Non-fictional game map, maybe?

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This game is seriously coolio. Most of the quirks have been mentioned.

Historical instead of fictional setting: I haven't seen a suggestion for a gameworld based, however loosely, on a historical setting. e.g. feudal England or Byzantium etc. I think that might give the game a bit more flavour and something of a context. Stories could be woven around real historical incidents (or even fake historical elements such as Robin Hode).


Jousting tournament: I imagine someone has suggested putting in an additional tournament for jousting (maybe available to the gentry only); so I'll just assume they have and second the motion.

Army service: On first joining the army, it would be cool if you joined on short contracts of 10 days or so, during which time you are assigned to one of the wandering bands of soldiers and deprived of the ability to determine where you go on the world map. You go where they go and fight where they fight. You have the option to leave, but if you do so before the 'contract' is up, you are considered a deserter. This only changes if you persevere and go up through the ranks; at which point you are given control of your own gang of men and can pick your own fights.

Just a thought.
 
I guess it could be based on a real world map, but it would take away some artistic freedom A has. This would be dodged by making it an alternate history or something.
 
The army service thing would be great!

As for the historical map... for a mod it's alright, I think some people already planned to do a 100 years war mod. But for the real game... it would be really a lot of work to make it accurate. I'm not sure it would be worth it.
 
The army idea is fun, sort of like some youngster in a country conquered by Rome you would join up because there is nothing else to do. It would be great at the beginning of the game if you could choose to be a bandit or A priviliged son of a noble, stuff like that. No point in trying to base this on real Earth history though,do you want the guy spending countless hours on historical research or do you want him to develop the game? Because if you want to be historically accurate historians will argue for hours and they weren't even there, even though they talk like they were. The geek factor becomes insurmountable.
 
I like the joining army idea very much. Then you would not have the right to give orders in a battle and would receive them instead. You should be allowed to choose wether you'd like to join a peasant militia or something better with a higher wage, but for example for to join heavy cavalery you'd have to have to powerful horse and an expensive armour.
As to the realistic map... I also support it on 100%. There isn't really much to research and it isn't really that complicated as it sounds. I could imagine (aside from a 100y war scen) a 950AD (northern) Europe scenario (VIKINGS; Swabians, Saxons, Frankons, Bayuvars etc batteling one another for the German crown; arabs in sicily battle byzantians; heathen barbarians in eastern europe; etc.), a 1200AD eastern europe (Teutonic order and mongol invasion),a 1100AD/1180AD palestine scenarios(first/third crusade). It would be also great to make something like pirates! in the middle east out of it (desert raiders!), but there would be too much to do I guess in this case. Well, anyway I support this idea.
 
joining army at the very beginning of the game would be nice.. so isntead of wasting couple of hours in tournaments training and getting money for the party with which youll finally play the game, you can just join the army and go around with bands of NPCs but all u do is follow orders and clean boots...
so at very beginning it would be cool
 
Hmm, my interest in the first idea is overclocked to 120%. It would give a feeling of doing something important, just like pirates. Besides it would add a little to realism... But on the other hand it could be a mod. If the editing tools are gonna be powerful enough we can regard the current setting just as a sandbox. Kinda engine. Another idea would be a random map with random kingdoms randomly fighting one another, but that would be really hard to implement.
 
The first thought I had upon acquriing M & B was precisely that there should be historical maps/scenarios.

It would also give an excuse to change the structure of the map and give varying dynamics.

The current Caladrian scenario divides the map in half, with equally spaced cities, Swadians & Vaegirs strictly partitioned on either side of a geographical dividing line. There could be alternative set-ups.

One I have given some thought to was a scenario where each party's cities are scattered across the map and no party dominates any particular portion of the map.

A historical instance of this was the 11th/12th C. wars of the city leagues in northern Italy. There wasn't a geographical dividing line, but rather each city was at war with her neighbor and allied herself with the city next over.

As envisaged, the map would be roughly divided horizontally by the Po river (with bridges), with cities on either side. Adding three tributaries (Ticino, Adda & Mincio rivers) and Lake Garda would be just peachy, but not essential.

There would be two leagues -- call them "Guelphs" (led by Milan) and "Ghibellines" (led by Pavia) and two neutral cities on either extreme.

Broken down:

Guelphs = Tortona, Milan (capital), Piacenza, Crema, Brescia, Reggio, Bologna, Padua

Ghibellines = Novara, Pavia (capital), Lodi, Bergamo, Cremona, Parma, Modena, Verona, Ferrara

Neutrals = Vercelli, Venice

Uncertain = Mantua

Here's a rough sketch of the map as envisaged (Red = Milanese (Guelph) league, Green = Pavian (Ghibelline) league, Blue = Neutral)

Lombard leagues map

These league alignments are historically quite correct. Admittedly I was a bit fast & loose with the eastern cities (Padua, Verona & Ferrara), because they fought mostly on their own account, maintaining only loose ties with the two leagues. But it's not inconsistent with their histories.

Mantua is really the only problem. Historically, Mantua was ambiguous and fluctuated a lot because her two main rivals (Cremona & Reggio) belonged to different camps. So Mantua aligned herself with the Guelphs whenever she wanted to pick a war with Cremona, and declared herself Ghibelline when at war with Reggio. So I can't decide on this one. (Although given the Po boundary, it probably makes sense to make her Guelph.)

Finally, Vercelli and Venice were actually neutral in the Lombard wars. Furthermore, Venice was the major slave-trading center in Italy while Vercelli was a major mining center (OK gold mining, not salt). Makes it perfect for M&B!

The only other adjustment for historical accuracy is that the kings/counts would have to be replaced by archbishops/bishops (archbishops for Milan & Pavia, bishops for the other cities). Venice's "constable" could be the Doge.

So whaddya think?
 
Laurence of Arabia said:
I dont think at this point they are going to change the already crafted map and any story-lins they may have concocted.

I was thinking more along the lines that in the next version (or in some future version), there could be a portfolio of maps/scenarios to choose from.

Besides, if historical, the story-line is pretty much already given. :wink:
 
I think historical map should be for mods. Because it needs lots of research and consumes lots of time and give you restrictions on your plot.

But Lombardian war is intresting... Isn't Mantua the original place of Romeo and Julliette?
 
Ryuta said:
I think historical map should be for mods. Because it needs lots of research and consumes lots of time and give you restrictions on your plot.

Possibly. But I just got a hunch that a wide variety of maps & scenarios would probably be an easier way to stave off boredom than packing a single scenario/story very deeply.

But Lombardian war is intresting... Isn't Mantua the original place of Romeo and Julliette?

Verona. Although Romeo flees to Mantua in the latter part of the play.

And, incidentally, the Montegues (Romeo's family) were Guelphs, the Capulets (Juliet's family) were Ghibellines.
 
The original post and some of the following posts are definitely prime areas for a mod - particularly for those who want a real world historical map.

And actually, it's a very common suggestion in many people's posts on other topics. For example, I was thinking of creating a "War of the Roses" type map if and when those tools are available. By "type map" I mean not to recreate actual geographical locations necessarily (only approximately accurate) but to try and capture the feeling of an English struggle for the crown scenario.
 
SirBobTheMerciless said:
Army service: On first joining the army, it would be cool if you joined on short contracts of 10 days or so, during which time you are assigned to one of the wandering bands of soldiers and deprived of the ability to determine where you go on the world map. You go where they go and fight where they fight. You have the option to leave, but if you do so before the 'contract' is up, you are considered a deserter. This only changes if you persevere and go up through the ranks; at which point you are given control of your own gang of men and can pick your own fights.

Just a thought.

Very very nice.

Thumbs up in my opinion
 
Yea, I've just checked out some of the mods and I could imagine the whole historical setting thing being more than sufficiently covered by the modders. I certainly wasn't thinking super historical accuracy. Just names places basic geography etc.

As for the conscription idea, I'm glad a few other people like it. With any luck someone might run with it. Don't look at me, though, I haven't a clue about modding.

Cheers.
SBTM
 
i think a realistic gamemap would ruin the game, there's too many historically based games already, there's no point in having another one. However i think a larger or more varied map would be more interesting, for example having different terrain types and battle maps that correspond to the terrain type your on, rather than being fully random. like when your in the plains, the battle map should be too, or the forest...you get my point
 
I say, make it so that there is a GIGANTIC AMOUNT or the possiability to add, of ocean around the part of cladria when caladria is finished for modders, AKA, you COULD change the whole map for a Total conversion, or you could add a teleport/travel option from caladria and so you go to say england or whatever, kind of like in morrowind where there are lots of added islands, as I like caladria.
 
Love the army idea, and the jousting thing has already been mentioned(in one of the stickies) which i also would love to have in the game...but much cannot make it to the game but much can so cross your fingers and pray to your designated god or read a book, then it might make it to the final release YAY.
 
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