[PREVIEW] Ages of Darkness *** XXL ***

[Pompeius Magnus]

introduction

Ages of darkness 2
An unreleased second part of the AoD-series - based on RTW/BI, made a lot of progress in the last months.
We want share our work with you and let the community participate with this XXL Preview.
AoD2 will start in 527AD - the year when Justinian became emperor.
We offer a complete new developed unit pool for all factions, a new strat-map, new music-tracks, new 2D grafics, new 3D-building models for the tactical view, new interfaces, new textures, a new traits and ancillaries system ... and a lot of other stuff
AoD2 becomes a full convertion-mod!

Ages of Darkness 2 (AoD2) offeres a bundle of unit- and 3D-building previews. Prepared according new sources as well as tales from Procopius. Later you can check out the other previews located here:

The army in Ostrogothic Italy - an AoD2 unit preview
First AoD2 building preview - Hagia Sophia
Second AoD2 building preview - Taq-i Kisra

the team

new music tracks
apple & RJcfc (free member)

our unit maker and the star of the AoD2-team with the by far best units I ever saw concerning love for details and textures
empio

preparing of AoD part 3, research of Muslim faction, research of kindom of Hira
jermagon

our building-model maker with extremly amazing results. Due to that guy Konstantinople become real in AOD2 - and of course other cities get also their "specials"
Wundai

the texture specialist for our new 3D buildings
Karlo'St

research and helping hands
Naughteous Maximus (our 1st team member) & Lord Willy & William the Silent

banners for the tactical view (battle mode)
pacco (free member)

guest of honour and advisor
Thor the Bassist

General concept, teamleading, co-ordination, historical research, interface, faction symbols, coding in general (including new settlement plans/anys/traits as well as EDU+DMB) , loading screens, mapping+map concept, ... and other stuff:
Pompeius Magnus

our factions

Regnvm Tvringorvm
Imperivm Romanvm
Persarmenia
Regnvm Hirae
Britanni
Regnvm Francorvm
Hvnni
Regnvm Gepidorvm
Rex Regvm
Saxones
Regnvm Vandalorvm et Alanorvm
Regnvm Visigothorvm
Scoti
Regnvm Italiae et Gothorvm
Avari
Langobardi
Regnvm Mavrorvm et Romanorvm
Regnvm Bvrgvndionvm
Regnvm Sveborvm

please note that with the beginning of the establishing of germanic kingdoms on Roman ground the germanic tribes were integraded very quick into the existing Roman communities. At least the bigger tribes and/or dominions. According their self-conception they were the legal representatives of the Roman empire. Theodoric - for example - had worn the "purple". In many ways some german tribes became more "Roman" than the Romans in the east. The term "Regnum" for germanic states makes of course only sense if we speak about post-roman states in the 460s and later.

the Rhomaioi - our Romans

AoD2 will offer ~40 different Roman INFANTRY models. You see here 2 of them

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Franki & Visigothi & Ostrogothi... enjoy

what you see above isn't the army of the IMPerium ROManum.
Those units are serving for Franks and Goths (both tribes). With the Lorica Segmentata we go an experimental way (actually one units belongs to the Britanni) - however, it is possible that some old Limitanei and Numeri were still intact near the rhine area, Aremorica and in the north of Britannia. Also Prokop mentioned several times that "there is a Roman army behind the alps". Who knows what he was talking about ?? - probably some Numeri served as warbands under their own banners like in Illyria. But we know for sure that the Roman Magnates, members of the former senatorial class had still their own Bucellarii - at least in Spain and Gaul.
After 2 years of research - together with guys from the hist. library in Mainz (römisch-germanisches Museum, Germany) I found also the unit names of those troops - infos which are still top secret for the moment.

Aula Palatina - a new building from Wundai and karlost

Today called Basilica of Constantine (Konstantinbasilika) located in Trier. An impressive building. You can visit it in the beautiful and historical center of Trier. Furthermore you'll find there an old arena, a theatre, a big public bath which was used as barrak for the troops, and the black gate. Trier offers also phantastic sightseeing trips.

The Aula Palatina was built around 310 AD as a part of the palace complex. Originally it was not a free standing building but had other smaller buildings attached to it, such as a forehall, an entrance vestibule and some service buildings. The Aula Palatina had a floor and wall heating system (hypocaust).

After Trier was overrun by the Franks the city declined very quick and was partially a small farming village. Heavy stuff - if you have in mind that this city was before the capital of the Roman Empire.
That's the reason why I don't put the city on our strat-map. I moved the Aula to the city of Soisson. Soisson was the capital of the last official Roman dominion in gaul - led by Syagrius. Soisson became later - in the time frame of AoD2!!! also the residential and cultural centre of the Franks. Please have a look into the next chapter. Here you will find the Aula Palatina in the tactical 3D view.

The battle of Soisson - still called Augusta Suessionum

the settlement plans

I have successfully coded our new buildings (esp. for Konstantinople) into our settlements (was hard work for nearly 6 months).
No other existing vanilla building has to be removed or replaced by our new buildings! All new stuff is "additional". This was possible due to my new custimized settlement plans.

new strat-map , new interface , new textures new new new

you see some german words in my screenshots. But don't worry, the english text-files will be introduced in the next days. The mod will be released in english of course - with a lot of greek and latin terms.
You see also that we still use the vanilla strat-map-generals. The reason is very simple: we still had not the time to change them
But also this will be done next time.

more battle stuff: Ostrogothi vs. Franki vs. Visigothi

Ostrogothi

Note: some screenshots were made some weeks ago. In this case you'll see the old vanilla interface + vanilla textures. Meanwhile everything is improved!

AoD2 - building concept

without telling all our secrets we want at least give some informations about our new developed FoW (Field of Work) concept.
Worked out in months of research, collecting and perparing the UIs etc etc.

Our field of work concept includes:

1- set up a renewed roman building structure
2- set an alternative development for roman builings in barbarian-occupied areas.

The so called barbarians and Romans are able to deconstruct existing Roman installations. That gives money to your account, and is made very quick. The deconstructed building is still operative. However, a ruin never gives the same bonus as a complete intact building.
If you have again money (a lot of money) - or if the Romans reconquer that area (also the Romans need money) - you can build up again those deconstructed facilities. Now the bonus will be increased, but even now it is never the same as before.
...welcome to the dark ages

NEW LOADING SCREENS

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

the end...

Dear Gamer,

I hope you like what you saw. This XXL Preview is the last one for a long time now - because we want spend our time for the game.
BUT: Several additional minor previews are in planning. Our moorish kingdom will surprise the community, furthermore a little preview is planned concerning the Britanni.
Anyway, a bigger preview with that dimensions as shown here will not come next time again.

What we need:
we are still looking for texture-specialists for our brand new 3D models (for the battle mode). Wundai made so many models, but we need more texture-specialist to increase the speed a little bit.

If you want join our phantastic team please send me an e-mail or do it via private message.

Best regards

Pompeius Magnus + AoD2 team

the storm has begun

[Athenogoras]

Verdammte knödel! This is great news. The units are simply amazing...almost cute.
And the buildings...wow. I bow my bald head a thousande times in tribute to your work.
I noticed ruins outside the walls.. will this not cause trouble in assault?

[Pompeius Magnus]

Hi Atheno
thanks for the kind words.
The ruins don't cause any trouble. There is enough space between ruin and wall that even a siege tower can operate there.

[Gäiten]

Very impressive. Excellent modelling and skinning

[Babur]

really nice work

[Aetius1]

I had this feeling the last time when RTR 6.0 was released
PLEASE finish this mod

[dvk901]

Excellent preview....my 'other' favorite time period.

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

Fantastic preview, AoD2 Team! Really excellent units, and nice job on the deconstruction scheme.

[Konstantinopel]

Sehr Schoen!

Very impressive stuff

[Hound of Ulster]

I'm loving that map already...any chance of a Rise of Islam scripted event?

[Konstantinopel]

I have a question: What do you mean by customized settlement plans?

[Nakharar]

AMAZING work nice to know Justinians born on my birthday

[Pompeius Magnus]

I'm loving that map already...any chance of a Rise of Islam scripted event?

We plan AoD 3 - starting in 636AD. Here you'll find the Islam.
The map is, concerning cities and other locations prepared for the 7th century campaign.

I have a question: What do you mean by customized settlement plans?

In simple words: it means that a city of Konstantinople or Soisson has another city layout and location of buildings then other cities with the same level/tier. Those plans are customized for exactly this city X or Y - and not for other cities.
This is required of course, esp. Konstantinople get ~10 new buildings.

[Imperator of Rome]

Excellent job on the mod!I can't wait to see the models of AoD 3.

[Pompeius Magnus]

for part 3 only few models will be replaced. There are not a lot differences. Few Romans will be replaced (most will stay), some germanics, and a brand new faction will occur - the caliphate - those units will be made from scratch.

[Giorgios]

Great preview!

[inquisitor]

Jesus...the units are looking great.
The only thing with that kind of previews.....it reminds me the time i have to wait for this mod.

[Wundai]

Wow alot of great responses from the community, thank you all!

[PSEUDO ROMANUS]

Beautiful, simply beautiful!! What a great job you guys have done! Those new 3-D buildings will add an amazing extra flavour to the game, I'm sure. And those units look awsome -with that "clayish" look, they depict the "darkness" of their time frame. You all deserve reps. Who are responsible for this beauty?

[Pompeius Magnus]

thank you Pseudo Romanus

you see the responsibility of the single modules in the preview. There is a list of the team-members.