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Thread: Kingdoms of the Isles - Old Previews

  1. #1
    The Border Reiver's Avatar Artifex
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    Icon3 The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview



    Welcome to the long awaited Introductory preview for KOTS4, or as it will now be called, The Kingdoms of the Isles. The mod has been rebranded to better reflect the many different Kingdoms and regions in the British Isles & Ireland, and to also expand our desirability to a larger audience. This is Part 1 of 4 Previews that will take us to the first beta release scheduled for 2011. And as such, this preview will outline the changes you will expect to see, whereas the following previews will consist of a Campaign Map Preview, then a Factions Preview, and then a Battle Maps Preview.


    KOTS HISTORY

    It has been just over 12 months since we released the last version of Kingdom of the Scots (KOTS3) and that time has passed very quickly. Work for The Kingdoms of the Isles began as soon as KOTS3 was released, but due to real life events the mod rushed, stopped, stuttered, and then slowly but surely continued to grind away in the background. There were many stages throughout the year, when I thought that we wouldn't actually get this far. The images seen below int he screenshots are all works in progress and will no doubt evolve as the mod moves closer to completion.

    With the original KOTS versions it was our desire to introduce people to the clans of Scotland and their place in the history of Britain, and to also build a game using the Kingdoms engine that I have always wanted to play and had gave up waiting for a game company to produce. We were teased by the release of the Braveheart Game in the mid 90's which promised so much, and delivered only ctd's and undeliverable promises. In so doing we realised that we needed to recreate a historical setting that encompassed the whole British Isles. We needed a realistic England to threaten Scotland's independance and for this we needed to introduce France as a check on English domination. Thus our focus expanded to cover all the nations south of the border and Kingdoms of the Isles was born! We are not neglecting the Clans however. A massively expanded Clans campaign will eventually deliver on the goals we had set out for KOTS4.

    Our team consisting of The Border Reiver, The Bruce, EwenCameron and Maca have been working long hours lately trying to bring all facets of the game together. We have also been indebted to two technical consultants, DaVinci & Swagger for helping us develop aspects of our script. I must also thank Gigantus for answering the many PM's and forum posts both in this forum, and also in the workshop.

    So without further ado, I'll briefly outline in this introductory preview what you'll expect to see in the The Kingdoms of the Isles.

    THE KINGDOMS OF THE ISLES OVERVIEW

    The focus of The Kingdoms of the Isles shifts away from just being a Scottish Clan based modification to now include the conflicts elsewhere in the Isles, especially the wars between England and France. While, the primary focus is still the the Scottish wars of independence featuring the Clans, the Scottish Crown and England, the other campaigns broadens the scope for all users.

    KEY MAP FEATURES:

    - Campaign Map 4 times larger than that of the vanilla map. (This means it takes 15 seconds to scroll from the bottom to the top of the map, KOTS3 was 5 seconds).





    - Campaign Map containing 196 Regions to conquer.
    - Campaign Map extended to include France North of the Loire River and East to include The Duchy of Burgundy and North to include the Low countries of Flanders.
    - Campaign Map with intensely modded terrain in Scotland and other mountainous areas producing accurate battle maps.
    - Many custom battle maps, playable in campaign, including Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn.
    - Extensively accurate placement of towns/castles.
    - Nearly every major waterway in the British Isles and Ireland has been mapped.
    - Multiple climates to accurately portray the variance in actual regions.
    - Every historical county in England is represented including Rutland and Huntingdonshire.

    KEY FACTION FEATURES

    - Norway has been removed from our mod as their historical influence and military involvement in the British Isles had essentially ceased (although the nominally held the Orkney and Shetland islands).
    - There will still be Norse units for recruitment as mercenaries.

    - 19 Current Factions
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    1. Barons Alliance
    2. Burgundy (NEW)
    3. England
    4. Flanders (NEW)
    5. France (NEW)
    6. Ireland
    7. Scotland
    8. Wales
    9. Clan Campbell (NEW)
    10. Clan Comyn
    11. Clan MacDonald
    12. Clan MacDougall
    13. Clan MacKay (NEW)
    14. Clan MacKenzie
    15. Clan MacKintosh (NEW)
    16. Clan MacLeod
    17. Clan MacSween (NEW)
    18. Clan Ross (NEW)
    19. Clan Scott (NEW)

    - 15 Fully Playable Factions
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Barons Alliance, Burgundy, Flanders, France are non playable

    - 6 New Playable factions
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    (Clan Campbell, Clan MacKay, Clan MacKintosh, Clan Ross, Clan MacSween and Clan Scott)

    KEY GAME FEATURES

    - 4 Playable Campaigns

    - Campaign 1 1282 - 1530 The original British Isles Campaign on the Large Map with the original factions and many community mods included, this will also include several new factions.
    - Campaign 2 1282 - 1371 The Full Clan Campaign with only Scottish Clans playable.
    - Campaign 3 1282 - 1371 Scotland Campaign, where the Scotland faction must unify the clans and march on England.
    - Campaign 4 1295 - 1357 The English Conquest Campaign where only England is playable and fighting wars on 4 fronts whilst keeping their own barons content.
    - 4 Turns per Year.
    - Highly developed scripting such as Garrison Scripts, Unification of Scotland, Clan Allegiance, King/Princess Events and Re-emerging factions amongst many more.
    - Increased movement points for all units.
    - Historically 1/8 scaled populations (England 440 000, France (North Only) 340 000, Ireland 130 000, Scotland 100 000 and Wales 37 000).
    - Totally revamped and extended Mercenary Pools (25 in total)
    - Every Scottish and Irish Region has individual rebel names, plus England and the continent are further divided (Vanilla had 5, we have 67).
    - Each Rebel Region will expect different rebel armies in the field.
    - A brand new interface and menu screens (the pictures below are currently works in progress).


    Shot at 2009-12-22

    COMMUNITY CREATED MODS

    - Campaign AI (Still under considertaion and Testing)
    - Battle AI (Still under considertaion and Testing)
    - The total list of other mods contained within our will be advised later, but here are some that are inlcuded (some of which were in KOTS3).
    - Lord Condormanius - Irish Reskin Pack, New Highlander Units, Strat Captains for Ireland, Wales and Norway.
    - Gigantus - Decoded models_db file, decoded Ui .sd files, decoded strat/tootips and shared text files.
    - Burgundy faction from the La Guerre de Cent Ans - The Hundred Years War
    - Several Unused units from The Wrath of the Norsemen
    - Improved Torch Flame & Burning Men Effect by Santiago de Pola
    - New Cities and Castles by Agart
    - My Little Mod by riczu74
    - MapMod Trees Textures and Sea 1.7 by Charge
    - PnutMaster and Dearmad - Princess and Regent Notices
    - Himmelsfeuer- English Shield Pack
    - Wolfslayer - Fort integration, battlefield deployment & arrow direction changes
    - Knights Errant - Strat Map Model for Comyn, Rebel and Scotland Captains
    - Alpaca - Provincial Campaign Files & String Converter
    - Niko - Elements of the Real Arrow mod
    - zxiang1983 - Ghost Helmets fix for pp plates
    - Unknown - English Banners
    - Argent Usher - Real Horses Mod.
    - DeZzErX - Elements of The Lion Of Flanders - Flanders Faction Mod V1.1
    - UserPro - Ui removal script with Scroll Lock key.

    OTHER ADDITIONS

    - All New Custom Battle Maps to play
    - 57 new quotes including those from the Orkenysaga, Lanercost Chronicle, Scotichronicon, Magna Carta, HakonarSaga, Historia Norvegiae, Cottonian Manuscript, Sir Walter Scott, Charlemagne's Code of Chivalry et al.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Magna Carta, Clause 51

    Immediatetly after concluding peace, we will remove from the kingdom all alien knights, crossbowmen, sergeants and mercenary soldiers who have come with horses and arms to the hurt of the realm.

    The Song of Roland - Charlemagne's Code of Chivalry

    Part 1 - To fear God and maintain His Church, To serve the liege lord in valour and faith, To protect the weak and defenceless, To give succour to widows and orphans, To refrain from the wanton giving of offence, To live by honour and for glory....


    - Overhauled Heraldry System (Only historical Heraldry exists in the next version)
    - Overhauled Trait System knights, squires, sheriffs and more admirals. Separate traits for lowland and highland scots & separate traits for English and Scottish Border Generals



    INTERSTING FACTS ABOUT GAMEPLAY SETTINGS

    - Once again, as with KOTS, the Kingdoms of the Isles is being designed on VH/VH.
    - As mentioned before historical population scales of the time are being used. This determines if or when a town or castle will grow.
    - Hidden resources stops the building of unrealistic citadels.
    - We've added stone walls only to those historical cities during the time of this mod that had them.
    - Only London and Paris can become huge cities.
    - Only Cathedrals and huge Cathedrals to be built in cities according to historical records. These start off the game as such.
    - Regions rich in Ecclesiastical wealth start off the game with Monasteries or Priories according to historical records.
    - Siege equipment has been severly hampered and are only available in feudal areas.
    - Villages that did not progress any higher than villages historically are capped to remain as so.
    - Much more emphasis put on having castles rather than town. Town recruitment is no longer free for some units, and infact only have access to lower grade troops.
    - Permanent Forts on the map have been placed where they existed historically at the time.
    - Permanent Forts on the map have 20 free recruitment slots for the user and AI to use them more wisely.
    - Level 3 & 4 farms are now only available in historically good farming areas.
    - Dirts roads have been allocated only to areas that historically had them (based on the Gough Map)
    - Highways have been allocated only to areas that part of the royal itinerary (based on the Gough Map)
    - Only certain historical (Market Towns) can build anything higher than fairgrounds.
    - All actual Royal Burghs are marked as such on the campaign map.
    - Extremely accurate & significantly extensive English & Scottish Family Trees showing several hundred years of generations and families.
    - Extremely accurate researched names for the period, not copied and pasted baby names from the internet.
    - Reduced up keep costs for all factions to help make larger armies and to assist factions from going bust.
    - Historical spread of the Black Death over the continent and the isles

    This image shows the old map size in the Scottish Borders in KOTS 3:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    This image shows the new map size in the Scottish Borders in The Kingdoms of the Isles. It also shows the mod created by Userpro that allows the UI to be removed by pressing the Scroll Lock key on your keyboard.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    FIXES FROM KOTS3

    - Removal of annoying ancillaries Pagan Magician and Secret Love.
    - In game custom battles have been removed (Stirling Bridge, Falkirk etc) to stop ctd on saving games. These will still be playable in the Custom Map mode
    - Culture leaks in certain settlements where wrong creators were asigned.
    - Merchant income reigned in.
    - Norway has been removed as a faction.
    - Removal of Old loading screens.
    - Removal of Watch Towers

    There are quite a few other additions and changes to the game which we'll talk about in the next Preview. Please remember the images and information mentioned here are works in progress and most likely will alter (for the better) in the final product. Currently, we estimate that mod is 50% completed.

    Kind Regards,

    The Kingdoms of the Isles Team (The Border Reiver, The Bruce & TNZ).

    Last edited by The Border Reiver; September 15, 2012 at 09:06 PM. Reason: old thread closed

  2. #2
    DragonsWarrior's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    thats great news border reiver

  3. #3
    Prince of Yunderup's Avatar Tiro
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    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    Fantastic news! You guys are hard workers.

  4. #4

    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    Great news, still playing this mod from time to time
    "We'll go to the front—and beyond it, if it'll save the galaxy. Sometimes you have to enter the darkness to save the light."

  5. #5
    DragonsWarrior's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    had to re install since my comp went down

  6. #6

    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    cant w8

    The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
    Niccolo Machiavelli

  7. #7

    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    BUT WHEN?

  8. #8

    Default Re: KOTS4 Preiview Coming Soon - But not today

    SOON!

  9. #9
    The Border Reiver's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Finally, the Preview has been added. Look to the title post!

  10. #10
    Prince of Yunderup's Avatar Tiro
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    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Oh my God this looks huge, this should appeal to everyone it encompasses the whole isles, but still retains it's Scottish focus.
    - Villages that did not progress any higher than villages historically are capped to remain as so.
    - Much more emphasis put on having castles rather than town. Town recruitment is no longer free for some units, and infact only have access to lower grade troops.
    It got to me at first in KOTS, but then I just converted to castle, really it's historically accurate, well done.
    You have created another mod for the TWC community. (+rep to everyone involved)
    It really looks like a whole new dimension to Total War.
    Last edited by Prince of Yunderup; December 28, 2009 at 08:51 AM.

  11. #11

    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    This is great. I have been waiting for this a looong time.

  12. #12
    selder's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    "Clan MacKintosh" OMG...I think I just peeeed my kilt...

  13. #13
    The Border Reiver's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Villages that did not progress any higher than villages historically are capped to remain as so.
    It got to me at first in KOTS, but then I just converted to castle, really it's historically accurate,
    Perfect, this is exactly how you must approach this. This really puts emphahsis on the decision between castle or village, in the next version the choice is more distinct because you must determine which settlements supply you with trrops and which are purely for trading.

    This is great. I have been waiting for this a looong time.
    Me too, I'll hopefully even play it when I've finished

    "Clan MacKintosh" OMG...I think I just peeeed my kilt...
    Thank goodness your kilt is made of wool then

  14. #14
    wilddog's Avatar Paintedwolves run free
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    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Congratulations on your preview. Glad to see your moving more to accuracy with regard to removing Norway and the population numbers (which seems to be in line with historical estimates). The 4 turns per year is a better compromise on turns per go (although I decided to move from that in our mod). I also like the new menu screens as the scroll types look a lot better in my opinion.

    Surprised you still kept in the stone forts as we always had problems with garrison scripts so opted to remove them.

    I think the title change is also more appropriate. Well done and keep it up.

  15. #15

    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Hi Wilddog,

    For the population ratios we used the following source:

    Benchmarking medieval economic development: England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, circa 1290

    This was our primary source for population levels and major settlements.

    Could you elaborate on the stone fort/garrison script issues.

  16. #16
    wilddog's Avatar Paintedwolves run free
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    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Quote Originally Posted by The Bruce
    Hi Wilddog,

    For the population ratios we used the following source:

    Benchmarking medieval economic development: England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, circa 1290

    This was our primary source for population levels and major settlements.

    Could you elaborate on the stone fort/garrison script issues.
    Yes that's the same source I used. It was very useful.

    Regarding the fort garrison Makanyane will post but we couldn't get scripted armies to turn up there.

  17. #17

    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Quote Originally Posted by The Bruce View Post
    Could you elaborate on the stone fort/garrison script issues.
    You / others may have resolved the issue via CAI but when I tried I had problem getting AI to actually remain in forts by anything other than having immobile leader stuck there. Had tried to spawn defending armies into them if region was attacked via script but couldn't get spawn to go into fort location.... (or force character to move into them) - spawns / moves I was trying to get to go to fort co-ordinates just went to some other random location instead

    might just have been me though, its something I've been meaning to go back and look at again, would be interested to know how forts are working for you?

  18. #18

    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    In truth we have not looked into this properly yet (unless the Reiver has without telling me).

    We were hoping some CAI enhancement would fix this. I'm almost pretty sure that someone has reported some success with this somewhere....

    I know you can't spawn/move directly into forts which is unfortunate.

    I wonder if it would help if forts were located at choke points?
    Last edited by The Bruce; December 29, 2009 at 04:41 AM.

  19. #19

    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Quote Originally Posted by The Bruce View Post
    I wonder if it would help if forts were located at choke points?
    I suspect that doing that could mess up other aspects of AI pathfinding.... It's about 50/50 if it would force them to target fort, or just make them stall.... the toggle_terrain thing that reveals choke points also reveals defend and ambush points which would be alternative places to try forts, whilst leaving main paths passable for the ai... Other people seem to have suggested initially running campaign with ai allowed to build temporary forts, and then place fixed ones on the locations that the ai preferred to build temp forts (which seems like good idea)

  20. #20

    Default Re: The Kingdoms of the Isles - The First Preview

    Actually, if forts on "chokes" did not mess up pathfinding it would probably result in too many sieges where the AI sends inadequate armies against your forts. The "defend" sites might be better. I'm sure the ultimate solution, if it exists, lies somewhere in the CAI.

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