Kingdom of the Scots - Returning Very very very soon!y

[The Border Reiver]

From the deep permafrost of the last great glaciation of the Pleistocene, the scoured and broken remnants of the Kingdom of the Scots have been located by an intrepid traveller, adventurer and explorer! No it wasn't a Hobbit, just me!

After fearing all will had been lost, I have resolved to complete this project. Most of the original work has long since been lost, so this will be an entirely new project, that is being renamed back to Kingdom of the Scots. It will be released in the modern way of an open beta/early access game that will develop over the weeks and months ahead. To work behind the scenes, and only releasing information every now and again is from an era past. So, what can you expect from the Kingdom of the Scots Redux?

Introduction

The mod will have a brand new focus, probably the focus that it should have had originally before the grandiose plans of my fading youth carried it beyond what was humanly possible. The new map will not focus on Ireland, which will only feature as a backdrop. This will be about Scotland, and it will be about Clans versus clans, and clans versus the Scottish Crown, and more importantly it will be about Scotland versus England

Stage 1

KOTS released on the small map with all the original factions.

Stage 2

Large map release with new factions.

FAQ's

Q. How realistic are you going to make it?

A. It will be as realistic as possible without becoming bogged down in what did this person wear on this day and in that year. Gameplay is paramount to get this project restarted.

Watch this space there is more to come.

cheers
The Border Reiver

[SlickStitch]

This is great news Only thing that could make this better would be a YES vote ^^

[The Border Reiver]

Thank you I agree about the YES vote. All the SNP needs is the Tories and Labour not to fulfil their unwritten promises, and David Cameron to continue to prop up the EU with British tax payer dollars, and the next go at independence is a shoe in. By then, the public will also be fully aware that the "oil reserves" will not be depleted, and will show no signs of depleting in the next 25 years. Then, all the scare mongering of "modern" economic rationalism saying that Scotland can't possibly survive on it's own unlike similar small commonwealth countries like (New Zealand) will be tossed aside for the alarmist rhetoric that it is.

Saying that though, I do like being in the United Kingdom and can't imagine a world without a United Kingdom

[The Border Reiver]

So far the first version 0.1 will be available on Sunday. It will really be a bare bones, but it will be designed more along the lines of what you see in Rome 2, and what I was trying to achieve a couple of years ago in this mod, where every settlement is a faction, and the slave faction doesn't really exist, with the exception rebels that appear, or when towns rebel and overthrow their overlord. This means that diplomacy and trade with every town/castle on the map is possible.

I'll update later today with the new regions and factions for release on Sunday.

[SlickStitch]

Will clan Scott be a playable faction? Also I believe that if the Westminister parties break their vow we will have more support and also they broke a vow to make the vow lol. The Edinburgh agreement was that you cannot bring anything new to the table within the 18 day period or something like that. Also the oil is so volatile and depleting so that isn't a bonus.. yet they won't give us power over it They "found" new oil within a month of the result.. plus of course the oil will deplete but that is the same with most things. No campaign was basically if it runs out then no point in having it give it to us. Sad day. It is our elders we need to get support from. Can I ask if it is possible that factions can have a defensive or aggressive pact?

[The Border Reiver]

Yes Clan Scott will be playable , although in the small map they will take up an ahistorical location looking after Berwickshire, but on the big map, they will take up there historical strongholds.

Unlike Rome 2, there are no aggressive and defensive pacts, however this can be managed reasonably with faction stances. For instance, all the Scottish Factions will start allied to the Scottish Faction, and all Scottish factions will be the same religion, so that they can rally the clans and call a crusade against the English towns.

So far Scotland gets 8 regions (Uist, Westerross, Assynt, Berwickshire, Galloway, Strathspey, Badenoch and Jura). I will add 3 regions for both Ireland and England, and 2 for Wales. That should see the small map finished for new regions.

As far as 8 new factions (there won't be new skins in the first version), there will be MacDonald, Mackenzie, Macleod, Mackay, Chattan, Maclean, MacRuriai and Scott. I have not added Comyn as a faction this time around as I have the Canmores, Bruces, Comyns, Douglasses and Stewarts joined together as the Scottish Faction

I agree, support will only increase from not delivering on their open cheque book promises. I have experience in the natural resources sector, and while it is very difficult to prove the size of the reserves, there is plenty of potential in the North Sea still. Scotland will be fine for oil in the future, it is pure scare mongering to hold onto control.

[The Border Reiver]

The mod is going well with relatively few setbacks; although it is not going as quickly as possible. I'm trying to get as much into the first release as possible so that it is compatible with the second release.

[The Border Reiver]

Hey Guys, news update today.

Work still commencing on version 0.1, and the mod is coming along nicely. There have been a few errors here and there, but they have been quashed. I really am only days away from having version 0.1 ready, and a full list of changes and additions will be ready soon. Come this weekend you should have something to play and test

[Makrell]

Nice, looking forward to it

[The Border Reiver]

Thanks Makrell! Lot's of work going into this at the moment, and it's going well. I'm putting together a mini preview which will coincide with the initial release on Sunday.

[Malcolm]

Great stuff Border Reiver! Good to have you back! Looking forward to seeing the new Kingdom of the Scots!

ps. I have to agree, shame it wasn't a YES vote!

[The Border Reiver]

Hey Malcolm, good to see you. Until 11 days ago, i had no intention of resurrecting this mod or finishing it as I have been working on a RTW2 mod as well. Luckily I had about 14 different partially completed versions of my mod on various hard drives still, and I've been trying to bring it all together. Plus I also had to try and remember how to mod Kingdoms, and especially what the error codes were.

Anyway, i'm well on the way to having a very rough, unpolished and scaled back version ready on Sunday. I'm spending tonight organising the recruitment files, so that it is at least playable.

[The Border Reiver]

Well, I haven't played Kingdoms in over a year since upgrading to Windows 7, and now I've run into a problem and can't play battles; therefore I can't test them. No matter which fix I use I cannot play get this to work at the moment. I have tried changing the UAC settings, I have tried the changing daylight savings, and I've tried different hard drives, and I've tried reinstallation...no matter what I can't get it to work.

I can however get the vanilla MTW2 and Vanilla Kingdoms campaigns to work!

But I will keep on trying and let you know.

[Malcolm]

I think I might have had that problem and it was just a matter of uninstalling and reinstalling until it worked. I also deleted all of the left over files manually after reinstalling. Don't know if it helped or not.

I haven't started modding Rome 2 yet but designed a whole load of Scottish units for Napoleon which was fun. Been pretty disappointed at the lack of Rome 2 mods focussing on the Caledone faction so far!

Anyway, let us know how you are getting on. Would really be great to have this one dusted off!

If you are struggling to test the battles meantime I could reinstall and test it out for you. Just let me know.

[The Border Reiver]

Thanks Malcolm, I'll try the reinstall again, perhaps I didn't manually remove all files as well? I have a work around, painful as it is. I have a previously installed version of Kingdoms Gold on an old external hard drive with an XP OS. This works fine and I can play battles. The only downside is going from a solid state to a 7200rpm, is like going from broadband back to dial up

I will take you up on the offer in the interim I think, as like you I really want to have this one at least on the small vanilla map working and out the door. I won't PM you yet as I have 6 years worth of PM's to delete and half of them are still emboldened!

I'm starting off a new thread about what additions/changes I have implemented, in which I welcome ideas.

[Malcolm]

Yeah it would be good to get this off the ground. I won't be back online until Monday though, going to visit family for the next few days but I'll get Medieval II re-installed as soon as I'm back!

[LewisVee]

Really hoping you get this working good sir! i was sooo gutted last year when the release didnt come, was devastated, especially how bad the rome 2 launch was haha

[The Border Reiver]

Hey Malcolm, no problems. I've tried the complete reinstall, but no matter what I do I can't play battles on my Kingdoms Gold installation. However, when I use my original kingdoms disk it works on the old XP installation. Anyway I have been feverishly working on the mod and it is in a far more advanced version than the original Kingdom of the Scots already. I made what I deem (functional) icons all weekend, not as good as the Bruce's original icons, or others I've seen, but nonetheless they are serviceable

I think I need a few more days to have a really decent product available, although saying that it is thoroughly untested.

LewisVee, sorry I let you down before mate Rome 2, the game I so much want to love, still I've bought all the DLC! Stay tuned it shouldn't be too long.

[Malcolm]

Well if you are needing anything tested I will have access to my PC again tomorrow at some point so I will get Medieval 2 reinstalled then and (providing it works) will be able to get on it. Excited to get back on this. The in-modability of the campaign map in ETW, NTW and R2TW is just a bit depressing!

i'll try to start re-familiarising myself with the M2TW modding methods to help where I can!

[SlickStitch]

You got an estimated release date? Can't wait to play as my Clan