mongols, Timurds, Seljuks etc. But for this mod, you could name the barbarians who spawn NW of Constantinople, the Bulgarians, and the barbs North of Georgia/ Armenia the Kipchaks/Cumans etc. but it would nice to know which barb was attacking your frontier.
8. As mentioned before, the Byzantine's, as heritage to their Roman past, they should have paved roads stretching Anatolia, (and even perhaps down the Levant, up to you), I would strongly urge you to expand that, and allow the Byzantines to build paved roads, as a UP, (which increases unit speed)
9. PLEASE GET BACKGROUND MUSIC! (but I know your working on it:goodjob:)
10. Armenian Music is a bit strange, I would consider changing it if I were you.
11. Italian Maceman? I mean, I think the Venetians can have a better unit than that, if anything have their unique unit be a kind fast moving ship, I think that would fit the description of the Venetians the best. (Battle of Lepanto anyone? ;))
12. Whatever happened to the Delhi Sultanate?

1-4. Regarding leaderheads, yes, some LHs are not good, especially the ones I've just put together, but there's not nearly enough LHs out there and I assure you, I scavanged all I could from the DB and other mods, and then added more by doubling and reskinning some leaders myself. I know that The Capo is planning to do Harun al-Rashid, that's cool, but until then, don't expect replacements.

5. Sur in Palestine - don't take provinces too literally, it's not feasible to include every little region, and medieval "Palestine" referred to the Holy Land in general; Sur is grouped with Palestine so that it flips to Crusaders (they don't flip Syria).

6. Silk Road - added.

7. Named Barbarians - Good idea, done.

11. Italian Maceman - Macemen & Crossbowmen were BC-inspired, it makes sense given that Venetians had good infantry, though the vanilla unit art should be replaced with something better. Venetian ship makes no sense gameplay-wise because the Mediterranean is a muddy pool with this map, nothing serious happens there. No Lepanto, no Greece, no Europe.

12. Delhi Sultanate is in game, but non-playable (although Ghorids - who founded Delhi Sultanate - are playable). It's also a conditional civ, so will not spawn 100% of the time, though Ghorids do, and usually attack India.

Playable Delhi Sultanate requires more coding and problem-solving, due to their location (you don't want to wipe Delhi off the map when they spawn, and you don't want to flip Delhi & other cities without asking other Indian players). That, and Ghorids and Delhi are essentially one civ.
 
Gameplay Performance/ Balancing Issues:

1.The Byzantine UP is kind of silly, plus one espionage doesn't do much for you, especially when most players (such as my self), ignore EP completely. (...)
2. As for Georgia's UB, the Ikonar's Studio, I thought that was Byzantine, when you think of icons you always think Byzantine. (...)
3. I was kind of confused by the Ayyubid UP, you get +2 attitude from each civ? Is it like the French UP, where civ's are nicer to you? Personnaly I feel that the Ayyubid's should get the power of Religious Tolerance over the Fatmids, especially since Saladin, never massacred any of the Christians or Jews during the Crusades, and was farely tolerant to them. And even when he recaptured Jerusalem, he didn't wash the streets with Christian blood, but rather he purified the city with rose water. But if you can prove to me that the Fatimids were more Tolerant, I guess its fine, but when I think of Tolerant and ""Liberal"", I always think of Saladin, and the Ayyubid's.
4. Who exactly are the Ak Koyunlu, I've never actually heard of them, and I think there are many different civs you could add, before them, but if you think they are so important, I guess they can stay, its just that after looking on wikipedia, they look liked the vassals of Tamerlane, and should therefore be unplayable like the Zengids, and instead just start off as the vassals of them, I think that would be better for them.
(...)
6. More Byzantine cities are needed from the beginning of the game, (see picture, for the two extra cities that should be added, and where they should be added). The problem is that Anatolia is not fully covered, and it looks quite bad at the beginning, so adding a 2-3 more cities would be a good idea
7. The Byzantines should start off with the Civic Empire (...)
(...)
9.Although I understand that later in the game, more cities spawn, and the map gradually fills up, I would have to strongly advice you to add more cities, especially for the Abbasids, who by the 8th century, were still on the advance, rather than a few cities in Mesopotamia, just look at their empire in 850AD, a hundred years after the start of the game, and their still large and grand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abbasids850.png
I would suggest that you give the Abbasids more cities, and let them have control of all the independent cities (or most of them anyways), from Alexandria to Jerusalem, to Mecca, all the way into Persia, including Antioch, as they controlled 3/5 of the patriarchs of the Holy Church. And slowly, when the empire starts to fracture, and the Turkish nomads invade, then let their empire slowly disintegrate into just a few cities in Iraq, rather than disposing them to this fate from the beginning. In fact on the score board the Abbasids should be above the Byzantines by a long shot.
10. I would also encourage you to allow the Byzantines to have 2-3 more workers, especially considering how big their empire is, it would also help in building plantations, to get rid of the money burden.
11. Just like in real life, barbarians, shouldn't be able, or at least, shouldn't want to actively capture cities, (as they knew they wouldn't be able to hold them), but instead were more interested in the plunder, of pillaging the countryside, harrasing workers, and if you could code this, it would be cool to see the Barbarians plunder a city, (reduce culture and population), but have the city remain in your hands.
(...)
12. Constantinople should be better defended, I think they should get 2 archers at least, and the swordsman can be removed (or relocated)
13. The Makurians should start off with an extra settler, especially since the Sudan, is so barren, they could use the boost.
14. The Armenians are a bit too hostile to the Byzantines at the beginning of the game(see "Other Ideas" #5)
15. What happend to the mighty Byzantine fleet? They should AT LEAST start off with a few war ships (just 2)
16. Rebel Cities, should be better defended, (more archers at the very least) they are currently WAY too easy to be taken, and I would implore you to add more of them, and give some to the Abbasids.
17. The Seljuk's should start with more settlers, once again (2-3) more settlers should spawn with them, since Persia tends to be quite barren, and they never really get close to their historic expansion.
18. The Armenian settler map, should be adjusted, they expanded a bit too fast, and to far for my taste, they should be stopped from doing that, as its very unhistorical for small Armenia to expand like that. (see photo), I mean them settling Edessa, was pushing it a bit TOO much.
19. Add Nicaea and Iconium, to the list of Byzantine cities, I am very surprised they are not represented, especially since they were so important in the Byzantine history, and later became the capital's of the Sultanate of Rum.
20. The Ayyubids should start of with one extra settler AND archer; they should also start off with 1-2 more Sunni Imams, or else there is a risk they will convert to another religion. Also and most importantly, the Ayyubid's NEED to start off with a larger army to counter the gigantic army which the Crusaders have. I would suggest having a large army with trebuchets, cavalry and heavy spearmen, spawn right next to the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Also Damascus, needs to be better protected from the Zengids. Its strange too, since, by the time Saladin had come to prominence in Egypt, the Zengids were in rapid decline, so I don't know why they spawn such powerful armies at all, although, I understand that when they first spawn around 1127, they SHOULD have a large army (and spawn a few more later on), by the time the Ayyubid's spawn, they should be disintegrating, read this: (...)
21. The Persecution civic needs a bit of a boost, it doesn't do much, and I don't know why you would pick it. To boost this civic this is what I would add, (you don't need to implment these specifically, but I would still suggest you boost the civic some other way)
(...)
22. Egypt does not have ANY horses OR iron?? I think this is probably the BIGGEST problem, out of EVERYTHING else, you should AT LEAST have one source of horses and one source of iron in Northern Egypt for all the Egyptian dynasties, or else they are hopelessly weak!

1. Byzantine UP - try actuallying using espioniage - if anything, the Byzantine UP is overpowered even with just +1 EP, because of how many cities they start with. With this UP you can keep up with techs even with poor economy and research slider, at least for the first 1/3 of the game, or so. Some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_diplomacy

2. Georgian UB - Icons are specific to Orthodox Christianity and medieval Georgian art (as well as Russian) is noted for icons. It's not be the best UB, not very unique - if you have a better idea, let me know.

3. Ayyubid UP - You get +2 attitude vs. all Leaders which is shown when you hover over the leaderboard. The UP is based on the fact that Saladin managed to unite Muslims against the Crusaders, and then maintain good image even with them.

Fatimids were known for their tolerance, not Ayyubids. Saladin being nice to pilgrims is one thing, and persecutions in Egypt by Ayyubid viziers and other sultans/emirs are another. See this for a comparison of policies of the two dynasties. Fatimid freedom of religion and appointment of Sunnis, Jews and Christians to high government positions versus Ayyubid ban on the same thing + confiscation of land, seizure of monasteries, conversion of churches to mosques, ban on crosses and religious processions, etc.

4. Qara- and Ak Koyunlu ruled the Middle East for over 100 years. They only started off as vassals of Timur, but later they took all of Mesopotamia and most of Persia, ruling it until the Safavid era. They are a short-lived state, but they fill the gap between Mongols and Safavids.

6-9. Byzantines will start with Empire civic - fixed. As for cities, technically, the whole map should be filled with ancient and still lively cities, all of Egypt, Persia, India and so on, but it would slow the game down from the start. The fact that some city is not there doesn't mean it's unsettled, barren land - same as in RFC or RFCEurope. I'm open to specific changes needed for gameplay (like making the area in the middle of Cappadoccia more fertile) but not with filling the whole area with cities; they get built quickly anyway, you get some options and diversity, like in Anatolia sometimes Tralleis/Aydin is founded, sometimes Afyon/Nikopolis, same with Abydos vs. Canakkale, etc.

I know that technically Abbasids should control the whole map, but it would be no fun. That, and their control over farther areas was very loose, held in hands of rulers that officially answered to the Caliph but quickly became completely independent - starting with 860 or so. I can give them a city or two in Iran, but there's only one of those civs that historically fractured the Abbasids (Samanids), the rest is represented only as "barbarians." Here's a map from 950, but largely valid for 890 already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shattering_isochamend.png

11. Continuing from previous point, barbarians in the mod are not barbarians by any means! They represent actual independent states formed after rebellions/invasions - like Saffarids, Hamdadids, Tahirids and other Iranian dynasties, with their rich culture and normal, functioning but short-lived empires. Even the Mongols ruled Mesopotamia and Persia for nearly 200 years as Ilkhanate and successor states. So they should capture cities. I don't know what Realism Mod are you referring to. Currently barbs are less likely to raze cities, but they like to massacre the population on capture. For that matter, since all barbs are named as you suggested, they are no longer called Barbarians in-game ;)

12/15. Alright, I'll add an archer and a war galley. The rest of the fleet is gone fighting Arabs in Sicily and Crete, so you can't see it ;)

13. I nerfed Makurians serveral times because they were too good. With extra settlers they can quickly form an empire bigger than those of Arabs' and it's difficult to make Nubia any worse...

17. Do Seljuks need more settlers? See the actual Seljuk start - they start with 3 settlers + 4 cities, that's 7 cities! + 3 more rebel cities that can be immediately captured easily. Persia can get barren later, after Mongols trample through it.

18. Armenia normally dies before the Crusades, if one if a few games they manage to live and expand I think it's OK. See the map of Armenia in 1000 AD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bagratuni_Armenia_1000-en.svg
It doesn't happen often that Armenians get Edessa, but it was actually an Armenian lordship in the 11th century, first subject of Byzantines, then Seljuks, then independent, until Thoros adopted Baldwin and got conveniently assassinated.

19. Nicaea doesn't fit on the map (there is Prusa, which is Ottoman start loc.) and Iconium is not there precisely because Rum spawns there with their capital.

20. Ayyubids start with 4-6 cities which I'd say is enough. I added the Imam, one more Lancer, and a Marksman each in Aqaba and Damascus (post-flip).

21. Persecution Civic - try using Espionage before dissing this one - with certain civs and strategies it allows much faster tech advancement than with research. I lowered the bonus from +100 because I was getting 700-800 espionage per turn as Safavids, being able to steal a tech every 4-5 turns. It was originally required to build Inquisitors but that way AI persecutions were very rare. This Civic is supposed to represent serious persecution policies like those of Safavids or Timurids, and actually works best with those civs + Byzantium.

22. On Egypt and horses and iron. This is intentional (and as far as I've read, historical) - but how do you draw the conclusions? You say "or else they are hopelessly weak!" but are they? So far I'm limited to my test games, and in those Mamluks are always #1 or #2 power, ahead of Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals. They have iron and horses as well. Ayyubids, who flip Aqabah and Damascus start with both iron and horses. So it's only Fatimids that have no immediate access to both (horses are just around the corner), and in AI hands they are indeed weak and usually die, like they should (their late armies were mostly archers/infantry and were trampled over by the Crusaders). For that matter, I'd love to see as many mid- and late- map screenshots as possible.
 
Other Ideas:
1. I can't remember if you already have this, but a good idea for a building for the Muslim Empires, would be a "distiller" or you could call it, "Perfume Distiller", and you would get extra coin from it, as it would act as your local pharmacy/cosmetic shop, distilleries, were a big part of the Middle East, and should be represented as such.
2. You should add the RFC European Bulgarian leader, Simeon, as Basil I, and have him come before Basil the Bulgar Slayer. I think Simeon from RFCE, would make a good Basil the Macedonian, then he would be succeed by Basil II (who was also part of the Macedonian Dynasty)
3. This suggestion, really could also go under, "eye candy" improvements, but its quite radical, and might take some time to code, but would make the game so much more fun. (...)
4. Instead of having Embassies, (which I know you removed), how about having building an ambassador's quarter for each civ, to keep in contact, because I think its kind of ridiculous, when the Byzantines remain with contact with the civ's in India, that really shouldn't be.
5. The Armenian's, should start off as vassals of the Byzantines, as they were in real life, I'm sure you can play as a vassal in BtS, as I've done it before, and I'm sure you can do it for this mod as well, but I find that the Armenian's are a bit TOO hostile to their long time friend in the West (Byzantium)
6. There should be an event in 1054 for the Byzantines, which pops up and says that relations with the Western Pope, have broken off, that would be nice for historic reasons, and you can follow up with the Venetian crusade (The Fourth Crusade)
--- I don't know if you have implemented the Fourth Crusade, which took Constantinople, (at least I didn't notice it), but in 1204, you should have a large Venetian Army which spawns close to Constantinople. Just like you have the Portuguese later in the game (as a non-playable), you should have the Venetians as well as a non-playable faction, who can setup the Latin Empire, if they successfully capture Constantinople. And if they do capture it, then a trigger should be sent for around 1261, for another Byzantine army to come and retake it. I think that would be quite a lot of fun to see happen.
7. Again another idea for the Byzantine's, since the game starts in 750AD, which was smack in the middle of the reign of Constantine V,(who was a die hard Iconoclast) you should have an event, which pops up that says "Your Empire is experiencing turbulence due to the Iconoclastic behaviour of the Emperor", (but of course you could/should say something different), this should last all the way until around 800 AD, (so just 50 years), and what should happen is that during these 50 years, randomly some of your cities should get a few unhappy faces, and revolt for 1-2 turns, and then it stops in that city, and starts up in another city. Iconoclasm, was a VERY big event in Byzantine history, but is usually overlooked, but it really did shake the core of the Empire. then when it reaches to 800AD, another event says, Emperor Irene, denounces Iconoclasm, which should end the controversy, and end the random revolts. I hope you implement this one, as I like the thought of it ;)
8. Krek de Chevaliers, should spawn when the Crusaders arrive, with the wonder" Krek de Chevaliers" inside of it already, I don't know if you already have the wonder, but it should spawn with the Crusaders, (and the wonder bonus could be extra defence for the city), and because of this, the crusaders could remove a few units from their spawn.

1. Perfumeries - all nice, but there's more than enough general buildings at the moment.

2. Extra leaders - for now, there's 1 leader per civ, and it will probably stay that way considering there's generally a shortage of Middle Eastern leaders, compared to European or even Asian.

3. Caravan resources - I like this idea, though I'd scrap wonders (why complicate it) and make it a caravanserai, rather than "chariot". Though as you said, it's mostly eye candy (it would mainly replace the silk resource, which mostly represents silk road, not actual silk farms) and would require good graphics (I don't really want plain red arrows all over the map) so I'd rather put it off for later.

4. Embassies can be used, medieval or even modern embassy is just a person; It'll take a while to implement them, as they are not in this code at all at the moment (it was kind of re-assembled rather than built from RFC).

5. Vassal Armenia - No, Armenia in the mod is Bagratid Armenia, independent kingdom starting with 885. They fought both Arabs and Byzantines, and remained independent until 1045 (annexed by Byzantium). I've linked the map in previous set of replies. As for vassals, no, you can't be a vassal in BTS, it was a mod, which was extremely abusable, if only for the gifts you get from the AI.

6. There's no East-West Schism or Fourth Crusade atm. At least the latter needs some kind of representation, I agree, but I'd rather not add Latin Empire (60 years - 30 turns of existence). There's a few extra bigger/longer civs that I'd rather add, if at all (Principality of Antioch, Ilkhanate/Jalayrids, playable Delhi Sultanate). I mean, even Ak Koyunlu lasted twice as long as the Latin Empire, and controlled like 10 times as much territory.

7. Iconoclasm is in game, as a random event that can happen to any Orthodox ruler (causing revolts or loss of piety if you agree to the heresy), until the discovery of Religious Unity. In my working version I increased the general event chance so hopefully all these new events will be more frequent.

8. Krak des Chevaliers - I know it was captured during the First Crusade, but it was also expanded for the next 100+ years, and with it being a proper wonder
the Crusaders at least get something to build.

---

That's all I think - while I may have argued about a lot of stuff, many of your suggestions have been added to the new patch (I may have skipped some replies on those).
 
What trouble do you have? BTW the exectuable is actually an archive, you can open it with 7zip and extract it on any system, without launching the exe.

I extracted it, and I know what to do with the $_OUTDIR and $[44] folders, but what about $PLUGINSDIR?
 
I extracted it, and I know what to do with the $_OUTDIR and $[44] folders, but what about $PLUGINSDIR?

That's the installer, ignore it.
 
How do you become a saint? I can't seem to find it in the civilopedia.

And the text for Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Zoroastrianism, and Sunni Islam is missing from the civilopedia.

I can still build a mine even though I don't have Crop Rotation.
 
How do you become a saint? I can't seem to find it in the civilopedia.

And the text for Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Zoroastrianism, and Sunni Islam is missing from the civilopedia.

I can still build a mine even though I don't have Crop Rotation.

Saint is Piety Level of >90.

Mine is buildable since the start. Crop Rotation only allows chopping of forests (i.e. building mines on tiles w/forests, that's how tech tree shows it).

Civilopedia for many new things is missing still, yes.
 
Top Bottom