Kingdoms of the Isles - Old Previews

[The Bruce]

I have not finished skinning all the clans yet. The first release will likely feature national factions only with clans to be added to later versions. Beta testing is still a long way away as progress has been very slow recently due to real life commitments.

[madrush]

ah, well take yer time

[The Border Reiver]

I'm looking so forward to playing this mod when finished too! For my part, I'm only two weeks away from modding again. When we do add Mackintosh in they will be a hard clan to play as they are not allied to Comyn, but are surrounded by Comyn.

[madrush]

well they should have a higher morale, we are the clan that guards the scots royalty

[The Border Reiver]

I have added all units for every faction individually, so that each clan and clan unit will (or rather can) have different statistics. So it is now no longer one unit of 100 highlanders vs 100 highlanders with different colour skins. Now every unit will have different defense, attack, morale, hiding ability and unit numbers, cost and maintenance...etc, etc.

It took a very long time to implement this, and I had many goes at getting this right, as the models.db & edb files are highly problematic together when an error is added.

Add to this, every unit is doubly added in for Scotland recruitment and as mercenaries too!

[smoesville]

I have added all units for every faction individually, so that each clan and clan unit will (or rather can) have different statistics. So it is now no longer one unit of 100 highlanders vs 100 highlanders with different colour skins. Now every unit will have different defense, attack, morale, hiding ability and unit numbers, cost and maintenance...etc, etc.

It took a very long time to implement this, and I had many goes at getting this right, as the models.db & edb files are highly problematic together when an error is added.

Add to this, every unit is doubly added in for Scotland recruitment and as mercenaries too!

God i hate the models.db, it's so finicky and so easy to make an error.

[The Border Reiver]

yeah me too, the (literally weeks) time I have spent working om this silly file, I could have had the mod coding finished except having to go back finding bugs. anyway I've got that all sussed hopefully now

[DragonsWarrior]

hi all hows the mod coming along now

[The Border Reiver]

hi all hows the mod coming along now

Look that's a very interesting question, and one that is very hard to determine. Ideally if The Bruce and I had more time and possibly more team members we would be in a stronger position. I'll briefly explain the features I've been working on this week and have added; these will feature in the second preview in detail

I have started working on the mod again after some time away and have added some things that I am very happy with recently, such as an an accurate list of what is now 250 historically accurate names for the English nobility. Therefore you will fight with or fight against historical knights such as William de Brewes, Walter de Teye and Geoffrey de Bagenholt. Hence I have removed all modern names and common names....now only the peerage will feature. Thus, you will not only have an accurate English family tree with all the families represented

I've also started adding the historically Gaelic names of the highland factions and family trees (terrible and painfully slow work). The MacDonald faction will be lead by Aonghas Mór mac Domhnall, and his sons Alisdair Óg and Aonghas Óg. These are being intermingled with the modern anglicised names such as John MacDonald etc. Also regarding this it is important and always neglected in the games I felt was the shallow depth of the faction families and starting positions, whereby if you killed the leader and heir and they lost the first two cities the faction was killed out of the game.

Now, each faction will only have a minimum of 3 starting positions, but more importantly will have a minimum of three separate families all inte related on the family tree. Such as 1 Grandfather, 3 fathers, 9 sons, 9 sons not of age in the character record etc for whom the leadership can pass onto.

To counter the huge cost normally associated with named character upkeep, I have simply removed this cost from the game to concentrate on unit costs for field armies.

Also I have broken the UI charcater images for generals into faction types, such as chainmail images, full armour etc, and the princesses have been changed so that Highland and Irish princess will not wear the European style head dresses etc.

Anyway that's all for now, and as I mentioned i'll explain more in my next preview.

[baneofnewbs]

Will we have Lochaber Axemen? I mean if there is anything as iconic when it comes to Scottish Weaponry as the Dirk or Claymore its the Lochaber Axe! And really you could just use the weapon model from the Berdiche axemen they look similer (in game at least)

[The Border Reiver]

Will we have Lochaber Axemen? I mean if there is anything as iconic when it comes to Scottish Weaponry as the Dirk or Claymore its the Lochaber Axe! And really you could just use the weapon model from the Berdiche axemen they look similer (in game at least)

Yes, this was high on my priority list. I had forgotten to do that, I need to find someone who can take the weapon off and add it to the highlander

[isa0005]

Good to see there is still life in this mod albeit little, its still good to see though

[The Bruce]

Good to see there is still life in this mod albeit little, its still good to see though

Aye

[The Border Reiver]

Yes, there is a pulse, albeit at a resting pace. There is certainly not a strenuous exercise heart rate. I'm certainly not burning calories!

Will we have Lochaber Axemen?

I was actually going to use the French Voulgier as the shaft is longer and body length.

Also, just a correction to my quote above

Such as 1 Grandfather, 3 fathers, 9 sons, 9 sons not of age in the character record etc for whom the leadership can pass onto.

It should read Such as 1 Grandfather, 3 fathers, 9 sons at the most, more likely 3 sons , 9 sons not of age at the most, more likely 3 sons. The number will depend on the size of the clan, obviously the MacDonalds will be larger the MacKays etc.

[DragonsWarrior]

Nice to hear its going well. I like the idea of the gallic names for the reaslism effect . I take it the clans will still have only villages for their settlements. But it all sounds promising

[The Border Reiver]

Hi Dragons Warrior, yes all is going well and I am getting a lot done. However, each time I think I'm doing well with the EDB and the intricate recruiting for specific regions and factions using hidden_resources I keep finding my initial assessment falls short of what I need. For instance, the recruiting is like this currently:

1. Highland Recruiting
2. Lowland Recruiting
3. Borders Recruiting
4. Galloway Recruiting
5. Borders & Lowland Recruiting combined (feudal units)
6. Highland Faction recruiting (feudal and highland)
7. Scotland Faction recruiting (feudal and highland)
8. Mercs recruiting on the EDB and descr_mercenaries file (for england, ireland, wales, barons etc) - which is region and cutlture specific.
9. Then I have two lots of Galloglaisch recruiting for Ireland and the Western Isles.

It really is a Pandora's Box. Then I have this crazy notion to eventually make all units recruitable to all factions as well, but this won't be before the initial release as this requires so much work that this may need to be scaled back.

Plus I have removed the slave faction units from appearing as rebel armies at least in all of Scotland. Now when a rebel army appears in your lands you will fight an actual clan army with the correct clan skins. So for instance with the MacDonalds, you'll fight MacDonald's of Keppoch, Adnarmurchan, Islay or Sleat etc.

And you are correct settlements based on historical (as best can be found) accuracy will see clans only have villages, but they will be able to build larger castles up to castle_level which will exclude fortresses and citadels. Actually very few regions will be allowed fortresses, and only London, Paris and Carlisle will have citadels.

[Ballacraine]

I'm pleased to see you are making decent progress.

Balla.

[smoesville]

Yes, this was high on my priority list. I had forgotten to do that, I need to find someone who can take the weapon off and add it to the highlander

I could probably do that for you.

[The Border Reiver]

Hi Smoesville, it's good to hear from you. I was just yesterday looking at your work on the Last Kingdom for the Ui O'neill faction.

Any offer of help gets me that little bit closer to finishing. I would like to take you up on the offer, I will PM you

[DMX23]

Good Luck Gentlemen