[S] Dawn of Man - BETA Released.

[Zarthas]

Dawn of Man

Beta Download!

---Beta Released!!

Hello all, back with another Super rough, still somewhat ugly Beta.  I simply don't have a lot of time left to clean it up.  I added tons of shit, don't even remember what all it was at this point.  Factions rebalanced, new ones created, new items, equipment, and beasties.

-- Known Bugs --
  -- For some people, it will crash on run
 -- For some people, it will crash when using a ranged weapon or speaking to the merchant in that first scene

-- To-Do List! --

Make Starting Race Affect Stats/Equipment
Redo Character Creation
Barter System - There's no currency, trade items for other items
Crafting - Use the Craftsman(Engineer) skill to create new weapons from pieces you collect.
Foraging - Use a new Foraging ability from the camp menu to scavenge an area for food or supplies.   Depends upon your Scavenge(Looting) skill.
Start your own Village - Create a village of your own.  Will require a bit of raw materials.  Will be inhabited by whoever you put there, and will generate troops of your starting culture.

Well hello again forums    Been on something of a hiatus, a lot of crazy shit going on on my end.  All pretty good though.  Anyways, I'm back to tease you with more epic screens.  The mod has been rebuilt from the ground up AGAIN, but I can say without a doubt, this is the best version to date.

  The world is young, and man is not yet the master of his domain.  Fledgling clans struggle for their very survival, and savage and dangerous beasts roam the untamed wilderness.  As mankind begins to come together, begins to rise above the simple life of an animal, you come into the world.  Will you lead your people into an age of prosperity, building up their humble wandering-camps into villages? Or will you give humanity its first taste of the horrors of war?

  This mod has taken something of a new direction with a lot of the help from sir IYI-o-r-t.  The setting has been pushed back even further, and we'll be seeing the cousins of early humanity.

Development Screens Album!

NEW http://img151.imageshack.us/g/mb44.jpg/

OLD http://img411.imageshack.us/g/mb1w.png/



-New Features -

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New Factions

Primitive Humans - Primitive man split into several groups, the most well known are the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal, but there's more out there.
Survival - Food is needed to live.  Your men won't recover from their wounds without food, and if you don't have enough, they'll desert or have to be left behind..
Completely New Items - You'll find almost nothing from Native in here.  Complete overhaul of the item list.
Slings! - Crossbows are out of course, replaced with slings.  Less accurate than bows, but better range, and more plentiful ammunition.
Reworked Bows - Bows are mildly less accurate due to lower quality arrows, and their range is somewhat inferior to slings.  20 arrows per stack rather than 30.

New Character Creation - Choose your Clan, Totem, and specialties.
Dueling - Using a slightly modified version of the dueling kit by MartinF, duel your own troops or friendly chieftains.
Battles After Death - Battles continue after you fall
Cannibalism! - In times of need, kill and eat either your prisoners or your own troops.
Be the Chief! - Villages have been reworked.  You can now build new buildings and fully control your garrison.
New Music! - Compiling some stuff, cuz I lost the old ones 

Green - Done
Orange - Started

Beasts

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In this era of primitive man, the beasts that dwell alongside us are larger, more vicious, and have no fear of man.  Packs of huge wolves roam the forests and tundra, and see a small group of humans as veritable prey.  Great boars dwell in the grasslands, and will think nothing of disemboweling any foolish enough to threaten them.  The only thing that doesn't want to kill are the herds of deer, and even they may change their mind if you get too close.

Features -
'Riderless' System - Beasts have no riders, and are susceptible to axe, bow, and spear.
Beast AI - Different creatures behave slightly differently.  Boars will attempt to run you down, where wolves will engage you in close combat.  Deer will do their best to stay away from you.
Beast Attack - Some beasts have been given custom melee attacks in addition to the ability to trample.

 -- Two Classes - Predator and Herbivore.  Predators are particularly aggressive at night, and may attack weak parties.  Herbivores don't react to you on the main map, but will attack when threatened.
   -- Cave Lions-- Model by highlander, Texture by IVI-o-r-t
   -- Dire Wolves -- Model by highlander, texture butchered by me, originally his texture
   -- Mammoths! -- By IVI-o-r-t
   -- Boars! -- By Highlander I think???
   -- Deer -- Doe by highlander, Stag by IVI-o-r-t
   -- Woolly Rhino -- Freeware model found online, needs new texture

Clans/Factions -

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Been completely reworked recently --

-- Hynn Clan --
-- Equipment -- Wear a lot of leather clothing, particularly goat-skin, from the semi-domesticated goats native to their area.  Are somewhat adept at knapping and polishing flint blades, and are some of the best slingers.  Woven grass cloaks are primitive raincoats.
-- Clan Items -- Staff Sling, War Dog (Not done yet )
-- Settlements -- Permanent.  Wood, Clay, and Straw huts.
-- Major Food Supply --Rudimentary agriculture, purposely piling seeds into certain areas so they know these plants will grow next year etc.

-- Eaters-of-the-Dead --
--Equipment -- Are unable to flint or knap stone.  Use mostly bone and wood implements, only rudimentary clothing.  High-tier troops have stolen stone-headed axes and hammers.  'Worship' fire, and are incapable of making it themselves.
--Clan Items -- Bear-Jaw Club (Not Done ) Skull Masks
--Settlements -- Permanent.  Live in the caves in the side of mountains of their homeland.
-- Food Supply -- Captured enemies.  Hunted game.

-- Clan of the Cave Bear --
--Equipment -- Can produce knapped stone tools.  Are fond of large spears that are too heavy for most humans to use.  Wear mostly fur garments to keep out the cold.
-- Clan Items -- Pikes
-- Settlements -- Semi-Nomadic.  Move as game becomes less plentiful.  Caves.
-- Food Supply -- Mostly hunts large game, forage for plants.

Children of the Sun --
-- Equipment -- Area they live in is quite warm.  Wear little clothing, and have a special hatred for footwear, as their culture learns to run barefoot.  Are capable of knapping stone, but there is little quality flint in their land.  Use mostly wooden weapons, especially throwing sticks and clubs.
-- Clan Items -- Handspear, Boomerang
-- Settlements -- Semi-Nomadic.  Mud and Straw huts.
-- Food Supply -- Foraging, Hunts small game, Hunts Large Game.

Islanders -- (Not in Game currently)
--Equipment -- There is no knappable stone on their islands, so they never learned to use it.  There are native hardwoods that can create effective clubs, and they use bone-tips in place of stone.
-- Clan Items -- Flat Clubs, Bark Cloth
-- Settlements -- Permanent
-- Food Supply -- Fish, large game, foraging.

Banners!

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Code: [Select]

[url=http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,67009.0.html][img]http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3495/dawnofman.png[/img][/url]

Contributors! -
Verbeek - All of the great splash and menu artwork!
-I-Y-I-O-R-T- - Ridiculous number of textures and meshes.  All the people, and several items.
SirNight33 - Cool spear and hide shield models
Dain Ironfoot - Capes and cloaks OSP.
Highlander - A bunch of animals, and the weapons from the original Paleolithic mod.
Voutare - Stuff from paleolithic mod
HokieBT - Helping out with the script for the Beast Rider system.
Sibylla - Hair meshes
J6oe - A spiked club model
Hairfree - Music Set
Brytenwalda Team, especially Brust - Boarskin model, being cool dudes generally

- Curse of the Neolithic Mod -

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Like a multitude of other things I'm in daily contact with, this mod seems to be cursed.  Electronic equipment just degrades by being around it.  I've decided to keep a running log of the curse's victims:

August, 2009 - My computer is damaged during a storm, destroying my monitor.  Computer works for a few days, then the HD makes a croaking noise and dies.
October 2009 - Begin Mod work on a second PC.  It crashes.  Move to a laptop.  My dog knocks it off a table and destroys the screen.
November 2009 - Move to a third machine,  Begin work.  Windows has to be reinstalled twice.
January 2010 - SirNight's HD crashes while working on models for Neolithic Mod.
End of January 2010 - SirNight's entire PC crashes while working on models for NM, and my PC won't boot due to a virus.

[Tiberius Decimus Maximus]

Well, this has been attempted quite a few times, and the only one which actually finished was the Paleothic: Fight for Homo Genus, for .808. But on that note, the basic idea sounds pretty good. I like the bit on cannibalism 

So good luck with the mod, hope it turns out.

[Aetheus]

How about the whole "Travelling tribes" idea that another similar mod used? There weren't any towns/cities, instead, you could enter temporary scenes (camps) when interacting with travelling parties.

[mightywolve]

I think its really weird to see no village/towns but only moving party's.
Ye can put some towns. Just little ones. 

[Tiberius Decimus Maximus]

I think its really weird to see no village/towns but only moving party's.
Ye can put some towns. Just little ones. 

Well how about a combination of the two? For example, in a desert like land, there would be a lot of travelling tribes, but as they have been around for a while, they would typically camp, or even meet up with other tribes in congregations, in certain well known areas. Such as: oasis', grassland, defensible positions, and sheltered areas. However, they only meet there every once in a while, so you could use the tournament script and see if you can apply that to merchants, taverns, and the like so it only comes around every month or so.

[mountaindblade21]

Sounds like a good idea. Good luck.

[Zarthas]

I'm a huge fan of Paleolithic for .808, still have it actually.  The 'travelling towns' thing was a big feature in Paleolithic, since there was no agriculture or animal husbandry.  However, in the Neolithic Era, both those things exist to some degree, so permanent settlements started to become more of the norm.  I've been kinda thinking about the moving settlements idea, but for now, the majority of settlements are permanent. 

I'm actually rather liking your idea Tiberius.  I'll have to think on that some more.

edit: Oh yeah, I stole the cannibalism idea from Paleolithic Was one of my favorite parts hehe.

[Tiberius Decimus Maximus]

So will there be any Desert type tribes? Or perhaps some sort of early fantasy civilization, a bit like in 10,000 B.C. (imminent hate for that movie goes here)

[Zarthas]

I am thinking about adding some Nomadic desert tribes, but I think they'd primarily appear as bandits, with maybe a couple of wandering traders?  I'd definitely like to implement that idea with Oases though.  I'm thinking that Oases throughout the desert would serve as uncapturable towns, with each only being populated at certain times like you said.

Haha, poor 10,000 bc.  It tried so hard.

I'm thinking that the Men of the Jungle will be a sort of imperial force, with an active agenda to conquer and enslave the Island, Mountain, and Plains peoples.  Slavery is going to be much more profitable and common this time around as well.
Hell though, if you got any ideas, toss 'em out!

I already got to adding an Amazon bandit faction

Progress is actually going really well, will probably be playable by next week (yay)

[Tiberius Decimus Maximus]

So... do you have any ideas for the map? I mean, some cool transitions would be nice. All too often I see that snow suddenly ends on the map, and then immediatly there is lush woodland. So, for example, as your transitioning from the Jungle Tribes to the Island tribes, there would be rainforest, than flooded woodland, than a mangrove lagoon, than ocean, than the islands.

Also, will these 'tribes' actually be unified, or will they be split apart? I kinda like the second option better, but its your mod 

[Maeglin Dubh]

I really like the look of this, and I wish you the best of luck.

[mightywolve]

I think its really weird to see no village/towns but only moving party's.
Ye can put some towns. Just little ones. 

Well how about a combination of the two? For example, in a desert like land, there would be a lot of travelling tribes, but as they have been around for a while, they would typically camp, or even meet up with other tribes in congregations, in certain well known areas. Such as: oasis', grassland, defensible positions, and sheltered areas. However, they only meet there every once in a while, so you could use the tournament script and see if you can apply that to merchants, taverns, and the like so it only comes around every month or so.

Well thats a great idea I think.
Its kinda more realistic, hope you can put that in your mod.

[Zarthas]

@Tiberius
I've been trying to work that one through myself.  I think most of the 'tribes' will just be very, very loose confederations without any kind of central government, and certainly no king.  Its more along the lines of, 'I probably won't kill you'.

Jungle tribes on the other hand will be unified, with an Emperor as its head.

I've been thinking on what sort of new terrains I should be adding as well.  I for sure need a Jungle terrain, and swamps would be awesome as well methinks.  I understand what you mean about transitions I'll take it a bit more seriously.

@Maeglin Dubh
Thank you sir ^_^

@mightywolve
I seem to be leaning toward that direction. 

[mightywolve]

@mightywolve
I seem to be leaning toward that direction.

 

[Zarthas]

A few notes on how Villages, Castles, and  Cities will work in Neolithic.

Villages will be fully garrisonable, and raids will play out a bit differently, as in the villagers will almost always resist.  Villages will be the most common city type, so there'll be more available interaction with them and with villagers.  I was thinking of adding a Shaman/Wise Woman to each village, for healing and general witchy items, and probably a food merchant.  Companions I think will show up in villages now.

Forts will be sparse, but they will exist.  Most will be Hill-Forts, with construction being as little as possible.  Forts will contain huge stockpiles of food and supplies, and be well worth raiding.  About 1/2 the forts there are now.

Cities will be even sparser.  Most factions will have one or two.  They're bustling centers of civilization, akin to ancient city-states like Sumeria.  The City-Kings are the most powerful lords in the realm.  Most will contain actual Market-places.

So far, the Men of the Desert are slated to be a wandering faction, and the only faction without permanent settlements.