All At Zero Mod

[Dhepee]

I don't know if anybody has done this before. I have created a really simple mod. I didn't alter borders or which factions had which provinces.

1) I tacked the Viking tech tree onto the MTW tech tree, merged all the units, and moved some units around.

2) I used Doc's unit production changes to get factions to build toward better units.

3) I took away all starting buildings and units, except that each province gets 1 unit of peasants.

4) I extended the end date to give the player some time to actually win.

It's pretty hard and lots of fun because everybody starts at the exact same place. The factions with more provinces seem to do worse because they have more to develop and defend. The Danes do quite well since they can focus on one province whereas the HRH and the Byz have trouble keeping it all together.
If you play it right you can have a band of screaming Huscarls and Berserkers ravaging the land in short order, but your economy can collapse in a split second. This game also really emphasizes internal developments and economy, you must play defensively and think very long term.
If people are interested I'll put it up in a couple of days. I usually post from work so I'll have to bring a disk in and upload from here.

[PseRamesses]

Dhepee,
That would be interesting indeed. I always wondered how the game would turn out that way. I also wonder how the game will turn out if all factions are only given their capital-province. Would be great to see you make that mod. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif

[caspian]

That's a great idea. Reminds me of the Master of Orion 2, when you have to pick you race's tech advancement.

Is the mod finished? Where can we download it?

[Sun Tzui]

Is this MOD for VI or MTW?

*asking this cause i don't know VI....don't have it yet....blasted money thingies*

When can we expect it to be available for download?

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[maestro]

Dude...

I've done a mod of the starting positions which would tie in really nicely to what you've done here.

I've set up all of the factions (except Da Horde) with new starting positions and changed the resources for each province. Every faction has either three or two provinces and an even amount of resources, except the Swiss who have only Switzerland and everyone can get Iron. Everyone is playable too. I've also set it up so that there are no buildings except for a level 1 wooden fort at each capitol city and then set up the rebels to have troops in all of the other provinces.

It all makes for some good fun as everyone starts off on the back foot and all of the unallocated provinces have rebels in them who make rapid expansion difficult.

Perhaps we could try to combine the two mods to make a really hard, but fair starting position???

Al'

[Dhepee]

The mod is done, the only catch being that I won't be able to upload it for a few days since I have internet and MTW on different computers; internet is at work.

I can set up two files, one that assigns the original provinces that each faction has in the game and one that assigns only one province to each faction. That is not hard to do.

The mod is for a patched VI, because that is what I am running.

At this point it works better for European factions like the Brits, Danes, French, and HRE because I know their tech trees better and have been able to downwardly adjust them, i.e. making Mounted Sergeants available earlier. Also, the viking units are available to the Brits, Danes, French and HRE only at this point. I can make them available to all factions but I'm not sure how it would look to have a bunch of Turkish Huscarls. So far what I am doing is going a faction at a time and adjusting their tech trees.

The next part of this mod is adding units to factions that didn't benefit from the VI tech tree. If anybody is interested in making a new unit or two, that's fine. I'm thinking of making a stirrup mount or steppe rider type of unit to reflect the higher skill levels of horsemanship in the East. Polish Nobles is another unit that I'm thinking of. At this point the only two limitations that I have are time and my lack of knowledge about Eastern European and Arabic military history. I figure that you guys can help me out with the military history and that I'll just have to beg my wife for more time.

Once the mod is set for download and people get a feel for it I'm open to any and all collaboration.

Oh yeah, and just a word of warning, as it stands the Golden Horde are even more of a menace in this mod than they are in the regular game. Just when factions are starting to get up and running and advance along the tech tree the Horde pops up. Expect several factions to disappear in short order and expect the Horde to even become a naval presence in the game.

[SmokWawelski]

Nice. I am surprised that no one came with that idea sooner, as it seems to be a very interesting twist on the MTW game.

Good Work http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Thoros of Myr]

Quote[/b] (Dhepee @ Feb. 12 2004,01:20)]Oh yeah, and just a word of warning, as it stands the Golden Horde are even more of a menace in this mod than they are in the regular game. Just when factions are starting to get up and running and advance along the tech tree the Horde pops up. Expect several factions to disappear in short order and expect the Horde to even become a naval presence in the game.
THAT sounds like good fun http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[The_678]

This Mod does sound good and I hope it works out great for you. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[Jeff]

Yes be sure and upload that. I would love to have a go at it, always up for a good challenge. Now did you say that all factions are included? And if they are, are they available for all eras?

[Dhepee]

It's 9 o'clock on Friday night and I am just arriving at the office after a day trip to Jersey for a document review. Here's where the mod is and isn't.

In God mode I'm having trouble with the tech tree. I melded the viking tree to MTW. The castles are all funny. I have to work on that.

I have a new case that has eaten my free time, so I'm going to upload the mod without the melded tech trees.

I have it for early only, with an extended end date because it takes awhile to get up and running. When I get some more time I will make it for middle and high also. Right now I just want to fix the tech tree.

It's a weird game. I was playing as the English, all I have is my king and I invaded France, fought the French king and got a huge ransom. However, that creates rebels out the wazoo. If you eliminate a faction too soon - it's easy to do just kill the king in battle in the first few turns - the faction comes back with an army, now the game is really interesting because you just gave another faction a license to conquer.

I monkeyed around with the Danes and now they're much more aggressive. They only have one province so they build themselves up really quickly. Smaller factions seem to do better, but only play testing will tell for sure.

I have reduced the starting wealth to next to nothing. Your provinces produce and if you have too much to start it's too easy.

I'm going to work on getting the tech tree issue worked out. I can't make the right castles appear on the map, and some castles seem to be buildable but aren't. Oh well, I was modding on the flight to and from Jersey so that may have been part of the problem.

Ultimately I want to add some more very early units but that comes after I fix the freaking tech tree. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wall.gif

Random question: can you mod agents so that they garrison? I hate having all those pieces cluttering up my board.