Map Blog 3 - PSFs (8th Entry - PSF Script)

[Cyprian2]

Quick question: Since all of the PSFs have Scottish banners, are we to assume that they will all start out in Scottish hands? If not, what ratio of PSFs will belong to the major factions as opposed to those that are rebel-owned, representing independent nobles, etc.? Hope I'm being clear...

[Resurrection]

Thanks guys that you like it! I will show you areas not covered by previous blogs when I get to them but I usually start stuff from north-west and continue from there so bear with me yet through France which is next. :-)

Quick question: Since all of the PSFs have Scottish banners, are we to assume that they will all start out in Scottish hands? If not, what ratio of PSFs will belong to the major factions as opposed to those that are rebel-owned, representing independent nobles, etc.? Hope I'm being clear...

Well this was for demonstration purposes only and not every one of them will be in Scottish hands. For instance Wick will have Norwegian garrison and several PSFs in Scotland will be rebels. It's easily done once I have the coordinates but I didn't bother yet as I need to get all of them first and then I wil generate proper garrisons for them (i.e. faction specific since actual correct garrisons and characters will be done later possibly not for BETA though).

Rebels will be like any other faction, active. Therefore you could expect them to come and attack you if they have settlement nearby which is in BI case Wales and Ireland.

nice work. are not U going to release some screens about caucasus? :S

Eventually but it will be some time I think so bear with me please!

Thats cool, I'll just have to see how i like those colours after release. Do you mind me asking how many region England and wales are (in comparison to scotland (as you can't see the north or isles) ?

Regions in Brittish Isles are from north to south (names are understandable translations of actual names we use):

- Kirkwall covering all islands around Scotland, Shetlands, Faroes and Isle of Mann and is Norwegian in 1080.
- Highlands (Elgin) of Scotland.
- Lowlands (Perth) of Scotland.
- North Contry (York) of England.
- Estland (Norwich) of England.
- Suthern Land (London) of England.
- Wales (Aberffraw) of Rebels.
- Eire (Tuam) of Rebels.

So it's 2 for Scotland, 3 for England (+1 for Normandy), Wales 1 and Ireland 1.

[SeekerAfterTruth]

beautiful map, love your work. The new textures look amazing and adds heaps of immersion. And of course the PSFs are going to add a whole new layer of strategy. Just wonerful!!!!

+REP

[napoleonic]

can you post a ss showing armies paths when moving through that areas?

[The Turk]

Great looking map! Looks really beautiful!

But only two cities for Scotland? I mean I'm fine with that, but will they be balanced enough to be able to counter England and even perhaps the Norwegians?

Also will the mini-map be changed? The mini map is kind of hard to see and the stretched out map does not look that nice. Perhaps something closer to what vanilla or SS has would be better. I don't mean to be "mean" about this, its just that I think you guys could do a better job for the minimap!

Also you said thats PSF's have a whole new use, could you explain that new type of use. Thanks!

[Jimmy-j]

This is a stunning campaign map.
Really nothing can beat this
Great job guys

[Resurrection]

First post updated with ENTRY 2 (Finished British Isles)! Enjoy

[Tureuki]

Great ! +rep

[Morrowgan]

I can´t wait for the other countries.

[Hengest]

Great looking map! Looks really beautiful!

But only two cities for Scotland? I mean I'm fine with that, but will they be balanced enough to be able to counter England and even perhaps the Norwegians?

Honestly? There is no way of knowing without testing, but there are many different ways to add strength to a faction. Don't foget that each PSFs will allow income, plus a faction could have added strengths depending on which unique units it had access to. On top of that you also have the aspects of the tech tree.

However so far we have spent 4 years planning and researching, and mainly we have just tried to recreate the world as it was. When it came to the allocation of the 199 settlements between 30 factions, it was a discussion that probably consumed the most time and energy of all the small projects within Dominion. This reasoning has already been covered in the massive amount of pages we've already written here, but basically Scotland was not an expansionist faction. It was however a survivor.

Norway was not a great faction but it was very active, it was active around the British Isles (and actually in the Crusades) for the first half of the Middle Ages, until the Scots repelled them - this would run parallel in your campaign if you push Norway out of the Hebrides- freeing up the 'homelands' which would give you added backdoor strength to take on England.

Now if you consider the amount of PSFs we have, if you were to take a settlement but the PSFs were controlled by the enemy the amount of 'devastation' (the game's in-built negative effects on the income/law/happiness of the region) will be so heavy that your control of the settlement will be VERY challenging. So each region will be a painstaking process requiring a series of battles and lots of planning. Scotland could probably manage to penetrate into northern England (historical), England could probably manage to take large chunks of Scotland or even control the regional capitals (historical), but it is unlikely to simultaneously take all the PSFs and the regional settlement in one go and therefore Scotland will have the potential by rebellion to throw the English out of the settlement (historical) and using the PSFs to rally around and harrass the English control of a settlement (historical). And all this would happen with Scotland as the AI!

So, we really have spent our time planning the potential set-up that would allow a realistic complex game with depth and detail. Naturally not all those details are going to sync with balance on the first version. However, balance and historical accuracy are not always compatible. We don't need to create balance if Scotland will still function as it did historically. Hope this explains things.

[metsikhovne]

i was playing SS and turns took too much time, so much that it became almost UNplayable. SS is so loaded with scripts that it makes running game difficult operation. so what DOTS team members will say what shall we wait from dots will it be loaded with scripts as SS is?

[Hengest]

None of our scripts effect turn times

[Ulsterman]

Does England Really have the same amount of regions as in vanilla??!!!???

[Meneth]

Does England Really have the same amount of regions as in vanilla??!!!???

Our map is far larger than the vanilla map.

[napoleonic]

interesting update.... I can see that PSFs do not always block movement paths, that's good as I hate shogun 2 map bottlenecks leaving little room for strategic thinking... however what's the point of many coastal and remote PSFs? they don't prevent armies landed from the sea....

and again how does the AI react to these PSFs? will they always go straight to it or can they find another route around or a mix of both? does the AI actually willing to conquer PSFs? I fear that the AI will get stuck on their way like the Byzantines area blocking western crusaders in most mods/vanilla and made them wasting turns moving forward and backward due to pathfinding problem and lack of common sense by the AI? I hope someone get my point here as I'm having trouble explaining this in english

[Resurrection]

interesting update.... I can see that PSFs do not always block movement paths, that's good as I hate shogun 2 map bottlenecks leaving little room for strategic thinking... however what's the point of many coastal and remote PSFs? they don't prevent armies landed from the sea....

Everything in DotS is historical. PSFs are most important historical towns that would otherwise be settlements if there was not the 199 limit. Asking why are some of them on coast seems quite pointless to me in light of this, don't you think? .-)

and again how does the AI react to these PSFs? will they always go straight to it or can they find another route around or a mix of both? does the AI actually willing to conquer PSFs? I fear that the AI will get stuck on their way like the Byzantines area blocking western crusaders in most mods/vanilla and made them wasting turns moving forward and backward due to pathfinding problem and lack of common sense by the AI? I hope someone get my point here as I'm having trouble explaining this in english

I have tested it and AI reacts absolutely fine as long as the PSFs are occupied (that's why we had to introduce permanent garrisons). I haven't observed any problems and if AI finds out that the PSF is its obstacle towards the settlement it has no problem taking it. As it does not have problem taking all remaining PSFs in enemy hands (again as long as they are occupied) simply because it sees them as standing armies. So we don't expect any major problems in this regard.

[Ulsterman]

I know the map is far larger, but whatever happened to the awesome 6-region England and 4 region scotland posted in the previous map blog!?

[Resurrection]

I know the map is far larger, but whatever happened to the awesome 6-region England and 4 region scotland posted in the previous map blog!?

Unfortunately 199 regions map limit happened to it.

[Dago Red]

I have tested it and AI reacts absolutely fine as long as the PSFs are occupied (that's why we had to introduce permanent garrisons).

Thanks for clearing this up. On second glances the pathfinding and bottlenecks were my concern as well. you can imagine some of us playing mods with only sparse PSF's on the map having a bit of shock seeing this!

Also, thanks for posting the movement screenies and indulging people in their inquisitions. You can plainly see there will indeed be possible obstructions (as you would want from a garrison) but also alternate routes to take to try and avoid them. Two things...

- how many turns per year is the mod? -- those look like far distances to travel in only 1 turn.
- in BC, some of the PSF's render on the battle map in a sunken terrain, like someone decided to build a keep in a hole, as opposed to atop a hill or raised ground. Have you also noticed this issue?

[Ulsterman]

Thanks for all the hard work guys! I always make minor changes to mods i get, because in most mods, like DLV and SS scotland gets neglected badly (In SS scotland has halberdiers, but not the texture, to they're all silver lol). I know this mod is all-encompassing so it's different.

P.S. The map looks waaaaaaay better than DLV's map (that map is not very much to look at)