Salveas!
This is our first EB2 Dev Blog entry, which probably should have been started a long time ago, but circumstances did not allow it. Until now.
The objective of this Dev Blog is to provide regular updates (I wish that we can post it every two weeks) on what we are doing in the mod and to share some of the developments that we are making and decisions that we are taking. It's also important to pass the notion that we have been working on the mod without stop, since it was started several years ago. It is true that along the way we worked with more or less intensity, we focused more in this or that areas, but we always managed to keep progressing. What really missed along that route was the feedback to the interested community of EB fans and other players in general, and that is what we are going to solve now.
With so many things already made, it is very hard to decide where to start. I want to get on par with where we are standing, so in future entries we can present recent developments and not those made months or even years ago. So perhaps the best way to speed up, is to give you a few numbers, which define the huge amount of work that we have already put into this project:
- more than 180 units are currently selected for the 1st release. From those, 164 are fully finished (model and textures)
- there are more than 50 other models already made, from generals, officers, standardbearers, horses, elephants, chariots and a siege weapon
- this represents around 880 texture files, occupying about 2 Gb of HD space
- 250 fully-rendered unit info cards and an equal number of info cards also rendered (I say rendered because we did not use ingame screenshots to make the cards)
- 80 stratmap character models
- 26 stratmap resource models
- about 50 new stratmap building models
- 100 stratmap voice files and 150 battlemap voice files in the new Sanskrit voicemod, made for Taksashila faction
- 1150 new animation files in the brand-new animations for: Macedonian phalanx formation, Hoplite phalanx formation, moves for Javelineer, Pilum-holder, Legionary, Officer and Standardbearer, Slinger drawing from side pouch, Slinger drawing from chest pouch, Shield grabbing for horizontal shieldhandles, Archer drawing arrow from left quiver, Archer drawing arrow from right quiver and Archer drawing arrow from back quiver. We also improved on the community-made chariot animation.
I think these numbers speak for themselves, however even in the unit department we still have a lot to do. We are reusing many things from EB1, but all that above is all-new stuff.
In future dev blogs we will describe the mechanisms behind the reforms, and how they come to influence the availability and replenishment of the units in the
Further on, we have developed new tools, some of them already released to the community, and whose objective is to provide more simplicity and validity scripts for the modding processes, such as writing descriptions, and so on. Because the list is very extensive and a bit technical, I've put it in the area below.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
This first entry was a quick wrap-up of what we have done in the technical areas. In the next entries we will talk about factions, reforms, religion/culture, other game mechanics and much more.
Below you have a very small sneak-peek. I know that I was a bit scarce here, but I have to get back to work now and finish that last anatolian unit. ;)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
See you next time!