Ancient Empires

**Bone-apart** · January 09, 2009, 07:35 AM

I am new to modding Total War, but not new to modding, as I've made a full game to play for Titan Quest, all by myself..

http://www.titanquest.net/forums/mod...rsion-6-a.html

anyone can download this mod and play it, but you need Titan Quest Gold (about £6 from Amazon)

Anyway.. my main interest is in the ancient world, starting off from the basics, and focus on the old empires of Babylon, Egypt, Hittite etc. There has only been one turn based strat. game, of this genre, and that was 'Chariots of War' by Slitherine, and this game 'sucked'.. (sorry but it did), there was no diplomacy, and no auto-resolve, and dumb AI, ,,.. you could forgive the simple 2D graphic for battles, the map was good, covered the whole mid-east, (but not much of europe).. so i didn't play much of this game, as it was too tedious. So my proposal is to mod-up Empire, when it comes out, and use basic soldier types like native americans, and any other non-firearm type unit, and then try and swap over textures..
I did this with titan quest; swapping textures and meshes is the easyest way to create new stuff, as the game already has them.. to try and import textures can be very difficult, it's possible, but i could not do it for TQ. and it requires a separate package to install the new textures.
But using a map editor, i should be able to create a modified ancient world, but i'll have to see what can be done, with moving/re-naming cities etc.
Someone was saying that Civ4 could have been the perfect game if it had Total War type battles.. i agree up to a point, as i find the Total War sieges totally tedious, and use auto-resolve a lot, so i propose a simpler battle activity in this mod. More Spartan/Civ4 like..
Also, I'm not keen on chariots, although they were a big part of the ancient world, perhaps just have formations of soldiers, with shields and spears being as good as you can get.

What do you think?

ps. I am thinking of the phoenician world, which is basically europe inc. egypt/north africa and turkey.. and also atlantis over in the caribean and mexico, because i have the detailed maps of that area. So there would be a lot of shipping, but whether there is an advantage of using empire, instead of Med2, i'm not sure.

**Salazar** · January 09, 2009, 03:34 PM

I've always liked that Idea, i play(ed) titan quest too and still play chariots of war sometimes (I dont think it's that bad).

IMO it's a time period that (except maybe the egyptians with their pyramids and stuff) is far too often overlooked.

**thebull0425** · January 09, 2009, 03:37 PM

I think there is one in developement if I am not mistaken, but I can't remember what it is called.

**Bone-apart** · January 10, 2009, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by thebull0425

I think there is one in developement if I am not mistaken, but I can't remember what it is called.

Yes, i was looking at the mods over on Med2 and there are a few in development, with skinners working on them also. It's too much for me to take on though.

**Bone-apart** · January 12, 2009, 08:24 AM

This is my proposed map area for Ancient Empires .. it's a modern map just to get an idea.

As this is the period that most interests me, i think i'll stick with this idea. The next Total War after Empire will probably be a modern-futuristic or Rome 2, because this era - ancient is not vastly popular. So i'll do some research to get the map details sorted. I like the idea of starting a new mod on the Empire game, because the map offers more detail, and possibilities. I propose to use very basic units for battle, just sword and shield and archers. Chariots would prob. be too difficult to do.. basic units just need re-skinning, but i'd need help with that. The map would also be land based only, no ships.

**Big Pacha** · January 13, 2009, 04:15 AM

Yessssss!!! That's exactly the mod I was looking for. Med2 Kg. system should be enough. We could also take BC's map so It would go from the Indus Valley and Mauryan Guptas to the Mycaenians

and of course Babylon, Assyria, Hatti, Urartu, Akkad (or Sumer), Persia, , Krete/Sea People, Phoenicians, Egypt of course, maybe Israël... not to merntion nomad invaders (Hyksos etc)... Yummy!

Count me in if you star a dev: research, text, organization, unit rooster, etc.

**Bone-apart** · January 13, 2009, 04:28 AM

Originally Posted by Big Pacha

Yessssss!!! That's exactly the mod I was looking for. Med2 Kg. system should be enough. We could also take BC's map so It would go from the Indus Valley and Mauryan Guptas to the Mycaenians

and of course Babylon, Assyria, Hatti, Urartu, Akkad (or Sumer), Persia, , Krete/Sea People, Phoenicians, Egypt of course, maybe Israël... not to merntion nomad invaders (Hyksos etc)... Yummy!

Count me in if you star a dev: research, text, organization, unit rooster, etc.

I've joined a team over on Med2. as a researcher.. their mod is 'The Shadow of Ishta', and it's the same as this idea.
i found a nice map of the region.. they are looking for people to join their team also. I dont have experience modding TW. and it's a hard task to take on alone. They have a mapper already, working on a decided map of the mid east and a bit of the med up to half of Italy.
Where's BC's map?

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...212988&page=12

**lenin96** · January 13, 2009, 07:27 AM

Maybe you could it could start in 1500BC so you don't go where other mods are currently doing, I don't think any mod has gone that far back, here are some factions, faction leaders and faction heirs.
I've also provided the native names for these factions that I could find.

Hittites Faction Leader: Hantili I, Faction Heir: Zidanta I
Mycenae
Minoans
Egypt Faction Leader: Thutmose I, Faction Heir: Thutmose II
Dorians
Assur (Assyria) Faction Leader: Pezur-Ashur III, Faction Heir: Enlil-nasir I
Kar Duniash (Babylon, it was renamed this by its rulers) Faction Leader: Melamkurkukka?, Faction Heir: Ea-gamil?
Elamites
Hayasa-Azzi (Confederation of two Armenian kingdoms)
Athens Faction Leader: Craenus, Faction Heir: Amphictyon
Sparta
Mittanni Faction Leader: Kirta, Faction Heir: Shuttarna I
Syria and Canaan

I suggest making the map go from Italy or Greece to eastern Iran and from Ethiopia to just above the Caucasus or Black Sea.

Anyway good luck

.

**Bone-apart** · January 13, 2009, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by lenin96

Maybe you could it could start in 1500BC so you don't go where other mods are currently doing, I don't think any mod has gone that far back, here are some factions, faction leaders and faction heirs.
I've also provided the native names for these factions that I could find.

Hittites Faction Leader: Hantili I, Faction Heir: Zidanta I
Mycenae
Minoans
Egypt Faction Leader: Thutmose I, Faction Heir: Thutmose II
Dorians
Assur (Assyria) Faction Leader: Pezur-Ashur III, Faction Heir: Enlil-nasir I
Kar Duniash (Babylon, it was renamed this by its rulers) Faction Leader: Melamkurkukka?, Faction Heir: Ea-gamil?
Elamites
Hayasa-Azzi (Confederation of two Armenian kingdoms)
Athens Faction Leader: Craenus, Faction Heir: Amphictyon
Sparta
Mittanni Faction Leader: Kirta, Faction Heir: Shuttarna I
Syria and Canaan

I suggest making the map go from Italy or Greece to eastern Iran and from Ethiopia to just above the Caucasus or Black Sea.

Anyway good luck

.

I made a mod for Titan Quest.. but they gave us what they call a 'tool-set' and a custom game play option. I've been looking into the modding with the TW, and it seems much harder to do. I am hoping that Empire provide some modding tools/options in Empire, but i doubt they will, as there dosn't seem to be anything on Med2. I am downloading 'Americas Expanded' mod for Med2 Kingdoms now.. puts a bit of new life back into the old Med2 game.
I'll pass this info onto the 'Shadow of Ishtar' team if you want.
I agree that the older the time period the better. I'll wait for Empire, and if it's better to mod, i might try something on that. It's useful here to test what mod would actually be popular.. my pirate idea has produced no interest.

**lenin96** · January 13, 2009, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by Bone-apart

I am hoping that Empire provide some modding tools/options in Empire, but i doubt they will, as there dosn't seem to be anything on Med2.

CA said they would release a campaign editor which I hope is easier to use than notepad files, they probaly will release some tools for us to use, which will reduce the workload that modders have.

Originally Posted by Bone-apart

I'll pass this info onto the 'Shadow of Ishtar' team if you want.
I agree that the older the time period the better. I'll wait for Empire, and if it's better to mod, i might try something on that. It's useful here to test what mod would actually be popular.. my pirate idea has produced no interest.

No need to pass the info to the Shadow of Ishtar team because what I said was for 1500BC not Shadow of Ishtar's timeframe, I think that ETW will be easier to mod, or at least when the first patch is released.