Rise of Bulgaria (Requires StainlessSteel 6.4 MOD) for Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms

DOWNLOAD only the BASE mod + the latest PATCH file for it. DO NOT DOWNLOAD any "OUTDATED" or other files from the list, which are there only for reverse-engineering purposes.

Greetings,

this modification for STAINLESS STEEL 6.4 does several major things and also tweaks hundreds of others. It also aims for gameplay perfection.(at the cost of Historical inaccuracies here and there, for various aspects of the game)

Most notable changes (but far from all) are:

*** Removed the "Hordes" of Mongols, Timurids, etc late game. 3 new nations in their slots - The Second Bulgarian Empire, Volga Bulgaria and the Teutons (as permanent).

*** The time period is changed and all the nations are tweaked and renamed to a more "General" state - Khwarazmians are now just Persia, The Mamluks/Fatmids/etc are now "Egypt", the Golden Horde are now "The Mongols" (who fought with the Bulgarians on the Volga), etc. All nations have various tweaks and new units added to their roosters.

*** Units can now be recruited in all time-periods(not disappearing like in base SS 6.4). They also appear much faster in the rooster(but buildings are harder to get, population is much larger and requires larger amounts to upgrade your buildings). So this is not for Historical,(one can get Gunpowder very fast) but for gameplay-enhancing purposes only. The result is something similar to a "Civilization" sandbox experience.

*** All units that were horribly balanced in the base SS 6.4 are now fixed, prices rearranged. Units, that cost the same don't have different stats anymore, instead all have some weaknesses or bonuses compared to others.

*** All militia/General units are now completely different for all racial types, Eastern Generals will be much more armored, but slower, Western ones will have more damage, Nordic - more Morale, decent damage, etc. Same goes with Archer/Spear militias and so on.

*** Game mechanics are tweaked for gameplay-smoothing purposes in many aspects - merchants are more viable now and bring larger profits if played and protected correctly, buildings give more defined bonuses to city stats (as Kings Purse is removed and you will rely on your eco skills mostly); Wonders are stronger and more important, holding cities with them against Crusades or Jihads is more profitable. New end-game buildings added to several nations (small wonders). Removed the random "plague" mechanic (up to 90 %); population tweaked for the new tax/growth rates, etc.

*** Royals and Generals live longer than in base SS.(max age around 120, they age at 1 year per turn, while scenario goes at 2 years per turn) Combined with the buffed pop/order bonuses from low taxes, governor influence buffs and so on, they are more impactful in developing a desired region fast.

*** Settlement towers/artillery buffed(range, rate of fire, damage). They are not so useless anymore, helps AI when defending as well.

*** Much more, which you will eventually find out yourselves.

Overall, everything is aimed for creating the perfect sandbox experience in Medieval. Choices of players/AI will matter the most. Also, completely randomized outcomes from games, due to the zeroed Diplomacy (for all nations) at start. Removed bonuses and similar non-random elements. Looting,razing are more profitable later on(due to higher populations), so surprising comebacks for smaller nations are now present constantly, if they manage to grab some huge city and sack/raze it.

Good luck,

Avitohol