This comment touches on some of what @hangmandoyle86 said as well as the newly added description (which is much appreciated intro to some new mechanics and goal of the mod).
First, I think this mod is great and probably the best chance for a meaningful Vcoast campaign outside of future official content.

Vanilla Vcoast are so punished by attempting to make a land empire via economic hamstrings and terrible diplomacy options that the only really viable, and perhaps thematic, way to play them is as an aggressive raiding faction. Even then, their land AND raiding economy is still worse than other dominant raiding factions, like the Dark Elves, Greenskins, etc. To mitigate this, coves are an option. But even assuming they provided good value (and they dont) it introduces a new problem; perpetual war with ai factions that you dont want to destroy, for fear of losing coves, yet cant entirely ignore because of anti-player bias.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥'s (new ogre dlc character with an unfortunate name)campaign addressed this side-effect by imputing the diplomacy penalty for war to a different faction. You can play an entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ campaign only using ogre camps, being hyper aggressive through contracts, and never get war declared on you through traditional means. I think Vcoast can benefit from a similar playstyle.

I think a potential mechanic to apply here would be to allow Vcoast to force diplomacy using infamy as a resource. You "intimidate" other factions into peace, but in the process, "lose" some of your infamy-generating credibility. High Elves have their influence mechanic that achieves similar results. I dont know if its possible to add this in, but i think its worth some thought. The cost can be high to still make faction relations relevant, meaning you need to be strategic about who you declare war on.

In Re the actual value of coves, I like the current mod's take on coves that are unique to each LL. it still needs more polishing, at least for Noc, but the promise is there. Nevertheless, I dont think the choice of coves should be 1 economy choice and then everything else. This essentially forces the player to only build the econ choice for the reasons described above, or some other necessary cove, like hero capacity. Instead, i think each building should "skim" some money from the port, providing some value each that on aggregate, can equal a full viable economy together with raiding. It can be as simple as each cove building, in addition to other effects, makes ~100 gold. it can also be more creative; each cove gets a % of the factions trade income, simulating pirates stealing goods while encouraging the player to take on wealthy and dangerous enemies.

I prefer this combo to the mod's current system of encouraging war through bounties. for one, the bounty values need addressing (on turn 20 or so, Gor Rok had an 80k bounty that i got). Additionally, its a rather blunt motivator to fight especially considering the thematic lapse of pirates being bounty hunters for [someone].

rewritten by grok haha:

Last to first-

80k in infamy or gold? The formula’s tricky to balance, so I need more context about what’s going on. I don’t see an issue with the bounty system—it’s the mod’s most thematic element, tied to killing infamous factions while factoring in how many factions stand between you and the target. Sure, getting random money from bounties feels off, but the infamy aspect is spot-on. It’s all about infamy.

Here’s the updated formula (tweaked 3 days ago):

local multiplier = turn_number / 20
local factions_between = own_strength - enemy_strength - 1
local factions_between_payout = ((factions_between * 110) * ((4 + turn_number) / 10))
local relative_payout = (12000 * (factions_between + 2)) / number_of_factions
local scaling_relative_payout = relative_payout * multiplier
local final_infamy = math.floor(scaling_relative_payout + factions_between_payout)

Own_strength and enemy_strength are faction rankings (1 = highest).

On coves: they shouldn’t give money. I only added that because I ran out of ideas, it’s boring and not interactive. Stealing from trade routes works thematically, though I’m not sure it’s moddable. Money shouldn’t be an issue anyway—post-battle loot is boosted by nearly 70% baseline, and bounties probably make you rich. Still, I’ll make money options more engaging. Maybe start with a small leech value that grows with each cove. If I set it to 50%, you’d just plop coves in 5 rich spots and never worry about cash again—like in vanilla, which gets old fast.

Golguy’s campaign? Boring as hell. Quit after 10 turns. Factions don’t jump you, but that’s not his feature—it’s because ogres have a lower AI priority as a 'neutral' race. Contracts suck, especially the free diplomacy pass. As pirates, you shouldn’t be anyone’s errand boy or wait for some faction’s enemy to greenlight your raids.

i like the intimidation part though ..Intimidation could fix most of this. I’ll try adding something like that."

Thanks Grok lol
80k gold (not infamy, though it was also a lot of that, but not an absurd amount) on turn 20-something, 7ish days ago. Messed up the economy for early game. I agree bounty rewarding infamy makes sense--rewarding gold does not (who is paying us for the "bounty?" are we not just "stealing" the gold?). Some of this comes down to perhaps that "bounty" is the wrong word for this. I agree with faction-wide post battle loot buffs. maybe just integrate the bounty gold into the post battle loot system by continuing to raise battle loot buffs.

Coves were a thematic substitute for a lackluster land economy. it gave the illusion of a sea empire w/o committing to the idea that pirates are building castles in the deserts/jungles etc. Its uninteractive in the same sense as Skaven undercities are uninteractive. I disagree here. I think most Vcoast players like the concept of coves, but wish they were better implemented. Having coves serves a quasi-empire building function that can provide unique collateral benefits to each Vcoast LL and encourage war outside of a Mo' Money justification. Thats why i feel it has value as an element in the Vcoast. Trust your vision though, after all you're the mod author.

I fear a faction that only really does war would get boring quickly. Golg has that kind of problem, but his campaign is only an issue because its far too easy and selling cities to clients rewards far too much money (on VH/H i had 200k gold in turn 40 something--that indicates a value problem, not a mechanic problem per se). Plus their horde mechanic relies on meat and not gold/growth. They are objectively the more powerful horde faction in every sense.

And just to clarify, Vcoast should be at war fairly often/get war declared on them. They absolutely should not have a contract system. I meant to say that Golg not having to worry about every contract-made enemy turn perma-hostile on him makes his campaign workable. Vcoast has the opposite problem. in all my campaigns with Vcoast, I've only ever had 2 factions accept peace. once you start a war, you either have to have a ship at your Capitol to intercept every enemy, or commit to a land campaign against them, which is incredibly unthematic. An yep, force peace solves this problem pretty much entirely.

Thanks for taking the suggestions.

I'm assuming this is meant to be activated only when playing as the stinky water zombos, but it seems to cause issues with the Chaos Dwarves and their forge, among other things.

yes, dont play other races when using this mod
please read the faq

Started experiencing a couple minor bugs in my Luthor campaign. Had a few mods installed (MCT and Mixu's) so figured I'll do it the proper way. I uninstalled all mods except this one, and the audio pack. This bug happened regardless; I am unable to recruit any "Tides of Death" units. Some of their unit caps start in the negative, and even if i purchase the unit upgrade, the cap doesn't change.

In addition, Some army abilities don't work on my end, such as Sartosa Grapeshot. It casts, I see the bullets in the sky, and they disappear before they hit the ground and no units are damaged.

I do LOVE this mod. Im so invested. If im messing something up plz lmk i wanna experience all this mod has to offer!

tides of death is per unit per faction
even same units in different factions have different restrictions and factors
so i need to know which units exactly and which faction
that being said i can already say noctilus and aranessa are both highly wip in that area
i need to finish the tech lords for luthor and then ill get to them

regarding the caps, i think it is explained both in the feature and in the mod text
if the cap is a negative, it means its infinite and the cap dosent increase with purchase
if there is a cap, it does increase
both ways, it should spawn that unit to your tides of death unit recruitment panel
some units are recruitable for a very specific lord are still on the panel, these are "lord specific" units. units like that are meant to be used only on one lord but i wanted to give a limited option for other lords to recruit them
example:
el matador can recruit cursed units freely from his shipubilding
he does not allow others to recruit from his shipbuilding, and he cant exchange units
because i dont like a final NO on other lords having that unit, i allowed it to appear on the panel, the prices increases every time you recruit it
some units are 100% recruitable in normal ways and still appear on the panel, its good for the purpose of fast spawning
some untis are not recruitable in normal ways and appear on the panel, so basically, they are special

about the abilities
sartosa grapeshot, norse roar and the last one are vanilla abilities
these are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ vanilla abilities
i believe i tried to remove them but if you see them it means i didnt
do you know from where you got them? can you find from where the effect comes?

ok i found it
these abilities will be removed next update
btw they are replaced by way better abilities, spread out to many lords
especially seabound lords

Originally posted by 999999999999:

ok i found it
these abilities will be removed next update
btw they are replaced by way better abilities, spread out to many lords
especially seabound lords

Apologies i didnt get back sooner, work and stuff. Thank you so much for your reply! The explanation for Tides of Death also matches up with my gameplay experience, so thanks for that as well.

All the best!

Nice mod! You really put a lot of effort into it. The new units are great, especially the flying ships, they look amazing.

For the campaign mechanics I have to say I feel like something nicer can be done with the pirate cove system. Now it's all primarily focussed on reducing costs for the use of 'tattered sails effects' I have to say I am not a huge fan of the tattered sails feature. But maybe that is just me. Nevertheless having a couple of pirate cove buildings that would do different things seems immersive to me. Pirate cove building that would have an effect on 'raiding income', 'post battle loot', 'infamy' seem like a nice idea to me. Although I noticed you already have a building that increases the income from raiding I believe. Perhaps pirate cove buildings that would have an effect on your armies in that sea region would also be nice. Like a 'cause terror effect' and obvious things like increased leadership, attack and defence stats

I do have to play a bit more campaign with your mod to really know what it needs to be further improved. Hope you appreciate the feedback and if you disagree then don't hesitate to tell me.

I dont remember how it is for Noctilus but i can tell you he's not even close to being finished and most of his shticks are placeholders
if i were you i would avoid everyone and stick to Luthor Harkon
his campaign is 95% finished and you can still confederate noctilus and the rest

oh and about the coves
noctilus' coves were made very early on
each faction has its own 12 coves
so try Luthor and tell me if you like his coves

Ah alright, I'll try Luthor's campaign then, thanks!

Just gave it a sneak peak, already looks so much more polished and refined haha. I'll definitely go and play your Luthor campaign soon.

Btw, maybe you should mention in the description that only Luthor's campaign is finished. And maybe some nicer screenshots ;) This mod could be more popular for what it offers

Luthor is not finished, just the closest to being finished
and it is mentioned, in the tldr part