SP Antiquity MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: Bronze and Blood-Children of Olympus.

[Kvedulf]

Kvedulf here.

Some of you may remember that at the end of last year, I began work on a Bronze Age mod called Bronze and Blood.  (original thread here: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,87627.msg2259458.html#msg225945.  Unfortunately, due to really bad real life problems, I was forced to stop work on the mod.  In the intervening 7 months, I've managed to lose everything I had managed to do.

However, I've decided to resume work on the mod.  I can't promise anything, as real life still gets in the road.  However, Bronze and Blood has begun again for Warband.

Due to my new job, I'm finding time to work on Bronze and Blood cut short.  I would really appreciate assistance at this point, particularly in regards to research.  If anyone wants to help research, read the spoiler underneath this, and PM me with a response.

Spoiler

So, if there's anyone out there wanting to help research for Bronze and Blood, this is what I need at the moment:

I'm looking for lists of heroes that can be used as lords for the various factions.  They need to belong to
1. the area or kingdom they will represent in the game
2. the generation directly before, during or directly after the period of the Trojan War.
3. any names mentioned within the Illiad and the Odyssey are given priority.  Even if they are only a name, and where they're from.

I would also like any information about them, such as who they're related to, what they were known for, whether they're married and/or have kids.  I would also need to know the actual city/location they are from.

The kingdoms/factions/areas I need this for at the moment are:
Pthia/Thessaly
Athens
Locris
Euboea
Salamis
Aetolia
Rhodes, Syme and Cos

The spoilers below show some of the models completed so far.  None of them are textured yet.

ACHAEAN SWORDS
From left to right: 2 Type C, 2 Type Di, 2 Type Dii, Type E.  Each sword type has a blade at around the maximum and the minimum length found in archaeology.

Spoiler

SPEARS
From Left to Right: 2 Type C, 2 Type D, 2 Type E, 2 Type F, 1 Type G, 1 Type H.  Poly counts, left to right are: 184, 186, 258, 237, 235, 240, 318, 292, 280, 205.  They still have to be triangulated.

Spoiler

CANAANITE KHOPESH
A rare weapon, used by the Canaanites as well as other Near Eastern cultures.  Was not used by the Mycenaeans.

Spoiler

KNIVES
Left to right: 3 knives, a ring-hilt knife and a "machete".  Poly counts are, left to right, 468, 165, 103, 605, 179).  They still have to be triangulated.  The models were done by Nodscouter.

Spoiler

AXEHEAD
A "duckbill" axehead.

Spoiler

List of Planned Features:
all new weapons
all new armours
12 new factions with accurate troop trees and lords
a new map populated with new parties
new NPCs, who will be historically accurate, or in the case of the Aegean, mythologically accurate, with family trees
formations
Perma-death for both PCs and NPCs
a naval system
new recruitment system
a large number of small scripts and tweaks to improve and change various things, such as AI, trade and economics, the battlefield experience, and to generally create a feeling of living in the Bronze Age
and all the other things that a complete modification needs, like new dialogue and scenes.

In addition, a few of my housemates are interested in a number of fields that would relate to mod making, and are keen to help.  A few of the ideas being thrown around include new music, an entire soundscape, new artwork and a complete rehaul of every piece of dialogue ingame.  However, these are simply ideas at the moment and some or all of them may not make it to the final release.


Time Golem made the lovely banner in my signature for me.  So if you want to show your support, you can PM me your credit card details, or just copy and paste this into your signature:

Spoiler

I think that should work... I'm still trying to work out how signatures work...

Anyway, for those of you who care, Bronze and Blood is back on the road.

Cheers
Kvedulf

 

[shadowarcher]

its great to see that this mod is back, good luck this time

 

[Nodscouter]

These are some quite nice news I must say.

 

[Spongly]

Good luck! What's the setting going to be - Trojan War, Northern European bronze age, Biblical?

 

[Kvedulf]

@ spongly: I've decided to make this more a "series" of mods rather than a single mod.  The idea is that each release will be standalone, but will expand on the previous.

The first release, Bronze and Blood: Children of Olympus, will focus entirely on Greece and the Aegean in the Bronze Age.  The second release (tentative title is either "The Great Green" or "Windy Ilios") will expand on that to include the area of the Trojan War.  Eventually, I would like the mod to cover the From Greece to Mesopotamia and from Turkey to Nubia.  But that's a long way off.  I don't think I'll even touch the European Bronze Age cultures.

First post updated.

Cheers
Kvedulf

EDIT:  This isn't a real preview.  More a taste of the first faction, Mykene.  This is more to show the level of research that is going into every aspect of the mod.  Please note that this is only a taste of the research completed for Mykene.  The family trees still have to be sorted through.  All the lords are based directly on lords from the Illiad.  All the information presented below will affect the game.

Spoiler

MYKENE
Faction Leader: Agamemnon, son of Atreus
Title: Megas Wanax (trans: Great King)
Lords:
Menelaus, son of Atreus. 
Diomedes, son of Tydaeus.  (Argos "faction")
Adrastus, son of Polynices.  (Mykene "faction").  Was one of the Epigoni.
Amarynceus, son of Onesimachus.  (Mykene "faction")
Cyanippus, son of Adrastus.  (Argos "faction"). King of Argos.  Was in the Wooden Horse.  Died childless.
Cycnus, son of Deitus.  (Argos "faction")
Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.  (Argos "faction").  Was one of the Epigoni, Argonauts and was in the Wooden Horse
Sthenelus, son of Capaneus.  (Argos "faction").  Was one of the Epigoni, Suitor, was in the Wooden Horse.
Cometes, son of Sthenelus.  (Argos "faction")
Cylarabes, son of Sthenelus.  (Argos "faction")
Talthybius.  (Mykene "faction").
Amphidamus.  (Mykene "faction").  Was in the Wooden Horse
Amphimachus.  (Mykene "faction").  Was in the Wooden Horse
Antiphates.  (Mykene "faction").  Was in the Wooden Horse
Eurymachus.  (Mykene "faction").  Was in the Wooden Horse
Eurymedon, son of Ptolemy.  (Mykene "faction").  Was Agamemnon's squire
Menoetius.  (Mykene "faction")
Molus.  (Argos "faction")
Periphetes, son of Copreus.  (Mykene "faction").  One of the best men in Mykene
Phereus.  (Mykene "faction")

TROOP TREE:
The Mykene armies use the standard Achaean troop tree.  Peasant skirmishers, pike blocks and elite nobles.

SPECIAL TROOP:
Leo Mykene (Lions of Mykene): Lion iconography.  Royal bodyguards.  Sword and throwing spear troops.  Based on the prevalence of lion iconography in relation to the site of Mycenae, such as the Lion Gate.

 

[Feragorn]

**** you. 

I had an idea for a similar mod, but focusing more on the Levant area. Now what do I do?

 

[Kvedulf]

Do it? 

There's never enough Bronze Age mods!  There's what, one with a release at the moment? The Troy mod.  And that's in Alpha.  And the inspiration/basis for that is the movie Troy rather than history/archaeology.

 

[Shanehere]

That's nice . Good luck

 

[Kvedulf]

First post updated.

Just some pics of the models I've been working on so far.

Have recently picked up a whole bunch of resource books.  Still have to go through them and find out what's useful and not.

Cheers
Kvedulf

Edit: What's in the first post:

Spoiler

 

[Crossbow Joe]

Another good mod coming along. I look forward to playing it

 

[Kvedulf]

Thanks.  Still got a lot of work to do.  I'm thinking of releasing a tiny teaser mod when most of the weapons and shields are done, so people can get an idea of what it'll look like.

Cheers
Kvedulf

 

[Nodscouter]

Nice models but the last one has faar to few polies. Also, you need to do some more hard-edging. Might want to work on that.

 

[Kvedulf]

Yeah, not happy with the axehead.  I actually got fed up with it and went with "close enough is good enough"!  Going to try and go back and rework it.  How do I add/make/do hard edges?

Cheers
Kvedulf

 

[Nodscouter]

Do you use Wings3d or blender?

 

[Kvedulf]

Wings 3D.

 

[Nodscouter]

Then you use the edge mode, select the edges you wish to hard edge, rightclick and just under collapse there's an option called ''hardness''. Select it and there will come up a choice between soft and hard. Select hard. If you later wish to un-harden it you select soft. Hard edges is great for two things, it makes models look far better and if you smoothen an area with hard edges then the faces between the edges will not change except they will multiply, which can be good for some precision work. Here's an exampe of a rapier with hard edges and without:
Without:

Spoiler

With:

Spoiler

Quite a bit better huh? That being said, you're a really good modeller, and the mod concept is great. I wish you good luck sir.

 

[Kvedulf]

Wow!  That's going to make things so much better!  Thanks heaps.  Going to go back and experiment.

Thanks again

Cheers
Kvedulf

 

[Nodscouter]

No problem, it's great to help out other moddellers, especially when they got good potential. By the way, I could help you with modelling some items..

 

[Feragorn]

http://www.bronze-age-swords.com/

Great reference for Bronze Age things.

 

[Kvedulf]

thanks for the link Feragorn.  The reference pic for the my khopesh originally came from that website, but I found it doing an image search.  that website has some brilliant pics.

Currently experimenting with improving the models.  Working out how hard edges work and trying to drop the poly count.

Cheers
Kvedulf

EDIT: Quick little update.  Have experimented with hardening the edges on all the models.  They look so much better now.  Will post updated pics later.  Thanks for the advice Nodscouter.