All feedback is greatly appreciated. I am going to update the mod and would like some of your help.

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In regards to war contribution and gold:

I pulled over the paradox code and it didn't scale well as it was not meant to be used outside of the struggle. The insane contribution score doesn't scale well once you amass a large enough army -- the army size is used in calculating the contribution score and the gold -- hence offers of 30,000 contribution score and 4,000 gold. I believe I'll be able to change the contribution and gold. But I wanted to get more of an idea if people liked the system and wanted some tweaks (such as the percentage option people were commenting or vanilla style get the score, get the gold -- with better calculation), or if a new system would be preferable. A new system idea would be like a simpler deal, they will give you gold upfront up to a cap (no wild 3,000 gold offers). Please let me know your thoughts.

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In regards to Variable/Flag bug:

I have exhausted a ton of scenarios trying to replicate the bug and I simply can not make it happen. Please describe the issue as in depth as you can, including things like the particular kind of war, how the invalidation happened -- (death of character x who had the claim on kingdom x that was being pushed by kingdom y , etc) and such so I can try to recreate it. Providing save games may help if you have one just before it happens.

In case it helps, three variables attach to the player character:

Essentially:
War ID & Type
Contribution #
Gold #

Actually:
owed_contract_assistance_war
owed_contract_assistance_contribution
owed_contract_assistance_gold

After the war is over, all three are cleared. The only check that would disallow the 'contract assistance' interaction is the "owed_contract_assistance_war" variable.
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In regards to spam and resource intensity:

I've grown concerned over the amount of computer resources that are used by having all ai characters. Does the entire map using the mechanic have an enjoyable impact in your game or is it just something neat that you then move on from? Would it be worth it to disallow ai from interacting with other ai to save on computer resources?

I am trying to find the right balance of spamming the player -- it still feels too much. The newest WIP has the ai looking at how you stack up comparatively to your enemy, and has had it's human favoritism reduced from a 2 to a 1.25. It is still in testing to get a good feel for if the balance is right.
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I greatly appreciate you all and thank you for trying the mod out!


Kindly,
idev

* MOVED FROM TITLE TO THREAD

Regarding mechanics:

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Considerations:
All mechanics are derived from vanilla. It takes away all requirements of the Iberian struggle -- players no longer have to be in the Iberian region, nor have an involved culture, religion, etc to use UCAFR mechanics (Foment Revolt, Contract Assistance, Request Contract Assistance). There are still some vanilla restrictions such as you not being able to call someone with a raised army into your war, or potential helpful rulers not being interested in certain wars (reduced likelihood of them joining your war if you are facing a peasant faction). I may be able to alter/change some of these things if people request it so changed. If you are still having trouble or need clarification, post to this discussion or post a comment -- this allows for longer responses.

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Contract Assistance:
- This is when you offer military assistance to another ruler and they offer compensation for you help. You are expected to 'meaningfully' contribute to their war by way of war contribution (vanilla mechanic available to view in the screen after selecting the war banner -- this is when you are at war). The expected war contribution will be given to you before officially joining the war in the 'Contract Assistance' window -- after selecting a war you would like to offer assistance in, The 'Effect' section of the window should say something like this,

" - If your war contribution is at least 1995 when the war ends:
- pays [gold icon] 469 to you "

- If you meet or exceed this war contribution number when the war ends (you have to keep track during the war if you are concerned about it or want to see what effects the war contribution -- I know besieging castles (enemy war leader territory) and battling will increase your war score. I am unsure of what exactly else does -- current war contribution is available to view after clicking into the war banner) then you will be given the amount of gold agreed upon when you entered the war.

- I believe if you do exceed the expected war contribution, a green box will appear in the lower right saying something akin to, "[someone] payed you [agreed amount of gold] as you met the expected war contribution ." If you did not meet the expected war contribution, I believe this box is red and it tells you that '[someone] did not pay you because you did not meet the expected contribution. '

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Request Contract Assistance:
- This is when you are at war and you are asking another ruler to join your war with their military, and you will pay them gold if they meet or exceed a specified war contribution (their war contribution to you and the amount of gold you pay them are calculated automatically -- as per vanilla).

- This can be viewed in the 'Call to War' screen after requesting contract assistance in the 'Effects' sub-window. It should look something similar to,

"Effects on you:
- if [someone]'s war contribution is at least [war contribution number] when the war ends:
- pays [gold icon] 238 to [someone]

Effects on [someone]:
- joins [war type] as a(n) [attacker / defender]"


- If the person you made the deal with exceeds the expected war contribution at the end of the war, you will pay them the agreed upon amount. If they do not meet or exceed the expected war contribution, you will not pay them (they did not meaningfully contribute in the eyes of the game). I do not believe you can see their war contribution during the war -- unless you switch character to see it from their perspective.

I believe you get a grey box notification telling you that you didn't/did pay [someone] because they didn't/did exceed the expected war contribution.

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Foment Revolt:
- This is when you invest gold into [someone]'s realm to try and bring down popular opinion of a random county of theirs.

- Selecting this interaction will allow you to make varying investments (small, medium, large) and will bring down popular opinion of a random county of theirs. There are other factors like if they will find out you are the source of their displeasure but it is fairly straightforward.

In regards to the first section on participation/payout I've got some ideas:
Maybe you could tie it to ruler tier and keep it static, for example contribution could be set to 550 > 900 > 1500 > 2200. You could also have increases/decreases based on the mercenary tier, for example:
Count + 50
Duke + 200
King + 500
Emperor + 1000

So an Emperor helping a Count would be expected to provide 550 + 1000 for 1550 total, whereas a Duke helping an Emperor would be 2200 + 200 for 2400 total. Additionally you'd also have static tiers for payment e.g. 80 > 140 > 200 > 300. Maybe you could also have pay increases/decreases based on fame level, perhaps an Illustrious Count could demand an extra 30 gold for their services but a Disgraced Emperor gets -10 gold for their services.
Obviously these numbers aren't what you'd use but I hope you get my meaning.


Looking at notification spam, maybe you could tie the ability to a minor decision based on personality/tier. For example you could have an option in the Minor Decisions tab that the Player/AI can/will take called "Form Mercenary Company" with requirements like:
- Has one of the following traits
* Brave
* Greedy
* Ambitious
* Adventurer
OR
- Has any of the Martial education traits

Alternatively you could tie the ability to a very cheap/fast construction building line called "Mercenary Tents" with an ai_value similar to other military buildings so that only warlike AI would build it but the player always can. The option for everyone to have access is still there but there would be a suitable barrier to entry where only the characters you would expect would use it.

Hope this helps in some way.

@ Splendid

I appreciate your response! I think the idea for the war contribution and gold is a fantastic idea. I am going to wait a little bit to see what others may say but I think it is a strong candidate! I think people will like the simplicity and predictability.

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In regards to the notification spam:
Is your suggestion that we move away from getting AI's to join wars entirely, and move more towards mercenaries and special soldiers, or do you mean forming mercenary companies as in selecting only the ' brave, greedy, ... ' AI's to get offers from?



Currently, AI's offer services out to the player too often (and possibly to each other but it is very difficult to test). I'm trying to get more specific parameters in place so it filters out offers -- and hopefully saves on AI's getting into non-player related wars (possible resource concern mid-late game). We can cut out all AI to AI (non-player related) interactions if people don't care for them/don't notice them or it is not meaningful. Or if people like it, I can try to just use specificity and 'feel' it out.
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I appreciate you taking the time and putting your thought-out ideas in! Thank you!


Kindly,
idev

For the mercenary company thing I mean basically the second one you mentioned. Only AI that fit a specific set of traits can give offers, you could give AI that take the decision a modifier called "mercenary captain" that lets them send offers. Hope that clarifies

Another thing I thought of is you could change it to be similar to how the Pope gives out gold but tweaked. AI over a certain gold threshold will have an extra negative weight for sending offers, it could be "-50 But I am already wealthy" as an example.

@ Splendid

I appreciate all the feedback! The mod has been updated and the contribution / gold system rework was heavily influenced by your ideas! I tried to cut down on the AI joining so many wars by using more modifiers. It seemed to have cut down on them a good amount. The interaction is more rare to see, and the ai uses their allies before asking for assistance. If you end up using the updated mod, let me know your thoughts. This is more of just a thank you for putting in the time to give me your thoughts, it ended up being very useful in devising a new gold / contribution system! You're also mentioned in the notes!

Kindly,
idev