Comments - Arivius

I have nothing really to say other than "Patience", haha. The mod is pretty much in its infancy, but there is some progress, in fact I expect a large chunk of things to be done during summer, I'm just not exactly sure how much.

Yes, historical plagues is something I'm looking forward to include in the game, although for obvious reasons it's less of a priority (have to release the base mod in the first place ;P). And yes, eventually I do want to include something of a dev diary. That's initially how I wanted to work on the mod since I started it (hence the Features I used to release quite often), but I quickly realized it's a bit of a folly to do that given my highly erratic work schedule and simply lack of reference point for you guys (I'll probably return to this format once you have something to test and play).

*claps*

For sure with every one of them at the very least up to the Horse Lords. I'm not perfectly sure about some of the other DLCs, like the newest one, the Reaper's Due, or the Conclave, as I'm personally quite critical of the released content. We'll see about that I suppose. And thank you very much for the support, I very much appreciate it!

Thank you! And honestly... I have no idea. I don't use the mods myself and it might probably be quite tricky, as I'm planning a complete overhaul. Who knows, I suppose we'll see in the future.
With the map it might be even more tricky though, since a brand-new map is one of the core new components in this mod.

Yes, you're very much true on that, and I decided to never ever repeat that mistake again. Thanks for the support, I appreciate it :)

I certainly appreciate the idea and understand the motivation behind it. I believe it would be manageable actually, if it weren't for one thing. My work schedule is far from stable and is quite erratic lately, due to external factors mostly associated with my studies. In other words, I'm not sure if I could really manage updates every two weeks or so, because I sometimes don't do anything with the mod for a month, only to return to it and work on it for 7 days straight.

Nevertheless I'll consider your feedback and will try to find some middle ground. Thank you very much for feedback, I greatly apprecaite hearing from you guys.

Thanks, I do believe so too. And you too!

Thanks! I'll try as best as I can!

Haha, I guess that much is true. Although it's not the best feeling in the world to be compared to Valve when it comes to development delays, haha.
On a serious note though, thanks for support. It really means a lot.

Yes, I am aware of the huge disappointment, and to be honest this is why I've been delaying the announcement for so long. The idea that I wasn't able to deliver on my promise was depressing.
That's the reason I chose not to make any more promises until I'm 100% sure I can fulfill them. No more disappointments.

And concerning porter34's idea... Well, I guess it's a nice one, though still, I believe everything right now revolves around the map. Changing province names is really a minor thing compared to the scope of essentially rebuilding the province map from a scratch.
Another thing is that I am wary of my work, especially my province map of which I'm really proud, being stolen. I don't like the idea of months of my work being used in a manner I did not authorize. I will think about your idea though. I must say that is something that never actually occured to me. Thanks for feedback!

Unfortunately, that deadline is not possible anymore. I'll explain the delay soon.

I tend to lean towards umbrella terms, if for no other reason then because it's more pragmatic. Even as it is right now, with umbrella cultures (like Celtic or Hellenic) we still know comparatevily little of certain cultures (like Celtic).

Separate cultures call for lots of localization and my dream of this mod was actually to, eventually, make each culture slightly different in terms of mechanics and gameplay to any other.

Division into multiple specific cultures sounds like a great idea, but for games like EU4 where the culture is more like a placeholder and holds in fact quite effect on the overall gameplay, aside from giving a flavour.

Now, as I said, due to the scarcity of sources on antiquity in general (we know ridiculously little about the actual ancient world compared to what it actually was like) it's virtually impossible to properly reflect all those tiny cultural flavours, except when they make a truly major distinction.
When it comes to Celts or other less-known people, I try to rely on linguistic and (to a lesser extent) cultural factors. That is to say, if one tribe spoke the same language as the other one, and had largely similar customs - I classify as the same.
To give specifics, currently I have divided the Celts into Gauls (which is more or less a placeholder for Continental Celts), Celtiberians, Belgics, Galatians, Britons, Goidels and Picts.

Concerning Greeks, in this case I tend to favour the view that in the time frame of the mod, that is, already after the advent of the Hellenistic Era, cultural and linguistic divisions between parts of Greece Proper aren't as important anymore, as the whole Hellenistic community started to get both homogenous and syncretic.
To give another example, yes, you have Hellenic culture which corresponds to the cultures of the "traditional", native Greeks, but you also have Macedonian, Hellenistic (Greek-Eastern melting pot culture), Ptolemaic (Greek-Egyptian) and Bosporan (Greek-Scythian) cultures.

There's an article with full list of cultures to be included in Ancient Kings, so you can check it out for more intel.

I apologize for such a lengthy response, I hope I answered your questions in the matter.

Unfortunately I'm going to disappoint you. Due to real life issues I'll be most probably forced to delay the release to the next year, unless some miracle happens.

There was no unitary Greek state in the antiquity, if that's what you mean, but yes, there will be a plethora of Greek poleis to choose from. Sparta, Athens, Syracuse, Epirus, Achaean League, Aetolian League, Taras, to name but a few.

Of course!

Thanks!

Eventually - of course. I'm just not sure how much of that will be available in the alpha. There's lots of work still to be done before the release. Regardless, my original plan was to prepare a series of patches following the alpha release that would basically flesh out each important historical faction or a bookmark character with big chunks of events.

To localize you don't have to know almost anything about coding. The system is very rudimentary.
Keeping the discipline - sure. But you must admit, the example of William the Conqueror isn't particularily... relevant to the time period. I didn't mean there shouldn't be any choice whatsoever, just that trying to keep such discipline might cause tangible consequences.

What I meant was that you seem to be resourceful in your ideas and descriptions and I could use someone like that when it comes to writing down event localization and whatnot.

Anyway, as much as I like your ideas, comments section is not a place to discuss things with such detail, so if you want to be of more help to the mod, PM me.

People of ModDB, I once again call for you to have your say!

Below you'll find a link to another poll, this time on the question whether religious orders should be present in Ancient Kings and, if so, in what way. This time the matter is a bit more complex and also more vital to the mod, which is why I also provided the space for your own suggestions if you feel the answers provided are not enough. Thank you for any feedback you provide and for your continuous support to the project!

Poll-maker.com

I really like what you wrote here. Would you be interested in aiding me with localizing events in the future? You seem to be quite resourceful in that respect and I could really use that.
Meritorically speaking, I plan to add the option to destroy holdings. It may be tricky to balance, but that's what history calls for. I very much like your other ideas and would like to discuss them in more detail some time.
One small thing that comes to my mind though that given that looting was a very, very general partice in the ancient world, almost indivisible from war. Loots were a major part of every military campaign and they were also a huge motivation boost for soldiers. That being said, I don't think players should be necessarily punished ("craven" trait) for allowing this to happen. Or at least, not in such a decisive manner. After all, I'm of the opinion the danger of mutiny when faced with forbidding looting would be quite real and what we deem today as a matter of discipline and justice, could in fact lead quickly to one's downfall.

Boudica's Rebellion - of course. I know it may be a titanical effort, but I plan to eventually include all the major conflicts throughout the period covered by the mod.
The Dominion of Soissons part - yes, except that the name you used is anachronistic and will not be used in the mod. My prediction is that the base title for Syargius' domain will be Dioecesis Galliae.

Thanks!

Of course. I'll have it no other way. I'm planning on contacting the devs of AGOT and ask them to use some of their slavery content, maybe expand a little bit upon it.
I am fully aware of the widespread nature and importance of slavery in the ancient world, don't worry.

I don't know, to be honest. I only vaguely heard of the mod, I will have to check it out to see if they can work together. There's a huge probability it won't be possible however. If not, though, I may attempt to collaborate with the author and implement some of their ideas. We will see.

People of ModDB, I could use your help at the moment. With Spain complete, I'll be updating the land connections between provinces (like the ones in the Straits of Gibraltar) that are otherwise disconnected from each other.
Majorca and Minorca, like in the vanilla, will be connected. An additional island in that region was added by me however - Ibiza - and I'm not sure whether it should stand out on its own or be connected to Majorca.
I leave here a link to a poll where you can leave your answer. Knowing your opinion would help me out a lot. Thanks!

Poll-maker.com

Well, at the moment I'm working on reference maps for Germania (roughly the area between rivers Rhine and Vistula) and Scandinavia, as well as that half-baked Ethiopia and Nubia map. Locations and names of all the ancient settlements/tribes in the area is what I'm particularily after.

Apart from that, locations and names of Scytho-Sarmatian tribes in Europe (everything west of Ural range), as well as other peoples, like Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes in that area, especially prior to the Great Migrations.

Ah, I apologize. RL pressure mostly and the scarcity of sources. I got kinda stuck trying to find information on ancient settlements in Ethiopia and Nubia. There are very few sources available on that subject. I promise I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.

But seriously, I know I screwed up my working schedule. Kill me if I don't make some serious submission by the end of September. ;)

I'm waiting for the implementation of the new province map to reawaken the mod's thread on Paradox forums. So far, if you have any questions, you can post them directly to me, or through the forum tab on ModDB. That, or through Facebook.

Heh, thank you. I do wish I had the money myself to be able to pay artists and graphic designers so that they could contribute to the mod things I, sadly, am unable to do myself.
But, the work goes ever onwards. I sincerely apologize for the fact that I haven't made any update really. This semester is really consuming a lot of my time. Hopefully, with June, I'll again have more time to contribute to modding. I do want to finish the goddamn map as soon as possible. Anyway, stay tuned! :)