Blood & Roses; A Campaign Mod for the War of the Roses Era

[Used2BRoz]

Have linked to the file and it seems to work now.

As for the road map - I think it's roughly on course -

since uploading :

I've deleted some of the anomalous names from the names database for the relevant factions
I'm part way through adding the following buildings and suggested ancillaries:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hospitaller Preceptory (gives Knight Hospitaller ancillary)
Hospitaller Priory (gives Grand Prior ancillary)
Drapers Guild (3 levels) (boosts income and gives bonus to merchants)
Goldsmiths Guild (3 levels) (boosts income)
Hanseatic League Office (boosts income and gives ancillary to merchant)
Waterwell (boosts public health)
bakers and castle bakers (give health bonus and baker ancillary)
brewhouse and castle brewhouse (gives happiness bonus and brewer ancillary)
Mint (gives Tax Income bonus and Coiner ancillary)

If i can find good little graphics I might add :

Monastery (gives health and income bonus and possible monk ancillary)
Hospital (gives health bonus and possible physician or doctor ancillary)
Windmill (gives income bonus)
Watermill (gives income bonus)

there are also opportunities for traits effects to once we've seen how these work.

I'll reduce the likelihood of people getting some existing ancillaries as some are being obtained too quickly atm.

Battle AI is not a priority atm - the vanilla BAI works well enough, it conducts sieges etc.
I tested some of the earlier versions of G5's BAI and there are improvements but working out if we need to adopt the whole package is another matter.
Again not a priority for me at least.

Permanent Stone Forts : I'll probably do these as an optional package to begin with. Again not a big priority but easy enough to do as I have the files.

Map edits - I can think of 3 that might work :
1) splitting Cornwall into Cornwall and Devon - Devon could have Exeter
2) creating Durham out of Northumberland and Yorkshire
3) creating Warwickshire, including Coventry, out of the centre of England.

but they may not be worth the bother - if anyone wants to have a go at doing them let me know
-------------------------------------

For now I'm doing all the new buildings, ancillaries, traits etc. This may take some time.

[Live2sculpt]

Have linked to the file and it seems to work now.

As for the road map - I think it's roughly on course -

since uploading :

I've deleted some of the anomalous names from the names database for the relevant factions
I'm part way through adding the following buildings and suggested ancillaries:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hospitaller Preceptory (gives Knight Hospitaller ancillary)
Hospitaller Priory (gives Grand Prior ancillary)
Drapers Guild (3 levels) (boosts income and gives bonus to merchants)
Goldsmiths Guild (3 levels) (boosts income)
Hanseatic League Office (boosts income and gives ancillary to merchant)
Waterwell (boosts public health)
bakers and castle bakers (give health bonus and baker ancillary)
brewhouse and castle brewhouse (gives happiness bonus and brewer ancillary)
Mint (gives Tax Income bonus and Coiner ancillary)

If i can find good little graphics I might add :

Monastery (gives health and income bonus and possible monk ancillary)
Hospital (gives health bonus and possible physician or doctor ancillary)
Windmill (gives income bonus)
Watermill (gives income bonus)

there are also opportunities for traits effects to once we've seen how these work.

I'll reduce the likelihood of people getting some existing ancillaries as some are being obtained too quickly atm.

Battle AI is not a priority atm - the vanilla BAI works well enough, it conducts sieges etc.
I tested some of the earlier versions of G5's BAI and there are improvements but working out if we need to adopt the whole package is another matter.
Again not a priority for me at least.

Permanent Stone Forts : I'll probably do these as an optional package to begin with. Again not a big priority but easy enough to do as I have the files.

Map edits - I can think of 3 that might work :
1) splitting Cornwall into Cornwall and Devon - Devon could have Exeter
2) creating Durham out of Northumberland and Yorkshire
3) creating Warwickshire, including Coventry, out of the centre of England.

but they may not be worth the bother - if anyone wants to have a go at doing them let me know
-------------------------------------

For now I'm doing all the new buildings, ancillaries, traits etc. This may take some time.

The only overlap with my graphics work was descr_sm_factions. I need to re-enter the new faction colors in there.

Don't let graphics hold you back re buildings. I'll take care of that with the others in time.

I'm not too thrilled about putting time into editing the Britannia map when testing and running our custom map for BETA is still further down the road.

Do you really need to edit the Britannia map in order to work with your expansion of the factions etc. incrementally?

Because I'd be much more interested in simply assigning each added faction to individual regions already present on the Britannia map, and save the slog of map labor for the big one, which will need cleaning up.



OKAY, so I have everything for an ALPHA 0.2 release in my hands.
All that I want to do before I upload it is alter the strat models and trim down our music files.
Oh, and compile a credit list of the other modders whose work is now included in the build.

I caught a cold this weekend so I might be a tad slowed, but we will have this up shortly.

[Used2BRoz]

Cool - the map edits aren't something I intend to do, but if anyone else wants to put the work in that's up to them.

I have all necessary temp graphics for new buildings done, the time is being taken up with doing the text for the buildings - and correcting all the tiny mistakes I find hard to spot,
mainly formatting, missing spaces (or too many) , typos etc. But have the Hospitaller Preceptory and Priory and Drapers Guild in now.

Progress might be slow this week - looks like being stormy and thunderstorms stop me working for a variety of reasons (not least power cuts)

But I'll chug away when I can

Hope your cold clears up soon
--------------------------------------------------------------

CTDs - I've had a couple more CTDs -when testing the game.
Happens after a battle were many generals die - I lost 6 in one battle, won the battle though
CTD happens during or as slave faction ends its turn

I'm suspecting that something has happened to one or more of the generals which messes up the traits or ancillaries it has.
Battles did not involve Faction Leader, or result in the destruction of any faction.
Usually happens after about 15 - 20 turns.
Game plays fine up to 50 turns if I avoid mass slaughter of generals in one turn.

The error log just says unspecified error - no sign of anything wrong before then.

[Live2sculpt]

Got over most of my cold and completed my studio backlog now.

Replacing Strat models. Looks nice, but I want to be thorough.

At the rate I am going, I'll probably upload the completed kit (no installer) this weekend.

Roz; IF you happen to have MORE updates you want to include before then, that wouldn't mess with my graphics labor such as changing a faction, then go ahead and upload again.

Now I need to know where to share it, and how big we should let the file be. What is the maximum size for twcenter uploads? As an ALPHA copy, I'm not keen on sharing it via Game Front etc..

[Used2BRoz]

The only changes before this weekend would be the new buildings - I've got nearly all of them in the game. need to ad a bit more description in the text. Graphics are placeholders until new graphics arrive.

list of new buildings

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Drapers Guild
Swordsmiths Guild
Hanseatic League Office
Bakers
Castle bakers
Brewhouse
Castle brewhouse
Windmill
Watermill
Waterwell
Mint

I still need to work out the new triggers for ancillaries, guild buildings etc.

Long time since I did any uploading here, so don't know what the limits are for files here.
Judging what is currently available I suspect something like 100MB might be the limit ?

[Live2sculpt]

The only changes before this weekend would be the new buildings - I've got nearly all of them in the game. need to ad a bit more description in the text. Graphics are placeholders until new graphics arrive.

list of new buildings

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Drapers Guild
Swordsmiths Guild
Hanseatic League Office
Bakers
Castle bakers
Brewhouse
Castle brewhouse
Windmill
Watermill
Waterwell
Mint

I still need to work out the new triggers for ancillaries, guild buildings etc.

Long time since I did any uploading here, so don't know what the limits are for files here.
Judging what is currently available I suspect something like 100MB might be the limit ?

They HAVE switched to a whole new server apparatus recently, but I can't find the new info yet.

[Used2BRoz]

Update on the CTD issue - got another unspecified error when i destroyed the barons_alliance (the nevilles)
I am not certain what the cause is, but I'm suspecting its a traits issue.

Once I've finished off the buildings - only the goldsmiths guild to go in - I'll prioritise the traits to see if there's anything in there I can spot that might be causing CTDs
after battles. In terms of releasing alphas - I'll post the latest update this weekend so you can see progress and incorporate the new buildings.

It might be worth releasing the next alpha stating there appears to be an issue with the traits - to see if anyone can spot anything that causes CTDs.
----------------------------------------------
Update : using the traits and ancillaries validator prog - I managed to find a few errors that had crept in to the ancillaries changes. Apologies for not spotting them before. Have no idea if sorting them out will solve the problem though.

Will have to play another short campaign to see if it has cleared the problem.

[Live2sculpt]

Don't forget to delete "show_date_as_turns" from the descr_strat.txt

[k/t]

The date should be shown as years above the radar map and as turns next to the End Turn button, that way you have all the information you need.

I was talking about the advisor that pops out and tells you what each thing does.

Why will the best cavalry not be available until the end of the game? The country was developed enough to support such cavalry. If it wasn't used, that's different.

[Used2BRoz]

The best cavalry is probably the Late generals bodyguard unit.
And some factions have an ample supply of those.
The scots never used much heavy cavalry, nor was it used much in Ireland.
So if the human player wants more heavy cavalry you'll need to upgrade the stables until you get them.
That takes time.
So the heavy cavalry is available - if you're prepared to upgrade your castles.
A bigger problem is the WotR armies had an average of 8 longbowmen to 1 billmen/MAA.

We can increase the size of longbowmen units and decrease that of billmen and other MAA - but even that might not be enough.
----------------------------------------

Further errors removed from the ancillaries and traits - including a vanilla one -
the antitrait to Hatesnorway was Fearsdenmark - which didn't matter until I removed the references to denmark

The traits validator is good - once you realise you have to check every tab in turn.

[Live2sculpt]

The date should be shown as years above the radar map and as turns next to the End Turn button, that way you have all the information you need.

If I remember correctly, that split function you are mentioning doesn't work if you divide the year up past two turns, and in B&R we are looking at 4TPY and 12TPY.

Why will the best cavalry not be available until the end of the game? The country was developed enough to support such cavalry. If it wasn't used, that's different.

By the WotR the 'arms race' had swung back to the favor of the infantryman, and the cavalryman was at a notable disadvantage. To reflect this tactical reality, I'm advising that by the time we get to BETA, Longbow fire rates are tripled, pole-arm bonuses vs cavalry are doubled, and cavalry susceptibility to these threats is increased. All within the bounds of how the AI can be worked around of course.

[Live2sculpt]

The best cavalry is probably the Late generals bodyguard unit.

Technically I think the 'best cavalry' should be some elite continental elements. German Harriers and Heavy German Men at Armes. The latter being the only cav that uses full gothic barding on their mounts.

I still say that predominant cavalry general units is too ahistoric. By the BETA phase I hope we see Skirmishing Cav as the primary mounted elements in most battles, and the armored charge as a rarely used tactic.

As for ratios, I have been playing using 200 men bills and 250 men archers. It's been okay, but I think the Bills eventually need to be upped in cost and the Archers need to be upped in martial ability.

[k/t]

Tax Income Bonus doesn't work. The building will display it, but the city's income will not change.

What kind of skirmishing cavalry? Javelin or bow? Western Europeans weren't much for mounted archery, but mounted crossbowmen did exist.

If you make the generals cavalry, the AI will promptly get them killed.

Polearm bonuses against cavalry are good enough in RC. Did billmen form spear walls like the pikemen or not? Probably not.

You can use Gothic Knights for that heavy German cavalry.

You can set the replenishment rates so in conjunction with the unit sizes you end up with the desired ratio. However, longbowmen replenishment rates should not be too high, since it took a long time to become proficient with a bow. Maybe start with large unit pools for most units and set replenishment rates lower, that way protracted warfare will eventually lead to a scarcity of men.

[Live2sculpt]

Making time to pack this ALPHA 0.2 up; Is there a reason for having the Hotseat variable listed in the Cfg file? They seem to be CTD my own copy here for some reason. I'm running a leaner cfg file without the hotseat variables listed.

[Live2sculpt]

What kind of skirmishing cavalry? Javelin or bow? Western Europeans weren't much for mounted archery, but mounted crossbowmen did exist.

Mounted Longbows were sometimes used. Men at Armes using spears or axes were most common. Hobilars might still be used by Irish or Scot by other names. The old Norman tactic of mounted Javelins were entirely out of fashion in England by that time. Mounted Crossbows were mainly a continental phenominon for that century.So if you saw mounted crossbows or javilins in B&R, they'd be best expressed with spanish and german mercenaries.

[Used2BRoz]

Thanks for heads up on Tax income bonus not working - I'll find something else to replace it.

Heavy cavalry - main problem was that it was simply too expensive for any but a small elite to afford the full plate armour and equipment. You couldn't recruit any more in England, any knights who could afford the gear were tied up to the various magnates, and would ride with them as bodyguard or as captains for their own units. So having bodyguards as the only generally available heavy cavalry makes a lot of sense. I might change some of the younger sons to dismounted english knights. And remove the bill militia units they have.
(Actually the dismounted EK need to have their unit size reduced to match the mounted version. maybe 20 -30 for a standard size unit.

Mounted crossbowmen are in the vanilla norwegian roster which is why they are still in there, until we have a new map to deploy French and other continental factions and northern Scotland disappears. There may well have been mounted crossbowmen among mercenaries available on occasion, but were not part of the regular english rosters.

Hobilars were part of English line up - although they should really be updated to look 15th century. Mounted bowmen did exist along with mounted billmen. That is they were longbowmen and billmen who rode to battle, and then dismounted. It's probably easier just to have hobilars and foot longbowmen and billmen. I presume in melee longbowmen would be armed either with a sword or long dagger, or whatever was at hand.

----------------

I'm testing some changes I made to the traits and ancillaries after finding a few mistakes. Am on T47 and haven't yet managed to finish off a faction. Hope to do so tomorrow if I get time. But at least there have been no CTDs, and I have managed to lose 4 generals in one turn.

I need to do more work on the buildings as well. The text needs more work. Can't do that and test at the same time though.

[Live2sculpt]

UPLOADED. Blood & Roses ALPHA 0.2

http://www.sendspace.com/file/u3ueku

You need Medieval II Total War and the Kingdoms Expansion patched to 1.5 in order to use this mod.

There is no installer. If you are unsure about manual installation after reading these instructions, ask.

You must have the Britannia Campaign installed (Americas, Teutonic, and Crusades are not required). Make a backup copy of the Britannia Mod folder, and rename it Blood_and_Roses.

You should then have both Medieval II Total War/mods/british_isles and medieval II Total War/mods/Blood_and_Roses.

Unpack the contents of the mod archive into the renamed folder. Use the Launch_Blood_and_Roses.bat to start the mod. Create a shortcut to Launch_Blood_and_Roses.bat if you wish. Use one of the custom icons also provided on the Properties/Icon value of the shortcut.

And so we are off and running! With a playable version of the mod in its development. The custom map will be included in the BETA phase once Roz has cleaned up enough of the basic functions tested during the ALPHA.

Roz: You'll notice a few small changes to your own uploads in the name of the file and the contents of the cfg. Try to use these new files if possible. Don't forget to avoid overwriting any graphics changes such as the faction colors.

So far the only other credits are:

Condormanius
Soupdragon
Charge
Agart
GrnEyedDvl
Beiss
Argent Usher

But I'm sure we'll get more.

[Used2BRoz]

The alpha 02 has some errors (unless someone else has corrected them) that I'm sorting out, or will do when I have finished the testing the current campaign.

Currently up to T57 and still haven't destroyed any factions yet. I'm hopeful I can finish off either York or Lancaster in the next day or two. nevilles are too powerful to take on. Partly because they get billmen very cheaply.

Good news - well, no CTDs so far, and the settlement mechanics seem to be working well, no settlement has grown far enough to be ready to be upgraded. The AI is building the new buildings as well, which is good. And the REVISED triggers for titles etc seem to be working. Playing as England, the money side of things looks balanced. I don't have lots of money to spend each turn. Most goes on rebuilding existing units, repairing settlements after capturing them etc.

Can't spend too long each day doing this, which is why it's taking a long time to test. And the fact I'm really enjoying the campaign as england Have even managed to lose a couple of battles when I attacked settlements with inadequate forces. And that's on normal difficulty.

What I would like is have the rosters for york and lancaster sorted out so they can use the same english units as england and the nevilles.

I'll check out L2S's changes once I've sorted out things here. When I'm happier with the corrections I'll put up the alpha02b files.
---------------------------

update: yay - have managed to destroy ireland (ie York) and got the faction destroyed message. And was able to continue next turn without a CTD. Really should get a wales (ie Lancaster) victory message but that probably requires scripting. So after 71 turns - no CTDs, the titles and etc seem to be working properly (but I've thought that before).

Which means tomorrow I can get on with sorting out those items that need fixing : text for new buildings ; tax bonus replacement ; remove guard dog ancillary - waste of a slot. I'll post the revised files here and then see what L2S has done

------------------------

Another update : I missed the drevised descr_regions and the new buildings pix in the last little update - so here is the alpha02d update with it bloodyroses - alpha02d.7z

I'll need to take stock now to work out what are the most important things I can work on.

------------------------

Have finally had a look at the Blood and roses alpha with L2S's GUI and other changes.

There's a lot I like - with the strat map changes being generally good, and the look and feel is good, the strat map models are very good. The new settlelement models work OK too.

but there are some problems :

1) The text font is practically unreadable. It might look authentic, but the people playing the game won't be medieval people but 21st century ones, and they need a legible font.
Needs to be less solid / gothic ; more simplified and lighter. This is true throughout the game.

2) On strat map - the Scottish banner seems to lack enough contrast to show the strength of the army

3) The Diplomacy screen is unreadable - the font for text is too small, and illegible. Also using white text on yellow background doesn't work.
I get the feeling that there's also something missing - I find it hard to work out if the diplomacy was successful or not.

4) Settlement scroll - Piety needs to be changed to Management.

5) The Settlelment, diplomacy and similar screens really need some sort of border - nothing too grand, just something to liven up the page.

6) The Warwick faction needs to be renamed the Neville faction as it covers the entire family. In 1453 the senior member of the family was Richard Earl of Salisbury, not the Earl of Warwick.

[k/t]

Mounted longbowmen were longbowmen who rode on horses and dismounted for battle. They didn't shoot from horseback.

Does Management give any bonuses and have its own mechanics, or did you just rename Piety?

[Yayattasa]

Give them the same movement points of light cavalry and put a horse in their picture. Works fine.