SP Antiquity Bronze And Blood - a mod for 1.011 (OPINION ON TROOP TREE NEEDED)

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Kvedulf

Sergeant Knight
  • MaskeAgamemnon.jpg


    Announcing the commmencement of work on Bronze And Blood.

    Bronze and Blood will be a mod aimed at recreating, eventually, a historically accurate portrayal of the Middle and Near East, North Africa, Anatolia and Aegean areas during the Late Bronze Age, at around 1350BC.  the initial release will focus on the Aegean, Mycenaeans and the Trojan War.

    I NEED A RIGGER.  My computer currently will not allow me to run the programs required to rig armours, and until I fix that problem I need a rigger to continue the modelling side of the mod.  Anyone who can rig and is interested in helping, feel free to let me know, either in this thread or by PM.

    First release features will include, but not be limited to:
    • all new weapons  (WORK HAS STARTED.  ALMOST COMPLETED FOR NOW)
    • all new armours  (WORK HAS STARTED)
    • 12 new factions with accurate troop trees and lords  (DONE)
    • a new map populated with new parties
    • new NPCs, who will be historically accurate, or in the case of the Aegean, mythologically accurate, with family trees  (DONE)
    • formations, using Foxyman's Form Ranks kit  (DONE)
    • Perma-death for both PCs and NPCs  (DONE)
    • a naval system  (ALMOST COMPLETED.  ONLY A FEW BUGS TO SORT OUT)
    • new recruitment system(DONE)
    • a large number of small scripts and tweaks to improve and change various things, such as AI, trade and economics, the battlefield experience, and to generally create a feeling of living in the Bronze Age (STARTED)
    • and all the other things that a complete modification needs, like new dialogue and scenes

    There are other features that I hope to implement, however, I am new to modding, so we'll just have to see.  Amongst these features are a diplomatic/strategic system and a new economic model.

    MYCENAEAN TROOP TREE
    PEASANTS: these troops are the worst in the Mycenaean army and are recruited in villages.
    Peasant => Hunter => archer
                                => skirmisher

    WARRIORS: these troops are the standard professional warriors and are recruited in towns and cities.
    Raider => spearman => pikeman => armoured pikeman

    NOBLES: these has no upgrade path and represents the warrior and social elite.  they are recruited in towns and cities but take a large amount of money,time and renown to recruit.

    Some last notes: the Raiders and Nobles provide the assault arm of the army.  Some factions such as Mycenae and Knossos have special troops that will add assault type troops at around the level of the pikeman.  The Greeks will suck at siege warfare, which given the Illiad seems only proper.
    Above is the Myenaean troop trees.  This is the third draft, and I think I've finally managed to get it looking right.  The names are not the final troop names and are merely placeholders.  I would love the opinion of anyone with knowledge of the Mycenaeans to give feedback on the troop trees.

    The weapons are all first draft weapons, and most will probably be replaced before the first release.  I've already gone through three stages of spear models.
    I would like to thank Talon for kindly letting me use items he made for Sharp Bronze.

    In the spoiler below are a few renders of a few of the items.
    helmets-1.jpg

    Sea People helmets
    shields-1.jpg

    Mycenaean shields
    helmets.jpg

    Mycenaean helmets
    weapons1.jpg

    A variety of weapons
    body2.jpg

    a sneak peak at the new bronze texture being worked on for me by an anonymous donor.

    And here are some ingame shots of a variety of troops:
    Untitled2.jpg

    Mycenaeans advancing
    Untitled3.jpg

    Enemy mycenaeans advancing
    Untitledcdf.jpg

    Untitledww.jpg

    A Shardana Sea people warband

    Finally, a list of I've been keeping, so I know exactly what I've got done in my mod:
    Weapon models begun
    Helmet models begun (MIGHT NEED REDOING TO MAKE IT MORE HISTORICALLY ACCURATE)
    Faction troop trees completed
    Faction NPCs added
    Sailing added (SMALL BUG)
    Companion names changed
    New recruitment system added
    Player permadeath added
    Faction NPC stats done
    Faction NPC weapons, shields and helmets added (not armour)
    Companion stats done
    Companion weapons, shields and helmets added (not armour)
    Companion personality clashes completed (BUGGED.  NEEDS FIXING)
    “Sea People” Faction added
    Bandit parties redone (looters, bandits and raiders)
    Three Sea People parties added (Shardana, Peleset and Shekelesh)
    Sea People troops done
    10 shield models completed
    All unnecessary troops removed (I think)
    Prisoner Management made a Party Skill
    Peleset helmet model done
    8 Shardana helmet models done
    3 Mycenaean noble’s helmets added
    All horse merchants removed (commented out, can be added later as chariot sellers etc)
    Horse merchant option in town trade menu removed
    All horses removed (commented out, can be then used as template for chariot stats etc)
    Prices recalibrated for helmets, shields and all current weapons
    Mordacai prisoner dialogue scripts added successfully
    GMAX + 3DSmax + Blender  finally installed.  Have to figure out how to use it now.
    Spear models redone
    First draft model of adze done
    Nautical Achaean factions tweaked => large shields removed
    All peasant level troops defined as missile troops
    Ithakan troops tweaked => bows removed
    Iron trade good replaced with copper, tin and bronze oxhide ingots
    Nearly all unnecessary close combat weapons removed from game
    Form Ranks added ingame.  Small bug, regarding command cursor.

    Any support is welcome, whether in the form of offers of help, adivice or suggestions and ESPECIALLY constructive critisism.

    This won't be released for quite a while, and I've got a lot of learning and work ahead of me, but I'll do my best to ensure a quality release, eventually.

    I would like to thank;
    Talon, for letting me use his items from Sharp Bronze
    Mordachai, for his prisoner dialogue scripts
    Ruthven, Mirathei, James, MartinF, Jubal, Dudro and Lumos, for the sailing mod
    Everyone who posted in the "Recruiting in castles" thread
    Foxyman, for his Form Ranks kit


    I don't think I've copied anyone's work without permission, but if i happen to have in any way, and haven't credited you or recieved permission to do so, I apologise now and if necessary remove it from my mod.

    Cheers
    Kvedulf
 
Yeah, I know.  it's actually brass.  Problem is, bronze in the Bronze Age looked like modern brass rather than modern bronze.  And the best texture I could find of brass makes the models look more like gold ingame.

If you know a way I can keep the base texture but make it look less "goldy" it'd be a big help.


Cheers
Kvedulf
 
finally a mod with Africa included i wanted to play one after watching 10,000 B.C. good luck, btw
Bronze and Blood will be a mod aimed at recreating, eventually, a historically accurate portrayal of the Middle and Near East, Nort Africa, Anatolia and Aegean areas during the Late Bronze Age, at around 1350BC.  the initial release will focus on the Aegean, Mycenaeans and the Trojan War.
i think you mean North
 
Quick update:

I've had a lot of trouble with one particular line of troops.  I've lost count of how many times I redid them, but the problem has now been solved.  Troops trees for all the current factions have been completed.  Seeing as how they're all Bronze Age Greeks, they use the same basic troop lines, with slight changes to most of the factions.

the current faction list is also complete and consists of:
  • The Kingdom of Mykene.  Led by the Sons of Atreus, Agamamnon and Menelaus, this faction controls most of the Peloponessus.
  • The Kingdom of Thebes.  Controls Boeotia and the rest of Northern Greece.
  • Ithaka.  Led by the cunning Odysseus.  Pirates and raiders, they lack spearmen, but it's not uncommon to see Sea Peoples fighting in their ranks.
  • Pylos.  Led by Nestor the Gerenian.  Marines are the standard troops here, again lacking dedicated speamen.
  • Phthia.  led by Peleus and his son Achilles.  Control Thessalia.  Command the best standard troops in the game: Myrmidon warriors
  • The Kingdom of Knossos.  Led by Idomeneus.  Another nautical faction, supplemented by the feared Minotaurs
  • Athens.  Sworn enemy of Knossos.  The best light infantry, the Theseoi, dedicated to the memory of their great king Theseus, fight for Athens glory
  • Lokris.  A minor faction, led by the Lesser Ajax.  They lack assault infantry, but supplement this with lightly armoured, fast spearmen
  • Euboea.  Another minor, ununique faction, they do however control a strategic location, off the coast of Attica
  • Salamis.  South of Athens, this little island is home to Telemon and his mighty son, Ajax.  They fight in the old manner, with heavy speaman armed with tower shields
  • Aetolia.  Another ununique faction, Aetolia has the misfortune of being caught between the kingdoms of Mykene and Thebes
  • Rhodes.  Far from the mainland Greece, Rhodes is subject to eastern influences and is a nautical faction, like Pylos and Knossos

In addition, a slightly different recruitment system has been created.  Peasant troops, shared by all the factions are recruited from villages.  Warriors, unique and standard are recruited in the cities, as are the nobles although they require a certain amount of Renown and time to recruit.

Again, any help, particularly texturing, would be hugely welcome.

Hopefully, from now on, updates should be more common.

Cheers
Kvedulf
 
A bit too early for this, but permadeath for players and NPCs can be removed by modifying the game files, right? Also, permadeath for NPCs (at least for this stage) seems a bit wrong since Achilles, etc. still have the Trojan war to fight.
 
So I presume you're going only with the Aegean region for now, without "the Middle and Near East, North Africa, Anatolia" and the Trojan scene?
 
Yeah, first release is just the Aegean.  I might extend it to include the area of "Trojan influence" but I'm not sure just yet.  The Aegean area will simply be easier and more manageable and achieveable (?) for a first mod.
I haven't started implementing permadeath yet, but I'm hoping to work out how to make it, and maybe some of the other features I have planned, to be toggle-able, so they'll be able to be turned on and off.  I might also make NPC permadeath toggled as well, so you can either have the pleasure of killing Achilles or letting him fight the Trojan War.

Also, I've received permission from Foxyman to include his mod "Form Ranks" into my own mod.

Just a quick note on the history and how it works in my mod:
This mod is set in 1350BC, while the Trojan War is believed to have occured in 1250BC.  I shifted the entire Trojan War generation of the Illiad back 100 years.  I did this for three main reasons.  First is the simple fact that I didn't want my heroes and NPCs fighting in the twilight of the Bronze Age.  Second is the fact that in Egypt Akhenaten had been made Pharaoh in 1352BC.  And the third reason is that the Amarna Letters, one of the best sources for international politics and cultures of the time date to the period of roughly 1350-1300BC.

My justification, however thin, for having the Trojan War generation out of time is that Homer was in fact telling about two seperate cultural memories: the first is of the great kings and warriors of ealier times such as Agamemnon, Achilles and Odysseus.  The second memory is of a great war that happened in earlier times, which was in fact the "Collapse".  However, the two memories got muddled in the intervening 400 years, and were combined.  Like I said, there is no historical basis for this, it's just so I can have people who may not have existed at all in my game during a period when they weren't supposed to have existed.

Cheers
Kvedulf
 
Kvedulf said:
Second is the fact that in Egypt Akhenaten had been made Pharaoh in 1352BC.
This alone is enough to make me wait eagerly for the final (and earlier) version of the mod.
Btw, are you planning to include King Rhesus' Thracians as Trojan allies at some of the later versions?
 
You want to make a historically accurate mod with Minotaurs and other mythical fellows?  :???:

Ehh, sounds awesome. :razz:
 
@ AWdeV: Sorry, failed to explain myself properly there.  Minotaurs are a work-in-progress name.  Basically, the basis of the unit is that they represent the Minoan priesthood and are armed with the Labrys and their armour will be covered in bull iconography.  They aren't half-man-half-bull creatures.  And the Theseoi work on a similar basis.  the Greek NPCs are based on the Illiad as there are no historic sources for the names of Mycenaeans.  The best source is therefore the Illiad.

@NikeBG: Yeah, I have some things planned for Egypt, with Akhenaten's followers and the followers of the "true" Egyptian gods engaged in a hidden war of espionage and whatnot.  Special quests and NPCs.  Egypt should be fun...

Cheers
Kvedulf
 
Kvedulf said:
@ AWdeV: Sorry, failed to explain myself properly there.  Minotaurs are a work-in-progress name.  Basically, the basis of the unit is that they represent the Minoan priesthood and are armed with the Labrys and their armour will be covered in bull iconography.  They aren't half-man-half-bull creatures.  And the Theseoi work on a similar basis.  the Greek NPCs are based on the Illiad as there are no historic sources for the names of Mycenaeans.  The best source is therefore the Illiad.

@NikeBG: Yeah, I have some things planned for Egypt, with Akhenaten's followers and the followers of the "true" Egyptian gods engaged in a hidden war of espionage and whatnot.  Special quests and NPCs.  Egypt should be fun...

Cheers
Kvedulf

You've just crushed all my hopes and dreams...
 
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