(submods) Vendayn's fantasy submod and gameplay changes

The biggest and final changes to my fantasy gameplay submod for 1257 Anno Domini

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/board,167.0.html

Submod download (needs Nexus account)-

http://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/5857/?

This is what is changed/added/balanced. Keep in mind most of it is themed (name change), as without the python files I am limited to what I can change. I can not change that much, except names/stats/colors. So, any name changing is purely cosmetic and imagination required Except for meg...

The main focus of this submod is to add challenge and strategy, in an otherwise very easy game. My friend (Josh) and I won 99% of the battles, and each huge war felt always the same. This goes in and corrects that. While you can play that way, many of the "new" lords are incredibly strong (impossible 1 on 1, and relies on other lords on your side) and will take a lot of strategy to beat. Following the main army may not always be the best idea...and yes, I purposely made many lords godlike. This makes it (from my playtest and Josh) more strategic in wars. More reliance on other lords to help, and makes it impossible for you to go around pwning everything 1 on 1 and lolling at everything and everyone. Also, since some factions have such powerful lords, the wars are vastly bigger and to win a war takes a lot of strategy and skill.

The next major focus is item balance. Many horses changed (with a few easter egg horses), made crossbows not **** (before I used them as firewood), slight change to bows and huge change to javelins.

And as obvious, this is purely a fantasy mod with a focus on balance/challenge and quite a bit of fantasy thrown in. It is a fantasy submod

- Factions -

Kingdom of Cilicia - The Crusader States replacer. Many anatolian troops (in vanilla 1257, you can't even find these) with a focus on infantry and cavalry. Very strong lord (Ganghis Khan) in this faction. Tons of work went into this faction, and a lot of research and reading (actual books at a library too! But yes, not 100% historical)

Dutchy of Normandy - The Papal Pedo Replacer. Average lords (by that, I mean compared to the new lords I put in) and pretty good troops. In this, William the Conqueror in an alternate timeline took over the boy Pope and declared himself the new Pope.

Galactic Empire - The Kingdom of Navarrae replacer. Where the majority of the fantasy factions started. They have some of the most variety of troops of the new factions (andalus, varangian, anatolian). On top of that, they start in an alliance with (Peteopia, Shadows of the Stars, Castille and Aragon) in an alliance vs alliance war with all other factions. GE starts out hated by almost all. Also, they have the following lords: Darth Vader (godlike), Chuck Norris (super strong), Abraham Lincon (weak, but lots of charisma) and Death (one of three of the "boss" lords of the game, meant for an "endgame" challenge.)

Holders of the Rings - Novgorod replacer - The Lord of the Rings based faction. About same troops as GE, but more cavalry and a bit more unique of units. Sauron is the second of the three boss lords of the game.

Peteopia - Gaelic Empire replacer - Family guy themed faction, none real except meg! Meg is a male lord and closely resembles Meg from family guy! This is actually probably my most unique faction I changed. Peteopia main troops are bandits and farmers and a tiny bit of gaelic units. But this is a bandit and farmer faction! Lots of bandit units. Probably the hardest faction to play, as no one is actually strong in this faction and the troops are weak.

Shadows of the Stars - Scotland replacer - Starcraft themed faction, with a couple godlike lords and Xel'Naga (I know that is a "species" name, but ah well) being the third boss lord of the game and the strongest overhaul boss of the game. This faction gets a bit of variety of troops, but more Andalus troop focused.

- Item changes -

Horses: Changed charged on many of them (not all, so some aren't as good as others)...now you don't hit a peasant and die. You can ride your horse through lines of infantry and archers! Far more realistic in my opinion, and way more fun than hitting a peasant and stopping in your tracks. Four super rare (should be) horses to find (easter egg kind of thing)

Crossbow+bolts: Upped speed, damage, reload speed, more ammo for bolts, reload on horseback ...vastly better at defense sieges, average in open, horrible at offense sieges...much more use. Not entirely realistic, but more fun and not firewood junk

Bows+arrows: Only slight changes here, tweaked damage slightly and upped arrow ammo...average at offense sieges, not nearly as good at defense sieges as crossbows, much better in open than crossbows

Javelins: (very) slight change to damage, greatly lower throw speed and the javelins fly much slower in the air, much higher ammo counts (4 was lame). This is actually out of the four, the best change. Javelins still hurt like hell if they hit you, but they are VERY hard to use (require actual player skill). Out of the four, javelins are actually 100% like they would be in real life.

And some slight changes to roman armor and other roman things...anything else you gotta find for yourself.

Well, are you armenian?

In the game? My test character is, yes, and I have a second test character with the Byzantines (Roman Empire).

The new faction is here. You can download it on the main page.

It is actually a replacer of the Crusader States (only thing that is the same for them is the flag, which I hope to be able to change as soon as I get a chance)...the Crusader States are pretty much gone in this submod.

The new faction is Kingdom of Cilicia, but the changes encompass the Roman Empire and Ilkhanate as well...as Armenians did actually join the Byzantines (a lot migrated to there) and Ilkhanate had a lot too. Not 100% accurate, but oh well.

The Kingdom of Cilicia has two special lords I put in, that are quite powerful as depicted in history. However, they are actually from the mongol empire...so again, not nearly accurate.

In any case, hope you guys enjoy

I'm going to test it 

Let me know what parts you like and if anything should be toned down balance wise, or any other suggestions. outside of the items.text

Later I will go through the items and greatly tone them down, but for now they will be left alone. But it kind of balances things out as it is, sort of. Makes it more of fast paced action as it is. Which some may or may not like. But it isn't required for the main changes.

Removed the Papal States from the game  and replaced them with Dutchy of Normandy with a new king, William the Conqueror (most powerful lord in the game) who declared himself the pope after successfully killing Pope Alexander and conquering Italy. (in an alternate time dimension ) in return, most of the Italian troops are gone and replaced with appropriate ones.

Now the Crusader States and Papal States are gone! But I am limited to what I can do without the module files, or I'd do away with the crusades all together. But in an alternate time universe, anything is possible ;P

LOL, what you did?

Divilly said:

LOL, what you did?

Click to expand...

Made a mostly non-historical submod. Aimed at removing Crusader States and Papal States and replacing them with Kingdom of Cilicia and Dutchy of Normandy, and changing some of the troops around.

Like I said, it is non-historical, so feel free to skip this if that isn't what you are into.

(new: Added a peasant start! Now you can start as a nobody!)

I like the Idea, and the Submod is lookling good.
Is there any chance that you can Implement the Pbod (Pre battle and orders deployment) in you modification?
Loved this feature in the older Version of anno Domini (you could turn of the enemy formation system, manage your troops before the battle etc...), but it seems it wont be implemented again.

Your Submod would be legendary if you would do that...

Good luck mate!

Vendayn said:

Divilly said:

LOL, what you did?

Click to expand...

Made a mostly non-historical submod. Aimed at removing Crusader States and Papal States and replacing them with Kingdom of Cilicia and Dutchy of Normandy, and changing some of the troops around.

Like I said, it is non-historical, so feel free to skip this if that isn't what you are into.

(new: Added a peasant start! Now you can start as a nobody!)

Click to expand...

Add the United States of America while you're at it, why the **** not.

Kenryu said:

I like the Idea, and the Submod is lookling good.
Is there any chance that you can Implement the Pbod (Pre battle and orders deployment) in you modification?
Loved this feature in the older Version of anno Domini (you could turn of the enemy formation system, manage your troops before the battle etc...), but it seems it wont be implemented again.

Your Submod would be legendary if you would do that...

Good luck mate!

Click to expand...

Sadly, it is actually really limiting with just .txt files on hand. Need the module files (pythons). So, there isn't too much I can do with it.

Well thats a real shame...
Thanks for the reply, good luck with your submod.
Looking good!

I updated the Normandy faction. They have a few allies, but lots of enemies. All of the italian factions and most of the beyond want you gone!

It adds quite the challenge, when you have so many enemies right from the start. Rather realistic too anyway for Normandy, since they did make a lot of enemies during their time.

(update:

I added tips/guide to the bottom of the original post. This gives you an idea of what the new factions are like, as far as power/troops go. This should help you decide which to play as, if any. I think I actually balanced it out rather well. The only faction that could be considered the "hardest" to play (harder than Welsh, but by far stronger troops), would be Normandy and that is only if you use my update for them. But they are actually still powerful, but I meant them to be a challenge to start as on purpose for that update.)

I added an optional balanced items.txt into the mod page. Its still stronger than base mod, but not "cheating" like I had it originally (except for one horse type). Its beta as I still may make changes and haven't changed the other horses.

Makes javelins more damaging (but not as good accuracy/speed, so a bit more balanced and realistic)...ammo is increased by just a little

Fixes crossbows, now they are actually usable.

Makes bows slightly better (they are already good in base mod, so I still may need to work more on these. Should be still balanced with the other changes here)

Makes lamellar horses have 600 hp (or whatever I made it)+better charge...now they don't die in one or two hits (which probably realistic, was too annoying for me), and can actually mow through a line of troops (which is way more realistic (to me, at least from what I've seen in movies. If that is seen as wrong, oh well...I like it like that) than them charging a few troops and then suddenly stopping)

And...oh varaginian armor and byzantine sword are still overpowered, I didn't change anything with those. And I'll probably leave the armor as is, but change that sword around balance wise.

And that is it. Still a beta file, but better than I had it. I just haven't finished changing everything around.

http://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/5857/?

Added all in one changes (newly updated as well), with a far more fantasy approach with adding the Galactic Empire to 1257...Darth Vader and some others replace what used to be Navarrae. Be sure to include the en folder if using the english submod to see the full changes.

Other changes include the previous change to Crusader States replacer and the Papal States replacer.

Major balancing to horses (many with realistic charge...not hit a little peasant and keel over and die.)...now many horses can plow through troops and not stop cause you hit a peasant! Like in lord of the rings movies! Far more fun, realistic or not. Not all horses get the proper changes, so some are far more powerful than others. This is only 99% done.

Balanced javelins...still strong, but a lot slower and not godlike overpowered. If they hit you, you die...but a lot slower to throw and fly through the air. Also made it be able to carry more javelins (30 is the base), so you don't run out after a few throws.

Balanced crossbows...not useless anymore as a piece of trash. About as useful as bows. Vastly better in defense than bows, bows having a bit better use in the open and  crossbows not good in offense sieges. This is far better and makes both bows and crossbows useful. Bolts you can hold a lot more of.

And that is it for the changes. Some other slight changes and additions, and not everything is finished. But the mod is pretty much 99% done. Just some balances to do, and any other major faction changes I decide later (if any, it will be with Novgorod)

updated the all in one to 1.1.2 as I made a couple tweaks.

First, I made Darth Vader (leader of Galactic Empire) much stronger. With my previous change for everyone to start out at war with GE (they are evil ;P), I thought it be best. And he was a tad weak. I personally thought warband in general is really easy (except for Prophecy of Pendor, that is really hard)...for almost all mods. So Galactic Empire is supposed to be the end guy to fight. Or you can be them and have just as much fun. But, Roman Empire, Dutchy of Normandy and Kingdom of Cicilia are no pushovers either. They have strong lords/kings/troops too. And Cicilia had the most work put into it out of everything.

That and all the balancing I did...which I have to finish the horses and slightly tweak crossbows/bolts...but unless I decide to change another faction (Novgorod or any others I also decide to do, but I definitely will eventually do them) I am done for a while. Once I go back to it, I have to change the rest of the horses...or may just decide to leave weak and strong ones as is. Kinda a variety I guess.

(update: Novgorod replaced with Holders of the Rings. A Lord of the Rings faction, with Sauron as King...and a god! If you fight him, be prepared for the toughest fight in all of warband! You won't do it one on one. But all the famous LOTR characters are here!)

I added reviews to my mod description! Now you can see what people think before you try it! From random places, a couple being private messages or a couple I deleted off the comments.

Updated my mod to 1.2...major changes to the new lords I put in previously. As well as a family guy themed faction and a starcraft themed faction.

Peteopia has mostly bandits and farmers and some gaelic units

Shadows of the Stars (starcraft) has godlike lords and the regular scottish units...but their lords can solo almost anything.

Sauron of course was majorily buffed, strongest overall lord in the game. Can take anyone out 1 on 1

Vader and Galactic Empire had major buffs, due to their starting position and multiple wars.

On top of that, I started my alliance vs alliance start. So far GE+Castille+Peteopia+Shadows+Aragon are in an alliance against other factions. This takes a long time to do, but I plan to do this with all factions (or at least my new ones).

you are making a weird mod dude