ES Vol.V|Iss.VII: Fourth Age: TW, Brittania Mod, ES Blog

**selenius4tsd** · July 22, 2007, 09:54 AM

The Eagle Standard

Editor's Welcome

After a two week absence, I, the Dark Lord, have once again ascended to the throne. I thank all those who assisted in my speedy return to royalty, your efforts will be rewarded with tickets to Hex's treason trial. I wont list all my accomplices, but if you havent received your complimentary tickets yet, let me know.

As for those who stood in my way to the throne, well, all I can promise you is the most appropriate punishment: the cage...

There is, however, talk of yet another coup that is being planned by the evil forces, and one can only wonder for how long this new reign will continue...

So without further talk of revolution, read on and brace yourselves for what could be the last Eagle Standard as youve known it!

Leonidas The Lion interviewing [user]-apocalypsis-[/user], leader of FA:TW, a mod for RTW:BI

For those of us that don't know what is FATW about?

FATW – or The Fourth Age: Total War – is a mod which aims to recreate J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-earth as we believe it existed approximately two centuries after the Fall of the Dark Lord and Aragorn’s ascension to the throne of the Reunited Kingdom (of Gondor and Arnor). It is based upon a little known fragment – only about ten pages – entitled ‘The New Shadow’, which tells us about growing unrest in the lands of Gondor, and the rise of a ‘satanic’ (to use Tolkien’s own description) cult. The Professor meant this to be the sequel to ‘The Lord of the Rings’, but it was ultimately abandoned. We have used this unfinished story as a foundation, and invented a continuation which we believe is as true to Tolkien’s vision as is possible. Indeed, one of our main priorities has been what we call ‘Tolkien accuracy’; this means that everything we do must have a basis in the written words of the Professor, his son, or at least be in the ‘Spirit of Tolkien’. As of writing you can play as six factions (The Reunited Kingdom, The Kingdom of Rohan, The Kingdom of Adûnabâr, The Empire of Harad, The Chiefdom of Rhûn, & The Chiefdom of Dunland) on a map that covers more than half of Middle-earth. There are also three custom battle factions: The Kingdom of the Dwarves, The Kingdom of the Elves, and The Kingdom of Dale. There are over a hundred and fifty units to play around with, a unique zone of recruitment system (MEZoRS), 200 new traits, 350 new ancillaries, historical battles, all new music, and much, much, much more.

Who is on the team and what do they do?

Palantir (aka MasterOfNone, aka Dol Guldur) is our Coding Manager and general ‘Master Modder’. If there is a thing in the mod he hasn’t, if not modded personally, at least had a say in, I haven’t seen it. Balbor is our Art Director, and has personally created probably 90% of all units you see in FATW. He’s one of the best modellers & skinners out there, but is probably not as well known as some – his work definitely deserves to be lauded much more than it has been so far. Arakorn-eir is our Audio Manager, and has a way of finding the most awesome music, getting us the permission to use it, and then editing it so it fits perfectly. Tittils – our Map Manager – has created a wonderfully accurate map of Middle-earth; in fact he has created wonderfully accurate maps of parts of Middle-earth, since our two latest releases have featured maps that have been about a third, and a half, of the full map respectively (the full map was one of the first things to be finished on the mod). Spraehbuer has done some amazing work on the menus, and the faction interfaces, changing them in ways no-one thought possible, as well as making some great unit skins. Xerex and Aradan are the new guys who have been hard at work in the Black Pits, completely revamping the unit & campaign balance system – something which will be noticed for sure in the next version. Their dedication has truly been inspiring. Cronus is responsible for most of the promotional 2d artwork, our website and forum graphics, as well as the beautiful loading screens, and he has even composed some awesome original orchestral pieces for the mod. Crian has been making some awesome videos for us – his latest creation can be viewed here.

What inspired you to mod?

No real inspiration, really; you could probably say I was lured into it, little by little. I originally joined the Team back in November ’04 to write speeches for the generals. I then quickly became “head of research”, and probably spent the next six months investigating just about every aspect of Middle-earth you can think of, from arms, armour, & warfare, to architecture, to languages, to the sexual life of Orcs … well, I think you get the point. I must have about a thousand pages of notes on my computer – not all of them about Orcish perversions, I’m sad to say. After a while I became Design Manager, deciding on much of the visual aspects of the mod in cooperation with the Art Director. I began to dabble with a little light coding related to my research (character names, loading screen quotations – those sorts of things), and eventually dove headfirst into ancillaries & traits coding. Now I have a hand in many aspects of the mod, from research, design, and coding, to writing and PR. I also run a website & forum, www.chamber-of-records.com, which is dedicated to Tolkien-related mods.

What inspired you to do this mod?

I guess it was just one of those ‘Damn, look at these battles in RTW, wouldn’t it be great to make a Middle-earth mod?’ experiences. At least, that is what inspired me to join the mod – that, the love of the works, and the small matter that there has really never been what I would describe as a good LotR-game, not to mention the fact that none of those games seem to take the lore seriously, what with Goblin spider-riders and whatnot. I guess we just wanted to make a game that doesn’t butcher the works of Tolkien like some I could mention.

Has it been rewarding?

Immensely! Even though it takes an inordinate amount of time and effort, it’s definitely worth it when you get to play it – and especially when you get other people to play and enjoy it. FATW has had in excess of 60,000 downloads (probably more now) spread over the different releases, and that’s a lot of people playing something you’ve had a hand in creating.

What would you say to new modders?

Start small! Choose to mod a limited number of factions, release as a mini-mod, and then expand upon that. That way you will keep up the interest in the mod – both within the team, and publicly.

Where do you see this mod in the future?

Well, if CA could only acquire the rights to the Works of Tolkien, I know we would only be happy to help them out with the development! With all the research and work we’ve done, we could probably shave a year or more off their release. Ah, one can only dream… It’s hard to plan much further ahead than the next release, but we hope to finish the full mod for ‘Barbarian Invasion’. After that, who knows? I know I would personally like to port the mod to Medieval 2, and it is something that has been discussed – briefly – as a possibility, but that is far, far in the future, as it seems now.

What is the best feature of this mod?

Ah, that’s a difficult question! I’d have to say that the way the mod immerses you into the world of Middle-earth is its best ‘feature’.

Any plans for the future?

We have just released our latest instalment, ‘The New Shadow’, which features a lot of awesome stuff. A new campaign faction, three new custom battle factions, loads of new units (incl. more Dwarves, Elves, even Trolls), new traits & ancillaries, the unit and campaign balance has been completely revamped, we’ve got new music by David Arkenstone – there are a lot of really great things in this new release. Check us out at: www.thefourthage.org

Describe your mod in ten words?

A Tolkien accurate, extremely fun and immersive playing experience!

Some screenshots for your enjoyment:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Leonidas The Lion reporting out.

Thank you Leonidas, good to hear from the FA:TW team again. And now Ladies and Gentlemen, we cross over to our infamous Spam Lord, Hex Khan: *holds breath to avoid smelling Hex's socks..*

Hex Khan interviewing [user]PXZyan[/user] and [user]Ali_the_English[/user], leaders of the Brittania Mod for Medieval 2

The more observant among may have noticed I'm still running rampant spreading despair and gloom where ever I go, the rest who dont really like or care for my antics will be surely thinking "Christ all mighty does he ever shut up? He's not funny at all Full-Stop!" (Or Period pending on which side of the 'Pond' you live on). And you might just be right, but today for once I intend to bring joy; but I do it not alone - with me today is PXZyan, co-leader of the infant Britannia mod and his peer Ali_the_English, and together we'll find out more about this mod...

Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Hey there! I am 19 years of age and I am from Ireland. I am currently in college doing computer maintenance and networking course and LOVE gaming and modding all sorts of games. Dream job would have to be a Computer programmer and make some fantastic games for everyone to play

And yourself Ali?

My first total war game was the Rome gold edition which I bought about a year ago after a friend recommended it. I really enjoyed it so I decided to get Medieval 2. Then I decided to try a bit of modding using a tutorial on TWC. I chose to try and make Burgundy because they were an important medieval faction. Pxzyan saw something about my mod on a thread and asked me if I would like to join his team in designing new factions. Our team has expanded from 3 to 5 in the past few weeks and our mod is really taking shape.

What inspired you to set about making this mod?
When I heard of M2TW coming out I was thrilled! Like many others. When I looked through the factions list and saw that Ireland was not going to take part...I could not believe it! And ever since I’ve played the vanilla version I really wanted to be able to play as Ireland!
I was not the only one as many others would have liked them to be included along with Wales. I then made simple Ireland and Wales factions for patch 1.1..but doing it all by myself was a bit overwhelming! but great fun. I then wanted to create a few factions that people would play with and enjoy playing against them!

I downloaded a mod by Unspoken Knight which had a custom campaign which covered a similar area but did not have extra towns or factions. At the time I was working with Pxzyan to create the Burgundy, Ireland and Wales factions and thought a similar custom campaign would be really good for these factions.

What backdrop is your mod set?
The game starts in the year 1069, just after William of Normandy has conquered England. There are still rebellions in the north of England which William will need to defeat. England starts slightly stronger than the other factions but have rebellions and are also surrounded on all sides.

Have you included unique features in your mod, if so what are they?
Our main goal for making this mod was to create a whole new map for gamers to feast there eyes on!! We want to create something that will feature in the new expansion pack! Britannia campaign! we were all excited about this and so...what the hell eh...lets try it

In your opinion what would you say was the best feature in your mod?
Our best feature would be our amazing new campaign map along with completely new factions and units to play with! With the team I’ve gathered there’s no way this is impossible!

I would say the new factions and the quality of the skinning that has been done by Jesters Ink.

Do you have a favourite faction inside your own mod and why?
Ireland

I am from Ireland! Always wanted Ireland as a faction before the game came out and with the likes of Jesters Ink making the skins for the units...they look sweet!!

The Duchy of Burgundy, not only because they were the faction I created but also because they are a real challenge to play as sandwiched between France and HRE.

Since we’re on this topic of game play, what sort of player are you? Personally I’m the aggressive sort always looking for another fight and more lands to conquer.
I am a quite person in this game! I always want to be friends with everybody. I try to gain trade routes with all the factions and slowly expand. If any dare to insult me by demanding money for nothing or demanding money for map information... I will tend to go to war with them

No insult goes unpunished!

I focus mainly on the economy of my faction. Once I have a steady income I build up big armies and crush anyone who attacks.

Could you try and sum up your mod with 10 or less words?
Britannia is at your mercy! Take it at your will!

Treachery! How dare you say that of Britannia!

Magnified North-West Europe with more towns and factions

Thats far more appropriate Ali, good on you!

Have you a catchphrase to match your mod?
Can you Rule Britannia?

Got any words of encouragement to potential fans?
From Ireland?? Or Wales?? Or a historic geek who is fond of Burgundy? This mod is going to appeal to you for sure! If you ever wanted to experience a campaign with only the northern factions at the time of 1069 then this mod will surely suit to your needs.

Our mod is for both experienced players and beginners as there are hard and easy factions to play as. Our mods offers you an exciting new challenge with new factions and a new map to explore and conquer.

What’s your favourite Total War game?
Rome Total War is my favourite all time Total War game! I still play it to this day! Lately... a mod called SPQR has caught my attentions and its pretty impressive and great fun! The amount of large mods for that game makes RTW an incredible buy!!

Medieval 2 because of the great graphics and ease to mod.

Do you have a favourite mod other than your own?
I don’t as a matter of fact! The regions of Provinces mod is something really impressive and expands the game greatly. Just...no mod has suited to my needs!

The Bella Mod looks like it will be excellent with it's extended map and new factions.

So outside of the Total War Franchise what’s your favourite game of all time?
Well... that’s a very tough question...I love almost all genres and just can’t get enough of games!!! I can’t pick a favourite game. Gothic 3 is my favourite RPG game! Empire Earth 1 is a legendary RTS game! and battlefield 2 is my fav FPS game

Gears of War on xbox 360. It's so fun on xbox live.

Now is there anything you’d like to show off and tease us with?
At the moment, we cannot really tease people yet. We want a more finished mod before showing it off!

Thanks for this Khan! Peace.

Its been a pleasure and your welcome and thanks for the time, but now it is time for everyone’s favourite! That’s right you guessed it Screenies! And boy oh boy do we have many to show, Since Ali_the_English, PXZyan and Jesters_Ink have been busy little bees at that and here the proof!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

But wait! Theres loads more kiddies!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen for your time *bows*

*Throwing of rotten tomatoes towards Hex ensues*

Terrible! An absolute shambles! That man deserves to be locked away in the cage with the key thrown away!

Unfortunately though, the Hex hits just keep coming...

The ES Blog

Yes, Hex has once again conjured up something for us this week, but this time its completely unrelated to the Eagle Standard! All 40K enthusiasts out there, beware, for vile slander ensues! Check it out here.

Picture of the Week

This week's competition has been a success once again with more than 70 people having voted. Although the vote is still going on at the time of writing, it looks like this week's winner is going to be [user]bdotward[/user] with his picture "Fate Approaches".

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

An excellent picture, good to see Medieval 2 is making a comeback after several weeks of Rome dominance!
Be sure to check out the PotW forum here if you havent already. There's still a few more hours left to vote, so get on down there if you havent yet!

Well, that brings us to the close of another Eagle Standard edition. Until next week, when the winds of uncertainty reach us again and there is yet another takeover...

*Imagines the thought of a Dinadan-edited, Beatles-themed edition where he is no longer the foot of every joke*

Some things will never change...

**The Walrus** · July 22, 2007, 10:37 AM

I feel so dirty being Paul

And now, I'm holding a white-power or pro-american issue

**Paul d** · July 22, 2007, 12:47 PM

hey, the britana mod, i gotta say something:

THOSE IRELAND FLAGS ARE INNACURATE lol.

they should be a gold harp on green or blue backdrop

the green,white, and orange signify the catholics,protestants(who didnt exist yet) and the harmony between them.

**Hex Khan** · July 22, 2007, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by Paul d

hey, the britana mod, i gotta say something:

THOSE IRELAND FLAGS ARE INNACURATE lol.

they should be a gold harp on green or blue backdrop

the green,white, and orange signify the catholics,protestants(who didnt exist yet) and the harmony between them.

Guess what? Frankly we in the ES dont give a damn, its a mod, a nice simple modification to a pre-existing game, if the flag bothers you go make your own mod with the 'accurate' flag. Other wise cease and desist, since their not going to listen to you.

Me heed.

By the way its 'Inaccurate'.

Nice job Selenius, beware the silent ones your reign is in peril

**Arakorn** · July 23, 2007, 09:12 AM

Hey guys I have a suggestion for you; what if you could make up a new set of questions?

Each "volume" it's the same set of questions over and over again! To then claim that this is an interview with [insert mod name] by [insert ES member] is outrageous! What did that guy do, move his mouse, press ctrl+c, alt+tab, ctrl+v?

Improvements please! (BTW, I really think Apoc did a good job on this interview, even I had a great time reading it!

)

**PXZyan** · July 23, 2007, 09:29 AM

Originally Posted by Paul d

hey, the britana mod, i gotta say something:

THOSE IRELAND FLAGS ARE INNACURATE lol.

they should be a gold harp on green or blue backdrop

the green,white, and orange signify the catholics,protestants(who didnt exist yet) and the harmony between them.

ATM we have yet to finalise the flags..we only done those flags for starters.
We will be working on the real looking flags near the end of the mod.

We should have an early version of this mod out by mid-Augest if we are lucky. The early version may not contain the custom campaign at that stage as theres alot to get done. However the imperial campaign is close to being finished.

**The Walrus** · July 23, 2007, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Arakorn-eir

Hey guys I have a suggestion for you; what if you could make up a new set of questions?

Each "volume" it's the same set of questions over and over again! To then claim that this is an interview with [insert mod name] by [insert ES member] is outrageous! What did that guy do, move his mouse, press ctrl+c, alt+tab, ctrl+v?

Improvements please! (BTW, I really think Apoc did a good job on this interview, even I had a great time reading it!

)

damn he found our printing press technique

Problem is, i'm all dry on new material

**Arakorn** · July 23, 2007, 11:09 AM

It isn't that hard to figure out questions, you just gotta be a bit creative! For example, in the FATW interview, ask something more about LotR. (Did you like/hate BfME? What's your favourite Tolkien-book? etc)

**The Walrus** · July 23, 2007, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Arakorn-eir

It isn't that hard to figure out questions, you just gotta be a bit creative! For example, in the FATW interview, ask something more about LotR. (Did you like/hate BfME? What's your favourite Tolkien-book? etc)

Ah yes. I'm a personal fan of getting aggressively into the personal life

"What strip clubs do you visit"

"Do you mod naked"

"Do you mod in gothic armour"

"Do you mod drunk"

Unfortunately, those have been censored