(S) Calradia 1050 A.D.: Mercenary Uprising mod (Old Thread)

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ThegnAnsgar said:
Since we're talking about units and equipment, I think the surcoats should be removed from the Swadians. The first ever instance that they're depicted is in 1150, and it really wasn't until the 13th century when they were starting to be used widespread in Europe.

At this point in time, regardless of whatever culture the Swadians are represented by (unless they're being represented by 11th century crusaders), they shouldn't be wearing surcoats.

I thought about that in regard to European history and yes, you are correct that surcoats were probably not around in 1050.  In Calradia, however, both the Swadians and Rhodoks have surcoats or some form of cloth covering some of their armors.  The reason for this is to provide a bit more variety in their armors.  I am using a number of OSP armor packs, but wanted also to use some of the native stuff, where I deemed appropriate and not stretching the time period too far.  I have also limited two-handed weapons to just the top tier troops.  And no-one has plate armor, not even King Harlaus.  He was angry at me for taking it away from him, but he'll live.
 
Progress update:
I recently added another tier of skirmishers to each of the factions.  Now choosing to upgrade some troops to the skirmisher line rather than to the archer line will be more worthwhile as the top-tier skirmishers are pretty good.  You can see the updated troop trees on page 2 of this thread.  The Khergits, Nords, and Rhodoks now have mounted skirmishers as their top-tier skirmishers.

I also wrote a small script and trigger to improve the castle recruitment of tier 5 troops.  With the new codes, the castles refresh every 30 days with between 2-5 tier 5 troops that are available for recruitment by the player.  This also serves to bolster the garrison of the castle until you recruit the troops.  I haven't seen any issues with this in play-testing.

I have been messing around with a new campaign map based on an OSP fantasy map by Kazzan.  As far as I can tell, the map has never been used in any other mod.  I am using several map editors to alter the terrain and party locations.  If it turns out well, I will likely release a version of the game with the vanilla map and also have the option of the fantasy map.  The downside is that it will take me several more weeks to finish the map and test it in-game. 

Given that I am working on the map and messing around with the somewhat buggy outposts kit, I expect that I should be able to release the completed mod in September. 

 
Nice! The new map sounds fantastic, and I know, map can be really time-consuming. Good luck!

Now, if you didn't know about it, the Way to Expiation mod has been released as OSP, I think you will find many things worth adding there. Textures, graphics, interface, items. They are of very good quality.  :smile:
 
Antonis said:
Nice! The new map sounds fantastic, and I know, map can be really time-consuming. Good luck!

Now, if you didn't know about it, the Way to Expiation mod has been released as OSP, I think you will find many things worth adding there. Textures, graphics, interface, items. They are of very good quality.  :smile:

You should know because your maps are quite good.  I did see the Way to Expiation stuff but haven't thought of integrating into my mod.  I am already using quite a few OSP arms and armor packs.  I will take a look to see if they have anything else I might use. 
 
Thank you. Some of them are OSP, though, so, not my maps.  :smile:
And about the Crusaders mod, I think you will find some things to use, especially for the Khergits or Sarranids. I don't know about the 'Western' factions, because in the mod, they have banners and crests, so they wouldn't match your mod. But the stuff for Khergits and Sarranids are quite good.  :smile:
 
Antonis said:
Thank you. Some of them are OSP, though, so, not my maps.  :smile:
And about the Crusaders mod, I think you will find some things to use, especially for the Khergits or Sarranids. I don't know about the 'Western' factions, because in the mod, they have banners and crests, so they wouldn't match your mod. But the stuff for Khergits and Sarranids are quite good.  :smile:

I did like the armors from that OSP and am now using a few of them for my Sarranids.  It was a shame that they never did finish their mod.  It would have been very nice.
 
Mmmm, yeah. My guess is that some people left the team and they couldn't go on.  :sad:
Anyway, the resources would certainly be useful to medieval mods. 
 
I liked and subscribed for more.  :smile:
So far, as shown in the vid, I really like the features, the troop trees seem nice and balanced - the Rhodok being my favourite. I hope you plan something for the interface. If you don't have any plans or time to work or anything, I could give a hand.
 
Antonis said:
I liked and subscribed for more.  :smile:
So far, as shown in the vid, I really like the features, the troop trees seem nice and balanced - the Rhodok being my favourite. I hope you plan something for the interface. If you don't have any plans or time to work or anything, I could give a hand.

I hadn't even thought of interface yet.  That will be some of the polish that I add right before release.  I will take a look at some other mods, including your own work, to get some ideas on what I can do.  I appreciate the offer for help.  Don't you have your own fine mod to work on?  By the way, any news on the next Fires of War patch for some of the texture issues?  I love that mod, especially the setting in the classical era.
 
Well, let's take it one by one. Fires of War, yeah, that. Ehm, I tried to mess with the shaders, to make them more realistic and I kinda ****ed them up.  :lol:
The plumes for most helmets are now transparent. I am working around it, but it will take me some time.

Also, I do have my mods, certainly, but I don't mind doing other stuff, I like it.

Now, about the interface, yes, it's a detail, true, but I find that looking into a different background that is relevant with the theme of the mod really helps immersion. If you want ideas, you can certainly look and use anything of mine, if you like it(I would suggest looking at the Sword and the Axe, though, Fires of War might be a bad idea for a medieval mod). Also, I would suggest looking into Hispania 1200, Crusader Way to Expiation mods and some others for ideas. Those really caught my eyes. But yes, that's probably for near the release, not something basic or that important.  :smile:
 
I wanted to share a bit more about the troop re-design.  The latest video shows the current state of the troop trees.  As I have discussed before, in this mod, cavalry will play a little bit less of a role, while infantry, archers, and the extended skirmisher lines will play a greater role.  This is a personal preference, and also somewhat in line with what you might expect from a period roughly 200 years prior to the native game.

In terms of equipping the troops, I have tried to make each factions' troops distinctive.  I have used a number of excellent OSP arms and armors to achieve this.  Vaegirs are no longer the plain Jane troops who used a combination Khergit stuff, bandit stuff, and some of their own common stuff.  I tried to give each troop at least 2 armor choices in their inventory to provide some more variation while keeping the armors similar in stats across the factions and tiers.  For example, tier 4 infantry of the Nords will have different looking armor than tier 4 infantry of the other factions, but the armor stats will be similar. 

All infantry troops through tier 4 use pole-arms and sidearms and have shields.  I have buffed the damage on spear-type polearms by about 5 points piercing damage.  I have not changed the damage for cutting pole-arms, since the damage was adequate.The tier 4 troop of each faction has a very good polearm, such as a long voulge for the Vaegirs, a bec-de-corbin for the Swadians, a pole-ax for the Nords, hafted blade for Khergits,  long pole scythe for Sarranids, and glaive for Rhodoks.
Each faction now has a tier 6 infantryman who has excellent equipment and both 2-handed and 1-handed weapons.

Archers and skirmishers are are now equipped with shields, with archers and skirmishers using small shields, except in the case of crossbowmen, who use board shields or kite shields.  Archers also have leather or thick cloth armors, only the top-tier will have some light-medium metal armor.  I have given archers more blunt sidearms than blades.  This will help with the prisoner-taking aspect.  The skirmishers are equipped with good throwing weapons and a one-handed weapon that is different than that used by the infantry of the faction.  For example, Swadian skirmishers use axes, which are not found in the Swadian infantry.  Nord skirmishers mainly use hammers and mallets instead of the axes used by much of their infantry.  I think this helps provide a variety of weapons across the factions.  The new skirmishers, especially the higher-level ones, are a match for many of the infantry troops, although less heavily armored than an infantry troop at the same level.  Plus they will hit you in the face with a jarid or throwing axe!

As far as gameplay balance goes, I like the ratios of infantry to archer to skirmisher to horsemen in the AI armies and party templates.  Cavalry still plays an important role but unless the AI army is large, their cavalry probably won't steamroll your troops.  The factions seem pretty well balanced and still have some of their characteristic strengths and weaknesses.  For example, Nords and Rhodoks have the best infantry forces, the Nords at the high level, and the Rhodoks at the lower level.  The Swadians still have robust cavalry, just less of it.  The Vaegirs still have the best archers.  The Khergits are now a fairly well balanced force, as are the Sarranids.  All factions now have tier 6 infantry, albeit the Nord Huscarl is still the man.  All factions now have some horsemen, cavalry in some cases, mounted skirmishers in others.

Anyway, I apologize for the wall of text.  I have been tweaking a few things and have even begun adding an additional faction.  If it turns out well I may include it in the mod I release this September.
 
Well, I must say, I am inclined to agree with you, mainly because I like infantry better.  :razz:
But to be honest, the changes do seem very nice. The damage buff was pretty much necessary and of course, Vaegirs are very bland in Native. And the new faction sounds interesting.
 
Antonis said:
Well, I must say, I am inclined to agree with you, mainly because I like infantry better.  :razz:
But to be honest, the changes do seem very nice. The damage buff was pretty much necessary and of course, Vaegirs are very bland in Native. And the new faction sounds interesting.

I am looking forward to see if adding the additional faction changes gameplay and balance.  Of course the more stuff I add, the longer it will take to release.  To be honest, I really want to get the release done as soon as possible, especially since everything is stable and error-free at this point.  I did also check out the Permanent Camps mod to replace the buggy Outposts mod.  It is much simpler and seems to work fairly well.  I may include it in the release, especially if I can figure out how to have the camp commander train troops in the camp.  Other than that, I will work on the polish ideas that you suggested.  Thanks for your continued encouragement.
 
Hey mate, I may not post on the thread but have been following this for a while as with the other Warband in development mods and I have to say it really is looking to be quite amazing so far. I like the skirmishers role on the battlefield especially, as native and practically all native expansion mods have minimal to no focus on throwing weapons, let alone dedicated throwing troops. Keep doing what you're doing, add me to the list of people patiently waiting to play.  : :grin:

Cheers
 
MattoBro said:
Hey mate, I may not post on the thread but have been following this for a while as with the other Warband in development mods and I have to say it really is looking to be quite amazing so far. I like the skirmishers role on the battlefield especially, as native and practically all native expansion mods have minimal to no focus on throwing weapons, let alone dedicated throwing troops. Keep doing what you're doing, add me to the list of people patiently waiting to play.  : :grin:

Cheers

I am glad you like the skirmishers.  They are fairly tough and change the gameplay for the better, in my opinion.
 
GreenStalker said:
Have you considered adding new companions and auto loot :3?

I have already added 4 new higher level companions.  The version of Diplomacy I am using allows for the player to determine what arms the companions can have as well as allowing them to automatically choose from the loot pool.  Is this what you mean?
 
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