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Thread: Faerūn[Forgotten Realms]TW - v0.2 released, check the first post

  1. #21

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    If I may offer my advice as a Forgotten Realms Lore Monkey... >.>'


    Amn would be the Venice/Spain of Faerun, Tethyr is like France, Lusken was kind of like Denmark or Novgorod, I think Cormyr was like medieval Britain, Calimshan is like Egypt...Waterdeep might have been like a Constantinople in terms of multicultural aspects and their trade networks.

    Mulhorand is like ancient egypt, same gods and everything. Halruaa is sort of like Italy and France.

    That's all I can think of at the moment, Also, the Zhentarim were more of an underground organization then a country. Although they did control a few towns and castles...
    Last edited by MedievalDragoon; September 04, 2011 at 01:00 AM.

  2. #22
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    Hi MedievalDragoon! Thanks for your advice, any help is welcome.
    I did some reading about some of the factions and the Zhentarim are often mentioned as enemies of various faerun nations. They are not a nation or a country like you pointed out, but the factions in my opinion don't have to be based on countries only but any influential forces with military capability could be taken into consideration. Ofcourse that the Zhentarim are generally regarded as evil or malicious organization (mercenary company), makes them interesting to include.

    Many of the human or elf factions would be more or less friendly towards eachother, so they need enemies too. So far the "evil" factions would consist of Banehold forces, Luskan, the Orcs, the Zhentarim and (invading) and the Shadovar. This doesn't mean those evil groups would all be one alliance of evil, rather separate groups fighting against most other human, elf or dwarf factions.

    The question of balancing the multi faction alliances against one or two common enemies they have, will not be very easy, but I want to stick with the lore alliances and animosities.

  3. #23

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I have an idea for a unit/trait (depends on which one fits better). The nine of Neverwinter. They are the bodyguards of the Lord of Neverwinter, and they have been existing since the city had been founded. As a unit they would be the bodyguards of Neverwinter's factipon leader, if it is somehow possible to make them the bodyguards only for him, and not for the other generals. As a trait they would gain much public security, but less personal security (they try to defend their lord with their lives). They should get +5 Loyalty, so that they have max loyalty, if there is no negativ trait.

  4. #24

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    This does look very interesting to me as I'm a pretty big D&D nerd. I agree the Zhentarim pretty much need to be a faction. They were hidden and used a lot of assassins, but they did have armies and IRC tried to invade the Dalelands and other places. I have 3rd edition Forgotten Realms, so I only know the timeline up to 1372, but why does Amn control Chult, Lantan, and the Moonshaes?
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  5. #25
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    Quote Originally Posted by Clansman117 View Post
    This does look very interesting to me as I'm a pretty big D&D nerd. I agree the Zhentarim pretty much need to be a faction. They were hidden and used a lot of assassins, but they did have armies and IRC tried to invade the Dalelands and other places. I have 3rd edition Forgotten Realms, so I only know the timeline up to 1372, but why does Amn control Chult, Lantan, and the Moonshaes?
    I've read that Amn had colonies in those lands, and in Maztica (which is not inlcuded in this mod). I am not sure if Amn controlled all these colonies in 1358 DR and will sure research that. They should probably control only some coastal parts of Chult and the Moonshaes, or is that later on and I got confused with a different period? I checked Lantan and yes it's my mistake.

    This is all work in progress you see and I'm not all perfect with the lore. Just been thinking about total war mod set in the forgotten realms for a couple of years and finally got myself to start doing something for it. Would be cool to have some people good with the lore to revise some ideas, that is if anyone would be interested.

    I have an idea for a unit/trait (depends on which one fits better). The nine of Neverwinter. They are the bodyguards of the Lord of Neverwinter, and they have been existing since the city had been founded. As a unit they would be the bodyguards of Neverwinter's factipon leader, if it is somehow possible to make them the bodyguards only for him, and not for the other generals. As a trait they would gain much public security, but less personal security (they try to defend their lord with their lives). They should get +5 Loyalty, so that they have max loyalty, if there is no negativ trait.
    I like this idea for Neverwinter bodyguards, but not sure if the faction leader can have unique bodyguard - never heard of that. For the leader it could be combined with traits that give those bonusses. Bodyguards for each faction should be unique in my opinion. So far reading about various factions I was not yet focusing on soldier types that much but for example came across quite a bit of solid information about Cormyr and their bodyguard unit would likely be Purple Dragon Knights.

    Current progress
    I'm not yet finished with the map because I started researching other things, like faction symbols and flags and how to change all that in game. Years of watching CSI finally pays off and I have a chance to employ my amateur detective skills in researching something which often doesn't exist at all... meaning coats of arms of many factions are not to be found anywhere, not even by a mentioning or description. This ofcourse is a thrilling mystery but for the sake of not wasting time I decided that the 'blanks' will have to be filled with best possible ideas.

    If anyone wants to help with their creativity and being able to back it up with some lore background info, please feel free to share your ideas.
    Here's a list of factions that I have no idea what symbols could they have, or at least not sure:
    Amn - I've read that either Waukeen, or coin(s) or lion(s) would be their symbol but not sure. Main colour most probably dark red.

    Tethyr
    - I have no info on their symbols at all, so any help most welcome.

    Calimshan - No info on their symbols, likely similar to arabic but no idea what exactly.

    Luskan - No info, but some NVN memories tell me their colours would be yellow and black, but not sure. They are like vikings and I'm considering black sea dragon on yellow field, but any good suggestions are welcome.

    Mulhorand, Unther - the first one ancient egyptian the second babylonian-styled, but no other info on possible symbols.

    Luruar/Silver Marches - the coalition of human, elf and dwarf forces so perhaps some combination of symbols, I have no info.

    Great Rift - dwarf kingdom in the south, I have no info on their symbol.

    Chondath - no idea about symbol, human kingdom

    Turmish - same as above

    Aglarond - no idea about symbol, ruled by mages

    Rashemen - same as above only ruled by witches

    And some example of symbol style I am now playing with, metal shield style.


    The Banehold symbol above looks a bit ugly and I must make one with a better shaped hand, but will give you idea of the symbol for this faction.

    Coats of arms of other city states are mostly known, strangely enough the larger countries seem to be more forgotten then other realms in this matter, while heralrdy of towns and cities is much more comprehensive.

    I have toyed with texturing a unit too, so looks I will be able to that aswell, with time. Nothing to show you yet. With the start date decided I want to focus first on having interesting faction selection, finishing map and making all flags (campaign and battle).

  6. #26

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I very much love Faerun and have almost all the books from the 3rd edition (which seems to be the period the mod is set in) so I would love to help, downside is most of my books are currently packed away as I'm preparing to move (when wasting so much money in D&D would come in handy and there all packed up ). It might take me a while but I'll try to come up with some good ideas. With what I know off the top of my head, I think Thay's symbol should be red with a black arcane circle (or maybe the other way around) and maybe some flam in it as Red is the most important color to them and many Red Wizards worship Kossuth(sp?) who is the god of fire. Bane and Neverwinter's symbols look pretty good.
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  7. #27

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    When I see the Neverwinter symbol the feeling to be one of the nine of Neverwinter comes back
    In NWN2 there is a class called "shadowthief of Amn" (literally translated from German). You could use their symbol as a faction symbol.
    In NWN there is an item called "star of Calimshan". It is a very precious gem, which might be used as a symbol (use any gem. The one in the game looks like any other gem)
    If the great rift is a dwarven kingdom, you could use either a hammer, an anvil, both of them, or the symbol of the "dwarven defender" class.
    The symbol for Luskan looks good, but as it is ruled by wizards, I would suggest you use something looking like it was magical.
    And I think the Cormyr symbol has a bit to much detail. I'd like it better in the Luskan style.
    Haalrua reminds me a bit of captain America.

  8. #28

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I haven't pulled my books out yet, but I think Luskan, Calimshan, and The Great Rift have symbols (could be wrong), but I do know that Cormyr's symbol is the purple dragon on a white background, so that can't be Luskan's. BTW I just realized I forgot to say that Cormyr's is very well done. Remember Luskan is ruled by wizards, but most of its people distrust the wizards, and it is officially ruled by pirates (the Masters of the 4 towers are the hidden rulers everyone knows about).
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  9. #29

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I didn't mean that you should use the symbol of Luskan for Cormyr, but that it would look better in a similar style (only show the dragon's silhouette). If it appears somewhere in the books/games as shown above, I'll take that one back.

    Edit: You could take the deities' dogmas as quotes. They would fit the time of troubles perfectly, and there are enough to do every quote with them. It could be like:

    "Strive to maintain law and order. Obey your masters with alert judgment and anticipation. Stand ever alert against corruption."

    Torm's dogma

    "Make all folk fear Bhaal. Let your killings be especially elegant, or grisly, or seem easy so that those observing them are awed or terrified."

    Bhaal's dogma

    etc.
    Last edited by vercassivelaunos; September 04, 2011 at 08:07 PM.

  10. #30

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    Actually I thought you meant that Cormyr's symbol should be used for Luskan. I do think Cormyr's might look better as the silhouette, but Cormyr is one of the few nations with a picture of a symbol, and it does look like that. Personally, I'd be ok with it being changed. Speaking of symbols, I was wrong about Thay's. I found a picture of Thay's symbol, and it's just like what you made, so ignore what I said before. I've been looking for symbols, but except for a small number of factions, there don't seem to be any. Looks like we'll have to come up with our own. I have done some research (finally pulled out my books) and I have a few suggestions for factions and cultures. (sorry for the length)
    Northmen: (There are a lot of Northmen because I removed the sea of fallen stars culture because many of them have very similar cultures to the Northmen, while Rashemen are very unique)
    Banehold
    Neverwinter
    Waterdeep (although this could be Southmen due to half of its people being Tethyrian ethnicity)
    Silver Marches
    Shadovar(?) (I wasn't able to find this name anywhere, can I ask what it is?)
    Luskan
    Cormyr
    Sembia
    Chondath
    Turmish
    Impiltur
    Alglarond
    Zhentarim
    Dalelands (I believe the Dalelands should replace Cormanthyr as Cormanthyr was a very small area that doesn't do much, while the Dalelands fight off Sembia and the Zhents constantly and IIRC played an important role in the Time of Troubles)
    Calaunt (replaces Raven's Bluff as it is in the same area, but Calaunt is supposed to be more powerful)
    Southmen:
    Calimshan
    Tethyr
    Amn
    Baldur's Gate (due to it being in the Tethyrian-dominated Western Heartlands)
    Elturel (same as Baldur's Gate)
    Halruaa
    Tashalar (I thought this would make Chult less empty)
    Elvish:
    Evereska
    Dambrath (I though the far south was empty and Dambrath is a rather interesting faction, it is a human-majority land that is controlled by half-drow)
    Dwarven:
    The Great Rift
    Mulan:
    Mulhorand
    Unther
    Thay (Although there are a large number of Rashemi in Thay, its culture and architecture is Mulan)
    Orc:
    Many-Arrows
    Barbarian: (I think that the barbarian culture could be used for Rashemen and the many barbarian lands that aren't factions, i.e. Chult, the Uthgardt, the Moonshaes, the Tuigan.)
    Rashemen
    Please tell me what you think, and I'll keep looking for symbols, but I'm not very confident I'll find any.
    EDIT: I forgot to say that the quotes being from the different gods is a really good idea, especially with Bane playing a big role.
    Last edited by Clansman117; September 04, 2011 at 11:46 PM.
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  11. #31
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    Hi Clansman117! Thanks for your info mate, it is really helpful. The cultural division I posted before myself was not accurate I know, so thanks for making points to correct it. As for the factions you ask about or mention; the Shadovar are an interesting faction, they are Netherese humans from the plane of shadow: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Thultanthar

    As for your suggestion about Dambrath, I thought about that faction and indeed they might be included to fill in the empty map spaces. As you know they are half drow, they are evil worshippers, would be another 'evil' faction, which is ... good. There are several other factions that are not included in the initial list, which doesn't mean they are completely excluded, but I wanted to first focus on the more 'important' ones. So what I didn't include but might deserve a faction: Damara, Hillsfar, Thesk, Moonshaes (...).

    The elves
    About dalelands, you're right there should be at least one faction, but the reason I thought Cormanthyr was cool, is that there is hard to come across an elvish faction. Dambrath is not typically elvish, the population is mostly human with the ruling elite being half drow. On the other hand the elves rarely interfered with human affairs and would rather prefer to keep to their forests than engage in international struggle for power, so we might even question that the elves should get any faction? Perhaps it would be better to make the elvish woods inaccessible and remove their factions only leaving the elves as 'rebel' forces spawning in certain woods? I think it's a point to consider.

    Edit: You could take the deities' dogmas as quotes. They would fit the time of troubles perfectly, and there are enough to do every quote with them. It could be like:

    "Strive to maintain law and order. Obey your masters with alert judgment and anticipation. Stand ever alert against corruption."

    Torm's dogma

    "Make all folk fear Bhaal. Let your killings be especially elegant, or grisly, or seem easy so that those observing them are awed or terrified."

    Bhaal's dogma
    It's a definatelly cool idea, the quotes with dogmas would surely suit the spirit of the era of upheaval. I believe other quotes would find a place there too, like some racial quotes; like dwarven saying:
    “The difference between an acquaintance and a friend is about a hundred years.”
    or quotes from Elminster, Alaundo. I think the quotes will not be any problem at all, given the number of books bearing the forgotten realms logo.

  12. #32
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I forgot to answer your comments about the coat of arms of Cormyr. I think you're both right that it would be better to make it simple. So here it is:



    Uploaded with ImageShack.us


  13. #33

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I was wondering, how would you do the faith system?

    Would you split it up into different pantheons, or good deities and evil deities?

    Or maybe good human deities, evil human deities, the Elven pantheon, dwarven, etc?

    I don't think individual deities would work though, way to many.
    Blebdilploop and all those other Humanoid deities wouldn't fit...

  14. #34
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    Quote Originally Posted by MedievalDragoon View Post
    I was wondering, how would you do the faith system?

    Would you split it up into different pantheons, or good deities and evil deities?

    Or maybe good human deities, evil human deities, the Elven pantheon, dwarven, etc?

    I don't think individual deities would work though, way to many.
    Blebdilploop and all those other Humanoid deities wouldn't fit...
    I want the faiths to be more or less like this: evil dieties (human and other), good dieties (human and other), magocracy (country where worship of dieties is overshadowed by the pursuit of arcane knowledge/power, nature (druids, barbarians, elves). It is a bit hard to put simple labels but sort of like cults or order, chaos, arcane and nature. Then the religious buildings would have to be mostly faction specific, and most factions could build more than one type of temple.

    I imagine in large cities that would lead to construction of temple districts. I want to use the district building in many of the building trees to have eg. merchants, temple, government, military districts rather than single buildings for recruitment. But I guess that's a bit off topic to what you asked.

  15. #35

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    The district buildings sound cool, and very accurate. About elves, I do think Eveeska should be a faction, as it is where most of the elves in faerun live. The thing about the elves is that most of them left Faerun during the Retreat, so there aren't very many elves left in Faerun. About the factions, that is why I thought another evil faction would be nice, and those others would make for some cool factions. Only IIRC the faction limit is 29, so I don't think we can have them all. I really like Cormyr's symbol, you do very good work.
    EDIT: About Shadovar, I can't believe I didn't realize its the shades. That is going to be a fun faction.
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  16. #36
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Icon3 Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    Hi!

    Starting a team of supporters

    I received PMs with helpful info from people who would like to offer their assistance with this mod. This is great news to me that there are some people interested to help. I think this means that a team could be set up to better promote and develope the faerun mod idea.

    Therefore, if anyone visiting this topic is interested to be 'official' supporter, please make it known here in this topic. I'm saying supporters because you don't have to be a modder to be able to help this mod. Modding itself is one thing, researching the information is another, and promoting this mod is yet another.

    - For people who have some modding skills and want to help, there is ofcourse a lot to do, so if you happen to be such person, please write down a bit about what do you want to help with, what could you do.

    - For people who are Forgotten Realms lore or games fans, there is a lot of researching and advice that they could help with.

    - Finally for all those without any substantial modding abilities, without extensive lore knowledge and willingness to conduct researching, there is still something you can do if you want to help this mod - you can promote it by putting a link in your signature for example.

    I will not make a list with jobs, as I mostly rely on my own abilities to keep this mod progressing. My personal modding skills are ofcourse limited to certain areas, but I will have to expand those skills in order to be able to finish this mod. Still, it would be that much easier if other people wanted to take part of the work on their shoulders, and as a result help the mod to be finished sooner.
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    I'm writing all this because I see there are some people who probably could already make this team with me, and I hope that I'm not mistaken. I didn't write about my own modding experience or skills before as I thought that was not important at the start, but since some people might think I'm just a new guy with 10 posts and possibly next to no experience, I want now to clarify that.

    I used to mod MTW and later RTW a little in the past, not that much but enough to be familiar with some texturing, bit coding or map making. I was active on totalwar.org forums. The only official mod I've been involved with in the past was called Pike and Musket Total War and was initially MTW idea. For the next couple of years I quit total war modding, which I came back to this summer. This time with ideas about modding M2TW. I've been playing TW games since the first Shogun (from STW to ETW), and the total war series along with the Baldur's Gate saga are my all time favourites. Throughout the years I played most other crpg in forgotten realms and D&D, developing my sentiment for Faerun. I've been thinking about Faerun mod since MTW (for at least a decade), and hope now to finally make it. It is suprising to me that there is no mod for TW games set in FR lore, at least none that I came across. I can see a good few people are FR fans and would like to see this idea completed, so please show your support!

    Cheers!
    V.

  17. #37

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I can be a supporter Lore-wise, I'm not good at much else and would really love to see this mod work out!

  18. #38

    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    As I said before, I'll help with some modding. I mentioned that I can do the traits and ancillaries. And I could take care of minor scripts (I don't have the time for bigger ones).

    Only IIRC the faction limit is 29, so I don't think we can have them all.
    I think the faction limit was 31 (including rebels). But you better start a mod with less factions (about the count of vanilla), and do the rest later, when everything works stable with the existing factions.
    As for the symbol of Cormyr, I fancy the new one better, though I saw in the wiki that it looks like your first one.

    One more question: What modding skills do you exactly have? It would be good to know, so others know where you could need help.

  19. #39
    Melfice's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    I can help with research

  20. #40
    Vladyvid's Avatar Wizard of Turmish
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    Default Re: Faerun Total War - mod idea

    About faction limit, I agree that first the vanilla slots will be used, and only then extra factions will be added. I will soon update the first post with the initial faction selection, just wanted to finish their symbols before its updated.

    One more question: What modding skills do you exactly have? It would be good to know, so others know where you could need help.
    What I can do:
    - campaign map,
    - ui graphics,
    - faction symbols and flags (strat and battle),
    - unit icons and campaign pics,
    - buildings icons and campaign pics,
    - event pics and such other campaign graphics,
    - misc graphics or artwork / loading screens
    - unit battle textures,
    - characters names, any other names or labels changes,
    - well who can't do the text files really? so I can do that if its not scripts
    - other texturing (campaign map characters, resources, etc)

    What I can't do is 3D modelling, scipting, I'm having problems getting around some coding (units) and never modded settlements to look different, ok and music. I could probably retexture anything that has a texture on it but 3D is not my skill, at least not yet.

    So I can do something but not all at once and not all that fast, so if there would be lets say an artist to contribute with some loading screens or misc artwork that would be as much appreciated as someone who can help with scripting or other thing I know nothing about. At this stage, the information researching is one of the most crucial jobs, that most people would be able to do to help.

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