The Retinue - Warband Modding Contest

Added to Calendar: 15/07/22

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Uxkhal, early summer of 1256

"Ergelon and Unuzdaq, at the same time? How do they think they will be able to gather enough troops for these plans? Even ignoring the protection of the remaining borders of the kingdom, this is still a bold undertaking to challenge the Rhodoks and the Khergit Khanate at the same time!" Boyar Vuldrat was completely caught off guard at this news.

"Those were my words too. Nevertheless, the council wants to recommend this very thing to king Harlaus. That cretin Michaudr has convinced them all by now that the gains are greater than the risk." Count Delinard snorted contemptuously.

Vuldrat looked up. "Is this the same guy you were so upset about at your last visit in Khudan?"

Delinard nodded grimly. "Yes, the same, the one with that stupid looking chin beard that I told you about. It's hard to believe that someone who can't tell apart his left ass cheek from his right can make such a fuss. How can they believe that they are able to control the fires which they want to light everywhere? If only they wouldn't play with fire so close to my home."

Vuldrat nodded silently. Should there be fighting for Ergelon, Uxkhal and Vyincourd Castle are logical targets for a Rhodok counterattack. He could already see in his mind's eye the raids on Swadian trade caravans and villages. Vuldrat frowned. "Why are you telling me all this? You know that I will more or less carry this information to my home. And I would be dishonest with you if I said that King Yaroglek no longer claims Tilbaut. He would use any conflict that draws Harlaus' attention away from him. It may well be that we will soon find ourselves on the battlefield."

Delinard heaved a sigh. "If only all our kings would meet once a year in an arena for a fist fight to resolve all these conflicts, wouldn't that be fabulous?" "It would be a merrier world", Vuldrat agreed. They both grinned at each other.

After a short pleasant silence, Delinard raised his voice again: "Vuldrat, we have been friends for such a long time and we have always been honest with each other. I wanted you to know the background to my thoughts and concerns in the hope that you would then be better able to give me counsel. And counsel is something I desperately need: My fief is not prepared for the upcoming wars. And I fear these wars will not be as short-lived as many of the others expect. My troops are poorly equipped. Their equipment is good enough to hunt down a few bandits in the forest, but to withstand a siege? It's like putting little ducklings up against a cat." He looked Vuldrat openly in the eyes. "During my last visit in Khudan I noticed new armour among your retinue and also during your visit here one can hardly miss the good quality of the equipment. And as a friend, I thought I might ask you who could also equip my my own retinue well for a fair price?"

Vuldrat was silent for a while, thinking. It was not far-fetched that there really could be a conflict between their two kingdoms. Like Delinard probably did, he hoped that he would never have to suddenly face his friend in the heat of a battle. What would the other boyars say if they learned that he had helped a perhaps future enemy to get better equipment? Of course, some of his adversaries would try to badmouth him in order to gain control of Khudan and his riches themselves. But wouldn't it also be a fair trade with the information he could now present to the king? After all, this opens up a previously unimagined opportunity.

Deep inside, however, Vuldrat knew that he had already decided anyway whether he would now like to stand by his friend with advice, no matter what future consequences would like to result from it. And so, after one more moment, he smiled at him: "Delinard, my friend, I can tell you exactly where you have to go and whom you have to approach for that!"





Welcome to the second Warband Modding Contests of this year, "The Retinue". This time 2D-artists (and 3D-artists as well) are invited to show off their creativity and skill.

Submission Start Date: June 1st 2022. 00:00
Submission End Date: July 15th 2022. 23:59

Equipment for Count Delinard's retinue​
Count Delinard plans to assemble new troops for his retinue and asks you to provide the armours for them. Create out of Native meshes a set of armours which resembles a troop tree (or multiple ones) such way that you can see how the armour is getting improved as the troop upgrades.​

Uh, so what am I supposed to do?
You have to texture a set of armours such way that one can see how they are evolving like a troop tree (or multiple ones for the same faction).
Do we get prepared set of armours and simply retexture one of them?
No, you won't. It was decided to give you full freedom on how such a set of armours can look like. You have to kit bash one by yourself. To give you an example:
Mc53h.jpg

Code:
Village Recruit (1) -> Scout (2) -> Rider (3)

Town Recruit (4) -> Bowman (5) -> Archer (7)
                 \> Town Militia (9)     -> Soldier (6)         -> Veteran (7)
                                         \> Town Guard (10)     \> Citadel Guard (8)
Wait, I thought this is going to be a 2D contest?
Yes, it is for the most part a 2D contest, the retexturing of Native armours. You only need to bundle up an armour set first, kit bashing different Native meshes. But do not fear! There is a table below with all the resources which you are allowed to use at this contest, which lists also a well known LSP modding resource with splitted and recombined Native meshes.
All you need to do is to follow this >>tutorial<< with which the above shown armour set has been created. 2D-artists and retexturers with hardly any or no 3D-skills have therefore no disadvantage at this contest. 3D-artists are free to create new single mesh elements but you won't get any extra points for it.



Warband Modding Contest Rules:
  • You may only submit your work during the submission time period specified above.
  • Submit only your own work, no derivatives of another asset or asset theft is allowed, except for the cases mentioned in the table below:
At this contest the usage of the following assets is allowed:
Contest requirements:​
Meshes out of /Mount&Blade Warband/CommonResList of which meshes are used
Textures out of /Mount&Blade Warband/Textures/List of which textures are getting used
The LSP Fred's bunch 'o armours (there are two different sets to be downloaded!)List of which meshes and textures are getting used
The LSP Texture Resources For ModdersList of which textures are getting used
  • If you've used assets from any of the in the table mentioned sources you must make it known!
  • By submitting your work to the contest, you agree that it will be shared as a Limited Source Project (LSP) with all the submissions at the end of the contest, according to the open source license provided here. It will be a LSP because of the Native assets contained within it, so it will not be permitted to use this submissions at other places than the games and DLCs of the Warband game engine, commercial purposes will not be permitted.
Warband Modding Contest Rules:
  • You may submit up to three works for the contest, they'll be treated as separate submissions.
  • You have to create and retexture an armour set which contains at least 8 different armours/armour variants.
  • Each single armour/armour variant must be a single mesh, no submeshes are allowed.
  • All submitted meshes must be textured upon a single texture, a so called texture atlas.
  • You are allowed to create new UV-maps for the meshes.
  • The texture resolutions must be 2048x2048.
  • You must use a Native shader at your material.
  • You have to post screenshots of your work in progress in at least two different stages of completion, to confirm it is your creation. You are free to post more.
To clarify: One submission contains a brf file with an armour set of at least eight meshes (which are not identical) and at least one texture (diffuse map) with the resolution 2048x2048, optional two more textures (bump/normal and specular map) which are taken into account at the evaluation.

You're also free to upload your work on any preview site if you wish to do so.

Evaluation System
The submissions will be evaluated using a points system, based on their performance in the following three categories: Texturing Work, Originality and Retinue Factor. Once the submission end date is reached and the submissions are closed, the judges will review the submissions. The submissions will be reviewed exclusively based on their properties in-game. Read the note in the 'Submitting Your Work' section for more info.

Each of the three judges will submit up to 10 points in the Texturing Work category,up to 5 points in the Originality category and up to 5 Points in the Retinue Factor category.

Explanation of the categories:

Texturing Work (10 points) - The visual appeal of a submission, how well the different shapes and features fit into the overall look, not to forget the bump/normal and specular maps, and the mip maps.
  • 1 point if mip maps are given.
  • up to 2 points for the normal/bump map.
  • up to 2 points for the specular map.
  • up to 5 points as the judge deems fit.
Originality (5 points) - The use of new and original concepts while designing your submission. Generic submissions entirely copied from existing references by reusing textures will be given fewer points. Be creative!

Retinue Factor (5 points) - An evaluation of the armour set and how well it fits into the theme of the contest.
  • 1 point if you sketch up a troop tree (or multiple ones for the same faction) based on the armour set.
  • up to 4 points as the judge deems fit.
Total points: 10 (Texturing Work) + 5 (Originality) + 5 (Retinue Factor) = 20

The bonus judge @Count Delinard can freely distribute a total of 5 bonus points as he likes.

Judging Committee
The judging committee is comprised of x veteran artists and the bonus judge @Count Delinard himself:
Contest Rewards
  • No rewards planned
Submitting Your Work

You can use the below form to submit your work. If you make any edits or changes after your first submission, it'll be accepted if it is re-submitted within the submission deadline. Name your submission as you see fit, and please try to use a stable file hosting service(Google Drive, Dropbox etc.). Compress your mesh, and the textures into an archived file and upload.

Note: The submissions will be rated and judged exclusively based on their in-game properties. The organizers will implement the submissions in-game as per the rules specified in the rules section. You are not required to use OpenBRF to send or configure your files. However, you may want to use OpenBrf to preview your work and/or implement your work in-game to see how the final result will look like before you submit your work.

If you have any questions you can post them in this thread here, on the Modding Discord or ask them via private message to the organizer, @Eärendil Ardamírë. Please also ask if you are unsure about any of the rules or such.

Code:
[b]Forum username:
Submission name:
WIP screenshots:
Download link:
List of contest assets which you have used:[/b]

By submitting this work I agree to the rules and regulations of this contest.

We are looking forward to see what you will come up with!
 
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I may be the second judge if there will be none. I have no experience in 3D, but my sense of aesthetics will be enough, I think. After all, there is going to be one or two submissions so I can spend my time on assessing them.
 
Neat! Perfect time to try making armours!

Just to make sure though, do we have to equip Count Delinar's retinue, or Boyar Vuldrat's updated retinue?
 
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Just to make sure though, do we have to equip Count Delinar's retinue, or Boyar Vuldrat's updated retinue?
Count Delinard's retinue shall get equiped but you don't have to create a Swadian or Vaegir setting. Basically we don't know which smith gets recommended by Boyar Vuldrat and in which city the smith lives. So you are not restricted to a specific cultural background for the armouries and can go wild, it could also be a Sarranid armour set or a mixed Rhodok-Khergit set. It's up to you. The only restriction is that the base armouries must be from Native.
 
Count Delinard's retinue shall get equiped but you don't have to create a Swadian or Vaegir setting. Basically we don't know which smith gets recommended by Boyar Vuldrat and in which city the smith lives. So you are not restricted to a specific cultural background for the armouries and can go wild, it could also be a Sarranid armour set or a mixed Rhodok-Khergit set. It's up to you. The only restriction is that the base armouries must be from Native.
Alrighty!
Thanks for the clarification!
 
A pity that no one participated,
Almost! I won by default.
I thought the theme would be interesting enough. It seems however that the interest in modding contest at the Warband engine is not high enough anymore.
You had spent time polishing the thread (which is very professional), so do not take it personally that the interest in the contest was non-existent. Warband is old and its modding scene is negligible, therefore the contest kind of has reflected it.
 
It's a damn shame no one participated. I had every intention of doing so, but my texture work is terrible, so I chose to abstain. If it was simply multi-mesh work, I probably would have submitted something.

Still, massive props to you Earendil, you have been the cornerstone of the Warband modding area community in the last couple of years. Your organizational skills are off the charts.

I do sincerely hope the modding scene never dies down (which I don't think it will, since Warband is easily moddable and has it's cult following, and older games like Morrowind still have active modders).
 
Well I'm still planning on trying this out, I just had much less time than anticipated (although I did make a few sketches) :/


Aaaand I just realized I mixed up the ending date with that of TW's contests. My bad, it looked interesting.


I thought more people would have been interested too?
 
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