@Dawnheart: I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the mod. But honestly I did not expect to get some feedback anymore on such an old work of mine. :D

Just wanted to say thank you for this mod. Had it for some time now and it's absolutely based for a fair and balanced playthrough.

Ok .

@Mumion der Unsterbliche: No TW WH3 version is planned. A simple port is also not possible since in TW W3 the balancing is done differently and more complex.

WH 3 Version ?

@Cryostasis: For the player? Never thought about that but I think in theory it should be possible. But I won't make such a mod and I also won't port this one to TW W3, sorry. :/ In TW W3 the balancing is done differently and more complex. Besides, I am already working on other stuff for Immortal Empires and I think that people enjoy my other mods more than my rebalancing mod. ;)

Hi I'd have two questions: first could you make the same rebalancement also for the player? At least in a separate modification maybe. Second will you make this also for warhammer 3? It seems quite well balanced.

@RNG.圣子划帘: It should still work, yes. I haven't used it for a while myself but so far no one complained.

does it still works?

Why should a passive faction be able to pump up its lords, though?

good test though

pyromaniac7777: You are of course right. Back when I made this mod I just wanted to see how the AI performs without all its cheats. As written, this mod was rather meant as a test. I am sure it will become obsolete once TW W3 launches and I most probably won't port it to the new game.

Curious about completely removing XP per turn. It's possible to meet a level 8 LL past turn 100 when you are at max level. The more passive factions especially suffer from this. Maybe just halve the values?

Sorry It Works .

@Mumion der Unsterbliche: Is the mod labeled as outdated in the launcher or what is the matter?

Update ?

Of course, feel free to give input what you think should be changed and I will think about changing the entries of my mod.

As written, this mod was originally only done for testing. But it is always good to get some input and to adapt it.

Frob,

I see. Would you then consider rebalancing so that AI cheats are mostly one level lower - that is, VH becomes H or H becomes N, etc. As is, VH is slightly easier than N, etc., and that's too much for most folks who are looking for mods of this nature.

Again, I have no experience in working with the MCT. Of course, a customizable version would be way better. But in this case you need to contact a modder who has already done similar things.

I second Trialon's request to make the various parameters customizable. At the current values, the AI at the VH difficulty (my usual difficulty) easier than the vanilla Normal difficulty - which is absurd.

On the AI running with multiple partial stacks:

Jadawin says that this bug appears if you give the AI any upkeep bonuses.

I've been playing with this mod & if feels like a much better game now. No more playing whack-a-mole with the Skaven stacks which normally spring up constantly out of thin air with no funds.

@Daltaine
They hold their own. Only thing that is unfixable is Grimgor it seems. :D

@Juuken Same is happening in my game as Rakarth. Once he finishes off Hexoatl, he should be able to invade Bretonnia and Empire quite comfortably. How did the skaven, Greenskins, Vampire Counts and Nords do in your campaign?

I think you really do great work

Thanks, Fröb. Quick update. Turn 400 on my Cult of Pleasure campaign. Malekith is currently strength rank 1, allied with me, and has 16 Army stacks running all over the map. Not all of them are full, but I've noticed the same when playing without your mod.

@Juuken: 'Revenge of the Wicked' makes some interesting changes but I haven't tried the mod myself so far.

@TRIALON: I haven't worked with the MCT before but the idea is very good. Maybe I will check it out in the next time but I have no clue how complicated it will be.

@Fröb Would it be possible to create a version of this mod which is customizable via the MCT?
For example I think that the higher recruitment capacity for AI is bs and I'd decrease the upkeep and recruitment bonuses for the AI too, but you nerfed them so much that the AI now even on Legendary is like vanilla Hard.
I mean vanilla Hard difficulty just feels fair for me on both ends, like the sweetspot.

While I think that the idea of basically playing a Hard campaign with the Legendary mechanic restrictions but without being forced to exploit wherever possible is interesting, I might not always want to play the campaign with this mechanic.
So as soon as I'd chose Very Hard with this mod, the game will be even easier than on vanilla Hard.
Same for the base XP gain for AI factions as mentioned by others before.

Fröb, thanks for that info. Any diplomatic mod in particular you would recommend, alongside yours?

@Juuken: I never bothered much with the diplomacy because there are already pretty good mods in the workshop. But the AIs are always the same in regards to the 'intelligence' - no matter the difficulty. There are as far as I know no tables that nerf or change the tactic of an AI regarding to its diplomatic status. I think it is only your subjectiv point of view because the AI is your ally and you tend to watch over it more often/more critical.

The only thing i could think of is that the AI focuses on the player. So, if it is your enemy, you are the primary target and the AI attacks you way more often. If you are in an alliance, the AI has no primary enemy and distributes its forces among all enemy AIs, which is not so effective.

@Fröb

If it bothers you, it's okay to delete it. I just thought, this way I could provide more context.

While we're at it. I'm just curious. Do you happen to see in the tables, and whatnot, what is really going on when a player a) forms a defensive and b) a military alliance with an AI? It seems to me, that every time I'm doing this, suddenly the allied AI does a lot worse than solo. Do they get nerfed in some way? Do they change tactics? Does the enemy suddenly get another bonus?

@Juuken: That's not exactly what I meant with "backup your statement with some ingame experience" but I am glad that you seem to have a good time. :'D
Thanks for the information regarding the AI rebellions - it's good to hear that they now also face such problems.

For now I will leave your comments standing but usually a mod page is not used to write down stories. :P

#7of7
His mother will soon have to step in, to cut the humans back to size. Meaning, I will have to seize my tactics of waiting for his territories to fall to my corruption and rebellions, and snatching them from under his nose. Naggarond is already Morathi's, Malekith just doesn't know it yet, I guess ...

Long text, but had to share that with you. What I wanted to write was, that I had much fun up until now, and it's all thanks to your mod. Especially the upkeep reduction leads to much more reasonable amounts of army stacks running around. Ranks 1-3 can churn out about the same amount - with me being one of them. So, it's pretty much evened out. Also, the fact that the AI has to manage rebellions opens up a whole new playstyle, and the downed replenishment rate provides some much needed breathing room from time to time. Thank you again!

#6of7
From their it was smooth sailing. Karond Kar turned out to be even better allies as Morathi's new slaves, helping to kickstart her economy and finally find a new, warm, ... eh, cold and secure home. The leftovers were gobbled up by her big boy, while Rakarth was quick to seek peace with Morathi.

Having everything stabelized, it was payback time. So, Morathi went back south, to Quintex and was finally able to build up what was hers by right. Malekith in the meantime took the opportunity and invaded Ulthuan to paint it in his color. Now, Morathi is covering his back in the south and the north. Chaos came and went. Wood Elves got what they deserved eventually, some upstart Frogmen tried it to no avail, the Huntsmen Expedition started trench warfare and was taken over by Franz, before anything bad could happen to them ... cravens ...

Now the Empire is our greatest threat. Malekith is losing the war with them slowly, even though he had allied himself with Grimgor.

#5of7
Seeking the proximity of her beloved son, Malekith, she landed on the shores of Karond Kar, and immediatelly was greeted by him, and other malicious elves, with about ten thousend likes and offerings. Alas, back in Ulthuan, the bedazzled High Elves managed to get back the last of Morathi's smoldering ruins. While their early game now indeed was fucked up, and practically every kingdom was displaced, this left Morathi with the problem of some inconvenient attrition.

Sooo, ... sadly, ... Karond Kar had to go ... With a heavy heart I declared war on one of my biggest fans, dragging Rakarth into it in the process. Initially I wanted to conquer the capital right away, but Morathi's troops were to exhausted, so I went for Slaver's Gate instead.

#4of7
In any event, ... Morathi was fasta! Always two steps ahead and with uprisings all over the place, which stifled the AI's progression, she went north. Let that sink in a minute. Can you imagine? AI, having to manage public order and rebellions on a larger scale? It was a glorious sight to behold! Anyways ... Up north Chrace was in the way, not for long, mind you, while the Cult of Excess had hearts in their eyes and constantly tried to throw their bodies in front of Morathis feet. The Mother, of course, walked all over them, as it is fitting, ... because "it was time" ... to get the hell outa there ...

I realized, while all that killing and looting left me with a pretty penny, I wouldn't be able to ever get a foothold on Ulthuan. So, Morathi once again went over the see, north, leaving her lovelorn would-be-allies as a meatshield between her and her other ... followers.

#3of7
I saw multiple banners on the horizon. All manners of pointy ears marching in on my position. For once in their computer-game-live, all of Ulthuan's elven kind decided, "Nah, ... we don't want Morathi here. Let's go get her!" So, the hunt for The Sunderer began ...

I had a "merry go around" on Ulthuan, looting whatever settlement I could, working my way from the outer kingdoms, to the inner kingdoms - bit of Yvresse, Saphery, Avelorn, Ellyrion - back outside again, all with everyone hot on Morathi's heels, wanting to tap that ass so badly, presumably, ... and frantically capturing back the settlements Morathi's cult left in shambles. Hell, even Floaty-Toad-Thing was in the mix and grabbed some zones, leading to its ultimate demise, because the elves declared war on him, and back home Skeggi massacred the lizards the second time, while laughing out loud ofc.

#2of7
"No. Now, ... I'm gonna ... Fock. You. Up ..." That's what I did. Next in line was Caledor, who declared war on me, for whatever arbitrary reason, soon to be followed by every other elven nation.

I could not go back, because not only Tiranoc was still there, rampaging through the leftovers of my once proud realm, but also public order didn't look so hot. First, that asshole-frog came back, then Skeggi ... then Chaos rebels destroyed my settlements, alongside Tiranoc, then Tiranoc suffered a severe case of stupidity and died - 'cause it decided to move on without any self-owned settlements ... Nothing else to do, but to shrug and move on, I thought ...

Down I sent Morathi to conquer Caledor, which she did with ease. Lothern was distracted with pirates, which lead to a very convenient annihilation of that faction. And then the fun started ...

#1of7
So, I'm on my first 300 turns running your new upkeep patch. It's a Cult of Pleasure campaign on normal, and I'm having a blast! Started out pretty vanilla. First order of business - get Ss'ildra Tor off my lands. No problem there, easy money. Then I wanted to take care of Tiranoc, 'cause they were at war with me anyway, but suddenly literally everyone around me also declared war on me. Heralds, Nagarythe, Lizardmen, heck even Skeggi wanted in on the action.

I decided to go south, to whipe that pesky frog off the board early on. Managed to do that and went over to Skeggi to throw their ugly mugs into the sea. Meanwhile, Tiranoc landed on The Moon Shard and slowly moved land inwards. With Morathi comfortably sitting on a pile of guts in Skeggi, I looked over the sea and noticed that Tiranoc city was undefended. So, instead of chasing after their troops and running into Alith Anar's traps down the line, I got a bit annoyed and said to myself:

Thank you!!

Oh, cool! Right on time for my new playthrough. Thank you very much, Fröb.

As for the AI XP gain, seeing how major AI factions are all pretty active all over the map, I don't think they will always be stuck on low ranks. At least I didn't notice anything like that.

Updated:
- added changes to the AI upkeep reduction.

Regarding the feedbacks of the latest comments:
- I won't make changes to the AI behaviour regarding the player, since this would mean an increased incompatibility of the mod with other mods.
- I will leave the automatic XP-Gain at 0/0/0/0/0 because I want that the AI actually earns its ranks with fighting. Of course, if this means that Karl Franz will be rank 9 at turn 100, i will have to reevaluate this decision.

Feel free to give further feedback and please try to backup your statement with some ingame experience!

yes,Fröb ,I once feel confused about how the AI gets EXP ,how well it can level up generals and heroes by itself.It seems that it is not unfair for players and I always find that the AI army is amazing.
But as I play the game more and more(more than 1500hours),I finally find that we allow the AI cheat on the free Exp,this thing will make the game more interesting and give us better experience.Just reducing the cheat Exp is ok.You can try and maybe I believe you will hold the same idea as me oneday. AhahahahaHope you happy

@LWH: I get your point but I always found it odd, that the AI gets EXP for free. I removed it completely because I wanted to see how well it can level up generals and heroes by itself.

In the Middle game the players ourselves maybe find the game is a little bit boring with the mods.It should reduce the XP-gain rather than remove the XP-Gain,maybe it helps the game becomes more interesting.

@Fröb hi,great Fröb! I love your mod but please consider my suggestion about "Automatic Army XP-Gain per Turn".I think it is a little bit relaxy and reduces the difficulty too much.
I find so many noob armys these days with your mods.It is upset while the other changes are so great.
Maybe 0/0/50/100/200 is better than 0/0/0/0/0. Dont you think so?

Chasing 10 halfstacks when you can barely afford two armies of goblins gets tedious very fast. Especially if they are immediately recruited back on the next turn.

Amazing mod for people that enjoy Total War: Warhammer and not Total War: Whack-a-mole.

reduce the cheat for AI,it is necessary and excellent! We dont need delete the cheats.
Thanks for your great work!

@Xeonzs
But isn't anti-player aggression limited to higher difficulty settings?

@Fröb
I know, there are tricks, but I refrain from using them, because I don't get why I should abuse the technical weaknesses of an AI. That somehow defeats the purpose of playing the game, and it often remains a mere chore. As a player I can still decide to up the difficulty, if the AI on normal proves to be too easy for me. Personal choices. I never understood why CA implements around 5 difficulty levels and does not really take advantage of this fact, by catering to different experience levels and playstyles. E.g. some people just want to auto resolve, because they don't enjoy the real time strategy aspect. Instead of accepting this and say, "Hey, these players too give us money!", it's frowned upon and CA tries to force people into battles with every cheap trick in the book ... Anyways, what I wanted to say: If e.g. easy mode is really stupidly easy but helps absolute beginners to get a feeling for the game or even enjoy it, why would a legendary mode player be bothered by this?