10 years at the TWC!
As it stands, Redux has managed to go beyond the 10-year marker... Imagine that, 10 mighty years! By internet time it’s a small eternity, and its kind of hard to believe for me too. At the TWC, it all started with this very thread in Sep 2008, and here I am, still posting here, and others do too! Amazing! I remember, my first time here at the TWC, being so frustrated that I could not get any damned people to post and especially to actually try my mod/work! It was annoying as hell, just read the first 30-40 posts or so in this thread and you can see that all over. Obviously, things changed, and tons of stuff happened on the road to get all the way to now 2018.
The first version of Redux really was a very different beast then what you guys can download today. It really was more of an expansion of the raw game, building on that. However it had some innovations too. For instance, the colorized campaign-map was included in that release. Before then, such a notion was thing was essentially unheard of in the world of MTW. Another innovation was the use faction-colors applied to the knights horses. Maybe some more but I don’t remember all the details…
One of the first promo-pics I ever did for Redux, back in 2008. One of the innovations with Redux 1.0 was the active use of faction-colors on agents like
emissaries & princesses for instance. Previously it had always been confined to the base only .Note that the princess-pieces were also very different back
then, as were their portraits and the Lombard shields too. The logo was different as well...
Over the years there have been so many changes, that I more or less lost track of it all. Few things are still included today, that came with the initial (public) release. Some of these few things are the various portraits/artwork of Spies, Druids and Bishops. I still use them today… Also, a bunch of the Hero-portraits (Catholic) has managed this feat, as well. Other then that there is not much left of that first release back in Aug 2008. And that was just for V1.1, as there was no VI/V2.01-version around at first.
Soon after, in October a second edition dubbed “Redux 1.0b”, was publicly released. It was basically an improved and more polished version of its predecessor, but the overall ideas and designs where still rather similar, and fairly close to the raw game by todays standards. Despite all that, it still managed to end up tougher and more challenging then the raw game. Due to improved designs. Of course, it was nowhere close to the possible challenge-levels we got today in Redux - but in those days it was generally considered tough. Close to that release, there was various patches crafted and Redux became ported to VI/V.2.01 games, for the first time.
By 2009, the plans for a 3rd Edition of Redux was in full swing. Planned to be released in the summer. It would never happen, as Redux got delayed well
beyond that point. Also, note that the Portuguese unit-banners where quite different back then...
By 2010, 3rd Edition Redux was still not released when this promowork was made public. Note the cryptic "release 2010". Anyhow, the pagan Norse have
always had a special place in Redux, much more so then in raw MTW. The 3rd Edition was planned to offer more such content and units then had been
included before and make each unit more distinct too. Btw, many of these units are still in use even today...
It would take some 3 years (March 2011) before another version of Redux actually publicly released. It was dubbed the Redux Beta 1000... Once released, it showed that tons of things had happened up to that point, both in the project as such - drastic changes in designs and artwork for instance, but also around the project. It had established itself in the public eye, as one of the then “big four” (BKB-supermod, MedMod, XL and Redux). It had even been awarded and recognized here at the TWC, in 2010. Together with the beta1001 (released a month or two later) it would lay the first foundation of what we know as Redux today. I had worked like crazy with that release. New AI-system, redesigned combat-model, new weapons & shield-animations, new tech-tree – you name it. I also had help from a few brave souls that helped out in various ways "for the greater good of Redux"… At any rate, the changes introduced with the Beta1000/1001 was massive. Despite all that, there was plenty of errors and bugs - so the beta1002 was published in the summer of 2011. It was a much better release, as I recall.
It might be interesting in retrospect to see how Redux campmaps have actually evolved during these ten years. It started out as fairly faithful to the original
map but in 2011 all that was gone - instead we had an entirely new style for Redux - which eventually became darker and darker for some reason...
In 2012 came the beta1003, which was better and more polished version then the beta1002. At the end of 2013, the beta1004 was finally introduced (having been delayed). And with it we take yet another important jump closer to the Redux we know today… Initially it had problems with the AI-performance as the AI had been redesigned yet again (problems were limited to the VI/v.2.01-variant, as the V1.1 performed just fine)… After a bunch of bugs and serious panic, it seems to have been resolved to decent enough levels anyways. 2014 the beta1005 was introduced. The beta1005 had a much better release, and much less problems as I remember it. All the same, in 2016, beta1006 hit the world. Lots of new and important artwork in that release – princesses! What else could be more important?! Over the years, few things have generated as much fuss and opinions as the RX-princesses. There are only a few things that I have worked on as much, and as hard as these damn girls. Now, since people have ceased to post opinions about them (da girls!). I take it that they are good and sexy enough by now…
This montage was created to showcase the various new princesses included in the RXB1006, released at the end of 2016. Redux had several incarnations and
versions of princesses before this batch - but these are probably the most "spot-on" in terms of style and what I always wanted for Redux...
Anyways, at the end of 2017 we had the last release that make up Redux as we know it today – the beta1007. Comparing that with the first release of 2008 is more or less like night and day, I think. Yet it too contains some errors/bugs here and there, which are slowly fixed and stamped out - up till now there have been released 3 hotfixes, so far. So that particular part have not changed much... Still, I think the 1007 have come a long way from the early days, the designs are radically different, as is the overall experience and circumstances delivered, as is the visual experience provided if we compare it all to both the original game or the first Redux of 2008...
Anyhow, what do you folks think of the long journey Redux have had over the last decade and the current RXB1007-
performance and experience in general, do tell/post! After all, its not every day we honour/celebrate 10 years here!
- A