LotR Successor games, Kingdoms or no?

[Zim]

Just a short poll to see whether people would prefer Kingdoms for the new game, as it could affect faction and mod choices. Obviously if we used Kingdoms we would be doing the Grand Campaign with a mod (say, the Kingdoms Grand Campaign mod for example) and not one of the mini campaigns.

[Zim]

Kind of what I expected so far. It's too bad, I think modwise Kingdoms has huge advantages over vanilla. However, if there are players that don't have Kingdoms there isn't much we can do.

This might be a good thread for mod discussion. As far as vanilla mods I'm a fan of BC but am guessing that would go against the requirement of more familiar faction choices for the upcoming game.

Vanilla mod is excellent and retains much of the feel of the original game.

Does anybody have some ideas for mod choice?

[mini]

if we go kingdoms: SS 6.1?

Kingdoms is available in stores here for like 3-5 euro.
So go get it! :p

[_Tristan_]

If you wish to go with BC, you could still play the Latin Kingdom, Armenia or Georgia those were almost carbon-copy of the setup in the Western kingdoms but with a different settings....

And some might be willing to RP the Leper King...

[ULC]

I'm okay with any setup, and have a prefernce for LTC or Vanilla Mod, mostly LTC (and LTC Gold in particular).

English or Danes for me though, although I will also play as French if thats the Faction choice.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Actually, change my vote to "willing to do both but would prefer Vanilla".

[Zim]

So, what mods do people think might be appropriate?

I don't know the mods for Vanilla very well, although I do know Lands to Conquer and Vanillamod are good.

Edit: My idea is that if we can decide on a mod fairly early on we'll have a good idea of factions in the region we want to play in, and can start thinking about that more as well.

[Cecil XIX]

I suggest Deus Lo Vult for either.

[ULC]

I suggest Deus Lo Vult for either.

Do you have a link for Dues Lo Vult for M2TW only? I'd like to look it over first before being an utter LTC fanboy.

[TheFlax]

YLC, The Long Road, BC and Vanilla mod are all for Vanilla and not for Kingdoms. I don't know for Deus Lo Vult, but I trust Cecil knows what he's talking about.

[Zim]

Deus lo Vult has versions for both, here's the vanilla one.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114748

BC: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=140857

The Long Road: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=98729

[Cecil XIX]

Deus Lo Vult is very polished, adding many new features designed to slow down player growth by charging him boatloads of extra fees in order to expand, as well as forcing each character to focus on being a govenor or general. I've played a bit of one version of Vanilla, though I don't remember which one, and the recent 6.1 version for Kingdoms. The Kingdoms version may be a bit too restrictive for game meant to be shared among many, but on the other hand we can selectively choose which of it's 8 scripts to run. The Vanilla version is less restrictive, but only because it has less feature implemented. The Vanilla campaign I played also had me going broke from uncontrolled Family Tree expansion, but I'm not sure if that was a feature as I haven't heard it mentioned in the literature.

The main points of contention are that the extra fees may slow down growth too much, players may not like being forced to pick between general and govenor, and the civil wars. However, the first two may not turn out to be problems. They might even be plusses depending on the consensus. Also, the last two are implemented via traits and thus are easily correctly, either in the mod's files or on an ad hoc basis via the console.

It's pros are that it provides a superb roleplaying environment, mainly in the form of it's career path for generals. Each avatar who is not the FL or FH has one of five ranks, the progression being "Squire > Knight > Knight Banneret > Knight Commander > Knight Grand Cross" for Catholic factions. The surest way to climb up the path is to end your turn outside a settlement, but winning battles and Heroic Victories in particular can also help. Squires and Knights receive penalties to morale, with Knight Banneret and above gaining a bonus in the form of special Battle Standards. There is actually a limit to the number of standards for each rank, such that there can only be four Knights of the Grand Cross in any faction at a given time. Deus Lo Vult also has legendary swords as ancillaries.

There's a guide to many of the features here.

Many of the features in the guide are not in the vanilla version, such as the point system for cities and castles amongst others. The features not in vanilla are listed in this post under the lists of features added, including those for old releases at the bottom.

[ULC]

YLC, The Long Road, BC and Vanilla mod are all for Vanilla and not for Kingdoms. I don't know for Deus Lo Vult, but I trust Cecil knows what he's talking about.

*Proceeds to commit Sepukku*

Me and my mouth...mmm...tasty foot...