Minor Changes:

• added new skill: oratory, which is required for speeches in the senate, but also help when persuading people and flirting with ladies
  
• added character level requirement for promotions: if you want to get promoted to praefectus cohortis your level must be greater equal 15 for legatus legionis it must be greater equal 25
  
• overhauled the report menu, its now a nice presentation
  
• Added troop tree presentation
  
• Added second outfit from VC
  
• if you help allies during offensive siege, number of own and enemy troops is now displayed
  
• changed how villages are assigned to towns/castles, now it is down manually, which gives a better assignment
  
• lowering relations between lord and liege using your lover takes only 2 days now instead of 7 days, impact is also higher, and probability too
  
• changed how lords inspire their troops during battle: it depends now on charisma and leadership skill
  
• added 3 new clothes for eastern lords
  
• added new armor for Nubian mercenaries (which are available in Egypt)
  
• changed how npcs decide in which side they fight during a Civil War:
  
  • legati: if the player renown + support in senate is greater than the renown of the legati and if the relation is greater than 5 they join the player
    
  • governor and aux commander: relation must be greater than 0 and depending on unrest and senate support they decide to join you: high unrest and high senate support increase probability
    if they have higher relation than 80 with you, they will always join
    
  • affiliated family members will always join you
• code to choose a false Emperor now also considers wealth
  
• Merged the legion report menu and the empire report menu into one presentation, giving you information for the current state of the Empire.
  
• added refine weapons dialogue
  
• added three new Parthian villages for Palmyra
  
• added a new dialogue option with Kaeso Flavius for the coup d'etat of Nero, with much weaker
• conditions: 'You always look so unhappy, is there anything bothering you, my friend?'
  
• other changes to Kaeso dialogue: if you decide NOT to blackmail him immediately, you can do it later now. (use dialogue option: 'I know your secret')
  
• moved event which starts civil war: now it will trigger immediately after the 'you have become Emperor' event
  
• Instead of an event, you must end the civil war now by visiting the senate, if the conditions (either you have the false emperor as captivity, or the other Roman faction is defeated) are satisfied, use the menu option: 'End the civil war!' in the senate menu;
  Additional condition to end the civil war: You must win the current war, which means the war damage you inflicted must be greater than the war damage suffered + 30 points. (Conquering castle gives +30 war damage, conquering towns +40, but also killing villagers, caravans, raiding villages and lords losing battles are considered.)
  
• If your kingdom policy regarding slavery is set to 'almost all free' lords and you are no longer allowed to build slave markets
  
• changes to centralization policy if you are faction leader:
  
  • a little centralized allows you to build in any town/castle/village of your faction
    
  • quite centralized allows you to change the decrees too
    
  • very centralized allows you to extort subjects too
• replaced courtship report with a nice presentation
  
• Empire maintenance costs are now also effected by campaign AI difficulty
  
• centralization policy now effects empire maintenance: the more decentralized the Empire is, the less empire maintenance must the Emperor pay
  
• centralization policy now effects the maximum possible imperial tax rate: the more decentralized the Empire is, the lower is the maximum possible tax rate (e.g., for a very decentralized empire the maximal possible tax rate is 20%)
  
• staff working on tax loss mitigation reduces probability of corrupt tax collectors events and corrupt governors by a factor of 2/3 now
  
• removed dialogue option 'report on financial affairs' from the chamberlain (quaestor) dialogue, because it had a lot of wrong information and I don’t want to update it. (See the budget report instead, it has all the important information)
  
• update explanation text about empire maintenance in the chamberlain (quaestor) dialogue, it provides now useful information on how the maintenance costs are calculated
  
• added option to convert a settlement peacefully to your culture (its a building and needs a lot of time, also AI lords can build it)
  
• increased probability for some emperor events and changed their order
  
• changed probability and order for other events too
  
• added some options to host games: now you can waste tons of money on it!
  
• you can now properly convert to Christendom (only possible through beggar start): Talk with Memercius after you have been baptised: say 'I want to learn more about Christus.' and then ask 'And how do I properly worship Christus?', swear to worship no other gods and you are a Christ.
  As a Christ you can visit the 'underground' chapel (the scene with Muscullus and Memercius) directly via the 'visit the sights of Rome' menu.
  
• you can now perform a war cry during tournaments by pressing the 't' key
  
• added option to disable/enable companion bodyguards and removed the renown/leadership conditions
  
• changed some roman item stats
  
• changed some colors of some texts to be better readable
  
• added recruit volunteers option to non-Roman towns too
  
• now you can join any side in battle, which will change faction relationship too
  
• changes to the name of lords parties: it is now the normal native naming: XY's party, but roman lords get an extra text, stating which legion/auxiliary unit the lord commands
  
• whenever the player becomes emperor, all other factions will automatically recognize him, this will enable new diplomatic options (otherwise you would have to ask for recognition which is kind of dull if you are the ruler of the strongest faction!)
  
• player can found Judean rebels if he has converted to Judaism (visit the temple in Jerusalem)
  
• if player starts Jewish revolt, he can use ambushes during battles: this reduces enemy moral and the enemy takes 25% less damage (player can do this every 3 hour)
  
• Other changes to ambushes: the side which got ambushed will receive an accuracy penalty of 50% and the side which laid the ambush will get an accuracy bonus of 300%
  
• changes to sieges: attacker will receive an accuracy penalty of 30% defender will have doubled accuracy
  
• removed 'hire additional ships' thing when player disembarks from the port
  
• made troop wages for Roman npc lords more expansive (since Roman troops are strong and good equipment they should be more expansive)
  
• some changes to the economy script to prevent desert and Parthian villages from making you rich as Kroesus (but they are still rich)
  
• added option to rename companion parties
  
• added a new option which enables/disables lords spawning if a faction has no town/castles anymore: if option is disabled, lords can only spawn when their faction has at least 1 town or 1 castle, this prevents 1 man lord parties from running around in other factions centers
  
• the horse cull feature from diplomacy should work now if it is enabled in options
  
• some diplomacy kingdom policies need senate approval if you are emperor
  
• added a dialogue option when talking with merchant caravans during the escort caravan quest: you can now order them to attach themselves to your party, which is useful when taking a ferry
  
• when a walled center is sacked, its prosperity will now be reduced by up to 50 prosperity points
  
• changes to faction declare war decisions:
  
  • old system: if the strongest kingdom is at least with one other kingdom at war, the others will attack it using the 'curb the other realm's power' war goal, if they are neighbours
    
  • new system: depending on the strength of the strongest kingdom it must be at war with either 1, 2, 3, 4, or more than 5 kingdoms then the others may attack it using the 'curb the other realm's power' war goal
• added option to change number of reinforcement waves (for field battles) under the moral tweak presentation
  
• added short cut for palace (Domus Augusti), if you click on 'visit the domus augusti' while having the shift key pressed, you will spawn next to your advisors
  
• reworked asking for alliances/trade agreements and non-aggression treaties: now the AI is a bit more reasonable, if the AI is at war with many kingdoms, it is more likely that he accept to a treaty.
  
• added back faction relation report with nice presentation
  
• added new report only available as emperor: it gives you an overview over all lords of your faction (military unit they command, strongest town, number of towns/castles, party size)
  
• added option to display province names next to the center name in brackets: three options to choose (only at game start!):
  
  • Normal names: displays the normal center name, e.g. Roma
    
  • Simplified names: displays a simplified province name in the center name, e.g. Roma -> Roma IT (all the abbreviations can be found in the game concepts)
    
  • Accurate names: displays the accurate province name in the center name: e.g. Roma -> Roma (Italia), (accurate province name can also be found under the 'center notes')
  I recommend to test options before starting a serious game. It is NOT possible to change it later on!
  
• added option to remove a governor from a center!
  
• some fraction of empire maintenance costs will now be added to each town/castles wealth if it is below a threshold (10,000 for castles, 20,000 for towns) instead of disappearing into nowhere
  
• prisoners effect construction time now: 5 prisoners reduce construction time by 1%, e.g. 100 prisoners will reduce by 20%, maximum of 30% possible
  
• also displayed the effects for construction time and costs better
  
• you can order to build statues: talk with the praefectus (in the scriptorium) for this. But don't expect that such a selfish act will please the people!
  
• added kill count for battles: number of kills a hero has will be displayed
  
• imprisoned female slaves can now also improve moral via dialogue
  
• added option to rename a month as Emperor, can be done in the senate
  
• when a lord is executed by the player: Lord will be divorced from his spouse, any lady who’s guardian is the lord, will get a new guardian assigned.
  
• exchanging fiefs should now be easier if emperor
  
• need more than 20 relation with Alexandria to buy books in the library
  
• praying with Memercinus gives you honor if you are a christ
  
• added a special merchant called Ogolus the tailor to Roman town center. He sells civilian bodywear and headgear and footwear
  
• changed tournament price to be either gold, silver, jewelry, velvet or amber, instead of useless armor/weapon ♥♥♥♥
  
• increased buying and selling prices for prisoners/slaves
  
• made curb the other realms power wargoal optional
  
• increased rewards for construction huge buildings: forum, theater, triumphal acre and public baths: you gain now also experience and reputation, if your intelligence attribute is smaller than 30, you also raise your intelligence attribute by one.
  changes to looting walled settlements: loot amount now depends not only on your looting skill, but also on the centers wealth in general. You will also always get slaves if you choose the “devastate completely” option. Moral impact is now much higher and more logical (soldiers like looting now!!)
  
• Judea has 2 customizable troops: an archer unit and an infantry unit
  
• added option to marry Poppaea Sabina for female players when using the start as Emperor option and changed “show love to spouse” dialogue to prevent a female player making babies with female spouse
  
• as Christian, the player can visit mount golgotha in Jerusalem (a special item can be found there)
  
• added companion mission to stage border incidents
  
• tax revolt event now lets rebel parties spawning
  
• added new event for corruption
  
• trade skill is now dependent on intelligence rather than charisma

Bug Fixes:

• fixed AI prisoner trigger: prisoners in AI centers will now be sold on a weekly basis, if the lord is short on money, he will get the money from selling prisoners, otherwise it is added to the center budget
  
• fixed Rome's townhall scene: no rain and lighting is improved
  
• fixed some governors who were not recruiting any troops
  
• fixed town garrisons becoming too large: maximum is now around 1100
  
• fixed budget report not displaying all things if it gets too long
  
• fixed Nabatean war parties not spawning
  
• fixed some bugs related to a wrong usage of the 'store_skill_level' statement
  
• fixed/added some dialogue options to some dialogues (a dialogue with prisoners; a dialogue with Gwenhwyfar; rare circumstances where the dialogue option to visit Paulus didn't appear; circumstances where some characters say: my lady to the player although he is male; dialogue with quaestor: different options to pay into/withdraw money from the treasury; dialogue with guard troops in the barracks: they have now the proper guard dialogue; dialogue with Nero in the 'Tyranny and Despotism' quest: Nero s answer now matches what the player said; and other stuff I forgot)
  
• fixed some messed up vertices on the world map and other world map issues
  
• fixed trader parties which got stuck on the world map
  
• fixed Edessa siege scene
  
• fixed an Armenian town siege scene
  
• fixed Carthago siege scene
  
• fixed Athenean siege scene and town center scene
  
• fixed some spawn points of the large battlefield
  
• fixed transport ships which got stuck
  
• fixed minor issue in the 'List of known Lords by relation' in reports menu
  
• fixed a bug where you are spawned by 'Stability of the Empire decreases' messages, although there is no stability change.
  
• fixed some syntax mistakes in the code
  
• fixed some eastern spearmen not having shields (the troop 'Shipri Tukul')
  
• fixed some auxiliary cavalry not wearing helmets
  
• fixed hopefully the rare cases, where tournament participants spawned without a weapon
  
• fixed a bug where some centers still belonged to the false Roman faction after the civil war ends
  
• fixed a rare script error when lords are indicted for treason and flee outside the world
  
• fixed a bug in the jealous husband quest when you ask a lady about information
  
• fixed missing skills of slingers
  
• fixed a script error when a settlement the player has captured is granted to someone else
  
• fixed prosperity description of forts: it says now forts not towns
  
• removed an unnecessary trigger of the rest improves moral code, some other changes to the 'rest improves moral' code (may needs to be tweaked, is now much harsher than before)
  
• removed an unnecessary party
  
• excluded kingdom ladies from some loops, which increases world map performance a bit
  
• added missing village elders, which might caused unexpected bugs
  
• moved Lilybeaum
  
• probably found the bug which randomly damages players party: Fires, diseases and attacks of rebels against town/castle garrisons causes causalities to the garrison, but also to all parties attached to the town/castle, I changed it so that only the garrison is effected, not the parties in it
  
• if gwenhyfar is married by the player, she will either join the faction of the player or if the player has no faction, she will join the Caledonian faction (later when the player joins a faction she will also join that faction)
  
• letting youe companions lead their own party should now work correctly (the mistake in the code may had weird side effects, which are now fixed)
  
• fixed a (weird) bug in the 'companions rejoin' trigger
  
• fixed controversy becoming negative sometimes, which had bad side effects
  
• fixed messed up faction slots (faction provocations, war damage inflicted, truce days with factions), which was the cause for weird diplomatic situations: e.g. Scythia and Frisi are provoking each other, which shouldn't be possible, since they aren't neighbors!
  
• removed snow in deserts (when it was winter)
  
• fixed a bug at the game start, which may also caused lord parties to suffer attrition
  
• fixed bug with detach parties code in camp menu
  
• fixed a script error in barracks menu when there was no lord assigned to the center
  
• fixed castle prosperity at game start: it is now correctly initialized
  
• fixed companion party not joining you in battle
  
• fixed companion party being ignored by the CAI (depends on aggression level of companion party)
  
• fixed bug when player is taken prisoner on sea
  
• optimized sea battles a bit: crashes should now be less common
  
• fixed/changed sea battle scene, hopefully no one gets stuck now
  
• fixed/added missing triggers to the sea battle mission template
  
• fixed a bug when you imprison a lord as emperor
  
• fixed a some bugs with reassignment of legions
  
• added a missing sound
  fixed tones of messed up slots, probably this had strange side effects which should now be fixed
  
• fixed some collision meshes of trees and bushes
  
• fixed probably the bug which caused towns/castles to change factions: The problem occurred when a town/castle was sacked by the player without conquering it, it should now be fixed.

You are one impressive modder, you know that? A lot of the minor stuff, like Lilybaeum's position, I mentioned in passing I figured would, at best, go into your long-term "to do someday" list, but instead much of it is already here. Thanks for putting so much passion into this mod!

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

You are one impressive modder, you know that? A lot of the minor stuff, like Lilybaeum's position, I mentioned in passing I figured would, at best, go into your long-term "to do someday" list, but instead much of it is already here. Thanks for putting so much passion into this mod!

I dont like long do to lists.
Btw, I guess you read the whole changelog, thats nice

Originally posted by BGMaxi:

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

You are one impressive modder, you know that? A lot of the minor stuff, like Lilybaeum's position, I mentioned in passing I figured would, at best, go into your long-term "to do someday" list, but instead much of it is already here. Thanks for putting so much passion into this mod!

I dont like long do to lists.
Btw, I guess you read the whole changelog, thats nice

I did now, and there's even more impressive stuff there. Originally I posted just from 5-minute impressions of starting a new game.

Interesting changelog and yes, I read it whole. I am glad you dealt with NPCs calling my male characters my lady/laddie - I felt really uneasy when I read that!
Otherwise, I agree competely with BanDHMO - you are impressive modder Maxi, and very hardworking! By honesty your mod deserves better rating than it has now!

I have to say, the mounted ballista is turning out to be even more fun than I thought, despite not working how I imagined it would. The lowered damage makes it not too well-suited for horse-killing, and the shield piercing, while it works sometimes, also often results in either low or no damage. So it is not a slow-firing devastating field artillery I imagined it would be. HOWEVER, its much higher accuracy than I imagined and reasonable reload rate make it a very capable siege weapon. The accuracy and trajectory allow shots only slightly inferior to what a good bowman can do, but the shield piercing is great when enemies are standing with shields up, even if it only wounds. More importantly, it can hold aim without degrading quickly like a bow does, which allows for popping out from around corners and firing, before retreating into cover to reload. It feels closer to a modern firefight in the city.

In the field, too, it's not useless by any means. Like a mounted bowman, you can ride by a mass of enemies and fire into it, causing some damage. Unlike a bow, this sometimes works even if they are facing you with shields.

So, it may not be all that much more powerful than a specialized bow in expert hands overall, but it's definitely a lot of fun, which means you struck the right balance.

Also, I'm very happy with how the two-letters-province-in-settlement-names thing turned out. I have yet to find a place where it would be bad enough to give me pause. Mostly, it's just funny in a couple of dialogs, where it seems unnecessary. Like "I'm a merchant here in Rome (IT)", yeah, we are in Rome, you don't have to mention where in the world it is, merchant, lol. But things like that are not exactly bad, just funny until you get used to it, and the plus side feels huge: I can now tell exactly what's going on in any message, see where legates with their legions are stationed. Even messages about other kingdoms make sense. "<Somenamevillage> has been given to <Somelordname>" is meaningless spam, but "<Somenamevillage> (AR) has been given to <Somelordname>" leads to an "Ah, interesting, somebody conquered something in Armenia, I should take a look". Glad you did this.

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

I have to say, the mounted ballista is turning out to be even more fun than I thought, despite not working how I imagined it would. The lowered damage makes it not too well-suited for horse-killing, and the shield piercing, while it works sometimes, also often results in either low or no damage. So it is not a slow-firing devastating field artillery I imagined it would be. HOWEVER, its much higher accuracy than I imagined and reasonable reload rate make it a very capable siege weapon. The accuracy and trajectory allow shots only slightly inferior to what a good bowman can do, but the shield piercing is great when enemies are standing with shields up, even if it only wounds. More importantly, it can hold aim without degrading quickly like a bow does, which allows for popping out from around corners and firing, before retreating into cover to reload. It feels closer to a modern firefight in the city.

In the field, too, it's not useless by any means. Like a mounted bowman, you can ride by a mass of enemies and fire into it, causing some damage. Unlike a bow, this sometimes works even if they are facing you with shields.

So, it may not be all that much more powerful than a specialized bow in expert hands overall, but it's definitely a lot of fun, which means you struck the right balance.

Also, I'm very happy with how the two-letters-province-in-settlement-names thing turned out. I have yet to find a place where it would be bad enough to give me pause. Mostly, it's just funny in a couple of dialogs, where it seems unnecessary. Like "I'm a merchant here in Rome (IT)", yeah, we are in Rome, you don't have to mention where in the world it is, merchant, lol. But things like that are not exactly bad, just funny until you get used to it, and the plus side feels huge: I can now tell exactly what's going on in any message, see where legates with their legions are stationed. Even messages about other kingdoms make sense. "<Somenamevillage> has been given to <Somelordname>" is meaningless spam, but "<Somenamevillage> (AR) has been given to <Somelordname>" leads to an "Ah, interesting, somebody conquered something in Armenia, I should take a look". Glad you did this.

I am glade to hear that!

The other thing I'm really liking is the senate mechanics. Backroom dealings is fun, and having a speaker speaking during this time, and you not even caring what he is saying as you persuade and bribe senators is a nice touch. :) The armed guards inside the room feel a bit out of place, though. Maybe it's just me. Also, the events have been fun so far. Sending your troops in civilian dress to have a "talk" with somebody who's trying to swindle one of your poor clients is just so Roman, lol. And illustrates the theory vs practice of the Pomerium. Sure, you are not a general, and your troops are not soldiers when you are in, but they are still tough men and still loyal to you, and damn right this is a force to be reckoned with, even in civilian clothes and armed with stones, fists and clubs.