Let's build up your basic questions
FACTS:
Mod dates:
1080-1530
Faction List:
(SECOND BRACKETS= available transitions, unlocking traits, units and technology)
1. (Georgia) Sakartvelos Samepho
2. (England) Kingdom of England
3. (France) Regnum Francie
4. (Scotland) Rìoghachd na h'Alba
5. (HRE) Sacrum Imperium (Teutonic Order State)
6. (Denmark) Kongeriget Danmark
7. (Sweden) Sveariket
8. (Norway) Konungadomae Noreg
9. (Lithuania) Lietuvos Didþioji Kunigaikðtystë (Union of Poland-Lithuania)
10. (Novgorod) Gosudar' Gospodin Velikiy Novgorod
11. (Poland) Królestwo Polskie (Union of Poland-Lithuania)
12. (Hungary) Magyar Királyság
13. (genoa & milan etc) Comuni liberi
14. (pisa & florence etc) Comuni Toscani
15. (Venice) Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia
16. (Sicily) Sicilia (County & Kingdom)
17. (Aragon) Aragón (Kingdom of Aragon, Crown of Aragon)
18. (Leon-Castile) Reino de Castilla y Reinu de Llión
19. (Portugal) Portucale (County & Kingdom)
20. (Moors) Muslimun Al-Gharb (Almovarids, Almohads, Benemarids)
21. (Egypt) Sultan Misr (Ayyubids, Fatimids, Mamluks)
22. (Turks) Anadolu Selçuklularý (Rum Sultunate - Ottomans)
23. (Byzantines) Basilía ton Romaion (Byzantine Empire, Empire of Nicaea)
24. (Armenia) Hayastan
25. (Kiev) Rus' (Kiev & Vladimir-Suzdal)
26. (Bohemia) Cechy
27. (Kypchaks/Golden Horde) *****
28. (Tutushids/Zengids/Mamluks) Ash'Shamm ****
29. (Great Seljuks/Il Khanate Mongols) Doðu ve batýnýn Cihan devleti
30. (Papacy) ****(Papal States & Crusader States)
31. Minor Factions
***** WIP
later version additional campaign factions
(Serbia) Srbija (Velika Zupanija Raska, Srpsko Carstvo)
(Bulgaria) Tzarstvo Balgaria
(Kingdom of Jerusalem)
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Q. Will forts be buildable?
A. No. Permanent Stone Forts will be placed on the map at start date to represent historical settlements/castles which there is not room for in the game engine's 199 settlement limit
Q: Will Lithuania be able to advance their city's and technologies while remaining Pagan? I find it odd that religion decided that you cant make a wall a little bigger or figure out that gunpowder is a good thing.
A: Yes, and historically this was the case. Paganism did not mean primitiveness. Even in cases such as re-writing history where the mod allows you to play as pagan Sweden you can still develop- obviously being challenged and 'marked for death' by Catholicism is enough of a hinder.
Q: Will any Christian country be able to convert to Paganism?
A: No not any country, some countries showed no signs of reverting- England for instance, even if it had conceivably restored the English nobility and overthrew the Normans, would have unlikely ever become pagan again. However, paganism under English rule -especially in the north seems to have been common at least on the lower social levels. We also know that this was the case in other countries too. Russia so vast as it was, was in no way completely converted either- so paganism will be part of life. Although not all countries will have the option to restore paganism you can endorse it in smaller ways to pacify a part of your population, although this would also in turn produce religious unrest in the long term -provoking your Christian population. The same goes for any secondary religions that your faction may support -Judaism, Zoroastrianism, even Heresy.
Representing religion and social complexities is something that was a core aim from our original plan. A lot of people have criticized us for this, because their personal view of history is sometimes a little 'rose-tinted'. Fundamentalism and religious or social homogeny were not features of medieval cultures or states.
Q: Will Romuva have any special flavor to it?
A: Romuva will not be a single religious slot, although paganism in general will be. This doesn't mean we cannot give Romuva a particular place within the Paganism religion slot, because we will still represent specific Lithuanian pagan (Romuva) buildings however, based on regional and factional variations. For instance, pagan buildings in Sweden will be different from pagan buildings available in Scotland or in Cumania. We are developing our Lithuania by taking our main cue from Lithuania Mod, so we hope it will be up to everyone's standards -even fans of Romuva itself.
We haven't actually got around to re-modeling buildings yet although we are planning that phase now since we realize that we have a great deal of work to do in order to represent the technologies of the Cumans and Mongols. The Mongols fill two transitions in two different faction slots, so they will be important to the game and present very strong changes in the way those factions perform and look.
Q: Will siege engines play a bigger role in campaign battles or will their use be noticeably reduced?
A: We hope that they will be more dynamic, we are planning to modify the XAI siege mod (check the preview) into our work. More than that I cannot say until we have run tests.
Q: Will horse-archer heavy factions (e.g. Kypchacks) have access to heavy infantry and will their horse archers be able to deal with well-armored enemy or stand a chance against infantry in formation?
A: This will depend on different eras of different factions, all of which will be historically accurate we hope. The factions that use horse archers will have access to heavy infantry, I believe, with the exception of the Kypchak/Mongol faction who have some heavy cavalry who will surely be able to maul most infantry especially in tandem with the black rain of arrows.
Q: Will mercenaries play a bigger role in military campaigns?
A: Again this is a relative question based on what era, region and faction you mean. For the most part though, regional levies and mercenaries will be important. We decided quite early that some regions will be very rich in unique mercenary/levy units (such as Ireland) which make the region a resource in itself. If you were say Norway planning to take England, you might want to stop off in Ireland to stock up on some good value for money mercenaries before trying to invade.
Q: Will the forts at the beginning of the game have a large rebel army in them? or be empty?
A: In 1080, it will hopefully be as faithful to history as possible... Most will be owned by the country holding the region they are in. A few will be held by enemies. Most will probably be rebels. Just think of stone forts as extra cities, and rebels as small independent kingdoms.
Q: Will the AI have army scripts and money scripts?
A: We certainly hope so, but to be honest with you we don't know to what extent this will be without running tests. We are currently really focusing on traits to bring a lot of aspects and features alive, if this can be rigged to work with certain triggers and scripts it would be great but could slow the game down. We are very careful that this doesn't happen so we will have to find a balance, but sure- good point, and yes- we hope we can do that. The AI should be strong and tactile not easy pickings...
Q: How will the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth work?
A: Easy, just like the Kalmar Union basically. Once you set this in motion you will unlock units, tech tree and traits that will allow you a much more powerful and varied faction. I would like to point out that we are offering the same benefits for Leon-Castille and Aragon via the Kingdom of Spain, there may be other factions who could have similar abilities too.
Q: How many campaigns?
A: One is the quick answer. At least for the meantime. As you can see we have changed some factions from our preview and this is because we want more playable slots, so Serbia, Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Jerusalem would be additional factions in the future. Some Admin would like to release a multi-faction installer where many factions exist but you get to decide how your main campaign will work and with which 30 factions. It's a future plan that we cannot really work on until we are really finished with an Alpha version of the first release.
Also, I would like to state that in the possible scenario that Dominion was to cooperate or merge with certain other mods, a variety of smaller time-period campaigns would be the main focus.
Q: Will the AI have army scripts and money scripts?
A: The AI will have money scripts. As for army scripts, we are currently considering beefing up rebellions via scripts, but no standard factions will receive aid via scripts. There are two reasons for this.
First, garrison scripts are huge, prone to bugs, and stretch end-turn times on to infinity.
Second, the problem with the AI is not that it doesn't have enough troops, but that it doesn't know how to use its troops. Garrison scripts try to fix this problem by bailing out the AI after it has already made a mistake by leaving a settlement undefended. While this makes the game more challenging, it doesn't make the game more challenging in the right way. Would you like an FPS that gave you one bullet and asked you to kill an entire army? *coughhalflifecough* This game is would be challenging, but not in the right way, not in the way that makes it fun. It is not fun to outsmart the AI only to see it bailed out. What we want is to not have the AI in such a bad position in the first place.
Q: Will DotS use its own weather settings, sky/night/landscape textures or even animations? What about blood/mud/dust/snow textures?
A: We plan to use work from already existing mini-mods. We haven’t got to that stage yet really and for us that is the least of our concerns, it will be minor and final details.
Q: Will DotS use unique cities on campaign map?
A: Again, not really a priority just yet but sure we have talked with several other mods with which we cooperate with a view to producing such things.
Q: Are crossbowmen supposed to work like in vanilla or won't be able to shoot accurately or at all at high arcs?
A: Definitely. Crossbows like everything else should be realistic.
Q: Will units like skirmishers (javelineers, bowmen, crossbowmen, gunners) given only a one-handed weapon in melee or will some of these units get a shield or two-handed weapon? Will pikemen draw their swords or only use their pikes in melee?
A: As you can see from our units in the preview, specific units will definitely have the option of two weapons. As we have also stated however, we are not prioritizing units (at least not the entire roster) since we are overhauling and renaming every unit in the game. Which doesn’t really mean that it is realistic to make 400+ units from scratch.
Q: How will heavy cavalry perform in charge and melée?
A: Good question, heavy cavalry is central to the game really. Every era and culture will have different variants of heavy cavalry- we are not just talking about western knights here… so, the differences in their effects will vary. As I sad above we will not be able to perfect all the units in the early Beta versions, but realism and detail is something we want to achieve and this is definitely something we have looked at, discussed and made basic plans for.
Q: How are you planning to represent the HRE? -because mods like Das Heilige Römische Reich has separated them into different factions and allowed them the ability to vote for the Emperor any many other features.
A: DHRR mod focuses specifically on HRE as the centre, sacrificing a number of other elements in order to do this. We cannot do that in our mod. The HRE is very important to Europe however throughout the game and we want to be able to represent it as best we can. We have handled the HRE subfactions by making regional rulership and autonomy specifically important to the faction. Civil war will be a real and consistent threat more so than with other factions, because it will be the HRE factional goal to enforce its claims.
Q: How many religions do you plan to include?
A: There is as you know a hard coded limit. At the moment we have Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Judaism, Paganism (includes Tengrism), Zoroastrianism, Islam possibly in Sunni and Shia branches, Heresy, Hussitism
-Oriental Christianity, Buddhism and others have also been discussed but these will be minor rather than factional options.
Q: Will you slow down the unrealistically fast conversion rates? It would give religion a more realistic political aspect.
A: Exactly. Conversion will be very slow and realistic now…likewise, conquering, expanding and colonizing will not be simple matters either.
Q: Will the control over Mecca have any ramifications for the respective faction?
A: Yes, and other cities too for several religions but without testing we won’t know how effective these will be yet.
Q: Will there be a proper representation for Medieval Parliaments in DotS?
A: Since the representative assemblies were historically very significant during the 14th and 15th centuries, adding them into the game is something we would no doubt like to do. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way to add features like this into this game. One way we have tried to cope with it is by having different aspects such as House of Lords and House of Commons buildings each triggering bonuses and negatives for noble vs king vs population happiness vs population law. So you will have to cater-make your kingdom and balance everything on a regional basis.
-Originally posted by Hross, Mod Leader @ TWC
