[MOD] The Bronze Age: Maryannu (No Longer in Development)

[Svanley]

No longer in development (9/11/22)
Download link to the mod in its last, unplayable state for CK3 v1.6 for those interested

We are proud to bring you the Bronze Age Mod under a slightly different name to CK3, which features a completely new custom made map featuring the Near East and Aegean in extreme detail. From the Minoans and Mycenaeans in the west to the Ancient Egyptians in the south, the Hittities in the North and the Sumerians, Akkadians, Elamites and Assyrians in the East. Dive into this world that is as detailed as it is ancient in one of two start dates, 2115 or 1590 BCE.

Download v1.7b for CK3 v1.2
Instructions: Extract the zip file and put the .mod file and the "The Bronze Age Maryannu" folder in your documents folder somewhere like this:
Documents/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings III/mods/

Spoiler: If you are having issues getting it to work:

Guide by Silver_Queen:

1. Make sure CK3 is installed on the same drive as your Documents folder. CK3 will keep your saves and your mods in your Documents folder even if the game itself is installed on a different drive, but the mods don't work when it's set up this way.

2. The mod download function on the Xbox Gamepass app doesn't work for this mod (or any mods?). It downloads the mod to the right folder and shows it as enabled, but the mod won't work in-game. You have to manually download the mod, put it in the Documents > Paradox > CK3 > mod folder, and then enable it in the Xbox Gamepass app. It will show up under Mods with a hard drive icon beside it to indicate that it was installed manually. Hope this is helpful to somebody.

Workshop

Features
The mod features many gameplay additions and mechanical changes like:
- Many new religious Tenets like Pharaohs, Oracles, Sumerian Mythology and so on with many more to come and exisiting ones fleshed out. (Currently Oracles and Patron Deities have placeholder effects).
- Exposure driven Innovations that need to be encountered by your culture to be researched. Current ones are Spoked Wheels giving Chariots, Composite Bows and lastly Writing.
- Buildings overhaul to fit the era and the focus on Urbanization.
- Addition of infanticide to represent the cruelties of the pre-modern world.
- A small taste of mechanics to come as the Distance Efficiency which lowers your gained levies and taxes gained based on distance, which can currently be lowered by Innovations.

And much, much more.

Credits
- Sloth made the incredible flatmap, loading screen, thumbnail, more map stuff like clouds/water colors, several icons like the Sumerian, Minoan/Aegean and Egyptian religious icons. Icons for levies, knights, chariots, military tab and more I am likely forgetting.
- Owlcoholic/Rewinged made the awesome Egyptian clothing available right now and more to come!
- Benjin made the Mycenaean helmet which is just a sneak peak at the plethora of more awesome stuff in the works!
- JR Dolan for his many extensive name list for Greeks, Luwians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Akkadians, Levantines and Hurrians! And possibly some more I am forgetting. There are a ton of names alright.
- MattTheLegoman made the great cedar tree.
- Oneven/lascupa made a bunch of coat of arms you find around the world.
- Skotos of Sinope for his research on Hellenic and Greek deities as well as a bunch of general research on the Aegean area and also for commissioning clothing!
- MikeW for amazing icons for men-at-arms and some buildings.
- MobJay made the coat of arms for Byblos.
- Nopani for making and running the subreddit found here and general community management.
- PrinterIsComing for his Cultural Titles for many, many cultures as well as Aegean and Mycenaean names.

 

[TheDerpyBeagle]

I'm confused, how is this even possible (to have a downloadable mod) when the game doesn't release for another two hours

 

[mwa11ace]

I'm confused, how is this even possible (to have a downloadable mod) when the game doesn't release for another two hours

The game has been out for 19mins at the time of writing this reply but i agree with your overall surprise!

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

I heard somewhere that the Bronze Age team got an early copy of CK3 in order to migrate the mod quickly.

 

[AnExplorer]

Best mod for Imperator, and it still looks just as amazing in CK3

Also it was because the team got into beta, thats why its such an early release.

 

[Torngasuk]

I eagerly look forward to becoming King of the Four Corners of the Universe.

 

[Djacir]

Impressive that you managed a released after a few hours of the release, even with beta access. Was pretty disapointed when you decided to stop development for Imperator, but, thankfully it seems i can enjoy right away your impressive mod.

 

[Svanley]

Impressive that you managed a released after a few hours of the release, even with beta access. Was pretty disapointed when you decided to stop development for Imperator, but, thankfully it seems i can enjoy right away your impressive mod.

Technically 4 minutes after release

 

[maxk94]

I dont understand the move to CK3 so far

 

[Berkyx]

I love the mod from impperator ! Great work !

 

[timsfker]

Fantastic work mod team, what a great surprise to have this drop on day 1 and I hope you all know we players appreciate your efforts.

 

[EnragedKiwi]

Wow!! Impressive this got rolling so fast. Was it simple to port the map from Imperator?

 

[Svanley]

@EnragedKiwi It was quite easy to get it to load but it looked like crap and needed to largely be redone. Like changing the terrain and adjusting the heightmap to the style of CK3 with mountains with edges and hills having some real heightmap variance etc.

 

[Svanley]

v1.2 has been uploaded to the workshop with other platforms soon to follow and should be save game compatible. It has several fixes:

- Adds a new map font by @ Sloth!
- Fixed 2 buildings not applying income correctly, while still showing it would in the tooltip.
- Fixed the Assyrian culture incorrectly being far behind in innovations at the start date
- The city of Wilion can build the Trojan Walls special building it should have been able to in the first place. This will require a new game to take effect though.
- Innovation progression from being ahead in eras or development has been reduced to vanilla levels but the reduced baseline progress still remains. Let me know whether the progression feels too slow/fast.
- Various localization fixes.

 

[Svanley]

v1.3 has been uploaded to the workshop and should be save game compatible, with other platforms to follow shortly. Changes:

- Fixed AI not building in cities correctly.
- Fixed being able to build more than 1 city holding per county which was never intended. (Can't allow more as they are meant to be powerful and stacking them in 6/7 braony counties would be very unbalanced).
- Fixed some cultural titles not working correctly.
- Minoa has been renamed Kerete which is much more correct. Egyptian Oases has been renamed Wahen and Red Sea Mu-Kedi for that immersion.
- Nerfed the Kerma Sub-Saharan import special building as they were already very powerful from their gold mines.
- Added a new main menu icon by Sloth
- The "Kemetic Reunification" CB was not working correctly and after seeming to not find a solution the CB will need to be redesigned. It has been made unavailable temporarily until then.
- And more localization fixes, they are endless...

 

[CPU Taro]

I dont understand the move to CK3 so far

Me neither. While I wanted I:R to be something closer to CK2 originally, the emphasis on RPG elements feels somewhat out of place in TBA. Pops, trade, and I:R's religion mechanics felt even more at home in TBA than in the days of the mid-Republic. But it's early still, and @Klyvare's mechanical work in Imperator was really impressive, so perhaps we just need to give it time to be built up anew.

I just hope they'll consider moving back if it doesn't actually offer any mechanical positives in the end. (That said, I wouldn't be surprised or blame them if this was basically a portfolio piece.)

@Klyvare: is multiple start dates something that was only possible in CK3? That was the first thing that stood out to me.

 

[Ezumiyr]

the emphasis on RPG elements feels somewhat out of place in TBA. Pops, trade, and I:R's religion mechanics felt even more at home in TBA than in the days of the mid-Republic. But it's early still, and @Klyvare's mechanical work in Imperator was really impressive, so perhaps we just need to give it time to be built up anew.

I can think of several reasons.
First, power was already a very personal thing during the Bronze age (even if that aspect is often disregarded by the public). CK3 makes it possible to put some emphasis on that. CK3 is perfect for the story of people like Akhenaton for example.
Second, Imperator isn't a very popular game, so moving to CK3 means reaching a greater fanbase - as well as finding new modders more easily.
Third, CK2 was the most moddable Paradox game and it looks like CK3 will be similar. Generally when the modding scene of a game is more active, it benefits to all modders.

And that's just the superficial stuff.

 

[CPU Taro]

Second, Imperator isn't a very popular game, so moving to CK3 means reaching a greater fanbase - as well as finding new modders more easily.
Third, CK2 was the most moddable Paradox game and it looks like CK3 will be similar. Generally when the modding scene of a game is more active, it benefits to all modders.

I don't think which Paradox "system"/game a mod is built upon is a realistic limit for those involved in total conversions. Most of the others' contributions listed don't actually necessitate direct interactions; and it's not like Imperator has half its mechanics hid behind DLC.

Anyway, Imperator was already sold by Paradox for being extremely moddable — at the very least, a significant step beyond CK2 already. If anything I feel like TBA mod demonstrated this very well.

 

[Svanley]

@Theodora Nil Yeah multiple start dates was not possible in Imperator without some submods and such essentially making it 2 versions of the same mod.

And I just 100% agree with Ezumiyr, perfectly summarizes the reasons the move was the best choice. Also while I was skeptical the character focus could fit, I've found it to actually fit very well like Ezumiyr mentioned with Akhenaten, and there are many more examples than that. Also dynastic aspect fits very well, there are many super long lived dynasties in the age. The Assyrian Adaside dynasty at the 1590 start date would rule for nearly a thousand years! Ending deep in the Iron Age at 722 BCE when Sargon II founded the Sargonid dynasty. The Kassite dynasty just ascended at 1590 and would rule into the 1100's BCE.

Edit: And yeah I'd say Imperator is very moddable indeed, the gui stuff for example is great. All that stuff is in CK3 too though, and PDX has really taken a massive effort to make everything as moddable as possible in CK3. Imperator had some very notable hardcoded stuff like CB's which in CK3 is fully moddable. The Sumerian revolt in the mod is a great example of this were in Imperator it is super janky and has a ton of possible exploits, some of which could unintentionally be activated. Also the reemergence of Gutium through some unknown mechanisms could cause it to retrigger... Compare that to CK3 where the revolt is just a special CB that only ever gets used in the actual revolt. Basically anything can be done within it.

Scripting the revolt in Imperator nearly broke my spirit, there was so much I wanted to do with it that just wasn't possible and just getting the bare-minimum to work sort of failed too with all the jankiness of it. I haven't checked 1.5 though, I think it added some new CB and it might be that they are moddable now.

 

[CPU Taro]

Thanks for sharing your thinking process!

And I just 100% agree with Ezumiyr, perfectly summarizes the reasons the move was the best choice. Also while I was skeptical the character focus could fit, I've found it to actually fit very well like Ezumiyr mentioned with Akhenaten, and there are many more examples than that. Also dynastic aspect fits very well, there are many super long lived dynasties in the age. The Assyrian Adaside dynasty at the 1590 start date would rule for nearly a thousand years! Ending deep in the Iron Age at 722 BCE when Sargon II founded the Sargonid dynasty. The Kassite dynasty just ascended at 1590 and would rule into the 1100's BCE.

I almost feel like this captures some of the criticism with I:R in general (for its base game's start date), the ways that dynastic content feels kinda empty, or how it's kinda unclear who one really is when it comes to Republics. But at the same time it had some really strong elements for civilisation/empire building; things that by default CK3 barely even touches on, or isn't as appropriate (like religion), or is just entirely missing (e.g. pops). And arguably those elements that Imperator: Rome excelled at are even more important in capturing older moments in capturing.

All that said, I really loved your custom mechanic work from the I:R version, and if anyone can wrestle CK3 into being appropriate for TBA, you seem capable of native complexity and polish on your work. So my fingers are crossed this works out.