First open beta of AOVAF

[Rodion Romanovich]

you know how many units such a beta would include right now? about 15 maybe... I think it's a mistake. If I'm not completely off the fields skel and quick haven't made a lot of new units, right?

have I missed something?

edit:
a beta would be completely wrong I think, it would barely be a preview... even with several historical battles, we have three half done factions..

edit 2:
okay closed beta is what this is about... I doubt a month is enough, but it hasn't have to be that much to produce something playable...

Nah, it was just a way of getting some attention to the interesting subject - getting an overview over what's left to do until the first open beta. But I'm thinking about, perhaps, releasing a beta with a campaign map where only saxons, welsh, vikings and gaelic factions are included. Making a campaign map from a small part of the existing one wouldn't be too problematic. Could be an interesting demo to increase the interest in this mod. It would then be released as a demo, not a beta.

But the main idea of this thread was to get an overview. I'm not sure how much time scripting etc. will take, but it seems skinning is what takes most time - by far a lot more time than other tasks, and will be our bottleneck. I'll try to learn skinning when I've taken care of the remaining campaign map terrain making, scripting, some minor researching (quotes, in-game texts etc.) and all minor details needed for a release, before I'll start working on skinning. Needless to say, I'll then be a newbie at skinning, but hopefully my skins won't look too awful... and it's probably not easy to come anywhere close to those of our current skinners But I could skin the factions there so far seems there hasn't been any interest in skinning - asturia, al andalus, abbassids and bulgars.

But - that's only ONE more skinner. Ideally, we'd want 5, in order to get the speed we want, so that skinning keeps up with coding. Don't feel stressed, I'll do what I can to recruit as many more skinners as possible.

[Meneldil]

I'm glad to say that adding names is a total pain and will take years. If we add more than a few at a times, the campaign CTD on start

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=28761.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Oops... Not good... Have you tried this tactic:

When you've successfully managed to add, say, 1 name for each faction, try renaming all characters in all provincial campaigns and the base campaign to such names. When that has been made, you should be able to delete all R:TW vanilla names from the files. When that has been achieved, further adding of names shouldn't, afaik, be an as large problem. Or?

[ScionTheWorm]

Needless to say, I'll then be a newbie at skinning, but hopefully my skins won't look too awful... and it's probably not easy to come anywhere close to those of our current skinners But I could skin the factions there so far seems there hasn't been any interest in skinning - asturia, al andalus, abbassids and bulgars.

I guess we should treat you as any new skinner, so we would like to see a sample first.

You could make the whole game with vanilla skins but unit names/tech trees like planned, and just change the models/skins to ours when they are finished. That way you can balance the game right. Also remember there are a need for new city plans, buildings, etc. and at least I have never seen anything done about it.

[GoreBag]

A provincial campaign as a demo would be amaaaazing. I was thinking to myself the other day about how there should be more provincial campaigns, and this one would probably take the cake.

[ScionTheWorm]

A provincial campaign could really work. An idea to this is:

- Factions: Normannaland, Danemark, Eire, Alba, Welsh, Englisc, Swedes.
- 4 turns a year (to test this out), from around 840-900
- Map area: something like viking invasion, including sweden.
- Larger provinces than on the full imperial campaign maybe?

Should be well done, therefore I suggest release no before mid-october.

What we must do for such a thing:
- Programming and skinning of course
- New strategy map graphics (towns, characters etc.)
- New city plans if we're able to
- New animations in battle - we have permission to use signiferone's pack with a few exceptions not fit for our mod.
- Unit cards, buildings etc.

I think it's a good idea, but we can't set a release date... shouldn't be hasty work.

I don't like the idea to put a lot of ideas to the side, for a 2.0 release, as I think so much is essential to a great mod. Should rather be more provincial campaigns, I really like that idea

[Rodion Romanovich]

A provincial campaign could really work. An idea to this is:

- Factions: Normannaland, Danemark, Eire, Alba, Welsh, Englisc, Swedes.
- 4 turns a year (to test this out), from around 840-900
- Map area: something like viking invasion, including sweden.
- Larger provinces than on the full imperial campaign maybe?

Should be well done, therefore I suggest release no before mid-october.

What we must do for such a thing:
- Programming and skinning of course
- New strategy map graphics (towns, characters etc.)
- New city plans if we're able to
- New animations in battle - we have permission to use signiferone's pack with a few exceptions not fit for our mod.
- Unit cards, buildings etc.

I think it's a good idea, but we can't set a release date... shouldn't be hasty work.

I don't like the idea to put a lot of ideas to the side, for a 2.0 release, as I think so much is essential to a great mod. Should rather be more provincial campaigns, I really like that idea

Pretty much what I had in mind. The main idea is to get a demo out to increase the interest and recruiting abilities etc. for the mod. No release date set - agreed. However, when I say a certain date might not be unrealistic, that's my estimations, not a deadline.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I guess we should treat you as any new skinner, so we would like to see a sample first.

Yeah, if it turns out my skins aren't good enough I'll give it up. There'll always be more things to do in coding, PR, recruiting, researching and testing if my skinning attempts fail.

[Meneldil]

I'm sorry to say that names will have to wait for BI, cause right now, adding names leads to loads of bugs.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I'm sorry to say that names will have to wait for BI, cause right now, adding names leads to loads of bugs.

Ok. Could I have a go at it? Perhaps I can find some way of doing it. Could you send me your last set of names files you managed to create that worked?

[Meneldil]

None managed and worked, actually. I had a set for the Western Frank (Scipii) that worked as long as I was playing with the Senate, but when I tried to play with the Scipii (Western Frank), it ctded after loading.

To test names, you'll have to play a few turns each time, because names sometimes cause CTD after 10 or more turns.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok. Could you then send one of the not working name files to me? As I know a lot of programming, I might be able to do some reverse engineering and find out what might be the problem, if I have a look at the files. Can't guarantee I'll find anything though, but there are some standard limitations that I can have a look at.