The Front Page - One-minute interview with Gigantus

One-minute interview with Gigantus: a new installer for Third Age Total War

Interview by Alwyn

Are you a fan of the Lord of the Rings? Do you enjoy the books or the films more?
Loved the books when I came across them when I was young, loved the movies when I was older.

How did you discover Third Age Total War? How important is this mod, in the Medieval II modding scene?
TATW was hard to miss - it was the first mod in a fantasy setting and set new standards in scripting (the 'palantiri' script was inspiring), as well as model use in the strat map and custom battle map settlements. Did I mention the amazing unit models?

Which faction do you play the most in TATW? What strategy would you use when playing as them?
In strategic games I am more of "build up and then do 'shock and awe'" kinda guy therefore the 'Host of the West' is right up my alley.

What gave you the idea to create an installer for TATW?
Recent events made it clear that the original installer for TATW was hopelessly outdated as it did not cater for Steam users, making it more and more challenging for sub mod creators to get their work incorporated. Nowadays it's a simple 'click and forget' approach when it comes to installing games as well as mods and users simply lack the knowledge and expertise (and often attention span) when it comes to installers that require intermediate input.

What difference does the installer make, for someone new to Medieval II mods?
The two part installer is a 'click through' affair as it automatically looks up the installation path regardless if it is a custom installation of the game, disk or Steam. It also provides a Steam compatible set up, meaning that Steam users do not have to use any of the often archaic methods to run the mod. Simply use the provided desktop short cut.

How challenging was the project of creating the installer?
This would probably a good opportunity to brag about the tremendous effort to create the installer, but the most challenging part was not to put too much sugar in my coffee while waiting for the compiling to finish. I have been making installers for over 10 years for others (including a recent series of ports to Kingdoms\Steam of smaller mods) and myself and over these years have fine tuned a small number of template installer set ups that only require adding of graphic elements plus adapting info, apart from simply copying the required files into the right set up directory. Even the more recently added file checker by me is fairly simple to set up. I did brag nevertheless, didn't I?

What advice would you give to someone interested in creating an installer for a Medieval II mod in future?
Read my guide and post questions in that thread? I'll be happy to respond and help with setting up an easy to use installer.

If you found this article interesting, you might like to read some of the Eagle Standard's previous articles. A full list of these can be found here.