Ancient Calradia - Release

Hey folks!

I will dive straight into the topic. After watching both 300 movies back to back two weeks ago, I was in dire need of a mod that adds Hellenic units to Bannerlord for some fun. About a week ago, I found the Ancient Civilizations asset mod on Nexus. It not only added Hellenic units but also Roman, Dacian, Celtic, and Persian units as well. It was an absolute gem. Unfortunately, it was just an asset mod, so technically, you had no chance to use it without anything else. Anyway, after realizing this, I thought, why don't I do it? That's how I decided to create this mod.

Last Friday, I started thinking about the mod's structure. I wanted to create something that doesn't heavily rely on stupid XLSL files or add new cultures that often cause compatibility issues with other games and save game problems. After a little thought process, I came up with creating my own faction injector system, which does sound slightly fancy but, in action, is actually pretty simple.

Basically, I divided the "characteristics" of the Empire culture into three distinct-looking empires and updated their systems at runtime whenever you load the mod. This is not separated as new cultures like many other mods do but rather still preserves the exact same culture object in the game. I revamped all unit tree equipment with their corresponding factions. I did not touch any unit ID or unit structure because I want this mod to be as compatible as possible with other mods.

Currently, the mod is exactly like vanilla Bannerlord, but with changed unit equipment and a few other small adjustments which I will mention. Before we delve into that, here is some information about the factions, their aesthetics, and their troop trees:

(Scroll allllll way down if you just wanna get it)

Western Empire

I envisioned this Empire as remnants of the Roman Empire. So you will find all Roman Empire aesthetic in this faction.

Southern Empire

Technically I wanted to make this mixture of Roman and Greek but then I decided to go full on Hellenic, because both mod had quite good armors for that faction and also I wanted to have full on Hellenic faction in the game.

Northern Empire

I wanted to give feeling of a shattered Empire by giving some characteristics of Dacian and Celtic while preserving the Romanesque feeling of the Empire. So this was inspired by Gallic Roman Empire.

Battania

I guess it goes without saying but it was based on Germanic/Celtic factions.

Vlandia

I used Dacian items and aesthetic for the Vlandians, even though I'm well aware that it would be better to pick something else but asset mod do not have too many options unfortunately.

Aserai

Well.. Persians. However, I had an issue with this, unfortunately mod was out of armors when it comes to Persians, so to balance the units, I branched out from Persia and mixed hints of Carthage to this faction as well. Because if I would stick solely to Persian armors in the mod, they would be basically a pajama army, which would be butter to a knife for other factions.

Sturgia

This was mixture of Sturgia in game, Celts and Dacians. It still looks distinct enough I believe, but occasionally it does look super similar to Battania or Vlandia. Once mod adds more stuff, I'm planning to add more variety to this faction.

Khuzait

This was the most problematic one for me, because mod does not have any distinct armors for this faction. I wanted to go with Saka route for Khuzaits, so current version is mixture or Greco-Linothorax and Khuzait armors. It looks rough on some edges but more the mod adds new armors, more I will bring armors to this when I have time.

And this mod updates all caravan guards, mercenaries, noble troops, faction leaders and even companions. Some images from different leaders:

Moreover, this mod also alters the arena equipment only for Imperial tournaments and make everyone to look like Gladiators:

And I also changed the UI a bit to give it a little Rome Total War look - which looks like this:

So how to use/install?

1- First go and download amazing mod from Scorilos (Ancient Civilizations) And it's only 2GB, (I know, crazy!)

2- Download this mod from here:

Link: https://drive.proton.me/urls/APCJE4SE74#eEb9ARtrjndc 

Password: thermo

And load this mod after Ancient Civilizations, and voila!

Notes:

- Mod should work in mid save. Yes, you can simply use this in your existing save game. BUT, once you save with this mod, you cannot remove it, because it's adding new items, new characters and all.

- Mod should work with Europe map mod without any issues at all. Though, it can be slightly weird since Lemmy added Southern Empire to Italy, so if you want to replace which Empire to be Hellenic which one to be Barbarian/Gallic, open SubModule.xml and change names (empire_s = southern empire, empire_w = western empire, empire = northern empire)

- If you don't like gladiatorial equipment, just change that in SubModule.xml before loading the mod.

- Mod can and most certainly isn't balanced for all units. Please let me know if some things are too OP or such. I can take a look at that.

- I will probably release this to public this weekend since more people play, more improvement we get for the mod. (Also because it depends on a public mod)

Some image dump: