Multi-Mod Sampler (MMS) launched

[Dol Guldur]

The Multi-Mod Sampler (MMS)
(Version 1.1 for Rome Total War 1.5)

Supported by NINE* of the most popular & acclaimed mods for the Rome Total War engine...


IMPORTANT NOTE: The Multi-Mod Sampler and all of Dol Guldur's works are now brought together in one place at ModRealms.com! LINK: http://www.modrealms.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22

What Is A Mod?

Rome Total War has spawned many private modifications (or mods), from Roman-era realism to the age of muskets - even into the realm of fantasy! Many of these mods fall by the wayside, but some go on to be considered as good as or even better than the original game...

In an effort to bring these successful mods more into the public eye, MMS has been created.

Why MMS?

Mods often have long download times, they may be incomplete or very unstable. MMS hand picks mods based on their reputation, stability and quality as well as trying to include a wide range of genres or time periods.

MMS allows you, the player, to experience selected units from top-of-the-range RTW/BI/Alexander mods without having to download them. It also gives you information about the mod, its reputation/success and its web site or forums.

MMS:

has a file size of just 20 Megs and so takes only a few minutes to download on the average connection speed
works from within its own "mod folder" so will not overwrite any of your original game files


How Does It Work?

MMS introduces sample units from quality mods in the form of hireable mercenary units across the campaign map.

MMS mercenary units are also available through the custom-battle screen, replacing the duplicated Roman units for the Scipii and Brutii factions, should you wish to pit them against one another or other RTW units!

The screenshots below will explain more...

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_avail.jpg
Above you can see new mercenaries for hire in Germania: Arthurian Total War's Duguðe and Chivalry Total War's Feudal Knights. Note the abbreviated name prefixing each unit to identify to which mod it belongs

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_unitinf.jpg
Above is a description of one of the Rome Total Realism (The Iberian Conflict) units

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_about.jpg
Above you can see more information about the mod to which the unit belongs (Europa Barbarorum in this case). Note the URL to the mod's website where you can check for the latest release

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_rep.jpg
Above you find text that will give you information about the reputation of the selected unit's mod

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_battle-1.jpg
Here we can see a defeated army of Gauls routed by the musket balls of the Old French Guard from the Napoleonic Total War II mod!

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_advisor.jpg
For your convenience, the Advisor now lists show-cased mods, their mercenaries and where they can be recruited; a piece of text also has been added to the Army Details scroll to remind you to use the Advisor help button to access this information.

Installation & Play

Before running the MMS installer make sure you have a clean (unmodded) copy of RTW 1.5 installed on your PC. In the menu of RTW you can click on OPTIONS and you should then see the version number in the top right of the screen. If it is not 1.5 then you will need to grab the relevant patch from SEGA. If you have BI installed as well then you can use patch 1.6 as this will also upgrade your RTW to 1.5 (as well as BI to 1.6). Visit SEGA's support page to obtain these free patches here: http://www.sega.com/support/support.php?item=support_patches or visit the http://www.totalwar.com site's forums if you have any technical problems with patching.

Running the installer is simple, the only thing you need to do is to make sure the path to which you install it is correct. In most cases it will the default path (C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War) bu do check your PC to make sure that is where you RomeTW.exe file is located.

You can download MMS here: http://files.filefront.com/mms+v1+1exe/;9373007;/fileinfo.html
OR here: http://www.thefourthage.org/downloads/mms_v1-1.exe

Play proceeds largely as normal, but note that in custom battles the Scipii and Brutii units have been replaced with MMS units (this will not affect your campaign) so that you can have MMS unit armies.

Terms of Use

You may not distribute MMS units outside of MMS. All such units and associated work remain the property of their respective mods and/or creators.

Other Information

MMS units are of course originally intended for use in their parent mod and thus may be lacking attributes unavailable or impractical for MMS to include such as BI features, officers, etc.

More Screenshots...(click images for larger version)

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-41-18-76.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-41-18-76.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-37-06-32.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-37-06-32.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-36-24-76.jpg
(https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-36-24-76.jpg)

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-29-09-51.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-29-09-51.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-24-39-53.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-24-39-53.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-23-43-23.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-23-43-23.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-11-19-15.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-11-19-15.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2017-05-30-87.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2017-05-30-87.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2016-40-41-43.jpg
(https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2016-40-41-43.jpg)

https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2016-28-43-35.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2016-28-43-35.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_RomeTW2007-12-2016-24-30-00.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/RomeTW2007-12-2016-24-30-00.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_mms_eb_pose.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_eb_pose.jpg)https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/th_mms_atw_pose.jpg (https://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e166/dubhdara/mms_atw_pose.jpg)


For even more screenshots of MMS please visit this link: http://www.chamber-of-records.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1940

CREDITS:

Aradan - Unit Balance
Arakorn - Installer Bitmaps
Dol Guldur - Concept, Initial Coding/Design & Promotion
Makanyane - Coding, Maintenance, Build, Icon and Installer

And to all the respective mods (see below)

* Arthurian Total War, Chivalry Total War, End of Days, Europa Barbarorum, Fourth Age Total War, Napoleonic Total War II, Rome Total Realism VII, Terrae Expugnandae, The Lord of the Rings Total War.

[Aradan]

Excellent, Dol Guldur and Makanyane! Brilliant job on a brilliant concept! Well worth the entire community's attention!

[Myrddraal]

Good Job, added it to the front page :wink:

[the greek]

awesome idea!!

[Charge]

Oh, version 0.1 beta is out!

Sorry ...
cant resist to ask why there are no RS units... :laugh4:

...because.. they have inadequate stats? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/images/smilies/emoticons/blushing.gif

[Dol Guldur]

More a case of poor old Mak and me not being able to play every mod out there....though we did ask around

if anyone wants to suggest mods for inclusion then please do so - though we will of course review each either personally or by asking others whose judgment we can trust.

[Charge]

More a case of poor old Mak and me not being able to play every mod out there....though we did ask around

if anyone wants to suggest mods for inclusion then please do so - though we will of course review each either personally or by asking others whose judgment we can trust.
You missed my point entirely ...

It is not that hard to balance them, escpecially for 'total modder', isn't it? It makes no sense when one unit has 20 attack and 60 charge http://rbrally.gamenavigator.ru/forum/images/smilies/tired.gif and another 7-2 .. . The reason to download them instead of looking on screens is to test them in battle, ...but it's somewhat amputated experience with original stats :inquisitive:

Good units though..

[Red Spot]

first of all; great idea!! ;)

Than I have to agree with Charge, you need (:whip:) RS-units (no, not Red Spot ... :D), these units are just awesome, at least the line up of Roman units is really worth it (I'm in the process of "mollesting" them for my own use ..)

Yet you will need to rebalance them as Charge also pointed out, as they make no sence as used in RS ...

Than again I think I dont have to say I'm a "rome/romans-lover" ....:inquisitive:



G

[Dol Guldur]

We would welcome help of course. Of course, this is justification for excluding mods - it will take longer to balance ;)

Unfortunately the mods submitting to MMS did not comply to well (or at all) with one of the stipulations, to wit: "You will have to alter the stats of the unit to fit into the context of the vanilla stats."

Ah, but there you go...

Balancing can take some time, and I personally doubt I will get it any time soon. But we'll do what we can.

EDIT: Units now rebalanced in 1.1. Thx Aradan.

[Red Spot]

Just an idea ..

For instance with like RS's roman units, why not include them with copied stats of vanilla counter-parts, they are the same, just a lot better looking ...

This would allow you to include everything and you can than freely update without restarts (if they are needed ?!?), it probably will also yield you a bigger audience wich again will prove usefull when you do get around individually balancing units ...


I'm using, I guess, the upcoming 2 weeks to make a line-up of Roman and Barbarian units for my own mod (by stripping other peoples work as I'm colour-deaf .. :)), but after that I wouldnt mind testing a double line-up of units of these 2 cultures as I'll be balancing them anyway, that is, if my judgement can be trusted .. ;)


G

[Dol Guldur]

I tweaked a few of the units to vanilla counterparts already but not thoroughly. Maybe someone would like to match up the MMS units with their idea of vanilla RTW/BI counterparts as a starting point?

1. Guards of the Citadel (FATW) =
2. Riders of the King's House (FATW) =
3. Carnute Cingetos (EB) =
4. Hetairoi Kataphraktoi (EB) =
5. French Old Guard (NTW2) =
6. British Dragoons (NTW2) =
7. Imperial Cohort (TE) =
8. Basiliski Phalanx (TE) =
9. Sohei Cavalry (EoD I) =
10. Ronin (EoD I) =
11. Duguðe (ATW) =
12. Marca Dumonyna (ATW) =
13. Tagma ton Varangion (CTW) =
14. Feudal Knights (CTW) =

[Charge]

counterparts?..

1. Guards of the Citadel (FATW) = Auxilia Palatina (WRE +sword)
2. Riders of the King's House (FATW) = Paladin bodyguard (franks, 1 hp)
3. Carnute Cingetos (EB) = Chosen Swordsmen
4. Hetairoi Kataphraktoi (EB) = Cataphracts (+ sword)
5. French Old Guard (NTW2) = no matches found...
6. British Dragoons (NTW2) = Desert cavalry (sword and no shield )
7. Imperial Cohort (TE) = Legionary Cohort ii (obvious)
8. Basiliski Phalanx (TE) = Royal Pikemen (macedon)
9. Sohei Cavalry (EoD I) = Desert cavalry (sword and no shield )
10. Ronin (EoD I) = falxmen (+armour)
11. Duguðe (ATW) = foederati infantry (WRE, romano-brits..)
12. Marca Dumonyna (ATW) = Pontic heavy cavalry
13. Tagma ton Varangion (CTW) = axe heerbann (franks, better stats)
14. Feudal Knights (CTW) = Gallic Noble Cavalry

as base only...


Sohei Cavalry (EoD I)gah, better satanic guys instead (harbingers), much cooler and mod-representer.

[Makanyane]

Many thanks for that Charge :bow:

Should have a couple more units coming so will see then if it can be made a bit more logical....

5. French Old Guard (NTW2) = no matches found...yes - slight understatement! They are main problem, they are ones with the 60 attack (bayonet charge!) that makes them quite lethal if you use them properly, unfortunately as AI doesn't they are still very easy to run down when on other side.


gah, better satanic guys instead (harbingers), much cooler and mod-representer.hmmm, already changed who was going in for EoD once.... have modeller that prefers new units from EoDII - but can't release that yet, due to script and a certain very efficient tester (*cough* Charge) who keeps finding me things that need fixing on beta! :embarassed:

[Charge]

...

[Fate]

I say throw some Blue Lotus units in there, mix it up a bit!

[mrdun]

Is there an imperial campaign with this mod?

[Dol Guldur]

This is vanilla Rome with units from top-of-the-shelf mods added to the mercenary pools in order for players to have a sense of the look and feel of those mods. So, obviously, it has the imperial campaign in it.

Although units from a wide range of mods obviously makes MMS more appealing, we also wish to only promote mods that are completed and relatively stable. I would love RNJ, and BL units etc. in the MMS but as those mods - to my understanding - either are not complete or sufficiently stable we cannot promote them.

My initial standards for invitation have already been lowered - I set out to only allow fully modfoldered mods to be part of MMS - but as there were some good mods not modfoldered (though some are working on it I believe!) and due to the lack of fully-modfoldered mods I decided to reduce the limitations somewhat.

As the MMS will be representing and promoting the mod (rather than a unit modeller or texturer etc.) it is important, for all the mods as well as MMS, that such mods as we promote are of a quality, stability and playability sufficient to represent the most 'wholistic' side of TW modding.

We very much BL and RNJ will be in MMS when they are ready.

[Dol Guldur]

DELETED - silly forum posted the below twice :(

[Dol Guldur]

UPDATE:

MMS has been included on the A Side of the cover disc of the best-selling PCGamer magazine (March 2008, UK)

Congrats to all the mods included!

[Red Spot]

Congrats to you DG .. (reading of that credit section and seeing who has "concept" behind it .. :wink: )








and the rest of the team ... :smiley:


G