ATW and M2TW - would you like to see ATW II?

[selenius4tsd]

So... is somebody going to start this off? Y'know, like putting in a request for a sub-forum, and stuff? I dunno, we might as well start now since so many people are keen.

1 Factions?
2 Same campaign map, maybe include some Scandinavian lands? Oh sorry my bad, that sounds like Viking Invasion II :|
3 Eras? Maybe - pre-roman invade, roman occupation, saxon invasion, arthur 'rebellion' or 'uprising'. (sorry i didnt read the stories Basically one era for each occupant. (I know its meant to be "Arthurian" Total War, but we could expand a bit?) Thoughts?

[Antagonist]

Some interesting ideas there Selenius, multiple campaigns is something that interests me but would potentially require a lot more work for the developers...

Factions - Can't think of a reason to drop any of the existing ones, new factions would be things like Franks, Northern Picts, Laigini in Ireland and Bryneich in Britain.
Eras - I doubt it would be possible to go back to before the original Roman Invasion as all the factions would be completely different. You could possibly go forward enough to accomodate the Vikings but that would risk distracting the focus on the British isles. Two possible new eras though would be just before the Roman withdrawl (the "Barbarian Conspiracy" and so on) and a later start date within our current campaign (featuring factions like Northumbria etc.)

That's my two cents, as they say.

Antagonist

[aduellist]

Two possible new eras though would be just before the Roman withdrawl (the "Barbarian Conspiracy" and so on) and a later start date within our current campaign (featuring factions like Northumbria etc.)

Antagonist

Boy, that sounds good. Still, I'd vote that you initially concentrate your efforts on successfully porting the existing mod over. That in itself would be a huge success.

[tino]

I love ATW but due to constant CTD's around 492 I had to stop playing it. Anyway I'm a programmer so I would like to work on ATW2 , and if no scripting is needed I'd love to betatest ATW2.

[tino]

*double message*

[Gaius Baltar]

Well, after experiencing M2TW for almost a month, I will state that overall I am disappointed with it.

My question; what will the M2TW add to ATW? As is, it is a flawed, bug-riddled mess. You will spend more time cleaning the engine up then actually adopting your material to it.

My suggestion..stay with the BI engine, and perfect and already exellent mod, one of the best I have seen in almost all aspects of the game.

I will, of course, lend my humble beta-testing abilities to the mix.

[Agraes]

Whole question of M2TW moddability is still in debate... we gotta wait this unpacker to see if there is a real possibility to work on a total conversion. In any case ATW 0.7 and 0.8 will come first

[The Border Reiver]

I disagree with Gaius Baltar entirely.

I don't see the bug riddled mess that he sees, as I am still yet to have a ctd's. There are things that will be addressed in the patch which are a little poor in a series of such quality, but I agree that currently before patch 1.1 the AI has been far too passive.

I have no interest in continuing with th RTW/BI platform as MTW2 and its exp pack are the way forward. I believe within 6 months all mods of the previous engine will be played less and less and from now on are like used cars (albeit BMW's and Mercedez Benz). Mods like Europa Barborum will still be great to play, but will very quickly get lost in time....just look currently how hits for these RTW mods is decreasing already.

The MTW 2 campaign map, environments, and battleskins are far superior to RTW and are far more complimentary and fitting to a new ATW2. Simply put MTW 2 is stunning compared to RTW.

Agraes why spend the next 6 months doing ATW2 on BI...it is simply a waste of time, when there is something better right here right now. Let's start working on ATW2 for the MTW2 engine and maybe put aside plans for ATW 0.8?

[Agraes]

Like most other mods - even Chivalry - I decided to finish the work that has been begun on RTW. One of the main reasons for this is that ATW2 on M2TW plateform will be a total conversion and thereful take at least a year of intensive work, when finishing ATW needs only some months. Im not yet able to compare ATW and M2TW as I don't have the second - Ill get it for christmas. In the team, both swabian, Antagonist and Gaius tried it but still support ATW, seeing it as a different game.

As CA seems to be very mod-friendly we will soon know (with the unpacker) what will be possible to do in terms of modding. Big threat is modeling, with much increased standarts, higher poly models, and when for a RTW unit you got one skin and one model, here you will have to make several other models, and lods and sprites will be strongly needed to optimise the beast. And of course, we will have to do building models too, as medieval stone castles don't fit the Dark Ages.

The idea of ATW 2 is awesome, but it may be impossible to do. We don't have the manpower of projects like RTR or EB. I rather like to see ATW finished on the RTW engine than ATW unfinished and ATWII dead after some months of work. Yet a project can be started - all the historical informations is ready. And as you seem to have passed to the dark side of the force, you are probably in the best position to lead it while we are still working on the RTW engine.

Just to conclude, I began this mod because I wanted to play a RTS game featuring this era, and I never expected such results and success. There is apparently around 5000 people that downloaded ATW 0.6. But even if there is less than 100 people who will play the finished version of ATW on RTW engine, that won't stop my will to finish it

[Antagonist]

I also found M2TW much more stable then some people, and it does seem to me to have great potential as a modding platform, but the main problem is that at the moment we can't be certain whether that potential will ever truly be realised. Obviously groundwork can be done on the M2TW platform, but I feel that until it is known whether M2TW's graphics can be modded, and whether doing that will require a far larger and more comprehensive modding team then ATW currently has, it would be unwise to abandon the RTW platform. Maybe if there was widespread evidence that the great majority of TW players were no longer interested in RTW mods, but I for one don't see that, things like EB 0.8 which have come out since M2TW seem as popular as ever as far as I can see.

I'd suggest that interested people start investigating the M2TW files (especially with the patch just out) and start discussing how the various new elements of M2TW (like Merchants for example) can be adapted to ATW, but to hold off on moving over entirely until more is known, if for no other reason then that it will probably be weeks at the earliest before people have a good enough grasp of the files to do anything useful anyway.

My two cents, as they say.

Antagonist

[MRY6]

I think its a great idea, but maybe talks should be started to maybe join up with other teams to add manpower to get it done. EB and OR did this and are set to make an incredibly powerful mod. Maybe make ATW a sub mod of some other larger game, i don't know, but manpower is def. needed. I would love to help, but i don't have much skill at all in modding.

[Favre]

I could help out a bit, but not to the extent i did skins for the original ATW. Or in such a short timeframe as i did for the original ATW.

[DadioDog]

I want to change my vote to 'Yes, I would like to play it' for I have sinned

[MRY6]

ATW2 will probably take a year or more to complete, by then most of the M2TW bugs will have been fixed. That and whatever expansion pack with hopefully some improvements and goodies at least somewhat worthy of our money will be released. Maybe the final version of ATW2 should be for the expansion? the beta's can maybe be on the original. Just a thought.

[Agraes]

At this very early stage its hard to say... Of course if the expansion is Viking Invasion 2 it will bring some really nice features for the mod

[The Good]

I would love to see this mod on Medieval II: Total War's game engine, think of all the possibilities, four different heads per unit, better graphics, and the Mongol and Timurid events could be used to "horde" the Saxons and the later Vikings.

[_TheChevalier_]

Actually I'd like to see this mod for M2TW, it' would have superb graphics, it would awesome

[Edmonton]

What are your ideas on MTW2' s modability nowdays(after initial boom has died out) ? Units'skins?

[Agraes]

As there is yet no possibility to do models, its very compromised. But the main issue is that I - and most other team members - won't probably have the time and motivation to work on ATW2... Except if we get a massive help from community!

[Arbaces]

So, good to see, thoughts for MTW2 here as well...! As for this...

As there is yet no possibility to do models, its very compromised.

Don't worry, it seems that it's being worked on... .

As you might see, the current ATW is quite excellent so I don't see what a M2TW based one would bring... but still anything based on this period for MTW would be awesome :hmmm:...

:wink:,
Arbaces.