TATW Faction Succession Submod

[FortressofRain]

Previously Documents of Succession Submod
Future Releases: TATW Faction Succession Submod

NOTE: I will update this soon! The link for download is a temporary fix. I am now starting work on custom items/ancillaries for each faction. Feedback needed!

Version

BETA 0.2

Download Link

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T8MTEI9E

Features:

Currently 1 global ancillary for all factions that allows you to choose your faction heir.

Unique items per faction.

Compatibility with TATW 1.5, RR/RC, and any other mod asked. I'd also make more for other mods that have extended factions if asked. Send me a pm.

Future features will include better triggers so that if your faction leader has 8 ancillaries already it will spawn on faction heir, and if heir has 8 ancillaries it will spawn on a random general.

Progress and Ideas:

Ideas as they currently stand

Dwarves: Hîlmîr (Heir Stone)
High Elves:
Sylvan Elves:
Gondor: Book of Kings?
Eirador: "There and Back Again, A Hobbit's Tale", trigger will be faction eclusive (done)
Arnor:
Dale: Dragon Slay Arrow, Arrow of Bard, something like that?
Mordor: Amulet of the Eye
Isengard: Ring of the White Hand
Rhun: Lôke-Hûn (Dragon's Heart)
Harad: Staff of the Serpent
OoMM: Goblin Skull Staff

Additional Faction Items

VoA: Feather of Gwaihir
Mirkwood Elves:
Lothlorien Elves: Light of Earendil


Installation:

Just extract, navigate to each file, and add in the text provided to any mod you choose. Compatible with everything, you just have to manually integrate it which takes like two seconds. I posted instructions in each file. The image has to go in the ui/ancillaries folder, so you could just copy and paste that. I can make individual files for each version and every submod but that takes time. I might make one with the right files once 1.5 comes out or if you ask me and tell me which mod you are running, or you can try to learn to do it yourself, it's really simple.

Documents of Succession start on each faction's heir as defined by describe_strat file. Or you could give the ancillary to whoever you choose in the descr_strat and start your game if you don't want to walk your faction heir somewhere.

Great idea though, don't know why no one has posted something like this here yet. I always mod my own game above and beyond even existing submods, and upload stuff when I remember = /. Here you go.

Previews

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[FortressofRain]

Working on ideas to let you pre-choose the first faction heir -

Open descr_strat

Find the general with the discriptor "heir".

Delete it.

Add it to who ever you want.

Give the ancillary "documents_of_succession" to the new/old heir, or whoever you choose.

Start the game and your chosen person with "heir" discriptor will be the heir at start. Then give the documents of succession from your heir or your faction heir orb to whoever you want and they will be the next faction heir. Problems solved.

[ackrite26]

Will this not be a problem if your General already has 8 Ancs?

[Aikanár]

Will this not be a problem if your General already has 8 Ancs?

That's the first point.
The second problem is, that there's always the possibility, that other members of the family have even more Authority.
And of course, one could just forget to swap the ancillary around.
Furthermore, there's no trigger to aquire the anc, if it gets lost, like the bearer gets killed in battle f.e.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to rain on your parade, but it's just not really that what the title of the thread indicates. It can be supportive for influencing the game, but it's not the ultima ratio.

Nonetheless, keep it comming

[FortressofRain]

Yep, but just use the command console to remove one, or don't cheat, just move your general to another and transfer and ancillary.

Furthermore, there's no trigger to aquire the anc, if it gets lost, like the bearer gets killed in battle f.e.

My version has a global ancillary check trigger and spawns it on the faction leader if the person with it dies. Its better than nothing for now, I haven't had time to improve on this little quirk recently. Maybe soon I'll do a more comprehensive trigger.

And another family having more authority is unlikely. If that is your concern change to value to authority 100.

[FortressofRain]

Woot. Since I got my own forum, I guess now I have to update this.

I'll update both a 1.4.1 and RR/RC version as soon as I am able. It'll probably be the improved version also. I already have ideas for gondor, eirador, and rohan. Just need ideas for isengard, mordor, elves, and dwarves.
The documents of succession will likely migrate over to harad and rhun.

[Hero of the West]

Woot. Since I got my own forum, I guess now I have to update this.

I'll update both a 1.4.1 and RR/RC version as soon as I am able. It'll probably be the improved version also. I already have ideas for gondor, eirador, and rohan. Just need ideas for isengard, mordor, elves, and dwarves.
The documents of succession will likely migrate over to harad and rhun.

maybe isengard and mordor could pass the lost seeing stone (palantir) it's a priced possesion in both factions.. then you could also implement a line of sight bonus or something like that.. for the dwars.. "the arkenstone" sounds suitable.. a great possesion recovered from Smaug the dragon.. the elves should pas on their rings of power as priced possetions so you might want to change them with more suitable abilities. i hope you like these ideas?

if youré gonna update this regulary.. it might be great if you would make it for frome to.. since FROME is about to become the greatest hit at least till 1.5 i guess

[FortressofRain]

As for the 'Documents of Succession' or 'Heir Orb' or whatever succession sub-mod is brought in, if at all, I would suggest making them faction-specific, if just for appearances. Mordor could have something like 'Amulet of the Eye', Dwarves could have a 'Hîlmîr' (Bad Sindarin for Heir-jewel; maybe even just have the Arkenstone itself), etc. Also, I'd suggest (If possible) changing the script upon death to 50% transfer to current Faction Leader, 50% to the battle-winning General. That way, it could remove the ability to choose an Heir until the General holding the retinue was hunted down

- From RR/RC forum

I completely agree and that is what I needed. I don't know a lot about lore, but I know a lot about modding. I'll make an updated version after I finish testing and release the beta for the traits and ancillaries submod. For now I just needed something in the game that would work.

As for capturing general, that is kinda a good idea, but impractical I think. I look at it this way, with documents of succession, if the heir to the heir dies, the king has to end in a settlement (updated trigger not shown/posted earlier) and then he writes new documents of succession naming the new heir. With objects its a little iffy, because yes the enemy general might find it, but I more or less like to think if the heir to the heir dies with the object, the army surrounds him and takes his body and the object to the king for a burial service and then the object is returned to the treasury and bestowed upon the next heir.

Also hunting down an enemy general that the ai marches across the map is a royal pain in the ass and could make a game less fun, and defeats the purpose of an object that lets the player choose to overcome the limitations of the game engine. So I probably won't include the battle general finding it.

[Tropical Bob]

My response in the RC/RR thread:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's why I suggest a 50% chance either way. What if the army dies too? Or if it can't reach the Heir's corpse?

That would be the danger in sending the Faction Heir to the front lines. You have a General with nice stats, but if he dies, you just might lose your ability to appoint an Heir. Take it like this: no clear-cut choice leaves a gap in which any man of qualification could make a power grab.

As for chasing down the General with your item: Think of the Nauglamir. The Dwarves sent an army to recover a simple necklace (Sure, it had a Silmaril, but I don't think that was really the entire reason.). The recovery of a national treasure, one that decides the Heir of the nation, would be top priority.

Ideas for faction-specific items:
Dwarves: Hîlmîr (Heir-jewel; a sort of mini-Arkenstone, perhaps set into a necklace so as to resemble the Nauglamír. An alternative if the Arkenstone in Thrain's tomb upon his breast was considered too sacred to remove.)
Rhûn: Lôke-Hûn (Dragon's Heart; a hefty egg-shaped ruby with a golden Drake spiraling around the middle, it's tail ending in a stable circle at the bottom to rest the item vertically on a surface.)
Isengard: I disagree with the Palantír. Saruman would not part with it for a moment, methinks. Perhaps a Ring of Saruman; a dull iron ring with a jet-black stone set in the top, in which one can see the White Hand from any angle, as well as a seeming distant rainbow 'tinge' throughout the stone.

Nothing more for now. Except to correct spelling:

Dwarves: Arkenstone?
High Elves:
Silvan Elves:
Gondor: Book of Kings?
Eriador: Something of Arnor (in keeping with the upcoming 1.5 patch)
Dale: Dragon Slay Arrow, Arrow of Bard, something like that?
Mordor: Amulet of the Eye
Isengard: Palantír
Rhun: ???
Harad: ???

[Hero of the West]

you could also asume sauron still pocessed the wisdom to make new rings (which he had) and achieved this.. then you could give the mordor faction such a new ring.. and maybe even the isengard faction? and perhaps the others).. but this is purely speculation.. i don't know if it's lore.. but i think aa serpents staff for harad or something like that would be nice.. fits the faction i guess.. the arkenstone or a miniversion both sounds good the dragon arrow is more something for the king of dale i guess.. maybe the scale of the dragon smaug (currently as other acillary i think).. the elven rings have the same problem as the palintir for isengard as tropical bob said.. so maybe the light of earendil for the silvan elves.. "there and back again a hobbits tale by bilbo baggins" for eriador would be GREAT.. like.. respect to the book, movie, game etc etc..

[FortressofRain]

Keep the ideas coming...

[Hero of the West]

Keep the ideas coming...

i like the idea of a feather from gwaihir.. for either dale.. or if you implement on VoA.. off course VoA.. maybe a staff with a skull (skull of the first goblin king or something) for Ootm..

[Tropical Bob]

I would say Sauron definitely still knew the art of Ring-making. The problem is, I think that he needed the smithing prowess of the Elves to pull a lot of it off. Either that, or he perhaps didn't have the strength left in him to make more without the One Ring.

Another thought for Mordor I had was something like 'Mark of the Eye'. A mark of the Eye either upon the forehead flesh of an Orc or Black Numenorean who proved himself worthy of such high positioning, or a fiery red Eye emblazened where the forehead would be on a Nazgul. Going with the Ring idea, though, a Ring of the Eye perhaps? Though, I'm more content with Saruman trying to make a Ring to further bring his chain of command under his control, mocking Sauron even more. I personally like the Amulet of the Eye best for Mordor though. Almost like a Palantir straight to Sauron's mind, the bearer would be the sight and hand of Sauron in the field.

i like the idea of a feather from gwaihir.. for either dale.. or if you implement on VoA.. off course VoA.. maybe a staff with a skull (skull of the first goblin king or something) for Ootm..

Perhaps Bolg's or Azog's skull? Though I think that would be a little morbid, even for an Orc, to be carrying around a skull.

[Hero of the West]

I would say he definitely still knew the art of Ring-making. The problem is, I think that he needed the smithing prowess of the Elves to pull a lot of it off. Either that, or he perhaps didn't have the strength left in him to make more without the One Ring.

Another thought for Mordor I had was something like 'Mark of the Eye'. A mark of the Eye either upon the forehead flesh of an Orc or Black Numenorean who proved himself worthy of such high positioning, or a fiery red Eye emblazened where the forehead would be on a Nazgul. Going with the Ring idea, though, a Ring of the Eye perhaps? Though, I'm more content with Saruman trying to make a Ring to further bring his chain of command under his control, mocking Sauron even more. I personally like the Amulet of the Eye best for Mordor though. Almost like a Palantir straight to Sauron's mind, the bearer would be the sight and hand of Sauron in the field.

well problably he misses his physical form for it.. maybe an idea like saruman forged two ringes.. the rings of the union of the 2 towers.. just spitting ideas.. but it would give the allience between them more feeling.. ring of the eye sounds nice to.. could work

well orks are quite brute.. and they even ate eachother from time to time.. so perhaps they consider it an honor to carrie there first leader.. i think it could be done.. but i'll read "the hobbit" to see what items the goblin king carried.. maybe it gives me an idea

In the hobbit the only specific thing mentioned is his large head.. but that doesn't help much.. the sword of thorin is being called orkcrist & is quite legendary as i read it.. maybe something for the dwarves (the erebor dwarves faction FROME?

In the lore it is suggested saruman forged a ring himself.. which probably gave him his strenghtened reasoning powers.. such a ring would be perfect and quite lore i guess?

[Tropical Bob]

In the lore it is suggested saruman forged a ring himself.. which probably gave him his strenghtened reasoning powers.. such a ring would be perfect and quite lore i guess?

This is why I decided a Ring would be a good call for Isengard.

Saruman calls himself Ring-Maker, and I do believe Gandalf saw a Ring on his finger.

[Hero of the West]

This is why I decided a Ring would be a good call for Isengard.

Saruman calls himself Ring-Maker, and I do believe Gandalf saw a Ring on his finger.

yep i agree with you

[OfficerJohn]

Saruman being a "Ring-maker" was just another of his wannabe-Sauron features

[Hero of the West]

When "there and back again" is being used for eriador.. it would be nice to use the "Red Book of Westmarch" for arnor.. this contains bilbo's story & frodo's story (aswell as accounts from all of the events during the trilogy)

[Hero of the West]

heeey Fortress of Rain, you haven't failed in your attempt have you? it has been quite for a while so just checking in if you are still working on this then you might want to use the book of Mazarbul for the dwarves

grtz patrician1

[Comandertony]

patrician1 your funny sometimes the ring didnt give saruman more wisdom or power all it did was change his color. i would keep the stone of orchanc as the heir item. because that alone made isengard worth fighting for. saruman went into isengard for that one purpose to use the stone. i think its a great idea and i would stick with it if i were you.