Ancient TW2: Eastern Empires

[macsen rufus]

This will be opened up once I get back to working on this scenario.

Ancient TW2: Eastern Empires will feature just the "eastern" map (Illyria to India) and have three campaigns:

1 (Early) The Rise of Persia
2 (High) Alexander's Conquests
3 (Late) Diadochi

[macsen rufus]

The time has come to get back to this one again :2thumbsup:

What I'm working on currently is the Rise of Persia campaign, and will reorganise everything so this will play through all three eras, hopefully with a single map and prod_files etc, but there's a fair amount to do.

Other issues being addressed:

- Europe-Asia land bridge (now working)
- Naval madness to be curbed!
- Macedonians a bit limp under AI control
- general tendency to tech-up badly by the AI
- custom battles (working for RoP, Alex still fubar...)
- Diadochi campaign to add
- lots of graphics needed for new units (esp Chaldean and Median)
- possible new provinces (Upper & Lower Thrace, more in Greece, maybe)
- more unit types, especially cavalry


:charge:

[Hound of Ulster]

cool. keep it up.:jumping:

[naut]

Nice!

[axel]

:2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

[seireikhaan]

Any news on this front, Mac?

[macsen rufus]

:embarassed: Not for a while.... I was getting a bit burned out, so have put it to one side for a while. I'll get back to it in due course, but first there'll be a v1.1 patch for ATW3 -- hopfully to get more sense out of the Roman AI...

[macsen rufus]

Yes, this project is going forwards again!

When complete it will have the three campaigns listed above, namely:


Rise of Persia (Early)
Conquests of Alexander (High)
Wars of the Diadochi (Late)



The current Alexander campaign in Ancient v2.53 will be updated and improved; I'm now working on the Rise of Persia and laying the groundwork for the Diadochi.

I plan to release a beta install soon, with RoP and Alex scenarios - when Diadochi is finished there will be a full release.

Some tasters for Rise of Persia:

Faction list:


Macedonians
Athenians
Gandharans
Spartans
Illyrians
Persians
Egyptians (26th Dynasty)
Ionian Greeks
Thracians
Argives
Scythians
Medes
Lydians
Neo-Babylonians




Troop types and recruitment tidied up considerably from the original Alex campaign. Elite troops and bodyguards in particular will be severely restricted (usually to the historical capital province only)

And now for the eye-candy:

Starting faction locations

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/ATW2_start1.jpg



A quick preview of Lydia

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/ATW2_start2.jpg



If I get really ambitious I'll do a new front-end, too, to distinguish it from ATW1 (Bronze Age) and ATW3 (Roman)

[macsen rufus]

Busy day today, trying to remember all the old graphics tricks needed for unit icons and so on... anyway, successfully created three new units, so I think I have the hang of things again.

Here you can see some Median Heavy Cavalry (Medes' 'royal' unit) along with some Parthian Cavalry giving a bunch of Hyrcanian Hillmen very sore heads:

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/3_new_units.jpg

There have also been some other minor changes: I decided Carmania should remain with the Medes, and not go straight to the Persians from the beginning. So the Persians now begin the campaign as a one-province wonder. I think I need to turn down the economy a bit - the factions don't seem to be 'hungry' enough at the moment...

[dimitrios the samian]

Mac ! ... Good to hear & see you succeeded .
Those figs & shields look great .
I look forward to trying out the Persians especially beginning with one province .
re; the other factions not being ''hungry enough'' maybe you can have a separate startpos just for the Persians :idea2:
I enjoyed my campaigns with them in HTW ....... im all for play testing them & helping out with the balancing required .
cheers

[macsen rufus]

A quick in and out today, only got a few minutes....

Been working on the Gandharans today, as I thought their unit roster was a bit sparse (1 chariot, 1 archer unit, 1 spear unit, 1 horse archer and war-elephants, as well as the slingers and miners that every faction gets....)

I've now added some more :2thumbsup:

A quick taster here:

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/indian_prebat.jpg


Ratheza: Indian chariots - royal unit
Isvasa: basic archer, but can hide in the open - short bow (** new **)
Paramesvasa: now made more elite (means 'excellent archer' in Sanskrit) - longbow
Zaktika: spears
Zaktigraha: light lancer cavalry, fast but fragile (** new **)
Azviya: horse archers
Khadgadhara: swordsmen (** new **)

Not shown:
Kalpita: war-elephants

also in planning are: Prasika (javelins), Parzava (axes), Zula (pikes) and Yuddhanauka (faction-unique warship)

They've also had a few offices added. Whilst play-testing I had a chance to watch the other factions... Persia got the idea and attacked the Medes; Babylon, Lydia and Egypt have all expanded; and Illyria and the Scyths are slugging it out. Athens has taken the lead in Greece. Most imprerssive was that the Egyptians have worked out how to sail around Arabia to attack the Persians in the back :2thumbsup:

Still got lots of ideas I need to enact, so will be busy for a while yet. I should have a beta sorted before too long, Dimitrios, I'll let you know as soon as :bow:

[dimitrios the samian]

Well done Mac ! ...great research .
I'll get a file of Indian names ready if need be , as I noticed a deadly duo the Yuvaraj's showed up !
Will the Kadgadhara Unit have only 25 ?
Take yr time & when ready , i'll be onto the beta pronto .
cheers for now
D

[macsen rufus]

Hi Dimitrios,

This army had a few beat-up units from previous battles, though some are fresh. For the record, unit sizes which are reduced here are: Khadgadhara (100), Ratheza (80) and Azviya (96)

I think the two Yuvaraj's just like to hang out together - they don't meet a lot of people with the same name - my Indian name list is over 620 for the males...

Anyway, last night I got the Prasika javelin unit working, and accidentally conquered three more provinces by chasing the Scyths around in attempt to test them in battle! They are a very weak unit, basically young boys and peasants. They have less ammo than most jav units, low morale and unit size of 80. They are faction-unique, and like the Isvasa, can hide in the open.

In the process of testing the Prasika I discovered that both the Takabara and Persian Archer animations were fighting with no melee weapons visible, so that got fixed too :2thumbsup:

The research isn't really rigourous, I'm using the principle that if there is a word for it in Sanskrit, it's fair game to make the unit :laugh4:

I'm going to try and put the last two units together now, the pikes and the axes - I think these will make up for the weakness of the skirmishers... I'm thinking I might have Varmavat Zula (roughly 'armoured pikes') to make up for lack of shields.... anyway, more later

[macsen rufus]

And here they are:

Armoured pike and axemen, the Varmavat Zula and Varmavat Parsava

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/axes_and_pikes.jpg


Some battle stats (I was just beating up some rebels to try out the new unit icons...):

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/battle_stats.jpg


And finally, the complete Gandharan roster, as available in the capital province:

https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/macsen_rufus/Ancient/Gandh_roster.jpg

[dimitrios the samian]

In the process of testing .......... I discovered that both the Takabara and Persian Archer animations were fighting with no melee weapons visible, so that got fixed too :2thumbsup:
....... >> I'm using the principle that if there is a word for it in Sanskrit, it's fair game to make the unit :laugh4:

Great news & good work all round Macsen !
In the past i also noticed many "Hellenic glitches" .
A few days ago whilst playing HTW , I also noted the Skythian Light Cavalry on the battlefield .
They are in the HTW (Bowmen) folder & have vanishing shields & weapons & the bow animations are out of sinc .
I have noticed in your screenies that popular bif ? Textures/Men/PlateS bif ~;) will once again be heavily used .
In that bif , the Archer firing has a glitch in plate 11 .....check it out please .
Im currently putting sandals on them & thickening up the bow & i would like to redraw 11 being the mid motion between 10 & 12 ofcourse .
cheers for now

[macsen rufus]

I'll have to take a look at those animations - Bowmen especially as it gets a lot of use with all the various cavalry types needed for this map. In a way I can understand why the HTW team did cavalry the way they did (makes animations easier to set up) but it does have a couple of issues - the first one is that you get a massive 'select area' on the screen in battles so you often pick up the wrong unit, and the other is that you can't change mounts for a bit of variety (with the exception of chariots). So for the Indians I've tried to use some desert and turkish (sipahi-type) riders with the one horse I have left, with mixed success. The Zaktigraha have an animation glitch, which I'm sure you'll spot as soon as you play the beta, but that's down to putting a camel rider on a horse, and I haven't really delved enough into that side of things to fix it yet.

PlateS isn't PplateS in this install - that folder has the original MTW 'armoured spearman' body with a variety of new shields (as used for Niadh Nasc and Vasconian Heavy Spearmen etc in 'Roman Wars') - I had to rearrange all the folders to eliminate Facshield units way back in the process of stabilising Ancient. You'd need to let me know which unit you mean, and I'll be able to find what folder it's in nowadays :2thumbsup:

I'm going back to finish my Gandharan campaign now, and will keep looking for glitches and hopefully build enough buidings to get all the 'Offices' through. Alas, the Medes and the Persians are both dead (mostly my faullt, I'm afraid....) and the Scyths are no more. The Illyrians are resiting my progress, and until I can get some ships in the Black Sea will prove too slippery to pin down. The Ionians and Lydians have been slugging it out for decades, with a front line which moves a province here and there, then back again. Babylon is rich for the picking but they are my allies... (I try to never to attack allies, although I will often engineer a reason to break the alliance first). I'm not sure what the other Greeks are up to, but the Macedonians are gone and the Argives and Athenians are at tooth and nail. Trying to get spies/emissaries/princesses over to that part of the map, but they all get caught or assassinated. There's no such thing as 'modder's diplomatic immunity' unfortunately. I could just switch faction to take a peek, I guess....


OK more later, cheers for now

[dimitrios the samian]

MHere you go Macsen .
18430
Its PlateS from Hellenic TW .
Gotta go now its getting late
.... but Whooa !!
Im itching to play on that lovely Alexander Map above .
cheers for now

[macsen rufus]

Aaah... that's now in the EEuroCav folder in mine - it's akondistes and all that sort of thing... will keep my eye on them now :bow:

I've taken Gandhara well past the 'majority win' point and have a long to-do list based on what I saw, and a few things I need to check in the unit_prod. Each enemy faction proved very different to fight - as expected, the further west I worked, the tougher the infantry became, and the Illyrians gave me a real hard time - the Indian elite troops just vapourised in the melee. You can imagine how I felt about Athenian hoplites after that...

FYI, the list now includes:


more naval reforms (general and some for the Gandharans in particular)
a range of new BIFs and LBMs needed
some units' availability to check out
couple of border corrections
BIG shake-up of the Scythians



I think the Gandharans are pretty much 'done' now, apart from the ship changes and starting kings. I'm going to check out the Ionians next, as they didn't tech up at all (or got trashed by the Lydians too many times...)

For the Scythians, I want to reflect the fact that they weren't just a single entity, but a coalition of different tribes. I'll give them units to reflect this (Saka, Massagetae etc etc) with just a few recruitable in the appropriate provinces for other factions when they conquer the area.

OK, back to the work

[dimitrios the samian]

back to my Gandharan campaign, The Illyrians are resiting my progress, and until I can get some ships in the Black Sea will prove too slippery to pin down. The Ionians and Lydians have been slugging it out for decades, with a front line which moves a province here and there, then back again. Babylon is rich for the picking but they are my allies... (I try to never to attack allies, although I will often engineer a reason to break the alliance first). I'm not sure what the other Greeks are up to, but the Macedonians are gone and the Argives and Athenians are at tooth and nail. Trying to get spies/emissaries/princesses over to that part of the map, but they all get caught or assassinated. There's no such thing as 'modder's diplomatic immunity' unfortunately. I could just switch faction to take a peek, I guess........
Excellent so far Macsen ! & it will only improve , im sure of that :bow:


I've taken Gandhara well past the 'majority win' point and have a long to-do list based on what I saw, and a few things I need to check in the unit_prod. Each enemy faction proved very different to fight - as expected, the further west I worked, the tougher the infantry became, and the Illyrians gave me a real hard time - the Indian elite troops just vapourised in the melee. You can imagine how I felt about Athenian hoplites after that.......
Its great news you found each enemy different ! & im sure heading west in this mod with the Indians will be a challenge many will enjoy .I look forward to hearing & eventually experiencing the melee when they finally find there way to the Greeks ! friggin awesome :creep:

.....................................................................................
Ok Mac , I reckon when you kick things of with the Ionians , you start a thread :yes:
Ionian's Faction Thread , instead of rolling into this one , at a later date transfer what we have already here into the Gandaharans thread .
I also dig your Sanskrit war philosophy on troop types , :laugh4: , you know google had a hard time finding info , but im like you on this issue , its all about gameplay on MTW & we have to make the most of what is available .
....................................................................................
Ok Now a few pics by me on the bit of work I've done on that bif .
In addition to the Akondistes (as you remembered) its used by Toxotes also , so here is pic with quiver & a full row of them with boots .
Its all a work in progress at the moment , but I am doing it correctly I believe & in Photoshop .
I'll put the boots on hold for now & I will do a full bif with Sandals & Belt to begin with (it will be the generic one) .............. then another separate one for the Toxotes .
& more will follow , anyway , cheers for now more later .
18442
18443

[macsen rufus]

Those boots look good :2thumbsup:

I know how time-consuming that must be, all the figures in all 12 frames ... kudos for your tenacity in taking that on!

Well, the Ionian campaign is about over, I've just taken over Parthia, which gives me a common border with the Gandharans. Just whupped the Persians good and proper as they decided to invade Susiana across a bridge. Kinda fun seeing light slingers and archaic archers take out a whole bunch of Persian Royal Guards and Immortals. Due to long supply lines and few 'Greek' recruitment provinces my eastern armies are very heavy on the auxilliaries, as it takes an age to march my hoplites over there. The army that held back the Persians included Phrygian and Judean archers, Phoenician Colonial Militia, Hebrew Militia, Parashim, and Chaldean Skirmishers as auxilliaries, whilst my factional troops included a couple of units of Mercenary Hoplites, Heavy Slingers (dismounted to light slingers for more ammo) and some Polemiste and Archaic Archers left over from the early era. Quite a mixed bag :laugh4:

Found a few more things that need changing: their start position is too undeveloped, so they need the castle level and a couple of other buildings upping in Ionia. I've got to rethink Royal Units across the eras. More border and port issues to fix. Yet more units fighting without weapons. Some unit / faction availability issues to fix. Also I need to add an 'elephant' resource as a prerequisite for the Elephant Trader - it's an expensive building (3000) and most factions seem to build one even though they get no benefit from it. Also some tweaks needed to names.txt and heroes.txt (but I'm going to have to have a big session on heroes anyway once research is complete)

And I've finally decided on the dates for early/high and high/late transitions: it will be 490BC and 380BC - roughly based on Marathon and the Yficratian reforms respectively. Alexander and Diadochi will both be set in late and no scenario beginning in high, although that might all get finagled depending on how it behaves.

That's probably it for a couple of days, as I'll be off earning a crust.

[macsen rufus]

Quick update:


elephant trader sorted
Greek 'offices' revamped
Greek royal units now in right eras
some names and descriptions corrected
tech-tree tweaks


Back at the weekend :bow:

[dimitrios the samian]

I'm going to check out the Ionians next, as they didn't tech up at all (or got trashed by the Lydians too many times...)

For the Scythians, I want to reflect the fact that they weren't just a single entity, but a coalition of different tribes.
I'll give them units to reflect this (Saka, Massagetae etc etc) with just a few recruitable in the appropriate provinces for other factions when they conquer the area....

Howdy Mac .... Yes , toughen up those Ionians ! Historically despite being in the shadows of Lydia , the Lydians respected the Ionians for many reasons ......
I agree ! Do the Scythians as you suggest & it will be just right .


Those boots look good :2thumbsup:

I know how time-consuming that must be, all the figures in all 12 frames ... kudos for your tenacity in taking that on!.......

Found a few more things that need changing: their start position is too undeveloped, so they need the castle level and a couple of other buildings upping in Ionia.......

Thanks for the compliment Mac , Im hoping somehow I need only do 1 complete bif plate & then find the method to cut & paste all the boots or sandals to the other 11 ...... any help will be most welcomed :bow:

Yes , re: The Ionians ,Up them even more if needed , how many provinces have you split their strip of coastal Empire into ?
Perhaps even a Citadel in their capital Miletus ? ... So as its were their uber strong Hoplites come from & having to travel from their to almost India & battling along the way emphasise their importance & depicts their value .

ps ...... What was going on with those Immortals & Royal Guards ? could it be another glitch carryied over from HTW ? hehe :inquisitive:

ciao for now

[macsen rufus]

Today I took the Spartans out for a spin, and their starting position was HARD mostly down to being strapped for cash.

It didn't really help that all the captains I had were complete thickos, dimwits, dunces, call it what you may, but the two starting units only had one acumen between them.... Then there were famines every other year.

So, in true Spartan fashion, I decided it had to be either a) a mark of disfavour from the Olympians, or b) it was all the fault of the moral degeneracy of all the other Greeks and I had to kill them all. Either way it boils down to this: to survive as Sparta you need to blitzkreig the other Greek factions and rely on rebel-farming (whilst being careful about provoking re-emergences). It was so tough I had to save up for three years to be able to afford a watch-tower in Argos :dizzy2: It would have been two years, but guess what? Famine...

It was a challenge on hard, but I managed to pull through. I think expert may be impossible... it all comes down to stretching out that starting treasury and getting really good at using those early, cheap skirmishers. Once you have the economy rolling Sparta becomes the heavy infantry steamroller par excellence... you just have to get there first.

Anyway, a few things tested out quite nicely, and Sparta definitely has a different feel to Athens, which is good.

Re Ionia - it's a one-province wonder (like ALL the Greek factions in this scenario) and due to map limitations it's a bit un-geographical, but it's the closest I could get. For the player, Ionia has an easier start than Sparta, though it's still a toughie. There is an obvious way to go to get the ball rolling, once that's done things kick in nicely. Ionia (the province) gets a valour bonus for Rhodean Slingers, and the faction has a cost benefit on them, so a unique double advantage there. I'm really getting to like the Rhodean Slingers, used them a lot with Sparta (recruitable in any Greek province with a port to reflect them going off as mercenaries, same principle with Cretan Archers). The province is also in the Lydian recruitment zone, so the Ionians get access to Lydian Heavy Cav. Lydian Infantry and Lydian Archers.

A few more items have gone on to the to-do list (though a lot have also been cleared from before), so definite progress is being made.

Re: boots - yep, you need to do every figure in all 12 frames of the BIF. C&P won't help much as everything will be in a different position or angle in each frame. That's why I've not done much editing of those BIFs beyond adding shields and weapons, as those DO need to be in exactly the same place in every frame, so a quick C&P is fine.


ps ...... What was going on with those Immortals & Royal Guards ? could it be another glitch carryied over from HTW ? hehe

Not a glitch - tactics :verycool: The Phoenician Colonial Militia stopped 'em getting off the bridge, and my missiles threw or shot everything they had into the flanks.

Not sure who I'm going to try out next - either the Scythians or the Macedonians. I think the Macs are pretty much up to speed though (bearing in mind that in this era they were basically a bunch of backward sheep-:furious3:ers pretending to be Greek). It's not until the LATE campaigns that they become anything special. And to play out Scythia, I think I want to get the 'confederation of tribes' reforms done first. All of which means I ought to stop procrastinating and get back to the 'to-do' list...

[macsen rufus]

Got the Scythian reforms underway over the weekend, with three new units completed: Sarmatian Heavy Lancers available only in Sarmatia and Scythia.; Scythian Mercenary Horsemen and Scythian Mercenary Warband which are only available to Greek factions in the Scythian recruitment zone. Both Mercenary units can dismount to Scythian archers.

Made a few changes to the recruitment zones for a few units - e.g. Parthian Cavalry are now restricted to Parthia, Dahaea and Bactria.

Other units planned for the Scyths include:


Gelonian* Militia (medium spear infantry)
Saka Light Cavalry (very fast, small unit - for scouting and chasing routers mostly)
Saka Infantry
Massagetae Horse Archers
Dahae Heavy Cavalry
Parthian Infantry (as dismount only for Parthian Cavalry in sieges)
Maybe also a dedicated Scythian Royal Bodyguard unit - there's good archaeology to support it, and the current unit is a bit weak


* The Geloni were of mixed Greek and Scythian blood, living in the town of Gelonus in northern Scythia. The 'town' will be represented in-game by a unique building needed to recruit the militia (will be available to Scythians and Greek factions only).

On playing the Scythians, I think their start position is too generous, so will take away one of their provinces, and make them need to conquer the other tribes first :whip:

More generally, made a few needed corrections to some icons etc, and have a list of other stuff which won't be save-game compatible with my current campaign, so that will have to wait til I've tested the Scyths through to 'high' era.

[dimitrios the samian]

Awesome Mac !!
I enjoyed reading your micro AAR on the Spartans .
Im amazed at your brisk pace re: tackling the Scyths & as you know I'm itching to play your latest creation !
Keep up the great work Mac .

Ok , of topic ......
Re; those bifs I have been photoshop'n.
I decided to try out a partially done bif on my pc , to see if my work in progress looks good on the battlefield .
I have been following these instructions below , which you wrote many years ago .
I use Photoshop 7 & readbif 0.1.0.2 ( purpleshogun)
I extracted all 12 as bmp , opened in PS7 saved colour table , added boots , 1 bif modded .
I used readbbif & imported all 12 & created the new bif .
but !! ............ when I re-open to view it , its got purple haze all over it ?
check out pics below ....
185091851018511
To double check , I extracted all 12 frames ... did nothing to them & created a new bif using those 12 & same thing ... purple haze ~:confused:
I'm hoping im doing something basic wrong ..... I do get an error on the readbif & am wondering about the colour palette ?
( I save , but I have no instructions on how to re-include it)
I am willing to put in all the hours required to mod this figure & then the Slinger we use .....
Any help appreaciated :bow: , for the betterment of our existing troops & creation of new ones !! :beam:
cheers
18512

[macsen rufus]

OK, I'll go to the BIF thing first:


I extracted all 12 as bmp , opened in PS7 saved colour table , added boots , 1 bif modded .
I used readbbif & imported all 12 & created the new bif .
but !! ............ when I re-open to view it , its got purple haze all over it ?

The bold bit - if that's really the order you did things - is probably the cause.

You need to create the new BIF first (256x256 x 12 frames) and THEN 'import all'. It can also help if you close BIFreader and re-open again before creating a new BIF as (I seem to recall from long ago...) data from the previous image can linger and mess things up.

The only other thought is that you have a colour table problem - when editing in PS7 are you staying in indexed mode or converting to RGB? If the latter, you need to reload the colour table when you convert back to indexed mode. On the MODE>>INDEXED menu you will be prompted for a colour table. It is safest to select 'Custom', then on the custom dialog box select LOAD and pick up the table you saved when you first opened the BMP. That way the BMP you save will be indexed correctly for loading into BIFreader.

See if any of that helps, if not holler again :bow:


And now for something completely Scythian...

I've blitzed the changes and new units today. Units added are:


Gelonian Militia (medium spear infantry) [in Scythia only]
Saka Scouts (cavalry, can hide in the open, a single javelin ) [in Saka only]
Massagetae Horse Archers [in Massagetia only]
Scythian Nobles (Royal Bodyguard unit) - smaller unit, but tougher than Scythian Cavalry [in Scythia only]


Gelonus is a pre-built, unique and indestructible building in Scythia - spearmaker2 needed with it to raise militia (was just a spearmaker but that was too easy to get...) Might need to tweak stats a bit more yet.

Reduced starting provinces as promised, and have installed historical royal names.

Gotta go, work beckons...

[dimitrios the samian]

Great news Macsen !! :2thumbsup: we have both made progress .
I managed to create the new bif , was the fault of the readbif .
I think its wise we start a new thread , so all our info is grouped .
So more great news on in that thread ...

[macsen rufus]

Good news indeed. You can now continue cobbling for the shoeless :laugh4:

I've just started a Scythian thread - noticed you're online at the same time as me... probably down to me working nights at present.

[dimitrios the samian]

:laugh4::laugh4: haha .. I certainly will , thorns shall not halt them .
& with winter approaching I will also become a part time Milliner as well as Armourer :yes:

btw ...good on the Foxes also !!

[macsen rufus]

Most of what has been done this week has been posted into the various RoP faction threads, but there are a few still left to do. These will come in as and when I've had a good hard look at them and played the faction through to the 'high' era (70 turns).

I have now started on the reforms based around the 'province resource' idea using the invisible, indestructible 'buildings' in 50 of the 56 provinces (alas, 50 is all you can have without CTDs). Still, that makes a very powerful change to the basic set-up on the campaign map, and I can now do things I've always wished I could do. This innovation (thanks to Stazi's amazing discovery) will make for some really interesting features, and I'm developing that, firstly with the Greek factions.

There's also been a few naval reforms recently, but I need to find a way to stop the Babylonians spamming ships out of Phoenicia! Ships have gone the way of other units and are recruitable on a 'recruitment zone' system. Gandhara has a faction-unique ship, whilct in the west, two new ships are available in and around the Dalmatian coast: Lemboi and Liburnians. Phoenician and Egyptian ships are only available from Phoenician and Egyptian ports now. Era transitions also affect ships.

All factions apart from the Illyrians, Ionians and Thracians have historical kings now, with appropriate 'royal' names to get some chance of further familiar characters taking their respective thrones. Each Greek faction has a unique name list, and other points of differentiation are underway, with the 'province resource' really helping on that score.

Starting kings:

Macedonia: Alcetas I
Athens: Pisistratos I
Gandhara: Pukkusati
Sparta: Anaxandridas II
Persia: Kûru (Cyrus)
Egypt: Ahmose II
Argos: Timenos
Scythia: Idanthyrsus
Media: Astyages
Lydia: Croesus
Babylon: Neriglissar

For Illyiria and Thrace, there are no records of rulers in the exact period, and Ionia, being a League, is a bit complicated....

One more new unit has been added which doesn't appear in any faction thread, and that is the Parthian Infantry which are only available as a dismount for sieges (come on, guys, it's demeaning to have to get off your horse, we're not doing it just anywhere, you know....) As with the mounted Parthians, they have big axes and are rather good at using them.

I might have mentioned elsewhere, but Rhodean Slingers can now dismount to Heavy Slingers in sieges to enable them to hurl their pots of flaming oil at wooden walls and stockades.

A few new units are in the 'to do' list, but they'll get done in a splurge, along with straightening out custom battles - ok, that's for my benefit to test new units more easily, but it will also make custom battles playable in the final release.

[dimitrios the samian]

Great update Macsen .....
Im just as excited as you are with Stazi's new discovery ! & to implement it beginning with the Greeks , nice .
Good luck with those Babylonians & spamming ships .... perhaps breaking parts of that region into a few extra provinces ?
Now ! ..... :idea2:
About those unrecorded Illyrians & Thracians , we can use Slavic & Bulgaric names with a proto twist .
Really doesn't affect gameplay anyways .
Custom battles ........ a must have ! as Historical Battles become possible then .
keep up the brisk pace :2thumbsup:

[macsen rufus]

I have a decent supply of names for the Illyrians and Thracians, just no real leaders to place. The Illyrians use Albanian names, as the Albanians are the last descendents of the Illyrian tribes - makes the faction name list unique, anyway, even if it is bit of a fudge :2thumbsup:

I'm about to open up a Median faction thread, and you'll want to see how the province resource is working for them... I can finally implement an idea that I had long ago.

Greek province resource ideas are developing - I will have Greek homelands, and also 'colonisable' provinces, with different tech trees. This will come into its own for Alex campaign, which is now going to need a major overhaul. I think my first beta release will be JUST Rise of Persia, so we can get some beta testers to check out the radical changes in this scenario.

I have just downloaded that new BIF, so will start playing with that later - I was thinking the skin tone is more Indian than African, so intend to use it for the Isvasa and Prasika units, that will distinguish them from the more professional Gandharan troops. I might need to make some weapon and shield changes, but that's fine. I also downloaded a fresh copy of Duke John's tools and BIF package (the one where I got the Thracian Peltasts from) and there is more in there I can use for some diversity. I really will have to have a clean out of textures folders though.... It also means (I believe) that I have now fully retrieved all the tools I lost when the last PC died. I'm not thinking of any campaign map changes at present, but with LMM4 back in the toolkit, I probably won't be able to resist the temptation forever... :clown: I think I'll buy a dedicated data stick and store copies of all my tools and installers safely away from the hard drive.

I'm also thinking ahead to Diadochi, and am toying with maybe having two versions of that -- one with a massive stack of Celts in Dacia so the Celtic invasion can be implemeted - I think they'll have to have the FN_07 (Viking) slot which is so far unused in any of the Eastern Empires scenarios. BUT that is looking too far into the future for now...

[dimitrios the samian]

....I think my first beta release will be JUST Rise of Persia, so we can get some beta testers to check out the radical changes in this scenario...........................................I have just downloaded that new BIF, so will start playing with that later - I was thinking the skin tone is more Indian than African, so intend to use it for the Isvasa and Prasika units, that will distinguish them from the more professional Gandharan troops. .......................................................................I'm also thinking ahead to Diadochi, and am toying with maybe having two versions of that -- one with a massive stack of Celts in Dacia so the Celtic invasion can be implemeted - I think they'll have to have the FN_07 (Viking) slot which is so far unused in any of the Eastern Empires scenarios. BUT that is looking too far into the future for now...

Count me in Mac ...:yes:, I'll beta test the factions you'd like me to .

I'm glad you like that bif , its the original Hellenic one with the skin tone changed probably by BKB & the the almost Scythian type headpiece ? is a nice extra .
Anyway I look forward to you putting it into the Gandharan lineup as it is .
At a later date that bif also will have a top & footwear , along with variety of headgear & no headgear :yes: , but thats way down the line at project 9 at present .

About the Diadochi , yes I agree separate installs is the way forward ! the more free textures/men folders we have the better :yes:
makes for many new scenarios , I had this very same idea for a new version of HTW ( Magna Graecia) with the Greeks united & heading in different directions .

[macsen rufus]

Well, I may as well start with the bad news... I managed to break RoP quite badly :no: In the midst of making some major progress, I started up a campaign to find that all my kings were nameless, and every soldier was called ' ( !!! à ', except the rebels, who were also totally incognito. Worse, CTDs on battle. It took me four hours or more to track it down, and lots of swearing.... in the end it turned out to be one single number out of place when I ported the Babylonians and Lydians into 'facshield-safe' faction slots (FN_24 and FN_26 >> FN_14 and FN_16). I'd managed to overlook the allocation of princess names, and the presence of one reference to 'FN_26' in the HEROES file caused all the hastle.

And the good news of course, is that it is fixed and now running PLUS the Alexander campaign is back in and fully compliant with all the innovations introduced for RoP.

I'm thinking I may push the start date back, and begin the game with Philip II in Macedon - with Alex himself present as a Prince, so you can 'train' him before launching into the Persians. I might even put in a really good assassin in case the heir presumptive gets impatient :clown: Anyway, I'll see how it pans out.

Given all this, you may be forgiven for thinking the beta-release will include Alex as well as RoP scenarios. You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment....

Oh, and all deaths on the field of battle now leave a body behind!

ALL BEING WELL... I aim to get that beta out over the weekend.

[dimitrios the samian]

Wow !! Exciting .... I look forward to the beta testing .
& well done macsen , solving that was a relief to all of us .
Take your time & when ready upload .

Macsen if its ok with you ......
I think the time is ripe that we moderate the forum & I can write Ludens a pm.
This way we can create our own stickied threads along with compiling all threads in their right sections .
It could get really active here with Leith & myself on the graphics aspect & im sure on other topics also .
Let me know .

[macsen rufus]

I've already PMed Ludens on that topic, as I did find moderator rights useful before, especially pinning things to the top of the board....

[Leith]

I'm glad you managed to track down the problem. Modding MTW can sometimes become extremely frustrating as a missing punctuation mark could force you to start from scratch.

[macsen rufus]

I have tried out the proposed changes to the Alexander starting date, and am pleased to say it worked out very well. I shifted the start date back to 355BC, which was about four years into Philip II's reign, and Alexander was only 1 year old. This allowed me to 'force' the succession, and on my first try out Philip managed to kark it (no assassin necessary, but the 'dead drunk' trait might have helped...) on Alex's 20th birthday, when he promptly took up the throne of Macedonia, found his 'famous king' stats, and adopted the correct portrait image.

How did I get around the problem of the first heir always having the same name as the first king in MTW? Simply by placing a 55 year old heir in the startpos - who promptly died to be replaced by a regular general with a unit of hetairoi, leaving the way clear for his baby 'brother'.

Parallel changes have been made to the Persians, who now start with Artaxerxes III, soon to be succeeded by Darius III. I still need to fix the Darius portrait, but that's a five minute job.

This arrangement allows Philip to do the necessary subjugation of the Greeks and others, build up the army for Alex to use, and solves the problem of Alex dying of old age before he even crosses the Hellespont (because MTW starting kings are always aged between 40 and 50 y.o.). It also means that the Macedonian heroes don't all come along amongst the starting units. All in all, a 'win', I think :2thumbsup:

[dimitrios the samian]

Brilliant work macsen !!
This idea can be used for the Persians as you have said , but also in future Campaign Scenarios & other Mods .

ps.... Can you open a Graphics Thread , just title it Graphics & in it I will open up 2 topics , cheers :bow:

[macsen rufus]

I've been a bit quiet here of late, but fear not, progress is being made! Weird shifts at work have left me sleep-deprived and juggling time for modding.... however:


New front end for ATW2:EE made
Unit icons being reformed
Three new battle maps made (be sure to invade Illyria from Dacia :2thumbsup: Oh, and from Macedonia....)
The mess of original MTW castles showing up has been sorted (no more ballista towers when all you expect is wooden pallisades!)
Pre-battle panoramas being created where they are missing
Dead bodies finally really work 100% - but some tweaks still needed (all dead horses are still brown, regardless of their colour when alive!)
Heroes and famous kings further tweaked
Rebel mixes tweaked
Economy reformed to increase the challenge for certain factions


The 'to do' list is far from exhausted:



Please... somebody, ANYBODY ... find a copy of GDS to make LBM work simpler!
New unit pipeline gets work as and when texture BIFs are available
Shi Shed-loads of work still to do on pre-battle panoramas (ok, so this is cosmetic... call me anal... I just like my ducks in a row...)
Custom battles still need some work - ALEX era still causes crashes, FIIKW...
Oh, yeah, there's still the entire Diadochi scenario to do - but ATW2:EE v1.0 will be released before this is ready
Miscellaneous (I'm glad they taught me how to spell this in primary school, it's a darn useful word :laugh4: )


Finally, thanks to the BETA-team who have pointed me in the right directions to find stuff I would have missed on my own :bow:

[dimitrios the samian]

Great news Macsen !!
Your a champion mate , I will just love seeing those new units in custom battles .
& no problems about being anal ..."eye candy adds to the fun"
Ok , more luck re:GDS , I think I have a copy , give me a few days , I got it many many moons ago when we were nubes on here at the org .
keep up the great work .

[macsen rufus]

That would be good if you have GDS lurking somewhere :2thumbsup:

UP only gives you 30 uses before you have to buy it, and PSP doesn't save into the correct sub-format of LBM (MTW needs the PBM sub-format, PSP will only do ILBM sub-format so far as I can see....)

[macsen rufus]

At last all the pre-battle images are finished for the castle maps - a total of 120 new ones had to be made and converted to LBMs... and all the corresponding map .inf files had to be edited to match.

I've looked at the deadpage now, and it is rammed - no room for further tweaks after all - dead horses will have to stay brown, and dead elephants will remain as giant cow-pats.

More 'heroes' lined up for various factions...


With all that graphics work, it's been a very very very repetitive few days, but at least it's done now.

[dimitrios the samian]

Great work Mac !!
I'd like to learn all that also , to help you out on mods coming up , but you can rum through it at a later date :yes:
no problems about the dead bodies , they can stay as is .....
More is always best , but does "more heroes" , mean greater numbers of higher star generals ?
Now that will be great !
cheers
D

[macsen rufus]

"More heroes" will mean you're more likely to bump into the same people you would reading the history books... whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on your perspective :clown: But, yeah, some of them are good generals....

[macsen rufus]

A quick run down of recent changes:


Just for Leith - all buildings have info-pics for the end-of-turn 'building completed' parchments
Tweaks to Alex campaign start-pos
Some ammo tweaks for ranged units
More unit icons uniquificated
Extra heroes added
Some border and map issues sorted


Things that still need to be fixed:


Oh dear - 'winter' pre-battle panoramas - there could be HUNDREDS of these to make ~:eek:
Find out why 'famous kings' don't always pick up their VnVs (regular 'heroes' are fine...)
Got a few lbm indexing issues to fix
Still a few units pending
Still need to iron out custom battle entries in the unit_prod
Looks like it's nearly time for v1.0 installer to be built ~:)
... then work on Diadochi scenario can be started

[Leith]

Hello Mac! That's great news indeed! I'm sorry I have been inactive on the forums for a while but the heat-which has reached unprecedented levels-coupled with long working hours have not given me much choice. Having said that I have finished doing a few bifs that you may find useful in your mod. I created them for my viking invasion 3 mod but some of them could work for EE. I will post some screenies when I get the chance.

[dimitrios the samian]

Gooday Guys !

Macsen , well done on your swift progress :2thumbsup:,
I installed the Beta last nite before hoping into bed & i'll begin with the Ionians tonite .
I will also go thru some old discs & find the GDS & Ultimate Paint for you as well .

About those pre-battle screens , post up a guide on how they are done .
I'm sure those of us who can , would help out making it short work for the mods being made :yes:

& Leith , good to hear from you again ! ...sorry its been so hot in your part of the world .
& post up those pics , I'm also looking forward to seeing those Bifs .

cheers guys
D

[macsen rufus]

Hi both,

Understood about the weather and work - I find I always seem to get more shifts when the weather's roasting and end up too exhausted to do much else. However, we've had bit of a wet and weird summer overall, though a few days in the mid-30s. Not much compared to what you'll get in the Middle East, but I have a cold-climate lineage so I melt easily. Looking forward to seeing any more BIFs that are around :bow:

On the pre-battle panoramas, the work is mostly repetitive, but I have developed a system to keep myself focused. The hard part is identifying which maps need doing in the first place. It's roughly this:


Identify target map
Open map with MTW Map Editor (set terrain and architecture required as you do)
Find a suitable 'viewing point' for a good image (for castles, make this easy to find as you'll have to do it ten times...)
Set elevation and angle correctly so screen-items don't obscure the view!
F2, to make a screenshot TGA
Exit editor
Open TGA in Photoshop
Crop/resize to 716x120 pixels, ensuring best image
Change mode to indexed colour using LOCAL ADAPTIVE palette
SAVE AS.... 8-bit BMP image with filename the same as the map name
Open BMP with Ultimate Paint
SAVE AS.... Aimga IFF format, being sure to use .LBM file extension, compression, and 'Adaptive with palette' option
Again, filename must match the map name
Place the LBM into the correct folder /battle/MapImages/[TERRAIN], where [TERRAIN] will be Lush, Arid, Winter, Rock etc etc etc
Find corresponding .INF file in /battle/MAPS to ensure the 'new' terrain and architecture are listed
IF maps left to do GO TO beginning ELSE stop for beer...


I'm very tempted to make all the 'winter' images a blank white screen with the caption: 'It's snowing and you can't see beyond the end of your nose' :laugh4:

And good luck with the Ionians, I look forward to hearing how you get on with them

[dimitrios the samian]

more nuggets Macsen , thank you .
I have a rough idea on how its done ..... one day i'll be helping you with these :2thumbsup:
anyway , back to the footy on tv & on commercials the remaining sandals on the bif plates .
I'll be taking the Ionians out into the warzone tonite for the first time , it will be exciting !
cheers