Fourstrider's Japan mod for Total War: Shogun 2

◘SPOILERS◘

• A challenge.

The feedback I'm getting from people is that this mod is quite challenging. This was the hardest thing for me to judge because we all have different skill levels playing this game. I always played single player so I never really knew how I matched up with other people. I made this mod for me mostly, so I wanted it to be right at the edge of what I could win. I play this mod at very hard difficulty and have either beat the game or got two thirds of the way with every faction. I have adjusted the lower difficulties but not by a significant amount, so don't feel bad if you have to play on easy. Those of you who get upset that the AI gets an unfair advantage should probably not play this mod.

• 12 turns per year.

This mod is tuned to 12 turns per year. Do not use another mod that changes the turns per year or your game will not start. The missions and events are extended to reflect the change in turns per year. Movement points in very hard and legendary are reduced by a third.

• New technology tree.

The technology tree has been increased in size and flows much better than vanilla. The abilities that were unlocked in the old tree have been moved to the new character skill tree. Each major faction has a unique ability that will give a boost to their clan's strength. Most effects attached to the old tech tree have been adjusted, moved or removed. There are many new ways to increase research rate speed, keep an eye out when building your provinces and leveling up your generals.

• New general skill tree.

I attempted to make this mod a lot more character driven than vanilla. Your generals are the superstars of your army now. They will feel more alive than before. One of the major changes I made to accomplish this was an overhaul of the character skill tree. Your generals have three major roles in your faction and I wanted the skill tree to reflect that. You will also get more points per level than vanilla so there will be more options open to you as you level up. Be wary of the enemy generals you face, they have a significant impact in battle. If you're going up against a six star general as a one star general, you're going to have a bad time.

• New ways to earn XP.

In the vanilla game your general only earned XP after a battle. Your agents could earn XP while completing actions or garrisoned in a castle. This mod includes a script that will let you earn XP as a general while garrisoned in a castle, setting up an ambush, loitering in enemy territory or besieging an enemy castle. There are also additional XP modifiers scripted in that will give you bonus points if you survive a massacre.

• 200+ new traits.

Most of the time spent making this mod was creating new traits and finding unique ways to trigger them. The new traits offer a wide variety of new effects and some old effects. A few traits will offer XP bonuses or unique abilities that are exclusive to that trait. The Hattori clan are no longer the only clan with unique starting traits. I've added a Mori trait that will trigger after one turn in a ship. I've also added a Chosokabe trait that every clan member will get, which includes a unique ability. As time goes on I plan on making a unique trait for every faction so stay updated for more.

• Appoint governors.

You can now use your generals to govern your provinces and lead your garrison if attacked. Once they spend a few turns in a province they will earn the governor trait for that province. This will give them a tax bonus and increase the XP gains while governing their province. Once a general gets promoted to governor of a province they cannot become governor of any other province. The daimyo can never become governor unless the heir takes over as daimyo and already has a governor trait.

• New art.

Say goodbye to the ten year old art work. All the character portraits, loading screens, unit cards and event screens have been updated to give the game a fresh look. The limited amount of portraits in the vanilla game have been increased significantly. It's very rare to see a duplicate portrait with this mod. The loading screens have been increased to 36 so you get much more variety.

• New music and SFX.

Don't get me wrong, I love the music in Shogun 2. After 1900 hours of playtime it's like listening to your favorite song over and over until you ruin it. The new music in this mod is great for those who are in the same boat. Each season has it's own music that matches to the mood of that season. All of the very loud sound effects were changed to a more enjoyable volume level.

• Detailed general models.

My primary focus for making the models was the daimyos of the major factions. Once I started painting and outfitting the daimyos I had so much fun that I did all 80 generals and their bodyguards. You will notice this right away at the character select screen.

• Unit adjustments.

There are significant unit adjustments. The major changes are the increase in hero, matchlock and siege units. Hero units are stronger and worth the cost if you use them in your vanguard. Matchlock units have had their range increased to be slightly further than their bow counterpart. To compensate for this I did reduce their accuracy slightly. They're most effective defending your castles in a siege. Fire rockets and bomb throwers and anything else that goes boom is significantly more powerful. Fire bomb throwers are so strong I had to reduce the amount of men by 25%. The next time you see fire bomb throwers on the enemy side you will be focusing all your archers to take them out first. Ninja now throw a long range carpet bomb but only have one shot. This makes them much more useful in sneak attacks. Cannons and mangonels were doubled in men and machines.

• Legendary units.

The new best units in the game. These units are too powerful to be recruited the traditional way. There are 12 different legendary units which reside in the 12 capital provinces of the 12 major factions. They will always garrison in their capital no matter who owns the province. Some of these units have unique abilities that no other unit can use. They are the bosses you fight to destroy a major faction. If you manage to defeat one of them and take their province then there's a small chance you'll be presented with a dilemma to recruit these units and use them in the field. You will not be given this dilemma more than once so do not let them die. You will also never be presented with the dilemma for your own faction's legendary unit so you must earn the privilege to recruit them.

• Agent recruitment changes.

Each major faction now either starts with an agent or will earn one in the first mission. This will be the only agent you can afford until late game. Agents will start off costing 100,000 money to recruit. You must earn three technologies on the new tree to reduce the cost all the way down to 4,000. The AI will also not recruit any agents until late game so you will have the upper hand on most factions early game. Additionally the only way to increase that cap of your agents past 1 is through the new general skill tree. Most agents require a six star general to recruit more than 1.

• Death and taxes.

Taxes were changed quite a bit. Lowering your taxes will now give you a good boost to growth. This is key for longer term economic health. In the vanilla game it was never worth it to lower your taxes more than you had to for public order. Now it's absolutely vital. The other major change with the economy is your unit upkeep. The more you expand and capture new provinces, the more the upkeep of your army will cost. You will be very rich late game if you focused enough on growth but you'll need to be because an ashigaru unit will cost you 2,000 per turn in upkeep. This mechanic forces you to grow your economy before you can expand. If you see a good tactical opening to sweep up four provinces from the enemy, you might pay the price for doing it too quickly. With all that said, do not auto manage your taxes. Keep them low.

• New buildings.

The vanilla game didn't have much of a strategy to buildings. I've introduced a system that forces you to balance three categories; military, food and trade. Every building after at least level two requires some kind of food. New sources of food have been introduced like 'rice storage' or 'fishing ports'. On top of that, your largest potential income producing building is in the farm slot, but not every province is worthy. You will need to make tough decisions and really put thought into how you build your provinces. The end game buildings are the citadels. Once you reach citadel level you will have the option to build out a city or a bastion of war.

• AI changes.

I've adjusted the AI in many ways. I'll briefly go over a few of those changes. Factions will no longer spam a hundred ships and clog your ports until your game crashes. Only the Mori or a few random minor factions will spawn a significant amount of ships. With the ships that other factions do create, you will see them make land invasions a lot more often. They will be less likely to raid than before. Alliances with other factions are more stable than in vanilla, they will still backstab you from time to time. The AI will be much more powerful than you at almost all times. Because of this I made it so they won't just attack you for being weak. That doesn't mean it won't happen, just that it's less likely compared to vanilla. Faction temperaments are now randomized. They will randomize again whenever the faction leader dies. Major factions are excluded from this randomization.

• No mercy morale.

The base morale for all units is much higher. This value will not show in their stats, however you will notice after your first battle. It's much harder to make the enemy route. Late game when you have high morale units, they will fight to almost the last man. To compound the difficulty; unit replenishment has been reduced to take longer to get back to full strength. Most units have had their walk and run speed reduced by about 10%. All unit abilities now require a general skill or trait to activate. When you fight your first battle you will not have yari wall.

• 42 new dilemmas, plus events.

I've added 42 dilemmas to the game. Most of them will be moral dilemmas. You will be given a choice between two options. You will need to choose wisely or face the consequences. Sometimes it doesn't matter what choice you make, the outcome will be the same. These dilemmas are mostly tied to the technology tree so they may not show up until late game.

WARNING: This mod is not compatible with any mod that replaces the startpos. It is not compatible with any other overhaul mod. It is not compatible with any mod that requires the old technology tree or buildings that required the old technology tree. It is not compatible with any other mod that adds new textures to the game.

INSTALL: Extract contents of Fourstrider_Japan.zip into your data folder. The data folder can be found in the same location as your game.

TROUBLESHOOTING: If you're running into any issues or bugs make sure you load only the files starting with FOURSTRIDER_ then test to see if you're still having an issue. I have spent many hours testing this mod and have had games well past 350 turns without any crashes. This is a smooth bug free mod so any issues you may have are probably coming from conflicts with other mods or directly from other mods.