MTW Pocket Mod: Factions

[The Unknown Guy]

And Venitians? The problem I can see with this is that, like the Iberian Peninsuala the Italian city states thing warrants a mini campaign to itself. Alot of small one or two province factions would just add more weak factions to be swallowed up. Venice would be difficult in that many of their key territories were small areas not represented as provinces, this would mean adding many extra provinces to do that.

The problem I see with Separating Genoa and Venice is that it would make them too weak. Particularily Venice. So it can't be made quite "Historical" (there would be Florence and others to deal with). However, if it came to that, maybe it could be split into Venice and Genoa, with Venice getting the alps provinces and Florence, and Genoa getting Genoa, Corsica, and Sardinia? Plus, having Genoa and Venice start off as more developed to offset their lack of provinces
EDIT: how about elective monarchies, whether an addittional italian faction gets added or not? Doges were elected.

Nasrid Granada only (Personally I think the Medieval Iberian situation would merit a smaller map, like the VI map to do the thing some justice.)

I don't know if a "small map" campaign, but certainly more provinces would be in order: as it is now the "glorious Reconquista" usually ends up in less than fifty years, one or other way...
BTW: methinks Navarre would merit a place among the northern kingdoms, along with Aragon and Portugal :p
PD: (more about units, but on the same topic: My experiments nerfing Spanish Jinettes: raising the upkeep to 90 gp/turn per unit sort of controlled their spamming)
BTW: What is the conceptual rooster for Granada as of now? (Also, is there a flag? I know that nowadays it's shield is a Pommengranate, but I don't know how "historical" that is)

On the naming of "The Empire of Nicaea": doesn't it look a bit ugly? I mean, chances are that it retakes Constantinople as one of it's first moves. Personally, I think that they should remain dubbed as "Byzantines". I would support the Trapisond faction idea, but I think that would be faction spamming a bit too much, considering the province layout on that zone.
(on this same topic: I tried to alter the default Byzantine flag into something more akin to the "Basileus Basileon" flag (as in MTW2), but failed due to very small sprites being required)

[caravel]

The problem I see with Separating Genoa and Venice is that it would make them too weak. Particularily Venice. So it can't be made quite "Historical" (there would be Florence and others to deal with). However, if it came to that, maybe it could be split into Venice and Genoa, with Venice getting the alps provinces and Florence, and Genoa getting Genoa, Corsica, and Sardinia? Plus, having Genoa and Venice start off as more developed to offset their lack of provinces
EDIT: how about elective monarchies, whether an addittional italian faction gets added or not? Doges were elected.

The whole Italian situation is even more complicated than the Iberian one. Genoa and Venice were much smaller than the provinces in the game, basically only city states, and for a large part of the early and high eras most of Italy was part of the HRE, so in early and High I would compromise a bit and perhaps have Genoa, Venice and Pisa, the three most important of the time. When it comes to late it gets much more complex and personally I just don't think it can be done. For Venice a lot of the Mediterranean islands need to be added as they made up most of their territories, and for the rest the provinces of Italy in the game are not correct.

I don't know if a "small map" campaign, but certainly more provinces would be in order: as it is now the "glorious Reconquista" usually ends up in less than fifty years, one or other way...
BTW: methinks Navarre would merit a place among the northern kingdoms, along with Aragon and Portugal :p

Navarra is viable but would be a one province faction. Historically Navarre was there for the duration of the game's time frame but lost a lot of territory over the centuries. The problem with this is, that if Navarra are added then why not Wales? Why not Bohemia? What about Savoy, or the Hafsids? It goes on and on. There are simply too many factions to include.

PD: (more about units, but on the same topic: My experiments nerfing Spanish Jinettes: raising the upkeep to 90 gp/turn per unit sort of controlled their spamming)
BTW: What is the conceptual rooster for Granada as of now? (Also, is there a flag? I know that nowadays it's shield is a Pommengranate, but I don't know how "historical" that is)

No idea of the Roster for Granada as yet, as I haven't thought about it. They will probably need their own cavalry anyway.

On the naming of "The Empire of Nicaea": doesn't it look a bit ugly? I mean, chances are that it retakes Constantinople as one of it's first moves. Personally, I think that they should remain dubbed as "Byzantines". I would support the Trapisond faction idea, but I think that would be faction spamming a bit too much, considering the province layout on that zone.
(on this same topic: I tried to alter the default Byzantine flag into something more akin to the "Basileus Basileon" flag (as in MTW2), but failed due to very small sprites being required)

I will not be using the name "Empire of Nicaea" and have never had the intention of using it. If Trebizond were added then it may be necessary though.

I wouldn't worry too much about flags. The sprites are indeed so small that you can't achieve any detail, so small coats of arms are just a waste and lack definition. It is better to use something symbolic of the faction with an associated colour if possible. The historicity of the faction flags is something that I'm not overly concerned with, the ability to tell them apart and their visual clarity is. On a coat of arms for example it is better to take the key feature, separate it and make it a single colour and superimpose this on a background coloured to roughly represent the faction in some way.

[ULC]

A stretch, but would it be possible to use the MedMod map permission? It has excellent province distrubution, which could make previously unstable factions more stable (particulary for the Italians). I understand if you don't want to, but I think it would give you a better base from which to begin your own map at least.

Originally Posted by Cambyses II
I will not be using the name "Empire of Nicaea" and have never had the intention of using it. If Trebizond were added then it may be necessary though.

Not neccassarily; just make Trebizond the "Empire of Trebizond".

[caravel]

A stretch, but would it be possible to use the MedMod map permission? It has excellent province distrubution, which could make previously unstable factions more stable (particulary for the Italians). I understand if you don't want to, but I think it would give you a better base from which to begin your own map at least.

The problem with using the medmod map is that I'd still be editing just as many provinces in order to remove the ones we don't want. Also the Pocket Mod would end up as being called a mod that is "based on medmod", which I don't want. I am prepared to do the graft, and sit down and reposition borders and add a few provinces if people will only supply the maps and info for reference.

Not neccassarily; just make Trebizond the "Empire of Trebizond".

I was thinking more of "Empire of Nicaea" and "Empire of Trebizond"? As they are at present I would leave it as "Byzantine", though both of the former are actually more accurate. It would be nice to divide up Greece and add the "Despotate of Epirus" also. In the Early and Late eras they could be renamed as "Eastern Roman Empire", just to get rid of the "Byzantine" word, because, as I've argued, countless numbers of times, "Byzantine" is the name applied to the Eastern Roman Empire by latter day scholars and historians. The Eastern Romans did not ever refer to themselves as "Byzantine", which means "of Byzantium" and thus "Empire of Byzantium". This actually means in simple terms: "Empire centred on the old city of Byzantium". Byzantium, first renamed as "New Rome", was known as Constantinople after the death of Constantine, it's founder, so in reality historians have applied a name for convenience and differentiation with the Western Roman Empire, a name that has stuck, but is not necessarily accurate. This is why I would have no hesitation of losing the Byzantine name.

[Belisario]

I tried to alter the default Byzantine flag into something more akin to the "Basileus Basileon" flag (as in MTW2), but failed due to very small sprites being required

Don't worry, the new Byzantine flags and shields are flying to Cambyses II PC!

As far as Byzantines are concerned, I don't support their split into three factions in high and late. If you add the Empire of Trebizond you musn't forget the Georgian Kingdom (particularly Queen Tamar of Georgia was instrumental in the establishment of the Empire of Trebizond), and if you add the Despotate of Epirus you musn't forget the Bulgarians (remember the figure of King Kaloyan) and the Serbians (remember King Stephan Dushan). We run the risk to go in a spiral of multiple possible factions and we must be cautious.

If you are interested in new factions I propose to follow the example of the ever-mentioned MedMod of WesWhitaker. He begin his mod for the late era, then launched the early era, and the high era was not released. Well, we need a bit of order here: Early, High, and Late .

I am ready to listen your proposals for new factions in the early era and begin graphic shields work.

Cheers

[ULC]

I already have suggested my ideas and thier refinements to Cambyses II, although he has not commented on my second post, so I have no idea what to suggest or where I should go. My original proposals are at the top.