In vanilla Stainless Steel there are no available trade monopolies on the map (i.e. no multiple resources of the same type in a region), except one silk monopoly in the Constantinople region. This means that you can no longer create merchant monopolies like in vanilla M2TW (except for that one in Constantinople). I don't know if this was purposeful, but it always bugged me, because I liked the monopoly mechanic in the original. It encouraged you to make your merchants co-operate with each other and you could also get some good "monopolist" traits for them.
This mod aims to fix that problem. The aim is to add more resources to the map, so that there is at least one available monopoly on the map for each resource. Each region will have, on average, one more resource than it did normally. I've taken great care to take into account both historical accuracy and gameplay balance.
Also, I've added one more resource type (carpets), by replacing the unused elephant resource. Other resources that could have been added from the kingdoms expansions are tar, weapons and hemp. I chose the carpets over these since Stainless Steel contains Persia on the map.
I've attempted to make the resources as historically accurate as possible, and have done quite a lot of research for this purpose. However, there are some cases where historical accuracy would lead to unbalanced gameplay. Most notably, Vienna's resources are still pretty ahistorical. Normally the silver monopoly should be in Magdeburg's region, however putting 2 silver resources there makes the HRE very overpowered, as it gets a ton of trade right from turn 1 without any effort. Vienna, on the other hand, could use two silver resources because it is supposed to generate a lot of trade revenue, even though Austria doesn't really have silver mines IRL (it has some iron mines though). Also, Vienna's trade can be disrupted if you enter war with Hungary or Venice, while Magdeburg's trade with the other German cities would be a zero-effort passive income for the player.
There are some other regions where resources are kept a bit ahistorical for gameplay balance. For example, I've given "African" resources such as ivory and slaves to Luxor instead of Cairo, because Cairo has many trade routes and any added resource would add a lot of income. Luxor, on the other hand, only has one land trade route and starts as a castle. Another example is Winchester, which is kept without wool resources so that London can have a land route with more exports.
Below is a list of all resources (per region) in the mod. If you have any ideas to improve these resources further (either from a historical or a gameplay perspective), feel free to post your suggestions below.
(This list is also included in the zip file and it looks better there. Sorry for the broken format here.)
British Isles
London - Wool, Glass, Honey, Dyes
Winchester - -
Nottingham - Wool x2, Dyes, Fruits
York - Wool, Iron, Salt, Coal
Exeter - Wool, Tin x2
Caernarvon - Wool, Coal x3
Edinburgh - Dyes, Iron, Coal x2
Aberdeen - Iron, Fish
Inverness - Wool, Coal, Fish
Dublin - Timber, Dyes, Fruits, Fish
Galway - Silver, Honey, Fish
Saudi Arabia
Tayma - Salt, Fruits
Medina - Spices, Fruits x2
Mecca - Spices x2, Iron, Fish
Al-Mu'Miniya - Fruits x2
Sharjah - Spices, Silk, Fish
Notes:
1) I cannot post the full descr_strat file, because everyone has a different file depending on their choices during installation. I only uploaded the resource section and you will have to replace your own by copying and pasting it into your file. Instructions are included in the zip file.
2) Since more resources mean more money, this mod should be accompanied by decreasing income all-around for gameplay balance (unless you want to be super rich). The easiest way to do this is to modify your descr_settlement_mechanics file and decrease the SIF farming/trading/mining entries. I suggest setting farms to 0.75 and trade/mines to 1.0 (0.5 trade for castles). Another way would be to decrease purses and starting cash in descr_strat or add upkeep for bodyguards in export_descr_unit. I suggest decreasing starting cash for big factions (hre, moors, egypt, byzantium, kwarezm), since they have a lot of trade right from turn 1, while the smaller ones need some time to establish trade routes.
(Again, I have already implemented such "balance" changes in my game, but I can't quite upload them because everyone has different files depending on their choices during installation)
3) I also suggest to add amber and salt mines to the game. This is very easy if you have my descr_sm_resources file (included in the zip). All you have to do is edit your export_descr_buildings file and add "or resource amber or resource tobacco" next to the already existing resource requirements on the 4 mine buildings.
4) Merchants might also need some rebalancing, as they might get high finance stats quickly with the monopolist traits. You can also lower the income they produce in descr_campaign_db.
5) Any feedback is appreciated if you believe a region is too rich/too poor/too ahistorical with its current resources.
6) The descr_sm_resources file uploaded also has slightly modified resource values. This is mainly because, in my opinion at least, in vanilla SS glass and honey are way more valuable than they should be. Note that the resources are placed on the map with these values in mind. With the original values, regions with honey or glass resources are going to feel too rich.
Thanks for great works man, i love it, have done same thing with my vanilla file, but for ss i think it wouldve cost lot of time for historical accuracy, but you did it man, thanks a lot, one question thoug, it didnt save game compatible right?
Trade Resource Improvement Mod
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