BROKEN CRESCENT: Questions and Suggestions

[Miraj]

Please ask general questions or suggestions about Broken Crescent here.

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Under Construction...

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What's Broken Crescent basically about?

Broken Crescent is a modification that shifts the Total War game experience eastwards from the original M2TW map and portray the warring states of the medieval middle east in all its glory and color. Broken Crescent is about diversity and breaking the cultural mold, yet stays true to the Total War's promise of massive and beautiful battles and strategic warfare.

What are the minimum game requirements for playing Broken Crescent?

Broken Crescent will require a clean and uncorrupted install of Medieval 2: Total War with patch 1.3 applied.

Does Broken Crescent install to it's own folder or does it overwrite vanilla data files?

Broken Crescent 1.0 will install to its own folder and all installed files will be kept isolated to the BC folder. No elements of the vanilla M2TW data directory will be over-written or changed. Broken Crescent can be played along side other mods as long as they are also self-contained and built for M2TW 1.3.

Is Broken Crescent focused on historical accuracy?

Yes and no. While historical accuracy is not our our 'raison d'etre' it is high on our priorities. However, we have no qualms with bypassing or 'enhancing' history for gameplay purposes. Our Golden Rule that is followed is that we are Historically Inspired, Historically Influenced, but not a historical imitation. All units and designs have a historical inspiration and influence, but are not sought to be pure imitations.

What are the religions present in Broken Crescent?

Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Paganism & Heresy.

What are the playable factions present in Broken Crescent?

Broken Crescent features 9 new playable Muslim factions, 5 new playable Christian factions and also the pagan Kypchaks and Hindu Rajputs. To learn more about our factions please go here and follow the links.

What is the center faction(s) for the Mod?

While there are certain "major" factions, there is no center or "main" faction in Broken Crescent, the cast of the mod being that of an ensemble.

Why are the Muslims so well armored?

The notion of the Muslims, or Saracens, wielding light sabers and running around in robes is one born out of romanticism and misconception, based largely upon the iconic figure of the region (The bedouin), much in the same way misconceptions are born out of Medieval Japan through identifying with the Samurai and Samurai Only.

The reality is that armor was in fairly plentiful use throughout the Middle East, particularly amongst the cavalry in which for a professional horsemen, mail was expected of them and lamellar included for the more wealthy. Some various examples are:

• When fighting the Crusaders at Antioch during the First Crusade, an anonymous Christian participating in the First Crusade writes of 'three thousand who were called Agulani, who were afraid of neither sword, lances, arrows, nor any kind of arms, because they and their horses were covered with armor everywhere.' Osprey Verifies these as Azerbaijani Horsemen, being merely one part of the larger Seljuk dominion, and not even a very noteworthy region.
• Fatimid Horsemen chose to fight with spear and sword and not with bow, and are commented to have been easily mistaken as Crusaders at a distance.
• The Infantry of Khorasan, a region of North-Eastern Iran, were famous Infantrymen well capable in the siege. They fought as armored spearmen, and as armored infantry. It's said that they would advance with shield and bow, and be supported by spearmen - whether this is semantics, or that archers were armored enough to advance and be supported by spearmen instead of supporting spearmen is up to the reader.
• Daylami were revered infantry originating from south of the Caspian, and were in use as mercenaries from India to North Africa. They fought much like Greek Hoplites or Roman Legionaries, forming a shield wall and throwing their javelins which doubled as spears.
• Ghulams served as both heavy horse archers often utilizing metal or felt horse barding, or as heavy shock cavalry.
• Many horsemen of the period, particularly Mamluks and Ghulams, were vain, and wished to flaunt their wealth and status through rich clothing. There was also the fact that a cloth covering over metal would be very helpful in the hot sun of the Near East. Many Crusaders took to the sight of no apparent mail meaning there was none, yet Byzantine as well as Muslim armor shows many examples of mail-lined clothing.
• The common kit of many Muslim Horsemen during the era of Saladin would include mail along with various other weapons, with a lamellar hauberk atop the mail being for the rich.

There is also a long-standing tradition of dismounting to fight amongst the Arabs and Turks, as well as amongst the various East Christians of the Caucasus. This is in sharp contrast to Europe, where a knight being willing or happy to fight on foot is an exception and not the rule. It's rare enough that the Germans alone would become famous in Constantinople for it, with their Non-Norman French and Italian brethren holding enough of a bias to it that the Kingdom of Jerusalem would exempt knights from service where their horses could not take them, or where they had to fight on foot.

Suffice to say, there is much more context for Arab and Turkish cavalrymen to dismount and fight as armored infantry than there is for most knights to do so, yet it seems all mods of this period choose to feature at length many of their knights as dismounted swordsmen.

Does Broken Crescent feature new units with new skins and models?

Yes! Broken Crescent features over 260 new units with brand new skins and models created by master skinners and modellers AlphaDelta and Strelac. All the units are completely new and each faction features its own unique style and theme. Please follow the links from our faction thread here and check the first post of each faction thread to check out the amazing variety of warriors that populate the world of Broken Crescent.

What's Broken Crescent's campaign map like?

Broken Crescent features a brand new campaign map which spans from Anatolia and Egypt in the west to the lands of Transoxania and India in the east. It features stunning landscapes and sceneries with many new eastern lands to explore and conquer. For more information and/or screens of the campaign map go here.

Does Broken Crescent enhance the battle experience from vanilla?

Yes. Broken Crescent features a new unit stats structure by Strelac. Battles will be slower with more room for tactical maneuvers. Also Broken Crescent features GrandViz's (a member of BC!) Ultimate battle AI which is custom coded for BC and features better flanking, siege AI and better skirmishing AI.

Will Broken Crescent feature new music?

Yes. Broken Crescent will feature freshly made musical tracks for strat map & battle map made by our resident musician Aeranis. Expect new tracks that span Arabic, Turkic, Persian, Eastern Christian and Indian cultures.

What's Broken Crescent's Timescale and Time Frame?

The BC campaign starts at 1174 and ends at 1400. With 2 turns per years, each alternating turn being winter and summer and characters aging every 2 turns.

[John I Tzimisces]

Any chance we'll see Oriental Orthodoxy in the future? Being there as many oriental orthodox factions as there are plain ole' orthodox...

[thammy]

i suggest we put boil oil in it please i realy neeed it can anyone put it in for me?

[kepper]

i suggest we put boil oil in it please i realy neeed it can anyone put it in for me?

Sorry men most you most wait for BC II to get oil

[Miraj]

Considering the fact that there is a religion limit and an already present subdivision among christians (orthodox, catholic) we will probably not use our last religion slot for another subdivision.

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

Yeah, mirage, I was wondering why the Delhi Sultanate was not included in the game ... I'm assuming it's cuz of the time-frame.

[Miraj]

Originally we had the Delhi Sultanate planned, but I'm no historian hence didn't realize it wasn't established till 1206 after Muhammad of Ghor dies. Our mod starts in 1174. If we port to Kingdoms giving the Ghorids an option to "become" the Sultanate of Delhi (like the Kalmar Union event in Kingdoms) will be a possibility.

[Sanskrit_Bandit]

What's this Kalmar Union feature?

[Miraj]

Well that was a reference to Kingdoms' Teutonic Campaign where the Teutonic Order, Sweden or Denmark (not sure) can choose to "become" the Kalmar Union if it fulfills certain targets. This means that its banners/icons/name changes and it gains control of another factions territories.

This feature means that a faction can choose "turn" into another mid-game. A great feature.

[Sanskrit_Bandit]

mm that's what I thought it'd be, and yes, awesome feature.

[Tadzreuli]

when this mod will be done for play ?

[teh.frickin.pope]

We don't know.

[Ieuano]

couple of weeks is an educated guess, meaning i have an education, and im guessing.

[Miraj]

Ah my first victim. Tadz's Q move to Questions and Suggestion thread.

when this mod will be done for play ?

Read the first question in the first post.

[King Xiao]

How big will BC be. Above 500mb?

[Miraj]

Great Q. BC will be about 1.65GB un-compressed. The download and installer it self will be about 600-700MB. Those number are not final yet as we have some other stuff to add to the final build.

[King Xiao]

Will BC come with a cool intro movie?

Will BC incorporate any new animations?

Will BC have any factions which are less represented than others. For example, like Poland in vanilla?

Will BC allow hording after a factions last settlement is taken?

Will BC have unique capital cities. Eg Jerusalem? (think this one might be impossible)

[Ahiga]

Will BC come with a cool intro movie?

Not for 1.0, but we are looking for people skilled in making/editing movies or taking cinematics with the ingame cinema editor.

Will BC incorporate any new animations?

Yes. Strelac is doing a pike animation that 'de westernizes' the pike formation.

Will BC have any factions which are less represented than others. For example, like Poland in vanilla?

Not at all. Thanks to AlphaDelta shared units between factions are the exception and not the rule, and every faction has for a majority of their units their own meshes and own units, shared only with mercenaries in some cases.

In the future, we may pursue something we have called 'Minor factions' which would be less represented, featuring a smaller roster and being less important historically but important enough to be a faction.

Will BC allow hording after a factions last settlement is taken?

Mirage has done something unique here. I forget the details, but it allows for a 'last stand' where the faction's family members and a few other units will horde once the last settlement is taken.

The Kypchaks will be getting a more 'barbarian' horde ability, being able to pack up and migrate elsewhere.

Will BC have unique capital cities. Eg Jerusalem? (think this one might be impossible)

Not at the moment, we've seen unique cities being made in the Basileous mod, so we are interested in perhaps pursuing it in the future if it's possible and not too difficult to do.

[King Xiao]

5/5 Well Done

[Orko]

There are 10 muslim factions in BC so wht do you write that there are 9?