Hi! Can i ask you something about the innate trait of the Red Duke?

I'm trying to do exactly the same thing (upkeep and xp bonus for blood knights) but for a custom Lord. I've done what you have done in your tables - to try i have just copied and renamed your effect in effect_tables -, copied the effect_bonus_value_ids_unit_tables and assign the effect with the character_skill_level_to_effects_junctions_tables. Problem is that the bonus doesn't shows up in campaign, there are visible only the icons on the left when i pass the mouse on the trait in the Lord recruitment pool.
Thank you in advance for asking you in this discussion, and sorry for the wall of text :P

No problem! Glad you like the effect :)
From the top of my head it sounds like you haven't attached a effect_description in the text file.
The blood knight effect is there, the game just doesn't have it in "writing". Take a look at the text file section of the mod and you will find .loc file with the text needed.

I absolutely love it, as it fit in a perfect way in the game :)
I haven't tought about the text file since other effect for the blood knights were vanilla :P It works now by adding the effect text file, thank you very much :)

@Whysofurious
Yes, I thought it fit the Red Duke really well also :D Happy to help!

MOVED USER QUESTION: ForeverMorbid_

Would it be possible to get a version that only changes the starting traits of the lords but doesnt change the skills? Started a Campaign as Bathazar and hes pretty OP for level 1.. I think the wizards starting with a pile of extra skills is overkill. Even if you kept the skills but i had to level up to get them that would be cool too

@ForeverMorbid_
As awesome as you feel it would be if I kept changes you disagree with in another mod, that isn't going to happen. I absolutely take your comment as a compliment if you feel what was once the worst Legendary Lord in vanilla is now really strong partly because he, the best Lore of Metal wizard in the universe, can cast a few staple lore of metal spells from the get-go.

I apologize, i meant no offence. I do really like your mod. I am running several other mods that add up to the problem, but was hoping to keep the perks of them as well. One gives 2 skill points per level and one that increases the power of some of the weaker spells. I am using all of your other mods as well and enjoy them too. I will agree he was underpowered in vanilla, im just trying to find a middle ground for him

No offence was taken, this will however be an agree-to-disagree situation. I understand your position and I wish you the best of luck in finding a form of additional-skill-points mod that jives well with LLR. But that predicament is not a valid reason for me to go out of my way to make a custom–tailored version of LLR that specifically caters to your mod-setup and tastes.

Kholek needs some serious rework imo. I know he is based around dragon ogres, but 4 out of 5 traits just focusing on one unit seems a bit overkill for me. When i compare him to the changes you mande to Archaon and Sigvald he just seems like a really bad choice

@gahnfaust142
Kholek's appeal is not giving the army increased leadership or increasing replenishment like Archaon and Sigvald. He is a demigod of battle, that wrecks just about everything instead of giving bonuses like increased leadership or more replenishment. But indeed, there is definitely room for refinement to increase his appeal and ideas and suggestions are always welcome in this thread.

Just dropping some ideas I've had about traits for Wulfric and Throgg, I am by no means experienced in this field so disregard anything that sounds silly. I would love to see a small naval bonus to Wulfric due to Seafang, maybe just a bit more campaign movement range while at sea (if that's a possible distinction) however don't want this to impede on his character too much, naval battles are forced auto-resolve after all. Throgg I'm less familiar with but would think some increased casualty replenishment would fit his troll / regeneration theme. Don't want to drop combat numbers without seeing the stats of the roster so have kept my suggestions quite bare bones.

Also sent you a friend request as I would love to do some testing.

Considering that Wulfriks lore describes him as someone who just travels around seeking the strongest beast or foe to slay, i think it would be great to give him a Bonus vs. Large and maybe make him a Duelist? (Not sure about the last one).
Or give his army some attack bonuses whenever he is attacking another army/settlement

@FunkZillah
Very good pitches, I'll add them to my notes for consideration! Naval movement bonuses may be possible, I will need to double check.

@gahnfaust142
He will have the duelitst bonus from the get-go in vanilla. Bonus vs Large is a splendid idea, Wulfrik did not just go after man-sized opponents. Not so sure about attack bonuses, but I'm considering some marauder bonuses since he often rallies ferocious norscan warbands.

"Picking one starting LL over another no longer confers a unique faction bonus; these bonuses are now innate in every LL's trait. In other words, picking Volkmar at the start means you won’t miss out on Franz's upkeep reductions to Greatswords and Reiksguard for the rest of the campaign. You now get these bonuses by simply having Franz join your cause."

So after some campaigns with LLR I came to the conclusion that I don't like this change.
In the vanilla game those faction bonuses added a bit of unique flavour to each campaign. If you picked Franz you could hire a couple more Greatswords and Reiksguard. If you picked Volkmar you were encouraged to use Flagellants a bit more.
With LLR you will get all of those benefits once you recruit all LL, making the choice of your first LL less important.
Because some of those campaign effects are pretty powerful they also add to the snowballing issue that the game already has. The late game becomes even easier.
And lastly, the power gap between normal Lords and Legendary Lords is increased even further. The player is encouraged to recruit and confederate as many LL as possible, making normal Lords a last resort.

The argument that the AI can get the same bonuses is not a very good one imo. If the player and AI get the same tools then a competent player will always make better use of them. Several factions don't have LL lords as well, making them even weaker compared to those with access to LL.

The good solution would be to fold the faction bonus into the LL's trait if you don't start with him/her. But I don't think that's technically possible.

Anyway, I hope this post doesn't sound too negative because I really enjoy the other aspects of LLR!

@Coffeecoffee
No worries, this is all very constructive criticism. No mod on the workshop is perfect, that includes LLR. This type of input, even if it focuses only on perceived weaknesses, is always welcome and appreciated. The larger theme that I’m detecting in your critique is that you feel that the LLs become too dominant of a force when it comes to determining the outcome of a campaign.

Unique faction bonuses
In my opinion, forcing you to pick one LL bonus over the others made the game restrictive. It also robbed a character like Franz from what he should bring to the table. Whether or not the emperor is there from the start of the campaign or joins later shouldn't matter. When he has officially joined your cause (been recruited), that should always mean easier access to reiksguard recruitment. It is an intentional design decision, this is the wrong mod to use if you want only want Volkmar to be the most relevant for the next 300 turns because Franz doesn't have his starting bonus.

Now for your next arguments, I’m going to mention to mention the word vanilla a lot since you are attaching many vanilla issues with this mod.

In vanilla
• When the pick is between Franz and a generic empire general, the latter will always be the last resort. I would still give the LLs the best stuff and let them fight the most battles because they are immortal, have better stats and abilities.
• Snowballing is a fundamental vanilla TW issue, once you get doomstacks, the game is largely over. CA has never in TW history been able to devise an AI that could truly keep up with a human player. Even with cheats and handicaps. This has also been skewed more and more by recent updates, with VC having the most LLs and the Empire having more and more difficulty staying alive to the late game due to threats from all fronts. Out of curiosity, what difficulty are you playing on? The intention of this mod is to let you turn it up a notch and even play on Very Hard or even Legendary. The mod is also intended to be paired with Starting Traits Remastered to bridge the gap you speak of, but if you were using STR and felt the power gap still was too extreme, nerfs may be in order.
• There is also no bonus that CA can give the player and the AI that the player won’t find a way to exploit better.

"The good solution would be to fold the faction bonus into the LL's trait if you don't start with him/her. But I don't think that's technically possible."
I didn't quite grasp what you mean here, can you elaborate? Isn’t that what the mod is already doing, putting the faction bonuses into the traits?