Mine & Blade: Commander Mod

The aim of Mine & Blade: Commander Mod is to provide the player with controllable npcs that will help you fight enemies. There are a number of mods that provide npcs, however this mod will focus on soldier type npcs. The other thing thatwill set this mod apart from other similar mods is the ability for units to gain experience and upgrade to more powerful units as well as the great deal of customisationof the visual appearance of the soldiers.

Creating Units

Units are spawned from a spawn banner. Banners are created by placing 2 pieces of the same coloured wool on top of a stick.

A banner must be placed on top of a block that has 2 free spaces above it (the banner takes up 2 blocks like a door).

Right clicking the banner brings up the spawning interface.

The colour of the banner will determine the team colours that the unit will be wearing. The units appearance can be customised by using the slide-bars on the bottom left of the interface. For the militia the skin, hair, eyes and weapon can all be changed. All of these options are purely cosmetic and have no effect on how the unitperforms in battle. The amount of customisation the mod allows is mind boggling. Spawning of soldiers required payment of gold nuggets. Gold ingots & blocks can also be used and you will automatically be given change (9 nuggets = 1 ingot, 9 ingots = 1 block). Spawning is free in creative mode

The Units

Militia

• Spawned From: Banner
• The Militia is little more than a peasant who has been thrust into the middle of a battle. They are armed with whatever they find lying around and their clothing offers little in the way of protection.
• Attack: 4
• Health: 15
• Armour: 2

Man at Arms

• Upgraded From: Milita
• The man at Arms form the backbone of the armies of the land. They are provided with iron weapons and chainmail armour allowing them to be both durable and deadly
• Attack: 6
• Health: 20
• Armour: 6

Knight

• Upgraded From: Man at Arms
• The Knight is provided with the best iron based weapons, armour and shields. Their heavy armour and shields make them the most durable warriors in the land.
• Attack: 8
• Health: 25
• Armour: 15
• Special: Arrow Block – 25% of all projectile damage is ignored by the Knight

Sellsword

• Upgraded From: Man at Arms
• Armed with 2 of the best iron based weapons in the land, The Sellsword are easily able to take down more heavily armed foes. This however does come at the expense of their armor, which is less heavy then other units.
• Attack: 9
• Health: 25
• Armour: 12
• Special: Penetrate Armour – A small proportion of the damage the Sellsword causes ignores armor
• Special: Leap – The Sellsword leaps at it’s target (I am not sure if this is actually working yet)

Spearman

• Upgraded From: Milita
• Although the Spearman’s weapons may be slightly unwieldy, they more than make up for it in the extended range their iron weapons provide. Coupled with their chain based armour this makes the Spearman a formidable force.
• Attack: 6
• Health: 20
• Armour: 6
• Special: Extended Reach – The Spearman’s weapon allows it to attack from a couple of blocks away
• Special: Slow Attack – Due to the Spearman’s unwieldy weapon, the Spearman attacks at a slower rate

Pikeman

• Upgraded From: Spearman
• He extended range provided by the Pikeman’s iron weapons allows them to attack enemy safely from a short range. Even those enemies that do get past their jabs must face a heavily armoured foe.
• Attack: 8
• Health: 25
• Armour: 13
• Special: Extended Reach – The Pikeman’s weapon allows it to attack from a couple of blocks away
• Special: Slow Attack – Due to the Pikeman’s unwieldy weapon, the Spearman attacks at a slower rate

Commanding Units

The current command will be shown in the display text above the soldier. The health bar is displayed just below this, it will change colour from green to red dependingon the current health. Below the health bar is the experience bar. Units will gain experience for every hit they preform against an enemy mob. The experience bar changesfrom purple to light blue.

After units have not seen an enemy for 15 seconds, they will sheath their weapon. At this point the unit will begin to slowly heal itself. Soldiers will also drink any potion you hand them.

Units will automatically break whatever it is they are doing if they see a mob (within 16 blocks) to attack the mob. Mobs will also walk towards and attack units. Mob do not currently attack exploding mobs (eg creepers) as this would be akin to suicide. Likewise units do not currently attack units on different teams.

Pointing at a soldier from less than 5 blocks away and pressing the ‘X’ button will select the soldier. Multiple soldiers can be selected.

Alterntivly soldiers can be selected using the trumpet. This item will select all soldiers in a 15 block radius. It is crafted like so

*Any colour wool can be used.

When selected the Order menu will appear on the right side of the screen

The soldiers current order can be changed by pressing the up and down arrows and selected by pressing the Return (Enter) key. Pressing the ‘C’ key will close the menuwithout issuing an order

Stand Guard

The stand guard command is the default command for units. In this command the unit will stand in place. They will only move if an enemy mob is seen, after the enemy hasbeen dealt with, the unit will return to its position.

Follow

The follow command allows you to set units to follow the commanding player. Units will continue to follow the player (unless an enemy is sighted) until told to doanother order.

Goto

The go to command is a way for you to more easily move your soldiers around a battlefield. When selected an arrow will be displayed on top of the block your mouse is over. Pressing select will cause all your selected units to move to this point. There is a limit on how far units can travel of 50 blocks. This can be changed in the config file (decrease to improve preformance and increase to improve distance)

Morale

Mine & Blade units prefom better when they are well fed and surrounded by teammates. The current morale of a unit can be viewed by the colour of the order.
The current morale level will affect the following statistics

• Attack damage
• Armour
• Walk speed
• Experience gain

The following things increase morale

• Feeding soldiers food (not rotten food)
• Having more soldiers around (the higher tier the more morale bonus)
• Making a killing blow on a mob.
• An ally making a killing blow
• Having a player nearby

The following decrease morale

• Degrading over time
• Feeding soldiers roten flesh
• Having enemies around