SP Medieval The Second Crusade Mod (Released for .711)

[Dynamite_cow]

The Second Crusade Mod

The Second Crusade Mod, ironically, concentrates on the time between the second and the third crusades, before Saladin captured Jerusalem in 1287. It is no fancy total conversion like for example The Last Days, but gives you the choice of selecting between crusaders and muslims instead of swadians and vaegirs. And instead of having to deliver a message from Rivacheg to Reyvadin, you can now deliver a message from Nazareth to Damascus. There is a difference, eh?

Features:
Two main factions, muslims and crusaders, mapped over vaegirs and swadians
  New unit trees, from peasants to templar knights and mamelukes
  Some new textures for the units, including templar tabbards, mail hauberks and more
Minor factions mapped over the outlaws, including the hashashin, beduin raiders and janissaries
A new map covering the kingdom of Jerusalem

Imageshack has stopped being a ***** for today, so here are the unit trees for crusaders and muslims:

I can't be bothered writing long texts no one would read anyway, so I'll skip that part. The mod will sent to the repository ASAP, but if you really want to play it, here's a link to everyone's favourite host, rapidshare:

Download #1 at Rapidshare.de
Download #2 at Mount&Blade Unofficial File Repository

 

[Solja Sheep]

I have always hoped that someone would make a mod like this, and i support your idea, although i am no modder, my oppinion is all that i can give. I really hope to see what you can do with this idea, and i'm looking forward to playing your mod.

 

[zwaps]

First: The map seems odd.
Are you sure the represented country is accurate to that time?
Looks like there are some mistakes

Second: To my knowledge the Muslimes had the heavy cavalry, while the Crusaders did not. The Muslimic culture was simply much more advanced than the European at this time.
You'd need to fix that.

 

[Harlequin_]

i love this idea dynamite, but i cant see this mod getting off the ground unless it is...wider. i.e a little like the lombard leagues mod.

again, i love the idea, but it is too similar in some ways to other mods as it stands.

 

[Ubberdorc]

The Crusaders had heavy cav. The Muslims had lighter cav.
You are correct that the Muslims were more advanced but the climate is so hot that they typically stuck to upper body armor and helmets.

The Muslims learned very quickly not to meet a head on Crusader heavy cav. charge. They would usually try to fight them with mounted archers and spread the crusaders out.

Tom

 

[Phaedo]

Second: To my knowledge the Muslimes had the heavy cavalry, while the Crusaders did not. The Muslimic culture was simply much more advanced than the European at this time.
You'd need to fix that.

Misconception - the Muslims were more intellectually advanced for a significant period of time (mainly because they looted Greek and Roman wisdom from Alexandria, Carthage, and Antioch), but by the time of the Second Crusade, the two cultures had balanced out. The Muslims never made a concerted effort to study and improve the resources they received from the Greeks and Romans, whereas the Europeans did. Averroes was not the rule, he was not the norm, he was the exception. In fact, one contemporary source proclaims him as a heretic.

In Europe, there was no problem at all with philosophers and theologians speaking freely about their views (unless they did not threaten the established Church, they pretty much had free rein otherwise). This trend of free expression (one facet of Greek culture that the Caliphs failed to implement) was never really stopped (unless you count the Counter-Reformation in Italy).

And if you read Europe = Christian, then you must certainly regard Byzantium as part of Europe. Byzantium was in fact far more "culturally advanced" than the Fatimid Caliphate, Seljuk Turks, and the Alhomad Caliphate. They had the resources of the Greeks from primary sources, after all - and their scholars did do work on improving them.

Byzantium was also much more advanced militarily than any Muslim state until the advent of the Ottomans. Manzikert was a combination of bad luck and treachery on the part of Phocas.

 

[Frost_Knight]

well thanks for the spawn points we know now were to search for the bastards

 

[Dynamite_cow]

Currently, the muslims have both light cavalry and heavy cavalry (mamelukes) and their big superiority is the fact that they have mounted archers.

The map is based on a map of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at that time. It's not so uber-accurate and I gotta work on the river (which is Jordan by the way) a bit to give it a more realistic shape.

Here's a bit of the faction list:
Vaegirs are muslims.
Swadians are crusaders.
Khergits are beduins (they didn't usually fight for either side and were quite independent, as they still are)
Steppe bandits are 'desert bandits'
Mountain bandits are 'northern bandits'
Forest bandits are 'southern bandits'
Riverpirates are just outlaws.
Peasants are, well, peasants.
Refugees are pilgrims.

I still haven't worked out the sea raiders and the dark hunters, any ideas?

Thanks for all the information, and I am not planning to make this a huge mod like the Hundred Years War for example, just give the game a bit more real-world-based feel.

EDIT: By the way, is it possible to smply delete some of the original items or will the game crash? I mean, for example plate armour wasn't used in the 1180's so... One option is of course just to change the mesh and give it a new name.

EDIT2: Here's two pictures of the Templar knight:



No pics of the leaders, as for some reason the templar grandmaster doesn't want to use the heraldric armour (as in picture) I gave him but prefers to stay naked.

EDIT3: And just to make it clear, the Templar tunic is not made by me, it was included with the game...

 

[-GandalfTheGrey]

EDIT: By the way, is it possible to smply delete some of the original items or will the game crash? I mean, for example plate armour wasn't used in the 1180's so... One option is of course just to change the mesh and give it a new name.

You can simply prevent it from being sold in stores, but counts could still ask you to brought some... I try not to delete things since it might create bugs. The 0.310 Editor shouldn't have bugs on that anymore, though.

No pics of the leaders, as for some reason the templar grandmaster doesn't want to use the heraldric armour (as in picture) I gave him but prefers to stay naked.

Make sure his strenght is high enough.

The map has a strange look because the textures don't fit. You should try to have different ones, for snow, desert & grass so you can have diversity with 3 kind of 'desert' textures : i.e. sand desert, dry grass, and green grass.

 

[fisheye]

Here's a bit of the faction list:
Vaegirs are muslims.
Swadians are crusaders.
Khergits are beduins (they didn't usually fight for either side and were quite independent, as they still are)
Steppe bandits are 'desert bandits'
Mountain bandits are 'northern bandits'
Forest bandits are 'southern bandits'
Riverpirates are just outlaws.
Peasants are, well, peasants.
Refugees are pilgrims.
I still haven't worked out the sea raiders and the dark hunters, any ideas?

You might already know this, but the module system allows you to make completely arbitrary factions, not just modifications of vaegirs and swadians. For example the Last Days mod has a whole buttload of fully functional factions. Just saying this because you seem to be mapping native factions to crusade factions, when such a mapping is technically unnecessary.

EDIT: By the way, is it possible to smply delete some of the original items or will the game crash? I mean, for example plate armour wasn't used in the 1180's so... One option is of course just to change the mesh and give it a new name.

As far as I know deletion is easy; just remove the entry from the module_items.py.

EDIT3: And just to make it clear, the Templar tunic is not made by me, it was included with the game...

Wow, I didn't know that! Undead, Templars, what else is hidden?

 

[Raz]

wanna help on our crusader mod? We already have nearly everthing done beside a map, we'd be glad to have another team member (assyrian and me)

 

[Dynamite_cow]

As said, I'm not a skilled modder and I have enough problems without python scripts so I think I'm not going into them.

The map, yes, I will propably make the default 'steppe' texture the grass texture (near the coasts and cities) and then seek for a sand texture for the desert. Just no luck lately in that. Might do green grass for areas near rivers, dry grass for cities that aren't near water and sand to other places.

Raz: Can do, though the map editor doesn't like me too much. Causes strange crashes sometimes. But I can sure share the map with you (and you can then edit it as you like) once it's finished.

 

[fisheye]

wanna help on our crusader mod? We already have nearly everthing done beside a map, we'd be glad to have another team member (assyrian and me)

Would be glad to contribute, but you seem to have everything nicely wrapped up at this point. Would be glad to help you debug any script problems

 

[Cale]

Actually the step texture is fine for basically all of Palestine/Judea. I spent three months in the West Bank this year and I can tell you it's pretty much very dry ground with olive trees busting out everywhere. It's also extremely hilly (I laughed out loud at Kingdom of Heavens version of Jerusalem in the middle of a flat desert, it's built on a number of hills for crying out loud) so it fits M&B quite nicely. The only places you need to start worrying about a desert texture for are modern day Syria/Jordan etc. and the south of Palestine (the negev)

 

[Raz]

By the way, our mod includes templars.

 

[Dynamite_cow]

Hmm well I think I'm going to finish this mod anyway, if for nothing else, to get some modding skills and simply because it's fun. If I can help you in your mod though, I'll be glad to.

Thanks for the info Cale, seems like the hill tool gets some heavy use then. Gotta...find...that...topographical...map...

 

[Dynamite_cow]

Sorry for double post, but pictures are something we all like so much, right?

Here's a picture of the templar grandmaster:


And what is a crusade mod without ol' Jussuf?


You have already seen some templars, but they need someone to fight against!

 

[CptBarnaclebeard]

This mod looks interesting, I have been hoping for a Crusades mod. The map strikes me as a bit odd seeing as it really only covers the Kingdom of Jerusalem and not the rest of the Crusader States. I also have a suggestion for the Dark Hunters. Assuming that you are willing to alter their appearance significantly you could make them the Hashishin. They were a radical shiite sect that went around causing a lot of trouble in that region. As Shiite Muslims they would be enemies to the Crusaders and the Sunni Muslims (they tried to assasinate Salah al-Din on numerous occassions).

 

[Dynamite_cow]

Yep, the map covers only the Kingdom of Jerusalem as there were/are lots of towns in there and I don't want to make new ones (me lazy) currently and I've made some changes to it after I posted the picture so it looks much... Jerusalem-ish.

The Hashishin is a good idea, and remaking the equipment is no problem. I'll go hunt information of 'em and we'll see.

 

[McNools]

Have you considered retexturing the warhorses so their chainmail caparison or whatever you call it is covered in with cloth with red crosses?

oh, and if you need any help with some texture work, just tell me what you need and I'll see if I can come up with something, I'd love to help you

(in other words, give me a filename/filenames of textures, and tell me what you had in mind, and I'll try to retexture them)