Extended Rome: Total War [WIP] (Parthia, Bactria, & Epirus Complete! Plus Campaign map screens!)

[ahowl11]

Battle Scenes Part 3

[debux]

That was fast! Nice screenies (although I'd suggest you to play the battle, and take the screenies in the replay, or at least play with minimal UI on )

Looks very nice! Unit cards look very vanilla-ish, great work there (although the thureophoroi looks too sharp, maybe it could be softened for it to look more like the vanilla cards) You could also add a selection of the best pics to the first post, for those newcomers that don't want to find the pics.

[ahowl11]

Ha thanks for the advice debux, how do I use the minimal UI?

The Thureophoroi is from THS along with the Thorakitai. The other units are from XGM except the Silver Shield Legionaries, they are from Rise of Empire. Again, many thanks to the creators of those units, and thanks for letting me use them in this mod.

I will look to complete The Antigonid Kingdom and the Greek Cities next!

[debux]

Ha thanks for the advice debux, how do I use the minimal UI?

Dig up your preferences text file (within the Rome - Total War/preferences folder, or your modfolder), and look up the "MINIMAL_UI:FALSE" line, and change it to "MINIMAL_UI:TRUE"... in that file, there are also a lot of configurations that one can't access through the game, such as the distance needed to see grass, the option to disable the (annoying *ahem ahem*) green markers from the units or to make the promoting units shine in the battlemap, amongst many other options that explain pretty much themselves.

The Thureophoroi is from THS along with the Thorakitai. The other units are from XGM except the Silver Shield Legionaries, they are from Rise of Empire. Again, many thanks to the creators of those units, and thanks for letting me use them in this mod.

I suppose you've asked for the permissions to use them, right?

Good luck man! Happy to say I'm subscribed to this thread

[ahowl11]

Ok, I will have to check it out. Yes I have permission

Awesome, you have subscribed to a worthwhile thread!

[ahowl11]

Update: I have not been able to work on much, this past week I have been studying and taking finals. Next week will be busy as well since my baseball team has made it to the playoffs. However, this weekend should provide two more factions being finished. I hope to get The Antigonid Kingdom and the Greek Cities finished, with some battle screens posted up. Until then I might update the Seleucids a little by changing the descr_strat. So expect some updates in the next couple of days!

[AugustusCaeser]

I really like the concept of this mod with the mundus magnus map but with vanilla feel something that i was looking for in a mod! just a suggestion i think you should take the britons and make them into another new faction mabye the bactrians or the mauryans(i think these 2 factions did exist during this time) or mabye another faction?

[ahowl11]

Yes, they existed. I would not plan on making any other faction changes. Each of the factions I have listed below are good in their own right. I believe the Britons play a big role in the game and the Gauls and Germans need competition.

[ahowl11]

Update#1:
99% finished with the Greek roster, I am waiting for a unit to be re-textured and then they will be complete.
Macedon is probably 50% complete as I have not really started implementing their units. Once both factions are complete, I will post some screens of a battle.

Also I updated the descr_strat for the Seleucids, Ptolemies, and Greeks. I gave Mytilene to the Ptolemies from Macedon, added some units to the Seleucids' eastern settlements to raise the population happiness, and edited the Greeks starting units and garrisons.

Finally, Thrace.

After much thinking, I have decided that they will have a GREEK culture. Their starting unit roster for this game though will only be Thracian units. I am thinking about naming them the Odyrsian Kingdom, but if they were to hold greek cities, that they could recruit generic greek units. However with their capital city Seutopolis and other 'barbarian' settlements they could recruit their normal units. It's just a thought right now. At the time of 280 BC Thrace was both Hellenic from the Lysimachean Empire and Thracian from the Odrysian kingdom. I am trying to make it so Thrace can be both, like it was in history.

Hopefully I will post some nice screenshots of an Antigonid vs. GCS battle soon!

Update#2: The Roman Roster is finished

Something that you all should know:

When you will play this mod after it's initial release the rosters for each faction will be very bare.
For example the Romans have lost many of it's original units:
Auxilia, Light Auxilia, Cavalry Auxilia, Archer Auxilia, Roman Archers have been removed from the roster. The Romans did not just have 'Auxilia troops' handy everywhere. If they did they were specific auxilia troops.

So the romans will start off in this mod with the basic Polybian roster of Hastati, Principes, Velites and Equites. They will also have Town Watch for garrison purposes and a new unit 'Funditores' a slinger unit.

As far as the Marian Reforms go, do not expect much. You will simply get the Early Legionary Cohort/First Cohort, and Legionary Cohort/First Cohort along with Roman Cavalry. Troops only trained in the home settlements.

Carthage will only have it's Civic troops.
No faction will have Elephants.
Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires won't have access to African or Persian Troops
Greeks won't have hoplites
Barbarians will only have basic troops, no "Tribe Specific" units.

Reasoning:
Until I get help, or learn how to include an AOR system then these troops will be in the waiting line for the mod. More than likely I will release the mod without the AOR system and include it in a patch instead so do not fret!

So when I release the first version of the mod, take the oppurtunity to learn that these troops included are the faction specific troops only and that these can be recruited anywhere on the map.

The only AOR unit is Spartan Hoplites, just because the Greeks needed an elite unit and there was no point in removing it if I will be adding it in anyways.

Still hoping to finish the Greeks and Antigonids soon, until then I will move onto Carthage.

There will be some battle scenes by the end of the day.

[debux]

Update:
After much thinking, I have decided that they will have a GREEK culture. Their starting unit roster for this game though will only be Thracian units. I am thinking about naming them the Odyrsian Kingdom, but if they were to hold greek cities, that they could recruit generic greek units. However with their capital city Seutopolis and other 'barbarian' settlements they could recruit their normal units. It's just a thought right now. At the time of 280 BC Thrace was both Hellenic from the Lysimachean Empire and Thracian from the Odrysian kingdom. I am trying to make it so Thrace can be both, like it was in history.

Have you thought of using BI's religion feature as a replacement for the lack of a real system that portrays that kind of cultural problem in vanilla RTW?

Hopefully I will post some nice screenshots of an Antigonid vs. GCS battle soon!

Can't wait for that part

[ahowl11]

Check my last post as I believe I edited it after you posted.

Yes I have, it could be useful.

There will be screens! I promise

[ahowl11]

Battle Screens: Rome vs. Carthage

I was not able to take as good screenshots in this one but nonetheless here they are.

As for the minimal UI I tried it but I like the normal way better

Still stuck on the Greeks and Antigonids but Carthage and Rome were finished today!

[Skull]

Very good!
Maybe I shoud be able to help...

Tip: In descr_sm_factions you shod enable the rebels in custom battles and make Carthage perfer naval invasions,so the AI will more likley board a large army on a good sized fleet and try to take over Rome...

[korsakoff]

good luck with the project ahowl11 if you need help with 1 or 2 skins just ask

[ahowl11]

@skull, Rebels are already enabled and I will give certain factions the ability to attack from sea
@evilkinevil, thanks if I ever need something I will let you know

[Skull]

@skull, Rebels are already enabled and I will give certain factions the ability to attack from sea

Ah,good!

Also,here is a bit of...something for you...

These are 3 Illyrian textures I made,they where first intended to be used for my mod,but I was too lazy to make the whole thing again so,i have uploaded them heare and I hope you will put them to good use.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Textures:
1. Greek crew Illyrian
2. Illyrian Hoplites
3. Illyrian Heavy Peltast

EDIT: Sorry,I made a mistake.
I acidently insted of uploading the Illyrian Light Spearman texture,I uploaded one of the first textures I made,the Thracian Peltast...
So here is the spearman texture...

[ahowl11]

Thank you skull!

[debux]

I suffered looking at those Carthie cav impaling themselves on Triarii spears...

Looks nice! Although I'd omit Carthage having so many civic troops... after all, their citizens were more notorious for being merchants. You should give them as civic units only a militia unit, a light infantry unit (as the levies they'd recruit in times of crisis) and reduced and expensive heavy infantry unit (maybe the sacred band, or the few poeni that chose a military life) and a heavy cav unit (the sacred band or a noble cav)... the rest should be provided by allies/subjugated states, such as lybians (maybe they can give the standard heavy infantry) or the numidians (light cav)... I know that you haven't wanted to include these because you don't have an AoR system yet, but these troops were so common that you might add them as temporary faction units, instead of having ahistorical units... I don't mean to say that the work you have done is bad, but you might reduce the amount of work you'll have to do in the future if you choose to do that.

And yeah, minimal UI is hard to get used to... I only started liking it after playing a mod that had it by default, and I had no idea on changing it back

[ahowl11]

I understand your concern. For the most part, civic troops are weak though. Noble Cavalry is the strongest unit. In the end Carthage will have access to many units to reflect how diverse their army was

[Punic Hoplite]

And as a side note, please dear Baal make all phalanx-capable units of Carthage simply spearmen, or close order infantry. There is no indication that I have found that Carthaginian soldiers fought in a phalanx during the First Punic War or against Pyrrhus. It will open up Carthaginian flexibility on the battlefield, and probably be more historically accurate

And as for the actual troops, make any Carthaginian (people with Carthaginian citizenship) units have stats similar to a warband, with slightly higher defense values (because they could afford to buy good equipment). But for their normal army, it should be quite diverse, though what you could do is have specific areas that would be extremely plentiful with local mercenaries. Say the area of Carthage is one such zone. It would be filled with mercenaries of good quality, with said mercenaries replenishing themselves rapidly compared to other areas. I could help make these regions if you want