Interviewer: Jacobus Maximus. Imperium: Total War representative: Atheist Peace.
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Hey Atheist Peace, thanks for the interview! So, to start off and for those who are new to Imperium: Total War and the modding community as a whole tell us, just what is Imperium: Total War?
Imperium Total War is a modification for Rome: Total War - BI that aims to produce a terrific environment of fun gameplay and innovative features, along with being as historically accurate as possible. The mod starts in 280 BCE and runs until the early period of the roman empire.
Cool and what inspired you and the Imperium: Total War team to embark on such a project?
Well, Imperium started as a small project made by PyrrhusIV. During the summer, myself and several others joined the team and began to work. From the beginning we had big plans, but things were tough to start out. There are always the problems of recruiting and popularity, and we struggled to have a resonating message about our mod amongst the immense popularity of mods like EB and RTR. We continued to work hard though, and our mod now has many solid members and has seen quite an increase in popularity.
And what are your main aims for the Mod; will there be other versions after release? Would you regard this as a short term or long term project?
Our main aims for the mod are to present a game that plays better than any other mod, as well as keeping it accurate. We want to have the highest quality skins possible, which we do, and to present tremendous improvements in gameplay. We will be using scripting extensively for this.
There will almost certainly be later versions after the initial release, as we continue to solidify our mod and improve all aspects. I would generally regard it as a long term project, but hopefully not one that will leave its fans waiting long periods for releases.
Who is on the development team? Do any of them have any other previous mod work on display for the hungry readers?
The development team consists of many solid members. Some of which are Dromikaites, PyrrhusIV, spirit_of_rob, antiochus epiphanes, Flavius Quintus, Hannibal89, alpaca and Black Crow. Antiochus has worked with other mods, Rise of persia being one, and spirit_of_rob worked on Age of Hellas and now Hegemonia.
Will it be a mod only for those who bought BI? Or will the less fortunate of us who do not have BI be able to play Imperium: Total War?
Unfortunately for those who don't own BI, as of now, we will only be releasing a version compatible with BI. We feel that it provides many features that will improve our mod, and we would rather not take time away from modding to create two seperate versions.
So to get a little more specific, could you possibly tell us a few of the units you plan to have for each faction?
You'll see a lot of interesting units for factions like Maurya and Nabataea. And our units for more conventional factions are going to be good too.
Here are a couple of our more interesting units:
Nabataean Axemen
Indian Elephants (ignore the crappy pic quality)
Will you be renovating the campaign map, and if so - how so?
We will be renovating the map. Our map was built off of the wonderful Mundus Magnus map, with changes to various areas and province layouts. We will also be using scripting to enhance campaign play. When we presented our map, many people were concerned with the large number of provinces it contains, so we came up with what we hope will solve that problem. One of our scripting features is a feature that will allow for larger scale conquering without so many pointless sieges. We will have larger cities, such as Rome or Carthage, influence the cities around them (that are owned by the same faction as the larger) so that if someone conquers Rome for example, the roman towns of Capua and Arretium might then submit to the conquerer.
The system is obviously more complex than that, and contains many important conditionals, but that's all the detail I will go into for now.
Here is a picture of our map with most factions in place. Those aren't the correct colors though. This shot was taken a few weeks ago.
Do you guys have any ideas/plans on how to use some of the new features in BI, such as the expanded religion attributes or the shadow/emergent factions?
We will be using the religions to enhance gameplay, as well as possibly some emergent factions. One of the best things BI allows for is changing the cultures of factions. This will allow the game to be much more fun, as we can have specific cultures for factions like Maurya.
What do you think will set Imperium: Total War aside from the competition?
Probably our scripting. Although other mods use scripting, we have come up with some great new stuff that no other mod has done. One of these things, which we have not revealed yet is prisoner exchanges in a style similar to MTW.
If you could sum up Imperium: Total War in ten words or less, what would it be?
I think it's too special to sum up in 10 words
When do you think the mod will be ready for the hungry masses? Do you have a specific release date?
We don't have a specific release date right now. I can give a rough estimate though, it is possible that we'll have our first release out by the first month or two of next year, but again that's only an estimate.
Until then, how often will the Team be posting Previews and teasers?
We have slightly abandoned our weekly preview format lately, but we will be returning to it and we hope to bring more in-depth previews in the future. We will also be previewing things like our AoR system and numerous scripting features, as they become more finalized and complete. You can view our latest update here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37849
Cool! And to conclude, any last message you want to give to the Total war Community? Are we getting any exclusive teasers for the Eagle standard? Please?
Exclusive teasers? Hmm... Well here are a few skins that are some of the latest work being done:
Enough for ya?
JM: Hell yea! Thanks AP.
AP: Thanks for the interview JM, and to the readers, don't forget to visit our TWC sub-forum, here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=80
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Reporters note:
Well guys there it is a preview and interview telling you all you need to know about Imperium: Total War. As you can probably tell the team is both professional and talented, this is one of the most promising mods I have seen since I first joined Total was center. If you needed a reason to buy BI, Imperium: Total War is your reason. So if you don’t have it hurry up and buy BI and come back the TWC and check out this awesome mod! Good luck to the team and see you on the battlefield Guys! Again, thanks AP for your time.
JM would also like to point out this thread: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t=32470&page=1 for more cool screens!
Cheers Guys
JM