Zulu Mod!!!

[Sundjata Keita]

No the mod is going to cover the rise of Shaka and his changes to tribal warfare, the Anglo-Boer war and the first boer-war however it will not cover the SECOND boer war.

[dclare4]

"Shame about the crawling it would have been very good, I wonder what the WW1 mod is going to do then. What about if the crawl was a special ability and that it reduced the chance of them getting hit by spears/bullets to zero. The ai would know they were there but would have to attack them with a melee attack."

- sounds great! that would be the Nguni impi special ability I think :-) though I think that reducing the hit chance to absolute 0 is kinda pushing it. Maybe 70% reduction? (30% chance of hit)

"The normal fire ability sounds good to me and so do the auxilliaries. I will get to work on the cattle model now, it looks difficult."

- Hmmm would it be possible to use the horses as the basis? Fatten them up, shorten their legs and add horses?

"...There will be 4 different types of Ndwandwe regiment on show and if I get round to it some tribal women (who came to celebrate the Ndwandwe victory before the battle begun)."

- and who got slaughtered before the battle was over I think!

Cheers,
Harlechman

[Sundjata Keita]

sounds great! that would be the Nguni impi special ability I think :-) though I think that reducing the hit chance to absolute 0 is kinda pushing it. Maybe 70% reduction? (30% chance of hit)

Yeah this figure can be changed through play testing

Hmmm would it be possible to use the horses as the basis? Fatten them up, shorten their legs and add horses

Well I was going to use the basis for the horse model anyway but it may mean changing the skeleton and I am not so sure on how to do that

and who got slaughtered before the battle was over I think

Yup, your right there. It was the first battle where the winners came and slaughtered all the surviving enemy, including women. Thats why it's such an important battle in the history of tribal warfare.

[dclare4]

This is looking better everyday I will leave the models in your capable hands Looking forward to texturing them!

Cheers,
Harlechman (Clare)

P.S.
By the way, Clare (yeah I guess it's androgynous) is in honor of Daniel O'Brien, Earl of Clare, a leader of the Irish 'Wild Geese' exiles. Just so we know

[dclare4]

Hi there guys,

Here's some info for the British Naval Brigades!

http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Uniform/...form_Regs.html

http://www.pbenyon1.plus.com/Uniform...ing_order.html

The popular image is the white 'sailor suit' with the straw round hats that came to be called 'Sennet Hats' (maybe because of Mack Sennett, the Hollywood producer/director of the Keystone Cops who gave Charlie Chaplin his start in the USA and who used it for his 'beauties')

http://www.pbenyon1.plus.com/Uniform/Phot/Lookout.html

http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/RN/Seamens_Sennet_goes.html

There's a nice little diorama with a naval officer (Blue uniform) and his squaddies (white uniform) operating a Gatling during this era, unfortunately its in a modelling magazine not online.

Cheers,
Harlechman (Clare)

[Sundjata Keita]

Good links, sorry for the lack of screenshots but I have done a couple of Zulu chief models (they will be generals) and now they need texturing. I will send you the stuff soon Dclare so you can texture them, should be an easy job.

P.S. Sundjata Keita means lion prince

[The_Ferret]

Oddly enough, this is a 'rival' mod, yet I really want it to work. Well not neccasarily work just, go well. I dont know why, but I really want this to work for you guys. Just remember that Section Sea died out and that may have been nearly as big as EB at one point.

If you want any help from any of the team at WWI just ask (like if your workload goes way too far) or if you'd like to team up on getting a firing animation. (if you dont already have it)

[Sundjata Keita]

Thanks fo the support, I really want this mod to work and I'm sure more people will be interested once the first historical battle is released. I think I made a firing animation a while back but I haven't got it in game yet, it will eventually replace the archers firing animations. Have yet to even attempt smoke properly and will probably ask for some help from someone who knows what they are doing.

[dclare4]

Thanks for the kind words Ferret. I was just thinking, perhaps instead of making it cover the whole of WW1 perhaps you could go for certain parts or campaigns, like just the western front or just Verdun or the Somme or something so you can go in depth into the subject. World War 1 is actually one of those subjects I'm really interested in... who knows if there's enough interest perhaps someone would care to do a German East Africa or Congo and Kamerun mod hehe!

Sure thing Sundjata (cool name by the way - could we include it as one of the possible names in the mod?) send 'em along. Gqokli Hill here we come!

I was wondering if it's possible at all to mod the sounds, speeches and troop responses at all. I found some interesting sound clips from some movies that I think are usable.

Cheers,
Harlechman (Clare)

[Sundjata Keita]

Yeah, I don't know how we are going to get the native unit speeches but any reactions or sounds need to be replaced. Stuff from movies sounds good to me (well the idea of it).

Just a word on release dates, I think we should aim to release the full mod in the Autumn, around September/October. As the order of things I think after Gqokli Hill we should finish off the British models, then do the Boers and then the Portuguese. The rest of the natives other than the Zulus are all pretty similar model wise so then we will all have to texture for a while. Then we can move on to the campaign map and balancing issues. If you can think of a different way to do it that's fine.

[Myrddraal]

Any more unit screenies?

[The_Ferret]

Theres an org at TWC who specialise in re-making and mixing sounds or speeches.

[dclare4]

Sounds good to me Sundjata

Thanks Ferret, I'll check it out!
Harlechman (Clare)

[Sundjata Keita]

Any more unit screenies?

Soon, be patient We will have I think it is about 8 new units to show off, although they are all Zulu or Ndwandwe so they are quite similar.

P.S. I like the new scary avatar Myrddraal

[dclare4]

Will be downloading the files today. Need to burn them to a CD at a net cafe as I don't have internet at my home. Thanks very much Sundjata!

Cheers,
Harlechman

[stichmaster1]

this is getting along really far guys!

i will have the skins for the natives at gqkoli hill done by tomorrow night hopefully, and then to start on the console skins if there is nothing else that needs quick tending too.

stichmaster1

[Sundjata Keita]

Great, anyone have any ideas what they want for console skins? In the mean time I am touching up some of the Native models and then it's back to the British 1860's models. Keep it rolling guys

Sundjata Keita

[stichmaster1]

i posted a few of my ideas in the thread about it at the TWC

[dclare4]

How's everyone doing?


Harlechman

[Abokasee]

I think the british should be able to train hindu soldiers and at the year 1853 all hindu units should rebel because the british (and hindu) soldiers were given guns wicth had pig / cow fat and hindu religion says cows are holy and the hindu's had something against pigs (probaly because they were real dirty) plus as an advantage ALL!,european conley faction should fire their guns faster.
Other advice instead 1 year going past every to turns it should be 1 season every turn that means the campaign last 280 turns!!!

[dclare4]

Hmmm... I'm not sure if the HEIC (Honourable East India Company) sent troops to fight in Africa, neither did the Indian Army after the mutiny, save probably for a unit of stretcher bearers under a certain Atty. Mohandas K. Gandhi. The 'mutiny' as it was called by the British, though now I think it's proper to call it the 'Rising', was caused by a mix of nationalistic (and what's wrong with that?) and religious elements - what you describe is actually a mix of the two principal faith's reactions to the supposedly pig-fat greased cartridges of the new Enfield Rifled Musket. The MUSLIM soldiers would have been polluted by biting into a cartridge of an unclean animal like the pig, while the HINDU soldiers would have considered it morally offensive because they consider the cow a sacred animal.

Yes, the Europeans will have guns, lots of guns (as they say in the Matrix), but this is balanced off by less than splendid hand to hand stats and slower movement.

An Indian Rising mod isn't inconceivable in the future but for now, it's the great continent of Africa!

Sincerely,
Harlechman

[Baiae]

Actually not a lot of people know this but Gandhi was born in South Africa (I think anyway, he certainly was living there at the time of the Boer War) of Indian descent. There were in fact a lot of people of Indian extraction living in South Africa, not quite sure why.

[Duke Malcolm]

We imported them for the greater good of the Empire, I think...

[dclare4]

Actually Gandhi was born in India in 1869 and after he became a lawyer he went to South Africa just before the 2nd Boer War broke out. Aside from colonization though I don't think there were any actual ARMY units of either the HEIC or the IA deployed to South Africa, much less Natal. There's lots of local colour though, never fear from gaudily outfitted militia and commandos to housewives wielding kitchen utencils!

Cheers,
Harlechman

[Abokasee]

hay my idea with hindu sodeirs was a good idea! was it?

please answer yes or no if it was a good idea

please answer yes or no if we should put hindu soldeirs into the game

PLEASE NOTE I AM 100% NOT HINDU (OR PERHAPS 99.999% BECAUSE ONE OF ANCESTORS MIGHT BEEN A HINDU PROPALY NOT,ANYWAY THAT DOSN'T REALY MATTER)

[dclare4]

Hi there Abokasee,

Tell you what, if you can find a verifiable referenced source that says that a full Honourable East India Company Indian Regiment or battalion sized detachment or Indian Army Regiment or battalion sized detachment was sent to South Africa to the specific Natal/Durban/Zululand/Transvaal region during the time frame 1800-1885 then we will consider the unit for inclusion. Otherwise I'm afraid it will have to wait till someone decides to do an Indian Rising 1856 mod.

Best I can do,
Harlechman

P.S.
Well I guess it's your area of interest. Same with me and the Zulu or Lace Wars. I'm not actually Welsh either

[Abokasee]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

british used indian soldiers (so they were probally in afriaca at the time) but indian soldiers were given enfleid rifle's indian soldier were not happy about this so they rebeled were ever they were.

[Sundjata Keita]

While it is probable that there were Indian men in the British army in South Africa no actual company was formed until the Natal Indian Ambulance Corps during the SECOND Boer war. The mod will not cover the second boer war and therefore will have no specific Indian regiment. Hope that has cleared things up

Sundjata Keita

[dclare4]

I thought as much. I'm afraid what you're thinking of is the Indian Rising that took place in India circa 1856-57. Which is very much outside the scope of this mod. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see an Indian Rising (or Mutiny) mod or even a 'conquest of India' mod - there was a game, Sword of the Raj, a long time ago that I think would do great as a Total War mod with the Moghuls, Mahrattas, Hyderabad and Scindes, Sikh's, Gurkhas and Afghans competing with the British, French and Dutch East India companies for the subcontinent. If you want to get a team together I'd support you and maybe help with research but I'm afraid that Indian or HEIC units are not going to appear in this mod.

Sincerely sorry,
Harlechman

[Sundjata Keita]

Well due to the mass of new threads in this forum and the relaxing of the pace of this mod this thread nearly reached page 2. So to stop that happening here is a small update.

Models

I have been working on the early Zulu regiments and trying to get the correct feather arrangements. I have also been playing around with the vertex weights of British units and trying to get the animations smooth. Here is a screen of the induna model. The render does not take into account alpha so that is why the feathers have black around them.



Here is one of the 1930s British irregulars although it is still a work in progress and still needs to be textured properly.



More updates coming soon...

Sundjata Keita