Faction: Norse

[niektb]

I've updated the first post with the buildings (though for the majority there are only concepts available, no references) and a unique technology (I tried to dig through this 24 page forum, it might be that I overlooked some)

[Le Druide Gaulois]

I didn't quite like the retextured house from 0AD. I made some home concepts. Notice that all of them have a window above the door and a hole on the roof as a chimney.

-1 and 2 are more urban types, the kind you would find in Danish or English towns.

-3,4 and 6 are rural, typical to northern Norway. Those are basically a roof shoved to the ground, much shorter buildings than 1 and 2

-5 is just a nobleman's longhouse

[niektb]

I didn't quite like the retextured house from 0AD.

[...]

I fully agree with you but I had nothing else on my hands to use for a smaller house so I made it as placeholder...

[Stan`]

Which ones do you like ?

[niektb]

My favorites are 1 and 3. Maybe 2 as a real different looking (but still the same style) variant.

[wackyserious]

*drools

Norse structures.. Someone model them quick! (Please)

[Le Druide Gaulois]

I like the ones niek mentioned but I still think we should give number 4 a shot, alongst with 1, 2 and 3.

[Le Druide Gaulois]

By the way, something is baffling me: this Norse faction we are creating is meant to be a mix of all the North Germanic peoples or is it based on a specifc nationality like Danish? Because I have a feeling our Norse are getting more Danish than Norwegian or Swedish, at least when it comes to buildings. This is not necessarely bad or anything, I just want to know if our Norse would be a more broad generalization or specifc.

[wackyserious]

They look more Danish-Norwegian (right now) for me, and I think that it is heading on a good direction. We could make a new civ proposal for the eastern ones (Swedes/Rus) The naming of the two factions would be the problem.

Say,

Norwegians vs. Irish

Danes vs. Anglo-Saxons

(Which group attacked the Frankish territories, by the way?)

These two groups operated mainly in the Western side of Europe

and then,

Swedes vs. eastern European factions (with the swedes using a mix of lamellar and chainmail armor and clothing styles which are slightly influenced by eastern European cultures.)

Edited September 5, 2015 by wackyserious

[wackyserious]

Interesting topic to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Empire

[niektb]

We should be talking about Norsemen in general (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsemen) but yeah, it seems that our Buildings are somewhat Danish and our units more Norwegians oriented.

Maybe it would be fun to offer a political decision in the Town or City Phase that allows you to choose between Economy (trading mostly) or Warfare (so choose between the Swedish or the Norwegians/Danish) and also gives you either the Huskarl and the Berserker or 2 Swedish champion units (dunno which ones though). How do you all think about this? (I know that diversion is limited just to the units and not the buildings but it might be better than nothing)

[Le Druide Gaulois]

Niek, I like this probability of specialization in the last phases. Perhaps this could be expanded to other civilizations as well, causing differentiation in many aspects including architecture (remember the architecture evolutions throughout Age of Empires stages?).

[niektb]

I'm not sure if architecture evolution is already supported properly in this game (not talking about the need for a lot more models we would have).

But yeah, such differentiation I already planned to cover small subfactions (such as the Hanseatic league in pt. 2) but it makes balancing quite harder since you add extremely influental choices. (Though it is ofc possible to limit the influence of those choices to maybe 2 or 3 units / technologies)

Edited September 5, 2015 by niektb

[wackyserious]

I think we should create a new faction if we want to see Eastern-looking Vikings in the game.

The Varangians or Rus were a group of Norsemen who explored, raided, and later settled in some parts of Eastern Europe, mixing with the local populations. Some of their major town and cities became important trading centers in Eastern Europe. The Rus dominance in the area declined when the Mongols invaded the area.

Culture: Rus / Varangians

Parent culture: North-Germanic and Eastern-European mix.

Political factions: Kievan Rus' and Republic of Novgorod

Military units: A mix of Rus/Varangian and local Eastern-European troops

Champion unit: Druzhina (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druzhina) Mostly, Varangians in early period, became a mix of Rus' and local nobles later on.

Architecture: Eastern European

[niektb]

I think there are 3 options:

1. Say that the current direction for the Norse is a good direction and do nothing with Eastern Vikings.

2. Introduce Swedish units by means of a political decision.

3. Create a new faction for them.

I'm personally not so fond of the 3rd tbh. That would mean that we need to create a huge load of additional civs (in order to represent all those subfactions (from other countries too) properly)

[wackyserious]

Ah, yes, I also agree somehow, that an Eastern-Viking faction is not necessary right now, but we should Introduce the Rus' in part 2.. They were the first victims of the Mongol invasion of Europe, with the lack of unity of the Rus people and the disintegration of the Kievan Rus' the Mongols were able to easily penetrate though Eastern Europe. (Kiev was besieged in 1240)

How about a new mercenary unit? Doesn't have to be that strong, maybe the equivalent of an elite swordsman. We can call them something like, Eastern-veterans or Varangians mercenaries and trainable in ships or in the market place? They are the ones who will be wearing lamellars and Eastern influenced clothing..

By the way, are the Swedes during that time really don't look identical to the western and southern ones in terms of clothing and architecture? I believe that the image that Le Druide posted on SPM is a Varangian-Norse or simply, a Rus'..

Edited September 6, 2015 by wackyserious

[Stan`]

I made the 'a' house. I don't have a steady internet connection so will probably upload them at the end of the week

Btw improved norse texture a bit.

Edited September 6, 2015 by stanislas69

[niektb]

The Varangians come mostly from the Swedish area:

"it is often argued that most of the Varangians who traveled and settled in the eastern Baltic, Russia, and lands to the south came from the area of modern Sweden .^[17]"

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#Kievan_Rus.27}

So I don't think that you can make a sharp distinction between Swedes and Varangians (or Rus') in part 1. (especially since the time-frame we operate in is at the beginning of their colonization activities in Russia. -> though we also go further till the 10th century in which the Rus' states are quite dominant in the area but also the Varangian culture starts to decline and mix up with local Slavish culture)

[wackyserious]

Ah, sorry, I've looked on the OneNote topics, so there was already a planned Rus' faction for part 2.. but they belong to the Late Medieval Period timeframe (1301-1500 A.D.)

A bit off topic, I suggest that we divide the mod timeframe again..

1.) Early Medieval Period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Middle_Ages (Fall of Western Roman Empire - 1000 A.D.)

(The dark ages or "What we are currently working with right now.")

2.) High Medieval Period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Middle_Ages (1001 - 1300 A.D.)

Faction: England (High Medieval) aka "Norman up to Angevin England"

• Highlights: The Crusades ( First, Second and Third Crusades)

Faction: Rus' (High Medieval) aka "Kievan Rus"

• Highlights: Start of the decline of the Kievan Rus', and culminating to the Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe

3.) Late Medieval Period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages (1301 - 1500 A.D.)

Faction: England (Late Medieval) aka " England during the three phases of Hundred Years' War"

• Highlights: Hundred Years' War

Faction: Rus' (Late Medieval) aka "Remnants of the former Kievan Rus'" or "Various Rus duchies, principalities and republics"

• Highlights: Establishment of various Rus' political factions and the conflicts between these groups, culminating with the dominance of the Grand Principality of Muscovy

Edited September 6, 2015 by wackyserious

[wackyserious]

New preview image featuring the new Norse house models designed by Le Druide Gaulois and 3D modeled by Stanislas69

[Le Druide Gaulois]

Very rough sketch of the fort.

[Stan`]

So you expect it to be one building ?

[Le Druide Gaulois]

Well... yeah, lol. I meant it to be somewhat off scale, so it woudn't take as much space in the map. And this kind of wall could aslo be used as an inspiration to the regural wall.

[wackyserious]

I need opinions, are these textures too colorful for the Norse?

Player color indicators: Pants, shields and capes

Edited September 10, 2015 by wackyserious

[niektb]

You remember that thing I said in the SPM about the color palettes used?

Maybe we could look to the color pallettes we use for each faction. I can imagine that we would use earthly colors for the viking, gray (maybe with a small tint of blue) for the Carolingians and more bright yellow / brown for the Saxons.

Read this for a nice idea about the Saxons' clothing coloring: http://1000footgener...r-palettes.html (though it aims at puppet painting)

Norse: Earthly colors with dark green and brown, like the upper 6 in this one: