Komnenoi Total War (1081-1204)

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Hello to the SS community. I started this as an independent project but it didn't receive much support mainly from people willing to offer their modding skills in order to make this project come into being. Therefore, today, I decided to announce that I'll place this mod under the banner of the SS community, with the view of getting a more stable fan support and maybe help from other modders of Stainless Steel. I'm new to modding but I've put an effort in mapping so all I can say right now is that for starters, if this mod is going to be released, it will just have its own map with the units and buildings being possibly borrowed from others mods. Don't be sad though, I feel like this mod has a bright future.

What is this mod?

Komnenoi Total War, or KTW aims to follow the steps of the great submod for SS, Battle for the Baltic 2. Battle for the Baltic is centered around a certain area and concentrates on certain wars, such is the case for KTW as well. The mod aims to portray the troubled era of the late 11th and 12th centuries AD and be centered around the Roman Empire and its foes as well as allies. The ultimate goal of the Roman Empire will be to survive through the guidance of the glorious Komnenian Emperors and extend its influence around the Eastern Mediterranean Coast. Some of your aims will be to strengthen your navy and stop the Italian Republics from taking control of your trade, bring the Crusader states under your sphere of influence, extend your control over inner Asia Minor and defeat hordes of nomads.

The mod though, as much as its name suggests, is not just centered around the Roman Empire. Significant efforts will be put in order to portray the world around the Roman Empire as accurately as it can get. You will be able to guide hordes of Cumans and Pechenegs against Thrace and Macedonia and loot the rich Roman Empire or send your Italian merchants to take control of the Empire's trade. You can also guide the Seljuks in order to achieve dominance over Western Asia Minor or try to survive as the Kingdom of Jerusalem, while surrounded by Muslims.

Factions

i)The Roman Empire
ii)The Norman Kingdom of Sicily and South Italy
iii)The Seljuks
iv)The Danishmends
v)The Kingdom of Jerusalem
vi)The Principality of Antioch
vii)The County of Edessa
viii)The County of Tripoli
ix)Republic of Venice
xi)Republic of Genoa
xii)The Pecheneg Khanate
xiii)The Cuman Khanate
xiv)The Hungarian Kingdom
xv)The Serbs(?)
xvi)The Bulgarians(?)

Map

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Drannon]

I for 1 would like to see this come to shape, sounds very good, and with the great staff at SS, u shouldn't have to much trouble finding the great modders within the TWC group and SS. Good Luck with this project i shall keep up on its progress.

[Ichon]

Looks interesting- I like the approach of using SS as the base and narrowing the focus.

[bɑne]

Interesting project How far has the work on the campaign map progressed?

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Interesting project How far has the work on the campaign map progressed?

I have created all the needed files (climate, regions, rivers, etc) so now I only have to work with Geomod and add the provinces. If I've understood well, I can test it just with one province that will cover the whole map just to see how the landscape, the mountains, the rivers etc have shaped up.

What's with the Kingdom of Cilicia Armenia and the Kindom of Georgia?
If the Map stretchs to Baghdad, you can also add the Abbasid Caliphate. But don't stretch the Map to far into the north. You don't need Russians in your campaign.

Depending on era I'll see if I'll add them. Maybe I will also consider merging 2 crusader factions for gameplay reasons. I forgot to mention that this mod will probably be like the SS campaign, i.e. with an 'early' and 'late' campaign, maybe one starting in 1081 when Alexius Komnenos becomes Emperor and one in 1143 when Manuel I Komnenos becomes Emperor. That way the player will experience slightly different gameplay with the Empire in a very bad shape in 1081 and in a very good shape in 1143.

As for the map if I remember correctly it goes as far as the Hungarian city Buda. Find it in the second map and imagine a straight line that passes from Buda. It will be as far as it should in order to include the Cumans and the Hungarians who constantly allied themselves with or attacked the Roman Empire.

[Bund weicher Birnen]

What's with the Kingdom of Cilicia Armenia and the Kindom of Georgia?
If the Map stretchs to Baghdad, you can also add the Abbasid Caliphate. But don't stretch the Map to far into the north. You don't need Russians in your campaign.

[Caesar Clivus]

Love the idea Manuel. Seeing as the map includes italy, are you going to include the Papal States for Popey goodness?

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Love the idea Manuel. Seeing as the map includes italy, are you going to include the Papal States for Popey goodness?

Thanks mate. Don't look at the OP, it's basically whatever I could remember yesterday when I was writing the post.

More factions will be added surely. Seeing from the fact that the Crusades played a huge role at that time the Papal States must have a huge role as well.

And now a noob question. I managed to find all the work I had done for the map since March and I've installed Gigantus' Geomod and Bare-Geomod. I deleted all provinces and left just one (Timbuktu) which now covers the whole map. The rest of the files are clean (no added factions, units or anything). What I simply want is to run the medieval.exe and see how the map looks like but I guess I've got to prepare some other things first?

[zlikovac]

Great idea.

[karaislam]

seems nice.show us ur map work from time to time.so u can find modders.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

This is the map:

[karaislam]

u have too much way to go.

[grassias5]

When do you think it will be released?

[Silver Legionary]

Definitely a start!
Most submods that change the map take a little while to change the map,
so this is a nice change in pace.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

When do you think it will be released?

Definitely a start!
Most submods that change the map take a little while to change the map,
so this is a nice change in pace.

Thanks. Since mods which change the whole game (units, buildings etc) usually take years to be released I decided for starters to release the map and borrows units from other successful unit mods, such as the Magyar mod or the Byzantine Roster mod. If I concentrate on this it's not gonna take more than a few months I guess, although I will also have to add a number of factions (principality of antioch, county of tripoli, danishmends etc and place units and buildings in the dozen new cities something that could take some time).

[helmersen]

This sounds very, VERY cool. If you could get this mod to be as detailed as good as Broken Crescent, then I'm sure this could be one of the best mods out there. How good is total progress yet? Or are you just planning things as of now?

[Manuel I Komnenos]

This sounds very, VERY cool. If you could get this mod to be as detailed as good as Broken Crescent, then I'm sure this could be one of the best mods out there. How good is total progress yet? Or are you just planning things as of now?

I've prepared the map and I'm in the stage of testing it (meaning actually running the game with some 15 provinces ready and the Byzantines as playable faction). I'm currently experiencing a problem which I'm trying to solve with Gigantus. When starting the campaign, the map freezes for some reason and the game throws me to desktop.

I will particularly add a lot of regions in Asia Minor and Palestine as I want to concentrate on the Byzantine-Seljuk wars and the crusades as no other mod has done yet.

In this map, I've pointed every city/castle in Asia Minor that will be included with a red circle. Save the map and look carefully:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[helmersen]

Wow, that looks great! I hope you will make the map scale as big or bigger than in the Crusades campaign! I find it to be too small in Broken Crescent :/ Best of luck! I'll watch this mod very carefully from now on

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Wow, that looks great! I hope you will make the map scale as big or bigger than in the Crusades campaign! I find it to be too small in Broken Crescent :/ Best of luck! I'll watch this mod very carefully from now on

Thanks mate. As I noticed the map is kinda huge, more than double the size of the Battle for the Baltic 2. Of course that means huge accuracy as even the smallest islands are portrayed but I don't know if the gameplay will be good that way. I'll see how it looks like when I manage to test it. If it's too huge I'll try to make it smaller.

[Caesar Clivus]

Thanks mate. As I noticed the map is kinda huge, more than double the size of the Battle for the Baltic 2.

Size isn't everything

The more detailed the better I say. So will your map be the maximum possible size?