Ltd.´s preview thread

[warman222]

Looking good as always buddy! Also what mod was Lord Szentgyorgyi apart of? I want to see if there's anything I can use too!

[Ltd.]

The mod is called 1257 AD middle europe

[BalrogOfMorgoth]

That hungarian officer is realy neat !

[Ltd.]

Btw officers: I was wondering about the following: Instead of having these generic officers, would it not be better to create officers, that are family members, so the officer would be the family member / heir / king / emperor, whatever, and the knights being more generic, constituting his retinue.
So, e.g in case of Hungary the COA on the shields belonging to different nobles would be only on one officer's shield, and one only. That would also mean that only one officer would be recruitable from a certain type. This way you could have a king as officer, giving him a crown helmet to distinguish him, and this way I believe it would even be more authentic.
It would mean obviously to create 10- 15 officers, or as much as you want and giving them more or less the same knights as retinue, so you would have 10- 15 general / knight units (only one at any given time of a certain type ) as your family members / king etc, well, for roleplay purposes. This way you could have historical figures appear on the battlefield as king, emperor, heir, noble, you could boost your king with traits and ancillaries ( which we will have to work on) etc.
What do you think?

Edit: one problem I see with this is the king / crowned unit. You would either have your king always be called the same, so king X, or, the king unit does not receive a name, but is called king / emperor, etc, so once the first king unit dies, there emerges a new king unit, actually looking the same as the previous. Obviously new /later king units can be introduced with upgrades.

[warman222]

I tested out a similar with my knights and honestly I don't think it translates to the game well. Here's my take on it:



Instead of a group of knights you're seeing a knight, a squire and the knight's retinue as the actual unit. It is more accurate but it doesn't look as riveting and I'd don't think it's worth it. Plus I'm not doing it with my knights, so I would prefer some consistency between our units. I'd rather do it the current method but I am opening it up for debate, but I'm heavily leaning more towards no.

[Mando44]

Perhaps as a garrison unit

[Ltd.]

It was an idea mostly anyway, though maybe at least a king unit can be done, to have some kind of leader represented also visually, with a crown. Also I imagined the whole thing with knights as being the retinue as well, not just squires, so you would have knights as the unit, and a certain knight as the officer. I realise it would mean something mostly to the player of that faction, if a player feels somehow affiliated to his country and history of his ancestors, to have that certain leader represented by a unit. And we wouldn´t have to do that for all factions. But anyway, we can leave this open for now., and you are right, thre has to be some consistency in our units.
Also I´m doing now the teutonic order, since I´m not finished with the hungarian roster, and the teutonic knights had more of an impact on hungary than any other order. To some extent also the templars. Also there is enough material for me to work on the teutonics.

[warman222]

Yeah I think a King unit sounds reasonable. Also I would prefer it if we just focus on factions for the first release. Here's the list:

England
France
Holy Roman Empire
Castile
Flanders
Scotland
Venice
Hungary
Poland
Kievan Rus
Latin Empire
Empire of Nicaea
Mongol Empire
Cuman Confederacy

I basically got England, France, HRE, Castile, Flanders, and Venice done. From what I can tell you pretty have Nicaea, Mongols, Kievan Rus, and parts of Hungary and Cumans done. Once I'm done with some UI work and Scotland I'm going to take some of your assets and make some more units out of them, mainly ones like the mercenary and light units in my preview thread, but more region specific to Central and Eastern Europe. I'm still shooting for a mid-September release but I'm willing to push it back a little bit as needed but no later than the end of September if we can help it.

[VoKi]

Great Mod Great Units ! To be unique and historicly accurate thats the goal Keep working on this project and maybe share something or consult other mods that could help, like Tsardoms Total War or War of the West,which is in my opinion the best medieval total War mod,but this will be IMPRESSIVE

[Ltd.]

well, hopefully I can do Poland until mid September. I don´t think however that there is time for the latin Empire as well. Though I can continue working on, assembling and releasing units after we hit the deadline, as well, so the ones that don´t make it into the first release, may arrive some days / weeks later.
I can also add 1 or 2 more cuman and hungarian units , I intend to add a mercenary / generic Knight as well to the eastern european region so all should be well.

[warman222]

okay, that's fine enough I believe although like I said I can postpone to the end of Sept if that'll help.

[Ltd.]

So, I thought before directing all my attention to Poland, I could put together a teutonic knight unit, and I did so. Here is the result, though nowhere near final.
Now I shall entertain myself by doing some polish knights, etc. I have enough material for Poland , I reckon, but not much for the Latin Empire, so they will have to wait.

But back to the Teutonic Knights:



@ Warman: Please also add döme from the magyar mod (M2TW) to the credits list, he gave me permission to some assets of his.

[warman222]

Do you know what specifically we can use from his mod? Because having access to his mod will be VERY helpful down the road and I need to make sure I use the right stuff. Also those knights look wonderful! Would it be easier to take out the Latin Empire and put in the Teutonic Order? That could be possible, and I'll add a couple of order units to some of the other nations, mainly Castile with the Satiago order.

[Ltd.]

Well, I specifially asked for permission to use some of his shield designs and some helmets, should I need them eventually, and he approved to it, so as I understand it I can use the magyar mod stuff, though he asked that his assets be only used for this mod´s purposes, and nothing else (which is our goal obivously).
If you want to contact him as well, you should do it via email (through twc).
Regarding the Teutonic Knights: yes, it would be a lot easier for me to work on them, instead of the Latin Empire ( for now, ofc) even if they are not a playable faction, so if possible, yes, let´s swap them. I could add some mounted and dismounted sergeants, spearmen, and eventually crossbowmen, so it would be good.

[Dontfearme22]

So, I thought before directing all my attention to Poland, I could put together a teutonic knight unit, and I did so. Here is the result, though nowhere near final.
Now I shall entertain myself by doing some polish knights, etc. I have enough material for Poland , I reckon, but not much for the Latin Empire, so they will have to wait.

But back to the Teutonic Knights:



@ Warman: Please also add döme from the magyar mod (M2TW) to the credits list, he gave me permission to some assets of his.

For these excellent imported models, how much post-import work do you plan to be doing on them? What I mean is, these models are very nice but some of them dont exactly hit the same levels of detail as similar vanilla Rome II models. Just some graphical polishing, dirt wear and such might be useful.

[Ltd.]

Which models / textures do you mean? The horse bard textures I did myself ( with some elements taken from mods), the soldier models are entirely imported. You mean the white is too saturated?

[FireTight]

Which models / textures do you mean? The horse bard textures I did myself ( with some elements taken from mods), the soldier models are entirely imported. You mean the white is too saturated?

I think he means armor of horses, because it looks like it was made from paper (a little bit).

[Dontfearme22]

I think he means armor of horses, because it looks like it was made from paper (a little bit).

Yes, in general the Teutonic armor and horse armor looks very flat and bright.

[Ltd.]

well, the horse armour is a combination of linen and some kind of cloth, but you may be right, I may have to change it. Regarding the soldier' s tabard, I must say I like them, and since I imported that texture I'm not even praising my own work. :-)
I'll see what I can do

[Brivime]

Great work as always, when could I expect some of the 1257 Arab/Turk armor to be ported over? Can't wait to start work on the Eastern rosters.