[Preview] Economy, Events, Scripts & Other Features

[MWY]

If you're new to the Medieval 2 engine:

- watch eg. this video
- read this guide

In the SSHIP many things are different, but you can get the basics of the Med2 engine.


Settlements and Economy:


In original SS, settlement growth went pretty fast, every settlement was somewhat the same, and you basically wanted to build everything no matter what. We tried to change that in SSHIP.

Settlement Growth:
We slowed the settlement growth factor down significantly. You will mostly start of without any growth at all in your regions. Only England, London and Vienna have a really huge growth factor at the campaign start. Right now, getting your settlement to grow is really something special which doesn't happen often.

Unique Settlements:
We looked at historical numbers and adjusted cities and castles accordingly. We have historical population numbers implemented in the game. Constantinople will start of with about 150.000 citizens. The highest population you can achieve is probably around 160.000. With the right governor, it can perhaps get even higher. Public order in those huge cities will be hard to manage, and you have to find an adequate strategy to handle this. On the other hand, we have not so developped towns and villages, especially in scandinavia, cumania or lithuania. Here you don't have to really manage the towns much, and growing them will be a slow but rewarding process. So the variety of settlements and starting positions in SSHIP is bigger than ever.

Buildings:
In SSHIP, we wanted to avoid the "build everything everywhere" factor. Most of the buildings have specific positive and negative factors, and you will have to decide if the building is worth it or if you fare better without it. We also have a small techtree. Most advanced buildings require either a stonemason or a carpenter to be build. This way, we try to avoid having too many building possibilites at one time.

Economy:
Well, you won't have a bank in SSHIP. Units are more expensive, buildings are aswell. There's siege upkeep, more corruption in large cities, etc. On the bright side, AI stack spam is reduced aswell to somewhat realistic levels. The AI uses it's resources more sustainable and will focus on upgrading settlements when not at war. It almost never goes bankrupt.

Dynamic Events:


In SSHIP, we try to avoid stable and repetitive gameplay. Therefore, we try to enhance the game to be more dynamic concerning events.

Religious Orders:
- if your global standing is too low, or if you are excommunicated, you won't be able to recruit religious order knights.
- if there are too many major templar buildings, the templar will strife for power and unleash unrest in your settlements. So keep things in balance.
- Teutonic Knights are not available in the beginning. When the kingdom of jerusalem gets under pressure (loses specific settlements, shrinks) the teutonic order will be founded. After a while, you will be able to build chapter houses then.

Crusader Support:
- Tired of the Crusader States getting crushed? Want to improve your standings with the pope? Here's the perfect solution. The pope will demand you regularly to help the crusaders by spending them additional money.


Mongol Invasion:


It always bugged me that the mongols start with a huge amount of stacks, whipe out 3-4 factions and then die off because they have no money to replenish their units or rebuild their settlements. So we tried to make them a bit more constant and economic, while still pretty fearsome.

- Mongols emerge in around 1250.
- Other AI factions will bury their old hatred and try to ally against this new overwhelming enemy.
- they're using a special mongol AI, making them as reckles as they were in reality.
- Dynamic income script gives them a huge initial impact, they can rebuilt destroyed cities as well as recruit new units, but they will be slowed down over time.
- Usual mongol empires in test campaign go as far as bordering kievan rus, egypt, rum/byzantium before they start to slow down.



Settlements, Rebellions, Resistance and Faction Reemergence:


Resistance:

- capital regions get an unrest factor of 55%, no matter what, representing the unhappiness of the population being occcupied by foreign lords.
- core regions get an unrest factor 45%
- lesser regions get an unrest factor of 25%
- dynamic unrest factor, depending on the initial conquering starts with an additional 30-50% and gets lower every turn.
- If a new and incompetent factor leader gets on your throne, be prepared that those occupied regions will try to seize this opportunity.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rebellions :

- Be prepared that you perhaps can't control every city in this game. Be aware that if you try and fail, it will have consequences.
- Once a settlements revolts for 2 turns, the original faction will reemerge with support of the local nobility.
- This Rebellion won't be peasants only, it will be a serious threat of about 1 or 2 stacks.



Usurpers, Bastards, Regents and Heros:


SSHIP uses a new feature (via traits) in the family representing plots and struggle for power in medieval kingdoms. In a family, there can be rightful leaders, plots, usurpers, regents and bastards.

Rightful Leader/Heir:
This attribute shows that the character has royal ties and is accepted amongst the nobility as a rightful leader. This is what you want for your family. A rightful heir is safe from the plotting or usurping attribute.


Plots:
If a character is unhappy with the leader, he will get the plotting trait. This can be due to serious differences in interest (a very chivalrious general doesn't like an evil leader), or simply due to a faction leader being bad (no command, no authority, etc.). Plotting is the first trait you have to watch out for in your family while playing SSHIP.


Usurper/Usurping:
A character gets this trait when he becomes faction heir/faction leader while plotting. Watch out for this trait and try to get rid of a usurping faction heir as soon as possible. If an Usurper becomes King, he will work against your kingdom, civil war will break out and other nobles will resist him for around 5-10 years. Loyalty will suffer extremly as well as movement points amongst those nobles. Your factions income will drop aswell. If an usurper survives this period, he will be accepted as a true king and create his own new dynasty.


Regent:
A character without royal ties, being leader or heir. Be careful when you see this trait. A bad or evil general will try to usurp his way through to become the real king. A chivalrious general with this trait can usually be trusted to stay loyal without usurping.


Bastards:
Generals which are sons of your faction leader or other royal members. If they are skillfull, they will be accepted by the nobility to be rightful heirs. If not, they can even become usurpers.