Kucha Oasis
"Kucha Oasis" is a Mount & Blade II Bannerlord 200 vs. 200 custom map that starts at Vargomis Village. The player can play the map as a commender or sergeant in custom game mode. The map should bring the player back to the ancient Kucha kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road and experience the battle between the Kucha kingdom and the Tang dynasty. Kucha soldiers were skillful with arrows and horses and good with short and long spears. Also, by utilizing terrain and structures, the player can create a different tactic for both attacker and defender.
Trailer
Design Goal
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Designing a battlefield encourages the player to think about strategies and provide opportunities to achieve them.
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Create an environment that has the feeling of the Kucha and apply time and season changes to make it more realistic.
Map Overview
Map Overview
Initial Design and Legend
Level and Encounter Design
Encourage strategics
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The level provides three paths for both attacker and defender. The player may manage and command their troops to focus on one path or separate their forces evenly.
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The village area has many high ground and covers, making it easy to defend. However, the village also has many entrances for the attacker to flank the defender. Thus, it depends on the player's understanding of strategy and their ability to temporary resilience.
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3 Attack Paths
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The left attack path is hidden from the defender with the forest as cover.
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Cavalry troops work better with the right path since the map is open and does not have obstacles.
Attacker Path
Defender Path
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3 Defense Paths
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The defender should avoid putting their archers in the open area on the left.
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The middle path is suitable for high moveability troops so they can reinforce any area that is being attacked.
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The attacker can avoid the choke point at the front of the village and roundabout using the path next to the river.
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Trying to bait archer troops to the open area is another strategy the player can take to get an advantage.
Attacker Strategies
Defender Strategies
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Yellow areas are high grounds that the defender can capture and use as an advantage.
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Houses in the village area have a rooftop that archers can use.
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The blue areas are rock obstacles that will block the attack from archers, be sure to use them to avoid arrows.
Environment Design
Feeling of The Kucha
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For a long time, Kucha was the most populous oasis in the Tarim Basin.
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The Kingdom of Kucha occupied a strategic position on the Northern Silk Road, which brought it prosperity, and made it a wealthy center of trade and culture.
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Kucha soldiers were skillful with arrows and horses and good with short and long spears.
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Therefore, I created this Kucha Oasis base on the picture of a beautiful tidal flat next to a branching river, as shown below, and added many eastern props in the building to build the illustration of a wealthy village belonging to the Kucha Kingdom.
The picture of Kucha by Jiehan Du
Eastern Props
Season Changes
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The level also appears differently during different seasons. For example, village paths will be covered with mud in summer but shown as shoe prints on snow in winter.
Spring
Fall
Summer
Winter
Time Changes
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The level also features a day-night cycle. When the level gets dark, lamps and torches will light up and create lighting for the player.
Night time
Day time
Postmortem
What Went Well
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With the terrain tool and game asset, I made a beautiful level that looks like Kucha.
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I conveyed the player strategies they can use with environmental tools like covers, paths, and high grounds. It worked well from the playtest result.
What Went Wrong
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The AI in Mount and Blade II editor is hard to manage so I had to fake the AI movement for attackers so they split correctly.
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When I worked on this project, Mount and Blade II was still in alpha development, and the game engine was not very stable, which caused many crashing issues and navmesh issues. So be sure to do deeper research before using any not fully released engine.
What I Learned
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I have learned to use documentation and forums from other developers are tools and help with whatever issue I have. Also, I have made some tutorials for the editor as well.
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Get familiar with the environment design pipeline.