Modding News Update - Groundhog Day

[Epistolary Richard]

An irregular column to gather up some of the recent events of the Org modding community. Got news? A mod update? Recruiting for your team? Has your mod been overlooked? Send Epistolary Richard a PM to get items included next time.



Leper Knight of the Order of St Lazarus from The Crusades ; Iberian Scutarii from Iberia Total War ; Chariots in Battle from Zhan Guo ; King Arthur from Arthurian Total War



Modding News Roundup

The hangovers are over, the night has closed in – but the future of TW has been laid out before us…

Medieval Total War 2 announced
In January CA confirmed the rumour that the next game in the Total War series will be set in the Medieval Period with the catchy moniker of Medieval Total War 2.

It is currently believed that MTW2 will be an ‘evolution’ of the RTW engine in a similar manner by which the original MTW evolved from Shogun. Several of the features announced were previous MTW features belatedly lost in RTW, but others are entirely new – randomised ‘mixed look’ soldiers in the same unit, overhauled terrain and a much enlarged map allowing crossings of the Atlantic. One CA staffer has even posted that they were looking at raising the existing faction limit of 21.

CA has also said that it will be releasing tools to aid modders. One of the criticisms levelled at RTW was that few modding tools were released and could not be accessed before the 1.2 patch – making modders reliant on a handful of community members with the programming ability to create them. As a result we are compiling a ‘wish list’ of the modding support that we would like to see with or shortly after the release of MTW2.

Release of Invasio Barbarorum - Flagellum Dei
This Barbarian Invasion mod by Atilla Reloaded has been wowing fans with its new unit skins. It’s primarily a graphical mod with 150 new or remade units, but it also includes a modified version of the Revisio Cartographicae map and a few adjustments to gameplay.

Still problems converting to 1.5?
With several major mods converting to 1.5, it makes having a community resource of the methods, tricks and pitfalls of converting all elements from converting from 1.2 all the more important. Veteran modders, especially those actually involved in converting their mods, do please contribute to this thread, either with information you’ve gleaned or problems you’ve encountered.


New on the Scriptorium

How to: Night Battles for RTW from DimeBagHo

A Beginner's Guide To Skinning from Lentonius
UV mapping of textures to models

An intermediate guide to skinning from Lentonius

Hidden features you can use in BI from Bernhard of Clairveux


Mods Released

For BI (1.6)
GrimMod beta

A gameplay/graphics mod including a variety of features: the White Huns & Moors, 0 turn recruitment, lower recruitment costs, no peasants, 4 turns, new skins and increased AI strategic resistance.

For BI
Invasio Barbarorum - Flagellum Dei

See news item at top.

Heavy Machine Gun mod for 1.4
A small file replacement that gives your ballista a huge rate of fire. Files must be manually altered.

For BI/RTW
Extended Greek Mod 3.5.1

The latest version of DimeBagHo’s opus focusing on adding greater depth and colour to the Greek factions. BI-XGM allows XGM to be run through the BI executable.

For RTW 1.2
Addon BareBonesWars for Vlad mod for 1.2

An add-on to Vlad mod incorporating SPQR-style gameplay and IceTorque’s large BareBones map.


Latest Mod Previews & updates on the Org

Hegemonia: CS Faction Preview Sparta

Chivalry WIP screenshots

Arthurian TW Preview 26th January: Dyfneint

Byzantium TW - Byzantine Faction Preview

Zulu Total War update

Imperia Romana Preview 1

Arthurian Total War - Map and Icon Preview


Some New Mods announced

New Conquests
This new mod for RTW: BI will take place in a far-a-way fantastic land.

Paeninsula Italica
This historical mod covers the great struggles for supremacy in Italy in the timeframe 333BC - 222BC.

Ice Torque's Gigantic map, with much more cities

Manifest Destiny
C19th conflicts in North America.




Mod Recruitment

Modding in a team can be an awesome, exciting experience allowing its members to develop a mod far greater than the sum of those it could individually.

The brightest, most innovative mods today are being produced by teams of modders - each working and developing in their own specialities. They can be great places to learn skills from the masters of the field, get to know new people and make those vital contacts with modders who you can then interest in your own modding ideas.

If you're keen to work with any mod team just contact their leader and see if you can help out.




**********Are you a modeller?*********

There is a huge shortage of modellers within the community and virtually every mod team desperately needs more (or even one!) as modelling is required to make any significant changes to units within the game. If you are a competent modeller you would be welcome in pretty much any project in which you had an interest, and you would be able to make sure that any personal project of your own could be completed and fail because of this lack.

The community strongly encourages everyone able to take an interest in modelling and you'll find several guides available to help on the Scriptorium.

The only programme currently able to create models for RTW is 3DSmax, however it is $$$ :(. A free 30 day download is available - however that's not nearly enough time to get useful results. You can extend the length of your trial by uninstalling it when not in use. Also, there are means by which models can be converted from the now-unavailable Gmax into 3DSMax, so if one team member has 3DSmax he can convert models from several different team members.

Previous Modding Updates
5 January 2006 – Twelfth Night
4 December – Mexico Day of Artisans
1 November 2005 - All Hallows Day