What is this mod, and why ?
This mod aims to feel like a Warband DLC, by expanding the original map, adding new kingdoms and a few gameplay mechanics. Why ? Well, I have discovered M&B Warband back in 2020 and immediately felt in love with the game. After having fully completed the game on Xbox, I wanted to go further on what the game offered and tried a bunch of mods on PC. A lot of total conversions are here to please fans of almost anything, but I did not find a mod with a consequent expanding of the native map. (some of them exist of course : I recommend Outsiders of Calradia, for example, which first version is already released on this site ; or Northeast Kingdoms on Steam, which first gave me the idea to make something bigger). So here it is 😊
What are the main features of this mod ?
A bigger worldmap
Each of the new kingdoms have brand new regions to conquer and expand subsequently the worldmap. I have learned how to do this on the job and the more you go far from the center of the map, the more the map cannot get detailed areas. That’s why some regions seem less sharp than in the middle. Each area has also its bandits, from the original game.
New cultures have been placed around the map in order to keep the center of the map almost untouched
5 new kingdoms and cultures
The existing kingdoms (Swadia, Nords, Vaegirs, Khergits, Sarranids, Rhodoks) are still here and unchanged from the Tocan’s Calradia version. The Dark Knight invasion is also activable. And in order to bring ever more chaos to all of that, 5 new kingdoms have been added :
- Xothay – Asian Inspired
- Sudestrian – Byzantine inspired
- Braetynian – Brittany inspired
- Phoessanid – India inspired
- Jumne – Northern/Barbaric inspired
I chosed to used less “canon” names as possible because I did not want to disappoint people who are looking for entire and distant new continents on the game, it was also to keep full freedom in the design of the cultures. As said in a previous comment I ran out of inspiration for Jumne so I kept this name.
Gekokujo's scenes have been integrated for the Asian Culture.
Other cultures inherited already existing architectures
Gunpowder, repeating crossbows, elephants
There are the new equipments regarding the Tocan’s version. Each of these exists in several version, from the cheapest to legendary tier. You will quickly know if it’s one of them with the price in the shops. Gunpowder is simply an hidden feature in the base game which have been reactivated, several mods already use these weapons o/
- Repeating Crossbows / Chukonu : less precise and less strong than a regular crossbow, but you have between 2 and 5 shots without reload, according to the class of weapon you use. Tiers : Repeating Crossbow, Chukonu, Elite Chukonu, War Chukonu
- Gunpowder : strongest weapon, but with only one shot and very slow to reload. Three categories :
- Pistol – medium in everything. Firecracker, Flintlock, Blackpowder, Elite, Assassin
- Blunderbuss – kind of medieval shotgun. Low precision but one shot = one kill at short range, also destroy shields. One legendary (and expensive) model of Blunderbuss allows to shoot 2 times before reloading.
- Arquebus – classic rifle, correct precision but the slowest to reload.
- The low version of the Blunderbuss and Arquebus is common to the two and is called “Escopette”, then you have the two class of these weapons split into two categories.
- Elephant : high HP, high charge damage, but slow and need a high Riding skill to get. It is the most buggy feature as the base game is not initially designed for other mount than horses.
If you always have wanted to shoot elephants with an arquebus in a Samurai armor
and by commanding your Swadian Knights, this is the mod you're looking for
The game is easier and less grindy. Here are the tweaks :
- Easier beginning : you will begin the game with more skills, especially on Inventory and prisoner Management (I’ve always found theses skills a bit annoying)
- More profitable tournaments : already included in tocan’s calradia with the increased bet, the amount of renown and money earned has been slightly increased
- Restore relationship with lords is now easier with the ladies (1000 Gold for +4, 2000 for +9, 3000 for +20)
- Accelerated construction (town management, villages, and siege)
- More Upstanding / Goodnatured NPC companions when they become lords (Alayen is the only one amongst the original NPC, and I think you have now something like 25 good NPC amongst the 70 additional
- Larger army for the player : renown and leadership grant increased maximum of troops
Most of these tweak are reversible : use the tool Tweak MB to customize your M&B experience.
Known bugs and issues :
- Sea travel might crash the game. The next version will correct this by using Gekokujo's similar sea travel , and erase the ports (sorry...)
- Inventory items disappearance : when you use a function like “check the troop inventory” or “manage custom troop inventory” , a part of your inventory can be lost, especially on the bottom of the inventory. Save often, and use the cheat menu if you need to correct such a bug.
- Moneylender just “steals” you randomly : when you use the “meet the bankers/moneylenders” you will sometimes lose a random amount of money. Be careful. You can use the cheat to correct it.
- Bandits camps have been suppressed because of too many bugs due to the banners (for some reason..). On the other hand, there are more bandit's spawning points on the map, so you can always have your favorite punching balls.
- The introduction quest is deactivated : it is inherited from the Tocan's version, most of the needed code have been deactivated and it's pretty hard to restore completely without solid knowledge of the initial code. I'll try to restore it on the V2 but not sure to succeed.
- The 60 new companion NPC does not work properly when you ask for their background when they are in your group ; they cannot ask for support to make you king ; nor be your minister. I recommend to use them like classic heroes on the battlefield and potential lords, but that’s all.
- Elephants’ collisions are buggy. I don’t really know how to correct it. By trying other mods with Elephants inside I’ve seen that is a recurrent issue. If anybody knows how to correct it, it will be appreciated.
- A lot of scenes have been re-used : especially for the castles and the villages. “new” scenes has been used for the new towns, and all of the Xothay Empire (scenes from Gekokujo)
Credits
Worldmap, kingdoms and troops configurations have been made by myself. I have integrated most of the assets from other mods or mods resources from several sites : Nexus, Moddb, MBrepository (rip). Here are the full credits list :
Tocan for the mod's base
Gekokujo's Team for the Asian Towns and Castle scenes
MiiMoka for the Warband's Reworked Textures
Krl10 for Warband’s Optimized Textures
Drakharios for Indo-Persian Armor pack
Narf for his Transitional Armor Pack and Rus Armor Pack
Broken_One for the new female faces (slightly modified)
Rigadoon, Barabas, Deras for the Elephant OSP model
Xenoargh for SSH Samurai Armor
Ettenrocal for GOT Retexture Project (Armors) ; Peak Town, and some other scenes
New woman dresses (Colored Khergit and some other models) from Floris
The_Bowman_TW for Native Scenes Replacement Pack (slight modifications applied for Phoessanid Towns)
Alternate Music by Goldenjoseph
Warband UI Retexture by Rohzdear
If you detect in my mod something which belongs to someone I have not credited (especially if it’s you!) please contact me and I’ll correct this. Making this mod consisted in the downloading, integration and testing of tons of assets and I did not always noted what I used or not.
Oooh! This looks pretty cool, I've also always been craving for an expansion of the vanilla factions and geography.