I spent most of yesterday modeling. Texturing isn't as easy as I remember it being back in the days of Quake 2, but it's simple enough. Unfortunately Azathoth armor is going to have to have an exceptionally high poly count due to its complexity (around twice as high as normal items, even despite my best efforts to conserve vertices), but there shouldn't be too many of those guys around at a time so it shouldn't cause too much of a load on your system.
I went from coding to modeling because apparently there's no way to read armor values directly from an item, which means I'll have to create a directory of available armor in a script in order to accurately deliver damage with some of the new weapons I'm introducing. Hence I'm trying to get as much of the new armor finished as possible before I go ahead and make this database. Plus being an artist opposed to a coding is much more fun.
Looks like I got a lot to respond to. Here goes...
drdoom151:
And what do you think about a diplomatic hero who can, for a certain amount of payment, neutralize your relationship with a hostile faction?
The Forge could also be needed for making Siege equipment like ladders and siegetowers. From wood obviously.
Since you can already pay off lords for peace, that's not so radical of an idea. I'm planning on adding more diplomatic options, such as duels, prisoner exchanges (more involved than the quest you get from lords in Native), and my favorite, kidnapping.
I'd hate to add requirements to building siege equipment. Aren't siege towers tedious enough already? I have been thinking a little about different types of siege strategies to be employed by the player, however. So right now that's in the phase of "question: how much am I willing to code to add this type of crap to the game?"
Amman de Stazia:
One thing I usually do with modding, is to increase the STR requirements on weapons, but raise the speed in return: If you've got the strength, you should be able to swing a morningstar just as fast as a weaker guy swings a sabre.
Since weapon master/proficiencies already cover this, I don't think that would be too big of an improvement, though it would be a realistic one. One of my friends used to be a professional street fighter (
not the game) who could kick your ass with anything from a toothpick to a cinder block, and that came from real-world experience, not his size. But a certain blacksmith, who was credited with having made a twelve-foot broadsword for a client, told me, "If you're a big enough guy you can beat the hell out of a ninja as long as your sword is bigger than his," or something like that anyway. He phrased it better. I do like the idea so I'll keep that in mind. Since a wimp can still
swing a morningstar, pathetically slow as that might be, I'd rather not bar him from it. If possible I may add a speed multiplier based on strength to the speed of a weapon. I'm using a strength multiplier on certain effects, and it works fine, but I'm not sure how I could code an actual attack speed bonus based on strength. Eh, I'll keep thinking about it.
Mccohenster:
Also one thing that I noticed. It's really not a big deal but the Rhodok phalanx appears to have those small steel shields. I know that the Greeks used round shields (and so did the Danes/ Saxons in their shield wall) but they were significantly bigger. If no one else is bothered by charging cavalry being stopped by a something the size of a sled than ignore this...
I know what you're saying. I thought about giving them huscarls' shields but they didn't seem to give them the visual presence i envisioned for them on the battlefield. Now that I'm modelling I have new shields in store for them. The game certainly needs a larger variety of steel shields to begin with. Also the Laerteans will probably have a competing Phalanx unit of their own style, as well.
A final thought, Bernhardt suggested a brotherhood type thing and I want to say that would be very cool. I am picturing a small army of a dozen or so troops each unique. Perhaps they could be loosely affiliated with a faction and would avoid outright fights on their own but occasionally join in with another lord and heavily influence the battle.
I'm considering something similar to this for certain factions with lower numbers of lords.
GrandTheftGearsofHalo4:
I dunno but that'd be funny as hell as a armor. Have a guy with a joint in his mouth in some random mod...
Though this wouldn't be a freely equippable item since mouths are at different heights for different faces, a few select NPCs will be seen with cigars or pipes. It will add +1 to head armor, just for shits and giggles.
And everyone knows weed would decimate your troops' food supply. Not a good consumable item!!
Bernhardt:
Well you can just make this knighthood orders, brotherhoods, clansmen, or what ever you wish to call them make them, spawn in certain areas, with the color of a nation they are helping. Sea raiders hitting Vaegirs and if a Nord is fighting a Vaegir or looters they come to aid the Nords, just like a nice walking warband allied to a kingdom.
So you can keep Sea Raiders (change name if you want it will make them more unique with troop tree and all) for Nords. The Black Lion Knightly Order for the Swadian and such kind of things. Just make them recruitable on castles after building some upgrade.
This is very similar to what I was thinking. To my understanding the number of factions is limited by the game itself, and each one of these pseudo-bandit groups would require its own faction, so I'm going to limit it to just a few types. One is well-planned in structure already, and it will attack everything but its parent faction, and will help them and receive assistance from them in return.
I don't plan on outrightly replacing or eliminating anything from Native.
How are you going with the lords having heroes and stuff?
I haven't looked too deeply into it, but heroes should be able to join NPC parties without a hitch. This is near the top of my list.
Just one more thing... some Nord equipment is not very pretty I don't know why just something feels off.
What? Vikings are supposed to be messy. Anyway, armor is extremely quick for me to make well. All the new Nord units I designed will have different equipment. I'm hesitant to change the actualy
appearance of Native troops since they all have developed such memorable qualities for me, but I will probably add to their equipment list to give some troops a little more variety, a quality Huscarls could certainly use.
That's everyone, I think. I'm going to add 1 to my head armor for 5 minutes by smoking a cigarette, then it's back to modeling.
Poll
