Lands to Conquer 3.0 : Preview 1 - Hundred Years War Campaign

[Lusted]

Welcome to the first Lands to Conquer 3.0 Preview.

Now some of you are bound to be confused as up until now i've said 2.4 would be the next version, but there has been a change of plans. So there is both an announcement about the new plans for LTC and the preview of the new Hundred Years War campaign. Both are contained within spoiler tags for ease of viewing, though please read them in order.

Enjoy!


Announcement - Change of Plans for LTC

Up until now i have said that i would be working on patches for 2.3 that would focus on slowly refining and improving LTC, and then when Kingdoms came out release 3.0 which would incldue factions and units from it added to the main campaign. This was the plan due to a lack of time i would have from the 18th of June onwards as that is when i start at CA.

Now however, after taking part in a Kingdoms playtesting day at SEGA HQ Europe(confidentiality agreement so can't say anything) and seeing Unspoken Knights CustomCampaign mod i had an idea to help improve LTC without moving away from the enhanced vanilla feel of the mod.

As such, i am combining what i was going to have in 2.4 with new custom campaigns into 3.0, and what i was planning on doing with thigns from Kingdoms will become 4.0.

Some of the main improvements 3.0 will make over 2.3 are(as in on top of everything in 2.3):
-3 Custom Campaigns: Hundred Years War, Reconquista and Italian City States. All of them will be scaled up versions of part of the vanilla map with new provinces and start and end dates.
-Hotseat LTC: The 3.0 instaler will set up a .bat and .cfg file that wil allow you to play LTC and the new campaigns in hotseat mode without having to set them up yourselves.
-Increasing the difference between cities and castles and making castles more worthwile due to various tweaks.
-Refined battle ai
-Improved unit balance due to a few tweaks
-Reintroduced small money script that is tied to campaign difficulty. So the ai only gets a money boost on H and VH campaign difficulties, and more on VH than on H.
-Tweaks to faction standings so that relations do not decline on H, and on VH they only decline like they would in vanilla H.
-Brand new loading screens(24), menu background and splash screen.
-New Byzantine skins will be an option add on for 3.0 for those who want them, so those who don't want them don't have to have them.
-Plus everything else already in 2.3.

And it gives me great pleasure to preview the first of the Custom Campaigns - The Hundred Years War.



Hundred Years War Campaign Preview

First off i'd like to say a huge, immense, MASSIVE thanks to wilddog for making the map. I'd also like to thank Unspoken Knight for letting me use the parts of his mod that allowed the custom campaign setup.

Overview

Featuring a scaled up map with new provinces and more focused gameplay, the Hundred Years Campaign should offer great gameplay.

https://img478.imageshack.us/img478/1790/sneakypeakev2.th.jpg (https://img478.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sneakypeakev2.jpg)

(notice the edited text colour in the above pic so it now is brighter and stands out more, as well as the new menu background).

The Hundred Years Campaign will start in 1337 when France had taken all of Englands possesions in France apart from Gascony, and when Scotland had recently lost Berwick to the English. Only those 3 factions: England, France and Scotland will be in the campaign. Strong rebel provinces will represent Flanders, Burgundy and Navarre.

England

https://img353.imageshack.us/img353/6132/hyw1ei1.th.jpg (https://img353.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw1ei1.jpg)

As you can see Englands victory conditions include holding many specific provinces in both Britan and France. They start out with Edward III as King who is looknig to back his claim to the French throne with arms, and with both Berwick and Bordeaux threatened by strong hostile armies.

Pics of England on the campaign map:

https://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4766/hyw4nd3.th.jpg (https://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw4nd3.jpg)
https://img504.imageshack.us/img504/3950/hyw5iv1.th.jpg (https://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw5iv1.jpg)
https://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9942/hyw6at7.th.jpg (https://img505.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw6at7.jpg)
https://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8991/hyw7rf0.th.jpg (https://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw7rf0.jpg)

France

https://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7577/hyw2qf2.th.jpg (https://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw2qf2.jpg)

The French have thanks to various wars taken most of the English territory in France, and so are in a strong position to begin with. King Philip VI is determined to show Edward how 'rightful' Edwards claim to the throne is.

https://img261.imageshack.us/img261/60/hyw8ey6.th.jpg (https://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw8ey6.jpg)
https://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7672/hyw9ux8.th.jpg (https://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw9ux8.jpg)
https://img168.imageshack.us/img168/613/hyw10yp1.th.jpg (https://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw10yp1.jpg)
https://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6001/hyw11li8.th.jpg (https://img176.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw11li8.jpg)

Scotland

https://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1699/hyw3ck1.th.jpg (https://img103.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw3ck1.jpg)

Scotland is a Kingdom in trouble at the start of the game. It has recently lost Berwick to the English and has had to endure puppet Kings. But the true King of Scotland has other ideas, and sees the chance to reclaim lost lands, and perhaps to even see how the English like puppet Kings.

https://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7858/hyw12kz2.th.jpg (https://img525.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hyw12kz2.jpg)

That's all for this preview, i hope you've enjoyed it!

[phunkbot]

sweeet :yes:

definitely looks interesting and again well made, combined with the finished-productness of your work I believe this will take you to the next level of uber-respectnessness from us lazy do-it-for-us-mod-users

cheers mate keep it up ~:cheers:

[Lusted]

Thanks Phunkbot, i hope you will enjoy the campaign once it's released.

[Lusted]

First post updated with finished map pics.

[TinCow]

Excellent work Lusted. I am actually waiting to start a new campaign until LtC 3.0 is released.

[Lusted]

That is actually a good idea as 3.0 will include the CNP 3.0 so won't be save game compatible.

[TinCow]

What is CNP?

[Lusted]

Character Names Project, replaces the default names with more accurate ones.

[Lusted]

Hehehe. Just been testing the campaign and boy is it tough. Im England, im low on cash, and whilst the French have stopped continuously sieging Bordeaux they have now started blockading my ports and landing diplomats on my soil. The Scots bypassed Berwick and took York, then i lost Berwick to rebellion, and its 1365 and i've only just retaken York. Im currently trying to maintain a large enough fleet to beat back the French, move the elite army under the Kings son Edward up inot Scotland to take them out, and then im going to move that army with reinforcements to Calais, another army to Caen and a 3rd to Pamplona and then Southern France. Im not sure im going to win this one before the end date.

Boy is this campaign fun!

[TinCow]

Character Names Project, replaces the default names with more accurate ones.

Good, I'm sick of the given-name-only families.

[phunkbot]

isnt some part of that CNP thing included in 2.3 already? I was attributing those nameless characters to that...

[Lusted]

Yes it is, CNP fixes the nameless characters and adds in new names for more factions.

[Skott]

Maps look great. How are you handling the turn/years? Is it a 1/1 or something else? Assuming you are allowed to say at this time. ~:cheers:

[Lusted]

Well atm im testing it on a 1.5 year per turn length just like in LTC 2.3, it seems to work well.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

I can't wait for this release Lusted. This is for the Kingdoms Expansion correct?

[Lusted]

No 3.0 will be out before them, im aiming for an end of June release atm. 4.0 will be for the Kingdoms expansion.

[Tusk]

Sounds AWESOME! Awesome...my mouth is watering, literally dripping on my desk... it's like getting a new game! :verycool:

Btw, where is a thread on discussion of different aspects of LTC 2.3? I checked the main thread, but not much there.

[Lusted]

Your better off checking the LTC forum over at TWC.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=302

[IrishArmenian]

This looks great! I don't mean to seem like a spoiled ass, but later versions with more detail depicting the 100 years war will be one of the premier Total War experiences.