Manedalusian Expanded Dev Diary 3: Back to Basics
Greeting and Salutations, Gamers, it is I, Stratophobia, of Griffonian Republic overhaul fame. Inbetween fixing bugs and rebalancing Kemerskai's obscenely stupid AI, I've largely finished my ongoing projects in the main mod and been able to return to my little place of comfort in Manedalusia. As Manedalusia is the place where I first started to learn how to mod this game, I've inherited from Past Me a massive pile of technical debt and spaghetti that requires sorting - not to mention this is also where I practiced graphical icons work, so most of Manedalusia's GFX is sorely in need of an update as well. As things stand, though, I've assured minimal compatibility with the After the Storm update, so I can stop worrying myself with the mod being fundamentally unplayable - and also with the myriad of headaches you'll no doubt cause my colleagues in the main mod team if you report bugs with this active.
Manedalusia is definitely not in an enviable position at gamestart: not only have they experienced centuries of continual political subjugation by their neighbors, even after a hard won independence they will remain partitioned between Abyssinian and Maregyptian spheres of influence. Reuniting the homeland is the government's top priority, regardless of what political bent it has.
Manedalusia's a very unique place, and one of said unique features is a permanently active Balance of Power representing the prevalence of theological schools of thought dominant in Manedalusian religious life. This is an element of Manedalusia I plan to expand further, hopefully, as development goes forward, with more unique interactions between the benefits and values of this power balance and the various political decisions one can do through other mechanics and Manedalusia's focus tree.
I believe Sayf and the Crimson Sultan path to be the definitive introduction to Manedalusia Expanded, as he provides the easiest time getting started and the most straightforward tree in the submod, hence why he's received the most attention as I update the mod for 2.6. Sayf is a simple fellow, who wishes his nation to be strong, impossible to ever subjugate again, and is fond of direct, brutal use of violence in order to accomplish that.
Another aspect of Manedalusia that desperately required overhaul was the balance of Warplan Green, the specially scripter war between Manedalusia and Maregypt. While winning a normal war from this position is not impossible, per se (I've done it myself), it's tedious, a grind, and just not fun. Warplan Green hopes to provide that fun by creating a two-stage plan of attack: bait Maregyptian forces into your land so you can more easily fight them, kill a lot of them, keep your troops safe, and then strike fast and hard into Maregypt only when you've gained the definitive upper hand.
Overall the goals of Manedalusia's supremacist path are very easy to follow: enact retribution on your former oppressors, assure the safety of Manedalusia, and return to Arabia in triumph, making sure the faithful's dominion will never falter or be under threat again. The vast amounts of people killed in the process are more of a feature than a bug, really.
I sincerely apologize for the delay in getting the mod up to snuff with current updates: I'm a main mod dev now and, that takes priority over my little passion project. I also apologize if the balance feels off or you find undue bugs, as though I've tried my best to iron things out whenever I found issues, I do not have a massive testing team to sweat out hours in the campaigns in order to help me find every minutia. I do plan to continue adding more things to Manedalusia Expanded: top of my priority list, save for fixing fatal bugs if they're found and prettying up my past amateurish GFX work is to restore the Koltaliba Sultanate path (which sadly I've had to delete and postpone as part of my efforts to not make this submod a pile of dogshit held together with hopes and dreams) and continue making Manedalusia's mechanics more neatly intertwined with each other.