It's great to see a site committed to improving games- to modding. It must be a good place to let people know about Knights and Barbarians. It's clear that K&B's a mod, but it's also more than that. It not only improves Age of Empires III, it changes it completely. That's why we, the developers, are proud to call it a "total conversion."
What's changed? Lots of things. Besides the scope of the game, things like units, gameplay, and textures have all been changed for the better. Not only are units detailed, they're varied like in the award-winning Medieval II: Total War. Armies no longer look like clones, but actual armies. The terrain is molded to fit our vision. Changes to things like trees and vegetation make for truly dark Black Forests of Europe and stunning battlefields.
Who's making it? The development team is headed by Peugeot407 along with texture artists Northern_Lord, Linuchadnezzar, gibbo1993, and alvaro_qc. We also have two concept artists: Markss and KrakenBits who help design variations and scope out game possibilities. Our composer, NiXiM, completes the team by giving us excellent game music. While names are being named, we'd also like to thank the designer (from the mod Age of Crusades) Argalius for supplying forums and fellow designer Lord Tahattus (from the mod War of the Triple Alliance) for supplying flags.
How's the mod progressing? Many European and Arabic units, with their variations, are already done. We have easily more than half of the game music completed and our concept artists are drawing up new UI. New user interfaces for mods is unique to Knights and Barbarians, by the way. Buildings are also being completed at a fast rate. You can see work that's been completed in the mod archives at Age of Empires III Heaven. In the past, we've had "Friday Updates" every... Friday. A new string of weekly updates may start as we decide to show off new content.
I'd like to talk more about the mod -plans, history, thoughts- but I have to save some things for the later posts, don't I? You can find out more about Knights and Barbarians by going to the main website or by simply "googling" it. Be sure to keep checking out this hub as we continue to update it.
