Recent content by Imperator Draconis

  1. Dev Blog 11/10/18

    This is super exciting news. I eat up every extra bit of news about extending modding capabilities like candy. Keep it coming, TW.
  2. Discussion + Suggestions

    Please, don't take my Giants away. I lub them. Plus, it took me ages to get my personal bodyguard of Bakhal Champions.  :lol:
  3. Data Visualization of Troops

    Talinoth said:
    No real need to nerf Household Guards.

    If I were to take an army of 600 of them with me it would cost me 6 million aurums. That's an amount of money that would make even me cry. The cost is a great limiter for them - they're incredibly versatile and powerful, but you can't field them in stupid numbers because it would utterly bankrupt you.
    And while their stats are high, they're not the best in the game either. 400 in weapon proficiencies is a high ballpark but there are plenty of recruitable troops running around with 500+ proficiencies

    Of course, 20-50 with Darkforest Ranger Bows and Highelf Swords is still a crime against humanity and makes even Falcon garrisons think twice about the real merits of their continued existence on the mortal plane, but that's still a 200,000-500,000 aurum investment. That hurts, still not a drop in the bucket by any means. You really have to protect them closely.

    Plus they need your powerful spare equipment that you haven't already given to yourself or your companions. Luckily you only need one Darkforest Ranger Bow or armour piece to equip all of them with that item, but sourcing good gear can sometimes be a pain in the ass.

    So Household Guards can't really conquer the map by themselves.

    -

    I've been finding it much better to constantly pick enormous fights with armies of relatively easily trained and disposable Perisno Great Knights and Perisno Ranger Knights. They're quite strong even if they're not ultra elite, and they're cheap to train.

    I don't feel bad about picking 600v1500 fights and having horrific casualties like 110 killed, 439 wounded if I can recover from my losses in under a week.

    If you're a real glutton for punishment, try having an army solely consisting of Bakhal Champions.  :lol:
  4. why is everyone faster than me!

    Service_Disconnect said:
    Ditchinit said:
    How loaded up was your or your companions' inventories?

    I'd bet this is definitely the issue. Your companions will collect all loot, worthless or not, at the end of battles unless you tell them not to.

    I had the same problem when I started playing Warband, but the auto sell loot function seems to take care of that nicely. As mentioned, extra horses are a must to attain max party speed, but they only help to a point as your party expands. Remember that the type of horse does not matter for this purpose. Lastly, small armies of cavalry will net you the highest map speed, but you will want to make sure your cavalry is high quality if you're keeping a small army.
  5. Discussions and Suggestions

    harlehus said:
    Of course i didn't use cheats because then nothing i said would hold any meaning(as you yourself pointed out), i'm actually a bit insulted that you would ask such a thing.
    I'm at day 2437 but that is completely irrelevant and mostly because i have waited a lot on lord relationships to improve. If you lack money enlist as a mercenary and get all expenses paid for, invest all loot and prisoner money and when you feel ready and confident in your economic situation start your own kingdom. I have been swimming in money for most of my playthrough whilst having an army of exclusively elite units(which you're not really supposed to or have the need for). As it is dyeworks take 21 days to turn a profit(and a large one as well), that's just insane. If anything the investments should be less economically viable(actually i think it's on a good level now since i enjoy hoarding money.)

    I haven't been running a deficit since i started my own kingdom, that's the whole point, you don't wan't to go broke whilst conquering all of Calradia.

    Granted it's more difficult to conquer Calradia but that doesn't mean it's unbalanced or undoable. Steamrolling in native was way too easy anyway.

    I'm sure one could argue that all the things you said are unrealistic are in fact realistic but let's not discuss that since it's just word against word, different historical 'facts'. Mount and Blade is not realistic by default and shouldn't be. You CANNOT die for instance. Realism/Reality is no fun that is why we play video games to enter enhanced virtual worlds that offer greater visions of existence(or something fancy like that).

    By that logic, we should change all the character models to monkeys that throw feces at each other instead of swinging swords. Anyone can argue anything, but that doesn't make it a valid argument. It's pretty hard to dispute thousands of financial documents from the feudal era, but I guess some nerd fabricated those in a basement, right? He's pretty smart because he even fooled modern techniques of testing for document age.


    Insulting you with my questions wasn't my intention, but you may need to talk to a professional if you are that sensitive.

  6. Discussions and Suggestions

    harlehus said:
    Here we go:
    The first one is the weekly budget. Keep in mind i have two dyeworks in the negative each losing me 6000 relatively, so when those are fixed the balance is -34000. Also i have 350 elite units in my party, mostly templars. Furthermore i got a lot of unassigned castles that are loosing me a lot of money to garrisons and tax inefficiency. When those are sorted the loss each month will be less still:


    The second one is of all my owned land belonging to the respective towns. If i read this correctly they net me about 80.000 each week:



    Therefore my income is ~50.000 each week not counting loot and prisoners. If the acre-system would stop bugging out at times i would earn much more.

    If you need more info i will be glad to submit it.



    Edit: first time not working, second time accidentally quoted myself :facepalm:, third time's the charm
    Did you use cheats at all in the game? If you did, it makes your argument moot for balance purposes.
    How far into the game are you? Granted, having your own kingdom is an endgame feature by design, but my point is the investments in land are substantial up front, and they also take some time to return a profit.

    My next question is how long you ran your kingdom at a deficit before your land started seeing profit. Running at a deficit obviously means you will eventually go broke. The whole point is to make money.

    @Deathwhisper I suppose my issue is the realism aspect. Just a handful of elite troops cost more than you make from a town's tax revenue. That does not make sense. Holding towns should be the most profitable venture as far as realism. Realistically, you would only be able to hold land in your own kingdom's territory, period. Land ownership was restricted to the nobility in the feudal system. There were a few exceptions, but you could only be a noble in one sovereign's system at a time in most cases. A town's tax revenue should pay for its own garrison. It currently does not even at the highest prosperity level.


  7. Discussions and Suggestions

    harlehus said:
    I disagree completely. With land and enterprises in every city i had no problems regarding money whilst ruling half of Calradia. I think i saved up something like 5 mio.

    I would really like to see a screenshot of your weekly budget.
  8. Discussions and Suggestions

    On a separate note, I do not understand the economy balancing. I understand that you want to create a challenging environment, but it is actually impossible to create a high quality small army. The exponential jump in price between tiers makes it unfeasible. It really is not so bad when you are just a lord of a castle or a single town, but maintaining a large realm in this mod is basically impossible. Even with land in every city and dyeworks everywhere, you'll still be running a deficit trying to defend your territory once you expand beyond a few towns. Am I missing something? Please do not think I am attacking you. I love the mod, and I will continue to play it regardless, but I do not think it is possible to be a sovereign ruler on par with the others in the current state.

    Respectfully,

    Draconis
  9. Discussions and Suggestions

    Deathwhisper said:
    Imperator Draconis said:
        I have a suggestion. One problem I have always had in the game is that selling high value loot is not worthwhile. If you have lordly loot, you will have to sell it at a dramatically reduced price to a common merchant.

        I propose some system of black market/exotic goods merchants that will buy your high end loot from you at their full value. They could also have a decent collection of high end items of their own. The balancing comes from their nature as black market merchants. Although they will buy your goods at regular merchant value, all gear sold by them has a 2x or 3x price modifier. Weapons and chest pieces of armor could be 3x with the rest being 2x normal price. You could make them hard to find to further balance them, but I think this would be a good addition to the game. I get so frustrated when all my companions have excellent gear because I hate selling everything else at a fraction of its value.

        This idea provides an incentive to players to take the risk of fighting tougher battles for the chance of a higher reward. I also have some lore reasons for this to be in place.

        Each king of the factions charters all of his blacksmiths. That means that each suit of armor made is for an actual soldier that needs it or is about to need it. Along the lines of Freelancer, each suit of armor belongs to a certain type of soldier. While a low tier "plate armor" can be made by any smith, the "lordly plate armor" will have come from a chartered blacksmith because the King employs all of the best smiths in his realm. Each piece of armor or weapon would have a maker's mark to clearly indicate the smith that made it.

        So, the high end items are black market items because no one outside of the king's realm can legally have them. If you are found with a weapon made by a blacksmith with a Royal charter, the punishment is death. That explains the exorbitant price, and it generally makes sense. Things like these were fairly common practice in medieval times in various parts of the world. I hope you all like the idea. At this point, I may have to teach myself scripting to make it if someone else doesn't, lol.

    Thanks for reading,

    Draconis

    I was thinking of adding the ability to upgrade / repair weapons and armors in future versions (not 0.7). Lords who own a castle would be able to have their equipment upgraded up to +2 (i.e reinforced for armors) and +3 (lordly) for town lords. This would come with a risk during a battle to have your weapons / armor be broken and either lose a level or become unusable (for weapons). They would then have to be repaired (any town blacksmith could get the item back up to +0 i.e neutral).

    I'm not convinced by the black market idea though, mainly for balance reasons. Lordly items still sell for quite a lot of money and have less value for the player than in native (the bonus is still +6, but armor values in general are higher, so it matters less. Unfortunately item modifiers are hardcoded, so I can't change them). Unless the item is very good (like full plate), you'll often find a better armor with no modifier and use it instead. Increasing their value (even if it's harder to find a black market merchant) might make battles too profitable compared to other sources of income (they're already very good imo), unless there's some specific sort of drawback to using the black market (maybe a honor penalty).

    I'm not sure you follow me. I am not asking for item values to be increased. I am asking for merchants that have a lot more gold so you can sell items for their actual value. In the mod's current state, Some masterwork swords sell for 100,000 denars, but you'll only ever get 5,000 max if you sell them. It just doesn't make sense to me.
  10. Discussions and Suggestions

        I have a suggestion. One problem I have always had in the game is that selling high value loot is not worthwhile. If you have lordly loot, you will have to sell it at a dramatically reduced price to a common merchant.

        I propose some system of black market/exotic goods merchants that will buy your high end loot from you at their full value. They could also have a decent collection of high end items of their own. The balancing comes from their nature as black market merchants. Although they will buy your goods at regular merchant value, all gear sold by them has a 2x or 3x price modifier. Weapons and chest pieces of armor could be 3x with the rest being 2x normal price. You could make them hard to find to further balance them, but I think this would be a good addition to the game. I get so frustrated when all my companions have excellent gear because I hate selling everything else at a fraction of its value.

        This idea provides an incentive to players to take the risk of fighting tougher battles for the chance of a higher reward. I also have some lore reasons for this to be in place.

        Each king of the factions charters all of his blacksmiths. That means that each suit of armor made is for an actual soldier that needs it or is about to need it. Along the lines of Freelancer, each suit of armor belongs to a certain type of soldier. While a low tier "plate armor" can be made by any smith, the "lordly plate armor" will have come from a chartered blacksmith because the King employs all of the best smiths in his realm. Each piece of armor or weapon would have a maker's mark to clearly indicate the smith that made it.

        So, the high end items are black market items because no one outside of the king's realm can legally have them. If you are found with a weapon made by a blacksmith with a Royal charter, the punishment is death. That explains the exorbitant price, and it generally makes sense. Things like these were fairly common practice in medieval times in various parts of the world. I hope you all like the idea. At this point, I may have to teach myself scripting to make it if someone else doesn't, lol.

    Thanks for reading,

    Draconis
  11. Modding Q&A [For Quick Questions and Answers]

    Imperator Draconis said:
    Zephilinox said:
    You would be better off using the gekokujo source to make your changes and recompile.

    That sounds great, but I assume that means I have to get the source from the original author? Or is there some magical decompiler?

    Respectfully,

    Draconis

    After further investigation, it seems that you were absolutely right. I think it will be much easier to make the changes and recompile. The moment when I opened the module system and understood the scripting was an eye opener for me. I cannot believe I didn't at least try before. Thank you for your help.

    Respectfully,

    Draconis
  12. Modding Q&A [For Quick Questions and Answers]

    Zephilinox said:
    You would be better off using the gekokujo source to make your changes and recompile.

    That sounds great, but I assume that means I have to get the source from the original author? Or is there some magical decompiler?

    Respectfully,

    Draconis
  13. Modding Q&A [For Quick Questions and Answers]

    kalarhan said:
    Imperator Draconis said:
    Greetings All,

    This is not so much about modding as tweaking. I have used TweakMB in the past, but I have recently started using mods that TweakMB does not support. I would like to know how to find the party size and morale modifiers in scripts.txt. I have read tutorials on finding them, but the tutorial is a picture that shows their exact location, and that only works in the version described. I am asking how to find those values in any module. Is it just through experimentation, or is there a tool to use? Do I need the mod's source? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

    Respectfully,

    Draconis

    mod source makes that easier as you can read the code and you will know what/where to make the changes.

    With only text files you could try following the same tweak from native/other mods. If your current mod uses the same script it is easy to find what to change, otherwise you will have to go deep and learn about OPCODES and bitnum and masks and... in other words, not soo easy.

    Find the script TweakMB changed. Then look at your mod file for the same script. When you see big number like 934324234234234 ignore the last 6ish numbers and it should be similar on both (in the example below the red numbers)

    npc_get_troop_wage -1
    14 21 1 1224979098644774912 2133 2 1224979098644774913 0 4 0 1507 1 1224979098644774912 5 0 2171 2 1224979098644774913 1224979098644774912  ....

    You can also use REGEX to make a search/replace that will handle that.

    TLDR: stuff in red changes, rest wont unless there is new code for the mod.

    Cheers

    Hello again,

    The native/other mods' values are different than the script I am talking about. I am playing Gekokujo, and I cannot find the same sequence of numbers as in Native. I am specifically asking where to find those values for Gekokujo. Note that I am not asking you to do it for me. I see this as a learning process. Do you have any recommendations for learning more about OPCODES, bitnum, and masks?

    Respectfully,

    Draconis
  14. Modding Q&A [For Quick Questions and Answers]

    Greetings All,

    This is not so much about modding as tweaking. I have used TweakMB in the past, but I have recently started using mods that TweakMB does not support. I would like to know how to find the party size and morale modifiers in scripts.txt. I have read tutorials on finding them, but the tutorial is a picture that shows their exact location, and that only works in the version described. I am asking how to find those values in any module. Is it just through experimentation, or is there a tool to use? Do I need the mod's source? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

    Respectfully,

    Draconis
  15. SP Native Malik Faris's Companions and Native Enhancement [1.166]

    Would it be possible to merge Floris with Lots of Companions? Also, does anyone know of a separate script that allows recruiting in taverns? After having that for my empire, I doubt I can go back to the vanilla system, lol. I realize this is a very old thread, but better to necro a thread than create a new one. Someone else may have been thinking the same thing.
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