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Dhepee
09-29-2003, 15:28
I'm working on a Dark Ages Mod. I am not sure if anybody has done it before. I am using it to learn modding and I will put it up for anybody who is interested once I am done. It's my first mod so it's a little simple, but should be interesting. I am trying to make the start up period very difficult, to reflect why Europe had the "Dark Ages" after the Western Roman Empire fell apart.

1) The game start date is undetirmined, I will decide based on playtesting, but it looks like I'll start it around the time VI begins.
2) I'm putting the VI units onto the MTW tech tree. I'm also putting the VI buildings onto the MTW tech tree and linking them. I've basically made the "Early Period" in Startpos the Dark Ages, since I can't seem to create a new era, and making most of the Early units available in High. There are some kinks to work out, but I hope to get them ironed out.
3) The only playable factions will be the Danes, Scots, Welsh, French, Germans, and Irish. The Byz and Almos,will be much larger and more powerful, but unplayable. The Papacy will not exist as such, I need to figure out how to "emerge" it around a certain date. All other factions will have only one province, to reflect that they are still essentially tribes or remanents of the Western Roman Empire. There are a lot of rebels right now. I am busy researching where and how much each faction should have.
4) Everybody starts with basically squat and economies will be slow in developing with a real takeoff once you get them going. This should reflect the economic depression that occured after the decline of the Western Roman Empire.

I have a couple of questions, my last stumbling blocks before I can fire this puppy up and test it. Any threads that I've missed or tips would really help.

I've moved the start dates back and it screws up the ages for all of my faction leaders. They are all -5000 years or so and they all die, then their heirs die, then all the factions die out.

How do I create a situation where a faction suddenly is "given" units or florins. I want to create a situation where the muslim factions receive a bunch of units and it enhances their expansion into Western Europe. I am trying to create a battle of Poitiers, that signifies the rise of the French and the move towards the Medieval Era, so I want massive numbers of Muslim troops to show up on Europe's doorstep. I also want to "emerge" the papacy on a certain date.

I have +Docs+ thread and spreadsheets on AI build preferences. I am correct in assuming that you just put the regional build preferences in, in the Crusader_units file, for example where it says, ID_Wales for longbowmen bonus. I think it's line 13 in Gnome Editor.

Dhepee
09-29-2003, 15:54
Okay....I just answered one of my questions. I figured out how to fix the age of my kings, princes, etc. I should have figured that out a long time ago. I guess I was just too busy trying to find that extra space in Startpos that kept crashing everything. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

TheSilverKnight
09-29-2003, 22:59
You should make several factions special to the British isles (Northumbrians, Mercians, Saxons, Irish, Welsh, Picts/Scots), and several factions in France and Spain, possibly in Germany, seeing as the Holy Roman Emperor was a loose unification of German States, which really didn't exist as a unified country at all. Byzantium, being a major faction at the time, should be playable, and also you should make relevant two factions emerging in the Muslim civil war of 722, the Almoravids (Algeria, Tunis, and Cyrenacia), and the Almohads (Cordoba, Granada, and Morocco). Also make relevant that the Papacy was a faction at this time. They held sway over most of the catholic nations at this time, and, by 760, the Pope had become almost an imperialistic power much like Rome. They did things only for the good of themselves, not for the church. If you need any more information for your MOD, then please contact me at chrisspolanski@msn.com (e-mail), or on MSN messenger (if you have it), at chrisspolanski@msn.com http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Just an edit, also: France was not a unified country. Several states existed inside the borders of what is considered as modern France. Brittany, Normandy, Aquitaine, and Toulouse were independent of the Frankish crown.

Dhepee
09-30-2003, 01:53
Fragmentation is the problem. I know that the factions represented in MTW were not around in the Dark Ages, however I can't think of a way to make the various groups in what is now Germany, France, Britain, Ireland, and Spain individual factions that become those countries. I guess it would be an issue of the Northumbrian faction controlling England, instead of the English.
How can I control a faction "emerging"? Can I give a faction an army on the turn dated 1066, for example?

The Blind King of Bohemia
09-30-2003, 12:47
I'm not sure if you can do that D. I really tried to get Timur emerging in my super late, with no sucess.

A few more factions you could add:

Burgundy
Bulgarians( they fought the Byz constantly)
Kingdom of the Lombards
Coalition of Slavic tribes( you could put these round Prussia, Pomerania, Lithuania,etc

Also (i might be wrong) but Saxony was independent to the early 9th century.

If you need any help particularly on the Celtic factions just ask mate.

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