Ancient TW3 - Roman Wars

Well, the Corieltauvi play well enough, at least once you've identified who the major threat will be ~D I did manage to conquer most of Britain in the end, then of course, the modder's curse - had to make some tweaks and the save-game was no longer playable. You just never get to finish a campaign when you're modding :laugh4:

The install will be as part of a new release - Ancient TW3 "Roman Wars" - too much has been changed now to keep it as part of the original, which was the point behind going the separate installs route.

I've made a few more of the new faction emblems, and it's looking a bit more in-period now. The Romans still need a lot of tweaking, as the AI really doesn't have a clue on how to play that faction. In fact it's soooo bad I might even have to remove the Batavians and relegate them to "rebel" status, as the Romans really don't watch their backs. It would be a pity as the Batavians have also learnt the trick of raiding the east coast of Britain, in a nicely historical twist....

The poor performance of the Romans aside, though, the inter-tribal warfare amongst the British factions is quite a lot of fun, as they all have subtly different unit rosters. I've been giving the Ordovici a whirl over the weekend, just trying out their new logo, really ~D and had a few amazing battles. Wresting Cornwall from a Durotrigean re-emergence was a great one - 2000 vs 7000, though I had the advantage in stars (7 vs 3) and in tech (mostly v2 and +1w, +2a). It was a glorious bloodbath, to say the least, and earned my Champion a "skilled attacker" into the bargain. The Ordovici, like most of the factions with mountainous homelands, are quite restricted for cavalry, only tribal horseman and Celtic noble cavalry are available (and the nobles need the top of the line horse-breeder building - I captured one before I had been able to build one...) The BG unit is the Celtic Noble infantry, and as a perk gaesatae are available (if you can ever afford them :clown: )

Ah, well, I broke the curse and actually took the Ordovici through to 100% victory last night, though after the 60% point it was the usual MTW steamroller effect. Still, it was fun to kick the Romans out of Britain ~D, and I had a great 3 or 4 way battle at one stage, when I bribed two out of three Atrebatean stacks in Sussex, then the Romans and the Batavians (who were rather unexpectedly allied...) also invaded.

Overall odds were about 3:1 against me and my rag-tag bunch of slingers, tribal spearmen, half a unit of Celtic noble infantry and three mounted units - covignae, tribal horsemen and Celtic noble cav. My general was the bribed three-star ex-governor, who showed up at valour 8, being very proud and very brave :beam: . The remaining Atrebates had a similar line-up, though smaller, and a no-star general, easy meat really.

I dismounted my tribal spears to spear-throwers, but saved the throwing spears for the other two armies, who were fielding a large force of Germanic heavy cavalry and equites, lots of slingers and some low-grade infantry. Luckily they retired to one corner of the map whilst I mopped up the Atrebates, then I had to march all the way back again (through the snow, no less) to deal with the larger threat.

Slingers to the fore, I started stinging them whilst my spearmen lined up beyond the tree line. Eventually the heavy cavalry let valour get the better of their discretion and they charged my slings. A quick retreat into the trees led the heavily armoured cavalry into a volley of throwing spears and a wall of pointy sticks. In the trees the Celtic noble infantry are real horse-butchers, armour piercing too, and I soon had the Batavians' top-end units routing, which cleared the field of most of the infantry as well. It was then down to the spearmen to advance to pin the remaining cavalry whilst my mounted wing flanked round the trees to clear the remaining slingers then rear-charge the two enemy generals. Rome lost her last Caesar and the Batavians stumped up a massive ransom and were forced back to the continent.

Not a bad performance for an un-teched, bribed army (I hadn't bothered reinforcing it as I thought I'd just be up against the Atrebates...). I thought I stood no chance, but I think it showed what good old tribal guile and tactics can do against an army that was far superior 'on paper'. However, it would have been a different story I'm sure if the Romans had had any legionaries on the field.....

I know, I know ... "When's it coming out?" you'll all be thinking. Well, I just got the good news that we'll be off work for Easter, so I'll have a good long stretch of time for polishing up and final tweaks, and hopefully getting an installer sorted. So maybe shortly after Easter - about a week or so, I guess, but as with all things modwise, this is an estimate rather than a promise :2thumbsup:

A release is getting close - Britannia is working pretty much to my satisfaction, it's had bit of a presentational overhaul, more historic figures added, and the Romans are getting a bit more aggressive. There's also a wadge of new portraits and names.

Some things left to do: unlock some of the castlemaps; Auxilia Brittanorum to add, plus a couple of others; check the Punic campaign still works, and transfer some portraits across. All being well I should have an installer after the weekend :2thumbsup:

Will we be seeing my fav Warrior Queen, Boadicea or Boudicca, of the Iceni?

:book: Now that would be telling.... anyway, you won't have long to wait to find out...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

but :yes: , and Cartimandua of the Brigantes, too :2thumbsup:

Cooool! Will have the legions muster in dragon's teeth formation (or will foil them and take and sack Londinium, broooahahahahaha!!!)

Well, what you doing still stood there - get downloading :clown: Yup, link posted in the download thread. Enjoy!

(I'm afraid there's no Londinium - that castle space was taken by Camulodunum instead, hard choice, but decided that was more significant for the actual invasion and early settlement :book: )

Downloading now. Nothing better to get my juices flowing, (another 30 odd units, plus regional units and sprites for all 100+ to go for me :sick:).

Good thing I have a huge hard drive, otherwise I'd have no space for anything. ~;p

GL with your mod, it's sounding increasingly ambitious :2thumbsup: You just reminded me there's a couple of units I never quite got round to for Britannia, and I spotted bit of a boo-boo last night as well, so will have to regard this release as a beta for the time being :embarassed:

I got part way through a Parisi campaign and discovered the BG unit can't be retrained :wall: I also discovered it was the hardest faction I've tried so far, and actually got whupped first time around, as in an attempt to save the precious cash I had trained loads of Celtic swordsmen and neglected my tribal spearmen. Bad mistake, very very bad mistake. Celtic swords have bit of a morale 'problem' - they're a charge-oriented unit rather than a slug-it-out unit, which means if they don't break the enemy immediately they tend to lose heart - and run. Boy, can they run! And they're elite, so once they go, everyone goes..... Second attempt on the campaign I swallowed the costs and went back to majoring on the spearmen, with just enough swords to do their job, and it was a lot easier keeping the army in the field ~D

I now have about 20 provinces, one producing w3/a3 upgrades, and I've only just achieved a reasonable economy. I'm still struggling to get my real elite units (Celtic nobles and gaesatae) trained, due to lack of cash. And trying to get trade going is a nightmare - so many enemy ships around I may as well just stand on the beach throwing florins into the water :laugh4: Land borders are such that I can't expand without exposing something, I don't have the cash for a spare stack to plug the gaps, and I can't get the cash without expanding. Bit of a tough one, worse even than the Corieltauvi.

Spot the soldiers. :clown:

https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/...visiblemr6.jpg

Oh :furious3:, :daisy: and :wall:

I can't hoodwink you with some BS about early Celtic stealth technology, then? :clown:

Looks like I need to do another re-install and spot what's missing - thanks for reporting that, Rythmic :bow:

Hmmmm, I did a re-install last night, using my stripped-down copy of MTW (as per the instructions for Ancient) and used the installer, and I had fully visible Celtic nobles, so I'm at a loss regarding the problem. Tried it on high and low screen resolution, all the animations are present and the actionspage entries etc, and all the units I tried were visible.

Were there any others in stealth mode or just the Celtic nobles?

You know me Macsen Rufus - install challenged. Anyway, how is this install supposed to work? Do I need to make another copy of MTWVI for this or can I install on top of something I already have here? If the former what else do I need for this and if the latter where should this install be directed? Also, might it not be better to wait a little bit if you are about to update this update? I'm standing by awaiting further instructions.

Does this install mean that we will have two copies of Punic Wars on our HDs? I think I don't have to tell you about how precious HD space can be.

Hi Noone - this is the first of the new "separate installs" series (I know, so why issue TW3 first....? :clown: ), and eventually there will be three of them: ATW1 being Bronze Age, ATW2 Eastern Empires (Rise of Persia/Alex/Diadochi) and this ATW3 Roman Wars.

The old issue (I believe you have 2.53 now) will be superceded. Each package will require its own cleaned out copy of MTWVI 2.01 as per the original. It will take more disc space overall, but also offers the option for anyone who only wants a single period/area to stick with just that.

So yes, you will have two versions of Punic for a while, though you can save a few hundred MB by deleting all the Punic folders and the startpos file from your 2.53 copy. It's the textures/campmap/(mod) folders that take up most of the space as they have the campaign maps in there which are huge (MapTex2 is usually 30MB or so....) This way both ATw1 and 2 will only need a single campmap, though ATW3 still has two.

All future developments will be subdivided between those three packages, and not transferable between them.

And yes there will soon be an update to ATW3 as I've now tweaked it for custom battles to work with proper unit rosters, but that will only be a couple of txt files to change.

What I really need to know is if anyone else has the 'Stealth Celt' problem :clown:

Mac,

No ghosts here, at least in Engles, Seaxes, and south of the Hadrian Line.
However, looking at Rhytmic's screen, can't tell who he is, but has Caledonian allies, is it possible the Caly royal nobles are dismounted, and theres trouble afoot in the dismount field??? Just an idea I had. If you're taking reports, I have had some other, very minor issues (Many of which you're already probably aware of, so I won't rehash).

Hi Fenixx, good to hear you've no ghosts :2thumbsup: Judging by the colours Rythmic has jumped right in at the deep to play the Venicones - the Caledonians have an infantry BG unit - dismounts always show in the tool-tip what unit they're dismounted from. Anyway, I can't imagine what the problem is except the wrong animation BIF, but that shouldn't be possible???

And yes please, anything you spot would be handy to know - there are known issues on pre-battle map images (some missing, some wrong), a lot of new units still need new reviewpanel and info-pic graphics, and troop rosters for custom games aren't correct (but I have fixed that now and can release new unit_prod shortly).

For a change of scenery I've returned some of my attention to the Eastern Empires pack and have (finally) got the Rise of Persia working, and this time have the custom battles straight from the start. Amazed myself by winning a battle as Gandharans against Greeks in custom, but it was close, very very close. Looking at what I could afford in the army select panel I was expecting to get annihilated.....

Hi mate,

I am playing as the romans and no problems so far mate ill keep you updated
ps i really love this mod cheers for that mate :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

Hi Axel,

Glad you like it :2thumbsup:

Hope the new Roman tech-tree is working out for you, and you've spotted which provinces you really need.

If you find any bugs, let us know :bow:

Hi mate
I am having a blast with it, mate you are good with mods they should offer you a job at activision :2thumbsup: gg mate
I most say i am starting a course in about a fue weeks with 3ds max so i hope to work with asap.
Ill report bugs if i find them mate but no problem so far :2thumbsup:

Mac,

Dispatch from legate, Leg. VI Victrix, Eboracum, Britannia.

Of Interest:
1) The bane ogre of every modder, typos ("mean" instead of "man" in info card, or perhaps you meant "mean men" :) ,among others).
2) Building Vicus - upon completion, yields "could not translate" message.
3) In custom battles - The new default_parch. are exquisite!!!, but on this screen a bit too dark to be able to see foreground info. IME???
4) Horse Breeder for Romans - Although implied in info card, and again implied in Batavian Cavalry reqs., wasn't clear at first that it needed add. building besides Horse Farmer, i.e. Spear WS.

Not a item, but I like what you did with the Augustan Temple, Legionary Fortresses, and Military Port. Clever and impressive.

Oh, and in PUNIC - pushed through the Carthy fleet and landed in Carthage proper, unopposed (#1 Pet Peeve - Gawd I wish GA mode were possible - AI leaves perfectly good homeland open - Guess the Cathrys had riches elsewhere to grab).
Anyway, at end of actions phase, I am awarded TOTAL VICTORY!!! Probably in the conquest reward multiplier of the Startpos? Did I get that right? Or was this intended?
Still, all very enjoyable.

Hi Fennix, and thanks for the input :bow:

Do you recall which unit has the typo? I know there are a few that still have original HTW text, but of course the HTW team weren't native English speakers like wot I are, so a few corrections are still needed. And of course, I do suffer from dyslexic fingers when doing new ones ~D (Look very very closely at the stronghold in Mierce.... :embarassed: .....)

The vicus thing is easily sorted :2thumbsup:

The custom parchment has been fixed, ready for the inevitable patch - along with proper rosters for cutom battles.

On no 4, there's not alot you can do about it - the game engine only shows "prerequisite" buildings at the first of the line, and doesn't show any second/third level buildings required for further upgrades.

Re Punic - yes, Carthage and Rome are the only two provinces required for victory, but you really should have to fight for it first :no: Dumb AI again.

And yes, GA options would be great... alas.....

The up-coming patch will also add a few goodies in the form of some new unit info_pics, as well as some tweaks to the Romans starting position, corrected custom games etc.

Mac,

Re: Typo. Haven't returned to game, but I think it was a Roman infantry unit info card. It just struck me funny bone.
Re: Parchment. Hope you only had to change it for custom battles. Elsewhere, they are perfect.
Re: Building PreReqs. I know, I guess I was thinking of units or the way it was done for shipbuilders (...with compass) in vanilla.

RE: Punic - I wanted to clarify that the Carthis were not a pushover. It took 10-20 turns to wear down their navy in the first place. I had a good fight (my Cannae) with them in in Liguria (they took a naval shortcut, unlike Hannibal), which I came back from and kicked them out. Only then after a protracted naval attrition (most land ops came to a halt) and going into the red twice and back out, was I able to break thru.

However, I was wondering, if it would be possible for me to comment/edit the "instant victory" conditions so I could continue the game and try to complete the history. I.E. how is this done?

I imagine you'll be expanding the Roman story in later releases anyway?!?

P.S: Re: G.A. Didn't VH (in XL) have some progress in this area?

Victory conditions are part of the province attributes in the startpos - last entry of the SetAttributes line is a TRUE/FALSE flag. Needs to be TRUE to count towards victory. As the scenario only has the historical years to run (ie ends in 146BC) I wanted to make it quick and savage ~D Hence only Rome and Carthage are set to TRUE in the startpos.

GA is very much hardcoded, maybe possible to change some peripherals, but it's all tied up to vanilla factions, and most importantly dates, which brings in historical events as well. Trying to use GA would mean a total rewrite of everything, then I'd have to put up with the discovery of gunpowder, Magna Carta etc etc etc. Unless you're doing a mediaeval era mod it's a total no-no.

I found the "mean" legionaries of the First Cohort :laugh4: And as for parchments, most menu screens use the background image and superimpose the parchment, but custom battle screens use a different copy of the background with the parchment already on it - and that's one I forget every time I do a new front-end... :embarassed:

Any news on the mod front, Mac?

No news, it's on a back-burner whilst I get on with some RL stuff :bow:

Do I need 2.53 I believe it is or is ATW3 -Roman Wars the full install? I haven't been following this mod too much as I haven't had much luck with ingame graphics issues, the ignominious 3D problems in battles either with Vista or my new graphics card or maybe even both. :furious3:

same here mate,
my computer wos striked by lightning, so i got a new one AMD5600 Dualcore, 4 gig work memory and 500 gig hard disk space, and 8600 ge force 512 mb grafic card and i cant even play MTW becose the driver problems for the Nvidea 8000 serries a lot of people got the same problem mate:furious3:

Hi Wladyslaw - ATW3-RW is a complete, seperate install, doesn't require any earlier version of ATW.

When they're all finished there will be three different mods in the series:

ATW1 - Bronze Age Europe only (3 eras)
ATW2 - Eastern Empires - Rise of Persia / Alexander / Diadochi
ATW3 - Roman Wars - Punic / Britannia


v2.53 is the last version where I tried to cram everything into a single install :bow:

Heya, long time no see, I was wondering, later on in the future after you get those mods up and out, is there a possibility that you could make a Dark Age era of the mod?

I was asking because, well you've covered just about every other era, why not the Viking age? :P