For a while now, I've been interested about in knights in general, but specifically, I've really become attached to Templar Knights.

A quick history: Templar Knights were founded around 1119 to protect pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Land. It started with two French Knights, who requested permission from the King of Jerusalem to protect these pilgrims. The permission was granted, and the Knights got a base on Temple Mount, rumored to be the place where The Temple of Solomon was. The Knights became arguably the best fighting force in the world for that time, and were only brought down when their original ally, the church, suddenly turned on them. Finally, much of the history of the Templars is shrouded in magic and mysticism, and they are tied closely with mysticism.

For the mod, I would like to make something based around this group of people. A good accurate mod showcasing the power of the Order. However, here's the problem:

I know absolutely nothing about modding.

I would have no idea where to start, how I would introduce actors, a scene, a brain, anything.

Therefore I need a great amount of help. I am willing to put in the work and effort, and willing to learn, and am ready to understand that this mod may not be out for a while, because I really want it to be a good, remembered mod.

If someone can mentor me, here's my ideas so far:

Brain would be a pope, with unique, strong magic attacks and defense abilities (self-healing, likely)

Weapons would consist definitely of the traditional swords, crossbows/longbows, axes, and maces, but I realize that these just can't compete with modern weapons. Therefore I am ready to include believable guns, or even guns that have modern capabilities but have a 1100's feel & look (could tie into the conspiracies behind the Order, and we could stretch the truth a little)

The shield - I want this to play a major part in this mod. The Knights were known for their white dress with red cross, which is just spriting, but I want this shield to be at least a good 10-15% of this mod. I know it's just a shield, but for some reason I really feel like I need to exemplify it's ability and importance.

Actors - There would be the regular trooper unit (a burly shock-trooper) but also I see areas for variation. I might want to make a smaller, less powerful (recruit?) unit, for less money, and probabilistically a stronger, better armored, elite unit. Also, I want a totally different approach towards an assassin unit, likely not a part of the Order, but still an ally. There are other possible actors like Magi, calvary and such.

And that's that. Again, I am ready to put in the effort, and the time, because I want this to be a good mod. Thanks in advance for all who can help. For now, I'm going through the beginners modding tutorials found on the forum.

I like your attitude.

A PM is forthcoming.

Heh, just make them unrealistically strong and durable, same with armor. That's what I did for Melee Masters.

Oh, they're going to have great armour. But I do want them to be able to succeed when facing, say, a dummy with a flak cannon who's pushing back my Knight. I'm still thinking, I want the firearms to be original.

Gonna start some sprites, have em up soon. About the sprites though, do they need to be certain colors?

base.rte/palette.bmp is all the colours you can use.

You must not only use those colors, but your sprite must be in palette, meaning you have to save the image as an indexed image with that palette.
If you have MS Paint from windows XP you can easily do this by first opening the palette image, then pasting in your sprite on top of it, then saving the resulting image as your new sprite.

Yeah, it seems like I cant sprite either. Here are my attempts for torso and helm.

WAIT I AM A SPRITER ( I CAN DO THIS)

*scurries off to sprite*

aw I forgot I suck.

'S not that bad. And you never sucked. Ever.
Anyway, I think it just needs a little less contrast on the dark spots.

Hi Ohm, i'm a starting modder myself. I made a sword for my mod (which is still in the work), i can adapt code to your .rte and all you will need to do is make a new sprite.
But i dont spend much time on forums it would be much easier to help you if you gave me your Skype or ICQ contact.

Gee, it's rare to see a new member with such a polite attitude. Y'know what? I've got some free time, so I think I might be able to help ya.
Sure, I can't sprite at all, but I've got some decent understanding of how coding works. So yeah, if you come into any problems, feel free to PM me.

But first, you should get a plan of action laid out. Talking about the first release of the mod: how many actors do you want to have exactly, and which niche of action would each of them cover? Same for weapons and devices. How do you want the feel of the mod to be? Like the coalition, which has few but multi-purpose units, or the Ronin, which are more specialized? Getting that kind of question solved early makes the mod look much more consistent later on.

Weapons (will come up with better names for later, just for classifying purposes)

Sword A - Range of 20 ft, but double handed, and slow swing, kinda doubles as shield
Sword B - Range of like 10 feet, but fast swing, more durable and just better than class c
Sword C - Range of 7 feet, slower slashes, less durable.
(Every sword kills in one hit)

Mace - HUGE, swing once per 3-4 seconds, crushes, two handed, but kinda doubles as shield. Range - 25 ft
Axe - Large, not too smaller than mace. Swing per ~3 seconds. Two handed, ''. Range = 20 ft Should slice more than crush.
Hammer - One handed, alt. to sword. Range = 15 ft

Daggers
Dagger A - Assasin's dagger, range of bout 6 feet, insta-kill
Dagger B - Backup weapon, def. not insta-kill

Crossbow A - For the crossbow troops, quicker reload, great damage
Crossbow B - Slightly worse crossbow, slower reload, less damage.
Crossbow C - Lesser than both, only used for when other weapons aren't applicable(an enemy is 50ft away and you are armed with a sword and a crossbow, etc.)
(all three should still be deadly and powerful)

Throwing Knives - All I can think of now is clip of 20, but never reloads,
(insta-kill, likely, as it takes skill to use these and I want to reward that)

Shield A - Breaks like never, covers 95% of body
Shield B - Breaks infrequently, covers 85-95% of body

Some Bombs

Magi weapons, see below

GUNS WILL PLAY A MAJOR PART BUT LIKELY NOT FOR FIRST RELEASE

(For some reason, these just seem wrong. I want to inspire the awe that Darkstorm did, I want it to be just as awesome, original, and usable.)






For the first release, I'd like this:

KNIGHTS - Shock trooper units

Knight Recruit - Sword C, Crossbow C, Shield B, Dagger B
Regular Knight - Should be built on shock-trooper idea. Sword B, Shield A, Crossbow B, Dagger B
Elite Knight - Sword B, Shield A, Crossbow A, Dagger B
Berserker - Sword A OR Axe, hammer, badass armor

Assasin - Dagger, ability to camo, Throwing knives, and bombs

Magi/Priest - Fireball attack, Self/other heal, other cool magic.


And that's that. But it seems lacking. I want this, as mentioned, to be awe-inspiring. Pioneering. Amazing. Stickied (probably impossible haha). I just don't like what I see in this post. For reference, I'm thinking of the Berserker like the Halberd-weilder or Brute from Assasin's Creed II, And the Reg troops like the Templars from Assasin's Creed I, and the Assasin as Altair, and the magi is more original. I kinda want those feelings from the characters. The Brute should be a wall. The Knights should be the best fighters on the field. The assasin should be able to take down a castle by his lonesome. I want some elite troops up in here.

If you need any sort of Lua (arrows sticking to objects, knights jumping, magic) I'll be happy to help.

Well, you're quite the ambitious one, aren't you? Mind you, that's quite a lot of content for a first release, but you might be able to achieve it with some effort.

For a start, I would suggest you start with the very basic: find someone (probably Contrary, since he's already been so kind as to sprite that helmet) to make some basic templar sprites for you. Try to merge them into an actor, polish it, play with the variables, try to get the hang of modding. If you run into any trouble, feel free to ask. Once you are comfortable with what each part of the code does and how the whole thing works, then it would be the time to start thinking about making the bulk of the objects - but not before that.

i'd say you should forget about magic and melee weapons and make futuristic templars, with medieval armor and weapons like,

a machinegun that shoots arrows
a hand held catapult that throws rocks at high speeds
crossbow shotgun

things like that. would fit CC perfectly