I'm starting a weekly development diary to show what progress (if any) has been achieved during the weeks leading up to Christmas. This will be delivered in this thread every Friday night, and is a way to hold my work more accountable and plus stimulate activity in the forum with all of those who have been very patient over the years.
Some weeks will show a flurry of activity (like this one) while other weeks, will be as stagnant as a low energy coal forming environment.
Developer Diary 1
There have been a lot of changes both with personel and direction of this mod since it was conceived a few years ago; and hence the focus and work done on it has been sporadic but time consuming. Earlier this year I decided to take this on as a solo project and while this has its advantages (not all positive), it also takes a lot of time. However I am currently looking to share the work with someone, so if you are able or interested in 2D art work or even historical research please PM me.
What is new?
Basically the mod has been designed from the bottom up again, and as such we see a completely new map created of just the British Isles and Ireland. Flanders, France and Burgundy have all made way for a mod totally focused on the British Isles and Ireland. This change of direction takes the focus away from England as the main faction in the middle of the map, and once again places emphasis on why I decided to spend my life making a mod; that of Scotland and her clans.
Before we get in and look at some map screenshots we should discuss what the campaign will now entail. Firstly, I am concentrating all my time on one single campaign to start with. That means all factions will be playable in the traditional Total War campaign entitled The Scottish Wars of Independence. The campaign now begins in 1306 and focuses on the beginning of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland's reign after he has killed John Comyn at Greyfriars church in Dumfries. Scotland's main towns and castles have been held by England for some time now and therefore for the Scottish Faction the power base is now in the lands held by the Bruce Clan and also those allied to him.
Scotland will start at war with England, Clan MacDougall, Clan MacSween and of course Clan Comyn and therefore will need to work hard with maintaining relations with its Highland Clans and also the Douglases and Scotts in the Borders. The following three screenshots show the starting position for the Scottish Faction. Not shown is the castle of Kildrummy in Mar held by the Bruces
The Campaign Map
Start Date = 1306
Map Size = 350 x 420 (Kingdoms British Isles Map was 136 x 171)
Number of Regions = 199
Number of Historically Placed Forts (Named Castles) = 165
Number of Factions = 22
One of the first things you'll notice apart from the new sea colour textures is that I have changed the campaign map textures and removed the drab yellow highland textures and been replaced by green, which is a far more accurate depiction of the opography if mdeieval times. You'll also notice that the campaign map has quite distinct elevation of mountains and hills, and some hills and mountains actually have forest. This is something I wanted to add to the campaign map as at least 1/3 of Britain was still heavily forested at this time. You'll also see some glens are also highly wooded which will mean that if a particular region is allowed roads, these roads will not pass through open plains all the time, but instead will pass through forests as will rivers and river crossings.
As part of the design of the new map I have tried as often as possible to find the right blend of accuraye topographical heights versus gameplay, and this is evident by the first screenshot below of the region of Badenoch which will be held by Clan Chattan. As the River Spey must run through here I have had to remove some mountains to allow the settlement of Aviemore to be placed beside it. The resulting battlemap pictures (screeshots 2 & 3) show the heights of the surrounding mountains that correspond to the campaign map as does the river passing to the west of the settlement.
The Campaign Features
So far not a great deal of additional features have been added to the campaign with the exception of
Really Bad AI & Settlement Tweaks for the British Isles Campaign by Germanicu5
Creating a World - Named Forts & Stone Forts Mods by Gigantus
Loyal Allies Scriptby Archaon
Re-emergent Factions by TMK
Darker Nights by (mod creator name to be located)
Skies Mod by Swagger
Graphics and Light Tweaks by Alreadyded
High Quality Sky Textures Project 1.0 by Hereje
Strat Map Textures by Charge
Better Water 2 by Davide.cool
Further community mods will be added as time goes by. But in the meantime here are a few other screenshots of the campaign map to show the height elevations and also the named forts:
What's next?
This week I have also been adding the resources to the campaign map which I'm about half way through doing and a lot of features still need to be added and heights need to be changed to fix path finding issues. But next week you'll start to get a look at some of the textures I have created for Clan MacGregor and Clan MacDonald as well as some loading screens and possibly some early icon designs.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing at what stage the mod is up to and how the campaign map is coming along. If you feel like you can or would like to contribute, please end me a PM.
Cheers
The Border Reiver