WarMap v1.0: Released

[IceTorque]

BI-WarMap II for BI v1.6
by IceTorque
Down Load: (http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=844)
Mirror (http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=118545)
Features:
Large scale strat map, all factions playable, 199 regions, custom combat stats. Two turn recruitment for all units, to reduce army spam and enhance strategy.

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WarMap mod for RTW v1.5
by IceTorque
Download (http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=767)
Mirror (http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=118550)
Features:
1. A very large scale strat map.
Map regions size in pixels is 510 x 337.
For comparison: vanilla 255 x 156 and mundus magnus 384 x 234.
Map size has been increased almost entirely by scale, with only slight
extensions to the north and east to accomodate Scotland and Bactria.

2.Movement points/traits have been enhanced.

3.A Homeland and capitol city Zone Of Reruitment.

4.Settlements spread out to enhance more field battles and less sieges.

5.Elite units do not become extinct with their factions demise
they simply fight for their new masters.

6.Decisive naval battles.

This ZOR ensures that the AI factions develop into several major powers
and NOT just one superpower, producing countless armies each turn.
Also as your empire grows so does game difficulty by emulating the age old
military problem of extended supply lines.

And many more tweaks to ensure the least micro-management,
and the most consistently challenging Campaigns and Battles.

Screen shots:
Map Heights
https://img474.imageshack.us/img474/4412/mapheights9tx.png
Map Regions
https://img373.imageshack.us/img373/5670/mapregions8nq.png
Scotland
https://img497.imageshack.us/img497/3042/scotland7mu.png
Denmark
https://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2401/denmark6zb.png
Swiss Alps
https://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2213/swissalps2hz.png
Nth Italy
https://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9056/nthitaly0gq.png
Sth Italy
https://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1637/sthitaly0xg.png
Greece
https://img403.imageshack.us/img403/692/greece7qd.png
Central Gaul
https://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3793/centralgaul9za.png

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BareBones (http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=772) uses just the map files no adjustments have been included to compensate for the larger map scale. As this version was released by request for those that wanted just the map to add/create their own mod.

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Notice:
WarMap map tga's are public property.
and can be used in any public mod.
I only ask that the name WarMap not be used
and any customized WarMap tga's also become
public property.
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[Ciaran]

Nice to see you uploaded your mod. I´ll give it a try and will post my feedback. It might take a while, though - you don´t want any feedback based on just one brief glimpse, now do you?

[Gisela]

Wow! Looks very intersting. Will try it next week. :charge:

[GrimSta]

Jesus, your map is huge!!!! i cant wait to try it out! ~:cheers:

[BDH]

How the hell did you get a regions file that had 510 pixels east west!?! All the hardcoded i've seen says that it can't be great than 500 pixles!?! Thats tremednous! ~:cheers:

[IceTorque]

Ciaran, Thanks for your interest, and yes feedback after actually playing the mod would be much appreciated. ~:cheers:

Gisela and GrimSta, I hope you like it. :bow:

BDH, It is possible to make it even larger, but only by reducing the water area and increasing the land mass. but then of course it no longer resembles a map of europe. ~:cheers:

[Ciaran]

All right, I can hardly call it extensive testing, but nevertheless, I thought I´d bother you with some comments.
First of, your campaign map is simply amazing, the "land bridges" hopefully will allow the AI to cross water after all. That´s one very clever idea. You´ve got my deepest respect, so I hope you´ll forgive me if some of my following coments may seem like a rant to you - they are not, at least, that´s not my intention.
One issue, and the most prominent one, is that currently (v.1.0 of your mod, mind you, I´ve just now seen you updated it) the game crashes on the faction selection when clicking the icon of a faction other than the roman ones, Germania, Gaul and Britons.
Starting with the Julii, I noticed I had Gothic cavalry as my only cavalry choice ~:confused: Why´s that? I mean, they´re not bad, but it´s kind of confusing.
Dito the very limited unit choice, archers, early legionairs and cavalry. I´ll assume you´ll use the Marius reform to make the later legionary cohorts available?
The cities are very much developed, too, and I don´t suppose squalor or happieness will ever be an issue in your mod, considering the boni the buildings give. So, anyone who´s a fan of the building part, especially the "starting from scratch" part of the vanilla game, might be disappointed - you start out with a pretty well developed little empire. Then again, it´s called Warmap, not buildingmap.
Cities and recruitment, that´s something I´ve got to mention, too. I can see why it makes sense to train diplomats only in the capital, but why can´t you get spies everywhere - or at least in the starting cities? And what about assassins?
Last but not least, the battles. I´ve noticed you went to great length to change all the unit stats, but aren´t they a bit high? Especially the morale, and maybe the archery range (it´s huge, or so at least it felt to me) is an issue there, the units will hardly ever rout and most of the time fight to death instead.

All right, that should do it for now. I can only repeat myself, don´t take my comments as an insult of your great work, they´re just my personal opinion, and there we might differ.

By the way, what´s new in v.1.1 and what´s the Vanilla WarMap version(the link to that doesn´t work) ?

[BDH]

BDH, It is possible to make it even larger, but only by reducing the water area and increasing the land mass. but then of course it no longer resembles a map of europe. ~:cheers:

Yes, well i have tried doing that, but I usually do tests with no water. Its all very interesting. I will just do some more tests :bow:

[IceTorque]

Ciaran, First let me thank you for your detailed feedback.

Now I'll try to explain my reasoning for the changes.

The game starts post marion (as far as unit selection goes anyways)
All men were created equal and the aim of the unit stats was to:
Allow for more realistic advantages of moral, experience and terrain only and NOT level 2 unit can beat level 1 unit which is so gamey and creates a fundamental gameplay flaw that is apparent in all TW games.

e.g. I strive to build armies composed entirely of elite units, but when i do i am rarely if ever challenged by an AI army of equal quality. I concede STW was'nt too bad but MTW and RTW are. Hence the need to create a more level playing field with what i think are more realistic advantages and my claim of "The most consistently challenging campaigns and battles".

Brutii use the urbans, julli have cohorts i, scipii have cohorts ii, senate has praetorians. This was to keep the roman armies uniform.
Barbarians and most other factions have a wider variety to achieve the exact opposite.

Gothic cav only at the start but when you conquer rome you can recruit praetorian cav and praetorian cohorts but only in Rome of course.
As you will find in all other capitols you will be able to recruit a special unit.
Which represents your regional/mercenary troops. Also as your empire grows so does your troop diversity.
But the player and AI's powerbase is always in their respective homeland.

Normal non-retrainable mercs were deleted to keep the AI's armies consistent in quality and numbers.

Cities starting off well developed was necessary to stop the AI from depleting their populations by training rubbish units, and basically going bankrupt and not advancing up the tech tree.
Also to speed up the game opening and allow for the start to be relatively easy and get harder as the game develops.
The exact opposite to vanilla.

Squalor i never did like it, and i wanted the AI to direct their attention at me or expanding their empire not fighting endless uprisings.

Diplomats, assasins, spies were restricted to being recruited from capitols only in an effort to reduce their numbers and to reduce micro-management by countering them all.
I was playing a version with none of the above and the feeling of a huge burden being lifted was tremendous allowing me to concentrate on the core gameplay attraction of TW. which is of course the battles.
But i concede they are a necessary evil.

I concede the moral is a bit high and units rarely rout but again i thought this preferable to time wasting battles of chasing routers. Also to have consistency in the quality of battles for more of a challenge.

Archery range again to me looking at the scale of the battle maps seems more realistic. I once shot an arrow out of an ordinary looking bow which travelled at least 300 metres. and i was a total n00b at it.

v1.1 just makes all factions playable as was intended.
Vanilla-WarMap is just the map with all vanilla units/stats/buildings etc.
It has been submitted to TWC downloads section and should be available soon.
Aso my first post has been updated with a new link.

I hope this helps in explaining the method to my madness. ~:cheers:

[Ciaran]

Thanks for clearing that up, I´ll download v.1.1 and the vanilla map. Your approach is good if you´re going for the fighting part, but occassionally I like some empire-management, too. Great work, anyhow~:thumb:

[Boudicca]

I do think that this map has great potential to be used mod wise. It is simply great work by IceTorqe and so absoultuely delighfully huge....

[IceTorque]

WarMap has been updated to v1.3 for RTW v1.5

[LestaT]

It looks great, the map, honestly. The only thing is that I prefer to start the game much earlier (like vanilla or RTR) and before Marian Reform. Guess I'll use your map and.. mhmh.. if you be so kind to remind me what else the files I should tinker ... the desc_strat obviously .. :-)

[IceTorque]

It looks great, the map, honestly. The only thing is that I prefer to start the game much earlier (like vanilla or RTR) and before Marian Reform. Guess I'll use your map and.. mhmh.. if you be so kind to remind me what else the files I should tinker ... the desc_strat obviously .. :-)

I would suggest the Vanilla-WarMap. This version uses just the map files,
all else is vanilla. Units, stats, gameplay etc.

[LestaT]

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify. meaning if I choose Imperial Campaign I will get your map instead of vanilla one , with starting units etc and all at vanilla ?

[IceTorque]

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify. meaning if I choose Imperial Campaign I will get your map instead of vanilla one , with starting units etc and all at vanilla ?

No. You need to select provincial campaign for the WarMap, with all
vanilla units/stats/gameplay etc.

EDIT: Vanilla-WarMap has been renamed to BareBones.
To avoid any confusion between the two versions.

[Dhampir]

Forgive a probably stupid question, but does this work with Barbarian Invasion?

[IceTorque]

This is for RTW v1.5. A BI version is still in beta.

If your interested Download and Details here.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=58135

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

Played on hard/hard and have to say it is one of the bests mini-mods so far.

I almost try out any mod that is out there and this one keeps me going for a couple of days now, really enjoy being challenged on the campaign map, the campaign is never easy, you just have to watch every step you take.

It didn't bother me having not so much different units, I simply do not have the time for it.A great job! :ave:

Cheers,

LZoF

P.S. If you would be interested in helping the Lordz and the Napoleonic Total War 2 Campaign Map, send me a mail as the scale of this map may be very suitable for what we had in mind, not a Siege Total War as most of the others, but hard battles on the open battle fields.

[iberus_generalis]

:ave: Avé Icetorque, lord of the geographic world of RTW!!!!
i've downloaded your maps, both warmap and bare bones, and i must say thet i'm impressed.. prety darn good job there icetorque
but i have something to ask you..
tou see, i loved that map called morecities0.3, cuz it was full of cities, and the overall dificulty at first was really challenging..but for some reasonn the guy doing it, hasn't said anything for a while, and somehow i can't make his map to work anymore since i updated to v1.5... my request was, if i could use your smoking map barebones, and add to it a lot more cities, like in the more cities mod... i would at first add a lot more cities to lusitania, egipt, greece, the italic peninsula, the south of what is now france, the rest of france it self, the middle east, in the babylon zone, as well as in hispania just to say some of what i have n mind..a lot of cities to go with ur huge map, because although i loved it, i found it was a little too devoid of live and inhabitants =)
my idea was to use, (only if i have your permition) ur barebones map to make a new version of it, just touching in the cities department and probably the movement per turn ratio of the armys. Of course credit would be given to you for the map!
if would you consider my offering, i would be very glad to try and make this mod! it would go slow at first, as im still starting to learn how to mod rome total war, and my life as a student sometimes is a little unforgiving... but soon with some work, and possibly help from friends or even people form the comunity, i would make this "new" map.! =)
what say you?:rtwyes: :rtwno: i'll await your answer..can't wait for the answer! lol

[IceTorque]

iberus_generalis, G'day m8.

Yes, of course you can use the map for your mod, as this is exactly what BareBones is intended for, Just the map files for those to add/create their own mod. Below is some links to all the FREE editing tools that I used to make the map. Combined with the excellent tutorials in the Scriptorium here at the org. you need look no further.

http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/
http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/
http://www.irfanview.com/

With regards to the amount of settlements, there is 168. So you have room to add a few more. I believe 200 is the limit.
My idea for the map was to get away from siege fests and to create a nice balance of battles.
i.e. Not too many nor too few, and for this rule to be consistent from game start to game end.
Of course this is just how I like it and is not to everyones taste. and this rule does not apply to BareBones, obviously.
As it uses just the map files and no ZOR etc.

[iberus_generalis]

hello IceTorque so far i've researched and have already up to 176 candidate cities for insertion in the map, making all factions considerably stronger, and harder to play against! espeacilly the iberian dudes, cuz in their time they were a pain in the ass for the roman armies =) but you said the limit was 200 cities, is this something you set for hte map, or is it hardcoded?
man 200 cities is way too few for what i had in mind...a campaign in wich a player didn't control the outcome from the start, something he would have to fight and defend fiercely to be able to do...:help:

[IceTorque]

The 200 settlements limit is hardcoded, Here is a list.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=42905&highlight=hardcoded+limits

[iberus_generalis]

thank you! that's was a set back! but just a minor one, i've already got 16 cities working in Iberia, like Olissipo, Scallabis, Portvs Cale, Nabantia, Bracara Avgvsta, Emerita, Gades, Malaca, Cordvba,Brigiticvm,Asturica,Cartago Nova, Valentia, Tarraco, Caesar Avgvsta, Toletvm, and fixed them to a more or less correct position in the map...
then maybe i'll cut in some areas less known to us like the north, as the important provinces are more to the west and the south...and as there is not much information about cities in those parts, i'll have to make the area of influence of cities there, bigger and also more rich somehow, so everyone has the same capacity to fight.... thanks for the tip!..i already had 368 cities to had..gotta make it 200 then, thank god i have help, form friends, cuz this is really hard work.... one question, is it possible to make even biger maps??? a friend in my team is thinking of making a biger one, so he can portrait the greek world with all its city states and colonies in the aegean area, sorry but haven't had the time to read the limits thread.. Thanks for the information!!!!
you're the best! im sorry if im buging you, is just that im starting to mod in RTW, and i need to speak with someone who knows more about this than i...

[IceTorque]

It is possible to make the map bigger, but only if you have less water tiles.

[Lentonius]

warmap is fantastic...

i have tried to mod it for mediterranean total war, but it chrashes. Is it because there is too much sea perhaps.

Does anyone think i should extend it into persia to add more land...

[IceTorque]

To extend it into the East you will have to reduce the scale first.

[Sun Tzui]

Hello.

I've been playing the BI-WarMap II for BI v1.6, great mod BTW :2thumbsup: , and have come across what I believe to be a bug!!!

Playing as Western romans i cannot recruit Imperial German Bodyguards ~:confused: ...

I mean, get the message thy got recruited, but they dont appear in the city!!

Another question.....isn't there any type of siege equipment i can recruit?

Txs

[IceTorque]

Sun Tzui, G'day m8.
I just checked the imperial german bodyguards, they appear with the same unit card as a family member, but says general when you hold the cursor over it. I only tested for a couple of turns recruiting from Rome. Siege equipment is only available when sieging and is not recruitable from the siege_engineer building. For the same reasons many online games request no art. This can be easily changed by removing the ':' in export_descr_buildings txt.

e.g. change this
;recruit "sassanid heavy onager" 1 requires factions { eastern, }

to this
recruit "sassanid heavy onager" 1 requires factions { eastern, }

-IceTorque

[Troy Lawton]

Ice Torque

Fantastic mod I'm really enjoying it and I know this is going to sound stupid but in the latest relaeas for BI I don't have any resources on the map or pretty little icons in the trade screen. Is it my install or the mod itself

Cheers
Troy

[Troy Lawton]

Ice Torque

Fantastic mod I'm really enjoying it and I know this is going to sound stupid but in the latest relaeas for BI I don't have any resources on the map or pretty little icons in the trade screen. Is it my install or the mod itself

Cheers
Troy

[IceTorque]

G'day Troy, I'm glad you like it. The trade icons are not present on the BI-WarMap II, because of the need to somehow limit the amount of armies/battles. BI's horde feature does not suit the strict homeland ZOR used on the original WarMap, hence the need to remove the income bonuses received from the icons. So now a faction needs at least two regions to support one stack, unless your playing on VH campaign difficulty where the AI gets a bonus. This is also why all units take two turns to recruit.

Even with the above settings, I found that on both versions, the number of battles was close to being almost too many. Which brings me to WarMap III, which is a scaled up version of BI-WarMap II running on the RTW exe. ( scaled up from 1021x675 to 1021x721 ) This is basically the same gameplay/units as WarMap I but with only 112 regions, 2 turn recruitment, no homeland ZOR and no resource icons.
( WarMap I has 165 regions ) Also game start is as per vanilla, low level settlements and many rebel provinces.

I am play testing it now, and I think the balance between battles and game progression is much more enjoyable. I prefer one decisive battle to ten non-decisive battles. For those that may be interested, WarMap III will be available for download in less than one week.

-IceTorque

[Troy Lawton]

Thanks for the quick reply IceTorque. I certainly will be downloading the new version. Love the big map!

Cheers
Troy

[oakleaf]

hi i downloaded the 1.6 version of your mod. i just dragged and dropped the data folder, like it said. but how do i actually play this?

when i click single player, then main campaign it's just the straight old BI. how do i choose your mod? :inquisitive:

[IceTorque]

oakleaf, you need to select the provincial campaign.