SP Fantasy [WB] Hyborian Age: Crown of Iron +++ 1st post updated 02/13/11 +++

"Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars-Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania who's riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom in the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west.

There was a time that Aquilonia was ruled by King Namedides, that plunged the realm in a harsh civil war trying to conquer Pictland. The kingdom was splited in several factions and the land was drowned in blood. By this time, many claimants were clashing to conquer Tarantia.

Know, O Prince, the name of the brave destined to wear the Jeweled Crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, its chronicler, who alone can tell thee of that saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"

-The Nemedian Chronicles.


Development

• Reworked companions (in progress):

Subotai (source Conan the Barbarian, the movie), Nathala, the Brythunian slave girl (source Xuthal of the Dusk), N'Yaga (s. Queen of the Black Coast), Amalric of Velitrium (Amalric of Aquilonia, source Drums of Tumbalku), Arathus the Brythunian and Ivanos the Corinthian (s. Shadows in the Moon), Red Sonja (ofc!), Agha Shupras of the Zaheemis (s. The Black Colossus), Karanthes (s. The God in the Bowl IIRC), Epimetrus the Chronist (s. newspaper comic strips of Conan).

They're currently at module system stage, not finished yet.

• New weapons and armor (starting).
• Hyborian factions and troop trees (in progress). There will be Nemedian patrols at the East and Pictish warbands in the West. Kothian, Ophirean and Nemedian mercenaries will be (hopefully) available in taverns, as well as Aquilonian mercenaries.

Also there will be new Lords and Ladies, new map and some other things...

Features

• Theoris Decapitation (implemented).
• Xenoargh's combat system (implemented)
• Caba`drin's fancy party names (implemented)
• New body types/textures (in progress).
• Kill prisoners (in progress).

Thanks to both scripts human life now is not worth a single silver coin. But this is not at all. 'Elite' troop tier usually have really low stats (str 7, agi 4). This is not true anymore. here you can find really tough enemies and the troops advance both in stats and skills. Moreover, armors are balanced too, you can't anywhere full_plate_armor_harder_than_a_Leopard_II (70+ body armor? Come on!). Close combat is really dangerous right now, and also are missile weapons... Only the hardest heroes prevail.

Recruiting

As said, in the post below, any help would be very much appreciated in any form. If you likes the project and want to participate you're welcome! Just post here or PM if you want.

Are needed:

•Modelers & Texturers
•Coders! Welcome Kolba!
•Map, scene & prop makers
•Musics, story tellers and other swords for hire!

Support banners

Userbar:

Code for the userbar:

Banners coming soon!



Credits


Team

• Fraoliva, models & textures
• Gothic Knight, models, textures & hyborian wisedom!
• Kolba, scripting and amazing ideas.

Special thanks

• eljeffe418, many thanks to the boss, who's gift us with true decapitation script, with flying heads, and not random ones!
• CHUR, for his amazinf texture/flora/skies pack Calradia In Darkness.
• Rejenorst, for making amazing music, the soundtrack of this mod -specially for Shaman- and for being a very nice guy.
• Duh, for sharing their great sources.
• Zarthas, for gently sharing sources of his great mod Dawn of Man!

Contributors & OSP

• Theoris, for his amazing decapitation script
• SonKidd, for his patient help and really helpful advices
• cmpxchg8b, for finding the last piece of the puzzle.
• Xenoargh, for his combat system.
• Caba`drin, for his various and most valuables OSP.
• Dunde, kind and to-the-point help!
• Winter, tasty killing prisoners.
• Volkodav, kind and honest support.
• RR_Raptor65 for making a great roman OSP.

Also thanks to

• Swyter, for the grat Module System Manager and kind support
• Morgh, due his great tool, which have made most of the work of this mod possible.

Edit: If you notice something is missing, please, make me know. Greetings.

Hi there, after two years or so away from MB I’m back again –ok, almost nobody knows me but what does it matter?- this time with courage to (hopefully) make a mod.

Surprisingly, nobody has make an hyborean era mod for MB, even that the game seems just thinked for it! So here I am, in the previous stage of ruining a nice idea. This is the very start of a minor mod.

Briefing:My initial thoughts were to make a huge mod involving land from Nordheim to Stygia and from the Western Sea to the Vilayet Sea, then I realized that I have no clue about modding –regardless the inmense amount of work, so I’m forced to down a bit my initial aspirations.

After a few days of intense thinking I decided to place the mod in an interesting plot: when Conan cut his path to the crown of Aquilonia (Conan does not would appear in that mod, because we players need the protagonism). That happens in the middle of a civil war in the Jewel of the West, when the player can try to conquer and unify Aquilonia…

Goals: The goal of this mod is introduce you in the convulsed age of Hiborea…

-Total weapons/armor conversion
-Total companion redo
-Conversations adapted
-Hyborean music (if I can)
-Things that currently can’t remember

I told you, is a minor mod
Moreover, due that I must learn “how to” so much things, this mod will be developed slowly, be patient please.

The sources of this mod are mainly the black & white old Conan the Barbarian comic books, the movies and the RPG from Mongoose publishing.

Contributors: Since I’m alone in this and need to learn too much things, any help (of any kind) would be very much appreciated.

Recruiting: Not thought seriously about that, i mean, in making a mod team, mostly because the people I know here in the fórums are mostly gone (Wei, Pali Gap and a few others) and i have zero contacts but if you want to help developing this mod in a serious way just PM me. By the way, here is a wishlist:
-scripters (to allow me avoid to learn scripting)
-Map makers
-Prop/scene makers
-Armor makers anyone?
-And any other modding area that I can’t currently remember because I’m a bit tired.

Faction map

MAJOR FACTIONS (draft):

Poitain County. Poitain is part of Aquilonia, but the poitanians are so much independents as the gunderlanders. Most of the aquilonian population is very suspicious about the poitans, remembering old wars.

Poitains is known by its powerful knights and fiery infantry. The Poitain ruler is Count Trocerus, his banner a crimson leopard.

• Poitain recruits ─ Poitain levy ─ Poitain militia ┬ Poitain men at arms ┬ Poitain cavalry ─ Poitain Knight
                                                                            └ Poitain archers        └ Poitain regular
Bossonian Marches: The marches (here I include the Westerrnmark, to simplify) are inhabitated by loyal archers, allieds (not subdits) of Aquilonia. They fortify their villages, towns and castles against pictish and cimmerian raids. The Marches are ruled by a Royal Judge and his Barons.

• Marksmen recruits ─ Marksmen watchmen ┬ Mounted skirmishers
                                                                      └ Marksmen skirmishers ┬ Marksmen archers ─ M. trained archers ─ M. vet archers
                                                                                                            └ Marksmen borderers

Tauran Earldom: Is a wild and wooded land, taurans are rude people and have the bests borderers of the realm. Is ruled by *insert name here* Earl and his thengs.

• Tauran recruits ─ Tauran watchmen ┬ Tauran huntsmen ─ Tauran archers
                                                            └ Tauran guardsmen ┬ Tauran guardsmen
                                                                                              └ Tauran trackers ┬Tauran pathfinders ─ Tauran borderers
                                                                                                                          └ Tauran souts (cav)


Tarantia: The capital of Aquilonia, the old Tamar. This land is formed mostly by great plains and farmlands. Tarantia is ruled by the hated King Namedides.

• Aquilonian recruits ─ Aquilonian militia ┬ Aquilonian spearmen ┬ Aquilonian horsemen ─ Aquilonian Knight
                                                              └ Aquilonian archers    └ Black legion spearmen ─ Black Dragon (tier 6)

Gunderland: Is the most northern region of Aquilonia, although the gundermen have never been seen themselves as aquilonians, maybe remembering their independence days. Gunderland is a region of highlands and castles, and once was a kingdom by its own right and now the gundermen want to return to the glorious old days… They’re famous by their pikemen formations, and feared by the hiborian cavalry. Ruled by Count […]

• Gunderland recruits  ┬ Gunderland spearmen ─ G. vet spearmen ─ G. pikemen ─ G. trained pikemen ─ G. vet pikemen
                                    │                         
                                    │                                    ┌ Mounted skirmishers
                                    └ Gunderland skrmisher ┴ Aquilonian archers
                                                                             
Pellia: An important region of Aquilonia, Pellia is the only one actually ruled by a prince (Prince Arpello). Provisional troop tree #1 (#2 under development, mostly vaegir based due the similitude with the hiborian armies, not sure about).

• Pellian recruit ┬ Pellian militia ─ Pellian macemen ─ Aquilonian horsemen ─ Aquilonian Knight
                          │
                          └ Watchmen ┬ Mercenary footmen ┬ Caravan guards ─ Mercenary horsemen
                                              └ Aquilonian archers  └ Mercenary spearmen ─ ???

Attalus: not started

MINOR FACTIONS:

Outlaws (looters, bandits…)
Cimmerian raiders
Pictish incursors
Nemedian adventurers
Road patrols (Manhunters)
Possibly more mercenary troops like hyrkanian cavalry, hyperborean raiders, nemedian adventurers…

Other trees:

• Farmer ─ Watchmen ┬ Mercenary footmen ┬ Caravan guards ─ Mercenary horsemen
                                    └ Aquilonian archers  └ Mercenary spearmen ─ ???

•Townsman  ─ Don’t decided yet, possibly same tree as patrols/manhunters

•Refugee/women tree. Undecided here too.

And some drafts for the mod (just a couple, I’m starting with this):

Cimmerian sword (the horns need a total redo because are almost imposible to texturize due a mirroring error:



Hyrkanian helmet (designed for the Mongol series mod but never used):



Well, sorry for the wall of text. I think don’t forget anything

See you in the next update, and feel free to comment & critique!

Seems interesting, but why is Hyborian  misspelled Hiborean and what are the Hyrkanians doing on the Hyborian side of the world(mercenaries)?

Models look nice. Can't wait to see them with textures.

@Gothic Knight, the Hyborian mispelling is a betray of my mind -is writed hiborean in spanish. About hyrkanians, well, not sure about them, just wanted to show a bit more diversity of the cultures of that world but you're right, they have little to do in the west without a proper and large invasion. Maybe kothians or ophireans would fit better.

@Queen Pinky, thanks! You can see them texturized within this week (hopefully).

The first I want to do are the model (besides the models usually are one of the latests things to do, are the models what inspires me, meanwhile I try to learn something about modding )

Models to do that comes to my mind (need to make a proper list):

Ancillary sword
Axes (fighting, throwing...)
Bossonian knife
Bossonian longbow
Broad sword
Buckler
Cavalry shield
Great shield
Great sword
Halberd and other polearms
Heavy lance
Helmets of different kind (iron helmet, great helmet
Hunting bow
Hunting spear
Mace
Pike
Short sword
Spiked mace
War sword
Black Legion/Black Dragons wargear

Then learn to rig and start with the armors.

Looks sick, goodluck.

Yeah, I love conan, good luck and loads of courage with your mod

Thanks guys!

I was very bugged about rigging and the armor making, so to take a try, I was start a little experiment yesterday. That is, the easy mode of modding. What happens is that I don't know how to mod, so put items in the game is out of my limitis in the normal way of things. But... just for testing, was starting modifying current game items, just changing the mesh and modifying the dds (no normal maps or specular yet, need to learn a bit about first). So here is the result:


Is not a big deal ofc, but wanted to try (also rigged with OpenBRF and seems all ok, need to try ingame whn finished).

C&C very welcome.

Good morning fellows,

Here are some model progress, I'm currently working on re-balance the weapons damage and the armors protection to make the game a bit more dangerous than the vanilla, but managed some time to make this:


Still very WIP ofc, and is not even close to be UVmapped.

And here are some models from Fraoliva's forge:


Hope you like it,

Cheers!

This sounds interesting... Good luck !

Rexor? Not liking the taint of Conan the Barbarian but good luck anyway.

@Silver Wolf, many thanks, I need it!

@Gothic Knight, well, there is not much of the movies in the mod but the props of the first one are really nice imho, and I have my comics in house of my parents (more than 1000 km away!) and sources are needed

BTW, major news here -to me at least. I've managed to put in game that weapon just using the OpenBRF and the Morgh's mod tools. i'm so happy

Hi there, 1st post updated with more info about the mod and progress, also we're recruiting to help us to develop this mod!

And here are some new pics.

Cheers.

Be sure to make ones with chainmail aventails. Work on making the helm smooth and hard edge the helm so that it looks solid(hard edge the endings of the helm).

Sure thing! But not only chainmail, also leather, clothes(?) and scales.

The helm on the left is just a vaegir helmet with the aventail chopped in half and the nose guard stretched. My time is now trying to understand the MS because some things (alas) can't be done with txt tweaks, so I'm not modelling very much right now. Like I said before, this will be a slow-development mod until we had the chance to have a mod team.

Heeey there pretty mod... 
Nice, seems interesting. There was another Hyboria-themed mod in development, wonder what happened to it...
Goof luck mate.

Liking the sound of this. The previous Hyborean mod died, but was pretty promising. It was set in and around Shem, and included Koth, Stygia and so on.

Thank you fellows. I hope this mod can see the light of the Sun someday

Good to know there was another mod, I'm going to search for it, shame that it died.

Hello, OP? Yeah, hi. Okay, here we go... do you know when this mod is coming out? An answer would be just great. Thanks in advance!

As said in the OP and post #2, this mod will be develop slowly because I'm mostly alone in the scripting thing -that I'm starting to learn right now. So be patient, this will not be coming soon.