Weekly Blog #4 Discussion

[Renown]

Any comments, or discussion of the 4th Weekly blog should go here.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Call me names, but I think a public decision for the final faction is selling out.

[shifty157]

Not really. You see, when we were slowly ocmpiling our list we got to the last faction slot and we had a few candidates left over. We managed to discard a few but that still left us with three very good and very different candidates. Since any one of the three would be just as good and since each one brought its own unique benefits with it we really couldnt decide on which to choose. So we decided to give the deicision to the public and let majority rule on which of the three they think would be the best choice. Im sure when youre presented with the three factions youll find the decision just as difficult to make.


More information on this is currently scheduled for this sunday.

[IrishArmenian]

Yes, they all end up making the game much more challenging for the area of the map they're in, and very interesting (read difficult) to play as in the campaign. We can deal wiht any choice the pubic makes, however, taking "suggestions" like "Add Burgundy, Genoa, or Bohemia" is different. That would be selling out to public...commands.

[alpaca]

Since when is taking the community's opinion into your decisions "selling out"?

[Renown]

yeah I mean I always thought selling out, was when you made a profit and ignored the community? I.e., Counter Strike, DoD... uh, and other "Always Free" mods that you end up having to pay for.

I grant you permission to call us sell outs when CA buys us up.

[MSB]

Sounds good, I'm looking forward to playing MA when I get M2:TW. Keep up the good work guys

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Oh, you'll let us choose from 3 nations.

I thought it would be whatever Balkans nation posted the most spam in the forums or something.

And for a realism mod, I would consider it selling out if you listen to fan suggestions over history just as much as being purchased by some bigger group that made you charge for the mod.

[NagatsukaShumi]

Oh, you'll let us choose from 3 nations.

I thought it would be whatever Balkans nation posted the most spam in the forums or something.

And for a realism mod, I would consider it selling out if you listen to fan suggestions over history just as much as being purchased by some bigger group that made you charge for the mod.

Discussions over a finalised faction list has being going on for a good three months, we have a complete list minus one slot which we still cannot agree on, after it took this long to agree on what we have now I think its fine for us to offer the public a chance to choose the final faction that will fill the slot, each has equal merit to a place and if nothing else it will stop halting us from carrying on with progress.

Hardly selling out, though donations are always appreicated by Nagatsuka Inc.

[IrishArmenian]

And the lazy pain in the arse that just inputs his opinion into every thread, even moreso if it is just to say "Great job, (Insert Shifty, Renown, Solo, Conn, Kopf, Almo, Krusader, or in the past Anti Strut) I left out Nagatsuka because I always say "Your will shall be done, oh benevolent overlord of all that pleases the mind".
Anyway, they all have their good spots and bad ones. The decision comes back to gameplay, as the faction decision is in a stalemate. You, the public, are the tiebreaker. You pick the faction, but that is it.
That will put all the "Add _______" threads six feet under and smelling as corpses normally do.

[mayhem87]

Hi, where and when can I vote for the faction?

[alpaca]

Hi, where and when can I vote for the faction?

You will be able to vote here. As to when, this depends on when Urnamma returns and we'll have finished writing some things up about each of the three candidates-

[NagatsukaShumi]

And the lazy pain in the arse that just inputs his opinion into every thread, even moreso if it is just to say "Great job, (Insert Shifty, Renown, Solo, Conn, Kopf, Almo, Krusader, or in the past Anti Strut) I left out Nagatsuka because I always say "Your will shall be done, oh benevolent overlord of all that pleases the mind".
Anyway, they all have their good spots and bad ones. The decision comes back to gameplay, as the faction decision is in a stalemate. You, the public, are the tiebreaker. You pick the faction, but that is it.
That will put all the "Add _______" threads six feet under and smelling as corpses normally do.

As will the fact I will close any faction request threads outright

[Monarch]

Oh, you'll let us choose from 3 nations.

I thought it would be whatever Balkans nation posted the most spam in the forums or something.

And for a realism mod, I would consider it selling out if you listen to fan suggestions over history just as much as being purchased by some bigger group that made you charge for the mod.

So you'd rather have a faction that was historical, but for w/e reason absolutely nobody wanted?

That makes no sense.

[IrishArmenian]

As will the fact I will close any faction request threads outright

If I had a hammer...

[DukeofSerbia]

Let's talk about emblems. Our very own heraldry expert Solo has started work on a way to get his astounding heraldry onto the very shields of your knights! This is one of the most impressing visual changes I saw yet for this game, and it will be something for you guys to look forward to in screenies (Wait, is that a new one? Nah, already seen it.) :)

Heraldry… My favorite topic. One of the greatest problems in realism oriented mods is heraldry, especially for factions which didn’t have developed heraldry. Those French Feudal Knights look nice. I see that for France you put “Azure, a semis of fleurs-de-lis” of Capet dynasty.

How you think to solve coat of arms for factions which have several coat of arms in timeframe because of dynasties if is that not a secret? France (Capet – Valois) and England (FitzRobert – Plantagenet) are just examples. Or factions who didn’t have developed heraldry (like so called Byzantium, not to mention Moslem countries)?

[Solo]

I'll make the most satisfying choice to me, that simple :)

Concerning the french arms, it's not a dynastical issue but a political, symbolic and practical change progressively made between 1372 and 1378. Members of the royal family kept using the semis far into the 15th century. If you're interested by the fascinating capetian heraldry and its heraldic groups, try to find any of the numerous arcticles wrote by Michel Pastoureau on the subject (some of them have been translated to english).
Heraldry was progressively introduced in Byzantium in the 13th c. so it's not that late at all (in the area on which my researches are based, south east of France, it developped really only after 1225-1240). It just stayed rather marginal and had, like everywhere else, its very own characteristics.

[DukeofSerbia]

Well, where to find Michel Pastoureau's articels, Patrick ;)?

In so called Byzantium heraldry was quasi. Paleologos dynasty introduced it when Michael VIII restored Empire but that was just a bit better than nothing. Serbia (which everybody links to Byzantium and that’s wrong) had developed heraldry. Probably only one Orthodox state which had developed heraldry in medieval. In Russia heraldry was introduced in time of Pyotr the Great.

[Solo]

In english I can't say about his articles but his manual ("Traité d'héraldique") was translated for sure (it includes more mention to french heraldry than Neubecker's one which is more oriented towards german heraldry), as was his last two books (I remember seeing them in english somewhere, "Blue" is the best sum of knowledge about that colour, it's importance for the capetian heraldy and the medieval colour systems in general).

I was making a point about Byzantine heraldry only, it's attested through seals and rolls in the 13th century. Russian heraldry simply dont exist at all before 1500 (even if russian princes had some proto and pre-heraldic emblematic) so they wont have any of course.

[IrishArmenian]

Well, where to find Michel Pastoureau's articels, Patrick ;)?

In so called Byzantium heraldry was quasi. Paleologos dynasty introduced it when Michael VIII restored Empire but that was just a bit better than nothing. Serbia (which everybody links to Byzantium and that’s wrong) had developed heraldry. Probably only one Orthodox state which had developed heraldry in medieval. In Russia heraldry was introduced in time of Pyotr the Great.

Heraldry was introduced to Cilician Armenia by the crusaders, and the Armenians were/are/will remain...anyone?...come on, don't be shy...you all know the answer...starts with an O...Orthodox! Good for you! You got the answer, now the heraldry might not work for all the factions, but I always assumed that was a given, right?
But, regardless, Solo knows his stuff. He is an expert of sorts.

[DukeofSerbia]

Heraldry was introduced to Cilician Armenia by the crusaders, and the Armenians were/are/will remain...anyone?...come on, don't be shy...you all know the answer...starts with an O...Orthodox! Good for you! You got the answer, now the heraldry might not work for all the factions, but I always assumed that was a given, right?
But, regardless, Solo knows his stuff. He is an expert of sorts.

Now we can talk about Orthodoxy in (Lesser) Armenia in medieval. Was it Monophysitism for Orthodox Churches or Miaphysitism? Miaphysitism is today from what I know and Armenian Church along side with Coptic (you know what are the rest) are today Oriental Orthodox Churches. But in medieval wasn't, unfortunately .

[IrishArmenian]

While they were not considered Oriental Orthodox, they still believe in the same things that know make us Oriental Orthodox. Religion was not cut and dry at the time, and many beliefs varied until the modern ages, when differences of opinion meant different churches.

[Renown]

Implementing any complex sort of religion is relatively hard as well, I may point out.