Napoleonnoth

[Temuchin Khan]

...according to legend the first inhabitants of what is now England were a band of Trojans led by a man named Brutus...

What happened to the Celts? Or the mysterious Pre-Celts who built Stonehenge and who some people think were the Tuatha De Danann? And I thought Brutus was more of a Roman than a Trojan (which is Greek, isn't it?) name. That legend is screwy...

I never said the legend was true. However, it was fairly widespread in the Middle Ages. Also, the Brutus from this legend was a different Brutus from the Roman by the same name. And while the Trojans were Greek, the Romans claimed to be descended from them.

[Casual User]

First of, I think that the names you gave to the factions aren't clear enough.

That's really the problem when making a fantasy rendition of reality. Where do you draw the line between them?

A change I have been thinking of is changing the spelling from Rainnen to Rheinnen to make its germanic ascendance more obvious.

Imperium is being discussed (more on it later).

Bolearis used to be Borealis. I changed it as Borealis seemed rather weird, but do you think it would be better?

I'd like to keep Poenia. If it's too unclear, I might change it, but...

I've also had a look at your units list, but I couldn't find the grunts, while they were one of the most important units (or at least one of the most famous ones )

I obviously couldn't include all real-life units in the mix.

I think Grognards are fairly similar to Poenian Guardsmen.

BTW, I think you should add Prussia (Germany), because they played a very important role in European History in the 19th century.

But only in the second half of the 19th century. They were a minor power at best during the Napoleonic wars, as evidenced by how easily they were defeated.

Anyway, "brute" has the same meaning in English as it does in French

And in romanian, brutar means baker... I don't think Bruterium has the right connotation either way.

A replacement for Imperium that I've been thinking of is 'Mercia'. It's a historical reference (if memory still serves) and a reference to the mercantile ways of the British empire.

I also like 'Albion' a lot.

I would like to place a question on public ballot:

Currently, my infantry and cavalry lines are:

Code: Select all

infantry -> veteran infantry -> guardsman
                       -> skirmisher

cavalry -> veteran cavalry -> cuirassier
                              -> hussar

I have been thinking of changing them to:

Code: Select all

infantry -> guardsman -> veteran guardsman
       -> skirmisher -> veteran skirmisher

cavalry -> cuirassier -> veteran cuirassier
       -> hussar -> veteran hussar

Which do you prefer?

[Temuchin Khan]

A change I have been thinking of is changing the spelling from Rainnen to Rheinnen to make its germanic ascendance more obvious.

"Rheinnen" has my vote.

Bolearis used to be Borealis. I changed it as Borealis seemed rather weird, but do you think it would be better?

How about:

Boreas

Tsaria

BTW, I think you should add Prussia (Germany), because they played a very important role in European History in the 19th century.

But only in the second half of the 19th century. They were a minor power at best during the Napoleonic wars, as evidenced by how easily they were defeated.

Yes and no. They certainly did not have the land area of Austria, France, Britain, or Russia, and they certainly did not have a military genius to equal Napoleon, but throughout the eighteenth century they held their own against the great powers, and even managed to expand a bit at the expense of Austria.

A replacement for Imperium that I've been thinking of is 'Mercia'. It's a historical reference (if memory still serves) and a reference to the mercantile ways of the British empire.

"Mercia," as I recall, was the name of one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of early Medieval England. That might work.

Currently, my infantry and cavalry lines are:

Code: Select all

infantry -> veteran infantry -> guardsman
                       -> skirmisher

cavalry -> veteran cavalry -> cuirassier
                              -> hussar

I have been thinking of changing them to:

Code: Select all

infantry -> guardsman -> veteran guardsman
       -> skirmisher -> veteran skirmisher

cavalry -> cuirassier -> veteran cuirassier
       -> hussar -> veteran hussar

Which do you prefer?

I vote for option #2.

[Casual User]

"Rheinnen" has my vote.

Rainnen is now spelled Rheinnen (in the campaigns too).

How about:
Boreas
Tsaria

I've changed Bolearis to Borea.

Yes and no. They certainly did not have the land area of Austria, France, Britain, or Russia, and they certainly did not have a military genius to equal Napoleon, but throughout the eighteenth century they held their own against the great powers, and even managed to expand a bit at the expense of Austria.

Prussia could be added later on, but so could Spain, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, etc...

All of these 'held their own', but cannot be considered to have been major players in the first half of the 19th century.

All of these could be added later on (even Italy if we were to also do the later half of the 19th century), but in the 'first cut' will be only the 'major 4'.

I am still undecided as to renaming 'Imperium'. I will rename it before the era is released, but I still don't know how.

I vote for option #2.

The graphics are ready to go either way, but I am undecided (and have only received one vote in the vox populi.

P.S. Thanks for the feedback, Temuchin Khan.

[Casual User]

Wherein we discuss the units of the era

Many have noticed the absence of some historical types of units, such as grenadiers or lancers, in the era.

Allow me to explain something.

The regular armies of all countries at the time included:

Infantry:
-Stock (conscripts)
-Defensive (guardsmen)
-Light (skirmishers)
-Siege troops (grenadiers)
-Scouting (rangers)
-Offensive (sharpshooters)
-Support (infantry officers, medics, musicians, engineers, etc...)

Cavalry:
-Stock (basic cavalry)
-Light (hussars)
-Heavy (cuirassiers)
-Skirmishing (dragoons)
-Shock (lancers)
-Officers (superior officers)

Artillery:
-Stationary (defensive)
-Field (bombards)
-Light (small artillery)
-Siege (mortars)

All of these would have made great additions to the era. Naturally though, I did not include all of them.

So I made a simple decision:
Infantry and Cavalry have basic (lvl1), light (skirmishers/hussars) and heavy (guardsmen/cuirassiers). Artillery gets only basic field artillery.

PERIOD

I have added some of the other troop types as special units:
-Rheinnen and Borea get rangers
-Rheinnen also gets a sort of sharpshooter
-I wonder whether to keep the Poenian conscript or give them grenadiers
-Poenia and Albion get officers
-Borea gets light artillery (but no heavy)

So, should I add others? Maybe, but not yet. This is a big enough project as is, I don't need to make it bigger.

And one more thing. Unless I change my mind on it, there will never be lancers in Napoleonnoth.

Reason : They would be the only units to use lance-type weapons. I think they would jive too much on the battlefield.

If I want to add shock cavalry to a nation, I would give them a fast cavalry unit with a powerful charging sword attack (Tunnarian cavalry come close, but not too close).

[Casual User]

Hi!

Just a few words to let you know the project isn't dead.

I've played today the first Human vs AI in Napoleonnoth.

I've named the era 'Classical Era'. It seemed to fit.

I still don't have art for the artillery, and I want to refine the stats a little before I go public, so it'll be awhile before I publish, but the project isn't dead.

[Tux2B]

Great

[Angry Andersen]

Hi !

I really like your idea and hope you will complete it. Reading through this topic I noticed two things which I think do not fit too well:

a) You consider giving artillery magical attacks. How about marksman instead ?
b) +8Healing seems a lot when no magic is involved. I would limit all healing from units to only +4.

Regarding your question about levelling of units, I like the second ('elvish style') more, because it introduces variation earlier.

[unsung]

I just noticed this thread and read through it.

I have nothing to say about the unit, (this wasn't my favortie time period- No crazy people stabbing each other and sailing in dragon ships, no people running around in full plate, and no huge 2,000 pound bombs, and no ridiculous empires that went from a city to owning most of western europe, and those are the things that get my attention)

But I Wanted to say I like the name Mercia. It was one of those tiny dark age english kingdoms. sandwiched between wales, the saxons, and northrumbia I think. (very amusing to crush in medieval total wars viking campiagn,. especially as the irish. yay, throwing spears.)
I also like Albion , but it is also used a lot in the game fable (biggest dissapoinment ever). Not sure if you care about that though.

[Casual User]

a) You consider giving artillery magical attacks. How about marksman instead ?

It's a question of bonus. Artillery is REALLY supposed to blow the ennemy away, a 60% bonus won't do that.

I could make a custom special, but why go to so much trouble just to duplicate an existing special

b) +8Healing seems a lot when no magic is involved. I would limit all healing from units to only +4.

19th century medecine was more effective than 10-12th century medicine or 10-12th century "magic" combined...

But I Wanted to say I like the name Mercia.

To be honest, I'm probably going to name it Albion.

[Casual User]

Wherein we discuss future additions and projects for Napoleonnoth

As I see it, there are three stages for my project, and the stage in which we'll be will determine what the additions to Napoleonnoth will be. Allow me to outline them.

I. Up to the first release

Here's where we are. There isn't long to go, but I haven't released it yet. Rheinnen is coded and drawn in its entirety.

What I still have to do are two long and tedious jobs:

- Alpha-channeling the images. I draw in Paint and have to add an alpha-channel via Gimp afterwards. As I said, I did it for Rheinnen, now I have to do it three more times for each nation.

- Copy the .cfg files of Rheinnen units three times and change them ever so slightly to make the other nations.

These are tasks that need to be done, but they are long and tedious and boring as hell. Which is more, I have three mid-terms next week (I'll be free afterwards though)...

As such, allow me to say that the first release of Napoleonnoth will be as-is-now. Even a slight change in art or concept would force me to take the whole thing almost from the top. I don't feel like doing that.

II. Refining the first release

Once the first release is done, I want to work on the four existing nationalities.

It will be a great time to give me comments and suggestions for art, as I do wish to refine it, and I would whole-heartedly welcome suggestions for new units. If gameplay seems to require it, I will be completely up for a re-thinking of some of the basic concepts of the era.

It will be the moment when discussion about grenadiers, lancers, light artillery, etc... will be the best and most useful.

It will also be the moment for new art.

But, until I am reasonably satisfied with the four basic nationalities, I won't be adding any other.

III. Enriching the world of Napoleonnoth

Supposing we get this far, once the four basic nations are fleshed out nicely, I will start making other nationalities.

Apart from the 'major players' (France, England, Austria and Russia), other important countries in the Napoleonic wars were (in order):
-Prussia
-Spain
-Free Italian states
-Turkey

Once we will have all these in Napoleonnoth, all we will need is a Swedish nationality, and we can simulate all the countries of Europe.

Those that aren't directly made are similar to some who will have been made (Belgium with France, Holland with Prussia, Norway with Sweden, etc...)

Again supposing we do get that far, I also want to make a Romanian faction. Call it petty pride.

Other faction ideas that could be nice:

-Colonial army of England (different from standard)
-Japan or China (or both...)
-the US
-Colonial army of Spain (different from standard again)
-South American armies (Simon Bolivar anyone)
etc...

But one must remember this is far in the future.

P.S. Sorry for the double post.

[Hagow]

You might want to eventually change the artillery attack type to short or long to eliminate the enemy's chance to fight back.

'Course, the developers might drop these old attack types eventually.

[Casual User]

The First Release of the Classical Era is Here

At last, I have gotten Napoleonnoth far enough for me to release something. It's a working version of the Classical Era, including all four main nationalities.

It was made in Wesnoth 1.1.7, and should <a href="http://wesnoth.org/forum/?page=work">work</a> in 1.1.12 as well, but probably not in any version where you can't define custom weapon specials. I would say 1.1.7+ is the safest <a href="http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/search/bet">bet</a> for it to <a href="http://wesnoth.org/forum/?page=work">work</a>.

The units are crudely balanced, and I think all have their utility.

The art has not changed since the last time I posted.

The AI still cannot use them well, but he is closer to knowing how to use them than he did in my earlier versions.

Most unit descriptions are written, but not all.

ABOVE ALL, this is a first release. The balancing is not done, the art is not final, and up to the basic concepts can still change.

This also happens to be when I would need feedback the most, so don't be shy.

Unfortunately, this has coincided with some major weirdness going on with the campaign server. Therefore, I will post the era here for now, until I post it on whichever server it belongs on.

Simply unzip it to your ...Wesnoth/userdata/data/campaigns folder.

EDIT : FIRST RELEASE WAS BUGGED TO THE POINT OF BEING UNPLAYABLE. SEE LATER POST FOR CORRECT DOWNLOAD!!!

[BeRzErKeR]

Downloaded, going to go play now.

. . . That is, I would be playing, if I could figure out how to make it work. Sorry, I lack any and all computer skills. Help?

[Casual User]

... That is, I would be playing, if I could figure out how to make it work. Sorry, I lack any and all computer skills. Help?

1. Download the file.

2. Check if you have winzip.

2a. If you do, open the file directly.

2b. If you don't, google-search winzip, download winzip, then see 2a.

3. Check in 'Wesnoth/userdata/data' if you have a 'campaigns' folder.

3a. If you do, tell winzip to unzip to 'Wesnoth/userdata/data/campaigns'.

3b. If you don't, create the folder, then see 3a.

4. Open Wesnoth and go to MP, then select 'Classical Era'

5. Enjoy

P.S.
I see seven people have downloaded it so far. Any comments?