[MOD] Pharaohs & Consuls 0.4K Public Alpha Released

[olupien]

Salve Citizens,

I have worked long and hard without too much public engagement & I'm still in the middle of a busy school term but I wanted to finally share some of the work I've spent so much time on in the hopes that some of you might enjoy it, it is an early playable alpha of my work so far in converting CKII to the times of Antiquity.

To those who have followed Pharaohs & Consuls development over the past few years, and provided feedback from my earlier alpha all that time ago, I thank you.

Development has been slow over the last few years as I am a one-man team, and although I have had several contributors for some historical data and cultural titles/name-lists, it has been difficult for me to coordinate a team as well as work on the mod itself. I especially want to thank tsf4 (Discord name) for his recent assistance in bugfixing and feedback.


There are still many features which I have not yet implemented but are planned. I will release new features and overhauls to vanilla systems as I progress further into development.

Several Government Models have been partially implemented which include a Mesopotamian/Persian model, a partial tribal-monarchy, and a roman republic/Imperial system, these are still early WIP and I plan on overhauling them completely in the next few months.

Much of Britain, Scandinavia, India, Eastern Europe, West Africa (Ghana/Mali) have had little work done so far as historical information is sparse. Much of what is present is fictional characters ruling over a historical tribal/ethnic kingdom which is mentioned in a historical text at some point....but become more fleshed out in later bookmarks as more information is available. Certain Regions may be removed outright due to their minor historical presence and scarcity of information.


The mod has been developed and tested with ALL of the major DLC and the latest patches. It was an early design choice and has been adhered to throughout development, my apologies to those who prefer being able to play without major DLC. It might run while missing certain DLCs, I can’t say as I haven’t tested this functionality. (Cosmetic/Unit pack DLC being present or not shouldn’t cause any issues) The mod will not work on earlier versions of the game or versions of the game without all major DLC/Expansions.

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I will also be using the Paradox Interactive Forums and DISCORD to post Dev Diaries and showcase work being done, Alpha Builds will primarily be posted here on Moddb due to the file size restrictions at the Paradox forums. I am currently trying to see if I can also break-up the mod into a series of files to be released on the Steam Workshop as well and I will post an minor update if that is the case.

I am running a Discord server to try and coordinate feedback on features and work as I develop it, it's a new experience for me but might help in getting positive feedback and allow me to showcase more work, please head over there to provide feedback and your impressions of the mod!

DISCORD Link: https://discord.gg/Byy9Cee

Public Alpha Download Link: https://www.moddb.com/mods/pharaohs-consuls/downloads



Current Internal Build is running on CKII 3.3.0 (XDSW)



I have maintained a record of my permissions for asset use from the paradox forums, PM's, and steam conversations, if there are any discrepancies or issues, please let me know and I will adjust accordingly, if I have overlooked a contribution or forget to list it here please let me know so I can rectify that asap.

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Please head over to the Files section here on Moddb to download the Public Alpha Build!


Contributions and Thanks:

This Project should be understood to be the combined work of many different contributors from many different CKII, EUIV, and total war mod teams.


I myself cannot draw almost at all, so a huge amount if not all of, the art assets come from a variety of sources and generous contributors.

The UI work has been inspired and modeled after the amazing work of Arko's UI overhaul and also the 'Marble look' of Imperator Rome.

I have been inspired by many different script/event mods and designed certain elements of the gameplay after them, some code has been integrated where possible when permitted by the original coder/creator.

All of the music and sounds come from a variety of sources, I didn't create any of them and they are mostly used for ambiance and immersion in this recreational project.

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Credits & Contributors:

Spoiler: Expand

Thanks especially to Galle (Paradox Forums) for a ton of advice and his amazing assistance in the modding process.

Thanks to UMCenturion and Causeless of the Ancient Empires Total War mod for their UI asset usage; the majority of the ingame UI design is developed from his work.

Special thanks to Witcher (Paradox Forums) for historical advice and guidance. Thanks to Kryo (steam) for the integration of his transparent map mod +borders and his amazing embossed font mod.

Thanks to Rickinator9 and the Diadochi mod team (AnaxXiphos for Religious Icons, and .Hobbes for flags) for asset usage.

Thanks to tsf4 for his assistance in bugfixing, hunting down countless errors and issues and fixing many titles and landed_titles issues.

Thanks to AGOT mod team for the use of several art assets and code examples with integration of ambitions and traits.

-Special Thanks to Super7700 from the Paradox Mod Forums for several of his amazing Hellenic-themed portrait clothing and helmets.


Thanks to Illathid and the Geheimnisnacht mod team for several coding examples, general inspirations and hopefully more integration of several gameplay/ui assets in the future.

Thanks to the Magnate lords (apg?) for the concept and idea, I built my own WIP resource system using his as inspiration, also used a few gfx province pics (temporary placeholders as the system is still being integrated fully in the game -> will mostly be a reduced version of Magnate lords itself.

Thanks to Lord of Pain for his LTM Terrain and Map tweaks made to it to represent a different visual approach to the world map for the setting of Antiquity.

and

-Special thanks to In Heaven(steam) for his IN Heavens map graphical overhaul which I've integrated elements of, especially the water effect. -Special thanks to Korbah and the Elder Kings mod team for some asset usage.

Thanks to DaMonkey (Steam username) for potential usage of his “Send Courtier” mod.

Special Thanks to my playtesting mates and contributing Devs, and anyone else who may have slipped my mind at the moment.

Special thanks to DerGroseKA and other members of the Imperium Universalis mod for the usage of a few UI and flag artwork.

-Special thanks to Solo(steam) for his Patrum Scuta work

-Special thanks to Causeless & UMC Centurion for their UI work and other assets from the Ancient Empires total war mod.

-Special thanks to EthicallyChallenged of Deviantart, and many more for the loadingscreen art used, all of that work is the property of it's respective owners and I have simply used it to showcase Art set in Antiquity versus the regular CKII loading screens.

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Pharaohs & Consuls is still in an alpha state with many features still to be added as well as historical bookmarks I'm developing, I hope you can enjoy the work I've completed so far, and if so, please let me know what you think!

Also please use the appropriate discord channel if you encounter any major issues or unlisted bugs:

DISCORD Link: https://discord.gg/Byy9Cee

 

[DeathLawlie]

Very interesting ! I love this period so I will try it when I have a moment

 

[Truewhit]

Chould you the marble interface as a separate mod? It's looks great.

 

[olupien]

Very interesting ! I love this period so I will try it when I have a moment

Thanks and please let me know what your impressions are

Chould you the marble interface as a separate mod? It's looks great.

I would consider working on this later on once I've finished the interface overhaul and added the appropriate cultural/religious variations I have planned.

 

[Maximilian Jay]

First of all, love the work done in this mod, is amazing, but i have one question regarding goverment, why is a Lusitanian horde in the middle of Iberia? They were renowned pastoralist and horse breeders, but having them as a horde i think is a bug. And a few graphicals bugs in the UI of the council. Oh, there is more hordes in Central europe, strange, is wad? And only Ireland and Iona are populated in the british islands. All in all, it's an alpha it's in a great state to be one and i have hopes for it in the future, a future when i hope i don't play in a shitty laptop.

 

[Noble Poptart]

Great work on this mod, hope to see it developed further into the future. I would for sure add an option for Northern Europeans or any other historically migratory people to change their government to nomadic.

 

[olupien]

First of all, love the work done in this mod, is amazing, but i have one question regarding goverment, why is a Lusitanian horde in the middle of Iberia? They were renowned pastoralist and horse breeders, but having them as a horde i think is a bug. And a few graphicals bugs in the UI of the council. Oh, there is more hordes in Central europe, strange, is wad? And only Ireland and Iona are populated in the british islands. All in all, it's an alpha it's in a great state to be one and i have hopes for it in the future, a future when i hope i don't play in a shitty laptop.

Thanks Maximilian Jay, I'm glad you're enjoying it so far, the Lusitanians seem to be a bug, and the Boii and Helvetii titles are incorrectly timed, as their nomadic/migratory period should be dated for a later bookmark, something I'll correct in an upcoming patch, thanks for the feedback and as mentioned in the mod description page Ireland, England, and other parts of Northern and Eastern Europe are mostly empty at the moment until I add the historical info for those areas

Great work on this mod, hope to see it developed further into the future. I would for sure add an option for Northern Europeans or any other historically migratory people to change their government to nomadic.

Yes, definitely going to be an option for many tribes, and once I"ve added the "Historical Events game rule" it will have a chance to occur in regards to historical migrations such the Boii and Helvetii in Central and Southern Europe etc

 

[manble1234]

Thanks Maximilian Jay, I'm glad you're enjoying it so far, the Lusitanians seem to be a bug, and the Boii and Helvetii titles are incorrectly timed, as their nomadic/migratory period should be dated for a later bookmark, something I'll correct in an upcoming patch, thanks for the feedback and as mentioned in the mod description page Ireland, England, and other parts of Northern and Eastern Europe are mostly empty at the moment until I add the historical info for those areas

Yes, definitely going to be an option for many tribes, and once I"ve added the "Historical Events game rule" it will have a chance to occur in regards to historical migrations such the Boii and Helvetii in Central and Southern Europe etc

I would also want to add that Aksum needs a little bit of rework. While is true that Kush decline is just starting by 101 AUC, I think it would fit more the timeline if the Red Sea trade route goes to Somalia and then follow up to Aksum. Mecca's trade importance would become important with the rise of Islam.

 

[absinthia]

Mecca's trade importance would become important with the rise of Islam.

that would be quite correct. Mecca does not seem to have been mentioned in any known documents by neighboring realms, which it most certainly would have been if it were a trading hub.
there is a rather controversial theory that the bayt al-haram (commonly considered to be Mecca, but supposedly not explicitly named in the Quran), where the Kaaba were located, were not Mecca. according to this theory the Quran description of the place does not fit Mecca and the quibla direction of the earliest mosques point neither towards Mecca nor Jerusalem, rather it points towards Petra. supposedly it was moved to Mecca by al-Zubayr and rebuilt there.

 

[olupien]

that would be quite correct. Mecca does not seem to have been mentioned in any known documents by neighboring realms, which it most certainly would have been if it were a trading hub.
there is a rather controversial theory that the bayt al-haram (commonly considered to be Mecca, but supposedly not explicitly named in the Quran), where the Kaaba were located, were not Mecca. according to this theory the Quran description of the place does not fit Mecca and the quibla direction of the earliest mosques point neither towards Mecca nor Jerusalem, rather it points towards Petra. supposedly it was moved to Mecca by al-Zubayr and rebuilt there.

Thanks for the feedback Manble and Absinthia, I haven't updated the trade routes in a long while (I actually think they are still mostly from vanilla) and there will definitely be a reworking of them to better represent trade routes from the period etc
In addition, the current Axum, Puntite, and Ethiopian kingdoms are a 1st draft and will receive much more detail and slight reworks.

 

[mad orc]

Hey man, the current link on modb is not working. It says that the webpage has collapsed.

 

[HerrDecadens]

Did you try today? It seems to work well again

 

[ajacksonian]

Will this be working with Ancient Religions Reborn, as some of the territory is covered by it? Running that with the 633 Mod and NOT doing Lets Go Pagan! to keep the chaos down makes for some interesting play. Some game mechanics for discovery of an Ancient Religion and taking it up as a character are lacking like playing a Byzantine Greek in Alexandria should yield a few different choices when on a Theology focus: the Greeks in charge of Egypt is a large part of the history of the region, not just Hellenism or one of the Orthodox Heresies. Similarly discovery of ancient cultural traditions could lead to other religions that once held a region under their sway. It is nice to have options if one opts for a relatively vanilla type character and then have new opportunities appear via gameplay. The Harranian mod and Dido's Legacy both offer that sort of material (and should point to some interesting history for their respective regions). Part of the fun of discovery is finding the older cultures and religions and deciding to take them on secretly...adds some fun flavor to the game.

 

[THING8MUD]

Hey does anyone know a reason why the mod would crash on 'Loading Events'? I've got the right version, right checksum, all dlc and no other mods enabled. Much appreciated if anybody could suggest a solution, I'd love to play the mod.

 

[9Janitors]

First off, I can't tell you how happy I am that you're working on this mod!
I love ancient history, specifically the Iron Age, and it's great to seeing one of my favorite historical periods getting some love.

The only real feedback I have for right now is that was that Babylonian religion was Mesopotamian, and was not related to the Avestan religions.
Additionally, the Mesopotamian horned crown should be the default crown of Babylonian rulers...I'll keep checking it out and let you know if I have any other ideas.

 

[HungarianKnight]

I am absolutely loving the mod, however, I have just one minor complaint: the UI. No offense, but could the UI part be made optional? The vanilla UI is already hard to wrap one's head around to begin with, let alone this...
Otherwise, superb mod, I am absolutely loving it.
I'm assuming that making the Roman Republic playable is a planned feature - otherwise I'd be suggesting it.

Also, if you need any help with reconstructing names in Proto-Germanic (language of all Germanic tribes before 200 AD) and other languages, I'm at your service as a linguist. It's kind of jarring to see the Xiongnu with Chinese-sounding names, for example.

 

[Hr Schr]

I love this mod, the ui too on the places it's working nicely. I found out that the UI, especially the council menu look very weird for pagan/uncivilized factions tho, maybe take a look on it. I disabled all non-minor mods, especially the UI altering ones.

But I'm mostly really happy to see the new version

 

[basileus_americanus]

Not sure if this is an issue you can address, but the Modbb link appears to have an issue. Every time I click to download the mod, the pop-up that usually comes up with the download process crashes and gives an error 500 internal server error message and won't download the mod.

 

[Brodacious]

A small bug report.

Forming the religious head title of the Estrucians or Greco-Italtic makes you landless government but doesn’t end your game. You change back to monarchy when you give the title away. Not a huge deal since forming the title requires 3500 piety so yeah I cheated lol.

A short question, why is Assyrian culture the only culture to have a bonus?

 

[deadline93]

Hey i have been trying to start the mood up but somthing seems to not be working. I have all DLC and the mood is the only thing enabled but when i start it thire are no nations no characters nothing all land is empty what migth be the issue?