It has come to my attention that the current Read-Me for Diadochi-TW is outdated and utterly rubbish. Most of us have something better to do than worry about silly readmes (like fixing BI stability and adding new features).
But nevertheless, a conclusive document that describes the main features of the mod is quite essential.
That's why I'm calling out for anyone with free time, willing dedication to create a new Diadochi TW readme.
EDIT:
Anyone who is interested in helping can start by posting a sample of an edited unit description / campaign description / faction description.
The readme itself would include: description of the mod as a whole, all the unique features of the mod, the installation process and options. How to play. Also descriptions of the campaigns, the factions and units.
Last edited by RedFox; August 27, 2009 at 07:32 AM.
I have no skills in HTML, but I can do a txt file that explains the cultural system, the double barracks system for thrace and egypt and a little presentation of the campaigns. Then, you can just copy\paste them into HTML.
Instructions to use Force Diplomacy and Peace with the Dead can be borrowed from XGM readme, I guess.
I can probably code the site myself then, no need for html skills. If you guys could all collaborate and work on describing the mod as a whole, all the unique features of the mod, the installation process and options. How to play. Also descriptions of the campaigns, the factions and units.
I will be rerendering all UI cards for DTW soon, so each unit could have a good description. This will be A LOT of work, so we need more people. Ultimately, we can just edit export_units.txt - the game descriptions themselves and copy them into the Readme website.
If an unit description is "refined" so to speak, a comment ¬UPDATED should be added.
I must warn you though that I myself won't have time to proof-read, or check the quality of the descriptions (because that would defeat the whole point of having help in the first place - if I have to go over the descriptions myself).
Anyone who is interested in helping can start by posting a sample of an edited unit description / campaign description / faction description.
In my opinion what works well for unit descriptions in a website is some sort of Author's notes about the unit, a comparison with other units of the same faction saying whats better and whats worse, and a comparison with similar units of a neighboor faction stating advantages and disadvantages. Its kind of a strategy guide. But thats a lot of work because copy and past wont do.
Like I said, this is pretty much solo work with me giving only rough guidelines. I will provide more details once you get your first rough drafts out though.
If you are interested, start by opening up some DTW files and write a short description of an unit/campaign/faction, whichever you would like. The way you do it is completely of your choosing. I'm looking for people qualified for this task, so if you can fill this assignment without much feedback from me, you're good for the job.
I'll be looking forward to what you guys come up with. Get crackin.
The Seleucid Empire is vast, easily the greatest power in the Mediterranean world, and potentially very wealthy. However, it is also surrounded by enemies and potential enemies, with vast borders to defend, and military forces that are stretched thin.
Military: The Seleucids had one of the most balanced unit rosters in vanilla RTW so they have had fewer new units added than the other Greek factions. Still they have benefited from the addition of non-phalanx spear units like Thureophoroi and Thorakitai, and from elite archer units like Gastraphetes. If the Seleucids are an AI faction they also get a significant boost so that they often come to dominate the East instead of being over-run early by a horde of enemies.
Strategy: You face several immediate threats, of which the Ptolemaic Empire is the most serious. They are powerful, and positioned to strike at the most valuable regions of the your own empire. You should try to break their power in Asia, and drive them back into Africa, as soon as possible. The eastern fringe of your empire is the least valuable of your possessions, and the hardest to defend. If you can, try to capture Baktria and use that as a power base to hold your eastern border, but don't try to expand much further east. You should also consider a temporary retreat from the east, so that you can focus your power in the west. Asia Minor contains your greatest opporunities for expansion in the early game, if jou just watch out for Pergamum. There is considerable wealth to be had there, and although your enemies will be numerous, they are relatively weak. Just try not to pick too many fights at once.
The Kingdom of Pergamum has recently become independent from the Seleucid Empire. It is held by Philatareaus, a former officer of Lysimachus. The Attalids’s first challenge is to counter the Seleucids.
Military: as one of the Diadochi factions Pergamum has a roster wich includes mostly pikemen and a good selection of cavalry, including the famous Hetairoi. As an AI faction the Attalids usually drive the Seleucids back to Cilicia The new unit roster includes: (Phalangites)Pantadopai, Deuteroi, Pezhetairoi, Agryraspidai; (Spearmen) Doryphoroi, Thureophoroi; (Swordsmen) Thoraktai, Hypaspitai; (Peltasts) Light Skirmishers, Peltastai; (Slingers) Slingers; (Archers) Archers, Gastraphetes; (Cavalry) Militia Cavalry, Light cavalry, Hetairoi; (Chariots) Scythed Chariots; (Elephants) Forest Elephants, War Elephants, Armoured Elephants; (Siege) Ballistas, Repeating Ballistas, Catapults, Heavy Catapults; (Naval) Biremes, Triremes, Quinquiremes, Hepteres, Deceres.
Strategy: At the beginning you start with only one city. But there are weak Seleucid towns nearby, and if you can capture them quickly you will be able to build a base in Asia Minor. Then you can expand further east, to Syria, or north, to Pontus, or west, to Greece.
Spelling is rather mediocre; I would happily go over and edit all the text. The first description of Pergamum is a bit on the short side, the unit roster description has many flaws (there's no Doryphoroi and Thorakitai are spearmen) and a few spelling errors.
Overall, it's a little bit too much on the short side and there is an issue with spelling. Can you improve that?
I will.
this weekend I shall improve it and change the other factions.
I don't how to copy/paste it in the readme, so if you could do that would be fine.
about the Thoraktai. when I often fight Thoraktai (too often ,actually) they always fight with swords (I've 1.06)
Makedonia… It was the home of Megas Alexandros and Philip II. From there came the men that conquered the world. From there came the stallions that galloped into battle. From there came the Diadochi. From there came the pharaohs of Egypt and the emperors of the east. However, the Diadochi Wars drained Makedonia of its manpower - the one thing it was renowned for from the deserts of Africa to the Caucasus, from Italy to India. Once it was the Kingdom of Kingdoms, now it is a weak nation ruled by the Antigonids.
As weak as it might be, Makedonia still has power left. However, with the barbarians to the north and the Greeks to the south, being at peace shall prove difficult. Crushing the barbarian horde to the north is essential; after all, Makedonia needs to show it yet still has power. Those damned Greeks to the south are trouble. They do not want to live in peace and harmony – they shall not stop until Makedonia lies in ruins.
One day a new Alexander shall defeat all enemies and lead the Macedonians to the ends of the world. One day…
Military: The Macedonians have good heavy cavalry, such as the Thessalians and the hetairoi. Their foot soldiers are mainly phalangites, but they can recruite hoplites, archers (The Cretan specialists!), slingers from Rhodes and javelinmen. All in all, Macedonia is the "heavy faction" using a lot of heavy infantry (phalangites, hoplites, thorakitai) and in the late periods the hetairoi cavalry.
Strategy: A good idea is to unite the western Aegean, this means conquering Byzantium, Epirus and all of Southern Greece including Rhodes and Crete. A good income source are the mines the Thracians and Dacians hold up to the Danube River and beyond. Once all that is secured, either a invasion of Asia minor is a possibility or the conquest of Italy, or the whole Balkans.
Last edited by messiah; September 13, 2009 at 05:41 AM.
For the description part, I did not like the first section very much, but the second part(+end) pulled it out of the grave. If you can bother to do a redraft on this one (which would mean you can bother yourself to do the dirty work over and over again, which is pretty much what I have been doing for the last three years), I can happily accept you to do more of this sort.
You should also improve the Military and Strategy sections. Macedonian military upholds the tradition of the Pezhetairoi, heavy infantry and cavalry. The best cavalry comes from Thessaly of course.
As for strategy, I'd be much more concerned about how to survive, not where to expand after you achieved that.
And no, it can never just be 'good enough'. It has to make me go 'Ahh.. perfect'.
Last edited by RedFox; September 13, 2009 at 01:11 PM.
Rome is a new and powerful Latin state that have lots of potential of growing large. But being powerful is not a sign of good friendship amongst the surrounding states, Rome has gathered many enemies in their path of Conquering. To the north, the Gauls is a faction full of anger towards the Roman Republic. To the south-west, the Carthaginian Republic has come in conflict with Rome over Syracuse, and is a strong, and a very potential enemy. To the south east, a new threat emerged. While Rome were attacking the Greek colonies in the southern peninsula, King of Epirus - Pyrrhus - decided to help the Greeks. A war is inventible, with the epirotians starting it, who knows which alliances they will make on the way …
Military: The roman military is a powerful weapon, when fighting on their terms. The roman military units are flexible and can easily surround the enemy, if needed to. While relying most at its infantry, the cavalry is not a source of long fighting, only to be used as shock infantry. Remember that the you can recruit units from your allied tribes.
The best strategy is the hammer and anvil tactic, meaning that one part of your army will act as the anvil, a smaller part will act the hammer. It will start with moving your men in a solid wall -but keep 2-4 units in the back - and stop them 15-30 meters in front of the enemy, and enable the “fire at will” button. Your men will now throw all of the pilums at the enemy. After that, commence the charge with the front group and move the back units to the flanks of the enemy. Bring them around the flanks, and hit the most vulnerable units, check the status of the units, if it is lower than “Defeat is a distinct possibility” that is the unit to charge. IF no one is under that status, you go for the levy units or the phalangites. If you manage to rout one of these vulnerable units, you continue with the others in the same way. If you are low on units, use the general as a hammer. Remember that the wedge Triarii is particullary good against phalangite units.
Strategy: You face a large and dangerous enemy at the beginning. Pyrrhus of Epirus has come to defend the Greeks on the Italian peninsula. The battle of Asculum will take place. It doesn’t matter if you win or loose, you will either way loose Arpium from the following stacks (if you don’t get a big victory, which I don’t think many will) So, your best option from here, is just to hold on. As mentioned, the Gauls will not be very friendly, but if you play your cards right, by connecting (trade rights, trading map information, gifts) they may not attack you. So, you hold on while the Epirotians throw everything they have at you, their offensive will eventually go down, and now you get your reserves and strike! Strike hard with no mercy. The Greeks will also be an easy target, as they have (hopefully) conflicts with Carthage. From here - if you have not already – start trading! Tarquinii have lots of nature resources, olive oil and marble. Your most important trading partner will be the city of Aleria. I’ve managed to export up to 3000 denarii from here (and yet not fully developed trading system) So, Tarquinii is your first goal of succeed trading. Mines can be found in the south, Croton – The former Greek city – holds mines that can be used to gain money, this is better than trades, as you always get your money, even if your city got a blockade.
At about this time, the Celts have probably been disturbing you, this means that you should build up defensive forts (your cities) consisting of missile infantry and medium infantry, as the Celts have little armor to offer, these are the only units needed to succeed against them. Don’t try to move in at early stages, I did, it went so well in the beginning, but the 1st and 4th army was surrounded and decimated and the 2nd and 3rd was isolated up in the north, and got killed on the way home. So basically I got my ass pwnt. So don’t try this at early stages. Try this after conquering more cities.
So the basic idea is to wait until the enemy has no more, and then give him everything you got. I defeated 6 stacks before I could get to carthage, they smashed like water on my walls. Always remember, play defensive until the opportunity comes bye and says “Your time to shine baby!”
I dont really know if the Socii units are available after the Polybian reforms, can anyone tell me if they are. And I know that the guide isnt a 5/5 yet, but I needed some feedback so here it is.
Last edited by jakobh94; September 13, 2009 at 04:48 PM.
Big "Diadochi:Total War" fan! Click HERE to download the full game, and the latest patch!
Originally Posted by Mythos_Ruler
"Lesbians" are people from Lesbos. The reason we call homosexual women "lesbians" today was because of the famous poet Sapho from Lesbos who extolled the virtues of female love. Just some FYI.
Well, there are a lot of spelling mistakes that really poked my eyes (fortunately, they don't bleed yet, but that might be because I've developed some sort of immunity...) a bit, so that needs the most attention. The strategy part was too informal and messy. You basically told of battle tactics (something that belongs to a 'generic' battle guide) and a bit about expansion, but it wasn't very well composed.
If I were you, I would drop the generally adopted guideline (that everyone keeps following here for some ireallydontknowwhythefk reason) and come up with something new, clean and informative - yet short. Walls of text are no good.
P.S. - Sorry for the tough critique, but that's how I am. If you can 'wow' me, then it means you're really improving. Shrug off this failure and try to figure out what you did wrong/right and make sure the next one is better.
Last edited by RedFox; September 13, 2009 at 04:48 PM.
I thought that we were supposed to follow the guideline, to make everything look the same. But yeah, im not a very good writer so I probably shouldnt be the guy writing these stuff. But to try is better than to do nothing.
(Oh, corrected a mistake, had two Strategy, the lower one was the correct ...)
Big "Diadochi:Total War" fan! Click HERE to download the full game, and the latest patch!
Originally Posted by Mythos_Ruler
"Lesbians" are people from Lesbos. The reason we call homosexual women "lesbians" today was because of the famous poet Sapho from Lesbos who extolled the virtues of female love. Just some FYI.
Geez ... I keep writing and I cant get the text to shorten off. I wrote half page of Roman military strucutre, not the tactics, the structure and how to use the different units.
Should I skip the military part and just put in the rooster? And leave the way to use them for Unit Descriptions?
ps. I like hard critics, that's the only way to improve. And I like your little comedy you do in almost all of your posts
Big "Diadochi:Total War" fan! Click HERE to download the full game, and the latest patch!
Originally Posted by Mythos_Ruler
"Lesbians" are people from Lesbos. The reason we call homosexual women "lesbians" today was because of the famous poet Sapho from Lesbos who extolled the virtues of female love. Just some FYI.
Diadochi-TW Readme?
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. At least for Macedon, don't know about TSE.
Originally Posted by Mythos_Ruler
