Viking Invasion III---A mod in development

[Stazi]

Very nice work, Leith! Your units seem to be a much higher resolution (?) than what is seen in most other mods.

Glenn, imo these units use standard high res textures. As I mentioned in your thread here your pc gives you low res textures, although the mod provides high res too. I've found two reasons of this: graphic card with low ram memory or old card installed in PCI slot (not AGP or PCI-E). It may be drivers and/or resolution related problem too. Probably, cards with chips other than nvidia/ati aren't recognized too and game runs in safe/low-res mode. If you give me your pc's specs, maybe we will find the solution.

Sorry, for this little off topic.

[Leith]

Hello, friends

I have been busy with creating unit cards for all the units I have made so far. I have never done that before,unit cards that's, so after a couple of days I think I'm kind of happy with the results, for now at least. I have made a new bif for the Light Fyrdmen and LongSpears, for which I will post a couple of screens at the end. I have doubled the income of most provinces and increased the rest by 50% to 60%. I have removed the following units:

VikingThralls(It has been replaced by VikingMilitia)
CelticWarriors( It will be replaced by CelticWarband)
Peasants
Jomsvikings
Vikingkarls (It has been replaced by VikingRaiders)
UrbanMilitia(It has been replaced by TownMilitia)

The Huskarls, and the Housecarls will then be included, gollum, although their stats mightn't change much. The reason why these two units appear unbalanced is because, as you have rightly pointed out, most units are so weak. Thus, by upping the original stats reasonably, they wouldn't be overpowered. Unlike the original campaign, even the lowly Spearmen unit is not a pushover anymore in this mod.We will see about that when I'm done with the unit roster nonetheless.

Glad, you like the screens, Glenn, and yes this will be the final product, for these units that's, but the unit cards will be completely changed. The other skins aren't ready however. I'm working on them whenever I get some free time. Expect some more screens at the end of this post and expect some more next week!

I am still undecided as to how the Tech Tree for the Picts, Scots, and Welsh will shape up. I'm taking suggestions. Thank you for reading and posting! (In the first screen you see Light Fyrdmen in the front and Armoured Spearmen in the back. In the second screen you see Longspears)

[Stazi]

Congratulations! Very impressive work. Shields look really great.

I'm curious how do you create new units' graphics? Do you capture frames form the program like 3dsmax or you create them "by hand"? What programs/tools do you use to create units/icons/info pics? I'd like to make some modifications to some of the existing mods but I have hard time to even start (especially pallets thing makes me confused). If you don't want to flood your thread with off topic info, please send me a pm.

[Leith]

Hello. guys!

Well, I have been busy with re-skinning the Bonnachts and I'm pleased
with the result. I still have some final touches to make and will post
screens next week. I am still working on the unit roster and I'm
wondering whether including the 'Ostmen' for the Irish faction would be
historically accurate. We're talking about the year 750 A.D, the
starting date for this mod. I am planning to create 'reforms', as it
were, at which point primitive units like Town Militia and Spearmen are
replaced by more powerful ones, like Swordsmen and probably Royal
Spearmen. What do you think about this addition ? My view is that we
will have more than 300 turns if the game starts at 750 A.D giving us
some extra time that we could use to implement those reforms. I'm also
planning to make every single province count for something, i.e to
provide a new unit, or to give a bonus to a unit you already can
produce or access to iron. What do you think about this?

The screens I'm about to post show Axemen and Celtic Warband:

[Leith]

Hello, Staz!

Thank you for your comments. I have not created new graphics in as much as I have modified existing ones. I'm talking about the Hellenic:Total War mod, a superb mod in every aspect in case you have not played it. Some of them are heavily modified like the Light Fyrdmen and Viking Spearmen. The shields and bifs are modfied by hand and by using Photoshop and Corel Draw. Corel Draw is great when it comes to keeping the original pallet. I use the same programs to do unit icons. I think there are many threads in this forum which describe in detail how to modify/create bifs/skins and/or unit icons.

Glenn, I appear to have forgotten to let you know that I'm using the -ian switch while making those screens. The -ian switch enables you, among other things, to zoom in more. Hence the higher resolution.

[PershsNhpios]

Don't worry Leith - I know this. But seen the result of my zooming in the Hall - I don't receive such resolutions since the game decides for me.

Wonderful work again, O smith.

300 years of a campaign? May I suggest a Norman Invasion...?

[Leith]

Hello, everyone!

I was busy last week so I couldn't post any screens but this week is different and I will post a couple. Hello, Glenn, and thank you for the kind words. 'Norman invasion II' sounds promising. Perhaps after the first release of the mod it will be implemented. Right now the original factions need to be balanced enough. But I have a question: what advantages does an elite unit have, besides being able to 'ignore routers who aren't elite' ?

The first screen shows Bonnachts ( who have become much more effective in my view) while the second shows Welsh Horsemen( very effective light cavalry) about to throw their light javelins:

[Raz]

Elite units have mostly morale benefits. They are completely unaffected by the general's death (at least directly) and they require twice the number of routing friendlies to have a morale drop (as opposed to regular units).

It's briefly covered in this thread.