Engineer's Guild maintenance help

I probably should have done this months ago, but I'm going to try to organize the Engineer's Guild somewhat. As I see it, I need to do the following:

There are currently 19 stickies, this makes the forum fairly unwieldy. Some of these mods are unfinished/inactive. I'll probably end up making an index page with links for every mod so we don't lose quick access to the threads. I will also try to dig out older, unstickied mods that should be on the index.

Out-of-date file links. Judging from a lot of recent posts, the links to a lot of mods no longer work. I would like to get updated links, or get copies and get them hosted on our local server (AtomicGamer). Once I have working links, I'll update the thread OP's (I just did the BKB). Hopefully this will keep us from losing a lot of our members' hard work.

If you have any suggestions, or know where I can get some of these lost files, let me know. I'll likely be posting APBs here as I go, any help would be appreciated. And, ironically, I'm going to sticky this thread!

:bow:

I've just checked my archive and here what I found:

- American TW
- Ancient TW
- Arthur TW
- Dark Age TW
- Hellenic TW
- Pike & Musket
- Redux
- Samurai Warlords

Most of them you can find at atomicgamer. I haven't tried all of these so I'm not sure if they were finished. If you have problem with finding links for them let me know.
btw Middle Earth TW last version was really beta 0.71 with only custom and MP battles working. SP campaign addon was abandoned in alpha stage and had a lot of bugs.

Good point, I probably need to add the hosted Mods to the list and check their download links.

The key ones I couldn't download were:
Tyberius 2.3. I know there were some issues about this, if 2.2 is the final, uncontroversial, official version that's fine.
Age of Warlords 1.31 unofficial patch, which you made.

The historical battles thread is a puzzler. I need to update the link for the pack, but I'm split on the thread itself. Does this info belong in the Engineer's Guild, or the Alchemist Lab?


Notes to self, need to add to list:
Italia TW
Dark Ages
CountMRVHS's DarkAge
Arthur Mod
American TW

Update NTW thread with 1.7 notice

Also need to update the Org downloads section, Gnome 2.0 link is busted.

Added mods from previous post, as well as hosted mods, to the index post.

Anyone got working download links to HTW?

I found 3 downloads on AtomicGamer for "Italian TW": Italy Total War _Max_MTW-VI.zip, Italy Total War _Max_MTW.zip, and MTW Italian Mod.zip. Are these all for that particular mod?

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Originally Posted by drone

Anyone got working download links to HTW?

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Found some HTW files, is HTW_3.1_Beta the latest? I also found a music pack and some patch files, but I'm not sure what is needed for the final product.

Moved index page post to new thread and stickied/closed. Unstickied this one, but will continue to take suggestions and corrections here. Will begin to unstick dead/unfinished mods.

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Originally Posted by drone

Found some HTW files, is HTW_3.1_Beta the latest? I also found a music pack and some patch files, but I'm not sure what is needed for the final product.

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I'll check to see what I've got installed when I get a chance. Seems to me, I got the files from Atomic Gamer (Hellenic Total War Full.zip + HTW Total Patch add-on.zip + Music Pack v1.0 add-on.zip), which may or may not be the latest version. At least, I'm sure this version is functional, though there were other campaigns developed, too.

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Originally Posted by drone

The key ones I couldn't download were:
Tyberius 2.3. I know there were some issues about this, if 2.2 is the final, uncontroversial, official version that's fine.

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I fail to see what is controversial about it…

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"I would like to request that file, ID #XXXXX [blanked numerals], will be permanently removed due to its questionable contents (at least in part). Over a year ago I prohibited the creator of this file/upload (Tyberius/XXXXXXXX[blanked name]) from any use, of any materials, on any level, originally made by me, of any kind - I did that in Dec 2008. Still, he has (once again) used and abused, in part or as base, what I can still identify and prove to be originally my visual work and designs. - This file/upload and its contents stand as proof for it, since I can clearly identify parts that I made within “his” work, included in this file. I would not be able to do so, or gather evident samples of it, if it were not present there somehow, now would I? At the same time, my own material precedes his and the file-timestamps proves it."

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That excerpt is taken from a mail I sent to AtomicGamer staff in 27.01.2010. 24hrs later the file/upload(s) was deleted and I had received a reply confirming it. Now, to put it all into proper perspective, Tyberius wrote many things in Dec 2008, but what truly mattered was this (I quote from Tyberius Full Edition plus XL-thread, Post: 11)…

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Originally Posted by Tyberius

... I made use of his images and forgot to give him credits for it. However it was a mistake, I had no intentions of receiving credits for something I haven't done.

The patches are going to be re-uploaded with images done by myself. I think I have demonstrated to be more than capable of doing all images as good as anybody could.

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That was Dec 2008. In Jan 2009 he did release these new supposedly “cleaned up” re-releases of V2.3 and V 3.0. A few days later, I did examine these re-releases and I could easily find, recognize and identify material that distinctly I had made within what supposedly was “his” work – again he did not credit anybody for it at all. Ultimately forwarding it as his own as a result. It was essentially the routine of 2008 all over again but worse as this time as the previous events made it plain impossible to be another supposed “mistake” - now in 2009. After all, I had already in Dec 2008 explicitly prohibited him to “use” ANY material made and designed by me what so ever, in any way (I still have that mail & the reply to it btw). Still he just did that anyway despite his own previous promises (of 2008, both public and private).

Controversy? I think not.


- Axalon

On a general and happier note.... I think your overall initiative here is a good one drone and I'll offer a few
suggestions and corrections straight up for you to consider - maybe I'll post up some more later on.....


Order & entries
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The MTW Mod-index could do with some corrections and adjustments to be as accurate as possible (which strikes me as desirable). As I understand
it, the order is alphabetical and thus....

Above as before....
...
Medmod
MTW Redux
MTW XL (That is still what VikingHorde named his MTW-based work and we should respect that)
Reconquista Total War
...
Below as before....

Pike & Musket goes to the 2nd list as it is set in what is by definition renaissance and thus set in "other world/period" as I understand the index here....


Compatibility category
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I also suggest the inclusion of "compatibility" as an extra category within the index as it is both warranted, important and informative (in contrast
to popular belief, there still are people who play MTW that either don't have or want VI - for whatever reasons). As in (for instance)....

Age of Warlords
Compatibility: VI/v.2.01
Last known version: 1.3
Status: Working

Etc. etc.....

Italy Total War:
Compatibility: MTW v1.1 and VI/v.2.01
Last known version: 2.0 (both?)
Status: Working (both?)

Medmod
Compatibility: MTW v1.1 and VI/v.2.01
Last known version: 1.85 and 4.07
Status: Working (both)

MTW Redux
Compatibility: MTW v1.1 and VI/v.2.01
Last known version: RXB1002 and RXB1002-VI
Status: Working (both)

Etc. etc.....


Other notes
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• Hyborian Age Total War, status: working...
• Kekvits "A world Divided" should be included as well (at the top of list 1, I suppose), for VI only.... Here is functional link to it....

http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/355...kvit-irae-zip#


Policy & Index
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I also think you should establish some sort of policy and standards on what it takes to actually have a mod or alteration included in the "MTW mod-index".

Obviously actual scale of each mod is ignored as a factor and that may make things easier to handle here but I do think that at least a criteria of "downloadability" is advisable. The reality is simple, we can not download and play a bunch of talk for instance - as is essentially the case for "Dark Ages Total War" (for instance) as there is no actual mod forwarded there (is there?). If that is true, I do think it is reasonable to question if that really has a justified place in the Mod-Index. At least in the indexes current format. Possibly you could include a 3rd category as in "abandoned & unfinished mods". Maybe then, such an inclusion (and the like) of it would make more sense here. Maybe one could do a separate index for unfinished and abandoned mods for MTW - that is if we are to bother with them at all. Unfinished and abandoned usually means a very limited actual usability, if any at all (although, there is exceptions to this rule as well).

Personally, I would say that, if something is unfinished or at the very least failed to produce and forward (fairly) functional beta that can be played somehow - by a third party - it has no true place in the relevant index. I do think this index should restrict itself and purely focus on what people can actually download and play. Meaning, no (fairly) functional beta or proper official release, then it should not have an entry in the index as it fails to meet that simple - yet restrictive and exclusive - criterion. Possibly you could also include a "Year of release:"-category as well. Essentially as a way for people to easily determine which mods are new(er) and which ones are not. At any rate, it does create a clear overview in terms of age since release (latest version) and that might be interesting and useful information to some people.

As for the supposedly intended RTW-based stuff that originally came out of MTW - I personally wonder what business such material has in an index of MTW-based mods in the first place? The whole concept of "previously MTW-based" makes little sense to me - and especially so within what obviously is a MTW-section somehow. Again, "abandoned & unfinished mods" might be a possible remedy to that as it then would set all such stuff in a (to me) slightly more reasonable context in regards to the mods/alterations that do function (somewhat) on MTW and can be played upon it. Anyway, I am merely thinking out loud here and sorry if I supposedly stepped on anybody's toes.

- A

Thanks for the feedback, Axalon. Until I got assigned to the fora earlier this year, I wasn't really paying attention to the happenings in the Engineer's Guild, I mainly hung out in the Main Hall and Alchemist Lab. So I'm somewhat out of the loop when it comes to the modding scene and the history. I'm hoping the index helps the membership keep track of the work done in the past, but it's also a way for me to learn what's been going on over the years.

What I have in the index currently comes from searching back through the threads and taking any mod that had at least some work done. (Obviously, I didn't go back far enough, since I forgot Kekvit's mod. ~:doh:) So at the moment there are no real prerequisites a mod must meet to appear on the index. I did unsticky threads for mods that were unfinished and abandoned, however the index will allow these threads to be found easily if desired. Maybe a better solution would be a second post in the Index thread that contains the non-functional/unfinished works for reference.

Compatibility and release dates are very good ideas, I guess it's time for me to get back to work! :whip:

Hello drone and no problem...

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Originally Posted by drone

...however the index will allow these threads to be found easily if desired. Maybe a better solution would be a second post in the Index thread that contains the non-functional/unfinished works for reference.

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Yeah... Sounds good to me. That extra post in the index will probably make things less weird for people in general and will obviously serve as distinction between what is working/playable and what is not for the supposed "average customer" around these parts (while still enable that accessibility to the unfinished stuff for those interested)...

One thing I was thinking about that you could consider... The "How to make Historical battles"-thread. I just got a feeling that it might actually be better placed as a sticky over at the Repository-area. It strikes me as more in it's element over there - being strictly a guide and not a mod and so forth. Other then that, there is a doublet for BKBs "Age of Warlords" among the stickies. Don't have a clue how it ended up like that, but I suggest you take one down - one stickied regular-thread for it should be enough.

I'll post up some more, whenever I have something potentially worthwhile for you.

- A

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Axalon

One thing I was thinking about that you could consider... The "How to make Historical battles"-thread. I just got a feeling that it might actually be better placed as a sticky over at the Repository-area. It strikes me as more in it's element over there - being strictly a guide and not a mod and so forth.

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I'm torn on this one. It's a guide, so it might be better suited for the Repository or Alchemist Lab, but it also has a downloadable pack of historical battles/campaigns they created.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Axalon

Other then that, there is a doublet for BKBs "Age of Warlords" among the stickies. Don't have a clue how it ended up like that, but I suggest you take one down - one stickied regular-thread for it should be enough.

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I missed that. One thread is for the development, the other was created when the mod was released. I'll probably unstick the development thread, and add a link in the index to it.

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Originally Posted by drone

...but it also has a downloadable pack of historical battles/campaigns they created.

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Well, I obviously missed that... For whatever it is worth. Glancing at that thread, it still strikes me to be more about a guide on "how to..." rather then about the battles these guys have actually created and offered for download there. In that sense I still think it is more of a guide then something focusing on the set of historical battles they made. Obviously it has to be placed somewhere. If it were up to me, I would nonetheless move it to the Repository-area because of the seemingly dominating "guide-ish" character of the thread. If that assessment makes it any easier for you to decide what to do here.

This is not a major issue and either way will be fine...

- A

There's a mod called "Grell's First Crusade," made quite a long time ago by its namesake, Grell (who's not been active on these forums for many years. A while back, I had the good fortune of finding these mod files on Atomic Gamer and was pleasantly surprised by a very functional and engaging mod that adds several new factions (including Flanders) and which begins just after the first crusade. It's not that different from mods like BKB, XL and Medmod in scope, but it does have some neat features, such as recruitable Rabbis that are able to spread Judaism. Unfortunately, the files are no longer available on Atomic Gamer. Since I myself have them, I was wondering if I shouldgo about uploading them here, if anyone is interested. Thoughts?

You can find a brief description of the mod in this very old thread:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...st-Crusade-mod

(In the thread, someone claims that the mod is buggy, but that hasn't been my experience (yet)).

Grells mods were awesome. Me and Tom use to help each other out with various modding queries back in the day. I really enjoyed his first crusade mod, that along with King Davids Patrician mod were favs of mine back in the day. I also loved the Teutonic Order mod from Bohumund.

Do you know if there are discussion threads on these mods? At the moment, the index just has links to mods with threads or sub-fora, I suppose I ought to come up with a presentation method for mods that are just "out there". Both Atomic Gamer and the Mizus server have a ton of stuff on them, I wish I knew how to sort it all in a meaningful fashion.

Any info would have been posted in the old Alchemist Lab mate, way before the MTW modification sub forums occured. I'm sure there was a large thread dedicated to King Davids Patrician mod.

I found this thread, looks to be Grell's First Crusade release notice. Atomic Gamer has a file, MtW First Crusade 1099 v10.zip, which I assume is the last version released. Does this seem correct?

Also dug up his 1266 Interregnum thread, potential download link here.

Thread for King David's Patrician mod here. There is a Patrician V1.1Install.zip I hoovered off the Mizus server, if this is the right file I'll see if I can get it uploaded to AtomicGamer.

And a thread for Bohemond's Teutonic Order mod found here. File named Bohemonds_Teutonic_Order_Pt1.zip from Mizus server found. Did he ever release Part 2?

Let me know if these are the correct files/links. If so, I'll update the index thread, upload files if necessary, and add new download links to the threads.

Keep the suggestions coming. :bow:

Nice digging, drone. So far, I can confirm that the MTW First Crusade 1099 file you linked to is not the mod created by Grell, but a different crusade mod altogether. It would seem that I was the last person lucky enough to get a copy of Grell's mod before it got taken off of AtomicGamer (unless someone can prove me wrong).

Also, very nice find with the Interregnum mod! I downloaded it and gave it a try. (Installation requires that you replace several folders in the main directory, as well as the main directory itself, but no biggie.) The mod seems to work fine, though I haven't had a chance to play more than three turns of a given campaign. I plan to give it a whirl as the English. (The unit rosters are the same or similar to the ones that Grell used in The First Crusade mod; unfortunately, Grell didn't get around to figuring out how to add more than 20 factions without random CTDs.) Anyway, I hope others can (re)discover this fine mod, as well.

@ BKB: Nice to see you still haunt these forums from time to time. Your great work resonates with a lot of us, even after all these years! In fact, I was about getting my a$$ kicked in the Supermod––playing as the Teutonic Knights––just the other day! Age of Warlords is also a gem. Thank you, good sir.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cyprian2

Nice digging, drone. So far, I can confirm that the MTW First Crusade 1099 file you linked to is not the mod created by Grell, but a different crusade mod altogether. It would seem that I was the last person lucky enough to get a copy of Grell's mod before it got taken off of AtomicGamer (unless someone can prove me wrong).

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If I remember correctly, there were some First Crusade files in my Mizus server dump, but I'll have to wait til I get home to check them out. Tosa seems to have squirreled away a lot of stuff there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cyprian2

@ BKB: Nice to see you still haunt these forums from time to time. Your great work resonates with a lot of us, even after all these years! In fact, I was about getting my a$$ kicked in the Supermod––playing as the Teutonic Knights––just the other day! Age of Warlords is also a gem. Thank you, good sir.

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Thank you mate for the kind words. The first medieval and Viking Invasion will always be my fav total war games. I loved modding the game, glad to see some people are still playing it after all this time. I don't come on the forums that much anymore due to work but like to pop my head in now and again!

I just wish I could have eliminated the remaining bugs in Age of Warlords but I never found the time plus some of them I just couldn't remedy unfortunately

I found 2 files, First_Crusade_small_v2.rar and First_Crusade_small_v2_exeDEL.exe, with the readmes coming from Grell, so I assume these are the lastest of the First Crusade mod. They are located here: http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW/Full_Campaigns/.

If you have the time, browse through that dir and http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW/Stats/ and let me know if any of the less obvious mods should be added to the index. I have copies of all this, and the tech admins have an Org copy stashed somewhere, so we can get them onto AtomicGamer pretty easily.

Drone....

I would like to once again make a push for the inclusion of both version-compatibility and release-year on all mods in the Mod-index - the reasons "why" are obvious for it, right?

- A

I definitely think it's a good idea. Winter is a busy time for me in RL, I just need to get off my butt and do it. :stwshame:

Reading this has got me very interested in the interregnum mod - but the download link doesn't work for me. Clearly worked for Cyprian2. Any ideas, tips how to get it?? Reading the original thread it sounds very interesting. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by western

Reading this has got me very interested in the interregnum mod - but the download link doesn't work for me. Clearly worked for Cyprian2. Any ideas, tips how to get it?? Reading the original thread it sounds very interesting. Thanks.

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I can't verify this one at the moment (at work and can't download) but it might be on our host (AtomicGamer) here. It might be that AtomicGamer is phasing out their old Telefragged links, that might cause some trouble down the road...

If this is right, let me know and I'll update Grell's thread with a link.

Yes, that worked. Mod now successfully installed and looking good. Many thanks Drone

Ok, updated the index to include Grell's First Crusade and Interregnum mods, King David's Patrician mod, and Bohemond's Teutonic Order mod. Also added updated links to AtomicGamer downloads to the OPs in their respective threads.

Good work :bow:

First_Crusade_Grell.zip is at Atomic Gamer if anyone is still interested: http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/363...sade_grell-zip

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Originally Posted by Baron von Manteuffel

First_Crusade_Grell.zip is at Atomic Gamer if anyone is still interested: http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/363...sade_grell-zip

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Is that the full version he talks about in the main thread? I have atomic gamer links for "First_Crusade_small_v2.rar", but I think that lacks some of the new portraits.

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Originally Posted by drone

Is that the full version he talks about in the main thread? I have atomic gamer links for "First_Crusade_small_v2.rar", but I think that lacks some of the new portraits.

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I'm not sure. The size of First_Crusade_Grell.zip is 22.2 MB. Here is the ReadMe.txt and README-Known Issues.txt:

Thanks for the heads up, link added in the main thread. :bow:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drone

Thanks for the heads up, link added in the main thread. :bow:

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Where is the main thread? I had found a list of mods by you drone somewhere within the forum but now I can't find it.

I updated the OP in Grell's thread here. Or are you asking about the Mod Index? What I've been doing is updating the original mod threads with working links, with the Mod Index thread as a catalog of all the mods. If you know of any finished mods missing on the index, let me know and I can add them.

The Mod Index is the one I was looking for. The mod 'A World Divided 3.0' is a dead link. Thanks.

You wouldn't happen to know what she named the file do you? I have KekvitModv2 and 2a, but don't know where v3 is.

A World Divided 3.0 by Kekvit Irae: http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/355...ekvit-irae-zip

Thanks, link updated in the thread OP. :bow: