DESCRIPTION
This mod is a conceptual sequel to my CK2 mod, Cities of Wonders, which added a type of city-wonder which allowed you to build multiple wonders into one province. Currently, this mod adds a new type of player-holdable hybrid holding, Metropolis, which is supposed to represent the greatest cities of the medieval world while maintaining the defensive capabilities of castles. There's a multiple of buildings to represent the wonders in some of the added Metropolises.

If you want to use COW2 with CK3 v1.0.3, you should use COW2 v18.

Cities of Wonders 2.0 (COW2)
CK3 is finally here. Wohoo! In excitement we pan the map and turn our love-struck eyes towards the great cities of the medieval world. But, what do we see there? We recoil in horror of what lies in Constantinople, Baghdad and Cordoba. Castles. The great cities represented as castles. What nightmare is this?

This cannot be. Sure, they are very well-developed castles, but a castle is a castle no matter how shiny it is. So, with flick of a wand we turn a castle into a Metropolis, and all is well in the world once again.

Feature List​
Adds a city/castle hybrid holding called Metropolis, which provides more gold and levies than both cities and castles. Also, Metropolises are as fortified as any castle can be.
Metropolises additionally have a set of powerful buildings unique to them to represent a few wonders or great structures. Metropolises are Cities of Wonders. You can build them in the regular building slots of your Metropolis, not in any of your duchy or special slots.
Game Rule: "COW2: Metropolis Buildings", which allows you to adjust how many Metropolis holdings a character can hold (3 is the default), and it also allows you to completely disable the Metropolis unique buildings feature if desired.
Metropolises are very powerful and wealthy holdings. You aren't meant to build many Metropolises, since building a Metropolis holding from scratch has a base cost of 12,000 gold for the first level, ouch...
There are other options however, and if you are an Emperor you can found a Metropolis in your capital holding via a special decision that cost ~1200 gold and 1500 prestige.
You will find the existing and rich Metropolises in Baghdad, Constantinople, and Cordoba.
Some lesser Metropolises can be found in different parts of the world at the start of the game. These holdings cannot build any of the unique and powerful Metropolis buildings until they are upgraded to holding level 4. You can find them for example in Venezia, Palermo, Cairo, Indraprastha/Delhi and so on.
There will also be a few extra ancient Metropolises at a much weaker stage in Alexandria, Antioch, Roma, and Jerusalem as a 'Pentarchy' bonus. These will be cheaper to upgrade than the regular lesser Metropolises.
You must start a new save game to have any of the Metropolises present at start. You can however refound the ancient Metropolises via a special decision.
If you have an existing save game that you want to use with COW2, there are three decisions that can help you:

Decision which allow you to refound the ancient Metropolises in Alexandria, Antioch, Baghdad, Constantinople, Cordoba, Roma, and Jerusalem. This is for save games that you started without Cities of Wonders 2. It's a repeatable decision until all Metropolises has been founded in your realm. All existing vanilla castle buildings should automatically be added to the new Metropolis holding.
Decision which allows you to found a Metropolis in your capital barony. You must be Empire-tier to use this decision. It will convert your capital holding into a Metropolis, this can only be done once in the entire game. All existing vanilla castle buildings should automatically be added to the new Metropolis holding.
Decision which allows you to convert any of your existing holdings into lesser Metropolis holdings. Only holdings in the counties you personally are the holder of are eligible for conversion. You will have to pay the entire cost of 11,500 gold to convert an existing holding. All existing vanilla castle buildings should automatically be added to the new Metropolises.
Mod Compatibility
Should be compatible with most mods out there, expect for mods that alters the existing governments (currently required for the new holding type). If another mod overrides the governments file, then the playable Feudal and Clan governments will not be able hold Metropolis holdings without penalties. Also, any new governments added by mods will not be able hold Metropolises either.

Metropolises also use the same scripted trigger as the vanilla holdings do so that the Metropolises can build the duchy capital buildings and special/unique mine buildings. If another mod overrides this trigger, then the Metropolises won’t be able to build those buildings.

Separate province history files have been made to add Metropolises, so it should in theory be compatible with mods that alter the province files. The province history system have changed dramatically from CK2 to CK3, and are now done per kingdom instead of per province like previously. I don't think it should cause my mod any compatibility issues, except for total conversions or map overhauls that overrides my mod.

Convert Holding fork, which allows you to convert any holding to castle, temple or city: Convert Holdings

Imperial Government compatibility patch: COW2-IG Compatibility

Rhomaioi - A Byzantine Empire Mod compatibility patch: COW2-Rhomaioi Compatibility

Princes of Darkness compatibility patch: COW2-Princes of Darkness Compatibility

Fix for the education effect provided by universities: COW2-University Fix

German translation: German Translation for CoW2

COW2 will disable achievements! Nearly every mod for Crusader Kings 3 will disable achievements.

Bug Reports & Feedback
Please leave a post in the discussion forum if you discover a bug, or have any suggestions on any improvements I could make.

If a save game you have used COW2 with is loaded without COW2 properly enabled, the Metropolis holdings will disappear, and there will be a glitched no-holding in their place. The only conventional fix for this is to revert to an earlier save while making sure that COW2 is actually enabled.

If anyone experiences crashes/issues when you load your save games after a COW2 update, make sure that the Paradox Launcher have updated the mod properly.

You can do this simply by starting a new game with COW2 enabled, and check if all the Metropolis holdings are present in Alexandria, Antioch, Baghdad, Constantinople, Cordoba, Roma, and Jerusalem.
You can also access the "construct a new holding" interface and see if the Metropolis holding is there along with Castle, City, and Temple holding.
If you discover any issues, try resubscribing to the mod.
Credits
For the holding conversion feature directly in the holding interface, all credits go to Lrds for graciously allowing me to integrate Flexible Holding Types. (Currently not available in the mod).

CHANGELOG
v2.9.1 - Released 2020-10-22
v2.9.0 - Released 2020-10-17
v2.8.4 - Released 2020-10-16
v2.8.3 - Released 2020-10-05
v2.8.2 - Released 2020-10-04
v2.8.1 - Released 2020-10-03
v2.8.0 - Released 2020-10-03
v2.7.7 - Released 2020-10-01
v2.7.6 - Released 2020-09-30
v2.7.5 - Released 2020-09-30
v2.7.4 - Released 2020-09-30
v2.7.3 - Released 2020-09-29
v2.7.2 - Released 2020-09-28
v2.7.0 - Released 2020-09-27
v2.6.3 - Released 2020-09-26
v2.6.2 - Released 2020-09-19
v2.6.1 - Released 2020-09-14
v2.6.0 - Released 2020-09-13
v2.5.5 - Released 2020-09-11
v2.5.4 - Released 2020-09-10
v2.5.3 - Released 2020-09-10
v2.5.0 - Released 2020-09-09
v2.4.0 - Released 2020-09-08
v2.3.0 - Released 2020-09-04
v2.2.0 - Released 2020-09-03
v2.1.2 - Released 2020-09-03
v2.1.1 - Released 2020-09-02
v2.1.0 - Released 2020-09-02
v2.0.3 - Released 2020-09-02

REQUIREMENTS

Crusader Kings III

Full game

FORUM LINKS