Over the last month or so, I've scripted several systems that are to be included in Dominion of the Sword.
The point of these systems is to make the game more historically accurate, and to make the gameplay more in-depth and interesting. Immersion has always been one of the key words for the mod, and I believe my recent additions to the team and the game have really brought some new things to the table, not just for Dominion but for the gaming community as a whole. I've made 5 separate systems so far. They're mostly finished, though some testing and tweaking will be needed. Included in this preview is the video that is to be used for one of my systems, 'DUELS'.
In-game cinematic pop-up for the Duel event
In medieval times, duels were relatively common in Northern and Central Europe. The duel system will make one-on-one combat challenges occur once in a while between generals that are in the same region. Sadly, due to engine limitations, it's not possible to kill the loser. Although not all historical sources state that fights were always to the death. The loser will however get penalties to several areas while the winner will get bonuses. The actual details on this we will reserve for your game, so keep your eyes open for these pop-up events! The chance of a character getting involved in a duel will be modified by several traits. For example, a character who easily angers will be much more likely to end up in a duel than a character that usually manages to keep his cool. Characters might 'pick' on one that seems weaker too, also if a character is guilty of heresy or some crime he might be called out to fight.
Historical background:
Duels were common in medieval northern Europe, probably a survival of Germanic tradition where by law men would fight in a trial-by-combat to determine the legal winner of a dispute. In pagan times, the god of victory, war and law was the same deity- Odin, for this reasons men were hanged at crossroads- criminals offered to the god. Therefore in a one-on-one battle, the man who won had to be the man that the god had chosen as in the right. In Christian times the tradition continued, the Scandinavians called this Holmgćnga, literally 'island going' since the fighters would fight on an 'island' or specially fenced-off ring. The French epic poem La Chanson de Roland is the oldest surviving major work of French literature it was written between 1140 and 1170 and depicts a series of duels between the main protagonists. The earliest Polish law 'The book of Elbing' also gives specific rules and guidelines for the fighting of duels. The English poem of the 1200s Guy of Warwick also features duels. Duels had become such a social problem in Europe that the Lateran Council of 1215 tried to suppress them. Pope Honorius III in 1216 asked the Teutonic Order knights to cease its imposition of judicial duels on their newly converted subjects in Livonia, who were using the law to remove Lithuanian nobles from power and replacing them with German knights. Nobles naturally abused the legal system throughout Europe, picking fights and conspiring to create challenges where they themselves had a strong chance of winning and thereby gaining titles, land and political influence. The Sachsenspiegel of 1230 recognised the judicial duel as an important function to establish guilt or innocence in cases of insult, injury or theft. However, the Kleines Kaiserrecht, an anonymous legal code of ca. 1300, prohibits judicial duels altogether, stating that the emperor had come to this decision on seeing that too many innocent men were convicted by the practice just for being physically weak. Nevertheless, judicial duels continued to be popular throughout the 14th and 15th centuries despite this. The German fencing master Hans Talhoffer in his 1459 codex names seven offences that in the absence of witnesses were considered grave enough to warrant a judicial duel:
1. murder
2. treason
3. heresy
4. desertion of one's lord
5. abduction
6. perjury/fraud
7. rape
Dowries
In medieval times the family of the bride would have to give the family of the groom goods and/or money, the amount depending on their prestige compared to the man's family, in order for the marriage to be considered a worthwile political match. This 'gift' was known as a dowry. In Dominion of the sword, when you marry off one of your princesses, a dowry will be drained from your treasury depending on how rich you are. The richer you are, the less you have to pay. This means that if you marry off a princess while your economy is doing badly, it could turn from bad to worse. On the other hand, when a woman marries into your faction you will be given a certain amount of money, once again depending on how rich you are. The richer you are, the more you'll get. This represents the other faction's desire to align themselves with you. he more wealthy you are the more respect you gain from your rivals- and therefore the more money! A well-timed marriage might help your economy stay afloat for years, but it won't do much if your economy has already crashed. Nobody likes a loser, in the Middle Ages, a weak faction was of no interest to anyone.
Historical background:
The more powerful the faction a princess would marry into the larger the amount of money the princess's faction would have to pay for the honour of becoming allied to the man's faction. Historically it was considered to be 20% of the bride's household's wealth. English documents state that the default dowry price for a baron's daughter was 1000 florins. In 1468, the impoverished Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, paid James III of Scotland a royal dowry of 50,000 florins but in contrast sold the Shetlands for only 8,000 florins. In 1475 Sophia Jagellion, Royal Princess of Poland-Lithuania gave a dowry of 32,000 florins to marry a mere German Margrave.
State Funerals
A funeral in the Medieval Age could be quite costly, especially if it was for an important person. When one of your generals dies, you'll be offered to pay for his funeral if he was particularly prestigious -the cost depends on how important the general is. If you pay for the funeral, you'll get some bonuses for a while, but if you decline you'll get penalties. For example, what noble would trust a king that won't even pay for the funeral of a great champion of battle? What would the people think about their king if their heroes were not even honoured?
Historical background: In the middle of the 1400s a Memorial Chapel (his tomb) for Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick cost 2481 florins alone, not counting the state ceremony. In 1489 the funeral of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland cost 1038 florins but he left further provision for every attendee at his funeral to receive a dole of 2 pence- and over 13,000 people attended this funeral! In cases of great men, the funeral would begin with the ceremony involving costs such as funeral fees for the family mourners' clothes (made for the single occasion of the day and often of silks, gold embroidery and damask), the funeral feast, the tomb itself (which could be in a cathedral or specially made vault at a nearby abbey.) On top of this there were also costs such as the priest's annointment oil which could cost as much as many of the other events combined together! The funeral feast was natural a costly affair in itself, but by no means the greatest. On top of this was often a 'dole' to encourage the local peasants to attend and appear as mourners, although they were probably there just for the payment or a free loaf of bread. After the intial funeral day, a further month called a 'mind' was usually enacted at least in Europe but also had corresponding traditions in paganism as well as Islam where the deceased would have left provision for a month's lesser feasting where each meal was paid for by the deceased and his memory was toasted with alcohol or in a number of religious blessings at each meal. Naturally these costs could mount to be much larger than a mere 1- 3000 florins as the figures cited above.
Children
All family members, both male and female, will become on-map characters at the age of 5. The very first turn, they'll get a movement bonus so that you can get them to a suitable settlement. After that, they'll be locked in a single settlement until they come of age. This way, they can get an education. As children they'll get severe penalties to most areas, as one would hardly let a child govern a city or command an army. With a system like this in the game, where you put your children is also an important strategic choice. If you put them too close to the front lines, you risk them getting killed by an invading army or assassinated by a particularly devious foe.
Historical background: Unfortunately the game engine only allows each character to produce a maximum of four children. Therefore representing the reality of medieval children's life expectancy and health is a very restricted issue for us. 2/3 of children in the Middle Ages would not live to see 5 years old. For this reason, we can only really represent the 4 that definitely would have lived that much longer. Until generals come of age as fully 'freed' generals at the age of 20 or princesses at the age of 15, the situations around the characters will effect their personality and development giving them different traits which will directly shape their lives from 15/20 onwards.
Deteriorating Health
Most people didn't live long in medieval times, and those who did usually gained severe health issues. In Dominion, as characters get older their health will become gradually worse. This will affect both their mental abilities, making them worse governors and generals, and their physical abilities, making them more vulnerable in battle, and their on-map movement slower. The effects of the deteriorating health feature is quite obvious to other characters in the game-world, and both soldiers and citizens will trust the character's judgement and mental abilities less, leading to reduced morale and increased unrest. From the age of 30, characters will be able to die of a natural death- this is much earlier than in any other mod. The reason for this is that in most centuries and countries the average life expectancy was in fact 30-50. The few characters who live to be very old will have so severe penalties that they won't be useful for much at all.
Historical background:
The Middle Ages were rife with disease and extremely poor medical knowledge. Leprosy, lepra (a sexual disease similar to syphilis), the Black Death, and ergot poisoning also known as Saint Anthony's Fire were all commonplace and generally unavoidable or undetectable. The latter for instance was simply caused by eating grain products contaminated with the fungus Claviceps Purpurea which caused torturous seizures and spasms, diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, headaches, nausea, vomiting, hallucinations resembling those produced by LSD and mental effects including mania or psychosis, culminating in gangrene and cellular death of the extremities which would invariably lead to blood-poisoning and a slow painful death.
Last edited by Hengest; October 07, 2011 at 09:37 AM.
why do male characters have to come at age only after 20 years...
As you said that after 30 years natural deaths starts to occur.. then the actual time to use a general on a worst hypothetical scenario would be just 10 - 20 years .. in case if there is any way to change coming of age to 17-18 years....i dont mind them dying early but would just mainly want the king to live as along ass his grandchildren a born so the dynesty remains of pure blood ....
Historical accuracy.
Death starts occurring at 20, but it's only a low chance every year. Average life-span, not considering death in battle, will be slightly under 50 years.
If the children become characters in the campaign map and they are moved in a city and this city comes under attack, will they be a general unit in the battlefield?
It would be strange to see a 5 year old encouraging his troops
I'm not sure if an education system has been made yet. If there hasn't been one made yet, I'll try to make sure one gets made
More details on that will likely come later.
Meneth's Systems #1
Reply With Quote
Hahaha
