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Yep, Pode is right, including both is best. I'd have the download consist of the compiled text document + a folder called "source file for optional add-on" or something like that, containing the module file. That way it will work for users who just cut and paste the archive contents, as well as highlight the availability of the source for those who want to use that.
Great work Dhamon. Really excited to see what all you end up doing later as well.
Great work Dhamon. Really excited to see what all you end up doing later as well.
Hi Tingyun, I've recently begun trying out this mod and I like the changes you've made. However, is there a way to increase travel speed? I find myself alt-tabbing to watch youtube or read reddit while my character travels between destinations. I know its done for realism purpose, but for me its immersion breaking since I dont have the patience to watch my party travel ever so slowly.
Hi Kaiser,
You have two options:
1) play with the alternate vanilla travel speeds full install: https://www.moddb.com/mods/vc-balance-mod/downloads/vc-balance-mod-110-alternate-version-for-vanilla-faster-travel-speeds
OR
2) play with the optional add on that increases the rate at which time flows on the map: https://www.moddb.com/mods/vc-balance-mod/downloads/vc-balance-mod-11-0-optional-add-on-make-time-flow-faster
Either choice will have you moving just as fast as vanilla VC relative to the real world clock. The difference is that the first choice will also double your speed relative to in-game time, ie restore the vanilla VC travel speeds, while the second choice will keep Balance Mod’s realistic travel speeds, except that the in game clock will progress twice as fast relative to the real world clock, meaning you will appear to double in speed but the days will also go by twice as fast.
You have two options:
1) play with the alternate vanilla travel speeds full install: https://www.moddb.com/mods/vc-balance-mod/downloads/vc-balance-mod-110-alternate-version-for-vanilla-faster-travel-speeds
OR
2) play with the optional add on that increases the rate at which time flows on the map: https://www.moddb.com/mods/vc-balance-mod/downloads/vc-balance-mod-11-0-optional-add-on-make-time-flow-faster
Either choice will have you moving just as fast as vanilla VC relative to the real world clock. The difference is that the first choice will also double your speed relative to in-game time, ie restore the vanilla VC travel speeds, while the second choice will keep Balance Mod’s realistic travel speeds, except that the in game clock will progress twice as fast relative to the real world clock, meaning you will appear to double in speed but the days will also go by twice as fast.
Yep, all Balance Mod main versions and optional add ons are save compatible, feel free to switch things whenever you like.
The only exception is the restore vanilla VC village names optional add-on (it won’t give errors, but since village names are defined at campaign start it won’t have any effect on current saves).
The only exception is the restore vanilla VC village names optional add-on (it won’t give errors, but since village names are defined at campaign start it won’t have any effect on current saves).
Tingyun said:
Thanks a lot for the pointers. I've changed it back to vanilla travel speed and it feels a lot better.
I do have a question, are the Norse troops buffed up? Seems like they are stronger than vanilla and are beasting the Anglo-Saxons/Bretons with the balance mod installed.
Yep, in Balance Mod the Norse spearmen line in particular is buffed. This change couples with religion changes: the pagan player now suffers large recruiting penalties in Christian fiefs, which represents most of the world.
So basically the new balance is that the Norse have the overall best average of troop strengths, but recruiting is tougher. Meanwhile, the Christians have wider recruiting possibilities and many more centers to recruit from (located conveniently in Britain, while the Norse recruiting there is subpar because of Northymbria being mixed in religion), and if you take the best troops of the various Christian factions, they can form an army superior to the Norse (ie, gaelic and anglo saxon troops combined is the best combined force in the game). Of course traveling widely to recruit is somewhat more hassle than the Norse have in returning home to Scandinavia, but recruiting for any individual Christian faciton is a breeze (multiple towns and conveniently located compared to Norse).
The hope is to also get away from the Norse swordsmen Saxon spearmen powergaming model, and in particular to actually encourage use of the full line of Norse troops (ie, with Norse spearmen in their prior state, there was little reason to ever promote to anything but the swordsmen). The old balance made sense faction vs faction, but with religion changed to exert a dramatic effect on recruiting, it no longer made sense to balance by considering faction alone, but rather by a combined consideration of religion and recruitment difficulty.
In sum, Balance Mod basically works like this:
Troop Strength: Combined Christian Army > Norse Army> Individual Christian Faction Army
Recruiting Convenience: Individual Christian Faction Army > Norse Army > Combined Christian Army
Also, the Norse AI lords recruit somewhat more elite armies than the Christians. This is to create more of a Great Heathen Army burning through Europe feeling, and couples with individual balancing to the eliteness of Christian factions (ie, Wessex recruits a little better than Mercia and East Anglia, while the picts/irish/britons have particular patterns to the composition and concentration of their forces). It also couples with conversion changes (Christianity spreads more effectively than Paganism in Balance Mod), and initial garrison changes (larger initial garrisons to slow early conquests).
So basically the new balance is that the Norse have the overall best average of troop strengths, but recruiting is tougher. Meanwhile, the Christians have wider recruiting possibilities and many more centers to recruit from (located conveniently in Britain, while the Norse recruiting there is subpar because of Northymbria being mixed in religion), and if you take the best troops of the various Christian factions, they can form an army superior to the Norse (ie, gaelic and anglo saxon troops combined is the best combined force in the game). Of course traveling widely to recruit is somewhat more hassle than the Norse have in returning home to Scandinavia, but recruiting for any individual Christian faciton is a breeze (multiple towns and conveniently located compared to Norse).
The hope is to also get away from the Norse swordsmen Saxon spearmen powergaming model, and in particular to actually encourage use of the full line of Norse troops (ie, with Norse spearmen in their prior state, there was little reason to ever promote to anything but the swordsmen). The old balance made sense faction vs faction, but with religion changed to exert a dramatic effect on recruiting, it no longer made sense to balance by considering faction alone, but rather by a combined consideration of religion and recruitment difficulty.
In sum, Balance Mod basically works like this:
Troop Strength: Combined Christian Army > Norse Army> Individual Christian Faction Army
Recruiting Convenience: Individual Christian Faction Army > Norse Army > Combined Christian Army
Also, the Norse AI lords recruit somewhat more elite armies than the Christians. This is to create more of a Great Heathen Army burning through Europe feeling, and couples with individual balancing to the eliteness of Christian factions (ie, Wessex recruits a little better than Mercia and East Anglia, while the picts/irish/britons have particular patterns to the composition and concentration of their forces). It also couples with conversion changes (Christianity spreads more effectively than Paganism in Balance Mod), and initial garrison changes (larger initial garrisons to slow early conquests).
I was playing today and one of the different things I've encountered was that if you're under the authority of any faction, be it as a mercenary or a lord, the refuge you build will belong to that kingdom. Basically this is what happened:
Joined up as a merc for Gwynedd, built a refuge.
Became a vassal of Wessex a few months later. Wessex went to war against Gwynedd.
My refuge belonged to Gwynedd and it is 'hostile' (marked red) to me. I can enter the refuge by land, which has no penalty. However, if I enter the refuge by sea, since its located on the coast, it gives me the option to attack my refuge. If I choose to attack it, nothing happens and it enters the refuge menu, however I take a massive -25% relation with Gwynedd.
Is this intended or a bug?
Joined up as a merc for Gwynedd, built a refuge.
Became a vassal of Wessex a few months later. Wessex went to war against Gwynedd.
My refuge belonged to Gwynedd and it is 'hostile' (marked red) to me. I can enter the refuge by land, which has no penalty. However, if I enter the refuge by sea, since its located on the coast, it gives me the option to attack my refuge. If I choose to attack it, nothing happens and it enters the refuge menu, however I take a massive -25% relation with Gwynedd.
Is this intended or a bug?
Hi Kaiser,
That is most certainly a bug.
Probably a vanilla VC bug though (I can't think of anything Balance Mod changed that could cause that, though I could be mistaken). It might be limited to when the player is a merc--not many VC players spend much time as a merc, so it would be easier for such a bug to escape notice that way--but just speculating. One thing to do would be to test for the bug in vanilla VC. First by creating the refuge as a merc before switching, exactly reproducing the order of events as you remember them, then by trying being a vassal and doing the same. Then if the bug shows up with Vanilla VC, report it in the bug forums. Of course I will also plan on putting a fix for it into Balance Mod, but I might end up waiting for the next vanilla VC patch before releasing the next mod version anyway, and if the VC devs fix it then it gets fixed for everyone which is ideal.
Normally I could just go check the code for the source of the bug, but I'm impossibly swamped with work right now (been working around 100 hours per week for the past couple months, not the design work only of course, but rather all the little business/legal/recruiting/financial/admin tasks involved with setting up and running a new game company. Hooded Horse only became a Corporation in July, before that we were doing work more informally, so still a lot of ducks to put in a row). Sleep time is already mostly given to work, and I promised my wife we'd watch a movie together this weekend, so if I tried to do any modding this weekend I'd have a household revolt.
That is most certainly a bug.
Probably a vanilla VC bug though (I can't think of anything Balance Mod changed that could cause that, though I could be mistaken). It might be limited to when the player is a merc--not many VC players spend much time as a merc, so it would be easier for such a bug to escape notice that way--but just speculating. One thing to do would be to test for the bug in vanilla VC. First by creating the refuge as a merc before switching, exactly reproducing the order of events as you remember them, then by trying being a vassal and doing the same. Then if the bug shows up with Vanilla VC, report it in the bug forums. Of course I will also plan on putting a fix for it into Balance Mod, but I might end up waiting for the next vanilla VC patch before releasing the next mod version anyway, and if the VC devs fix it then it gets fixed for everyone which is ideal.
Normally I could just go check the code for the source of the bug, but I'm impossibly swamped with work right now (been working around 100 hours per week for the past couple months, not the design work only of course, but rather all the little business/legal/recruiting/financial/admin tasks involved with setting up and running a new game company. Hooded Horse only became a Corporation in July, before that we were doing work more informally, so still a lot of ducks to put in a row). Sleep time is already mostly given to work, and I promised my wife we'd watch a movie together this weekend, so if I tried to do any modding this weekend I'd have a household revolt.
Thanks for the reply. However, I almost exclusively play as a merc, simply because I enjoy the freedom of doing whatever I want and usually fighting for the under dogs. I've demolished the refuge and rebuilt one, now it belongs to Wessex. Next I'll try and renounce from Wessex and then build a new refuge, see if that fixes it.
BaalAmmon
Recruit
I live this mod so much so that I can't imagine playing the game without it! So thank you for taking the time to do it.
Few questions I'd like an answer for it.
1- my troops keep banging on their shields even without the strong special persnality! Continues banging until I order them to advance.
2- I'm playing as a pagan with high honor and I'd finished the story and joined Northumbria where I was given two cities. I decided to leave and form my own kingdom when Halfdan refused to grant me the second city. I have 50+ and 900+ renown right to role and Northumbria was at war with 13 factions when I left. My question is why my new kingdom is still at war all the 13 factions?
I checked and found that I still have negative relations with all of them by only -1.
3- as a pagan it's very hard for me to maintain relations with Christian settlements and Lords even with 100+ reputation. So is it really wirth to take the -30 relation hit for building a shrine? Does really matter realistically? It's been almost a year since I built a shrine in my city with no effect what so ever.
Thank you again for your work and congratulations on your new job looking forward for your feedback.
Few questions I'd like an answer for it.
1- my troops keep banging on their shields even without the strong special persnality! Continues banging until I order them to advance.
2- I'm playing as a pagan with high honor and I'd finished the story and joined Northumbria where I was given two cities. I decided to leave and form my own kingdom when Halfdan refused to grant me the second city. I have 50+ and 900+ renown right to role and Northumbria was at war with 13 factions when I left. My question is why my new kingdom is still at war all the 13 factions?
I checked and found that I still have negative relations with all of them by only -1.
3- as a pagan it's very hard for me to maintain relations with Christian settlements and Lords even with 100+ reputation. So is it really wirth to take the -30 relation hit for building a shrine? Does really matter realistically? It's been almost a year since I built a shrine in my city with no effect what so ever.
Thank you again for your work and congratulations on your new job looking forward for your feedback.
Hi Sneeper,
I don’t know of any particular effect of those. In general I think there are some relation stats that don’t affect anything (in particular, in the pagan hof scene some conversation options will raise a kind of pagan relation that is different from the general pagan religion relations, and has no effect as far as I know, it possibly is a holdover from an earlier version, that might be the one you are referencing).
BaalAmmon,
Thanks!
1) I think that is normal, troops idling will occasionally bang their shields. The trait effect is different because it will have them all bang at once.
2) I don’t remember off the top of my head how relations are handled on breaking away as an independent kingdom. Balance Mod hasn’t changed that aspect, so you might be able to find some past discussions on the forums here by searching.
3) Balance Mod makes religious conversion of settlements much easier and safer than vanilla VC (both by letting you build buildings to protect your shrine from being torn down, and by tweaking some conversion mechanics like forced conversion to be a little more effective. Also by letting you build shrines in centers you don’t personally own).
But ultimately, the mod’s changes are fairly moderate, and just as in vanilla VC any religious conversion is slow and not likely to take significant effect over the time frame most players play a VC campaign. Your building is having effect, but it may not show up (religion can change in number while the text description remains the same, as the descriptions are tied to a range)
That means it is more a feature for roleplaying than anything else. From a pure game mechanics perspective, it is better to not attempt to covert the population over the time frame of a few years, and instead do what historically was done by pagan conquorers of this time period—rule as king of a mixed religion kingdom, possibly converting to Christianity yourself if your holdings become concentrated in Christian areas. Not that I am recommending that in particular, Warband is probably most fun when roleplaying all sorts of different characters.
I don’t know of any particular effect of those. In general I think there are some relation stats that don’t affect anything (in particular, in the pagan hof scene some conversation options will raise a kind of pagan relation that is different from the general pagan religion relations, and has no effect as far as I know, it possibly is a holdover from an earlier version, that might be the one you are referencing).
BaalAmmon,
Thanks!
1) I think that is normal, troops idling will occasionally bang their shields. The trait effect is different because it will have them all bang at once.
2) I don’t remember off the top of my head how relations are handled on breaking away as an independent kingdom. Balance Mod hasn’t changed that aspect, so you might be able to find some past discussions on the forums here by searching.
3) Balance Mod makes religious conversion of settlements much easier and safer than vanilla VC (both by letting you build buildings to protect your shrine from being torn down, and by tweaking some conversion mechanics like forced conversion to be a little more effective. Also by letting you build shrines in centers you don’t personally own).
But ultimately, the mod’s changes are fairly moderate, and just as in vanilla VC any religious conversion is slow and not likely to take significant effect over the time frame most players play a VC campaign. Your building is having effect, but it may not show up (religion can change in number while the text description remains the same, as the descriptions are tied to a range)
That means it is more a feature for roleplaying than anything else. From a pure game mechanics perspective, it is better to not attempt to covert the population over the time frame of a few years, and instead do what historically was done by pagan conquorers of this time period—rule as king of a mixed religion kingdom, possibly converting to Christianity yourself if your holdings become concentrated in Christian areas. Not that I am recommending that in particular, Warband is probably most fun when roleplaying all sorts of different characters.
There are two places where overworld travel speed is determined, one for land and one for sea. Both are in module_scripts.py, the land part near the middle and the naval part near the end if I remember correctly, start by searching for something like get_party_speed
