Fall of the Cross & Rise of the Crescent (FCRC) - General Discussion (until release FCRC 1.0)

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Little Preview
For people entering by clicking on my signature; see the first post in the thread for full information about the setting and goal of the mod.
The starting positions & map so far:

Not everything is correct right now, but it is in a working state. only things that still need doing in this particular field are the ex-berbers (who will be going to represent a certain Muslim state near Baghdad) and Kypros to the English. Perhaps I'll also add a new city in Anatolia so the Seljuks of Rum don't get their asses kicked by the Romans.

Little part of France:

England will need to lower its taxes if it wants to hold onto their French territories

[Freelancer Tex]

Good Job bull!

[DaVinci]

Looks good so far

Edit: Have just added "Development" to the thread title.
If you, Bull, have provided the FCRC release file, just create a complete new FCRC release thread within this submod forum.
And also, we will make a sticky advertisement/link thread for FCRC, in the main public ChivTW forum.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Thanks, DV
Glad to hear from the master himself. I'm currently busy balancing and adding infrastructure, it's really nice to see balanced armies of sergeants, men-at-arms and knights roam the duchies and counties of Europe.
Also, I've split the Baghdad region into 3 and made the ex-Grand Seljuks the Abbasid Caliphate (it was quite a pain finding 2 other cities near Baghdad important enough to add into those 2 provinces ). I don't think I'm going to re-add the Berbers, to be honest, because I'd need to change their name to the respective sultanate/caliphate/emirate they would be going to portray. This wouldn't be a problem if names would be campaign-specific, but they aren't, so I can't change their name without doing so for the whole mod, which would ruin the experience.

EDIT: coming to think of it, I could include an "optional" folder with the campaign, which would include the .txt file for changed names from Berbers to Artukids and a file for the other way around. It would need manual changing by the player every time he'd want to play a different campaign, though.


Current Features
* An established feudal community in Europe, with castles, estates and feudums (plural?). This means that you'll see balanced stacks of knights, sergeants and men-at-arms instead of just levy infantry
* Established Templars and Hospitallers around Europe. These 2 orders had gained a lot of influence since 1099, and a few regions in Europa start with either a Templar or a Hospitaller chapterhouse
* Reconquista and Jihad are ravaging the Iberian countryside. Pretty large battles between Castile and the Moorish Dynasty
* Teutonic order is starting to emerge as a full European power. The Holy Roman Empire will represent them. They currently don't have as much power as the Templars or Hospitallers, but they start with 2 chapterhouses in the HRE. They look upon Prussia and Lithuania with greedy eyes
* Complete infrastructure. Expect to see the AI with mercenaries and siege equipment (Mangonels, Trebuchets, Catapults, etc). The Middle Ages were at its highest point right now, and the infrastructure of all the dynasties was flourishing.
* A few factions with civil war. Poland for example will have to deal with unrest in its settlements. England (or actually, the Angevin Empire) will also deal with a divided population, and Richard's high taxes to finance his Holy War don't make the people happier...

Update:

I've ran an AI campaign as the most boring and static faction (when AI controlled on both counts, of course) in Chiv TW:
The Kiev Rus
Campaign ran until 1254, then my faction got destroyed:

As you can see, my top priority right now is to weaken France a bit.
...
Well, actually, that isn't possible, since France is just lucky to be in an area where it has access to the best mercenaries in the world: different types of knights, flemish mercs, brabançon mercs, italian mercs and it has a very central position.
This means the factions around France have to be strengthened when controlled by the AI.

[DaVinci]

* Reconquista and Jihad are ravaging the Iberian countryside. Pretty large battles between Castile and the Moorish Dynasty

Of special interest, as the Berbers have been a balancing factor vs. the Moors, so the war on the peninsula was a back-and-forth war, just quite histoircal balanced - this you have changed now.

Edit: Cross-written with you update above. Well, a new campaign set-up means complete new balancing. Wish you sucess and in the first place fun

[demagogos nicator]

Good job. But why is the cyprus still roman? And i think Kingdom of Hungary contoled Dalmatian coas at that time

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Wish you sucess and in the first place fun

Thanks! I'm glad I got past the most tedious part (family trees/ starting positions). Balancing means being able to play, which is just a lot less boring.

Yeah, that's why it needs balancing. The fun in the Iberian Peninsula got ruined by France. If they hadn't overrun Castile, it would still be a very pitched battle. The one thing I've noticed is that the Moors don't get overpowered at all with their new territories; actually; it makes them focus on the Reconquista most, and I've given Castile a bit of a headstart, but I overlooked the French problem while balancing that part of the map I mean; as you can see, the Moors are still in Southern Iberia in 1254; which means that they nor Castile have actually been able to overrun their rival. Aragon had bad luck, they were out of family members in the 20th turn or so, which promptly rebelled their whole kingdom. Castile was busy against the Moors and France had just kicked England off the continent, so they were looking for new lands to conquer.
AI campaign are very handy for balancing

Good job. But why is the cyprus still roman? And i think Kingdom of Hungary contoled Dalmatian coas at that time

True, the map I posted has been updated a bit. England is now in control of Cyprus and the Grand Seljuks, for example, start with a much smaller part of the map; largely because they aren't the Grand Seljuks anymore, but the Abassid Caliphate.

On the Hungary part; thanks for the info. I can't find any clear information about Hungary on the internet and my local library is rubbish. You don't happen to have any maps of Hungary/Eastern Europe at the time, do you?

[demagogos nicator]

I am sure I have one in my library (my country was a part of Hungarian Kingdom and therefore i have a lot of book about their history) but unfortunately actualy it is 120 km from me I will have it back at best on the Saturday

What about Armenian Kingdom? Was it left from the game?

[demagogos nicator]

I found some maps on internet but they are only fom the time of Mongol invasion

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ngary_1241.png
http://www.brekov.sk/images7/812.jpg
http://www.miniwiki.org/wiki/index.p...ierge13e22.GIF

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Armenia is still around; the last picture is from a running campaign; it's not the faction starting positions
Thanks for the maps, I'd give you rep, but I gave you some already, so you'll get it when I have spammed some more rep to other people

[demagogos nicator]

no problem i should give you a reputation because of working on this
Even though the map is not from the period of campaign start the Hungarian position should be the same,
Croatia was conqueed by the king Koloman (1095-1116) in 1102AD, he got the Croatian crown and found the Hungarian-Croatian Union

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Nice! That means I could set Croatia as one of the victory conditions for Hungary and have an Hungarian army next to the settlement at the beginning of the campaign, so you'll have some sort of epic opening battle as the Hungarians

(I gave you rep for the maps, btw)

Big news for all you Mongol-loving people: The Steppe Faction will now represent the Mongols who invaded the Rus' during this timeframe!
@DV: Shall I give them some nice bonii when controlled by the AI? Not so overpowered as in M II TW, but still quite powerful?

[DaVinci]

@DV: Shall I give them some nice bonii when controlled by the AI? Not so overpowered as in M II TW, but still quite powerful?

Would fit ... if they expand into the right directions.

[demagogos nicator]

I agree with all points (Hungarian openiing battle, adding Mongols and give them bonuses)

My other suggestions is about Knight orders. They were wery widespread during this timeframe and fought in armies of more countries not only 4 main crusading powers (HRE, France, England, Sicily), but Templars and Hospitalers fought in the armies of Aragon against moors, and armies of Hungaria and Poland against mongols (Battle of Legnica, Battle of Mohi), Teutons tried to make their empire first on Hungarian/Cuman border but then were expeled by the Hungarian king Andrew II and they moved to the Baltic. Maybe some order units could be added to the roster of this fractions. My proposal Templars to Aragon, Hospitalers to Hungary, Poland has alredy had Swordbreathen kniths - it could be enought

and thank you for rep

[demagogos nicator]

And Polish kingdom at this tomeframe was divided into more duchies so i suggest to change it to one of them (Silesia-Wroclaw for example)
here is the map: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...01-1241%29.JPG

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I know about that. I left them with their kingdom but with high public disorder in most of their settlements. I'm still going to run a few campaigns and see if they are over/underpowered.
edit: Needless to say, I'm going to give you credit in the release thread as Eastern Europe-informer

[demagogos nicator]

Thanks it would be a great honour for me

btw: maybe Ducatus Bohemia could be switched to Regnum Bohemia (correct me if I had written it wrong) because Premyslid Otakar (Ottokar) I of bohemia was crowned a King of Bohemia in 1198 and all his succesors used this title, which was comfirmed by the emperor Frederick II in the Golden Bull of Sicily in 1212.

If you need any more help let me know

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Yeah, I've actually been thinking about that. Up until now, all of the name changes will go into the "optional" folder, which will ship with the mod.
The reason for this is that faction names can be changed, but they will then be changed for all of the campaign, which means you'll have a Regnum Bohemia in the other campaigns, like the Crusader Epoche, starting at 1099, which is 99 years too early.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Alright, I've made up my mind about the Mongols.
I'm going to spawn a few stacks around 1220, just enough for them to steamroll into Europa and get their butts kicked near the HRE/Hungary (if they're not controlled by the player, I'm not going to spawn anything if the player is playing as them ).
They seem to want to expand into the right direction, but they can't most of the time because they don't make any money; that means I'll add a script that gives them a large sum of cash if their treasury gets below ~5000.

Don't worry; these scripts are so small they won't be noticed in the campaign and will cause no lag. I'm trying to stick to Chivalry's rules and keep scripting to a minimum.

EDIT2: Ignore the earlier part of this post. I'm just going to give them money and 4 full stacks to start with. The money will only be given if the player isn't playing as them. The stacks, however, can't be scripted into the campaign script (and I'm not going to add a background script - it's completely against everything Chivalry and DV stand for ), so I'll give them starting stacks. This does mean that the player will have those stacks too, but don't worry! The player doesn't get money so he won't be able to pay for the upkeep. He can use the stacks, but eventually they'll just get decimated.

[demagogos nicator]

It would be also good I was looking foward to the mongol invasion 1220 but i underestand your reasons