Modding News Roundup - 9 December - Tanzanian Independence Day

An irregular column to gather up some of the recent events of the Org modding community. Got news? A mod update? Recruiting for your team? Has your mod been overlooked? Send Myrddraal or GiantMonkeyMan a PM to get items included next time or post it below.

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Faction Icons from Rise Of Persia, Some tanks made by Bwian, Loricati Scutari in Europa Barbarorum, Campanian light spearmen of Paeninsula Italica

Rome Total War
Modding News Roundup


Hall of Fame- 2006
The next Hall of Fame is on the horizon! Epistolary Richard has come back from semi-retirement to organise the latest edition of the Hall of Fame where, for the modding community at least, modders and their mods are recognised for their outstanding achievements. We hope that these awards will be true to the skills required to make the mod and not the fans' personal favourites (although there could be seperate awards for this). Stay tuned for more and discuss in the thread linked.

Rome: Total War Modding - Not Dead!
As you can tell, the Modding News round-ups have been slow in their updates. This is mainly due to M2TW's release, my laziness and the sad absence of Epistolary Richard. It was a sad day when he announced that he was going to be spending less time on the .org but he has been posting recently in the M2TW modding forums and has come back to help organise the Hall of Fame 2006 as mentioned before. However, RTW modding is not dead! ER told me on MSN Messenger to get back to work and release a new round-up, so here it is:

New .Org Uploader!
A new uploader has been put into place for mod teams to host their mods on the .org itself rather than on other websites. This is going to be a really useful tool for the more popular modding teams whose links sometimes stop working. Thanks once more to ER for getting it and the Modding Download section set up.


The Fourth Age: Total War - Corsair Invasion

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'The Fourth Age: Total War - Corsair Invasion' is a modification for 'Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion' (v1.6). Their aim with FA:TW is to accurately portray the lands and peoples of Middle-earth in the Fourth Age. The Corsair Invasion and the expansion, Forth Eorlingas, features five playable factions The Reunited Kingdom, The Chiefdom of Rhûn, and the Empire of Harad, The Kingdom of Rohan and the Chiefdom of Dunland. Definately worth checking out!


Curse of Atlantis: Total War

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Another fantasy mod has been rapidly developing, led by Neon_twilight. It will feature at least nine factions each representing a unique culture and style of warfare. It is based upon the Atlanteans and their journey after the city of Atlantis was destroyed. So far several factions have been previewed with a description of their kingdoms.


New in the Scriptorium:

Modifying Formation AI version 2
DARTH_VADER's second installment (aka Episode VI) in modifying formation AI

How to change agents cost and recruitement time
Neon_twilight gives some tips on changing agent costs and recruitment.

Voicemod setup guide
The EB team share with us how they implement their voice mods.


Mods Released

Europa Barbarorum v0.8 (for RTW 1.5)
With several new factions, more units and some extensive changes to gameplay, this version of EB is looking better than ever.

NTW2 Factions Pack (for RTW 1.5)
More factions for the popular Napoleonic mod.

Rise of Persia Beta 2 (for RTW 1.5)

Vanilla Balance Mod V2 (for RTW 1.5)
Barbarossa82 aims to give the origional Rome a more balanced feel without changing too much.

"Alexander - Nice and Slow" mini-mod (for ATW)
econ21's mod aims to improve upon the Alexander: Total War game with this mini-mod.

Chivalry: Total War v0.50 (for RTW 1.5)
The famous Medieval Mod releases the latest version.

SPQR 6.2 (for RTW 1.5)

Caius Britannicus Presents: The Crusades v1.0 (for RTW 1.5)
The highly anticipated Crusades is released. With a working campaign and in a completely different era.


Mod Updates:

Interview with 'The Fourth Age: Total War'

Bwian's Boredom
Bwian's Tanks

NTW2: Austrian Sneak Peak

Inca: Total War Preview

More of Hegemonia City States - Independant City Units

Paeninsula Italica Updates



Mod Recruitment

Modding in a team can be an awesome, exciting experience allowing its members to develop a mod far greater than the sum of those it could individually.

The brightest, most innovative mods today are being produced by teams of modders - each working and developing in their own specialities – even where a mod is particular brainchild of a solo modder, they will often want help in specific areas or through lack of time. Teams can be great places to learn skills from the masters of the field, get to know new people and make those vital contacts with modders who you can then interest in your own modding ideas.

If you're keen to work with any mod team just contact their leader and see if you can help out.


**********Are you a modeller?*********

There is a huge shortage of modellers within the community and virtually every mod team desperately needs more (or even one!) as modelling is required to make any significant changes to units within the game. If you are a competent modeller you would be welcome in pretty much any project in which you had an interest, and you would be able to make sure that any personal project of your own could be completed and fail because of this lack.

The community strongly encourages everyone able to take an interest in modelling and you'll find several guides available to help on the Scriptorium.

The only programme currently able to create models for RTW is 3DSmax, however it is $$$ :(. A free 30 day download is available - however that's not nearly enough time to get useful results. You can extend the length of your trial by uninstalling it when not in use. Also, there are means by which models can be converted from the now-unavailable Gmax into 3DSMax, so if one team member has 3DSmax he can convert models from several different team members.


Previous Modding Roundups
6 October - Anniversary of the Battle of Arausio
6 September - Bulgarian Unification Day
10 August - Anniversary of the Treaty of Sèvres
10 July - Bahamian Independence Day
1 May - Festival of Beltane
6 April - Thailand Chakri Day
3 March - Hina Matsuri 'The Dolls Festival'
2 February 2006 – Groundhog Day
5 January 2006 – Twelfth Night
4 December – Mexico Day of Artisans
1 November 2005 - All Hallows Day