- Preview I - The Romans -

[Hound of Ulster]

nice work, especially on the potraits

[Joar]

First of all: Thank You all for Your kind words!

Wow. I ask about the release date and a bit later a faction preview is released?

Well, actually this isn't really a faction preview, but rather a "culture preview".* We're using six cultures for IBRR, so there will be six previews.

Interrogative: Did excubitores really use a mace or it's your artistic thing?

Gäiten better answer this one. He's the unit maker.



* In RTW/BI, there's several cultures that determines a factions esthetic look, you might say. Events, portraits, interface, buildings etc. are all determined by this. There's a total of eight vanilla cultures: Roman, Barbarian, Eastern, Greek, Carthaginian, Egyptian, Hun & Nomad.

[Bernardius]

HAIL to your MOD!!!!
I simply fell in love with IB!!!
go on like that its awsome dudes!!!

[Reverend Scott]

Looks Great!

[MorganH.]

Great Work !!! +rep

[cocobongoclub-DJ]

Great job, these details are often neglected in general. And your models are well done and accurate.
+rep

[Vioras]

Very good

[salaminomaxos79]

can't wait for it

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Excellent work - the portraits look amazing! I am eagerly looking forward to the next preview!

[jermagon]

Great wok indeed Joar, those things will change the game now you could play the 4th century Roman empire and feel the rapid changes which took place in this time

[Jan III Sobieski]

Here You can see the interface of the Romans:

Why is there the Virgin Mary on bottom-right of the Roman Interface?

[PSEUDO ROMANUS]

Why is there the Virgin Mary on bottom-right of the Roman Interface?

Well, since the Roman Empire had adopted Christiany as the official religion of the state, it's only natural to have some Christian motifs on the interface.

[Jan III Sobieski]

Well, since the Roman Empire had adopted Christiany as the official religion of the state, it's only natural to have some Christian motifs on the interface.

Yeah, but they dont pray to Mary a lot.

[Joar]

Why is there the Virgin Mary on bottom-right of the Roman Interface?

It's a miracle!

No, the short answer is: for decoration. The wee bit longer answer is: this mod takes place during the 5th through the 7th century ( 410 being the starting date ), and I wanted the interface, along with a lot of other things, to reflect that this is no longer the Pagan Empire of old, but rather a Christian Empire. So the image of the Virgin Mary is quite simply to be regarded as a "Christian mosaic decoration".

---

@ PSEUDO ROMANUS:

[Bernardius]

your mod is really well made! though one thing i changed by myself, the unit balance in ruina romae. some units i would never build because they are too expensive for what they can... i generally increased the cost for building and maintaining units plus balanced them a little bit...for example made roman milites a little weaker and levy barbarians a little stronger, to reflect the more warused situation for the barbarians...

[Athenogoras]

Great work Guys!

Superb portraits. I recognize some from "Warlords of Sparta", although you have edited them to make them fit more.

Congrats again. Will certainly play this

[Joar]

I recognize some from "Warlords of Sparta", although you have edited them to make them fit more.

No, no, no. None of these are from WoS, I know that Halie Satanus and I use the same program ( FaceGen ), so that's probably why you think they look similar. I have made all the non-vanilla ones myself.

Now prepare for the Epic tale of how the Late Roman portraits were forged in sweat, blood and tears:

The Passion of the Portraits

It all began a few years ago when the former IB member Mylae and I started doing new portraits for IBRR. He made some excellent helmets but unfortunately he left the TWC and only left me with about 15 or so .jpeg images of young generals. Then I kind of dropped the project as well, and when I moved I lost the USB memory where I stored my work, and then, ironically, I only had a few .jpeg images left to work with which I subsequently passed on to Ramon. Then I think he or midnite edited those and used them for IBII ( and julianus heraclius used them for SAI ). Then I got my groove back and rekindled my passion for portraits and decided to create an all-together new set of non-vanilla Roman portraits. I succeeded but was never very pleased with the result, so I started over and this time decided to go back to basics and try to mimic the vanilla style as much as possible.

I also picked up the now ancient ones that Mylae originally did, created new armour, spiced up their helmets and made the old versions. Then I was on my way, and now I've made about 160 new portraits, or thereabouts.

But the story does not end there. I also realized that I had to make new portraits for all the other factions ( i.e. cultures ) as well, which was a quest I then embarked upon with great passion and much stupidity, because little did I realize what a enormous task I had set out to do. But then here we are, and the hundreds of new Barbarian, Hun, Eastern, Arab, Roman and Nomad portraits are nearly finished.

Everybody became happy and rejoiced, except my girlfriend, who, during the process, have exhibited outbursts of anger and frigidity.

The End.

[Athenogoras]

Ah, I see, same program. Explains the similarity in style.

have exhibited outbursts of anger and frigidity.

I would not leave the computer logged in to TWC if I were you...

[Joar]

I would not leave the computer logged in to TWC if I were you...

It's OK, she's accepted the situation now. Now she's calm and submissive, not dominating. Almost. Or something like that. No, not really.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

She sounds like an enigma wrapped up in a riddle hidden in a conundrum . . . She's not an Easter egg portrait, is she?!