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Thread: Shieldwall - General Information and Goals

  1. #1
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Shieldwall - General Information and Goals



    Update: Just wanted to give a brief update on the project as Petty Kingdoms name has changed to Shieldwall. The team has also had three new additions with Johnyyy, DrunkFlamingo, and TheZuma joining the project, all of whom bring a tremendous amount of talent to the table. If you guys could see some things that has been going on behind the scenes I think it would knock your socks off, I'm really excited about the prospects and possibles the Shieldwall team can accomplish going forward.



    The aim of the mod is to basically scale things back like the economy and to give the game a more grittier look when it comes to unit design. The goal is to have each faction you play feel more like a fledgling Kingdom rather then an overpowered behemoth and a more of a Europa Universalis approach when it comes to the economy. Things will start off slow and small and wars can become disastrous if you are reckless. While armies will have more of peasant feel about them they will look sexy as hell with more variants and armor will be rare and expensive. Vikings will be dangerous and a force to be reckoned with no matter what faction you play as. Armies in Shieldwall will be smaller and poorly equipped in comparison to vanilla to better reflect the period. In addition the environment will be harsher with the weather having more of an impact on the battle map. As far as historical accuracy goes we hope to achieve a higher level, but still aim to have a mod that is fun and not a chore to play.




    • Improve the political systems, world interaction, and mechanics of the campaign using Lua scripting
    • Reduce or eliminate background income (no more free money!)
    • A complete re-balance of the trait system
    • Make Influence a more important feature where reach 10 is much harder to achive
    • Increase the importance of trade income so that you have to pick your wars more carefully
    • Increase raiding and ransom income and negative effect (Don't get raided!)
    • Re-balanced the economy to adjust for those changes
    • Reduce the amount of traits character have and the rate at which they trigger (less is more )
    • Food system reworked to stress importance


    This is what is planned for the first release, but will be expanded on for sure to achieve the grand aim of the mod.





    • Battle time will be increased with adjustments to movement speed and unit stats
    • Morale will be tweaked to better reflect the nature of peasant armies (if the general dies they go home)
    • Adjust unit spacing and number of ranks to give a less organized look for some units while tightening for others.
    • New unit balancing with the focus on shield wall tactics and balancing.
    • More realistic weapon balancing where spears will be focuszed on defense and weapons like the Dane axe will be damage
    • Some re-balancing of unit stats to reflect the formation changes and reduced armor (remember what happened to Harald Hardrada!)
    • More interesting skirmishes with the addition of more throwing weapons and the sling
    • Each culture will have a more distinctive fighting style on the battle map




    • Lots of new shield patterns to make the shield walls look amazing
    • More varied unit designs with more unit parts per unit for all factions
    • New units types like slingers and two handed spears
    • Reduce amount of armor used overall to give units a less organized look
    • Some new units include Pict Long Spears, Irish slingers, peasant levies, and Norse Warrior Archers
    • Sexy unit commands to fit the unit type with the General's and King's bodyguard getting 2!
    • Added medium round shields for Gaelic factions so they don't look like Vikings
    • Foot bodyguards for starting generals with some factions having the option to upgrade to mounted generals later on as horse will be expensive
    • Heavy throwing spears for some Viking and Saxon units
    • Irish darts added to some infantry units to reflect the nature of warfare in Ireland



    As for each faction they will have a more unique feel on the battle map, for example the Irish won't have any archers. The archers will be replaced with slingers and some of their infantry will get a limited amount of darts/light javelins. The Irish will be light and fast with lots of short and mid range projectiles at their disposal, but if they get pinned down in a drawn out fight they will have issues hence where the Gallowglasses come in to try limit that weakness latter on. Each culture will have their own unique battle map strengths and weakness to give each a more defined personality. Some units you will learn to fear, gone are the days of levies going toe to toe with heavy armored troops. That said levy troop will have their uses as fatigue will play a more important role in long battles. These are just the initial goals, but these will be expanded on after the core features are integrated and working as intended.


    We will actively post updates and mod progress, if you have any questions feel free to ask them.


    The Shieldwall Team:


    Kinjo - Mod Design
    Johnyyy - Art Design
    Drunkflamingo - Scripting and Campaign Features Design
    TheZuma - Campaign Design and Traits
    Sinulf - Research and old Norse language
    Last edited by Kinjo; October 10, 2018 at 03:22 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    This sounds really interesting. Though one of my current questions is are you using the beta patch for this, or are you using the previous version for this work?

  3. #3
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    For testing I am using the beta, but the mod will be released on the most current official build.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    I like the sound of this! Will be watching with great interest, especially for readding slingers.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Very interesting ideas Kinjo

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  6. #6
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Just a small update on some of the units and unit feastures I have been working on.

    2 standard bearers in general's and King's bodyguard units (unique and faction standard)
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Re-done Gallowglass unit with custom unit card to reflect the gear changes. The original unit was pretty bland and was just basically a copy of the Norse version, these variant changes were done to give the unit a more unique appearance and to add a more Gealic influence and style to the unit.


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    Irish Darts! - So at the moment I am experimenting with adding darts to most Irish infantry units with a very low ammo count to reflect the nature of warefare in Ireland. In other words throw lots of at the enemy! With the addition of slingers and darts the aim is to make the Irish fast and agile with lots of pesky projectiles, with their weakness being lack of armor and durability in prolonged combat.

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Irish shields - Can't say I'm a fan of most Irish infantry units using large Viking shields so I'm currently looking at some options to adress this.

    Kern spearmen with smaller shields (wip)
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    As a harken to the past one of my favorite units from Medieval TW: Viking Invasion was the Bonnachts.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Hopefully you guys like what you are seeing and feel free to give some feedback.

    @Dresden thanks man for your help on the campaign variables!
    Last edited by Kinjo; August 16, 2018 at 09:45 AM.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Damn man, looking good!

    Though most of it at the moment seems to be focused on the Irish (not that I can blame you, those new units look sick af), I’m looking forward for more previews to the other factions as well!

    Good luck on your current endeavours my friend, and may the gods smile on you on your travels!
    A posh raiding fellow~

  8. #8
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Thanks Posh B!

    All factions will be getting some pretty sweet additions and some serious polish. It is true the Irish are getting the most attention atm, but that is mainly do to how bland the faction is and how un unique the faction feels. The main things I was able to achieve today was adding slings to the game and precursor missiles working properly for infantry. I got a feeling the Irish will be a really fun faction to play with lots of tricks up their sleeves and heeps of projectiles to throw. This will come at a cost as archers will be removed from the faction roster and the lower tier troops will be pretty weak in melee. The archers will be replaced by slingers as I feel it better represents the factions fighting style and battle accounts in this period. Most Irish infantry will have a small amount of throwing spears that will act like a shotgun as the enemy approaches the battle line. Slingers is how the Irish will skirmish with archers of other factions at long range, they will be low accuracy high rate of fire and if upgraded will get a version with a shield.

    Slingers and Irish infantry javs in action!

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Being hit by everything the drunken Irishmen can throw!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Loose!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Head shot!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    After I finish the Irish factions I will be moving to the English Kingdoms next.

    Mercian general's bodyguard with two standard bearers
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Last edited by Kinjo; August 15, 2018 at 07:20 AM.

  9. #9
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    After some serious long hours and some help from Moon Hoplite I was able to get medium shields working in Thrones. I think they look impressive and fit the faction much better then the larger Viking/Saxon shields.

    Medium Irish Shields
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

  10. #10

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Doing a good job as usual mate! Another question that popped in my head is “will you change the unit model variation?” Because honestly, vanilla unit variation is pitiful and makes the game look like “Clone Wars(TM)” to the Nth degree!

    Keep up the good work as usual fam!
    A posh raider~

  11. #11
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Hey Posh,

    Yeah I will be changing the variations for every unit, right now I am building templates and adding in new models. Once I get that done I will be able to crank out all of the units. In vanilla there are 3 variation in a unit, I will be bumping it up to 5 and adding in better color variations as well as 5-6 shield patterns per unit.

    Added in Gaelic royal saddles for the Gaelic Kingdom factions and a unique Irish dart model for the Gaelic infantry.

    Gaelic Saddle
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Irish dart model which is btw the only projectile that actually match the model that is being thrown out of the javelin models. (aka the toothpick )
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Here are some reworked units for the Irish, I wanted to save the Vikings and Saxons for last as they will probably be some of the best looking units.

    Re-worked Gallowglass with better variation, the unit has 5 unique variations not sure how much I can push it before it effects performance so I will just stick to 5 for now.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Re-worked Household Riders with new variations and different saddles.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Re-worked Kern Spearmen with new variations.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Some things I am planning on the doing in the future is trying to add a long spear for Picts that is used two handed. Not sure how it will go but I will be adding heavy short range throwing spears for the Viking factions for some of the units as well. With the Saxon I'm looking at having some mixed shield types for late period units so they will have some round and kite shields in the unit.

    Just for a comparison here is a before picture of the vanilla units.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Last edited by Kinjo; August 25, 2018 at 07:09 AM.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    They're looking really good, especially those saddles. Though I seem to recall Irish darts having fletching on the far end - maybe I'm wrong there.

  13. #13
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Just updated the op with some good stuff!

    Thanks Hydrall, but I can't take credit for the saddle it is an old Attila asset that fits the role perfect. As for the darts having fletching, I have seen them illustrated both ways with the ones with fletchings being late period. That said I am possibly looking at a tip version.

    Maybe something like this that is seen in the myarmoury thread.


    This thread has a tipped dart
    https://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=1997


    Here is my first go at a Pictish long spear unit and the actually look cool in the schiltron formation. The unit turned out better then expected and they have mixed length spears in the unit with some long ones in the mix. I didn't want to add just another pike unit so this is kind of an experimental unit as the Picts did use longer spears and will help them against their Welsh neighbors who have the best cavalry in the North. They Scots will be the only faction to have long spears which will be some of the beast spearmen in the game do to their extra reach.

    Long Spears spear variation
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Long Spears in action
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Schiltron formation
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Oh and these dirty peasants!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Since I have a working two handed spear animation set all factions will get a serf levy unit. They won't have a shield, but they will have a war scythe mixed in with their spears to give them a more peasant look.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    ....
    O
    M
    G!!!!!

    FFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

    D00d, those piky boiiz look kewl, now I’m really looking forward to the Anglo-Saxon rework! Keep up the good work and best of luck fam!

    A posh (and now converted sottsmen) raiding fellow~

  15. #15

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Edit: whoops looks like the TWC post submission thing messed up! Sorry bout that! If some Moderator or site admin could delete this, it would be nice! Sorry again!
    Last edited by ThePoshBarbarian; August 20, 2018 at 12:16 PM. Reason: Internet gnome magic :wub:ery!

  16. #16

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Looks very impressive, good luck in further development.
    What would you think about adding more shield paint varations? I could even help with some Norse designs
    Last edited by Johnyyy; August 21, 2018 at 06:13 PM.

  17. #17
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    Just a small update as I am wrapping up the last of the Irish units.


    New Mount - I reworked the Gaelic royal saddle and gave it a custom texture to have a functional tartan pattern that displays in the faction color.

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    High King's guard with new royal mounts
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    New Unit:

    Champion's Retinue (Curraidh) - The Champion unit will be the best native Irish unit the Gaelic factions will have at their disposal until they can recruit gallowglass. They will simply be a small band of veteran warriors that can inspire the peasant levies to stay in the fight a bit longer as morale will be a difficult thing to manage for some troops and the inspire ability will be rare. The Champion unit will be the only unit that will have this ability for the Gaelic factions. They also have a custom unit command so that the unit is commanded by a unique champion/hero model. With armor being scaled back in this mod this will be one of the best armed and armored units for the Irish. This unit is inspired by the legends like Cú Chulainn "Hound of Ulster" and Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of followers. Even in the ecclesiastical annals it is written of how the champions of Ireland fell in battle against the Vikings. The unit will be a small sword band that inspires and is armed with large/heavy Gaelic swords and heavy throwing spears. They excel at leading the charge and helping keep the battle line intact on the flanks far from the general.

    New Custom UI


    Unit with unique champion 1
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Unit with unique champion 2
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Unit with unique champion 3
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    Shillelagh or Cudgels - Added traditional clubs to some of the lower tier Gaelic units as secondary weapons that will make their lighter troops hit a bit harder then daggers.

    Shillelagh model
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    @Johnyyy I might take you up on that as there are a few patterns I would like to add to the Norse factions. Feel free to send me a pm what you have in mind and if you are able to create new designs.

    Thanks Posh, but I would wait until you see the English Kingdoms units before you convert
    Last edited by Kinjo; August 23, 2018 at 05:03 AM.

  18. #18

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    At this rate CA will be offering you a job!

  19. #19

    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    A small preview of what we've achieved together with Kinjo

    Jomsvikingar!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Last edited by Johnyyy; August 27, 2018 at 06:41 AM.

  20. #20
    Kinjo's Avatar Taiko
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    Default Re: Petty Kingdoms

    For those who are following the progress of the mod Johnyyy has joined the team and he has been hammering away like Thor on new shield patterns and they look absolutely amazing let me tell you. The samples shown with our new custom Jomsviking unit is just a small glimpse of what is to come. Stay tuned!

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