Dragases's mod

[dragases1453]

Hi folks,

Yesterday i decided to make my own mod, basing it on the great map of Spurius( thanks to letting me use your great work)

The purpose of my mod is to add more regions( not to much) and to reskin every units( when the unpacker will be released); I'll try also to improve AI in campaign and in battles...maybe with the help of somone good at these things...

Anyway here some screen of the parts of the map i've modified....

Territories of the Byzantine Empire:







Balkans and Hungary:





Italy:







Germany:







France:





Spain:









Suggestions are welcome

[repman]

@dragases
As mentioned before the bigmap should not be crammed with new provinces or we have the siege parties again
historical correctness <-> gameplay

in the eastern part (russia, turkey,...) maybe we need some more provinces, ...is it possible to extend the bigmap even further eastwards or is it already at the limit?

If you are add just let's say 2 provinces for each faction as you have done its fine...

repman

[A_B]

Great idea. I do think the territories need to be balanced size wise, as the AI may have a hard time if they are too far apart.

The Castle/City split also allows the addition of small, low population provinces which are strategically importent (with a castle), which shouldn't unbalance the econimies.

[Peregrinus]

Looks good! If could could release just the modified map for now it would be great. And since im Portuguese im going to make a few sugestions regarding them:
Make pamplona a rebel castle.
Porto, make it Guimaraes, more to the east, check a map The harbor can be where porto is now, and make it the only portuguese region, the nation started small and we had our own reconquista. Also make Guimaraes a castle and Lisbon a city, Lisbon is North of the river! If possible, add another region in southern portugal, the Algarves, dont know what better choice would be for the castle/city name, would have to check the history books Finaly, Lisbon and everything south of it should be moorish, and north africa in the gibraltar area could have a few more regions so both Portugal and Spain have room to expand there

[dragases1453]

I know i still have to reorganize the factions..i mean the byzantine empire won't have cities in anatolia..seljuk will be bigger( all anatolia and holy land) portugal only with porto/guimaraes(as peregrinus suggested), moors with more regions...

And i haven't modified england,north africa, holy land, anatolia and russia..soon i'll add some regions there too...

then i'll place armies in the cities and i'll release a first version...

[MirNix DirNix]

For the german Map:
Move Augsburg to the east its in a line with nuremberg and Innsbruck. Change Braunschweig(Burnswick) with Köln(cologne). And not sure if you should Change kLagenfurt with Graz or Laibach(Ljubliana).

PS Great work

[lawngnome]

Few suggestions for settlements in Russia:

Vladimir
Nizhny-Novgorod
Bulgar
Ladoga
Pskov
Beloozero

Right now with the BigMap this area is like a wasteland... really needs twice or three times normal settlements badly.... silly western-centric CA never gives enough lovin' to the east.

Oh, and I wouldn't advise making the turks quite so powerful in 1080, as the Byzantines still had a lot of power in Anatolia at this point, and the holy land was ruled by a lot of small, independent Muslim factions (perfectly represented by rebels).

[Damocles]

Great map!

Here are some suggestions, to make for a more historically accurate and strategically interesting map:

You'll probably want to replace Reggio with Messina in northeast Sicily.

Sicily was the heart of the Norman Sicilian, Anjou's and later empires, so representing it with three provinces should be perfect. Charles of Anjou's Empire, which consisted of Sicily, Naples, Tunisia and Durazzo was considered the most powerful in Europe in the 13th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_of_Anjou

(Originally Sicily fell to the Hohenstaufens of the HRE in like 1190 or so, but then, in 1266, Charles, whom was the brother of King Louis of France conquered it at the behest of the Papacy. But Charles was pretty independent. Its too bad that states can't be broken off and form on their own.)

In the south, you'll probably want Reggio to represent Calabria (though again, if its between Reggio or Messina, drop Reggio), Bari can represent Apulia just fine, though Taranto is another good choice. Then Naples can cover the rest.

Messina should be about 20% Orthodox, 30% Islam and 50% Catholic, Syracuse should be 35% Orthodox, 20% Islam and 45% Catholic and Bari should be 50% Catholic, 50% Islam at this time.

Palermo in 1080 was undoubtedly 50% Islam, 10% Orthodox, 40% Catholic.

There is only so much Catholic because the Normans were in power and in the process of converting everything to the Latin rite. But the population stayed mostly Saracen and Greek for a long time.

Also, you're pretty much missing Epirus in its entirely. You should put the city of either Arta or Ioannina in there. It was a very important region, and was much fought over. The Epirote Despotae ring a bell? See: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...empire1265.jpg

That map should also help you with Anatolia. Though in brief, the most important thing to remember about it is that the borders of the provinces (geographically) will form a natural crescent shape. I.E, for a long time, the Byzantines held the coast which was often mountainous and easily defended, while the Turks held the interior. But the current strategic map doesn't grasp that.

I.E, if I could break it up myself, I'd have...

Nicaea where it is now, but then put Sinope between it and Trabzon. Trabson is really too big in the current map.

Smyrna is fine where it is, but Attalia should be there hugging the coast beneath Iconium and adjacent to Tarsus.

And then of course, the interior of Anatolia should be the four classic cities of Dorylaeum, Iconium, Amasia and Sivas. Possibly Ankara too. The BigMap is pretty big, afterall. Should all just be half greek half muslim.

The map in the link above will help.

There should also be at least 1 province for the Aegean Islands, such as Euboea, Lesbos, Chios etc. Also very important and often fought over. You could easily fit Negroponte on Euboea. You might want to add Corfu as well in the Adriatic. Both should be low population castles with very little farming percentage.

EDIT: Also, Crete should be Byzantine at the start. Venice didn't acquire it until like 1204. Cyprus, could then be made rebel, since it was never really a fundamental part of the Empire, and was in fact, the first part of it to rebel and go independent.

Though, if the game simulated island conquering and empire breakups better, it wouldn't be an issue. Since we don't want Byzantium to be too strong that the Turks can't overcome them. Its hard to model bigger but moribund states contrasted with small yet vigorous ones.

[tnick777]

how do you add new provinces?

[dragases1453]

@tnick777:
There's plenty of tutorials...you ahve to use the mod switch and then create new provinces as you did for RTW

@MirNix DirNix:
Yes i'll move Augsburg East, but i'm sure that Brunswick and Klagenfurt were more importanta thenn Koln or Graz...the German king who fought against Frederick II was from Brunswick...

@lawngnome
Thanks for the cities to add in Russia Anyway the Seljuk turks in 1080-1097 were very powerful because they were still united from Iran to Anatolia...and if you remember in 1097 the Crusaders reconquered Nicaea from the turks and gave it to Alexius Comnenus because the byzantines lost all the anatolian dominions...only with Alexius, Ioannes and Manuel they gained quite half Anatolia...

@Damocles:
Thanks for the suggestions for Sicily
I dunno if i'm gonna add new regions in Epirus, because i don't want a "Total Siege" game...
Today i'll finish to add regions in Anatolia and i'll show you soem images this evening

[Ghosty]

how do u edit the battle AI?

[MirNix DirNix]

köln was definitly very important as it was one of the main archbishop seats in the HRE. Brunswick came to power around 1200. And its to near to Magdeburg. Köln would on the other hand fill a large gap in the west.
With Klagenfurt i agree for the start time, it lost it's position to Graz in the 12th century, when the Habsburg Empire got Duke's of Styria.

[dragases1453]

@Ghosty
First i'll finish the map and then i'll start editing the AI...i want to make the AI to act in a loyal way( it breaks always alliances) and thegn i'll see what other to do...

@MirnNix DirNix
ok so i'll go for koln

[dragases1453]

Look, this is the map from which i'll re-design the various factions' expansions...as you can see in 1097 the seljuks hold quite all anatolia and the middle-east...

[Ghosty]

that map looks great!

Qno u know where to edit the battle AI?

[dragases1453]

I finished to add the regions..now i have to create new garrisons for the new cities..anyway i tried to play a campaign and the AI is acting well...i'm using Italiano AI modifies...

Here's a screen...

[dragases1453]

I finished to add the regions..now i have to create new garrisons for the new cities..anyway i tried to play a campaign and the AI is acting well...i'm using Italiano AI modifies...

Here's a screen...

[Damocles]

Look, this is the map from which i'll re-design the various factions' expansions...as you can see in 1097 the seljuks hold quite all anatolia and the middle-east...

The map is actually somewhat ironic.

In 1099-1101 the First Crusade rolled in, and on the heels of that, the Byzantines were able to recapture Nicaea, Smyrna and much of the southern coast of Anatolia. Later, under Emperor John Comnenus (The Beautiful) was even more impressive. He managed to extend the sway of the Empire over Antioch and even of Armenia and much of Syria! It was the last real heyday of the Empire. His son, Manuel Comnenus bankrupted it on repeated adventures. If you look at a map from 1200, 100 years later, you'll see that they made very impressive gains regardless, and were clearly the dominant power in the region...Of course, that was also a year before it all comes crashing down.

At this time in 1200, the second Byzantine 'successor' state was carved out in Trabzon from the Turks with help from the Georgians in response to a dispute over the throne.

Unfortunately, the Fourth Crusade then rolled in and smashed the Empire. So there was now a Despot in Morea/Epirus under the Angelus, a Latin King in Thessalonia, a Latin Emperor in Constantinople, The Nicaean Empire under the Paleolegus(sp) in Anatolia and the Trabzon Empire under the Comnenus. At the same time, the Turks were dealing with the Mongols.

This was pretty stable until the Nicaean Empire managed to reconquer Constantinople in about 1260ish. This was unfortunate because all of their manpower and resources went into reclaiming Greece and fighting back the Angevins, Latins, Bulgarians, Serbs, etc...Whereas the Osman Turks showed up and started conquering Anatolia. They soon lost Smyrna and Nicaea.

So somewhat interestingly...The map in 1300 looked pretty much exactly like the one in 1097 (with even the Crusader states now absorbed). But the 200 years between had alot of back and forth, until the last 50 years. Whereupon the Turks were just unstoppable from then until the mid 16th century...

[selenius4tsd]

Looking good Dragases.

[dragases1453]

Dragases's mod has been released

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=73196

From now i'll use only that thread...