WW2 Modification, any intrest?

[Visco]

Hello ppl. me and my crew of experienced modders are looking for a new game engine that can support a nice battle map whit ww2 theme. and we figure that rome is the best start point for this. however we dont know all the features of what the engine can indeed give, so here is some questions for you who played around whit thsi mod for a longer period of time...

hold your breath becouse this will sting ;)

Lets start whit units shall we?...

Tanks? i know there is seage weapons in this game and i know you can abandon them.. that also makes me know that your units does this when routeing. can you in some way force them to stay put?

Trenches? can they be created in some way and will the game support them?

Soldiers? this one is not so important but can you create so that you can order your soldiers to crawl? i mean after all we are not playing ww1 here :P.
also when the soldiers get broken up i know they retreat can you make so that you can force your enemys soldiers to put down there guns and surrender? unnessisary bloodbaths seems kind of dumb in a combat situation (not meaning that its not fun. just a waist of bullets and free information :P i know i always kill my enemy totaly in this game otherwise)

buildings? factorys etc it should not be to hard to complete but however will they function as strategic points as they actualy did in ww2?? capture them and get an instant increese of production?


new roads? / Railways
roads should not be to hard to fix. but do you guys think we can add railways aswell? and if so can they be blocked by enemy forces? chokepoints.


only real answers that can help on the issues plz. and also try to keep it a little longer then just "yes" or "no"

info on my team:
Modders all of us.
we prev. modded soldiers heroes of ww2 and some of us whit good succes.
we are now looking for a good engine to compeate some new ideas we have and there for we need to test around. becouse we ask all this dont mean we will actualt go thru whit modding this game. however the outlooks seems bright

// Tommy "Major R. Visco" +++++

[stichmaster1]

im not sure but to do the crawling, you would probably have to get rid of the running or the walking to make space.

the only way to get a unit to stop routing is to have its morale boosted, ie a general

trenches would be very hard to do and i think the only way to have them work is to make the map a "floating wall" with ladders permanently attached and the regular ground being the bottom of the trench.

for buildings, in base rtw if you capture a city you gain a strategic ability as soon as you exit the battle

rail roads will be easy to accomplish as they can just be a replacement for the upper level roads

another thing is a very hard thing to deal with, FLYING UNITS, planes will not work on rtw, as you would be able to attack them by stabbing them from the groud, also they would create a bulge through the units on the battle field similar to the elephants

that is all i have for now, but there are very many problems to starting a mod like this on the rtw engine, i would like to see it done but it will be a struggle

[Visco]

yeah ofcourse it will be astruggle. but that is also a bit of the charm whit modding :P doing stuff no one else did.

however..

i was thinking of the planes and just about to post when i say you already did :P.

BOMBERS was a key factor to ww2. im not sure if this can be done in some way i mean its a realy important factor.. maybee if you create it as an event? well that would prob not work eather.

trenches are not so important after all. i mean ww2 was a very swift battle were the frontline constantly changed. bunkers however was inportant.

as for the crawling. remove on of run / walk. well you dont walk much in battle ofcourse but makeing your soldiers tired of running to the front.. giveing the enemy a head start on you due to your troops are exhausted.. well that would lead to players not willing to actualy take a step forward waiting out the enemy. unless you could do transports in some way...

as for the roads and railways. i dont wanna REMOVE the roads. i just wanna ADD railways :P and there for the option of advanced roads = railways cant be used. i want it to be build seperatly so it will have more strategic effects.

but the main consern is the bombings. we realy need a way to simulate bombing raids. as i sayed it was the leading point of the war. not only busting factorys.. but also busting enemy tanks and defences. Stukkas etc CAS. maybee it can be done the same way as sea battles are done. you dont controll the battle you can only simulate.

that way you can intercept enemy bombers whit fighters and shoot them down. easy whit a simulation.

alltho airbases will need to be constructed.. maybee like bunkers? by a special general "aircommander"

[Myrddraal]

Lets start whit units shall we?...

Tanks? i know there is seage weapons in this game and i know you can abandon them.. that also makes me know that your units does this when routeing. can you in some way force them to stay put?

If I wanted to make tanks, I wouldn't make them using the siege engine idea. I would make the tank a mount. I would then use various riders as the weapons.

For example, to make a heavy tank with loads of guns I would:

1. Make a new type of mount which is the body of the tank. The only animation for this would be movement (the wheels in the tracks turning and maybe it would rock a bit) and death (maybe it would crumple in a way and dip over on one side)
2. Make a new unit for the main turret. Give him a new type of projectile for the weapon. This man would have two animations: firing, where the barrel of the gun would recoil, and death. You will notice on horse archers in particluar that as the unit moves, the rider can face any direction. In the same way, the turret would turn and shoot in any direction whilst the tank moves.
3. I would then add other weapons in a similar way (maybe a guy sticking his head out of a hatch with a machine gun.

The advantages of this method as opposed to using seige engins:

• Individual weapons can be distroyed without the whole tank being destroyed
• The guns can fire whilst moving and in any direction

The disadvantages

• The crew and tank are one unit, it cannot be abandoned.

Trenches? can they be created in some way and will the game support them?

Here is how I would work trenches. I would make them like a very small wall, with sand bags etc, which would act like normal walls in Rome. Instead of towers I would have bunkers which would serve as entry points into the trench with fixed guns. Gates I would make into road blocks which can be opened or closed

Again I'll give the advantages

• Men can be placed in trenches
• They could be built around your settlement or base

A possible dissadvantage

• Tanks and men could not go over them unless they were first destroyed.

Soldiers? this one is not so important but can you create so that you can order your soldiers to crawl? i mean after all we are not playing ww1 here :P.

I'll give three suggestions:

1.
Maybe if you gave them a special ability like warchant, called take cover, where the animation would be them going to ground. The reason this isn't really practical is that you wouldn't be able to shoot at the same time, and I'm not sure you could make it give them a resistance to shooting anyway.

2.
You could make the idle and shooting animation on the ground. This way, units would get up to run, then get down again at the other end.

3. The best solution I can think of:
Mod the testudo formation so that the animation for it is in cover, and a bit futher spaced out.

Advantage

• Units cannot run in testudo and move more slowly
• Units are more resistant to being shot at in testudo formation

Disadvantage

• I don't think you can shoot in testudo

also when the soldiers get broken up i know they retreat can you make so that you can force your enemys soldiers to put down there guns and surrender? unnessisary bloodbaths seems kind of dumb in a combat situation (not meaning that its not fun. just a waist of bullets and free information :P i know i always kill my enemy totaly in this game otherwise)

The short answer is no. Units always run away.

buildings? factorys etc it should not be to hard to complete but however will they function as strategic points as they actualy did in ww2?? capture them and get an instant increese of production?

The only way I think you could do this is to make them a defense like the walls (maybe an upgrade to trenches like bunkers) Otherwise, the buildings can't be occupied.

new roads? / Railways
roads should not be to hard to fix. but do you guys think we can add railways aswell? and if so can they be blocked by enemy forces? chokepoints.

The roads appearing on the campaign map are hard coded so you can only have one. You could make railways an upgrade to roads, but they couldn't be blocked...

I hope this helps (I took some time working this out)

Welome to the forums...

[JimBob]

As to bombers, heavy bomber were not used in front line battles. So they could be replaced with an assasin like unit. Some way of forcing the unit to return to an air field at some point would be nessecary.
In all honesty Total War does not lend itself to any era after WWI. Even WWI would be difficult.

[Visco]

Wow that is alot of info. i will have to look at how the units handle the diffent movements etc and i think your stuff helps ALOT. the idea whit the bombers were also nice ;).
me and my crew will start working on some ideas in the comming days and i hope we can work this out ;) i realy do.
and when ppl say it cant be done. that is kind of makeing me want this to work even more ;) the idea whit the tanks were genious. :D

[Myrddraal]

Thanks, I'm flattered

[Zharakov]

I can give you ALOT of info on Tanks and infantry, and guns.

Also, I am good with this area of history. But msot of my time will go to the Atlantis MOD.

[Visco]

ok so we are trying to work this plugin for 3dsmax out. when running the script nothing happens ... this is a little older version of 3dmax is there a special version that is needed?.