Conflictus Antiquarum Culturarum (CAC) a major overhaul mod of Rome 2 focused on History and Realism

[Iutland]

Conflictus Antiquarum Culturarum

Welcome Welcome to the world of Conflictus Antiquarum Culturarum (CAC) or Clashes between Ancient Cultures, which it loosely can be translated to in English.
Conflictus Antiquis Culturis is a major overhaul of Rome 2 with the aim to improve gameplay and add diversity to the vanilla game.

The mod is focused on history and Realism (but it doesn’t mean that it is 100% historical correct), within the limits the CA source data and game engine provides. Most aspects of the game and all factions will undergo changes as part of this mod.

As of today we are proud to present this labour of love that we have worked very hard to complete over the last five months.

The mod is not completed and still needs an overhaul of the remaining factions as well as further beautification and inclusion of third party contents if permission is granted. However most of the necessary campaign and battle modifications are already in place and may need some fine tuning once we receive proper feedback from you, our audience

Still remember that if you have any wishes or changes to the vanilla game that you would like to see in this mod (within the Historical and Realistic scope of course), then feel free to post it. The posts will surely be read and your requests will be evaluated by us and hopefully included.

2014-02-23 il Pitta and iutland

Conflictus Antiquarum Culturarum (CAC) preview version 0.5 (public alpha) is available at these three sites:Mediafire, Gamefront and Depositfiles.

Download and unpack the installer, which includes the CAC mod pack itself as well as the UPC language files adapted for CAC. Besides the default English language support (no need for UPC file), the following languages are supported: Czech, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Installation instruction:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Install:
Install to your " Total War Rome II " folder. See the following for example OS path:
WinXP users: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\ Total War Rome II
Win7/Win8 users: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Total War Rome II

Uninstall:
1. Run uninstall feature from Start\All programs or from Control Panel\Add Remove Programs.

Note:
1. This mod includes UPC language packs for Czech, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish users. Remember only to install the one that is applicable for your Rome II language installation
2. If you have an English installation of Rome II then you shall not install any UPC language pack!

Mod compatibility:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

CAC is not compatible with any unit mods but is compatible with most mods that changes/improves graphics and sound
CAC is not compatible with any mods that changes the Battle AI or Campaign AI settings
CAC may be compatible with mods that changes animations

Team and Credits:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Historical research and unit design] il Pitta
[Modding] iutland
[Pre-release gameplay testing] PhallosMaximus

Vacant Positions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Are you experienced in modding/editing music and sound files? then we could need your help.
Are you experienced in modding campaign scripts .lua files etc? then we could need your help.

Note that you will need to prove your capabilities before being allowed to join the team. You are required to show commitment, performance and persistence. There are no free rides granted or any free meals served ;-)

[Iutland]

Conflictus Antiquarum Culturarum preview version 0.5 (alpha) release notes listed below. Further expansion of the mod contents will happen prior to release of the first public beta version.

General changes included:
CAC is compatible with Rome II Patch 9.1.

CAC includes language support for Czech, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish languages using included UPCs (part of the installer).

Campaign changes included:
Continental Celtic Faction Unit roster(s) completed.

Carthaginian Faction Unit roster completed.

Roman Unit roster completed and is the most comprehensive so far with many interesting units. The Roman Auxiliary units are also heavily modified.

Iberian Factions Unit rosters completed.

Germanic Factions Unit rosters completed.

Briton and Eblani Factions Unit rosters completed.

Startpos Area of Recruitment (AoR) implemented for modified factions.

Startpos editing/modding implemented for modified factions including starting units and General units.

2 Turns Per calendar included with corresponding changes to building times, building growth bonus, building cost, research times, agent skill level vs. time, unit recruitment times (special units) and also unit recruitment cost.

Fictive Nova Carthago faction replaced by historical Bastetani faction.

The extinct Etruscans are replaced by the Celtic Boii faction. The existing playable Boii faction is renamed Boihaemum.

Starting regions changed for Carthage, Rome, Roxolani and Scythia.

Starting diplomacy settings modified to resemble the Rome II campaign starting date.

Many faction names and settlement names are modified for historical correctness. This also implies that some lesser factions (tribes) may be replaced by more important factions.

Technology effects are heavily modified for balancing and relevance.

Unit availability via researchable reforms are expanded with reference to vanilla Rome 2 for most rosters. As an example Rome will go through Cornelian reforms followed by Marian reforms and Augustean reforms. Even Auxiliary units are upgraded via researchable reform for more professional legions.

General diplomacy settings are heavily modified to hopefully allow for a more interesting campaign.

Building effects modified primarily to lower squalor and starvation influence on gameplay (including AI).

Character trait effects are reduced overall for balancing purposes.

Campaign map general attrition and siege attrition modified. Furthermore smaller ships will be exposed to attrition while not in littoral waters.

Onagers removed from all factions except Rome and Fire pot ships are also removed.

Campaign map zoom limits extended to get a closer look at your characters and also to provide a better strategic view of the campaign map. Activate during campaign intro movie via the ESC key (also removes FoW temporarily for the first turn).

Many other CAI changes are included in order to hopefully improve the gameplay.

Battle changes included:
Battle aspects are completely modified and will hopefully not resemble vanilla.

Battles will last considerably longer and with far more casualties. Unit fatigue influences a unit’s ability to survive and prevail in combat. Therefore fresh reserves can actually tip the balance against better opponents if committed at the right place and the right time.

“Hammer and anvil” can effectively be used in battle to win a battle as flank and rear attacks will have an influence when attacking an opponent, but don’t expect the unit to rout right away!

Projectiles, armour and melee weapon stats are heavily modified for more historical correctness and are more diverse than vanilla. Fantasy projectiles such as flaming javelins and flaming arrows from horse archers are removed. Pilums and javelins can be fired from a standstill by a unit during defence.

More variables are included in the calculation of a particular unit’s hit-points compared with vanilla resulting in more diverse battle stats.

Siege engines and catapults are less effective against city walls so expect more casualties during siege battles.

Torch attack against gates are much less effective than vanilla. This is a placeholder implementation until those silly torches are removed by CA.

All units’ appearance (“uniform”) for each modified faction is reworked and is still an ongoing process. So far the western most factions are reworked. Campaign map Generals appearance is also modified.

All factions’ uniform colours are modified and less saturated compared to vanilla colours.

Most factions are playable in custom battle.

Units’ fantasy abilities are disabled and the effects of the remaining ones are modified.

Shield patterns modified for Romans, Italics, Hellenics and Carthage. Custom made wooden shield added to East Germanic units.

Naval battle stats and speed modified for more realism. Note that transport ships are very vulnerable when facing warships.

Many more minor changes to the battle play in the quest for the optimum game experience.

[Iutland]

We have already presented the reworked faction rosters in other posts throughout our development process. Therefore this is a presentation of some the other contents included in CAC version 0.5.

Please provide feedback, questions or comments

The first image shows the reworked Carthaginian roster in CAC. The "Punic Rebels" called Rebel Mercenaries and the Libyans are equipped with a subset of the Carthaginian roster:


The next image shows the playable factions in custom battle. Note that not all vanilla units are available such as the ones from BoW DLC:


The next two images presents the decreased and increased zoom levels available during campaign play. Activate by pressing the ESC key during campaign intro "movie":




The next two images shows the relocation of the Roxolani and Scythian factions for a more historical correct starting position. Note that the Cimmerian capitol is thus relocated as well:




The next couple of images shows the starting positions of Carthage and the altered Iberian start setup:




The next image shows the modified start diplomacy settings with Rome as an example:


The next five images shows the availability of increasingly better units for the Romans via military reforms to resemble the actual composition of the Roman armies in the game time frame. For now the reforms are researched as technologies and in the future we may build in script dependencies. However we do not intend to make all events script based thus making the game flow much more predictable and less dynamic. The timing of the reforms should hopefully correlate, +/- x-number of years, with the actual historical events. All other factions (if applicable) will have also have better units available via reforms/research-technologies although to a lesser degree than our fellow Romans

Cornelian reforms:


Marian reforms:


Augustean reforms:


Augustean Auxiliary Infantry:


Augustean Auxiliary Cavalry:

[Iutland]

Reserved#3

[czarnian]

Hey mate, I'm have a phD in Bulgarian history, wich included a fine few years of studying ancient and thracian history, so if you need any info (other than wikipedia) on the... "thracianised" helenic culture of the Balkan tribes, let me know.

[Yerevan]

This is good news. I like what you did with FOTS.

[TheSunEmperor]

LME was (and still is!) a wonderful mod, probably my favorite TW mod I've used so far, so I'm hoping for great things with this. I can't wait to see where this goes...

[Biggus Splenus]

Good luck mate all these overhauls are popping up, I think I need my own

[WarlordZ]

Best of luck! and I am glad that there will be beta releases along the way, as it will keep the supporters of such mods interested in the work and the progress.

[Iutland]

Thank you all for the positive feedback and encouragement

[Iutland]

Hey mate, I'm have a phD in Bulgarian history, wich included a fine few years of studying ancient and thracian history, so if you need any info (other than wikipedia) on the... "thracianised" helenic culture of the Balkan tribes, let me know.

Thank you for your offer czarnian I will keep that in mind when working on the Thracian-hellenistic culture factions

[Vercingetorix King of Gauls]

There are some nice mods that focus on different factions, maybe you should contact the guys who made theese to merge some of them over here.

Good luck!

[Ichigorukia]

Looking Forward to mod Mate. that game needs many overhauls it can get

[Aussie-tosser]

Great to see another fine mod to the rescue.

[Ichigorukia]

How is the Mod coming Mate?

[airborne guy]

This could be epic, just found a reason not to delete RT2, if it is anything like LME it should be awesome!!! Cant wait for this.

[Iutland]

Thanks guys :-) I hope to submit my first preview later this week showing Faction recolouring results.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[il Pitta]

WONDERFUL!!!!!!

Modifications should be a lot... Veneti, Raethians and Ligurians returned to their proper cultures with proper units (not "general celts" at all), Carthaginian army with a lot of thyreophoroi units, no hellenistic phalanx and less hoplite-like troops, a proper distinction between Iberian and Celtiberian... just to say a few.

I'm a PhD in Ancient History, published a book about celtic warfare ( http://www.ilcerchio.it/i-celti-e-l-...llustrato.html ), and besides a gaulish and carthaginian reenactor... (but I'm totally incapable of ANY modding... I'm REALLY almost "Iron Age Culture" XD ), if you need some infos about Celts and Carthaginians, here I am.

[DramaBelli]

So it begins!

[Nero Clavdivs Germanicvs]

Hi really good news I wish you good luck with this mod. I would like to have new centurion style something like centurion in your picture- with centurion chrests, phalerae... Because vanilla centurions are awful, or it would be great to see empty square formation (not spartan style but for example type of square which can be used in Napoleon Total War) or type of formationswhich can be seen in HBOˇs Rome- when soldiers in a first line are replaced by soldiers in a second line