Earth - Ab Exitium

Announcing, for the review of the Orgahs and our many faithful lurkers...

Earth - Ab Exitium (Earth - Out of ruin.)

The year is unclear, the world is decimated, an apocalypse has befallen mankind. Nuclear winter has blanketed the planet in subzero temperatures, radiation chokes almost 95% of the world and society has reverted to a neo-dark age. The survivors rely on instinct, determination, and the hope of finding remnants of lost technologies hidden before The Ruin to survive. The greatest minds of the world toil endlessly to rebuild what remains of civilization, and the rest put their faces to the grindstone, carrying out the daily fight for survival in a world that has pushed itself to the brink of absolute destruction. In a time when those who don't fight face certain death, and those who do pray for it, there can be only Total War.

Earth - Ab Exitium Intro .Wav
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NMLR5G2V - Megaupload Download
http://rapidshare.com/files/16799261...Intro.wav.html - RapidShare Download

General Info and Goals -

This will be a full conversion mod for Medieval2 with a campaign, custom battles, and some historical battles too, detailing Earth's fall to its current state. I’m looking to also recreate that ambience many people feel was the deciding factor in the success of the original Shogun with new sound effects and an all new musical soundtrack.

Map Size and Settlements
The map will encompass the entirety of the Earth, in a manageable scale in regards to gameplay. The setting will be post-apocalyptic and settlements will be few and far between. I want to keep the number of settlements in the game the same, or lower, than the number used in vanilla M2, while greatly extending the scope of the game's play area from Europe to the world as a whole. This hopes to empasize several points from the importance of field battles in regards to gameplay to the scantness of livable land, the vastness of the wastes and the enormous losses caused in regards to the mod's setting.

The two settlement types will be Havens, pockets of the civilised world that have managed to survive to the present time, and Outposts, the training grounds where survivors learn the skills they need to survive on the battlefields of Earth - Ab Exitium. Havens are basically cities, and Outposts are basically castles.

I'll welcome any input, particularly in reference to specific cities or military installations that people feel should or would survive an apocalypse. But I'll need a decent or believable reason reason why.

Post Apocalyptic "Technology"
“Modern” technology, at this time, is a powerful tool for survival. Those without it, seek to posess it, those with it, seek to keep it at all costs. But that doesn't mean that everybody has it. All factions will have their strengths and weaknesses. And all will need a different play style to succeed. Count on having to balance your armies well in EAE, otherwise you'll find yourself either outmanned, outgunned, or outskilled.

“Modern” in EAE is almost a contradictory term. What is left of the old world’s technologies is nothing but memory, obliterated relics and hazy recollection at best. Most people rely on man’s most basic concept of a weapon to survive, some form of sharp or pointed object that can be used to kill. But that doesn’t mean that technology has been lost to the whole of the world. There are some who have managed to pass on the most basic abilities in machinery and weapons craft. These few men have relearned the concepts of the rifle, and the gift of technology they give to their people is a powerful one, but magazines and automatic fire are completely beyond their reach and the mass volley remains the best tactic for their use.

Factions
In regards to factions, that much is still in the works. Determining who does and who doesn't survive in a post apocalyptic world is, needless to say, somewhat of a tough thing to do, and any and all input in this matter would be appreciated. I expect a strong turnout of other ideas, opinions, and suggestions, and I welcome these, as they'll likely have a decided influence in what finally makes it into the mod. However, I’d like to make full use of M2’s expanded faction limit, and with 7 continents to divide 30 some factions between, I don’t think there will be too much of an issue with people being left out.

Time and Turns
In regards to the games time frame and turn progression. As the .wav file I’ve uploaded has already described, there is no exact comparable time according to the present to compare EAE to, and in the world these people live in, the problem of relating history to now is far from the most important thing on their mind. So time in EAE will be handled in AE years, starting with the rough estimate of 50AE, or 50 years Ab Exitium. (50 Years following the Apocalypse.)

Ideas for Special Units or Factions -

The Defaced - Mutated humans who have lost their sense of humanity. I expect M2's random unit parts capabilities to shine here, with many of the Defaced being gross mutations with mutliple limbs, more than one face or any number of other deformities that we can stick on them. These may replace rebels, or they may have a playable faction all their own.

The Church of Revelations - A post-apocalyptic Papacy. Following the Apocalypse, the teachings of the church turned almost exclusively to the Book of Revelations, believing the End Times are upon them, and the only thing left is the final blow to wipe mankind completely from the Earth, the Church has managed to reunite the entirety of the Christian world under their banner, as nobody can now deny that the Apocalypse has come. Note - They are not the only religion in the game, they’ve simply united the fractured Christian denominations back under one banner and allow us to make an interesting use of the Papacy's approval system in a post-apocalyptic environment. Faction excommunications would be a powerful tool in a post apocalyptic world where the church is determined to weed out all those not deemed worthy of entering heaven's gates.

EARTH - AB EXITIUM is Currently Recruiting Members for the Mod Team.
Anybody interested who can fill any one the following roles would be well accepted and their help in aiding the progress of this mod would be greatly appreciated.
- Modelers
- Skinners
- Concept Artists
- Musical/Sound Effects Development
- Scripters