SP Native Arena Expansion Mod (v1.3, for M&B v0.704)

[Janus]

Update (11/4/05): Version 1.3 is released. Read my last post for details.

I've released my Arena Expansion Mod. You can find it by visiting the link in my sig to go to my site. The source files are also available for people who want to look at them. Below is some info about the mod. For detailed installation instructions, view the readme file included with the mod.

For Mount&Blade version: 0.704

This mod changes a few things about arena battles in Mount&Blade.

Native (unmodded) savegames should be compatible with this mod. Since this mod changes the way some variables are used (such as their upper limit), your savegames from this mod might not work if copied back to a Native unmodded version.


Feature List

1. Now instead of just 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 combat in the arena, there are 4 possibilities: 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 4 vs 4, and 8 vs 8. The other combatants in an 8 vs 8 will be similar in difficulty to the original arena combatants.
However, as it goes down to 1 vs 1, other combatants will be a bit more experienced. Expect to face tougher opponents in 1 on 1 fights. However, expect to get mobbed in the chaos of 8 vs 8 battles.
In 1 on 1 fights each combatant gets matched gear, and horse archers are replaced by a horse + 1-handed sword + shield combo (only in 1v1 though).

2. Tournament Master now tracks your wins, losses, and win percentage. Just pay attention to the opening dialog to get this info.

3. The player gets to choose which of the battle types (1 vs 1, 8 vs 8, etc.) they want to enter into or watch, rather than having it randomly chosen.

4. New combatants. The arena originally had 3 heroes along with regular, veteran, and champion fighters.
Two new (and tougher) heroes have been added. "Velios" is a master archer; fear him if he has a bow, even on horseback. "Dagoth" is a very skilled melee fighter and the most powerful combatant; he's generally toughest with a sword or a lance. Oh, and he's also undead. These two heroes only show up for battles smaller than 8 vs 8, deeming such large battles as beneath them.
Other combatants new to the arena: dark knights, hell knights (undead), hired blades, watchmen, fighter women, and in 1 on 1 only matches vaegir and swadian knights.

5. Betting amounts have been changed to a sliding table based on the player's level so that you can bet more in the arena as you level up.

Player Level    Can Bet:        5       20      40      75      150     300
------------                    -       --      --      --      ---     ---
1-2                             X       X
3-5                             X       X       X
6-9                                     X       X       X
10-20                                           X       X        X
20+                                                     X        X       X

6. Slight increase in experience and money given for a successful match. Experience is increased from 20 to 30 and money awarded increased from 2 to 5 denars.

7. All combatants get leather gloves and hunter boots. No more wearing your own boots.


Changelist
v1.1
-1 on 1 battles now match gear of combatants (lance vs lance, bow vs bow, etc.).
-Dark Knights have increased athletics so they're not as slow on foot. -Training problem and betting problem should be fixed.
v1.2
-Instead of random choice of battles, it will allow you to choose which of the 4 arena fights you want to do.
-2 different downloads, one with undead and one without to please everyone.
-Slight increase to experience and money earned from winning a match.
-All arena combatants now get leather gloves. This fixes the undead "plastic hand" effect.
-Bug fixed: Swadian and Vaegir knights faced in the arena won't affect your standing with either side.
-Bug fixed: Pirate quest should now be unaffected by this mod. If you have a problem with it, please let me know.
v1.3
-Now tournament master tracks wins, losses, and win percent
-in 1v1 fights only, horse archers have been replaced by horse + 1-handed sword + shield
-new heroes' stats toned down a little (only in new games, since their stats are stored in saved games)
-Now all arena combatants wear hunter boots, rather than the troop's default
-Tournament Master dialog re-ordered for better flow
-Switched to new installer rather than zip format
-Bug fixed: Pirate quest bug should really be fixed now (no, really)
-Bug fixed: tournament master properly says "5 denars" for winning a match


If you have any suggestions, encounter a bug, or would like to help me make this mod better, contact me at ([email protected]). People making other mods are quite free to copy any part of the changes I've made here for their own use.
Have fun.[/code]

 

[okiN]

You can find it by visiting the link in my sig to go to my site.

You don't have a sig. Dunno what that's called, but it isn't a sig.

Edit: Cheater.

 

[Janus]

Huh, somehow my sig got disabled for that post. Thanks, it's fixed now.

 

[meatbag999]

Testing it now...

Nice website BTW.

 

[Maolvar]

I played your mod for a while. Larger battles are nice, but 1 on 1 battles tend to be very unbalanced. I got a mounted archer against a footman couple of times. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens in a match like that.

The undead should be removed in my opinion. They look stupid and sometimes their hands glow like a firefly or something.

I don't know if the bug is in .704 or in your mod but I wasn't able to complete training. Seems like the win counter doesn't work because the trainer always tells me I have to beat 3 novice fighters.

I also noticed betting on the arena doesn't work. I lost money even if I won matches.

Unfortunately I don't have more time to play at the moment. I will post more comments later.

 

[Yoshiboy]

great stuff, i really enjoyed it, expically the 8vs8 battles.

 

[meatbag999]

The bets work fine for me. But if you don't bet on yourself. You get nothing winning a match. They don't pay you now... You fight for free?!?

Or am I missing something?

If it's not too much of trouble. All I ask it to remove the undead. Balance the 1-on-1 a bit. At least, give the both side the same weapon! You can almost tell the match's result from the starting weapons only.

One last thing. Can you make the match types selectable? I'd love to fight 1-on-1 and 8-vs-8. No 2-vs-2, 3-vs-3 for me thanks.

BTW, great mod.

 

[meatbag999]

Um...I just saw that some people want the undeads in the arena...

Just make 2 versions... undead one and non-undead one.

I donno how hard to make a mod. If it is too much trouble for u then thats alright.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Janus]

Maolvar: First, thanks for the feedback.
I think maybe you're right about 1v1 battles. I may end up removing them, or possibly rework them so there's no bows given in them and both combatants get a horse.

The undead... I personally like em (other than the plastic hand), but if more people vote to remove them I'll do so later on.

Now then, did you start a new game for the mod, or use an old saved game?
I just started a new game myself and tested again. I was able to get through the training, and when I bet on a match I was watching I got the money when my team won (red, in this case).
Can some other people test these two things and let me know if they have the same problems?

EDIT: meatbag999: Hmm, I just tried a couple of matches and didn't bet on myself, and it gave me the usual 2 denars. I'll check the code again to make sure I'm not missing something for the other 2 types or something.

The thing is, I still don't know where exactly the weapons given for an arena match are assigned (along with some other details). Not sure how easy it will be to change the weapon assignment just for 1v1 and not the others.

Having the match types selectable is a decent idea, and I'm pretty sure it's do-able. I'll think on it a bit, but I think I'll do that.

I've also considered changing certain aspects based on player level, such as the level of the opponents or the number of combatants. I've already done that for the betting scale of course. Anyone have thoughts on what else might be good to link to the player's level?

 

[slavetrader]

:l even if i win the arenamaster dood says i lost..

but i wasn't betting so it wasn't a big loss :>
great mod otherwise.. love the bigger battles and more versitile opponents.

just fix the problem with not being able to actually win in the arena and its a succes!

 

[Janus]

:l even if i win the arenamaster dood says i lost..

Working fine for me... did you start a fresh new game with the mod or use an old saved game?

 

[slavetrader]

i started a fresh game. it's working fine otherwise. just the trainer and the arenamaster wont let me win :>

 

[Laurence of Arabia]

I don't think undead should be in it.

 

[slavetrader]

mnaeh.. i think they are ok in the arena.

it would be another thing if they were roaming the worldmap.

 

[barbaros]

Do I have to start a new game for this mod to work properly?. If so, this is a general problem. I don't want to start e new game each time I install a mod.

 

[slavetrader]

i just found another problem.. apparently im unable to finish the river pirate quest.. i've butchered quite a few of'em but it still shows the ''quest progression 0%''
im not sure if this happens with all of the quests

 

[Janus]

Ok, I have now had it not pay me back for betting on myself and winning (though it did give me the 2 denars for participating). I'll have to hunt that bug down. It might be since I changed the method used to determine the next battle to make it random. Hmm.
I'll also check on possible interference with the training, though since I didn't change anything directly related to training it shouldn't be affected by the mod.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I should have another version out by some time Sunday night if not before.

Barbaros: It depends on how much was changed by each mod. With this one you should be fine with using a saved game from the unmodified Native version. Since each mod keeps its own saved games separate, you would need to got to the "Savegames" folder and copy the save over from "Native" to the mod folder name.
I've been asking if people had started new games because I thought it might be causing the problems, but apparently not.


EDIT: Hey, let me ask this. Is there anyone not having training problems, or is it just me?


EDIT 2: I can't reproduce the pirate quest problem either. I tried taking it and killing some pirates, it showed 4% completion. I started another game and went straight to the arena, won 2 battles, lost 1. Went to the trainer, beat 1 guy, no problem there. Went to the Constable and got the pirate mission, no prob. Went to the spot between those 2 trees where pirates spawn, killed first pirate party to show up. 4% completion of pirate quest given. Argh.
Could you give some more details on what you did up to that point? Such as, installed to it's own folder / installed to Native, male/female, class, then the order of conversations up to the point you get the bug. If you can provide those details, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[barbaros]

Thank you Janus. Great mode 2-2 and 3-3 fights were a bit boring after hundreds of matches. I will report a few things;

1. Dagoth and Velios are killers!!. I like challenge so its good. But a beginning character absolutely have no chance. If you can make these kind of very powerful enemies appear after certain levels it would be better. Vaegir and Swadian Knights after lvl 10 and Dagoth after lvl 15 etc. I have loaded my lvl 29 horse archer character and beated Dagoth (this mod seems to work with old saves)

2. Dark knights are walking very slowly (like a penguin) and it looks funny. Can you make sure that they have a horse each fight? or simply increasing their athletics should solve the problem (they have 0 athletics in vanilla game).

3. In 1-1 fights, if opponent is archer and I have 2H sword on foot... yes you got it. You should make sure that no archers allowed in 1-1 fights. Don't remove 1-1 fights, I liked them, especially against those evil Dagoth or Velios.

4. Making match type (1-1 or 8-8 etc) selectible would be good but not very necessary.

5. It has bugs. I couldn't finish training. It makes me fight with novice fighters again and again. And I couldn' get any money when I won the match.

6. Undead warriors are okey for me but it would be much better if they have their own sound. Normal man's sound just doen't fit them. I don't know if its possible with the tools and you will need the sounds. Okey I ask too much

 

[barbaros]

I have a suggestion for a new type of turnament. This would be an illegal one. Organized by another man in another place if possible. A separate place on world map close to Zendar. These tournaments has the theme of heroes vs villains. Player character allied with Xerina, Dranton etc. against all type of villains. Match types can be like this. Player alone against 2-8 (according to character lvl.) mountain bandits or 1-3 dark knights. Player and Xerina against 2-6 dark knights or 3-8 khergit raiders. Player and other two heroes against 5-6 sea raiders. Everone should use its own equipment. Dark knights with their black armors, horses, sea raiders with their melee and thrown weapons etc. Balancing the forces can be an issue but this can be done after some trial and error. This type of a tournament have been suggested a few times before but I don't think Armagan have time for this. Well I can guess such a mode would be difficult to do but you seem to be able to do this.

 

[Maolvar]

Maolvar: First, thanks for the feedback.
I think maybe you're right about 1v1 battles. I may end up removing them, or possibly rework them so there's no bows given in them and both combatants get a horse.

The undead... I personally like em (other than the plastic hand), but if more people vote to remove them I'll do so later on.

Now then, did you start a new game for the mod, or use an old saved game?
I just started a new game myself and tested again. I was able to get through the training, and when I bet on a match I was watching I got the money when my team won (red, in this case).
Can some other people test these two things and let me know if they have the same problems?

I started a new character. Like others have said the trainer and arena master always tell me I lost, even if I won the match. I started a new game again and got the same problems.

I tried watching the matches and betting for the results. It doesn't work either.

I also noticed hell knights look like Daffy Duck when they run around without boots. The dark boots used by dark knights don't look good with red armor either.