Modding News Roundup - 10 July - Bahamian Independence 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 or post it below.

This Roundup was collated by Epistolary Richard and GiantMonkeyMan.


A Cavalry Charge from Napoleonic Total War 2, Christian Knights Charge at Muslim Spearmen from Crusader: TW, Scotland from the Athurian campaign map, Capturing Paris in Chivalry


Rome Total War
Modding News Roundup

A Summer of Mayhem!
Whilst news of Medieval 2 Total War has dripped through, the Rome Total War modding community has been busier than ever with a staggering number of major modification projects released in the first half of the summer.

Many of them have been highlighted in previous roundups, including Blue Lotus, the stunning Oriental fantasy mod by hoggy, the renaissance-era mod Citadel, Res Gestae created by Prometheus and many more.

We've also seen the first release of a non-Roman era campaign with Chivalry Total War - the long-awaited medieval mod for Rome Total War - which was shortly followed thereafter by Blue Lotus. With such a huge amount of work now available to download, there has never been such a diversity of mods to play.


Edit Badge Awards
The 'edit' award is granted by the staff as a body to those modders whom they consider have had the greatest impact on the community. It is rarely awarded and only to those who've shown an exceptional commitment to their projects since Rome was released. Congratulations to: [cf]Adherbal, alpaca, caius britannicus, DARTH_VADER, Epistolary Richard, khelvan, lt1956, Malrubius, Myrddraal, Prometheus, Vercingetorix. For more details see here.


A Multiplayer Campaign!
A Total War multiplayer campaign has by many been considered a holy grail of the game. Over the last weeks, thanks to the long research of Myrddraal, it has finally become possible.

The multiplayer campaign mod allows players to take command of different factions via Play-by-E-Mail. The mod automatically saves the game at the end of each player's turn and then transfers control to the next.


Mod Downloads Database
To you navigate around all these newly released mods, here at the Org we've added a fully categorised Mod Downloads Database and an associated forum to highlight new additions.

The more mods are added, the greater a resource it will become and so we encourage all modders to add their own mods to the database.


Mod Recruitment
With more mods released and still months to wait before M2TW is ready, there are more and more opportunities for members of the community to help their favourite mods develop - both by developing personal submods and by joining the development team itself, as earlier members rotate out.

Check out the recruitment threads for mods such as Blue Lotus, Citadel, Europa Barbarorum, Age of Vikings & Fanatics, Ran no Jidai, Napoleonic Total War 2 and others. Most mod teams can use extra help, so if you see a mod you're interested in PM the mod-leader and see how you can get involved.


New on the Scriptorium:

Adding Palm Trees to Battle Maps by Teleklos Archelaou and shifty157
A guide on how to add palm trees to battle maps and also a download containing shifty157's work

How to Transfer Barbarian Buildings from BI to RTW by Lusted
A useful guide explaining how to have barbarian buildings in BI transfered to RTW in the battle maps

Editing sounds in Bi and RTW by The Spartan
- part 1
- part 2
The Spartan informs us how to use RTW sounds in BI and how to increase the volume of some other sounds

The Complete Guide to Creating New Cultures in BI by Dol Guldur
A guide explaining how to add new cultures to BI by Dol Guldur


Mods Released


For Rome Total War Alexander
BKB Alexander minimod
An expansion mod to RTA from the renowned MTW modder, The Blind King of Bohemia.


For BI 1.6
Troy Total War Beta
Based on the Trojan era of Ancient Greek History. The mod incorportes both historical fact and mythical fiction.


For BI 1.6 & RTW 1.5
Chivalry Total War
The "MTW Mod", this mod brings the medieval theme to RomeTW, from 1072 to 1453AD. This total conversion takes great care for a well balanced MP experience and an exciting SP campaign.This has been updated with the 0.44 patch and an interview here


For RTW 1.5
Blue Lotus Beta
Created by Org Hall of Famer hoggy, Blue Lotus is a fantasy mod derived from the history and mythology of China, Japan and India. The map is a distorted map of Asia which is being encroached upon from the west by a huge force of demons and mythological creatures. With over 120 new units, factions include Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Demon, Korean, Mongol and the Monks. All the factions are warring for control of the world and to gain the ultimate prize… The Blue Lotus.


Res Gestae Roman Pack
This is the primary Roman elements, units and reforms for Res Gestae - a mod starting at the beginning of the Second Punic War, led by the award-winning modeller Prometheus. More factions will be released in subsequent packs.


Rise of Persia Beta
The 1.5 conversion of the Public Beta with more improvements, including sprites, correct cultures and unique victory conditions, based on each faction's historical achievements, or neighbouring factions.

Citadel Total War - Customs Battle release
Citadel Total War is a mod for Rome Total War focused on late-Medieval and Renaissance battles. The factions included in the demo are Spanish, Ottoman Turks, Venetians and Knights on Malta. Due to the time-period that we have chosen the units range from heavily armored Elmetti men at arms, to swift Ottoman Sipahis, and from heavily armored Turkish Serdengecti to flamboyantly dressed halberdiers.


Terrae Expugnandae 5.1
This mod was done to try and make RTW better by improving the gameplay and making it more fun. It does not aim to be historically accurate. It just tries to make Rome a better gaming experience.

Iberia Total War
The 1.5 conversion of this mod focusing on the RTW-era battles between Rome, Carthage and the Iberian tribes.

Warmap III
This is the largest scale WarMap yet, map_heights is 1021x721 up from 1021x675. There is only 114 regions/settlements, down from 165 in WarMap I. The fewer settlements on the large map, combined with a two turn recruitment for all units ensures that the battles are infrequent and decisive. No more two and three battles every turn, now it's one decisive battle every two or three turns.

Rome Total Gameplay Provincial Gameplay
Rome: Total Gameplay (RTG) strives to improve many aspects of vanilla RTW. The mod focuses on areas such as gameplay balancing and improved battlefield experiences. It also incorporates the talented work of many members of the TW community.

Skeleton Horde to replace Gauls
Skeletons replace Gauls in this minimod from Bwian.

Rome Total Multiplayer Beta
This is a modification for RTW and BI that provides a play-by-email campaign engine that allows players to fight their battles online. The modification also requires that Microsoft's .NET Framework 1.1 be installed (do not install version 2.0!).

Vanilla Balance Mod Beta
The aim of VBM is to rebalance the Imperial Campaign to create a fairer and more level playing field. The purpose of this release is to enable the initial build of this limited mini-mod for the vanilla imperial campaign to be tested so that feedback can be given.

Terrae Expugnandae 5.1 CE v2.0
The hotfix solves some graphical bugs, e.g Bactria and Epirus now have the correct banners and symbols on the strat and battle map. It also includes the strat-map settlement banners, which were accidently not included in the first upload.


Mod Previews and Updates:

Napoleonic: Total War releases their First Preview!
Napoleonic Infantry

Hegemonia City-States:
Syracuse Preview
New Carthage Previews:
- part 1
- part 2

Arthurian: Total War:
The Seaxe/Saxons
The Engle & The Ebrauc
Campaign Map Preview

Invasio Barbarorum Major Preview

Europa Barbarorum Previews:
The Diadochoi
The Eastern Kingdoms

Byzantium: Total War: Update #5

Rise of Persia: Babylon Preview

RES GESTAE Part 9: Gallic Tribes

Ran no Jidai: The Takeda Clan

The Latest Pictures from: The Crusades

Imperium: Total War Update

Ages of Darkness II -Preview 2

Terrae Expugnandae 5.0-
Preview 1
Preview 2
Preview 3
Preview 4
Preview 5
Lusted has been busy since the last 'round-up' hasn't he.

Paeninsular Italica- Preview #3

Fourth Age: Total War Update - The Wains of Rhûn


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 – even where a mod is particular brainchild of a solo modder, they will often want help in specific areas or through lack of time. Teams 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. Here are a sample of just of few of the mod teams that have been recruiting this last month.


Napoleonic Total War 2



The latest project from the award winning Lordz modding collective that brought you Napoleonic Total War and American Total War for the MTW engine, Napoleonic Total War 2 brings the wars and armies of the Napoleonic era to the Rome Total War engine. The Barbarian Invasion expansion is not required in order to play this modification, but it'll run on RTW 1.5 and BI 1.6.



The mod will be released in several "packs", each with it's own theme. The first will be the "Borodino pack", focusing on the Russian campaign of 1812, with it's climax at the Battle at Borodino. The second pack will feature the battle of Waterloo, adding the British, Prussians and Dutch-Belgian armies to the game.

The Lordz are recruiting new team members:
"The Lordz seek for some more people who would like to work with us on our current and future projects. We look for motivated people that want to invest time to recreate the epic Napoleonic age. We primary look for people with modelling,skinning, and animating qualities and/or people with artistic and drawing capabilities. An interest and knowledge in the Napoleonic age is a plus but not a requirement."

See their Forge thread here and their latest preview here.




**********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 Roundups
1 May - Festival of Beltane
6 April - Thailand Chakri Day
3 March - Hina Matsuri 'The Dolls Festival'
2 February 2006 – Groundhog Day
5 January 2006 – Twelfth Night
4 December – Mexico Day of Artisans
1 November 2005 - All Hallows Day