Strongholds of the World

[Cadmus]

I think I best post this here.
First of all I was wondering whether this game will have historical castles, like those from Byzantium, Jerusalem,....
If so, after the release of the game, when the mods will start to appear, and with that I hope and believe a mod that extends the map (like in Rome) to the east and south, there will be a need for specific castles for the new provinces added.
But I wanted to know how to do this, what tools I could start to get familiar with in order to help other mods. I'm know nothing of the modelling thing, but I want to learn. I've seen many threads about this, and have started to read them, but if there is anything specific I need to learn, please tell.

[Hansa]

Since I know nothing about modding, I can only answer the first part of the question: Yes, the game will feature historical castles, and Byzantium will be among them. Of what I havee read, Byzanthium is the only specific historic settlement that CA have confirmed will be unique, but I believe they are creating more, Jerusalem is a good guess for another one because of its historical importance and fame. BTW me to hope and thinks modders will expand the camp map, the currrent RTW copy is way to small, needs to expand north, east and south.

[Cadmus]

Still no reply? I guess I (or the modders in general) have to wait when the games comes out, to know what tools to use.
But if I were to mod castles, make new ones, the unique ones, isn't there any tool out there I can already learn to use? If you're going to say 3dsmax or something else however I'm gonna pass, since not being or wanting to be a real professional moddeler, I don't have the money for such kind of programs. But I heard gmax would do the trick too...

@ hansa: Well, there's a screenshot on which I think you can see Jerusalem, it's the only out of two pictures that shows the desert. So that's encouraging. Byzantium will be difficult however to make like its true original.
As to why CA never expand the map beyond the original scope is the guess of many, because back in the Middle Ages (and this has been discussed a lot), the East was more important than Europe. It gave many impulses to let Europe prosper (to much regret of many, including myself).