announcing; MYTHOLOGY TOTAL WAR!

[Dillonito]

Quetzalcoatl

show some more mythical units plz!!!

[Seleucos of Olympia]

This is a surprisingly different mod, not to mention very nice looking! I've only read half the posts and skimmed through the rest, but I feel the overwhelming urge to share some historical info.

I've read a respectable percentage of whatever ancient Greek literature has survived to this day, including the books on Mythology by Apollodorus and the accounts of the Argonautic expedition by Apollonius Rhodius and Orpheus, and the only mention of Atlantis I can think of is by Plato, in his dialogues "Timaeos" and "Critias". In the beginning of Timaeos he briefly summarizes the story of Atlantis, while in Critias he tells the story in detail. Unfortunately, Critias is unfinished, and cuts off just between the war begins.

The timeframe of Atlantis and the Atlantean War is at around 10000-9000BC, many millennia before the Argonautic campaign, and much further into the past than the Norse myths are into the future. At that time, according to Plato, Athens was much smaller than in his time, and had a pharaonic-style government, much like in Egypt in the south. The main cultural difference with the Athens of Plato's time, besides having an autocracy instead of a democracy, was that women were completely equal to men, and served in the military. Atlantis was a series of concentric islands west of Gibraltar, from where it was easy to get to the opposite continent. It had a federal system of government, with the ten kings of its ten states meeting to make decisions. It also had sexual equality, although I think not to the extent of Athens. Due to its position, Atlantis became rich through trade with the whole world, and eventually started to acquire dependencies in Africa, within the straights of Gibraltar. Its wealth and power led to corruption and dreams of world domination, so it finally came to a war between Atlantis and an alliance of other ancient states, including Athens and Egypt. The details of the war are not known to us, since that part of Critias was never written (or is missing), but from Timaeos we know that it was a long and desperate struggle for the allies, and that Egypt was at some point conquered, while Athens fought on indignantly, kinda like the UK in WWII after France had surrendered to Germany. However, after many struggles, the tide of the war was reversed, and the allies assaulted Atlantis itself. There, in the dramatic climax of the war, Atlantis sunk into the sea, swallowing up the entire Athenian expeditionary army with it.

The world's economy was crippled by that war, while the remnants of Atlantis made it impossible to navigate outside the pillars of Hercules, so contact with the continent beyond the Atlantic Ocean was lost. In the millennia that followed, various natural disasters caused the gradual destruction of Greece's ancient civilization, although Egypt was shielded from such disasters, so it kept records from those days. There is no mention (that I can remember) of any Osiria, although Osiris was a major god of the Egyptians, identified with the Greek Dionysus, so it may be another name for their country.


About Ethiopia, in Homeric times that name was also applied to Syria and Phoenicia, and I believe it is in that capacity that the Ethiopians are considered in the Trojan War.

[Amorphos]

dillonito

solo has just sent me a big file full of new models ~ all the good stuff! i already have some others he sent so be prepared for some truly awesome units. it may take a couple of weeks to implement them all as the models are untested and i have to do a lot of skinning. i am working on some awesome realistic skins for the minotaurs, centaurs and ram heads etc, it will take time though as i think solo’s models deserve a good deal of attention.

seleucos of olympia, hi

thank you for all the info!

There is no mention (that I can remember) of any Osiria, although Osiris was a major god of the Egyptians, identified with the Greek Dionysus, so it may be another name for their country.

yes i know of osiris i thought osyria may have been a name given to syria at some point. i don’t think i will include it as there are others to consider.

About Ethiopia, in Homeric times that name was also applied to Syria and Phoenicia, and I believe it is in that capacity that the Ethiopians are considered in the Trojan War.

indeed, i am going to make it a major faction. i think atlantis has no date as such although i would agree it was way before, the mod by its very nature has to cross over time zones unless we stuck to one story. both me and solo wanted to have a general greek myth setting with as many creatures as is possible to implement. we didn’t think centaurs were possible but i found a trick for them, all the time we are learning more of what can be done thanks to some of the great modders here and at the org.

the factions wont be historical in terms of lands either because little is known [or that i can find] but more importantly because of the mods dynamic. little factions would easily be swept away by stronger factions because there will be three tiers of strength e.g. i have worked with real hard spartans that could take on any other two units, so the hero and monster level of strength will approximate that. you would only need one such unit against a small faction so i will make some big factions so that any such incursions can be dampened. for example, if you use your hero unit to attack a big faction you will eventually loose it then they will take back their states and attack you. so it is all about balance ~ though i don’t quite know how it will work in game play terms.

what other factions do you think we should have? can you do a rough map.

all this info is great, i really like the ten atlantian kings and states thing. i will probably extend cyprus into atlantis, because the map wont go as far west as gibraltar, and it makes for a good strategic position.

any more info gladly appreciated!

OVW

there will be completely naked amazons and the skins will be cloned directly from photo’s of hotties. lols

[Shi Huangdi]

Great looking units for Colchis! Still impressed--I'm really looking forward to this mod.

I would suggest that you make the ghost archers monochromatic and slightly more transparent--that would add to the creepy effect.

Also, I've been wondering--you know how CA got the flaming pigs to work, so is it possible to have units with their bodies on fire or with flaming weapons?

[oscarreeve]

Hey
man, tis been a long time since i came on thease forums but anyway i have a minatur model u might be intrested in it was orginally made for narnia total war.

[Solo1906]

Hey Oscar thanks for your generosity! We have one made up though we appreciate the camaraderie though!

[Amorphos]

beren, hi

o is it possible to have units with their bodies on fire or with flaming weapons?

ha, i wondered that too, i am pretty sure it is possible, we can change the graphic to, so i may do a smokey effect for the ghost archers. transparency is tricky, i tried to make them more invisible but then they don’t show at all except little bits of them. there is really only so much we can do as the game was not designed for things like this. i can take out most of the colour easily enough ~ good idea!

i have started on the groovy units, the minotaurs now have an oblivion skin with different coloured furs, and photo realistic bulls nose and eyes. ram-men and fawns are almost done, but it just takes a lot of time for just two modders y’know.

ascar hi,

can you e-mail me the model please. did you notice my trick for doing centaurs ~ may come in handy eh! do you know how to stop riders becoming detatched from their horses? this is the only problem we have left to get over with them [they fall in half when they die lols], apart from those pesky captains ~ i will have to make them mercs to get rid of them i think?

thanks for your support!

[oscarreeve]

Concerning the centaurs, i think in order to stop them coming apart you need to give them a new animation , ( because I think at the moment they consist of a rider and a horse ). Also another problem with the centaurs is that when they are fleeing there body turns to fire arrows ( that is if they are archer centaurs ) and so they kind of look back to front.

[Amorphos]

oscarreeve

thanks for the info!

yes i will have to get someone to look at the anims, i don’t know how to. the archers twist backwards as if doing a parthian shot, they are still horse archers, i just slid the rider along and chopped of his legs and the horses head.

____________________________________


i was going to wait for the screenie thread but i gotta show everyone these...

behold: the centaur!

i have fully implimented the centaurs now, with solo's models, and there are no words to describe their awesomeness ~ so here it is! ...

[Solo1906]

I worked on them and didnt expect for them to come out that good - gulp - WOW - nice team work Quetz!

[Amorphos]

yup, what a team eh. we said it would be a legendary journey from the start, man we have put in so many hours, but it is nice to see it bearing fruit. more bridges to cross yet, but thats the fun of it.

those opened up helmets are great btw

[Solo1906]

those are the same ones I used for the Amazons - oops let that slip - are they almost done? - now you even have me chomping at the bit to see them.

I think we should make the plume a chestnut or tan tone - what do you think?

[Amorphos]

i like the plume as it is myself, i will get rid of those couple of pixels that give the top a slight red colour. the blue is awesomeness. i would like an archer version without the breastplate and plume, perhaps one with a plumeless helm and one without? perhaps a heavily armoured one with bronze hoplite style breastplates and some horse armour?

i am starting to implement the amazons tomorrow, most is done except the completely naked ones. i’ll pm the results as they come.

[Aradan]

Congrats on the Centaurs, they look very very well-made!

[♔Sherlock♔]

Yeah, they look awesome, no funny bones or anything sticking out in odd places. How good are they going to be in combat? Are spears going to have a combat bonus against them?:hmmm:

[Amorphos]

thanks aradan, it took a lot of work by me and solo, it is so nice to see creations come to life eh!

btw, i see you are a coder... do you [or any one you know] know anything about anims ~ so that we can stop the riders coming off when they die?

and can we get rid of captains [does renaming factions do that anyway?]


tyrtaeus

spears work well with them as any cav. in fact i had to give them 3 hitpoints as they died so easily. i guess the exposure of the rider being at the front makes a difference, i dunno really. they can fight like infantry or cavalry, so they add an interesting dynamic to the tactics.

[MasterOfNone]

New animations are not made by coders

Those are nice units, Quetz. Please do keep everything tight and focused. Once all the new units and map is done you'll be 10% of the way toward completion - and I want to see it completed! - so do allow for months of coding and other non-3d stuff please!

[Amorphos]

M.O.N

it will be completed for sure, i don’t give up, so unless i die or something a tad untoward like that, it will be done. i am wondering if i will do different versions according to completion or if that would ruin it? what is all this coding about then? i do all the units as i go, descriptions everything, so i thought it was scripting, mapping, renaming of factions and new settlements that we had to do? we will do some stuff with eventpics and everything that will make it look more authentic, i have already done some of the new interface which will be very marble and ornamental.

thanks for your support!

ps. to all. once i do the screenie i’ll be looking for volunteers, your mod needs you!

[MasterOfNone]

what is all this coding about then?

It's the stuff that gets the models, graphics, map, sounds, etc. in-game and behaving themselves and - believe me - if you throw in research, testing and balance, it's a bigger part of modding than all other areas combined.

Don't be a coder.

[Aradan]

It's the stuff that gets the models, graphics, map, sounds, etc. in-game and behaving themselves and - believe me - if you throw in research, testing and balance, it's a bigger part of modding than all other areas combined.

Don't be a coder.

Seconded. Though it's by far the most underestimated and overlooked part of modding, coding is in fact its core and the most important and time-consuming part. Bad coding = bad mod, no matter how great the models and the textures are. A nice-looking unit means nothing when you get a CTD every 2 minutes...

Good attitude though, keep it up! I wanna see this mod release, even just for Custom Battles (which should be the primary goal perhaps).