The Sword of Islam: RFC Medieval Middle East

[embryodead]

But that's not fair and it's not cheating. For the Crusaders, to switch religion (at least from Christianity to Islam) is probably more stable since the population was Islamic partly to start with, and had Catholicism forced on them.
Ditto for the former Byzantine Anatolian cities to force conversion to Islam.
You do realize that this will basically force people to switch religions during the first move after dealing with the civs they have contact with. E.g. for Bohemond, the above technique still works since they will have no cities (i.e. no revolts) if you don't capture Antioch.
If anything, any city that has the new religion you're switching to should be celebrating "We love the Monarch/Theocrat!" Day.

Revolts aren't a very big issue (they're just one-time revolts, not flips, and only in cities with Christianity). Also, you can't convert to another religion if you don't own any city. So you can only do it after capturing Antioch, or after the flip - but it's the unit betrayal that hurts most i.e. you will lose all your knights and some infantry (they've come here to fight muslims, not join them).

You can still do it, just have to be careful about timing, so as to not convert while at war, or compose your army of militia and mercenaries, rather than Knights/Templars/Hospitallers.

 

[The Turk]

Well Edead, now that your back from your month away, will you continue working on this mod? Because there are still quite a few things you can add in terms of events and other features.

 

[2phunkey4u]

Due to the recent inactivity in this thread I rather figured that most playtesters/associates consider the modmod finished. At least I do (thought about some 'Saladin: will you help the sick King of Jerusalem?' event, but felt that already covered by the Ayyubid UP). Others may find minor bugs or leftover issues e.g. with city names, but I really have nothing to add. SoI has put RFC modding to a new level IMHO.

 

[Leoreth]

But that's not fair and it's not cheating. For the Crusaders, to switch religion (at least from Christianity to Islam) is probably more stable since the population was Islamic partly to start with, and had Catholicism forced on them.
Ditto for the former Byzantine Anatolian cities to force conversion to Islam.
You do realize that this will basically force people to switch religions during the first move after dealing with the civs they have contact with. E.g. for Bohemond, the above technique still works since they will have no cities (i.e. no revolts) if you don't capture Antioch.
If anything, any city that has the new religion you're switching to should be celebrating "We love the Monarch/Theocrat!" Day.

I know you're able to rationalize a lot as long as the game mechanics allow it, but don't you think a mod like SoI that's more concise on history than RFC also requires some incentives for the player to play "in character"?

Oh, and by the way, great to see you back here edead

 

[comrade francis]

thanks for the reply

But i just was wondering, coffee should spawn in india?

 

[The Turk]

Due to the recent inactivity in this thread I rather figured that most playtesters/associates consider the modmod finished. At least I do (thought about some 'Saladin: will you help the sick King of Jerusalem?' event, but felt that already covered by the Ayyubid UP). Others may find minor bugs or leftover issues e.g. with city names, but I really have nothing to add. SoI has put RFC modding to a new level IMHO.

Mmm... I would have to strongly disagree with that

I have actually listed out a ton of new features/events (more to Indian civs as well) that could be easily implemented as well as a re-work of the Bulgarian barb spawns, all for the latest version. So yes believe me, on top of the minor bugs/errors (like the TXT thing popping up occasionaly) Edead can definetly still add more to this mod

 

[zodmaner]

Mmm... I would have to strongly disagree with that

I have actually listed out a ton of new features/events (more to Indian civs as well) that could be easily implemented as well as a re-work of the Bulgarian barb spawns, all for the latest version. So yes believe me, on top of the minor bugs/errors (like the TXT thing popping up occasionaly) Edead can definetly still add more to this mod

Couldn't agree more.

This mod still have much more potential, it would be really sad to it see the development stop now.

 

[Leoreth]

Personally I think the mod feels very much rounded off. Just that there are things that still could be added doesn't mean they should. A game can also be overwrought with features.

This doesn't mean there can't be any additions that have good reasons, of course.

 

[Jusos2108]

Is this a bug?
Look at the odds.

Spoiler :

Some other notes. The sailing techs aren't at all tempting and I hate that I am forced to research them as Mughals to get the Red Fort quickly. Something should be done to them. Maybe Navigation could give +1 trade routes or some nice custom house type building. What do you all think?

Otherwise it has been a great Mughal game! Both Safavids and Ottomans are huge and battling eachother over Mesopotamia. Ottomans just took Cairo too. Check out the Safavid SoD.

Spoiler :

 

[embryodead]

@Jusos2108
No idea about the odds. First strike can do that, but I don't suppose the unit has any.
Agree about sailing techs and nice to see Safavids strong for once

Here's something, not exactly a new feature, but GUI improvement, inspired by a similar thing in RFCE. I've split UHVs into snippets of code, so that the data displayed uses the same code as UHVs, providing accurate information about your progress.

 

[Opera]

Awesome!

Now, when will you release a new version?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I think there's a bug with Persecution which I was in as Abbasids. Tarabulus was Sunni, but had Catholicism spread to it.

 

[civ_king]

Will you please represent the Maronites? They are Catholics who have been in Syria and Lebanon since the 6th century

 

[The Turk]

Will you please represent the Maronites? They are Catholics who have been in Syria and Lebanon since the 6th century

Yes please! But I will say Civ_King that Edead has already had Catholicism spread to Tripoli and other cities in modern Lebanon, so they are represented in that sense, but I would like to see the creation of a Maronite Christian mercenary unit that can help the Christian crusaders only and the Byzantines as well. This is especially true since the Maronites have been traditionally militant when it came to protecting their villages against the Muslim invaders. So like in M2TW you could have Maronite Archers OR Maronite Spearmen, something of a levy unit.

I think there's a bug with Persecution which I was in as Abbasids. Tarabulus was Sunni, but had Catholicism spread to it.

My guess to that would be that a missionary did not spread Catholicism to your city but rather it was a scripted spread to Tarabulus (the Maronites re-emerging). But IMO that should not happen, but I'm sure Edead might have a better answer.

@Jusos2108
Agree about sailing techs and nice to see Safavids strong for once

Ya it is nice to see the Safavids strong, and I strongly agree with the sailing techs, something should be added to them to make them more useful, otherwise they should be moved out of the way.

Here's something, not exactly a new feature, but GUI improvement, inspired by a similar thing in RFCE. I've split UHVs into snippets of code, so that the data displayed uses the same code as UHVs, providing accurate information about your progress.

YAY! Cool that sounds really great, but I tried updating the SVN, and its still on revision 74 -____-" Can you update it, with also the "TXT" event bugfix?

Both Safavids and Ottomans are huge and battling eachother over Mesopotamia. Ottomans just took Cairo too. Check out the Safavid SoD.

Wow cool! Its nice to see the Safavids taking Mesoptamia and then having the Ottomans actually expand into the Levant and fight a historical war against the Safavids for control of Mesopotamia. That sounds like a really great game
But I have a feeling its only because the Mamluks were too weak in the game

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Jusos, seeing that Safavid stack makes me wish for a medieval "nuke." Maybe something like introduce plague into the camp?

 

[Jusos2108]

Wow cool! Its nice to see the Safavids taking Mesoptamia and then having the Ottomans actually expand into the Levant and fight a historical war against the Safavids for control of Mesopotamia. That sounds like a really great game
But I have a feeling its only because the Mamluks were too weak in the game

That may be, although the Mamluks were actually quite strong, but they suddenly collapsed after taking Hejaz. The Ottomans actually destroyed those Safavids stacks seen in the second screenshot. I haven't finished the game yet, so I'll post new screenshots, if something cool happens.

Jusos, seeing that Safavid stack makes me wish for a medieval "nuke." Maybe something like introduce plague into the camp?

Yeah, I am just glad that they are so far away from my heartlands. Although now I am tempted to try an Ottoman game next and hope to face similarly strong Safavids, so that I can beat the crap out of them.

 

[Leoreth]

The UI modification is great, especially considering the territory goals including many provinces (I had to make long checklists to see which I'm still missing). Will it break down goals covering larger regions (like Anatolia for Ottomans) into their constituent provinces? Else they might still hide a lot info from the user.

 

[embryodead]

Added province highlight (hold CTRL, credit to 3Miro for the idea) with something extra - stability overlay (hold CTRL + ALT), see below. Wouldn't an on/off activation be better? Something like ALT-M, so you don't have to keep the buttons pressed?

EDIT: settled with CTRL for provinces and CTRL-U to toggle stability overlay, also accessible through a new minimap button.

Cyan - core province; penalty if lost
Green - border province; no penalty
Yellow - outer/foreign area; penalty for expansion
Orange - contested (foreign core overlapping with your border provinces); penalty for city occupation, risk of resurrection
Red - foreign core / spawn zone; large penalties for expansion & city occupation, risk of resurrection

This is just for the UI, the mechanics have not changed.

I was going to upload today but there's still some work to be done and I'm beaten, so maybe tomorrow. I'll update the SVN for now, and try to get through some posts.

Will it break down goals covering larger regions (like Anatolia for Ottomans) into their constituent provinces? Else they might still hide a lot info from the user.

Quick answer: it supports multiple lines so I can put whatever there, but with Ottomans specifically it's like 20+ provinces, which looks messy, so yeah I grouped them up into regions mentioned in the UHV.

 

[zodmaner]

I've just download the svn version and wow! Love the new province/province stability highlight and the new UHV text. Great job, embryodead! Can't wait to see what the future update will brings.

Also, I like your current implementation where one press Ctrl to highlight province and Ctrl + u to toggle province stability on/off. Very handy.

Incidentally, did autosave works for anyone else using the svn version? Mine didn't for some reason.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Can you PLEASE nerf the Portuguese and lessen the gold for the Omani to 40000-45000. It's basically a gimmick--you have to build enough great galleys to kill all those ships before they can land, and unless you know where they'll show up, you won't be able to kill them all. I killed the ones around the Persian Gulf and Salalah, but I didn't know about the 3 carracks that were going to show up in the Red Sea! It's 1593 for me and I've just reconquered Yemen (which, BTW, NEVER respawns, despite how unstable Portugal is), and the Portuguese have already moved onto Meccah and Madinah.

And I can only get to about 42000 g (I can see why because I thought you have to spread Islam to a non-Islamic city, whereas I found out that it just means spreading Sunni (i.e. Shia cities do count). So I stupidly went for Mevlana's Tomb. I also had 3 great artists when I wanted merchants (so much for the Heroic Epic and National Epic in the same city). But even then, to expect 50000g is frustrating and I don't expect to play the Omani again, ever!