Vassals! (Work in progress) Downloadable

[LordTriggers]

I'm currently working on vassals, small randomly placed settlements on the map that will auto produce their own workers to gather resources in the area as well as a small patrolling army to gaurd their own territory. The player can capture these vassals in order to have them autonomously work for them. Vassals can provide income for their owners using their workers as well as add a basic level of defense for an area with their patroling army, after they have all their workers and a defending army, they will slowly build up a small army to attack your enemies with.

 

I find it adds some really cool and valuable points on the map to take control of. While they wont be able to defeat your enemies on their own, coordinating your attacks with theirs can add a welcome boost to your own attacks. This also makes the maps feel alot more dynamic.

 

 

Edit: 02/05/2026

Added latest version of the vassals mod. 

-Vassal units can be selected if you want to inspect them but they ignore all commands given to them by the player.

-vassals once captured project the players influence around themselves.

-vassals will produce villagers to gather resources for their owner.

-vassals will produce patrol armies that protect their territory.

-Once a vassals patrol armies get big enough, they will instead be used by the vassal to attack your enemies.

Vassals will spawn randomly, but right now they will spawn in the same specific random place  on every map type for testing purposes.

Vassal produces units faster than in the final version for testing purposes.

Edit: 02/05/2026

Added a new version with random and much better spawning of vassals around random maps.

 

Vassals Mod.7z

Edited 1 minute ago by LordTriggers

[Asher]

Cool!

[Grautvornix]

thanks @LordTriggers! Interesting concept!

Here are a few question to better understand:

Vassals will belong to gaia initially, I presume, so will not be friendly.Trying to capture therefore means first killing their army and then capturing their CC, but wouldn't they just belong to the conquering player's territory?  Or will they stay kind of "allied"?

Can anyone else captrure them after you had done that already, i.e. if you don't watch out, they might be allied with your opponent again?

Looks like they deliver their resources to their owner (which would be normal after capturing their CC). Will their stats count in the players stats (e.g. with respect to population cap)?

Sorry for the ignorant questions, just trying to get a grip on your concept.

[LordTriggers]

Right now, vassals spawn as gia structures on the map randomly at the start of a match. they can be captured and then become player controlled, once captured they activate their ai, produce workers and a patrolling army, and then produce a small fighting force to attack your enemies. This does mean you can technicaly control their units, but the basic ai implemented will order them back after, usually within 5 seconds of you giving their units orders.

This is a vassal i captured, and as you can see its harvesting basic resources and its army is patrolling its territory.

 

Edit: i will probbaly have them produce a patrolling army when gia controlled, its already there but ive deactivated this for now for testing purposes but it adds a fight before claiming the vassal prize.

 

Ideally once i have more time im looking into having these spawn as seperate players once captured, they can still use this basic ai i have in place but it would stop players from acidently selecitng their units. 

 

Edited Thursday at 21:53 by LordTriggers

[Grautvornix]

Thanks! that sounds ultra cool!

[Asher]

Is there an early release for the mod?

[LordTriggers]

I can probably wip somthing up this weekend or next week, just so people can get an idea of how they work, their implemented right now but very half hazardly in a way thats not very user friendly, for example they dont project the players territory yet and so can be reclaimed by gia after a while unless you build a town centre next to them, another issue is their units taking up player pop, these are simple fixes that can be implemented when i have time

 

Here's the current messy basic version with a bunch of bugs in if you want to try, they might not spawn every game, so reveal the map when playing if you want to test them, they currently dont create an attacking army but the rest is there.

 

Give vassals a second to spawn in after the game starts.

 

 

Edit: Quick update on the internal build i have, vassal units now do not take up pop and cannot be controlled by the player! The vassal also projects player territory.

vassal_settlements.7z

Edited yesterday at 06:55 by LordTriggers

[Asher]

Ok, thanks! I'll give it a try

[Eilat]

I once tried to create vassals, but in a different way.

 

[Grautvornix]

Fascinating! Two slightly different approaches for a similar goal. The two of you should joint forces!

[LordTriggers]

The main post has been updated with the latest version of vassals.

-Vassal units can be selected if you want to inspect them but they ignore all commands given to them by the player.

-vassals once captured project the players influence around themselves.

-vassals will produce patrol armies that protect their territory.

-Once a vassals patrol armies get big enough, they will instead be used by the vassal to attack your enemies.

Vassals will spawn randomly, but right now they will spawn in the same specific random place  on every map type for testing purposes.

The idea of vassals as a complete AI player sounds like a really interesting way to implement the feature, I really want to implement them in such a way that they become points of interest on maps. Something to fight over. 

21 hours ago, Eilat said:

I once tried to create vassals, but in a different way.

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by LordTriggers

[Eilat]

5 hours ago, LordTriggers said:

I really want to implement them in such a way that they become points of interest on maps. Something to fight over.

I like that idea too, but I don't know how to do it. It should be strategic points, like having abundant resource potential or a prime location, a strait or a plateau, for example.

[LordTriggers]

8 hours ago, Eilat said:

I like that idea too, but I don't know how to do it. It should be strategic points, like having abundant resource potential or a prime location, a strait or a plateau, for example.

The next thing I will probably work on will be placement, making vassals spawn within random places around the map based on the number of players. 

I can fix the resource thing after they are placed by placing some extra resources around them if they don't already exist.

It's going to be harder to detect where important strategic areas are in each map though.

One thing I really want to do, Is make sure the base AI in the game can also use them so they are compatible for single player.

I'm not sure if the enemy AI will capture neutral/enemy buildings on their own, if so, then they are already compatible, however if they do not, the other option I'm thinking of is having the vassal town centres switch sides to their attackers at low life instead of being destroyed.

 

Edit: AI do seem to convert vassals and use them!

Edited 54 minutes ago by LordTriggers

[Lopess]

This idea is very interesting; I can imagine it as an opportunity to introduce smaller "civs" who wouldn't have a chance in the main game or in a mod interacting with the main game.I can imagine other kingdoms on the Italian peninsula, or even peoples from the Nubian region, etc.This raises a question: is there a way to do this when creating a new random map, Selecting which type of vassal tribe will be present on this map will determine which units or bonuses will be available. 

(Select this not at the player, but at the map creator)

Edited 9 minutes ago by Lopess

[LordTriggers]

9 minutes ago, Lopess said:

This idea is very interesting; I can imagine it as an opportunity to introduce smaller "civilians" who wouldn't have a chance in the main game or in a mod interacting with the main game.I can imagine other kingdoms on the Italian peninsula, or even peoples from the Nubian region, etc.This raises a question: is there a way to do this when creating a new random map, Selecting which type of vassal tribe will be present on this map will determine which units or bonuses will be available. 

(Select this not at the player, but at the map creator)

I believe I can pull up what kind of temperate the random map is somewhere although I haven't tried yet.

Having different unique vassal civs for different map types I believe is totally doable, and would be an awesome way to show off smaller civs/tribes in those regions.

Technically anything can be edited even the match setup UI, but with the scale of the mod, in order to keep it compatible with other mods, having unique vassals spawn per map temperate type automatically would be the way I would go around doing it.

 

Also just a quick update on the internal version, I have added true random placement of vassals on maps now, avoiding water and clearing trees on their spawn areas.