RTW - Persian Invasion

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...sion/Title.png

Persia has the largest empire in history. The small, but free, city-states of Greece struggle to stay unified as they laugh in the face of annihilation. The Dahae, Scythians, Gerrheans, Celts, Illyrians, and even the Indians of the distant jungles plot to one day rule their own empires. How will history play out? You decide!

Factions:
https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...sion/Moddb.jpg


Moddb Profile

Map Preview

RTW - Persian Invasion Beta release for Rtw 1.5 (Final Release);

Download from Filefront
Download from MODDB

quickfix

Installation instructions and other info is in the enclosed readme file.

This uses the mod switch function so it will not alter your original game files.

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The trouble is we have been trying like heck to get a map working, but we don't have very much experience in the matter. We would like someone to either pick up on the map we have now and get it in working order, or start with a fresh slate if the current one is in too bad of shape.

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You are lucky. I could help.

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Originally Posted by Caius

You are lucky. I could help.

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Excellent! I'll add you to messenger and we'll talk about it. :beam:

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

Excellent! I'll add you to messenger and we'll talk about it. :beam:

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See you on MSN.

Have you guys consider helping Rise of Persia or Hegemonia CS mods instead of making new one?

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Originally Posted by Uranos

Have you guys consider helping Rise of Persia or Hegemonia CS mods instead of making new one?

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We just wanted to do something simple but interesting of our own. This isn't a very major mod, as it is for Alexander (forgot to mention that above, sorry). Best of luck to Rise of Persia and Hegemonia, we aren't going for the hisotorical accuracy so we hope to create a unique history. :beam:

Moddb Profile

Website: http://www.pinvasion.co.nr/

Theres about 38 new units as of right now, the map is still in production, and the faction of Eleia has been added.

Very nicely done website :2thumbsup:

When you get more preview stuff I'd recommend putting some thumbnails here as well though, as people are sometimes a bit lazy about clicking through links...

This actually sounds interesting. Why don't you ask the Troy:TW team for thier map?

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Originally Posted by Hound of Ulster

This actually sounds interesting. Why don't you ask the Troy:TW team for thier map?

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First of all thanks :2thumbsup:

Second, Troy:TW's map is too small for our needs. As you can see from the faction list we need room for India, the Dahae, some of Scythia, not to mention the entire Persian Empire, which means some of Egypt too. :yes:

Pretty much something like this, give or take:
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson_ima...anEmpire03.jpg

Caius is currently working on a map, and we hope to get some working versions of it soon. But if anyone knows of a map very similar to the one above, by all means let us know (not the vanilla Alexander map :clown:).

Ok, scratch the previous post. The map is now being made by Spurius.

and here we go...
its only the base working version so there arent any rivers or regions and it needs to be a bit bigger
https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...7/69d9Dtmp.jpg


big thanks to Spurius

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...n/69d9Dtmp.jpg

link went dead above, sorry
spurius has enlarged the map since this screenie, it now takes 7 seconds to scroll from greece to india :2thumbsup:

also we're adding the small kingdom of Gerrha so there is someone poking at persia from the south

If the mod is centered around the struggle of the Greeks against the Persians, isn't the map a bit out of focus here?

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Originally Posted by Aradan

If the mod is centered around the struggle of the Greeks against the Persians, isn't the map a bit out of focus here?

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I'd say its just about what he wanted ...;
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...7&postcount=11

:smiley:

ps; just as a suggestion but try to get the hang of EarthSculptor, it will allow you to add much more reliëf to your map with relative ease ..
(Small EarthSculptor guide)


G

Yeah, the in-game map is exactly what they need if their "concept" map is what it is now, but I think that a mod dealing with the "Medika" (Greek-Persian conflict) shouldn't bother with India and much of what the map includes. Most of the factions are located in a small, confined area, while 90% of the map is a single faction and two-three more that are not important for the theme of the game. No disrespect to the guys making it, just some observations, which can be easily ignored.

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Originally Posted by Aradan

Yeah, the in-game map is exactly what they need if their "concept" map is what it is now, but I think that a mod dealing with the "Medika" (Greek-Persian conflict) shouldn't bother with India and much of what the map includes. Most of the factions are located in a small, confined area, while 90% of the map is a single faction and two-three more that are not important for the theme of the game. No disrespect to the guys making it, just some observations, which can be easily ignored.

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I appreciate the concern, and if we were making a serious historically meticulous creation then we would worry about where the focus of the map is. I think some people would want to play India and sweep over Persia from the east. :2thumbsup: Oh and btw, the in-game map covered about the same area, but if you compare their size of Greece (could only comfortably hold 1 city on the peloponnese) to our size (can theoretically hold 10-15 cities), then the vanilla just doesn't cut it. :beam: So in conclusion it should be fun for most people- your choice of playing the grand Persian Empire that dominates the world, a small but potential powerhouse greek city-state, the dormant power of the Dahae, or one of the outer factions just minding their own business. Woops, I didn't mean to rant so long. :skull:

As a hugely disappointed fan of Alexander.exe,I personally think that the map is excellent. Just because the theme of the mod is centered on the Greco-Persian Wars,it doesn't mean that it should be restricted to a tiny map with a few provinces. I like the idea of having 10-15 provinces on the Peloponnesus alone. Gives a general options (should I sack and burn Athens or Sparta or Tegea,or...?) and a reason to play as a faction other than the Greeks.

This one's definitely on my watch list,Comrade. :yes:

Thanks very much! :beam:

This looks interesting.

I have a question though: with the Persian Empire having sucha huge territory, how do you intend to balance out their inherently overwhelming military capacity? Especially as the AI is not particularly aggresive, playing as the Persians wouldn't be much of a challenge at all, as it would be only a matter of time before the full weight of Persia asserts itself.

EDIT: I've thought of another thing: what about the distance-to-capital penalty? With such a humongous piece of territory, wouldn't provinces start rioting left, right and center? I realise that that might be part of the intended challenge, but I doubt that many players would be thrilled with fighting rebels all the time.

First of all, thanks :2thumbsup:

Second of all, thanks again :beam: These are things we haven't much thought about yet since we don't have a map to fool around with, so we've been mostly making units, visuals, and other stuff. So thanks for bringing these topics to mind.

Sure the Persians will most likely have an overwhelming army, but that will make it more fun to try and stop them, or invade them. Also, playing as Persia might not be so easy, since you will probably end up fighting a war from 4 fronts :yes:

Haven't thought about the distance to capital penalty at all yet, so I got nothing there :laugh4:

money may be a severe challenge with Persia, and your units don't match up well against the Greeks. Its going to be tougher than it looks.

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Originally Posted by Hound of Ulster

money may be a severe challenge with Persia, and your units don't match up well against the Greeks. Its going to be tougher than it looks.

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Exactly, those large armies would be costly. So you might have to create one for a specific purpose then disband it to avoid paying upkeep.

What release date is the RTWPI team shooting for?

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Originally Posted by Hound of Ulster

money may be a severe challenge with Persia, and your units don't match up well against the Greeks. Its going to be tougher than it looks.

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There's probably a way to make them work like the ERE in BI which should by rights win in a few turns but never does. Or do a campaign scri[t to make them hard to play as

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Originally Posted by Hound of Ulster

What release date is the RTWPI team shooting for?

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That's always the question :laugh4:
We're still waiting for Spurius to get the map ready for regions to be added. Factions, units, UI's, and other graphics are pretty much done. There's no telling how long it will take to add the regions, install the factions to their places, set up recruitment, mercenaries, balancing, ... oh god! :furious3: So I have no idea :2thumbsup:

edit: Oh yes, we added some Celts to chill out above Illyria.

just take it slowly and always be on the look out for bugs.

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

not the vanilla Alexander map :clown:.

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Yes,please stay away from vanilla Alexander's map. Like I said in a previous post,it was a horrible disappointment.

Sorry,that's all the advice I can think of at the moment.

With every thing else pretty close to completion, work has begun on the map...

Also, check out the Moddb Profile which shows the latest developments.

I like to help, but first:
1-is the mod to be historically accurate?
2-why is the "naked" guy NOT naked? (just kidding)

that's a nice mod-be looking forward to seeing it.

1. - It is to be historically based. Not "historically based" like 300, I like to keep it more on the reasonable side.

2. - lol

Appreciate your offer to help, but I'm afraid there isn't any extra work to do. :juggle2:

as long as the persian king isn't a naked guy with rings all over his face

any more updates?

BETA Release - inviting everyone to try it out and test for bugs and stuff :beam:

Get it from ModDB
reminder: this requires the alexander add-on to be installed

edit: the alexander beta has been discontinued

Yay,beta! I'm gonna install Alexander and download it right now!

scratched

Ok scratch the last post. I've buckled down and started working on it myself. Here is a pic of the peloponnese in its very early stage.

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...vasion/map.jpg

EDIT: Oh yea, I also ported it over to RTW!

Anyone still interested? :balloon2:

yeh:yes:

just downloaded the beta looks pretty good. good luck with the map.

Thanks tigger_t :2thumbsup:

It is all still in early stages of development. There are plenty of things that need touching up. I've also been brainstorming with ideas that include Macedonia...

This mod looks very interesting. The Peloponnese looks awesome. I can't say any more about how much i adore it. If you need any more help, i'll gladly take part.

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Originally Posted by Darkvicer98

This mod looks very interesting. The Peloponnese looks awesome. I can't say any more about how much i adore it. If you need any more help, i'll gladly take part.

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What kind of modding do you do?

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

What kind of modding do you do?

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I edit the campaign map(but i'm not that good at it, i have no experience)and the files(eg descr_strat,descr_regions etc). I change the owners of provinces and stuff like that.

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Originally Posted by Darkvicer98

I edit the campaign map(but i'm not that good at it, i have no experience)and the files(eg descr_strat,descr_regions etc). I change the owners of provinces and stuff like that.

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I've got the map covered I'm afraid. I actually can't think of anything that you can do at the moment, sorry. I appreciate the offer though. :beam:

Ok if you are of any need of help. You know where to find me.:2thumbsup:

Two weekends of work. Progress, but still nowhere near being done.

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...sion/toils.jpg

sweet:yes::yes:

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...n/jul25map.jpg

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...n/jul25map.jpg

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Just a little note, Comrade: Megalopolis and Messene weren't established until the Theban-Spartan wars, which were well after the Peloponnesian and Persian wars.

Edit: Oh, and the new map is looking great. :2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...n/jul25map.jpg

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Looking Good.

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Originally Posted by Spartan198

Just a little note, Comrade: Megalopolis and Messene weren't established until the Theban-Spartan wars, which were well after the Peloponnesian and Persian wars.

Edit: Oh, and the new map is looking great. :2thumbsup:

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Thanks, I'm not surprised that I got a few wrong. :laugh4: It was quite difficult to try and find settlements that were historically correct. Although I'm not obsessed with historical accuracy, I want to try and be close. :beam: I will get back to the books (google) and look for alternatives.

Well, just off the top of my head, you could change Messene to Pylos. The location of the settlement is acceptable for Pylos' historical location, and all you'd have to do is just rename the city.

As far as a tangible replacement for Megalopolis, I'd suggest Mycenae. Granted, you'll have to make some slight alterations to the positions of Argos and Corinth in order to make room.
But I'm only suggesting Mycenae ATM because 80 Mycenaean hoplites fought at Thermopylae with the Greek army in 480. But I'll see if I can find any other notable cities that match Megalopolis' position, though.

Anyway, I'll try to help out as much as I can on historical research (as this period is my specialty). Also, I know quite a bit about the weapons and equipment of the period, too, so feel free to PM me if you have any questions in that department. :beam:

I changed Messene to Ithome and Megaolopolis to Lycosura since it was in the same general area. I also changed Troezen to Hermione. Do you think this is ok Spartan198?

I would keep the settlement Troezen.

I agree with Darkvicer on keeping Troezen. Ithome is good, IMO, because it's a fairly major city. I'll have to do a bit of searching concerning Lycosura, though. I'll get back on that one.

Oh, and friends just call me Spartan. :2thumbsup:

Edit: Yeah, Lycosura's good.

A question: I can't seem to find anything on Pellene. What's its historical significance over a city in that general area such as Sikyon

Ok I will put Troezen back in her place. I chose Pellene because it is part of Achaea, who will just be rebels. There isn't much room for Sicyon which would belong to Corinth, and Corinth has herself and Ambracia. I believe this is all correct, I remember reading about it. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

edit: Or would Sicyon not belong to Corinth? What say you Spartan?

Okay, I see what you're saying.
I'm still working on putting together a list of important cities that aren't shown (for Greece as a whole, not just the Peloponnesus, which currently has enough, IMO).

If possible, could you put up screenshots of a couple more areas of the map, so I can see which cities you have and which you don't?

Also, can I add your Persian Invasion pic to my own signature? Help draw some attention and let people know PI is reborn.

Certainly, here is the link
https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...Title_mini.png
anyone else want to use it go right ahead.

heres the bigger one too
https://i190.photobucket.com/albums/...sion/Title.png

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

edit: Or would Sicyon not belong to Corinth? What say you Spartan?

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Put it this way ~
Athens = Home of philosophy
Sikyon = Home of drama and tragedy

Edit: Now that I look back, this answer had nothing to do with your question, did it? :embarassed:

What faction would Sikyon belong to at this time in history?

I'll have to do some research into that.

Edit: According to this, it was apparently under Spartan control (scroll down to The Battle of Thyreas).
I'll see what else I can dig up after while.

From what I've recently read it could go to Sparta or Corinth. I would just say it can go to Corinth since they are in the same area.

edit: What say you about me changing Aigio to Patras?

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

From what I've recently read it could go to Sparta or Corinth. I would just say it can go to Corinth since they are in the same area.

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I would say either Sparta or Corinth, yeah.

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edit: What say you about me changing Aigio to Patras?

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Aigio may be too far north, I think, but I'll have to check for sure.


After looking over the map, here's right off the top of my head:
1. I'd rather not do too much crowding, but we could easily fit two more settlements on Cyprus.
2. There's plenty of room for a second settlement on Crete.
3. We could place Demitrios directly east of Larissa, on the coast.
4. Euboea (that island off the eastern coast of Attica) could also fit a second settlement.
5. This I'll have to look into, but I don't think Jerusalem was a very important city at that time.

When's the start date of the campaign? 480 BC like it's already set to?

The Aigio thing isn't a big deal, it could stay the same.

1. Sure, name a couple settlements and I'll put them in, or only one of them.
2. Again name a settlement and where it is. (maps would be nice if possible)
3. I can add Demitrios, what region would that be in?
4. Possibly
5. The place has been there forever so its just kind of general ya know? If there is something more important in that area I can easily change it.

Yeah probably 480 BC because I don't want to bother with the Ionian Revolt, I'd rather it just start with Persia on the warpath to Greece.

Thanks for the help, Spartan. :2thumbsup:

Do you mind if i add it to my Signature as well?

Have you got a bigger picture of the Aegean? You could add a settlement off the coast of Troezen on the middle island called Delos. This was the island where the Delian League met after the Persian wars. The group of Islands are called the Cyclades.

Here, this might help. I don't know the exact time period it reflects, but it's all I've got at the moment.

https://i294.photobucket.com/albums/...eeceAegean.jpg

Edit: And I found this site. It has a few maps that reflect the period between 500 and 450 BC.

I'm still trying to find out what region Demetrios is located in, but everything so far points to Thessaly. Larissa would be better for said province, though, due to its location in the center of it.

And I'll search out some cities for those new settlement locales.

2nd Edit: You remember Kydonia, the original vanilla settlement on Crete, and where it was? It can be used as the second Cretan city opposite Knossos. This map from the above site shows it.

I just looked at your screenshots at ModDB, and I thought I'd let you know, just in case you didn't, that overhand spear animations work much better without the phalanx ability. Hoplites will still raise their spears and shields when an enemy charges them (and they do it automatically, too, so no need to run to the unit to hit the phalanx button), and tweaks to the unit spacing can make them stand shield-to-shield.

Edit: Oh, and renaming Aigio to Patras would be acceptable, if you wish to do so. The location would be dead on, as far as I can tell from the maps I've seen.

@Darkvicer98 - absolutely go ahead and use it.

@Spartan

Demetrios could also be in Thessaly, I already have more than one city per province in other areas. I'll add Kydonia later today. As for the hoplites, our models are holding the spears with point facing up, so if they fought with them not in phalanx mode they would be holding the spears backwards. Its just a matter of shortening the pike they hold in phalanx mode, the short_pike attribute just doesnt work right.

edit: The hoplites are one of the biggest problems right now. Since its not on BI we dont have shield wall, plus with the spears backwards that wouldn't help either since every model would have to be changed.

I've done my own experiments in the past with the overhand hoplite animations (and even actually put them in the PI beta when I had it installed a while back), and I've noticed that they seem to work better without any "_pike" attributes, whatsoever.

Will custom battles function on that file you sent me? I've got the overhand animation data files in my downloads, so if custom battles will work, I can tinker around and see what kinds of results I can get, because I know I had both the General's Guard hoplites and the Athenian warrior women functioning as superbly as XGM's own hoplite units.

Indeed, I also found that for regular hoplites no _pike function works. The custom battles should work so please feel free to tinker all you like. You understand what how I want the hoplites to function? Overhand held spears about 9 feet long while holding a tight shield wall formation. I don't really want the hoplites breaking formation and fighting man to man on a whim.

I can't do any altering of the skins and models themselves, but I'm guessing we're both wanting a similar look and feel to what XGM has (minus shield_wall).

I'll have to consult the EDU Guide here at the .Org to touch up on unit spacing, but, like I said in my last post, I had both the General's Guard and the Athenian warrior women in shoulder-to-shoulder, shield-to-shield formation with spears over their heads and all pointed forward (the shield_wall attribute isn't necessary to achieve this, because, for one, I know EB has hoplites in tightly-packed formations like that without the need for it).

Is that using phalanx formation? Because without it they will just break formation.

In XGM or EB? EB hoplites don't use any kind of special ability at all, they're only spaced to stand close enough together that their shields interlock when they raise them. And in XGM, they use shield_wall.
But in both cases, they'll break formation once they make contact with the enemy, anyway.
If I could figure out how to take screenshots, I'd show you what I mean, but unfortunately I don't know how.


We also need to try to find an eastern historian to handle looking over the eastern half of the map. My knowledge doesn't stretch very deep into the east.

The trouble is each hoplite model will have to have its spear reversed so when they hold it over their heads the point is in front. The modeller could do that, except some hoplites are using models from the alexander add-on, which don't open in 3dsmax for some reason. If it came down to it we could replace those hoplites with models that can be edited.

As for an eastern guy, sure, the more opinions and info we have the better. You can find a lot of maps and stuff of the east if you look, though.

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

The trouble is each hoplite model will have to have its spear reversed so when they hold it over their heads the point is in front. The modeller could do that, except some hoplites are using models from the alexander add-on, which don't open in 3dsmax for some reason. If it came down to it we could replace those hoplites with models that can be edited.

As for an eastern guy, sure, the more opinions and info we have the better. You can find a lot of maps and stuff of the east if you look, though.

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Yeah, true. But a specialist would still be a big help. That way, research can be divided between two people with differing areas of influence.

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Originally Posted by Spartan198

If I could figure out how to take screenshots, I'd show you what I mean, but unfortunately I don't know how.

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Simply press the print screen button (PrtSc), close RTW, open paint (or other image editor) and paste.

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Originally Posted by comrade_general

Simply press the print screen button (PrtSc), close RTW, open paint (or other image editor) and paste.

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Do you mean close RTW as in shut the program down, or is there some way to minimize it?
Escape (Esc) doesn't do it.

BTW, I'm having some personal issues, so I haven't looked at that map yet, but I will.

Edit: A question: Is the two settlements per province thing gonna be a final addition, or have you just not finished naming the provinces?

2nd Edit: We could push the start date back to 490, that way we can incorporate Darius I's earlier invasions of Eretria and Attica (and we still wouldn't need to deal with the Ionian Revolt outside of maybe an event card at the start of the campaign), seeing as they were a huge inspiration for Xerxes I's own invasion ten years later.
What do you think?

[QUOTE=Spartan198;1978158]Do you mean close RTW as in shut the program down, or is there some way to minimize it?
Escape (Esc) doesn't do it.QUOTE]
Ctrl+Esc and then your back on desktop.