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General discussion (archive)Mod Spotlight: Knights and Merchants(18 posts)(18 posts)
(18 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 23, 2013
When a mod becomes a remake.

There are games that never get hyped much in the media and aren't considered milestones of their genre, but still success in accumulating a modding community so large and dedicated, that you could say the development of such title never really stopped. Such is the case of [url=http://j.mp/KaMremakeGOG]Knights & Merchants, a medieval real-time strategy with in-depth society simulation and epic-scaled armies. Even though the game came out in 2001, a community of talented fans doesn't stop in their effort to, fix and tweak it, make it enjoyable for the modern gamer, and support it with all the features the fanbase demands. All this goes towards a impressive mod, appropriately named [url=http://www.kamremake.com" target="_blank]KaM Remake[/url].

Even though the GOG.com version of Knights & Merchants has been prepared to run on modern Windows systems "out of the box", the mod greatly improves many technical aspects of the game, as well as it introduces many improvements to its mechanics. The extensive support of online play itself, allowing hundreds of gamers daily to carry their epic campaigns against each other, makes the mod essential to getting the most out of your Knights & Merchants. The creators, however, don't stop at that. The original game engine has been completely rewritten from scratch, to make sure the remake's superiority in gameplay. This didn't happen in an instant, of course. The mod is in development since 2008, and all of the changes it makes to the game are the effect of ongoing debate within the community of its creators. Even now, the modders are looking for people to beta-test the newest version, expected to arrive first quarter 2014.

Navigate to the [url=http://www.kamremake.com" target="_blank]KaM Remake official website[/url] for some further details, download, and installation instructions. The Knights & Merchants game itself, complete with its Peasants Rebellion expansion, is currently available 50% off on GOG.com. That's only $2.99 until Sunday, December 29, at 1:59PM. Every copy bought through the links provided in this editorial sends a little money towards the remake developers and supports their further work on the project (or you can support them directly via PayPal donation widget on their page, if you already own the game and bought copies for everyone including your cat).
Posted December 24, 2013
I think this thread should also appear in the game subforum
Posted December 27, 2013
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Lewin: If you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them :)
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Ghorpm: I do have a question! I loved this game in 1998 (I bought it more/less immediately when it was released) and it was one of my first purchase here. I still like to play it from time to time...

My question is about scripted attacks (campaign mode). At some point your enemy will likely send a huge army to destroy you. It's very hard to fight them off unless you know exactly how and where to arrange your troops. But then... it becomes extremely easy, AI is just sending his troops to be slaughtered. I know that an important part of this game is to be able to find a suitable spot to arrange your defenses in each mission. But I wish that AI would be a bit more flexible. After taking heavy casualties he should somehow adjust his tactics, knowing that you usually station flanking troops in point A and archers in point B. Do you have any plans to implement more flexible AI? That would be great because it could somehow change the polarized difficulty of the game. At the moment it's:
- extremely difficult if you arrange your defenses poorly
- extremely easy if you know exactly what to do.

I know that it's not easy to implement but I would like to know if you were thinking about something like this?
We've thought about it, but as you said it's not easy to implement. Currently the AI works fairly similarly to the original game since that was fairly easy to implement and a good starting point. So you can play the campaigns pretty much like you did back in the original game. We've done some experimental work with improving the AI but nothing serious. It's a tricky job and neither of us developers have much experience with AIs.

In the last release we made our own scripting system for the game so map authors can write their own code to control the game. This has allowed for some interesting modding to happen but it also allows map authors to write their own AI code specifically designed for their map. I've only seen a few people do this so far, but in the future I think we might see some interesting stuff developed by the community using our dynamic scripting system. Our next release will include more of these community made maps.
Posted January 02, 2014
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damien: I think this thread should also appear in the game subforum
Agreed, and I think we need an actual button on the top menu for a MOD page. Right up there with Browse Games, Community, Support etc...You need a section for this as it's a great reason to buy many old games and I'd also agree most people don't even know these things exist and are in some cases still being actively worked on (or completed years ago but still make the games completely different and usually better than originals). In any case they extend the life of the product or at perhaps make it worth re-buying today if you beat the game years ago without even knowing about the mods.

Bring on the MOD page please. Easily accessible at the top menu and with a decent focus on this page as it supports/promotes purchases. Like a page with links to all the most popular modded games and their respective mods (a HUGE spotlight page so to speak). I just added this game to my wishlist JUST for the 2014 mod update. I will purchase when that comes out (I have too many others I have to play now after xmas...LOL). My point is, this mod will sell the game to me at some point, and without me seeing the note about this coming, I would not be planning a purchase, nor would I have bookmarked the Mod's homepage :) Well, I may be purchasing it a bit just to inspire more mods as this is being financially supported here too. I like that. I would not mind having it offered on purchases with ACTIVE mods going on, where you can say, click a box for an extra $1 or $2 to go directly to top mods sites to help further their work or even end up getting them hired in the industry as part of the next great game designer teams. I mean, if they're 15-20yr olds (or others having enough time in life to dedicate to this I guess) spending their free time making a mod, all the more power to them if it lands them a job making great games for life :)

A game that sells 50K copies (even some $2.99 sale price) that has a checkbox for $1 to a mod remake or something may enable a few people to go from HOBBY time to full time dev work on the mod for a year which gets them noticed and maybe hired (a $1 a copy would possibly fund 2 guys x $25K for a year - for an 18yr old this might be a pathway to a great career right?). We get more fully fleshed out mods and lots of people get a chance to create a portfolio of some great work that gets MORE work at a company for the rest of their lives. I see no downside here. :)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Mod Spotlight: Knights and Merchants(18 posts)(18 posts)
(18 posts)