Engineer's Guild maintenance help

**drone** · 08-06-2011, 02:31

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Out-of-date file links.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!

**Stazi** · 08-06-2011, 08:55

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.

**drone** · 08-06-2011, 14:14

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.

**drone** · 08-08-2011, 17:09

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.

**drone** · 08-10-2011, 04:38

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?

**drone** · 08-18-2011, 04:27

Originally Posted by drone

Anyone got working download links to HTW?

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.

**Axalon** · 10-25-2011, 02:18

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.

I fail to see what is controversial about it…

"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."

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)…

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.

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

**Axalon** · 10-25-2011, 02:21

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
--------------------------------
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
--------------------------------
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
--------------------------------

• 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
-----------------------------
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

**drone** · 10-25-2011, 16:46

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.

) 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!