Generals, Nobles and Governors; Titles and Acumen
Hello all...
Since this project clearly attempts, among other things, to gather all the best features from all TW games it can, I would like to discuss some features from the first Medieval, which were removed from Medieval II, quite unjustifiably, and often quite stupidly, robbing us from many cool things.
Perhaps the one of the major frustrations when the new style Medieval came out (for many of us old-timers, who were playing Medieval I even after Rome TW hit the decks), was the "family tree" system. Apart from stealing handy features like the ability to assign faction heirs (for what possible reason I cannot imagine), it produced a historicity confusion, because it did not follow even remotely rulers' succession principle, as the old Medieval could; it furthermore robbed us of the chance to create heroes. And finally, it killed the titles feature, which gave the game some feudal look. Let's look at this in detail.
In the old Medieval there was a specific txt which one could (and I did) edit, which assigned a model of succession for faction leaders regulating name and their number (so if a Louis V of France had reigned, the next one would be a Louis VI), as well as characteristics, traits and portraits. (see attachments 1 & 2 for scripting result)
The same could be done with heroes. For those of you who were too young to begin with Medieval I, the mechanism worked as follows: every military unit was in itself a general "in the making", so to speak. Its captain had a name, all the categories of characteristics present, and every potential to develop as Medieval II generals do without being a member of the royal family or requiring to be adopted (which idiot thought of the adoption mechanism I don't know). Among all those units you could script the appearance of (up to 20) heroes, that is historical figures like El Cid, or John of Gaunt, or Alexander Nevsky, again scripting their initial traits. These would appear in the moment needed in whatever form you chose, meaning that if you scripted, for instance, Bertrand du Guesclin (famous commander in the Hundred Years' war, Connetable of France), who was born in reality in 1320, you would train any unit (let's say - dismounted chivalric knights) in 1336 (that is, when he would be 16 years of age), and there he was for you to... play with.
Apart from having the opportunity to play with real historical figures, one obvious virtue of this system was that you could assign the hero any unit to command, be it peasants, handgunners or even cannon (OK, these examples are just to give you scope, no one in their right mind would make an peasant unit a general), which gave you a greater range of choices in tactical decisions later on (not all like their general leading an attack against a massive block of Janissary archers protected by poles stuck in the ground). The added benefit was that you did not pay for the upkeep of a general more than the unit he commanded required (while in Medieval 2 you are obliged to pay the General's Unit, quite an expensive, and sometimes tactically unsound a choice for the commanding unit). Additionally, you could edit the name, adding a historical element, so that "John of Gaunt" could be scripted as "John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster", or El Cid (who was scripted in the original version of the game) could be made into "Don Rodrigo Diaz - El Cid Campeador".
One other significant feature that was gone after Medieval I were the titles and "offices of state". When you began your game there were in each province small "scroll pawns", which you could drag and drop on any general you favoured and make him lord of that province, and giving him a relevant title, for example Amir of Cordoba, Duke of Valencia, Prince of Ryazan', or Count of Toulouse. All these had an added bonus to the general's traits, usually including loyalty and a boost to command or acumen (to be discussed below). Thus if you assigned a general the title Duke of Prussia, you got +1 Loyalty +1 Command.
Similarly there were the offices of state, like Chancellor, Marshal of France, Archbishop of Saragossa, or Keeper of the Seal. These worked in exactly the same way, elevating favourite generals to an exalted status, giving the game real historical flavour while at the same time making it more fun, and regulating at will every aspect of your army. Thus you could assign a title or office which gave a boost to piety, to a good general under threat by an inquisitor, for instance (and yes, most of us *have* lost good generals by inquisitors). Others would serve as good governors, with the relevant boost on traits, leaving those who were more able to command be field generals, while assigning separately governors or feudal lords to a province. A Constable of France would get +2 Command, for instance, while a Chancellor of the Exchequer would get + 2 Acumen, a Patriarch of Constantinople - a boost on piety and so on. (see upload)
Of course titles were reversible, and at any point of the game you could "sack" a governor, or a Chancellor, and give that title and office to someone else.
And finally traits, or rather a trait, since most were more or less the same from Medieval I to II, with the one notable exception being acumen. Those of you who have played the English campaign in Medieval: Kingdoms saw a glimpse of this, but how did that work no one ever explained to anyone's satisfaction, and the way it dropped when you governor became a builder was totally stupid. In the original Medieval acumen was a permanent trait (as you can see from the attached pics), and it regulated a general's ability to govern a province/city effectively. I would say that this trait is as important to this game as command, seeing that high or low acumen, if we chose to include it, would have a direct impact on population happiness and taxation.
Could titles be included? I don't see any particular difficulty in this. Can the curse of the family tree be broken? Family tree to the ruler - yes, but standing generals as well... Doesn't that seem logical? (for civil wars as well, by the way) Heroes - historical figures belong in a mod which attempts maximum possible historicity. And what will all this take time-wise? Not much, I reckon...
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Originally Posted by Egir
), but it is slightly off the mark by comparison.
