Goths All Factions V2.4 for BI 1.6 Released

[Joar]

Here's another "unpleasant" yet welcome event: All of a sudden a fullstack army of Goths invaded Carthage! And finally the Huns are a powerhouse. No Vandal invasion of Africa yet, though. Never seen it happened, not in a mod or vanilla.

The only thing I could wish for is for the Slavs to invade eastern Europe and try to settle in Thrace, Greece etc. Now they always ( more or less ) end up in Spain or France.

[Goth]

Hi Guys
Yes bryhmt the spearmen do have a bonus when fighting against cavalry, the bonus is stated for each unit in EDU file , you can set the bonus to what you like, eg alemanni spearmen have a times 4 bonus against cavalry.
All I work on in map mode is map_regions.tga , the only things to my knowledge that can cause the game to crash when editing this file are putting a city or port on a spot that it doesnt belong ie- river or sea , perhaps a mountain or forest(not sure on these but I avoid them anyway for an easy life. What i tend to do is have RTW running in the background whilst editing map_regions in my graphics program so i can constantly switch between the 2. Any changes made are not made directly in game , i only use the running rtw to show me where obstacles are so i can avoid them.
As for game balance i worked hard to make the hordes do the things you are describing, Joar did the Goths get to Carthage via Egypt or sicily?. Getting the hordes to move historically is very difficult because when you alter a position to make a horde go in a certain direction it alters the way another horde behaves. For instance I actually had the slavs heading for and settling in illyria which i was very pleased with. But then when i made the huns stronger the huns took Vicus Vandali and it diverted the slavs west towards gaul. What I am going to do for 2.5 is make horde units better quality so they are more resilient. I want to see what kind of pressure they can put WRE and ERE under.

Thanks guys
Goth

[brymht]

OK Goth. I apologize for the million questions this may lead up to. But I got the Province of Ulaidh (ulster around this time) added, and was about to work on Roman Wales (Tribus Silures) and add it Romano BRitish faction. This has caused ALL sorts of issues. I'm staying clear of all the watchtowers of Britania Inferior. I think I've steered far away the moutainous areas of wales, and eventually just used the exact same location for the city that is used in the latest copy of Atillia's mod. And I used his color scheme for that province as well, so no rgb problem there. Added all entrie meticuously, checked and rechecked. Still boots me out to the previous menu. I THINK it may have something to do with how you got the Romano BRitish to work as a faction unto themselves, but I'm not sure.

I eventually saved the files I was editing ni another directory and started working on Corsica (aleria) for a few. I got a lot farther on that one, even though I'm still getting CTD when it gets down with the loading screen.

Lastly, attempted to add "show_error" to the shortcut for debugging mode. (thanks RTR forums) and came up with a million errors in your unit text file which appear to be non fatal, but prevent me from seeing the map error.

upon fixing most of the (figured I'd just copy your unit file back later) it gives me an error regarding the romano british faction.

Am I cursed? does god not want me to mod your mod?

[Goth]

Show error hasnt helped me once in map modding so I never use it. Make sure the colour you have used for the province on the map exactly matches the colours described in descr_regions. make sure all entries for the new province are entered in all the files without spelling errors. I really cant comment more unless I have your files to work with. Mapping is simply trial and error and nearly all errors are extremely hard to track down thats why you mod one province at a time. What i do is backup everytime i get a province working so that i dont corrupt my only working files when i try adding the next province. As for my mod I have already added wales the highlands 3 regions in scandinavia, 2 in russia, corsica , the balaerics I have also created more provinces in germany to make the tribes there stronger. if you want you can always wait untill 2.5 comes out. Its like i said in a previous post, mapping is the most frustrating modding work I have done, I have added provinces and they havent worked I have abandoned them and gone back to a previous save, tried adding the province again and its worked! dont ask me why because i dont know, I just persevere and get there in the end. I am just thankful that my new map is complete so i dont have to do anymore because it got on my nerves . Anyway the only advice i can give is just keep trying , you have successfully added ulster so you are doing something right. As for the romano brits, theres no way they will stop the province working, once you have a province working you can give it to whoever you want in descr.strat. tip try making it a rebel (slave)province and see if it helps, if it does you can always change it back to the romano brits later.

Goth

[Slaxx Hatmen]

Byrmht, make sure that you didint make any spelling errors when you typed in the province and settlement names in the txt files.(Namely, descr_strat, descr_regions, descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup and barbarian_invasion_regions_and_settlement_names in bi/data/text folder)
Also, since this is BI, make sure that you've added a legion name to these files aswell. Being a mapper myself I can tell you that it does take patience and perseverence to get things working but if you try hard enough trust me you'll get it working in the end. My advice is keep using show_err, check the txt files for spelling and always ALWAYS make a backup of what you've got working sofar.
Good luck, Celt out.

[Joar]

Hi Guys
Joar did the Goths get to Carthage via Egypt or sicily?. Getting the hordes to move historically is very difficult because when you alter a position to make a horde go in a certain direction it alters the way another horde behaves. For instance I actually had the slavs heading for and settling in illyria which i was very pleased with. But then when i made the huns stronger the huns took Vicus Vandali and it diverted the slavs west towards gaul. What I am going to do for 2.5 is make horde units better quality so they are more resilient. I want to see what kind of pressure they can put WRE and ERE under.

Since I controlled both Egypt and Sicily ( as the ERE ), they didn't take that path. The Goths controlled all of Spain so I guess they came from the west, but I got the impression that they came from the sea since I never saw them anywhere prior to their siege of Carthage ( they had fleets present ). I play without fog of war so I have a pretty good notion whats goin on in the world... ;-)

[Goth]

Celt is a much more accomplished mapper than I am Bryhmt, in fact its his map I have been working on for Imperium Julianorum and all factions 2.5. Celt it must have taken you ages to build such a huge map, your patience must be far greater than mine.
Goths Invaded Africa by sea, thats excellent Joar!
Thanks Guys
Goth

[brymht]

I am finally starting to get the hang of it. Its a lot more complicated than I had assumed. Lots to be done with other .tga files if you want to add an accessible city in corsica and such. Have made 9 new provinces, and have another 10 more to make. Thanks for putting up with the noob questions. Let me know if you guys need any grunt work done on your mods.

[Goth]

I will be asking for advice from you soon brymht . And thanks for the offer of help, I have finished editing my map now but if I still had work to do you could definately do it for me

Thanks
Goth

[Joar]

Here's a suggestion I've tinkered around with a bit myself. It's really simple to mod and a lot nicer to play ( at least, I think so ).

I've made "realistic" family trees from the start for the ERE and the WRE. Removed all the made up characters and started with the hicstorically accurate families that ruled both empires of this time. This means that you will start with a fairly small Imperial family and get suggestions for adoption and marriages right away. In order to balance it up, I've replaced the removed family members with recruitable generals and made them more accessable on the map.

I think it works fine and gives it a nice historic and personal touch.

[Goth]

I like that very much Joar. Are they just the Roman families or have you done other factions, I am very interested in this one .
Goth

[Joar]

Nope, just the Romans thus far. But the idea can be applied to all I guess. The reason I did it wasn't because I'm one of those hardcore realism fans out there, I was just tired of starting out with a massive family from the start.

[Slaxx Hatmen]

Celt is a much more accomplished mapper than I am Bryhmt, in fact its his map I have been working on for Imperium Julianorum and all factions 2.5. Celt it must have taken you ages to build such a huge map, your patience must be far greater than mine.
Goths Invaded Africa by sea, thats excellent Joar!
Thanks Guys
Goth

Aye it did. And yes I had to really put my patience to the limit with that one. But i'm very glad that my map is getting used and tweaked by other modders.(Which, if you read the readme in the original version, was my intention)

[brymht]

One small point of contention for Goth. First off, I can definately see you point about scaling the Rome Empire back city wise a bit to symbolize the decline. However, your map is a bit sparse in certain locations, Brittania most especially. Giving Brittania and Hybernia just 4 provinces always seems kinda boring to me. I broke it up a bit, and added just 3 provinces to the British Isles. Was still able to have plenty of battles which were not sieges.

Added Brittania Prima : (Wales) Sparsely populated, Capital at Maridunum. Goes to Romano Brits, but need to build it up a lot for it to be very useful.

Added Dumnonia : Cornwall. Always kinda pseudo independent, even during the roman occupation. Capital of Isca. When the Romans left, they took back their old Kingdom. More in common with the Celts of Hybernia than the Romano Brits. (I THINK that Cornish is closer to Gailic than Welsh, but I may be wrong) They're independent, and have a powerful leader (duke of Cornwall from Arthurian legends) and a strong independent army. faily well populated.

Added Ulaid : Norther Hybernia, where the Scotti tribes hold dominance before their move to Caledonia. The more walike side of Hybernia. They get the shrine to war, but are not well populated. Goes to the Picts.

Just my two cents for vs 2.5. This was my most effective map change to your 2.4 map. I think this would add to the playability of the Romano Brits and the Picts. Also, the Picts should have archers and some heavy infantry as well. And I beafed up the Celtic Berzerker unit to make him more effective, although still not as effective as the Lombard Berzerkers.

[Joar]

I don't mean to step on anybodys toes here, but I'm not to positive on making this yet another "brit-mod" for the celtic and Brit-fans out there, there are plenty of mods that focus on the British islands, like "Arthurian: TW" and "Imperia Romana" etc. Lot's of cities translates into economical and military power, and there's no call for making an - for the time - insignificant island in the outskirts of the empire ( also abandoned by the empire in the early 5-th century ), more strength.

Generally speaking, I like large maps but with a moderate number of cities. Expanding the map to the east would be nice ( to give the Sassanid Empire it's true boarders ).

[brymht]

Britain was more insignificant because it tended to have its own problems during this time. Accorrding to bede, it was really beset upon by pretty much everyone. Economically, Britain really did haev a lot going for it. quite a lot of raw matierials and a thriving wool trade. Even decent wine around this time. Dumnonia was historically a separate kingdom after the roman withdrawl. I think making it a well fortified rebel settlement is fairly realistic. Ulaid (Ulster) was run by the Scotti, who were quite a bit different from many Hybernian tribes. And setting Brittania Prima, (Wales) apart from the rest of Britain was something the Romans did when they re divided Britain into 6 administrative parts. (Which is far too many for this mod) I think going frmo 4 - 7 provinces in Britain and Hybernia would be a ncie touch. Gameplay wise it makes the Pctii more of a threat in the short term, makes things a bit tougher for the Saxons, and if they survive united, allows to Romano British to be a power unto themselves; which they couldn't realyl do with 2 settlements.

[Joar]

We know very little what went on the British islands. But if you were to look on Europe from a political point of view, Britain would hardly be in the center of attention. I have no problem with guys wanting to put extra light on their own country for sentimental reasons or whatever, but please, don't force us others to feel the same. This is a great mod and one of the reasons I enjoy it is because is has not been "infected" with romanticism and nationalistic sentimentality. If you want to play a mod that puts focus on Britain during this time frame, then there's Arthurian: TW and Imperia Romana.

But that's just my humble wish.

[lithuanian]

Goth, how are you doing? Where are you? I'm eagerly waiting for your updates...

[Goth]

Hi Lithuanian
I havent abandoned the project so dont worry, I have been working hard on Imperium Julianorum which is due for release in Beta form by next wednesday. Stay tuned mate

Goth

[lithuanian]

Thanks for update, Goth, and keep up with awsome job!