Dominion of the Sword (Video) Blog [Archive]

Hross af Guttenburg

07-18-2008, 15:47

Blog One

Two main areas of work are boiling over at the moment, each with their own exciting developments and frustrating delays or complications. These are the map and the units.

I don't want to go into details and ruin the surprise by saying which units we are working on, but you can see some things moving along as WIP. Unfortunately one of our modellers, who was specifically working on these units is now forced to take a two month break, we have a replacement who will continue work and join us after the weekend. Fingers crossed. Skinning the preview units is going well, our man Zapp has his hands full with some 10-15 units. I am personally working as researcher/advisor for them so I am also stretched in my duties these weeks.

As for the map, things are just moving so fast we can hardly keep up with each other. Our main work at the moment is placing settlements in the right areas and making rough regional boundaries. These boundaries will change once we place the PSFs*(permanent stone forts) because these will be placed to agitate factions into conflict so in which regions these PSFs are placed will be crucial to give control over a region. We cannot move the PSFs since they represent actual locations (settlements we didn't have room for in the hardcoded 199 limit) but we can mess around with the regions so that one faction will have an easier time taking a PSF but since it will be in another factions region this will agitate them. Hence Areas of Conflict. Hope you understand.... Anyway, we aren't there yet. We are still working on placing the settlements in realistic geography. We are trying to get mountain ranges right and things like that.

One major issue of debate (within the entire team of 55 guys) right now is whether or not we should have the navigable rivers feature for major rivers as we planned. If we can pull it off it will be really exciting and a whole new dimension in gameplay. But the more obvious assumption is that navigable rivers will always look as ugly as all other modders' attempts at them have shown. They do not look realistic, but square and unnatural. We have several options available, one is to remove them completely and just have normal vanilla style rivers. Another option is to make these major rivers navigable by trade ships but not by actual ship units, trade ships means that river-ports and economy will still be represented but that we avoid all the issues of aesthetics and ship spawns blocking the rivers.These rivers won't offer tactical advantages however. In the meantime, Rex and Gigantus are really testing different ways to make the rivers look more natural, which takes time. Some of us think that it is a pointless exercise and is wasting time on developing the map. We shall see if the frutis of their labours give the community something new...

In more concrete and relieving news, these last few weeks have seen a final agreement to the last few slots in the faction list. Arguments have raged about this since day one, we have had several internal votes and several 'final lists' – as many of you regular visitors here will know, we have even had a public discussion and vote about the faction list. What time has shown is that everyone has a different idea about which factions will be good for gameplay or good for realism etc. We will not be changing this list again unless a dramatic shift occurs in the admin team. The final faction slots have gone to two emergent factions: Serbia and Bulgaria.

We also finally found a solution to what we called the Italian problem. Basically there was a huge rift in the mod team about how many northern Italian factions should be in the list/game. Historically everyone agreed that Pisa, Genoa, Milan and Florence were important but that it was wrong to represent city states as factions, especially since so many traditional or obvious faction possibilities have been rejected: Mongols, Cumans, Irish, Flanders, Burgundians, Swiss... the list goes on. Others felt that these city state factions were so important to world politics at the time and ruled their own empires for centuries, that ignoring these factions would be wrong. Admin finally agreed on two factions and no more, but which city states would be represented was an ongoing debate (and I was one of the main culprits).

The main speakers argued that the four cities were dependent on each other and by making one or more of these factions mere 'rebels' would make the entire game unbalanced and the two faction choices irrelevant. Finally we came up with a compromise which we are happy with but we realise might be controversial or unpopular. We merged the four factions into two, so we invented Comuni Liberi which involves Genoa and Milan as competing powers (also other settlements such as Turin etc) and the other faction will be called Comuni Toscani involving Pisa (and its colonies) rivalled with Florence and Sienna. This might sound unhistorical but we have already placed a lot of work in the Italian government forms in our overhaul of the tech tree. We are confident that we can represent the power struggles between the different city states within a faction through details in things like the tech tree and traits or titles. There will be different types of control and all will have effects on authority, law, papal standing etc. I won't go into too much detail yet. My point is it's a huge step forward.

Hope you like our little unofficial sneak preview, a video blog showing some promo work in progress.

Hross (PR & Organiser) 01:08 AM 28th May

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A7-Q6RUQN4

Hross af Guttenburg

07-18-2008, 15:49

Well, it's been a while since our last blog and that has been due to me moving back to Sweden from Spain and most of the team finding themselves on holiday. Since most of you were or are probably doing the same I don't think we have been missed!
However, this isn't a game here- it's an obsession! And work has continued. Unfortunately I haven't had much that I can post about since we have been covering a lot of technical stuff which meant that there were very few visual things that we could show.
Anyway, this week we do in fact have quite a lot to show you and the feeling around the camp is that we are very close to our first preview, with game screenshots of a working campaign map and new units on the battlefield.

So let's look at what is going on around the different departments, I want you to meet some of the guys on our 50 member strong mod team.

-By Hross

Real Horses Project
I started this project as an element of “XAI: The game core renovation project” for Kingdoms (April 06, 2008). I first came up with the idea for the Real Horses Project when I saw the marvellous work of madtao from the Lithuania Mod, by the B.A.L.T.S. team.
Inspired by his horses I made a first test template and asked madtao for help, he gave me permission to use some of his work and he also gave me a few guidelines in how to begin. From there things just snowballed and I took on more challenges and gained more information about historical warhorse breeds.
As I continued I made a variety of textures and decided to test these with mods such as BC and SS.

During this period I spoke often with other top TWC skinners like Alletun, Prof420, and KnightErrant they were all very helpful, and if I ever had any problems or questions (which is inevitable when skinning) they were always around to give me advice. It did not take long before I had gained enough skills to actually create the realistic and historical horses in my vision.
I then came across makanyane’s work and realised he had a similar project to mine, and so we were able to help each other. Around the same time I then saw the first teaser video of DotS.
I had worked with Hross and the Dominion team earlier, when I had been a graphics consultant for them. I asked him if RHP and DotS could cooperate and share work, I then joined a short time later, and now my RHP and the DotS team enjoys a solid interaction. I have become part of the overall development process, not just attached to the skinning department.

So far things have already turned out well. I am very grateful for the positive feedback from my new and old team members (DotS; XAI) as well as supporters in the TWC community. I am very pleased to receive already so many requests by other mods and modleaders to use my RHP in their work. This has given me another big boost to finish my work.

The first version of RHP will have a great deal of new horse textures, but I am not completely satisfied. For future releases of RHP I plan to concentrate on developing more historically accurate horses, primarily concentrating on specific regional breeds from Iceland to Mecca. This is something that DotS has shown real enthusiasm for, not surprisingly since they are keen to gather as many historical details to feature in their ‘supermod’.
This will, of course, mean more work for me but I am excited about the chance to develop my modding skills even further. It’s also a great feeling for me to see other mod teams wanting to integrate "Real Horses" in their own mods.
-By Argent Usher

Start Positions
Working mainly alongside fellow Englishman Hross, we have been responsible for organising the settlement lists including the PSFs (permanent stone forts) deciding which historical places were important enough and which would make for better gameplay etc. We had a great deal of help from the researchers which includes our liaisons with allied mods such as Magyar Mod and Eastern Europe: Total War. The work has been painstaking and the source of a lot of friction over many months, but now we have finished that we are moving on to the point of seeing the settlements and regions in reality on the campaign map- it's a wonderful feeling!

We are placing many PSFs on the map to represent historical places that we didn't have room for in the settlements list. These are part of the Control Points theory that Hross posted about way back when the mod was announced. Since it was an early aim from the beginning we are all very proud to have seen that vision became a reality (mainly because at the time we planned it, we had no idea whether it was moddable!) Thanks to guys like Gigantus, the code has been cracked and the community has worked out how to place permanent stone forts on the campaign map.

Hross and I are now at the stage that we are collecting information about the historical situation in 1080 (our start date). What were the populations of regions? What were the populations of settlements? What nobles and generals were there? What were the size of the armies? What level of development and technology existed in the settlements? Were there churches? Hospitals? Barracks for elites or just militias?

Due to our choice of PSFs, region boundaries and settlements- Hross and myself have designed some really exciting situations to occur not just at the start date, but to set things up for later turns as the game will develop. For example, you might start the game with official control over a region but when you realise that your neighbour has control over four PSFs within that region and is sucking the income from your settlement, you will be quick to send a diplomat or to wage war.

All your worrying about rebels being under-represented will disappear too. Just wait until you start the game and see 20 stacks of Pechenegs in the Ukraine, 10 stacks of Kypchaks north of Georgia and that is without scripting at later dates.

Of course all this historical correctness has consequences we cannot imagine-will the game handle it? We don't know until we run tests, but we are trying 100% to remain true to our vision of delivering as realistic a game as possible, we can set the stage in 1080 as it was and then the rest is up to the player to re-write history from that point onwards.

-by Ali

Gigantus’ Breakdown: Trials of a Dominion Mapper
“Just move the town a bit South”, a sentence out of the blue that drills into my ears and jolts me away from my daydreams (lying on the beach with a cold cuba libre in my hand, waiting for the sun to set) bringing me back to the cold realities of modding for Dominion of the Sword.
It all began on a sunny afternoon in the middle of April with an innocent looking PM from Hross:

Hi
I represent Dominion of the Sword mod which is a large project (we have over 50 members) based on Kingdoms. Right now we are looking for a mapper or two since we have been given Rex Invictus´s huge and (completed) map but we need to do the final stages in alteration which would involve-
1. Plotting new settlements
2. Plotting permanent stone forts
3. Redrawing the regions and resources
4. Making some major rivers navigable
5. Adding ´villages´ onto the map
–through adding special ground tiles

If you are interested in joining our mapping team and working on the project then please let me know

Thanks for your time
Hross

I had just finished a map for Ornamentum and had some time on my hand, so I thought to myself “Let’s have a look at this map and see what it is all about. Little did I know of the tribulations that awaited me!

First on the list were changes in the Iberian Peninsula: regions had to be changed, some more added. Not that difficult (if you have a good reference) so me thinks. “This dot is Toledo and this one is Salamanca.” Great. “And this dot is a PSF.” PSF, who? As mitigating circumstances I have to mention that I never worked with permanent stone forts before, a situation that I intended to rectify. Can’t be that difficult, right? Right? After searching the fora of twcenter I had a scrap book of 15 pages without any proper clue on how to make the forts appear correctly on the battle field. They looked cute on the campaign map, but every time I assault one I end up attacking a wooden fort. Two days and countless dead ends later my triumphant Spanish forces were climbing their siege towers to take the lone stone fort in Iberia!
Humble person that I am I spent another two days on putting a tutorial together (followed later by an installer) so that everyone could profit from the brilliance of my mind, and could enjoy seeing their army being depleted trying to storm a type d fort.
But I am digressing, forgive me.

Sometimes I think, “Working for Dominion Of The Sword is like working for NASA: you want to go to the moon, and on the way you invent Teflon coating. Oh yeah: you also don’t see the researchers, just hear them. This isn’t so bad, that way no-one sees my bald patches and gray hair.

“That mountain range is not right.” Another nightmare in the making? Did I mess up when I resized the map? Were the satellite maps incorrect? These and more thoughts of that nature cross my mind, surely the light shake of my hands is from all the coffee I had since this morning.

“They don’t have peaks and there should be snow in winter.” The reply to my innocent question for more details comes two days later. Sometimes even a mild mannered person like me wants to strangle some one, it is reputedly quite therapeutic in cases like this.
30 minutes later a touch up on the climates and on the ground types map is done and the matter is solved.

“This settlement should be more south.” You couldn’t have been less specific, couldn’t you? Algiers is also south of Madrid, but I guess you didn’t mean that far south. How to solve the inability of the researchers to think a little bit like mappers? Screenshots? Too inaccurate and only for a very small area. XY Co-ordinates from the campaign map? Those research guys have most likely not heard of a console to start with. And then it dawns on me like a sunrise on my favorite island in the Caribbean: an enlarged portion of the map_region file in JPG format! “X marks Toledo.” Couldn’t be easier and even a researcher should be able to do that!

“I want to travel in my latest caravel all the way upriver to Novgorod.” You got to be joking. Never heard of horse carriages? You get sea sick on rivers as well, did you know?

This is where I found myself somewhat distanced. Personally I think navigable rivers are neither aesthetic to the eye nor helpful to the game. There has been a lengthy thread in the forum that airs my view on that matter. But then pride got the better of me: if they want their bread buttered on the wrong side then I will make sure they can spread it nicely! Days pass and the frustration mounts, it seems that you end up with a river that looks like a sewer pipe at full run or the Suez Canal run amok. It involves three maps, which are obviously of different dimensions to add to the fun. Start counting: one pixel on the features map equals two pixels on the heights map. But which is pixel one of the heights map to match pixel one of the features map? At last the principle of creating something acceptable (to others) was found. “It is a matter of taste,” said the porcupine and bit into the soap.

“Add ´villages´ onto the map through adding special ground tiles” Huh? I vaguely remember something like that from my younger days when I was playing RTW with the RTR mod (For those of you too young to remember: ‘Rome Total War’ with the ‘Rome Total Realism’ mod). There we used a regular resource with a different CAS and TEXTURE file to do that. Should work here as well. But “special ground tiles”? Still waiting how that will be done. Something esoteric like making groundtype tiles 3D? As old as I am, I still discover something new every time I start a new modding project. I fondly remember when I couldn’t figure out why the leader of my newly created faction insisted to call me “Mein Kaiser” instead of “Sir”. But that is another story my children.

-By Gigantus (currently missing, last seen in Goa)

Active Rebels Project
It all began with the same thing as every time – the game. I was playing the other mod (Stainless Steel) and I was thinking about different aspects of the game. SS was a great experience but like many other mods before, there was still the same old vanilla despite thousands of enhancements. I for example hate tedious beginnings in any campaign, and it is always same. Rush the rebels, secure your faction and conquer the world. That’s why I joined Dominion Of The Sword, which promises to be different already in the very core of the mod’s ideology.

http://webprodej.cz/michael/Screens/england.jpg

When I first started modding, the first thing I realized was the lack of attention for rebels. Nobody seemed to give them any importance. Nobody even tried to treat them like another faction! And yet the slave faction (aka rebels) may become a powerful tool and great aspect of any mod. In Dominion Of The Sword we have the ambition to show a realistic and atmospheric medieval experience. But the game’s limits are very tight and we cannot do everything we want within those limits. How then we can represent all those smaller kingdoms and duchies, caliphates and other free lands, which we cannot include as regular factions? The answer was always there from very beginning – the rebels.

http://webprodej.cz/michael/Screens/france.jpg

I therefore started to experiment and study this last and always neglected faction. It turned out, that rebels are basically the same as any other faction, but without proper files setup for them. They lack a proper AI profile; they have neither income nor attention in the campaign script. The values regarding them are set to insane numbers like “stay in settlement” for 999 turns... But they have very exciting aspects and opportunities. For example, building and recruiting is based upon 'creator of settlement', which basically means, that rebels can build and recruit anything, whatever the 'creator faction' can. The only reason they do not do so is because they lack funds and reason. Dominion of the Sword and specifically my work is about to change all that.

It didn't take long until I began to understand what was wrong with rebels. I and two of my counterparts (Noah Sheperd and Lionheart) spent several hours testing different conditions of rebels and we were closely overlooking what happens. Changing few values here and there, giving some help to rebels in the campaign script, giving them money and regular income and most of all the AI profile. These all have awoken the slave faction. Having said that, other problems came.
'End turn' took very a long time when it reached rebels. And also their ability to build seemed not well used by the AI. I realized that the default profile must be revised and I did purge and overhaul all of it. I removed unwanted decisions, increased or decreased thresholds here and there. And finally rebels began to act more reasonably. Most interestingly, their turns took only few seconds even when they owned half the world-map!
The other problem though turned out to be a general problem with the AI. The AI does not build extensively nor with the "bigger picture" always in mind, but rather chaotically and more depending on an actual situation. For rebels therefore it means very low activity because of a great and constant danger that they face. This issue will be most likely addressed when we find solution for the AI in general.

http://webprodej.cz/michael/Screens/moors.jpg

Another chapter was making rebels a real threat. They lack General Agents and a family tree, which is the greatest drawback in my view. I therefore gave them many characters, all across the map. Results have been amazing. The very same thing I saw in Spain where by default El Cid is in Valencia. Generals improve capabilities as rebels defending themselves in general. And more, they also sometimes strike beyond their boarders when the bordering settlements are undefended. Just like any other faction.

Of course not everything is solved when it comes to rebels. For instance how to implement unique units for rebels. Or whether we allow this slave faction to use agents like merchants or spies. And one major task is to simulate “horde behavior” for the Mongolian and Steppe factions, a MAJOR focus for Dominion. Nonetheless I am confident we can solve all these issues and achieve everything we want to provide Dominion Of The Sword with, we are focussed on the unique features in our Active Rebels Project and we will keep you posted to all developments and breakthroughs as they come.

The screenshots of rebels behaviour, I believe they are self-explanatory :-)

By Resurrection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXeuJSFuwDg