Questions & Suggestions

[Horsa]

when can we expect a release date?

When its released... Can't say much more.

 

[Galloglaich]

This mod will be so awesome! After this is done, are you going to make one for ETW? It would be nice to see some viking naval battles! Finland is going to take over the world! > : )

 

[Horsa]

This mod will be so awesome! After this is done, are you going to make one for ETW? It would be nice to see some viking naval battles! Finland is going to take over the world! > : )

lol, yeah maybe in ten years, when its possible and and CA have already release 2 other games in the TW series.

Who knows though.

 

[Galloglaich]

Well what I have heard, its much easier to mod Empire than M2TW.. Not sure though. I can finally start playing it tomorrow..

 

[Horsa]

Well what I have heard, its much easier to mod Empire than M2TW.. Not sure though. I can finally start playing it tomorrow..

Doubt it, ETW is so new, even the best modders out their will have abit of confusion. It should hopefully change in time though. Then we can see if its more moddable.

 

[Beiss]

I should think Empire is more modder-friendly, especially since (this is a rumor I've heard, anyway), one of the lead designers used to be an RTW modder...

 

[Horsa]

I should think Empire is more modder-friendly, especially since (this is a rumor I've heard, anyway), one of the lead designers used to be an RTW modder...

Lusted?

 

[Galloglaich]

Yeah, I think Lusted was a tester for Battle AI and such? Not sure.

 

[Beiss]

I know Lusted works with CA nowadays but he's not the guy I was talking about. I don't remember his name, I think he was active at the org rather than twc.

 

[Norgesveldet]

Will you add new voices? The primary reason I don't play Denmark or Norway in SS is because I can't bear hearing that horrible voice with the Russian accent alll the time!

If you don't have any voiceactors, I strongly recommend the Viking voices from Civilization IV: Warlords, which are available as .mp3 files in the data folders!

 

[mocker]

I doubt we would be able to lawfully use those.

 

[Horsa]

If i'm correct, we will be having new ones.

 

[AngrySaxon]

Glad to hear it. I too never play as Norway/Denmark in SS because of the irritating Eastern European accents. I installed the Xenophonia mod, which makes them speak German. Not much better, but at least the Danes and Norwegians no longer sound like Boris and Natasha.

I happen to know Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon, unfortunately I don't have much of a "warrior's voice," so I doubt I can help you much with the voices.

How is religion going to be handled? Is it simply going to be Catholic/Orthodox/Pagan as in vanilla? How will missionary activity be handled? The Norse religion, for instance, did not actively seek converts like Christianity.

 

[Horsa]

I happen to know Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon, unfortunately I don't have much of a "warrior's voice," so I doubt I can help you much with the voices.

You know old Norse? Perhaps you'd like to help us out with the recordings, even do the voices yourself or helping out with pronouncing the words correctly. It would certainly help.

How is religion going to be handled? Is it simply going to be Catholic/Orthodox/Pagan as in vanilla? How will missionary activity be handled? The Norse religion, for instance, did not actively seek converts like Christianity.

That's actually a bit hard to answer at the moment, we haven't done much with religions yet. We will probably have culture instead like in the Britannia campaign. We have temples in our building tree, apart from that, there's not much else to say.

Ideas and suggestions are very welcome!

 

[AngrySaxon]

I'd love to help with any Norse/Anglo-Saxon translations or pronunciation. I wouldn't want all that money I spent on my Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon classes at university to go to waste. I also have some experience with modding, but that is primarily limited to tweaking my Stainless Steel installation to suit my whims (such as changing the campaign AI, character traits, unit stats, etc.)

As for religion in WOTN, I'd prefer it to play a minor (but still important) role. It always struck me as ridiculous in vanilla how you could send a couple of priests to a region and swiftly convert a huge chunk of the population. However, I would like to see some sort of representation of the church's attempt to convert the heathen Norse to Christianity.

Though it won't be in the first release, I'm curious to see what's planned for England, in particularly the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. However, it seems like that would put WOTN in danger of becoming too much like The Last Kingdom mod, which focuses on that particular part of the world.

 

[Horsa]

I'd love to help with any Norse/Anglo-Saxon translations or pronunciation. I wouldn't want all that money I spent on my Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon classes at university to go to waste. I also have some experience with modding, but that is primarily limited to tweaking my Stainless Steel installation to suit my whims (such as changing the campaign AI, character traits, unit stats, etc.)

Ok, great! I'll send you a PM.

As for religion in WOTN, I'd prefer it to play a minor (but still important) role. It always struck me as ridiculous in vanilla how you could send a couple of priests to a region and swiftly convert a huge chunk of the population. However, I would like to see some sort of representation of the church's attempt to convert the heathen Norse to Christianity.

I agree with that. We will have Priests, Temples etc. But since majority of the map in the first release will be Pagan, there wouldn't be much use for them. We will find something, and religion will play some sort of a role somewhere.

Though it won't be in the first release, I'm curious to see what's planned for England, in particularly the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. However, it seems like that would put WOTN in danger of becoming too much like The Last Kingdom mod, which focuses on that particular part of the world.

I wouldn't consider TLK or WotN to be that similar. We do share a similar period, but we are very different. (the Last Kingdom is an amazing mod though, I'm a huge fan).
First of all there is historical accuracy, it is a very important factor for us, and I think anyone who has done modding with WotN knows that we aren't very flexible when it comes to straying from history (am I right guys ).

Also both WotNs first release and ultimate goal in map area is different than TLKs since their map cuts off half way through Scandinavia which means no Swedes, Slav, Finns, Rus and so on.

 

[Úlfhéðinn]

I'd love to help with any Norse/Anglo-Saxon translations or pronunciation. I wouldn't want all that money I spent on my Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon classes at university to go to waste. I also have some experience with modding, but that is primarily limited to tweaking my Stainless Steel installation to suit my whims (such as changing the campaign AI, character traits, unit stats, etc.)

These are all skills we could use in our team. (Vikingr?)

As for religion in WOTN, I'd prefer it to play a minor (but still important) role. It always struck me as ridiculous in vanilla how you could send a couple of priests to a region and swiftly convert a huge chunk of the population. However, I would like to see some sort of representation of the church's attempt to convert the heathen Norse to Christianity.

We could make priests less effective in converting settlements and only recruitable in higher level religious buildings. We could even leave priests out altogether and let conversion be affected only by buildings and neighbouring settlements' religion. This would make the process slower but still a factor, and we would be spared the endless priest-spamming where they just walk back and forth on the campaign map or crowds around a randomly chosen town. That's where my assassins usually gains a couple of levels

 

[Horsa]

These are all skills we could use in our team. (Vikingr?)

Yes they are (well at least character traits anyway), I've actually been working on adding the traits in the campaign yesterday, they show up, but don't seem to make any effect of dread or anything, I'll have to see why some time today, although perhaps you may know what the problem is AngrySaxon? We will also need to add many more traits over time (when they are written up).

Also, we could use his help with pronunciation, and if he's interested there is always plenty of writing to do...

 

[Sutman]

Will there be new epithets, like Ragnar Hairy-Breeches or Eric the bloody?

 

[Horsa]

Will there be new epithets, like Ragnar Hairy-Breeches or Eric the bloody?

Most likely. Not certain though.

 

[Sigurd Fåvnesbane]

I can't wait for the mod!

Just one thing:

Have you considered adding the jarls of Lade as a(n unplayable) faction? They were quite central in Norways history and if you wanted to be the king of Norway you HAD to have close relationship with these conservative guys. Harald Fairhair managed to make a deal with these guys and he became king. His eldest son, Eirik, failed to have good relations and had to flee the country when Haakon Aethelstan came from England. He, on the otherhand became friend Sigurd Ladejarl and Haakon even gave his name to Sigurd Ladejarls son who was indeed king of Norway before Olaf Tryggvasson came. (even though never refered as king, he ruled Norway. Sometimes called Haakon the Great).

Later their power weakened as the kings became stronger, but in Magnus Lagabøtes laws in the 1200's he had a law about how many ship each region had to muster in the Leidang. The Trondheim(or nidaros.) had to muster 80 ships. Viken (Oslo) 60 and Bjørgvin 60. This shows some of its power at that time.

So you don't need to make any new units for the faction. Just copypaste the units over. Or maybe just let them be rebels, but make the garrison REALLY strong in that area.

 

[Dumanthis]

Eagerly waiting for this mod! Love to see Finland completely in the map (im from Finland u see)!

Couple of questions and suggestions however. I presume that there is at least one finnish faction in the game and i see that this mod is clearly aiming to have accurate historical stuff and etc. Finland was not at that time a kingdom but a dozen of tribal communities often fighting with each other. However the swedes and russians sometimes inflicted so heavy damage to finnish people that they were hugely pissed off and had this "Anger campaigns" against an outlander nation that united the finlanders from time to time. The town of Sigtuna was burned by the Karelian tribe for example. As fast as the anger had vanished so did the finnish tribal armies too. I think this could be used like a "pissed off" crusade of the finnish people against other factions but that is just a suggestion

In weaponry i suggest to stay primitive with finlanders: spears, bows, wooden shield and axes, rarely swords or any heavy armour. Clothes white and cloth or leather cap or a fur hat in the head.
I honestly dont know that the finnish people had any cavalry that time, but you could add a pre-hakkapeliitta unit: light cavalry armed with clubs

 

[Horsa]

I can't wait for the mod!

Just one thing:

Have you considered adding the jarls of Lade as a(n unplayable) faction? They were quite central in Norways history and if you wanted to be the king of Norway you HAD to have close relationship with these conservative guys. Harald Fairhair managed to make a deal with these guys and he became king. His eldest son, Eirik, failed to have good relations and had to flee the country when Haakon Aethelstan came from England. He, on the otherhand became friend Sigurd Ladejarl and Haakon even gave his name to Sigurd Ladejarls son who was indeed king of Norway before Olaf Tryggvasson came. (even though never refered as king, he ruled Norway. Sometimes called Haakon the Great).

Later their power weakened as the kings became stronger, but in Magnus Lagabøtes laws in the 1200's he had a law about how many ship each region had to muster in the Leidang. The Trondheim(or nidaros.) had to muster 80 ships. Viken (Oslo) 60 and Bjørgvin 60. This shows some of its power at that time.

So you don't need to make any new units for the faction. Just copypaste the units over. Or maybe just let them be rebels, but make the garrison REALLY strong in that area.

That's an interesting idea. I'll look into it.

Eagerly waiting for this mod! Love to see Finland completely in the map (im from Finland u see)!

Couple of questions and suggestions however. I presume that there is at least one finnish faction in the game and i see that this mod is clearly aiming to have accurate historical stuff and etc. Finland was not at that time a kingdom but a dozen of tribal communities often fighting with each other. However the swedes and russians sometimes inflicted so heavy damage to finnish people that they were hugely pissed off and had this "Anger campaigns" against an outlander nation that united the finlanders from time to time. The town of Sigtuna was burned by the Karelian tribe for example. As fast as the anger had vanished so did the finnish tribal armies too. I think this could be used like a "pissed off" crusade of the finnish people against other factions but that is just a suggestion

In weaponry i suggest to stay primitive with finlanders: spears, bows, wooden shield and axes, rarely swords or any heavy armour. Clothes white and cloth or leather cap or a fur hat in the head.
I honestly dont know that the finnish people had any cavalry that time, but you could add a pre-hakkapeliitta unit: light cavalry armed with clubs

We will be having a Finnish faction yes. We have chosen the Tavastians. As you said, they won't have anything to heavy in their roster. No chainmail, no helmets, limited swords... Even wooden bosses instead of metal ones in certain shields. They will be aimed at being quick moving skirmishers with tunics, leather armour and other such lighter armours. Axes, spears and javelins will be the most common weapons, but their are some bows and swords also (limited on the swords part). We have some variation in shields from basic wooden ones to some more detailed ones (similar to the Scandinavians), but like I said, there will be no metal to see on the shields. Cavalry in limited, but we do have a couple of cavalry units. They will certainly be a hard faction to play.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=319877


Thank you both.

 

[Dumanthis]

Dude that sounds awesome! Keep up the good work

 

[Horsa]

Thank you

 

[Harðurāðaz]

Faction Suggestions, for Future Versions of the Baltic Map LOL
______

Norse: Gútar (Gotlanders), Hlaðir (The Jarls of Lade) or Hálogaland
Finnish: Karjala (Karelians)

 

[Sigurd Fåvnesbane]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákon_Sigurðarson

"Harald Greyhide was killed in 970[2]. After this, Haakon Jarl ruled Norway as a vassal of Harald Bluetooth, but he was in reality an independent ruler. For Harald, he attacked Götaland and killed its ruler Jarl Ottar. Haakon was a strong believer in the old Norse gods, and when Harald Bluetooth attempted to force Christianity upon him around 975, Haakon broke his allegiance to Denmark. A Danish invasion force was defeated at the battle of Hjörungavágr in 986. In 977 Vladimir I of Kiev fled to him, collecting as many of the Viking warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiríkr_Hákonarson
"Fagrskinna relates that "there was good peace at this time and very prosperous seasons. The jarls maintained the laws well and were stern in punishing offences."

"Eiríkr Hákonarson or Eric of Norway or Eric of Hlathir[1] (960s – 1020s) was earl of Lade, ruler of Norway and earl of Northumbria. He was the bastard eldest son of earl Hákon Sigurðarson, and brother of the legendary Aud Haakonsdottir of Lade. He participated in the Battle of Hjörungavágr, the Battle of Svolder and the conquest of England."

Blue Area ruled by Eirik Håkonsson, as a fief from Svein Forkbeard.
Green Area ruled by Svein Håkonsson, half-brother of Eirik, as a fief from Olaf the Swede.
Orange Area under direct control of Svein Forkbeard.

 

[absinthia]

what would it take to squeeze a Hålogaland faction in there?

 

[Horsa]

what would it take to squeeze a Hålogaland faction in there?

Not much. Its certainly a possibility at some point.

 

[absinthia]

you misunderstood.
i was asking how much in terms of help would be required to let you have Hålogaland in the mod now.
a couple of unique units, general and body guard? faction buttons and some battle banners?