Are we on? Hello? Testing 1, 2, 3. Hello, this is therussian reporting with HUGE news on a new and upcoming mod made by none other than the legendary Caius Britannicus called "The Crusades". And guess what! It's based on the Crusades! Who would've thought. Anyway, let's take a look at my interview with Caius.
Q. What led you to make a mod concerning the crusades? Why the time period and event?
Well, it all started back in October of 2005. I saw the movie Kingdom of Heaven and said to myself it would be crazy cool if I could play a game that contained the same sort of atmosphere that the movie had. One of epic struggle and impossible odds. So I started just doing a few things here and there for myself to play custom battles. After awhile some friends said it was really neat and I should go all the way and release a very basic mini mod. With all the interest the mini mod began to grow into what the Crusades has become.
Q. I assume many units in the mod were influenced by the warriors in "Kingdom of Heaven"? Where else did you get inspiration for the units and their designs?
Yes, many units are based on designs from Kingdom of Heaven. Most specifically the blue surcoats of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were taken from the movie. Although I darkened them a bit to fit better with the lighting engine in RTW which doesn't like bright colors that much (one of the reasons CA's original skins look so... well... ugly.) Other than that alot of the european units came straight out of my own mind or are a mish-mash of multiple references I have seen like minatures or osprey pictures. The saracens are a little different, I relied heavily on osprey illustrations and on the help of my teammate Reiksmarshal you gave me design ideas by collecting reference material like shields or helmets. He essentially developed all the unit designs for the Saracens. I simply implemented them and gave them my own personal style.
Q. Aside from yourself (obviously) and Reiksmarshal, are there any other team members that help out with the making of The Crusadses?
Yes there are several that have made contributions. We're had help from Uranos (Hegemonia) with our map. He picked up where BDH left off and created a beautiful map that perfectly fit my vision for it. We also have had contributions from Wlesmana of LotR:TW fame, Nzike (Nikeb) of RTR fame, Kscott stopped by breifly to work on the map before we handed it off to Uranos, the chivalry guys allowed me to use some of their stuff and so did Laca. Thats everyone really.
Q. Now, let's talk about this map of yours. It is truly revolutionary, in my eyes, because of all of the new features you have added to the campaign part of The Crusades. Could you explain these new features?
Well theres alot of them so I will only touch on the key important ones (and only the ones that have been announced. )
Some of the key features have to do with armies. Gone are the captian and general models on the map. They are replaced with a single army model that looks very much like a medieval army, with spears and banners flowing in the wind. Also missing from the armies are the strengh banners and general stars. Now with these two changes the entire dynamic of the strategy map has changed. Spys and assassins are more important than ever.
There is also our two campaign system that really utilizes the map to its fullest. Gone is the single campaign. Instead the player chooses between a Crusader campaign and Saracen campaign. Each one has vastly different starting positions for the factions, placing the player at the disadvantage in territory and in economic ability.
Finally, the map also features several graphical overhauls, including new textures, new city models, new fleet models and overhauled agents. The campaign map and strategy map experience has been completely overhauled and probably has received the most man hours of work. One big thing that we did was we made the Nile river completely navigable by ship.
Q. Why did you decide to only have 2 factions, the Crusaders, and the Muslims/Saracens?
Basically I was too lazy to make more.
But, really, it came from me looking at what was fun in RTW and what made this more boring. I realized that it was fun fighting people attacking was great but I also really liked having to defend. And that was something I thought was really lacking in RTW. You were never on the defensive. I sat down and thought to myself, why is the player never put on the defensive. Then it came to me, the AI is too busy fighting itself. So I decided that I would take away the ability for the AI to be fighting its self and be continually deciding that the other AI factions posed more of a threat than the players faction did. With The Crusades the AI will have only one opponent to worry about and thats the player. I am hoping it will mean an incredibly aggressive AI and a gaming experience yet to be achieved with RTW.
Q. As for the battles, how will they compare with vanilla Rome Total War? How will the changes in unit stats and morale, as long as the incorporation of new units effect the battle side of RTW?
This one is alittle tougher to answer. We are still working on unit stats and are hoping to start testing the stats system sometime withing the next week or so. The stat system is based on an establish table top war game. From earlier test yets stay in the fight for some time and taking roughly 75% casualties before routing. Battles are definitly longer and have a more of an impact on your army composition than vanilla RTW.
Well, hm, one last question.
Q. Will battles in The Crusades be more decisive than in RTW? Will the defeat of an army or two throw an Empire in dissaray? In RTW, it was common for the player and the AI to make multiple full stack armies with little impact to their economy. Will this be changed?
Good question. We hope battles will be more decisive. Unit cost and recruitment times in The Crusades will make having full stack armies mean something. Your re-enforcements are also a precious commodity. If you lose an entire army or even two armies you could very well be on the verge of losing the game. It could take many turns to rebuild the armies you lost and in that time (if the AI is as aggressive as we hoped) the AI could capture several cities cutting down on your ability to urn money and thus produce troops quickly.
Ofcourse you are probably thinking that this will mean that a player will be able to easily win a battle and fatally wound the AI. Not so. With our multiple campaigns we are giving the AI a serious leg up. Of course they have more territory, meaning they can fund more armies, but they also get cheaper troops and lower recruit times. meaning destorying a single army for them won't have the domino effect it can have on the player.
Thanks for agreeing to have this interview with me Caius
No problemo
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Well, that's the end of the interview!
Here are some screenshots that Caius gladly provided for the viewing pleasure of our audience!
Don't forget to visit his thread here in TWC
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...8&page=1&pp=20
And his forum at the RTR forums!
http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/i...?showforum=135
This is therussian, bringer of awesome mod interviews, signing out.
The Eagle Standard: The Crusades
Originally Posted by Caius Britannicus
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