Printable View
Ah, but how many sea provinces? Maybe we are too early for much naval war, but still I always thought that the old huge Eastern Med and Nile Coast didn't do justice to the complexity of trade routes and the difficulty of moving armies large distances by sea :egypt: (You can see I'm sticking to my theory that this is Middle Eastern.)
Hi Western,
Hmm, well, to quote one of my favourite fictional Machiavellian politicians "You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment." :laugh4:Quote:
(You can see I'm sticking to my theory that this is Middle Eastern.)
But more seriously, the sea regions currently amount to 24, mostly where they count, but it is one of the things I'm looking at in my play-testing, to see how the sea regions work out and their strategic impact. I do think I need a few more (but new sea regions are a LOT less hassle than new land provinces :2thumbsup: ) I can see at least one extra that is required, and a possible candidate for either a boundary move or sub-division. Date notwithstanding, there was a significant naval aspect to this particular conflict....
I can report that 'province 57' has worked out well, it gives 'FN_18' a bit of an economic boost as well as throwing in a historical "cassus belli" into the wider scenario. However, bit-part faction 'FN_02', which needed to be split into two (thereby adding 'FN_08') has left two financially crippled one-province wonders, with very high upkeep armies and insufficient economies. So that part of the map needs a bit of economic attention, and perhaps some winding back of starting armies.
Apart from those bits above I have at least two more units to add, and will be remaking unit review panel, info_pic and battle icon images, as most of the new additions currently have placeholders (like Muwahid Foot and Early Varangian Guard etc images - very anachronistic and inappropriate, but it conveys the idea of offensive spear and kick-ass sword units for now ~D)
After a couple of days just 'testing' FN_18 ~D, I've gone back and made a couple more tweaks. The two new sea regions are now implemented, FN_02 has been changed (as historically, my original FN_02 was under the occupation of FN_01 at the time, and so didn't exist....) and the slot has gone to a faction that did exist, but was missing from my original version. History is avenged! And the new FN_02 has a more interesting unit roster than the old one :2thumbsup:
I'm also considering some campmap changes for the MAIN CAMPAIGN, so would appreciate any feedback:
* redraw borders of Arzawa (currently MTW_Nicaea), and split MTW_Trebizond into "Ilios" in the west and "Casca" in the east.
* as Arzawa should cut into MTW_Anatolia, I want to make the south of MTW_Nicaea and MTW_Anatolia into "Lycia"
* I'd like another Middle Eastern state/province, probably Moab or Ammon
* new sea region for the "Phoenician Coast" (to run from Ugarit or Cilicia down to Sinai, cutting across both Eastern med and Nile Coast, maybe include eastern Cyprus as a coast to this one)
Of course, to make these province changes will mean I have to free up some province slots, and some will have to go! I'm currently looking at Estonia (pointless sub-division for the era), and some of the steppe provinces, plus combining Brittany and Normandy into a larger "Armorica".
Any other ideas, folks?
kick ass proto-hoplites?
Hi Macsen
My main thoughts are 1.that conquering Egypt (especially from the sea) should be a more protracted business and 2. that securing Egypt's western border ought not to mean casually conquering the desert all the way to Tunisia.
It's a shame the shape of the map doesn't allow Upper Egypt, but we have got enough to show Lower and Middle Egypt. :egypt: I'd also split Libya and show the eastern portion as either Tehenu (Land of the Olives) or Cyrenaica.
If you're up for it, you could reshape Spain a bit to emphasise difference between coastal and inland provinces (eg I'd turn Navarre into a Basque province, scrap Leon and Castile and replace with a north coast (Asturias?) and inland province
In terms of what to lose, Finland could merge with Novg without losing much at all. Switzerland could be merged with a neighbour. Pomerania and Brand might merge, or chop Silesia between Brand and Poland. I don't think any of these provinces have real meaning even in your later period.
Well, you did ask... :beam:
I'm just posting to say that I can't DL this mod, which kinda sucks.
Splitting Palestine into Israel and Judah would be nice, as that way you could have the kingdoms of Judah and Israel instead of just have the united Kingdom of Israel.
Also, maybe splitting Greece into two separate parts would be more realistic.
You could merge Granada and Cordoba, and perhaps merge Prussia and Pommerania.
Morning all, thanks for the input!
@Xehh - I don't know what the problem is, the bandwidth limit is fine (nothing downloading right now, so 100% capacity available). MyDataBus have temporarily suspended uploads, so there may be some technical issues currently, but that's only speculation as they don't say why uploads are suspended, and no mention of any interruption to downloads.
UPDATES:
Okay, here's the map changes I've done so far, corrections to the borders of Arzawa, Ilios and Lycia, plus the "Phoenician Coast" sea region:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I will need to re-tweak some of the unit_prod entries to correct some homelands (Ilios, for instance, still thinks it's "Estonia"....)
Plus a historical hero, I'm not sure if I included him in the release or not, but he's in my beta copy ~D Best known as the guy who literally "wrote the book" of Hittite chariotry (I've fixed it so he now turns up as a chariot unit as well :2thumbsup: ... )
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I like the idea of a bit more definition around Egypt, and also splitting Greece into two, maybe even three, parts, maybe tweaking southern Illyria in the process. However, I think I'll stick with Palestine/Canaan in one piece, as we start during the Unified Kingdom period, and this did grow for a while afterwards (at least under Solomon).
I'm also tempted to use up another sea region slot (only two spare now) and divide the Black Sea into north and south as well. Those coastlines always struck me as a bit indefensible, all it takes is one boat and you're away....
So, current list of candidates for annihilation: Finland (merge Novgorod), Normandy (merge Brittany), Champagne (merge IdF or Lorraine), Switzerland (merge Tyrolia - general "Alpine" region), and possibly Carpathia/Wallachia could be merged into a general "Carpathian" region, too.
This would free up five slots, and yes, I agree Spain could be rejigged from the mediaeval borders, though not necessarily altering numbers of provinces.
Current list of desirable additions: "Tehenu" (good to have a name for it :2thumbsup: ), Egypt into 2 parts, Ammon or Moab, 1 or 2 subdivisions of Greece. Also I don't like the size of "Naples" either, so possibly both Greece and Naples could be split into two. And that would use up the five slots created above.
And I'm also tempted to "re-unify" Khazar to bring it back to the "Pontic Steppe", or something...
Oh, and I forgot to add: ANCIENT will load straight on to MTW:VI - it doesn't actually need XL after all (so much changed during development, I lost track of what had been replaced ~D)
Man, I wish I could get this, it is so cool.
Hi Xehh,
I was just thinking of you - just checked mydatabus again, and see there's one more download done today, was wondering whether that was you finally meeting with success? From your last post I guess not :embarassed:
I take it you get the usual "download page" and a dialogue box for "Run or save"? Does it crash out then, give you some of it, or do something unimaginable? From your PM I think you said you'd turned off all your DL managers, pop-up blocker etc?
Don't know why, but it seems to choose one random victim per week, and makes him work REALLY hard at getting the download, and this week it's your turn :no:
Maybe I should look for a second host on the "belt and braces" principle :2thumbsup:
I might try again later, during the games, at least I've got something to watch then.
Hi Xehh II,
do you have Download accelerator ?? if so you cane disable browser intergration and turn it back on after DL, this wos my problem in first it take me a fue day s to find this out lol cose i am a twat lol from time to time:dizzy2: if this is not your problem then maybe somme other DL program you got on or your security on your PC
Morning all,
Xehh, Axel is our resident download problem expert now, having been one of the first "random victims" :beam:
Anyway, I've made the changes to the Black Sea (not drawn the new borders on to the MapTex yet, but the highlights show how they go). Certainly makes it a bit different around there now! Had bit of a struggle getting it to work at first, because I'd set everything up nicely for the ID_COLCHIAN_COAST, and eventually spotted that I had declared the neighbours for ID_CHOLCIAN_COAST .... DOH!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I'll make a start on the new (well, moved...) land regions tonight.
Hi macsen rufus,
looking good mate looking good:2thumbsup:
All I know is, is that I'm using this Free Download Manager and the problem I get is that when the DL stops I cannot resume it, this is a problem because it says it'll take about 5 hours to DL but my internet connection automaticly diconnects after about 4 1/2 hours, which wouldn't normally be a problem if I was able to resume the DL.
Hi Xehh,
Have you tried without FDM? I'd have thought that if it does what it says on the website you should be nowhere near needing to resume. What speed net connection do you have?
I've just started a DL from here, to check it all goes okay - I'm on ISDN, have about 110kB/s available right now, and it's telling me about 20 mins, so I guess you're probably on dial up if it's telling you five hours? So far, it seems that all the problems we've had with downloads have been related to DL managers, dial-up connections, or the host site being down completely (which has happened a couple of times). Do you have any options like taking a memory stick to a web cafe?
Hmm, well it's downloaded okay - everything looks good, exactly the same size as the original I posted up (which is still on the same memory stick) etc.
Anyway, today's update, the new appearance of the Egyptian empire in early:
https://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/00000061.jpg
In case you can't quite work out the new provinces, the one in the south of Egypt is Finland, and Pereyaslavl sits in between Libya and Tunisia :laugh4:
I shall move another couple of chunks of real estate tonight, and then tidy up the names, attributes and unit homelands.
:2thumbsup:
I have dial-up, that's why I need a download manager, I could try it without but I don't think it'll work, i'll try anyway. I don't even have one of those sticks so I couldn't do that either.
@Xehh, well, if you can wait another few days, v2.0 is nearly ready, and I can pack that into 2 or 3 smaller packages for dial-up users. Seems a shame to endure all that pain twice in quick succession :2thumbsup:
The new main map is, I think, complete. The latest batch of changes were:
* merged Switzerland and Tyrolia
* merged Brittany and Normandy
* merged Champagne and Lorraine
* used the freed-up slots for Ammon, Moab and Makedon.
* border changes in Spain to make Castile an inland province, linking Navarre through to Leon.
I still need to adjust the unit homelands to make use of the "new" provinces, which shouldn't take too long. Then wonder whether I should add any new factions, or keep these all as rebel provinces for now?
I would put them in(Ammon and Moab, I presume?), as that would help portray the East more accurately. And as the East's the focus of the mod, it should receive more attention.
@Macsen, I can't wait to try the next version. I'm sure it'll work with smaller parts.
Here's a screenie from the latest version of the map, with Ammon and Moab showing, taken from an Alisyan viewpoint a few turns into the game:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I've only tweaked the Early ("Age of Chariots") to run on this map so far, but over the weekend I hope to get all three up and running on it, including creating a couple of new factions, pending a bit of research. I might have to do some extra units, as Ammon and Moab are going to be pretty indistinguishable from the Edomites and Aramaeans in their unit rosters. I also need to find a suitable way to model their historic economic advantage of sitting along the "Royal Highway" and taxing one of the region's major trade routes - I was thinking I might give them the "Caravan Post" building that the Edomites currently have. I'm also not sure when the factions should apply - I think we can justify Moab in "early" as Ramses II left records claiming to have conquered the nation of mu'ab, as it's rendered in Egyptian, and I seem to recall mention of Ammonites in connection to the Exodus as well, though my biblical history is a bit shaky. They will both be in the "Late" era - else how could Solomon have had Ammonite and Moabite wives in his harem ~D
And yes, there is a river between Canaan and Ammon :2thumbsup:
Oh, and the southern province in Egypt I have called Thebes, mostly on the grounds that the various schisms in Egyptian history seemed to follow a theme of the Delta and Thebes going their separate ways, with the High Priests of Thebes forming rival dynasties. I've also shifted the recruitment zone for Nubian units down to Thebes, and out of Kemet.
In Europe, the barbarians don't seem to have noticed that Normandy, Switzerland and Champagne have been hijacked. The split in Greece seems to work, and although it might be a bit anachronistic for the earlier periods, I have called the northern section Makedon, and made it part of the homeland for a selection of Greek, Illyrian and Thracian units - a good reason for all of its neighbours to want to take it from the rebels :2thumbsup:
I haven't revisited Iberia yet, so I'm not sure how the changes to Castile (ie loss of coastline) are working out, but I suspect it's giving the IbCelts a bit of an advantage looking at the minimap.
Nice work, it looks great!
The East is really opening up now that the old Medieval province boundaries have been altered. I can't wait to try an Assyrian campaign on the new map.
I can get you some Ammonite and Moabite names if you'd like.
Sorry about the article not going in last month's Gahzette; I have very nearly finished a major part of my year's schooling, so the article should be in this month's issue.
Keep up the good work!
Ammonite kings:
Benammi
Sihon
Og
Nahash
Hanun
Shobi
Moabite kings:
Balak
Zippor
Eglon
Mesha
Thanks for those, Ignoramus, the only names I'd managed so far were Nahash & Hanon for Ammon and Mesa/Mesha for Moab, which seem to the right ones for the start of the Late Era. Earlier it gets difficult, so we shall have to improvise :2thumbsup:
I'm glad to say that, although sparse, the history of Ammon and Moab don't throw up the same weird bull-:daisy: pseudo-history that searches on the Edomites produced :laugh4:
I want to pin down a better list of Aramaic names if possible, as with three factions now using the list, I'd like a bit more variety for the generals.
I suppose I ought to go do some work soon, but then again, I wouldn't even have come in if I didn't have two new factions to research ~D One of these days I'll get an internet connection at home...
Can't wait to play this mod!!!!! It looks amazing. I've been following it's development over the past months with great interest and anticipation.
I just want to add that like some others I'm also on dial-up :-(
and haven't had much success with the current download (1.0 option) at mydatabus.
I don't know how hard it is to do, and don't want to make any extra work for you, when you've already done so much, but it would be awesome if you could break 2.0 up into smaller pieces - maybe even three or four pieces. I can get 30 MB per session without a Dload manger (GetRight) or 40-45 MB with Getright.
Thank you for your sensitivity to this issue, Macsen Rufus - YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!
Thank you,
Amarok
Hi Amarok, and thanks for the kind words :bow:
Back in the days of the first beta-release I did have extra ZIPs in four pieces, but as it turned out that install was rather bloated with unnecessary stuff, so it was still a bit large. I should be able to do the same again when v2.0 is released. I'm also looking at potential extra outlets like rapidshare which does support some DL managers, but I haven't finished reading all their "small print" yet.
Latest update: over the weekend, the Ammonites have made their appearance, and things are set up for the Moabites shortly, and the High era has also been ported across to the new map, with Late to follow shortly. I think I might need some new units to make the various "semitic" factions more unique - there are now Israelites, Aramaeans, Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites, all with very much the same unit roster.
Ammonites and Moabites are now up and running - this is from the Moabite campaign - trying them out in "high" but I think in the end they will not be available til late, as that is the sort of era when they emerged as a kingdom rather than a vague tribal grouping:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Anyone looking at the Ammonite flag will be aware I just can't resist a good pun ~D
I love those Faction shields of sea shells and palm trees :P
Looks like the caribbean has invaded the middle east 2500 years from the future :juggle2: , oh well stranger things have happened I guess :laugh3: .
Looks good MR, can't wit to play, but just a suggestion. Remove/combine a few more provinces in the west to make more room in the east. Say, Anjou/Aquitiane, Sweden/Norway, Genoa/Milan, etc, As the northeast still looks a little sparse. I need to decimate my enemy with my Armenians!
"Now, how did YLC find out about
those Bermuda-short Spearmen???"
:thinking2:
:sharky:
Heh heh, they're not just any old seashells you know....
Latest: I'm porting the "late" era on to the new map now - though it's throwing a wobbly on me, which I think I've pinned down to a unit_prod or build_prod problem, then there are a few cosmetic changes on the MapTex and that should be finished. Then I need to give the "bonus campaign" a final once-over and then Version2 will be ready for release. I'm going to be off work this weekend, so hope to make a final push - unfortunately I've also got a leaking drain to fix in my kitchen, so time could be at a premium. I must prioritise - I can carry on washing up my dishes in the bath if need be :laugh4: :laugh4:
Hi mate
i love your mod i am playing as the hellens, got one question do are the no imortals in it?? i thought the persians made an army of 10.000 imortals :2thumbsup:
Hi Axel - there are no immortals because there's no Persian Empire yet - the game ends in 700BC when Greece is still in the Geometric/Archaic eras, ie about 150-200 years before the Persian Empire. Right now the Medes are still way off the edge of the map and probably not even looking at Assyria in a funny way yet (well, there's still the Neo-Babylonian empire in between which still has to rise and fall before Persia comes along ~D )
I made a bit more progress over the weekend, in between taking my kitchen apart :no: The "Late" era now works on the new map as well (and the problem turned out to be one of my favourites - tradegoods declared as a resource, DOH! How many times have I done that now?)
I've found out exactly how the "hero portraits" work now, so my historical heroes can have appropriate pics when they exist. I also didn't know before that a "historical hero" can crop up in a loyalist uprising if the faction hasn't "trained" him yet. The heroes I'm working on are mostly for the expansion campaign and the list is growing quite nicely - should add a bit of flavour, I hope. I still have a few tweaks to do on that scenario, as the economy isn't quite right - a lot of the minor factions tend to starve to death after being smothered by a surfeit of princes. It makes them interesting for a human player though, some of them being very tough.
Assuming I get my kitchen back together soon, I hope there'll be a new release in the next few days....
Hi Macsen
I'd really appreciate your advice on something. While waiting for the bonus campaign (and partly inspired by it) I've been trying my hand at shifting some provinces in the old vanilla map. I've got it all working except I can't move province names. If I add anything to Maptex (using "add text" in ultimatepaint) the game crashes when I then load it, and I haven't even attempted deleting old names. Am I missing something really simple? Do I need a different programme?
Any thoughts most welcome. This is kind of frustrating:wall:
Hi Western2 (is that Western, too ~D?)
I guess the likeliest problem would be the file format when you resave your MapTex. That image could be absolutely anything so long as the format and size are correct (so yes, if you wanted your favourite post from the Babe Thread as your map background, it would work :laugh4: ). And the other thing is that you need to have the MapTex2 which is a 4096x3152 (IIRC) copy of the MapTex. I normally use Photoshop for my actual editing, and this saves to the correct TGA format - MTW needs it to be in 24-bit, RGB mode. I don't know what UP does to the image - I do have it, originally got it for LBMs, but found it's easier to use GDS and Mithel ImageConverter for making LBMs, but never tried it for TGAs.
So, first check-list:
1) make sure you have the high and low-res versions of your map,
2) make sure you're saving your TGAs as 24-bit colour depth
If it still doesn't work come back tomorrow :2thumbsup:
EDIT: one final thought - does UP add the text as a new layer, in which case you may need to merge layers or flatten the image first, or do it as some sort of "attachment" to the file?
Good top see it progressing Mascen! Hurry up though, I have a CD I'd like to burn your mod too! ...did I say that out loud?!
Hey whats GDS? UP gives me headaches, main reason I use PSP, so an alternative program to both would be nice :2thumbsup: .
Ok thx mate:2thumbsup:
Hi YLC - GDS stands for Graphics Display System, which is a very clunky DOS-shell based utility with a rather involved installation process that can save files in the correct LBM format for MTW use, so it can convert from pretty much any graphics format into LBM and vice-versa of course (ie gif, jpg, BMP, TGA etc etc). I really only use it for conversion, but it's great for saving things like battle icons, it CAN do LUKUPMAPs (but my machine screams about virtual memory requirements :laugh4: ) and when I get around to it, the battle-map preview pics. It's a shareware thing, that claims to only work for 30-days, but I'm on 100 days plus by now and it still keeps chugging along. The only limit really is it will only "see" 25 files in a directory (so I keep a special directory called "Conversion" into which I save all my BMPs, then open up GDS and convert them to 256 colour LBMs in one session). Oh, and being DOS based it can of course only cope with 8-letter filenames, so you'd better get used to FEUDAL~1, FEUDAL~2, FEUDAL~3 sort of file names :laugh4:
To be honest, I now use Mithel ImageConverter for LUKUPMAPs, which is perfect for that job, once you get a correct colour palette saved for reloading. I stick with GDS for the small items though, as Mithel needs to be opened afresh for each file you do - I can email you a copy of GDS if you want to try it out, I received my copy from R'as al Ghul, so glad to share it further (just PM me your add if you want it). It's fine with XP, but Vista I don't know about. It goes back to the 1990s (truly an "Ancient" tool ~D), but then again the LBM format is old and obscure itself.
Version 2.0 release should be soon - I discovered another couple of things that need tweaking last night, then I shall make a start on the new installer (including easy, bite-size chunks for dial-up users).
Thanks Macsen. That was just the help I needed:2thumbsup: Downloaded a trial version of photoshop and it worked great. Now the next challenge - what is the weird font used on the map and where can I find it?? Again, all help much appreciated:yes:
Hi Western,
Glad that helped - as for the font, I haven't found out what it is - I did start doing a "cut-n-paste" alphabet from the map, but that got rather long-winded ~D Then I had another idea, but that's under wraps til the expansion comes out :beam:
found a great link mate scroll down on this maybe you cane use somme thing from it
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
Thanks for that, Axel, I shall have a longer look at it at lunchtime :2thumbsup:
For the main business of the day:
:balloon2: :balloon2: :balloon2: VERSION 2 is now available for download :balloon2: :balloon2: :balloon2:
The DOWNLOADS STICKY has the updated link. I will soon have a 5-part installation in bite-sized pieces for dial-up users hosted on rapidshare, and these links will be added as each section is uploaded.
The new bonus campaign is included in the full V2.0 install, but is optional for the "dial up" package - the first four parts will give the first three eras. Of course, there's nothing to stop you getting the install in parts from rapidshare even if you don't have dial-up ~D
cool mate
must i install it over the first on mate? or do i need a fresh MTW with VI?
It is intended to go on to MTW:VI but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work if you put it over your first install - it won't be save game compatible though, so if you do this, finish your campaign first :laugh4: And you should also delete your "startpos" files (although I can't quite remember now, they might have the same names, in which case no need to delete the old ones....)
where do i find the startpost files???? mate
They're in "Campmap/Startpos" and there will be three .txt files with names like 'ancient_early.txt' or similar.
This is awesome news!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much for being dial-up friendly!
I hope it wasn't too much extra work - but hopefully it makes all the great work you've done available to more people.
Can't wait to download and play!!!
MTW LIVES!!!!!!!
Thank you again.
- Amarok
Sorry if this is a stupid question :-)
I'm just noticing the install instructions look a little different...
If I remember earlier versions said install over MTW:VI WITH XL mod (- or XL Lite version) or something like that... (meaning you needed VikingHorde's mod first as a base)
while the new instructions say just over MTW: VI 2.01 - meaning a patched Original version of the game (WITHOUT XL)
Am I right that XL is no longer requried?
Thanks!
and sorry for my confusion.
- Amarok
hi mate i think you will love this site there a lot of shields with symbols on it
oooops sry forgot the link :
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DG
Nice work Macsen! :2thumbsup:
I was wrong about the bonus campaign - but it's good to be surprised. Downloaded really quickly and it is playing great so far.
Amarok - Macsen may not be on line till Monday, so let me say yes, no need for XL.
How do I install this with XL?
Morning all, and thanks for stepping into the breach Western :bow: Alas, due to the general suckiness of RL and my inadequate employers, I am 'working' another Saturday :laugh4:
But yes, it is quite correct - XL is no longer necessary as there is a new campaign map. The XL install was only required to secure the map, so it can be left out quite safely. If you already have it in place on your "spare" copy, it shouldn't interfere, the install will be exactly the same, almost everything will be overwritten. The only thing I can think of that you may need to do is remove the original campmap/reviewpanel/units/pagan, and .../units/orthodox sub-folders - this is not a functional issue, it just means you will get the XL version of shamans and orthodox priests in the training parchment.
It probably took me about half an hour to split it up into little chunks, of which 25 minutes was just watching the progress bar on InstallCreator :laugh4: A very small investment in time to reach a wider audience. I'm glad Rapidshare is working out okay, it opens up a lot more bandwidth, and it means I earn Rapidshare bonus points towards a premium account - only 9999 more downloads to go for my first 30 free days :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Amarok
Already 9 full downloads done from mydatabus in less than 24 hours, so there must have been a few folks waiting for the new release :bow:
Hope you're all enjoying the new maps.
@Western - I wonder which campaign you're on - I'm guessing you'll be in the middle east somewhere ~D
Are these parts .exe's? 'Cos I'm useless at anything that's not, man, you should've seen me trying to get morrwind mods to work but that's not the point.
Hi Xehh - yes, they're all .exe files, all to be installed from the same place, so it's no more difficult than doing the full install four (or five) times over :2thumbsup: Once you've prepared your MTW copy, they just load into the new Total War directory. The installer will look for a folder called "Ancient TW", so as long as you rename your copy before running installers they should find it without any more help.
Hi mate
I love the bonus campain its great are the any elepfants in it? i hope so
its really nice mate :2thumbsup:
Hephalumps in Carthage only, you need a colony and top horse-breeder :2thumbsup:
Hi Macsen
Strangely enough, I have barely visited the Middle East yet - too busy with the bonus campaign, which I think is great. I hadn't really thought of the Punic war period as a good scenario basis, but turns out that it is :2thumbsup: I really like those Roman skins and the map is just the right scale - and the dependence on naval movement makes the whole thing a bit less predictable, with some realistic turns of fortune.
No crashes or bugs found. I did find the AI was spamming assassins and that rebellions in former Carthaginian provinces seemed to be peopled entirely by slingers. But those were small things easily fixed.
Congrats Macsen on a really excellent piece of work - and that's before I start on those new map Assyrians!
Hi mate
Its like western said its a really excellent piece of work i am playing the carthago faction no bugs so far the bonus campain is really excellent
good job mate :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:
Hi mate
Well i played the punicwar till the end AD354 , it wos really a great game
cane i ask : is it possible to make it play more years i did nt have enough time to play with the elepfants i only hade 10 years but it take me 6 years to train them the time wos to short for me
this campain wos so great that I played this campain in 1 day all day :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:
Howdy Macsen and all other players here ,, been a while since i played any thing on my PC so i decided to have a quick peek here ,, Wow !! you certainly have brought this along nicely Mac ,, Whats the new campaign map contain ? Is it the Mesopotamian region ? expanding into Pakistan & India ? .. :idea2: ,, Looks like i'll be adding a new bigger harddrive real soon ,, cheers .D
You can all blame Adrian Goldsworthy for the bonus campaign, it was largely inspired by his book "The Fall of Carthage" :2thumbsup: You know how it is, you read a history book with one eye on the text and the other on "Hmm, how could I get this to work in MTW?" :laugh4: The other side of the equation was that there were still animations from HTW that hadn't been used anywhere else in Ancient (like the artillery and elephants - the Roman units had already seen light as their Etruscan precursors, though :beam: ) Put those together and well, you just have to have a Punic Wars campaign ~D
Glad you're enjoying the Punic Wars, and thanks for the feedback - I think there could well be a patch due, as I discovered in the course of my Moabite campaign that I'd missed off the sea-region borders in the Black Sea on the main campaign map (yes, I have got that far :2thumbsup: Let's hear it for the 'one-province wonders' :balloon2: :clown: :balloon2: ).
Interesting notes about the rebel mix in Iberia, Western - that definitely needs looking at in the unit prod. I think the "slinger spam" is sorted in the main campaign, so I just need to check over the Punic units "rebel mix". There should really be more caetratii, scutarii and cavalry showing up there, I think :yes:
@Axel: I'm not sure exactly how long it takes to tech up to elephants, but really they should be available by the time Hannibal Barca appears, shouldn't they? Maybe we need an "elephant trader" building. I also wonder whether Epirus should be allowed elephants as they were used by Pyrrhus (although he's dead by the time the game starts, of course, slain by a roof tile or chamber pot depending on your sources :beam: )
Hi, DTS, good to see you back! The new map for the main campaign is still the same area, but with the provinces re-allocated a bit, with more in the Middle East, and fewer in NW Europe. So Egypt now has Kemet + Thebes, there's a new province of "Tehenu" between Egypt and Libya, Moab and Ammon are included*, Asia Minor has been redrawn to make Arzawa more true to life, with Lycia and Ilios included as well. And Greece has been split into Hellas + Makedon, there's also a couple of small changes in Iberia so Castile no longer has a coastline, and Navarre butts on to Leon. Finally, the Black Sea has been split into three parts, and there's a new sea region for the "Phoenician Coast" which makes the eastern Med more interesting for naval ops and trade routes. And the background map has had a few changes, like old province names and land-bridges removed.
* Ammon and Moab are also available as factions as well as provinces - Moab only in Late, Ammon in high & late.
I'm not making any promises yet, but I have a new base map I'm looking at which extends from Greece through to Iran, but it looks a bit too big. But time will tell ~D
Already 44 downloads :balloon2:
Hi mate
elephant trader" building. would be great :2thumbsup:
(I'm not making any promises yet, but I have a new base map I'm looking at which extends from Greece through to Iran, but it looks a bit too big. But time will tell)this would be great campain :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:
OK, elephant trader it is :2thumbsup:
Anyone tried the smaller factions yet? Must say I was very happy to discover how many Greek cities had a role in the general era, lots of excuses to plaster various parts of the map with hoplites of various types. In testing I particularly enjoyed Syracuse and the Masiliotes, though the AI tends to struggle with Syracuse, to such an extent that I've never seen their one and only hero emerge under AI control (no prizes for guessing who ~D).
Also now I'm able to sit down and play out a campaign on the new main map, I'm finding Western Europe is developing quite differently. Whereas originally it tended to be pretty stable, I find all the empires ebbing and flowing. The big surprise is that the Ligurians have a good grip across France and northern Spain, and after getting beaten back to their island once, the Prytani are resurgent. The Phrygians wiped out Assyria quite early, and I had to let them have a princess just to keep from getting gobbled up myself (I still only had a couple of provinces then, and they were getting BIG). Now I've managed to push them back into the steppe provinces, where there's a huge war going on between Phrygians, Cimmerians, Balts, Slavs and Thracians. The Illyrians and Italics seem to be having bit of a long-drawn out match as well, with the border moving up and down Italy like a yo-yo. The poor Etruscans have been pushed westwards into old Ligurian lands where they can't raise their top-notch heavy infantry. The Iberians are clinging on the southern Spain, but the Iberocelts have been displaced and now have Aquitaine! The map changes seem to have livened things up a bit :2thumbsup:
Still, they will all fall before the might of Moab :laugh4:
Not to get to far into this, but after actually looking at the stats for the units in ATW, I have to say I am confused. Negative charge? In fact, LOTS of negative stats. It may be presumptious to ask, but why?
Well, I finally got some time on my hands so i'm going to try downloading it now. I'll let you know how it goes. I founs ouyt so9mething disturbing, I have to wait an hour between downloading each part, that kind of sucks.
Hey Mac ,, Well done !! Flesh out that map from Greece and all the way to Pakistan&India and don't pull it up at just Iran & the glory that was Assyria & Babylon + Persia & The Diadochi is all open for adventure !!!
* Im clearing space on my HD as i speak *
cheers
D
@YLC - The negative values are an HTW legacy - except my own new ones, most of the units keep the exact same stats as were used in HTW, which were all worked out a lot more ... systematically than I have done. The balance on HTW was finely honed, whereas I've tended to interpolate and extrapolate in the absence of a certain legendary tool I can't locate (a spreadsheet snuck out of the CA labs one dark and dreadful night ~D). Effectively, you have a range on all stats from -20 to +20 - so I guess once you set a baseline unit, and then start introducing weaker ones, you have to go into the negative to portray them. In short, if you just work up from zero you instantly lose half of the available range.
Or look at it another way - some units are so crap all they achieve by charging is tripping over each other and skewering themselves on the enemy's weapons more effectively :laugh4:
(I prefer the second explanation, it makes me feel less nerdy ~D)
Hi Xehh - I guess that's to stop abuse, or to persuade you to purchase a premium account. Back in the days when I still depended on dial up I had about five different accounts I could use (a personal one, a family one, my partner's personal one, one associated with the organisation we worked for, and one associated with a publication we edited - any nonsense like waiting between downloads was quickly circumvented :beam: ) Ah, the joys of dynamic IP addresses ....
and DTS - well, I was thinking about a possible Alexander campaign/Persian Empire sort of scenario, plus Diadochi - another excuse to use the elephants :clown: And most of the other units needed will be covered by the HTW roster - Indian troops would be more difficult, though. If I can face the long hard slog of a pixel-by-pixel alteration of 12 frames of 16 figures each, I might be able to edit a bif animation to make a new model, but I'm sure you can see why I'm hesitant on that for now :yes:
Another thought is a close-in Mesopotamian camaign - Ur, Uruk, Babylon, Susa et al, maybe going back further - however research is going to be difficult for say 2500BC....
In between I'll take a break from MTW and give Europa Barbarorum a go, I've got the downloads ready and waiting to be installed, but I'll need to change video drivers to run it, so it won't happen til Ancient is in a stable form awaiting the next big upgade to V3.0 :2thumbsup:
Well, I've just played a little bit a of it and I must say I think I like this mod better than XL, there's one thing that bugs me though, is the lack of Unit Descriptions, in the next version(if you make a next version) would you add the descriptions for units that don't have them yet? Because I always used UD to figure out what the units are good for but without them I get confused.
I haven't got the Extra campaign yet, i'll probably get it in the morning, could you tell me what's in it though?
Hi Xehh, glad you finally managed to get it :2thumbsup:
Ah, yes, the unit descriptions.... okay, I'll admit it - they all (well most) need an overhaul for various reasons. Some are HTW hangovers which just need a bit of grammatical correction (don't think any of the HTW team were native English speakers, so I forgive them :beam: And some of them are too long for the parchment, so will need cutting down a bit), others are just placeholders I've been too lazy to go back to (ie nothing more than the unit's name), and some need a bit more 'colour'.
The extra campaign is the Punic Wars, opens in 270BC (ie five years before Rome and Carthage first went to war historically) and ends in 146BC, the year Carthage was sacked. Factions include the obvious: Rome and Carthage, Celts (I should rename them as Gauls, I guess...), Iberians, Celt-Iberians, Numidians plus a few lesser / more remote ones: Illyrians, Epirotes, Antigonid Macedonia, Syracuse, Masilia, Achaean league. That should give a good mix of army styles, everything from the pike phalanx to legions to the hordes of screaming barbarians ~D
Recruitment is very geographical - ie most factions can raise mercenary hoplites in Greek cities, Iberians in Iberia, Numidians in North Africa etc. To give some idea of the scale of the map, Mauretania is to the southwest, the northern border just shows the south coast of Britain (not playable) and the eastern border just shows the western tip of Crete (also not playable, but do not fear - Cretan archers are for hire with ports for the right factions in the right places). The provinces are largely redrawn, one benefit of "zooming" into one corner of the usual MTW map.
* Sicily is now Lilybaeum, Messana and Syracuse
* Italy has Latium, Campania, Apulia, Samnium, Picenum, Etruria, Bruttium, Gallia Cispadana, Gallia Transpadana and Gallia Cisalpina
* Greece is Achaea, Aetolia, Macedonia and Epirus
* Spain has Baetica, Lusitania, Oretania, Saguntum, Carthago Nova, Ilergetia, Vasconia, Cantabria, Numantia, Asturia, Galicia, Emporion and Vacceia - plus the Balearic Islands (for those all important slingers :2thumbsup: )
The sea regions have also been seriously overhauled - you now need at least four ships to protect all of Sicily from invasion, for instance.
Plus there's a range of historical heroes, including the obvious two - Hannibal Barca and Publius Cornelius Scipio.
Needless to say there are new units - Numidian cavalry, Iberian cavalry, and Equites amongst the cavalry, and for infantry there are mercenary hoplites, falxmen, scutarii, caetratii, gaesatae, Celtic nobles and Samnite auxilia.
And from HTW: Xistophoroi hippeis, Companions, Thessalian cavalry, Macedonian pike phalanx, Yficratian phalanx, Thracian romfeoforoi and peltasts, and numerous other hoplite types, plus the artillery and elephants.
That should convince you that you can face another DL session :2thumbsup:
That Extra Campaign sounds awesome, I'm really looking forward to downloading it.
Hi mate
Last night i started to play the celts after a fue turns (about 15) i wanted to attack a french region (a rebel region) on the moment that the battle field came on my game freezed and my PC rebooted i dont know of this is a problem of my PC or sommething with the game so i dont know if somme one have the samme problem but this is the first time it ever happend. but i started the campain again ill let you know if it happens again.
Here a fue more links:
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
Here s a map for your new campain:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histo...re_336_323.jpg
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3D1%26hl%3Dnl
http://blog.pierrickauger.fr/__onecl...image_0001.jpg
http://blog.pierrickauger.fr/__onecl...image_0001.jpg
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/gabrmetz/map3a.gif
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://www.carelinks.net/books/lp/images/image012.jpg
http://www.morainevalley.edu/ctl/Mid...0Expansion.jpg
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DX
http://www.crystalinks.com/persian_empiremap.gif
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdeastgw/ma...ian_empire.jpg
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson_ima...anEmpire03.jpg
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imper...aps/persia.jpg
http://www.bible-history.com/maps/al...-great-map.jpg
http://www.biographyshelf.com/Templa...empire_map.jpg
http://library.thinkquest.org/10805/media/alexmap.gif
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histo...re_336_323.jpg
http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
http://herculean.files.wordpress.com...my-website.gif
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n.../alexander.gif
Hi Axel - not sure why your PC rebooted - usually if it's the game it will only CTD! I haven't had anything like that myself.
Thanks for the links, nice map of Alexander's campaign/empire :2thumbsup:
Hi mate
It did nt happen again all works fine at this moment :sweatdrop:
did you see this link with soldier images: http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...%3Dnl%26sa%3DN
Hi mate
I found out that if you build more ships to make the trade more profit it only costs more money and its funest for you ecconomy is this possible mate???
Hello macsen,
I've just download it and started my first campaign as the Etruscans in Early. The mod is very well done, and doesn't feel like the Middle Ages at all(well, the music doesn't help, but that's a minor detail).
Just a few early notes:
- I am finding that the traits "Secret Perversion", "Secret Adultery", and "Killer Instinct" appear almost all the time in my generals.
- The buildings seem very cheap; I found no difficulty staying out of debt, even on expert.
- Blitzing is a bit too easy. The poor Ligurians in my campaign didn't put up a good fight, and the Iberians have been crunched by my sea invasions.
Hmmm, don't look at me, they're your generals :laugh4: No, seriously, the various factions do seem to be prone to different sets of vices, as in standard MTW. I'm finding with the Moabites at the moment they tend to keep their trousers on, but quite like the bottle. I'm still not sure what determines this, whether it's related to the starting king, or truly random as it should be. (Although I do find that in vanilla MTW it is the MUSLIM factions where I get the most "drinker" vices, so it has a sense of irony, at least).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignoramus
But to be honest, that particular trio you mentioned, I often see in my royals whatever campaign I play. You know what they say, one to inherit, one for the army, one for the church etc etc - and in MTW always one to hide away in a locked basement before the neighbours see him ~D
The economy is a bit tricky, as it seems human players can handle it well, the AI with the same faction can easily get bogged down in debt and stagnates. I might be able to tweak it with the "AI buiding influences" but I haven't quite worked out the details yet...) The Etruscans do quite well economically compared to the other Pagan factions, as they have excellent resources in Etruria. Copper and tin are the most valuable trade goods available, and salt is a lot more valuable than it is in vanilla (which reminds me, there's a review panel pic I still haven't changed - HTW used the "salt" slot for "marble", so the pic's not quite right...) I'm also thinking about reducing the upgrades a bit and making military buildings reduce happiness a bit to force more selective building habits (this works really well in Napoleonic, so I'm very tempted...)
Axel - chose your ships carefully - some are surprisingly expensive in upkeep. Also bear in mind long-distance trade wasn't very common in the era - it doesn't mean goods didn't travel a long way, they did, but in a 'pass-the-parcel' sort of way, eg Baltic amber ended up in the Aegean, but it would have changed hands maybe five or ten times to get there. The most lucrative routes are in the Eastern Med, reflecting the old triangle of Ugarit/Tyre --> Crete --> Egypt which relied on the seasonal currents (this is the route the Cape Gelidonya and Ulu Burun shipwrecks of c1300BC would have been sailing - hence all the Cypriot copper ingots on board). Anway, always check the trader building's income, and prospective trading partners own resources before sending your ships further afield - there are a lot of provinces that have similar resources, to make sure you are carfeul :beam:
In keeping with the era, control of metal resources is very important both economically and militarily.
Keep up the feedback - if we get enough "tweaks" together, I can do another patch (v2.1 patch I guess) which will be save-game safe before a full v3.0 is ready (I still want more units in there ~D but new units and new buildings are not save-safe, or at least not reliably so...)
I also want to do some more battlemaps, but last night's attempt didn't work too well - trying to make a "Nile delta" map, but the palm trees came out invisible, which spoilt the effect a bit :no:
Just started playing as the romans in the extra campaign, and I have to say...EXCELLENT. It seems very accurate in roman infantry vs hoplite battles, with the romans dieing in droves (very historically accurate). How did you manage to get only carthage and rome to be the key for victory?
Hi YLC - it's in the province SetAttributes - the final column is a TRUE/FALSE flag, which is whether the province is a victory condition. If you compare with the Viking startpos, you'll see that Hordaland and Jutland are the only ones set to "FALSE". This flag was new in the VI startpos, and doesn't exist in vanilla MTW. I wasn't sure it would work with so few set to true but it does :2thumbsup: You can conquer as much or as little of the map as you like (driven mostly by your desire for foreign auxilia) but the only rule is "CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!"