Mike's Medieval Mod: Development Thread

[Bob III]

Welcome!​

Hello everyone. I'd like to introduce my new project to you. When completed, it should be a flavorful yet minimal medieval mod, with changes to civics, and the tech tree, as well as many Scenarios of my design and the brand-new Peasant Unit!

I'm always open to suggestions and advice, but remember to keep it simple, so that it's within my coding abilities, or be able to create it yourself. =)

Team Members
The excellent and ubertastic Bob III (Project Manager)
Seven05 (Peasant Unit)
YOU! (Anything)


Checklist
Logo
Tech Tree
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
Civics (some)
Start/End Dates (?)
Extra Maps

Download
Current Version = 1.0 (Starting from 1, 2 final release)
Download Here

 

[Bob III]

Updates
12/17
First BETA released! YAY! It's not much, but it includes almost-finished Government civics and my brand new scenario, Divided Kingdom. This update is to show you that I AM doing something, even though it's coming along slowly. I know you may not be happy with where the Civics are now, seeing as the information on their bonuses and such is unlisted, but please try to work with me and I promise I'll fix it this weekend.

Also, I've decided I hate the tech tree right now. If anyone would be willing to make a new one (please don't change much) just so it doesn't look half-arsed, please do so. Let me know and I'll add you to the team. Oh, I almost forgot. I'm in a very scenario-ish mood, so another one may be in the next update.

Bob III, Almighty God-like Ruler of Somewhere

 

[OzzyKP]

For the start date, it is in the world builder file.

BeginGame
Era=ERA_ANCIENT
Speed=GAMESPEED_NORMAL
Calendar=CALENDAR_SEASONS
Victory=VICTORY_CONQUEST
Victory=VICTORY_DOMINATION
Victory=VICTORY_CULTURAL
GameTurn=0
MaxTurns=0
MaxCityElimination=0
TargetScore=0
StartYear=1851
Description=
ModPath=
EndGame

Calendar determines how much time each turn covers. The options are in Assets\XML\BasicInfos\CIV4CalendarInfos.xml

 

[Bob III]

Ahhh. Thanks!

 

[Bob III]

First pre-beta added. Will make changes tomarrow. Ciao.

 

[Bob III]

The following is a general timeline for the near future of MMM.

Current Timeline for Mod Development
Weekend of Dec. 1 - Begin work on civics(release next version?), patch current test map/scenario.
Weekend of Dec. 8 - Begin work on *additional* civilizations (see below), modify religions?, release minor update.
Weekend of Dec. 15 - Hopefully release version w/ new civs, find/add scenarios for the mod.
Christmas Vacation - RELEASE BETA, add main menu background, study for exams, ?add music?.

*About the civilizations, I've decided that there are a few medieval "powers" (I use the term loosely) that aren't represented in the game. I plan on using only civs already made. The ones I am currently considering are - Austria(Austria-Hungary?), Poland(Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?), The Vatican/Papal States, etc. Please make suggestions.

 

[OzzyKP]

If it is Medieval, I'd definitely suggest adding Hungary. Not Austro-Hungry either, just Hungary. It was big back in the day.

 

[Mattimeo]

You probably have these already, but...

France - Limited to Louie X14
England - Limited to Elizabeth
Spain?
Mongolia? - Limited to Genghis Khan
Japan?

Also, some new random events would be nice. You could use (with the maker's permission) Revolution's Barbarians-settling-down thing. Since this is medieval, you would need more medieval-oriented mods. Perhaps feuds between bloodlines? More religion-oriented random events?

 

[Bob III]

Ok. (Note to self: Look up Hungary, find premade civ/...make one?!?! GASP)

I don't plan on taking away any leaders/civs, but in general the scenarios won't have modern ones like America. As for the events, I'll see what I can do.

 

[Bob III]

I have found a Lithuania civ and a Vatican civ I am considering adding. I will be doing more searching today.

 

[Bob III]

Ok, I have decided not to mess with the religions. Maybe I will make a few changes during the BETA, but for now I've decided that I'm just going to do Civics, as well as add Hungary and the Vatican. (Final civ choices!)

Another idea I've been toying with for later on in the mod is the addition of a new unit: Ye Olde Peasant! No joke. Remove the "ye olde" part, and you've got my new idea. The peasant unit will be a fairly weak unit, which will change in strength depending on your technological advances. It will be buildable, as well as draftable (for all civics, nationalism will do something else). There will be a limit to the number of peasant units you can have, and it may even be possible to upgrade them into a worker/other fighty unit.

 

[Mattimeo]

So which nations do you have? Also, how about random events?

 

[Seven05]

I'm always open to suggestions and advice, but remember to keep it simple, so that it's within my coding abilities.

Why not put together all of your wildest ideas and then ask around, some of us that have more coding abilities are pretty happy to help impliment changes, or at least help you impliment them yourself, if they sound interesting enough

 

[Bob III]

So which nations do you have? Also, how about random events?

The two I plan on adding at present are Hungary and The Vatican/Papal States. They should be added by Christmas.

As for Random Events, I'll be needing to look into how time consuming it would be to add/modify them. If it's not too hard, I should be adding some new ones in the next few weeks, if it's more difficult they may not be added until christmas or later, due to time constraints.

Now for the timeline... I'm really depending on Christmas for most of my major work. Civics should be added in this weekend, hopefully, but there's a chance for snow tomarrow, so if I'm off I'll do some work then.

My wildest dreams...eh? My dreams for later versions of the mod are new units, but my wildest dream is the Peasant unit mentioned above. I think it would be a great example of serf's and commoner's participation in the military when needed. A very basic unit, possibly one that can be both a worker and a fighter.

 

[Seven05]

The peasant worker/warrior could be an easy XML only mod by giving the worker unit combat abilities but the results may be less than ideal. Setting them up to defend only would work well though, and the AI wouldn't have any trouble understanding the change, but then you'd never capture them. Having the ability to exchange units from one type to another wouldn't be too hard to impliment in python, especially if you didn't care about retaining XP or promotion info but the AI may not fully understand the concept without some persuasion in the SDK. Another option is giving the 'drafted' peasant militia the ability to rejoin the city disbanding the unit and adding a population point back to the city.

I had planned on a similar mod before and one thing I was looking at doing was having a few assorted peasant militia units that had no movement, couldn't attack and could only be drafted and then later disbanded to rejoin the city, each city would then have a new militia specialist added that offered no bonuses but still consumed food, when the militia unit was disbanded the specialist would be removed effectively returning that population back to work. This made them defensive only and limited them to protecting the town. An additional unit type was needed to represent levy armies, these were effectively the same as militia but they could move and attack and didn't create the militia specialist or affect population. The usefulness of them was that they had no special requirements (like barracks)to train and cost less than normal military units. The idea with them was that you'd use them for offensive actions and then disband them once they were no longer needed, or as the AI used them they became fodder units to wear down defenders before your 'real' army attacked.

The important thing isn't the change itself, its how it related to other changes. Since proper military units required specific buildings in the city to produce them and cities were limited as to how many buildings they could have you weren't able to produce your best units in every city but the levy units gave you a way to bolster your army when needed and the militia units were there to defend your cities while your army was elsewhere.

 

[Mattimeo]

You need to add another trait onto Pacal II. Make him Expansive, Financial, and Pwnsome. XD

 

[Bob III]

You need to add another trait onto Pacal II. Make him Expansive, Financial, and Pwnsome. XD

Heh. =D

Seven: You seem to know what you're doing. Would you possibly be willing to help with the peasant unit? I have the programs needed to do skinning, so I could still do that if needed.

In regards to what the peasant will actually be, maybe there should be two different types. 1. (The drafted "Defensive Peasant") could not move, and only be fortified in the city it's built in. 2. (The "built" "Militia? Peasant) would use few hammers and be a quickie to build, but would be somewhat weak.

But on the other hand, I like the idea of having a worker with defense capabilities. Would it be possible to capture it instead of killing it if defeated? That would be ideal, at least in my eyes. Maybe then it could attack as well, and if it looses you take the risk of the enemy capturing your unit?

P.S. If you decide to work on the mod, you get a permanent spot on the MMM Team list! (or maybe we should use 3M for the short form. Hmmm.)

 

[Seven05]

I can help but I work funky hours and travel often so I'm not the most reliable team member (which is why I tend to just fart around with my own little projects). When I'm not at work I'll take a look at the code and see if I can come up with something to give you the peasants, militia and levy armies in a nice, easy to use package. But I really have to finish a building change for the World of Legends guys too so it might be a few days or a couple of weeks depending on my freetime.

 

[Bob III]

Thanks! I didn't figure on adding in the peasant until at least the first Beta release, so anytime between now and whenever is fine.

As for now, I'm beginning to work on the Civics (which may be harder than I thought), so expect an update by this weekend.

 

[Bob III]

Also, if anyone else would like to become a member of the team, let me know. Just tell me what you plan on contributing (that is, if it's something I've approved) and I'll ad you to the list.