@Mvp - Many thanks for your feedback and assistance with this. I've updated the mod. With all the changes made today, it seems to be working again. The Faction Potential Bonuses MCT settings had to be removed for the time being, however.

@Acephelos It's on campaign_variables table, and search for any faction_potential listings there. As far as I know and through my extensive testing, the only 2 tables that contribute to FP are that and faction_potential_categories. Faction_potential_difficulty_overrides maybe for very few minor factions in IE just for the confederation.

@Mvp - Where are you getting the 150 VH bonus from? I'm not seeing that anywhere in the game database.

@Acephelos I think the tests you ran pretty much came out similar to what I've tested. Test ran without the mod between vanilla values and 400 makes sense since vanilla VH difficulty for Festus should be already near 400 (150 VH bonus + ~200( 175 base + avg 30)) So I'm guessing the negligible XP differences are because of that.

Same for the modded test, they all usually came out around half the XP by turn 2 for me. Since there is no difference in XP between different potential values, I pretty much came to a conclusion that they were simply not working.

I've tested again with both campaign settings on but there's not much difference for me. I'll try to update post if I get to test more, thanks so much for replying.

Looking at CA's code I've noticed that, if you do not use the vanilla Minor Faction Potential setting introduced in update 6.2, this mod will not work properly, as CA will overwrite Faction Potential periodically throughout the campaign. In other words, the vanilla Minor Faction Potential setting must be ON for this mod to work properly. Aforementioned issue discussed with Mvp excluded.

@Mvp - The last test was with this mod disabled, and this next test was with it enabled:

Festus' Level on Turn 2:
- 2.95 at 255
- 2.95 at 400
- 2.95 at 0

Festus' Level on Turn 3:
- 4.25 at 255
- 4.25 at 400
- 4.25 at 0

So there's something odd going on in both vanilla and with this mod enabled, but the "odd" is different for each.

@Mvp - I think the FP script system is still working fine, but there's some other element at play. At vanilla FP on Very Hard and at 400 FP on Very Hard there was some variance between campaigns, but below is what I found on a single campaign:

- At vanilla FP Festus got to level 6.5 by turn 2, taking a settlement and presumably fighting an army beforehand. For a total of 2 battles. There's no way to tell what Festus' FP was at this point.
- At 400 FP Festus got to level 6.8 by turn 2, taking a settlement and presumably fighting an army beforehand. For a total of 2 battles.
- At 0 FP Festus lost his first battle and his army was wiped out.

Tested using the following commands in Lua console, within the same campaign:

local faction = cm:get_faction("wh3_dlc20_chs_festus")
cm:faction_set_total_potential_override_value(faction, true, 400)

I've played a lot of campaigns with FP changes and back in the day it would always work like a charm and always had big impact. I'm not sure exactly when this issue started happening but it feels like CA has done something to FP modification through script. The Unnatural Selection mod seems to be suffering from the same issue so I don't think this is related to your mod - I'm just posting so that you're aware of this issue :P

@Acephelos I've finally had a chance to play and test thoroughly and I'm afraid the mod is not functioning properly, if working at all (at least in the faction potential department).

I've ran 2 simple tests to showcase clearly here, one with directly modifying values in database tables and another by doing the same through MCT settings of this mod.

Settings I used are 1. Max potential @ 400 with -75% upkeep (everything else remains the same). 2. All Minor faction potentials set to 0. 3. All campaign difficulty FP bonuses are set to 0. 4. Only Festus gets 400, rest of the playable factions are untouched.

https://imgur.com/a/potential-tests-AtsJBpM

As you can see, from the first battle alone there is a big XP difference as well as upkeep value of Trolls. By turn 30, the faction / army strength between the two are night and day.

@cybergroover - This mod could be considered to supersede the mods you listed, since it does/can do what they do, and more. The same is true for the vanilla Minor Faction Potential setting. However this mod does not supersede the AI Strength & Threat Assessment setting.

I usually keep both of those vanilla settings enabled for my campaigns.

...And does it change the same things as the new vanilla "Minor Faction Potential" and strategic AI campaign settings? Ta!

Thanks for the awesome mod! This makes the game so much better and immersive :) In my current campaign the playable factions seem weak (the Bloody Spearz even confederated Skarsnik in like turn 5! and Karaz a Karak and Belegar are both still at one region in turn 8) so may be I have too many "make minor factions equal" mods on?

So would it be possible to add to the mod description a list of the other mods that this replaces/supersedes/includes?

For example I just saw that the author of Equal faction potential says this supersedes that. And I am wondering if it also includes other mods I have running
No Handycap For Minor Factions and https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2977198923

Many thanks!

@Mvp - I've fixed the bug with the checkbox, thanks for reporting it.

I've also brought the default FP settings more in line with vanilla.

Also have a suggestion about the "scale with difficulty" checkbox. It looks like even if you tick it off, it tends to turn back on on a next load or campaign while other settings are saved and loaded. I know that would be vanilla settings but would be nice if you could check that. Description also says bonuses are from -50 to 150 but I think it's -75 / 0 / 75 / 150 / 200 now. Could be just text but just giving you heads up. Otherwise thanks a bunch for this alternative mod and appreciate all your replies!

@Acephelos Thanks for the reply. I've ran some tests in vanilla and it does look like FP impacting upkeep cost only happens when you start a new game. (for example if you set Festus's FP in db to 400 and start new game, it does update to 100 down from 200 but the number doesn't update after) I've used Unnatural Selection mod for years and was used to seeing the updated upkeep values right away on turn 1 because that mod let you customize faction bonuses at main menu screen. So far basically factions that I gave full FP seems to have their LL gaining twice the XPs on their first battle which seems like normal.

@Mvp - I don't think you can see what other factions pay in upkeep. In vanilla, Faction Potential is changed each new game, and reduces unit upkeep, but without this mod you'll also see the upkeep of that unit is 200 (which is the base upkeep).

I think a better indication of this mod working is to look at how much experience an AI general gets after their first battle with their FP set to 400 versus setting it to 0. You should notice a substantial difference between the two.

@Acephelos I've checked those values after multiple turns have passed but nothing changes - and I usually set things on turn 1 cause you can't see individual faction lists on main menu. I feel like at some point CA's patch messed up the faction potential change mods like this or Unnatural Selection, the mods themselves still work structurally but once you adjust FP values it feels like it's doing nothing.

@Mvp - Some effects need a turn before they take effect. And, unless you change the MCT settings on turn 1, they won't be applied until the end of turn 1. So to be thorough I'd wait a couple turns and check again.

I've also checked the log file and it seems all minor factions = 0 and those 2 factions are set at 400 so I'm kinda confused right now haha

Thanks for the great mod, but I have an issue where FP bonuses are not being reflected in game. Currently I'm running simple setting of FP = 0 for "all non playable factions" and FP = 400 for "group 1" that I've assigned Festus / Archaon faction to. Technically they should be getting bonuses from max FP but it seems they're not. I'm using just two of your mods and MCT, and Console mod and the chaos troll that Festus has still has 200 upkeep (which is default). I'm not sure if issue is on my end, any insight would be greatly appreciated!

@Roulette Randy - I'm not sure. I haven't tested for de-syncs bugs yet, but those can only occur after the game starts. My friends and I regularly have to spend 10-15 minutes trying to solve the issue you mentioned before we can play too, we're eventually able to get it to work though (again, haven't tried this one yet).

@Acephelos - I had only tried multiplayer with it recently with the Ace Core Library, before that was necessary the mod functioned in Multiplayer with several people. We ensured that we had the exact same mods in the same order with the same mod manager and had the same in-game version and checksum. It worked once we disabled these two mods, weird shit with the game maybe.

@Roulette Randy - I haven't had a chance to test multiplayer yet, but that error isn't a problem with a mod. It means the game files/mods you both are trying to play together with aren't the same. I recommend verify game files, resubscribing to mods, and ensuring your both using the same game launcher/mod manager.

@Acephelos Thank you for the fast response. After testing in-game, the bug has been fixed and the modded factions are working as normal.

I was getting an incompatible versions error with my friend trying to run this with Ace Core Library-- after disabling the two it functioned and we were able to join eachother.

@NateRate the Narrate - Should be fixed now. You may have to resubscribe to force the mod to update if it doesn't do so automatically. Thanks for reporting the issue.

@NateRate the Narrate - I'm looking into it.

@NateRate the Narrate - If you can check vanilla factions and see the counter change, but not modded factions, then that's a bug. If you can check both modded and vanilla factions, and neither change the counter, then that's a different kind of bug that may be caused by another mod.

@Acephelos I'm just realizing that it seems to happen with most of the modded factions I'm using. OvN, as well as the TEB southern realms.

The little counter that tells you how many factions in a culture you have selected ( the "0/25", ect) does not show for those modded factions either.

Other modded factions seems to work when they're part of a base game cultures/races.

@NateRate the Narrate - Is it only the OvN factions? The code treats all factions the same, so the issue should be present with other factions too. I'll look into it though.

I'm having issues using this mod with OvN Lost Factions. I'm using most of the factions, and it doesn't seem like I can put them into any custom groups.

If I select one OvN faction to put it into a group, then the faction will get selected in all custom groups. If I them deselect the same faction in one group, the faction them gets deselected in all groups. This issue seems to happen with all the OvN factions (Famir, Albion, Araby, Southern Realms, ect).

Oh i thought that wouldn`t show there now i feel stupid. ok we will see thx

@Sun Tzu - You can enable logging in the MCT settings, then re-apply your desired settings and check the log to see what factions got what FP and bonuses. The log file will then be in your game directory.

in that group are all P. Factions

Is there any way to confirm the settings are applying? Because i have the group enabled but i am still rank 1. and i gave them if they have 400 pot. +300 exp and 90 reduction on everything. (Starting pot is 250 and the range is -250;+200)

@Sun Tzu - Yes, if that group is active.

So All factions will have a different potential in the end?

So if i change the Alll playable factions mid game then it will randomly give all factions a value within the parameters? and if i apply a small change it will reshuffle again?

@Acephelos: Just finished campaign with this mod. Excellent work. I love that we have so many options. The map in turn 150 was totally diffrent than "standard pattern". This is much better solution to repetivness than "minor faction potential" option introduced by CA. Great job.

@♠ Punkstyler - That would work too, yeah.

@ace : Yeah, I wasn't clear :D I meant minimum modifier and maximum modifier. Setting Faction potential to 300, and setting min and max modifier to 0 will make everyone equal, right? :)

@♠ Punkstyler - Bigger FP number = stronger AI. Setting the Set Faction Potential setting to 0 would make the AI as weak as possible. 400 is the current cap, so setting it to 400 would make the AI as strong as possible. You can then set the Modifier Chance to 0 if you don't want that 400 number to be randomly modified, and just keep it at 400.

@Ace one more quesiton. If I want to reset FP to 0, for every faction I have to set Min and Max FP to 0, right? Like in turn 80 I want every equally strong.

@Ace thanks for quick responses. All is clear now.

@♠ Punkstyler - Almost. Just closing the menu will apply any setting changes.

Clearing a group using the "Do Stuff" button will reset the AI bonuses to default for that group, but it will also reset the factions in that group to the default for that group. For custom groups this would de-select all of the factions and leave the group empty.

If all active groups are disabled, empty, or suddenly become empty, no changes to AI bonuses will occur when the menu is closed, and they will be left at whatever they were before the group(s) was disabled or emptied.

If you want to revert only the AI bonuses to default for a custom group I'd recommend clicking the circular arrow button that appears next to a setting when it is not at its default value — for every setting in the Faction Potential Bonuses category (XP gain, building costs, ect..). The "Do Stuff" button would do only this as well for the predefined groups such as All Playable Factions.

@Acephelos: So i simply enable groups, then set values that I want and just close it, right? And if I want to reset all values to default in turn... let's say 80 I just revert changes with "Do stuff" or deselect groups?

@♠ Punkstyler - Sorry for the confusion about the "Do Stuff" button. I can't change the button text. The text I'd like the button to have is next to it. This is a limitation of the current version of MCT. That button is supposed erase all your settings for the selected group, that way you don't have to undo them all manually.

As for the other mod, you may not need to change the load order. It's not clear to me how the two mods will interact. I'd try setting all the buffs the AI gets from my mod to 0 and see if they're really weak.

If they are really weak then that means my mod overrides the other, and you'd control the AI bonuses through my mod. If they aren't really weak, then the two mods should work fine together with the bonuses from my mod left at 0.

In faction potential after clicking "Do Stuff" values that i set are back to default. Is this normal and is mod working or i messed something? :) I'm also usint this mod: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2926591990

The description says: "If you want a version with potential, you can look for another mod that modifies it and load it with higher priority than this one". So in mod manager i changed order of this mod, to be on top. So this mod is 45, and the other mod is 50. Is this correct?

@:) - No.

does this mod conflict with ai mods by any chance?