Name of the Rose Mod, v0.9 (Rose mod)

[Doux]

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Name of the Rose - a modification for Knights of Honor by Doux

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This mod is NOT compatible with the latest patch of Knights of Honor - only install this mod using KoH version 1.03, otherwise crashes or loss of data might occur!

The files were last updated on sunday 26 februari 2006.

Here is the latest update, version 0.9.

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1. Responsibility

Installing, removing or modifying this modification or Knights of Honor goes at your own risk.

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2. How to install

I recommend unistalling any previous mods. Version 0.9 contains new files that previous versions did not, so delete the defs, images, texts, maps folders in your KoH folder before starting the install process.

Download the two files, NotR0.9.part1.ZIP, NotR0.9.part2.ZIP to the same folder. Part 2 is attached to the second post!
Then, extract the files from the two ZIP archives to the same directory and then run the .exe to start the install sequence.

Just run the .exe (self-extracting WinRaR file) and check if the right path for Knights of Honor is selected (Default: C:\Program Files\Black Sea Studios\Knights of Honor\). Check the driveletter, please! Also be aware that overwriting previous files is enabled, though the install process will ask for confirmation. However, if you get such a notification, this is a sign that previous mods may not have been properly uninstalled.

The installation is finished now. Please read on ;)

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3. Bugs and suggestions

Post them here. There are no known bugs so far. I've tested and tweaked so that this almost final stage of the project is reached.

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3.5. The general purpose of the modification the Name of the Rose

What I did in this mod is going through rather all variables and values in the game and tweaking them as I thought to be
A. More realistic
B. More sensible
C. More to the advantage of the AI.
This includes unit values according to how I think their strengths (and weaknesses) should be, strengthening the AI (for instance, there are now much better chances that the AI will build a Merchant Guild or the like) and making the build-tree more sensible. So, in short, my mod was not only designed to make the AI as hard as possible, but tweaks many things.

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4. Changes in 0.9 (in short)

* Unit changes - I tweaked many unit values. Now really everything in the Excel file is automatically calculated. You change the number of units in a squad? Prizes, attrition etcetera will all rise accordingly. Columns that may be modified because they contain no formulas were coloured green, the others, red.
*Removal of several textual bugs
*Tweaking of several building prices to be more senseful, also swapping of attrition/siege defence boni from e.g. Gate Towers (+10 siege defence) and Cauldrons (+500 siege attrition).
*Minor AI behaviour changes
*Addition of 2 new units: Byzantian Spearmen (armoured spearmen, for Byzantia and surroundings) and Mameluk Infantry (very strong melee attack, fearsome foes, for Arabia and Africa)
*Camels and Ghulam Cavalry slightly more widely available
*Attack of horses vs. Camels reduced
*Stengthening of Crusader units (all 25 defence rating)

Already since 0.8:

Intro scenes are no longer displayed (remove the /movies/ directory in order to see them again if you don't like this).

Also, major changes (not a complete list):

Rebalancing AI vs. Player
-Kingdom Advantages were weakened
-AI building behaviour is greatly improved - the AI will now build basic buildings with priority
-Almost all AI's use spies now, evil personalities were made more evil
-Cathedral, University, Merchants Guild are now more easily built by the AI by requiring only basic assets. There are over 7 of each in every game.
-Removal of War exhaustion, nostalgia.
-Removal of Learner, Maneouvre and Engineering skills - siege equipment now available with a siege workshop
-The AI is now more honourable
-The AI starts with +5 kingdompower advantage to player
-Rebels are weaker and less common which is in favour of big AI kingdoms
-Removal of peasants from training perspectives
-Town Guards are now Heavy Archer look-a-likes with ranged attack and armour, but also have a modified picture (*new)
-Weapons/Armour buildings reduced to 4 - 2 upgrades (Armoury->Advanced Armoury & Weapons Smith->Heavy Weapons Smith). Simplifying was good for the AI.

Several gameplay changes, balance issues
-Removal of Scribe, Horse Breed (horses moved to stable)
-Addition of Hospital, Fortified Guard (*new picture), Temple (pagan) (*new picture in 1.8!)
-Many buildings now upgrade e.g. bee hives->wax maker
-Starting conditions of towns improved, palisade is now more common, Rome more fortified
-Prices, strengths, food costs and experience costs greatly changed of all units, to be more senseful and according to strength.
-Reduction of the effects of trading, overall income down to make the game more of a challenge
-Strengthening of Builder and Farmer
-Reduced upkeep for first Knights
-More senseful AI claiming and claim actions
-Changing religion is now impossible
-Pagans were strengthened
-Inflation at lower income levels is much lower
-Overall morale went up, many units have a morale bonus, muslim warriors get a boost
-Addition of several in-game texts/thoughts of rebels/armies, answers of AI in dimplomacy. (More of these in 1.0)

Implementation of Elvain's Holy Rome mapchanges; improved kingdom names, vassals etcetera.

Minor gameplay fixes I did on the run, which will be documented for version 1.0 more extensively again.

Many files were relisted by me in alphabetical or other logical order (Units.txt/.xls, trainunits.txt/.xls, many .tsv files).

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5. I hope you'll enjoy it!

This thread can be used for commenting, reporting bugs & suggestions. Versions < 0.9 (0.6; 0.5 and 0.8) are now deemed *old* and no longer supported.

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6. Special thanks

To: Angryminer, Elvain, Nerfboy, Patricius for their ideas, modding files and suggestions! Also to the Webmaster and Sunflowers/Black Sea studios. And of course everybody I forgot and helped me some way.

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7. Future releases

1.0 will feature some more text changes and additions and especially a complete list of changes. The date of release will and does depend on the latest patch that is in progress/waiting to be confirmed.

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8. By the way

As a last note, I can advise everybody who's interested in the Middle Ages, in abbeys and in serendipity to read The Name of the Rose, written by Umberto Eco, the book that gave this mod its name.

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9. Regarding the latest patch

As a later last note, I can add that the mod will probably be updated to work with the second (latest) patch of KoH, but also that no specific completion time has been thought of.

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This mod is NOT compatible with the latest patch of Knights of Honor - only install this mod using KoH version 1.03, otherwise crashes or loss of data might occur!

[Doux]

Part2 is attached here.

See post # 1 by me.

[Doux]

I'm currently working on re-listing & overhauling the essential kingdom/realm files so that future modding for me and others becomes easier. I moved horse production to stables - horse breeder removed. A new version will be out when the former is done (which will take significant time).

Also, archers were just a bit too weak - I strengthened them again.

[Elvain]

I'm vurretnly working on relisting, overhauling the essential kingdom/realm files so that future modding for me and others becomes easier. I moved horse production to stables - horse breed removed. A new version will be out when the former is done (which will take significant time).
good idea to make more free space for buildings. But I'm affraid this will limit availability of cavalry units only to provinces with pasture, or not?

[Doux]

Well, in the Name of the Rose there are plenty places free for buildings, so that was not my consideration - by removing the horse breeder and moving horses to the stable (that can be built anywhere) the AI has no problems acquiring horses and it isn't irrealistic either. I could've removed horses completely, but I rather like to have them in the game for Kingdom Advantages and such.

[Patricius]

This a very enjoyable mod. It makes the smaller kingdoms genuinely harder.

[Doux]

I'm glad you like it! I plan to change even more, if you have any suggestions..

[Nerfboy]

How about making the Tanner building (that gives leather) an upgrade from the hunting huts building. Seen that done and it makes sense.

[Doux]

Don't you think it makes more sense to have cow-leather rather than game-leather? It could be an upgrade of both maybe. I'm not sure if that is possible.

[Patricius]

One small problem I had is that I got a torrent of nation emergence messages at the start. After converting Epirus to Byzantia, some of the flags continued yo look Epiriot in terms of pattern and the empire was a despote ruled by a despot. Now this might be just a quirk of one game.

I wonder if somehow the enemy could be made more aggressive. I find thata powerful nation will tend to shy away from warfare even if my nation is only slightly more powerful.

Denying the human player merchants with perhaps counter-improvement to the tax collector so small nations remain a vaible choice might be an idea. Another mod denies merchants. It might be an idea.

[Doux]

The torrent is "normal" - these messages are the proof that AI nations get extra money and kingdompower. You can ignore them - they'll disappear after some time.

An aggressive AI would be great indeed.. *dreams, dreams*

I don't really like to remove merchants - they were greatly weakened already.

[Nerfboy]

Sorry about the Tanner, I didn't get that far into the game and then saw the cow building...my bad.

One thing I noticed, you can only get 1000 books and when I go to adopt a population, I seem to always seem to need 1100. Even with a 5 star cleric, owning the land forever and with the religion converted and popularity well into the green. Was this intentional?

Still playing. Thanks for the mod.

[Doux]

The 110 books per nostalgia point is a right feature indeed. This way you'll have to wait some, until it's below 1000, to adopt the population. But in the new version (that will come) I've already weakened nostalgia greatly to improve the AI.

[Doux]

Also - I found out how to change the Townguards to Heavy Archer looks completely without letting the game crash when I choose to lead a battle myself (yahoo! :smile:)- also, new images (.BMP) were made. 'T will be in the next mod version, which I might release sooner than expected, because the rebuilt kingdom/training files will take much more time.

(Edit)
ALso, I changed all unit costs and food costs according to strength (strongest cavalry: Boyars! strongest Iftry: Teutonic Knights! Strongest archery: Heavy Crossbow!)

I changed a lot more, but I can't remember now..I must document this right away.

[Nerfboy]

I am finding that the larger kingdoms are having a hard time with rebels. Mamuleks usual gets big quick and Germany as well...and then they crumble with all the rebels that run the country.

I see you have taken out the requirment skill to weild seige machines, which is a good idea. But I have yet to see the computer use them.

I was thinking too, would it be better to make the horse squads bigger? I mean, for those who make the buildings for them, it would be a big advantage for the computer to have those more powerful troops. I know they are strong, but I think it would be cooler if army numbers were higher.

[Nerfboy]

Hey, tried the new .6 version and I rose really fast in it.

Few things, I see town guards look like archers, but they are not shooting. They also have really low melee power, I had a group of Axemen take them down.

- Should there be a gold bonus for silver mines and churches?
-Don't like crusades aye?
-Do you want Merchant guilds and Cathedrals to be rare? Maybe instead of having the structures required for making them, instead have the products that those structures make as a requirement.

All in all, keep up the good work. Although it still doesn't take me long to get to the top.

[Doux]

They are not shooting you say? That's strange - they really should be - and did in my game. Melee power is something to increase, yes, maybe, but both heavy melee and a ranged attack was too strong I thought. But that does need some refining indeed.

Gold bonus for Silver mine was reduced to make the game more competitive, since incomes were too high. Churches never had gold - and I wouldn't give it either for the previous reason.

I like crusades - why do you ask? They were slightly tweaked so far, but I don't think I made them really weaker.

And yes, I like the rarity of those buildings - altough that means the AI won't require them (so often). I might change that in future, but I'm doubting.

[Nerfboy]

Hmmm, well I still haven't seen the town guards shoot.

And the reason I bring up Crusades is, I haven't seen one yet. Maybe there's no audio for the announcement of one? I have played for only a few hours, so maybe they are just more rare like you say.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with next.

[Doux]

That can be - if no nation is collecting enough "crusade points" there is no reason for a crusade. But 2 hours? That's a long time../

[Doux]

A little progress update:

I edited the gold cost/food cost variables of all units even more - the formulas are now in Excel. And so were the damages, experience costs (for archers higher to compensate the much-used Archery Skill).
Town Guards now have 100 CTK.melee, 65 CTK.ranged,5 defence.melee, small attack bonus vs. mounts.

I rebuilt:
most %unitname%.unit files
kingdoms_800.ini
realms.ini
realms_climate.ini
realms_religion.ini
towns.ini
vassals.ini
TrainUnits.txt

To be rebuilt:
kingdoms_1000.ini
kingdoms_1200.ini
regions_800/1000/1200 .ini
all King files
eu_kingdomdescr.txt
eu_realms.tsv
eu_towns.tsv
kingdoms.tsv
all conversation files
all quest files

Oh, and I will change Cathedral etc. requirements so that the AI builds them easier. Thanks for the suggestion Nerfboy.