[MOD] Elder Kings, a CK2 Elder Scrolls mod

[Dysydent]

As for magic, surely Leadership Traits would be the best way to do it. As they directly effect battle, and then have events and decisions linked into it.
Maybe not the best, but probably the easiest as Leadership does kinda seem a perfect fit for magic already so it wouldnt need much to be changed.

I think that learning skill is much better for magic for two reasons:
- First, leadership is basically knowledge in combat, principally tactics and ability to command armies so it's basic for military leaders, not solely magicians
- Second, learning is a skill that can determine one's knowledge and magic can be considered kind of a knowledge and above all, learning is much less important skill than leadership.

If we change leadership into magic than what skill would govern leader's ability to command?

Probably with non-empire empire titles [Dominion as the obvious example] being createable via a different decision and being excluding from above mechanic. As its not usurping or claiming the Empire but deliberately breaking from it. Probably give a non-Empire-named Empire tier title by decision to each province so you have the choice between creating the Empire title, and be claiming your empire as successor to the Empire and of all tamriel, or creating the nationalist empire tier title and breaking away from it.

This one's a really good idea!

 

[Orinsul]

I was thinking more clone leadership into magic. So youd have martial leadership from martial education, and magical leadership from.. some other route, decision based learning magic event chain or something.
But using the leadership mechanics to represent effects of a mage leading armies without losing the current CK2 leadership stuff.

 

[Dysydent]

I was thinking more clone leadership into magic. So youd have martial leadership from martial education, and magical leadership from.. some other route, decision based learning magic event chain or something.
But using the leadership mechanics to represent effects of a mage leading armies without losing the current CK2 leadership stuff.

I don't think that would be easy to be made, changing learning skill into magic is way easier and since both priests and mages use magic, it can be a perfect solution. Check my post on the previous side, I've written there a bit about my idea about how to make magic learning done.

 

[RedRooster81]

As long as I get to command a legion of Dunmeri spellswords, I'm happy.

 

[Orinsul]

But it shouldnt be learning education, just something open to anyone with high learning or suitable ambition or something.
So a king who wants to delve into magic, can take the decision and learn it. Probably his being good at it would be bound in learning, but having the learning education [priest traits] as the way to getting magic would be restrictive and out of canon.

So having traits for types of magic, that effect battles like leadership traits effect battles, that you get from events, decisions or being raised by a wizard or something like that, wouldnt be so hard to do.

Now probably theres little point in talking bout this, as the mod is already pretty far along so probably theyve already got magic pretty much sussed. So no worries.

 

[Dysydent]

Now probably theres little point in talking bout this, as the mod is already pretty far along so probably theyve already got magic pretty much sussed. So no worries.

It's still good to discuss such things, maybe we can help the modding team and inspire them somehow to make it better

So a king who wants to delve into magic, can take the decision and learn it. Probably his being good at it would be bound in learning, but having the learning education [priest traits] as the way to getting magic would be restrictive and out of canon.

It might be the best solution to create a new skill separate from learning and leadership but I'm just not sure if it is possible to add another one and even if it is, if it would not affect stability of the game or slow it down. Anyway, it's all up to the mod devs. They're gonna experiment with this but if they need to replace some skill, it gotta be learning, as it's by far the least important one and most connected to magic.

 

[SaintDaveUK]

Now probably theres little point in talking bout this, as the mod is already pretty far along so probably theyve already got magic pretty much sussed. So no worries.

By all means, keep up the discussion. We don't have an awful lot implemented in the way of magicka.

We do have some magic traits in the game, mostly educations like Expert Mage and such. Perhaps they could be used instead, so we don't have to affect the Learning stat (especially considering how religion plays a large part in the lore).

 

[Dysydent]

We do have some magic traits in the game, mostly educations like Expert Mage and such. Perhaps they could be used instead, so we don't have to affect the Learning stat (especially considering how religion plays a large part in the lore).

Yes, traits for education are probably the best solution It would be very nice to see also some special traits for different schools of magic as well as some darker sides like necromancy. This could really add some great flavor to the mod and help with firing specific events.

 

[Dysydent]

Can I join the team!?
Other than the aforementioned portrait artist, we aren't looking for any new members to join the team at this current moment in time, however we're always willing to listen to new ideas.

Don't you think that your team is little too small for such a huge project? I mean, this is probably the most ambitious mod idea on this forum, even harder to develop than "The Game of Thrones" due to the graphical difficulties and higher complexity of the world. For this mod you need amazing deal of work with events, graphics, general coding, creating regional specifications, balancing and of course bugfixing. Basically I think that you need at least 2 or 3 times more crew members than now and it's not good to close yourself this harshly.

 

[Meneth]

Don't you think that your team is little too small for such a huge project? I mean, this is probably the most ambitious mod idea on this forum, even harder to develop than "The Game of Thrones" due to the graphical difficulties and higher complexity of the world. For this mod you need amazing deal of work with events, graphics, general coding, creating regional specifications, balancing and of course bugfixing. Basically I think that you need at least 2 or 3 times more crew members than now and it's not good to close yourself this harshly.

We've got some pretty skilled members, so the small size of the team shouldn't be an issue.
Of course, if we see that someone would be a good addition to the team, we would invite them to join. But we don't feel a need to actively attempt to find more team members.

 

[Dysydent]

We've got some pretty skilled members, so the small size of the team shouldn't be an issue.
Of course, if we see that someone would be a good addition to the team, we would invite them to join. But we don't feel a need to actively attempt to find more team members.

That's your call, I know that your team consists of some pretty good members but I would not underestimate the amount of work to do with such a huge mod. Anyway, best luck!

 

[Korbah]

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I think there is confusion on how far into the mod we actually are. Titles, de jure setup, empires etc are basically completed (we only lack Mercenaries and Holy Orders, not because of a lack of information, but rather because I haven't got around to writing their landed_titles entries yet ), I have had a new idea myself that will involve reworking the Empires into a new format ("Potentates", when you have built up your legitimacy, still figuring out how that will work, you will be able to form an actual real Empire). Prior to the Potentate idea, there was the Nordic Empire (first Empire), creatable by Nords and Bretons, then there was the Cyrodillic Empire, creatable by basically any human race that controlled Cyrodiil and a couple of other Kingdoms, the Empire of Tamriel, which is the Empire we know from Arena up through to Skyrim basically, that had the hardest requirements, the Velothian Empire (for Dunmer only), Greater Argonia (Argonians, kinda based on the 4E Argonian State), the Aldmeri Dominion (for the Bosmer/Altmer), and the Pyandonea Hegemony (completely fictional Empire level title for a very successful Maormer King).

-

As saintdave said, we're still working on the inclusion of magic so feel free to discuss this area of the mod as much as you would like. There have been some pretty good ideas in this area so far that we'll look into including

We've got some pretty skilled members, so the small size of the team shouldn't be an issue.
Of course, if we see that someone would be a good addition to the team, we would invite them to join. But we don't feel a need to actively attempt to find more team members.

As above. When the team was actually formed we had one or two more individuals but the decision was made to include only people with actual applicable modding abilities in the team. If someone else who can contribute something we aren't already able to do comes along, we'd of course welcome them, but right now, the only thing we lack is a dedicated, skilled portrait artist, so we're having to rely on myself and my image manipulation skills for portraits at the moment.

 

[CrackdToothGrin]

...the only thing we lack is a dedicated, skilled portrait artist, so we're having to rely on myself and my image manipulation skills for portraits at the moment.

I would absolutely love to help, but just don't have the time. If you're good with image manipulation, and you possess a digital version of Skyrim, I would suggest screencapping combinations of faces during the character creation menu and erasing everything but the pieces you want to use and making portraits based off of those. Assuming you don't mess with the colors, everything should fit relatively seamlessly. Also, the character creation has "locked" facial rotation during the creation process, so you never have to guess with the angles.

I don't have Skyrim on PC or the computer to really run it, or that's what I would've done.

An example of how it could work:

Obviously, this looks weird now, but do a model without the hair and any scars/makeup and you have a bald base model to work off of. You can also alter the age and that keeps you from having to manually add and track age lines.

 

[Korbah]

I would absolutely love to help, but just don't have the time. If you're good with image manipulation, and you possess a digital version of Skyrim, I would suggest screencapping combinations of faces during the character creation menu and erasing everything but the pieces you want to use and making portraits based off of those. Assuming you don't mess with the colors, everything should fit relatively seamlessly. Also, the character creation has "locked" facial rotation during the creation process, so you never have to guess with the angles.

I don't have Skyrim on PC or the computer to really run it, or that's what I would've done.

An example of how it could work:

Obviously, this looks weird now, but do a model without the hair and any scars/makeup and you have a bald base model to work off of. You can also alter the age and that keeps you from having to manually add and track age lines.

That's along the lines of what I've been doing :ninja:

 

[CrackdToothGrin]

That's along the lines of what I've been doing :ninja:

Then you should be good!. You don't have to restrict the angle to the side profile. For instance, if you went face-forward, you'd also allow yourself the option of using hi-res headshots to cut and paste the hair and facial hair styles from any forward-facing photograph, as well as eliminate the need to tweak angular guesswork.

Another thing that might help you: You can save the files as .pngs and use them in-game. This will help you from having to make alpha maps for the .dds if you don't want to. Just make sure the graphics are aligned properly and the rest is transparent and that the .gfx files point to the .pngs. Otherwise, making the alpha maps is time-consuming for each set of frames.

 

[shadow121292]

DEVELOPMENT DIARY 3

Ah Skyrim, if there's any province people should know more about right now it'd be you. As you saw in the preview picture Skyrim is heavily split up
http://i.imgur.com/3ZF7g.jpg

The situation of Skyrim is the king that was the predecessor of Ragnar XIV(Presently we don't have all the characters that were kings of Skyrim in yet so he is still Ragnar I) Ysmir IX left Skyrim in such a bad state that when his son took the throne the moot refused to crown him yet could not come to a consensus on who to crown in his place. By this time in Skyrim there were 9 royal families that consistently battled for the throne of Skyrim. Each family stood something to gain from being given the throne but usually there were two other Holds that favored a different family to prevent one from acceding to the throne. Skyrim does have the historical nine holds that are present as of the Fourth Era and the game Skyrim as well as an additional hold that they conquered during the Third Era but was not included in the traditional nine as it was only being included into the Skyrim poltical process of Jehenna. At this present time the hold of Falkreath is also not a part of Skyrim de jure but rather a part of Colovia and thus Cyrodiil as it was only during the reign of Tiber Septim that Falkreath was granted to the Nords in return for their service in aiding the Empire.

Picture of the duchies in Skyrim:
http://i.imgur.com/NRACM.jpg

Religion in Skyirm
http://i.imgur.com/0kwvR.jpg

Culture in Skyrim
http://i.imgur.com/na12K.jpg

Now before I go into some interesting characters I will say that I am unsure of why there is a province that has Sithis as it's religion but it does let you know that the religion is in the game haha.

Kingdom of Skyrim: Obviously playing Ragnar XIV and the kingdom is an interesting character as you can attempt to reassert your authority over your rebellious Jarls.

The Reach: Yes the Reachmen are present and will be able to pack a punch and hold their own from Skyrim. You could always attempt to conquer the lands around you and build up a kingdom

Duchy of Haafingar: Haafingar is in a prime location to take the Reachmen's lands and becoem the primary opposition to King Ragnar XIV. Led by the Bearclaw family(One of the nine claimants.) From a capital in Solitude you could speed up the process by which Solitude becomes the capital of Skyrim and reclaim the crown and throne for your family widely respected by most of western Skyrim.

Duchy of Falkreath: Your in an interesting position under the de jure territory of Colovia but a commonly nordic area. You have the opportunity to go either way down the path of gaining(or in some peoples eyes regaining) the land under the de jure ownership or Skyrim or leave your nordic kingdom behind and either conquer Cyrodiil making it a nord haven or even assimilating into the local population.

That's all for Skyrim next we have the mysterious and mostly unified Dunmer of Resdayn/Morrowind next week! Here's the preview
http://i.imgur.com/CR1SZ.jpg

 

[DeltaCortis]

Awesome I can't wait for this to come out !

 

[Xydonus]

Damn you! Another mod to sink my teeth into, as if playing Game of Thrones wasn't enough...

Also, I like the suggestion about the magic system from tonkatoy5. Another idea would be to have court Mages (not sure if it has been mentioned already) that directly effect your magic use/bonuses. You could also implement an event of some kind to send a family member or someone in your court away to the Mages Guild (which existed around the early Second Era) to learn magic and have an entire trait tree tied to that.

Perhaps also some sort of backlash event for magic with a random chance, as magic is rather volatile and has a chance to backfire.

And what about magic scrolls? Perhaps you could have a way of introducing a crude trading system with the Mage Guild, scrolls in exhange for gold, which will add bonuses to your current magic.

 

[Haresus]

Awesome.

Regarding magic, I would probably recommend traits that give you more points in Martial, Learning, Stewardship and so on, instead of replacing a skill with "Magic Knowledge" or something similar. It would make a lot more sense that way, in my opinion. People with magic traits would, of course, have a lot more options in events, have more health (If you become powerful enough you should have the choice of becoming immortal, and live until someone decides to stab you in the back) and just be generally better. There would also be dangers to it, like being possessed or simply killed by Daedra in experiments and people will distrust you more. Oh, and necromancy. Very important. There should always be a chance of becoming Cruel, Possessed or a Lunatic when practicing necromancy, but it should have some nice bonuses.

EDIT: Scrolls would be great events, here is a quick example:
"While reading through some dusty tomes/killing a local vampire/helping a good friend/ruling your Empire you found a scroll. You presume it is a magical scroll, and that it could teach you a thing or two. Or it might just be a dirty, useless paper. The local Mage´s Guild is likely to pay a small fortune for it anyway.

Choices:

• Sell it. Get XYZ ducats and +10 relations with a local Bishop/Priest/Mage.
• Read it, and try to unravel the secrets of this scroll. Chance of becoming a mage (I saw you had a system of traits already, with Expert Mage, Apprentice Mage and so on, no? Improve your Mage level by one, essentially), have a temporary increase to Martial/Stewardship/Diplomacy (You found a Charm/Fireball/Telekinesis scroll!), lose some prestige (After hours of reading, the scroll was a complete waste. And everyone in your court knows it.) or a really small chance of becoming possessed by a Daedra.'
• Throw the useless piece of paper away. Gain some prestige.
• Give it to your son/a lord/a mage/your wife/a family member of some other kind. They like you a lot more, and get the same event as you do. Which might lead to whoever getting the scroll becoming possessed, great fun!

 

[Bad_Haggis]

I think you should have a mage trait and leave it at that ATM, expand it later.