Submod: Redone Map

[Seleucos of Olympia]

I was thinking of something along the same lines for Delphi (besides the mercenaries, which would be the Phocaean version of chosen hoplites). Ideally, there would be a building which would give a huge one-off monetary boost when destroyed, to simulate the ransacking of the oracle's accumulated offerings, but since the AI doesn't destroy buildings (unless we script it somehow) we can make a building similar to Corinth's diolkos.

I believe Thessaly should have the potential of becoming a hegemonic power (with Jason of Pheres in mind) - even though it minded its own business historically. Still, eight provinces seem a bit much now that I think about it...

About Athens and Corinth, there could be two more factions to represent their islands (pushing the total number of factions to the limit), but I'd place their development importance secondary to fleshing out the other new factions.


Here's a banner I've made for Phocis (based on Phocaean coins of that period):



And one for Macedonia:



I like the idea of black for Phocis and royal blue for Macedonia. The colours of the other factions are less crystallized. As for symbols, I've been thinking: bull's head for Euboia, horse (or horse's head) for Thessaly, Chimaira for Akarnania, either boar or combination of spear point and boarjaw for Aetolia, possibly a grape for Locris, and I haven't done any proper research on Epirus yet.

[Spartan198]

By keeping the bottom left 20% of Athkara's expanded map, we have the prospect of adding 7 new factions, bringing the total to 19 (including rebels). That could be raised to 21 if certain one-province states are included. With any larger map, some original factions will have to go and there will be an increased number of grey provinces.



The new factions in this map are:

Phocis - black
Locris - yellow
Euboia - dark green
Thessaly - light green
Macedonia - dark blue
Aetolia - dark cyan
Akarnania - dark red
Epiros - darker red

Athens gets Potidaia and the new island provinces in the east, and Corinth gets Ambracia and some island provinces in the west.

A small change would have to be made to the map to create Delphi as an independent "rebel" state. By conquering it, Phocis would be able to recruit a better type of mercenary hoplites there, at reduced cost (setting up the balance of power for the Third Sacred War).

Macedonia would receive an off-map income/unit bonus, or the map could be expanded a bit to the north to cover most of its power base.

Me likey very much!

[Visiar]

Me likey very much!

agreed

[cpdwane]

I was thinking of something along the same lines for Delphi (besides the mercenaries, which would be the Phocaean version of chosen hoplites). Ideally, there would be a building which would give a huge one-off monetary boost when destroyed, to simulate the ransacking of the oracle's accumulated offerings, but since the AI doesn't destroy buildings (unless we script it somehow) we can make a building similar to Corinth's diolkos.

I believe Thessaly should have the potential of becoming a hegemonic power (with Jason of Pheres in mind) - even though it minded its own business historically. Still, eight provinces seem a bit much now that I think about it...

About Athens and Corinth, there could be two more factions to represent their islands (pushing the total number of factions to the limit), but I'd place their development importance secondary to fleshing out the other new factions.


Here's a banner I've made for Phocis (based on Phocaean coins of that period):



And one for Macedonia:



I like the idea of black for Phocis and royal blue for Macedonia. The colours of the other factions are less crystallized. As for symbols, I've been thinking: bull's head for Euboia, horse (or horse's head) for Thessaly, Chimaira for Akarnania, either boar or combination of spear point and boarjaw for Aetolia, possibly a grape for Locris, and I haven't done any proper research on Epirus yet.

This sounds brilliant! Assuming that I am a skinner for this mod (because I hear that you don't have a skinner at the moment) should I start on making some skins for Phocis once I've finished my submod? For now it would probably just be a question of reskinning the units that the other greek factions have in a black and white colour scheme using the "Phi" symbol on the shields.
Edit: Just made a very quick skin of what one could look like, in a png format so anyone can veiw it. Hope you like it!

Hopefully you will be able to implement some of the changes I have made in my submod aswell (like General's units on foot) if you feel they are appropriate.

[Seleucos of Olympia]

That's good work cpdwane! I did all of the skinning in the previous versions of the mod (I can skin but I can't model), but the workload was too much for me and I had a breakdown at the end of it, which is why I haven't done any additional skinning since (well, that and having to put a lot of work into my PhD). I was thinking just the Φ for militia hoplites and this version with the wreath for proper hoplites looks nice. I find the idea of general's bodyguards on foot very interesting, and definitely worth a trial.

Here are the three main colours I've used for bare shield parts. You may find them useful. A black Φ on one of them would suffice for militia hoplites, for instance.

[cpdwane]

Thanks a lot for those shields Seleucos, they will definately come in handy. Just a quick question: how do you make unit cards? I have tried taking screenshots in game and using them but whenever I take a screenshot with print screen on Rome Total War it just takes a screenshot of the desktop underneath the Rome total war image. I guess I could try to download another screen taking tool but I'm wondering if I've done something wrong or if there is another way of producing unit cards. As for my submod I am going to try and get it released tonight because TBH I don't think there is much else I can add to it.

[Seleucos of Olympia]

That sounds weird. Whenever I've used printscreen, it always captured the screen in RTW. You can use Fraps, a program that allows you to save screenshots as BMP files just by pressing F10 in a game. It's free (in this basic mode).

Unit cards were the most dreadful part of my modding experience. I remember I came up with a specific map/location/camera orientation that I used on all units (I didn't learn how to free the camera angle until after I had made all of them) and then I'd cut the part of each picture that showed a single soldier and put it in the standard frame. But what made it really tiresome was making the UI cards. They require a transparency layer, and the only two ways I could figure out for that were either to hand-draw the outline of the soldier in each card and paint everything in it white and everything outside it black, or to make a standard layer for each unit type and then try to get all pictures at precisely the right angle/distance from it. I ended up using a combination of the two methods, but it was quite tedious.

I'll look in my records to find my notes from that time...

I'll be anticipating your submod, cpdwane!

[cpdwane]

Ok here's my completed militia hoplite model.
If the mod is to be expanded I think you ought to start a new thread for it, where we can transfer the files across easier and keep them visible rather then be hidden away on the second page of this thread.
Plus I've just released my submod- make sure you check it out

[Lugash]

This looks awesome. I think expanding north to Macedonia is a good idea.

[cpdwane]

What's the latest progress with the expanded map?

[Athkara]

Haha, sorry for the slow reply:

I've just finished adding in all the cities, and will soon begin working on heights / ground_types.

[Seleucos of Olympia]

Good work!

[Hound of Ulster]

I'd move the map a little north and east

[cpdwane]

I'd move the map a little north and east

To what parameters exactly? Which places would you want us to include?

[Seleucos of Olympia]

We can expand it north, but the problem with east is that there is a lot of water there, and RTW breaks down of the water to land ratio is over a certain number.

[cpdwane]

We can expand it north, but the problem with east is that there is a lot of water there, and RTW breaks down of the water to land ratio is over a certain number.

Besides, adding extra water is pointless. I think the new map is OK as athkara is making it now.

[ithinkitsdead]

This sub-mod?






I look forward to the end product.

[Atanamir]

Wow great ..I will be looking for this....

[Athenean21]

agreed

I SECOND THAT

[Dolfa]

Good job!I'll be surely installing it when I finish my current one with Spartans.Good work again!