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Thread: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

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    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX





    The best Publication for Total War and Modding News!


    Eagle Standard CONTENT INDEX
    (Do not scroll until specific post appears)

    Rome II
    Shogun II
    Modding Summit
    Napoleon and Empire
    Medieval II
    Eras
    Vault Column


    Letter from The Dutch Devil

    Hey everyone, and welcome to the latest issue of the Eagle Standard! We bring you shiny new art, made by the talented artist Radboud. He changed the current main banner and he made two new banners for the Rome II and Modding Summit sections. For the modding summit we managed to secure three interviews: one with taw on his visit to the Creative Assembly, and two others with Shogun II modders on the Assembly Kit. Next week we'll have some articles on the Assembly Kit itself as part of our Moddding Summit coverage. We also have the first Vault Column; Vault Staff will provide us with a column for every issue, in which they discuss hosting providers, providing you with the information you need when deciding which one to use.

    The Dutch Devil
    ES Editor



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    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Rome II

    Total War Rome II Latest news
    This month has seen the release of an epicly awesome video, in which James Russell talks us through the siege of Carthage with a good 9 minutes of unaltered gameplay. We have a first look at some of the newly announced gameplay features, such as the amphibious assault, and changes to the tactical map. Both features already looked very good; seeing Roman troops disembark, jumping off deck to sprint up to the palisade with flaming projectiles streaking the skies above them, is one of many impressive scenes in this gameplay video! So if you haven't watched it yet, here it is:

    Gameplay video


    In the walkthrough, James Russell mentions several key points about Rome II, including the fact that Creative Assembly is really trying to show that every single soldier is fighting to stay alive. With that in mind, Creative Assembly implemented a unit camera, which places the camera just above a soldier in the unit, giving you a spectacular view of the battlefield, especially if it's in a siege tower! Something like that adds an enormous amount to immersion. They're also working on the smaller things, proving that they're very passionate about what they're doing and that they will do everything they can to make Total War: Rome II the best that they can!

    Along with the video, new screenshots and more information on gameplay elements have been released! Rome II already has more than 3 million lines of code, all of it written so we can relive the greatest moments we had with the original Rome: Total War. The scope of the project means that a lot of things will change compared to Rome I. For example, in the original a lot of peoples, such as the Gallic tribes, were lumped together in one 'Gaul' faction. That will now change, because the engine is a lot more powerful it can support many more factions, which means that the Gauls will be split up into many tribes. How many is not known yet but it is certain this will be another step forward!

    Something else that became clear is that the Creative Assembly will also include things like facial animation and situational awareness of soldiers. That means if someone is hit by an arrow the soldiers surrounding him will react to that, as said before, this all shows how much Creative Assembly will do to make sure that Total War: Rome II will do everything to make sure Rome II will be remembered as fondly as the original! The latest screenshots can be found in the gallery at the bottom of article.

    Gallery









    Images resized by Stoferr!

    Breaking: Recently released there's a cool new video with James Russell who gives a talk on the development process of Rome II, it is a must see and contains a lot of very interesting information. More on that in the next Rome II article!

    Eurogamer Expo 2012: Rome 2 Total War Developer Session


    Written by The Dutch Devil.


    Last edited by The Dutch Devil; November 06, 2012 at 11:50 AM.

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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Shogun II

    Release: Historical Shinsengumi Recolor
    Historical Shinsengumi Recolor

    Here we have a rather nifty mod made the totally awesome weirdoascensor. This mod fixes something that has surely been bugging all of you as much as it has me! The Shinsengumi in vanilla TW:S2 had always lacked their signature Blue-White Hakama due to it being overridden by the Faction Colour, but no longer - this mod makes sure from now on your Shinsengumi will be the right colour.

    Spoiler for Sample image, courtesy of weirdoascensor



    See more info and download here.

    Written by: Shankbot de Bodemloze.



    Release: FotS Canister and Grape shot
    FotS Canister and Grape shot

    This nice little mod replaces Fall of the Samurai’s shrapnel shot with the far more effective canister and grape shots. With this mod your artillery will wreak havoc amongst your enemy’s advancing troops and your victory will be glorious. You'll be able to laugh like a maniac at those who think it is an act of bravery to charge into your artillery fire, the fools will hit the ground before they even realize what hit them.

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    A skilled samurai could block an arrow with his sword but not even Neo would stand a chance against these little balls of death.


    For more information and the download link see here.3

    Written by: lolIsuck.



    Release: Snuffbox Breechloader Rifles for FoTS Sailors
    Snuffbox Breechloader Rifles for FoTS Sailors

    Another mod by the unstoppable weirdoascensor, this time however focusing on the the Fall of the Samurai. He cleverly noticed that even in the 19th century everyone is still armed with the Matchlock and whatnot, and he has remedied that to a more historical viewpoint - in his own words: "This small mod replaces their Matchlock Teppo with Snuffbox Breechloader Rifles - Snider-Enfields/Tabattiere/ Trapdoor Springfields..."

    Spoiler for Sample image, courtesy of weirdoascensor



    It is recommended that you use this mod alongside ♔Noif♔'s Modern Sailor Mod, for all the info and more see here.

    Written by: Shankbot de Bodemloze.



    Release: The Tenka Fubu Campaign
    Tenka Fubu Campaign


    Hayabusa Sushi brings us this new, exciting mod. Set 35 years after the start of the original campaign this mod brings you to a time where the war is in full progress. Several clans have gained considerable power and quite a few new clans have been added, resulting in an interesting new campaign. The mod also adds Radious’ awesome units and many, many more neat game features like new buildings and portraits for the major daimyo. The campaign offers 11 playable clans as well as 26 non-playable ones, in custom battles you now have the choice between a whopping 52 clans.


    The great Oda Nobunaga riding to war to complete his Tenka Fubu, play as him and realize this dream or take up arms as one of the other daimyo and crush the advancing Oda clan to become Shogun yourself.
    This all is a guarantee for a fun new campaign and many more hours of exciting gameplay.

    For more information and the download link see here, if you want to see more pictures of the mod don’t forget to look here.

    Written by: lolIsuck.



    Beta: Shogun 2 Overhaul Retexture & Huge Performance Project
    Shogun 2 Overhaul Retexture & Huge Performance Project

    This rather jaw-dropping mod is made by Superghostboy, and whilst still in it's beta stage so far the feedback has been positive. I myself sadly haven't been able to try this out as my computer can't handle Shogun on medium, let alone ultra (the recommended setting). This mod works with most things, including all of the DLCs and Darth Mod as well - so if you have a high-end PC, and truly want to understand the meaning of "total war" then this mod is for you. Some of the mods main features, from the authors own words, are listed below:

    Spoiler for For sample image, courtesy of Superghostboy



    For all the details please check out this very detailed OP, which also provides installation instructions and download links.

    Written by: Shankbot de Bodemloze.



    Release: Shogun 2: Total Clans - Multiplayer Edition
    Shogun 2: Total Clans - Multiplayer Edition

    Building up on the original S2:TC mod by Akaie this nifty little mod allows you to play any clan in the Sengoku and Rise of the Samurai campaigns in multiplayer campaigns. Now you can finally try to destroy the mighty clans with an underdog, yes even the Ouchi.... oh that hurt (sorry, bad joke)!

    Anyhow there are a few notes to observe which can be read here, where you'll also find a downloads link so it won't be long until you are marching "Ito" victory....

    Spoiler for For sample image, courtesy of Akaie



    Written by: Shankbot de Bodemloze.



    Release: Better maps V 0.20
    Better maps V 0.20


    Better Maps 0.20 is an excellent mod which is aiming to make large graphical changes to the Shogun 2 battle maps, mainly changing the castle textures to ones of higher quality, which is extremely noticeable in siege battles.

    These beautiful models are simply pristine, with brand new wall textures and roads to make Shogun's castles and Fall of The Samurai's fortresses and towns feel more authentic. It offers an amazing experience graphically wise, because it also benefits field battle maps, so your Samurai or Royal Marines can slaughter each other on battle maps of supreme quality! The mod also adds superb city models to the campaign map, making it appear much more authentic and realistic.


    (Here are some excellent screenshots of the battle features)
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 








    Aside from battle maps, the mod doesn't make any other changes, but it doesn't leave anything to be desired in it's amazing battle map textures. As an added bonus, it also adds garrisonable buildings such as houses, armouries and the like, that can be used to your advantage in battle. It is currently compatible with every mod for Shogun 2.

    It is available for download here. It is also hosted on TWC here

    Written by: Glorious Gandalf



    Release: Campaign Balance V0.75
    Campaign Balance mod

    Shogun 2 Campaign Balance v0.75 mod


    The Campaign balance mod is an excellent modification that aims to add more strategy and tactical requirements to the Shogun 2 Campaign, it also aims to remarkably improve the vanilla experience, specifically in battles. By balancing the stats and abilities of units, such as Samurai, which have better morale, a higher unit cost and a lower upkeep. Another example is that Ashigaru have have had their unit size increased by a factor three, they have been made much weaker though. The mod also plans to add more units to Shogun 2, such as Naginata Cavalry.

    Overall, the modification meets it's specifications very well and is a very useful mod to have. However, it could be improved with more refinement and adaptability, which is fortunately just what the creator, beastfeast , is working on at the moment. The download link is here, and I am assured that you will get many hours of game-play out of this fantastic mod!

    Written by: Glorious Gandalf



    The Wizard's Workshop

    Preview: Steam Workshop Exclusive Mods
    Steam Workshop Exclusive Mods

    Well well well, who'd of thought it eh? A modding workshop, mod tools, and a modding summit? CA Have really outdone themselves this time! This then has brought me onto providing a small coverage of some of the mods that are up and running on the workshop, the list has kindly been provided by Glorious Gandalf so thank him and of course a thanks need to go to all these wonderful modders that have certainly made my TW:S2 experience great.

    First up we have the Half Price Ashigaru, which funnily enough halves the recruitment and upkeep costs of the following units: all varieties of Bow and Yari Ashigaru; Bow and Naginata Levy; Spear Levy and Levy Infantry.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Secondly we have the Unit Pack Compatibility mod, are very useful feature for the non-English amongst you. There are several version of this mod ranging from a German to Czech one and they translate and support most custom unit packs and work on latest version of the game, fully supports Shogun 2 and all its DLCs and Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai campaigns. What this means is no more having no texts (names, descriptions) on custom units etc. But be warned only the respective pack will work on the respective game language, I think an example is need to explain my self. Basically if you have the German version of the game, only the German version of this mod will work.

    Next onto the stage we have Blackthorne's mod only for Fall of the Samurai, and in the authors own words:
    New units
    Bayonets
    Epic uniforms
    it's all there
    It changes some of the units and their weapons, as well as add some new abilities. And lets be honest everyone loves fancy new abilities to play about with!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Following on we have the Combined Difficulty Effects mod. This combines two of the authors previous mods into one - the "Add Occupation Resistance to AI Factions" and "No Handicap on Normal", which means you'll have double the trouble from the AI who ill stop cowering down to your demands!

    The features are as followed:

    - Easy and Normal: Resistance as high as player's
    - Hard: Effect reduced -10
    - VH: Effect reduced -50
    - Legendary: Effect reduced -100 (as in vanilla)
    - Removes all campaign balancing effects (income bonuses, changed recruit costs) for both player and AI when playing Normal difficulty

    So yeah, you'll have plenty of fun...

    Speaking of fun, the final mod we have for you to get your teeth into is the Extended Camera Minimod. I have to admit that this mod is a person favourite of mine and it extends the amount the camera can zoom out in battle. A feature surely useful for all you AARtists! below are some examples of the kind of shots you can take.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    There you have it folks, it was all done for us so go out and enjoy it! Above is just a snippet of the stuff the wonderful TW:S2 modders have done, and I'm sure we'll be enjoying their stuff for ages to come, maybe even longer than that...

    Written by: Shankbot de Bodemloze.

    Last edited by The Dutch Devil; November 05, 2012 at 10:50 AM.

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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Modding summit coverage

    Interview
    Interview with taw
    1) Firstly before we move on to talking about the modding summit, would you be able to tell us a little bit more about yourself and about how you became involved in the modding scene?

    I was mostly a mod player, and before I started making all the tools I only did a bit of modding for Medieval 2 (Concentrated Vanilla).

    For Empire vanilla game frustrated me far too much, and I really missed ability to do small tweaks which were so easy for Rome and Medieval 2, even things which were possible like removing forts were far too slow, tedious, and error-prone. There weren't really many mods back then I could play instead, and the few existing mods were often really buggy because they didn't understand file formats correctly. For example forts were often removed the wrong way which led to AI bugs and very miserable overall experience.

    So I did the only natural thing and started making tools and opening file formats, so I could do tweaks I wanted and modders could make mods. I haven't been able to open everything I wanted (like campaign map), but this still led to some revival of interest in modding Empire/Napoleon/later Shogun 2.

    2) Now let’s move onto the modding summit. You were one of only a handful of modders to receive an invite to this event hosted by the Creative Assembly, so how did you feel when you found out that they wanted you to attend?

    If they wanted people who actually made mods, I would probably be the wrong person to invite, but as tool makers go, there aren't really that many of us, and I live less than 2 hours away from CA headquarters, so it made sense.

    3) Alot of new information was revealed at the summit and many announcement were made. The first thing that the ES and I’m sure many others would also like to know is whether or not anything announced by CA at the mod summit will allow the creation of new campaign maps for Shogun 2?

    That's the idea. New campaign maps, new campaign setup (something that was partially possible before with esfxml), much more access to creation of new models. These are the main points.

    There's also battle map editor TEd released some time ago, I've seen people making good use of it already.

    4) The Creative Assembly has also announced new tools are on the way for Shogun 2 and that Rome 2 Total War will be integrated with the Steam workshop. How do you feel about these developments and do you believe that CA will be able to maintain these commitments in the future? Do you think tools will still be developed for future games despite the time and money they must cost CA to develop?

    CA guys were quite open that they made no "commitment in the future" for modding support in Rome 2 and later games, since they overpromised and underdelivered a lot in the past. We don't know what will be supported for Rome 2. What was released was for Shogun 2 only, and we might get similar tools for Rome 2, but that's just speculative at this point.

    Many games follow strict separation of game engine vs game content, and for them it's really easy to support modding, since even vanilla game is essentially one big mod. Total War briefly approached this model with Kingdoms (4 campaign on 1 engine, very little hardcoded), and that was the golden age of modding as well, but since then CA moved away from this model and they don't have any plans to go there again.

    Even without strict separation these tools are used internally, and have not been developed specifically for modding - they've been cleaned up and packaged and documented for modders, but their primary users are internal.

    So the hope is mostly that they'll make such tools anyway for internal use, and then release them to modders, not that they'll put large effort into making these tools for modders only.

    5) The tools are unfortunately only being released for Shogun 2 at the moment though. Do you believe it will be possible to port any of them over to other Warscape games in the series?

    As a first approximation - tools for models will probably be portable, tools for battle maps probably less so, tools for campaign map probably very little. People are still researching Empire's campaign map, so eventually the map might be cracked, but that will be a slow and tedious process even if it succeeds.

    6) Out of everything you heard whilst you were there – what do you think will be the most important new development in regards to modding current and future Total War games?

    There's hope for much better relations between CA and modding community.

    There's also a chance that the new wiki will be a central coordination point for modders and tool makers, right now we don't really have such place - or we have too many such places, and in ends up with modders being spread all over the Internet, and knowledge often being lost.

    I tried very hard to make sure things I find out don't get lost by documenting as much as I can, putting all the code on github and trying to answer all questions I get by any means, but discoveries of many older modders were never documented, and were lost when they left the community.

    7) We have also heard that you were lucky enough to see a short video of gameplay from Rome2 whilst you were at the summit. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about that? Was there anything in particular that you thought looked very interesting?

    Battle map was really massive and complex (siege features on both sides, naval assault going on during siege, multiple capture points, huge city with many layers and many capture points) and number of soldiers on the battlefield was very high, and yet flow of units in complex street pattern was very dynamic. In all existing Total War games pathfinding on the battlefield, especially in sieges, often fails miserably and all soldiers mix into one big unorganized blob over which there's no way to have any meaningful control - it didn't look like it at all in the video. Of course with vidoes one only sees the game from the best side, but it impressed me.

    Zooming out to see fullscreen bird's eye view was another feature that's currently badly missing, and it was shows on the video.

    8) Do you believe that the Modding Summit could soon lead to a new golden age of Total War modding on the newer games? Do you believe we will ever see total conversion mods such the Third Age mod again for any of the Warscape games?

    I think many people have overly high expectations here.

    Even with best of tools the games are currently much more complicated than they were in Rome/Medieval 2 era, especially if you plan to match level of detail with what's in vanilla, so even things that are possible will take a lot more effort.

    Another issue is that we still don't have a lot of things we'd need for a total conversion mods like control over UI layout and lua UI logic. This might change in the future, and modders often show amazing creativity even within very narrow technical restrictions, but right now I'd expect total conversion to be more like American Civil War than War of the Ring.

    And even if we had access to things like UI layout there's still a lot of hardcoded logic in all games, often small surprising things (for example in Empire resistance to foreign occupation, war weariness, and crackdown happiness bonuses are all totally hardcoded, while every single other thing about happiness is really easy to mod - such moddable-except-this situations are fairly common), and that will make total conversions more difficult.

    I hope people will still try, and the future definitely looks brighter than at any time since Empire was first released.

    9) What is next for you in the world of Total War modding? Will you wait for the tools and see where things go from there?

    I expect a lot of people will now begin to play with the new tools, and we'll learn how much can be done with them. The big event everybody is waiting for is a campaign map mod.

    10) Is there anything else you would like to mention or any closing remarks you would like to make?

    Good modding!

    Interview taken by: General Brittanicus.


    Interview
    Interview with Akaie

    Greetings Ladies and Gents, please join me in thanking Akaie for agreeing to do this interview. For those of you who don't know Akaie is a great TW:S2 modder, and the man behind the great Sekigahara Campaign! He has answered my questions in regards to his modding, and CA's release of these new tools, also managing to slip in a bit about himself as well...*

    1) So Akaie, first off thank-you for doing this interview, the man behind The Sekigahara Campaign must be busy indeed, could you tell us mere mortals a bit about yourself?

    Flattering! Well, I am a nineteen year old from Australia. I am a full-time carer for my grandma, which, as unfortunate as that is, gives me a bit of flexibity with time to study and engage in hobbies, such as The Sekigahara Campaign!

    2) Well we all know where flattery gets us.... but being a Aussie I'm thinking of taking it back! I'll start off with what seems to be standard for these sorts of things, what brought you to TWC?

    Shogun 2. I can't really remember the specifics of how I got here, but it was definitely just after the release of Shogun 2!

    3) We should thank CA then. What was it that got you involved with the modding scene?

    I'd say Radious has some credit here, as I enjoyed a few campaigns with his mods installed and was definitely inspired by him to get into modding myself. My first modding creation was a simple scaled recruitment cost mod to make each unit cheaper.

    4) And it went on from there, how did you first find modding, was the process difficult at first, or did you just catch on?

    I can't quite remember, though I don't think it was too much of a hassle.

    5) Anything you particularly struggled with?

    I believe I had some annoyances with the startpos.esf file, though those days are certainly gone.

    6) Glad to hear it. Could you list us a few general mods you've made for Shogun and it's follow-ups, and explain what a few of them do and how you found making it etc.?

    One mod I made was a visual overhaul with new banners, traditional artworks, and even a few extra changes to add new clans. Another manipulated the startpos.esf file - at this point I had overcome the annoying damn thing - to allow access to multiple minor clans in a multiplayer-friendly way. There is also a bunch of other mods pertaining to units, visuals, and other smaller things that build up to a hefty array of changes.

    7) Well you certainly how been busy! So now onto the topic that everyone has been waiting for... The Sekigahara Campaign - what can you tell us?

    The Sekigahara Campaign was the very first of its kind for Shogun 2, that being a total conversion covering a distinct time period than in the original game. The premise is semi-fictitious; we take heavy inspiration from the historical campaign and climactic battle of sekigahara, albeit evening out the conflict to work in a more practical however ahistorical way.

    8) How many people do you have working on it? And can we have a cheeky progress report?

    Innitially, it was just three people: Erwin Rommel, robinzx, and, of course, me. Apart from the dozen or so that contributed pieces of their own work, such as Kungfuserge's and BullGod's texture work and Mech_Donalds battlefield smoke mod, the team itself has recently been expanded to six people; on top of the original three, wealthmonger, who documents aspects of the mod and does testing, Maverick Houston, who creates amazing videos, and Lokgar, who has created several submods and is now a database editor. As for progress, we've finished much of what we planned to do, as well as a hell of a lot more. There is still one big aspect of the mod that has not yet come to pass, so we hope to have that out in due time.

    9) Well it is great to see you expanding. Have new tools such as TEd and the recently release bundle helped you at all, or made life easier?

    TEd, and what could come from it, has been recently been brought up within the team, though we haven't felt the need to make much use of it. Due to the new tools being a very new thing, I haven't committed the time to thoroughly explore it. One thing that will seamlessly help is the thorough documentation of the database and startpos; I've already learnt a few things just by looking at the description of certain columns.

    10) So we can expect and even awesome-er mod?

    I'm sure we will!

    11) Glad to hear it! What are you personal views on CA releasing these tools, and of course of the modding summit?

    The modding summit was a great initiative to give a hand to their modding community. The kit has some great features, like the aforementioned thorough column descriptions of the database and startpos, as well as a nice way to edit the groupformations.bin file via xml and a technically easier platform to manipulate and even create a campaign map. So, the kit is certainly a success in my book. It's now largely up to the community to take up arms and get stuck into testing and developing!

    12) Indeed it is, and we certainly hope they'll make good use of it. Now, Rome II - your hopes and fears?

    I don't think I have any huge hopes or fears for the project. My Rome fanboy days are long gone, and I've forgotten a lot about that general time period, I'm afraid. That being said, as long as CA adds a cut-scene where, if your general dies after attacking the Parthians, they pour molten gold down his throat, I'll be pretty happy!

    13) Hahaha, so can we expect any Rome II mods by you, or will we have to satisfy ourselves with Seki?

    I hope to keep building on Seki for a long, long time, hopefully well beyond the release of Rome II. I'll more than likely look at modding Rome II; I'd probably take a step back and get someone to order me around for the purposes of creating a big and ambitious overhaul. Anything pertaining to the Roman kingdom, republic, or Gaul is fine with me!

    14) Well I wish you the best of luck, and I'll look forward to it all. Once again, thank-you for agreeing to do this interview, and before we go do you have any final words?

    Thank you for choosing me to be interviewed, and I hope this interview was a good read .

    I'm sure it will be. If you guys wanted to check out more of Akaie's work then why not check out his profile, or head over to the Sekigahara Campaign forum to see it all as it happens. That's all from me, and enjoy the rest of the issue!

    Interview taken by: Shankbot de Bodemloze.



    Interview
    Interview with Radious

    1) Hello Radious, and thank you for agreeing to be interviewed! Tell us something about yourself: who is the man behind the avatar? What made you join TWC?

    Hello Everyone,

    well something about me, i am an usual guy, who works every day to late hours. I work in Czech Social Security Administration, from sports i like to play tenis and watch icehockey. I live in a house, have very nice and lazy english bulldog. Also i like to read mostly scifi and fantasy books and watch movies, ofcourse i must not forget on gamming and modding. So as i said nothing special, just the free time is hard to find for all this :-) Most people know me here already, i am not a newcomer. I joined TWC many years ago and registered i think around ETW release, but i was around some time before already. I joined because of TW games ofcourse, this place has very nice community and i think its best place for TW mods and TW fans.

    2) What was your first released mod? Why did you make it?

    I started my modding in Rome Total War, Rome was my first TW game and i love that era so you can imagine how happy i am that Rome 2 is comming. It was also for the first time that i find out that games like this can be easily edited, modded, changed. So i started to dig in gamming files and created something what i used next few years. At that time i had no clue something like TWC exists so i never published any of my work and as said those mods were just minor ones compare to my current work today. Those mods were simply just for my personal use and begginings of my modding.

    3) Which mod are you most proud of making?

    I am most proud on my Shogun 2 work. I cant say exactly which one i like most, there are so many, i could name 3 largest unit packs for Shogun 2 or great Ai mod or much much more, but as i said i like all of them, because they create unique gamming experience if used together but i keep the decision on others so everyone can choose to use my complete overhauls or build their own from smaller overhaul parts. Sometimes its pain in the ass to update all of them if new patch/dlc is released and mods require updates but all those downloads they have got i think its not waste of time and people like it this way.

    4) You've released several mods in the new Steam Workshop. Is it easier to publish mods there? Would you recommend its use to other modders?

    Workshop is in beggings but it already got some update, i provided CA some decent feedback about it and they fixed most of the current issues with it. Workshop is mainly extremely helpfull for mod users since they dont have to do anything, just subscribe mod they want to play, thats with one mouse click on big green subscribe button and all is done, once they start the game, mod will be auto-downloaded, auto-installed and auto-patched if i release update. So this is very helpfull for those who may have troubles installing it manually. For modders its also good place, but here i suggest to use it together with sites like TWC, simply because on workshop modder doenst have so much space to write about his work, cant upload larger stuff then 100mb (steam limitations) and also can provide there only work made in mod format, which not all mods are in. So combination of TWC and Workshop is definitely great decision for all modders.

    5) On to the modding kit! Have you played around with it yet? If so, what did you think?

    Yes i spend some time with it already, its definitely step in right direction from CA, modding is, always been and hopefully always will be big part of any TW game. Tools are great, but same as workshop they are fresh and need some changes and updates, here i have to say big thanks to Daniu for his excelent PFM which allowed us modders to create evertyhing we did till today. New tools will allow us to do more then before, but not everything is simple table editing. For someone untouched by any modding it can be very difficult and i suggest to carefully follow all tutorials provided with it. What all can be done with these tools we will see in the future.

    6) Was anything you could not do before made possible by the Assembly Kit?

    We still do not know what all we can do with Asembly Kit so its hard to say, but definitely it was changing campaign map, this we are suppose to be able to change now, but it wont be easy task i can asure that :-) We already have a great tools which are contantly updated and improved and i think PFM + Asembly Kit can be very powerfull combination.

    7) What, in your opinion, is the biggest breakthrough that can be achieved with this kit?

    Simple answer - more great mods, more talented modders, better conection between community and developers :-) How big and what all will be possible to mod with it....for that people must just wait some time. Also i hope more modders will approach to Shogun now, its a great game with many possibilites, 3 different era campaigns so everyone should find its own place here.

    8) Are you going to add new features to your Shogun II mods using the assembly kit. If so, what features are you adding?

    My Shogun 2 work is very complex, i basicaly changed everything i could and wanted ofcourse. Same as many others i need to learn more about all options Asembly kit can provide and get familiar with all its features, there are some things i would like to change, but i will keep it for myself for the time being :-)

    9) Do you think that the release of the Assembly Kit means that there will be support for Rome II modding?

    Thats an interesting question, i guess everyone wants that but i hope we will get some tools for Rome 2, if not offical then hopefully another excelent PFM :-) We must realise that CA needs to profit on the game and gamming these days is infested by DLCs, which i may not like since most of them can be done by mods for free, but on other hand i undertsand its a cash and easy money which Sega and CA wants and they work for. So thats why i dont expect any official tools first year after Rome 2 release. But we will see, on other hand i am not afraid that Rome 2 wont be moddable, it will be and hopefully very much so i can again dig in gamming files as i started with Rome 1.

    Interview taken by The Dutch Devil.


    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  5. #5
    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Empire and Napoleon news

    Release: Darthmod Empire v8.0 Platinum
    Darthmod Empire v8.0 Platinum

    Darth Vader delivers you DarthMod Empire v8.0 Platinum which further improves the already great Darth Mod! Like always, the AI has been given a big priority and with great success! Darth Vader has finally reached his goal to make the BAI better than an average human player! Don't believe it? Then try yourself and see! You will be left open mouthed! CAI also hasn't been forgotten, it's now more aggressive, better in diplomacy, composes its army better and basically acts much smarter along with many of its flaws fixed! Army size is increased to up to 40 units and 30 units in a navy, additionally many ship stats have been changed. Be careful with fixed artillery and mortars because now they are able to slowly move! Not to mention animations are further improved including unit movement, physics mechanics and making the hand to hand battles more violent and realistic, while effects are very similar to those of DarthMod Napoleon.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    huserlTW has made a new launcher where you can use to easily set your own settings for the game. For example, you can switch back to Vanilla or select the ''No Fort Option'' (made by shokh) with just a few clicks! For more info and how to use it follow this link!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    If you want to try out v8.0 Platinum with your friends, then it's not a problem because multiplayer version is also included!

    To see the full list of features and changes check the link at the top!

    For some amazing action see the trailer:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Written by: Twilight Sparkle



    Release: Ottoman Empire Realism v1.3
    Ottoman Empire Realism v1.3

    The 1.3 version of the awesome Ottoman Empire Realism mod has been released! The once great Ottoman Empire has started to decline, especially after the disastrous Great Turkish War. As a result territories were ceded to Austria, Poland-Lithuania, Venice and Russia. But Christians aren't the only threat, the heretic Persia lies to the East and is waiting for a perfect opportunity to retake Armenia and Mesopotamia. Will you let the Ottoman Empire decline even further and wait for its collapse? Or will you restore it to its former glory and be remembered in history books as Suleiman the Magnificent II? Or even achieve what he failed to do and finally capture Vienna? You can also be one of its foes and try to finally bring it down and recapture Constantinople! The choice is yours!

    The purpose of this mod is simple:
    * Making the Ottoman Empire more playable
    * Increasing realism
    * Showing and introducing the Ottoman Empire

    To increase the Ottoman feel, new Turkish folk music has been included. Another notable feature is the family tree in which the Ottoman dynasty can be portrayed! While the Ottoman Empire is the mod's main focus, other Eastern factions haven't been left untouched! The 1.3 version includes 2 new units for the Ottomans, 4 for the Babur Empire and Persia! Existing units have been reworked, balanced and made historically accurate with expanded descriptions. While the Dagestani army type has been changed to Crimean which is much more fitting than Russian. You will be able to test the new units against your many foes, but it's advisable to wait until you recover from previous wars. You wouldn't like to enjoy the blood mod (made by Mech_Donald) by watching your units getting slaughtered instead of filthy infidels!

    Lets take a look at some of the new Ottoman units (Notice that the Turkish unit skin has been made lighter):
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Anatolian Sipahis.


    Usta Janissary.


    Tufekcis




    As for future, it aims to work more on other factions, mostly on the Mughal Empire, include new naval units, add special quests for the Ottoman Empire like Great Britain, France and Spain has. And probably the best news for the Turkish players, make the game in Turkish!

    Written by: Twilight Sparkle



    Release: Hetmanat Total War
    Hetmanat Total War

    Broono and his skillful team presents you the Hetmanat TW mod which mostly focuses on a new faction, Ukraine. It's highly recommended to every Ukrainian and everyone else who is interested in it! To enjoy it in full effect, the Ukrainian language has been included! In the beginning it starts with a gentleman, a spy and a university in Poltava to not leave you disadvantageous against the Ottomans and Crimea with whom you start at war with. But that's not bad at all because Crimea is a perfect place to start an expansion. You gain another Ukrainian core region and access to sea which opens you new horizons and no longer leaves you dependent on Russian and Polish trade!

    Ukraine hasn't been the only focus of this mod! 11 new factions are playable, many new units have been included and many more reskined for other factions! While Crimean and Dagestani units are in the Ottoman group which means they are no longer able to unrealistically recrui line infantry. Not to mention 13 new prestige buildings have been included all around Europe! Like Dresden Frauenkirche, Mariyinsky Palace, the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail and many more! For more info and some screenshots of the buildings check the link at the top of this article!

    Here you can see the trailer showing some of the new amazing units:


    Written by: Twilight Sparkle



    Release: La montée de l'Empire (LME) v4
    La montée de l'Empire (LME) v4


    One of the greatest NTW mods, La montée de l'Empire is delivered here by lutland and his team! The aim of the mod is to simply improve vanilla and add what it lacks. It has succeeded greatly with historically accurate portraits, an expanded technology tree which adds 22 new technologies, new music and 500+ units for land and sea of which many replace vanilla units. Version 4 alone adds 135 new units! And a brand new campaign is included in it, but more on that later.
    Here you can take a look at some of the new units:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    French Old Guard Chasseurs:

    Taken by ♔Pdguru♔

    Tirailleurs du Pô:

    Taken by Iutland



    The new launcher:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    For more info about features click here!

    One of the greatest aspects of this mod is 15 new campaigns with 10 different settings! Like I already mentioned, LMF4 offers a new 1792 campaign were you can decide the faith of France by leading a revolution or fight for the old order! This is the only campaign where Poland-Lithuania is available. But be careful with it because Prussia, Austria and Russia are ready to divide your land and end your independence completely! 1805, 1807 and 1812 are campaigns that focus on the height of the Napoleon's rule. Most of the enemies have been defeated through these years. Only the British Empire, Iberian factions and Russia are still resisting, but how long will that last? The Grand Army is about to reach Moscow and if it falls then all Europe is o Napoleon's knees! The last campaign starts in 1815 with the beginning of Napoleon's 100-days, the last chance of Napoleon to restore his Empire.
    There are also other campaigns but with those you are quite familiar from Vanilla already, if you want to know more and see then faction overview then pay a visit here!

    If you have yet to play this mod then you might want to see the introduction video which features some game footage as well:


    Written by: Twilight Sparkle



    Release: Napoleon Retrofit Pack
    Napoleon Retrofit Pack
    Introducing Napoleon Retrofit Pack for Empire: Total War! Created by HappysLegi0ns, NRP tries to bring the balance and mechanics of Napoleon into Empire, all the while keeping that "vanilla" feeling. The mod features many changes that bring the muskets and cannons of Empire up to Napoleon standards, as well as little changes to formations. This makes the battles much more deadly and better organized. In the end, NRP combines the battle mechanics of Napoleon with the epic campaign of Empire, creating a whole new game experience. For a link to the mod thread go here!

    Written by: Nosjack.



    Release: North and South
    North and South
    Presenting newly released North & South - The American Civil War. Created by the talented developers of The Blue and the Grey, North & South brings the battles of the Civil War to Napoleon: Total War! The mod not only includes new units for singleplayer and multiplayer battles, but many famous Civil War generals such as "Stonewall" Jackson or the dreaded William Sherman can be chosen to lead your troops to victory. Will you lead the North in battle in an effort to preserve the Union? Or will you lead an army of grey to rid yourself of the oppressive Northerners? Whatever you choose, the North & South is a perfect mod for Civil War enthusiasts!

    Here's some screen shots to get you interested!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Louisiana Tigers





    Napoleon 12lb, the Washington Artillery




    "Through the cornfield, my boys!"




    Union infantry on the march. Follow the flag!




    Zouave's on the march!




    The flags of the mod are about 1/2 bigger, then the vanilla NTW flags




    For the latest release go here!

    Written by: Nosjack.


    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  6. #6
    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Medieval II News


    Preview: Heiđin Veđr Total War
    Heiđin Veđr Total War

    Vikings are popular at the moment and so are mods containing them, hence the great amount of new promising mods where bearded men with axes play a big role. After The Last Kingdom and Wrath of the Norsemen we can wait for another great Viking age mod: Heiđin Veđr. Although this mod is not entirely focused around Vikings and will feature many other factions too they will probably make up an important part of the mod. The mod starts in 968 and although most raiding was done and Christianity slowly began to spread in Scandinavia the Viking threat surely isn’t over. Europe is under threat from other sides too, the Muslim armies are marching from Africa and the Middle East and from the east great hordes come looking for a new homeland.

    Heiđin Veđr will overhaul most factions with a completely new roster and add several new and exciting factions not seen in a lot of mods. A lot of action will be going on in Northern Europe and on the British Isles, which in most mods are the playground of only 2 or 3 factions. Besides the kingdoms of England and Scotland the mod will add Munster, Wales and the Kingdom of the Isles to fight over around 30 regions in Britain and Ireland. If this wasn't enough the duke of Normandy and our friends from Scandinavia are also interested in a piece of the rainy rocks in the North sea. Scandinavia and the Baltic will together have almost 50 regions and the Oeselian tribes, the Obotrites and the kingdom of the Swedes will be added to this area to spice up the game. Other interesting new factions include the County of Holland & Frisia, which our one Frisian member will love, the Kingdom of Croatia and the mighty Tsardom of Bulgaria.

    Besides those new factions there will of course be a lot of new units for the other factions as the mod takes place over 100 years before the start of vanilla M2TW. One of the best examples of how a faction can change in 100 years would be England, still an Anglo-Saxon kingdom as William the Conqueror hasn’t even been born and the Normans are still “loyal” to the French king.
    The team has released an awesome England faction preview that might cause several people to drop of their chair.

    Kingdom of England preview

    Englaland Ríce, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England, is the most powerful nation on the British Isles, certainly after driving the Danes off the island. The king of England now truly controls all of England and has little to fear from the kingdoms around him. The English kings can now focus on sending their experienced troops to conquer the rest of the British Isles although they have to be weary of threats from outside. The Vikings are always looking for opportunities to invade the island and for the ambitious Normans the Channel isn’t a big obstacle to take.

    The backbone of the English armies are the thanes, or lower nobility, they make up most of the heavy infantry and the retinues of the kings and generals. The thanes were the professional soldiers of the English armies, well armed and experienced troops.


    The most well-armed and skilled warriors in the kingdom were part of the king’s retinue, these men fear nothing and are more than willing to die for their lord.

    Each region had its own standing army, the regional fyrd. These troops were semi-professional and had some experience and training, they were not as heavily armed as the thanes but they could stand their ground against most their enemies.


    The Angles were heavily influenced by the Viking culture, this can be seen by their use of big two-handed axes.

    When in great danger the king would call a national levy to increase his armies numbers, the levies served as light infantry and missile troops during a military campaign but they went home after the campaign to work their lands. These levies were mainly to hold their enemy and weaken them so the thanes could crush them and shouldn’t be expected to hold out long against superior enemies. A script has been created with which you can call a national levy, spawning armies in your regions to support you when you’re under threat from a large army.]



    These men have the task to keep order and guard the burghs, they are not to be expected to hold out a long siege though and they don’t stand a chance against any slightly trained soldier.


    The entire England preview can be seen here!


    After you’ve recovered from the shock of seeing all those awesome units we’ll just continue with another faction preview. This time it’s the turns of the Langobards, another faction that we’ve barely seen in mods so it should have some exciting new units.

    Principality of the Langobards preview

    The Principality of the Langobards is the only thing that remains of the once mighty Langobard realm in Italy. The principality has recently been formed out of several Lombard duchies in southern Italy after the kingdom in the north fell to Charlemagne and the duchies had weakened eachother through internal strife. With most of southern Italy under his control the prince of the Langobards can now start to once again recreate the kingdom of the Langobards and become king of all of Italy.

    To do this he needs an army and a pretty damn strong one as his enemies are many.

    The Langobard army is unlike most Germanic armies based around cavalry, fighting with the Huns, Avars and the Roman Empire made them adopt different strategies. The cavalry was the backbone of the army and the infantry was there to support the cavalry as well as possible.

    The Protospathiarii Principes are the most skilled warriors of the nation with the task to guard the prince and his relatives. Serving as heavy cavalry, protected by their mail and lamellar armour, they can take on just about any enemy.


    These light cavalry troops are used to weaken the enemy and chase off enemy missile troops. As they are skirmishers used for supporting the heavier cavalry they lack armour and should stay out of combat.


    Although the nobles preffered to fight on horseback, if needed they would dismount and fight on foot just as easy. Most Lombard infantry consists of missile troops and are unfit for close combat so the dismounted knights are a great support for the infantry.

    The Lombards weren’t only politically divided but also religiously, a reasonable amount of Lombards still practiced pagan rituals and to represent this in game the team has come up with a neat feature.


    If you’re playing the Langobards you can chose to built a pagan shrine and a church at the same time, both with their own pros and cons.


    For more information on the Langobards and the full preview see here!



    Heiđin Veđr will not only include awesome new factions and many new units, it will also contain some neat new features. Many new scripts will be made for an exciting and unique gameplay as well as a revised building tree and a new recruitment system to create realism and depth in your game.

    The team is working as hard as they can to get a release and until than we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with new previews, which isn’t that bad as the previews are absolutely stunning.
    For more information about the mod see their forum here!


    Written by: lolIsuck



    Preview: End of Antiquity
    End of Antiquity: The First Crusade


    The period that is the least covered by Total War mods must be the early Middle Ages. The released mods taking place in this time period can be counted on one hand and there are significant gaps, a lot of areas aren’t covered at all and the period from the fall of Rome to the rise of the Vikings has minimal coverage. Luckily several new promising mods have appeared and one of them is End of Antiquity: The First crusade. Set in the 7th century this mod focuses on the great Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, whose counter-offensive against the Sassanids looks a lot like a crusade. Being focused on the Byzantine Empire, the map covers the Byzantine territories and that of its main enemies at the time, from the white peaks of the Alps to the scorching deserts of Arabia and from the boundless Russian steppes to the wealthy cities of Egypt.

    You will be able to play the Imperium Romanorum and fight off the enemies that are attacking you from all sides or you can pick up arms as one of the Empire’s enemies.

    Besides looking absolutely awesome these guys make up the elite troops of the Imperium, able to withstand any enemy.


    The Empire is being threatened from all sides, the Persians have taken up arms again, more and more people are invading from the seemingly empty Steppes, the Lombards threaten the western borders of the Empire and, maybe the biggest enemy, somewhere on the Arabian peninsula a new religion will be born during Heraclius’ reign and its followers will be eager to bring it to whoever is in their way. You will have to hold the armies that are marching in your territories and launch great offensives to bring the Empire back to its former borders, or bring it even more.
    This won’t be easy, the age-old Roman archenemy ,the Sassanids, have renewed the conflict between the two grand nations and seek to destroy the Romans once and for all.

    Although they might look like shiny cans on pińatas, these elite Persian cavalry will bring death and destruction to whoever is so unfortunate to be on their path to victory.


    The Persians aren’t the only threat however, new enemies have showed up on the Roman borders. The Lombards or Longobards have invaded the Italian peninsula and threathen the empire’s western provinces, they might not be as civilized as their opponents but they sure know how to fight. From the Northern steppes come the Avars and Slavs, they have crossed the Danube and are now looking to settle in the Balkans. Being in the backyard of the mighty Roman capital of Constantinople conflict with the Empire is ensured.

    The most dangerous enemy of all might be the one that is unknown. From the deserts of Arabia a force will rise, driven by a new religion and eager to conquer. The followers of Islam might be unstoppable if there is no swift answer to the armies of the once divided Arabs but they themselves must watch out for division too.

    With new units, a new map and a time period that isn’t featured in any mod this mod will probably be epic. All we can do is wait and hope that a release is nearby, the team has good hopes in it and this is of course good news for us. For more info on the mod and more pics of the new units see the thread here.


    Written by: lollsuck.



    Preview: Paeninsula Italica
    Paeninsula Italica: Roman Roster




    ROMAN ROSTER

    The Team of Paeninsula Italica proudly presents their new Roman Roster, and proud they should be. Even though the mod is in Beta stage they want to showcase their remodeling of their Roman roster and probably more to come after. Now without further delay let's get into the Roman preview that what cause many Republicans (Roman that is) to do a double take! So be sure and stop over at their preview for the full version and I am sure you will enjoy the full course as much as I did!

    Rorarii/Leves

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Hastati


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    Principes

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    For the full preview go here!


    Written by: ♔Old Dragoon♔.



    Preview: IB II
    IB II Britanniae Preview



    The Team from IB II proudly present the IB II: Britanniae Preview for us all to feast our eyes upon the Concilivm Britannorvm. The team go to great lengths explaining and displaying this faction for us all to get a taste of what to expect, and it's not just a spoonful it is a shovel full! They first give you a fantastic sections such as the Background followed by the Gildas Introduction, Portraits, the Map, as well as Unique units and many more so be sure and visit the preview or poor fortune may head your way!

    ]Let's take a look at some of those unique units.
    Marca Saethwyr

    The Gewissae

    This team does not just produce mods...They produce Epic ones! I know one thing being a Rome fan that I cannot wait to turn my eyes to Briton once more and go kill some Saxon and whoever else stands in my way! Where is my wine and my gladius?! For the full preview thread, go here!


    Written by: ♔Old Dragoon♔.



    Release: Epic Silver Menu Design
    Epic Silver Menu Design



    This is a handy little mod that gives a bit of personal aesthetic flare to the ever popular Third Age modification. As the name implies it provides with a silvery color scheme on the main menu with some replaced loading screens as well.
    The menu design:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    A loading screen:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    You can find the mod and more screenshots here.

    Written by: Kamos.



    Preview: Westeros Total War
    House Baratheon


    Ours Is The Fury

    This exceptional preview is from the mighty Westeros Total War mod and displays one of the more formidable houses of Westeros. Currently under Lord Renly, or King Renly if you prefer, who has set out to claim the Iron Throne for himself with the might of the Stormlands behind him. They support an impressive roster of highly skilled bowmen and brutally powerful infantry with all the loving steelclad knights of Westeros you could expect from this medieval fantasy series.

    The mighty Stormland Infantry:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    Your knights in shining armor the Stormland Nobles:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    The more multicultural March Wardens:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    Or the Knights of Storms End sporting lances and warhammers:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    You can view the rest of the roster in the original thread here here.

    Written by: Kamos.



    Release: Third Age Total War
    Unite the Clans Submod



    This impressive piece of work hopes, and does, hope to add more depth to the steppe horselords to the East from Tolkiens fantasy world and the mighty Third Age modification. The mod will start Rhun off with fewer regions but more benefits and several new unique units for conquering what could be considered core regions. Your start to the game will be tough but the rewards will be immense. Plus you can take to the field with new units such as:

    A heavy infantry based tribe, the Logath Axemen:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    The lightning fast Gathmarig Riders:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    And several other tribes that you can get familiar with here. Happy raiding!

    Written by: Kamos.



    Release: Submod for Stainless Steel 6.4
    Goofy's Battlefield Speed System



    Stainless Steel is already one of the most popular mods for any Total War game, but now Goofy is doing his bit to give us even more reason to download it with the release of his submod - "Goofy's Battlefield Speed System 1.0."

    The main focus of the submod is to modify the running speed of all units that were included in the original version of SS 6.4 by taking into account various factors such as unit training, weapon, armour and mount type. This should for example mean that a unit wearing full plate armour will be slightly slower than a unit of light infantry wearing little to no armour or that cavalry with strong horses and less armour may even be able to catch missile cavalry now. The differences in speeds from vanilla units are not so large as to make battles unrealistically fast or slow, but the changes certainly do add a nice new dimension to the game.


    If the movement speed submod has left you wanting to try more of Goofy's work he has also provided an alternative download, which also includes his "Realistic Missile Ranges" mod as well. Both these mods make marked improvements to the Stainless Steel experience, so if you consider yourself a fan of the series you should definitely make sure you download them from here and try them out.


    Written by: General Brittanicus.



    Release: Unoffical Patch for Vlad TW Mongolo-Tatars Invasion
    The Unofficial Patch



    The Mongolo-Tatars Invasion mod has long been one of my favourite mods for Medieval 2 Total War and to hear that one day is still putting work into the unofficial patch to try and fix any remaining bugs is glorious news. One day has recently updates the mod, but this unofficial patch has been worked on over the course of a few months and currently fixes some of the more noticeable problems such as silver units and missing unit cards. If you want to check out the full list of changes, as well as download the patch all you need to do is go to the thread here!


    Written by: General Brittanicus.



    Preview: Kingdom of the Isles
    Kingdom of the Isles Developer Diaries



    In order to ensure all of you that the development of "The Kingdoms of the Isles" is still going strong The Border Reiver has in recent weeks started to post developer diaries. The plan is for a new diary to be posted every Friday leading up to Christmas and each one will talk about some of the new changes and additions that have been made to the mod. To date there have been four very interesting and very detailed diaries released.

    The first of these diaries largely deals with the changes that the mod has undergone over its development such as the change in focus from France and the British Isles to just the British Isles. It also explains that the mod will now start in 1306 and will concentrate on the wars for Scottish independence led by the newly crowned Robert the Bruce. The map and a few additional features are also covered in this first diary.

    The second diary that has been released is orientated around mostly 2d graphical work and it includes some of the glorious new factions icons that have been created for the many new factions.


    -MacNeil Faction Symbol

    The next diary is another very detailed one, but this time concentrates on coding and also previews a few of the new skins as well. One of the most interesting aspects of this diary is the description of the system that has been put together for Scotland and the Scottish Clans factions in order to ensure that Scotland won't immeditately be destroyed by the fearsome forces of the clans. The system involves Scotland acting somewhat like the Papal States faction in vanilla and so should prevent any loyal clans from betraying and attacking them.


    -Models of Clan Leaders

    The fourth and at the time of writing final development diary is probably the longest yet and provides a lot of information on changes to recruitment for the Scottish clan factions. In an effort to create some variety between the many clans The Border Reiver has tried to concentrate on four different conditions to do this - variety in faction sizes, variety in faction rosters, variety in regional recruitment and diplomatic recruiting. To deal with the first of these conditions unit sizes will vary depending on how large the faction is, so for example small island factions will have smaller unit sizes than some of the more powerful mainland clans. The second condition is dealt with by limiting access to certain units such as cavalry and pikemen for several factions until they meet a number of requirements. The other two conditions are dealt with using an advanced AoR system, which is desribed in more detail in the diary itself.

    The diaries that have been released so far have all been extremely interesting to read through and hopefully The Border Reiver will be releasing a few more before Christmas comes around, so you should all make sure to keep visiting the thread here, so that you can keep yourself up to date with the diaries.

    Written by: General Brittanicus.



    Preview: Dominion of the Sword (DotS)
    Dar al-Islam, revealing the Islamic world



    The Dominion of the Sword is a mod that has been highly anticipated for a long time and as such we all love to see a new update on the work they are doing and the new preview again confirms that this mod will be worth the wait. This preview is mainly focused on the map and in particular the area controlled by Muslim factions during the mods time period, which has so far led to us being shown the areas around the River Nile in Egypt and the land around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. The screenshots that have been previewed show us once again that DotS has one of the best campaign maps you will ever see especially in regard to the new ground types and also gives us another glimpse of the number of forts they will be using on the map. In addition the previews also provide some very interesting information regarding the geography, agriculture, demographics and politics of the regions and explain how these factors shaped the creation of the map.

    The preview has so far been split into three different posts - The Land Between the Rivers: Part 1, The Land Between the Rivers: Part 2 and The Land of Plenty and we are all currently waiting for a mystery part 4, which has yet to be revealed. If you have never heard of this mod before it is highly recommended that you go and check this work out for yourself, so you can find out why so many people are looking forward to the release. This preview in particular can be found here, but also make sure to have a look at the many previews they have scattered around their forums.

    Written by: General Brittanicus.



    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  7. #7
    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Eras News



    Release: Spartan Empire Mod
    Spartan Empire Mod

    Whir77's Spartan Empire Mod was based on the idea of changing Greece into an Empire, instead of being just bunch of city-states. The mod corrects the game to give the symbol of "Λ" for Laconia, to the Greek City States, instead of Macedonians. On top of that it replaces their faction flags, switches the colors of Macedonia and Greece, replaces the Macedonian banners with custom ones, replaces the text of "Greek Cities" with "Sparta", Campaign description with "Sparta", and "Spain" text with "Iberia", as well as giving the Macedonians the Greek City States' icon in their banners on the world map.

    Download here
    Written by: Clagius.



    Release: Kingdom of Jerusalem add-on for Chivalry TW!
    Kingdom of Jerusalem add-on for Chivalry TW!


    Kingdom of Jerusalem as a faction now brought to ChivalryTW! This cool add-on by Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze replaces the Zirid Berber faction with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Kingdom has access to the regular crusader roster as well as some new units. Can you survive the surrounding muslim factions as the Kingdom of Heaven? Find out!

    Download here!
    Written by: Clagius.



    Release: Sub-mod Fall of Arnor for LotR:TW
    Sub-mod Fall of Arnor for LotR:TW



    This mod brings LotR:TW to Second Age of Middle-Earth, made by DarkCarlos 129. The Fall of Arnor focuses on battles between the factions of Angmar and Arnor. There are many new features, including new maps for campaign to free peoples, Arnor and Orc Rabbles, renamed units and cities, new loading screens, new menu campaign maps, new letter textures for the menu and some re-positioned cities. Fall or Arnor introduces us 4 new factions; Castamirioni Dynasty, Arnor, Angmar and Umbar, with the stay of the following factions from the original mod; Gondor, Mordor, Dwarven Clans, Noldor Elves, Silvan Elves, Lothlorien Elves, Orc Rabbles, Wild Men of Dunland, Free-peoples, Rhun and Harad.

    Read more and download here
    Written by: Clagius.



    Release: Europa Barbarorum: Novus Ordo Mundi Custom-Battle Alpha!
    Europa Barbarorum: Novus Ordo Mundi Custom-Battle Alpha!


    Gamegeek2's Europa Barbarorum: Novus Ordo Mundi Custom-Battles Alpha is an alpha release of the mod, which currently only features custom battles. About 95% of the units are completely functional, such as Ptolemaioi, Malkuta Nabatu, Lugiones and more, also the battles are perfectly playable. The mod offers many units to choose from, in large numbers. The upcoming mod is based around late Roman Republic, 80 BC, during ongoing conflict between Rome, Pontus and Armenia. The revealed factions are SPQR, Parthia, Lugiones, Aedui and many more. To play the mod, you will need a clean install of Rome: Total War, and the expansion pack, Barbarian Invasion.

    Read more and download here
    Written by: Clagius.


    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  8. #8
    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Vault Staff column

    Vault Column I

    Hello TWC! It is my honor and a pleasure to present to you the first issue of the TWC Modding Vault Column.

    What on Earth is the Modding Vault, you might ask yourself and rightly so since we're not the most well known Staff Department. Thus I think it's time for a quick introduction of who we are and what we do:

    The TWC Modding Vault was founded based on a CVRIAL Decision in order to prevent Total War modifications from going MIA. We have been actively established since February this year and have been promoted to an official Department of the Technical Staff Branch of TWC in June.

    What does the Vault Staff do? Basically we're searching the Total War dedicated modding fora for each and every mod ever released on TWC larger than 100mb and every tool regardless of size, download and test them and then archive them on Atlas, the official TWC Vault Server. Whenever a mod that is archived in the Vault might get MIA, meaning that absolutely no working download link can be found on TWC, every member of TWC can pay us a visite and request a download link to said mod, which then will be provided by us.

    But the Vault itself will not be used as a host for the public download. We're referring and relying on file hosting sites for providing public downloads and will then maintain them as long as need may be.

    Due to the nature of our work, we'll get to know next to every hosting site which is out there in the endless slopes of the Internet. Since this is the case, we like to share our point of view of those sites with you, the fans and modders of what we hold so dear: Total War modifications.

    Choosing a good site where a modder can upload his work to is crucial when it comes to distributing it to the fans. As obvious as that sounds, in practice this is not so easy. Depending on where on the planet a modder is located at, his internet accessibility and his willingness to register and thus share some of his personal data with a host on the one hand, the sheer amount of hosting sites out there on the other hand make this not as easy a decision as it may look like.

    But what makes a file hosting page a good host? There are a lot of different opinions based upon diverging personal preferences out there, but since it all comes down to how a modder can get his stuff across to his fans, there are a couple of features we think are the most important for a good host. Each category will be rated on a sacle from 1 to 10 where 10 is the top score reachable. Our main categories are:
    • Accessibility
    • Storage size per file
    • Download speed
    • Time files are stored

    There are more features of interest, like kind of files stored, is a program needed to upload or download files and many more which will be dealt with on a case to case basis, but the above described could be considered as the crucial four.

    From this issue of the ES onwards, we, the Vault Staff, will briefly showcase one host per issue in order to help our modders out there to choose exactly the host who might fit their needs and demands best.

    Today we’ll take a look at GameFront:

    GameFront is the successor of the very popular FileFront. Let's have a look at our crucial four:
    • Accessibility (20):
      • Upload (10):
        In order to upload you have to create an account. Registration is easily achieved and is free. As a bonus you don’t have to give away any personal details besides a valid email address.
      • Download (10):
        No registration is required.
    • Size per file (10):
      There is only a theoretical limit to the size of a single file uploaded.
    • Download speed (10):
      To put it plain simple: excellent! Depending on your internet connection the download speed can be as fast as 100mbit/s and above. On top of this, there is absolutely no limitation on the speed of downloads for non-registered users.
    • Time files are stored (6.5):
      On the first glance, this is a weak spot of GameFront, because with the latest change of their File Hosting Rules every file which was not downloaded at least a single time in 60 days is subject to deletion. That being said, GameFront provides an easy solution for "fire and forget" uploads. Any registered user can submit a file to the Game Front database. The file in question will be examined by GameFront Staff and if it is approved, will be stored permanently without ever being subject to deletion again! That is, as long as GameFront exists of course.

    GameFront receives an excellent ranking of 46.5 of 50 possible points and clearly is, for now, our favourite file host out there.

    For a complete list of features we recommend you look at the official GameFront FAQ.

    That’s about it from the Vault for this issue, see you around next time.
    Take care and enjoy modding!

    Written by Aikanár.


    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  9. #9
    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX




    The best Publication for Total War and Modding News!




    List of Contributors
    Directors of Content
    Omnipotent-Q
    Juvenal

    Assisting Content emeritus
    Legio

    Chief Editor
    The Dutch Devil

    Chief Reporters
    Rome II News - The Dutch Devil
    Shogun II News - The Dutch Devil
    Empire and Napoleon News - Nosjack
    Medieval II News - General Brittanicus
    Eras News - Clagius

    Vault Columnist
    Aikanár

    Reporters
    Clagius
    lolIsuck
    Twilight Sparkle
    ♔Old Dragoon♔
    Kamos
    Shankbot de Bodemloze
    Glorious Gandalf

    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Some nice stuff in here. Aswell, same suggestion as at the Gamer Gazette, release it not with such an bump of info. I suggest there will be an apart forum where there is placed one article everyday each. It is internet. People like to read one article a day but not a bump information behind their computer. (tablet is different ofcourse).

    Cause of the good directors and some of the realy good content writers TWC has the potention to realy become an site that atracts people intrested in games. Compared to some gaming sites online Its realy not bad what TWC publish. Tough, the views on these publications are not very well considered all of the publications inside one post. Splitting them into serveral posts which also have influce on something acutal would realy increase the amount of views, and with that the amount of traffic to TWC.

    Great issue tough, I read it with much plessure.


  11. #11
    The Dutch Devil's Avatar Krakiszki the Hunter
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Quote Originally Posted by Diglytron View Post
    Some nice stuff in here. Aswell, same suggestion as at the Gamer Gazette, release it not with such an bump of info. I suggest there will be an apart forum where there is placed one article everyday each. It is internet. People like to read one article a day but not a bump information behind their computer. (tablet is different ofcourse).

    Cause of the good directors and some of the realy good content writers TWC has the potention to realy become an site that atracts people intrested in games. Compared to some gaming sites online Its realy not bad what TWC publish. Tough, the views on these publications are not very well considered all of the publications inside one post. Splitting them into serveral posts which also have influce on something acutal would realy increase the amount of views, and with that the amount of traffic to TWC.

    Great issue tough, I read it with much plessure.
    Fair point, but for now, releasing in shorter sprints is harder to do because of the format; relative short articles on lots of different mods and, on top of that, the way we work. But yes, you certainly have a good point.

    Thanks!

    Patronized by the glorious all knowing Legio.

  12. #12
    MorganH.'s Avatar Finis adest rerum
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Great work guys; as usual a very informative read on the lifeblood of the TWC: Mods !

    Long live the Eagle Standard!

    Some reps are on their way.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    I appreciate it, good fellow.



    Good job to all!

  14. #14

    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Very nice work.

  15. #15
    Shankbot de Bodemloze's Avatar From the Writers Study!
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    Default Re: Eagle Standard, Volume X Issue IX

    Aye yes, great work everyone. It was great to be a part of it.

    A big thanks to the interviewees and of course all the great modders.
    THE WRITERS' STUDY | THE TRIBUNAL | THE CURIA | GUIDE FOR NEW MEMBERS



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