Rebalanced Trickster Cults & Mechanics

The building screenshots are only of the fully upgraded buildings in each building chain, or those with significant changes to note. Some images of the scheme rewards have been uploaded as well.

This mod is a work-in-progress, but is playable.
– Rebalanced cult building effects.
– Parasitic cult buildings no longer hide armies.
– Military cult buildings no longer hide armies.
– Symbiotic cult buildings offer significant bonuses to the settlement owner.
– Parasitic and Military cult buildings generate much more Discoverability.
– Channeling stance hides armies at the cost of a 25% movement penalty.
– Added 5/10/20% chance (per turn) to reveal local Trickster Cults to all vanilla Protection building chain buildings.
– *The Changeling is rewarded when unlocking a new transformation.
– *Cults are razed when the settlement is razed, either partially, entirely, or not at all.
– *Forts and Gates may only have single slot cults.
– *Random starting position for The Changeling. (Here is a standalone mod for this feature.)
– Added occupation option to Sack a settlement without creating a Trickster Cult.
– *25 alternate minor schemes that are typically more challenging and rewarding, with more to come.
– *Shuffled minor scheme reward effects, for more challenge and/or replay value.
* Optional via MCT

I recommend changing MCT settings for this mod in the Main Menu before starting a new campaign, as some settings are only applied at the start of a new campaign.

I felt that The Changeling’s trickster cults were too unbalanced for multiplayer play, so this is my attempt at rebalancing them. With this rebalance The Changeling is a bit more challenging to play, but I find it more rewarding this way. With this mod, cult buildings that reduce Discoverability do so in a way that benefits the faction that owns the settlement, with reduced gains for The Changeling (such is the price of playing it safe). Cult buildings that harm the settlement owner, or provide more aggressive gains to The Changeling, do so at a higher Discoverability cost. I’ve also tried to make all the scheme rewards more enticing and worthwhile.

The general idea is that cults that are impossible for players to find are likely granting significant bonuses to the player anyway, so they’re less of a problem. Though The Changeling is still virtually impossible to be rid of entirely, unless he’s played very poorly.

– Deceiver’s Diplomacy – A more interesting and engaging High Elf Intrigue mechanic.
– Improved Grand Scheme quest battles, and rewards.

– There is a vanilla bug where removing a Cult or Outpost will remove the option for armies to recruit from that region, until the army leave that region/province and returns. This has been reported to CA a couple times already.

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any issues, questions, or suggestions. I’m curious to know how others feel about the balance and the campaign over all. Also, if you notice any bugs please mention it in the comments. I’m not able to play an entire campaign to test each update, and I’d appreciate the help, thanks!