The King's Return (AOE III New Mod)

[Wyte Raven]

Hello everybody. This is my first post here. I having been working on a new free fan-based mod for AOE III called the King's Return. It is a large project with totally new graphics, civilizations, game features and playing concepts.

Take a look at some screenshots of the King's Return:

• African Village [aoe3kr.wyteravens.com]
  
• Polish Winged Hussars
  
• Full Gallery[aoe3kr.wyteravens.com]
  
• Video: Persian Civilization

The new mod offers 4 totally new civilizations (Persians, Mongols, Kongo and Oyo - the last 2 are African Kingdoms) in addition to tremendous enhancements introduced for the first time in AOE game series. For example, a Mongol player can subjugate his/her enemy to sacking and plundering of the enemies gold by destroying their buildings and looting gold. On the other hand, European Civilizations (like British and Portuguese) can subjugate the villagers of the new African Kingdoms to slavery. For full information about the King's Return visit the Official Website[aoe3kr.wyteravens.com]

Currently, a Beta version 1.01 is released and can be downloaded from here Download The King's Return Beta 1.01[aoe3kr.wyteravens.com]

Features

4 totally new Civilization with their own unique units, building sets (that are fully destructible), new techs and whole new playing systems (Like slavery explained above and Religion System). Moreover, all new units and civilizations speak their own real languages!

Full info about new civilizations [aoe3kr.wyteravens.com]

1. Persians: Starts with a powerful Shah (king unit). The Shah is a central vital unit that keeps the empire held together.
   
2. Mongols (Timurids): follow the lead of the descendants of Tamerlane and build a powerful empire. Destroy your enemy, plunder his gold and erect Skull Pyramids to terrorize your enemy.
   
3. Kongo Kingdom: Discover the mysteries of the Black African Kingdoms. Play as the might Kings that ruled over the Kongo Kingdoms.
   
4. Oyo Kingdom: an African Kingdom in west African that was one few African Kingdoms that deployed powerful cavalry based army.

New Game Concepts (Systems)

The King's Return introduces several new system that were relevant to that era.

1. Slavery
One of the darkest eras in human history. European Civilizations (British, Portuguese, French, Dutch and Ottomans) can force villagers of the African Kingdom into slavery. A new unit called "Slave Master" can collect fallen African villagers and train them as slaves. A slave is a unique villager-type unit that can gather resources. Each European civilization has a "salve-bonus" for example french owned slave cost no pop while British has a better gathering rates. Unlike other villagers, slaves can be captured by other players (auto-converted much like sheep). Ottomans have additional unique slavery called white slaves: they can subjugate Eastern European villagers into slavery by hiring Crimean Allies or they subjugate Mediterranean European villagers into slavery by hiring Barbary Corsairs.

2. Religion System
A totally new system available to certain civilizations (Persians, Ottomans, Africans, Spanish and Portuguese). Every civilization has its own unique religion like Sunni-Islam for Ottomans, and Shia-Islam for Persian and Christianity-Catholicism for Spanish and Portuguese. Now all priests of these civilization can pray at churches and temples of worship to gather a unique resource called "Faith". Faith can be used to perform "Rituals", a unique type of techs that can enhance units or even declare Jihad.

3. New Natives System
A whole set of new natives including : Dahomey Amazons, Tuareg, Barbary Corsairs, Jewish Settlements etc... The new native have their own unique set of traits and unique techs. For example Jewish settlements offer "Jewish Merchant". As the merchant gather resources additional gold will be generated automatically. Additionally, the player can borrow money from the Jewish Merchants to be returned in future with the interest (once the player borrows money a certain amount of housing population will be mortgaged against the borrowed money). For more information about new natives visit here http://aoe3kr.wyteravens.com/minor_civilizations.html

Download and Feedback

Currently a Beta version is released. A new steam group is created for the King's Return on:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/aoe3kr

Additionally, you can get more information and download the beta from the following websites:

Official Website [aoe3kr.wyteravens.com]
Facebook [www.facebook.com]
YouTube Channel
ModDB
Twitter

All comments and feedback are welcome (also report any bug :).

[ConMeo]

This looks amazing! Will it be multiplayer compatible?

[CelticCrusader]

Looks awesome ! Great work, I will be sure to try it out soon.

[Wyte Raven]

Originally posted by ConMeo:

This looks amazing! Will it be multiplayer compatible?

It is already multiplayer compatible even in this Beta version (off course you need other players having the mod installed to be able to play with them),

[Wyte Raven]

Check the new video featuring New Petards that blow-up themselves into enemies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT5LF5Zkiuk