MA Teaser + Feedback requested

[Roman_Man#3]

To keep you guys interested, here is a little teaser I've prepared for you.

The patrolling Pezhetairoi find themselves faced with an enemy. They prepare for the onslaught.




Their enemy? A roaming band of Thracians.


They meet in battle. Who will be victorious? The trained and well equipped Macedonians? Or the brutal and strong Thracians?


Credits to Ferres for the Macedonians, VariagMod for the Thracians, and RS for the environment. Incidentally, it included trees from NTW2, but I'm not sure if any are pictured. Just to be safe, credits to them too.

[Roman_Man#3]

Now that I've grabbed your attention, I would like to request some feedback. Unfortunatly, the open beta version of MA right now isn't very similar to the next version, so I can't really ask what you'd like to have improved between that and this, because a lot of place holders were put in that version and not 100% completed, so I know what is wrong. (Run-on sentences FTW!) Still, I will ask for your feedback. What do you like in mods, what don't you like. What do you think should be in an Alexander the Great mod. Answers to these questions will help greatly in creating a mod that does Alexander justice, and pleases the fans.


Thanks for the continuous support everyone, you are now my main motivation to completing this mod. Thanks for sticking through my lack of progress and updates. Let's get this thing released.

[Dog Fart]

I hope you stay motivated. That looks ing AWESOME RM3!!!!!!!

[Cincinatus]

Persians - be rich and earn alot of income, large cities, spaced out by smaller towns over a large area

Immortals - ((cheap to recruit but costly to upkeep, this is to help the realism that they were replaced as soon as any fell, and that there were only 10,000)). They should have short range composite bows, sheilds, spears, swords ((so for tw swords or spears but make them effective against calvary too if swords are only shown, to create the effect of spears they did have)), with light platelet armor under robes. So, good defensively/armor wise, but not quite as strong as hoplites.

Horse archers - , fast, good range, little melee.

War Elephants
Chariots - most definitely.
Heavy Calvary
Takabara - curved shields and axes, melee infantry (little or no armor other than shield)
Sparabara - spear infantry with large square sheilds, professional baseline infantry (little or no armor other than shield)
should look at ROP for other ideas http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=66603
Mercenary Greek Hoplites
Mercenary Thracians could be in a aor near the dardennelles

Thrace - There should be more than one thracian factions (like maybe Odrisya and Basaltae), after all it was never a united entity.
But they should have Falxmen, calvary, hoplites (a less disciplined form of it), skirmishers that throw javelins, should start with small settlements

Macedonians - Large clustered cities, good income but not as wealthy as the Persians

Hypatists
Agryspids
Phalangites
Companion Calvary
Peltists

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

Right...off the top of my head:

We need Sparta as a playable faction, I think, and, depending how early you start the mod, you could sneak in Thebes or Athens as well.

No more vanilla units...

Costly upkeep, a la EB (unless you're going for spam-stack approach, which could work I guess).

[Roman_Man#3]

Thanks for the input guys.

@ Antiochos: no Sparta, but see this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Specifically the factions in the picture.

[Hound of Ulster]

nice map

any chance for a another Indian faction?

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

Good man! I'm happy about this.

[Finch]

nice teaser RM3

[Spartan198]

What do you like in mods

Hard question to answer, because it largely depends on the focus and time frame of the mod. Really the only general answer I can give is that I like it best when an as-equal-as-possible mix of historical accuracy, gameplay, and fun factor, rather than a disproportionate amount of one or the other, is the primary goal of the mod.

what don't you like.

Again difficult to answer for the same reasons as above. One thing I can think of that can annoy me is ethnic naming of units. I usually conform to an elites only mentality, in that only elite or very well known units (Companions/Hetairoi, Hypaspists/Hypaspistai, Spartans/Spartiatai, etc.) should be named ethnically, while English translation names are suitable to the rest. Of course, the argument will be made that that method lacks consistency, but, honestly, I've been a devoted XGM fan for so long because this is one of the gameplay-over-accuracy aspects of it which makes it more fun and more like a game to me rather than an interactive documentary. I see no reason why a similar approach wouldn't work for MA.

What do you think should be in an Alexander the Great mod.

I'll have to give this some thought because the one thing I didn't like about vanilla Alexander---the crappy, half-assed campaign map (CA needs to fire whoever was responsible for that monstrosity)---has already been fixed with the inclusion of the excellent Rise of Persia map.

[Cincinatus]

Please too, if you include the same factions other than persia and macedon the vanilla had, please give them better, more historically accurate, and regional inspired units. Even if you have other factions, please diversify the units.

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I think that's the point. I'm sure he's got that covered.

[Roman_Man#3]

I think that's the point. I'm sure he's got that covered.

This.

[Constantius]

Hard question to answer, because it largely depends on the focus and time frame of the mod. Really the only general answer I can give is that I like it best when an as-equal-as-possible mix of historical accuracy, gameplay, and fun factor, rather than a disproportionate amount of one or the other, is the primary goal of the mod.


Again difficult to answer for the same reasons as above. One thing I can think of that can annoy me is ethnic naming of units. I usually conform to an elites only mentality, in that only elite or very well known units (Companions/Hetairoi, Hypaspists/Hypaspistai, Spartans/Spartiatai, etc.) should be named ethnically, while English translation names are suitable to the rest. Of course, the argument will be made that that method lacks consistency, but, honestly, I've been a devoted XGM fan for so long because this is one of the gameplay-over-accuracy aspects of it which makes it more fun and more like a game to me rather than an interactive documentary. I see no reason why a similar approach wouldn't work for MA.


.

Opposite to this really ,I think the more historically accurate the better ,to me that makes playing more interesting and enjoyable .I hate seeing fantasy units running around ,or units from another epoch .

[Panhakker]

I would like to see AOR (Area of Recruitment) in the game. I want to recruit regional soldiers in my army just as Alexander did.

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

Seconded.

[legio_XX]

I looks great man
I like how sparta is still its own place/rebel but i thought I read how sparta joined up with athens to fight the macedonians and lost. so maybe have them join greek faction(if im wrong please corect)...I realy dont now anything about this time frame Im just glad someone is fixing CA's....flaw.

[Cinuz]

Very nice man!

Mh...right know I only have one thing in mind...If I'm not wrong, in the previous beta, the hoplites unit actually could form the macedonian phalanx...I ask you to change this thing, even for the macedonians (in case they still have the Hoplite unit)...this will make the pezhetairoi a more unique unite and something very valuable, since it'll be one of the two units who can form phalanx (yeah, read below).

Another thing: insert another phalanx unit. A phalanx unit formed by levies and unwealthy people. Dressed with chitons, greaves and helms. Armed with Sarissas, daggers and shields...actually the macedonian army was formed even by this men, who couldn't afford the pezhetairoi equipment. This will make the game somewhat easier for the player who could recruit some phalangites even at the lower level of the barracks. Something like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I hope I gave you good suggestions.

EDIT-Sorry for the size of the images...how the heck do I insert spoilers?

[Antiochos VII Sidetes]

I was given to understand that at the time of Alexander the phalanx battalions were almost entirely professional. The militia would have fought as hoplites or in the old Macedonian archaic styles, I believe.

[Roman_Man#3]

As Antiochos said, all Pezhetairoi at the time of Alexander were professionally armed and armoured - Philip II had emptied the Macedonian treasuries, and his own, to equip the Phalanx.

Any poor folk would have fought as hoplites or skirmishers.

Thanks for the suggestions though. Concerning your first one, you won't be disappointed.