BROKEN CRESCENT: The Campaign

[Yoda Twin]

Mirage they look awsome, i really like the dark red, seems really islamic

[NaptownKnight]

A question I have is what use will the Imams be? Most of the region covered in this mod would be somewhere between 86% to 99% Islamic.

[iudas]

Well, dennouncing heretics...? And, if we're going to have sunni and shiite as separate religions, they're going to play a significant role.

[NaptownKnight]

Oh okay. That would be cool to have suuni and shiite, but wasnt one of those sects extremely more powerful than the other?

[iudas]

Oh okay. That would be cool to have suuni and shiite, but wasnt one of those sects extremely more powerful than the other?

That isn't an argument. We have only two factions orthodox in vanilla: the Russians weren't a power, and the Byz was decaying. But they aren't simply... Christians. Wouldn't that be bad?
And why would you call the divisions of Islam sects, while most people call Catholicism and Orthodoxy "religion"?

[Miraj]

This is a common misconception of muslim history. In reality most of the "muslim" world wasn't even fully muslim yet. Even in Afghanistan many of the tribes were still pagan and in the north even more so. Persia was a hotbed of heresy and deviency. There were 100 and 1 different sects, sufi orders, cults, and shiite heresies.
Most of the map will not even be 70% Islam, there will be tonnes of pagan and heresy components in the east and India will be 50 - 100% hindu.

If I can mod in the shiites similar as how heresy works, I will - but its not a priority.

[Romanos]

A few maps that I think could help your mod.

Levant, Egypt, Caucusus, turkey, parts of Arabia and Iraq
in 1100


in 1200


in 1300


Europe in genarl in 1300
[img=http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2249/1300xhtmii9.th.jpg]

[Miraj]

Thanks for the resource Rome AC.

The year 1175 was a real turning point because the Seljuks were crumbling and other nations around it were rising. So its hard to find a map that details this around this exact year.

[Miraj]

Just some old landscape shots for you to admire while I'm on study leave, their from the campaign map.


THE MONSOON RAINS IN INDIA



A RIVER CUTS THROUGH RUGGED PERSIAN CLIFFS


THE TREACHEROUS KHYBER PASS: GATEWAY TO INDIA



AND FINALLY, THE BYZANTINES IN HOT PURSUIT OF EGYPTIAN FOES..

(nothing new, just liked this shot for some reason)

[PartyElite]

i could do with some nice rains right now..... lol
honestly, its looking beautiful! i can't wait to see my computer lag as i try to see these beauties on all high settings.... great work man! Great work!

cheers
- indian_boy

[Ahiga]

The last shot could work well as a signature. I really love the scenery, especially the khyber and India. Both really capture the mood of the area.

[Qarama]

My first baby steps into recoloring skins...



Reddish/Orange for the Sultanate of Ghanzi. Nothing amazing.

hi
do you guys also think that the Imam looks more like an Greek Orthodox "cleric"?

i think he looks better.

[Qarama]

Hmm, I was thinking about adding a new settlement in Anatolia. Where exactly would that settlement be on that screen I posted?

Can you guys recommend important Anatolian cities to add in general. Try to keep it to major settlements.

So far I have:

Nicaea
Attalia
Smyrna
Trebizond
Sinop
Konya (Ikonion)
Kayseri (Caesara)
Ankara
Tarsus
Sis
Malatya
Erzurum

I'd like some more.

what do you think about Denizli (in old turkish Tengizli) the city near the old Greek city of Heriapolis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis
as a resource you could add marble (Denizli still has big marble resources which are exported to many countrys).

The area has been occupied since prehistoric times, there were important ancient Greek and Roman towns nearby, (Hierapolis and Laodicea on the Lycus), which persisted through the Byzantine period.
The city was founded in its current location after the area has been settled by the Turks. 300 years ago the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Denizli and recorded the town as follows: "The city is called (Denizli) (which means seaside in Turkish) as there are several rivers and lakes around it. In fact it is a four day trip from the sea. Its fortress is of square shape built on flat ground. It has no ditches. Its periphery is 470 steps long. It has four gates. These are: painters gate in North, saddle-makers gate in the East, new Mosque gate in the South, and vineyard gate in the West. There are some fifty armed watchmen in the fortress, and they attend the shop. The main city is outside the fortress with 44 districts and 3600 houses. There are 57 small and large mosques and district masjids, 7 madrasahs, 7 children's schools, 6 baths and 17 dervish lodges. As everybody live in vineyards the upper classes and ordinary people do not flee from each other."
The place has been successfully in peaceful condition for hundreds of years without war. Following the World War I during the Independence War the Greek forces managed to come as close as Saraykoy, a small town 20 km northwest of Denizli. The leaders of Denizli urged the public against the danger of the situation and successfully defended their city. As such the city has been under Turkish rule for almost a century.

you could add Denizli between Smyrna and Attilya near the river on your map. Just an idea...

[CelticPagan]

Just curious about this, but would it be possible to have varying levels of Islamic clerics, like the Christians have? Someone more familiar with Islam would have to provide the names for each level, but I've heard Islamic Clerics called Sheiks, Imams, Ayatollahs, etc... Would add some more depth to the religious aspects of the Mod, IMHO.

By now Mirage must hate me and my suggestions, as it means more coding for him

[Hissing Fauna]

THE TREACHEROUS KHYBER PASS: GATEWAY TO INDIA

...

*Grabs shoulders and shakes*

I NOW DECLARE THIS MOD TO BE GREATEST EVER KNOWN TO MAN.

Oh, and do you plan on making the Khyber Pass a stage in the Custom battles?

[Miraj]

...

*Grabs shoulders and shakes*

I NOW DECLARE THIS MOD TO BE GREATEST EVER KNOWN TO MAN.

Oh, and do you plan on making the Khyber Pass a stage in the Custom battles?

There will be plenty of choke points on the campaign map. Fords, valleys, passes, impasssable desert "corridors" etc.

I will 'explore' the campaign map over the next month or so finding the most gorgeous and exciting battlefields to use for custom battles.

[PartyElite]

hey there, i was just wondering if it is possible to make historical battles? maybe out of the scope of this mod [for now?], but if we were to make hist. battles, it'd be real funky. Only problem would be that thered be no voice... possibly only subtitles.
BUT if CA _does_ release patch #2 with said "Cinematic Editor" there may be a way to get .avi or .biks to play to introduce the historical battle?
just a thought.

i can't wait to see more unravelled...
cheers
-indian_boy

[CelticPagan]

hey there, i was just wondering if it is possible to make historical battles? maybe out of the scope of this mod [for now?], but if we were to make hist. battles, it'd be real funky. Only problem would be that thered be no voice... possibly only subtitles.
BUT if CA _does_ release patch #2 with said "Cinematic Editor" there may be a way to get .avi or .biks to play to introduce the historical battle?
just a thought.

i can't wait to see more unravelled...
cheers
-indian_boy

Interesting question there. It got me wondering, are we going to do new music for this Mod? Something more Middle Eastern? If so, I'll be happy to send some mp3 files I have of Turkish and Egyptian instrumental music to whoever would be making that. Indian_boy, maybe you could contribute some Indian music? That'd be way cool. Guess we could use something like Gregorian chants for the Crusaider faction, and if anyone has access to either Armenian or Georgian folksongs (I presume instrumental is best) we could make one hell of a cool new soundtrack.

[Miraj]

hey there, i was just wondering if it is possible to make historical battles? maybe out of the scope of this mod [for now?], but if we were to make hist. battles, it'd be real funky. Only problem would be that thered be no voice... possibly only subtitles.
BUT if CA _does_ release patch #2 with said "Cinematic Editor" there may be a way to get .avi or .biks to play to introduce the historical battle?
just a thought.

i can't wait to see more unravelled...
cheers
-indian_boy

Simple answer: out of scope. Not really even thinking of it for the first version - its a very time consuming affair. Custom battle locations on the other hand are much easier.

Perhaps for later version we could do historic battles, that for sure.

[PartyElite]

yeah that stuff would be awesome:
NOTE:
that stuff refers to:
1) new soundtrack
2) new battle intro movies [using cinematic editor]
3) new faction intro movies [ "" ]

but not as important.... maybe in future builds, we could have a team set up on working on those exclusively or something? right now, the mod is looknig awesome as is. I wouldn't want the Mod players having their heads explode by an overload of Awesomeness! [ mine aleady partially did! ]

too much coffee in the system!

cheers
-indian_boy
edit: i didn't notice ur post mirage. but i think we spoke the same thing?