[Submod] Ponavosan Faction Nip-Tuck (In Production)

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AxiosXiphos

Sergeant Knight
Ponavosan Faction Nip-Tuck
In production

Introduction

This submod aims to fix a large number of small issues (in my personal opinion) of the fantastic Sword and Damocles: Warlords (Test Combatant) just to make this mod a little bit more polished overall and to make each faction that bit more pleasing to the eye! I like to think of this as effectively an optional patch for users even if they have already started their games. Many of the 'issues' fixed in this submod are chiefly cosmetic and based purely on personal preference however i believe these make a significant difference in appearance to the factions altered. In addition a few small niggling problems will be addressed to help fix up the latest version of SoD while we wait for the next official release.

As this mod will only consist of small changes it will remain fully save game compatible. I hope that this sub-mod will be of use to some SoD fans who either lack the know-how or simply the time to do these changes themselves.

Current Changes by Faction

Antarian Empire

-Antarian Regular Infantry helmet changed from bascinet to either bascinet with noseguard or bascinet with aventail.

This is purely personal preference but i prefer both these helmets and think they suit the haubergeon better. Both new helmets already had the exact same stats as the regular bascinet so balance remains 100% unchanged.

-Both Salade helmets changed to have the 'covers beard tag'.

This was the only way i could find of completely fixing the main issue i have with this faction. Beard Clipping. I always found it annoying the way my antarians had half a beard poking through their helmets. It was unfortunate that there was no real way around this issue as it is now slightly unrealistic how bearded characters suddenly become clean shaven when donning their helmets. I guess this is just as unrealistic as armour penetrating beards however and i believe it looks alot better now.

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Imperial Legion Lots of changes

- Legates helmet renamed and respec'd to be used as praetorian helmet (legate now has regular centurion helmet). Imperial above top tier infantry now use this helmet. Helmet worn by triarii renamed appropriately.

I really liked the look of this helmet yet only a single character in the game utilises it. Now the imperial above top tier infantry have a helmet which befits their station.

-All equipment options which were 'black army' pieces of armour have been replaced by the regular versions.

I prefer the look of the regular items on this faction and also liked the idea of removing this inconsistency. Again there are no balance changes.

-Archer troop-tree infantry (including velites) have had their helmets replaced with standard legionary helms.

I really didn't like the look of the original archer helmet and wasn't much of a fan of the spangenhelm. The army now looks considerably more uniform which seems appropriate given the faction. In regard to balance the helm replacement made very little difference to armour value on the archers, the velites have lost their gloves though to help make up for the upgraded helm.

- Imperial Soldiers now are more likely to be clean shaven (though some still sport facial hair) and in general their head and hand skin colour closer matches the skin tone of their legs and arms.

Again just a minor cosmetic change to make the army look abit more professional and to help offset the static skin texture of the armours.

- Hastati and Principes given javelins as guaranteed rather than possible as velites are currently.

I like the idea of the three main infantry units of this faction (velites, hastati and principes) being able to throw javelins before engaging in melee as a given. This may come with the unfortunate side effect of putting these units into the 'archers' formation catagory by default. But this is easily changed by the player.

- Imperial Legion Helmets now include the name of the units which wear them. (E.g. Legionnaire Praetorian Helmet).

In the vanilla mod some of the helmets were named after the units, some weren't. Now all are applicably named expect the bog standard legionnaire helmet worn by all low tier troopers as seen in the far left picture below.

- Imperial Legion armoured chargers have been swapped between the Pronoiar and the Hospitalier. Now the hospitaliers are reserved the brass coloured barded chargers and the pronoiars have steel coloured barded chargers. (To match their armour sets). Stats are identical however so balance remains 100% unchanged.

This was the wrong way round in the vanilla game leading to the low level cavalry riding round on far more impressive looking mounts than there superior hospitaller brethren. The stats of all legion armoured chargers are identical however so this is purely cosmetic.

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Kingdom of Aden

- Squire helmet changed from new textured bascinet with nasal to old bascinet with noseguard/aventail (same as antarian regular infantry).

The New item 'bascinet with nasal had identical stats and appearance to old bascinet with noseguard but with worse texturing (at least on my settings, which are in theory on max) There seemed no reason not to switch back to the original version. If this is due to my settings or a glitch and not the game please inform me! Thankyou :smile:

Before and After

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- Helmets for Adenian Knights and magnates swapped from a pigface helmet to a more traditional great helmet. Note that the player still starts with a pigface helmet, this will not be changed in this mod as a)it would bulk out the file, b) it would stop it being save game compatiable, c) its such a tiny change, which would require alot more work (and knowledge)

Simply didn't like the pigface helmet (and a fellow player who likes Adenians alot more than me agreed)

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-Anatarian looking plate armour removed from magnates and replaced with coat of plates. Ever so slight downgrade in armour balanced with better chance of higher level leg/head armour. The result is very little balance change (you will never notice it) but in my personal opinion better looking adenian troops.

Again another cosmetic change, i didn't think the new plate armour suited these troops. Also i like that this armour is now unique to Antarian's.

Republic of Marinia

- 'Byzantion helmet' on top tier troops replaced with kettle helmet. To balance this out troops who have had this change (and thus received -2 head armour) have received appropriate upgraded hand armour (+2 body armour).

Again wasn't a fan of the low texture quality byzantion helmet but really liked the middle tier kettle helmet. The -2 head armour has been balanced out with +2 body. (A tiny balance change you will be unlikely to ever notice).

-Scouts now have the possibility of getting either the lower or higher tier versions of the 'kettle helmet' instead of a kettle helmet or a padded coif.

Huge armour value difference  between the coif and the kettle helmet. Reduced the 'luck' factor on the survivability of this troop while increasing its faction identity with the now highly visible 'marinian' kettle helms.

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Zerrikanian Sultanate

No Changes thus far. I genueinely investigated the entire faction tree, while i personally do not like the appearance of the Zerrikanian troops i couldn't find any faults with their equipment or anyway to improve it without taking away from the strong cultural theme. The faction seems pretty water-tight though i still personally can't stand this rainbow brigade.  :smile:

Villianese Duchy

No Changes thus far. Again i looked through the entire troop tree and couldn't find any faults. Unlike the zerrikanian i actually really like the villianese troops and their strong 'ranger' esque feel. A friend of mine suggested that prehaps the melee infantry line shouldn't be wearing cloaks like the archers and i may investigate this, but for now i have nothing to add here.

Black Army Mercenaries

- Black army freshblades can now upgrade into either line-keepers or line-supporters (though unfortunately not line assaulters, you will just have to find these guys the old fashioned way).

Line keepers and supporters are just different types of the same tier of troops (infantry and archers). Most of the other mercenary factions already have optional upgrade paths on their basic units, so there seemed no reason not to give fresh blades this option.

- 'Non functioning' estoc two handed blade removed from army ravager (may in time just alter the weapon and then put it back on the soldier).

This two handed sword for some reason can only be used to make a thrust attack with and not make swinging overhead or side attacks. I'm not sure if this is a genuine weapon and i'm just being stupid but either way it made the unfortunate ravagers who got this weapon significantly weaker than their brethren.

- 'Black Greaves' item added as merchandise item with same statistics as 'plate boots'.

An item which was used by black army troops but wasn't available to the player. Now available in marketplaces near you! :grin:

Serpent Host Mercenaries

- Serpent host Kapikulu can now upgrade to either Cemaat's or Akinci's.

Same reason as black army freshblade's. There seemed no real reason why they shouldn't be able to follow this upgrade path as both akinci and cemaats are at the same tier level of troops.

- All Serpent host troops now have 'Serpent Host' before their usual names.

All other mercenary factions troops are identified by their faction before their unit name (e.g. Black Army Fresh Blade, Elephant Guard Champion). Now serpent host troops are identified in the same way.

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Other Factions Still to come!

I'd like to hear what you would like to see changed in the other minor and major factions?

Global Changes Thus Far

-Zealous Nobles now have the same stats as their non-zealous counterparts.

A strange discrepancy which i believe was an over-sight. In the vanilla mod when your noble becomes zealous his stats vary massively (mostly negatively) from when he was non-zealous. Though i understand zealous troops are not in your party for long and you want to look after them until you can palm them off to a castle, i do find it strange that they would suddenly become vastly weaker.

Update - This is completed now, strangely it turns out that while some factions nobles got weaker when zealous (antarian, marinian), some actually got stronger (adenian, Zerrikanian) and some changed focus from ranged to melee (villanese). Very strange, regardless in this submod all zealous troops are now identical to their non-zealous brethern stats wise.


Extra Screenshots

Two Vexillatios guard my imperial palace in their new kit.

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Elite Imperial Legion soldiers line up for battle.

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Praetorian wins a duel and is humble about his victory...

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Requirements (When Released)

- Sword of Damocles: Warlords updated to 3.92 with patch 3
- Some form of Zip Program (as per any other module)
- File size should be tiny as only text documents have been changed.

*Fully Save Game Compatible*

Whats Coming and What Might Happen

I'd like to hear what people have to say about the other factions in the game before realising this content. There is still a few things id like to fix/change. If there is interest in it I might do a far more significant mod aimed at redeveloping the troop-trees to balance out the new and old factions. Eventually that may merge with this mod.

Credits

Of course all credits go to Computica and his team for their continuing development of this mod. By far my favourite single player module :grin:
 
Looks good :smile:

I wouldn't do too much work on major troop tree modifications over the next few months as these are set too change pretty majorly, and we will hopefully see some kind of evidence of this before the year is out (fingers crossed).

You are of course welcome to, I just wouldn't want you to knock out loads of work and then it become obsolete/etc. right after you finish it! :grin:
 
LibSpit said:
Looks good :smile:

I wouldn't do too much work on major troop tree modifications over the next few months as these are set too change pretty majorly, and we will hopefully see some kind of evidence of this before the year is out (fingers crossed).

You are of course welcome to, I just wouldn't want you to knock out loads of work and then it become obsolete/etc. right after you finish it! :grin:

I didn't realise this was coming soo soon. In that case ill just do all the minor stuff i want to get done, finish up, then wait fingers crossed for the next update! :smile:
 
It is the hope that it will be, or at least something will be, a demo configuration or some such.

It really depends on how fast Compy can work, his time being split between looking for new income/jobs and working with a temperamental laptop, but he has made a lot of big steps forward with it this year, but there are still many more to make, before he has a build stable enough to release.
 
@LibSpit  It wouldn't matter because the code I'm using to equip troops is drastically different from TC. I'd rather he have the freedom to change whatever he wants. For example his equipment suggestions are something I took note of.
 
Really appreciated having these fixes and alterations. If possible, could you look into the behemoth sword of the Antarian empire? For some reason the hero uses it as a bow instead of a sword and well it's sad since it's a kick ass looking sword! :razz:
 
I was about to download this but saw I couldn't. Damn. This looks awesome.

Adjusting a badass mod to something that aligns with what I like? Oh yeah, buddy. My body is ready.
 
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