Christmas present, anyone?

[CountMRVHS]

Hi all,

Figured I'd post this here for the folks who, like myself, still play MTW.

Over the past few years I've been working on a mod for my own use, using the Viking era map and focusing on the post-Roman, pre-Viking era of Britain. I put together the factions by using Starkhorn's "Adding a New Faction to VI" guide, and changed some other stuff around as well, such as adding new units (no new images, however -- just renamed and re-tweaked units taken from the VI campaign and the MTW campaign). The map remains the same, as map-modding is beyond my ability.

There are still some things that I'd want to change eventually (some of the faction leaders' names, for example), but the mod is quite playable and, dare I say it, fun and challenging. I made it by myself, so there are some things that I'm sure aren't totally historically accurate; nevertheless, I tried to keep the "feel" right throughout.

So, although I originally just made it for myself, I now wonder if anyone else might be curious and interested to try it out. If so, I need to know how to make it available.

Here are some of the features of the mod:

Game beginning in the 5th century AD, as several pagan Germanic peoples are carving out kingdoms for themselves on the coasts of eastern and southern Britain, while Celtic kingdoms are trying to establish themselves and the heirs of the Roman rulers are desperately trying to maintain control.

10 Catholic factions:
-Irish
-Scots
-Picts
-Welsh
-Strathclyders
-Votadini
-the Men of Rheged
-the Men of Gwynedd
-Dumnonians
-Romano British

3 Pagan factions
-Angles
-Saxons
-Jutes

Many "new" units, including Hearthweru, Night Raiders, Cornish Bandits, Teulu, Keelmen, Gododdin Cavalry, Tryggmen, Ecgum Geneatas, and many more.

Different Conquest victory conditions: possession of critical lowland regions of Britain will be necessary to win the game.

No Watchtowers or Border Forts: Agents become crucial for maintaining security and spying out enemy forces.

No Vikings: Hordaland and Jutland begin as Rebel provinces, reachable only by agents.

Challenging gameplay: Many factions begin with only one or two provinces; but even factions with more land at the start will find it hard going. With so many factions on the map, the AI seems much more aggressive than the standard Viking campaign, as everyone tries to secure their own little kingdom and give themselves some elbow-room.

Anyway, if there is anyone interested in trying this out (I'd love to hear feedback, too!), I'll need to know how to upload it or mail it or whatever. If not, no big deal!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

CountMRVHS

-------------edit by drone----------------------
The mod can be downloaded here.
The unit fix can be found here.
------------------------------------------------

[predaturd]

someone tell him how to upload i want that mod

also does anyone know how to take out the ability of border forts to detect spys and assassins?

this mods gonna rule :)

[CountMRVHS]

Thanks for the interest! Hopefully someone can tell me how to make it available for you & anyone else.

I don't know if there is a way to make Border Forts unable to take out spies and assassins. I DO know that you can simply make Border Forts unbuildable, but leave Watchtowers buildable -- that way, you could see into neighboring provinces, but agents wouldn't be effected since Watchtowers don't catch spies or assassins.

I chose to take out both Watchtowers and Border Forts for my mod, because I wanted agents to be more important, and I wanted provinces to be a little harder to hold.

Anyway, I don't remember the specifics on how I did it, but I used Gnome Build_Prod and it was pretty simple. I don't know how to do it without Gnome, but if you know where to find the Border Fort in the gamefiles it should be easy enough.

As always, though, be careful when modding -- the slightest typo can make your game unplayable!

CountMRVHS

[caravel]

No Vikings: Hordaland and Jutland begin as Rebel provinces, reachable only by agents.

Great idea for a mod. You could potentially remove those provinces and add some extra ones if needed, especially to Ireland.

also does anyone know how to take out the ability of border forts to detect spys and assassins?

this mods gonna rule :)

You can't, but you can remove border forts altogether - as what you want is effectively a watchtower.

[CountMRVHS]

Good idea about changing provinces, Caravel. One of my few complaints with the Viking map is the representation of Ireland: it's just too easy to take the whole island and just sit there and tech up. More provinces there would help a bit.... and would definitely allow another viable faction or 2 on the island. Only problem is, I have 0 map skills.

Do you know how or where I can go about uploading this? I imagine it would be pretty simple, but I'm fairly inexperienced about computer stuff.

CountMRVHS

[caravel]

I know that Rythmic produced a map for the Brittania divided TW that has some extra provinces and it may be worth PM'ing him for some advice, or I can possibly help you if you provide me with a rough map showing exactly where you want the borders to lie and the names of the provinces, but I can't promise anything before mid January.

As to uploading, you can upload file and mods to the .org but I've never done it. You'd be better off pm'ing TosaInu about this. If you are going to upload I'd advise waiting until your mod is in a playable state and make the necessary changes to the map first - but of course that's up to you.

Good luck!

-edit: sorry about the typos, I've partaken of an ale or several.

[CountMRVHS]

Thanks for the point in the right direction, Caravel.

The mod *is* playable right now -- just a few things I might want to fiddle with later -- so I think I'll see about uploading it so I can start to get feedback from potential players.

Thanks for the offer with the map stuff, too. As I think about it, though, the one place where I'd *really* want an extra province or two is in the region labeled as "Francia" on the Viking map. Would it be more difficult to add a province or two there than to add provinces in Ireland? Just curious -- I don't consider map changes to be strictly essential at this point, but it might be fun if possible.

Hope you're enjoying some kind of holiday!

CountMRVHS

[dimitrios the samian]

Well done Count .... Are the units you mentioned new creations ?

[CountMRVHS]

Thanks, dimitrios!

The units I mentioned I made using some info that was pointed out to me on the totalwar.com site in a FAQ. Basically, I took pre-existing units from the Viking campaign and the full European campaign and modified them for use in my own campaign. So they're not exactly "new" in the sense of having new images or anything like that, but they do have new stats, abilities, qualities, and descriptions. So for example, the Gododdin cavalry I made are essentially Jinetes; the Night Raiders use the Viking unit pic from the MTW campaign but come in units of 12, can hide in the open, and may have some different stats (can't remember exactly); Royal Retainers (the bodyguard unit for the Angles) are modified Swabian Swordsmen, etc.

I'm currently putting some finishing touches (faction descriptions, etc), and then I'll plan to get it available so people can check it out.

Since I started this thread I've been going back and playing some of the factions again just to see how things go, and I can say it's a *very* difficult campaign, at least for me on Expert. I'm probably the proudest of how the Romano-British faction came out. They start with approximately the same regions as Mercia in the Viking campaign, but face difficulties reminiscent of the HRE - lots of greedy, smaller neighbors who are eager to take a swipe, and just enough money to scrap together an army before all hell breaks loose. So if you like cramped, tense, challenging campaigns, this is one to try!

[axel]

Hi CountMRVHS
ill would love to play this mod gg mate

[CountMRVHS]

Great! I really want people to play this and give me feedback.

As soon as I can figure out which files I need to upload, I'll do that. I'm wondering if I need to upload my whole MTW folder, or each individual file I altered for the mod...

[Aradan]

The idea sounds great, can't wait to dig my old MTW copy out and try it out.

[CountMRVHS]

I'm flattered, Aradan. It obviously isn't up to the level of FATW, but hopefully should still be entertaining.

I'll try to get it uploaded today.

CountMRVHS

[CountMRVHS]

Wow, foiled by my crappy connection speed.

I have the .zip file ready to upload, but I'm looking at a 13-hour waiting time. Chances are I'd never be able to stay connected that long anyway.

I guess now I'll have to figure out a way to get this to another computer with a better connection and try it there. Sigh... and it was all going so well!

[Aradan]

Wouldn't it be possible to divide the files into, say, 3-4 folders and upload one at a time? Then someone with better connection could be kind enough, take the separate folders, merge them into one and reupload... ;)

[CountMRVHS]

Hey, that's a good idea.... hmm.....

I've been PMing TosaInu about this whole process (it's almost easier to do the modding itself than making the mod public!), so hopefully over the next few days the thing will be available.

On the plus side, this delay has given me some extra time to do some more fiddling with the mod - tweaking king's names and V&Vs, start units, region attributes, etc. The result will be, hopefully, a mod which gives the right "feel" of the period, as well as challenging gameplay and a nod toward historicity.

Back to VIKING_HEROES.txt!

CountMRVHS

[macsen rufus]

Hi Count, I can give you a few pointers if you're still struggling:

* you only need to include the files you've changed/added, and from your description it sounds like most of it is in the startpos, prod files and localisation, so shouldn't be too much, plus the unit icons, infopics and reviewpanel graphics
* have you made new faction flags & shields or re-used existing ones?
* have you edited any animations (adding new shields/weapons is quite easy)?

Most mods will need to add things to four main directories:

Battle -- eg unit icons, flags?
Campmap -- eg reviewpanel/ men, infopics/men, names/heroes.txt, startpos
Loc -- Names.txt, descriptions.txt, faction_specific.txt, region_specific.txt
Textures -- shields? altered animations? deadpage, actionspage, new weapon/shield declarations in animation subfolders

plus the prod files in the top level directory



Don't forget you can also post it up to a file-sharing site like rapidshare, mydatabus, etc etc, most of which have free accounts for smallish things, and probably give you more management options than the Org (but I'm guessing on this last bit ), then just post a link up in the Org where people will find it

You can also get an Install Creator at http://www.clickteam.com which has two benefits - makes installation more fool-proof for the user, and compresses the data better than ZIP so uploading and downloading is faster.

Good luck with the mod, it sounds like a fun campaign

[CountMRVHS]

Ahh, thanks for the tips!

For the flags and shields, I've just re-used ones from the MTW campaign - the Dumnonians use Poland's flag, the Votadini use Hungary's, etc.

I'll go over everything again and make sure I'm only including the *necessary* parts. It came to a bit over 100 MB when I tried to upload last time, so maybe I can cut that down.

Man, living in the country is nice sometimes, but not on those rare occasions you want a fast internet connection!

I think the mod is in its final stage. Kings' names have been fixed to be more historical - eventually you'll get Urien and Owain of Rheged, Mynyddawg of Gododdin, Vortigern and Ambrosius of the Romano-British. Arthur has been added as a hero of the Romano-British faction, appearing in the late 5th century. Victory conditions have been tweaked - 25 provinces now required for victory. Unit stats have been tweaked. A couple of river crossings have been added - something that was lacking, I felt, in the Viking map.

I'll be looking to make this available over the next couple of days, hopefully!

CountMRVHS

[macsen rufus]

For the flags and shields, I've just re-used ones from the MTW campaign - the Dumnonians use Poland's flag, the Votadini use Hungary's, etc.

In that case you will only need to include them in the install if you've changed the name, or are using a mod textures subfolder

100Mb does sound a lot though, so I'd have another look to see what can be cut out It is amazing how quickly it builds up, though - new campaign maps are a killer - or duplicated ones - eg copying the Vikings folders to a MyMod folder means you have to put the maps into textures/campmap/MyMod. If there's any way you can keep it in the original Vikings folder (ie all your new faction are FN_09 upwards) then you can save quite a bit of space (40-50Mb or so).

[CountMRVHS]

Well I went through methodically and cherry-picked just the things I added or changed for the mod. After that, I think I compressed it all and zipped it, and it came to 3.2 MB -- quite a difference! The first time I just took whole folders over out of fear of leaving something out, so I'm sure there was a ton of extras that didn't need to be there.

We'll see if this works - I just apparently uploaded it (took about 20 mins), so we'll see if everything is there that needs to be.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions! Hopefully those of you who are interested can be playing this Arthurian-era mod relatively soon.

CountMRVHS

[macsen rufus]

Yes! Another convert infected with the modding bug

I shall give it a whirl once I find it

[ULC]

Whats it called CountMRVHS? I can't seem to find it...

[CountMRVHS]

Well I just uploaded it a day or so ago, so I'm not sure if Tosa Inu has had a chance to look it over yet. He said he would check it to make sure it would run with his VI install, to ensure that I'd included everything that was necessary.

The file I uploaded to him was called "DarkAge.zip", since that's what I've been calling the campaign as I've been working on it on and off these past years. I'd only recently thought about making it available to other players, so I hadn't really thought about an "official" name for it. And I don't want to step on any toes with the very interesting-sounding Dark Age mod for the full MTW map! Maybe some renaming will be in order.

At any rate, we'll have to wait and see if I did everything right and actually uploaded a downloadable mod.

I'm playing as the Men of Rheged right now, & doing ok, but it's a very tough start! One big problem you face as Rheged is, the better you do in the North, the better the Romano-British do, because you're beating up the Angles for them. The RBs are now the richest and strongest, and since Arthur appeared they're looking positively frightening! Not sure I'll be able to take them down.

On the other hand, a game I played as the Scots saw the RBs get slowly crushed by the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. That's one thing I like about the smaller map -- greater unpredictability.

[CountMRVHS]

Well, apparently it works, folks!

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...163&linkid=572

Hopefully that's the right link.

The mod is called simply "Dark Age" as of now, not to be confused with the Dark Age Total War mod that utilizes the entire MTW map of Europe.

Tosa Inu was able to get it working and play for a few turns as the Dumnonians. I just want to make double-sure that all my "new" units made the transition to the upload, so please alert me if you simply see the same old Viking units (spearmen, archers, etc). My new units are Tryggmen, Welsh Spearmen, Welsh Dartmen, Duguth, Geoguth, Ecgum Geneatas, Hearthweru, Night Raiders, Royal Retainers, Gododdin Cavalry, Teulu, Cornish Bandits, Civitas Infantry, Sagitarii, Brythonic Cavalry, Campwr Bodyguards..... I think that covers it. Several of those are bodyguard units, so they should be fairly obvious.

Please let me know what you think! I know other changes could be made, but I'm especially interested in what you think of the gameplay. I tried to indicate difficulty of the new factions in their descriptions, so use that as a guide.

Constructive feedback, positive, negative or otherwise, would be the icing on the cake for me, so don't hold back. I hope those of you who are interested can give it a shot and post some comments here.

Enjoy!

CountMRVHS

[CrazyGuy]

Count,

First of all, thanks for going to that much effort for what must be a dwindling supply of players!

I'm very excited to play your mod, but I've encountered problems with playing it. I can download and extract it alright, but what do I then do. After extracting it to my M:TW folder I expected to be able to play it as if it were XL. However, this isn't the case. What am I doing wrong? Is there anything to actively install as opposed to merely extract to a folder?

[CountMRVHS]

Hi CrazyGuy,

I'm sorry to hear you're having difficulties. I admit I'm not entirely sure what is happening there. As I don't have XL, I'm not sure how this mod would be different from XL in the installation process. To be honest, my experience with installing mods is very limited - in fact I don't think I've ever installed a mod for MTW.

When I start up MTW:VI and select New Campaign, I see the option for Dark Age (my mod), followed by Vikings, followed by Early, High, and Late campaigns. Does XL work similarly, or is it necessary to use an entirely different install of MTW?

I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area, but fortunately, according to Tosa Inu, the mod *is* playable - which means there has to be some way for you to make it work.

If anyone here has more knowledge of mod installation than me, it would be great if they could offer their assistance -- then I could include some installation instructions with the mod info.

Any ideas?

CountMRVHS

[Martok]

Nice work, CountMRVHS! I may have to give this one a try.


(Temporarily stickied.)

[axel]

woooow great CountMRVHS

[Aradan]

Downloading.... I hope my MTW will be still working. (Damn, this is going to make my exam period even harder!)

[CrazyGuy]

Hmmm.... Everyone's praise is making me jealous. Hopefully someone can take pity on the barely computer literate... If I explain what i'm doing, perhaps someone can explain what i'm doing/not doing? Bearing in mind that my girlfriend's computer has the internet connection which adds another layer of complexity...

First I follow the link on the website and download the zipped 'Dark Ages' folder to a CD.
Then I extract the folder on my (non-internet linked) computer.
I get the option of choosing the folder to which these files are extracted. I initally get given the option of extracting to a 'Dark Ages' file but access is denied. Therefore I choose to extract these files into my Medieval: Total War folder. (A possible error here?)
After this I can view files, which I do, safely in my M:TW folder in a sub-folder called Dark Ages. Everyone seems present and correct, although my Dark Ages is essentially just notepad documents nothing to install etc.
Eagerly anticipating the Mod I load up the game, (bear in mind that my previous mod experience is XL in which the mod is just 'there' when I start up the game), I choose 'New Game', as if it were XL, and expecting an option along the lines of 'Vikings Dark Ages'. But nothing.

Please help. Also, please remember that nothing is 'too ignorant' for me in this area.