SSHIP ver. 0.98 - April 25th, 2024 - DOWNLOAD HERE

[Goffredo85]

playing France at medium difficulty.
1) at first it was not really a problem as conflicts were small and short, so the cycle of recruiting go on the offensive then disband worked pretty well. diplomacy/marriages helped avoid war on multiple fronts otherwise low income and small recruitment pools/refresh could have been a problem. the ai too seemed limited by it since it rarely was able to filed more than 1/2 large armies every 5/7 turns. having reached almost 250 turns the system seems mostly redundant for large ai factions. currently fighting a war against the almoravids (they hold roughly 13 settlements in spain + some other in north africa) and they are able to field 4/5 armies every 2/3 turns. this makes facing them very tedious as im able to fend them off easily holding the choke point south of bordeaux and having 5 citadels providing reinforcements. the trick was to cheese the upgrade system as gold upgrade spearmen have actually more armour than bronze upgrade sergeant spearmen (2 base + 7.5 from upgrades vs 6 base + 2.5 from upgrade) and are far more abudant. replacing cavalry is easy too if you build landowners in all your territory. ai army comp feels not affected by the system too as they are able to field 7/8 cavarly units per army (a mix of adath, black guard, faris lancers and tawashi) plus a mix of dismounted faris and arab infantry plus the occasional skirmishers.
2)AI cities seem to be well devoloped and large by this stage of the campaign, did not put much attention to the rate at which that happened.
3)didn't put much attention to this factor. i mostly limit myself to expand within the boundaries of historical kingdom of france so conversion was not really an issue. trying just now to use an army of 8 priest to cause religious unrest in almoravid held pamplona, but conversion rates do not seem particulary fast even with that many priests
4)right now merchants are providing as much as, if not more, than overall taxes or trade income. but the limiting factor is availability. only now (turn 250) i'm able field four of them. for the first half of the campaign i was limited to just one, which had a very limited impact on my income.

A)no army ever emerged when i conquered a region
B)i've built up until level 2 notre dame it did unlock mount san michiel in rouen
C)seen several events and i've built schools and libraries in all my cities and castles and still no option to build a university (currently 1248 AD)
D)No
E)just notre dame. it just seems an alternate version of the church building line
F)missile troops seem very scarce. regular archer disappeared from the pool with the heavy mail event, levy with some other event down the line which leaves me only with cross bows and basque archer. crossbowmen are extremely bugged when shooting from walls due to engine limitations rendering them useless in defensive sieges. the english fielded few levy archers during initial part of campaign, now almoravids mostly field bediun javelin and sometimes bedouin archers.
G)it works. their frequency of spawning feels quite right. i used them as diplomats, for marriage within the family or with other factions. it depends on my needs at the moment.
H)no supply at normal difficulty
I)i check them occasionally just for the flavour.
J)event pictures are nice
K)AI seems pretty aggresive even in normal difficulty. plenty of wars going on. i had war delcared on me by pretty much all bordering factions in the course of the campaign (enlgand, HRE, almoravids).
L)No

[eyelurker]

GLORY TO SCOTLAND

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1boG...QejJvTLzD/view

The best part? After i capture London and defeat the Resistance Rebel(the only one in Norman in England apparently) The Pope dies. Which mean i'm no longer excommunicated and suddenly the English accept the Scottish rule. This Scotland litteraly blessed by God.

[kostic]

I haven't played much with the latest version so far, but it seems well balanced.

1- I have found that the income panel after a victorious battle works for me. By clicking the red cross, this income returns to my royal treasury. By clicking the green check mark, the income is redistributed to my soldiers.
2- I still find it difficult to maintain a good reputation in general

[vovery]

so now, as you've got experience with FR and LT (a new one?) - upload a save so that I can add it here :-)

On France I actually just tested the starting state for a bit and played only for ~12 turns. My current Lithuania save is only at around 40 turns too, I'll see if I'll have time to play it further.

However, seeing how there's been some new interest in playing Scotland lately, here's my early Scots campaign until turn 62 from some weeks ago on the August version. VH/VH, no financial aid. I wanted to showcase how powerful of a governor David can become: just look at his traits & effects on population growth when he was still in his prime even at an old age, and how quickly Edinburgh has grown under his reign. I've no idea about the effectiveness of his improvements and reforms IRL, but gameplay-wise it indeed feels like settlement populations still grow very quickly - especially under a chivalrous general and/or one with good farming/squalor reducing traits.

Other than that, Scotland is indeed a viable faction to play, but only if the player chooses to act quickly. To prevent reputation from plummeting, all the player needs to do early game is to provoke England to attack Edinburgh as soon as possible by border crossing their lands with even a small army for a few turns in a row after beating the two rebellious armies found in Scotland. The English will come eventually. Once the player beats them at a siege defend in Edinburgh, it's time to act quickly, gather an offensive army and go for York. I think I took York somewhere close to turn ~20, can't remember exactly anymore. After that the English didn't have enough forces at hand to counterattack, and after stabilising York, Lincoln is just around the corner.

Playing a passive beginning is out of the question mainly because of not being able to get new children, if not expanding. I got lucky and had multiple sons being born after getting the third settlement, and after securing a marriage with a French princess, the situation is looking quite promising for Scotland. On the other hand, it is indeed also a faction which due to its location can get a bit dull after some time, as you're fighting on one front at most. Norway is too busy with racing for Scandinavia and at times also fighting directly with Denmark, so they aren't a problem for the Scots for quite early on.

If wanting to make possible a more passive approach for playing Scotland, the faction should have only two generals in the beginning. But then, it's a total war game after all, and taking one settlement in the first 20 turns or so isn't very aggressive.

I don't know if it's already the case, but the Scandinavian (mostly of Norwegian descend) presence in and near Scotland could perhaps be implemented as recurring rebel armies near the Kingdom of Isles in a similar fashion that the Baltic area now has the Prussian raids? There's currently the one Scandinavian descended army at the beginning of the game in the western parts of Scotland, but up until turn 62 I didn't have any other rebel armies spawn in Scotland besides the initial ones. By a quick look there were at least the Battle of Renfrew (1164) and later the Scottish-Norwegian War (1262-1266), in which the Scots had to fight the Kingdom of Isles. Although on the latter case, the Kingdom of Norway was the main counterpart. However, as it's impossible to present the Kingdom of Isles as a faction or even a strong rebellious settlement due to hardcoded limitations, perhaps these recurring rebel armies could make Scotland a bit more nuanced faction to play?

[eyelurker]

The governor is mixed for me. If you have the resources great governor is one of the best investment. The problem getting crippling bad trait(anything squalor and to a much lesser but still problematic extent unrest increase) can easily neutered excellent governor. Excellent governor are rare and have a limited time so no need to nerf it since they are few and one trait away to be downgrade.

Yeah Scottish required you to rush England because that is the time England have the less ammount of Miles the biggest threat to Scotland, as well as England focus on rebel allowing for the first blow. No fund is possible since the core strategy is general bodyguard, it just means you have less army and building to work with.

Edit : btw is anyone have their public order building cut in half? Like 10% reduced to 5% and 5 % since it cannot be cut in half simply don't taken into PO account and et cetera?

[eyelurker]

Oh hey the Mongol arrived. And Transoxiana is gone, time to conquer them again.

[eyelurker]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1339...HAsy2Kv71/view

There you go. Defeat 4 Mongol stacks. Subutai reinforcement arrived in Cuman. Succesion still in crisis mode.

[dnzunlu]

Guys,
as a few of you have played a bit the mod, can you just tell us a few things (well, some were discussed, so you may skip or just answer with a few words).

1) It seems okay to me other than KoJ which people talked about a lot. What would be cool is more unit variety, maybe more AOR units.
2) 200 turns in I feel that most settlements are either the same of one level above their starting. Some of them like Arta, Antalia, Sinope seem impossible to grow unless you are very dedicated.
3) Conversion is pretty fast but I tend to swarm new territories with like 5 priests. I guess having it be way slower like EB2 or something could be cool, but then I would say reduce the public order penalties.
4) 5 merchants can add around 20k to your income. It is a decent amount. But I guess if you can raise 5 merchants you already are pretty big and making money. Mines are cool and all but the priority for me is always public order and health. Less garrisons and more taxes will always beat the mine income.

A - These have made no difference for me as far as I can see. Are they supposed to be rebel armies or enemy armies? Frankly I don't know if I would like to deal with an extra stack everytime I conquer somewhere.
D - No, I get notifications on Bedouins but I either don't see them or they don't bother me. I am really not fond of hunting rebel armies so I just let them pillage whatever.
G - Princesses work fine I guess. I don't know what the script is. The children do get the descendant from.... trait.
H - By mid game it makes no difference. But I don't think that should you mean you just scale the costs. I remember there was a really detailed script in SS 6.4 for this. Maybe you could just add that as an option.
I - It's nice to have a record of how long someone has been doing something.
K - I quite like the AI. I find the rate of betrayal sensible and reputation really does have an effect. I find myself considering things like, If I ally them, these others will be pissed off and they might attack me etc.


One thing for me is there is a lot of notification spam. My income is large and I get an embezzlement notification every turn. I think a lot if it is redundant after a point. Costly army/ army in foreign lands also.

[Gaku]

Was the trusted ally system changed since May? I read through the change logs but didn't notice anything specific. The second I reached turn 100, my allies instantly and simultaneously turned on me despite my reputation being Very Reliable.

[eyelurker]

Was the trusted ally system changed since May? I read through the change logs but didn't notice anything specific. The second I reached turn 100, my allies instantly and simultaneously turned on me despite my reputation being Very Reliable.

I have no idea on the diplomatic game. On my HRE my allied France and Poland are pretty eager to backstab but on my Abbasid once i ally one settlement Zengids, Rum and Georgia all of them are loyal forcing me to betray them(at least Rum is vassalized by Roman so i just attacl Roman to break Rum alliance)

[Michael Westen]

When browsing the forum I often read about the 'core provinces' that every faction is supposed to have. Where can I find more information on this?
I've searched but couldn't find anything.

[Jurand of Cracow]

When browsing the forum I often read about the 'core provinces' that every faction is supposed to have. Where can I find more information on this?
I've searched but couldn't find anything.

in descr_regions there're "hidden resources" for each province and this sometimes increases/enables recruitment

Frankfurt_Province
Frankfurt
hre
German_Capital_Rebels
63 232 41
hre, river, capital, teutonic_knights_chapter_house
5
4
religions { catholic 85 orthodox 0 islam 0 pagan 0 heretic 15 }

in the script certain provinces can be easier integrated into the faction (the result: lower unrest):

log ------ (.E.) Genoa Integration Process ------------------------------------------------------

if I_EventCounter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm < 560


if I_EventCounter FL_weak_on_the_throne == 0 ; natural integration process but not with a Usurper (thus not during a civil war either)
inc_event_counter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm 1
end_if


if I_EventCounter FL_is_crowned_ruler == 1 ; if the owner's faction FL has the crown
inc_event_counter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm 1 ; integration is faster
end_if


if I_EventCounter FL_policy_thinks_of_his_people == 1 ; if FL pursues a conducive policy
inc_event_counter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm 1 ; integration is faster
end_if


if I_EventCounter faction_turn_venice == 1 ; core province of this faction
and I_EventCounter FL_weak_on_the_throne == 0
and I_EventCounter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm < 200
set_event_counter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm 200 ; no integration is needed
end_if


if I_EventCounter faction_turn_pisa == 1 ; core province of this faction
and I_EventCounter FL_weak_on_the_throne == 0
and I_EventCounter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm < 500
set_event_counter Genoa_turns_in_our_realm 500 ; no integration is needed
end_if


end_if

[Michael Westen]

Thanks Jurand, that makes things clearer.

[Gaku]

In conquering Belograd, the game reports that there's No More Martial Law in Nis.

Sirmium and "Belograd" are two different locations. Sirmium was abandoned in 582 A.D. Belograd should be Beograd. The Latin name is Singidunum and not Sirmium. If conquered by Hungary it should be renamed to Lándorfejérvár.

[Jurand of Cracow]

In conquering Belograd, the game reports that there's No More Martial Law in Nis.
Sirmium and "Belograd" are two different locations. Sirmium was abandoned in 582 A.D. Belograd should be Beograd. The Latin name is Singidunum and not Sirmium. If conquered by Hungary it should be renamed to Lándorfejérvár.

no more Nis, right - thanks
Landor or Nandor?

[Gaku]

According to Wikipedia, Lándorfejérvár is the name in Old Hungarian appropriate for this time period.

[eyelurker]

Well i have restarted a few, most of them because of depression of seeing 2 full stack nearby my border while my army has yet to even reach full stack.

So i thought i need to be a bit more bolder, me being result in me attacking Serbia who stole Belhrade first and subsequent lose my leader in a fight hahaha. Restart for real this time.

[kostic]

Some thoughts and feedback on a part of the campaign with France in VH/VH:


1- Financially, you have to get used to expenses not listed in the Treasury forecasts. It's difficult but it brings more realism. Overall, I like the new version of SSHIP, but here are some negative points:


2- Bordeaux belonged to the rebels, as did Poitiers. When Bordeaux was captured by Castile, a French loyalist army appeared. Likewise when the English took the city of Poitiers. These two armies appearing almost at the same time caused my finances to melt away. Wouldn't it be possible to code them for free at least for the first round?


3- Reputation drops really quickly and is too difficult to improve.
The loyalist army having appeared after the capture of Bordeaux by the Castilians, I logically laid siege to the city with it. This took me from an "average" reputation to "very untrustworthy".
Since then, despite my leniency towards the prisoners whom I release almost every time (except for a failed ransom attempt with the English), despite the fact that I have not pillaged the captured cities, my reputation remains "very untrustworthy"


4- The “light men at arms” unit should not be recruitable in 1140, I had prepared it for the beginning of the 13th century

[Katrina of Catarina]

Is there a possibility that a mini patch could be released sometime soon to fix some of the more glaring bugs?

Namely:
1. Light Men at Arms being available from the start in france
2. Archers inexplicably disappearing when heavy mail is discovered
3. The hungarian saxon event firing for every faction on turn 13

If not a mini patch, where would I be able to fix them myself? At the very least the first two.

[naq]

armies without generals rebel too often. Is there anyway to fix that?