a standing army modifier - input needed

[unmerged(84033)]

Okay, since we all know standing armies were the exception rather than the rule in antiquity (before Marius and all that), I'm thinking about coding a country modifier that gives a small but meaningful penalty to countries that keep their armies when at peace.

The trigger would be:

- at peace
- mean time to happen: two months (Question 1: does this soud reasonable?)
- have an army (Question 2: how does the game check this?)

Possible effects could be:

- a penalty to trade income --> your farmers and artisans are in the army
- greater attraction for the populist party --> think Sulla (Question 3: how do I code this?)
- (Question 4: Is it possible to make the hashness of the penalty relative to the size of your amy?
- (Question 5: any other proposals?)

As you can see, I'm only taking my first steps into modding this game, so any help or input is appreciated.

 

[unmerged(84033)]

On second thought, maybe I should limit my "standing army penalty" to republics like Rome and Carthage. After some source checking, it seems that most hellenistic countries began to field professional armies from the 5th century BC onwards, and certainly after Alexanders campaign in the east.

So methinks I will add CAR or ROM tags to the trigger.

The only effect I'm more or less sure of at this time, is a 3 % increase in populist attraction.

 

[Descartes]

Question 2 - "Any owned" has "units in province"
Question 3 - You can't, unless you give the populist leader a special extra title with senate influence
Question 4 - I've never tried it, but I suppose "army size percentage" should do the trick

I think your concept is pretty historical, but as I see it, there are two major issues:
- It's annoying from the player's perspective to disband and recruit armies every year
- The AI won't be able to handle it

 

[unmerged(84033)]

Thanks for your input, Descartes!

Question 3 - You can't, unless you give the populist leader a special extra title with senate influence

Hmm, that's a bummer. But... since the 2.2 patch (maybe before) I have seen modifiers like "huge army" giving the military party a 5% increase in attraction. How does this work then, I wonder?

I think your concept is pretty historical, but as I see it, there are two major issues:
- It's annoying from the player's perspective to disband and recruit armies every year
- The AI won't be able to handle it

Well, I've thought about this too. But most players probably won't disband and recruit their armies every time. Instead, they will just learn to live (and cope) with the small penalty. That's what I always do when playing Magna Mundi anyway. But if one wants to play things more historical, now the player has an extra incentive to do so.

I suspected the AI wouldn't be very good at this. I considered making it a player only thingie. But since most players won't disband, and it will only be a Rome/Carthage modifier anyway, the overall impact won't be too severe, I guess.

 

[Phi]

You can look at the triggered modifiers of Magna Mundi for EU3. There you get an negative modifier on manpower and morale depending on your army size (not depending on your relative army size, since this favours big countries).

 

[unmerged(84033)]

I've made a first draft of the modifier. I dropped the mean time to happen. I also made being a republic one of the requirements. Any comments (on code syntaxis or the general idea of the modifier) are more than welcome!

Thanks Phi for the morale drop idea. I should have checked MM indeed!

standing_army = {
	trigger = {
		war = no
		has_civil_war = no
		NOT = { idea = legionary_military_system }	# the abstraction of marius' reforms, creating "professional" armies
		or = {
			government = military_republic
			government = aristocratic_republic
			government = oligarchic_republic
			government = democratic_republic
			government = republic_confederacy	# tribes, dictatorships, hellenistic monarchies or empires have less reserves against standing armies 
		}
		any_owned_province = {
			units_in_province = 1	
			}
		}
	}
	ruler_popularity_gain = -0.01
	land_morale = -0.15
	stability_cost = +0.1
	icon = 10

 

[unmerged(84033)]

Could someone take a look?

I've coded two events and a modifier before, and they all worked like a charm. But this one refuses to behave.

I've put a description in my localistation folder, but my code seems to be wrong. This is what I get:

I've tried a zillion different things, but I can't figure it out.

Here is my revised code for the triggered modifier.

standing_armies = {
	trigger = {
		war = no
		has_civil_war = no
		any_owned_province = { units_in_province = 1 }
		or = {
			government = military_republic
			government = aristocratic_republic
			government = oligarchic_republic
			government = democratic_republic
			government = republic_confederacy
		}
		not = { idea = legionary_military_system }		
	}
	land_morale = -0.1
	stability_cost = +0.08
	icon = 2
}

Could someone PLEASE help me? I'm going bananas. :wacko:

 

[Lofman]

I'm not sure what exactly causes this, but the + is not necessary. It may just be it, since it looks ok apart from that.

 

[unmerged(84033)]

Thanks for your suggestion, Lofman, but i've tried without the + and it's still bogged up.

Strange indeed, because everything else seems to work.

 

[Descartes]

You're not supposed to use any_owned_province, it's any_province. Don't worry, it still triggers for your own provinces only.

 

[unmerged(84033)]

Et voilà, it works!

Thanks a lot, Descartes, you're a miracle worker.

I disbanded my armies to test, and the modifier went away indeed. Magic, really.