It would be interesting. If I were able to pull that off without it feeling like it’s just LoA in Asia, I think I would be interested in playing around with that side of the world.
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Maybe instead of it being from the position of nobility, it could be framed as someone of a middle class or similar? If Japan-esque, maybe set it around a merchant family during the last days of isolation? And if China-esque, an official or general during the fall of a dynasty, or in the late eras, the child of a Mongol-analogue general?
You could preserve the historical feel and sense of scale of LoA, while telling a completely different story with it.
What time period do relate this game to? It seems to have a bit of Crusader Era mixed with reformist England. Also, how close to history do you want to keep this too? Are you willing to discover a New World early, or to make a matchlock rifle and gun powder?
The story is set roughly in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The crusade portion is heavily influenced by the the mid-12th century and the rise of Saladin especially, although that is thrown into what would be contemporary technology levels to the rest of Norwall.
I did include a rapidly advancing beginning of jousting and organized tournaments, which would historically become a thing only in the High Medieval period, when heavy knights were being slowly faded out by gunpowder and knights became more figures of romance.
Speaking of gunpowder, if you play through the crusades, you may end up encountering black powder, as it would be making an entry into the Middle-East via the silk road during the late 13th century. There’s even a passing reference to a “westerner” who has traveled to the edge of the world in the east and written a book about it.
Generally I want to keep things realistic. I realize that I’ve bent some things already, but there are also different things influencing the timeline that make things a bit different and wobbly on that scale. The social progress is probably more progressive than anything else, because otherwise everyone would simply be a profiteering asshole and there wouldn’t be much of a story to tell. The main character would have way more death scenes.
Technologically I’m striving to keep things close to our historical timelines, although I will be sure to give some chances for the player to become a groundbreaking pioneer in certain things and a sponsor that would allow faster adoption of some technology. An example of the technology would be that during the war in Valmagne you start seeing the introduction of the coat of plates on top of mail and the beginnings of what would end up as full plate armor. You also get to see some of the evolution from the bucket helm of your mentor to the slanted-top great helm of the generation following the main character.
Technological leaps like better muskets were oftentimes fueled by necessity in wartime. In peace, it doesn’t really matter what the soldiers drill with. Even super-fancy technological marvels might be put in their hands. But if that marvel doesn’t work in times of war, then it becomes a race to somehow improve on that and make it work at the same time. So I don’t think I’ll introduce those early. Perhaps they might come late, because there is no Hundred Years War raging and fueling technological advance in Norwall and Valmagne during the period.
Discovering the new world is something I’m thinking about a lot in regards to this and I think it will be a thing in the very next sequel. There may end up being a scene included where you can use your influence to pull strings and get funding for a voyage west. That scene would take place some time around the birth of Columbus or the time of him trying to beg for funding. I’m not quite sure yet on the exact years. I’ll need to do some math before I lock that in.
You blend the time periods very nicely, I must say that the direction that you are going makes me excited to see the other games that you’ll eventually make. I just wonder, what your decedents will be, as more then likely they lost power with the changing times.
Edit: Will you include a map of the world that you’re involved in? It would just help me more and some others, in understanding where people are divided and where the player is, at different times.
There are going to be periods where there has been a dwindling of power or an increase in power, depending on how the society is shaping up and choices in previous titles. In the sequel, I will be stripping all of the power of a noble away from the main character and focus on international church intrigues.
A map is at this point the most requested feature. I need to play around with that more. Ever since inception of the world, I have tried to form something and always ended up with a continent that simply feels way too much like Europe. It’s supposed to, but I’m also trying to find a flair to it that will make it less of a direct copy. I’m sure there will be one eventually, whether by my hand or the hands of a fan.
If its going to focus on the church… Do we have to play a religious/pious person? I liked how in the first game my character could literally not give a damn about religion, god, or anything like that (even if he did have to pay lip service to them)
Could our character still basically be “I don’t care about religion”? I’d like that to become a family trait XD
No noble power at all. That will make some things very interesting, and I hope that someone with more artistic talent than me will try to draw one that you like. Will you add more statistics in this one, like intrigue or cunning, because I assume that it might be a little more cut throat then the last one, especially if my MC isn’t particularly religious around the church.
More statistics would be hard to manage, though they would be very interesting. Or possible variants of the previous stats, since those went hand in hand with the nobility to me, so it’s possible there will be a whole new batch of stats if we lack noble power in the next installment.
In what way do you want it to be different from Europe like land masses or political
@Fallaner You can be a pious person if you so choose, but ultimately the church is a very different kind of hierarchy with powerhungry people every which way you look, even if they are publicly preaching the word of the One True God. I’m sure in our world there have been Popes who sat because they wanted the power, not because they thought they were the chosen emissary of God on earth.
@NoGo There will be some say in how matters are handled in Aswick, but the main character is not going to be the chosen heir and Earl of Aswicdale. I will end up rehashing the stats to certain extent to make it more focused on what someone who can’t solve problems by might would require. It is going to be a lot more focused on intrigue rather than wars and mixing of noble bloodlines.
@kingzug Kind of both. I don’t want the world to be a carbon copy of Europe with just the names changed, but geographically there will be a similar divide between cultures and nations as there is in our world and the land masses bear some similarity.
Politically, there are a great deal of exciting things happening which are completely outside hypothetical results in our history, so in that part this world stands out more from our own.
I’ll see if I can arrange the world a little bit and come up with a crude map as to what you might be looking at. I really want to make a period-accurate Mappa Mundi, but that would just be confusing for everyone.
EDIT: Although I’m not entirely happy with it, here’s a rough idea of what the Trinitarian world would look like. Made with the amazing online product at inkarnate.com
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Ok, I figured that intrigue would have to play a bigger part, because you would be closer to people and you wouldn’t have your nobility protecting you, as it did in the first one. I’m a little confused on the map part though, I thought the Norwall/Ballagan area was more small islands, with Ballagan being the larger landmass, and then Norwall, followed by many of these small islands.
Like I said, it’s a rough map and I’m not completely satisfied with it. It will end up being refined.
At the core of the Selonian isles is a long snaky island that holds the main mass of both Ballagan and Norwall. This central landmass is surrounded by many smaller islands, from hundreds of small ones along the coast to a few larger ones. Sterling should be slightly lower along that narrow section, which would make Ballagan larger.
Ahh, but thanks, the map, even if it’s not perfect for how you want it yet. It clears up some of the questions that I had, and definitely gives me a clearer picture. Does The Orient control even the Northern part of what is Africa, like the coast just south of the Cambrain Peninsula?
Not really. The Orient is the word used for the region surrounding the holy lands. There is a rising centralizing power there that is starting to gain power (mainly thanks to black powder) all the way down into the Cambrain peninsula. Even so, the lands are divided into large states governed by a variety of rulers.
The differences between a state in southern Cambrain, one across the sea in Nubient and one bordering the Accadian Empire are often overlooked by Trinitarian world in favor of blanketing it as the “Masharet hordes” coming to swallow everything good and righteous. That view isn’t helped by the fact that they do often band together despite all internal struggles when the Trinitarians march to holy war against them.
I believe I once wrote down around a dozen names for Masharet states, and I would estimate that’s around how many there are as sovereign states. There would be more than that which are powerful enough to be free of their overlords but choose to remain part of larger state.
be mighty interested too what ever you been up too of late and if a working demo shows up i`ll be even more entertained.
Will there be one where you go back to tribal times and have your own tribe to eventually come under a clan leader that will become a tribal king also sorry for saying all my ideas I am very talkative and it hurt to not talk
Rising centralizing power, that sounds like the Ottoman Empire, or was there one before that. You said that you weren’t really planning to go into the Napoleonic Era, because that sort of goes into SOI. If you get more support, would you be willing to try to advance closer to the modern era, like 1800’s equivalent?
@redhead222 It won’t be anything that I can show you for a while. Just playing around with random scenes when it comes to LoA. Trying to finalize stuff for Best of Us while also being on a binge of DMing two D&D campaigns.
@kingzug Probably not. I did play around with the idea of a prequel set around the same neighbourhood before it became Norwall. I think it’s more likely that I will end up creating a story in the vein of Norse sagas, set in the same world but removed from LoA.
@NoGo During our historical period, it would’ve been Ayyubid Egypt. In the world of LoA, it would be more akin to a Persian-Mesopotamian culture. The Masharet have their religious roots there and it tends to be that any strong factions within their faith originate there. It is the heartlands of many ancient empires as well.
I need to see if I come up with anything that would actually serve the world of LoA by putting a main character in the 18th or 19th centuries. It’s most likely that if I do create something in that kind of a timeline, it’ll be removed from the places and families you would know from the series. It’ll instead stand on its own in the same shared world, without direct ties or even save sharing for that matter. But that’s going way too many steps into the future to know anything for certain.
just saw the picture you posted… i am tempted to play ck2 and mod the files so that the nations have the same name… haha…