NEWS
I have decided to start this new thread as a quick resource for people following the progress of Aristeia. Feel free to post in this thread, I will update this post with the latest developments.
NEWS!
23-07-09
We have almost completed testing the trojan war script, with only one or two small issues to resolve the trojan war is playing out very successfully. The trojan war starts on the second turn in the game for the greek factions and the third for the barbarian and eastern factions, though preparations for war begin at the outset.
The player will be able to choose who and what they send (to an extent) by merging armies, diplomats and heroes into the characters who are predetermined to go. Depending on the faction a certain number of troops will join your force at a small cost. Of course the player will be presented with the choice to go on the expedition or not, there is an option to pull out of it all together but be warned the consequences of this could be quite extreme. We have added a number of rejection scenarios for the greeks ranging from the status quo through to all of the greek factions turning on you! For the eastern factions due to the difference in nature of the alliance if you fail to honour it all of the eastern factions will turn on you every time.
Presuming you choose to fight in the trojan war yet more challenges await. Although the greeks send larger numbers of men they are fragmented amongst the loose alliance and cooperation will be needed if the trojans are to be beaten. The trojan alliance have superior defensive positions, not to mention the walls of troy to overcome and some of the greek generals may be reluctant to engage their armies at the end of such a long supply line, especially as there are so many allies to carry on the fighting. Diplomacy will be needed in order to maintain good relations with fellow greeks and to coordinate attacks. The alliance could be stronger and certain egos have a tendancy to clash.
From the perspective of the trojan alliance, may nations have little interest in fighting such a war so far from home if it is not profitable. For success the trojans will need to defeat the greeks in their camps and chase them from the trojan coast quickly. As time goes by allies may start to reason with the greeks, some may loose interest and march home, others could change sides completely!
Oh BTW next hero biography will be Nestor, and I'm currently working on Odysseus and Hector.
30-07-09
Confirmation of features implimented:
-6 turns per year
-1 man units for heroes
-Individual generals for each faction (ie. Hector, Paris, Priam will all have their own models)
-Trojan horse
-Trojan war script
-Regional based recruitment system
15-08-09
New hero biography released - Nestor!
20-08-09
The Agamemnon biography has been completed, it will be posted up shortly.
27-08-09
-We are looking for 2D artists and anybody who can help add the traits and ancillaries to the game. Please contact myself or Zenith if you are interested.
-We have launched our competition to find a hero. Did you hate Brad Pitt in troy? Well now is your chance to do better, see http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=290631 for more information.
25-10-09
I think I owe everybody a progress report as it has been two months since the last major update!
Unfortunately I work alone on the mod at the moment and have considered whether I should even continue with it.
We have what could be described as a working 'alpha' except with over half the units missing.
I still need to complete the units, a huge task, and also we need to balance them, add the traits and ancillaries, debug the script and descr_strat. Complete the ui and various cosmetic things and sort some bugs. Working by myself as I am this could take 6 months... could anybody be bothered waiting that long? - and I include myself in that. I am hoping to find some help but am doubtful at the moment. I want to try to get more standard units completed before doing any more heroes, hence the lack of updates.
This is quite frustrating because playing the mod even at this early 'alpha' stage it shows great promise. The units, the lighting, the music, the hero dynamic, the trojan war itself. I would like to ask anybody who is willing to either help out, or if you aren't skilled in modding then you could always act as a recruiter and try to find skilled modders who can offer their services.
11/12/09
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Firstly, apologies for the very long gap since the last update, I feared the mod was dead and that I would never have the time or patience to see it finished. With Zenith going off to Canada and Nero being incredibly busy with real life work I was left to work on the mod pretty much by myself. With the huge number of units required and generally the sheer amount of work needed to complete the mod with little time or enthusiasm I stopped work on the mod for perhaps a month and resigned myself to the fact that it would probably fizzle out and die in time. As things would have it the other week I got a spurt of enthusiasm for the mod once more but decided that it would take too long in it's pure form to complete... as long perhaps as Napoleon total war... or its expansion/sequel! So I came up with a plan to cut the mod in size slightly so as to get a product of the vision myself and Zenith set out with rather than nothing at all.
The Cuts....
1) I cut 4 factions of little relevance to the story or era, these include:-
The house of Thyestes - never announced to the public it was to be an emerging faction in Mycenae to threaten agamemnons family based on the events detailed in the odyssey where agamemnon is killed by his wife and her lover after returning home. I still aim to perhaps include this in a form but not as a faction in its own right.
2) The Paphlagones - a largely unknown faction occupying the far east of the map, even I was bored by them and so they have been removed
3) The Paiones - Another barbarian faction or the illyrian type. It added little to the game as in my experience people don't often play as the barbarians or enjoy fighting them as much. Some of their southern territories have been given to the Thessilian faction.
4) The Heraklidai - Not sure if this was announced before but it was certainly alluded to. The Aristeia equivolent of the dorians has been cut as their impact is never referenced in the epics, and the invasions included the sea people, dorians and other tribes and could be done in more detail. As a result I am stopping the mod short of their arrival so that only the era of the trojan war heroes and their offspring who had their own adventures need be considered.
I have also merged the Carians and Lydians (Kares + Maiones) into one faction. Both of the royal lines remain as do the carian axemen. The merging isn't too inaccurate as the carian people were mostly subjects of other kingdoms throughout their history. Their heroes will still take part in the trojan war.
With the removal of these factions there were some gaping holes in the map, so I removed a chunk from the north and from the east of the map while maintaining all of the important settlements. The thracian territories now occupy a small strip along the top adding strategic value. Now the emphasis is on the coast, creating three obsticles for east versus west.... in the south the islander nations, in the middle large areas of open sea with pirate fleets and storms, to the north the more concentrated thracians.
I also (bizarrely) increased the unit roster by adding 'guards' and 'elite guards' for each faction. These are units which will be specific to those factions only. This gives me the opportunity to bring back some of the favourite units from TTW with refitted faces, arms, legs and (mostly) improved textures.
I have also removed the trojan war script. Although this choice at the start of the game was successful (and took me at least a week to code!) it made the game very unbalanced at home if you decided not to go. i may add it back in, but this is very unlikely at this stage. Now the factions start with their armies at troy.
After all of these changes the mod is now making good progress and it gives me great pleasure to announce a release date of 01/01/10 - subject to testing.
The unique heroes are the last thing that I will be completing and hero updates should be frequent in the run up to the release day. I also intend to do a trailer/intro movie at some stage over the next three weeks and to post some screen shots/banners. This will depend on progress, everything takes ages to do when modding. Nikolos is now working on the traits and ancillaries and Tony83 is doing the unit cards.
Sorry for all the text, but I thought I owed everybody an update as to what all has been going on. The next update ought to have some graphics!
12/12/09
Aristeia Trailer Released!!
Check it out now.
16/01/10
The new Aristeia forums are now up, be sure to bookmark them here.
18/01/10
Aristeia has a deadline release date of the 12th of Feb 2010 - that means it will be released on or before that day! Check out the Aristeia forums for more info.
02/06/10
News for all those TTW die-hards yet to convert to the greater aristeia. A new release of aristeia will soon be upon us including two new campaigns focused on the trojan war.
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Originally Posted by Claudius the God
