Historical Mount & Blade

[darkrider]

I really believe whole heartedly that Mount and Blade should be historically accurate. I'm not talking about a massive conversion of units/weapons/armour that kind of stuff..no no, that's quite good and the combat system is excelllent. But the names in the game are crap! they really are! it's a combination sof fantasy crap with medieval combat. A great cincept but better names would be better in a more historically accurate map, like instead of Zendar(who ever thought i that i really feel sorry for them) make it like Hamstead, or Boulonge. Individuals have realistic names like John the Butcher, or Henry Bolingbroke etc.

A map of europe or maybe even just a small portion of it like the stretch between england and france would be good to recreate the hundred year's war in normandy and calais. Little villages dotting the landscape, massive castles rarely seen but in important locations, right through to port towns/cities/villages. And perhaps larger city maps when you walk around. I don't know if anyone has played Sea Dogs, or Pirates of the Carribbean (Sea Dogs 2), but the locations around there allow you pretty free roam around the back alley's. Maybe there could be beggers in the streets and cuthroats looking to stab you in the back. And a tavern full of drunken veterans, merchants, adventuers and soldiers of both england or france depending on who control's the town.

Leaving the village/town/city/castle could be risky as it is in the current version of mount and blade with bandits, english/french deserters, war parties, man-hunters, forest bandits, pesants etc. And perhaps even armies of up to 400 men.

On that issue the ability to command heaps more troops on massive battlefield maps would be better and make it more exciting.

Everything else is fine and if these were implemented then it would be even better than it already is.

 

[Lupos Davalte]

Is there anything you actually like about this game?

Mount and Blade has been created in a fantasy world. Nothing is stopping you and a group of modders making something historical.

 

[Ingolifs]

I do agree that some of the names are a bit fantasy and others are a bit crap. As a general rule, over-the-top fantasy names all end in 'dar'
Wercheg i think is a bit of a sissy-pants name.

 

[Bigwig]

King Yaroglek would like a word with you

I agree, I would love mount&blade to be in a more realistic setting, but I'm not sure if it will happen. The names do have to change before the game gets a story though, as some of them are really bad.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

I do agree that some of the names are a bit fantasy and others are a bit crap. As a general rule, over-the-top fantasy names all end in 'dar'
Wercheg i think is a bit of a sissy-pants name.

I'd have thought someone with the name of Ingolifs would be more tolerant of unusual names. I jest... But I do like the names, unusual names like Wercheg, Tulga, Praven, Ingolifs, all of them. (Create a suggestion thread with better names would be an interesting thing!)

However, before we get side-tracked with name-calling, I have no problems with the alternate historical settings and the invented Calradian names.

A fantasy setting allows Armagan the freedom to intrepret his vision as he will rather than being restricted to a definite time period with only certain unit types, cultures, names, weapons, horses, and armor.

A historical setting would be cool indeed, and I'd probably buy it too, so I think the idea has merit. It's just that such a change to me is similar to telling an author, "I like your book but "Hobbits" is such a silly name, and Elves? What's with that? The book's fine, all we need do is change the time to 1942, make the Hobbits "Commandos" and the "Elves" would be partisans. The Commandos would be going behind enemy lines to destroy the evil ruler's jet aircraft factory and so on. Other than that your book's OK."

Actually, I really believe that Mount & Blade may very likely be the first (if anything nowadays can be the first) in a series of games that make use of what Armagan's done here. And some of those will be very historically accurate. I wouldn't mind a "War of the Roses" or "100 Years War" or (changing the setting even more) seeing some American western settings (cowboys and Indians). I'm doubtful of the fun or the appropriateness of thousands of troops in a battle using Mount & Blades engine. I'd like to see it of course but this has always been to me a game about heroic individuals not a mass army simulator.

However, he's got to finish the first game, rather than going off on a different theme. Mount & Blade's an innovative game but I wouldn't be surprised if others having seen it, are planning their own games. And these competitors may have bigger budgets and companies.

(PS I can see myself changing the names to historical English and French names via modding tools which I hope will allow just that. I would create an alternate historical English setting with a "struggle for the throne" theme.)

 

[Ingolifs]

*fun fact* a certain branch of the elves were called Gnomes in the earlier versions of Tolkien's works. They looked like elves and acted like elves, but were named 'gnomes'

If i could program, i'd try making a random name generator.

 

[Berny]

yea this game is created by armagan this is his imaginary world its all in armagans mind... he must be a kinda wierd guy but anyways

I think it should be left to the modders to do

Lost legionaire..should be great
Daimyo War... i always wanted to speak japanese
any others i dont know

but if this was historicle whate would be added?

 

[darkrider]

(PS I can see myself changing the names to historical English and French names via modding tools which I hope will allow just that. I would create an alternate historical English setting with a "struggle for the throne" theme.)

I like that idea, sounds really good. And yes, i hope there are people out there who will be getting many ideas from Mount and Blade and pehaps it could just be the start of many. The combat system is really good and the adventure spirit of a traveller and band of followers would not be lost in a "realistic" hundred years war version or whatever. In fact there could a whole host of games that are set in a time f war, eg. England vs. France for control of northern france, or Germanic Knights warring against the Polish king in the cold winter of Denmark.

It's just that the games seem to be on the right the track but not quite there yet. The more people that can get behind and support this move to make a "hundred years war" mod the better. Maybe we could start a community or something, because i've seensome really good modsd come togeather in other games such as Rome:Total war and if everyone contributes then there can really be a kick-ass total conversion. I've seen some pretty talented modders working on small parts of mount & blade and if they can somehow come togeather an dcombine their skills then perhpas we could get thing off the ground. Any thoughts?

 

[The Pope]

The problem is that making it historical makes every little historical innacuracy far more important. If you saw vikings fighting against 15th century knights in a historical game, you would probalby get annoyed despite the fact that it's fun.

 

[Raider]

Realm of mods only, I would say.

 

[Temujin]

John the Butcher, or Henry Bolingbroke etc.

or Timur, or Temujin, or Hamilcar, there is more in the world then just england you know

A map of europe or maybe even just a small portion of it like the stretch between england and france would be good to recreate the hundred year's war in normandy and calais.

or Samarkand, Byzantium, etc.. and the Mongolian conquests
there was more to history then the 100yrs war you know

I think you are mistaking "historically correct with European historrically correct.

IMO untill the time of gunpowder and when europeans started to enslave sorry Colonize the world, the european armies where pretty inferior. the Mongols could have taken europe had the Kahn not died. MehmedII was close to taking it, had his borders not been threathend in the east he probably would have

 

[Wicked]

As far as the names of places/people goes...Temujin has a point...which I will now unapologetically thieve and expand on a bit...

Since we already have factions/weapons/armour/horses and the like reflecting Western-Central-Eastern Europe, Asia Minor-Middle East, and the Steppes from around 500-1500 AD...we don't need generic names for everyone & everyplace, different factions and the areas under their control could have names similar to the RL peoples their loosely based on, with little regional variances thrown in on top.

 

[Ingolifs]

I really think a 100 years war will fit perfectly into m&b with very little modification. After the start, where there were a few large battles (agincourt, poiters, crecy) i think it became more of a protracted skirmish, where there would be independant knights under a knight lord pillaging the countryside, besieging castles and generally being up to no good. This is quite similar to the situation in m&b where you have war parties trolling around the place, but acting in no cohesion with other parties.

 

[darkrider]

I really think a 100 years war will fit perfectly into m&b with very little modification. After the start, where there were a few large battles (agincourt, poiters, crecy) i think it became more of a protracted skirmish, where there would be independant knights under a knight lord pillaging the countryside, besieging castles and generally being up to no good. This is quite similar to the situation in m&b where you have war parties trolling around the place, but acting in no cohesion with other parties.

i agree, that was the main reason why i thought of the "hundred years war" period, simply because of the thousands of minor skirmishes there were that the war degenerated into. I reckon as far as warbands roaming the map of normandy go, there should be english knights and their men-at-arms compainions, french knights and their footmen etc. with the odd raiding party of adventurers from england armed with longbows, spears etc. Even french/english lords and their minor armies of up to 50 or even 75 knights/men-at-arms & crossbowmen.

The original river pirates, sea raiders, man-hunters, caravans, black knights, forest bandits and even peasants that could be attacked for gold. The only thing that should be removed i reckon are the steppe bandits since france is hundreds of miles from russia.

Since Mount&Blade is set around 1300AD the hundred years war period fits nicely with the weapons/armour and units already in the game, so a total re-skinning shouldn't be required.

As far as missions go, you should also be able to get them from local lords in their castles dotted across the map, and even the peasants you come across could give you a quest to hunt down forest bandits that might have raided their village. Replace "Vaegirs" with the English and the "Swadians" with the French with the french primary colours being blue/gold/white, and the english being red/blue and gold.

Any other ideas? I've also realised that the general view from everyone here is that this should be a mod which makes it easier for us to create. If there are any talented or novice modders out there who are interested on working on this project then let me know.

 

[pzler]

i have nothing against realistic mods. but i don't need al this in mount & blade itself. just give me the rune sword of bursting fire balls that do a whopping 500 damage and ignore armour.
and what's in a name??? i'd rather see more caracters instead of better named ones

 

[zaleukos]

I too see a lot of potential for "historical" mods that wont require much work. Some that spring to mind:

The vikings period 1000AD (knights, arab light cavalry, vikings) offers a lot of opportunities and potential regions, England, Normandy, Spain, even the meditterranean.. Lots of factions.

Eastern Europe ca 1250: Mongols vs knights.

Late roman empire: Legionnaires, barbarians, huns...

Thirty years war in Germany 1618-48. I've always dreamt of an "elite with swords" rpg game in that setting. Mount and blades representation with warbands running about is pretty similar to what actually occured, there were both mercenaries and regular armies around. Primitive firearms of the era would be very similar to crossbows in operation but require a new animation, I dont know how doable that is.

Etc. Armagan has created a free roaming game in the vein of Pirates! and Elite... Only imagination sets the limit

 

[GonZ]

Personally I think England in the period of the Norman conquest would make the ideal setting for M&B.

There would be two main factions; Normans & Saxons. But it would also be possible to work for (and eventually become) an independent baron.

This is the period of Robin Hood, so the choice of playing bandit would be highly suitable too.

It's not likely to happen unless its a mod. But this would be my favourite historical setting.

 

[Kestenvarn]

If i could program, i'd try making a random name generator.

The Everchanging Book of Names

 

[Ryuta]

I think the names and setting is very fine to me.

As I'm making a graphic novel version of M&B, this argument is very interesting and gave me a lot of thoughts.

Fictional setting gives devs more freedom and control over the world (I think someone said it before). It's a problem I'm facing, though, because I'm struggling to reconcile their view and my view. Armagan kindly solved this by saying that by putting my novel in 'alternative world' setting, I could have more control over it.

Furthermore, if what we're doing in 'M&B 100 years war' is the same as original, there's no point in changing the setting of original game (mod is great, though).

Names are, well, it's down to your taste.

My conclusion is simple. Historical mods are OK.

 

[Lammah]

I really believe whole heartedly that Mount and Blade should be historically accurate. I'm not talking about a massive conversion of units/weapons/armour that kind of stuff..no no, that's quite good and the combat system is excelllent. But the names in the game are crap! they really are! it's a combination sof fantasy crap with medieval combat. A great cincept but better names would be better in a more historically accurate map, like instead of Zendar(who ever thought i that i really feel sorry for them) make it like Hamstead, or Boulonge. Individuals have realistic names like John the Butcher, or Henry Bolingbroke etc.
Leaving the village/town/city/castle could be risky as it is in the current version of mount and blade with bandits, english/french deserters, war parties, man-hunters, forest bandits, pesants etc. And perhaps even armies of up to 400 men.