Middle Age Mod... interested?

[Laurino]

While going trough the Modpack forum, I realized that no one has made a european Middle Age Mod so far... So I'm starting this thread to see if anyone would be interested, to know if people would want to play it before doing some big work...

As for myself, I already started to "outline" the mod, but it isn't playable yet... In fact, you can't even launch a game with it, as I am still clearing the XMLs...

What I plan to do, is to start it where TAM ends... I worked a lot on that mod, and I want the Middle Age mod to carry on from where TAM leaves us, and , who knows, maybe we could merge the mods later on... But that's only a HUGE maybe...

So anyhow, please post if you're interested... Ideas are, of couse, always welcomed!!!!

 

[Polietileno]

I was compaling information (units needed, civis, promotions, wonders, resources, etc.) for creating a Europian Medieval Ages Mod that runs from 600 to 1650, but I think we need about 25+ civs, and is better to wait until warlord to get new features. I'll keep comapaling the info.

 

[Laurino]

having more than 25 civs is no problem, as long as you only have 18 at the same time on a map.. in fact, my list of civs (wich are in my XML in a really basic way) totals 45

and since this mod would obviously be focused on scenarios (you know... an empty map as in Vanilla dosnt make that much sense in 863AD), I don't see any problem with that

as for Warlods, I would rather start working on this right away and adapt it to the expansion pack, than wait until then...

as for the time frame, i would do it from 600 till 1500, and leave the rest for Renaissance mods

 

[woodelf]

I think it's a great idea Laurino. 25 civs, however, would eat my computer for lunch.

I just think you need to make choices on a set 18 for now or have a ton and only play 18 max. Would you use the same map as TAM? I'm sure there are good UUs from EE3 to borrow as well.

 

[woodelf]

and since this mod would obviously be focused on scenarios (you know... an empty map as in Vanilla dosnt make that much sense in 863AD), I don't see any problem with that

Yeah, sort of Europa Universalis, but earlier. I think you still need some open areas for settling. Maybe 1 or 2 cities per civ?

 

[Laurino]

Woodelf! Great to hear from you

of course, there can never be more than 18 civs at a time... As in TAM, the other civs would be there for different maps... ie: Visigoths would be on a 7th century map, but not on a 13th century one, wich would include a Mongol civ that wouldn't be on that 7th century map, etc... it makes life easier for scenario makers in my opinion...

as for the maps, a TAM-like one would of course be used for many scenarios...

I would like that mod to come with a set of scenarios, some of them using different maps

and for the settling, it would of course depend on the scenario, a Hundread Years War scenario wouldn't have much space left, but a Germanic Eastern Expansion one would be pretty full of free space and empty forests (apart from wolves)


Note: for the 18 civs limit, maybe there's a way to augment it... surely the C++ people out there could answer that...

 

[woodelf]

I love this time period and can't wait to see what you come up with. I have oodles of books and am interested in where this goes. I think there were some Mods like this started (or at least discussed) late 2005, early 2006, but they never materialized.

OT - What happened to the sci-fi mod idea?

 

[woodelf]

Here's a link to the thread started by Kushan:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141726&highlight=Kushan

He planned on starting in 1030AD and the thread died about 2 months ago, but he had tons of ideas written down.

 

[Laurino]

The sci-fi mod idea is still in my head, but since it would rely on invented stuff, I figured I would start with a Middle Age mod (an era wich I quite know), and tehn go on with creating something from scratch...

And thanks for the link! I'll check it out

 

[TheJopa]

I wanted to make one as soon as I get time---- in two or three weeks. I have worked out conceptual art- civics, buildings, some techs... I will help you if you will make it.

 

[woodelf]

I'll always help playtest and do XML and such Laurino. It's a great period for a mod.

 

[Laurino]

Nice!!

I'll wait during the week-end, to see what people think... I got a set of cleaned XMLs, so on monday, if all goes well, I'll start making it... Since I work only during weekends, it should go fast... When I was on TAM back then, we often would release more than one version per week so... you know...


TheJopa: I PMed you...

 

[Shqype]

Good luck with this Laurino! You did alot of work for TAM, and a good Middle Age Mod to pick up where it left off isn't bad at all!

Throne and Alter from ArbitraryGuy is a mod that has a Middle Age timeline, I think from like 1150-1350 (or something like that). Maybe doing a mod from 550 to 1350 would be more reasonable?

Polietileno, I'm doing work on a Renaissance mod that actually begins at the end of the "Middle Ages." The years are roughly 1350 to 1650; but, this is based on the Eastern Europeans and their battles with the Ottoman Empire, not a Western European mod (which most Middle Age mods tend to be). If you have ideas (like on the tech tree) then please make a post in my thread (found in my sig).


Well, Laurino, if you need help, you can ask me and I'll lend a helping hand. Good luck!

 

[Laurino]

Thank you Shqype!

Of course whenever you got time, you can drop by and comment
And thanks also for the help offer! I'll keep you informed!

 

[hr_oskar]

I wasn't going to post about it yet, but I've already been working on a Middle Ages mod for about two months now.

I started out fiddling with a straight-up scenario for Europe in the year 1100, but the more research I did the more I drifted towards making a general mod for the whole medieval period (500 AD - 1500 AD for my mod), complete with a new tech-tree, new wonders and many new buildings, new resources, new civics, new units and new victory conditions.

What I have done so far is mostly hours and hours of XML editing, research and design. I haven't done any graphics at all yet, mostly because I preferred to flesh out the design and programming first and also because for a while I couldn't be bothered to look for a program to work with DDS.

To be clear, what I'm working on is primarily a mod, intended to serve as a base for many scenarios in Medieval Europe. I intend it to be playable as a "normal" game, i.e. without loading any scenario.

A rough overview of what my mod features:

Period
500 AD - 1500 AD

Religions
Judaism
Catholic Christianity ('Catholicism')
Orthodox Christianity ('Orthodoxy')
Sunni Islam
Shi'a Islam

Resources
Copper, Iron, Silver, Horse, Sheep, Cow, Pig, Wheat, Fish, Clam, Crab, Whale, Dyes; work as in vanilla.

Spices, Silk, Incense, Ivory, Gems, and Gold; appear at the African and Asian edges of the map and represent resources available through distant trade routes. They are linked by building a Trade Route Improvement with a Caravan unit, which is consumed just like a vanilla Workboat.

New map resources
Salt, Olives, Amber, Rye, Camel, Beeswax

New resources available only through buildings
Cloth, Christian Relics

New techs
The mod has an entirely new tech tree so most of the techs are new; some examples are: Stirrups, Monastic Orders, Architecture, Classical Heritage, Crop Rotation, Renaissance Art, Astrolabe, Ocean Navigation.

Eras
Early Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages

New buildings
The list of buildings has not been finalized yet; most notably there will be many more religious buildings, particularly Catholic ones, such as Benedictine Monastery, Franciscan Convent, Dominican Convent, Templar House.

New national wonders
Not finalized, some examples:
Court (replaces Palace as the default government center; Palace will be buildable as an "upgrade")
Royal Mint
Reliquary (supplies Christian Relics, buildable with Catholic or Orthodox Saint (Great Prophet))

New world wonders
Again, the list is not finalized but a few I have so far:
Piece of the True Cross (7 buildable, supply Christian Relics)
Dome of the Rock
The Umayyad Mosque (Sunni Shrine)
The Imam Ali Mosque (Shi'a Shrine)
Alhambra
Krak des Chevaliers
Malbork Castle
Mount Athos

New units
This is actually what I've least worked on. I mentioned that there will be a Caravan unit to establish trade routes. The early period should clearly be dominated by cavalry so the few infantry units available will be cheap and weak (apart from some Viking Axemen or something of the sort). The list will probably feature Cataphracts, some variety of Western knight types, Trebuchets, English Longbowmen, Scottish Highlanders, Viking Huscarls, Swiss Pikemen, some Eastern horse archer types, Galleys, Cogs. Needs more work, in any case.

New.... stuff
Yeah, this list is getting a bit long now. I'm almost certain I will rework the vanilla traits. Great People and Specialists will be different and somewhat more religion-specific. GPs names will be appropriate to the culture they're born to. Civics will be redone as well. Victory conditions will be changed, most notably I'm replacing the Spaceship with voyages of discovery.


I hope you'll be interested in joining my project!

 

[woodelf]

Wow, that looks like an impressive start. If I were you I'd start borrowing units, buttons, and other graphical stuff from other mods.

Is it playable yet?

 

[Shqype]

hr_oscar, I thanked you in that thread of yours for your 6MB .BMP files for creating a map. That is what I will base my general map on for my mod, so thanks again for that.

It seems you've made some good progress in your mod. The coding is easy, the hard part is coming up with all the content. Perhaps you and I could collaborate on the tech tree? If possible, I'de like to speak with you about what I have so far (roughly 1/2 of the tech tree), and hopefully you could give me some ideas on what to add and what I'm missing

I'de also be interested in knowing which Civs you plan on including.

Since Laurino's mod seems to be at roughly the same time period as yours, perhaps you two can collaborate and create a massive mod instead. I think it would work well

And, no problem Laurino

 

[woodelf]

Yeah, I think you guys need to work together to create a fantastic mod for a fantastic time period.

 

[Laurino]

Of course making a massive mod is what I intended, so it would be great to cooperate.
I know the CIV4 XMLs by hearth thanks to TAM, I also now my way around the Gimp and started 3d modeling some months ago... for Python and C++... well I "know" the languages, am able to read and understand all these codes and can easily fiddle a bit with them... but my knoledge is by far too basic to come up with new codes, the kind of things that'll I would need to implement new stuff, well at least for now...

I would want a mod that really would show the Roman Church's importance... Some kind of "sub-civ" that would influence all the Christian ones...

I also wanna implement the ressource plans I had for TAM... I got a list that contains more than 55 ressources, some of them on the map, but most of them being "fabricated" by buildings, including wool, leather, Frankish swords, jewelry...

And one thing that would be nice, as an "afterward" kind of thing, would be to merge this one with TAM in the end (a different mod) so we could have a SUPER mod with 25 eras and 2773674 techs, alongside many units for all civs, etc.etc...

Oh and I made a "patch" for TAM once that included regiments of more than 50 soldiers (smaller than the vanilla ones of course), wich I find makes the game looks more epic, its basically a boosted Regiment MOD , but since it requires a real good machine and some people like the "giant" vanilla units, it would only be a patch...

Hope we get to that 0.1 version soon

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Might I suggest a new improvement, mints, and The Royal Mint national wonder. They should have some sort of financial/economic benefits.

I don't know if it can be modded... but perhaps these might allow negative gold piece amounts, maybe to a maximum of -XX per each such building... with some sort of interest added each turn. I'm certain others can probably see a few other benefits that might logically be derived from such structures.

Possible civic might be Elected Monarchy... I find that this is lacking, and was actually very common in the early Dark Ages. In line with this civic would be the Ding/Thing improvement, a sort of Tribal Council, and the Althing as a national, or world wonder.

Also possible religious civics could be Holy War, or Inquisition... the first boosting exp or giving special promotions, and perhaps unrest free drafting; and the latter similar to Theocracy, except negatives to research, and eliminates non-state religions over time. I prefer civics to an Inquistor unit as in other mods.

These ideas need some fleshing out, by may be interesting in a medieval mod.

Monastic Fighting Orders might be an interesting add... an improvement, the Chapter House (first requiring a temple), might allow production of religious based military units...Crusaders, Arabic Jihadists (don't know particular designations), or even Berserkers (should you include Nordic Pantheism as a possible religion) based upon the state religion.

I'm looking forward to such a mod, in any case. I'm not a modder, but am pretty good at maps, so could help in that direction. If you have any gopher work or need work on encyclopedia info, I could help a little there, as well.