Sicily Campaign Map

[Spoonfrog]

Anouncing the Sicilian campaign map....

EDIT: The campaign is now finished. Download here.

EDIT 2: For discussion about version 2 of the Sicilian campaign map, starting in 410BC, featuring Carthage, the Greek Cities and the Siculi (native Sicilians), see page 2 of this thread and onwards...

This is noway near a total conversion mod, just an extra campaign map for the normal game. The map is a campaign for the island of Sicily, starting in 264BC, the beginning of the First Punic War. The map contains 25 regions and has three playable factions; Rome (the senate), Carthage and the Greek Cities. The central region of the map starts under the control of the rebels.

Here are some screenshots of the map in its current state (click to enlarge):







Carthage starts with a large portion of western Sicily and the Aeolian Isles (north of Messana), but many of her cities are not very big and have small garrisons. Carthage starts with a large navy and some good cities in the extreme west of the island. The Senate starts with only three provinces, two of which are on mainland Italy. The roman cities are quite well-developed at the start but the romans do not have a very large navy. The Greek Cities are somewhere inbetween, with less regions than Carthage but more than the Romans, and an average strength navy.

EDIT: By Myrddraal, I have corrected the image link.

[Monkwarrior]

Good job!

Is the map fully playable at the moment? Which region is the hidden Latium?

Are you considering to modify the duration of each turn?
I think with the dimensions of Sicily, 6-month-turn isn't too much realistic. Perhaps 1-month turn?

Good luck with this project!

[Spoonfrog]

Yes, the map is fully playable but there are a few more things to sort out before it is ready for release. There is no "Latium" region, the only repurcussions of this are that clicking on the "faction" button results in CTD (crash to desktop), which in my view is not serious (and is a handy way of quiting the game quickly whilst editing the map!) The AI seems to be coping fairly well with the different map, but can be slow to attack. I'm not too sure about how to change the period of a turn but I agree it would be better to have shorter turns if possible.

[Myrddraal]

What do you mean: The period of a turn? Do you mean the number of turns a year?

If so, see this thread

[Spoonfrog]

More screens (click to enlarge)...











Added forests and improved the heights. Also defined the mercenary areas:
Western Sicily: Numidian, libyan and balearic mercs
Central Sicily: Barbarian, peltast and hoplite mercs
Eastern Sicily: Peltast, hoplite, rhodian slinger and cretan archer mercs
Southern Italy: Samnite and hoplite mercs

The only things left to sort out are the radar maps for faction selection and the water depths.

Would anyone be interested in trying out the map for me and making suggestions on where it could be improved as a kind of beta test. What I particularly need to know whether factions should start with more/less units and whether some cities are too developed/undeveloped at the start of the game.

[Spoonfrog]

Ooo thanks Myrddraal that is exactly what I wanted I didnt realise it had already been finished.

[Myrddraal]

You should smooth out the shores, they look too jagged.

[Spoonfrog]

I do not believe it is possible to have smoother shores, as map_regions.tga only measures 100x60 pixels. I have not seen any other campaign maps that have smoother shorelines.

[Duke John]

Edit the height map. As long as you are 1 or 2 pixels off it doesn't really matter much.

[Myrddraal]

Yes, in fact the regions and the heights don't need to be related at all, it won't cause a CTD, though it will have some very very weird effects as I found out the hard way...

map_regions doesn't actually determine the shape of the land, map_heights does.

[caesar44]

Anouncing the sicilian campaign map....

This is noway near a total conversion mod, just an extra campaign map for the normal game. The map is a campaign for the island of Sicily, starting in 264BC, the beginning of the First Punic War. The map contains 25 regions and has three playable factions; Rome (the senate), Carthage and the Greek Cities. The central region of the map starts under the control of the rebels.

Here are some screenshots of the map in its current state (click to enlarge):







Carthage starts with a large portion of western Sicily and the Aeolian Isles (north of Messana), but many of her cities are not very big and have small garrisons. Carthage starts with a large navy and some good cities in the extreme west of the island. The Senate starts with only three provinces, two of which are on mainland Italy. The roman cities are quite well-developed at the start but the romans do not have a very large navy. The Greek Cities are somewhere inbetween, with less regions than Carthage but more than the Romans, and an average strength navy.

EDIT: By Myrddraal, I have corrected the image link.

why greek cities and not hiero of syracuse

[Spoonfrog]

Well, I intended this to be just a campaign map to be used with the original game not a full blown mod - though it would be great to make native sicilian tribes and so on I do not have the skills...

What I have done is on the faction selection screen it says "Syracuse" not "Greek Cities" and the faction blurb reads like this:

"Syracuse had long maintained her position at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, and long wars with Carthage had done nothing to dislodge her. However, the days looked dark indeed in 264BC when Carthage was in possession of more than half of Sicily. The Roman occupation of Messana brought a third spark to the bonfire of Sicily, and that was enough to start the blaze. You must choose either to repel the roman invaders or make an alliance with them so that they can help you destroy the Carthaginian presence on the island."

If there are any Sicilian history buffs reading please feel free to correct my mistakes lol.

[caesar44]

nice

[Spoonfrog]

Latest screens.







The map is basically finished now I am just ironing out some things before release. I am also having problems finding web hosting. Still need some testers if anyone else is interested.

[dclare4]

Sure count me in! Is it meant to run from the provincial campaign option? I can be reached at:

lordclare516 AT yahoo DOT com

Cheers,
Clare

[Laridus Konivaich]

Spoonfrog,

Have you tried to send me the campaign yet? Because I have not received anything.

Thanks,

~Prince Laridus Konivaich

[Kraxis]

This should be possible to add on top of the normal game, just with another campaign. A very userfriendly addition I must say.

Anyway, the only thing I missed was the city of Drapana, but I guess it it too close to Lilybaeum.

[Spoonfrog]

Yes, I think Drepanum is the port of Lilybaeum.

[Spoonfrog]

Sorry no updates for a while, but the sicilian campaign is now ready for download:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vingilot/sicily/sicily.zip

The campaign can run with the normal game without affecting anything. The imperial and proloque campaigns remain untouched and the sicilian campaign runs under the provincial campaign option. It has not been tested with any mods but it is possible that it might work with a mod if it includes the senate, the greek cities and carthage...

Known issues:
- The senate AI is not very aggressive
- Clicking on the faction button results in CTD
- Very occasionally, initiating a battle results in CTD (regular autosaving stops this being too much of a problem).
- Storms seem to happen alot (I think this is a rather good effect, but entirely accidental).

If this campaign turns out to be popular, I will consider making some updates/improvements...

[Laridus Konivaich]

I am not sure if this a problem with the campaign, or more likely just a game quirk, but I present everyone with 'The Well Defended City':

The weird thing was that there were two sets of walls in the city when I conquered it. The wooden wall in the build menu was unbuildable for me, and went away as soon as I clicked to build stone walls. I checked on the battlemap, but (un)fortunately nothing unusual was going on with the walls there...

[Magnus Imperator Maximus]

Hi,
I am going to test it with RTW 1.2 and RTR 5.4.1 and i will let you know soon if it will work.

[Spoonfrog]

Oops I thought I had fixed the city with two walls!

Another known issue:
-Sometimes the game starts with the message: Carthage Victorious. Try restarting if this is the case.

[Wishazu]

ive saved the campaign to desktop. how do i install it to my game?

[Wishazu]

ok i got it working. read the read me :) good effort mate, this campaign is the first time ive played a regular rome campaign since installing RTR. very well done

[Spoonfrog]

Thanks

Just to let you know, the map will be more realistic with the "four turns a year" script. This can found on the Guild somewhere, I will post a link...

EDIT: here it is: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=44648

[hannibal_barca]

i have always wished someone would make a mod like this(I suck at modding, I have been working on a carthage and numidia fix for rtr 5.4 for two days and then when making a new city I created a fatal error and had to star over )

[Wishazu]

Thanks

Just to let you know, the map will be more realistic with the "four turns a year" script. This can found on the Guild somewhere, I will post a link...

EDIT: here it is: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=44648

are their instructions on how to incorporate this script. im a complete noob with these things, ive got the standard 2 turns a year one working. also will this new script mean i have to start a new sicily campaign?

[Myrddraal]

The instructions are on the first page, but apparently there have been problems with the script generator, I will have a look though...

[SicilianVespers]

I finally gave in, and installed RTW. This is the first mod I am "trying" to install (it's so different from MTW), so be gentle, I am not really a noob


First, thanks Spoonfrog, you must have been reading my mind. If you need any help at all, just let me know...cities, leaders, history, etc...

Right off the top of my head, you could give the Siculans (Sicels or Sikels) the interior of the island. Ducetius was their King, and was one of the last, and most dangerous native leaders before Siculan culture was completely Hellenized. He really gave the Greeks alot of trouble. I would have to check the date, he may be too early for the time period.

Now to my technical difficulties.

I followed the directions in the readme.

1) Created the Sicily folder (empty), and copied your files into it.

2) Copied the Sicily_can't_remember_the_rest into the regular RTW text folder.

3) added the text to the other file, just copied and pasted in notepad.

now the problem...

When I select a faction, any faction, it CTD's....what did I do wrong?

[SicilianVespers]

Here some information concerning Ducetius:

Ducetius of Sicily (http://www.livius.org/do-dz/ducetius/ducetius.html)


Ducetius (†440 BCE): native Sicilian leader who founded a state similar to that of the Greek tyrants on his island.

The story of Ducetius is told by Diodorus of Sicily, a Greek historian of the late first century BCE. He uses an earlier source that can be identified with Timaeus of Tauromenion, again a Greek author. The inevitable result is, of course, that Diodorus's story is told from a Greek perspective. Ducetius is presented as a national leader of the native population of Sicily, the Sicels, and his career is seen as some sort of insurrection against the Greek settlers. This is probably incorrect. Ducetius's successes were possible because he copied Greek methods. He did not resist Greek culture, but was part of it.

Among Ducetius's examples must have been the famous tyrant of Gela and Syracuse, Gelon. Together with Theron of Acragas he had started to unify the Sicilian towns in two big territorial states. In 480, the two tyrants had defeated their main opponents, Terillus of Himera and his Carthaginian ally Hamilcar, near Himera. One of Gelon's instruments to divide his opponents and tighten his grip on conquered territories had been to resettle people in newly founded towns. It had been very successful and although Gelon had died in 478, his brother Hiero continued this policy. After Hiero's death in 467, Syracuse became a democracy.

There were some accompanying troubles, for example when war broke out between Syracuse and its former colony Catana. In 461/460, the Syracusans attacked the settlers, and received help from Ducetius, who bore a grudge against the Catanans as well, because they had occupied Sicel territories. The united armies captured Catana and divided its land. Its inhabitants were resettled in Aetna, southwest of Mount Etna.

Ducetius proceeded to found a city of his own, called Menai, and occupied Morgantina. In 453/452, he had united almost all of the interior of Sicily in a new federation. The crowning achievement was another new city: Palikê, near the shrine of two geyser gods who were venerated by the Sicels. Palikê must have been an impressive site with very strong walls, and grew rapidly because runaway slaves were released once they had reached the sanctuary.

After capturing Aetna, Ducetius made incursions into the territory of Acragas. By now, he had been active for some ten years and Acragas and Syracuse, old allies, decided to intervene (451). The first battle was undecided. In the next year, however, Ducetius was forced to flee, entered Syracuse -an unexpected action-, entered the market place, and sat down at the altars of the gods. The Syracusans felt uneasy. Ducetius had once been their ally and had done them nothing wrong; on the other hand, they could not leave him alone, because he was too powerful. He was therefore left alive, and sent to Corinth, the mother city of Syracuse. The Syracusans even paid his expenses.

In 448/447, Ducetius escaped and returned, rose to power again, and started to pay attention to the north, understanding that Syracuse in the east and Acragas in the southwest were better left alone. (The two towns, without common enemy, immediately started a war.) Ducetius founded Kalê Aktê ("fair promontory"), which included not only Sicel settlers, but also Corinthians. This suggests that the city where he had been exiled supported his action. In 440, he fell ill during an attempt to unite the people of northern Sicily. His state disintegrated and his capital Palikê was sacked.


I haven't had the opportunity to look at your map yet, but Acragas is the Roman Agrigentum, my home town in Sicily.

The Siculi would be a good name for this faction, if you decide run with it.