Hello everyone! I have finally returned to Rome II and my mod. I imagine some of you have a few questions and I've got a lot to speak on, so I'll jump right to it.
Silven! Where have you been!? Why did you abandon us!
As I mentioned in the past, I had some serious issues arise in my personal life. I really don't want to elaborate on the details but suffice it to say my time could not be spent on the mod. I simply had more important things to deal with. It was a serious distraction from everything for a long time. After it started to look like things were settling down I turned my thoughts to returning to the mod. But I'll be completely honest with all of you. I simply didn't have the motivation to come back and update and maintain the mod. The state of the game was still well beyond sub-standard, and I knew patches would continue to roll out every month. After already going through the tedious and arduous process of recreating the mod from scratch several times to keep it up to date and functioning with CA's Patches, modding had stopped being fun and become a chore. I dreaded the thought of remaking the mod over and over again. Let alone continuing to improve and build upon it and add new features.
It took me 6 months to regain the motivation and my love for modding. And for that, I want to apologize to all of you. I know I don't need to apologize. Modding is something we CHOOSE to do for free and share with the public. As modders, we don't owe the public anything. But after hearing so many people talk about being unable to play the game at all without mods, I know that feeling and I can definitely relate. And even though I don't owe anyone an apology, I'm offering one anyway.
Sweet. So what happens now that you're back?
First things first. The mod has been completely rebuilt from the ground up once more. I've spent the last few days pushing the mod through what I'd call an 'alpha' stage, reviewing the changes CA has made since my absence and re-implementing the big features that make me very proud of my mod. The mod is currently fully functional with CA Patch12 beta, and shortly after posting this thread it will be available for download in the Stickied Download Thread.
Let me just mention by the way, that it was staggering counting the number of times I found changes that I had made that were nearly or completely mirrored by CA's Official Patches since the last time I updated the mod. As I was rebuilding the mod it was mind-blowing to see how many bug fixes, balance adjustments, and gameplay corrections didn't have to be copied over from my old modding notes to the newly rebuilt mod because CA had already made those exact changes. Now I'm not implying that I'm the only modder to have made these changes or even that CA took them directly from me. That's actually probably very unlikely. But nonetheless it was still surprising to see how my vision for the game has synced up with CA's own patches in more than a few ways.
As a result, when the Stickied Download Thread gets updated here in a few minutes, the details describing the mod are going to change a lot. I'm going to remove outdated information and change what needs to be changed. Because I've been absent for so long and because it'll take some time for me to get re-acquainted with all the unit stat changes and general balance changes CA has made, many of the battle map changes I made in the past have been omitted from this release. Things like movement speed and morale will operate just like they did before in previous versions of STIM, but things like kill rates and unit balance will probably be different and will take some time to return to their former glory.
Are you going to do anything differently with the mod?
Yes, in fact. Many things. First, and most importantly, I've taken the time to educate myself on better methods for structuring and saving the mods files. This is probably old news to most by now, but I've started using table fragments for all my db changes and using custom table names instead of vanilla named tables. For the laymen unfamiliar to modding, all this means is that from now on updating the mod for future CA patches will be MUCH MUCH MUCH easier and faster. And that's good news for you and me. It also means my mod will be much more compatible with other mods. Understand, this doesn't mean you can try using a mod like Radious and STIM together and expect balanced results, but the likelihood of crashes and splash screen lockups when using mini-mods alongside mine will be much, much lower.
Second, I've learned you can't keep everyone happy. And there's no reason to stretch myself thin to the point of insanity by trying to do so. What this means for you: The mod will no longer be uploaded in multiple variants. I'm only going to upload the mod as one version, and that version will be the way its meant to be played. This means no more 2x unit sizes, and no more multiples of TPY. If you really want these options, you can make the changes to the mod yourself after you've downloaded it. Turn times, research times, build times, and unit sizes are all built around being balanced with one another. So instead of splitting my attention into 4 average and potentially broken versions of the mod, I'm going to build 1 great version that doesn't contain unwanted side-effects.
And on the matter of Turns Per Year, I've always favored 2 TPY. But with the recent seasons update provided by CA (sweet btw!) 2 TPY is immersion breaking for me. I hate only having Summer and Winter. So until I find a feasible way to make 2 TPY work with all 4 seasons, the mod will only support 4 TPY. Building and Tech Times will not, however, simply be 4 times as long.
I've also learned that I while I'm capable of doing everything by myself, it would be much easier if I didn't have to. STEP is currently still out of commission until I get re-acquainted with unit stat values like I mentioned before. I've got to reevaluate where the units added by STEP should stand and their appropriate recruitment costs/upkeep/attack/defense etc. But even while I think of the maintenance needed for the units I've already got completed, I'm also already thinking ahead to the new units that I have not yet created and what needs to be done for them.
So with that said, this is my official request for help with the ongoing development of STEP. I'll need help coming up with ideas for new units, building them from scratch in the db, and fitting them with the appropriate custom variantmesh definitions to make them all look nice and shiny. Someone with the artistic talent to make brand new custom Unit Cards for all these units, that fit with the Vanilla Style, would also be very helpful. If you're interested in joining the STEP project as a modder and you feel you might have a similar vision and creative process, please feel free to send me a PM.
And I think that's everything! As I said in my thread that I posted back in December, I sincerely hope you end up deciding that the mod update was worth the wait. I can't wait to re-continue development of the mod and hear everyones feedback. Cheers!
-Silven