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.

[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

[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

[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.

[Iutland]

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.

Thank you for your offer Sir I will surely get back with questions for you later on

Are there any other factions you have discovered so far that have been assigned the wrong culture and units etc.?

[il Pitta]

Are there any other factions you have discovered so far that have been assigned the wrong culture and units etc.?

Actually yes... from different points of wiew.

All the Spanish factions are of "Celtic culture", and it's totally incorrect.

Calleaci, Cantabri, Arevaci and Celtici were Celtiberians -Celtic stock-, but

Edetani and Cessetani were Iberians, that was actually totally another kind of culture


Lusitani were Indoeuropeans, and althought if deeply celticized, probably were a culture on their own (cfr. V. Blazek, Lusitanian Language, in Studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis Brunensis, vol. 11. 2006, p. 15), but however that is still a matter of opinion, so maybe they could still on the "celtic side"

Turdetani actually were a very powerful nation and their language and culture was nor Celtic or Iberian, but Tartessic ( Strabo , Geography III, 2 , 11) , of uncertain origin.
Their nation is already mentioned in the Bible under the name of Tarshis as a trading partner of the Phoenicians of Tyre (Ezekiel , 27, 12) .
Strabo will notice a substantial difference between all other peoples of Iberia and the Turdetani, and will recognize the latter a much more advanced level of culture:
"The Turdetani are the most civilized of the Iberians : they know to write and possess books, and also poems and a code of laws that they consider older than seven thousand years ..." (Strabo , Geography, III , 1, 6 )
Strabo also wrote about a rich economy based on an abundant production of resources and manufacturing for export and a large commercial fleet "...so numerous as to almost compete with that of Libya [ of Carthage ] " ( Strabo , Geography III, 2 , 6)

About the Spaniard units, I think there is a lot of work to do if you want to give an historical look.
E.d. the "characteristic Iberian helmet" with the central crest and lateral folds that is in al Iberian infantry units in fact was typical just for the Turdetanians:

While Iberians and Turdetani normally deployed troops with both round caetra (small or big) and big thyreos shield, Celtiberians (Arevaci, Calleaci, Cantabri, Celtici) and Lusitanians normally used just the caetra, and frequently the small one... apparently, Celtiberians equipped with the big thyreos shield are characteristic of Celtiberian MERCENARIES within the Carthaginian armies, equipped in such manner and trained directly by carthaginian officers (Livy, Ab Urbe Condita , XXVIII , 2).

Another point is that almost all Spaniards favoured hit and run tactics, and even when deployed on an open battlefield, their approach to the battle was based on the use on throwing weapons (highly specialized, e.d. the falarica, a.k.a. socketed pilum-like javelin, or the soliferreum, akin to the gaulish gaesum, an all-iron javelin) and the assault and close combat with swords.

The Falcata, the curved spanish sword, was common in Iberian and Turdetanian context, but in the Celtiberian Meseta (Arevaci), it was quite rare, and the celtiberian sword of excellence was a straight sword, the cladeimos, actually the ancestor of the roman gladius hispaniensis.
In other Celtiberian peripherical context (expecially Cantabria) the Falcata is more frequent, but always mixed with straight swords. Also, Cantabri were known to fight not only with swords but even with two-headed axes, probably a special woodcutting tool reverted as weapons (Silius Italicus , Punica , III, 325)

A last point about the Cessetani... Actually I don't understand why CA choosed them for that area, because actually they were just a small tribe, probably part of a big iberian confederation leaded by the much stronger Illergetes (Polybius , Histories , III , 76).
However, in their context, there is a mix of Iberian and Gaulish weapons (you can find in the necropolis both falcata and La Téne gaulish sword).

If you want to see more references I've already written a small article about Spaniards HERE: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ighlight=Pitta

Hope haven't been too confusing... but Iberia IS confusing XD


About the factions of the Illyrian area: Ardiei, Daorsi and Dalmati are also signed as "Celtic Culture", but actually thei were Illyrians, and it's quite different!
But so far I've seen, at least the equipment of their units is correct

For Gauls and Britons, there are some units with small round shields, and actually this is quite incorrect: the ONLY depiction of a gaulish round shield is from the Bormio Stele:
but nowdays historians are quite convinced that it isn't a celtic manufact but etruscan (cfr. A. Valvo "ll bassorilievo di Bormio e il culto a Volcanus nelle Alpi Retiche", 1996), and however, no gaulish or british grave have never shown something that could be interpreted as a round shield.
For slingers or light troops, I'll suggest the use of SMALL thyreos shields, like the one on Glauberg Statue, without the metal boss, or maybe wicker shields at last attested by Caesar.

Another thing: about the Suebi and the Germani in general, there is a point quite disturbing: in the game a lot of theit shields are thyreos like but without the spina, just with the iron round umbo... if in some way this is correct, it is just from II-I B.C. onward... actually germanic shields were copies of celtic ones, just poorer, and in the last century B.C. BOTH Celts and Germans start to use oblong shield with just round metal umbo (however never abandonig totally the older model with wooden spina)... starting the game in III B.C. would be more correct to give to Germanic tribes celtic-like shileds WITH wooden spina (maybe poorer versions, like the Hjortspring shields, smaller and without metal umbo for the common troops), and maybe create some military reform, that introduce troops with round boss shields: It would help to handle also the fact that celtic troops have mixed helmets of different periods: Montefortino, Galloitalic and Negau is correct for the starting period of the game, Agen-Port helmets insteads are of I B.C.


More: as I said, the problem with Veneti, Ligures and Raeti... also depicted as "celtic culture" in the game, they were Italics, even if in some ways more or less celticized...

Ligures were strongly celticized, but had their own language. They wore tunics, and not bracae as the Celts. For the military equipment, they were quite similar to Celts, maybe a little bit poorer (e.d. no iron elements related to shields, so probably gaulish shield with spina but without metal umbo). For Ligurian chieftains I'll see good the leather armor with triangular humeralia (already present in the celtic units), that in fact is from Glanum, a celto-ligurian site in Provence, or maybe a "Celto-Ligi Warriors" units.

Raethians wore tunics too, and their culture, slightly influenced by etruscans (a MYTH said they were in fact descendants of those Etruscans drove off the Po Valley by the Gaulish invasions that fled on the Alps -Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia, III, 133; Livy, ab Urbe Condita, V, 33) was very archaic: mainly weaponry was lepontic battle axes (Strabo -IV.6.6.; 6.8.; V.1.6.; Horace -Carm. IV 14 7-6, 17-22)


and Negau helmets,


and little elements of celtic La Téne type for the richer (galloitalic helmets -the one in iron, pointed, with three-lobe cheekguards-, la Téne swords, leather armor with straight humeralia or linothorakes.)

However, in the game it would be correct to give these kind of units (axes, negau helmet, ecc.) not only to Raethians, but to Norici too... People from Noricum (actually Taurisci), were Celts, but these archaic weaponry is more related to the isolationism of alpine valleys than linked to a specific culture.

Veneti, were deeply an Italic culture, their language was akin to Latin and were traditionally allied of the Romans since really ancient period (Plutarch, De fortuna Romanorum. 12, 325, wrote that the Gauls of Brennus, after the sack of Rome of 390 B.C. were forced to retreat becaus the Veneti had attacked their homeland in Northern Italy... it's a LEGEND, but it obviously brings interesting informations).
If in the origin their weapons were hoplite-like as the same of the Etruscans, when the Gauls invade the Po Valley the Veneti quickly change their panoply imitating the celtic one, and even changed their clothes, so that in the III a.C. they were "apparently a little different in exterior from the Celts" (Polybius, 2, 17)... in fact looking to the arachaeological findings, from III a.C. onward Venetians weapons were almost celtic, with some italic or ancient elements still rarely remaining (some Negau helmets, some kopis-type swords).

For the Carthaginians, the faction i love the most, there is also a lot to write: too much hoplites (there were still oplites in III-II B.C. -cfr. Chentouf relief-, but were probably old fashioned garrison african troops)... after Hamilcar Barca's reform the huge of Lybo-Phoenician soldiers were equipped with thyreos, calcidian, attic or montefortino helmet, linothorax or cardiophylax, short spears good both for thrusting and throwing, and a variety of swords from kopis to falcata to celtiberian cladeimos.

However this is just an overlook... if you want, from time to time we can analize in a more specific manner the factions one by one, looking what kind of units would be more correct ;-)