pls update

Yes, you are free to fork it provided you give credit per CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (aka make no money and give credit for what ever portion you use).

When our youngest kid gets into school I hope to return to this project but that will not be for another year.

If you want to fix things but keep it under this name, I'm willing to accept fixes and expansions from someone who has time currently. Give me a PM and we can figure out how.

I guess this is abandoned?

wasnt saharan more advanced than ethiopia?

You should give Ethiopia bonus Events when Westernizing to reflect they're openness and interaction with western christian countries

The game crashes when the mod is run

Cool, this is one of the best mods in Europa however after being a way for a while and getting back into Europa I noticed the update and the previously mentioned issue. But there is another. During game play at a certain date the game crashes. To get around it I started new games but the same thing. Gameplay is fine and suddenly it just crashes an a particular date. Each game the date changes but it still crashes, its like hitting a wall. It first happened while playing as Songhai, the event about Musa Mansa or another famous person building a famous place and then it would crash instantly after that.

I got around it by playing as another nation until the event passed and then going back to Songhai but then it crashed again, way into the game. But changing nation or starting all the way from scratch again with a new game or nation makes no difference sooner or later the “wall” attacks. As this has never happened before im thinking that an update from this mod may be clashing. Is anyone else having this problem? Is their a way to download previous versions of this mood or to solve any compatibility issues with other mods? In relation to the Muslim units, it might be better to use units closer to or the same as in the east African tech group. Think the cav units are fine the way they are.

Latest update includes patch 1.3.1 and Muslim descriptions for the Saharan shared units. This was done by duplicating the Muslim units but changing the game id names but keeping the display names the same. This results in the game keeping track of them seperately but from the player's perspective they look the same.

One thing I'm not sure about with the patch 1.3.1 changes that I'd like to get some feedback on is the new Sub-Saharan cav units. I'm tempted to remove them as with the new groups the Sub-Saharan states remaining in the game are ones that inhabit the Tsetse fly region and did not have horse armies.

Thank you for the bug report. I had my first chance to game today since i started my new job and I saw your comment. This bug was not showing up prior to this but I did verify that although the Muslim group troops seem to work for the AI they do not for the player.

I hope to have an update out in the next day or so that will resolve the issue. I've done an emergency patch for now that doubles the units but the names are just a few extra characters for the Saharan units.

I would strongly suggest that you replace Muslim units put into the Sahara tech group and instead add new units similar to the Muslim instead as in doing so you have removed all of the military units from the Muslim tech group…

I'm not certain about giving Mali the Saharan tech group. I've found that in most games this results in Songhai being conqured shortly after the game starts. I'm currently leaving them in the group and working on some events to add to increase their probability of colapse and loss of territory to Songhai.

However, this may take some time as I do not know much about the region except what is in Wikipedia. If you can provide some reasons and ideas for this I would apprecate it. If this is bothering those of you who play primarily in this area please say something and I will make further changes such as removing Mali from the Saharan tech group.

The reason some work and some don't is that most of the simple ones just change the start date allowed in the defines.lua file. This does not prevent anything except the core times/point cost and other balance tweaks that I've done from working. The tech group and units will still work.

I don't use an earlier start date mod myself but I could incorporate one if that is the wish of the subscribers. The good thing about the method that I'm thinking of is that it would allow those who wish to ignore it by using the default bookmark.

that’s odd, im using a mod that changes the start date and everything works fine, what i have noticed is that now my games crash as soon as it auto saves, this started a few days ago, could this be because of the new patch?

As his mod changes the start level of the base nations by changing that file and that file is the one that creates the new tech group this mod uses. EUIV seems to load in order of mod name so his will load before this mod.

The other change you will need to make is overwrite the mil.txt in his mod with the one from this mod. I do not see what changes he has made to his mil.txt that makes it different from the base game one. You need the one from this mod inorder to have the new units activate as mil.txt is the one that controls when units activate in game.

If you wanted to just start earlier to have more time then you can edit the defines.lua in this mod's directory to allow the earlier start date (change 1444 to 1399) but if you want more then the lite version of his mod you will need to edit the technology.txt in his mod to include the following after the other tech groups:

east_african = {
modifier = 0.65
start_level = 3
cav_to_inf_ratio = 0.33
power = -1
}

It's called, "1399 - An EUIV Timeline Extension Mod" by DanJonMin

My current focus is rewriting the mod to account for the 1.2 patch changes. If anyone has input on how the tech group change works for Songhai I would appreciate it.

I am thinking about making the flavor and name text to a more generic "Saharan" tech group to be used by Songhai, Mali, Kanem Bornu, and Ethiopia to reflect the non-Teste Fly region's use of horses and more advanced contact//conflicts with the game's "Muslim" tech group. However, I have not received any feedback about the Western African inclusion so I'm reluctant to expand to an area outside my direct research knowledge.

That is unfortunate. I had been avoiding expanding the time-line myself as I know I would not have time to flesh out all the information left out for the new nations and thought that would help it be more compatible.

Which time-altering mod did you attempt to use? I may be able to see if there is a way to integrate it easily that you could follow.

Well I figured it out. Thanks for the suggestion, Baen. I realized that a time-altering mod was causing the issue.

Anyone else who is reading this, don't run this mod with any other mod that sets your tech level before 3.

I have a few mods that enhance specific nations, but I don't think it messes with the tech at all. Would a GFX mod for units cause the problem?

What other mods do you use? I have no issue with is and you are the first to report this issue.

The most likely culprit would be another mod that changes the Military Tech tree. Unfortunately the only way to add units to EUIV is to modify the Military Tech tree which means that any mod which adds new units or otherwise modifies the Military tech tree will need to be manually merged to work.

I was playing as Ethiopia and early on in the game I noticed that I wasn't able to create any land units. I also noticed that there was no tech group displayed, yet my other African neighbor was able to create units. Maybe something you wouldn't mind looking into?

It doesn't look like anyone else ran into this problem, so maybe it is just a case of mod to mod incompatability..?

Right now there is a +1 Global RR for 10 years when forming either of the Union nations.

There is a Revolutionary Republic government union for a republic gov country to form and an Imperial Empire government union for a monarchy gov country.

If you hear about a method for changing a nations NI pool without changing their tag I would be interested in hearing about it. It would remove my hesitation to impose my imaginary historical ideas for the union nations. Given how far from our history a African Union country would have been I would feel more comfortable if I could give a choice to the player to pick a NI group that fits the path their country has taken in their mind to reach this point.

I also agree that the Ai integration is unnecessary, the ideas thing is interesting, what if their was a choice after forming the AU? Ultimately when nations begin to form larger ones like in Great Britton, the US or EU their policies/national ideas are brought into line with the ideas of the larger nation they are forming, this is what prevents them from disintegrating like the Soviet Union did. It might be best if the ideas change to the African Ideas Mod (which already has some similarities to Ethiopic ideas) if the AU is formed, although their should also be some temporary instability (similar to westernisation but less insane) to stimulate the social unrest that results in real life when national identities/ideas shift.

I did not integrate the AI Atitude portion of the Diplomacy mod as I personally like the greater challenge of the multi-player aimed AI. If those who subscribe feel otherwise please let me know.

So I've been playing with integrating the AI Attitude portion of Takedown47's Diplomacy mod and the results for observer games is a more pleaseing boarders and more historial fighting. However, when playing the game myself I find it less challenging as the AI is not as aggressive. It does not play like an expansionist human player that is bent on global domination. This makes things more historical but also less challenging for a human player who has that as their aim.

A question for those who are folowing this mod. Do you find the AI aggressive expansion to be bothersome or do you enjoy the extra challenge from counter-blobs?

I'm about to make another update with an Integration of the African Union mod (with a African Empire based upon Ethiopian National Ideas and an African Republic with NIs based upon the Ottoman NIs) and I am trying to decide if I should include the Better Diplomacy mod AI file.

Wow good work, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. Songhai seems good, perhaps Mali, Swahili and Kanem-Borno should be brought into the new tech group as their level of development was in the same vain as Ethiopia and Songhai being greater economically, administratively and militarily than the other African nations in the game. Militarily speaking the keeping up with the neighbour’s thing is so true, generally speaking these nations concerns were with not being invaded or dominated, rather than to dominate other nations and focused on economic and administrative development. The use of defensive heavy rather than attack heavy units shows this well. a tech speed slightly slower than the Muslim group would also reflects this well.

Nations have traditions like the Japanese tradition boosting discipline, traditions could be modified to include more economic and administration modifiers allowing one to show socioeconomic advancement without blanketing everything with bonuses which reduced tech costs would do. One of the most modern and comprehensive references I have seen is by a English history lecture called When We Ruled by Robin Walker. Within this book or a pdf version if available you will find all the information you could need for improving accuracy and game play. i can vouch for this book as I have a copy. its simple, concise and looks nice.

I considered a lower tech cost modifier but I rejected it because at least from the sources I have available there was not much innovation during this games time period. It was mostly adapting and following the advancements of the Muslims or others. From my understanding of the Paradox concept of Tech_groups this would be reflected in a slight lag in tech levels such that parity would be maintained under a good king but typically would result in a 1-2 level lag.

From the hands off observer games I've been running to test the mod at the current settings the AI Ethiopia is able to stay within a tech level or two of the neighboring Muslim states until near the end of the game period. This fits my goal of the AI following but not surpassing the neighbors.

Any Human player should be able to westernize before the end of the 16th Century (1599) and up till that point even the AI is keeping at a tech level parity with the nearby Muslim states in most of the games.

I'm still working on figuring out a way to allow for a higher tech level or easier advancement in one particular area (adm) while not at the same time advantaging such that the Ethiopian AI blobs the entire area.

I'm currently considering a mid-teen Mil Tech cavalry unit to address that gap but I've got to work on the balance as I find that with my current attempts I'm very frequently seeing the AI blob the entire area during the 17th Century if I put a mid-teen firearm cavalry in. I’m aiming for the AI to have expansion and contraction but never a firm blob. This should result in the Survival of the state as was historical while allowing a human player to dominate the region if they so wish.

Maybe the tech cost shoudnt be too harsh maybe more like 130%-150%, Ethiopians werent that backwards, at least not that ,uch more backwards than their muslim neighbors.

You may need to start EUIV several times after subscribing to the mod. I've noticed this myself when I am trying a new mod. I have to subscribe from within the game and then exit and restart EUIV (sometimes twice) before the new mod will show in the launcher.

The mod is not available when I boot up the game.

I think Mali/Songhai should be a part of the Muslim tech group, but their very decentralized government should be obvious to the player. The ruling Muslims have a majority pagan citizenry in most provences. That, if feel, can simulate the trouble they have organizing when facing the European explorers/conquistadors.

I've expanded it to include Songhai in the East_African group so you can test and tell me if it works well for them.

The other option is to make Songhai/Mali into the Muslim tech_group.

Suggested improvements:
East African improvements expanded to all Sub-Sahara tech group nations while maintaining the original tech group name and icon, production, tax and trade idea values increased to 10% for all Sub-Sahara tech group nations (excluding those without the idea of course), start at tech level 5, tech speed group = 170%

Justification:
This is such an important mood as most historically based games reflect people’s generally inaccurate ideas rather than historical reality and is part of a much needed reworking of the continent to reflect historical reality. The vanilla is inaccurate as you noticed and readdressed with Ethiopia.

All African notions shown used multiple cavalry and infantry types, although some lacked in firearms development (until westernisation) melee units were just as competent as Middle Eastern ones. They were technologically and economically powerful although less emphases was pleased on military development. Mali in the 14th century was technology advanced, it was the 2 largest empire and also the richest nation on earth with a strong trading tradition, it was the size Western Europe with huge precious metals mines.

Songhai which succeeded Mali grew to become larger than the total landmass of Europe in the 16th century, was technology powerful and ridiculously rich. By 1444 the Swahili had developed strong trading relations with the Ming bringing great wealth through trade and the list goes on. The African nations shown in UP4 historically speaking were characterised by heavily populated and industrialised cities with a substantial production, tax and trade base.

Also the economic and tech development of the African nations within EU4 was higher than any non African nations although the militarily was lacking which is what prompted interest form imperialist powers which should be reflected in their starting tech level. Having gone through many ‘golden ages’ Africa began to stagnate while other continents came out of their ‘dark ages’ and global power structure shifted during the games time range. To reflect this the tech speed of 170% is good, development became slow but was still better than the barbarian hordes. Over time the game play reflect reality with the world developing at a faster rate as Africa declines and is colonised.

If you have any help on getting the icon to work please let me know. I'm currently modding the directions for making a new religon from EU3 but working on the tech files that I've IDed so far such as tech_groups_strip.dds (modified using PS and the nvidia dds plugin)