Once More with Feeling - The Road to 3.0

[4zumi]

Hello everyone,

after the release of 2.7 I wanted to take the time and lay out, what is planned for future versions.
I also wanted to invite you to take part in the process by giving suggestions or pointing out certain things that could work better.

As I said in another thread, I plan on making 3.0 the final version of this mod (except bugfixes, etc.)
(If it will stay the final version is questionable, but for now we will assume it will be.)

This said I will state a preemptive warning, so you are not disappointed if I say no to something you posted. I made this mod simply for me and how I like to play this game and wanted it to share with others, that have a similiar playstyle or expectations in a mod. That means, I will not do something in this mod I am not comfortable with, see no reason to be in it, or dislike,... or something I simply can not accomplish, because I lack the skills or do not want to invest time to learn them.

Like any other I am mostly human and can change my mind, make mistakes, or simply am not in the mood for something. So it is possible that I reconsider ideas, i have said no too, or reskin the fast ponys to pink fluffy unicorns, if I feel particulary happy that day.

Suggestions, comments, etc. are welcome and I value them all, so I would be happy if you join me in the process of making 3.0.

You will see previews, ideas and other shiny things here first. I will try to keep an up to date list of considered ideas in the next post.

Do not expect a 3.0 to release anytime soon, there will most likely be "in between" releases like 2.8, 2.9 and 2.99 which will be the release version before everything gets wrapped up in 3.0 (planned to be tested by hand with every faction, so you see, why this could take a very long time before release, or I skip the testing and release it anyway....)

And now, in the last line, before we start, I wanted to say thanks, to all of you who have partaken here in the Total Vanilla forum section, gave me ideas, comments or just some happy thoughts.

zumi

[4zumi]

The List
(will be updated constantly. shows the state of work at the moment. subject to change.)


IN THE MAKING:

Ancillaries and Traits Volume 2 - Here we go again (In progress, tagging along the way)
-Maybe minor titles for the Crown regions

I love my Drill Sergeant (In progress, tagging along the way...)
-Factions and their unit roster

The World is not Enough (In progress along the way...)
-Small changes to the campaign map, starting provinces, units. rebels, resources, etc...

The sad rest
-Final Intro startup movies
-Downloadable campaign map
-Handbook with pretty pictures and clever text



DONE (and will be present in the 2.9 version):

Islam and the role of the woman (Princesses for muslims is not going to happen)
-Islamic princesses are taken into consideration at the moment...

Oh Captain, my captain (Captains for every unit will not happen, they stay special to some units)
-Attach a captain to every unit...

Pivotal battles in history (Historical battles as back in town)
-The historical battles are broken since the beginning of this mod due to deleting and shifting units.
-Trying to fix this

The scenic route (HQ Skys and Campaign map graphics are implemented)
-Some graphical touch ups to the stratmap
-Integration of HQ skys

History 101 (New historical events are integrated, with new pretty pictures)
-Some new historic events, because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...

Flags of our fathers (except for mercenaries, it is done)
-Distinct flags for all crusader state units
-Distinct flags for all order units
-Distinct flags for welsh units
-Maybe unique flags for the mercenary units

We need more color (rebel dresses sport now more color, shields are done)
-Some color texuring for the rebel units, so we do not always see a sea of grey.
-This is a maybe, maybe not thing.

Titles do not make people (in progress... Titles are implemented, more ancillaries and traits are now in the game)
-Adding Traits, Ancillaries based on unique buildings and titles and other stuff
-Something like visited Notre Dame in Paris and is now super convinced of god, therefore he is more pious.
-Has visited a unique cathedrals and is now super pious and talks all day to his invisible friend.
-Has sat all day in Caen and got bestowed the title Duke of Normandy, because nobody better was found.
-You get the idea...
-And there will be soooo many happy triggers to make in the files, I do not see how this could get awfully wrong and end in CTDs for days...
-Codices like "the devil's bible" will be implemented as Ancillaries


The sad rest
-Conversion movie for Mongols
-minor touch ups for the Main Menue, etc (now the hotseat campaign shows all the factions too.


IN THE CORNER (Bad feature, bad feature...

The sad rest
-If i feel in a good mood and there is something like this in the britannia addon, irish voice lines for the irish (as I found out from reading, there are no irish voice lines in kingdoms, so i will let them talk like scots.)
-Playable prologue (if I can manage to get it to work, but it stubbornly refuses to with a weird error) (The Prologue battle works, the prologue campaign not - whatever I tried...)

Artificus Intelligentus Horrificus
-Some have asked for an implementation of an existing AI.
-I will most likely not include it in a 3.0 release.
-If I find the motivation to implement this, it will most likely be by an optional addon. (But do not count on it)

[4zumi]

The scenic route

First look of an experimental new texturing of the campaign map (very early, very rough) and some new tree textures (makes them more vibrant).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[KmanBEAST]

Looks great! I definitely love the simplistic and arcady yet realistic vibe to the trees especially.

[4zumi]

Thanks Kman

And here the state of the campaign map, after a lot more work.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Hellvard]

Good job Zumi, map looks much better now I have some idea to make Polish roster more historical accurate, and it doesn't require adding new units So take into consideration if you can:
1. Remove Halberd militia as halberd was not used by Polish infantry
2. Give Poland Pavise Spearmen from hungarian roster (although I don't remember if there is a pavise texture for Poland in vanilla M2 and I don't have access to my pc now to check it out)
3. Add Pavise Crossbowmen or just regular Crossbowmen if you think that pavise version will make Poland too strong
4. Add mounted and dismounted feudal knights as there is a weird and unnatural "technological gap" between Polish Nobles and Polish Knights in full plate armour
5. Remove Luthuanian Cavalry as there were no mounted archers in Polish armies, instead you can boost up a little stats of Polish Shooters or make them bigger in numbers as they were often the main part of Polish forces

That's all for now, tell me what do you think about it

[4zumi]

Hey Hellvard,

thanks for the well thought out suggestion. I will ponder over it and see, if it fits.
I will get back to you. Could take some time

[TheCataphract]

Those campiagn map textures do look considerably better than the vanilla ones. Very clean

[4zumi]

Thanks
Took me a few retries to figure out the best way to make them "endless".

[4zumi]

And from the category History 101 a new event and pic:

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition (1478 AD)


Maybe some nice inquisitors will spawn in certain places

I plan on integrating some new historical events, and maybe overhaul the existing event for every historic event.

[Gebilde]

you did give trees new textures?
doesn´t that cause memory leaks?

[4zumi]

That is a good question. I was not aware of that being the case.
I did not change the resolution of the tree textures, I just recolored them.
Do you have any link for my on that leaks?

[Gebilde]

can´t find the threads add the moment but there was one that had add one point custom trees
wich caused crashed after battles.

[4zumi]

If you find it, it would be nice if you could drop me the link.
I suspect the custom trees had a different 3d model, where I have made mere texture replcements of the same size.

But granted, I have not tried out a campaign after doing those edits. Just a few click-through turns.

[4zumi]

@hellvard
I started making some changes to the polish roster.
Removed the lithuanian cav and every other lithuanian unit. Poland gets now peasant crossbowmen and crossbowmen.
I will make the polish retainers available earlier, so they fill out the gap of an early cav with lances.
As the dismounted polish nobles are already a dismounted spear infantry, i do not think Poland needs another spear unit like the pavise ones.

I still ponder over a dismounted sword unit.

The halberd unit could be removed, but this would leave the city roster rather poor. I also added polish shooters to the city roster.

[Hellvard]

The things is, that Polish Retainers are not Nobles (Knights), but just their servants, and they should be a light cavalry unit. So we have a Polish Nobles armed like IX-Xth century tribal warriors from pre-kingdom era, and next heavy cav unit is Polish Knights in full plate armour from XVth century That's the "technological gap" I'm taking about. Poland should have a Feudal Knights unit, as from XIIth century Polish armies were fighting just like all western european kingdoms. It's good that you removed these lithuanian units and added Crossbowmen Dismounted Nobles shouldn't be a Spearmen infantry, as their spears are too short, they'd rather have javelins to throw like their mounted counterpart, but I know that this require a little more work so it's up to you what to do about it You are right that removing halberd militia will make Polish city roster too poor, so maybe give Poland Pike Militia? That's have much more to do with historical accuarycy than halberds Pavise was very popular in this part of Europe, in late medieval period Polish infantry was composed from almost only pavise infantry and Crossbowmen. I would like to see Polish roster more historical, but I know your concerns and I don't want to make Poland overpowered just like you do Take my ideas into consideration please, but I know that you have to watch over balance too

[4zumi]

Thanks Hellvard,

you are right I have to make a balance between gameplay, more or less historical accuracy, that the factions feel a bit different and the balance (even if the balance is just a gut feeling for me).

True, that the retainers are just servants and from a historical accuracy pov this feels a bit strange, but gameplay wise they fill now the gap for lance cav until the heavy hitters become available and replace the retainers.
For balancing reasons I did not want to give them dismounted feudal knights (thats the role of the retainers) or dismounted feudal knights (I want them to lack this good alround unit, as they have excellent cav).
But the polish roster was lacking an early sword unit, so I gave them the dismounted mailed knight. Decent unit, but nothing special.

I have tried my luck on dismounting the polish noble and let them keep the javelin. (Wanted to do this for Armenia) But this drove me nuts, as the unit glitched, or the texture was botched, and and and...
So I will think about going the road of Armenia and just reskin a mailed javelin unit, or leave them be as they are. Their fate is not decided yet.

Pike Militia instead of Halberd could work for me, but I have not yet decided, because I think about the lack of a blade weapon without the Halberd... Maybe a milita sword unit, but I would have to delete another unit, or, what would be a much better idea, i could make the Woodsmen available in cities instead of the halberds... Decisions, decisions...

[Hellvard]

I think you have found a nice compromise These dismounted mailed knights are really nice and needed addition. If you want, I can take care od dismounted polish nobles with javelins, just let nie know. Woodsmen are usefull only at the beggining of campaign, so replacing halberd militia with them is not a good idea in my opinion. I think that the most popular polearm weapon in medieval Poland was the berdiche, like the one used by russian unit Berdiche axemen, but the armour they are using was not present in Poland. If you want to make room for Polish or any other unit I have a little suggestion: You can remove hungarian Battlefield Assassins and islamic Assassins. They are fun to play with on custom battle, but I honestly never used them in campaign Of course I can speak only for myself, maybe someone is creating a whole armies of Assassins in campaign

[Cokjan]

Perhaps in the 3.0 version, you could reduce the amount of units that are available to jihads? Right now, I am able to turn a small jihad stack into a full jihad stack. Double and tripling the size if I jihad my generals from all over the middle east! Mujahideen, mujahideen cavalry, ghazis, and muttatawii whatever could kick some crusaders ass!

Also, I think the syrian auxiliary are too good. Their upkeep is low, and they have long range and a rather good missile damage, and good stamina!

[4zumi]

Thanks Hellvard,

your help with the dismounted polish nobles would be much appreciated.
Would you need anything from me in form of EDU, modeldb, or whatever entries or files?

I love my assassins, as I loved the Arcani in Rome .
Even if I do not really use them (as I do not play Hungary or Islamic states very often), but I like them around.
And I will not use the woodsmen as an Halberd replacement. I think I will go in the direction of a Milita Swordsmen and will find some way to make room for it.
Just yesterday I have discovered an unused unit. The dismounted lithuanian cav, could be recruited in custom battles, but not in the campaign.

Right now, as I am writing this, I have something in mind...