Hi everyone!
After playing the mod for a while now, i came up with a few things i personally would think could be improved.
I hope this will lead into some discussions to filter which points are nothing bar personally opinion and which ideas would be shared by a majority of the community.
Note: As i have very, very limited insight in technical possiblities of the m2tw-engine, some ideas might not be doable from a technical aspect.
All of this points arent mandatory changes, as the mod works pretty good already. Its just a few ideas of things that could be improved from my personal perspective.
Trading-Ressources:
(If the hard coded limit is not reached yet)
Ressourcepotential spots
Incense( Gaza Al-Ahsa, most south point of egypt, Mekkah )
Horses( Southern France, up north on the very east end of the map)
Weapons*( All over Europe)
*as f.e. Saladin mentionend Europeans were always trading with weapons, this would also solve that there is very few “Europe-exclusive” ressources.
More diversification within certain ressoruces:
e.g. Spices ( cinnamon, nutmeg … )
e.g. Fruits & Vegetables ( musk melon, cucumbers, apples, citrus fruits)
Reasoning behind that is that as of now i will literally try to claim the same ressources which what ever faction i play. It kind of make sense, as some ressources were simply a lot of money for all displayed factions, but in fact there should have been slightly more diversity.
Aggriculture:
As it was already mentionend earlier in this thread: M2TW and literally all mods i know struggle to cover the importance of aggriculture at this period.
Potential Ideas to solve that would be:
-New Buildings (if possible)
-Another 1-2 Levels of Farming Upgrades ( if possible)
-“Spawning” Aggricultural Ressoruces with higher farming Upgrades, also increasing the trade value of the settlement
This could also cover the slight issue of Regions that are very hardly developable. While this is something good in the early years, i found it very frustrating that certain cities ( e.g. in Poland and Scandinavia) hardly grow even in the later periods. Therefore some of the farming buildings could be made available after ~1300 and give those regions a chance to grow.
Historically that would not make too much sense though. The farming improvements in europe mainly came into place 1-2 centuries later.
Levy-Elite-Unit Ratio:
While everyone wants to fight with fancy knights, they were just very few within the actual wars. When i play the game right now, i find myself using way more knights ( footed or mounted) than it would make sense. One of the main issues is that the religious order knights are extremely good.
After mentioning i use them too frequently we get over to the AI. I hardly ever see AIs using huge stacks of “trash”-units. The mainly go with elite-stuff.
Some ideas for changes:
Increase upkeep costs for elite units even more
Decrease availability even more
Changing the AI in terms of recruiting / dont give them so many Elite-Units as free units
Ghulam-System
Therefore the Broken Crescent Mod had a decent approach. As SSHIP already includes Slave Markets they could also increase your recruitment-options in terms of Ghulam-Units.
It could also be used to recruit new Generals ( similar to the Jousting-Fields), as most oriental armies had military slaves as generals.
The Factions that could use it would be:
Seljuqs of Rum, Grand Seljuqs, Abbasids, Zengids, Fatimids, ( Kypchaks), ( Mongols), ( Timurids)
General
-Include the Select the Heir Submod, since, well it makes sense to chose the heir doesnt it? .
-would love to see Bukhara and Samarqand in future versions ( i know its tricky since other settlements would need to be subsituted)