[Proposal] completing the SYW mod

**Gen.jamesWolfe** · January 20, 2013, 04:19 AM

OK, so this isn't exactly a new project, seeing as how it's been going on for four years (yes, four), but I think it's now time to make it official, and work on the campaign, with a full staff, separate threads, and whatnot--and of course, most crucially, to finally complete this long quest.

not knowing a better place or way of posting this, I placed it here. hope no one minds.

anyways: though this is a long-time project, it has never been official (mainly b/c of how it evolved), and I have been very reluctant to try to make this a team effort: I have trouble keeping others on schedule in RL, let alone in modding, so I've been reluctant to post it here, to start it's own forums subsection and so forth. things in RL however, have changed my mind--dramatically. this is where this thread comes in:

Now in case you didn't click the link, this is the mod for the Seven years war period--the only one of it's kind for Total war:eras (AFAIK), and one of just two mods about 18th century Europe (Again, AFAIK). It's meant to be ported to Alexander: Total war, though a RTW porting will be open to negotiation. it has 20 factions at this time, all of whom at least have their infantry, and most have their cavalry and light infantry:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I also have a map_regions and map_heights done (as they aren't beyond my ability), with 199 provinces (notice the pileup that is Germany). It'll be larger than most previous maps of the region, in part to allow for the fragmentation of Germany to be accounted for:

(the picture comes from my album(s), where you can see more of my work).

it has also been the project in which a few interesting breakthroughs have been made--all of which you can read on about in the thread. it has a complete unit stat system, and all the units and associated material are either my own making, or borrowed from other mods/minimods, with the permission of the owners (and those are relatively few). No, there are hardly anythings left from the original N2TW (if any), and yes, it has it's own modfolder.

Basically, I'm the sole official member of the mod at this time (and obviously the leader). I have received much help from GRANTO, Thibaud, and a few other great users, all of whom have contributed something great to this, but generally, It's a one-man project. However, I cannot keep doing this on with my current organization, as RL issues have piled up on me, and frankly, much of the aspects of RTW modding are beyond my ability and time to learn. I'd quit, but I'm so close to completing my goals for this mod, I cannot bear to stop now.

If anyone likes to help me see this to completion, I only hope that they're willing to go along for the whole nine yards--to see this mod finished before R2TW, and released to a broader modding community, even if the engine it runs on isn't up to date.

looking forward to your feedback.

EDIT: and here's a link to an earlier version of this mod. It's not the current form of the mod, but it gives you an idea of how well it's working out:
http://www.4shared.com/zip/AKILQQLu/SYW.html

**Gen.jamesWolfe** · January 23, 2013, 08:52 PM

So no volunteers?

**Jubal_Barca** · January 27, 2013, 12:46 PM

What do you need help with?

**Gen.jamesWolfe** · February 04, 2013, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by Jubal_Barca

What do you need help with?

sorry for the late reply: RL has caught up with me, as usual.

anyways: I most importantly need someone who can help me create a campaign for the game, as I mentioned in the opening post.

I also need people who can script buildings, towns, and so on: I also need people who can do 2D art (factions symbols, loading screens, etc).

**Jubal_Barca** · February 09, 2013, 07:37 AM

So you've got map_regions and map_heights done - what about features and ground types, and have you got the regions coded into descr_regions.txt? I guess I'm just trying to get at how far away from a finished campaign you are. In terms of "scripting buildings and towns" do you just mean coding new ones in or are you thinking of specifically fancy stuff?

My time is pretty limited, but I could potentially take on one or two specific focussed tasks towards getting things together.

**Gen.jamesWolfe** · February 09, 2013, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by Jubal_Barca

So you've got map_regions and map_heights done - what about features and ground types, and have you got the regions coded into descr_regions.txt? I guess I'm just trying to get at how far away from a finished campaign you are. In terms of "scripting buildings and towns" do you just mean coding new ones in or are you thinking of specifically fancy stuff?

My time is pretty limited, but I could potentially take on one or two specific focussed tasks towards getting things together.

yes, map_regions and map_heights. and all the provinces are in the descr_regions.txt

the other TGA's are not done, as many I have little to no data, or experience, to do properly.

as for scripting: I'm just looking for the basics: enough to get the campaign working, so I can train units (which is where the buildings come in). new building models and town layouts will have to wait for now.

**Jubal_Barca** · February 15, 2013, 07:14 PM

If you upload the files somewhere and send me the link, I'll take a look at getting you to the stage of having a loadable, working map. I don't have time to do buildings at the moment or much of the descr_strat stuff, but I'll do the tga editing if that's useful. As you can probably tell from my sporadic activity it may take me a while, but I can certainly do it.

**Gen.jamesWolfe** · February 16, 2013, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by Jubal_Barca

If you upload the files somewhere and send me the link, I'll take a look at getting you to the stage of having a loadable, working map. I don't have time to do buildings at the moment or much of the descr_strat stuff, but I'll do the tga editing if that's useful. As you can probably tell from my sporadic activity it may take me a while, but I can certainly do it.

thanks!

actually, the link (which will do: careful with saxony though), has already been uploaded on the mod page (in the N2TW subforums). I'll attach a copy here:

http://www.4shared.com/zip/1SACtE6Z/SYW.html

the tga's I've done are all in there--as are blank versions of the others.

finish it as soon as you can. I just have three things when making the TGA's:

1-keep it accurate (goes without saying I suppose). especially with map_roughness and map_features.
2-if possible with the TGA's, make the colors and appearance as close to the real color satellite images as possible. I'm assuming it can be done for the water, but little else.
3-if the cities don't line up as a result, you can edit the descr_region to your heart's content. just keep the colors and cities, and don't change the number of provinces.

**The Roman Republic** · February 25, 2013, 01:19 PM

hmm sound interesting, perhaps a private dev forum would be suitable instead of sharing ideas or files on here.

I can do or have done various things for a mod i'm with now,

ranging from: 2D artist, coder, scripter, tester,

I also revamped the whole menu system including various other things which will be shown when we feel like we have reached at a level we feel is acceptable to be shown to the public, as of now, no one knows we exist as we have been working over the past year in a private dev forum.