Does this mod work with extended timeline's idea system?
Also awesome mod!

In short? No. However, it can certainly be done. I took a try at it myself, but it's kind of hack-ish and not made into its own addon mod.

Extended Timeline took some work for me to get it compatible. What I did was go into ET's "Technologies" folder and look at adm.txt, so it has the same number of idea slots as this mod adds to vanilla, but I spaced them out starting at adm tech 50, which is the year 1466 in the game.

ET normally only allows its "early" idea groups up until you unlock adm tech 50. To restrict the new idea groups the same way, you have to go into those custom ideas and add the flag that ET uses, and place it in the trigger for the idea. The flag is "adm_tech = 50", or whatever adm level you want to allow the full idea groups at.

I'm not sure it's the best for balance, but it works for me at least. In ET, you have access to the 'real' idea groups at adm tech 50, so it seems like a logical place to start unlocking new idea slots. Then I space them out ever 2 or 3 levels. There's a lot more timespan between tech levels in Extended Timeline, but with these settings it feels pretty good to me.

Of course, you need to make sure the defines file for each mod won't conflict in settings.

NOTE: I'm not guaranteeing that my method makes the compability to be completely bug-free. I may be forgetting about a small conflict in decisions or ideas.

You might want to compare the idea files for both mods to make sure any conflicts are resolved. ET adds its extra trigger to the vanilla idea groups, but I don't think it changes anything else.

When making that into an addon mod, just use the files from ET as a base before applying the changes found in The Idea Variation.

FINAL NOTE: In my playthrough I haven't reached past year 1600 yet, so I'm not sure if there are enough idea slots to support that long of a game session, but 20 seems like it should be fine, including the 4 early slots that you have before adm tech 50.

@ZakTheFallen: If you have already invested some work in making it compatible with Extended Timeline, why don't you upload a compatibility patch? Or if you don't really know how to do it you could send me the files you changed. Full credit would go to you of course. But the work really doesn't need to be done twice if you already did something.

Hey Flogi could you do a compatch for this 1356 mod? https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169289951

Originally posted by Ograe:

Hey Flogi could you do a compatch for this 1356 mod? https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169289951

I played a while with that mod and Idea Variation. Hamburg had so many spare points that he developed Hamburg itself to 58 development.

Nvm, it was 61 development. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/270589293979476232/E62D446104C30A9DAA5F48C5A1C3C9E931C237C5/
He had ALOT of spare points.

Hi. Guys. I'll post this here as well as it is very topic related. There's a compatibility addon for Extended Timeline now!

Originally posted by Jordedude1234:

Nvm, it was 61 development. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/270589293979476232/E62D446104C30A9DAA5F48C5A1C3C9E931C237C5/
He had ALOT of spare points.

He had so many points because when you run the two mods together the Idea Variation reduces the cost of ideas but the 1356 mod limits idea groups to just 10.Hence, the need for the compatch.

Can this be made compatible with the Extended Vanilla Experience? I like its opposing ideas system, but also like all of what this offers.

@Storywalker4: Therea already is a compatibility mod for Extended Timeline. You can find it in the workshop or in my collection for EU IV and Idea Variation.

Originally posted by flogi:

@Storywalker4: Therea already is a compatibility mod for Extended Timeline. You can find it in the workshop or in my collection for EU IV and Idea Variation.

He means the Extended Vanilla Experience mod.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=196181867

Ah thanks for clarifying. I'm not sure that this mod and the Extended Experience could be made compatible without removing on one or the other side. Thats always a difficult task as well as people might like feature A in this mod better and feature B in the other.
Not sure if a satisfying solution could be achieved here.

Could you possibly put all the compatibility patches in the original post at the top? It would streamline the process for people who don't know where to look.

@Jorde: Very good idea. Done :)

Could you make a patch for "Nation Designer Extender: Unlimited" by Xylozi to add idea groups for the new religions that come with the custom nations.