The "I Pledge Thee My Sword" thread

[nickwizzo]

Got the files up and starting to edit. What sort of era are we going for? I've got a list of the top 200 male and female names in the US by decade and they go back to the 1880s, so I was thinking of starting there?

Also, should there be differences between the names of the factions? Should all the names be English?

[Jubal]

I think all the faction names should probably be fairly similar - obviously there are quite a lot of non-English fellows so I don't see any particular reason for sticking to English only names.

[nickwizzo]

My only thought is that we may end up with some unlikely fellows. Does the game pick a random surname and a random first name from the faction lists? If it picks a surname and first name which are from different origins it could look a bit bizarre, especially if it then doesn't match with the picture either.

[Jubal]

To be fair, we have a lot of fellows whose names do differ (I cite David Abulafia and Magnus Ryan from my own department).

I think we may have to restrict fellows to being all-male, though, sadly. Yeah, it could look bizarre but I'm not overly concerned about this, the mod is intended to be more than a little whimsical.

[TTG4]

No boudicca-esque charges for us then! I guess female fellows would marry 'garrison commanders' from vanilla, perhaps we could re-name them post-docs?

[Jubal]

Yeah, because it works on a family tree there's no way of stipulating that some commanders are male and some female.

[Jubal]

OK, we also need to start thinking about buildings. They basically work the same way as troops, but we're using a lot of the old internal buildings because buildings are complex and go wrong easily. For that reason, I'm not going to get you guys to put it in the right syntax, I just want the descriptions which I can copypaste in.

Soooo I need long and short descriptions (and names) for the following...

College buildings (formerly the barracks line) 5 levels (thinking lowest will be accomodation block maybe?) These will train basic students and college staff such as porters etc.

Arts buildings (formerly the cav buildings) 4 levels, will train all arts-side students
Science buildings (formerly the missile buildings) 4 levels, will train all science-side students

Also, the core buildings that determine the size of the site/college (5 levels)

Ports 3 levels

Farms, roads, and mines (5, 3, 2 levels respectively) all need replacement versions as they're hardcoded too.

The other buildings (markets, temples etc) we'll want replacements for but we can afford to think more creatively about what other improvements we should have and how people should get those bonuses. Remember that a building doesn't have to be a building, it can be a concept or idea advance. And there will be some localised buildings (different levels of Sainsbury's, for example, and possibly the trailer of life/van of death at the marketplace if I can think of a suitable bonus).

[nickwizzo]

We could have a sequence of College Bar -> College Bops -> May Ball with +10% happiness each time?

[TTG4]

Perhaps something similar to the academies in the form of libraries?

[nickwizzo]

Ok, all name files done. All factions have the same name list, but there are well over 100 of each type, so shouldn't get many repeats. They're very long, where should I post them?

For roads, perhaps gravel path -> cobbled path -> paved path.

There could be a trait fellows gain called 'Walk on the grass' with a 10% movement bonus?

[Ezrael]

Ok, all name files done. All factions have the same name list, but there are well over 100 of each type, so shouldn't get many repeats. They're very long, where should I post them?

For roads, perhaps gravel path -> cobbled path -> paved path.

There could be a trait fellows gain called 'Walk on the grass' with a 10% movement bonus?

I like your thinking

[Ezrael]

Mines could be supply tunnels perhaps? And will things like blacksmiths be area-restricted e.g. you can only upgrade weapons in the Science departments?

[Jubal]

I was thinking mines = wine cellars?

Liking the library/academy and Bar/bop/may ball ideas too - again, if you guys do the flavour text I'll get the code done.

Traits are a whole other kettle of fish, I'm thinking that'll be late in the process if at all (unless someone wants to learn them and take charge of that). To put it another way, I never got round to doing traits for Warhammer and Narnia properly and I've been working on them for years.

Nick, attack them to a post in a zip file on here?

[Ezrael]

Well if I come up with any interesting traits/have anyone else suggest them I'll set up a suggestions thread for that so it doesn't clog up the nitty gritty.
Wine cellars sounds better to me, good call. Farms could be butteries, since they're all about food production?

[nickwizzo]

Attached are the name files. I'll have a look at traits, but if you haven't managed it I don't hold out much hope  Also is this a good guide for creating buildings?

http://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/mods/tutorials/adding_buildings_to_rtw/index.shtml