Ragnarök: Total War

[Shi Huangdi]

Ragnarök: Total War


I am putting up this ad to find out if anyone is interested in joining me in creating a modification for Rome: Total War (or possibly BI or Alexander) to bring to life the mythology of the Vikings. Hand of Nergal is already on board, and we hope that other Norse enthusiasts will join us. This mod is NOT intended to be a historically accurate Viking mod; it is intended to be much closer to fantasy, and it will portray the Norse universe as illustrated in the Norse myths. There will be factions representing the Elves, the Dwarves, the Giants, as well as several human factions. The gods of Asgard will be represented, as well as heroes such as Siegfried, Brynhild, and others.

Let me say at the outset that I will not be able to do the modeling or skinning, as I have neither the skills nor the resources. I will be able to do coding, unit balancing, unit descriptions, loading screens, and some of the special effects. What this mod really needs is some experienced modelers, skinners, and mappers who love Norse mythology as much as I do.

Let me know what you think.

[Lord Dakier]

Firstly people must know what you as a mod leader can do. Secondly their is a large shortage on modellers, coders, mapper... pretty much everything,

[Shi Huangdi]

I can organize and test the mod, I can do at least some of the coding, I can do the unit balancing, I can write unit descriptions, and with some self-teaching, I can probably do some mapping. Pretty much the only things I really can't do are modeling, skinning, and animating, since I don't have 3dsmax and I'm not that good of a skinner.

So what I really need are a few more people to help me out with coding/etc., plus some modelers, skinners, and animators.

[jakobh94]

I like the idea! Will the gods be represented to? (Odin, Thor etc.)

And i could join as a skinner, though im not a A+ (more like a C) but when the first units arrives you will see if im up to the job.
And i dont make modells ...

[Shi Huangdi]

I like the idea! Will the gods be represented to? (Odin, Thor etc.)

And i could join as a skinner, though im not a A+ (more like a C) but when the first units arrives you will see if im up to the job.
And i dont make modells ...

Definitely! We will go all-out with this mod--and that means including all the major gods, as well as the Valkyries and the Ice and Fire Giants. Maybe we could even have someone create a custom building for the Hall of Valhalla...which was said to be roofed with shields and pillared with spears, and have doors so wide that 1000 warriors could march through abreast. Of course, it couldn't be that big in game--but we could still make it pretty cool.

Thank you for being willing to help!

[Lord Dakier]

So who would this almighty force be versing. I mean Odin has the power to remove anything from existance.

[Jubal_Barca]

No, Odin and the Aesir didn't have that kind of power - that's why norse myth is so fun. They're just people on a big scale.

I will help in any way I can (coding maybe?), you can nick some models from WHTW if you need to.

[jakobh94]

Wow! WHTWs resource is really great as it is nearly the same thing, you should really thank Jubal for his proposal

[Shi Huangdi]

Right--it's better to think of the Norse gods just as human heroes who don't die naturally and who have some special powers. They weren't really anything like what we think of as divine.

Thank you for allowing us to use WHTW!

[Hand of Nergal]

(rubbing paws together excitedely) This will be so awesome!

[Saint_jimmyz]

I'm in if you need me, although my skills are on par with Beren's. I could put together a lot of good research once this is off the ground.

[MasterOfNone]

If not already, then please be advised of the defunct "Age of Viking and Fanatics" open resource files up on the TWC resoource forum or which you can download at the bottom of this page:
http://www.topnotchmods.net/mods/vi2

And here are some images from the old Org archives of that mod:http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=57842

GL with the mod - I like the Norse mythos and hope you can keep this mod small, focused and as accurate as reasonable. If you'd like my advice it would be to focus on the smallest scenario possible and work it from there. 3 factions should be fine.

MoN

[Shi Huangdi]

Thank you for the help Saint_jimmyz, and thank you MasterOfNone for pointing out Age of Vikings and Fanatics! I'm downloading right now--and it looks like they have some great units. I also like what they did with the banners.

The three factions could be Asgard (including the gods, the valkyries, and the Einherjar), humans, and an evil faction--probably fire and ice giants, Loki, and monsters like Fenrir and perhaps Jormangand. With some clever mapping we might be able to achieve something like the universe as the Vikings saw it--with the rainbow bridge from Midgard to Asgard.

Maybe instead of trying to portray all of Norse mythology, we should just focus specifically on the Day of Ragnarok--that would help make things simpler, and we would need only 2 factions.

[Saint_jimmyz]

So is this a day as in a biblical day

Good idea, though. We could represent heroes with generals with special traits and ancilliaries. Good choice of factions as well. The rainbow bridge could be acheived by using a landbridge and changing the graphics of the land bridge symbol.

[jakobh94]

Norse? Gah everyone is so confused... The Asa belief (dunno if its Asa in english) comes from India and the northen lands. The gods, Thor, Odin and Loki wasnt representended in the old Northic belief, it was a nature religion celebrating Frö (seed) And some other nature gods in the Asa Belief. Then the two religions clashed and they couldnt decide which one that was teh better one so they joined all the gods together. And a Northen historian that lived long ago (Lill-Snorre) thought that the word "Asa" came from "Asia" which mean that the Asa belief probably where made between Northic lands and India (somewhere in todays Russia)

Thank you for listening
(Maybe have this in mod? The fight between these two religions as a Bi-Campaign?)

[Saint_jimmyz]

Thanks for the input. We are creating a semi-fantasy mod and so work on popular opinion rather than historical accuracy, but we do appreciate this info.

[Shi Huangdi]

So is this a day as in a biblical day

Good idea, though. We could represent heroes with generals with special traits and ancilliaries. Good choice of factions as well. The rainbow bridge could be acheived by using a landbridge and changing the graphics of the land bridge symbol.

Right--and we could have one region called "Asgard" (settlement = Valhalla) at the end of the rainbow bridge that the evil side has to capture in order to win.

We should make a music pack for this mod based on Wagner's Ring opera! I LOVE Wagner...so maybe that should be my job.

We should really focus on doing the gods, heroes, and monsters correctly--and we'll need an experienced modeler and skinner to do that. Here are some of them:

ODIN: Rides the eight-legged horse Sleipnir and carries the spear Gungnir. We should ask someone like SigniferOne if it's possible to make animations for an eight-legged horse.


TYR: One-handed, carries a sword:


HEIMDALL: Carries a sword and the Gjallar Horn, rides the horse Gulltopr.


THOR: Carries his hammer Mjolnir, and rides a chariot drawn by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr.


FREYR: Rides the boar Gillinbursti (Golden Bristles), forged for him by the Dwarves. Carries a sword.

FREYJA: Rides a chariot drawn by cats.


FRIGGA: Wife of Odin

VIDAR: Son of Odin who finally kills Fenrir at Ragnarok.


VALI: Another son of Odin.

SURTUR: Leader of the fire-giants, carries a bright sword.


FENRIR: Wolf that kills Odin at Ragnarok, and is killed by Vidar:


GARMR: The dog that guards Hel. He and Tyr kill each other at Ragnarok.

HEL: Goddess of Helheim; a woman from the shoulders up, a skeleton from the shoulders down.

LOKI: God of trickery.

[jakobh94]

Midgård and Utgård than? They to?

(hehe, a very large hammer for Thor)

If someone has the right model i could make any of these gods. And i think Loki should be looking younger than that. More like around the twenties.
I will download Warhammer to see if it has any goodies we can use

[Reverend Scott]

Hel Yes !!

[jakobh94]

Hey, you could start saying factions + colours so i can start skinning the WHTW and changing the models a bit.