AGENTS in SSHIP 0.98

AGENTS in the SSHIP

http://abload.de/img/apollinaris-sig21yp43.jpg

Below - description of 0.97 version, to be updated when we have spare minute, sorry.

Agents

Princesses - due to the Noble Lady script, their number is significantly higher in the game. The script gives each faction a princess (on average) every 30 turns, starting after turn 60. As a result, it is much easier to meet a potential spouse for your Faction Heir and get a foreign blood (and alliance, and better traits for children of FH/FL) through diplomatic deals. As a last resort you may also marry your FH/FL to the Noble Lady that is given to your faction (they're not relatives; some ladies can have 5-6 charm that will profit in the traits of the husband and his children). This feature existed in the SSHIP 096, but now it has been fixed (no more Princess spawn, and Princess without names or without charm). Note that this mechanism is an alternative to the Royal Ladies of the Court submod available for the SS6.4. The traits of the Princesses are as they were in the SSHIP 092 and should be reviewed in the future. Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  https://i.imgur.com/nifmWyg.jpg Merchants - their number is significantly lower in the game while their profitability is much higher. You will have just one or two at the beginning of the game, and only a few during much of the game. Only capitals, cities with the relevant guilds (merchants, explorers) and cities with higher levels of trade buildings will increase this number. Ownership of cities certain regions (Flanders, Northern Italy) will add one, making some faction more merchant-heavy than the others. See the discussion on the reasons for such changes here. The share of income from the merchants in your total income should be higher though, because (1) each merchant (or rather each 1-finance attribute) provides much more income than before, and (2) because there are many double-resource spots on the map. Given that there are more resources on the map, the hostile acquisitions should be rarer. The traits of the merchants are as they were in the SSHIP 092 and may be reviewed in the future. Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  Difficulty level: VH.https://i.imgur.com/JbOA6Yd.jpg Priests - their number is lower in the game, although not as low as that of the merchants. The number increases by one with (1) each church in a capital (i.e. the faction initial capital and with any other faction's capital that would be conquered. Note that it doesn't change with the change of capital during the game) starting from the town level; (2) each temple in the minor city or higher (unless it is a capital - in this case no change to the number), (3) any huge cathedral; (3) if the FL has the "strictly_religious" policy (trait), the limit for each church building is increased by 1 (ie. 2 instead of 1, or 3 instead of 2); (4) a Theologians guild building (but only after certain historical events, read the pop-out windows to learn when). Note that the priests are not recruitable from the guilds, only from churches. The AI has access to more priests than the player and thus it is likely to present a challenge (the AI is quite good at sending priest abroad to make the players life difficult). The availability of the pagan priests is the same as it was for the small settlements (basically, one per settlement if a temple is built) but will not increase with the increase of the size of settlements. The traits of the priests had been updated already for the SSHIP 096. Diplomats - their number is significantly lower in the game. It increases with every (1) administrative building in a capital (ie. provinces with hidden resource capital: if the faction conquers another faction capital, it will have access to one more diplomat); (2) Explorers or Theologian Guild; (3) University. Their traits had been updated already for the SSHIP 096. Spies and assassins - their numbers are as they were in the SSHIP 092 or even SS6.4. It is to be decided in the future how to limit their numbers, perhaps for version 098. Their traits had been updated already for the SSHIP 096. Witches, heretics, inquisitors - their numbers are as they were in the SSHIP 092 or even SS6.4. Their traits had been updated already for the SSHIP 096. (to recall: both Heretics and Witches convert to the heretic religion (ie that of the rebel faction), but the Heretics effect directly only priests while the Witches effect only Family members (ie. those staying too close could get some bad traits).

Assassins
I'm finding the use of Assassins by the AI completely over the top and immersion breaking. Basically, it produces way too many at any one time (only, it seems, by the Muslim factions). As a for instance, they ended my Castille & Leon Campain. In one turn, the Moors' assassins killed five of my six generals. All of them were in settlements and all, by coincidence, had spys with them. As I had the you need a General to attack - this effectively killed the campaign. Currently, I'm playing the Fatamids and Seljuk are sending waves of six or so assassins to destroy my cities - and they're my allies ! They are all high level and very difficult to stop.
Please consider lowering the amount that are generated at any one time. In the meantime, where can I amend the files to switch off assassins ? Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adeperry

Assassins
I'm finding the use of Assassins by the AI completely over the top and immersion breaking. Basically, it produces way too many at any one time (only, it seems, by the Muslim factions). As a for instance, they ended my Castille & Leon Campain. In one turn, the Moors' assassins killed five of my six generals. All of them were in settlements and all, by coincidence, had spys with them. As I had the you need a General to attack - this effectively killed the campaign. Currently, I'm playing the Fatamids and Seljuk are sending waves of six or so assassins to destroy my cities - and they're my allies ! They are all high level and very difficult to stop.
Please consider lowering the amount that are generated at any one time. In the meantime, where can I amend the files to switch off assassins ? Thanks

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Assassins are very active with the Muslim factions played by the AI. Perhaps that's an overstatement...
In my campaigns, however, if I place a spy with a general, the general is protected. I've never yet experienced the assassination of a general when accompanied by a spy. :hmm:
(I'm playing with the August SSHIP098 version in VH/VH)
I'm also testing the "only generals can attack" option with France and it does indeed make the game more complicated. When the number of generals became low, you could hope that a captain would be knighted after a battle. This is not possible with this option. The other drawback is that the AI has no qualms about sending large numbers of armies without generals to attack my cities... :whistling

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Originally Posted by kostic

Assassins are very active with the Muslim factions played by the AI. Perhaps that's an overstatement...
In my campaigns, however, if I place a spy with a general, the general is protected. I've never yet experienced the assassination of a general when accompanied by a spy. :hmm:
(I'm playing with the August SSHIP098 version in VH/VH)
I'm also testing the "only generals can attack" option with France and it does indeed make the game more complicated. When the number of generals became low, you could hope that a captain would be knighted after a battle. This is not possible with this option. The other drawback is that the AI has no qualms about sending large numbers of armies without generals to attack my cities... :whistling

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Medieval 2 is a game, and our mod is a game. Or rather - it's partially a game (there're other parts of our fun - storytelling of lives of generals, immersion into creating a kingdom, building up cities, managment of the budget etc.)
A single-person game is about fighting the parameters. In this case it's about limited-number-of-generals parameter. And also limited-number-of-spies - you don't have enough spies to accompany each general.
All-in-all - I find it ok.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adeperry

Assassins
I'm finding the use of Assassins by the AI completely over the top and immersion breaking. Basically, it produces way too many at any one time (only, it seems, by the Muslim factions). As a for instance, they ended my Castille & Leon Campain. In one turn, the Moors' assassins killed five of my six generals. All of them were in settlements and all, by coincidence, had spys with them. As I had the you need a General to attack - this effectively killed the campaign. Currently, I'm playing the Fatamids and Seljuk are sending waves of six or so assassins to destroy my cities - and they're my allies ! They are all high level and very difficult to stop.
Please consider lowering the amount that are generated at any one time. In the meantime, where can I amend the files to switch off assassins ? Thanks

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daaaaaaamn that's got to be a badge of honor, to have your campaign destroyed by assassins. i know its extremely frustrating for you, but i personally think that's really cool, you would never see this happen in vanilla. you would have to become super paranoid, your royal family would behave like putin regarding security. did you try recruiting spies? a single spy embedded in the city, or with the leader on the move, will drastically reduce their chances. their assassins will probably die trying. i've had targets that were 95% chance kills, drop to something like 13% because a counter-spy settled in that city

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jurand of Cracow

Medieval 2 is a game, and our mod is a game. Or rather - it's partially a game (there're other parts of our fun - storytelling of lives of generals, immersion into creating a kingdom, building up cities, managment of the budget etc.)
A single-person game is about fighting the parameters. In this case it's about limited-number-of-generals parameter. And also limited-number-of-spies - you don't have enough spies to accompany each general.
All-in-all - I find it ok.

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Of course Jurand, I'm not questioning the introduction of this option in SSHIP; I'm just expressing my personal feeling and why I prefer not to activate it. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adeperry

Assassins
I'm finding the use of Assassins by the AI completely over the top and immersion breaking. Basically, it produces way too many at any one time (only, it seems, by the Muslim factions). As a for instance, they ended my Castille & Leon Campain. In one turn, the Moors' assassins killed five of my six generals. All of them were in settlements and all, by coincidence, had spys with them. As I had the you need a General to attack - this effectively killed the campaign. Currently, I'm playing the Fatamids and Seljuk are sending waves of six or so assassins to destroy my cities - and they're my allies ! They are all high level and very difficult to stop.
Please consider lowering the amount that are generated at any one time. In the meantime, where can I amend the files to switch off assassins ? Thanks

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A little late, but you can adjust assassin percentages in the descr_campaign_db file in the data folder. The following entries are relevant:

<assassinate_base_chance float="15"/>
<assassinate_attack_modifier float="0.8"/>
<assassinate_defence_modifier float="0.8"/>
<assassinate_public_modifier float="0.25"/>
<assassinate_personal_modifier float="0.25"/>
<assassinate_counter_spy_modifier float="1.0"/>
<assassinate_agent_modifier float="2.7"/>
<assassinate_own_region_modifier float="0.8"/>
<assassinate_assassinate_attr_modifier float="0.1"/>
<assassinate_chance_min int="5"/>
<assassinate_chance_max int="90"/>

I think I changed these myself at some point in the past cause I thought it was annoying how assassins could kill your high command generals. What you can do for instance is lower the base chance and increase the agent_modifier_float so they will be worse against generals but still be useful for killing merchants/priests etc.