[SUBMOD: a Slower Paced DeI Campaign] TESTUDO v.1.7 + Custom Packs [upd: aug.09/20] - OUTDATED

[Tenerife_Boy]

Hey bro, I saw in the OP that iti s not savegame compatible? But I loaded a savegame with Baktria I had in a very early stage (less than 30 turns) and apparently everything is working? is that ok? or am I missing anything?¿

[Jake Armitage]

Yeah you're missing everything (quite a lot) triggered by scripts and based on turns.
Many features will sound empty 'cause they have not been registered.
Start a new campaign for a full and balanced experience.
I would say it is a must.

[raven63]

Thanks
I've added a couple of campaign images into #1 post.
It is quite incredible to see that after 630 turns the major faction (rome) has 17 regions only.

It seems to me you're playing a sort of exemplar campaign.
Congrats, you're a chirurgical player, paying attention to everything.
Everything seems really fine to me and it's a really good thing, being you at turn 630...

questions:
1) maybe general's experience is a little too slow to gain?
2) same with growth/pop needed to gain building slots?
3) there is a need to increase base food based on imperium? It seems so to me, just a little.
4) the political balance is surely weighted towards 3rd party. It actually doesn't affect the game (since single other party influence is not giving effects) but it is unpleasant to see... I wonder if I'll find something to counter this

Please keep sending me savegames every 200 turn

1) I think it's fine for RPGUs. For non-RPGU, like the general who leads the main army, the gain seems to be too slow. With the reduction of the number of armies, maybe there is less fighting overall so less chance for experience? I know I can gain experience by fortifying, but that adds squalor and consumes food so I never do it.

Overall, my RPGU generals are on average 2 stars above my main general

2) I felt that the growth/pop was fine. Like I said, I have just emerged from a 30 year war + succession crisis. To survice these times I taxed the out of my people, so that's probably why I haven't developed as much.

3) I like how it is now to be honest.

4) In my role playing the 3rd party gained all this power after the succession crisis. I would say if you want to do something about it, then see if something can be done to give effects to this large influence, rather than counter it. Overall, the political game is not too hard to play, so making it more difficult would be welcome!

[Jake Armitage]

1) ok, then I'll slightly raise battle exp and lower a bit the penalties for the fortification stance
2) I was talking about vanilla population, the one that let you build more building slot (those numbers - 2,3,4,5,6 - in the building panel)
3) ok, I'll add more food for the upcoming province administrator rpgu BG then
4) yeah, I don't like much civil wars... also I think that for testudo they would be quite a shock... anyway i'll release some packs to customize loyalty (so you can play a more difficult political scenario)

[Jake Armitage]

@nikos and leo

I've quickly checked that Empire VDM mod...
So I'm able to check 1 script (a sort of mother script) but all the others are compiled (luac) probably 'cause that external program (the hell it is, I don't know) needed them this way.
Fact is that it seems intriguing... I have the sensation he's working by adding some graphical interface (buttons) to the game...
Did you ever used it? Did he built an interface from scratch or it is just a method to enact complex things?
I really can't say...

Anyway, that VadAntS guys is missing from TWC since more than a year, it's quite unlikely he'll be back, I'll try to contact Lordsith (he edited the OP this june and is daily present in TWC).
Maybe he knows something or can send us decompiled scripts.

[nikossaiz]

Vadants used wali ( super complicate programm ) to manage to implement the things he wanted ( virtual points, define ally and enemy territory , interactive messages, etc ). Empire engine didnt have those abillities. as far as I know , because I am using his mod, except of the custom pop up interactive messages, for the mods functions he uses buttons on the existed ui. Something like changing capital in dei, pressing the encyclopedia button. The guy did not make a new interface but literally make new mechanics for empires engine from scratch. Lordsith updated recently the vdm to be compatible with his new version of imperial destroyer ( that I dont use ) so he must know its basic functionality. or the way to read those Luac giles. Hope he enlight you. As for the war script diplomacy he uses, I cam confirm that is working in a very realistic way.

[Jake Armitage]

Ok, i see

Then he should use (more or less) the same method I'm using for VPS.
Through virtual points you can enact any lua function.
Conceptually what he did (well i should see it before talking but...) it's doable for Rome 2 too.

What I can't understand is what that wali is for... maybe the scripts (the luac ones) are so complex he needed an external program to calculate them or else the game will lag too much.
Maybe he's externally registering a lot of things through that program.

[nikossaiz]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...604949-W-A-L-I

To tell you the truth most things there are all greek to me( and being greek doesn't really help . I think also will be doable, rome2 engine is more advanced either. One thing that i really like and im not sure if it can be applied is that allows the player to spent the points he gets from the compinarion of various dice roll events and traits of faction leader and ministers on decisions. Or in order to gain stability ( the result of all vp ) in europa universalis style.

[Jake Armitage]

well... everyday you discover something new.
I'll try to understand but that's surely above my barbarian expertise.
maybe I'll ask phazer if he can have a look to understand how and if we could use this something I don't even understand what it is, phazer is a pro coder...

[nikossaiz]

As mitch, the co creator of this wali lastly said " it doesnt worth the effort" and it was an experiment. So, i wouldnt want to turn your focus away from what you are actually doing so good!

[Jake Armitage]

I actually spend most of my time scratching my butt...

[Tenerife_Boy]

Turn 2 and I can't recruit a single unit cause it says no recruitment points...I'm missing something 100% sure in OP description, what can I do to get over this?

[Jake Armitage]

that's not possible, you useless spanish
check OP for proper installation, follow instructions and yell YO at the end of the process.

[nikossaiz]

"butt" "useless spanish" and not even a yellow card? or a warning from greek strategos?? i am kind of worry

[leonardusius]

@nikos and leo

I've quickly checked that Empire VDM mod...
So I'm able to check 1 script (a sort of mother script) but all the others are compiled (luac) probably 'cause that external program (the hell it is, I don't know) needed them this way.

I told you before about that. Most of the scripts are lua compiled and i tried with a lua decompiler to see what's inside but no way, because the compiler seems to encript somehow the files. Too bad, because I am very interested how WarDipScript is and how he managed to make the AI more sensible to peace ....he wrote about that:
''Peace treaty
AI concluded a peace treaty with the following conditions:
- The ratio of the army AI / Army Player of less than 50%
- The ratio of the army AI / Army Player of less than 30% (for Indian factions)'',
which is exceptional.

[ivanpera]

Leo, I believe this is the file you are interested in http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...59740101235093
There might be some external functions and dependencies not included in that lua script, but at a quick glance there seems to be everything you want (the main thing you are searching should be around line 292)
As far as the WALI project is concerned, don't worry Jake and niko, I don't believe you'll need that sort of stuff for the things you plan to do

[Jake Armitage]

@nikos
GS is currently off-land in a sheep island so we're free to do what we want
We don't currently have a moderator

@leo
yep, you were right

@ivanpera
nice, yeah there are references for sure, I think they are the ones inside the VDM_src.pack
I'll contact that Lordsith guy and see if he's willing to send us all the codes
I have the same feeling about that wali but... do have you any idea what that's actually for?

[ivanpera]

@ivanpera
nice, yeah there are references for sure, I think they are the ones inside the VDM_src.pack
I'll contact that Lordsith guy and see if he's willing to send us all the codes
I have the same feeling about that wali but... do have you any idea what that's actually for?

Here are the rest of the scripts http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...50675938196522

As per WALI, it's a program written in external language that runs while you play and checks if special files are generated by a lua script in the game. This files follow a specific format, defined by the user (WALI\Engine\Commands, if I remeber correctly).
The creation of the file by the lua script works as a sort of function call to the process (the WALI engine) which is running in background and listening (I did something similare for Benjin cinematics mod).
The file/request is then processed and, if a fitting user defined command exist, that command handles the request (more or less, I already forgot d: ).
All of this was made because in the user made Commands one could specify whether a command was to be handled by the WALI engine or if it was a general command which was writing directly into the game memory.

I have not investigated deep, so that's all I could gather from a quick look. Anyways, don't worry, the peace script shouldn't (I believe) use any of this stuff.

This is a very quick and ugly description of the software, but I hope I made myself clear.
The main thing to take away is "Don't bother investigating it, you won't need it and is very cumbersome and rough anyway"

[Jake Armitage]

you're full of resources man! I love you

yeah, it seems the scripts are the same format of rome2 so a sort of adaptation (probably a re-elaboration of some features) it will be surely doable as per known methods by me.
I'll have to contact that Lorsdith for an authorization for messing with them. It is the correct behaviour.

and...
what about:
Replenishment.luac in Replenishment.pack
PanelManager.luac in ui_vdm.pack

is it possible to have them too, maybe?

[ivanpera]

These are all the scripts I could find (I reuploaded the previous ones and also added som you missed). Bear in mind that I decompiled everything without checking what it does, so I don't know if it will be useful for you
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...15902739057599