Italia Invicta

[alpaca]

Hello everybody,
I know you haven't heard a lot from us during the last few months, and probably some of you already suspected that the mod is dead. Truth be told, the mod indeed lost most of the team, leaving us down to a group of 5 to 10 members, depending on how you count (which activity level you set as a threshold for membership).
Because of this lack of members (members includes researchers), we decided to narrow our focus somewhat before tackling the whole of Europe. The advantage of covering a smaller area is mainly that we won't need to do as much research, we will have a smaller map, and we won't have to do as much work on units, etc.
Our main hope with this to get some modders excited about the project and join our team. If that fails, we will probably not be able to finish the large scale Europe map.
Anyways, after some internal debate, we cast a vote with the result of:

https://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9406/maiilogoks1.png

The starting date will be 1017 when Rainulf Drengot (later to become the Count of Aversa) and his four brothers arrived in Monte Gargano after being exiled from Normandy, thus the starting point of the Norman adventures in Southern Italy.
Our faction list isn't finalised and will be polished and refined quite a bit after we did some more research and maybe even some balance testing.
If you know a bit about the period, quite a few of our factions will be fairly obvious, but you may be in for a few surprises.
We will try to get more info out to you guys than before, both to get comments on it and to make you interested in our mod. Expect some previews within the next few weeks (as for what we will preview, I will only say that a lot of them will be feature previews from me)
I know this doesn't sound like too much, but I'm confident that we'll be able to get the ball rolling now (if need be I'll do most of the actual modding myself, but I still hope to find a few more modders to help :yes: ).
We're also working together with Re Berengario I (the creator of the Anno Domini mod) who is quite the expert on Italian history and a good modder in addition, so some of the features you'll see there will be in MAII and vice-versa. Together with him, we'll try to make the strategy layer of the game much more challenging and, most importantly, push the economic part of the game - formerly building up your provinces - beyond anything you've seen from a M2 mod so far.
You'll see more about that in the feature previews.
I can't show you too much yet, but as a little appetizer here are some screenshots from our WIP map (factions not included yet):

https://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3635/maii1xz6.th.jpg (https://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maii1xz6.jpg)https://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1984/maii2ql3.th.jpg (https://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maii2ql3.jpg)https://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8233/maii3ag7.th.jpg (https://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maii3ag7.jpg)https://img247.imageshack.us/img247/2747/maii4cw4.th.jpg (https://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maii4cw4.jpg)

That's it from me for now. If you have questions, our competent team will try to answer them as well as possible.

So long
alpaca

[Antagonist]

Sorry to hear MA has being having such problems, and I'm glad to know it isn't dead.

So has the original plan/map/factionlist etc. been scrapped or is it just being put on hold/hiatus to be resumed if more people join?

Antagonist

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

W00t! You guys are alive!

Italy wouldn't have been my first choice, and the angle of the map bothers me, but I do like the idea of a smaller scale of focus. Can't wait for more releases.

[alpaca]

W00t! You guys are alive!

Italy wouldn't have been my first choice, and the angle of the map bothers me, but I do like the idea of a smaller scale of focus. Can't wait for more releases.

The map has some advantages. One: It doesn't include too much of the Balkans which didn't play a major role in Italian history at the time, but does include Burgundy and Bavaria which did, and Two: You can scroll vertically down the coast which is a lot better in handling. Once you get used to it I find it's pretty good.


Sorry to hear MA has being having such problems, and I'm glad to know it isn't dead.

So has the original plan/map/factionlist etc. been scrapped or is it just being put on hold/hiatus to be resumed if more people join?

Antagonist
No, the original plan still stands and we're working on it part-time. The main problem is research, but skinning and mapping for that stuff are also huge undertakings.
I'm not sure if we can really get it done without a somewhat larger team though. As the aim was always a total conversion, one of that scale is almost impossible without at least half a dozen dedicated modders and as many researchers.

[Zenith Darksea]

The correct grammar is Italia invicta! Right, now that I've corrected you on that, I'm going to read the preview (you see how important first impressions can be?).

[alpaca]

True but the rest of the name isn't proper Latin either, only latinized :bow:
Italia Invictus (even though it's the wrong gender) sounds better in my opinion.

Edit: And since our initial name was already wrong, I thought we shouldn't start using proper Latin now :laugh4:

[IrishArmenian]

Yes, we are still working on the Full-Scale version, but with such a small team, a smaller release is good to pique public interest and pick up some members, which gives us momentum. We have not stopped doing anything we were doing before, we have merely focused on a smaller scale release to gain attention and therefore, people.

[CaesarAugustus]

I'm sorry that the MA team is having so many problems, but you couldn't have chosen a better place than Italy for a small-scale mod. Are you going to include all of the features that were originally planned for MA (provincial titles, etc.)? I think that would really pique interest as people would want to see it in a full scale conversion.

Try posting a recruitment thread in the Vacancy for M2TW (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=223), it might help with recruitment. Good luck and I hope you can eventually start on the full MA project.:2thumbsup:

[IrishArmenian]

The full scale mod is started, its just on hiatus right now.

[alpaca]

I'm sorry that the MA team is having so many problems, but you couldn't have chosen a better place than Italy for a small-scale mod. Are you going to include all of the features that were originally planned for MA (provincial titles, etc.)? I think that would really pique interest as people would want to see it in a full scale conversion.

Try posting a recruitment thread in the Vacancy for M2TW (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=223), it might help with recruitment. Good luck and I hope you can eventually start on the full MA project.:2thumbsup:
Yeah you'll see most, if not all, features already revealed for MA - and a lot more :eyebrows:

[Icefrisco]

not sure if you ahve factions but heres a list:

1. Marquisate of Verona
2. Kingdom of Lombardy
3. Republic of Genoa
4. Republic of Pisa
5. Marquisate of Tuscany
6. Emirate of Cagliari
7. Papal States
8. Duchy of Spoleto
9. Principality of Capua
10. Principality of Benevento
11. Duchy of Amalfi
12. Principality of Salerno
13. Byzantine Empire
14. Emirate of Sicily
15. Holy Roman Empire
16. Republic of Ragusa
17. The Normans
18. Republic of Venice

Emerging:

19. Duchy of Milan
20. Duchy of Florence


thats the best i can do for now!

[alpaca]

not sure if you ahve factions but heres a list:

1. Marquisate of Verona
2. Kingdom of Lombardy
3. Republic of Genoa
4. Republic of Pisa
5. Marquisate of Tuscany
6. Emirate of Cagliari
7. Papal States
8. Duchy of Spoleto
9. Principality of Capua
10. Principality of Benevento
11. Duchy of Amalfi
12. Principality of Salerno
13. Byzantine Empire
14. Emirate of Sicily
15. Holy Roman Empire
16. Republic of Ragusa
17. The Normans
18. Republic of Venice

Emerging:

19. Duchy of Milan
20. Duchy of Florence


thats the best i can do for now!
Thanks a lot for the suggestion. We're currently having a few gameplay discussions, you should get the core of a faction list within two weeks or so.

[Icefrisco]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. We're currently having a few gameplay discussions, you should get the core of a faction list within two weeks or so.


Only two weeks thats great!:2thumbsup:

[Vladimir]

Wow, bad news. I was really looking forward to this megamod.

[IrishArmenian]

We have to attract more interest and this is a great way to test the features. Hammer out the kinks so the large release won't be so buggy.

[alpaca]

Wow, bad news. I was really looking forward to this megamod.
If all goes well you'll still get to see it :yes:

[Jensemann]

Hurray i was so worried that the mod was dead:sweatdrop:, since i enjoyed(sp?) EB so much. but im a littlebit afraid that with so many duchies and small states as there no doubt will be in italy, that the troop variances will be small,
HRE and Bysantium will have very different units, so the normans and southern states with some muslim units, but what about the rest?

[alpaca]

Hurray i was so worried that the mod was dead:sweatdrop:, since i enjoyed(sp?) EB so much. but im a littlebit afraid that with so many duchies and small states as there no doubt will be in italy, that the troop variances will be small,
HRE and Bysantium will have very different units, so the normans and southern states with some muslim units, but what about the rest?
Yeah they'll be fairly similar. Can't help it really, it's one of the advantages for us actually because it's less work :rolleyes:

[Jensemann]

Yeah they'll be fairly similar. Can't help it really, it's one of the advantages for us actually because it's less work :rolleyes:

hehe i can understand that, anyway i cant wait for this mod and the best of luck.

[NagatsukaShumi]

Hurray i was so worried that the mod was dead:sweatdrop:, since i enjoyed(sp?) EB so much. but im a littlebit afraid that with so many duchies and small states as there no doubt will be in italy, that the troop variances will be small,
HRE and Bysantium will have very different units, so the normans and southern states with some muslim units, but what about the rest?

In fairness, so was every faction in STW and it was incredibly enjoyable, made it a bit more about the strategy than the race to get the better elite units.

Italia Invictus imo will be alot like the Viking Invasion, a few similar factions surrounded by some unique and different factions (Wessex, Saxons etc were similar, but Viking, Picts, Scots, Irish etc were nice and varied, should be similar here too).

[paullus]

sounds like a good idea, i'll be looking forward to hearing more about it!

[skuzzy]

I think this actually is the best way to handle your staffing problem. If some of the implementations are inserted into the mini-mod and you show a good deal of determination and persistence people will eventually come in droves. This just may take a while to develop so at least you're taking the necessary steps to persevere. I am looking forward to this mod as well.