First open beta of AOVAF

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok, very good. Have you any idea of when you might have one finished?

You might want to, when making the tech tree, compare it to others to see what every building level means and how different unit classes are distributed between the different building complexes and so on. The tech trees thread here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=48791

...contains all tech trees made so far in red color and unfinished temporary ones in black or blue. The current unfinished magyar tree is quite far down on the page.

Cheers!

[Forgus]

unit list ready tech tree.... see... Friday perhaps?

[Meneldil]

Well, I don't think releasing the campaign map in a first beta is a good idea...
It will need to have a whole lot of unit ready, a balanced game, no loopholes, etc. That will be *a lot* of testing.

On the other hand, a beta release with custom, multiplayer and a few historical battles would be easier, and released earlier.

We could plan to have the Vikings, Saxons, Frankish and (an eastern faction) units ready, historical battles such as Hastings, Clontarf, Stamford Bridge, etc.

As for quotes and names, I could take care of it, althought I've never did so before. Shouldn't be that hard.

Could you dl some instant messenger ? ICQ or MSN would be great. It would be way easier to communicate.

The map is almost done, regions-wise, I'll send a map to PseRamesses, so he can help me with the Viking areas. So far, I have about 170 regions, and ideas for the 30 remaining.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok, you might be right. But perhaps we should release a closed beta to a few beta testers (there have been some who have expressed interest in that) to recieve help with some testing early, it would improve the development of the mod I think. But it depends on how ready the mod is by that time. We should probably have finished most of the factions, preferably all, before we release. Anyway, I'm headhunting for skinners and modellers and coders and anyone at all who can speed up our development. A month from now might be unrealistic.

As for quotes and names, I'll email you the full lists. The files that are affected when editing names are 1 descr. txt file, 1 names lookup file, and one file in the folder called "text". BUT - the descr strat files of ALL campaigns - both provincial campaigns and base campaign, contain name lookup references in them. This means that it's probably safest to keep all old roman name lookups and only edit the text - otherwise the references from the descr_strat in the campaign/base folder will refer to non-existing names in the names_lookup file. I hope that was clear, it's not easy to explain...

[GoreBag]

I think Meneldil's idea of a few battles is appropriate for an early goal. If there'll be a closed beta, though, I want in!

I liked the idea of using English with accents, but I'm afraid that not all the accents can easily be synthesised. The team and the regulars all seem to pretty ethnically diverse, so some accented English wouldn't be too difficult to manage, but what about, the Saxons for example? How would they sound?

[Meneldil]

I've already started to add new quotes (I deleted the vanilla ones), using the Qoutes ( ) topic. Right now, I've added 41 quotes, I think I'll have about 60 tomorrow, maybe more if I use all the quotes (thanks to Wizard for the link) from *Idon'trememberwho"

More quotes from viking sagas would be nice though

Names are also pretty easy.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I think Meneldil's idea of a few battles is appropriate for an early goal. If there'll be a closed beta, though, I want in!

I liked the idea of using English with accents, but I'm afraid that not all the accents can easily be synthesised. The team and the regulars all seem to pretty ethnically diverse, so some accented English wouldn't be too difficult to manage, but what about, the Saxons for example? How would they sound?

Ok, Hastings, Clontarf and Stamford seems good. Maybe we could even add the battle of Tours/Poitiers, Abbassids and France would have almost the same units that are needed, even though the battle was before 843 (732 to be exact)?

@ NeonGod: Ok, you've shown a lot of interest and if/when we decide to release a closed beta you're in

@Meneldil: I've emailed the name lists to you now.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Situation when it comes to name lists:

- These need more names:
French
Normandie
Lotharangia

- These have no name list at all at the moment:
Saxons
HRE
Magyar

@Forgus, could you help with a magyar name list?

@Meneldil: I'll have a look at saxons and HRE in the meantime. For Normandy, should be lengthen the list by using French names, or a combination of French, Norwegian and Danish names, but with French in majority? For Lotharingia I think Frankish, Italian and latin sounding names would work. But there are probably enough sources on Lotharingia for me to find enough useful names only in those, so I won't need to use names from other factions, I think.

[The Stranger]

Well, I don't think releasing the campaign map in a first beta is a good idea...
It will need to have a whole lot of unit ready, a balanced game, no loopholes, etc. That will be *a lot* of testing.

On the other hand, a beta release with custom, multiplayer and a few historical battles would be easier, and released earlier.

We could plan to have the Vikings, Saxons, Frankish and (an eastern faction) units ready, historical battles such as Hastings, Clontarf, Stamford Bridge, etc.

As for quotes and names, I could take care of it, althought I've never did so before. Shouldn't be that hard.

Could you dl some instant messenger ? ICQ or MSN would be great. It would be way easier to communicate.

The map is almost done, regions-wise, I'll send a map to PseRamesses, so he can help me with the Viking areas. So far, I have about 170 regions, and ideas for the 30 remaining.

quote names is easy just find the right file and have the right names :D then it will go just fine

[Nacheras]

Only say thanks for your work to you all. Thanks for all the hours wasted in this nice madness. You give us the best gift: promises of many hours of exciting game playing.
Keep up the good work.

[Antagonist]

Seconded.

Antagonist