[Mount&Blade] Rus: XIII Century - Beta 0.622 is Available!

[King Canute]

"Withstand me if you can; I have already come to you, and I am plundering your lands."
Life of Alexander Nevsky

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I have only played it for a little bit but it is amazing. Those Russians make incredible mods, just look at the reign of the sword or the new crusader mod. But anyways you should definitely download this. IT IS AMAZING!!!!

Screenshots

Mount&Blade Repository
http://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?id=1445

Description
Anno Domini 1237.
Europe and Asia are plunged into the abyss of bloody war. Christians wage war with Muslims and heathens. Catholics battle with orthodoxies. Orthodoxies kill each other.
Brother against brother, and son against father.
From the West, Teutonic Knights have come crusading against heathen and orthodox Slavs, to turn them into the Latin faith. Knight-brothers have already consolidated in Baltic and now look further to the East, where, boundless and rich, Rus lies.
Poland, torn apart with inner contradictions, tries to deter the approaching Order Komturias, already settled firmly on the right bank of Vistula.
But upon all European nations hovers another, imminent threat. From the Far East comes Batu-Khan - the ambitious grandson of the great conqueror of nations, Genghis Khan. Furious hordes sweep across the Great Steppe and the land of Rus, aiming for the West, aiming for the Last Sea, laying one nations under tribute and mercilessly exterminating others. They are determined to fulfil the holy will of the Khan, and it seems that there is no force in the world that can stop them.

The historic mod "Rus - 13 century" reconstructs the events of this dramatic and heroic age. You can unite the forces of Russian princedoms and give battle to the Horde, or gather the Novgorod militia and warmly greet the Order knights on the ice and snow of the northern lands. You can feel yourself a warrior of the Horde, a vassal of the Teutonic Landmeister, or become a proud shlachta and fight for the glory of Kingdom of Poland.

Installing:

It is highly recommended to uninstall mod previous version(s) before installing .620!

1) Run .exe
2) Follow instructions

ATTENTION!!! YOU MUST CHOOSE 'MOUNT&BLADE' FOLDER AS DESTINATION PATH, NOT 'MODULES' FOLDER!!!
Key features: ("b" stands for feature which is partially or fully implemented in beta, "f" stands for further versions)

* full-featured global mod oriented on implementing historical aspects as accurate as possible (due to gameplay and engine restrictions) (b)
* timeline and storyline of the mod disaplay the real events (such as Northern Crusades, Mongol Invasion of Rus’ and so on) (b)
* new HQ map of Eastern Europe as well as new map icons (b)
* intro battles depends on class and faction of Player (b)
* the names of places, lords and units are spelled in the way of their faction-possessor (b)
* some new locations such as mines, mercenary and bandit camps (b)
* new scenes (with new buildings and various scene props) (b)
* reworked trading system, trade routs and trading specialization of towns are based upon their geographical locations (b)
* new exclusive 2D art by Ganbat Badamkhand (b)
* intro (starting video) (f)
* music is fully replaced (as standalone mod, optional) (b)
* lots of various quests based on HQ literary principles (b)
* faction lords represent actual historical characters, with fiefs and appearance based upon historical documents (b)
* new NPC-companions with different side-quests (f)
* Player’s nationality (culture) affects relations with factions (b)
* new troop trees, based upon historical info (b)
* troop hiring and training system reworked in more realistic style (b)
* 3 types of troop trees: "levy" ("militia"), "professional" and double branched "elite" (b)
* tons of new clothes, armors, weapons, horses, buildings based on authentic images and reconstructed items (b)
* new HQ textures including global map and vegetation (b)
* banners of all factions are replaced with more historical-accurate analogues (b)
* new face and hair textures, based upon nation appearance (b)
* 5 new factions (b)
1. Rus (united Russian princedoms with 2 separate troop trees: northern and southern)
2. Crusaders (united forces of German, Swedish and Danish crusaders)
3. Horde (forces of Mongolian Empire united with the conquered nations: Cuman, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Chinese etc.)
4. Poland (united)
5. Lithuania (as a minor faction)
* volunteers and mercs are replaced with real historical analogues (b)
* brand new system of sound environment (b)
* authentic voice records for each faction (b)
* dynamic global weather system (b)
* ability to change shield art (b)
* multi-stage siege system (b)
* new types of parties – scouts, patrols, prisoner trains, messengers, rich caravans (b)
* user-friendly installer with a lot of options to choose (b)
* many features could be tweaked by individual demands through in-game menus (b)
* correcting bugs and omissions of original game (b)

Gameplay features: (implemented at the moment)

1. Riders take damage when they fall from a killed/wounded horse
2. Morale penalty for units with different cultures in party. Morale bonus for mononational party
3. Fodder for horses (influences horse speed based on type - common, arabian, steppe). Party speed drastically decreases when there’s no fodder
4. Icons for parties on global map depend on party's size
5. Player can control his character while minimap is open. Terrain showing on minimap. OPTIONAL FEATURES
6. Combat continues after Player has been knocked unconscious. Player can observe battlefield in free-fly mode. OPTIONAL FEATURES
7. Ability to open Character/Party/Inventory menus in all "combat" menus (by using hotkeys)
8. Player can recruit troops only in fiefs of faction he belongs to. Player-mercenary can hire anywhere he’d like. Mercs can be hired freely. Positive relations with fiefs and their owners are required. Elite troops can only be hired in Player’s own castle.
9. Chel’s morale mod (reworked and improved). Global morale influences battle morale
10. Armours/weapons degrade if player loses a battle
11. New type of NPC: smith, who can repair and upgrade weapons/armour
12. Player can split his party into smaller groups with NPCs as commanders (only if player leads more than 20 men)
13. There’re much more various citizens in towns
14. New icons on minimap for traders/mayors/owners in towns
15. Character creating wizard reworked due to background story
16. Brief historical info about troops through dialog with them. Info about items in inventory. OPTIONAL FEATURES
17. Prisoners can be sold in mines or to the slave trader in Cherson or to ally and enemy lords by flexible rates (while being at towns). Also Player can give prisoners to lords for free in exchange of increased personal relationship. Prisoners’ cost depends on their level and the main party trading skill
18. Trade routs. Special caravans travelling on historical trade routs
19. Maximum amount of prisoners increased. The more prisoners are in the party the more of them would escape at night
20. Decreased structure building time in fiefs
21. Player can initiate dialog with city/village administration through center menu
22. Party salary displays week cost for all Player’s troops including garrisoned ones or under NPCs’ control
23. Lords intercept hostile parties travelling near their fiefs if they’re stronger (hostile party must be spotted first - chances depends on party size)
24. AI party strength and upgrade speed depends on player's level
25. Professional and Elite units can be upgraded only in their faction's cities. Player can’t upgrade them in the field
26. Helmets obscure field of view in first person view. OPTIONAL FEATURE
27. Food stores in castles decreased, recovery time increased.
28. Wounded units move slower in battle
29. Player can give some orders to his party right before fight such as hold ground, charge, follow leader, line up in different forms
30. Alcoholic drinks are all consumable and give morale bonus if any other kind of food is present in inventory or morale penalty otherwise
31. Bandits can ambush Player (chances depends on honour rating)
32. Bandits help each other when engaging Player party
33. Player can lay to rest fallen warriors (increasing honour, decreasing morale)
34. New type of NPC – teachers. They give a short help info about mod features.
35. Bows can’t be freely used in inappropriate handwear
36. It’s possible to speed up or slow down time in missions (by + and -)
37. New animation for 2h weapons
38. Added restrictions for joining rescued prisoners
39. New item type – maps which increasing pathfinding skill while in inventory
40. It’s possible to upgrade troops of all factions in neutral city Cherson
41. Players can release imprisoned lords without ransom (increasing relations)
42. New looting system. Now it takes time to carry trophies from the battlefield. Amount and quality of it depends on Player’s skills and number of dead bodies
43. Ministering wounded gives experience
44. Cattle follows the Player
45. Chances to escape after losing the fight for lords are lowered
46. Amount of troops available for hiring depends on city’s prosperity
47. Hiring through menu, not through dialog
48. It’s possible to turn off fast travel (for better roleplay)
49. New target reticule
50. Performance in scenes with lot of trees improved
51. Horse descriptions includes types
52. Players can choose on what side they’d wish to fight in battles between neutral parties
53. It’s possible to sort inventory of player and traders by type or cost


Our team:

Main developers:
Bers - scene maker
ConstantA - lead developer
Damon - developer, project manager
Kopcap - lead artist
N - lead modeller
Rongar - lead programmer
Unknown - developer

Contributors and helpers:
ARaven - historical consultation
ArRiad - sound, programming
Chekan - historical consultation, beta test
Димо - models, textures, map, coordination
Gt-Bd - textures, 2D art
гЭнЫк (CHUR) - voice recording, music
Immortal - models, textures
incus - historical consultation
Invictus - coordination
Kiivit - proofreading
NightHawkreal - texts, beta test
Samnit - models, textures
sd - map
Thracian - models, textures
Vanok - mod idea, tech support, PR
VIKING (UFO) - historical authentication specialist

Other contributors:

mebius
ShoDan
Shurikello

Special thanks to:
Barf for new face meshes
Basennik for Russian warcries
Checkmaty for More Metal Sound
Chel for his morale system
dreammora for original game localization
dstemmer for his fast scene chooser
HokieBT for UpdateModuleParties
In Vain for German warcries
Janus for his installer script (used in 0.401 beta)
JoG for beta-testing and PR
mtarini for openBrf
Siegbert_von_Meklenburg for German warcries
Ser Ge Nuk for quest ideas
СергиоОбрегон for music
Thorgrim for MapEditor & brf-edit
ToFik for quest ideas
Winter for his moded operations
yart for helping with beta-test
yellowmosquito for Mount & Blade Banner and Flag Standardization Pack
Yoshiboy for his tutorials

all users of rusmnb.ru for their help and support
our families and friends for understanding and patience

Mod thread @ TaleWorlds
http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.p...c,73037.0.html

[Kip]

WOW.

[King Canute]

that is its epicness, played it yet?

EDIT: im off to get screenshots

[Lord of Lost Socks]

This seems like awesomness O.o Downloading

EDIT: question, In the beginning of the game i can only recruit mercenaries correct? When I join a faction I can recruit units from my own village?

[Kip]

Haha I just logged on to check how to recruit troops. I suppose Alarim answered for me

EDIT:

That didn't do it. I'm now a vassal of Rus, but still can't recruit from villages.

EDIT EDIT:

Ah, just looked it up on the Taleworlds thread. You have to raise your relations with each individual fief in order to recruit from them.

[Lord of Lost Socks]

Oh, okay.

[King Canute]

its different at first but you get used to it

[King Canute]

As i promised, i am a rebel russian lord named czar and here are my pics
http://s998.photobucket.com/albums/af110/kingcanuteV/

[Kip]

I don't mind the idea of recruiting from villages that only have good relations, but if that's the case, then the recruit pool certainly has to be higher. So far, I've found that no village elders offer missions, so the only way to increase relations is to happen upon a village under attack by bandits. I finally found one, refused the reward, giving me 7 relations and the ability to recruit. So I recruit a grand total of ONE villager. Then I have to wait awhile before they allow recruits again... This just makes recruiting too slow.

Other suggestions:

More random spawns, equipped in the native gear. There needs to be deserters and bandits that can drop Russian gear, Crusader gear, Mongol gear, etc. depending on where they spawn. At the moment, I've seen a single spawn of deserters, and one or two bandits (both of which I came across when I was a foot spearman).

New banners. I'm sure that'll be done by the full version, but there simply HAS to be a new banner set. The Native ones are cool, but have no place in a real-world mod like this (a few do, but not all). Actually, the current banners themselves could stay, but troops should have randomized, appropriate shield heraldry (a la 1257 mod). Crusaders should carry various crosses, Russians should carry various Russian patterns, etc etc. The custom shields are PERFECT!; but they should be given to all of the troops on the battlefield. At the moment, there are still too many troops dancing around with leaves and dragons on their shields.

Overall, the mechanics are EXTREMELY promising, but it needs plenty of polish.

[Lord of Lost Socks]

I don't mind the idea of recruiting from villages that only have good relations, but if that's the case, then the recruit pool certainly has to be higher. So far, I've found that no village elders offer missions, so the only way to increase relations is to happen upon a village under attack by bandits. I finally found one, refused the reward, giving me 7 relations and the ability to recruit. So I recruit a grand total of ONE villager. Then I have to wait awhile before they allow recruits again... This just makes recruiting too slow.

Other suggestions:

More random spawns, equipped in the native gear. There needs to be deserters and bandits that can drop Russian gear, Crusader gear, Mongol gear, etc. depending on where they spawn. At the moment, I've seen a single spawn of deserters, and one or two bandits (both of which I came across when I was a foot spearman).

New banners. I'm sure that'll be done by the full version, but there simply HAS to be a new banner set. The Native ones are cool, but have no place in a real-world mod like this (a few do, but not all). Actually, the current banners themselves could stay, but troops should have randomized, appropriate shield heraldry (a la 1257 mod). Crusaders should carry various crosses, Russians should carry various Russian patterns, etc etc. The custom shields are PERFECT!; but they should be given to all of the troops on the battlefield. At the moment, there are still too many troops dancing around with leaves and dragons on their shields.

Overall, the mechanics are EXTREMELY promising, but it needs plenty of polish.

Very true.

[Armatus]

Really excellent looking skinning!

[King Canute]

bout the recruitment and bandits from what ive read at taleworlds there are main issues, banners are simple enough to get just from all around the net, unfortunately i dont know how to put them in game

[Kip]

bout the recruitment and bandits from what ive read at taleworlds there are main issues, banners are simple enough to get just from all around the net, unfortunately i dont know how to put them in game

The banners themselves I now realize aren't really the problem. What they need to do is equip all or almost all of the non-hero soldiers with the new custom shields (Crusader soldiers get various crosses, Russians get the new patterned shields). The banner heraldry is a bit fantasy-ish, but you can easily pick a semi-realistic one for yourself, and when only the lords carry it, it seems plausible. The problem is that you have dozens of Russian boyars riding around in their beautiful lamellar armor, wearing wonderful coppered helms, and then their shields have a crummy pair of green leaves.

[Armatus]

For a sec I though this was a mod for Rusichi when I saw Canute's siggy, I love these Russian themed mods

[King Canute]

reign of the sword, that new crusader mod, and this one, all russian and all are AMAZING, now im a crusader lord and i have destroyed lithuania and are moving in on the russian's

[Kip]

reign of the sword, that new crusader mod, and this one, all russian and all are AMAZING, now im a crusader lord and i have destroyed lithuania and are moving in on the russian's

Can you provide links to those? I checked at Taleworlds but I can't differentiate which ones are new or not, and if what you guys are saying is true, I need to check out these Russian mods

[King Canute]

the first two are not out yet, but they look amazing, anyway here are the links

http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.p...c,56748.0.html

http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.p...c,67375.0.html

[Kip]

Firstly, thanks for the links! +Rep!

Secondly, those mods look amazing. But I have to say, the Crusader one deserves special attention; those new armors are CRAZY good.

[CrayonVonCaesar]

This is the most complete and enjoyable M+B mod I've played yet.

Cheers.

[Armatus]

Can someone advise me on which graphics mod would be best to use with this?