Expanded Gameplay III (Download v0.95e)

[Chel]

Mod Download (version 0.95e):
http://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?id=576
future updates will be released as small patches

PATCH to 0.95e and Changelog
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,62296.0.html

foot melee combat demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShSoZamkHh8

video montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwpz5II25T0

The Expanded Gameplay III mod is a sequel to the Expanded Gameplay II mod, which was created for beta version of Mount&Blade. As such, it retains the ideas from EGII which I still find good, and has new ideas of its own. EGIII is not created as a port of EGII to the new version of Mount&Blade but is being written from Native M&B.

The mod has several goals. How well they are achieved is up to you to judge and help improve with your suggestions.

Firstly I wanted to replace the old M&B items that I was very used to seeing everywhere (like falchion, leather jerkin, plate armor), add new items and create a new stylish look for all the troops and factions. So the mod contains many great new items created by the community and redesigned factions to give each one more of a unique personality. It also has some new minor factions and troops that were first introduced in Expanded Gameplay I or II.

Secondly I wanted to bring the combat engine of Mount&Blade closer to its full potential. I find that the troops and items in Native M&B can be adjusted with stats to create a more exciting combat atmosphere where AI troops behave more intelligently, pose more of a threat to the player, keep you on your toes, and generally make things a lot more interesting. To make the battles even more dynamic this mod introduces combat abilities for the player to use. They add a certain tactical element to the battles and also play a role in different character development routes.

Thirdly I wanted to make choices of character development direction, character equipment, party composition, and play strategy to be more dimensional and less linear than in Native, where a Heavily Armored Mounted Archer with a large weapon is the most powerful combination and most characters will gravitate towards it. In this mod the choices between footman or mounted character, archer or thrower, mace or sword, light armor or heavy armor, large party of weaker troops or smaller party of stronger troops are all more viable and as a result gameplay is deeper. This is achieved with completely and carefully redone item stats, varied starting characters, introduction of combat abilities that depend on different attributes, design of AI troops, redesigned armor behaviour, introduction of charm items. Because this mod also allows the player character to die, the choices you make do matter.

I also want to improve the behaviour of AI troops on the battlefield and make it more varied than rushing towards the enemy. The AI troops already fight better and more intelligently thanks to increased parameters, and their behaviour can be affected by the player using certain combat abilities. Furthermore, I would like to design more of a collective strategic AI behaviour. A simple start to this that is already implemented is squad-like behaviour initiated by elite AI troops that keeps the troops from scattering and being picked off one by one. I would like to introduce more things in this direction.

Lastly, I want to implement a storyline that will be moved along with quests and passing of time in-game that would allow the player 'beat the game', or perish in trying. This is planned and will hopefully be added in the future. As an example of what I mean, in Expanded Gameplay II mod the overarching quest for immortality played this role, was very difficult to complete and doing it forced the character to play through the whole game.

P.S.
I also recommend Adorno's excellent Ambient Sounds to replace music
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,55978.msg1449255.html#msg1449255
and your favorite enviroment textures
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,36914.0.html
or
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,41739.0.html

CREDITS:


Rongar
Diabelica
Jedediah Q
gutekfiutek
SWUP Team
Highlander
HardCode
James
JaGeR
Ursca
Aquil
Luigi
Zaro
Raz
Even
Gluck
Llew2
MartinF
RRaptor
Octoburn
dHErblay
D'Sparil
fisheye
Pope
Seff
maw
Dindi
punkt
Bismark
Vilhjalmr
NCrawler
wildhorse
Eisenhouwer
silverkatana
MAXHARDMAN
GandalftheGray
Septa Scarabae
The Mercenary
NICK.ALTMAN
Eisenhouwer
hotcobbler
-IYI-O-R-T-


​

 

[grimwald]

Expanded Gameplay II for .903 was one of the best mods around.  I just checked the repository and, lo and behold, EGIII!

Downloading now, and thanks Chel, you just made my weekend!

 

[frostytequila]

Wraithcat seems a touch out of the loop on this one. Chel does some pretty amazing stuff with his mods. Definately one to download.

 

[Arzeal]

My oh my, one of greatest come back ever of one Orginal Mod.
I once introduced M&B 0.903 to my friends, they played madly for 1 weeks and laze, I gave them EG 2 link, they disappeared for weeks 
Downloading ...

 

[JaqbD]

HOHOHO
Second Christmas comin'
Soooo fast, thanks Chel 

 

[spikeeme]

sweet i love this mod
tks senior

 

[dscape750]

That's all fine, I'm sure you think you are quite "cool", whatever that means, but no one is too cool not to post a changelog, and by not posting a changelog I am guessing that your team doesn't have that organization, because usually, and I've seen this before, that is what that means. It means that someone thought it would take less work than it really is and doesn't have enough time to do a changelog. It didn't make sense then and it doesn't make much sense now. All it means is that people aren't keeping track of what changes they made, and that really picks out the professionalism of the mod for something a lot less refined. Thanks, but I think I will pass on this one.

 

[Wraithcat]

Wraithcat seems a touch out of the loop on this one. Chel does some pretty amazing stuff with his mods. Definately one to download.

I am out of touch with this mod.

But surely listing the features of the mod would seem to be a bit of common sense? Given all of the other great mods out there, what makes this mod so special?

Anyone?

 

[Adorno]

Nice, it's back 

But surely listing the features of the mod would seem to be a bit of common sense?

I suppose the battle morale will be there (Chel's creation)...

 

[Gaz-1]

I am giddy with lack of sleep awesomeness. Downloading now!

Thanks Chel!

 

[Kolba]

Is it for 1.011?

Downloading now...

 

[XLord2]

Still would be awesome to know the changes and what's new compared to the version II.. 

 

[hartkor]

Still would be awesome to know the changes and what's new compared to the version II.. 

yep, indeed

 

[Chel]

That's all fine, I'm sure you think you are quite "cool", whatever that means, but no one is too cool not to post a changelog, and by not posting a changelog I am guessing that your team doesn't have that organization, because usually, and I've seen this before, that is what that means. It means that someone thought it would take less work than it really is and doesn't have enough time to do a changelog. It didn't make sense then and it doesn't make much sense now. All it means is that people aren't keeping track of what changes they made, and that really picks out the professionalism of the mod for something a lot less refined. Thanks, but I think I will pass on this one.

You are quite wrong on all of this dscape.

I didn't post a changelog because I decided it would be better for players to play and discover the game at first instead of looking for listed features, and I would write the details of changes later.

I do not have any team, I did my mods on my own, using mostly only items, textures, and sounds from the community, that is the credits list.

I definitely didn't think it would take less work that it really is, this isnt the first mod I put together.

However I understand what you mean. For people who did not play M&B in beta, or never tried EGII this is a strange thing. I will write the details of the changes a little bit later. If you pass on trying the mod until then, no problem.




For now, guys, this is a version to test the balance of the redone factions, troops, character classes, new combat abilities, and most importantly item balance. If something seems too weak/expencive/slow, please write feedback, I would really appreciate it. And of course I'm curious on your general feedback.

All the items, troops, and factions were carefully redone. This version does not yet include hero wounding and death, battle morale, trophies, charms, new quests and dialogues. It also does not include the popular and excellent kingdom management scripts, perhaps I will add them later.

P.S.
I also recommend Adorno's excellent Ambient Sounds to replace music
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,55978.msg1449255.html#msg1449255
and your favorite enviroment textures
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,36914.0.html
or
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,41739.0.html

I cut them out before uploading because otherwise the file would be 400MB

 

[Rexxar]

Some progressive critisicm if you dont mind ? ( otherwise just ignore)

-Will you also include shield bash(dont like it with stun effect.Hope you can make it with knockback effect)? It will fit nicely.

-(i see,that you will work on balancing items! GreAT! This mod really neeeds this.)Whats with so high strenght requirements for lances? Light lance 18 str? I agree ,that there has to be some str req for spear, but not so extremely high (maybe 11 for light lances to 15 for heaviest lance).There are also some wierd requirements for helms and armors.Gap between heavy armors and light armors is just too big! Plated armor 29 str and padded leather 7 str.For leather you put good str req, but not for heavy armors.If I have str 14, I cant wear any helm except for hoods and peasant hats and such, and if I have 17 str , I can wear almost any helm I friggin want.COuld you please lower str requirements for helms and for some weapons even if you dont do this for armors.Now, this makes game quite unbalanced.Shields in comparison with helms have no strenght requirment although they are more difficult to carry.

Also differences in weights of armors is for me essential.I like to see,that you have different weights for different armors.

-I really like ,how you equipped bandits (with wooden throwing spears, wooden spears and giving those weapons appropriate dmg).This is really nice add, and I hope, other modders will copy such realstic feature...

-Overally I would like to see weaker shields.Instead of you hiding behind a shield for 30 melee attacks, I would rather see, that shield would offer you more realistic amount of protection.You would be  safe from around 3 (the weakest shileds and cracked.From realstic point of view,I cannot see,how would cracked shield hold any more attacks) to 12 melee attacks(strongest shields) + skill for shield. This would bring duels more exciting beacuse, shields would more often break, and then there wouldnt only be repetitive actions been made (block/attack until one gets bored or dies) 

-On the other hand, I dont like normal units to have uber skills.I upgraded farmer to hunter(first time upgrade) and he have all skills 200+? This would be too much even for last tier unit made from farmers although not for swadian knight...Personally I would rather see,that troops would upgrade slower along with their salaries.For example : Farmer weap skills around 15-30,recruit around 40-60,next tier unit around 70-105 etc...Ofcourse recruits from different factions would have different amount of skills so for example Swad. recruit can have weap skills from 30-60 while rhodokian would have 20-55.)
It would be great if we would also have to pay some small amount to upgrade a unit from one tier to another and different units would require different amount of denars to upgrade.

-Cooldown for some special feats is too big!For sprint,focus and rage its okay, but for taunt and fear effect(battlecry if i remeber correctly), cooldown could be reduced to 20 sec.Basically, those two skills are just shouting...

-hunting maybe,shouting orders maybe?


You know that i took time to criticise your mod only beacuse I care about it, and I think that overall is great mod?Really appreciatte your work

 

[vadermath]

Nice to see you back in business, Chel! Downloading.

dscape750: No better way to put it: Shut the hell up.

 

[Chel]

-(i see,that you will work on balancing items! GreAT! This mod really neeeds this.)Whats with so high strenght requirements for lances? Light lance 18 str? I agree ,that there has to be some str req for spear, but not so extremely high (maybe 11 for light lances to 15 for heaviest lance).There are also some wierd requirements for helms and armors.Gap between heavy armors and light armors is just too big! Plated armor 29 str and padded leather 7 str.For leather you put good str req, but not for heavy armors.If I have str 14, I cant wear any helm except for hoods and peasant hats and such, and if I have 17 str , I can wear almost any helm I friggin want.COuld you please lower str requirements for helms and for some weapons even if you dont do this for armors.Now, this makes game quite unbalanced.Shields in comparison with helms have no strenght requirment although they are more difficult to carry.

Thanks for the feedback!

Actually the items are done in this way on purpose, and perhaps more carefully balanced at this point than it seems. And the large gap between leather/mail and heavy plate armors is intentional. The reason is that there is now more balance between raising different attributes due to combat abilities, more balance between foot and mounted character also due to combat abilities, more balance between different items (things like knives, short axes, staffs are now more useful) and because armor does not behave quite as it does in native, so it is not always an advantage. Heavy Armor is very heavy, protects very well from swords and arrows, can be pierced by bolts, spears, and axes, and offers almost no protection from blunt weapons. Blunt weapons in turn require more strength to use, swords are much better vs unarmored opponents because they have higher damage for a lower str requirement. And it is more feasible to play as a light armored footman, instead of strength raising agility and intelligence for speed, focus, first aid, using warcry to scatter opponents when you are swarmed, run away and towards them. As a light footman other footmen with swords are more dangerous to you because swords are faster than maces and will deal more damage to lightly armored troops, as a heavy armored footman, troops with clubs and maces and axes are the ones you should try to block and kill first and those with swords can be nearly ignored.

This also makes fighting heavy armed swadians different from lightly armored khergits. And while a swadian army can easily beat a bunch of bandits with swords, they will succumb much easier to a large band of bear clan warriors with blunt stone weapons.

It also differentiates the starting classes more. It is all connected!
These are the ideas anyways, how well it actually works is for you guys to test

(shields need a str requirement too, you're right. And reducing cooldown on warcry and taunt is a good idea, but it should not be too low)

 

[Quilbo]

So, no features even on the repository? Just your description?

Well, i'll try this because i'm curious, but you don't really know how to tempt people downloading your mod
Zero marketing skill P

 

[Chel]

So, no features even on the repository? Just your description?

Well, i'll try this because i'm curious, but you don't really know how to tempt people downloading your mod
Zero marketing skill P

maybe I know too well

I will write a description soon. Bascially at this point it tries to bring out more out of M&B's combat system, I find it is not realised to its full potential in the native game. And has all new items/troops/starting characters/item balance.

 

[Tamerlan]

That's all fine, I'm sure you think you are quite "cool", whatever that means, but no one is too cool not to post a changelog, and by not posting a changelog I am guessing that your team doesn't have that organization, because usually, and I've seen this before, that is what that means. It means that someone thought it would take less work than it really is and doesn't have enough time to do a changelog. It didn't make sense then and it doesn't make much sense now. All it means is that people aren't keeping track of what changes they made, and that really picks out the professionalism of the mod for something a lot less refined. Thanks, but I think I will pass on this one.

What the heck is all that suppose to mean? Your statement doesnt make any sense for the simple reason that this mod has been made by 1 (one) guy and he making it for his oun fun. You dont like something? You decide to pass for some reason? Keep it quite then and dont insult those people who has been waiting for that mod since September 2008.