MICRO PROVINCES
In addition to the normal regions that all mods and vanilla has, we will be using a new idea we have called micro regions. These regions are as small as we could make them (the size of a settlements graphic). These micro settlements will act as pre-placed forts with the ability to construct buildings in them. They will not be centers of commerce and trade like other settlements. You must own at least one micro province and its larger major province to enable any trade for the major province. Micro provinces are more or less INSIDE or on the borders of major regions. They will act as strategic and tactical points of interest. You (and the AI) can cut off a settlements trade from and to the major settlement, Which can make it impossible for the factions other settlements to construct specific units.
Micro provinces will increase the difficulty and increase the strategic options available.
Some major regions will only have 1 micro province, other regions, such as York or London have 3 micro provinces. Owning a regions micro province can also open up event options for the settlement.
Micro Provinces will play a major role in how you manage your kingdom or how you plan your attacks. If you do not own a Major regions Micro Province it will severely limit the Major Regions growth potential, among other things.
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STATS - These may yet be completly randomized on each new game start to add to replayability.
Each Lord begins the game with a stat level in one of the following:
Swordplay
Jousting
Leadership
Vassalage
Renown
Chivalry
Where Vassal is set to 8 (starting province - for saxon only) and Renown to 0 (no achievements) and Chivalry to 0 (No good or bad deeds). The other 3 set as per below.
Swordplay - The ability to Duel. Affects various quests such as Rescuing a Maiden or Raiding a Castle. Also determines players starting command level.
Jousting - Ability to win Tournaments. This ability is transfered to the players 'Sole Champion' who competes on the players behalf in the Tournament at Ashby. Winning this tournament grants land or fame which you choose upon the tournament start. Losing can eliminate you from the game.
Leadership - Ability to govern and lead. This stat affects moral on the battlefield and the ability to govern settlements.
Vassalage - Unit recruitment limit.You can only recruit as many units as your Vassal Count. Low class units do not add to vassalage and are recruitable all the time. These units also have no upkeep. Vassal points are increased/decreased by ownership of regions and through the construction of buildings and events. Renown can affect Vassalage points (never negatively).
Renown - The players achievement rating. Renown is increased/decreased when certain events occur, such as completing a mission, taking a settlement, winning a tournament, raiding a castle etc. Renown is rated from -1.0 to +1.0. Certain buildings/units become available dependant on Renown Level. Renown is also treated like Global Faction Standing, and vice versa.
Chivalry - Similar system to that of Renown, except chivalry is affected by your decisions in game. Chivalry will affect your Renown. Chivalry is rated from -20 to +20. Each +/-1 affecting Global Faction Standing and Renown by +/-0.05. Decisions would include aiding a Maidens rescue (or not), exterminating populations, raising buildings, accepting/declining events etc.
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EDB and BUILDING EVENTS and INTERACTIVE EVENTS
The EDB will be rewritten and revised from the ground up. The mod takes place in a 10 yr period, therefore it is not realistic that a single settlement could construct cathedrals, fortresses, inns etc. Instead, Most major settlements will have prebuilt buildings. We plan to use a very well thought out series of Building Events. These are like random events that the player has control over. Holding Tournaments, Fairs, Markets, Send the governor on a Hunting Trip, Hold a Banquet, Increase/Decrease Town Patrols, Increase/Decrease Road Patrols, Repair a building, upgrade a building etc... In addition settlements will have access to real buildings, such as Increasing Farm land, Adding a stable and more or less buildings that wont take years to complete. It will be possible to gain access to some major buildings through roleplay and events chosen. Buildings such as Cathedrals, Castles etc.
With Building Events it will be possible for them to be constructed multiple times, and therefore you can gain its benefits multiple times. Holding a Joust Tournament for example will cause an interactive event to occur, Holding the same tournament multiple times in the one settlement will cause additional events to become possible and may lead to the possibility to upgrade the settlements Joust Fields, or grant the Governor traits and ancilliaries. Most Building Events will be similar in design. Some may grant additional units or increased treasury or whatever.
Interactive events will include events such as Rescuing a Maiden, Raiding a Castle, Holding an Archery Tournament, Requesting a Duel, Requesting Aid from Robin etc. These will be options available in your building queue and the effects will be somthing you can play with, such as actually going into battle for the Duel, or gaining additional units when requesting aid, gaining land for rescuing a maiden or just taking a rival factions treasury for raiding a castle... Events like this will only appear in your building queue after other events occur in game. Example, A princess comes of Age to another Saxon Lord or you have previously completed construction of a Joust field...
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ROBIN of LOCKSLEY
Saxon lords can call for the aid of Robin 3 times (no earlier then 1193). An event will occur in game to inform of his arrival (Robin is away with King Richard on Crusade). When you call for Robins aid you will recieve the assistance of 3 units of Sherwood Archers. Where these units are spawned are yet to be determined. Either in your Faction Leaders army, or your Starting Capital. You can only ask for Robins help 3 times throughout the campaign.
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RESOURCES
Settlements and Regions will each have 1 or more resources. Most regions will have the Jousting Fields (which can be upgraded with a mine to Jousting Lists and Jousting Tournament Fields).
A few select regions will have special resources such as Sword, Armor, Catapult, Horse, Pike, Bow. These denote which settlements have access to particular unit types. Holding this region enables the recruitment of that unit type/upgrade across all settlements which have the required building.
Resources:
Sword - Weapon Upgrades available
Armor - Armor Upgrades available
Catapult - Siege Engines become available
Horse - Cavalry units
Pike - Pike Militia
Bow - Improved bow units
Joust Field - Only resource to have a value, explained below.
There would be only be a handful of each of the above resources on the map. Which will create strategic points to hold. London, being the Norman Capital will likely have access to Cavalry and Weapon Upgrades from the start. All other resources will be placed in Slave owned settlement regions.
If you dont hold any of these regions you are limited to the basic civilian and elite civilian recruitment options... Those would also replace the normal resource on the map.
Some regions may contain 2 or more... some may contain 2 of the same type! which increases availability.
Example: Region 1 has 1 catapult resource, so it can construct 1 catapult once every 10 turns... Region 2 has 2 catapult resources within its borders, so it can construct 1 catapult every 5 turns...
Only a selected few regions would have double resources like that. Maybe 1-2 regions per resource only.
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CAPTIANS - GENERALS
Removal of captians and replaced with general characters. This will create more roleplay possibilities. It will also enable us to include a trait/anc system that can effect a units fighting ability depending on what region they are fighting in (units have more moral when defending a home region for example).
Most units will be recruited as 'minor' generals, few units will be recruited as captains (more or less the lowest unit classes, peasants etc). But Peasants will have general units aswell.
Only certain units will have access to certain traits/ancilliaries, this will enable us to grant the 'major' generals positions and so forth above the 'minor' generals. Minor generals will be given negative traits that affect governing settlements poorly. through these negative traits/ancs the general can be roleplayed to become a better governor etc. Enabling the player to turn a peasant into a noble (more or less).
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CHARACTERS
Spies and Assassins will be used as normal. Except spies will have an increased benefit. When spying on enemy settlement that is owned by either a Saxon or Norman the player will recieve a pop up regarding the owning Lords statistics (Swordplay, Jousitng, Leadership)
Princess... Might be able to come up with an inventive way to use them in script. In DotC you could save a saxon lords princess and gain the saxon lords land (he was thus removed from play as an opponent). I might be able to, seeing as family trees are useless in 10 yrs, start a princess at a particular age at game start (before she comes of age to marry at 14). Like make one 8 yrs old, so that in yr 6 of the game (Turn 312) she becomes a character. If it is an AI faction when she comes of age the player will be asked if they wish to rescue her. Basicllly using her as a trigger for the event... 1 of them being your own which u can just marry off or use as a diplomat for the rest of the game. she wont die in 10 yrs. so thats a few chances to rescue a maiden and gain that lords land... Maybe use a seperate event to allow you to marry her off to another saxon lord for bonuses... OR try and get the player to get robin of locksley to marry her... Otherwise, princess will not be used.
Merchants will be treated as Jousters and Duelists, Or Champions. The traits the Champion has dictate whether he is a Duelist or Jouster. A pop up will ask whether you wish to create one or the other. Duelists are used primarily to remove Jousters and other Duelists. Jousters are designed to win Tournaments... It will be a detailed Trait system to have this working properly. Only one resource on the map will have a value, being the Joust Field, this resource is minable and the joust field upgradable. Merchants can increase income on the joust field if they are a Jouster. (Which also represents the Duelist Spot). Like winning prize money. This idea may be a little confusing to some, my apologies  .
One Merchant will take on the role of being the players 'Sole Champion'. This Merchant will have the same stats as the players faction leader (Swordplay and Jousting stats). Only this merchant can partake in the Grand Tournament at Ashby.
A building Event will enable the player to switch his Jouster into a Duelist and vice versa.
Only 1 Duelist and 1 Jouster available at any given time. In addition the player (AI) may also possess 1 Champion.
Priests may be used as Minstrels... Number available regulated by Renown. More info on this character later.
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THE CHAMPION
The player will be able to recruit a champion only when he has completed the construction of a mine (Joust Field) somewhere. That mine allows you to recruit a champion. When you recruit him a pop up event appears asking if you would like him to focus on jousting or dueling. This will decide this merchants career path. You need to construct another mine in another region (or upgrade an existing one) to be able to recruit another champion. Once again, you will be asked to pick whether he is a jouster or duelist... Both are merchants... But, the traits and ancilliaries available to them are dependant on whether he is a jouster or a duelist. We can use traits that lower the income gained from resource trading so that only the jouster can win prize money. The duelist will have traits that enable him to acquire other duelists AND jousters (the traits will be set up to ensure that the jouster cant beat a duelist in aquire)... This will make the 2 very different. and they will almost act like different characters yet they will both be merchants.
The only real thing that will shape them (other then the traits) are the events we spawn around them. Such as, leaving your duelist on the jousting resource on an enemy (or ally) region will start a different event than if you placed your jouster there. Same goes for the AI. If the AI places a jouster in your region then he is jousting you, if he places his duelist, then he is challenging you.
From that, we can then spawn the general bodyguard for the one on one duel. If you win with ur general then the AI's merchant is killed, if they win, ur duelist is killed... This way the AI can challenge not just your KING, but the settlement title holder.
Jousting AI will be somewhat different, thy will call tournaments as opposed to a challenge...
Its all in the event...
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HEROS
Ivanhoe and Athelstane are going to be the Saxon Heros. Available to any and all saxon factions. Only 1 instance of the character would be spawned though. So if Wolfric the Wild was able to achieve the conditions before Rotherwood, then Wolfric would gain the hero (Ivanhoe or Athelstane).
Athelstane offered when a norman lord has been vanquished. Only the faction controlling York would be offered. Athelstane would appear as a building in the EDB.
Ivanhoe offered after 1194 (his return from the crusades). Player must win or have won a tournament...? An event would detail his arrival.
Every Saxon faction will have tailor made goals from game start. If said goals are met then special units or buildings will become available. Each of the factions will have to be broken down individually, but a few available to all Saxons would be:
Sherwood Archers if Nottingham is controlled and all 3 aids from robin have been used, Longbow if all of Wales is controlled, Scottish highlanders if all scottish regions controlled, Norman Knights if London controlled.
Another idea, is to add an old gaming element, in the sense that you start the game with a pop up telling you to do somthing (complete a quest). you can take as long as u want to accomplish this. It might be, take settlementA... Or destroy FactionX... Once completed, you proceed to level 2 where you recieve another quest. Once completed, you move to level 3...and so forth... Each time you complete one you gain a benefit, or somthing or other (a minor lord, bonus money, free unit, etc). the player would start with very basic quests... Like train a peasant, recruit a spy, construct a tourny field, win a duel, raid a castle, rescue a maiden, destroy a norman lord, construct a catapult...etc etc...
This would be in addition to the faction specific quests suggested (such as being able to unlock Ivanhoe as a minor noble into your faction)...
Quests would add to your faction leaders 'Renown'... Earn enough Renown and you gain additional Vassal points. Which loops back to the idea of spending vassal points to unlock super units (such as sherwood archers - which will normally only be available when requesting aid from robin)...
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REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS
every region (except micro provinces) would have a minable resource, the resource would look like a jousting tent or some-such, which could then be turned into a jousting field (mine) and jousting list (Improved mine) (and we can add another 7 levels if we wanted - buildings can have 9 tiers, this current idea uses only 2 as the mine is upgraded twice. We could add jousting rings, dueling rings, pavillion tent etc with each upgrade and each time it increases priz emoney and possible scripted events). So every region would have access to this. (we could also use different resources (with same strat map pic of a joust tent) to represent varying levels of prize money from region to region).
Every capital region (no more than 12), will have access to the exact same thing, except more events will be based around it. Basically, your champion (jouster/duelist) can go from region to region and participate in different jousting tournaments. (he is in actuality a merchant trading on different resources), or your champion can stay in the one region and continually win prize money. The only difference is we throw in a roleplay element. If you keep him in the one region for too long he will gain bad traits, he needs to go from region to region to challenge and occupy other resources (jousts) to earn good traits. Same for the AI. Except i dont want the AI to have access to merchants like the player. Because the AI wont know its a joust and just sit in the one place all the time. Id rather spawn merchants for the AI when there are events that call for it.
The capital regions will gain the events we script. Such as the challenges. If a challenge is offered in say, london, then you are given access to a merchant (champion) in your recruitment list IN london (it will actually be recruited through the EDB event idea so we can then spawn the character with a name and then kill it afterwards). The challenger is then spawned on the resource near london enabling you to move your champion (whom you will recruit for this). You could ofcourse use your existing champion (if you have one), but just in case he is off near cornwall or something we allow the player to recruit a new champion just for this event in london.
This would be set up in all capitals. And only for when the player owns the capital (his or a previous owners, just the player controls it now) will it be possible.
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ASHBY TOURNAMENT
The ashby tournament will not be decided by a merchant on the ashby resource, it will be determined via script. The use of the EDB events will spark the first Ashby tourny. For example, lets say we agree that once 8 jousting fields have been constructed map wide (either by you or the AI or a combination of both), then that sparks the FIRST Ashby tournament... Once 8 Jousting Lists have been built, the 2nd ashby tounry... Once 8 Pavillion tents, the third and final...
The only difference with the ashby tournament is that ALL lords will partake, not just your champion and one other merchant. ALL lords. So a merchant would spawn for EACH lord (thats alive). Ontop of this, the player chooses whether they joust for LAND or FAME and who thy joust. Fame increase all your stats and treasury. Land grants you the losers Land, ALL his land and holdings. If the player chooses land and loses, game over.
So every region has access to the mine building (Except mico provinces). The buildings do not get demolished. Only event buildings get demolished., That is, buildings that are not really buildings, but are events, or units recruited via the EDB as opposed to units recruited via the recruitmnt list. The only difference is Capitals have more events based around them, and Ashby's tourny fields are special and are game changing. (Ashby will start with a mine constructed).
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SHERRIFS/BALIFFS/STEWARDS and CASTELANS
Ancilliaries will represent whether a general is a Sheriff (Has increased military) or Castelan (Has increased governor skills). The amount of military experience provided depends on whether the general is a Baliff, Sheriff or Steward. Only one steward can be present on the map, one sherrif for each region, and countless Baliffs. Seeing as we are adopting a no captian policy, most units will be led by a general. Therefore some of them will be baliffs, fewer will be sherrifs and only one will be a steward. Only the Castelan can hold a settlements title, only a castelan can order construction of buildings, recruitment etc. Where as sheriffs ans that lot can never govern... Forces the player to choose wisely as what they need. Only your faction leader (and select few special characters) can do both.
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Defender of the Crown - Ivanhoe Total War - A WiP
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Originally Posted by Tsarsies
