However, those of you who have played will know that one tends to spend a lot of time wandering around the world map between settlements instead of thoroughly exploring each beautiful area due to the lack of actual things to do. If immersion is your thing, then this mod might just be for you!
Thanks for agreeing to speak with us. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi. First of all, thank you for the interview proposal. I was pleasantly surprised by this request so I hope you would be interested to know a little more about this mod and about me. So to introduce myself, my name is Lionel. I am a web developer and I live in France. During my spare time, I love to create stuff whether it's in development, music, or drawing.
What games do you usually play other than Bannerlord?
Well, I like games where you have to progress little by little, build things, survive, take time to chill, and have a lot of freedom of movement. So I play games like 7 Days to Die, Empyrion, Space Engineers, and of course Skyrim! I also play a lot of strategy/city builder games like XCOM, Civilization, or Cities Skylines.
How did you first get into modding?
Often while playing, I think to myself that it would be great to have this or that feature. So instead of just saying it, I decided to try to make them myself. I started with 7 Days to Die and it was very hard! At the time, I didn't know how to code at all. C# is a complicatedlanguage to understand for a real beginner but that never discouraged me since I'm quite stubborn. I watched and read a lot of code tutorials and did multiple tests until my idea worked... or not! Now it's a little easier. With my job, I have acquired more knowledge and I understand how such things work much quicker.
Tell us about your current project “Life in Calradia.”
It's a mod that allows you to buy, sell, rent, and upgrade houses and taverns. Each of the houses has 3 different quality levels and the more you improve them, the better the furniture and decorations will be. You have a chest to put your stuff in, a cooking pot to prepare recipes. The village houses even have plots to grow vegetables and trees.
Interactions with family members and companions are also a part of this mod. You can invite them to live in your house and once inside, they will have their own daily routine like eating, sleeping, cooking, talking to each other, and so on. New dialogues have been added to improve your relationshipto level up skills by offering gifts or new equipment. Each companion has their own tastes and reacts according to them. So your interactions can affect your relationship for better or worse.
I tried to make this mod as open as possible to be able to modify it or add things like text translation, crafting items, plants, or interior scenes. A lot of files can be edited in the ModuleData folder.
What inspired you to start “Life in Calradia?”
When I started playing Bannerlord, I loved walking around towns or villages. The scenes are beautiful, very immersive and there are a lot of details with tons of models and assets. But after hours of the game, I realized that I was going there less and less because there was not much to do. I also spent some time chatting with NPCs and companions, but ran into the same thing, interactions were quickly limited. So everything started from that desire to bring more life to Calradia!
What are your current plans for the project, and what do you hope to accomplish in the future?
Many things are planned! There are plenty of ideas and the community gives a lot of them too! Fortunately, on this project, I was joined by Optio Miles. He handles the creation of new scenes for all other cultures and he helped me a lot on the new Discord server. On my side, I would like to improve companion relation changes, tavern management, and add GUI to have a better overview of the state of the companions/houses. I have also started to develop the base of animal husbandry. That's very fun and I'm pleased to see the mod progression.
Thank you for participating in this interview. Is there anything else you wish to say to the community?
Thank you all for your comments of support. The mod and I have been very well received so it gives a lot of motivation. TaleWorlds gives us great modding tools that are really easy to use, so the possibilities are endless. So even if you don't code at all, give it a try, have fun doing whatever you want, and share your creations!
I hope this makes you want to try this mod and enjoy playing with it.
Lionel
Many thanks to Lionel, aka OneDrop for speaking with us. Check out hismod pageor watchArtem's video on the mod below.
