ANNOUNCEMENT: This mod is dead!

[Beiss]

This could hardly be a surprise for anyone, but here goes: this mod is dead!

We've come a long way with translation for some of the languages, but for most of them, we've had no progress at all. Myself, I haven't done anything Xenophonia related for all of 2008. Here are a few issues that this mod currently has:

• We still don't have a single voice actor. I've been contacted by at least 15 different people offering their help with Arabic voices, and all but one (who was female) has been asked to send me a recording of themselves speaking Arabic. Out of these 15+ people, only ONE ever sent me any samples, and though his recordings were excellent, he ended up not having the time to help out. For the sake of my sanity, DO NOT OFFER YOUR HELP IF YOU DON'T ACTUALLY WANT TO HELP AND/OR DON'T HAVE THE TIME! This goes out to translators and everyone else as well, of course.

• Empire TW will be released at some point, and at this rate, it's pretty obvious that we won't be able to make a single voice pack before Empire TW's released, and when it is, I know I won't care to play M2TW ever again.

• I had hopes that the Europa Barbarorum team would want to help out once they started working with EB2. However, EB2 is set in the same time period as EB, which means they're not interested in a voice mod with medieval speech. We (I?) are on our own here.

• I'm sick and tired of working with impulsive, unreliable people who keep disappearing, or with no people at all. I wish to stop developing the mod as far as new samples goes, and just make a final, bug-free release, and then one for each of the Kingdoms campaigns. I want to be done with this, move on, and (maybe) start a new mod that I might actually be able to find the staff for, because it's pretty obvious to me now that this mod will never be anything like what I wanted it to be. We'll never find enough voice actors to make even a single language pack.

Possible remedy:

• I'd need one representative for each language, someone who actually cares for the mod, and who WON'T JUST DISAPPEAR. This representative's only task would be to find translators and voice actors for that language. Since the people we need can't be found here at TWC, the people we need must be found by searching the internet, in places where I can't look, in internet forums in languages I don't speak, etc. I wish I could find someone to do this for Arabic, at the very least, since we're nearly finished with the translation there and it's the only language that really needs to be replaced in the game.

[klops]

Shame. Understandable though. I had my doubts for the mod because of the very reasons you described there. Anyway, SS6.0 is out and I'm starting the battle to get Xenophonia to work with it soon. Hope I make it.

Thanks for the mod. Xeno is a very good mod even without any new languages. No more "da" for Danish or Antonio Banderas sounding Spaniards.

[Beiss]

Well, we did get something done, just not anywhere near as much as I'd expected (though I never dared to hope that we would accomplish everything we had planned).

[klops]

Yes, of course you did. I didn't mean to underrate the work you've done. Hopefully you will have better luck and more trustworthy voice actors in a mod for Empire

[Beiss]

Empires should be easier to make a voice mod for since we know much more about the languages spoken in those times, and translation should be really easy. I doubt it will help the voice actor issue though, or the fact that people keep quitting.

[FactionHeir]

So where can it be downloaded now? I've tried the link in your sig which brings me to the xenophonia website. The link there refers to 1E which says discontinued, refer to 2Beta. The link to that page links back to the website...

Also, any estimate on a final version with only bugfixes?

[Beiss]

No estimate right now, no. The definitely final version will probably be this fall. The new patch might have changed a few things, but I don't know yet.

As for downloading the current version, clicking the link in my sig brings you to the download page here on twcenter, clicking download there takes you to a readme for 2 Beta, in which there are links to the soundpacks and anything else you'd need to install the mod.

[FactionHeir]

The new patch was for kingdoms only though, so the non Kingdoms version should be fine I hope

[Beiss]

Hopefully, yes. I think there might have been some fixes in the earlier patches though, ones that I haven't taken notice of. I could always apply those fixes myself though, if I know what they are and what they do.

[FactionHeir]

Yeah, I don't think they ever fixed the sounds though, like HRE admirals thinking they lost when they won, scottish assassins having 2 different voices or any faction in general switching their ambush/ambushed sounds and other stuff. Would be great if Xen would take care of that eventually

[Beiss]

Eventually, yes... the sooner I find out about all these bugs, the sooner I can fix them. Please list every one you know, and be specific.

[Shigawire]

Sad to hear.. I do think this work should be resumed eventually. But it is a lot of work.

[Beiss]

Yeah. Especially when you're only one person and don't have a big, popular mod to back you up with reliable people... I don't see why or how this should be resumed, since I've lost all interest in this irreparably terrible game.

[Shigawire]

I see what you mean. And it is true that having a big mod to back you up helps out a lot in the recruitment process. What do you mean by irreparable? There is a super-mod in the works for M2TW which looks to really set the standard for all M2TW mods: Dominion of the Sword.
If they grow to become a big mod, maybe they will have the kinds of experts you need?
But you've probably lost interest regardless of that I suppose.

[Beiss]

Probably. What I mean is that the AI, which I thought to be hardcoded, is really terrible. No mod, no new units, factions, sounds or anything else could make up for the fact that everyone in the game, including your own units, act without any trace of intelligence, unless it really does change the AI for the better, and as I've understood it, no mod ever will.

[Vítor Gaspar]

I happen to be a native speaker of Portuguese and Spanish. It's a shame the mod is dead, I'd love to help you, but still, the game is pretty much dead as well. People are moving to Empire, and MTW would only be reborn if CA corrected the buggy AI.

Still, Empire is not different.

[Beiss]

Empire actually turned out to be worse than M2TW, as far as I'm concerned. Don't know about which AI is better, but I didn't find it enjoyable to play at all. So if I play TW at all it's still M2TW...

[irishron]

Empire in opinion is garbage.

That being said, thank you for the voice packs you have done. I have included them in my mod and enjoying them. Even if you never do another one, good luck on your future ventures.

[Beiss]

Thanks. And I agree on Empire - wasn't quite the blast I was expecting it to be. Anyway - there's a good chance there's a Hungarian voice pack on the way. I hope those guys get it finished eventually.

[sinan.ozel]

I can do the Turkish translation, and the voice acting.

I am not a voice actor, but seeing how you are short on staff, I think I can help.

I normally check these forums irregularly, but this thread I will check regularly. Please post here first if you want my help. (I do not regularly check the e-mail I used to subscribe, so please do not send a message there.)

For the Arabic pack, sorry, there is nothing I can do about that one.