Chivalry: Total War public beta released

[alpaca]

As announced a week ago, here comes the public beta for Chivalry: TW
Get it on http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/ch...downloads.html

This works with RTW 1.5 (and also with BI 1.6).

Here's the readme, as I'm too lazy to write something proper atm ;)

Chivalry: Total War - a total conversion mod for Rome: Total War
version 0.34
http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/chivalry

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1. Introduction
1.1 Historical Overview
1.2 About the Mod
2. The Mod
2.1 Features
2.2 Status
3. License
3.1 Copyright
3.2 Submods
4. Credits
4.1 Current team members
4.2 Earlier/inactive team members
4.3 Special thanks

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1. Introduction
1.1 Historical Overview
Europe in 1072 - a divided continent. Looking at the cultural map, we can find three completely different traditions: The western and northern European Latin (or Catholic) Christians, the eastern European Orthodox Christians and the Muslims, who control most of the southern Mediterranean.
It won't be long before these cultural and religious tensions are going to explode, in the first crusade - but more about that later.

For the time being, let's concentrate on the differences within the larger culture groups: The Latin kingdoms and counties, nominally subordinate to the authority of the Pope - who claims to be God's surrogate on earth - are constantly warring each other. Only six years ago, the Norman (French) counts of Toulouse started their invasion of the British isles and defeated the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants, conquering the land instead of plundering it like their Viking predecessors.
In 1060, the Normans invaded Sicily, and now, 12 years later, they finally succeeded in taking it from the Unbelievers, thus establishing a large principality in southern Italy.
The constant warring between the German counties, the French and other major powers makes this one of the bloodiest centuries known to mankind - and in Spain, the Christian kings of Castilla and Aragon started the Reconquista - as they call the conquest of the Moorish lands in the south of the Iberian peninsula.
The Moors - saturated and contented with their holdings, concentrated on culture instead of fostering their defenses. They didn't see much of a threat in the Christians, and they were more or less right as it took the Spanish more than 400 years to unite their kingdoms and claim the whole of Iberia. These centuries presented a constant period of war only disrupted by short periods of relative peace.

Further to the east and north, the Central European powers, the Danish, the Hungarians, Polish and Bohemians - all fresh upstarts if seen from the point of view of the dominating power in that area, the Holy Roman Empire (later to be presented with the suffix "of German nations"), whose Emperor is the successor to Charlemagne.
Although nominally the head of the Empire, the Emperors are more like a figurehead for the local lords, and vastly depend on their Hausmacht (their personal army) as opposed to the loyalty of their subordinates. This makes the situation of the Holy Roman Empire both strong and fragile, and the might of this faction stands and falls with the ability of its leader to suppress the inner strains and unite the counts of the German lands under one banner.

The eastern part of the continent is controlled by the Orthodox Christian factions of Novgorod, Kyiv and, of course, Constantinople.
Constantinople, or the Byzantine Empire, once the largest and mightiest country of the known world and righteous successor of the Roman Empire, is gradually drifting into insignificance. She already lost most of her holdings in Asia during the first millenium and is under increasing pressure by the Muslims.
Orthodox Christians don't accept the claim to superiority of the Pope - this lead to the Great Schism of 1054 - and merely regard him as equal to the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria and Jerusalem.
Ah... Jerusalem. The Holy City which had been taken in 638 by the Muslims, and to which an ever-increasing number of pilgrims travel each year to express their devout faith in God. It shall soon become a place of slaughter and inhumanity when the Frankish crusaders seize and rape the city, killing most of the Muslims and Jews who live there.

But the Muslims aren't much better: Divided into Shiites and Sunnites which are again split into a large number of different schools and denominations, they are bickering amongst each other just as much as the Christians - and they tend to apply equally brutal means. The age of science that took place during the last few hundred years in the Islamic orient is drawing to an end and only a few glorious characters give us a glimpse of the glory of the earlier days.
Another problem is caused by the discrepancies between the Arabs and the Turks.
This, together with the struggling between the Shi'a Fatimid Egypt Caliphate and the Sunna Seljuk Turk dynasty who recognize the Abbassid Caliph of Baghdad, decidedly weakens the oriental Muslims - thereby allowing the First Crusade to succeed.

1.2 About the Mod
Chivalry Total War is a historical modification of the game Rome: Total War. Its aim is to recreate the historical period of medieval Europe from roughly 1072-1500.
The original purpose of the mod was to make a small medieval multiplayer mod that tried to capture the gameplay of Medieval: Total War. Since then the mod has tuned into a Total Conversion, meaning that all aspects of the original game (campaign, custom battles, historical battles etc.) are now converted into Chivalry's medieval setting (the exact features are listed below).
The 034 release is solely focusing on the Early medieval period (1072-1250). Because of time constraints we cannot include all the Era's at the moment (High and Late), though these are expected to be provided in future versions as soon as possible.

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2. The Mod
2.1 Features

*Over 130 new realistic medieval units- Modeled and skinned by our very own team members, unique only to Chivalry: Total War. Units sometimes also have multiple skin variations for different factions.

*21 completely new factions- Factions of significant medieval importance in all of our time periods.

*Medieval Campaign- Fight rival nations in the medieval world as one of 13 playable factions on a completely re-done and original campaign map with expanded borders and historical regions and settlements from the period, worked on specifically for Chivalry: Total War. Chivalry: Total War is the first Total Conversion modification for Rome: Total War to include a working campaign map. Also featuring new textures and models for just about everything that you see on the map.
Note: The rest of the factions will be playable soon.

*Balanced gameplay on the battlefield - balanced gameplay developed, refined and tested to perfection. Realistic and balanced unit speeds, increased battle length and realistic morale. Originally designed for better multiplayer gameplay.

*Revamped UI and graphics- An original UI suiting the medieval setting, along with menu backgrounds and other graphical components.

*Completely new music- Developed by independent music composers, Chivalry replaces all of the original music with tracks that are more suited to the medieval theme. Download seperately here <alpaca, insert link>

*New animations- Animations developed independently by Chivalry: Total War team members, including the crossbow animation and the lance animation.

*New Custom and Historical Battles- Play on nearly 50 new custom battle locations from spots all over the map, offering endless custom battle and multiplayer replayability. Fight off the mighty Byzantine army as the Seljuk Turks in the most significant battle of the era and smash the Holy Roman Empire at Bouvines as the French in two of our unique custom battles from the Early period.

2.2 Status
The mod currently includes the early era only. Most of its units are done, but there are still a few issues with models and skins. We didn't yet include custom buildings again, and a lot of scripts and features are still missing.

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3. License
3.1 Copyright
Copyright for all content of this mod (for exceptions see below) lie in the hands of the Chivalry: Total War team. The creators of the content have agreed to cede all their rights to their work to the mod team.
A user of this mod is allowed to change the content of this mod for his personal use only (unless explicitly stated otherwise by the mod team), i.e. he is not entitled to release changed models, skins, or any other file included in this release as his own work, even with due credit to the mod team. If any violation of this is detected, we will take immediate steps aiming towards making the download impossible.
These steps may include: Personal contact with the offender, contacting site admins to delete forum posts or remove downloadable files and posting in offending threads.

3.2 Submods
Submods are an exception to the above copyright statement. The process of becoming a Chivalry: Total War submod is the following:
- A submod team, or single person develops an idea for a submod, and may start to work on it
- The person/team contacts the Chivalry: Total War team (one of the mod leaders) asking for leave to release their content
- If the Chivalry: Total War team approves of the idea, it will allow the release of the submod
There will be two types of submods that can be allowed:
SP (single-player) submods - these change only non-MP (multi-player) relevant files, a list of these can be found on our website.
MP submods - these change MP-relevant files, therefore we will measure them harder than SP submods. This is necessary because Chivalry: TW is still a MP-oriented mod, and we do not want to split the community into lots of small mods that only change insignificant small bits and make the game versions incompatible nonetheless.

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4. Credits
4.1 Current team members
alpaca (Stefan Reutter) - mod leader, coder, scripter
militiaman (Peter Cooper) - mod leader, coder
Dirty Peasant (Fyodor Nadtoka) - skinner, modeller, animator
Adherbal (Lukas Nijsten) - skinner, modeller, coder, scripter (right now more of an advisor)
Hody - research, Bohemia
Polak966 - research, coding

4.2 Earlier/inactive team members
Kor Khan (Daniel Hungerford)
Robert D'Artois
Randarkmaan
Arakorn-Eir
CNSW
Andriyko
Lance
Drak10687
Darth Fenrir
Alin
BuuKenshin
VikingHorde
NinjaCool

4.3 Special Thanks

Testing and balancing:
Alexandros
AggonyDuck
Crow
Antek
Tom
Jhonny
Lu Bu

- Strategic Command Center - for forum and mod hosting
- Vercingetorix - for his awesome modding tools
- Edgen Animations - for the excellent music track
- Europa Barbarorum - for animations, and research on several modding aspects

[Geoffrey S]

Congratulations on releasing this! I look forward to trying it when time allows.

[hellas1]

Hi CTW team,

Thank you very, very much for this mod!

One prob. though, I think the link is broken!
Can you fix it/

Also, If I download this beta, do I have to uninstall it to add the High and Late periods of the mod later on?

Thanks again & Congradulations ladies and gents!

Hellas1

[Antagonist]

There seems to be a lot of demand on the server, I had to retry at least 10 times to get a download slot. Keep trying!

I got it a few hours ago and I am very impressed. The quality of the unit graphics is very good and the battles feel well-balanced. There are a couple of factions I'd have liked to see which weren't there, but that's not really their fault with the limit so low. The new music is nice too. I really like it.

Antagonist

[alpaca]

There are some problems, e.g. MP doesn't work for some reason. You should check out the TWC or SCC chivalry subforums if you have problems as you're more likely to get help there.

[Stormy]

Great mod, guys. I'm enjoying it also. The Hagia Sophia isn't included on this version, no ? Also, keep up the good work.

[Cesare diBorja]

Can't seen to download this product. 'Service unavailable'. How else may I download this product.

diBorgia

[Helgi]

Good Mod, Playing the Danes, do you need a list of Viking/Scandinavian Names ?

[alpaca]

Try downloading again.
@Helgi: Yup, we do ;)

[Cesare diBorja]

Can't seem to play the Grand Campaign. The Minor Campaign is Awesome!

diBorgia

[Helgi]

Will try that downloading again and do not have any merc's looking for jobs, is this another download issue? Otherwise love the mod:)

[Helgi]

Try downloading again.
@Helgi: Yup, we do ;)

reloaded and nothing, then removed the mod and downloaded Chivalry again and nothing still, all the names for the Danes are Scythian. Plus have not gotten any Merc's? Otherwise no complaints.

[Lord Adherbal]

the "try download again" wasn't directed at you. There aren't many mercs yet. IIRC I only did welsh longbows in wales, brabanconne spearsmen in flanders and viking units in some french and english regions. I'm sure the team will add more soon.

[Helgi]

Thanks for the for the info on the mercs, downloading again did help though with getting the Grand Campaign working, the that was helpful, is there a why to change the names without a ctd?

[alpaca]

That's a good question, the game is especially picky about names.
And for mercs: You shouldn't get them, accepting em causes the game to crash :(

[Helgi]

I just found that out 2 hours ago when I tried to get Norman axe men, will there be a fix for this soon?

[paullus]

Hey, this is a lot of fun. It sure would be nice to have castles and working mercs...any chance on 4tpy too? Congrats on a very good-looking mod! Battles are a good bit of fun, though they seem too fast after EB.

[Simmons]

Hey, this is a lot of fun. It sure would be nice to have castles and working mercs...any chance on 4tpy too? Congrats on a very good-looking mod! Battles are a good bit of fun, though they seem too fast after EB.

Actually if you feel strongly enough about it there is a poll at the stratcommander Chivalry: Total War sub forum
http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/fo...howtopic=15997

[Cesare diBorja]

Alpaca, I put in a post as monkeytool over at TWC. I have had no problems accepting mercenaries. I recently(as the French) received two 150man units of Vikings for 2000 denarii. It was great although they did not last long. Oh , well. It works for me. Also, no troubles with rebels. In fact i have yet to have a CTD(knock on wood) and I am 30+ years into the game.

diBorgia

[Ciaran]

Thanks for the for the info on the mercs, downloading again did help though with getting the Grand Campaign working, the that was helpful, is there a why to change the names without a ctd?

you could try to edit the name file in the text folder, i.e. keep the internal reference and just change the names that are supposed to appear on screen.

And, for the record, this is one most excellent mod as I stated at TWC a bit more detailed.

[Dead Knight of the Living]

Is it correct to say we do not have to have Barbarian Invasion to run this mod?

[Lord Adherbal]

yes, just RTW patch 1.5

[Dead Knight of the Living]

I'm definitely behind the times. I thought RTW 1.2 was the most recent. Didn't even know there was a 1.5. OK. Thank you for the info.

Can you go on Crusades in Chivalry like in MTW?

[KonstantinosXI]

not yet, but i think there will be a mini-campaign for the crusades...hope my reply is good...

[Justiciar]

Your forums don’t seem to be working, so I might as well say it here.. I can’t seem to start a campaign. Each time I try, I just get redirected to the main menu. Is this a known problem, or is it just a faulty download? In which case..



Bloody downloads..

[paullus]

You can get it to work through the minor campaigns option, though it seems that reinstalling will also make the grand campaign work as well (I don't know why that makes a difference).

[Dead Knight of the Living]

not yet, but i think there will be a mini-campaign for the crusades...hope my reply is good...

Sounds good.

I just installed Chivalry last night. I'm playing as England right now. I figured that'd be the easiest faction to use to learn the nuances of this mod.

I have a couple questions for anyone who knows. Basically, I'm just trying to make sure this mod is working right.

Most of the unit types I am able to create now have very low attack values. The highest I believe is 5 and that is from one of my cavalry units.

Is that right? 5 seems awful low. But the defense values are triple the attack values. A couple of the foot units only have an attack value of 1 and defense value of 3.

Is that how it's supposed to be. I'll have to create an army of mangonels to go on any offensive as their attack value is like 50 or 60 something.



Final question for now. I wasn't given the option to select any of the Moslem nations. Can they be modded to be playable or is there a way to unlock them during gameplay?

[x-dANGEr]

Most of the unit types I am able to create now have very low attack values. The highest I believe is 5 and that is from one of my cavalry units.

Is that right? 5 seems awful low. But the defense values are triple the attack values. A couple of the foot units only have an attack value of 1 and defense value of 3.

That's how it is for me, so I suppose it's right.

Final question for now. I wasn't given the option to select any of the Moslem nations. Can they be modded to be playable or is there a way to unlock them during gameplay?

Go to your descr_strat.txt found in C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\chivalry\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_in vasion (I think, not 100% sure what the minor and grand ones exactly are)

In this file at the top should be a list of playable factions then below a list of non-playable ones. Cut and of the muslim factions you'd like to play with into the playable section. Something like this:

playable
	gauls
	britons
	germans
	romans_scipii
	romans_senate
	carthage
	dacia
	numidia
	spain
	scythia
	parthia
	pontus
	armenia
	thrace
	greek_cities
	macedon
	egypt
end
unlockable
	 
end
nonplayable
	seleucid
	romans_brutii
	romans_julii
	slave

[alpaca]

a) The minor campaign is the same as the Grand Campaign, the problem is that if you play through the RTW.exe that I screwed it a bit so it doesn't work in 0.34; you could also install 0.34a and play with that.
b) Small attack values just make a lower killing speed, and if all units have low attack values it doesn't change anything else really.
c) You can mod the muslims in but they don't have a tech-tree or something yet.

[Ciaran]

Talking about low attack values, I´ve noticed that archers actually have a higher melee attack than any other (western Europe) infantry unit, save the foot knights and maybe the axemen.