Steampunk/Samurai UPDATED August 17 (with LINK, check OP/got eye candy pics inside as well)

[The Based God]

I wish I knew how to make models and mod this game, I'd love for this to be a reality.

[esejony65]

Ok first of all i would like to say this is the first time i touch the pack file manager, so i don't have any experience making anithing this is my first time. i need to check some tutorials but i really want to help with this mod.

I've been doing some test with the pack file manager and i realise something we can use some abilities like mass fire and light infantry behaviour.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also more stuff i been doing.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is some issues like when i change the officers animation to "revolver" he got remplaced the katana by a sable and i don't know how to change this.

[stumpndum]

Russians wouldn't join Germany, 1st of they hate each other at that time and 2 they would of attacked eachother anyway because of the potential of territorial gain, you also need to have the boshin war because i think russia might of tried invading norther eastern japan, they did have the ruso-sino war and without the boshin war they wouldn't of had enough time to industrialise, i think.

The Ezo idea has some good potential, you couldn't have 3 clans up there unless you wanted to split up the already small island, you'd have to have it as one clan, it'd start of with like 3-4 full stacks of units while the imperials start of with a much more modernised territory but no units to defend.

You could also tweak the story tho, have it that the shogun asked for Russian intervention in 1870, the russians would stop the imperials, not fight since they wouldn't want to many foreign soldiers in their country in return for one or two ports to be seeded to Russia, the russians would love more territory and defence against any posible pacific powers. So Russians cut of the top of japan and stop the imperial armies with more machine guns and artillery then the imperials can hope to counter at their early stage of modernisation.

That way you can get more then 1 clan on the shogun side. You can split of into 2 different roads here, a place where the war didn't exactly end, cold warish, the imps move onto other things and go bugger those crazy samurai we'll station our own troops here in small force since we all know those samurai couldn't take us on, itd give some starting units to the imps but not much. The other way is end the war and have no defences.

anyway here are some more idea's for units.

Imperial trooper: Average trooper, not as awesome stats as the shogunite trooper because of the emperor being caught with his pants down.

Imperial Stormtrooper's: Fast, grenade happy, shorter range, more acurate, larger ammo reserves.

Imperial Grenader: Same as what Weirdoascensor suggested.

Imperial European battle hardended vet: He saw some combat in europe, better stats then trooper

Imperial Shocktrooper: unlocked later on, equiped with semi-automatic weapons or full auto if possible, great ambushers.

Since the Imps are allied with the british they might send some help to japan, not actual british soldiers because their needed in europe but Australian ones, its closer to japan and if japan solves their problem the british can get more help in europe. It'd function much like the foreign units in FOTS, small supply but worth it

Australian digger: Much better stats then trooper.

The Shogun could have the levies replaced with Russian troopers instead because of their agreement, makes the Shogun much more harder to attack, balances out the fact the Imps control most of japan.

I dunno those are just some of my idea's, hope it helps.

[LordKailas]

So in terms of the feel of the two opposing sides, i think as a rule the Imperial supporting clans should be far more modern infantry, ie British expeditionary force feel.

The Shogunate supporting forces have the whole samurai armour with gas masks and modern hallmarks and rifles look to them.

It might be an idea to think in terms of we have plenty of good back stories to draw on here. So lets focus on what would work in terms of good game play values.

I think if we want a good conflict then the idea of the war being drawn into a stalemate and each side become insular to the other for the 50 year gap. This then facilitates having the rail roads active, and also having strong front-line fortifications along the borders between imperial and shogunate forces, like super castle towns geared only for defence and not recruitment, ie loads of garrison units and gun towers etc, this would give us a kind of trench warfare.

One thing i really like the idea of having a completely independent faction, as if someone declared themselves a republic whist playing through FOTS. They could be anywhere but it would add another faction and keep the warfare nice and dynamic.

One thing we haven't considered is how could we modernise the Navy, is it even possible?

But anyway i think we should start coming up with clans who would back either faction and unit rosters/back stories for them, then ladies and gents we have the starts of a fracking awesome mod!!

[LordKailas]

Ok first of all i would like to say this is the first time i touch the pack file manager, so i don't have any experience making anithing this is my first time. i need to check some tutorials but i really want to help with this mod.

I've been doing some test with the pack file manager and i realise something we can use some abilities like mass fire and light infantry behaviour.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also more stuff i been doing.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is some issues like when i change the officers animation to "revolver" he got remplaced the katana by a sable and i don't know how to change this.

By the way i love these units they look awesome! Any chance we could get rifle armed Kachi looking units? And hats off for those ninja, they are too cool.

[stumpndum]

I reckon that the shogun sides should be clans and the imperials should be armies, think about it the shogun's supposed to be keeping traditionalist value's alive so clans controll the armies, the Imperials are supposed to be modernising so they should have army groups like this.

IMPERIALIST FORCES:

3rd Expeditionary Force: Founded in 1894 by General Tomenazaki(whatever name) It was to be the Japanese equivilent of other armies Colonial forces. It's main recruitment center is on the island of Kyushu and Shikoku since that has the largest foreign ports, and closer to potential colonial assets. Fighting in some of the oppening battles of WW1 has given them a bit of experiance and readyness for the coming battles.

3 bonus: Normal infantry accuracy +1
Elite infantry slightly higher moral
Bonus to trade with foreigners.

Emperor's Defence Force: Posted in norrthern Honshu they are the Barrier between Shogunite forces and the rest of japan, the rest of japan still thinks they are backward's samurai but these men know that is not true, they pleaded with the emperor not to send forces to help the british in 1914 and now the defence force will pay in 1916. It is no matter, they still prepaired with all they had, will it be enough?

3 bonus: Decent beggining defences
units have much higher moral (This is to offset being on the other side of a much larger force, and to signify that they knew what was coming.
Artillery + accuracy (Been aiming for a while.)

Grand Army of Japan: Found in mainland Japan they are the largest of all branches of the military in Japan. At this time tho most of their forces are over sea's, fighting the germans/austrians and ottomans, this has left them with little to no forces on japan, but they will be bringing troops home for the fight and even if they can't, there are pleanty of people waiting to help.

3 bonus: Large amounts of territory.
Cheap units.
largeer unit sizes (The demerit is their troops are more crap)

SHOGUNITE FORCES: Now this depends on what scenario you use, the controlling some of the top of honshu or pushed all the way to ezo. This is asuming you can have three in the game.

Takeaki Clan: Pushed back to northern honshu (Or somewhere in ezo) in the boshin war Takeaki managed to stave of being eliminated by russian assistance, after the war ended (or stalled) they began a massive recruitment drive and preparation of their troops in the hopes of one day smashing their way back into their home. That time has come, and they will be the first into the frey

Bonus: Vanguard of the Shoganite forces, pleanty of beggining troops.
High moral.
Best army in melee

Keisuki Clan: While the Takeaki were preparing for war the Keisuki were building everything they would need to fight, factories are owned by family members, and corporations are basically small clans. All prepare for war.

Bonus: Cheaper buildings.
Cheaper artillery/machineguns/ships
Bonus to econamy.

Tokugawa Clan: Despite the defeat at the hands of the imperials the Tokugawa survives, still. It was they who negotiated Russian assistance and through that keep the Takeaki and Keisuki clans in line. Depite WW1 raging on the other side of the world Russia is still keeping strong military ties with the shogun, and if someone were observant it might be the Russians are preparing something? (hint at the russian revolution)

bonus: Tax increase (Supposed to symbolise tribute from the other clans.)
Russian connections, some russian troops, boats and other materials come. (I think they should be Siberian troops so their expensive but bloody good and get bonus from fighting in winter, a way for the shogun to contenue fighting during the winter months when everyone else stops.)
Shogun: increased stats for all troops, smaller troop sizes tho.

Thats a premineray outline hope you like.

[Connor Mulhern]

Ok, I am going to let you guys cover the story, I think we do have to think of more practical problems however. For one, we need some sort of a viable way to not just have a front line already set up. That would be boring for the first part of the game, as this is trench warfare, and trying to get a breakthrough would be incredibly slow. We are also going to have to solve that issue of trench warfare. We are going to have to implement it in the game, no doubt, and while I think we can mod the shields from vanilla, we are going to have to solve more practical issues, like the fact that in full stack the defensive size is going to slaughter the other based on hard unit caps. I propose we solve this by narrowing the battlefield (Make reinforcements take less time to get there from the edge) and making only the ATTACKING side have a double unit limit (to allow the higher chance of a breakthrough). I also think most units should fight in loose formation to start with, as that is what happened. The intercept area of armies should also be increased to simulate world war 1 style battlefields better. We need to find a reason for clan to be spread out all across the islands, however, as I think giving the front line would kind of ruin the early flow of the game, and make the independent faction inviable as you could just backstab one of them and always have the imperials/shogunate crushed every game, as most units would be on the front line. Does not mean MOST of the area can be concentrated in one area, but that does not mean impossible. Also, I suggest trying to have at least one axis and one allied power in on the conflict. I would suggest giving the Russians Hokkaido and the Axis powers the islands around Kyushu (There are three in the game). On the navy issue, I think we could do it. The baseline is there, it would involve a lot of reskining but I think we could do it.

[weirdoascensor]

Ok first of all i would like to say this is the first time i touch the pack file manager, so i don't have any experience making anithing this is my first time. i need to check some tutorials but i really want to help with this mod.

I've been doing some test with the pack file manager and i realise something we can use some abilities like mass fire and light infantry behaviour.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is some issues like when i change the officers animation to "revolver" he got remplaced the katana by a sable and i don't know how to change this.

...
Do The Light Infantry Behaviour function properly, where the troops fan out and all could fire?
If the answer is yes, then you should release it as a standalone mod; There is a great demand for Light Infantry Behavior for FoTS Light Infantries... you could reap reps...lots of it...

[Connor Mulhern]

Ok, lets get a list going of who wants to participate in this mod. I am going to throw my hat in the ring as a general gameplay designer. I can not mod, but not to sound egocentric or anything, but I have a great mind for coming up with creative solutions to problems, and I can do some historical research. On that note, I know this is completely unrealistic, but can we somehow find a way to get an Ottoman unit in there. I can do the voice acting (I speak the Turkish) and it would be really cool to hear the units screaming "Allah Allah Allah" as they charge the lines

[Erwin Rommel]

thanx for the replies guys.

I am going to throw my hat in the ring as a general gameplay designer. I can not mod, but not to sound egocentric or anything, but I have a great mind for coming up with creative solutions to problems, and I can do some historical research.

Your absolutely welcome and yes we surely need more contributions, who knows, maybe tomorrow we'll have some one posting another backstory so awesome, we have to do it. Well for one, I dont think we can implement the Ottomans unless we can find fez look alike hats or anim heads without resorting to real actual model editing.

So in short, this mod, while basing on the steampunk will rely heavily on already existing models, just the clever matching of samurai armor wielding gatling guns will make this even more awesome.

[esejony65]

...
Do The Light Infantry Behaviour function properly, where the troops fan out and all could fire?
If the answer is yes, then you should release it as a standalone mod; There is a great demand for Light Infantry Behavior for FoTS Light Infantries... you could reap reps...lots of it...

of course there you go

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=533234

[Connor Mulhern]

thanx for the replies guys.



Your absolutely welcome and yes we surely need more contributions, who knows, maybe tomorrow we'll have some one posting another backstory so awesome, we have to do it. Well for one, I dont think we can implement the Ottomans unless we can find fez look alike hats or anim heads without resorting to real actual model editing.

So in short, this mod, while basing on the steampunk will rely heavily on already existing models, just the clever matching of samurai armor wielding gatling guns will make this even more awesome.

There are plenty of fez like models, sure it wont be perfect, like those caps that all the generals wear. They could just be recolored red with a little black tail integrated in on the model. I know it is unrealistic, but for me the most iconic charge is one where everybody is screaming allah in a rhythmic chant. One thing we are going to have to do however is to try and add bayonets back into the game. That is one model we are simply going to have to change, as it is just wrong not to have them fighting with samurai swords if they are conscripts.

[LordKailas]

Ill happily try and organise, i wouldnt mind learning how to mod (used to be active on the homeworld 2 modding) and also i know my history for this period so ill gladly add anything i can on that front.

Does any one want to take over this project and kinda build a team? I would but im new to total war modding so we could do with someone with a bit more experiance maybe?

I love the idea for those clans and the balancing. To kind of stop the war being polarised between the north and the south and putting alot of pressure on the clan thats still on the mainland might it be an idea to have one of our shogunate clans positioned elsewhere, yet not too far from the main shogunate forces?

Thinking of navies, if we remove wooden ships from the rosters and just make iron ones avaliable straight off.

Alsooo what about possibly a revised technology research tree, affecting accuracy and ranges of standard rifles etc, also the effectivness of armour against modern weaponry.

This is looking to be an awesome concept.

[stumpndum]

I don't know if its any help but i can write background descriptions and other stuff, you know add the the lore.

[Connor Mulhern]

Ok here is who we got so far
Erwin Rommel-Maybe Modding, not sure
Connor Mulhern- Ideas, historical research, testing
esejony65- Modding
LordKailas- Historical research, Modding
Stumpndum- Making descriptions sound interesting in stuff, building lore

[Connor Mulhern]

Ok, to have a proof of concept, how about me mod in a laying down feature (as that is what they did without trenches) and a automatic rifle feature (They should not be using regular rifles). Then we release them as seperate mods and say, if you like this go to this thread and try to help out in our total overhaul. That should generate interest in the mod

[weirdoascensor]

l'd say First you should find a skinner...and a graphic artist...Why? Skins are one moddable thing that could define the mod...And graphic artist of course sets how would the mod looks like...
For modders, someone who knows his/her ways in ESF editor...

Well certainly not me... Not my specialty....

For first standalone pack, a integratable Infantry Pack should be ideal...no, you couldnt mod in prone position or handheld automatic rifles...but shotguns and grenade launchers would be easy...

[Connor Mulhern]

l'd say First you should find a skinner...and a graphic artist...Why? Skins are one moddable thing that could define the mod...And graphic artist of course sets how would the mod looks like...
For modders, someone who knows his/her ways in ESF editor...

Well certainly not me... Not my specialty....

For first standalone pack, a integratable Infantry Pack should be ideal...no, you couldnt mod in prone position or handheld automatic rifles...but shotguns and grenade launchers would be easy...

We could use the crouching position to at least make it look kind of like that, have everything be based off of light infantry, and then we could make the reload speed ridiculously fast and maybe but out the last part of the animation. Would that work?

[weirdoascensor]

Basing units on Light Infantry, combined with RoTS nonstandard formation, theoretically could possibly work... but super fast reloads would...uhmm... not work, i should say, and of course there would not be any magazine reloading animation...

Look, if you're really curious, you should try the PFM, starting with small experiments. Download it at Mod Workshops, Tools and Tutorials. Learn it, study tables, read tutorials, reverse-engineer another successful mods...particularly a NTW mod...

Well at least you could see the "insides" of the game...

[Connor Mulhern]

Basing units on Light Infantry, combined with RoTS nonstandard formation, theoretically could possibly work... but super fast reloads would...uhmm... not work, i should say, and of course there would not be any magazine reloading animation...

Look, if you're really curious, you should try the PFM, starting with small experiments. Download it at Mod Workshops, Tools and Tutorials. Learn it, study tables, read tutorials, reverse-engineer another successful mods...particularly a NTW mod...

Well at least you could see the "insides" of the game...

I know there would not be a good reload animation, but maybe just having it go down half way then just reverse the animation would look bareable