Amazon: Total War 7.0 Release

[parthian shot]

This is just to update everyone that the Far East Celt faction change (aka Yuezhi or Tocharians) have been completed.

we are finalizing the scripts and hopefully the beta release will be out soon.

The earlier release will not have the auto-gen script, at least until we figure out how to create new campaigns without too much confusion.

[parthian shot]

7.0 Beta Release Update, as of December 9th, 2012

Game Saving Bug in 6.0K has been corrected in 7.0 Beta
Edited Custom Battle so the battles are in the correct coordinates in 7.0 Beta
Completed Far East Celt Faction relocation and transformation.
Completed adding wagon units to Libyan Amazons, Thyssa Amazons, and West Celt.
Completed Wagon Units Animation and fighting tactics
Armen and Thyssa Amazon factions are now hordable
Removed auto-gen scripts features in 7.0 Beta for now because it was deemed not straight forward enough to the users
Completed new Far East Celt units animations and skins.
Completed new mod script.
Completed new rebel units.

[parthian shot]

Just passed on Granto's latest RS II battlemap for Amazon Total War 7.0 with with the latest 7.0 Beta files to the testing team.

There is also an issue with Linked Armor Clad Cavalry (sometimes misnomered to be Linked Cataphract).

These are the ancient heavy cavalry unit linking up with chain or yokes 4-16 horses in a rank used by the Far East Celt. We are currently asking the expert to see if we can resolve the issues.

Anyone else wishes to get a pre-beta version please PM me.

[allypup]

I must say I'm really looking forward to the RS II map.

I do have 2 favorite mods, Amazon and EB. I love Amazon for its premise, and a very good presentation at addressing ancient stories, myths and legends and presenting the possabilities as backed by what the archeology is teaching us.
It is the pace of EB that I like in that mod, my current EB campaign is 12 years old, no factions have been destroyed and several formidable opponents for my Carthagians are developing. ( every so often I cheat and toggle FOW to take a peak at the world. )

Now if I could only combine the two.

I do wish to comment with a suggestion, that at some point you can look at the other factions to balance them in such a way as to make the game less of a cake walk. I don't beleive my skill as a commander is so great, but with any Amazon faction I have no difficulty reaching an unbeatable position after only 5 years or so, even on VH/VH. { comparing that to my longest EB campaign, it was over 50 years until I was the strongest faction for more than 2 turns)

[parthian shot]

I heard you. I think there is still a soul searching process needed to come up with a way to show the Amazon's stand-off weapon capability without turning them into WMD.

Consider the following,

iron cased lead projectile is armor piecing and very accurate, as a matter a fact, though perhaps hard to believe, easier and faster to produce than conventional arrows.

Thermite weapon is powerful but we still need to factor in the handling issues and the fact that it is not a terribly accurate weapon. The problem with RTW game engine's projectile processing logic is that, we either ended up with a somewhat inaccurate weapon but still have 80% hit rate, or we ended with projectile so inaccurate that it hardly ever hit anything. And there is no happy medium yet.

I must say I'm really looking forward to the RS II map.

I do have 2 favorite mods, Amazon and EB. I love Amazon for its premise, and a very good presentation at addressing ancient stories, myths and legends and presenting the possabilities as backed by what the archeology is teaching us.
It is the pace of EB that I like in that mod, my current EB campaign is 12 years old, no factions have been destroyed and several formidable opponents for my Carthagians are developing. ( every so often I cheat and toggle FOW to take a peak at the world. )

Now if I could only combine the two.

I do wish to comment with a suggestion, that at some point you can look at the other factions to balance them in such a way as to make the game less of a cake walk. I don't beleive my skill as a commander is so great, but with any Amazon faction I have no difficulty reaching an unbeatable position after only 5 years or so, even on VH/VH. { comparing that to my longest EB campaign, it was over 50 years until I was the strongest faction for more than 2 turns)

[parthian shot]

Pre-beta has been distributed to all volunteer testers. Please feel free to post your results in AAR (sticky area).

Thank you! You guys are terrific!

[parthian shot]

I believe this is the first ever such unit in the RTW mods.

We are adding a field engineer unit to Amazon Total War, where prior to a battle, the general can position the unit to construct a booby-trap barrier. Once the barrier is selected by the general and constructed, it can not be moved after the battle began. As the enemy encroaches, the barrier will ensnare the unknowing trespassers. And as a result, the traps will be discovered one by one and render the barrier less and less useful.

This has an effect of a minefield in the modern warfare.

And although this may sound crude, the most primitive way to clear it is what what Gen. Zhukov supposedly said about mine clearing, that the best way to clear mines is to send a penal battalion to run through the minefield. (Of course, what he actually said was that the best way to attack the Nazis is to breach through the German minefield because the Germans naturally assumed the minefield as an area denial weapon, and would not expect the Russian to attack through it.)

[allypup]

I heard you. I think there is still a soul searching process needed to come up with a way to show the Amazon's stand-off weapon capability without turning them into WMD.

Consider the following,

iron cased lead projectile is armor piecing and very accurate, as a matter a fact, though perhaps hard to believe, easier and faster to produce than conventional arrows.

Thermite weapon is powerful but we still need to factor in the handling issues and the fact that it is not a terribly accurate weapon. The problem with RTW game engine's projectile processing logic is that, we either ended up with a somewhat inaccurate weapon but still have 80% hit rate, or we ended with projectile so inaccurate that it hardly ever hit anything. And there is no happy medium yet.

The game engine imposes many limitations. I appreciate the effort involved in including the weapons that seperate the Amazon factions from the others. When balance cannot be achieved in the Attack/Range/AP ability, the less desireable alternative comes into play.

Recruitment. The initial cost and upkeep. I'm sure you have set these based on historical precedent, however compromise might be necessary in this area to balance the game as a whole. I know that opens one more nightmare. EB improves the performance of non player factions by giving them LOTS of money...the reason their script runs so slow.

I don't know if it is my building strategy, but I always seem to get Elite Geothe Horse Archers before I get Geothe Horse Archers.

The happiness and tax bonuses make they player faction a lot easier.

I have high hopes that as this mod progresses, many good things are coming.

[parthian shot]

The game engine imposes many limitations. I appreciate the effort involved in including the weapons that seperate the Amazon factions from the others. When balance cannot be achieved in the Attack/Range/AP ability, the less desireable alternative comes into play.

Recruitment. The initial cost and upkeep. I'm sure you have set these based on historical precedent, however compromise might be necessary in this area to balance the game as a whole. I know that opens one more nightmare. EB improves the performance of non player factions by giving them LOTS of money...the reason their script runs so slow.

I don't know if it is my building strategy, but I always seem to get Elite Geothe Horse Archers before I get Geothe Horse Archers.

The happiness and tax bonuses make they player faction a lot easier.

I have high hopes that as this mod progresses, many good things are coming.

Thank You! AP

You are as insightful as always.

1. I have added to the to-do list to increase the cost of advanced tech units, because giving money to the AI factions would not help since their units are not high tech. And it is not a big deal to implement.
We actually had this feature in auto-gen script, but the auto-script has to be removed 'cause the mod team is telling me it is too complex to use as is right now.

2. In regions if there are horse breeding economy available (depicted with the horse trade in strat map), and there is a smith (armor procurement support), the Elite Geothe Horse Archers can be recruited because they would have the race horses and the equipment. By Geothe Horse Archers, I assume that we are talking about the courier dispatcher? These units should be available too.

3. in 7.0, population growth is dramtically reduced, so you would see the game to draw out a great deal longer.

[parthian shot]

This is to update everyone on the progress of the 7.0 release.

We are so blessed to have so many great pre-beta testers, all veteran players, helping with the test. We are hoping all the feedback can be collected right after Christmas so the mod can be published before New Year of 2013.

Once again, thank you to all the test volunteers, you guys are terrific

[allypup]

Sorry,my bad...
in my previous post I ment to say I can recruit Elite Scouts before I can recruit Scouts.

[parthian shot]

No Problem!

Please keep me updated on your 7z file situation.

[parthian shot]

This is to update everyone on the latest of Amazon Total War 7.0

As soon as all the latest reports are in and we can make the last round of bug fixes, the beta release will be out.

Major changes:

- Roman now has super long range carriage ballista and field engineering unit at their higher cultural development, so even with just heavy infantry (meaning the legionnaires) and few cavalry, they can go into battle with the high tech Amazons and can still win, assuming the player is a very clever tactician.

- Far East Celt has Linked Armor Clad cavalry unit as well as different wagon units, and they would and should go to battle with these units, since their male recruits are expensive and not easily available.

- The Libyan Amazons and Thyssa Amazons also have wagon units, especially when they are hording.

- The Western Celt starts in Britain and it is much more playable than before. They also can recruit wagon units but not the Linked Armor Clad Cavalry.

- Like in every mod release, there is always faction which appear to be strong, with the most territory, and the most wealth. Seleucid starts the campaign with exactly that, but I have to warn the player this faction may not be as playable as you would like it to be.

- Like the Romans, many Greek factions can have the field engineering unit, but no carriage ballista available to them.

- The Carthaginian need to get the Summon of the Amazon to win the game, otherwise, their situation would be hopeless, even if with the stronger navy to start.

- The Sarmatians started the game facing a much stronger Scythian neighbor, so they would need to get the Summon of the Amazon, or they would not survive too long.

So in summary, only Thrace and Iberian are not really winnable as factions, and Seleucid can be quite hopeless unless the player is willing to sacrifice territory for the time to build high end army.

This makes Amazon 7.0 a much more diverse and interesting mod to play, along with larger map, which makes quest very difficult.

[Balgeron]

Thank god Romans are getting something. They always get annihilated by Gals and Germans in my game. And thanks for updates parthian shot, i can't wait for this.

[wumpus]

Aside from Amazon factions and units, ATWR also strives for keeping the balance among all, With ver 7.0, with far-eastern Celts and the more powerful Roman ballista, things are getting closer to the goal--we're getting there. Keep up the excellent work, Parthian Shot & alii; I can't wait for the release [and thrash out what bugs there could be found, like the one corrected in 6.0K patch 2]. Hawooh

[parthian shot]

We are still working on the last minute clean up and corrections of many reported minor issues. A special Thank-You to the campaign testers, you guys are amazing.

We are also waiting for an animation update for the minefield.

As soon as these changes are in, the 7.0 beta will be uploaded.

Happy New Year!

[naftykid]

I think 7.0 version should be uploaded to hosts that is easy to download, such as mediafire, because lots of people can't download from Gamefront ( moddb now seem to have only gamefront link).

Comments from Parthian Shot

I brought up Mediafire with the ATW team members, it is really a great site, but their download has 200MB file size limit. So that is not a good candidate for this mod.

If you know any other server site which allows 266MB file size and has no sales gimmick, please let me know.

[parthian shot]

I think 7.0 version should be uploaded to hosts that is easy to download, such as mediafire, because lots of people can't download from Gamefront ( moddb now seem to have only gamefront link)

Yes, for that reason we have stopped using GameFront for the past seven releases.

The download sites are

1. FileHosting
2. StrategicInformer
3. ModDB

I will look into MediaFire, if they don't have a great deal of sale tools to force the downloader to go premimum, I would be more than happy to upload the 7.0 to them as well.

[parthian shot]

As the campaign testers reports are coming back in.

We are now making more adjustments.

- maps are re-adjusted so as not to allow one faction to take too many rebel held territories early in the campaign.
- rebel's troop have been strengthened, so taking over some regions won't be a walk in the park any more.
- corrected missing building construction files.
- corrected once more the field engineering, minefield weapons.

[Hyperfyre]

Minefields, what did I miss?
I'll guess its something similar to the Geothe Amazon's thermite jars, only designed to explode near infrantry.