Viking Invasion II Released

[Dansk viking]

1. A bit more info about the family would certainly help (ages of these characters at the start of the mod). My advice would be to add Ragnarr (and/or a son of him) as extra branch of the family tree, and position him at the east-coast of England.

Information on Ragnarr Lodbrok and his sons:

According to some scandinavian sources Ragnarr's ancestors are as follows:

Ragnarr Loðbrók son of Sigurðr hringr, king of Sweden and Denmark, son of Randver son of Ráðbarðr, king of Garðaríki, and Auðr in djúpúðga,daughter of Ívarr inn víðfaðmi, king of Scania and later king of Denmark, Sweden aswell as other large parts of Northern Europe.

Auðr in djúpúðga had previously been married with Hrærekr slöngvanbaugi, king of Zealand, with whom she had Haraldr Hilditönn, king of Denmark and Sweden. Haraldr Hilditönn lost his kingdoms and his life to his nephew, Sigurðr hringr, in the legendary Battle of Brávellir.

The father of Auðr in djúpúðga, Ívarr inn víðfaðmi, was the son of Hálfdan snjalli son of Haraldr inn gamli, king of Scania, son of Valdarr, king of Scania, son of Hróarr, king of Denmark, son of Halfdan, king of Denmark.

So, Ragnarr is decendant of the Skjöldingar (Scyldingas), the ancient royal clan of Denmark.

Ragnarr is the first of these, that can be said to be historical.
He might have been a powerful Earl of the Danish king Horik, or rather an independent "sea king".

Here's parts of the traditional story of Ragnarr:

In 845 he sailed southward, looking for new worlds to conquer. With an alleged force of 120 ships and 5,000 Viking warriors, he landed in what is now France, probably at the Seine estuary, and ravaged West Francia, as the westernmost part of the Frankish Empire was then known. Rouen was ravaged and then Carolivenna, a mere 20 km from St. Denis. The raiders then attacked and captured Paris. The traditional date for this is 28 March, which is today referred to as Ragnar Lodbrok Day by certain followers of the Asatru religion. The King of West Francia, Charlemagne's grandson Charles the Bald, paid Ragnar a huge amount of money not to destroy the city. Ragnar Lodbrok, according to Viking sources, was satisfied with no less than 7,000 pounds of silver in exchange for sparing the city. However, that did not stop Ragnar from attacking other parts of France, and it took a long time for the Franks to drive him out.
Later, Ragnar's sons were to return for more booty. Among their feats was destroying the city of Rouen several more times. Ultimately, many of them settled there permanently, in a land that became known as Normandy (for "Northmen", as the Franks called the Scandinavians or the "Nordmenn" as the Norwegians called themselves (which is much more likely)).[citation needed]

After he was done with France, and after his supposed death in 845, he turned his attention to England. In 865, he landed in Northumbria on the north-east coast of England. It is claimed that here he was defeated in battle for the only time, by King Aelle II of Northumbria.
Aelle's men captured Ragnar, and the King ordered him thrown into a pit filled with poisonous snakes. As he was slowly being bitten to death, he is alleged to have exclaimed "How the little pigs would grunt if they knew the situation of the old boar!", referring to the vengeance he hoped his sons would wreak when they heard of his death.
Alternative versions of the story say that he landed by accident in East Anglia and there befriended King Edmund before being killed by a jealous courtier. The murderer escaped to Denmark and blamed Edmund for Lodbrok's demise.

His sons, Ivarr inn beinlausi, Hubba and Halfdan were the leaders of the Great Heathen Army, which conquered the Danelaw.

The "Great Heathen Army", also known as the Great Army or the Great Danish Army, was a Viking army originating in Denmark which pillaged and conquered much of England in the late 9th century. The army was exceptionally large for the period, probably containing several thousand fighters. It consisted of various smaller groups which would rarely fight together, and sometimes targeted each other.
The term "Great Heathen Army" was one used by Anglo-Saxon chroniclers compiling the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Much of the evidence for the army comes from these works, and as they start the year on September 1, many of the events associated with it are often said to have occurred what appears to be a year later. This article uses the Gregorian calendar throughout.
The origins of the Army can be seen in the band of Viking warriors who attacked Paris in 845, and remained permanently in the region from 850, repeatedly sacking Rouen and various smaller towns.
Having gained experience across Europe, the army arrived in Britain in late 865, landing in East Anglia. Under the command of Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless, with the support of Ubbe Ragnarsson, it aimed to conquer and settle England. This may have been in response to the death of their father, Ragnar Lodbrok, at the hands of Aelle II of Northumbria in 865.
In late 866, it conquered the Kingdom of Northumbria, followed in 870 by the Kingdom of East Anglia. In 871, the Great Summer Army arrived from Scandinavia. This reinforced the Great Heathen Army, enabling it in 874 to conquer Mercia. The same year, a considerable section settled in the conquered territories, followed by a further section in 877. Halfdan moved north to attack the Picts, while Guthrum emerged as the war leader in the south, and in 876 they were joined by further forces and won the Battle of Wareham. However, Alfred the Great fought back and eventually won victory over the army at the Battle of Edington in 878, achieving the Treaty of Wedmore.
The settlers from the army formed the Kingdom of York, which survived with several interruptions until the 950s.

The youngest of Ragnarr's sons, Sigurðr ormr í auga, became king of Denmark. He had (according to Icelandic sources) the son Hörthaknútr (Harthacnut/Hardeknud), king of Denmark (not to be confused with the later king Hathacanute of Denmark and England), who had the son Gormr gamli, the first historically accepted king of Denmark, who had the son Haraldr blátönn (Harald Bluethooth), first christian king of Denmark, who had the son Sveinn Tjúguskegg (Sweyn Forkbeard) , king of Denmark, England and parts of Norway, who had the son Knútr inn ríki (Canute the Great), king of Denmark, Norway, England and parts of Sweden.


Hope you can use some of it


Cheers!
DV

[Turumba]

Ah, i forget: The not sally-bug appaers just by the danes. Rebel and Mercia sally out normal. Maybe that helps.


@ Jingle_Bombs: Nice One! The endscene is not the quality as is rest is.

And btw: Nice suggestion with the Lodbrok family!

[Aradan]

Very nice work!!

As MoN said, all the points made are being considered and most will amke their way intoa a patch; currently working on it.

I just want to say, regarding the Danes, that the result depends a lot on the style of play. I just launched a new campaign, after some tweaks, and apart from taking East Engle and East Seaxe and moving the capital to Elmham, I did nothing but raiding up and down the coasts for 20 turns; I attacked Lindisfarne, Din Eidyn, Abberdeon, Lyndclerie, Medeshamstedi - never tried to hold them, I attacked, pillaged and ran away. I am upgrading my settlements, training armies, holding back Wessex (they launched a major attack on London but got very very pwned) and I got nearly 30,000 shillings.
Anywyy, I'm quite happy with the way their campaign plays out now, you *have* to scout the coasts, raid defenceless settlements and then get out before standing armies of your enemies get the chance to trap you. The AI's stupidty that makes it leave its settlements lightly defended is ideal for this sort of play. In the mean while, you have to *slowly* expand by land, while holding on to new regions, which should be governed wisely by their appointed goovernors. I find this a very historical way of playing and it yields the best results.

Rant over, back to the pit!

[MasterOfNone]

Thx Turumba!

Jingle that is a superb "first ever" TW vid - shows great promise.

I'm overwhelmed by all the good feedback and support for VI2. And to think I only sat down on Saturday 31st of May this year to think seriously about a remake of Viking Invasion. Sent of some PMs to the heads of Arthurian and Chiv and - enthusiastically supported by both - set up the forums and started work on the following Monday!

Now, fast forward less than 4 months, and VI2 has even got it's first fan-made video

Thx. all - a nice treat for my final mod!

But it's not over quite yet - I intend for VI2 to be much more widely exposed in the coming weeks

[Jingles]

@ Jingle_Bombs: Nice One! The endscene is not the quality as is rest is.

You're right. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but to be honest, I'm still offering thanks to the gods that it actually uploaded in the end!

I spent a good few hours trying to save and upload it to youtube, but in the end it just wasn't happening... I might try to upload a higher quality one later.

[Skandinav]

Sounds as if the danish campaign is playing out exactly as it should now, I find blitzing boring and would be most content doing viking-raids mainly ( with the exception of the Danelaw of course ) as I do in my current norwegian campaign.
Great work, can´t wait to play it, this dev team certainly is the most feedback-friendly and well-mannered I´ve ever encountered, not that you need to be but I´ve acknowledged the same on other forums, always civil and polite, mirrored by and suiting your talent.

[Halie Satanus]

this dev team certainly is the most feedback-friendly and well-mannered I´ve ever encountered, not that you need to be but I´ve acknowledged the same on other forums, always civil and polite, mirrored by and suiting your talent.

Wait until someone says they can't install the mod when they haven't followed the intsrutions.. I wonder if MoN will make a special sig for that poor soul..

[MasterOfNone]

Nah, a sig wouldn't be of much use to someone with a permaban...




& Thx, Skandinav

[Halvar von Flake]

Your argument on the contrary was founded in something more substantial.

What do you mean? Do the changes of colours or armor upgrades cause serious problems?
Units like hirdmen, huscarls, armoured spearmen look really awesome...but if you used earth-coloured/darker clothes (brown tones, dark-red, or dark-blue) and bring in multi-colours/faction-colours via shields, the units would be perfect - at least for me...

Please don't use black for mercenaries. This colour of clothes didn't really exist in medieval life...I would suggest a lighter brown.

Cheers

(+rep for the Viking Invasion trailer)

P.S.: I don't know if it's a bug...but the financial overview of the beginning (saxons) tells me 15.000 but you have effectively 0 money to spend...

[Aradan]

The overview is not affected by the script, which reduces the player's money. Just ignore it.

[Orgath]

I've noticed a couple small things you may want to know about.

1. In the town of Dyflin I am able to train a unit called Mercenary Bonnachts. But they cost over 800 schillings, which seems a bit overpriced considering their stats and abilities aren't 800 schillings good. I know mercenaries are usually overpriced but the other mercenaries I've seen have a reasonable price.

2. The "withdraw" button doesn't work on the battle map. The thumbnail doesn't show up but the tooltip still pops up.

3. Sometimes the thumbnail for units and buildings will be blank in the construction and recrument tabs. The one example I can think of on the top of my head is the "High Roads" building in the town of Dyflin.

4. Armies could use a few more movement points. The campaign map has some really cool mountains and hills, which makes some interesting battles, but it makes it difficult to move armies and agents around. I probably could just go change it myself, but you still might want to consider this for a future patch.

And that's it. This mod has relativley few glitches, and most are trivial at best.

This mod has a surprising amount of challenge. The danish canpaign was a bit too challenging, but my norweigan canpaign is perfect. I was initially worried about the relativley small amount of territories, but that's offset by the challenge of securing just one settlement. I can see now the importance of raid tatics and I'm planing a raid on a city I've captured and lost multiple times. Then there's the religious war, which for pagans is especially hard. Every christian dog must die!

[Aradan]

1. There are mercenary units recruitable from settlements (unlike regular mercs) that have 0 training time, therefore you can train as many as 9 in a single turn. We have made them so expensive to compensate for this ability, otherwise the player would just use them to spam the AI and win very easily. Now, you can get yourself out of a tough spot be recruiting 3-4 units at once, but you ahve to disband them soon after 9as it's supposed to happen with mercs) otherwise they'll bleed your economy dry.

2. It depends on whether you have withdrawed more than once in the same turn; unless I'm not understanding what you mean.

3. Buildings like the "Old Roman Roads" are unavailable for construction, as the people of the era didn't have the know-how to build them; they could barely repair them. There are also several other "unbuildable" buildings like the Provisional Info bldgs, that provide info and are used internally for region-specific stuff.

4. The MP were initially lower than they currently are. We want to simulate the advantage of taking a ship rather than a walk to get anywhere fast. if more people want an increase though, we'll consider it seriously.

[MasterOfNone]

I've not seen any blank images....can you provide screenshots?


IMPORTANT: We are working on a patch (1.2) for early this week so please make sure you put in all your requests (these should be enhancement rather than additive) in the next 24 hours! Thx

EDIT: Significant alteration of unit textures (and thus also cards) is not feasible so please only point out textures/volours you *really* think need changing

[DaVinci]

...


IMPORTANT: TESTIMONIALS

I'm looking for some more testimonials for the download page (with some on announcement pages). Here are a few i have harvested from this thread:

"Congratulations on another amazing release" - Salvor Hardin

"yet another masterful product" - Halie Satanus

"Excellent in every form of the word!Finally this wonderous age of darkness and turmoil comes to life on an updated engine...Thanks for an excellent piece of work!" - Ikusa IX

"What a noble undertaking this is, and what sparkling talent you have" - Skandinav (AGREED)

"instant classic" - Skandinav (AGREED)

"RTW mod of the year" - Skandinav (AGREED)

"best TW mod/game i ever played!" - Turumba (AGREED)

Not any track of humbleness in your character, eh?



I add my comment:

The passion and diligence especially of you [MoN] and Aradan - and of the team mates - proofed during the development is exceptional, deserves without doubt the highest possible praise. The result of your work within the few months is splendid.

[Orgath]

2. No the withdraw button is missing on the battle map, not the campaign map.

3. I can build "High Roads" and the tooltip appears, but the image for "High Roads" doesn't appear sometimes. But this has also happened to other units/buildings. I will get a screenshot if it happens again.

[Aradan]

2. As far I know, when it's impossible to withdraw on the campmap, the same also automatically applies to the battlemap as well. If anyone is sure I'm wrong, please correct me.

3. Yes, please, a pic would be great.



I've included a new treat for Viking named characters, you will now enjoy exterminating/enslaving/sacking settlements and you'll have an easier time holding on to them during the first phase of their occupation. The rest of the points are being contemplated on.

Does anyone feel Norwegians are too easy? Remember, they are supposed to be easy, but we don't want them to be too much.

[Orgath]

No I think the Norweigan campaign has a healthy amount of challenge.

[Halvar von Flake]

Seems to be impossible to get a campaign with Anglo-Saxons running...no money, no buildings, no units, no progress...

...I don't want to appear petty-minded, but the Northumbrian hair colour is as yellow as their clothes...I suggest to make most of the factions earth-coloured...paint the shields in the factions colour/heraldic....

[Aradan]

Hmm, you think I went a bit over the top with the difficulty? "Hard" factions, btw, like Wessex are supposed to be played at Easy, the first time you try them, to get an idea of what's going on.

I'm open to feedback and suggestions, while I'm on the balance.

[Dom9127]

I have been playing more of this stellar mod, it's great fun with the Saxons. I have noticed some minor bugs though:

Mercenary horsemen have a bow mouse icon, rather than a javelin.

Horseman have an issue with the shield going through their arm, pic illustrates