Amazon: Total War 8.0 Release

[bibi]

Thank You Paul! All around a project well-done with everyone!

I am so busy, I wasn't able to check until you texted me. 1,000,000 already? I know the 7.0 had quite a few too, but was not too sure the exact number.

Congrats!

[Cel SB]

Thank You Paul! All around a project well-done with everyone!

Thanks for the message. Good to know.

Thank you for posting this Paul.

Would be nice if you or Paul can post this on TWC as well.

I am not sure if that is going to make a big difference on popularity though, our Mod DB rating is in the tank right now, too many trolls, not enough real players rating the game.

[parthian shot]

The latest update is been uploaded, I will post when the load is done.

Changes are

- textures fixes for Libyan Amazon Horde Cavalry
- limbs fixes for heavy peltast units
- added more Wheelie Paul's unit icon for Meroe units.
- Celeste's latest adjustment for strategy balance.

[parthian shot]

The latest update is been uploaded, I will post when the load is done.

Changes are

- textures fixes for Libyan Amazon Horde Cavalry
- limbs fixes for heavy peltast units
- added more Wheelie Paul's unit icon for Meroe units.
- Celeste's latest adjustment for strategy balance.

The upload is finally completed.

[parthian shot]

Latest 8.0b is uploaded September 27th, 2013


minor changes are...


1. changed the Rebel General Bodyguard animation
2. changed default battle mode to FOW
3. changed time required to build infrastructure type of buildings, such as road, walls, or aqueduct.
4. changed time required to build carriage ballista.
5. new character roster for Amazons
7. changed the Geothe Amazon uniform textures.
8. corrected animation sprite issue with fast horse for the Armenian faction.
9. corrected Libyan faction general bodyguard animation model, was using the obsolete model instead of the latest.
10. corrected problem about militia warband available as Libyan rebels, but not on the Libyan recruitment list.
11. corrected Libyan chariot texture issue.

[parthian shot]

New 8.0B release has been checked in and uploaded to ModDB

Here are the changes

1. Greek and Macedonians are now able to recruit mobile artillery called Ebeatos Palintonon. Unlike the Romans or the Amazons, these new artillery units do not launch large bolt, but launches canister filled with stone or lead. So the range is not as great as the Roman's Caro Ballista, but the kill potential is much higher. Ebeatos Palintonon were used with Alexander The Great's expedition force into Asia against the Persians. The difference in deployment compared to the Romans is that they were part of the siege train used in field battle, whereas the Romans embedded these artillery units with their legions. So the Ebeatos Palintonon are more difficult to recruit and required higher cultural development.

2. A dramatic change in mercenary recruiting is making the mod very volatile. In weaker factions, such as the Arvenii or Suebii, they are now able to recruit mercenary war machines, such as wagons and other heavy units.

3. Another change made the rebel faction hordable, so the end of the world conquest is very interesting.

4. Since the rebel/renegades are also beefed up with heavy units, the mod now sees very ambitious and daring rebel attack and each rebellion can either be a few light units, or it can also become a large rebel army complete with artillery and elite horse archers. Many faction also are encourage to try amphibious assault. So the campaign can be very unpredictable.

[-Nietzsche-]

Nice Ideas :-)
I'll give it a try as soon as I've got some spare time left...
By the way... did anyone ever did some AI coding?

[parthian shot]

There is no AI coding in Rome Total War other than scripts and careful re-configuration to alter the AI behavior.
We do have open source game engine where we can create our own AI rules and logics, but that would deviate us from the Total War engines we are using.

The RTW AI behavior is actually pretty cool, for example, once we allowed amphibious landings for most factions, the Libyan actually send expeditionary forces to try to take settlement where advanced units can be recruited. And once the rebels are allowed to raise heavy war machine units, it starts to take bolder actions trying to besiege cities.

[bibi]

Nice Ideas :-)
I'll give it a try as soon as I've got some spare time left...
By the way... did anyone ever did some AI coding?

I am the section leader and QA person responsible for the open source version of the mod. Because the open source does not have any real AI to speak of, we basically have to create the AI from ground up. Since the team has decided to use Rome II as our next game engine, the AI implementation has been discontinued. Cel is the person responsible for the scripting now, taking over from Parthian Shot's earlier work in 7.0

If you need AI work done, it can be approached from many levels. The main thing is not to work on the levels you don't need to work on.

[parthian shot]

A new Amazons Total War is being uploaded right now.

The changes are

1. added Roman Fustibalus Plumbatarii Cohort unit

These are the legionnaires uses pole sling to launch leadened dart to such distance that they don't really need archer or slinger support.
Fustibalus = staff or pole sling
Plumbatarii = leadened dart throwing legionnaires

2. Make Bosporan Infantry the same as Fustibalus Plumbatarii except their range is not as far as the Romans.

3. Doubled the halberdier recruiting time for all factions, because as Celeste pointed out, it takes a lot longer to train halberdier than spear wielding soldiers

4. Celeste also corrected numerous text descriptions for the new units.

[parthian shot]

A new Amazons Total War is being uploaded right now.

The changes are

1. added Roman Fustibalus Plumbatarii Cohort unit

These are the legionnaires uses pole sling to launch leadened dart to such distance that they don't really need archer or slinger support.
Fustibalus = staff or pole sling
Plumbatarii = leadened dart throwing legionnaires

2. Make Bosporan Infantry the same as Fustibalus Plumbatarii except their range is not as far as the Romans.

3. Doubled the halberdier recruiting time for all factions, because as Celeste pointed out, it takes a lot longer to train halberdier than spear wielding soldiers

4. Celeste also corrected numerous text descriptions for the new units.

The upload is completed

Another change is the wagon and chariot units now have greater handicap in wooded areas.

[-Nietzsche-]

Rome2? Hmmm... well, wanted to buy it, anyway. Moving to R2 will surely be an awful huge amount of work :-O
But on the other Hand, you're right... Rome1 is nearly as old as the Roman Empire itself, meanwhile ;-)

[parthian shot]

Rome2? Hmmm... well, wanted to buy it, anyway. Moving to R2 will surely be an awful huge amount of work :-O
But on the other Hand, you're right... Rome1 is nearly as old as the Roman Empire itself, meanwhile ;-)

Well! It is not that simple. We have it in three phases, each phase is highly dependent of the CA releasing the modding tool (or not). It could ended up like the Shotgun II where they stop the utility all together. So there will be no mod if the utility is not forthcoming.

[parthian shot]

Another upload is underway to resolve some newly found issues with Thyssa Amazons.

1. the upkeep cost of the militia hoplite is currently the same as a mercenary hoplite, this has been corrected to reflect it is a militia unit and therefore cheaper to maintain.
2. the Thyssa had not been able to recruit carriage ballista when a quest is completed, this has been corrected.
3. missing units info have been added.

will post when the upload is compeleted.

[parthian shot]

A new Amazons Total War release is being uploaded, changes include

1. new Amazon War Dog unit
2. reduced unit size for Amazon Scout Horse Archer
3. adjusted training duration for many units
4. New Geothe Virgin Cavalry animation
5. Corrected a bug about Amazon Axe units not in the unit_building file, so the Axe units can be deployed in the custom battle but never was able to be part of campaign, now the amazon factions can recruit Amazon axe unit.

Will post again when the upload is complete.

[parthian shot]

The above upload is completed, and the access is available at the OP

[naftykid]

Rome II has been released, will there be any future release of this mod?

[parthian shot]

Rome II has been released, will there be any future release of this mod?

Absolutely!

Bibi is also working on the Rome II version and if you visit the previous posts, we are planning three phases for Rome II, but it is "highly" dependent on the utility available,

She won't be back working on the mod until next, so we will have to wait, meanwhile our animation team has been converting/re-creating Amazon units to Warscape, so it is releasable to Rome II, we just want to be thoroughly tested when BB returns.

On the Rome I side, we have been changing quite a few facets of the mod, so it would be interesting to see what you think of it.

[naftykid]

What about the RTW version, is the 8.0 the last version and will be no future version?

[parthian shot]

What about the RTW version, is the 8.0 the last version and will be no future version?

8.0B is our latest release. The thing is, it is always the "last" release until someone came up with something new.

The Rome II release is only a side show, because BB likes naval battle. So our main focal point is actually Rome I.

[parthian shot]

A new update with imrpoved Roman title award system is being uploaded, will post again when upload complete.

[parthian shot]

Another batch of Amazons Total War changes have been tested and is being uploaded right now.

Changes are:

- revamped Amazons Dispatch Rider models and animations.
- new Amazons Virgin Cavalry models.
- Almost all quest factions are now allowed to recruit Amazon Virgin Cavalry units when quests are completed.
- Amazon Foot Archer unit size re-adjusted to cope with RTW game engine hit calculation bug.
- completely eliminated male standard bearer in Amazon units
- new Amazon Lesser General animation
- new Amazon General animation
- corrected Amazon Spearwoman animation bug with no weapon when in close quarter combat.

Will post when upload is done.

[parthian shot]

The 8.0B release has met its objective and it is now completed, we now initiated the next phase of the development of the new 8.0C release with the aim to add modular biometric animation to the mod, pioneered by our own animation lead Pea.

The animation uses interlinked body components as building block to achieve better animation at a lower rendering cost.

In addition, the script capability is being expanded and more integrated.

[parthian shot]

The new release 8.0C 3 is finally uploaded onto the server, you can access the download at the OP.

Pea has updated the Amazon Priestess Guard and Libyan Heavy Cavalry animation using the Modular Biometric Animation technique.

Comments and feedback are more than welcome.

[parthian shot]

Pea has finished the Amazon Demi-Lancer using the Modular Biometric technique, the changes just finished tests through auto-matrix and will be uploaded.

Our primary download surce is being re-directed, please uses the secondary or tertiary link for the moment, if you are accessing the download from the remote uplink, please refrain from using the source embedded in the stream, but do a refresh and it will get you the new link to access the download.

[parthian shot]

We finally got the third download server working, all high bandwidth links are now being redirected to the site at...

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/r...mod/51205.html

Please help us by monitoring and notifying if the download is not working.

[parthian shot]

A new update has been uploading since early morning, the changes are

- new Amazon Demi-Lancer texture
- Changed faction Amazonia to Themiskyra with restructured strat configuration.

Will post when the upload is complete.

[parthian shot]

I would like to welcome our newest member of the development team, Becky Lani. She prefers to go by the name of Lani.

Lani is a graduate student helping with compilation and translation of my Amazon theses to foreign language(s).

And thanks to her, I finally have a position paper which is more or less in one place instead of scattering all over the place.

[parthian shot]

The changes to resolve the animation problems have been completed and uploaded.

Changes are
- new Level Of Detail (LOD) files to resolve Amazon foot units
- newly revised Priestess Guard animation for both foot and mounted units
- new Amazon Elite Scout skins
- new Amazon Standard Bearer skins
- new Amazon Warband, serf militia skins

You can download through access at the OP.

[parthian shot]

New Amazons Total War mod file (release 8 of 8.0C) has been uploaded.


Changes are


- new Amazon Heavy Cavalry Animation using Pea's MBA concept
- corrected German Units with incorrect standards
- new Armenian skins for Amazon Elite Scouts, Amazon Heavy Cavalry
- new Carthaginian Amazon Heavy Cavalry Skin
- new Thyssa Amazon Heavy Cavalry Skin
- new Themiskyra Amazon Heavy Cavalry Skin
- new Libyan Amazon Heavy Cavalry Skin
- New Renegade Amazon Elite Scout animation