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NagatsukaShumi
09-23-2002, 22:34
Medieval : The Path to the Dark Ages
Update 1-What to expect in the MOD and more.

An age of darkness creeps up upon the world as the Roman Empire slowly falls into collapse. Barbaric tribes are now starting to increase their power on the borders of the civilised world. The only question left to answer is, will Europe plunge into darkness or will the Roman's recover from their fall into collapse?

Many of you have probably heard by now that there is indeed a Roman MOD been made by myself, NagatsukaShumi (Sam) and a group of others helping with unit images (Lord Krazy and co). So far myself and the team have seen a VERY positive reaction for our little endevour, the reaction of the Total War community is appreciated very much and really helps motivate myself and the others to make this MOD very fun. Anyway, the last time any information was posted at all was in August I believe, some time ago now, so I thought to myself while sat in my lessons today, I'll write up a nice big FAQ for you all to read with lots of nice information in it, seen as now I've had the game for some time I've learned alot about modding and the game itself and so on, so, let the FAQ begin!

1-What timezone is the MOD based on?

Medieval : The Path to the Dark Ages is set when the Roman Empire began it's path to demise in the 5th Centuary. Basically you get the chance to play as numerous factions who were around in that time and played some sort of role in the time. So you'll be able to play as the following people :-

Faction Replacements

12 Playable Factions
-England--The Byzantines
-France--The Franks
-Spain--The Visigoths
-HRE--The Western Empire
-Italy--The Britons
-Poland--The Saxons
-Dutch--The Alemannens
-Russia/The people of Novogorod--The Vandals
-Turks--The Huns
-Alomhads--The Avars
-Egypt--The Saracens
-Byzantines--The Ostrogoths

Important Minor Fractions
-The Papal States--The Eastern Empire
-The Mongols--Steppe People
-Hungary--The Slavs
-Sicily--Balcan Slavs
-Aragon--The Persians
-The Swiss--Berbers
-The Burgundians--Norse

2-Will there still be a time limit to which you have to complete the campaign?

Yes, the time limit of 1453 will remain because I can't change it, sorry. But seen as the game starts in the early 400's I don't see why it should bother you at all, that's atleast 1000 turns to win and I think you'll agree that is plenty.

3-Why did you chose this period of time to make a MOD for?

Well it all started back in the summer holidays when I rented the film Attilla the Hun. I'd seen it before but hadn't seen it for a while, anyway by now I knew alot about MTW and after watching it the thought came to mind. I thought "That could be a possible MOD, it's in Europe and everything", that's where it all started. Plus the parts with the trebuchets (sp?) firing at a stone walled castle really sealed the deal.

4-What units will be editted?

Well I can't rightly say right now, however it is definate that units will be editted. However, you may get a better answer to the question when Lord Krazy returns from his holiday in a few days or so.

5-Why are the Empires two seperate factions instead of one?

Well I just think it'll make the campaign more fun if you can play as both. In the Attilla the Hun film it does show that each Empire was reluctant to help eachother fight off barbarians and very often just said they needed the forces themselves, I am bringing that idea to the MOD, real or not. As a gamer I just like the idea of been able to be to play as each empire and have the option of helping the other or crushing them, I'll try and make interaction between each Empire inevitable to avoid, I think it'll make the MOd even more fun to play.

6-What about the gunpowder event?

It'll still happen in 1261 (I think that's it) as in the original game, so if you do get to that point the gunpowder units will become available, I don't really see a reason why I should make it a different event, I doubt that you'll still be playing then anyway so it doesn't really matter, but I'll make a campaign where the gunpowder is available just so you can see what a Roman battle with guns and so on would have been like, I may call it something like the Grand Campaign.

7-What about the other "packs"?

I must announce now that I have no intentions to make the other packs, I have seen many others wishing to highlight the area's they cover, so I'll let them have a go with them, I may do them later, but then again, I may not.

8-Why even bother making this?

Because I want to personally play this, I think it' be very selfish if I just made the MOD for myself, plus I do like to make the community happy and I feel this will be my contribution to the progression of this great community.

9-How will you get around the Roman problem?

I presume the person meant how will I get around the weakness of the Empires at this point, well I'll just make it hard for them to survive but give them enough to survive. I will probably give them more buildings than the barbarians to make them more civilised, but the barbarians will probably get better units than the Romans incase the Romans can build too much too quickly.

10-What will happen when the Mongols arrive from off the map?

The Mongols are, as you may have noitced, called Steppe People. They will simply be people migrating to Europe likes the Huns supposidly did. They won't be so amazing this time however, infact if you play as them it'll be hard, but you will enjoy the challenge.

11-Any cofirmations as to what we will see in the game unit wise?

Lets just say you'll like it. There will be many units you expect but many you won't, but you will enjoy the surprise trust me on that.

12-Can I marry you?

I was surprised when that arrived in my inbox, I though it was some sort of marriage advertisement. I decided to just put it there so you can see how loved I am http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif.

13-Release Date?

*Pulls hair out* My god I've got lots of these on their own. I don't have a clue like I've said, wait til the big work gets underway then I'll give an estimate.

14-What if a feature won't work?

I'll fix it. I am not going to make a MOD and then just leave it to rot regardless of it's working order or not.

15-Will there be add-ons?

Absolutely. They will mainly consist of Historical Battles and Campaigns but will occassionally have different stuff in them. Oh and before you ask, yes there will be patches.

16-What's next?

I've already planned out what I want to make next. It will be a MOD depicting the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's from the end of World War 1, basically you'd play as England and the like as well as a few German factions depicting the collapse of Weimar etc (The Germans would be the Nazi's, the Weimar etc). Infact this may even go into production at the same time as the Roman MOD, who knows, but that is what's next anyways.

So that's all the questions that are unique answered, you could always post in this topic or continue in the older one.

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Power to the Sultan!
-Clan Seljuk

I don't know Akech, can't trust Mithrandir with the newbies, he may try and create a Miny Mith.-NagatsukaShumi

Wellington
09-24-2002, 00:57
Have you modded a campaign script yet, with all the suggested factions defined, and tried to load it from the 'Campaign Selection' screen ?

Your defining 12 playable factions, and 7 minor ones. This gives 19 factions, plus 1 when the Mongols arrive, which is a total of 20. I think you might have problems here as I suspect the current limit is 18.

NagatsukaShumi
09-24-2002, 02:17
I do not intend to make them all playable in one campaign, there will be numerous campaigns allowing you to play as different factions in each, so if one faction isn't playable in one campaign it will be in another and so on.

------------------
Power to the Sultan!
-Clan Seljuk

I don't know Akech, can't trust Mithrandir with the newbies, he may try and create a Miny Mith.-NagatsukaShumi

LittleGrizzly
09-24-2002, 07:29
like the world war one idea !!! also roman mod sounds intresting .... on roman problem give them rich provinces to blance it out ut start them off poor

NagatsukaShumi
09-24-2002, 20:09
Thats a good idea grizz, we'll see what makes them work when the testing of the campaign gets started.

------------------
Power to the Sultan!
-Clan Seljuk

I don't know Akech, can't trust Mithrandir with the newbies, he may try and create a Miny Mith.-NagatsukaShumi