AUH: Official Q&A and FAQ
The official Q&A thread is where you can ask any questions and we will answer them to the best of our ability. Please don't ask any questions already answered in the FAQ, and don't ask about release.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
General
Q: When will the mod be released?
A: To be determined.
Q: Is there the possibility of a partial release?
A: Yes. Possible ways to get the mod to the players sooner in a partial form will be explored.
Q: How far done are you? Can you give me a percentage?
A: Don't know and not really. If I told you a high percentage you'd get your hopes up, if I told you a low one you'd think there's no progress. Be happily surprised when we preview and release things instead, and all of us will be better off!
Q: Will you be making changes to the faction list to incorporate other potential powers?
A: No. Our roster is currently set as what it is. We don't want to add factions for the sake of adding factions and thereby lose detail on the factions which we have included.
Q: Do you plan to integrate fantasy aspects?
A: Fantasy, not necessarily. Lulz, probably. Non-historical, likely. To elaborate, we don't intend to include mythological aspects in the mod, which is what I consider fantasy applicable to our mod(we will have a Heaven island, but that is the byproduct of some scripting functions). However, we very well might(if I have my way), have some tongue-in-cheek units available as mercenaries in remote locations ala the amazons, and in custom battles. Lastly, if a player chooses to consider anything not exactly historical as fantasy, then we will have plenty of fantasy, because we are first and foremost concerned with aesthetic value, before strict historical compliance.
Q: Do you plan to revolutionize Medieval II with your mod?
A: Hard to say. We plan to create an enjoyable experience in an asian setting, and we certainly are not shying away from trying out new systems that we feel separate our mod(not make better per se, eye of the beholder, but separate) from Vanilla M2 and other mods. Whether or not the end product is considered revolutionary, evolutionary, or just fun, will be for the players to decide.
Q: Do you plan on modding Empire, or will you stick to Medieval II?
A: We currently have no plans to modify Empire. Some of our members might participate in Empire modding, but not as an AUH related effort. A few of us have acquainted ourselves with it, and we recognize both pros and cons when comparing the two engines, but our mod is for Medieval II Kingdoms primarily. Is there a possibility that we might port a release to Empire? It's always possible, but it is not something that will be pursued before a full non-beta release on the M2 engine, if at all. There's still plenty of life in the M2 engine, and fans who are currently engrossed with Empire will realize the complications presented in any substantial modding project for it, and hopefully still play M2. If they don't, their loss, we'll be playing our mod, we hope you do to.
Q: What AI will this mod use?
A: Custom AI. In terms of Campaign AI no other AI would be directly transferable. Inspiration and bits will be drawn from Lusted's CAI/BAI, XBAI/XCAI, GrandViz Ultimate AI, and Darthmod AI.
Map
Q: How big is the map?
A: 1021x779. So about twice or more the size of vanilla, maximum size in one of two dimensions.
Q: How many regions are there? Will you add more?
A: ~170. Probably not, we have no desire to add the maximum regions just for the sake of adding regions. If we feel another region is needed and we have a slot, we'll add it, if not, we won't. Regions are used in a plethora of scripts so future sub-mod endeavors to augment the mod with a small number of extra regions are highly discouraged.
Q: Will you be expanding on it to the east/west/north/south?
A: No. We've toyed with expanding the map to cover East India, but decided against it for a veriety of reasons. There's nothing to the east except sea. There's nothing to the north except barren steppes. There's indonesia to the south and a more accurate Strait of Malacca as a result, but the AI would have to much trouble with naval invasions and it would require us to include another two very poorly documented factions in Kediri and Srivijaya. For a more detailed explanation of why we didn't expand west or south, see this post.
Q: Could you explain why you aren't expanding West to include India in more detail?
A: There are a variety of reasons for this, here's a few:
- Map Size - Our map is currently the maximum number of pixels horizontally. In order to expand it west we would need to condense the areas in the east or represent them disproportionately. This is a mod about East Asia, our goal is to give this very interesting landscape and period some love. As such we can't afford to extend the map to India at the expense of making China and Tibet featureless 3-city areas.
- Quality, Not Quantity - To really represent India in this time frame we would need to add at least 3 factions but more likely 5+ if we incorporated the entire region. This is also not counting any nations that would be present north of there in Central Asia or further west but blending into India. Pala could have been interesting if we wanted to just include Bengalla, but they got ousted by the fledgling and not-as-cool Sena before the time of our mod or shortly thereafter.
- East Asia - Our mod is about East Asia. India has its own distinct culture that's different in the south and north and a lot of warring factions. It could make its own mod. India fits much more into a mod about the middle east than it does asia, but again, it's still a melting pot of those two sides. If we expanded into India there'd be no reason not to go further into the Khwarezmian Shahdom and onwards(see the above two bullets for why this is bad).
Q: Could you explain why you aren't expanding South to include Indonesia in more detail?
A: There are a variety of reasons for this, here are a few:
- Nations - At the time of our mod, the nations of Srivijaya and Kediri are the only scarcely documented centrally organized occupants of Indonesia. The Phillipines has before been referred to as 'Luzong' during this time but virtually no source material exists and it was very obviously a tribal federation. Similarly there's references to a 'Luwu' in Borneo(I believe), that are also very shaky.
- Sources - Similar to the above, the source material on the two that might be substantiated as minor factions(Kediri/Srivijaya) are scarce and in non-English languages. It's a whole lot of guesswork and very little substance.
- Quality, Not Quantity - Consider that we want to have 10+ unique units per faction and flesh them out solidly otherwise, and you'll understand why it would be a waste of our time to half-ass factions with no source material, thus making the production time longer and the quality of other factions possibly lower. We love our 15 factions that we've chosen, and are heavy proponents that we'd rather have a few really unique factions than a bunch of re-skinned carbon clones just to fill out the limitations.
- Naval Invasions - The AI is going to have a hard enough time with Japan, but we had to include it as it is very interesting and well documented in this area, so we will have to make up for it by possibly scripting invasions both ways depending on certain conditions. Indonesia would be a nightmare for the AI and it would just be them sitting there and the player killing them. Boring.
Campaign
Q: Will there be political events?
A: In some cases. We will attempt to make political affiliations more fluent than static. There may be opportunities in some cases to set faction policies or side with a particular political faction for pros and cons.
Battle
Q: Will you change the battle map models for the cities/castles?
A: Yes, eventually. At current, KnightErrant and Argantonio are still progressing on the tools to more easily edit these aspects of the game. We have plenty to do in the meantime, so we're letting them work their magic into more refined versions.
Units
Q: What early ideas for fantasy units are you thinking of including?
A: Panda Cavalry. No joke. If I have my way there will be Panda Cavalry. Perhaps a Tungusic Harpooner, a Filipino Headhunter, a Battlefield Ninja, a Khmer War Rhino. Things like this are bottom of the rung, last priority, and intended to be tongue-in-cheek as a poke at popular perception, as opposed to fantasy. As such if any of the aforementioned or other like minded units are included, they will be either only available in custom battles or in remote regions as mercenaries.
Q: Do both Japanese factions have the same units, or do they have separate units?
A: They will differ in some cases, and they each have different textures which may trivially or substantially vary. Overall though we see no historical evidence for unique rosters for each one, so it saves us time and energy if they share units.
Q: Also, are the Chinese factions going to use weapons like the Huo Qiang and the Huo Jian?
A: Yes. Currently fire lances are slated, as well as a primitive 'gun' and cannons. The exact specifications have not been disclosed as yet.
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Regards,
AUH Team
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Originally Posted by Blondie_
