Kingdoms of the Scots - Old Developer Diary (Commenced 21/09/12)

[The Border Reiver]

Reopened Thread and Stickied owing to the relevance of the data contained within.



Christmas 2014 Preview - Kingdom of the Scots

History of the mod

Welcome to the re-release of a mod that was started back in 2007 when Kingdoms was first released. After several

versions of Kingdom of the Scots we decided to expand the mod to encompass the British Isles, Ireland and Normandy

and work was soon centrally focused on developing that under the name Kingdoms of the Isles. But as the years

ticked by and my own interest regularly oscillated due to the lack of a finished product and team changes, I decided

to finally abandon the project altogther in Christmas 2012.

Over the next two years, I thought several times of resurrecting it, but the sheer amount of work required and a

distinct lack of free time buried the mod deeper in the sediments of time. The interest was there to revive it, but

after two years I thought I had long since lost all previous work. But then, from the deep permafrost of the last

great Pleistocene glaciation, the scoured and broken remnants of the Kingdom of the Scots were located on an old XP

OS hard drive that I hadn't gotten around to throwing away.

But then just three weeks ago after discovering so much of the old work still intact, I decided to give it one final

go, and as such version 0.1 will be available very shortly


Overview

This is a complete remake built using MTW2 Gold Edition. The mod has been renamed to the original Kingdom of the

Scots, and for the initial release the mod is built on the vanilla map from the British Isles campaign. As such the

initial release of the mod starts in the year 1258, but will commence 100 years later.

Main Features

2 Turns per year
8 New Factions (MacDonald, MacDougall, MacRuari, Mackay, MacKenzie, MacLeod, Chattan, Scott)
27 New Regions (12 of which are islands that didn't have settlements previously)
50 Named forts on campaign map renamed to castles (such as Roxborough, Norham, Dunbar, Scarborough castle)
5 New Resources (Cattle and Sheep, Monasteries, Cloth, Wine and Pottery)
Crusade Feature from MTW2 added for Scotland faction named as Clan Muster.
Complex clan recruitment for factions and Scotland
No more rebel settlements
Only named generals, no captains in settlements.
Historical English characters derived from Muster rolls. There are no common names in the game now, every character

(only England so far) is from nobility such as John de Clavering, Hugh de Vere, Robert de Tattershall etc.
Every region in Scotland has different mercenaries and rebels
All rebel factions are skinned, no more plain coloured rebels (Scotland only)
All new campaign interface
All new battle interface
Plague and Famine outbreaks
The Great Pestilence historical Event finishes the campaign.
River and marsh areas will flood.
Storms will batter coastal areas
Realsitic Tectonically active areas will recieve earthquakes (minor, as per Moment Magnitude Scale)
New Models for Highland Factions to supplement existing rosters.
New Strat Map models
All Factions Horde except England
All Factions are re-emergent except England, France and the Comyns
French Invasions (not added yet)
Scripting (Really Bad AI, Settlement Tweaks, Princess Notifications, Garrison, Invasion, Re-emergent Factions,

Emergent Factions, Supply and Command; all not added yet, but waiting to go based on version 0.1 testing.)

Campaign Map in Detail

The 27 new regions are: Assynt (Mackay), Harris (Macleod), Nth & Sth Uist, Rum and Barra (Macruari), Tiree and Coll

(Macdougall), Colonsay, Kintyre and Jura (Macdonald), Gairloch and Ardnamurchan (Mackenzie), Badenoch (Chattan),

Strathspey, Turnberry Castle, Berwick, Bute, Selkirk (Scotland), Richmond Castle, Isle of Wight, Exeter (England),

Anglesey and Cardigan (Wales), Clare, Castlebar, Wexford and Enniskillen (Ireland).

Anglesey has been separated from wales by a causeway
Bute has been separted from the mainland also
Nth and sth uist have been sparated by a causeway
Tiree and Coll have been separated by a causeway
Added Loch Lomond
Added more forests to scotland
Fixed the geography of the Firth of Clyde
Carlisle, and Lincoln are now large cities and not villages.
Added darker sea colour
new land textures by Charge
Stone & Named forts by Gigantus
Cattle resource from the High Road
Boats, strat map models from Danova, Lord Condloriamus, KnightErrant.
Blockade model by riczu74
Moved placement of Edinburgh, Stirling, Stornoway, Dunvegan, carlisle, Newcastle, Caernavon

The 60 new named forts in Scotland (17) are Dunrobin, Urquart, Dunbarton, Bothwell, Edzell, Sween, Dunscaith,

Mingary, Eilean Donan, Aros, ayr, Caeverlock, Lochmabben, Roxborough, Dunbar and Kildrummy.

In Wales (12); Flint, Brecon, Builith, Denbigh, Dinis Bran, Haverfordwest, Laugharne, Crickhowell, Skenrith, Raglan,

Castell y Berre, Criccieth.

In England,

In England (15); Wark, Bewcastle, Norham, Alnwick, Penrith, Bolton, Scarborough, Ponterfract, Clun, Clifford

In Ireland (6);

Resources have been completely redone and streamlined. All natural resources have been added historically, such as

gold, tin, coal, iron. Likwise, the south of England & Scottish Borders has more garin, where in turn the Highlands

and Islands of Scotland have more fish, cattle, and plant dyes. Major trade hubs have cloth and textiles. Finally,

monastries have been added to historical regions in all 4 Kingdoms.

There are now no rebel settlements whatsoever.

Recruiting

This is where the major change of the campaign occurs. Essentially, the recruiting is divided into 2 categories; 1.

Feudal, 2. Highland. Feudal is available evrywhere except in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Every single

region has region specific recruiting based on which faction has ownership at the start.

Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England are therefore predominantly feudal, but can recruit some highland units if they

have converted over 60% of the population to their cause. Therefore, if an English Army marches north from Carlisle

and captures the village of Aviemore in Badenoch. It must covert 60% of the population to recruit new Highland

units only, if it doesn't, it can only recruit mercenaries to fill its army. Likewise, if a highland army captures

Carlisle, it cannot recruit any feudal troops unless it converts 80% of the population to Scottish, and once again

must rely on mercenaries to resupply the army.

For the Scotland Faction, they can no longer recruit generic highland units, and they certainly can't recruit

highlanders in Dumfries anymore as this is a feudal region in the Scottish Borders. What occurs now is this, when

the Scottish faction conquers a highland region like Badenoch, it can immediately recruit Clan MacPherson

highlanders, then if it went onto capture Inverness, it could recruit Mackintosh troops; then if it went onto

capture Inverlochly, it would recruit Clan Cameron troops.

However, recruiting is slightly different for Highland Factions. Highland Factions can only recruit their own

faction highland units.

Also highland Factions will only be able to recruit catapults and no other forms of siege engine, whereas England will have the greatest access to as many siege engines as possible.

Rebel Recruiting

Each highland region has faction specific recruiting, but when the region rebels or when rebels appear it willnot be

the same faction. For instance when Caithness and Sutherland which is held by Clan Mackay, rebels or has rebels

appear in its borders, the rebels will be from Clans Gunn, Sutherland and Sinclair. If you start the game as

MacLeod, the rebels that appear will be Morrisons and MacAuleys in Lewis, Mackinnons and MacNicols in Skye, and

MacIver and MacAuley in Harris.

It is very important not to have rebel clans like clan Macdonald operating in clan macdonald territory. Therefore,

I had to associate rebel clans that would appear as if raiding in non traditional territory. For instance, when the

Clan MacNeil becomes playable in a future version, I will need to associate a different rebel faction to Barra and

the Uists.

Here is the table of Rebels for the Highlands:

Orkney - Norse Rebels
Caithness & Assynt - Gunn, Sutherland, Sinclair
Lewis - Morrison, MacAuley
Harris MacAuley and MacIver
North & Sth Uist - MacNeils
Barra - macneil
Rum and Skye - mackinnon, macNicol
Mull - Maclean and Mackinnon
Badenoch & Lochaber, Inverness - Grant,Fraser and Urquart
Westerross and Ardnamurchan - Maclennan and chisolm
Strathspey - Gordon and Leslie
Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Kintyre - Campbell
Argyll and Bute - Lamont, Macalpin
Stirling and Perth - Macgregor and MacLaren

Another interesting area of recruitment that is not yet implemented is the Scotland/England Border. This is home to

the reivers of both countries, and a small tract of which called the Debateable land which cannot be controlled.

I'm still in two minds about how to implement this into the game. On the large map, there will be up to 4 Scottish

Border Clans an perhaps 1 or 2 English Families. This are will be like the wild west and any army attempting to

take the settlements will be punished by continual uprisings!

Crusade Feature

The Crusade Feature has been enabled and as such Religion replaces management. It also takes the place of cultural

conversion. Religion re-entering the game is a by product of the Crusade feature and cannot be disabled, however I

am fine with the return as religion in Medieval Britain was central to life. Now you can recruit priest to help

with conversion, and these priests will become part of the Council of nobles (Cardinals).

Essentially the King, becomes heade of the Church of Scotland as well as being King, and all Crusades (renamed to

Clan Muster or Royal Muster) are requested through him.

These work in the same way as before and can be called against any other non Scottish Faction from the start, or

later on a Scottish Faction that has been denounced as traitors and enemies of the realm. This feature at the

moment is experimental and needs testing.