so i ran a few tests and i think i came to some conclusions:
meet the wild elves. basically elves with different ethics and an even more lenient stance on cannibalism. they also have...interesting views on theft, truthfulness, vandalism, tresspassing and animal usage (but i did made them more accepting on wood cutting because i want them to be playable and i can't have my own caravan rejecting my reaction grown wooden items)
[ETHIC:KILL_ENTITY_MEMBER:JUSTIFIED_IF_SELF_DEFENSE]
[ETHIC:KILL_NEUTRAL:UNTHINKABLE]
[ETHIC:KILL_ENEMY:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:KILL_ANIMAL:ONLY_IF_SANCTIONED]
[ETHIC:KILL_PLANT:ONLY_IF_SANCTIONED]
[ETHIC:TORTURE_AS_EXAMPLE:ONLY_IF_SANCTIONED]
[ETHIC:TORTURE_FOR_INFORMATION:ONLY_IF_SANCTIONED]
[ETHIC:TORTURE_FOR_FUN:UNTHINKABLE]
[ETHIC:TORTURE_ANIMALS:UNTHINKABLE]
[ETHIC:TREASON:PUNISH_SERIOUS]
[ETHIC:OATH_BREAKING:MISGUIDED]
[ETHIC:LYING:JUSTIFIED_IF_GOOD_REASON]
[ETHIC:VANDALISM:PUNISH_REPRIMAND]
[ETHIC:TRESPASSING:PUNISH_REPRIMAND]
[ETHIC:THEFT:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:ASSAULT:PUNISH_EXILE]
[ETHIC:SLAVERY:UNTHINKABLE]
[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_OTHER:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_KILL:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:MAKE_TROPHY_SAME_RACE:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:MAKE_TROPHY_SAPIENT:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:MAKE_TROPHY_ANIMAL:UNTHINKABLE]
they have wooden weapons, next to no armor, no natural allies to speak of and they can't make peace treaties. so they should get their asses handed to them by pretty much the whole world, right?
no
they were consistently doing great.
now meet the drow. despite the name, they act more like Warhammer's Dark Elves (and look like them too). They have evil ethics, many positions (based on rhenaya's mod), special OP rare castes, access to all metals (and some more), breastplates and such at common frequency, both evil and exotic animals and considerable natural skills. They should dominate everything, right?
nah, that would actually make sense
they were always bottom feeders
i asked myself:
"what the hell?" and started playing with the stuff you said. here are the results:
- biome support did play a role, but it actually seemed to work in the opposite direction. the more biomes i gave the wild elves, the less they spread
- the fact that the wild elves couldn't make peace treaties did not seem to hinder them at all
- they both had their [MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE tag too, and i had modded all elves to have a MAXAGE (a pretty big one, but it did exist)
- raising and lowering the natural skills (at reasonable rates) didn't do much
- even a small reduction to their size, however,(about 5k) did wonders at culling wild elven populations
- limiting access to weapons was also huge
- banditry and the type of adventurers had no effect at all
- i didn't actually test the gods