Norse Kingdoms Campaign

SkelApe

SkelApe

Member
Elder
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
651
Hi everyone, sorry for my absence. I'm pleased to say that my exams are over and i have 8 weeks to do nothing, so i thought i'd put my scripting/landscaping ability to the test. I'm starting a map called the "Kingdoms Campaign" that you may have seen mentioned around the site, particularly be me and Anglosaxon. Here are some ideas we drafted:
i have a few more ideas -

as well as the two kingdoms, there are some small towns that are usually peaaceful. but when you attack them, they recruit small but elite sqaudrons of men who hide in the forest and ambush you.

the enemy can attack migrations, so you are forced to protect them with your own men.

when you are just about to send armies up the enemy city hill to attack, you get a cinimatic and the enemy lines up their soldiers at the top of a hill, with swordmen infront and archers behind. your soldiers have to be ready to attack up the hill and destroy the army.
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Yeah, thats a great idea; like elite bodyguard platoons of about 15 men each (ofcourse, i know you like huge armies so there will be platoons of <200 :P) It could be partially cutscene, but mostly fighting/building so every time a kingdom takes an island for example, it would show that capture and display a message like "Kingdom of Grimhael has taken Djag Island" then it would show the opinion of the opposing king. I can put actual voices into the game because i have realised i can just record speech into a music file (.ogg) and then just play that file, instead of playing a string from the main speech file. So the king could get really angry and send some elites to retake that island. Then if you upset one kingdom, they both team on you and you have to fend both of em off. Its gonna be hard, but i have spent ages making a challenge on one of my other maps and its really professional with custom voices. Anyway what do ya think? (I think Sigved and Fell would work, as they are the only regal looking models that are Norse. I suppose Fenrick could work better than Sigved however, because Sigved isnt really a realistic Norseman.)

EDIT: I wanted to use the long boat model to implement ships so the Norse can capture islands, and the King can escape. However, i'm not sure if that okay with Daxter. You never know, there may even be naval battles  blush If there were ships, there would be shipbuilder platoons that would move to the coast with some resources, build a ship, sail to an island, leave the ship, take the island and then sail back. However i may make them disassemble the ship when they reach the island because there would be a mass of ships on the coast .
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It would be like 2 small warring Norse kingdoms each with their own monarchy
kill their king and you take their kingdom or something
ooh or they could own territories, like little island outposts that each kingdom would battle over, and the king would have subjects and stuff. Oh this is gonna be great tongue
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I've taken these things into consideration and began, but i'm breaking into it slowly, since this is a big thing to take on. I've managed to salvage an old, Norse castle-looking model and i've retextured it, since it didn't have its own texture. Needless to say, the model was bloody hard to find  :upside

Here are some pictures of what i've got so far. Note that the landscape isn't necessarily where the mod will be set, but if you like the look of the landscape, say so. Please post your opinions on this plausable mod  :yes[br][br]Added: [time]1246095978[/time]2 more pictures.[br][br]Added: [time]1246096101[/time]And another  :) (Note, these pictures are just to display the land and the castles, they aren't to display the finished product, as a kingdom isn't a kingdom without a castle and a town  :laugh:
 
These two images are an example of a castle in an average Norse town. Shame about the problem with the walls  :upside Oh the castle has a much better texture now, before itwas somewhat plain. These shots are also in-game shots rather than those of the landscape editor. Please comment  :)
 
I like that castle model. Where did you find it?

Historically, did the Norse actually build castles like that?
 
The model was a prototype Norse wall tower. It was a little small to make a castle at first, but then i multiplied the size by 3. LH didn't make a texture for it, so it was dropped pretty early in development. I made my own  :upside
I believe Norse castles had a courtyard, but the Norse weren't very competant castle builders compared to the rest of Europe at the time. I suppose this model bears similarities to the castle's tower, which was the main part of the castle. Although it's not as if other Lionhead models are realistic, i mean the Norse certainly didn't have henges, nor did their warriors have horns on their helmets, that's a common misconception. Anyway, i'm being picky now  :p  Regardless, it shows that Lionhead were actually going to use the tower model as a Norse walltower, so atleast they thought it was Norse-like  :D
 
im back from exams too. :woot

WOW! that was quick! good work skelape, thisll be great.
that tower model - ive seen it before. i didnt know that you could skin it, so this is a surprise. apparently there are some other models like that for greek towers aswell.
and the problem with the walls - ive been trying to work it out - it has something to do with the alignment of settlements and whatnot. i dont know if you can change the alignment of a settlement; it might be better to make the walls into normal norse walls (i think - this would only work if the walls in the picture are celtic walls from your mod.)

you might have thought of this already, but changing the castle model into a norse town centre would be good.

btw have you seen my story on the forums?
 
Yeah, awesome story Anglo. It's about time the Norse got the upper hand  :yourock:
If i changed the town centre into the castle model then every little town would have a castle, and thats not really realistic  :D Nice idea though. The landscape is practically finished. I need to do a few finishing touches, add some small neutral towns and add the second kingdom. Then the really long part, the scripting  :rolleyes
Anyway i wrote a character synopsis to show you what the kings are like and how they arrived on the land.

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KING VULSREK - King of the First Kingdom, this individual is a Vicious ruler who seeks the
downfall of the ruler of the Second Kingdom, King Grimhael. Vulsrek however will not
hesitate to destroy any meddlers threatening his Kingdom. He wears the helmet of his
ancestors who raided the land ages ago. It is adorned with the horns of an ancient animal,
once prominent on the vast land. He has a deep, chokey voice that strikes the utmost
authority in to any of his hundreds of subjects. King Vulsrek resides in his grand yet
ancient castle that appears to be partially in ruin. Vulsrek's ancestors built the castle
bordering the northern seas, from which they arrived. His Norse city is cloaked in a mighty
spruce tree forest which for centuries has provided shelter for the Kingdom's legions.
The entire Kingdom is surrounded by old walls, said by enemies to be impenetrable, after
many attempts to break through.

Vulsrek often visits battles with the opposing Kingdom to lend a hand, as his berserk nature
in confict surpasses that of all of his Generals. He is often seen hand to hand with his
arch enemy, King Grimhael. The two are so evenly matched that one has never even landed
a blow on the other.

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KING GRIMHAEL - The opulently dressed monarch of the Second Kingdom, Grimhael is a
knowledgeable yet hasty strategist that is often over-confident about battle plans. Unlike
Vulsrek, King Grimhael considers his orders before he commands them, making him a
formidable battle foe. Him and his ancestors have lived on the land for much longer than
his counterpart, Vulsrek. His family's Sagas recount the presence of many Gods fighting for
supremacy, and where gigantic creatures still roamed the land. Grimhael's ancestors
didn't arrive by sea, like his nemesis's, Vulsrek. Because of his heritage, Grimhael has a
greater knowledge of the land and its strategic advantages. Grimhael has mighty wings on
his ancestral helmet, and a fiery plaited beard. He holds a mighty warhammer to crush his
enemies in battle. Grimhael, much like Vulsrek, lives in a crumbling castle built in
ancient times for protection. Despite it's state, it makes a good administrative building.
The monarch is very protective over the land ruled by his ancestors, and will instantly
divert his furious attention to any hostile outlanders.

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sounds great, its always better to have a story behind why all this is happening. :)

i like the idea of them having different personalities, like one being always ready for war whille the other one is a strategist.
ther is a way to make the norse kindoms look different - i figured this out a while back.

1)if there is some way of making the script produce aztec soldiers then make it that way... for one kingdom only.
2)make a file that changes all aztec soldiers into something that looks like norse, preferably not the same as most norse because if the two kingdoms are battling, itll look ridiculous if both armies are identical.

one downside though......
your sig is better than mine. :angry
 
I could make the kingdom's army formations different, like one kingdom's army would align itself in columns 6 down, 2 wide, and the other kingdom would have long lines of troops. It might be possible to make their armies different via scripting. But since the kingdoms are the same tribe, changing files would change both their armies (i'd expect). I'll have a look at it in time, but at the moment i need to finish the landscape. It's coming along nicely.  :)
 
erm, actually what i meant was that in the script one kingdom could produce an aztec platoon; then you could get another norse - like file and rename it "s_aztecwarriorc" or whatever it is - the same would apply for archers.

another idea - since king vulsrek has a military personality, he wouldnt have many civic buildings, while king grimhael would have less armouries and more temples and embellishments, and his town would be well planned.

nice work though. :p
 
It have a good idea  :woot
How about if i place a town centre somewhere, and then put statues (belonging to that town) around it? This would stretch the influence to the outline of the statues, a bit like dot-to-dot, and create a region? This would allow you or the enemy to capture certain regions of the map, and the shape of the influence would correspond to the area captured. The town centres wouldnt be proper towns, as there would be no houses and 0 population. Once you or the enemy takes the region you could reinforce the town centres with soldiers to prevent the enemy from taking the region. At first they would start out neutral and wouldnt have an influence ring, but when it is captured it will show up. When the enemy takes a region, it could alert the player (so it could say "King Vulsrek has captured Viglund Province"). Oh i'll call the regions provinces cos it sounds more Norse  :D. It could also show cutscenes of angry Kings who send soldiers to regain the provinces. Think this could work?  :woot
 
i would work but hmmm..... it might not look so good. the only way to see is to try it out. its a very inventive idea though - i wouldnt have thought of it.

another idea - the small towns could join you instead of migrating. they would donate troops or join you if they were under threat(say if they thought the king was trying to destroy them.
 
ive drawn pictures of the two kings - the style is very much like the musicians in my sig below. i didnt know exactly which ones to use :blush so i drew norsefain and norsesigved, from the descriptions in your post. if these are the right ones ill mail them on this post when i get home. i just thought you might want to use them on the loading screen for the map.  :)

 
Awesome  :p It'd be good to have a loading screen that doesn't just depict the land. Did you draw your sig by the way? Oh and by Fain do you mean the Norseman with horns on his helmet? His name is Fell. Mind you, i often get confused between the names  :D And yeah i'm using Sigved and Fell as Grimhael and Vulsrek, respectively. The boundaries idea didn't work because its not a rounded shape as i'd have expected, its more like a star, which doesn't make a good boundary. I'm testing a few things out like how the boats will work, and so far its tricky because of altitudes, because at one time a boat may sit on the water but then become submerged. Anyway i've taken some images of the land so you can get a look at what the kingdoms look like, etc. However this may not be what the land looks like when it's finished. It actually snows on the map, which isn't seen on any other map. The snow turns on and off when you press the + and - keys, and its on by default. I thought it would make the map alot more authentic :) Anyway i've put the pictures in my gallery, so have a look if you have the time.

http://www.bwfiles.com/gallery2/thumbnails.php?album=194
 
yeah, i drew them myself. here are the drawings of the two kings, too, but unfinished.

ive also drawn a simple norse looking map, ill make it look older on photoshop or something. ill do that, then put the kings in the foreground. load screen done!
 
Haha fantastic, the picture is definitely going to be used for the load screen. I love the expression on the Kings, they really match their personalities. I'll make them hold those weapons too. Could you make the map look like a brown piece of paper sorta? so its like Vulsrek's Kingdom is actually to the north and Grimhael's to the east? It could look like one of those pirate maps. Here be wolves  :D
Want me to send you the landscape editor files so you can take a first hand look at the landscape? No one else will get to  :cool:
Good job!
 
yeah, im working on the map now.  :)
and it would be great for me to see the map editor, ill be able to make the map more accurate. previously i made the map from the screenshots you did.
i gave some of the places names, eg. the river arnost, and the straits of vulsrek. ive also put some runic letters on the top of the map.
the map will be in one corner, there will be a huge title that says "pride, jealousy and whacking great battleaxes" :p
making the map look old will be simple on photoshop, ive done it before.

ps. will the kings actually be on the island, where you can see them and (theoretically) blow them to pieces with a meteor miracle? or will they be some kind of indestructible platoon?

pps. is it just london thats become unbearably hot and humid recently????
 
Yeah, the Kings will be on the island. When they speak in cutscenes, they will walk out of the castle entrance and say their piece, and then walk back in. Essentially they will be stood inside the castle, so if you zoom into it you should be able to see them. They might have body guards (like a 2 man platoon or something like that) because a King can't really be strolling around. I'm not sure that you will have the influence to get them with any miracles. However if you want, i'll tell you how the map ends via email, since it would be a bit of a spoiler to say it here  :p The kings will at first be fighting eachother until the inevitable happens and you enter their influence or apprehend their platoons. The factions will be scripted to not destroy eachother, and remain relatively equal footed. We can't just have people sit back and watch them weaken eachother and then you swoop in for an easy victory  :D

The place names are great, and i love the pictures. However "whacking great battleaxes" might be a bit comical, it's a serious concept  :D Maybe you should replace it with something like "ancestry" or "battle"  :p  I'll email you the map in the morning, its getting late here. You'll get an exclusive peek at the landscape itself  :cool:

Yeah its bloody hot here too, it's horrible to sleep  :rolleyes
 
NOOOO!  :shocked dont tell me how the map ends, i want to find out myself. :p
ive also found a skin called norserobinhood - its got no texture. if it could be skinned it would be good for platoons in neutral towns.
ill change the title, that was only an idea anyways.
today ive got no homework, so ill paint the map with tea this afternoon.
 
Hey Anglo, it might be extremely difficult to add texture to the robin hood model. There is a texture file, but its blank. So it'd be very hard to get all the features in the right place, so he would have for example his face on his chest. With existing textures its okay because you know where everything is, but with a blank one it is hit and miss. It's ok when you do buildings (like the castle) because the model isn't so obscure. Even with that it took alot of trial and error, because at the start there was a huge window on the roof as well as in the walls and it went a bit crazy. Good job on the art, its made the whole thing look alot better :D
Any ideas about the map would be great  :)
 
yeah - i saw the map, its great! one thing i would like is not to have a massive mountain in the middle of the map, and fewer cliffs, only slopes and hills.
otherwise, its  :yourock:
 
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