Shadows in the Desert - An Ancient Middle East Mod

[Sahran]

O my my...If You guys doing this, kuauik, Sahran, it must be great!

Are You saying that ill be able to take my chance of conquering Kadesh?

With horses, but yeah, eventually.  At first it'll be a Calradia map, hopefully with villages and cities renamed.

We've not decided on this but I am curious for public opinion. How would you prefer the faction leader & nobility?

1) Tied to a specific date. So let's say it's 660 BC. Assyria would have Ashurbanipal, Persia would have some dude named "Temti-Humban-Inshushinak I" (according to wiki), Egypt would be Psamtik I, Scythia might be "Koloksai", and so on.

2) Based on the most famous rulers, regardless of historical date. Sargon II or Sennacherib for Assyria, Ramses II for Egypt, Cyrus the Great or Darius or Xerxes for Persia, and so on.

3) Based on the founding fathers (In most cases). Sargon II for Assyria, Menes/Narmer for Egypt, Cyrus the Great for Persia, presumably Koloksai or whatever for Scythia, gets trickier with Syro-Hittites.

One idea I like, given our thematic bend would be to use heroic epic & mythology as the ideal resource. The problem is while for Persia that would mean Shahnameh (perhaps Rostam and whomever was king at the time), I'm drawing a blank on everyone else. You could do Solomon except that right now Israel/Judaea is a vassal of Damascus and not a distinct faction, I have no idea who it'd be for Assyria (Sargon? He was akkadian, but Assyrians were offshoots of the Akkadians I believe), Egypt I'm not familiar with their mythology but their founding Pharoah could work.). It would kind of legitimize the anachronistic nature of our landscape as a legendary world rather than historical.

[Lordique]

Hmm...hard nut we have here... But maybe it would be better... if mod dont target sick hist.accuracy...that rulers will be most famous, not the right time ones.
So...You wrote that- Egipt= Ramses II *loud 'weeeeeeeee-heeeeeee'!!!*- etc etc

[Ritter Dummbatz]

Heya, and here you go.

Looks good and promising.

In a few weeks, eh? 

[Revan Shan]

Thanks for all the kind words.

Revan Shah: Sadly, for all intensive purposes chariots are 'impossible' right now in M&B. They've only been done by one mod, the Wedding Dance, and it's exclusive to that mod and I am not certain it works for enemy NPCs. That's one of the reasons why we are going thematic rather than literal history since we could have a Saitic Egypt sanctioned by archaeologists for its accuracy, but lacking chariots would damn it to historical failure. The good news is that by the 7th-5th century cavalry were on an exponential rise. They were essentially the exclusive mounted arm for Scythia or Persia and probably very close to that for Assyria (most stuff I've read has by the latest Neo-assyrians cavalry being the most numerous, with little or no chariots). For the Syro-Hittites the loss is a bit more felt, but apparently the kingdoms of Homs and Damascus would field 1 cavalryman for 1 chariot so it seems they were on the transition too. It's really only Egypt who suffers the loss of it explicitly - they'll get light horse, but their focus will just be on footmen.

Sayd Ûthman: I'll see what helmets Kuauik needs modeled. Thanks bro.

There should be a way around, at least for 1 horse chariots. Ask the Wedding Dance guys how they did it...

Maybe moving the animated points from the horse forward, leaving the guy back, on the platform.

Plus, maybe you could add an extra point to the horse animation, to use it for wheels in charriots and keep it unused on normal horses.

[Sahran]

Apparently all the Wedding Dancer guys aren't around anymore. Trust me I'd like to see chariots too, but that sort of stuff is far and beyond Kuauik or my domain so we are at the mercy of the community devising something.

IF we can get anything approaching chariots, even one horse ones (which is a good idea), we'll be sure to get them in.

[Sayd Ûthman]

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,156163.0/topicseen.html

I think you should have a look on this.

[kuauik]

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,156163.0/topicseen.html

I think you should have a look on this.

oh yes,that might help us

[Sayd Ûthman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPPUhpxK00g By Vincenzo, maybe you should ask him, it seems very similar to an egyptian chariot

[Sahran]

Good point, Sayd. I mean we've even seen people break the rules online by actually riding the cannon. Question is if the AI can handle it.

[Sayd Ûthman]

Seriously,i don't think, but you can try..

[Arrakhis]

I would love to give a try for the game 

[Sahran]

Few new (Awesome) updates from Kuauik:


Egyptian Helmet & Cuirass, unofficially termed by me a "Lobster cuirass", though that's a descriptive term for design purposes rather than an actual phrase for the linen cuirass. "Lobster" is because it's formed of segmented linen rings like a lorica segmenta. We might make the Egyptians "Dark" skinned, which due to the limitations of the game means it's an all or nothing sort of thing. In reality Egyptians were probably a mixed lot or generally "Brown" rather than pure white (as Nordic Centric's claim) or pure black (as Afro-centrics claim).



Canaanite robes for a Syro-Hittite auxiliary


Assyrian Auxilia


Assyrian Auxilia!



Assyrian!

[Lordique]

I new it!! When You guys work together it cannot go wrong! Those robes are fantastic...I want them, now, everywhere else! Helmets there were really funny but also looking good.

Seriously, You guys deserve some huge money prices for all the work Youve done already. And if You menage somehow to release official compilation of items for Warband im the first one in the line to buy it!

Even quiver is great. That is what we need.

So dont give up or '...I KILL YOU!!'

Also its great that Sayd is here. No kiddin, we gain much of pleasure looking for all Your work an cooperation.

Cheers! Now i can go sleep with big smile...

[Arrakhis]

btw I have question since it take BCE, why the Jewish kingdom not there? isnt around that era the Judo/Jewish Kingdom established?

[Sahran]

Originally it was, then we decided to have them absorbed into the Syro-Hittite Confederacy, and we're considering making them re-independent. The problem for the Hebrews is they don't offer anything really tasty when it comes to warfare, except maybe a sling specialization. In dress they'd pretty much be referring to Philistine/Canaanite for early period and Assyrian for later period. By comparison, the Philistines offer a preponderance of sturdy, heavy infantry, the Aramaeans have light infantry and light cavalry, and Hittites have heavier cavalry and infantry. Hebrews have infantry of all types, though armor is more scarce compared to others (save for the Aramaeans). But they don't seem to have really sought any sort of cavalry modernization like most everyone else. And the infantry, aside of slingers, are just generally 'meh'. If we go with a Heroic Epic vibe then there's legitimacy in having a stronger Hebrew state of David, Saul, or Solomon.

We'll still consider the Jewish Kingdom as a full fledged faction, but I can't guarantee they would be independent in 1.0 or perhaps at all, although it's more than likely they'd be a candidate for independence.