Overview
- To be clear, this is a beta in many ways - it will change as we go and will have bugs to report. I will do my best to make updates after this initial release save compatible as I always do. Submods and 1.1 itself will not be compatible with this version until they are updated to 1.2. For those who do participate in this open beta, please leave feedback and bug reports in the appropriate threads to help us perfect the version.
- After a year of work and a lot of anticipation, we finally have a release version for everyone to enjoy here on TWC. This is an exclusive beta release for all of you on the TWC forums who have helped and supported us throughout the years to make this mod great. 1.2 will eventually be on Steam but not anytime soon, so if you want to try it out this is the place to get it!
- There are a TON of features and overhauls in this version. We initially did not even know if we were going to have a version after 1.1 and only planned a few small updates. Well, of course, that snowballed into the release we have today. In many ways, this is the largest and most expansive update we have had yet for DeI. This is not all that is planned for 1.2 and there are still things being developed. But, this is a mostly complete version for testing.
- The highlights of this update include the Population system, an overhauled Grand Campaign and map, many new faction overhauls, overhauled battle mechanics, and much, much more! I want to take this chance to thank the Ancient Empires team and the People of Rome team for large contributions to this version. Our complete credits will be listed at the bottom of this post and the download thread. Its been a long year of work, so if anyone is forgotten just let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Thanks to everyone who contributed!
Included Features - Collection of Previews
Population System
- Thanks to the PoR team, one of the most complex additions to the mod will be added in 1.2. You can see more details in their forum or at our 1.1 submod version thread.
- The basic idea behind this system is that every region has a population that can be used to recruit units. Obviously, its more complicated than that, but you get the idea. You can check out our Population guide for help with the system.
New Grand Campaign - Preview
- Thanks to our partnership with the Ancient Empires team, we have had access to their work using the Augustus campaign map for the grand campaign as a foundation to work from for DeI. Because of this, we are happy to announce we have a completely revamped Grand Campaign for our players to experience.
- The campaign will begin in 278 BC, uses the Augustus campaign map as a basis and has the new emergent factions feature that really adds dynamics to the campaign.- The new campaign includes new This Year in History messages to chronicle what was happening in history as the campaign goes along. Thanks to the R2TR for use of their script as a basis for this system.
New Playable Factions, Unit Cards and Roster Overhauls
- A ton of new roster overhauls and playable factions have been added for DeI 1.2. These new faction overhauls include:
Sparta -- Iweriu -- Kartli -- Colchis -- Bactria -- Edetani -- Medewi -- Kaledonakoi -- Atropatkan -- Greek Factions -- Lusitani -- Additional Units -- Scordisci -- Arevaci
- All new unit cards have been added for those overhauls and for some existing units in DeI. Rusty is hard at work finishing the existing cards, also, but there are a ton of units in DeI! You can see his work in his submod thread.
Buildings and Income Overhaul - Preview
- Building effects, income and the economy in general have been overhauled to make more sense and we removed some of the hidden bonuses in the game. Income should mostly be directly impacted by in game actions now.
- New buildings and regional buildings have been added, including special capitals and resource building chains.
Political and Trait System - Traits Preview -- Politics Preview
- Traits have been overhauled as have the political effects for a faction.
- Our new character traits are now evolving traits that can change over the course of a campaign for a general. Also, political ranks are now earned rather than bought.
- We have new political effects for political party power levels based on new government types assigned to various factions. These include examples like Monarchy, Chiefdom, Oligarchy, Republic, Tribal Confederation, etc. These new government types can be seen if you mouse over the faction effect bundle icon in the faction screen. You can read more about this at our Politics guide.
- All factions now have 4 political parties that are active from campaign start to make politics more meaningful.
Battle Overhaul - Preview
- Along with new animations and formations for hoplites, the battle overhaul includes new mechanics for pikes. Also, most units have been overhauled to better take advantage of the game engine. Formation attack is no longer used, stats are adjusted so that difficulty levels won't impact battles as badly, etc. In fact, the AI and battles in general should have a much more unique and dynamic feel. See the preview for full changes, KAM has been hard at work in his laboratory!
Features In Progress
- We have other features we are still working on, including some new scripted systems like Litharion's Tribal Unification idea.
- More work will be done to make various hellenic rosters more unique and specialized as we continue to try to differentiate some of these factions in a more historical manner.
- Other features we are still working on are new political events/dilemmas, adjustments/additions to faction traits to add variety, work to make Maurya more unique, and various other ideas.
Credits
- The whole DeI dev team and tester group who really came together to get this update out. Thanks to everyone for their hard work, you can see the full team listing here.
- The EB/EB2 teams for many concepts and text references along with general inspiration for our mod from the start.
- The AE team for our partnership that has benefited both mods and constant help and advice. There are many contributions from the team and we are very thankful!
- The PoR team for their amazing work on the population system and help with getting it ready.
- The R2TR team for their history messages script.
- Dontfearme22 and the AoB Team for a lot of models/textures. Huge thanks to the Age of Bronze team!
- A huge thanks to the Total War Hellas Unit Pack Team, especially koultouras for permissions. We also say thank you to the talented texturers, who did the new armours: Pacco, Leif Erickson, Mattheaus, Absinthia, Evyattar
- jan_boruta for his amazing art work on our frontend map images and promotional material.
- Idreaus for use of the map overlay.
- Smoe for his culture and resource icons.
- Carthage Scutums - TheBarcidHeir
- Various models: OSP - Open Source Project
- Some models from Avetis' CIU Mod
- Helmet Metal Detail Map - Celticus
- Sebidee for helping plan multiple rosters
- zombieflanders for the proto-Goedelic irish and caledone faction and units names
- Unit research and names by Khevsur
- Miri82 for some great models and textures
- The Wise Coffin for creating some native language unit names
- LinusLinothorax for his research and help
- Will from the AE team for the 2handed indian sword model
- Multiple public testers from the PoR submod that helped us immensely including Matt Slow, philler, Amras89 and others!
[Announcement] 1.2 Open Beta Released!
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