Conquest! (v0.70 released July 3rd)

[kt0]

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Tales of the Black Bow

“Not always have the disparate lands of Calradia been united under a single banner.   Few ask of how it came to pass.  Fewer still remember the stories or played some part in it.  Come, young one, and listen, for my tale is a part of the history of our land and our nation.

“Times previous were dark indeed.  Bands of rogues and brigands scoured the roads for the unwary traveler.  From the north, raiders came in great numbers wreaking havoc on the crumbling kingdom and laying waste to any who would oppose them.  From the east came the Khergit on their fleet horses carving out their own holdings from the southern reaches.  Invaders, it seemed, were in large supply in the those times.  Even those whose fathers' fathers' called Calradia home saw fit to fight amongst themselves leading to a period of warfare and blight.  Prosperity fled, crops withered, men died.

“It was into this turmoil that I made my way, young and naïve.  Seems that many were in those times since so few saw their later years.  I hired out as a sellsword to a caravan heading to Suno despite knowing that the way was perilous.  I was not surprised when we were attacked on the second night; neither was I prepared.

“Four score of Nords set upon us that night; more of an army than I'd seen until then—the kind of force that storms castles and burns villages.  They were organized, well equipped, and intent on taking from us what we had, with orders from one of their petty lords looking to make a fistful of denars from the safety of his far away castle.  Our defense was no match, aye, not even in the same class, and despite our best efforts we were easily defeated. 

“They decided to put us to the sword though I suspect that the decision was made long before they broke camp.  As the last of the band to meet the executioner's axe, I silently vowed as the edge met its apex that should I be granted life, that I would fight these bastards and all those who would oppress the inhabitants of this land 'til my dying breath.  As if beckoned by a higher power, two black shafts immediately sprouted from the axeman's neck.  He dropped his weapon falling backward, dead.  My salvation had come.

“Out of the darkness came the thunder of hooves.  An alarm was raised in the camp and a battle cry erupted as the Nords hastened to make ready.  The attackers' cavalry barreled through the hasty front line, crushing many and lancing many more.  They stood no chance and the camp was soon awash in the blood of my captors.  The battle was swift and brutal.  The attackers left none of the Nords alive.  They were led by a woman with piercing eyes and a commanding voice, wielding a black bow and riding a regal white charger. 

“My savior was one of few words, but to this day I remember what she told me that night:  'Gather whatever is yours.  You are free to go, but if you yearn for revenge, come with me.'  My choice was clear.

“I was put into service as a cavalryman and was given some rusty weapons, a battered shield, and a barely trained rouncey.  In the weeks to come, I was given basic instructions in swordplay, horsemanship, and tactics.  Between fighting bandits and chasing down waylay Nord patrols, I became close to my newfound brothers and sisters.  A more ragtag band I have never set eyes upon, yet despite our mismatched gear and varied backgrounds, we were unstoppable. 

“In those early days we roamed the countryside, looking for others like us who would fight for the land and its people.  Times were hard.  What we lacked in proper equipment we made up for in courage and discipline.  Every battle was led by our Lady—first in and last out, brandishing the black bow with otherworldly skill.  Every battle was a victory.  As Nord castles started to fall to our advance, the other petty factions of the land sought to take them from us; to avail us of our rightful prize.  Their time would come. 

“In time, I was given command of a squad and eventually an army.  Our force was split and I was put in charge of the southern campaign.  It was in our conquest of Narra that I lost my eye.  Our force had become strong enough that none could oppose us for long.  Seven years and scant months from the day I first set out as a sellsword, we had conquered the land.  None were left to oppose us. 

“Our Lady is gone now and few of our original band survive this late year.  Those of us who do remain remember fondly our time in her service.  This Pax Calradia in which we now prosper was built upon the ashes of the old by the strength of ten thousand sword arms and the blood of the fallen.  Ours is a tale of war, a tale in which I can claim a small part.  Ours is a tale of conquest.

Conquest is a simple mod fixing some of the things that annoyed me about Native and adding in a set of features that I thought were missing.  It has been a learning process which will undoubtedly continue.  I wanted to build a mod that I'd want to play and thought that others might enjoy it too.

Swear fealty to no one!  Unite Calradia under your own banner!  Build an empire that will stand the test of time!

Start out with new backgrounds and higher stats to smooth out the early game.  Enjoy new equipment and horses provided by the modding community!  Start the game with a powerful artifact that will grow as you progress through the game!

Troop trees have been modified and many troops have been upgraded.  New and powerful companions have been added.  The bandits that scour the countryside are more numerous and more dangerous.

Lead a larger army of more elite troops!  Wars no longer require the player's interaction to make progress.  Recruit trained troops from new buildings! 

Miscellany:
- Honor counts for a lot more.
- Prosperity is factored into many more aspects of the game.
- Several pacing issues have been resolved.
- Many aspects of the game's simulation have been reworked.
- AI has been tweaked to be more aggressive.
- The autoresolver has been fixed. 
- Several new buildings have been added.
- Lots of new items and equipment have been added.
- Costs have been refactored across the board.
- Faction patrols roam the countryside.
- Deathcam!
- And much, much more!

Screenies:

(click to show/hide)

Horses:

(click to show/hide)

Credits:

(click to show/hide)

Many thanks to:
- froggyluv, TalonAquila, and Jubal:  additional design
- TalonAquila:  additional programming
- froggyluv, TalonAquila, lorenzogarch, Mazrik, dzorro, thedubman, Pablomonto:  testing
- TheMageLord
- Geoffrey Ashe for the NNY mod (code used)
- GarnierMOD (ideas borrowed from code)
- Raowyn (ideas borrowed from code)
- MartinF for listening to my crazy ideas
- Jik for his awesome tutorial
- Saxondragon for raising the bar
- Rubik for proving what I said about hacking the compiler
- Mordachai for using his ebil Jedi mind tricks to make me write piles of code that I was too lazy to start
- The OSP community for their awesome art!
- Aquil for his excellent face textures
- Talak's awesome Unique Armory
- LLew2's sweet LotR weapons
- Fisheye's autoloot
- Lord & Realms Siege Project (NICK.ALTMAN, Xamim, Osugi)
- The M&B modding community
- TaleWorlds for giving me such an awesome sandbox to play in!

Current version is v0.70a which can be found here:  http://www.mbrepository.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=7&lid=1384

Previous releases can be found here:
- v0.60a http://www.mbrepository.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=7&lid=1320
- v0.50a http://www.mbrepository.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=7&lid=1287
- v0.50a http://files.filefront.com/Conquest+v0507z/;13764776;/fileinfo.html

We're good on testers right now, but could use an artist.  Thanks, all!   

[kt0]

http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php

Changelist for v0.70 Alpha:
- lord and companion parties should follow directions somewhat better
- Fisheye's autoloot has been added with many modifications
- Lord & Realms Siege Pack has been added
- the Royal Corps of Engineers has finally shown up for assignment
- Chalbek and Tulbuk have been taken over by new mini-factions!
- new starting artifacts are now available at character creation
- resources and associated buildings have been added for each walled center
- camp followers' and hutress' equipment adjusted to be slightly better for battle
- sword maiden/sword sister equipment adjusted slightly
- player_supporters_faction correctly spawns caravans
- max skill level for surgery, wound treatment, spotting, pathfinding, tactics, athletics, weapon master, power draw, power throw, and power strike has been increased to 14
- fixed a bug where castles got extra training exp each day
- during sieges, the chance to attack with a marginally larger force decreased slightly
- during sieges, a lord is less likely to stick around just waiting outside the castle
- added color keys for various messages based on the player's perspective
- target of opportunity orders added for companion parties and lord parties
- the player can only ask lords to join if relation is 10 or better
- fixed a bug where asking an arena master was using uninitialized strings
- crown_mail value increased and no longer hides the wearer's head
- padded_leather_long value, weight, and armor increased
- mail_shirt and mail_shirt_blue now have difficulty 7
- most other armors now have lower difficulties
- heavier armors now have better leg protection
- difficulty of most heavy hammers has been reduced
- great bardiche should now appear on merchants
- atgeirr's shield penalty has been removed
- warspear can no longer be used on horseback
- lance damage increased slightly
- weapon lines have been refactored
- Whitesteel, Knightsbane, and Val Hallen have new art
- Val Hallen is now two handed only
- new barracks troop tiers added for resource building support
- fixed a bug with the autoresolver where fights involving allies counted remaining troops incorrectly
- newly captured centers are now garrisoned with a handful of house troops
- build guard post menu option now functions properly
- higher tier troops are now available at recruitment buildings if the appropriate buildings are present
- initial center garrisons have more appropriate strengths
- autoresolved fights at centers have been slowed down 30%
- artifacts giving a bonus to skl_surgery will give their bonuses properly now
- lord weekly income has been increased slightly to reflect changes in troop costs
- villages now suffer a population penalty when raided
- faction AI has been refactored slightly
- looters now will spawn with tougher troops as the game goes on
- Adalgeirr and Adrasteia's hiring costs are no longer swapped
- fixed a bug where disabling npc complaints still spammed in some situations
- fixed some bad math in population adjustment by percentage
- lords now build improvements slightly more often and slightly more intelligently
- the endgame's pacing has been modified slightly
- landsnecht and swordmaster troops no longer have throwing weapons
- random improvements are built more frequently
- deathcam added to village raid missions
- Kingmaker gives tactics skill bonus instead of shield
- Kingmaker's speed has been increased
- Unit cap on companion parties has been removed temporarily
- Lots of miscellaneous fixes and tweaks

Changelist for v0.60 Alpha:
- Bugs fixed with companion parties
- New lords added
- Player faction specific troop lines added
- Enemy lords make special guest appearances
- Troop gear tightened up and should loot better
- More lord interactions
- Enemy lords buffed substantially
- Whistle for your horse command (z)
- Increased walled center garrisons
- New buildings added (recruiter, fortification, guard post)
- Numerous patrol fixes
- Lords build improvements now
- Siege AI tweaked
- Player dialog is more polite when talking to non-hostile patrols
- Weapon Master now correctly gives bonuses for artifacts
- "Masterwork sword of war" artifact description changed to "An imposing greatsword"
- Lords recruited as prisoners should function properly
- Lots of miscellaneous tweaks and fixes

Bugs in v0.50 Alpha:
- Companion parties resting at cities will bug out (fixed in v0.60)
- Sometimes recruiting lords from prisoners causes the wrong lord to join your side (fixed in v0.60)
- If you capture a center at which the marshall + at least one other lord following the marshal, there will be some ugly script errors about invalid parties (fixed in v0.60)

v0.50 Poll:
Which is your favorite starting artifact?
The black bow  23 (38.3%)
The brilliant one handed sword  5 (8.3%)
The bastardsword of starmetal  16 (26.7%)
The masterwork sword of war  16 (26.7%)
Total Members Voted: 60

v0.60 Poll:
Which is your favorite horse?
Akhal-Teke 5 (5.7%)
Arabian 23 (26.4%)
Andalusian 9 (10.3%)
Friesian 9 (10.3%)
Percheron 3 (3.4%)
Shire 11 (12.6%)
Silverhoof 27 (31%)
Total Members Voted: 87

Banner, should you be so inclined:

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[center][URL=http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,63052.msg1637451.html#msg1637451][IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/2z5pq1w.jpg[/img][/URL][/center]


[Deyshawn]

Sounds cool. Can't wait to play it!   

[froggyluv]

 Sounds good. What do you mean by the auto-resolve has been fixed? Will it now include weapons and armour etc...

[kt0]

Sounds good. What do you mean by the auto-resolve has been fixed? Will it now include weapons and armour etc...

Yes.    

You can read more about the journey here:  http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,8652.msg1575773.html#msg1575773

[Adorno]

Sounds really good, especially the AI being more aggressive, and honor actually counting for something.

[Lord Yung]

^^ actually i never got the point of honor, what is it suppossed to DO exactly?

[polovolo]

^^ actually i never got the point of honor, what is it suppossed to DO exactly?

If you have alott of honor, honorable lords will like you more, if you have few honor points dishonorable lords will like you more...dont know if it does anymore.

[Lord Yung]

^^ actually i never got the point of honor, what is it suppossed to DO exactly?

If you have alott of honor, honorable lords will like you more, if you have few honor points dishonorable lords will like you more...dont know if it does anymore.

So bassically it serves no real purpose...

[Shatari]

So bassically it serves no real purpose...

If you have a really negative honor rating then most lords will hate you.

[kt0]

Added new screenies today.  Also, I'm looking for a couple testers.

[Wu-long]

Added new screenies today.  Also, I'm looking for a couple testers.

I can test ;p btw how did you make your text? (the background and letters for conquest?)

[Vendeta]

Wow Looks awesome.
I loled at the
"I'm a pikeman why do you ask? 

[Haya]

Name change?
Already a mod named star wars: conquest. I bit stupid but i guess not a big problem

[Vadermath]

That hardly matters, this and the SW one being completely different mods. And there a difference between SW: Conquest, and just Conquest, IMO.