Not exactly an open-source pack but seems like the best place to post this.
So, a few days ago, I came across this mod:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,194610.0.html (don't worry there are no dragons
)
It has some things rly worth checking out:
-I love the way they did sea travel. They managed to keep the actual water material for sea travel and added ports, without the need for buying ships like in other mods, they don't even have menus, it's just normal travel but with fixed embarkation points.
This is cool because the ability to use water material as opposed to the modified land material in E1200 means a much prettier map, the coastline looks a lot better when it's actual coastline and that adds a lot to the general aspect of the map. Never brought this up before because it's the first time that I find sea travel solved in a satisfactory way in a mod.
They also made some areas of ocean inaccessible for performance reasons. This can work in E1200 for most of the Atlantic and the North Sea that don't rly need to be accessible. However I've no idea how they did it and how it helps with performance.
-Also to help with performance they removed the peasant parties running around, and replaced their influence on the economy with a script.
I'm not crazy about this one; kinda like having those guys on the map, plus they're great for when you want to start a fight with a faction but it's something to keep in mind if performance becomes too much of a problem when more factions are added and the map is expanded.
-Great inspiration for quests. They have quests with mechanics I haven't encountered before.
One is an invasion mechanic where a faction not previously on the map invades, new lords spawn and certain settlements switch to the invading faction. I know we won't have the mongol invasion or anything similar in the mod but there are plenty of things this mechanic could be used for like rebellions or quests where you get to found a new crusader state, or maybe do the Latin conquest of Byzantium ahead of time; just some ideas off the top of my head, I'm sure there could be other uses as well.
And a second interesting mechanic leads to pre-determined battles (the player and a set number and type of allies versus a set number and type of enemies in a specially designed scene). Would be very useful for quests involving famous battles, or what-if scenarios (how a bout a siege of Jerusalem or of Constantinopolis?)
If anyone wants to try them out here's a list of quests for ACOK http://acok.wikia.com/wiki/Quests
The "Blood on the snow" quest exemplifies both those mechanics.
The "Hear me roar" quest is also interesting and pretty easy. It's similar to what I suggested some time ago about a quest for E1200 that would involve attacking a robber baron's keep. I had just imagined it with more bloodshed and imagined the keep as a bandit hideout from native that spawns in more-or-less random places. Here the keep is in a fixed location.
-And it's also a good inspiration for scene makers; almost all locations I visited have custom scenes; some are better than others, some are very good.
I especially liked their sea battle scene, here are a couple of pics:
I found the King's Landing siege scene pretty good too, with overturned siege towers and ladders for atmosphere and difficult to reach missile troops defending.
Attention to detail is nice too, with a bit of furniture turning usually empty tower rooms into guardrooms and storehouses (don't remember the scene where I found this though)