Welcome

Welcome to anyone joining this group and please voice any suggestions or concerns you may have regarding this mod.

This social group was only recently created and as such all information regarding the mod will be transfered to this group in the coming weeks.

Will this be a total conversion or will it be modfoldered, and will it be steam-compatible?

Im not to sure about steam-compatible as i have never used steam. If steam reads the game folders as normal then im sure it will be compatible.

A little about the mod: Until i am able to write up a longer more detailed review...

The game will be a total conversion in the sense that we are using a new map designed and created specifically for this mods gameplay. Absinthia has created the map. The map is of England (not the UK). The regions consist of major and minor regions. This is a unique idea that will change strategies and create a new kind of gameplay designed specificaly for DotC. A Major region is just like any region you have seen in any other mod or vanilla. You are able to construct recruit etc. They are more or less the centers of commerce. A Minor region is a only big enough on the campaign map to encompass a settlements graphic (give ot take). They are our preplaced forts, but they act as settlements. You can recruit and even construct in these preplaced forts but are limited.
We are at this stage using generic units, but absinthia plans to edit them to give the mod some colour. Units will be limited in the types you can recruit. If you have ever played DotC you would know there was only a few types you could get (Infantry, Bow, Knight, Catapult). We have expanded on that to create a more indepth unit tree. But, ALL units will be generals. Only a few captians will appear in the game. Generally in the form of revolts or peasant units. With every unit being a general, this creates more roleplay options for us.
A new building tree will be used. The building tree will be quite unique as the game takes place in a 10 year period (1 week = 1 turn = 520 turns over 10 years). Most major buildings will already be constructed for the player (its not expected that a cathedral or fortress could be built in 10 years). Most buildings will be more like events that the player can opt to hold. Such as go hunting, raise taxes, increase the city guard, send out more patrols along the roads etc. We have quite a few ideas brewing for this already.

This mod will not be historically accurate, but we will attempt to use historic facts and keep the gameplay realistic.

On of the major parts of this mod will come in the way of scripts. Alot of the game will be randomized via scripts, but there will be some scripted events.

If you have played DotC you would also know that holding tournaments and raiding castles is a big part of gameplay. Well, yes, we have a way to include both these and more with this mod. You can also rescue a princess if u like.

As with DotC, if you lose your starting region, your capital, you lose the game.

I will write up a more detailed review in a week or 2 and bring everything we have together. At this stage it is a lot of detailed ideas that have been worked out individually (so it will all work as planned). Only the map at this stage is more or less complete. I have been out of modding for 2 months (almost 3) so i am looking forward to coming back and beginning to put it all together.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

i hate the fact that i lost the updated region/settlement list when modrealms went offline, luckily i implemented most of the comments/suggestions in time. it is no big loss, though the list contained references of what was interesting about many provinces in particular the micros. i will re-build it as it can be useful for determine settlement sizes, buildings, event buildings and special stuff.

i have been thinking of what to do with Wales and the part of Scotland on the map. those areas is not important for the campaign concept, but the AI will not realize this. as such the AI might very well get tangled up in those areas, rather than the York-London axis. at campaign start the rebel AI will control most of the map and most likely mess it all up by leaving Wales/Scotland weakened.
so i have been considering if we should make Wales/Scotland a separate faction, perhaps even one each. their main purpose would be to keep their lands intact, not being affected by the "true" rebel faction spending resources defending settlements scattered all over the map.
if so, both kingdoms should be considered "special" rebel factions, strong but non-aggressive, configured to mainly sit tight in their lands. this way one could have peaceful relations with them, while attacking "true" rebels.

alternatively the map could be cropped even further, as to remove most of southern Scotland, but Wales would still be present on the map.

I'm here and very interested. Tsarsies if you want another forum let me know. I have a forum setup just for Stainless Steel but might plan to expand since Mod Realms is no longer around.

I like the idea of making them a seperate faction. Or we could use a garrison script designed specifically for those areas. Or, a mixture of both. If wee make them a seperate faction are u think of making them the same special rebel faction, or 2 new factions. Not that it matters as we have plenty of faction slots available. If they were seperate entities we could base some events around them, bring them into the game same how...

Thnks for the offer for the use of a forum Y. Seeing as we have just recently setup here due to modrealms going down i think we will stay here for now. Atleast until we get a proper feel for everything. But i will definatly keep ur suggestion in mind.

Any idea on faction icon? Round shield, Heater shield, flag, banner? or maybe something totally different? If you want me to start working on some faction icons let me know T. Or if you would like to me to work on anything else I'm here. I have several projects going as usual but love to work on this mod. Really like the story and setting.

Maybe something different for faction icons, as the factions are just individuals (Sir Wolfric the Wild, Cedric of Rotherwood etc), as oppossed to actual faction names. Although they will play exactly the same as factions, i want the illusion that they are not. So when u play a campaign you feel u are the leader of ur faction and not just a master controling the various puppet leaders (as all other mods are realistically). So in that sense, maybe i can find some pictures of thier faces from the original game and we could use thier faces as the icons?.

If you know anyone who would be willing to do some of the campaign map models that would be a tremendous help. Its nothing we need in a rush or anything as we havent decided on actual strat map models. But i do know that some of them will need to be changed for certain. Such as the settlement upgrades and how they look on the map. The character models need to be changed to represent a Jouster (just a knight on horseback would be fine), a Minstrel... And then we will need the resource icons. Definatly the Jousitng fields/rings. Other then the strat map models i think everything else is more or less smooth sailing.

Amazing... I really like the fort idea. It will be steam-compatible btw.

Ha, ha, I used to play this game on my C64 back in the day!
I think it's great that you are doing this, have my support. I don't have any skill so I can't help... Maybe lobbying...
It would be cool if you can make the radar map to resemble the old game.

Thanx for the interest in the idea

It would be good to use the radar map from the old game but our map is a little different. But we will see.

And no modding experience is fine if u have any ideas feel free to throw them at me . I have not had much time of late to work on this but i am slowly finding myself with more time and a lot of interest to get it done. I am hoping to release some kind of preview to the public soon, nothing exceptional, more of a lay-out to try and gain community support and interest.

I have started working on the EDB.

about Scotland - the idea of non agressive separate faction is good. but Wales is a little another story - Wales was (from half?) under control of Normans lords (Marcher lords).

about faction icons. are there any in DotS original game? or from Ivanhoe movie/book?

EDIT: I found some pictures from original game and there are visible some faction symbols... I like some pictures (castle besieged, duels) could be used in mod? how is it with Trade Mark of original game?

also could be all look of mod (menu, messages...) as original game? I like its interface.

I think the original game is open to the public now so i dont think copyright would come into play. As for the more recent versions of the game from PC, Xbox, Playstation, thats another story.

I was planning on using the faces or some such for faction icons. but have not as yet decided. We should be able to use photos from the films created of Ivanhoe for characters and even faction Icons as factions in the mod are just individual knights/nobles.

We would only need Saxon faces as they are the only 3 playable factions.

yes there are only three playable factions but we need symbol for each faction...

the face is very good and original idea

have you DotS game? maybe you could do any screenshots from it. what do you think about interface of mod to set up it close to original game?

Tsarsies: The idea of using merchants as Jousters in tournaments is a great one.
I wonder, have you done any research into what these merchants will actually do if there are other merchants around but no tradable resources?

I have not done any tests into what they will do. But i assume they will attempt to acquire each other. There will be a tradable resource in every Major region (almost every region). So there will be plenty of resources to trade (joust on)... The interesting part which needs the testing is whether they will all attempt to move to the region which has the highest income. The Joust field is merely a mine constructed, and we can use up to 9 levels of mines to increase the income from the resource. This will vary from region to region so the resource value will change.

I look forward to testing it.

yes there are only three playable factions but we need symbol for each faction...

the face is very good and original idea

have you DotS game? maybe you could do any screenshots from it. what do you think about interface of mod to set up it close to original game?

I posted a link for a browser version of the game. There were only 4 playable characters, so only 4 faces in the original game. We may have to use faces from one of the movies and colour them like the DotC faces.

I also have access to a few of the music tracks from the game. They were redone and are free to use.

I found free version of DotC. here is linke where you can download it. I do not know why I can not do pictures by Fraps from this game (for TW games Fraps works fine...).
http://www.games2download.com/free-s...nder-crown.htm

I found some pictures. one of them with all faces:

yeah i think that is one of the more recent PC versions of the game. By recent i mean like 2005. I played that version, i was not too thrilled with it. They added playing cards to it, which was a nice idea in theory. You could play the cards during your hand, like adding +10 attack to all swordsman for the next battle, or your knights will attack first, or enemy units do 5% less damage or you gain an extra card after battle etc. The cards made the game too easy.

But i guess we could use the faces

I never played it. only now free version.

I like some things from interface. and there are more faces, the characters are changed depends which Lord player choose. so I think there will be no problem to have 8 faces...

this are all faces which I found.