SCA Mod concept proposal

[LordCalvert]

My son (Starshine_Monarch) and I have had an idea of creating a mod somewhat based on the geography, geopolitics and culture of the Society of Creative Anachronism, a medieval re-creation and educational organization founded in 1966 and that I have been a member of since 1984. Our biggest problems are that we have never attempted a mod before and that our graphic design abilities are rather limited. Therefore we are asking for advice and assistance from the rest of the D3 community.

The Map:
The map would be a representation of North America roughly from the Arctic Circle (although the 60th parallel is probably more practical. I really want to include the Alaskan groups but there are no other groups north of Edmonton) to the US/Mexico border. Florida must be included but the Caribbean is not necessary. Hawaii can (and should) be added out of scale. The final size of the map should be somewhere in the 500-750 province range. We feel that a map based on a satellite photo would be inappropriate for what we are trying to do and a map done in the style of the random maps in the game or in the style of some of the other designers (Jason Lutes comes immediately to mind) would be preferable. Frankly, neither my son nor I have the graphic skill to do this the way we'd like. We could quite probably take the map and create the provinces but we certainly cannot do the artwork. We don't have the artistic skill.

The Nations:
There would be seventeen nations (kingdoms) in the mod. All would be roughly identical in composition except each would get a special unit type unique to their history.
Kingdoms and their preferred starting locations (the cities in parenthesis would be alternate starting locations based on game balance needs):
East Kingdom - New York City (or Boston)
�thelmearc - Pittsburgh (or Buffalo)
Ealdormere - Toronto
Atlantia - Washington (or Richmond or Raleigh)
Meridies - Atlanta (or Nashville)
Trimaris - Miami (or Orlando)
Gleann Abhann - New Orleans (or Memphis)
Middle Kingdom - Indianapolis (or Columbus or Chicago)
Northshield - Minneapolis (or Winnipeg)
Calontir - Kansas City
Outlands - Denver (or Albuquerque)
Artemesia - Salt Lake City (or Boise)
Ansteorra - Dallas (or Houston or Oklahoma City)
Atenveldt - Phoenix
An Tir - Seattle (or Portland or Vancouver)
West Kingdom - San Francisco
Caid - Los Angeles

The graphics that would be used as the banners of the kingdoms can be found here: http://www.goldenstag.net/MiscSCA/KingdomColors.htm

There are two additional kingdoms in the SCA: Lochac (Australia and New Zealand) and Drachenwald (Europe). We don't know how we'd go about representing them except to put them in grossly out of scale. Since we first had this idea when D2 was out, naturally the 17 North American kingdoms seemed like a very appropriate fit. I think we should try this with the North American kingdoms first and if the concept is successful we can do another map adding in the other two kingdoms.

Magic:
Magic would be exceptionally limited, even more so than you see in late age games although there certainly will be some otherwise it would not be Dominions. Any magic user stronger than a 3 would be exceptionally rare and the better magic sites would be almost non-existent. On the other hand, things like units with large supply bonuses would be a lot more common as would magic sites without magic abilities (like War Academies). Also, the creation of lower grade magic weapons and armor with little or no gem use would be more common and several new weapons and armor would need to be created.

Basic units:
SCA fighters come in a rather polyglot assortment depending on what the fighter shows up with that particular day. Normally a commander will simply take what they get and figure out what to do with them on the battlefield. Common types include sword and shield, two swords, polearm, spear (used mostly as rear support) and great sword. Cavalry is not used at all in combat. What I'd like to do is to be able to set a quality of fighter but randomize his weapon allotment after he is purchased. Help on how to accomplish this would be welcome. There would also be some special kingdom-specific weapons types like the Calontir war-shield (fighters with no weapon but a large two-handed shield meant to hold ground)

Priests:
Would still work as they do now although the concept would be called something else. We haven't decided on what yet. Most high-level commanders would have priestly powers to "encourage" their special troops.

Mercenaries:
Quite a few would be available but it would be rare when they were anything special.

Archers:
Archers would normally be of very poor quality to reflect SCA combat archery which is notoriously inaccurate and ineffective.

Siege weapons:
Definitely gaining in popularity and effectiveness. We'd find a way to fit them in, both with siege bonuses and on the field abilities.

I think that anyone who has ever been associated with the Society and plays the game would very much welcome this mod as it would combine two of their favorite activities. I think that anyone who played it might be interested in seeing what we're all about, come to a local practice put on the armor and get hit himself.

Again, any suggestions or assistance (particularly in the graphics end of the production) would be exceptionally welcome.

- Calvert

[Endoperez]

At first glance, the only problem I see besides actually completing this would be the map size. Even in a game with 17 nations, the map would be huge. If you want to downplay the effect of magic, giving everyone lots of time to research, site-search and construct mage-recruitment centers doesn't sound like a good idea.

I don't think it's possible to randomize equipment.

Conquest of Elysium had several units who were able to cast spells but weren't mages, like Orcish War Drums which had a fear effect on lots of enemies. You could replace many spells with summons able to use similar abilities.

With clever use of terrain, you could probably make swamp/mountain/forest survival a great bonus for nations in familiar terrain. Just make sure to include plain and farmland and border-mountain provinces as well, so that Florida nation isn't limited to poor-income swamps.

What would you do with pretenders? If magic is less powerful, they should probably be combatants, but somewhere between thug and SC levels (depending on items). Making all powerful pretenders magic beings, inanimate, demons or undead would work, if you included spells for countering each, while less powerful ones would just have good stats but no inherent counter.

Magic weapons and armor can be modded, with certain limits. You can change the name and cost of "Faithful", and you can change the actual weapon's stats from those of a sword to those of a pike, and include new weapon effects, but you can't add or remove the ability to grant luck. You can change it into a helmet or armor, though, if you'd rather have helmet that gives luck. You can't add in new icons, but you probably have to get rid of several items so that shouldn't be a problem.

[LordCalvert]

I'm certainly willing to go to a smaller map size but I think anything smaller than 300 land provinces simply would not work.

As for randomizing equipment, it was a nice idea but I was reasonably certain I wouldn't be able to implement it. I think it can be worked around but we've got to be careful about game balance and encourage a variety of unit types.

We have quite a few spells here that are not done by magic users, either priestly spells or spells special to the unit (like bards). I think it can be worked around.

As far as terrain, I was considering that some kingdoms would not have special units but all of their units would have a special ability. Trimaris (Florida) would have marshland survival, Atenveldt (Arizona) would have desert survival, �thelmearc (WNY, WPA, WV) would have woodland survival, Outlands (CO, NM) would have mountain survival, Ealdormere (Ontario) and Northshield (MN, MB, WI, ND, SD) would have cold resistance, Ansteorra (TX, OK) would have heat resistance...etc. Certain kingdoms would also have natural heat/cold scales like Abysia and Jotunheim do. The larger sized groups in the SCA would be the high-income provinces and since D3 makes it far more advantageous to place fortresses in high-income/low-resource provinces than it was in D2, these provinces (baronies) would become the primary centers of recruitment as they are in real life.

Pretenders would usually be "super fighters" (all SCAdians have heard of powerful "super dukes") with some magical ability and they would be the only decent magic users a kingdom would have. They could also be "legendary peers" with some sort of special ability. Most would be relatively standard but some would be specific to the kingdom. The majority of the pretenders that are already in the game would have to be turned off.

[Endoperez]

300 provinces divided between 17 nations leaves a bit less than 18 provinces per player, similar to 5-6 nations on Aran. That's pretty average, not too tight and not too sparse. 500 would give everyone 29 provinces, on average. That's like Aran with three nations.

I just mention this because in multiplayer, I don't think many would care to play a huge map. It'd be a pity if your mod/scenario didn't get played after it was completed.

[LordCalvert]

One of the reasons why I envisioned such a big map was that I wanted to give each local group their own province. That may not be practical. There was also the need to have low-value territory in areas where there are few or no groups (such as the Yukon/NWT and other scattered "unclaimed" areas in Canada, the US and possibly Mexico).

Let me give you an example with my own kingdom
�thelmearc (WNY/WPA/WV) has 27 local groups, not counting sub-groups:
Seven baronies (the largest groups and would be the high-income provinces): Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton, Johnstown and Charleston
Twenty shires (smaller groups):
West Virginia: Huntington, Morgantown, Harper's Ferry.
Pennsylvania: Washington, Indiana, Sharon, Butler, Meadville, Erie, Williamsport, Clarion, State College.
New York: Jamestown, Olean, Wellsville, Ithaca, Utica, Cortland, Binghamton, Watertown.

And we're considered to be a medium-sized kingdom. The East Kingdom (New England, Qu�bec, the Maritimes, ENY, EPA, NJ, DE) is one of the larger ones. They have seventeen barony-sized groups and 27 shire-sized groups (not including the sub-groups). The Midrealm (OH, MI, KY, IN, IL) has even more (19 baronies, 36 shires). Getting in every group requires a large map but the province count can't be so high that it becomes unplayable. Compromise has to happen somewhere.

[AlgaeNymph]

So, what's each nation's schitck?

[coolnathan01]

I am also in the SCA, Kingdom of Atlantia. Having a map too small kinda sucks. Not enough time to research much before you start getting attacked. But, our archers aren't that bad. If anything they are pretty good.

[LordCalvert]

We hadn't made any firm decision on what each kingdom's schtick would be. I like the ideas of certain survival skills dependent on kingdom and a relatively small selection of unique units. Calontir would obviously get their special war-shields. Caid might get some sort of sea-transport ability. The East would probably get better protection factors, Atlantia might get a special "Dark Knight" hero along with a horde of squires/men-at-arms (nope, not thinking of anyone in particular, not at all, nope, nope), Ansteorra might get special light units (with white scarves), etc.

As for archers, I probably would have the better quality archers be in independent provinces and have you recruit them externally, just as current nations which have poor or no archers have to do and have you build a fortress on the province if you feel that you really have to have lots of them. If a particular group is known for high caliber archers (as my own Barony of the Rhydderich Hael is), they might get their's specifically set in the province.

Ludicrous Bowmen (a very, very rare rank of archer in the SCA; one step above Grandmaster Bowman) would probably be a special hero and not a recruitable commander.