Question: Does CBM work well with LlamaServer's MA mod nations (Arga Dis etc.)?

[Bananadine]

I'm starting a game and I'd like to use both CBM, and all four of the MA mod nations (Arga Dis, Skavenblight, Nehekhara, and Ogre Kingdoms) that LlamaServer indicates are balanced. But that's a lot of mod action, and I don't know much about mods, so I'm a little afraid that there will be some kind of clash. Will there be? Or will everything work fine if all five of these mods are used?

Particularly, I'm suspicious because some of the LA mod nations listed on LlamaServer--New Ulm, for instance--come in both CBM and non-CBM versions. Why is that? What is the difference between the two, and is it relevant to my situation?

[Sombre]

It's very suspicious. I wonder if we can get the author in here to account for his actions.

Meantime, I have some thoughts. While I haven't checked all the ids myself for a while, I do know that they /should/ be distinct for those mods and if they aren't, the author(s) will reorganise the ids if you find conflicts. I can check for you once I get home, but I don't know which versions of the mods are up on llamaserver - I only have the versions which are available in the individual thread for each mod.

The LA nations like Ulm Reborn, Sylvania, Sanguinia etc had CBM versions at one point for two reasons. Firstly because when they were created, CBM was not so commonly used as it is now, so making a version balanced to CBM standards and a version balanced to vanilla standards made sense (I don't believe it does any longer). Secondly because Sanguinia, Teutonia, Sylvania and Kharam Dzu were the work of Zepath done quite some time ago, when another modder updated them with what he considered improved balance, minor fixes and the like, he had to make sure they were distinct in name so as not to confuse people into thinking he was the original author. Since he balanced them to CBM standards because that's what he personally played with, it made sense to change the name in this way.

This modder no longer supports the CBM versions in any way, believing them to be confusing and annoying to update. Instead all his efforts are intended to be 100% compatible with CBM and he maintains his own balance which should work fine with either CBM or vanilla.

[llamabeast]

llamabeast wonders why Sombre is talking about himself in the third person.

[llamabeast]

Perhaps llamabeast should tidy up the mod list on the llamaserver at some point. However, if you see that any of the version numbers on there are out of date you can always upload the latest version yourself.

I believe there is one site that clashes between Ogres and Lizardmen isn't there? But basically I believe they are all compatible.

[Bananadine]

Is the basic question, then, that of whether there are ID clashes? That's the way two mods would be incompatible? Or are there other ways? (I'm mostly concerned about game-ruining problems here. Obviously there could be balance problems, but it's hard to imagine that a balance problem between CBM and a vanilla-balanced mod nation would be so extreme as to ruin a game.)

Llamabeast, are you suggesting that the ogre nation might be incompatible with C'tis? That sounds like a pretty big problem! But I have no idea what the consequences of it would be. Does the game crash because of these ID conflicts? What is the specific danger that I may be setting myself up for?

[Sombre]

Not with Ctis, with the Warhammer Lizardmen mod.

ID clashes can cause crashes, but usually they cause in game problems like a 10 gold recruitable infantry being replaced on the recruit screen with a 0 gold cost national hero brimming with magic and awesome stats. Stuff like that can obviously ruin a game quite quickly.

[Gregstrom]

If you want to check for ID clashes with (relative) ease, check out the all new and shiny Mod Compatibility Index. Some of the mods you want to check may not be in it yet, though - I've only got through 60 today.

Therefore, post links for nations or other mods you want included in the thread and I'll put them in as a priority.

NB: There may be up to a 24h turnaround on this, depending on what else I need to do tomorrow.

[Sombre]

If you just want a bunch of mods working together for a particular game, I would consider using llamabeast's mod combiner script, available in his sig.

If you don't have sigs turned on, you're missing out.

[rdonj]

Well, I've taken a brief look. The game doesn't crash with all of them loaded up, so that's a good sign. Plus, since all of those nations were made by sombre and llamabeast I'm pretty sure there are no overlaps. So it should be fine. It's always possible there's some overlap though, and I second sombre's motion of using the mod combiner script.

[Bananadine]

Gregstrom's compatibility index indicates that at least one clash will result: CBM and Tomb Kings both use weapon ID 708. Hm.