No Independents - Modded Solution
 

Since quite a few people here do not read the mod forum too regularly, yet still play SP games, they might be interested in a mod that eliminates most independent units as recruitables, thus eliminating the massive chaff hordes so beloved by the AI. With the AI forced to rely on its own national units, one should start seeing more powerful armies composed of national units without the need to resort to NI (No Independents) maps and the attendant total lack of independent mages and consequent truncated magical expansion and research options.

Linky

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

Excellent! I've started playing on NI maps and I really like the armies the AI builds, but I've missed the extra magic paths. Thanks for thinking of this!

-Max

P.S. The other thing I like is the extra strategic constraint on troop-building and fort-building. It's kind of cool to have to worry about the research cost of making a fort-builder and to have no way to replenish chaff deep in enemy territory without taking a fort or building a lab and summoning. (And also to know that the enemy operates under the same constraints.)

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

First version did not work due to overly big numbers. Has now been fixed.

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

It turns out that the respource cost increase did not work due to the way the AI handles recruitment priorities (it uses unmodded values, hence tries to produce units it can't ever get out the door). So I have tried a new solution, increasing the gold cost of undesirable units to 9000. Except Militia #18 since you can get that from events, of course.

Download links are in the original mod forum thread, if you're interested in testing this out.

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

Links in the mod forum thread fixed, they stopped working for some reason. I need to have a few words with my ISP...

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

It seems to be working pretty well in my test game using the Amos Insect mod; I faced a nice army of dual-wielding Ulmians and a good mix of F9/Nsomething blessed Burning Ones so far. Much better than piles of Deer Tribe Warriors.

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

I haven't downloaded the gcost version, but the resource version is still working quite well for me. Actually the game seems a lot harder than ever before and I'm considering backing down from Impossible for a while. AI research is higher than mine, wonder of wonders, and I'm worrying about how to handle the army of illithids parked on my doorstep while I fight off an invasion of T'lan Imass and finish crushing LA Agartha. Lovin' it.

-Max

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

What's this T'lan Imass of yours Max? Have you posted them on the Mods forum? I've not seen them.

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

I haven't posted them. They're really still just a sketch of a nation, one unit type and two commanders, probably not balanced against vanilla. They're taken from the Malazan books by Steven Erikson, though, and Kristoffer has said he is "quite fond" of the books and that the Imass are, in fact, alluded to in the Unfrozen spell description. 300,000-year-old Neanderthal zombies with a genocidal grudge against a magically powerful race of tyrants (who really weren't all that bad) that they've already mostly wiped out. The most interesting game features are that they have high natural Protection and can turn to dust at will (= flying, maybe stealth) as well as having high hit points but never healing. (They get cut to pieces in the books but just keep on going, missing limbs and all, until you damage them sufficiently to break their connection to the Ritual of Tellann. Then the other Imass bury them under a rock or something and forget about them while the damaged ones think dead thoughts about futility. Or you can dissolve them in the ocean, which really and truly kills them.)

Probably most interesting to those who are already fans of the Malazan books. If there is sufficient interest I will polish them up and release them, but for now it's just a bit of flavor for my SP games.

-Max

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

Sounds more like ethereal / mistform?

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

No, they have to resolidify in order to fight. It's used as a mode of transportation, and quick retreat from battle when overwhelmed. It would be better if flying made them disappear for a turn before reappearing on the battle map, but that's just how flying works in Dom3.

BTW, with the NI mod I'm seeing LA Agartha build a fair number of Cave Knights and fair numbers of Umbrals (15+ umbrals vs. maybe 10 Cave Knights and 100 regular troops). I don't know how much of an improvement that is over the "regular" AI but supposedly the AI hasn't usually summoned large numbers of Umbrals.

-Max

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

Wouldn't getting rid of independents like that make it even harder for water nations to get on land and viceversa?

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

One of the advantages of the modded solution over the map solution is that selected independents can be left in the game. Ichthyids are still in the game. Some kind of tritons are still in, and mermen are in. It's a little bit harder to get into the water because you have to hope that you get recruitable mermen in the first couple of provinces, but, well, the improvement in the AI's performance makes it worth it in my eyes.

-Max

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

The same could be done with maps if its by poptype. You can only assign certain poptypes to the game. Probably easiest if done my a program to modify the .map file but we already have about a dozen of those so its no big thing. Or do you mean breaking it down within poptype? One that offers 3 troops and one commander, you want to remove one troop type?

Seperate question:
What about the game settings? Not as extreme but easier for someone to try. Apparently the mod that changed resource costs didnt help? So playing the game at 50% resources wouldnt affect the AIs choice of troops?

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

We would need poptype modding for that, Gandalf. Then we could get rid of the pesky types and only have decent indies. Of course, the AI would still recruit them and we'd get the faceless indie horde of <insert nation name here>.

This mod will make things more difficult for water nations that do not have amphibious troops, but I do not play them very much and the land nations get more play. Not all the indies are disabled either, you still get the good heavy infantry and cavalry, for example.

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

Gandalf,

True, you could assign poptypes, but then you'd have to assign indies as well and re-randomize every game, whereas the NI maps just take the braindead approach of assigning invalid poptypes to every province. It is the NI map approach I was referring to as the "map solution."

Edi,

The AI seems to recruit only small numbers of e.g. ichthyids under the resource mod, so maybe you wouldn't get a faceless indie horde if you only assigned recruitable poptypes to e.g. 15% of the map. Overall I like the modded solution better, though.

-Max

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

The No Independents mod has been updated, details in the mod subforum thread.

Re: No Independents - Modded Solution
 

The independent improvement mod has been updated. See the mod forum thread for details.