This is a submod for the Divide and Conquer mod for Medieval II Total War. Its aim is to create a more balanced and lore-friendly campaign experience. Compatible with both versions 4.6 & 5.1 of Divide and Conquer.
DESCRIPTION:
The AI gets incredibley unfair bonuses in the Divide and Conquer campaigns, which results in you barely being able to field a single full stack army or replenish it, while the AI seemingly gets free new ones every turn. This results in non-siege victories becoming meaningless and lore-breaking difficulty, like Bree getting invaded by hordes from Dunland before Bilbo even has his famous birthday party. This mod helps fix these issues in The War of the Ring campaign. Now you can enjoy all of the wonderful immersive additions Divide and Conquer made without pulling your hair out.
This removes the following:
-Nearby enemy AI factions spawning free doom-stacks at the start of the game that they wouldn't otherwise have and capturing extra settlements.
-Nearby enemy AI factions getting additional Kings Purse bonuses, while nearby friendly factions get Kings Purse penalties.
-Lore breaking AI "Last Stand" events for factions who shouldn't be able to summon them. Did Saruman instantly get another doom stack as soon as the Ents sieged Isengard? No! Also, Last Stands are only triggered when a faction has 1 settlement left, so it's actually a last stand.
-"Weakened Faction" AI events spawning free doom stack armies for that faction. I did not completely remove these events because they were connected to too many other historical event variables, but I did reduce the size of the free armies. They should only get half a stack of mostly basic units now.
-If an AI's treasury went below zero, they got an extra 500-1500 gold every turn. This resulted in it being almost impossible to hurt an AI's economy through invasion. This has been reduced to 100 gold to help keep them afloat, but not unfairly so.
This adds the following:
-The player's starting gold and kings purse has been significantly increased for each difficulty setting to more closely match the AI settings. You should be able to field a couple full stack armies now once you build your economy and upgrade your barrocks to create elite units within the same timeframe the AI can. AI still has an unfair advantage on higher difficulty settings, but it has been reduced. For a completely fair game, I recommend playing on easy campaign and medium battle difficulty.
NOTES:
You will have to start a new War of the Ring campaign to get most of the listed changes.
This is compatible versions 4.6 and 5.1 of Divide and Conquer.
FOR ADDITIONAL MODDING:
These are some helpful tips for editing the campaign_script.txt file.
Faction Directory:
aztecs = Dunlendings
byzantium = Dorwinion
denmark = Dol Amroth
england = Mordor
gundabad = Gundabad
france = Isengard
hre = Orcs of the Misty Mountains
hungary = Dwarves of the Blue Mountains
ireland = Lothlorien
khand = Khand
milan = Rohan
m***** = Mirkwood Elves (ModDB appears to be censoring the words of certain ethnic groups)
moors = Dwarves of Erebor
normans = Breeland
norwary = Dwarves of Moria
portugal = Angmar
poland = Dol Goldur
russia = Ar-Adunaim
s***** = High Elves (ModDB appears to be censoring the words of certain ethnic groups)
sicily = Gondor
scotland = Dale
spain = Haradrim
teutonic_order = Enedwaith
timurids = Anduin
turks = Dúnedain
venice = Easterlings
Detailed 5.1 Changelog:
Difficulty Settings:
-Increased starting gold for human player on all difficulties.
Player Setup:
-Removed AI enemy king's purse bonuses and AI ally penalties for all factions.
-Reduced size of extra AI enemy bonus starting armies.
-Removed AI Dunland automatically starting with Lone-Lands if player is Bree.
Script: Last Stand:
-All events trigger when a faction has 1 settlement instead of 2.
-Removed Isengard last stand event.
-Removed Dol Goldur last stand event.
-Removed Angmar last stand event.
-Removed Gundabad last stand event.
Script: Money:
-In the event their income becomes negative, all AI gold bonuses were reduced to 101 extra gold on easy, 201 on medium, 501 on hard, 1001 on very hard.
Script: Weakened Factions
-Removed most top-tier units from Easterlings event.
-Removed most middle-tier units from Mordor event.
-Removed most middle-tier units from Isengard event.
-Removed most top-tier units from Goblintown event.
-Removed most middle-tier units from Lorien event.
-Removed most top-tier units from Rohan event.
-Removed most middle-tier units from Mirkwood Elves event.
-Removed most middle-tier units from Gondor event.
*The types of units removed dependend on what felt more realistic for each faction to be able to muster.
INSTALLATION:
Copy the "campaign_script" file from this mod's "fixed" folder into in Divide and Conquer's "imperial_campaign" folder in your game directory and overwrite the existing file. Make sure to choose the proper folder from this mod for the version of Divide and Conquer you have. This mod has separate folders for version 4.6 and 5.1.
Game Directory Example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War\mods\Divide_and_Conquer\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign"
A backup of Divide and Conquer's original "campaign_script" file has been included in this mod's "original" folder incase you want to uninstall it.
thanks for the small fixes this will really improve the game.
I'm glad someone else enjoyed them!
when can we expect an updated submod for 5.0? Would love to install this but I only have the latest version and my pc won't let me install version 4.6 since I already have 5.0
Just updated for version 5.1! Sorry it took so long. Their campaign script got considerably more complicated in 5.1 than it was in 4.6. Also, it took a while for me to want to start a new campaign.
I have included notes in the ReadMe to help you refine the mod on your own. I haven't been able to play test every faction
Please update for v5
You're in luck. I just updated for 5.1 today! Both 4.6 and 5.1 are included in the download file now.
Just updated for version 5.1! Sorry it took so long. Their campaign script got considerably more complicated in 5.1 than it was in 4.6. Also, it took a while for me to want to start a new campaign.
I have included notes in the ReadMe to help you refine the mod on your own. I haven't been able to play test every faction.
Wow someone addressed some of the problems with this mod, perhaps I shall go on a mini rant :P
Some of the things the mod creators did made it start to feel really 'gamey' and I noticed after playing the obvious bonuses, it was a real drag. I can't wait to give this a try, I hope it still has some difficulty though. I will come back with the verdict.
I played 3 campaigns and I noticed the following without this mod: wherever I choose to start, my surrounding allies would be very weak, as mentioned by this mod. I decided not to bother with allies at all and that they would be useless. Even when your allies would normally be in a pretty decent position. It felt weird that winning a war handily would not strengthen the side you are fighting on. If you want the side of good to win, just pick a bad faction? Really? Come on lmao.
You could defeat multiple full stacks and you'd think your allies could capitalise, but they don't at all, often they continue to lose land instead! Nerfing your allies was a huge disappointment to the game experience, it made you feel like the main character or something, imagine Bree having to push Mordor back, what!
Which brings me to the point you made about land battles not mattering at all, which is true. The AI seems to have more troops then settlement population... To deal with a stack I wasn't prepared for, I'd give the ai a general to follow around on the map, if they caught him they would just make him run around a bit if I auto resolved, he would replenish troops anyway! I might actually want to have a proper battle for once instead of corner camp the map edge, cheese sieges, rely on infinite re-spawning population from militia garrisons, etc, etc. I was simultaneously impressed and disgusted by the way I could cheese my way to victory. But it wasn't fun, it felt hollow and weird.
I am a bit concerned these changes will make the mod a breeze with no challenge, but I will play a bit and give a verdict, cheers for the effort!
So after playing through another Campaign I can say with certainty that this mod is great. Allies do something, defeating the enemies big army actually means something. Lastly the game is still challenging! It is quite a good mod to make this game fun again. If both the traitor factions decide to help the dark lord, you might still be able to win. My only gripe with the experience so far is the best strategy is still to be hyper aggressive, looking to build better barracks, etc is a waste of time and money, merely allowing the enemy to do the same. Leads to weird gameplay, like playing dol amroth with no heavy cavalry.
Anyway cheers for the mod!
Thanks for the feedback! Glad this mod improved your experience.
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