Kingdoms version

If I was to make a Kingdoms version of this mod what features would people like in it?

Currently I'm thinking of doing the following:

1) Replacing ballistas with Mangonels and adding Byzantine Flamethrowers.
2) Using slightly different battle models for European Faction Leaders and Heirs (at present all generals wear crowns but I want to make it so that only the regular generals are crownless). I don't have any plans to change the non-european ones because I don't have any new battle models for them.

I'd like the permanent stone forts from the Britannia campaign to make an appearance...it would allow for much more strategic deployment of forces.

Also the boiling oil and such on the wall, as in the Retrofit mod.

If possible, I'd like to see Wales appear on the campaign map, although I know that might be pushing it :P

I do like your other two changes too - ballistas are next to useless because they lack any sort of strength. Sure, they can hurt multiple targets, but so can larger siege weapons...if I haven't got that option, I'll just plough with cavalry anyway. If it's possible, and I know this might be being cheeky, but I'd like higher-resolution textures on the general/captain models. They seem a bit out of place. A few look really good but some look quite bland.

I wonder if the Kingdoms format might suit the Eras mod better in that it wouldn't need a batch file to load only particular files so much? =/

I'm unsure about permanent stone forts, mainly because I don't know where to put them. Though I'll definately add Boiling oil.

Currently I don't have any room to add more faction symbols/units, so I can't add Wales (I thought the Welsh were under English rule very early on but according to Wikipedia they were independent until 1282).

I agree with you about the ballista. Also ballistas were very uncommon because the knowledge of how to make them was lost when the Western Roman Empire fell. Mangonnels were more common.

Since I didn't make the general/captain textures I can't change how they look without another texture mod.

You'd still need to transfer files because the changes in txt files has a large effect on how the mod works but it's only a very small part of the mod's size.

I would suggest putting the forts at various choke points like mountains, in areas where there's very little terrain (such as deserts or the Russian wilderness - just to give people something to do rather than spend five or more turns marching their armies across empty territory to finally get to something the enemy has), or areas that were historically very hotly contested, such as the Holy Land, Britannia and northwestern Europe (France, HRE, Poland). It would be a good addition as it would make the supply logic slightly more bearable when out on campaign in enemy territory, as you could base up in a captured fort for a full resupply, letting you wage a campaign further from home and actually be able to see out a siege if you don't fancy trying to attack the good-quality army within a citadel's walls but instead want to starve them out...

I didn't know there was a limit with how many factions you could actually have. =/

I'm trying to think of other ideas...as much as I like the Culture feature of the britannia campaign, I imagine it'd be unworkable, given the religion factor of the main campaign and I doubt the two could run parallel. It would be cool to be able to recruit units of another faction until they assimilated into your culture, though. I mean, how would a England recruit English Knights in Egypt, for example?
Maybe a slightly more workable alternative would be the city requirement feature of the Crusades campaign - as in you can only recruit the best Antioch units from Antioch itself as the PoA. So, English Knights from England, German ones from the HRE, etc...

Just trying to throw up some ideas :)

I think it'd be more logical to put permanent forts in areas that were contested, rather than area where very few people live (for historical reasons).

The limit is 31 per campaign (including the Papal States and slave factions). However the file copying system means that all 31 can be different in each campaign. The real problem is faction symbols because I can only use a file that's 256x256 for new faction symbols (maximum 16 faction symbols). A 510x510 file causes the mod to crash (though I haven't tested an in between size).

The 'culture' recruitment system is just a renamed version of the Teutonic's religion recruitment system. Since I already have a ZoR system you can only recruit some English unit in England.

After rechecking everything I've done I think it may be possible to add up to 3 more factions to this mod (though they can't be added to the 1300 or 1400 campaigns because they're at their unit limit). So I was wonder what factions people would want (other than Wales). Though I'd like to point out that I'm not going to extend the map, so any factions at the edges of the map will not get many settlements.

I've just had a thought on the stone forts issue - is it possible to make them buildable by the general (of course, with an increased build cost)? That would get around the problem of where to place them while also giving the permanent installation at the choke-point benefit. :)

Since I haven't made a Kingdoms mod before I haven't researched Permanent Stone Forts (PSF) in much detail. I know that in the Kingdoms' Crusades Campaign you could build PSF and they would remain on the map, while in the Britannic campaign you couldn't build them but they could reinforce your cities. So I could allow generals to build PSFs.

I've also heard that it's possible to turn PSF's into castles by changing their battle models. This could be useful, since it would free up some provinces that used to contain castles. Though this would create recruitment problems, since there'd be no where to build castle buildings (though if cities were divided into economic cities or military ones).

Update:

I've started making the Kingdoms version of this mod. It will be called 'Eras Total Conquest' and will focus on the 1200 and 1500 campaigns.

I have made a working version of the 1200 campaign that stretches from Portugal to India and I'm currently adding new units and buildings to it. Does anyone have any suggestions for the African, Persian and Indian units?

The 1500 version is still in its early stages (map making) so I will probably release the 1200 version first, then release the finished version that has both the 1200 and 1500 campaigns.

Oh wow, I wouldn't know where to begin =/

I would imagine that all three states would maintain Islamic style units (crap spam infantry, perhaps with a decent scimitar-armed inf unit for Persia and India, as well as HA, Jav-Cav), since it was Muslims who held sway over all three dominions at the time. Perhaps the greatest variation coming in India given the hotchpotch of cultural and religious influences there. Also, they would have war elephants (they had used them not long before the Sultanate dynasties of 1200 onward, so there's no reason to think they wouldn't still maintain them) and maybe even hand-bomb throwers. I would imagine India to have better heavy infantry (swordsmen mainly) than its neighbours, since they had higher-quality steel swords than most neighbours and even some western armies.

In 1500, massive influence from the Ottomans would surely mean that they lost a bit of that earlier diversity and became even more Islamicised?

This is an interesting new direction (no pun intended) you're taking this mod...will the inclusion of Persian factions mean that you'll have to cut back on factions in Europe?

Currently I'm thinking of setting Crusades mod in 1220 when the Mongols have conquered most of Persia, so that I don't need a Persian faction but can still include Persian units (AoR recruitment system). Though the 1500 version will feature some Persian factions.

Thanks for the advice. I've also looked at the Broken Creasant mod for information about what Persian / India units the factions would have and what they should look like.