New Blacksmith Items for Kings (now Royal Artifacts)

The code is currently being developed but basically after you build a blacksmith in one of your castles, you will be able to special order items.  Instead of just boosting stats and using the same graphics, I decided to create some new items for this cool feature!
This is now a mini-game in SoD where you send your highest tier nobles to search the old world for your lineage's artifacts!

My plan is to make the items lordly or masterwork quality.  They are a set and look cool, but if you find an item in one of the shops you really like, there is no reason not to use it.  A common flaw of many RPG games is making end game gear so elite, everyone looks the same.  These are great items, but no special reason not to use a masterwork something or another you purchased earlier (unless you just want to look badass). 

In my opinion, these items should not be restricted to civilizations.  I would like all items available at the blacksmith regardless of starting civ.  This would add more variety and prevent you from starting a new game just to see something cool because these will not be available in merchant shops. 

I am almost done but I need to pass the code off to Kuba to insert the mercenary guild features.  I'll be tweaking more SOD graphics for the next version!

Adenian
If you like mounted warfare, you are going to love this lance!





Antarian
Antarians get armor, crown, boots, gloves, and a 2-handed sword





Marinian
Even the bolts and quiver are re-textured.  Now you’ll know who you killed on the battlefield.  Each civ gets items according to their civ (i.e. they get crossbow, glaive, armor, crown, and special bolts)





Villianese
Check out the cloak theme.  Purple is the color of royalty so I do not want to hear any sh!t.  It looks awesome in game and I’ve already fixed the shininess of crown but to much trouble to post another screen.  They get bow, arrows, armor, crown, and saber)






Zerrikanian
The Zerrikanian outfit does not include the shield, boots, or gloves.  All of those are new items found in the shops and just put on because they match.  I really boosted the jarid to make it useful.  You may want to actually invest points in power throw with this weapon!  Check out the quiver, I really pimped this guy out.  The scepter can be used 1 or 2 handed (unique bastard club) and even has a spike on it for thrusting if you decide you want to kill and not maim!  Yes, those are jarids stuck in the wall.  As ruler, we have pawns to pick them all up after each battle. 




Yes he is wearing face paint as well.  Any character can wear face paint now (from elephant guard).  I plan to add some more of these in over time. 

Both the Adenia and Zerrikanian will have special crowns (not just retextured but new models). 

Holy **** thats cool!! When do you think you can get a alpha or beta out?

Very nice! Personally I would like the crown for Villianese to be smaller but I honestly don't know much about anything other than Antarians, considering I only play them. Good job on the mod guys! The scenes will take awhile though. I'm sorry! It's just that my teachers decided to give me a barrel load of homework for the one day I missed, plus I have to(maybe, can't go too much in details, I want to sleep right now) go to the states on Saturday. So I may not be able to work on them. Well back on topic. Great work Cyclohexane!

Excellent. Though I'm not really sure about Villianese crown. Maybe they could have some kind of tiara? They are all stilized a bit elvish so it could fit them.

This pretty much expresses my emotion towards these items. But, as always... you know... constructive criticism and stuff...

ANTARIA:

Good (IMO):
- Heavy metal, yeah baby.
- The "golden" decoration is simply beautiful and very fitting to the royality theme.
- The artistic yet powerful two-handed sword clearly displays who's the boss.

Problematic (IMO):
- The whole armor (body armor, helmet, boots) is simply too black in comparison to the faction's other armored units. I'd rather go with a silvery color and take away the shinyness of the regular/noble Antarian armors instead.
- If you consider the point above, you could also make the sword's blade a bit more brighter so it may fit the armor. I also wouldn't mind if the blade would be slightly longer.
- The crown-part is a bit too big. I can already see "someone" cutting off the upper parts (just in mind of course).

MARINA:

Good (IMO):
- Overall very nice selection of colors and decoration. Rich and mighty, but not exaggerated.
- Lovely combination of chainmail and plate mail, fits the Marinan army theme well.
- Small yet respectful crown. Never gets in the way during battle and looks cool at the same time.
- Weapons are good as well. They display their wielder is no ordinary man.

Problematic (IMO):
- I don't really like the full helm, I'd prefer an open-face version. Or take away the "crosses" at least, they don't make much sense if you ask me.
- I know that Marina has an obsession with polearms, but a naginata...! While it looks freakin' cool, I'd rather use a halberd and save the naginata for an asian-themed culture.

VILLIANESE:

Good (IMO):
- DEEP PURPLE, YAAAY ! Purple was always an overlooked color, glad to see you made use of it.
- Nice decoration on the clothes, fitting to Villianese theme.
- You connected the sword's sheet nicely with the clothes' color theme.
- Interestingly combined crown-helmet. Looks inspiring, to say the least.

Problematic (IMO):
- The clothes/armors are overall too bright, I'd prefer a somewhat more "humble" appearence to be in line with the Villianese "celtic" style. IMO, the Villianese Duke should be more like a warrior king, but these bright clothes make him/her appear otherwise.
- Make the "spikes" on the crown somewhat smaller. Currently, they remind me of Final Fantasy 7: Cloud hairstyle for some reason...

I hope my feedback proves useful, and I'm eagerly waiting for the rest

PS.: Could you let us know the name of the royal items ? Just interested. Or should I make descriptions for them myself (I can do it...) ?

**** YEAH! 

Cyclohexane said:

Check out the cloak theme.  Purple is the color of royalty so I do not want to hear any sh!t.

Click to expand...

First off, great idea and great work you are doing also. Can't wait to get my hands on these outfits

About the quote, purple is the color of royalty but this one borders on mauve... I think it should be a bit more reddish. It looks great however, if you want to keep this color, no problem !

Here is a wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple (I know, I know) with an RGB value as well !

nice looks good

MorrisB said:

This pretty much expresses my emotion towards these items. But, as always... you know... constructive criticism and stuff...

Click to expand...

Big surprise….

MorrisB said:

Problematic (IMO):
- The whole armor (body armor, helmet, boots) is simply too black in comparison to the faction's other armored units. I'd rather go with a silvery color and take away the shinyness of the regular/noble Antarian armors instead.
- If you consider the point above, you could also make the sword's blade a bit more brighter so it may fit the armor. I also wouldn't mind if the blade would be slightly longer.
- The crown-part is a bit too big. I can already see "someone" cutting off the upper parts (just in mind of course).

Click to expand...

Actually, the Anterians use pitch black parts of their armor with way to shinny plates.  The silvery color would look to much like what I am working on with Adenians and I want them to be different.  I do not have a screen for them yet, still a lot of work to do but they will be shinny.

I did try gold trim on shinny metal but it does not look good at all.  In addition, it would be to much work to change it now.  It took a long time to add the engraving in and cannot easily add to another armor of a different color.  Black is here to stay and I am sure many here like it.  I’d change the texture of base Antarians before changing this! 

As far as the models go here, I modified OSP armors and black is the easiest color to match so it looks like a uniform.  Plus it looks sweet.  I also like the sword.  Screenshots do not bring out the look in game.  I love the blade and the screens do not show the unique model in there. 

I played around with the helm /crown issue but that is no easy change.  It looks good anyhow. Like a crown on a helm.  A helm you can wear into battle, not some wimpy tiara. 

MorrisB said:

Problematic (IMO):
- I don't really like the full helm, I'd prefer an open-face version. Or take away the "crosses" at least, they don't make much sense if you ask me.
- I know that Marina has an obsession with polearms, but a naginata...! While it looks freakin' cool, I'd rather use a halberd and save the naginata for an asian-themed culture.

Click to expand...

I only had so many models to work with so full helm it is.  The full helm here is the only crown that shares the same base model as previous SOD crowns.  I tried taking out the crosses but decided to add them back in because it looks much better with them.  I am not a modeler and made unique crown by retexturing and made it match the uniform (which is based off a base model in SOD for Marinars already so fits theme). 

Same is true with the polearm.  It is a retexture of existing SOD Marinar polearm.  It matches the theme already in place exactly.  To change this would require changing all of the Marinar’s weapons which I do not feel is beneficial.  It may not be fantasy, but it is a fantasy location. 

MorrisB said:

Problematic (IMO):
- The clothes/armors are overall too bright, I'd prefer a somewhat more "humble" appearence to be in line with the Villianese "celtic" style. IMO, the Villianese Duke should be more like a warrior king, but these bright clothes make him/her appear otherwise.
- Make the "spikes" on the crown somewhat smaller. Currently, they remind me of Final Fantasy 7: Cloud hairstyle for some reason...

PS.: Could you let us know the name of the royal items ? Just interested. Or should I make descriptions for them myself (I can do it...) ?

Click to expand...

I thought about that but decided to go for the elite look.  No one would want to play Vills is every other civ had something awesome and they look humble.  The stats will be comparable to other lordly / masterwork items so if you decided this is not the look for you, you can use other items and not be at a statistical disadvantage. 

I cannot make the spikes on the helm smaller without redoing the entire model (which would mean I’m not working on something else and I’m more of a texture than moddeler).  Consistent with Vills theme, the crown had severe clipping issues and I had to enlarge it (easy change) in order to make it so a bald spot on top was not showing up on top (very ugly compared to large crown which actually looks unique).  I’ve also done some work on the texture on top already as well but didn’t feel like adding the items into code again, recompile, reload, just to take another screen.  It looks the same except a darker color of gold on helm.  Once again, I’ll say the screenshots do not do it justice, the set looks much better in game. 

I have used names VM picked out for the most part.  Some of the items are above and beyond what he initially had in there so they are currently unnamed.  I’ll work on that part last. 

What do you think about skill bonuses on these items? Eg +1 leadership on crowns.
It shouldn't be hard to add such improvements.

Kuba said:

What do you think about skill bonuses on these items? Eg +1 leadership on crowns.
It shouldn't be hard to add such improvements.

Click to expand...

I think that would be to much like magic.  One thing I really enjoy about M&B is that there is no magic and you have to kill a man the old fashioned way.  I am agaist it personally and think it would force you down the road of I must have this equipment and nothing else.  I like the idea that if you find a lordly great helmet and want to wear it, the armor bonus is the it same. 

Now, if you can add some more books, I am all for that.  For example, what is missing is a "book of maps" that when kept in inventory will raise path finding skill.  IMO, this is a highly underrated skill as speed on the map makes a huge difference but it is hard to balance out points in this with battle skills that are of course the most important (until V5 when administration will play a huge role). 

Other items like a compass, first aid kit, etc.  Lots of stuff in my consolodated brainstorming thread that can boost skills in a logical way.  While I think it would be a cool unique feature, I just don't see how putting on a helmet would make you smarter / better leader.  If you want to work on relics, I have some ideas here as well that if found, can boost moral, faith, etc. 


I sent you a PM to link of working source code, resource, textures, etc.  I'm eagerly looking forward to speaking with the guild masters (and hopfully in thier own unique scene).  Once I finish this up, I plan to add in the Conquistadors (already have outline and a few items setup) and then work on the next one MorrisB wants to include.  All of the new mercenaries will show up in taverns except for the high relation only (this is tested and works). 

Cyclohexane said:

Other items like a compass, first aid kit, etc.  Lots of stuff in my consolodated brainstorming thread that can boost skills in a logical way.

Click to expand...

I can do that but it will take item slots.

Ps.
I didn't receive your download link. Can you resent it?

Kuba said:

Cyclohexane said:

Other items like a compass, first aid kit, etc.  Lots of stuff in my consolodated brainstorming thread that can boost skills in a logical way.

Click to expand...

I can do that but it will take item slots.

Ps.
I didn't receive your download link. Can you resent it?

Click to expand...

Just sent again, it is showing up in my sent items, not sure how you missed it.

EDIT:  There is a "kuba_" and a "Kuba".  I sent to the wrong person.  You missed a lot of discussion back and forth but I guess nothing that affects you.  VM is working to get everything with all his changes incorporated so the sooner you can get a working copy back, the better. 

Thanks!

Oh and P.S. to my previous post... This looks cool but Antarian stuff is just exactly what I imagined when I thought of Behemoth armor from Dark steel Mind blowing, perfect.

I just hope that Adenian specials, esspecialy the horse and Dragonlance will be really badass stuff

vonmistont said:

Oh and P.S. to my previous post... This looks cool but Antarian stuff is just exactly what I imagined when I thought of Behemoth armor from Dark steel Mind blowing, perfect.

I just hope that Adenian specials, esspecialy the horse and Dragonlance will be really badass stuff

Click to expand...

Indeed, that Antarian looks wicked! Especially the sword is awesome. But will you use your new zerrikanian items for the zerrikanian nobles? Because I think that you already posted a pic of new zerrikanian starting gear...

NinjaKiwi said:

vonmistont said:

Oh and P.S. to my previous post... This looks cool but Antarian stuff is just exactly what I imagined when I thought of Behemoth armor from Dark steel Mind blowing, perfect.

I just hope that Adenian specials, esspecialy the horse and Dragonlance will be really badass stuff

Click to expand...

Indeed, that Antarian looks wicked! Especially the sword is awesome. But will you use your new zerrikanian items for the zerrikanian nobles? Because I think that you already posted a pic of new zerrikanian starting gear...

Click to expand...

I will be retexturing the zerrk royal items.  The starting gear was just something I was playing with to make your starting character look like a lord in this new army.  It is by no means end game gear and has the exact same stats as the previous starting gear (it just looks different). 

I have the "crown", armor, and horse complete but having difficulty on the weapons.  The original zerrks were a spin-off of the kneirghts (horse archers and bow dependent).  While the new version has medium horse archers, they are by no means a horse archer civilization.  They also have mid-tier infantry and nice melee cavalry.  Their cavalry uses blunt weapons so I was thinking of making a scepter and a two handed club (based off kanabo) but that is two blunt weapons. 

I'm kind of stuck making something look extravagant yet also realistic with the models I have to work with and thinking of ditching the idea and going with a 1-handed axe and possibly a shield.  Shields are kind of all the same (and I rarely use them preferring 2-handed weapons or bows instead) so I'm not too excited about that.  A royal javelin is also possible but these have such limited use in game...

I'm open for ideas here that keep with the slave catching extravagant looking civilization theme.  So far I have created 5 items for each civilization so I need 2 more:

The options are:
1.) 2 handed club (based off kanabo)
2.) 1 handed axe (not sure what model I could use though, all the axes seem to be a bit plain and the texturing map limits sections that can be retextured without disassembling the entire model and starting over)
3.) An elite javelin (the noble line of zerks all have possibility of spawning with javelin so fits theme)
4.) Gloves or boots (but any black or mail glove / boot will already look good)
5.) A scepter (a blunt 1 handed mace) that is on-par with royalty
6.) Other (already have crown, armor, and horse)

I’m leaning towards scepter and javelin for a nice well rounded weapon set (i.e. could still carry lance and shield) that fits the theme. 

vonmistont said:

Oh and P.S. to my previous post... This looks cool but Antarian stuff is just exactly what I imagined when I thought of Behemoth armor from Dark steel Mind blowing, perfect.

I just hope that Adenian specials, esspecialy the horse and Dragonlance will be really badass stuff

Click to expand...

I tried to use all the base models that you selected and just retexture those items.  There are a few exceptions, most noteably unique crowns for each civilization and the zerrks (not being a primary bow civ anymore). 

I am finished with Adenian's but waiting to post screens when I also finish zerrks.  You will definately like them.  I spent a ton of time on the embossed engraving of armor / crown / boots.  They are shinny and thier horse (and lance) is truely unique. 

Cyclohexane said:

NinjaKiwi said:

vonmistont said:

Oh and P.S. to my previous post... This looks cool but Antarian stuff is just exactly what I imagined when I thought of Behemoth armor from Dark steel Mind blowing, perfect.

I just hope that Adenian specials, esspecialy the horse and Dragonlance will be really badass stuff

Click to expand...

Indeed, that Antarian looks wicked! Especially the sword is awesome. But will you use your new zerrikanian items for the zerrikanian nobles? Because I think that you already posted a pic of new zerrikanian starting gear...

Click to expand...

I will be retexturing the zerrk royal items.  The starting gear was just something I was playing with to make your starting character look like a lord in this new army.  It is by no means end game gear and has the exact same stats as the previous starting gear (it just looks different). 

I have the "crown", armor, and horse complete but having difficulty on the weapons.  The original zerrks were a spin-off of the kneirghts (horse archers and bow dependent).  While the new version has medium horse archers, they are by no means a horse archer civilization.  They also have mid-tier infantry and nice melee cavalry.  Their cavalry uses blunt weapons so I was thinking of making a scepter and a two handed club (based off kanabo) but that is two blunt weapons. 

I'm kind of stuck making something look extravagant yet also realistic with the models I have to work with and thinking of ditching the idea and going with a 1-handed axe and possibly a shield.  Shields are kind of all the same (and I rarely use them preferring 2-handed weapons or bows instead) so I'm not too excited about that.  A royal javelin is also possible but these have such limited use in game...

I'm open for ideas here that keep with the slave catching extravagant looking civilization theme.  So far I have created 5 items for each civilization so I need 2 more:

The options are:
1.) 2 handed club (based off kanabo)
2.) 1 handed axe (not sure what model I could use though, all the axes seem to be a bit plain and the texturing map limits sections that can be retextured without disassembling the entire model and starting over)
3.) An elite javelin (the noble line of zerks all have possibility of spawning with javelin so fits theme)
4.) Gloves or boots (but any black or mail glove / boot will already look good)
5.) A scepter (a blunt 1 handed mace) that is on-par with royalty
6.) Other (already have crown, armor, and horse)

I’m leaning towards scepter and javelin for a nice well rounded weapon set (i.e. could still carry lance and shield) that fits the theme.

Click to expand...

Well they (adenian stuff) don't have to be shiny really Adenians though are the most medieval of all new factions and one of my 2 favourities (ex equo with Villianians i didn't play with new Zerrikanians yet though).I hope their special equipement looks... well dangerous and cool, doesn't have to be shiny Actually I myself prefere the Antarian Veterans soldiery look style.

And Zerriks deffinetly should look extravagant Zerrikanians tok their name after civilisation from Sapkowski's books (outside Poland it's known because of The Witcher game).

I think those new zerrikanians are gonna be people's choice, just because of the prisoner selling part which is gonna yield so much ****ing money.

And also since the blunt weaps partly ignore the armor, that's gonna be a rampage.

Maybe add some more blunt weaps to troops? Tired of having to ask my heavy cavalry to fight with their fists. 

(UPPERCUT CHAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE)