If i had the skills...

[BarnicleBill1]

The two top continents will certainly be connected, I'm not sure how to make the others useful. I could make one intentionally off limits, like the Americas in m2tw vanilla. That way the other factions would have to have a certain ship to reach it, which could be pretty fun. It would add an interesting endgame.

[Iron Aquilifer]

Agreed.

The issue with land bridges is that it often mucks up the cai which you really cannot afford considering how poor m2tw's is already


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[BarnicleBill1]

True. I think in my reorganizing of the religions and cultures I'll put the uruks (if they are kept) and possibly me so American factions on the farthest continent to the bottom right. Then there will be a fairly obvious split, making it not as odd that they are so far away.

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[isa0005]

I wouldn't mind seeing like early to mid colonial styled mod. The thought of pitting musket, pike and magic against hoards of mesoamerican undead would be awesome! Although the Late antiquity idea sounds equally if not more amazing!

On another note, I'm quite adept at world building, having made a few worlds for friends who play allot of table top RPGS and I'm an ameture, albeit unpublished author so if you'd like some help with anything regarding those topics I'd be more then happy to lend a hand you can check out some of my work bellow in my sig if you guys are interested. Of course none of it is related the theme of the mod but I generally think of my self as a rather versatile writer I also have relativity proficient graphic design skills as well so if you need anything along those lines I could give it a crack

On another note, have you thought of a name for this world you guys seem to be creating? Indus immediately popped to my mind (i.e. after the Indus Valley, the supposed cradle of humanity), Hesperia or "Western Land" in ancient Greek and the name of Italy which means "The Land of the Setting Sun" and Rodinia one of prehistoric super continents, the name stems from the Russian word for "Motherland" or "Homeland"

[BarnicleBill1]

I'm not sure of a name yet, and any help would be awesome of course!

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[isa0005]

I'm not sure of a name yet, and any help would be awesome of course!

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Well let us know what you'd like done and what areas, with regard to my skills, you'd like help with.

[BarnicleBill1]

Thank you! I'm trying to learn some my self, once I get a feel for it I'll let you know!

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[Yo el Rey]

I don't think isolating single or groups of factions is a good idea. While it might add a cool late game challenge for some factions once they've conquered the old world, it will restrict gameplay of the new world factions. I think everyone should be grouped together.

I'd like to help but I don't have any skills. I'm willing to learn though.

I came up with some ideas for what some factions could be based on:
African
-Songhai/Mali
-Zulu/Ashanti

Middle Eastern
-Ottoman
-Rashidun caliphate
-Moors

Antiquity
-Sassanids
-Ancient Egypt
-Romans
-Greeks

Indian
-Mughal
-Mauryan

Native American
-Aztec
-Inca
-Comanche
-Cherokee

Asian
-Shogunate Japan
-Ming China
-Yuan China
-Huns

European
-Celtic/Scottish
-Germanic dark age
-Medieval England
-Vikings
-Medieval HRE
-Ren. Italian Republics
-Ren. Spain
-1500s Russia
-Revolutionary France
-Byzantines
-Crusader States

Fantasy
-Uruks
-Undead/zombies

There's 32 ideas there. I think it's a pretty diverse list and each one could have a unique roster/gameplay from one another. Have you had any ideas for what kinds of factions you'd like?

[BarnicleBill1]

That's pretty good, the only thing I'm worried about is the use of gunpowder, it was honestly one of the only things in Thera that bothered me. I live the mod but I couldn't get past how gunpowder spread. It could be included but I'm not sure how to make it seem real. The list is great though!

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[isa0005]

That's pretty good, the only thing I'm worried about is the use of gunpowder, it was honestly one of the only things in Thera that bothered me. I live the mod but I couldn't get past how gunpowder spread. It could be included but I'm not sure how to make it seem real. The list is great though!

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I tend to agree, if its going to be a Late Antiquity mod then I don't really see how gunpowder could fit into the era realistically. I feel that the Crisis of the Third Century, a shattered Empire kind of scenario, would be a good place to start and expand from their, we have to remember (I assume, so please correct me if I'm wrong) that the idea is that the world is on the crux of the Medieval Period. Perhaps the whole notion of the "Old" and the "New" World should be avoided in this case? Perhaps it should instead remain the East vs West or perhaps the challenge should be a great 'menace' that comes for the world, an ancient evil enemy that will bring about the Dark Ages and a total societal collapse, reflecting the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of Early Medieval Period which some call The Dark Ages. How this could be done in game I'm not too sure, but maybe a giant Hoard faction of some kind can creep across the map, similar to the Huns or the Mongols... idk... just some ideas is all..

[isa0005]

What could be really kind of interesting is a Hyperborean Age styled world, like Conan the Barbarian kind of deal.

[BarnicleBill1]

A big end game sounds good. But I'm worried with the map like I currently have it it will just not work. In order for the final "challemg" to show up they have to be near each other, and with the spacing that wouldn't be possible. I think it may warrant a redrawing of the map. I was thinking the early to mid 6th century as the basis. Similar east vs west vibe (sassanids conquest of much of the eastern provinces and Heraclius fighting to take them back) then the end game of a massive expansion akin to the growth of the arabic/Islamic empire.
Edit: Here is an adjustment to the map, if we are to have an "end game" sort of scenario with a large faction to challenge you i would think it should be close enough to reach you. So with that in mind I have moved one of the continents closer and placed more islands in between so it can be possible to add crossings and allow the ai to expand into the scary beast it will need to be.

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[Yo el Rey]

Hmm I thought you wanted to do a Thera successor but what you guys are talking about is something different, and that's cool.

I'm confused about your concerns with gunpowder. Is it that you could come up with a plausible scenario where some factions have gunpowder and some don't?

[BarnicleBill1]

Yea, the gunpowder makes a theme based mod kinda difficult.

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[isa0005]

The new map looks great! Hey, I wonder, is it possible for hoard factions to be sea based? I mean it could be an idea that they perhaps come from an unknown place off map, the big enemies that is, if its possible to have them in ships...

[BarnicleBill1]

I honestly have no idea. It would have to be scripted I'd say.

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[Iron Aquilifer]

Scripts would only be needed if it were an emergent horde, and you need to script emergent anyway, land based or not.

The snag of course with naval hordes is getting the AI to use it properly. Tho saying that the AI is awful generally so that's probably a false dilemma. You can make a script which dictates the AI's every movement, while this would reduce the variables, at least it would mean that they get off of their ships.

However shadow factions IMHO can be far better (Barbarian Invasions Roman Rebels and Britannic Campaign's barons alliance) especially for mid/late game when you are nearing global conquest. With the right lore and scripting these emergent factions, as well as reforms, can better represent the transition from "Fall of the Empire" to "Rise of Nations"


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[BarnicleBill1]

I think Miguel80 made a pretty good civil war and inherited cell script, which could be useful.

[Comrade Roboto]

I just wish that after a certain time a mod is abandoned, it becomes freely available to be modified or improved. Btw, I just thought of adding some flag bearers to some units, how feasible would that be to do?

[BarnicleBill1]

I don't how that could be bad! And it is sad to see mods fall off and become stagnate.