[modmodmod] The Sword of Islam Reborn

[AOS9001]

Wow, someone's still working on this mod? I remember doing a bit of help and playtesting here years and years ago. Really glad to see it's still kicking.

Here is a preview for the new map!

You should definitely add more hills (maybe even a handful of more peaks) and some of the Balkan lakes. Here's a good terrain map for reference.

 

[Tigranes]

Good ideas about the Khazaria (I was already searching for a civ filling the empty space in norht caucasus)!

The eastern lands of the map are empty at the moment, because there are no civs which could relate to any features there, but Issyk Kul might be added.

I don't know if the WB file is compatible with an older version of SoI, but here it is.

Thanks for doing this! Now I can see resources better. Definitely needs a source of horses for North Caucasus steppes. Kuban region needs a source of Wheat, just to do it justice as a breadbasket through the history, trading grain with Athens and Rome since antiquity. Also, perhaps we should erase most of the resources in lower Syr Darya region. It took me quite a bit of research to find any major historical cities there (especially as opposed to lower Amu Darya region). I could finally find a map showing those 3 below, but that's about it.

 

[hnrysml]

new map preview looks good but i noticed there are no rhodope, pirin and rila mountains (assuming the mountains just to the north are meant to represent the balkan range) when in reality these are among the most mountainous parts of all the balkans. It would be nice to see the nestos and strymónas rivers in this area too. I think part of the reason this area isn't currently represented is that adrianople and phillippopolis are quite far west and spaced out compared with the real geography

 

[GregFred187]

Thanks for all the great feedback!

(assuming the mountains just to the north are meant to represent the balkan range)

In fact, the northern mountains are the southern Carpathians, and the river across the whole region is the Danube.

I recognize, many of you want more mountains, so it shall be done!
I will keep on waiting some days for more map suggestions, and then do them all in once.

 

[AOS9001]

I was intending on making an image showing where missing rivers, lakes, and mountains should be. Would you find that helpful?

 

[GregFred187]

I was intending on making an image showing where missing rivers, lakes, and mountains should be. Would you find that helpful?

Definitely!
You can also add them to the WB file yourself, then it would be exactly where you like them to be.

I am very busy for the next two weeks, I will keep on watching your suggestions but I don't think I will have much time to mod.

Does anyone know if have have to edit the DLL for adding the new civs, or is it just XML and python?

 

[Leoreth]

Nice to see this is still getting attention. Love what I am seeing of the new map. Can you show Greece as well?

Does anyone know if have have to edit the DLL for adding the new civs, or is it just XML and python?

You certainly will have to recompile the DLL to add player slots for the new civs to occupy, at the very least.

 

[GregFred187]

I am impressed! The master of DoC visited our small mod.

Can you show Greece as well?

You can have a look at Greece, the Balkans and Libya (the expansion to the west of the earlier versions) in the very first post. There are all changes to standard SoI listed.

You certainly will have to recompile the DLL to add player slots for the new civs to occupy, at the very least.

Thanks for your quick answer, even if it is not my favourite. At the moment I have totally no DLL experience, and no tools to work with.
So I next step for me is searching the forums for good DLL tutorials.

 

[DrLoboto]

Hey, sorry to the guys who were reaching out to me. Got caught up in family stuff and work stuff and twitter doomscrolling, the lot. I've thought a bit about uploading my version of the mod, and while I'm not opposed to it, I do have some reservations. It changes A LOT, and not in ways that all or even many players will find suits their playstyle. Only balanced for epic, scripted collapses and stability hits, the 'secede city outside historical expansion area' mechanic for the AI that I nicked from RFC Classical World, more abundant resources leading to larger cities and doomstacks, etc.

While I'd leave it to you guys to judge whether or not you'd actually want to try it, more than all this I'm A) pretty embarrassed by my clunky scripting, B) not sure I'd want to offer support or updates, C) don't want to overshadow or divert from GregFred's mod and whatnot, and D) kinda weirdly protective of my stuff in a totally not really rational sort of way. This is where I'm at now but it is subject to change.

What I would definitely be interested in doing right now, time permitting, is offering ideas/additions/help to this particular mod. Combing the two mods would be a possible, but very involved task, given all the dll edits, map changes, and long-ass incrementing of python tuples/lists, along with removing or changing controversial mechanics, that would need to be done. Even simply combing the maps would involve renumbering every single plot, given that my map expands east and north and this one expands west. But it is all totally possible with time! Right now I'd love to focus on any immediate help/goals GregFred has for his mod.

 

[DrLoboto]

This dude's a solid master of custom made maps - could be useful

Ian Mladjov's Resources - Maps

HISTORICAL MAPS The historical maps in this page are for the most part versions of some of the maps I have prepared for teaching purposes in my various courses. The level of detail and accuracy in any one map depends on the author's perceived necessities and priorities, source materials, and

sites.google.com

 

[DrLoboto]

Thanks for doing this! Now I can see resources better. Definitely needs a source of horses for North Caucasus steppes. Kuban region needs a source of Wheat, just to do it justice as a breadbasket through the history, trading grain with Athens and Rome since antiquity. Also, perhaps we should erase most of the resources in lower Syr Darya region. It took me quite a bit of research to find any major historical cities there (especially as opposed to lower Amu Darya region). I could finally find a map showing those 3 below, but that's about it.


View attachment 686353

There were apparently a ton of cities on the syr darya in the middle ages - Huvara, Yangikent, Sighnaq, Jand, Barchkent, Sawran, Karnak, others I can't remember. Mongols of course trashed most of them but many were rebuilt. I wish I had some good maps of the region lying around but I think that unfortunately most of my knowledge came from google translating Kazakh/Ukrainian/Russian websites and searching gps coordinates on google maps. If it's relevent I can try to find some of those sources.

 

[Leoreth]

I am impressed! The master of DoC visited our small mod.

On the contrary, SoI is foundational to DoC in many ways so it's great you're carrying it forward.

Thanks for your quick answer, even if it is not my favourite. At the moment I have totally no DLL experience, and no tools to work with.
So I next step for me is searching the forums for good DLL tutorials.

I've heard a very helpful person wrote a simple and useful guide.

 

[HNation]

Hey, sorry to the guys who were reaching out to me. Got caught up in family stuff and work stuff and twitter doomscrolling, the lot. I've thought a bit about uploading my version of the mod, and while I'm not opposed to it, I do have some reservations. It changes A LOT, and not in ways that all or even many players will find suits their playstyle. Only balanced for epic, scripted collapses and stability hits, the 'secede city outside historical expansion area' mechanic for the AI that I nicked from RFC Classical World, more abundant resources leading to larger cities and doomstacks, etc.

I would like to try it, even if just to look around and play with the bigger map and new civs.

While I'd leave it to you guys to judge whether or not you'd actually want to try it, more than all this I'm A) pretty embarrassed by my clunky scripting,

Still better than my scripting ability which is nonexistent hence I've never made a mod

B) not sure I'd want to offer support or updates,

That's completely fine, IIRC GregFred just wants to borrow some of the map expansion for his mod and maybe some of the new civs in the new part of the map.

C) don't want to overshadow or divert from GregFred's mod and whatnot, and

Makes sense

D) kinda weirdly protective of my stuff in a totally not really rational sort of way. This is where I'm at now but it is subject to change.

I understand this, but at the same time, since your stuff did build on stuff from other people here (edead, srpt, maybe others), I think it would be nice to have it here. But no pressure, if you don't want to upload it, that's fine and I'll respect that.

What I would definitely be interested in doing right now, time permitting, is offering ideas/additions/help to this particular mod. Combing the two mods would be a possible, but very involved task, given all the dll edits, map changes, and long-ass incrementing of python tuples/lists, along with removing or changing controversial mechanics, that would need to be done. Even simply combing the maps would involve renumbering every single plot, given that my map expands east and north and this one expands west. But it is all totally possible with time! Right now I'd love to focus on any immediate help/goals GregFred has for his mod.

I could try to combine the maps, the only modding experience I have is editing the RFCE map in Notepad. I suspect renumbering could be automated with find and replace.

 

[HNation]

On the contrary, SoI is foundational to DoC in many ways so it's great you're carrying it forward.

I've heard a very helpful person wrote a simple and useful guide.

Which users from the DoC subforum do you think had the most helpful map suggestions?

 

[Leoreth]

I couldn't possibly tell you, sorry - it happened gradually over such a long time period.

 

[AOS9001]

This dude's a solid master of custom made maps - could be useful

Ian Mladjov's Resources - Maps

HISTORICAL MAPS The historical maps in this page are for the most part versions of some of the maps I have prepared for teaching purposes in my various courses. The level of detail and accuracy in any one map depends on the author's perceived necessities and priorities, source materials, and

sites.google.com

This map of Europe in 750 indicates most of the Balkans were outside of Byzantine control. So that could be a good place to make Byzantium less strong in its starting position.

 

[HNation]

@DrLoboto how many tiles did you add in the North and East? Can you post more screenshots please?

 

[DrLoboto]

I think maybe 9 tiles east and 14 north?

 

[HNation]

I think maybe 9 tiles east and 14 north?

If this map were to ever be combined with GregFred's Western expansion, there would probably even be space for Hungary. Wow. What technique did you use to make the new part of the map and make it on the right scale/projection as the rest of the SOI map?

 

[DrLoboto]

If this map were to ever be combined with GregFred's Western expansion, there would probably even be space for Hungary. Wow. What technique did you use to make the new part of the map and make it on the right scale/projection as the rest of the SOI map?

Oh I wish there were a 'technique' I knew to use. I'm pretty sure this was all done by me tabbing back and forth between the world builder and a collection of historical, topographical, and climate maps I was using for reference. I'm largely happy with how it turned out although I think I probably could/should have squeezed in another tile in between the Caucasus and the Volga. Most of my personal tweaks were done on and off over the course of years but the big expansion north happened over a few weeks when I basically found myself obsessed with the Golden Horde, and wanting to get at least part of them into the game.

Hopefully, some of this stuff can be brought to GregFred's mod if he's interested, otherwise/regardless I may just dump my edits on here and let people do with them what they want. There's so many subjective changes to the core of embryodead's mod that I'm not sure how many people would really enjoy it, but I know individual aspects like a larger map and more civs would probably work well in just about anyone's game.