Warband Improved
Hi guys, I'm here to announce a mod that has been in the works for a few months now. We are finally nearing completion and I wanted to update this first page with more up-to-date info. Below, you will find info on the mod team and on the features that will be included in the mod.Mod Team
- Njunja - Graphics/Some Coding You may know him from his Eastern Items mod pack. He's been my right-hand man for quite some time . He's done some excellent work on a lot of the items and managed to make my "colored" item idea look pretty. He's also done most of work on the troop trees.
- CounterPoint391 - Graphics: Don't know if we can claim him for the team or not, but he's been a humongous help since this mod was in the brain storm phase. He gets around a lot and you've all probably seen his work on some mod or another around here . Along with Njunja, he has contributed much to the troop tree layouts and planted several other ideas in my mind. He has also contributed many items to the mod.
- Myself - Coder/Some Graphics I'm new to this coding business, but I've learned much thanks to my fellows on the mod team as well as the awesome guys that frequent the Forge. This has been a great experience.
Completed Features
The following features have already been implemented into the mod.
- Enhanced Diplomacy: the base of the mod is the excellent Diplomacy mod by Waihti. I just can't play Warband without it.
- More (Better) Banners: thanks to Chukcha for his excellent designs (see screen-shots below). The banners have been assigned to lords and kept within faction themes. There are also around 100 or more banners for the player to choose from. There is also a larger emphasis on heraldry. Most troops wear the colors or heraldry of their commanding lords. Battles between multiple lords are now a colorful display and it is now possible to fight Swadian lords with an army of Swadian troops without turning on the "show banners over friendly troops" option. Also, thanks to Yellowmosquito for the M&B Banner Standardization Pack.
- Recruitment From Towns and Castles: Swadian Knights and other elite quality troops from the other factions are only recruitable from towns that are part of your faction. Villages still produce "regular" troops (basically peasants that can upgrade to hardened soldiers) while you can recruit experienced mercenaries from castles that are in your faction.
- Enhanced Troop Trees: To go along with the recruiting system are well-thought out troop trees that stay true to the original factions while adding more options for advancement.
- Improved Arenas and Tournaments: Ranged troops have been removed from the tournaments and arenas (turning them into melee matches). We've increased the amount of gold received for winning a tournament as well. More tweaks will be done to tournaments in the future.
- Enhanced Sound Effects and Atmosphere Thanks to Checkmaty and Aeon for the More Metal Sounds and SoundRounding mods.
- Better Battle Control: Thanks to Caba'drin for his excellent scripts that he has written and posted on the Forge.
- Dynamic Lord Titles and Better Report Screens: Thanks to Jrider for his excellent work here.
- Better Auto-Resolve: Thanks to Arch3r for enhancing the Native script.
- Other Miscellaneous Tweaks: Thanks to Rubik for his many additions that have found there way into the Diplomacy mod as well as a few that I have added to Warband Improved and the many that I plan to add.
- OSP Item Content: Most of the good OSP packs have been implemented. Emphasis has been on quality over quantity. Thanks to the following modders for their contributions to the community...
CounterPoint391
Dejawolf
Faradon
FrisianDude
Havoc
Narf of Picklestink
Njunja
Shredzorz
Spak
Talak
Thick1988
Wanderer949
Wildhorse
Yoman Jenkins
What's Needs to Be Done?
Currently we are working on statting up the troop trees and equipping them with items. After that, we need to balance the troop trees and items to make sure everything works as intended. We can definitely use some beta testers to help us get through the balancing stage. If you are interested, please contact me and I'll get you started as soon as possible .
If you have other talents and would like to help (modelers, texturers, scripters, etc), please contact me. We have a lot of future plans for the mod and we can use all the help we can get
Future Plans?
We actually have many plans in the works for where we want the mod to go, but they are in the concept stage right now. You can see many of the ideas by continuing on through the thread. I will update this part with more info soon.
The Goods!
Now for some eye candy. Below are some pics of the banners that are implemented. Once again, thank Chukcha for the work here...
Faction Banners (from left to right): Swadia, Vaegirs, Khergits, Nords, Rhodoks, and Sarranids
Swadian Banners
Vaegir Banners
Khergit Banners
Nord Banners
Rhodok Banners
Sarranid Banners
Companion Banners: Thanks to SPD_Phoenix for the script that assigns each companion their own banner instead of the banner assignment being based off of the order they are made into lords.
Some Player Banners (Warning: large image block)
That's it for the preview guys. Feel free to post any feedback and ideas that you might have.