Europe (and Byzantium) in 1025 mod idea (sort of a "prequel") if you w

**AndersonVincent** · December 18, 2006, 10:57 AM

I admit to knowing nothing about modding, so let me get that right out of the way, but at the same time there are things that I would like do to to create a series of mods using the units in the game that would be historically accurate, and would stark several decades before the game actually begins--

Namely, here is what I want to do--

Europe in the year 1025: I have always been quite interested in Byzantine history, so I would like to create a mod that would begin at the death of Emperor Basil II, and the ascension of his brother, Emperor Constantine VIII to the responsibilities of rule. Note: for those who are unfamiliar, he was already co-emperor when Basil died, so he didn't ascend to the position, but rather became the effective ruler rather than just someone with the title of Emperor.

Yes, the other factions would be there as well

but in more primitive forms.

Part of the reason to create a mod is, I think, to create something that we ourselves would like to play. This is something that I definately would like to play, and it would give players an opportunity to prevent the decline of the Byzantine Empire, and for it to avoid the truly disastrous times of the decades after Basil's death.

Of course I want this to be difficult for the player to do, but I would like to make it something that is possible, as I think the Byzantine Empire could still exist today if they had done things differently. This doesn't have to be completely historically accurate, but I would go for something like 60 to 80 percent historically accurate, adapted with Total War characteristics

As for the other factions, I would like to create an accurate representation of those as well-- England under the Anglo-Saxons was more advanced than it is given credit for by norman propaganda (though the Normans definately did help make Britain what it is today, there is no question about that), I just think that England was more sophisticated than it was given credit for.

This would involve some research, which I am going to be engaging in over the Christmas break that I have, as I want to find out the map of Europe in 1025, as well as figuring out information about what factions to include in the game.

I think there could be other things besides Byzantium, like Normandy could be a faction with Duke William as one of their playable characters (but having him come of age when he came of age in reality), and have one of their goals in the short campaign be to conquer england, and have their AI focused on conquering England, to have that power struggle.

This would not involve any radical contrary elements to the original game, just an earlier starting point to give the player more time to change history. Does anyone have any thoughts about this, or any information about how I would go about creating this mod?