Border Reivers minimod

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Roach

Sergeant at Arms
I've been working on a mod based off the (in)famous 16th C. reivers on the England/Scotland border, and I've come to the experts for a few ideas :smile:

I have a few nice features so far:

Your own fully customisible (with the in-game editor :razz: ) keep, where you can hire new troop types, rest for free, buy fast horses and strong ale and flog prisoners to your local tenant farmers. You get a weekly income from the rents, and the more prisoners you sell here the more money you can squeeze in taxes..

Attackable peasants/refugees/farmers (naturally), also you can attack manhunters (who've been boosted with the addition of slave hunters/chiefs/what have you), and if your rep with them goes down enough they'll come gunning for you.

New war parties, made up of sword sisters, mercenaries, hired blades and caravan guards, these guys will also attack you if you have a rep for preying on the weak and feeble.

The biggie is your 'infamy' rating: this goes up for performing dastardly deeds like attacking innocents, caravans and Swadian and Vaegir soldiers. (More for suicidal bravery, such as hitting war parties and Dark Hunters). My personal fave is agreeing to escort a Vaegir/Swadian caravan, then attacking them en-route. Big boost for that :razz: You can get an idea of how notorious you are by asking the merchants about gossip. Paying off the Vaegirs or Swadians to stop them attacking you will lower your rating (no-one is impressed by a coward), and so will performing mundane missions for the merchants (yawn).

Oh, and loads of new conversations and opportunities for trash-talking your opponents before grinding their bones into dust.

Working on:

The infamy rating is the lynchpin really, you can't join either faction in the war, but the more notorious you are the more chance they'll ask you to perform dirty jobs for them. (probably the usual kidnap the noble, but I'll work some more interesting quests in as well). If you're rating is high enough you'll be able to extort protection money from caravans and innocents (and then probably attack them anyway, meh) as well as blackmail various counts and kings (trying to do this with too low a rating will see you at best laughed out of the room, at worst spawning a hostile war party next to the town you're in :shock: )

Your steward will have missions for you at the keep, again based on your notoriety (low levels will see you being sent to capture a few peasants, as you rise in renown you'll have to attack stronger foes, obviously. Maybe buffed up prison trains to rescue your men, or NPCs)

Ah, NPCs. There'll be a few high-powered ones dotted around, but of course they won't be interested in joining you unless you're a bandit king of some note. And there'll be enemy NPCs who you'll have to hunt down, probably with the option of either turning them in for ransom, killing them outright, or throwing them in your dungeon so you can taunt them whenever you feel like it :razz:

And if I'm not dead after all that, I'll try to fit in some fun things like attackable villages and enemy bandit keeps, and maybe the ability to buy new towers around the map, something for highbie characters to spend their ludicrous amounts of money on.

So.. ideas? (Constructive) criticisms? Should I leave all this as a new faction to join so people can still fight a bit of the war first? Should I throw in some buffed up sea-raiders and let you hire them? Should I make it so you can become friendly with innocents/manhunters/sword sisters again by paying off some neutral like Harek? What kind of **** do people want to see in a bad-guy mod?

Oh, and if there's any 3d modellers out there looking for a project, some 16th century armour meshes would be greatly appreciated (morions, burgonets, breast- and back-plates.) Hell, even flintlocks and wheellocks if you're feeling ambitious enough :smile:

Finally let me paraphrase one of the all-time greatest baddies, Skeletor himself: 'Good guys have to win every time. I only have to win once (cackle maniacally for 5 minutes)'
 
wow thats kool i live in northumberland and have been to umpteen museams about this lol my famliy name is even on list of familys involved in the fighting. instead of swadain and vaegir could it not be border reivers and scotts?

This might help for an idea of what they wore

Tunic - Velvet doublet, with brass button fastenings to front, waist length. Long puffed sleeves with tight cuffs fastened by buttons, hooks or laces. The collar can be different heights usually lined. The waist is fastened to the trunk hose by laces or hooks. Belt - leather belt round waist to hold money pouch etc.

Trunk hose - (trousers) made from wool, with slashed panels and a wool lining
Knee length, fastening below knee with hooks and eyes. Cod piece at crotch, fastened with laces or hooks and eyes.
Hose fastened to tunic or doublet with hooks and eyes or laces at points.

Hose - knitted stockings worn under trunk hose tying onto points some with laces and points. Can be wool or very fine for court made of silk.

Sword belt - worn round hips, generally on left side to draw sword with right hand.

Leather gloves - gauntlet shaped coming over the wrist, for warmth and preventing reins chafing.

Boots - thigh length riding boots with no heel, to protect legs.

Spurs - metal and leather spur, horseshoe shaped with point at back and leather straps, worn over boots to control horse. See story of the Charlton spur.
 
Yeah, my old man's from Carlisle, it's where I got the idea from. I'll try and fit in a few famous names and places like Hermitage and Liddesdale.
 
Sounds like some cool ideas. I know I've been wanting a mod where you can own and upgrade a keep, as I think many others have as well. Looking forward to what you can come up with here.
 
I'm working on putting a house in Zendar--would it be alright if I stole a few of your ideas, like hiring new troops, or buying new items? (I'd credit you, of course. :wink: )
 
'And there'll be enemy NPCs who you'll have to hunt down, probably with the option of either turning them in for ransom, killing them outright, or throwing them in your dungeon so you can taunt them whenever you feel like it .'

If you do this, try making so that if you choose the option to kill them, you go into to a mini battle with just them and you. The fun bit is though, since you're the captor, you get to choose their equipment, so if you fancy it, you can execute them whilst they try to hold you off with a butchering knife.
 
Great idea, consider it appropriated.

Some screenies, cos I was enjoying playtesting too much to do any real work:

Your (rather modest) keep and barm wall:



barracks:



And stables:




Still having problems linking to indoor scenes from the main scene, I noticed the passage in Zendar into the merchants is a bit buggy as well, is it even possible?

The path to the dark side starts here:



You'll never take me alive, copper:



The fear is spreading. Famous enough now to a try a bit of extortion:



The rent collectors are all in and it's pay day:



Dark knights: pythonesque :razz:



And finally, the price of fame:



Hordes of annoying groupies!
 
A week or two yet, I still have to put in some quests and NPCs to play around with. It's really just a minimod for those of us who play independant in the vanilla version, with a few things to keep life interesting and give ye something to aim for.
 
Indefinately suspended, off to Basic tomorrow and I won't get a chance to do any more work for.. ooh, 12 weeks.

'Sides, with a little digging I've found all my cool ideas have been done before anyway :wink:

Can't wait to see what's happening in the M&B world after a three month hiatus. Peace out, guys.
 
This looks like a pretty good idea, would be nice to see it play out. I remember playing a game called Suikoden where your castle automatically upgraded depending on how many people joined you and the quests you did.
 
Roach said:
Indefinately suspended, off to Basic tomorrow and I won't get a chance to do any more work for.. ooh, 12 weeks.

'Sides, with a little digging I've found all my cool ideas have been done before anyway :wink:

Can't wait to see what's happening in the M&B world after a three month hiatus. Peace out, guys.

Good luck Roach, see ya in a couple months!

DE
 
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