Mount & Worlds

Misguided allow me to post his beatifull story here, it is not finished but still is wonderfull.

"And then they were gone.

An eerie silence descended on the village; a deceiving peace mirrored in the breathless stare of a gut-shot child, too confused to realize she is dying. Even the fires seemed to burn quietly, the smoldering remains of the houses of her neighbors. Each was a pyre, a pathetic monument to the memory of those so easily forgotten.

A breeze blew through the smoking ruins, gentle fingers of wind brushing strands of hair across the eyes of the dying girl. It carried the smoke and the sickly-sweet charnel stench of burning families. In the wake of its passage, the calm was shattered by the crashing fall of the burning longhouse. The girl’s head jerked up as she awoke to her pain, and the roar of the renewed fire was punctuated by her high, heartbreaking keen.




“Filiadh, I think this one is alive.”

The rebel lord stalked over to where his surgeon was picking through the razed village in a search for survivors that had, until that moment, been in vain. When he got there he could not, for a moment, see whatever had caught Ansen’s attention. Then a tiny, soot-blackened arm separated itself from the muddy ruin that had been the foundation of a home, and he saw that what had looked like just another lump of blood and grime was in fact the body of a child, a black-fletched arrow jutting angrily from an ugly wound in its belly.

“My god,” said Ansen. “It’s a little girl.”

Filiadh looked down at the weakly moving child and watched her eyes, shockingly blue in her mud covered face, flutter as pain and fear glazed them into incomprehension. “Can you save her?” he asked.

“I don’t know, m’Lord. She’s been wounded in the stomach. Hurts like this are difficult to heal.”

“Try.”

“If you say so sir. Don’t get your hopes up, though. She’s strong, or she wouldn’t have survived the last three hours, but I’ve seen grown men die of lesser wounds.” The surgeon shook his head before calling two men over to aid him.

“Ansen,” said the haggard lord, “This was my village. My people. Mine!” He shook his balding head, and resumed in a quiet, almost subdued voice, “And so is the responsibility. I owe a debt to these dead, and the only person left alive to receive payment is that little girl. I want her to live.”

The surgeon nodded, but resignation tightened his lips as he bent to his work. Filiadh placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tell me, Ansen. Those men who died of lesser wounds… were they tended by you?”

Ansen looked up with a smile that was almost natural. “No, m’Lord. No they were not.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll do my best.”

Filiadh nodded, gave his friend’s shoulder a tired squeeze, and turned to survey the wreckage that had once been a thriving community.

His eyes hardened. Bandits he understood. In fact, many used the term to describe his own men, now that he had rebelled against the grasping weakling in Ravenstern and taken these lands for his own. He knew the hardscrabble life that could lead men to kill. He had lived that life. But this? This was the work of no bandit. Two bodies had been found in the wreckage which did not belong to men of the village. Both wore livery, and the story it told chilled the old warrior’s blood.

His village had been sacked, its people brutally raped and murdered… and it had been done by a lord of Sarleon."

Thank you Misguided for letting me put this fine art you did.

Cheers.

Today SenseiTW from http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com announced the release date for the demo of the long awaited Empire Total War.
The announcement is as follows:

"Hi guys, I am pleased to report that our official Empire: Total War demo will be available via Steam from 4pm GMT on Friday 20th February.
Giving you a taste of the epic engagements that you'll be experiencing from 3rd March, the demo will take you through the basics of land and naval command and then unleash you in two historical battles!
You will get to play as the mighty British Empire as they do battle against the Americans in the 'Battle of Brandywine Creek' and then take on the French Navy in the 'Battle of Lagos'...

Battle of Brandywine Creek

After landing from his transport ships on the American coast, Major-General Sir William Howe led the British troops eastwards, with the intention of capturing Philadelphia. In preparation, American General George Washington readied most of his units to defend from this frontal assault around the narrow crossing of Chad's Ford on the Brandywine. The Creek flows through the countryside of Pennsylvania, enveloped by sheer cliffs and heavily wooded hills on both sides. Safe in the knowledge the fast flowing creek could not easily be crossed; Washington was confident of holding his position.
However, more detailed surveillance of the terrain would suggest that alternative routes could turn the battle in the favour of the British.

Battle of Lagos

As so often in 18th Century warfare, French plans to invade England during the Seven Years War were reliant on ships from the naval base at Toulouse joining ships from Brest. The British had both ports blockaded, and the French had to wait for one of the blockading fleets to withdraw for re-supply before attempting any rendezvous.
The opportunity came when the British fleet under Admiral Boscawen at Toulon withdrew to Gibraltar. The French under Jean-François de la Clue-Sabran left Toulon, and began to make their way towards Brest. Passing the Straits of Gibraltar, the French were spotted by Boscawen's lookout ships.
Giving chase, Boscawen's fleet was only slightly larger than the French force, and caught up with them off the coast of Portugal where battle was joined. Take control of the British and defeat the French to end the invasion threat to Britain.

We hope that you enjoy playing our demo, which will give you a small taste of Empire: Total War action in preparation to leading your own empire to victory in March!

Thanks, Mark O'Connell (aka SenseiTW) "

This will be a long night but tomorrow 9:00 a.m ( in my country) the demo will be out! Too bad that i'll be at school and after the school i'll make a trip, so i don't know if i'll be able to play the demo in the following week...=(
But as soon as i play it, i'll make a review of my thoughts =), even if it's not needed =D.

Cheers!

Hello everybody, I have to thank you all for my 2000 visit!
I know I didn't deserved it, for my absence, but I have to thank you that in a indirect form kept the blog alive and supported it, it was your visits that made me come back...
But, again I ask, please leave a comment/critique/suggestion anything.

Cheers.

Hello folks, i'm back and with excellent news: Mount & Blade will have a expansion with multiplayer feature!

Armagan, Mount & Blade creator posted:
"I see that there are some valid concerns. Let me address them briefly here:

-Multiplayer will not be the only new feature in the expansion pack and we`ll do our best to improve other aspects of the game.

-The main reason we wanted to include multiplayer is so that we can play it ourselves. You can be sure we'll do our best to make it fun. I hate exploits and unrealistic tactics in games as much as you, so we'll do our best to avoid those. We'll also no doubt have some sort of beta program so we'll get feedback from the players before any features are finalized.

-Players will definitely be able to run their own servers, though we want to have some official servers as well.

-Actually, our publishers have never interfered with our creative vision. The reason I opted for implementing multiplayer battles instead of focusing on cooperative multiplayer is because cooperative mp is even more difficult than what we are doing now (since you have to handle map movement, parties, various menu windows and everything else) while at the same time, it is much more restrictive. With the current system, apart from playing against humans, you'll be able to team up with your buddies against any number of AI opponents and play a cooperative game (albeit without the campaign aspect) so in a sense we'll have the best of two worlds.

-We are trying to be very careful to keep compatibility with the existing module system. (So far the only incompatibility is in module_animations) Therefore, porting will hopefully be very easy.

-Of course everything is not rosy and come out we are still at a very early stage and wondering how we'll overcome various hurdles. Compansating for lag is a particular problem, since the game allows you to become up close and personal with your enemies and observing your opponents moves and countering them is so essential. We are trying to be creative here and we'll adjust the gameplay if necessary, but there is only so much we can do and if you are on a slow connection or if the server you are playing at is too far your game may inevitably become somewhat sluggish compared to the single player game. We'll of course try our best to keep that to a minimum."

Besides, there are some rumors confirmed about graphics, they are much better.

For the announcement see here: http://www.gamersdailynews.com/story-8154-Paradox-Interactive-New-Titles-Announcement.html

For screenshots look here: http://www.fz.se/bilder/?id=90011 (it is in a foreign language)

Cheers and can't wait to play it with you!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEGA has announced a DEMO for Empire Total War, for more information look here:
http://www.totalwar.com/empire/index.php?t=EnglishUK

Cheers.

Cheers.

Hello everyone, this time I bring some bad news, at least for me, my computer had a crash and now i'm going to fix, so I'll only be able to post again when my computer come back from repair.
I assume that it will take 3 days more or less.
As soon as i get it i'll post some news here.

Cheers!

Altair2

Dear readers and followers of this blog, I bring some news.
At monday i'm going to travell to the beach, and there, I imagine, there is no way to update this blog, maybe if there is some kind of cyber cafe ( place to access internet), i shall post some news, but if there is no cyber cafe or internet at all, i'll only update the blog Saturday 24th.

Cheers,
Altair2

Thank you every visitor of this blog!
Thanks to you all, we've managed to get 1000 visitors!

Cheers,
Altair2.

Well, almost 1000 views, so I must thank you all, whoever you guys are ( leave a comment with you nickname of the TaleWorlds Forum if you want, please), so now that i have 50 views average per day, i'll focus more on this blog, also, this my first successfull blog ( my other one got 10 views in a week).

Cheers, Altair2.

As soon as Diev entered in Rane, he went to the nearest tavern and there he rested until dawn, he spent 4 hours exploring the city, he changed his wolf fur for a peasant cloth, because the fur was almost in pieces from the last fight.
He had anough money to buy some leather archer's glove, so he could use his bow without fear of hurting his fingers, and also a chain boots,his older boots were no more because of the travel he did.
After buying some food for travel and drinking a cup of ale in the tavern, he left Rane to explore the world. Pendor was too much different from his land, while Pendor had trees, cristaline lakes and giant mountains, his land only had caves inside some hill, there were no colors like green or blue in Nar Khazdul, only a monotonous grey.
When Diev was a mile away from Rane he got ambushed again by some bandits, but this time he was ready for everything, as soon as he saw the first bandit he had already released an arrow in it's direction, the third arrow released hit the bandit's head, the other five bandits, amused by Diev's skill with a bow, ran in fear untill they were a mile away, while the bandits flee in terror, Diev killed two more with arrows.
When he felt he was safe again, he realized he was near the village of Orin, home of a friend of Diev's fathar called Anhalmar. Anhalmar was an old man now, he was nearly his 70th winter, he had three sons, two fell to snake cult armies, and one hit the adulthood one winter ago. This man, Altnûmbar, accepted the request of help of Diev, and joined Diev's quest to honor their parents, brothers and fathers.

When Diev stopped running he realized that Rane was near, he knew that because the he could saw the ocean and the green lands that surround Rane. The sky was as dark as the void, and some little bright points, called Tähteä (stars) by his people in the North of Pendor, the round silver mark on the sky, called Mēness (moon), illuminated his way to a enormous tree, where Diev made his camp and there slept untill early morning. While organizing his things back on his horse, some bandits appeared.
From his position, Diev only saw two of them comming, and considering the place he was, he had the advantage. The battlefield was a hill with a great tree on top of it, Träd Hill was its name. Diev got his bow from his back and like a hunter killing deers he killed both bandits. But, there were more than two bandits, there were nine bandits, and with two killed, seven bandits were comming on foot towards Diev's direction. The bandits were throwing rocks and knives on Diev, missing for 1 inche at most, Diev was young and agile, with his 19 years he were as agile as the olympics runners.
He managed to avoid the projectiles and still fire his hunting bow, while one arrows was in middle air, another was being released. He managed to kill four more before they came closer enough to Diev's axe reach their heads, one of the bandits swinged his knife at Diev's leg, making an almost harmless cut through his skin. Two bandits were on the ground with their heads separated from their body when the last bandit runned, with his might bow he released his last arrow that hit the bandits head, entering on the back of his head and leaving at the left eye.
Diev was tired of the fight but he managed to get on his horseback and left to the West, to Ravenstern city.

Diev arrived from the frozen north country of Nar Khazdul, his father, Woden, was a veteran warrior who once was a proud guard of the King of Ravenstern. But Fortune didn't smile to his family and for him, in an invasion of their village, some barbarians killed Woden and Diev's mother in the middle of a party.

The barbarians were from the Myst Mountains, and as a normal barbaric tribe they had their druid, a 7 feet tall skinny man called Slav Mörker, he captured the child Diev to make a sacrifice to the barbaric God of War and Death, Herdzûl, for another succesfull raid.

Diev was taken to one of the highest peek at the Myst Mountains and from there was thrown to the void known as Svärt Hull, but what Slav didn't expected, happened, an eagle with the size of a bull, one of the few survivors of the Old Eagle war with the Noldor, caught Diev while he was falling.

The eagle took Diev to the city of Rane and there gave him to a couple of merchants, Diev spent his entire childhood as a street child, fighting for food and stealing from others, because his adoptive parents stoped giving him the money for food as soon as their child came to the world.

As soon as he became older he got angry with the nobility for their arrogance for the poor people, and soon started to hunt and steal wild pigs and other rare animals meat and body parts of enough value, from the king's forest, and giving to the poors and of course taking his part from it.

As the time passed he felt that the life of stealing from the rich and selling to the poor wasn't enough to honor his real parents memory. He ran from Rane to the training field to start his life of a Ravenstern soldier, untill his group headed by an angry man named Tarkûli, got ambushed by a group of renegade knights, his entire group was dead at the afternoon minus him and Tarkûli.

Tarkûli was yelling with Diev, when a black arrow pierced the angry man's heart. The arrow was followed by 4 more, hitting Diev's shield. Diev ran away from the battlefield on the back of his young horse, Altinmer, when he was miles away from the battlefield, he realized his life of an adventurer has just began...

This mod is one of my top 5 for 2 reasons...

These images i've received from atolest, he asked me to put this image here. Hope you like it.
By the way only the last image is from the current public version. the other are from future releases.
PS: I'm, at the moment, in the a region of my country where the internet is really slow so it will be a little hard to post too much, but i'll try as much as i can so please don't give up from this blog.

Cheers.

The Peloponnesian War is another mod of my top 5, this mod is still in demo version, so it only has a few features, but, these "few" features are so great that they can get you on front of the monitor for hours and hours.

The main feature in my opinion and the most important for me is that the armors and weapons and horses are all modified, by new textures or by new stats. All textures are high definition, so many people have problems with it, but the modder was there to help, and created a patch that lower a bit the resolution of the textures, but even lowered they are extremely beautiful.

The mod creator is my compatriot Lynores, in my own opinion i think he's a genius.

The current features of the demo are :

Faction Replacements:

• The Athenian Empire - Replaces the Swadians;
  
• The State of Lacedaemon (Spartans) - Replaces the Rhodoks;
  
• The Boeotian League - Replaces the Vaegirs;
  
• The Scythian Tribes - Replaces the Khergits;
  
• The Thracian Tribes - Replaces the Nords;

New Systems:

• Death Scripts - Everyone can die. Having a party with high surgery, wound treatment and first aid skills helps diminishing the risk. (Script adapted from MAW's "Death Script")
  
• Lords' death - If they are captured, lords can also be killed, but expect several consequences. (Script adapted from Mirathei's "Gunthunder Script")
  
• Assassination - The higher the number of enemies and lords killed and enemies made, the higher the chance of being ambushed by skilled assassins. If they succeed, the character will be dead for good. It is possible, however, to recruit up to five bodyguard mercenaries that will stay with him at all times.
  
• Ability to start your own kingdom and recruit your own lords (accessible through the camp menu) - Courtesy of Highlander
  
• Sabotage - Once a kingdom has a low enough relation towards you, it is possible to pay spies to enter a town or castle to try and sabotage their food supplies. If they succeed, starvation will eventually force the enemy into surrender, provided the siege isn't lifted.
  
• Formations - Courtesy of Mirathei


• Shield Bashing - Courtesy of Mirathei (hold defense then press attack to bash)

Gameplay Changes :

• Horses are extremely expensive, due to their seldom appearance in our timeframe. Their charge has been increased and their hitpoints reduced.
  
• Spears are faster, meaner and they usually hit three or four at a time, thanks to Mirathei's formation script. Good timing is the rule of thumb in a phalanx.
  
• There are rare items to be looted, like spartan shields that can't be purchased. There are also unique items such as kings' shields or personal equipment, that may be sold for a good amount of gold or kept for personal use.
  
• Increased party size and boosted leadership bonus to keep up with it.
  
• Armies are stronger, and recruit units are not fielded anymore.
  
• Some village improvements have been boosted.
  
• New Kingdom units


• New Mercenary units

Planned features for the alpha release:

• New map - done, but porting needed
  
• New buildings - done, just standing by to be added to new scenes
  
• New scenes - some are finished, but these will be ported gradually
  
• New, expanded troop trees
  
• New companions

Planned features for the beta release:

• New factions
  
• Misc. systems - tactical and political
  
• Naval Combat System

For credit list plus some more info visit : http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,51003.0.html

Before i start sharing my stories, i'm gonna explain the modifications for Mount & Blade.
Mount & Blade is an infinite universe, where players are able to even create their own worlds or represent eras of our world.
I'm not going to enter in details on how to mod nor explain the basics, if you want to learn it go at the TaleWorld forum and search for tutorials.


At the moment i have almost all mods for the current version of Mount & Blade (1.011).
Here's a list of them followed by their links in the forum.
-Mongol Series - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,114.0.html
-Eagle and the Radiant Cross - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,95.0.html
-Calradia Rising - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,113.0.html
-Britain 1297 - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,111.0.html
-Britannia 1080 - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,112.0.html
-The Peloponesian War - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,110.0.html
-Timeless Kingdom - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,110.0.html
-Calradia at War - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,84.0.html
-Hundred Years War - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,57.0.html
-Chronicles of Talera - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,108.0.html
-Native Expansion - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,109.0.html
-Prophesy of Pendor - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,53027.0.html
-Fury of Odin changed to Viking series mod - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/board,116.0.html
-Sword of Damocles - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,52131.0.html
-Rise of Khergits - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,44291.0.html
-1257 AD - http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,44291.0.html

In the right moment i'll post detailed descriptions of them aswell the deserved credits for the modders.

While i was resting after breaking my leg at the school ( the doctor sad that i had to rest for one week ), i started searching for new games at gamespot, mainly because i was bored, and suddenly i saw 16th september : Mount & Blade.
In that moment i've realized that i would like this game.
So that's how i met M&B.