Amazon: Total War 8.0 Release

[parthian shot]

The more I play around with this, I feel one kind of weakness it has is the Camilla sect actually.

The problem with it is Camilla is just too good to NOT build, especially as Geothe. I understand this is intentional, as Camilla is their main point of worship. But it has the problem that the 4 Amazon Factions don't actually feel that different, they all specialize in mounted archers and cavalry, and while their Temples differ, Camilla is a constant and is always good to build.

For example's sake, if you look at the original Rome Total War, while each of the three Families of Rome were the same faction, each of the three - Julli, Scipii, and Brutii - all had different Temples to build, which made each of them play differently as a result. Julii could grow the fastest due to Ceres allowing increased farm production, as well as a minor income boost. Scipii had access to an extra weapon/armor upgrade from Vulcan, and two unique ships from Neptune. Brutii had highly experienced troops and a morale boost with Mars, and could get a trade boost with Mercury.

Each of the Amazon have different Temples as well, but Camilla gives them unique units, and basically all the same perks as the others. And even if they don't, Camilla's unique units are probably the best units the Amazon faction can field. It has the problem I had with Julii in vanilla Rome really - every single city gets the same exact Temple, because there's just not a reason to build anything else. It might make sense from a setting point of view, but from a game balance POV, it makes all the factions actually feel largely the same - focus on Camilla and mass horses.

I understand this is intentional, but I feel it kind of detracts from the experience. I almost feel the factions should try to be a bit more different, even if it may not be completely accurate to the historical records, it might be refreshing if a faction played radically different from the rest (Geothe don't really count for the purposes of this argument, but even then they still focus on horses, but they just have fire-bombs).

Well, actually up to 7.0E release, you are quite right about the Camilla sect, because it is the only Militant Priestess sect. In spite of this, AI continues to pick a varieties of religions. Amazonia often pick Artemis. And the Thyssa can be something else, like the Freja Cult.
However, since 8.0A, we (actually Celeste) has added special bonus for other religion, such as horse worship, which allows bonus unit recruitment.
Not all religions are equal, some are just waste of money and time. But we are moving towards almost exactly what you are saying.
Still, the difference between what you stated and what is being added (gradually) to the mod is that, the change is actually a deception, a build trap if you will, because no other religion can offer level 4 units, except the Camilla sect.

At the end of the day, the focus of this mod is about equestrian matriarchal societies, and in particular the archaeological finding and anthropological extrapolation about Goddess Theocracy. We were discussing about recruitment for the Aphrodite cult, but there is no units we can think of for that cult. So perhaps this idea should be saved for Sim-City, not Total War.

[parthian shot]

New Amazons Total War changes are being uploaded right now.

Changes include

- Pea's animation correction on Boetian Helmet brim issue
- Pea's animation correction on Amazon border horse archer and frontier's cavalry hair texture changing to chain mail
- Pea's animation correction on the same units with new hair anim-element.
- Cel's re-balance rebel and mercenary adjustment.
- replacement of obsolete unit cards and unit tiles.
- corrected Amazon Virgin Cavalry not available for recruit at higher tier cavalry stable building problem.
- changing start up Far East Celt's cavalry configuration to be less powerful.
- infrastructure re-adjustment for 4th campaign on the campaign menu.
- replacement of unit tiles which are blocky looking.
- slightly changed Amazon character roster.
- new elephant tower units.
- adjusted sky dome color table.
- new model table layout to prep LOD.
- medium LOD test models for intermediate range using proprietary maximum->minimum component reduction method.

[parthian shot]

Upload has been unsuccessful today probably due to busy pre-July 4th traffic.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

[parthian shot]

New Amazons Total War changes are being uploaded right now.

Changes include

- Pea's animation correction on Boetian Helmet brim issue
- Pea's animation correction on Amazon border horse archer and frontier's cavalry hair texture changing to chain mail
- Pea's animation correction on the same units with new hair anim-element.
- Cel's re-balance rebel and mercenary adjustment.
- replacement of obsolete unit cards and unit tiles.
- corrected Amazon Virgin Cavalry not available for recruit at higher tier cavalry stable building problem.
- changing start up Far East Celt's cavalry configuration to be less powerful.
- infrastructure re-adjustment for 4th campaign on the campaign menu.
- replacement of unit tiles which are blocky looking.
- slightly changed Amazon character roster.
- new elephant tower units.
- adjusted sky dome color table.
- new model table layout to prep LOD.
- medium LOD test models for intermediate range using proprietary maximum->minimum component reduction method.

Since Pea seems to be one step ahead of me, and Bibi is on vacation, I will have to back step and release the above changes in micro steps.

For the immediate release, it has

- Cel's re-balance rebel and mercenary adjustment.
- Pea's new Boetian Helmet texture
- Pea's change on Thyssa Border horse archer's helmet texture alignment.
- Pea's new LOD files for large animation models.
- Pea's new Amazon lesser general animation.

Happy July 4th, everyone.

[parthian shot]

Since Pea seems to be one step ahead of me, and Bibi is on vacation, I will have to back step and release the above changes in micro steps.

For the immediate release, it has

- Cel's re-balance rebel and mercenary adjustment.
- Pea's new Boetian Helmet texture
- Pea's change on Thyssa Border horse archer's helmet texture alignment.
- Pea's new LOD files for large animation models.
- Pea's new Amazon lesser general animation.

Happy July 4th, everyone.

The micro-release above is ready, Pea found issues with elephant tower, that model is being reworked.

[Wheeliepaul]

new unit cards

[Wheeliepaul]

[Wheeliepaul]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10233[/ATTACH]

[parthian shot]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10233[/ATTACH]

Thanks Paul! Will try to integrate this. A few 48x63 tiles are grainy looking when it is incorporated with the background texture in the UI. I will publish a short list.