I recently contacted [user]Rydwan[/user], mod leader of XVI Century: Total War about doing an interview with his amazing and highly anticipated mod. The mod itself hasn't been released yet, but the team is making good time, so expect a grand release soon. The mod is highly revolutionary, map wise, faction wise, unit wise, etc. and this interview will surely get you interested!
1.) Describe your mod as a whole, your aims, plans etc.
The idea of the mod is to make an playable and historicaly correct game, which takes place in the Renaissance. We will see the biggest conflicts, like the Conquest of America, Italian Wars, the birth of Habsburg Empire, Polish-Moscow wars etc. The main feature will be the historical correctness: specific units will appear in the right historical moment. The situations like in the MTW2, when the Reiters could be recruited in the beginning of the XV century, but historically they were formed in the middle of XVI century, will not appear. Because this is going to be a Renaissance mod we’re planning to create spectacular battles participating pikeman, arquebusiers… we also plan to limit the importance of cavalry in Western Europe and raise it in the Eastern Europe. We also want to limit the recruitment, make the units less available comparing to mercenaries. This will help making the battles more exciting, when the defeat hurts more. It will make mercenaries more important and will increase the amount of money we will spend on them. We’re not making a mod for masses, I’m not interested in the number of fans… we want to make a mod, that will be popular among people, which pay attention to historical correctness and who are interested in Renaissance period.
2.) What gave you the idea to create a mod with such a different time frame then many other Kingdom's Mods?
It’s a difficult question, it was such long time ago, maybe one year, but I’ll try to recall.
When I saw the Renaissance units in M:TW2 I started to become interested in this period of time. So I started to search for a mod in TWC but I realized that it doesn’t exist. As a result I tried to make the mod by myself (I’m a modder). In the beginning I only wanted to modify the factions, add some provinces and units, but in time it has changed to something really big, like EB, RTR, SS, DLV.
What I like in the Renaissance is the crossing of two eras: the medieval era and the modern era, the confrontation between a pike and a musket, two formations from two eras fighting together… and don’t forget those extravagant dresses.
3.) What would you say is the most innovative part of your mod?
I think the Renaissance period in the mod is the most standing out. There hasn’t been a full Renaissance mod, and I have seen a few projects of this kind, but they haven’t done so much changing in the game, like our mod.
Our units also are standing out. We are planning to change the units completely. This is going to be something different from the RTW mods, which were giving new rosters, new units, new skins and different from other MTW2 mods, in which only skins were modified.
4.) What has the hardest part of running a mod been for you?
In the mod the biggest problems we had with the map working correctly, but my personal problems were with the French units. The amount of them, their unique dresses, hats, weapons… on modeling and texturing them I’ve spend a lot of time. But the second skinner helped me, so it wasn’t a disaster like with the Moscow units. I just couldn’t get them right, so I started to do work on the Swedish units hoping, that after the releasing the first version of the mod my abilities in texturing and modeling will increase, allowing me to work on the Moscow units again.
5.) What are you looking forward to the most? What do you think will get the best reception?
I pay special attention to the historical correctness, for example the borders and important persons like Leonardo da Vinci. I think that the advertising thing will do the before premiere units screens and previews. I hope that the idea of making the first really big Renaissance mod will be the best advertisement.
6.) Can we get a faction list?
Of course, the list of the factions and units is available on the mod's forum website:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=644 . We talk there with the users about the fractions, so everybody can have an effect on the mod. Here’s the full faction list:
-Rzeczpospolita (Poland-Lithuania)
-Habsburg Monarchy (Austria)
-Kingdom of Hungary
-Kingdom of Spain
-Kingdom of France
-Kingdom of Denmark
-Ottoman Empire
-Grand Duchy of Moscow
-Kingdom of England
-Republic of Venice
-Papal States
-Aztecs
-Apache
-Electorate of Brandenburg
-Electorate of Saxony
-Confederation of Swiss
-Duchy of Milan
-Republic of Florence
-Kingdom of Naples
-Mameluke Sultanate
-Khanate of Crimea
-Principality of Moldavia
-Country of Hospitalers
-Kingdom of Scotland
-Kingdom of Portugal
-Kingdom of Maroco
-Persia of Safavides
-Kingdom of Sweden
-Electorate of Bavaria
-Republic of Genoa
-Rebels
7.) What faction(s) are you looking forward to playing most and why?
I think Rzeczpospolita, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth definitely. I’m Polish so I’m emotionally bond with this fraction. In MTW2 I’ve played mostly the Kingdom of Poland; when I was playing other countries I preferred not to make war with Poland. The second fraction that I will enjoy playing is going to be the Habsburg Monarchy. I’m a huge fan of the German landsknechts.
8.) Will gun-powder troops make a large portion of recruitable soldiers, considering the time period, or will they be harder to recruit like they were in M2TW.
The gunpowder units will be available in the beginning of the game, just like archers and crossbowmen in MTW2, with the exception of Middle East countries, like Egypt or Persia, where the gunpowder weaponry will be less available and much more primitive in the beginning. Firearms are going to be much less effective than in the MTW2, where these kind of units had extremely high accuracy and power. In the mod the rifleman will have low accuracy, medium power… their main weapon will be the psychological effect.
9.) The map you've created is different from many other mod maps in that it not only keeps the America's, but expands on them. Why did you do this, and what are your game-play plans for them? If possible, can you post a picture of the political map, with the factions borders?
Conquering the New World just like the Italian Wars and the Turkish Invasion on Europe is the most characteristic aspect of the Renaissance period. We have made the American continent bigger, almost as big as Europe. We didn’t wanted to limit the conquers to a few small provinces and few turns. We want to make colonization wars between the European countries in the America. A bigger map also helps in imitating Native American tribes, their size i.e the Aztec Empire. It helps also in placing the Apache tribes on the map, which should be a variation from normal rebels and revolted provinces.
**
Map with factions borders:
10.) With the Americas being 'conqourable' how will you handle the AI's pathfinding? (As in, how will you make sure that the AI actually attacks the Americas at some point?)
I’m planning to make and event in the game: the arrival of Hernan Cortes in Mexico. This event will bring an army of conquistadors appear on the map and it will also make the American colonization possible for European countries. It was a historical moment, which has started the European expeditions to the New World. But I’m not planning the make, that an fraction will colonize a specific province. The AI will decide what it will attack. I don’t think, that it will be a big problem making the AI to treat the America like another seaside region. In MTW2 the Spanish had not had problems attacking the Great Britain. We have a experienced scripter in our team, so it’s going to work.
11.) You said the Beta is going to be released this month? Are any major things being ommited to be released later, or is this the bulk of it?
I don’t think, that we will manage to release the mod in this month. We have still problems with the French units. We planed to make a simple campaign with 12 factions in the first version of the mod, but because of some problems, that have appeared, the first version of the mod will have only custom battles, maybe some historical battles. But I think that it’s not to be going to be a boring mod, the amount of XVI century units and the possibility of playing on the net will give many hours of good gaming. The campaign will appear in the next version.
12.) Do you have an exact date set for the release?
As you know we’re planning to release the mod in this month, but this is not going to happen. But I know, that in couple of days we will show the two new previews at the same time.
Some pictures from the mods many previews (Image Heavy)
**This map is the old map- they have experienced some problems with it, and are in the process of making a new one, but it will still be along the same lines.
The Eagle Standard Vol. VI Issue XIII
