v18 Change Log & Leeroys Work

[ahowl11]

- Nomad UI bug fixed
- Numidian General given correct shield value
- Libyan Skirmishers recruitable in Africa, not Iberia
- Sacred Band needs Pantheon of Baal to be recruited
- Egyptian Slingers given AP
- AP taken away from Roman Deserters
- Area taken away from Velites and Nuragic Skirmishers
- Massilia and Vienna now have road connections
- Arse and Iader have had forest around settlements removed so that the cities can be assaulted during sieges
- Lowered Healing abilities of certain ancillaries
A ton of map changes:
- Changed Molucha to Dimmidi (Gaetulia)
- Renamed Numidian regions and gave Capsa to Numidia
- Changed Siwa to Augila (Libya)
- Changed Dumatha to Gaza (Idumea) and gave to Ptolemies
- Changed Igdi to Asaak (Astauene) and gave to Seleucids
- Changed Roxanace to Scythopolis (Roxolania)
- Moved Gelonus north east to accurately portray the Budini
- Changed Di to Cariscus (Neuria)
- Changed Gerrhos to Neapolis Scythica (Scythia)
- Changed Amisus to Kamacha (Armenia Minor)
- Changed Thapsus to Asanca (Cotinia)
- Changed Dura Europus to Arcidava (Albocensia)
- Changed Babylon to Uruk (Sumer)
- Changed Helis to Oescus (Triballia)
- Changed Durocortorum to Vesontio (Sequania)
- Changed Brundisium to Tulisurgium (Cheruscia)
- Renamed Drusa to Duna
- Renamed Amadoca to Tur
- Moved Batavodurum to Tecelia (Chaucia)
- Moved Treva to Castra Cimbrorum (Cimbria)
- Replaced Laciburgium with Rugium (Rugia)
- Replaced Rugium with Ascaucalis (Gutonia)
- Renamed Mattium to Amisia
- Renamed Hermanduria to Vindelicia
- Renamed Chiric to Davaba
- Renamed Khiva (Chorasmia) to Chorasmia (Chorasmene)
- Gave Croton to the Brutii
- Renamed Gatara to Cabalaca
- Renamed Gazaca to Phraaspa and relocated it
- Renamed Central Gaul to Aeduia
- Renamed Corduba to Ilipa
- Renamed Taraconensis to Illergetia
- Renamed Parnia to Dahae
- Renamed Regnum Palmyrae to Palmyrene


-Removed Recruitment Centers & Moved all units to the basic recruitment buildings
- Edited Traits & Ancillaries to match building removals
- Added new colony buildings:
Roman
Greek
Punic
Numidian
Iberian
Celtic
Germanic
Illyrian
Thracian
Pontic
Armenian
Parthian
Scythian
Nabataean
- Edited Traits and Ancillaries to appear based on cultural buildings
- Changed culture of Tur (Venedia) from Scythian to Germanic
- Cleaned out Building UI
- All recruitment is now tied to the colony buildings
- Edited capital locations for monuments
- Fixed Monument requirements
- Closed off Alps and opened up southern coast of Liguria for Julii to go west
- Gave every faction 'prefers naval invasions' not sure if it will work
- Edited Region of Magna_Graecia to prevent Scipii from seeing Greece as a 'target' not sure if it will work
- Made Carthage at war with all Romans to encourage attacking Corsica & Sardinia. not sure if it will work
- Gave SPQR a fleet
- Took 'hinterland' away from all new colony buildings
- Added temporary 'native' building that colonies will conflict with
- Gave 'native' religious belief to colonies so opposing factions will delete them upon conquest
- Gave all settlements a native building and colony building.. except Arab & Illyrian regions they don't have a colony yet
- Edited many starting barracks in settlements to be in line with the colony
- Landbridge from Britannia to Gaul
- Britons lose Samarobriva to Rebels
- Landbridge from Corsica to Sardinia
- Fixed Landbridge between Africa & Iberia
- Lowered the spawn rate for pirates and brigands
- All revolt chances for rebels are now at 0
- New building for Rebels - Hibernian Mines.. basically gives rebels a huge amount of cash every turn so they can be more active
-Redid traits and ancillaries to match new buildings
-Added races to tiers 4-5 governors building, requires tiers 4-5 equestrian to be activated
-Added the fixes, adjustments and changes of Leeroy9000. SEE LEEROYS NOTES FOR DETAILS



LEEROYS CHANGES

EDU:

- (test change, rollback if proven unfeasible) removed AP for slingers, increased attack to be slightly lower (by 1-2) than comparable archers, increased ammo to 60 for slings with stone ammo, 50 for slings with bullet ammo.
Tried to balance slingers without ranged AP attack. They should find a niche as an anti-infantry/anti-archer unit, since high amount of ammo allows them to inflict more damage to slow units, and shields make them less vulnerable to archers. If leaving slingers with AP, their attack value should probably be lower than the current one, like 3 for regular slingers, 6-7 for elite ones, because ranged AP is a very powerful ability, and the cost of having it should be higher.

- cavalry archers: increased ammo to 45, reduced ranged attack to be more in line with foot archers
Their attack value was too high, especially for elite cavalry, far greater than those of foot archers. Balanced this by giving them some extra ammo. From my point of view, horse archers should lose to foot archers, if the latter have cover from melee attacks, to make archers viable, as horse archers are one of the most OP units, and their missile attack made them totally unbeatable. Additionally, horse archer mobility allows them to more easily outflank and shoot infantry from unprotected direction, so ridiculously high arrow attack was too much in my opinion.

- reduced ranged attack power of archers in general.
Elite archers were too powerful, able to shred even the most elite infantry with ease, and having some ammo to spare. Even after the nerf, they are probably too powerful, so maybe some reduction is still needed.

- phalanx: reduced shield to from 5 to 2 (sarissa), from 7 to 3 (non-sarissa), increased pike attack by 2, reduced attack of secondary weapons.
Since phalanx mode doubles shield value, pikemen were almost invulnerable to ranged damage, nullifying one of their main weaknesses. Shield value 2 (4 in phalanx mode) is in line with other small shields in the game. Attack is added to justify their usage by AI, and also to make them less likely to be broken from the front, currently some units could inflict heavy losses in a frontal melee assault to phalanx, which seems unrealistic. Secondary attack was reduced, because due to numerical advantage, phalanx was capable of beating some comparable units without phalanx mode.

- greek_silver_shields, greek_chrysaspides have +2 armor compared to same-tier phalanx, due to their lore and appearance saying they wore chainmail. Reduced their def skill by 2 as a compensation. I have tried to give them less stamina instead, but it seems to make AI even more overpowered, due to having such a powerful unit (not tested a lot, maybe it was seleucid just AI being OP by itself due to having a lot of starting territory)

- any bonus stamina removed from all cataphracts, they outclass any melee cavalry in combat due to much better armor, as they should, so debuff of making them tire faster makes sense from lore and balance point of view.

- some unit costs were changed. They were mostly kept the same as original, due to this affecting AI behavior. Nevertheless, making skirmishers generally cheaper didn't cause their spam by AI, so they this change was left. Apart from that, cost changes were done mostly if unit's stats were significantly changed, or if it is cheaper/more expensive than its direct upgrade/downgrade of the same faction, or if unit had abnormally low/high cost for its current stats. In that case their cost was made +- equal.

Stats rebalancing, many small changes. Some universal guidelines:

- most units' armor value was set to what their model suggests.
Helmet = 3 def
Greaves = 2 def
Fantasy-looking leather = 0-4 def, depending on the unit
Van-style breastplate thing / hastati armor / italic armor = 3-4 def
Linothorax = 4-5 def
Chainmail/scalemail = 6-8 def
Cuirass = 9 def
Full chainmail (cataphracts) = 20+ def (total) with some variations
Pelta = 4 shield
Pelta (phalanx) = 2 shield, see above, essentially equal to 4 due to game mechanics
Round shield = 5
Round shield (phalanx) = 3, two barbarian spearmen use it
Some other shields used by germanic warriors, italic infantry shield = 6
Thureos/other round shields, hoplon = 7
Roman scutum/other very large shields = 8
Cavalry has -1 penalty to shield, to represent them being larger target for missiles

- attack values/charge bonus:
If units have primary ranged weapon, set charge bonus equal to the charge bonus of sec. weapon, for correct tooltip display.
Cavalry with shields or with only 1-handed weapon: charge bonus is 25 max, without shield 30-49, depends on the type, less for missile, more for cataphracts.
If cavalry has a primary and secondary melee weapons, made secondary 1 extra attack over the primary weapon, with far less charge bonus, unless sec. weapon has AP, in which case -4 attack on top of that.
AP only for axes, maces and falx weapons, AP weapons have 3-4 less attack compared to similar units without AP.

- ranged attack:
Javelin (skirmishers) = 10-13 attack, 55 range, 9 ammo, 12 for cavalry
Heavy javelin (non-skirmishers) = 12-15 attack, 40 range, 2 ammo
Pilum (non-skirmishers) = 14-17 attack, 25 range, 2 ammo
Arrow = 9-14 attack (9 - basic archers, 14 - some elite eastern / scythian archers). 35 ammo foot archers, 45 ammo horse archers, 80 elephants.
Sling = 7-8 dmg 60 ammo (stone), 12 dmg 50 ammo long range (bullet)

unique variations of missile units:
- greek peltasts (only foot skirmishers) have increased range, thracian peltasts have more attack
- greek slingers have increased attack
- libyan and numidian skirmishers have more ammo
- peltophoroi, thureophoroi, athenian marines have 3 ammo
- iberian, thracian, agrianian skirmishers generally have higher attack
- more archers with higher attack value were given increased range (some already had)

- sligthly buffed line of hellenistic elite cavalry (basically to where they were in original EDU in terms of stats), made them slightly cheaper.
- sligthly buffed line of eastern elite cavalry and regular infantry (basically to where they were in original EDU in terms of stats).
- cavalry/infantry with prec arrow weapons got 10 ammo, cavalry charge values are updated to the levels of non-archer cavalry.
This type of cavalry was standing still even when attacked in melee, so their amount of ammo was reduced to reduce the chances of that happening. Stats were updated because they are not really missile units at that point.
- slightly buffed indian elephants to be more powerful than african ones.
- greek_machimoi_pikemen, greek_libyan_phalangite - reduced upkeep, other stats are standard for their tier. These units are region and reform locked, so gave them advantage in upkeep to distinguish from regular phalanx.
- lethality values of melee weapons set to 0.7 (it was about average value before), missile to 1.0 (standard value).
Done to more easily balance units in combat. Also varied values made it a lot harder to evaluate the actual efficiency of units for a player, cause this very important stat is not listed in the game.
- Fixed annoying two-rank default formations for some cavalry and archers.
- Minor inconsistencies fixed.
- herdsmen_scythian increased stats, unit size 55 > 35, steppe_lancers unit size 38 > 35.
- increased stats of many scythian units.
Scythians like to spam herdsmen_scythian too much, even when having access to better units. Nerfed if heavily, while increasing strength of other units.
- most scythian and eastern middle and high tier cavalry (except cataphracts) unit size 27 > 30.
- nerfed barb_spearmen_dacian, they were spammed too much, they still are very powerful considering their unit size, for their level.
- nerfed some germanic barbarian units that were too strong for their level, changed stats and unit sizes of some german units.
- slightly increased stats of heavy barbarian infantry.
- increased size of barbarian low level swordsmen and axemen 45 > 50, to make them competitive vs spear warband.
- nerfed thracian_warband, it was too powerful for its level.
- greek_bastarnae unit size 40 > 45.
- increased strength of lower level hoplites.
- increased size of barbarian phalanx units 40 > 50. They were not used, probably due to their weaker stats overall. Larger size is in line with all phalanx units.
- changed attack / def of principes and some barbarian units (same stats overall).
- post-reform cohorts: gave very_hardy attribute, increased size 40 > 45, cost changed to 400 / 440 for first cohort, other stats +- same as principes.
- health set to 1,7 for all cavalry units (except chariots and elephants, and including generals).
- rebalanced stats of some eastern units to avoid incnsistencies with their tier.
- increased stats of hoplites, they seemed too weak compared to other units, reduced strength of carthaginian infantry to the level comparable with greek hoplites.
- increased cost of t1 phalanx to the same level as t2 phalanx to reduce spam.
- attack delay for phalanx set to 40 (most common value among them), for spearmen without spear bonus (hoplite-like units) decreased from 10 to 3, for spearmen with spear bonus and other units, the delay was removed.
This stat was overtuned, causing hoplites to fight at near half-strength of their stats. For non-hoplites this caused them to be beaten even by t1 units, because they already had penalty vs infantry in form of spear attribute. For phalanx it was left as is, because their frontal pike attack is too powerful otherwise.


EDB:
- changed east_companion_cavalry availability for parthia from tier 5 to 4
Parthians had two similar units (cataphract with shield) at level 5, but only archer cataphract at level 4, so kinsmen were nerfed and moved to tier 4
- greek_libyan_phalangite upgraded to tier 3 unit - its visuals were clearly of medium-high tier phalanx, while stats and availability were same as levy pikemen.
- greek_levy_pikemen moved to tier 1, removed after reforms for egypt to avoid CTD due to adding a new tier 2 phalanx.
- greek_pikemen moved to tier 2, added to egypt. Now both egypt and seleucids have equal strength phalanx unit line, which should help with campaign balance.
- greek_allied_phalangite moved to tier 2. This unit was the same as regular macedon phalanx, even one stat weaker, and region-locked, so it was made available earlier in the tech tree as a bonus to even justify its usage.
- removed martial law for testing purposes.
Actually removing it from the game altogether may be a good idea - AI often abuses it, and cannot destroy it. At the same time it only helps powerful AI empires to become larger. Also it makes game easier for player.
- sewers (available at t2) health bonus from 5% > 10%, since t3 building gives +15%, and t4 +20%, so it would make perfect sense to make a +5% step.
- t5 building available to romans +30% > +25%, again to make it 5% per level all the way, and additionally, city at max level doesn't really need additional growth.
- negative income removed from this building, as AI avoids building it like fire, even when it is clearly needed. On of AI's priorities is generating income, so it probably makes this building not worth it for them.
- t1 and t2 market buildings get +0,5% population growth bonus, which increases to +1% at t3 and stays the same.
These changes were aimed at helping with small population towns to grow faster. Currently there are too few buildings at lower tiers, and too many on higher tiers, when population is already not an issue. The changes (relative to the current achievable population growth) total +0.5% at t1, +1% at t2, +0.5% at t3, +0 at t4, -0.5% at t5 for romans.
- triarii moved from t3 to t4, before they became available on the same level as principes, making roman tech tree cut out at tier 3, after which there were pretty much no upgrades.
- east_heavy_infantry moved to t4, their description and stats didn't justify keeping them as t5 unit.

PROJ:
- increased velocity of javelins and bullets (needed for extra range)

TEXTURES:
- added greaves to greek_royal_pikemen
They had less equipment than previous tier of phalanx, which made no sense, since they are considered elite unit
- changed visuals for some egypt units to match their tier and stats.
- changed visuals for greek elite phalanx (added some cooler armor).

descr_strat:
Changes to AI personalities)
- seleucid originally was the same as egypt and macedon, so it probably spammed phalanx due to being surrounded by cavalry factions. Pikemen are considered spearmen, so it was pretty much forced to produce only them. Switched military type to napoleon for additional cavalry bias, the army composition became better, with phalanx making about 50%, other being thureophoroi and cavalry, and other units.
- carthage changed production AI type from sailor to trader. Generally sailor economic type is not very good for AI.
- parthia changed military type to henry. Not really necessary, just want them to have bias to cataphracts.
- britons, germans, gauls - switched military to caesar, so there is less bias to mass troops (which depletes population quickly, which is huge problem for them), also it makes their army composition slightly more diverse as they get access to more troops.
- thrace changed military to smith - so there is no bias to mass units, thrace was spamming too much low level warbands, now army composition seems a bit better.

[ahowl11]

FROM v18 HOTFIX

EDU:
- partially reverted carthaginian units nerf
- slightly increased upkeep of top iberian units
- increased upkeep of t2 pikemen to 300 > 360 (300 for greek_machimoi_pikemen) to make phalanx factions slightly weaker, in order to make them less likely to form half-map empires under AI control.
- slightly increased upkeep of eastern infantry, to be comparable to other mass infantry.
- greek_hoplite_spartan icnreased defense by 1, nerf was too harsh
- greek_hypaspists, greek_royal_guard, greek_therapeia_infantry - removed spear attribute, set attack delay to 3 (similar to hoplites). They are supposed to be assault melee infantry, yet presense of spear attribute made them poor melee fighters. Reworked them in a same way as hoplites, simce they have spears and fight in more or less similar way. Thureophoroi were not reworked, since they are not supposed to be an assault infantry, and remain as an anti-cavalry semi-skirmisher unit.
- increased upkeep of greek_royal_agema and greek_trallian_guard, they were too cheap compared to similar hellenic units.
- increased attack of greek_basilikon_guard by 1, it was too weak compared to similar greek units.
- increased attack of greek_thorakitai by 3, they were too weak for a post-reform unit. They are still weaker than most of similar units of other factions.
EDB:
- lowered required tier for carthaginian local infantry by 1 tier, added africa requirement. Not unit progression is more smooth, units are more evenly distributed, tier 2 has more recruitment options in africa.
- fixed monuments, added requirements, made factional bonuses more equal, from +1-4 growth to +2-3 growth (it looks better for campaign map balance with new recruitment system). Due to new recruitment system, factions became more even, so larger diffirences in population bonus are probably not needed.
- greek_hypaspists moved from t3 to t4 - same hellenistic elite infantry for macedon and egypt are available from t4
Descr strat:
- carthage towns with near 3000 population got t2 barracks, to prevent t1 spam.