DarthMod Empire v8.0 Platinum
No time for words.
No time for descriptions.
This is one of the best mods for Empire: Total War...
...as reviewed by thousands of fans.
See for yourself!
The Full Version
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Download in 2 Parts
ModDB
Part 1 Part 2
Filefront
Part 1 Part 2
Download in 1 File
Strategy Informer or Modsaholic or Torrent or Ausgamers
added 16.05.17 (courtesy of Leonardo - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/membe...07541-Leonardo)
includes the one piece download and 8.01 patch
http://www.theassimilationlab.com/fo...inum801-patch/
added 15.04.16
https://mega.nz/#!7Y8AUABB!p-_IDr_zc...uHMNKYUelviVr4
http://www.filefactory.com/file/8pbg...80Platinuma.7z
http://www.filefactory.com/file/7g72...80Platinuma.7z
https://mega.nz/#!7Y8AUABB!p-_IDr_zc...uHMNKYUelviVr4
you may need Firefox or other browser as IE does not always seem to work with mega.nz
Get the latest patch
DarthMod Empire v8.0.1 Platinum Patch
>>General solutions to common problems<<
Changelog
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:DarthMod Empire v8.0 Platinum
"The Changelog of a 13GB mod"
Battles Gameplay
Finally the BAI has become better than the average human player. The quest has ended....
- New formations make the BAI far more effective, especially in defense. Several adjustments to formations and other settings make the BAI to line up better, generally to behave much more efficiently and be more challenging. You should now notice increased difficulty even in custom battles. The New formations make the BAI to form also double or triple lines when needed, which is necessary when it commands a... 40 Unit army... the new feature of DarthMod Empire (read below).
- Much better melee mechanics resulting to more violent hand to hand battles and animations. Changes in unit movement and physics mechanics together with other settings provide much more dynamic melee, ferocious and violent, as realism requests. By improving a lot the melee and animation mechanics units become much more agile when fighting and also the BAI is benefited by being more responsive. Unit speeds and responses superbly balanced not only for more violent melees and better timed volleys but also for much less Siege Lag.
- Melee penetration increased to the extreme cinematic effect.
- Unit Vertical rank space increased to proper levels (Maybe it contributed to the Fort Lag).
- Several improvements to projectile physics and trajectories.
- Morale more dynamic (Units are affected more from musketing and cannon fire but do not shutter and can regroup). Native American morale increased for balance.
- Some repairs in the formations in the off sets to achieve even better BAI.
- Tweaked firing range for straighter AI musket lines and better Cavalry attacks.
- A small fatigue error penalty in naval battles is fixed.
- BAI should form better musket lines and be much less hesitant.
- Ships firepower and accuracy fine tuned and corrected in some cases (for example 2nd rate was showing less firepower than 3rd rate). This affects autoresolve which now should be completely error free and the real time battles which are even more realistic and challenging.
- Ships mass increased to have more inertia effects.
- Rocket and Mortar ships heavily capped.
- Cannon Range differs now according to caliber.
- Increased the damage of carronades significantly.
- Increased the Naval Cannons ranges.
- Increased the Naval Cannons hitpoints so that they do not get destroyed so easily.
- Naval Mortars and Rockets range decreased so that they are not overpowered in naval battles.
- Enhanced the naval physics (ships are affected more by tides and collisions).
- A small unbalance in unit cost upkeep for some 1st rates is resolved.
- Ships have more damage endurance for more spectacular naval battles, especially the heavy ships above 2nd rate which are big targets but can win now more evidently due to their general superiority.
- Infantry squares more resilient against cavalry.
- Re-balanced all the reload rates so to make the squares to fire more rapidly (they took ages and their reload rate is hard coded and cannot be changed specially) and the BAI even more responsive. Now the squares are more useful than ever and the BAI muskets more than ever without melee bug.
- Solid cannon shots have now shockwave effects for realistic impacts, just like in Napoleon: Total War. (Artillery accuracy reduced for balancing, DarthMod submods should update the Artillery Accuracy stat accordingly).
- Various unit balance costs and stats here and there. (For Causa Belli mod, Greek ships and new unit sizes must be adapted as any other shared unit stat).
- English and European factions Ship Marines have now the historically correct model (The Scrooge McDuck hat is over).
- Pirates and Crimean Khanate have now an enriched unit roster (In Vanilla it was annoyingly limited).
- Garrison has some upkeep cost to simulate the siege negative impacts to economy for the defender.
- Many units of minor factions unlocked for custom battles.
- Mortar and fixed artillery can now move slowly so that they are more useful and, for god shake, they could move. (Now when the attacker brings his mortars in range, you are in trouble).
Campaign Gameplay
Newer unmodded Total War games have inferior Campaign AI & Diplomacy than this!
- More aggressive CAI as you requested.
- Better CAI money management and more reasonable diplomacy.
- CAI should stay around its ports more often so to defend them more effectively.
- CAI should make more global invasions.
- CAI should develop and research more efficiently.
- CAI Land Auto-Calculation Improved (it should be more difficult to win sieges by autocalc and generally the losses seem more logical).
- Better Naval battles auto-calc.
- Several double entries in CAI handicaps have been erased. Probably this bug caused/enhanced the Turn Delay in late campaign and also some CAI handicaps may have been overridden by zero, such as research bonuses, so now research should be more rapid for the AI.
- CAI army and navy composition even better. All the special and elite units are preferred by the AI more.
- CAI should repair ships much more frequently.
- CAI should calculate correctly the necessary army size to counter the human player in the campaign open fields and sieges (Prepare to take heavy losses in the battlefield.
- CAI should disrupt and raid trade routes more.
- Major nations should now try more to make distant colonies and not to conquer bordering provinces. It was the age of colonization so they should do that.
- Major nations like Russia should focus on military & conquering more.
- Fleets canceling naval invasions and remaining idle should be fixed.
- Some very important diplomacy fixes which resulted in wrong (opposite) bonuses/penalties for alliance/trade breaks.
- The Native Americans and Minor nations support their allies more.
- Minister Diplomacy bonuses increased so their role to be more critical.
- CAI should evaluate more aggressively the inter-faction relationships in the mid-game and should try invasions than peace.
- CAI should send bigger stacks to capture a settlement.
- Diplomacy even more reasonable with Factions considering more the inter-faction relationships according to CAI type.
- Money should now affect more the CAI diplomacy.
- CAI will be more mobile across the campaign map and also this should affect positively the known Ottoman turn lag.
- Fortifications are now more expensive so that AI and Human player do not build them easily.
- The bug that prevented the Native Americans to build bowmen in Ultimate and Custom Campaigns is now fixed (This was caused by a Vanilla error). There is a small problem though. Since these are the Garrison Bowmen they cannot be disbanded manually and will be auto-disbanded after a siege battle. Nothing else could be done for various reasons.
- All campaigns have now starting Indiaman ship types removed (because they are removed from the game as all the ships can trade in DarthMod).
- Late Campaign repairs and enhancements (Sweden has now correct Victory Conditions and all Victory Conditions have been extented).
- In some campaigns the Thirteen Colonies are granted as Major Faction, affecting this way their CAI role accordingly.
Effects & Sounds
Empire: Total War had never that cinematic feel!
- The new effects (based on the BSM of Mech_Donald) are extraordinary, similar to those of DarthMod Napoleon. They are balanced so as to provide maximum smoke effects without much lag and will be enabled by default.
- There is also a new Lite BSM version that in fact is a much more improved old Heavy BSM version. It provides much more enhanced effects but with much less FPS loss than previously.
- Several fantastic musket sounds imported to mix superbly with the old musket sounds and to provide a unique battle experience and epic feel. These musket sounds are offered kindly by Shokh and are also used in his mod "American Civil War - The Blue and the Grey". In addition, Musket sounds are enriched with the magnificently recorded sounds of General Andy. You can find his standalone mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=537218 (General Andy's Musket Sounds). DarthMod now uses possibly the best musket sound mix of the community.
- The Brigadier Graham Music Mod is enhanced and now the Deployment and Battle music tracks are not "Chill out" type but soundtracks which cause tension and cinematic feel. (The mod is free and not used for commercial reasons and all rights of the included tracks belong to their respected owners).
The New Launcher
The best that is ever created for DarthMod series!
- The new launcher is made from scratch by husserlTW and is much simpler and functional than the previous. You enable all your options from the front panel and you are ready to start the game. If you require more info you can find it in its included help section.
- All options have been specially fine tuned to follow the new gameplay base of DarthMod Empire 8.0.
- Projectile trails can now be enabled and are better than the "laser looking" vanilla.
- There is now again a No Fort Option created by Shokh (the developer of ACW mod).
- The RTI campaign has been removed because of bugs.
- You can now play Multiplayer with DarthMod Empire's excellent gameplay and gigantic list of units by enabling the Multiplayer option of the Launcher and searching for compatible players (Needs player testing).
- Now you can play the specially created single player 40 Unit Campaigns (up to 40 units in an Army and 30 units in a Navy).
They are the following 95 (!) special campaigns:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:Ultimate Campaign Early (14 Campaigns)
DME_40Units_UC_Britain
DME_40Units_UC_France
DME_40Units_UC_Austria
DME_40Units_UC_United_Provinces
DME_40Units_UC_Spain
DME_40Units_UC_Prussia
DME_40Units_UC_Poland
DME_40Units_UC_Ottomans
DME_40Units_UC_Russia
DME_40Units_UC_Sweden
DME_40Units_UC_Maratha
DME_40Units_UC_Mughal
DME_40Units_UC_Cherokee
DME_40Units_UC_Iroquois
Ultimate Campaign Late (15 Campaigns)
DME_40Units_UCL_Britain
DME_40Units_UCL_France
DME_40Units_UCL_Austria
DME_40Units_UCL_United_Provinces
DME_40Units_UCL_Spain
DME_40Units_UCL_Prussia
DME_40Units_UCL_Poland
DME_40Units_UCL_Ottomans
DME_40Units_UCL_Russia
DME_40Units_UCL_Sweden
DME_40Units_UCL_Maratha
DME_40Units_UCL_Mughal
DME_40Units_UCL_United_States
DME_40Units_UCL_Cherokee
DME_40Units_UCL_Iroquois
Grand Campaign (11 Campaigns)
DME_40Units_GC_Britain
DME_40Units_GC_France
DME_40Units_GC_Austria
DME_40Units_GC_United_Provinces
DME_40Units_GC_Spain
DME_40Units_GC_Prussia
DME_40Units_GC_Poland
DME_40Units_GC_Ottomans
DME_40Units_GC_Russia
DME_40Units_GC_Sweden
DME_40Units_GC_Maratha
WarPath (5 Campaigns)
DME_40Units_WP_Iroquois
DME_40Units_WP_Huron
DME_40Units_WP_Plains_Nations
DME_40Units_WP_Pueblo_Nations
DME_40Units_WP_Cherokee_Nations
UpRising (10 Campaigns)
DME_40Units_UR_Iroquois
DME_40Units_UR_Huron
DME_40Units_UR_Plains_Nations
DME_40Units_UR_Pueblo_Nations
DME_40Units_UR_Cherokee_Nations
DME_40Units_UR_United_Provinces
DME_40Units_UR_United_States
DME_40Units_UR_Spain
DME_40Units_UR_France
DME_40Units_UR_Britain
Custom Campaign (40 Campaigns)
DME_40Units_CC_Britain
DME_40Units_CC_Thirteen_Colonies
DME_40Units_CC_France
DME_40Units_CC_Louisiana
DME_40Units_CC_Austria
DME_40Units_CC_United_Provinces
DME_40Units_CC_Spain
DME_40Units_CC_New_Spain
DME_40Units_CC_Prussia
DME_40Units_CC_Poland
DME_40Units_CC_Ottomans
DME_40Units_CC_Russia
DME_40Units_CC_Sweden
DME_40Units_CC_Savoy
DME_40Units_CC_Persia
DME_40Units_CC_Morocco
DME_40Units_CC_Knights_of_St_John
DME_40Units_CC_Maratha
DME_40Units_CC_Mughal
DME_40Units_CC_Mysore
DME_40Units_CC_Italian_States
DME_40Units_CC_Hannover
DME_40Units_CC_Denmark
DME_40Units_CC_Portugal
DME_40Units_CC_Crimean_Khanate
DME_40Units_CC_Venice
DME_40Units_CC_Genoa
DME_40Units_CC_Bavaria
DME_40Units_CC_Westphalia
DME_40Units_CC_Georgia
DME_40Units_CC_Wurttemburg
DME_40Units_CC_Dagestan
DME_40Units_CC_Courland
DME_40Units_CC_Saxony
DME_40Units_CC_Cherokee
DME_40Units_CC_Huron
DME_40Units_CC_Inuit
DME_40Units_CC_Iroquois
DME_40Units_CC_Plains_Nations
DME_40Units_CC_Pueblo_Nations
DME_40Units_CC_Barbary_States
How you play them? You enable one from the launcher and then you load it from the saves of the game.- The Music and Drum & Fife addons are now pre-included in the mod (no need to download them separately).
- You can now easily restore the game status to Vanilla to play Vanilla MP whenever you want or to disable the mod for your own reasons (play a vanilla campaign, uninstall the mod completely etc.).
Read the previous changelog of the mod during its development history:
Link
Team & Credits
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Team
DARTH VADER (The Mod Creator, AI - Formations Designer, Campaign Designer, Gameplay Designer, All Around Fine Tuning, Special Effects Designer, The Installer Maker)
Tango12345 (The Forum Supervisor, Technical Help, Artwork)
husserlTW (The Launcher Maker, Campaign Designer, Artwork)
hammeredalways (Special Forum Moderator, Technical Help, Beta Tester)
alhoon (Special Beta Tester)
Honorary Member
"hip63" the man who inspired and helped the most, back in 2010.
He was the one who made the first Launcher and the first merging of all mods to DarthMod.
The old DarthMod Ultimate Commander version (DMUC) was his "baby" and we hope he will enjoy this new one.
Units
DMUC Version of AUM Mod by Swiss Halberdier / hip63 / DARTH VADER
Garrison Units by DARTH VADER
Sweden Retexture by Ftmch
United Provinces Retexture by jarnomiedema
United States Retexture by ToonTotalWar
Denmark Retexture by erasmus777
Austrian Retexture by Remo
Prussian Retexture by Remo
Ottoman Retexture by Remo
British Retexture by LegoFingers / Sir Digby Chicken Caesar / ToonTotalWar
Portugal Retexture by Ranger86
Polish Retexture by Smatussek1
Bavaria Retexture by General Cornwallis
German States Retexture by Pom
Genoa Retexture by Cornwallis
Papal States Retexture by Cornwallis
Piedmont Savoy Retexture by Cornwallis
Westphalia Retexture by Cornwallis
French Retexture by Cornwallis / Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
Spanish Retexture by manormars
Russian Retexture by Hellfire
Venice Units Retextures by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
Knights of Saint John Units Retextures by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
Hungarian Units Retextures by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
Naples/Sicily Units Retextures by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
Württemberg Retextures by Nimrod_1971
Additional Spanish Units by Rhevant
Additional Prussian Units by gary
Additional Austrian Units by Pressuen Gloria
Additional Swedish Units by Pressuen Gloria
Additional Ancien Regime Units (France and Spain) by isilendil
Additional United Provinces Units by jarnomiedema / Okuto
Additional Greek Units by Demis14 / husserITW / Greek Mod Team
Additional German Units by Pom
Additional Ornamentum Units (Various Factions) by Danova
Additional Northern War Units (Sweden and Russia) by Danova
Euro Armed Citizenry by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
Proper Militia Mod by Spanky
Unit Animations Mods by tiyafeh
Bearskin Officers by DoomBunny666
Aesthetics
Empire Total Flags by JFC
Period Portraits by Onkel Tuca / Yoram777
Improved Spring and Summer Grass for Battles by Primergy
Improved Building Textures for Battles by KillZone GB
Semi-Transperant HUD for Campaign Map by KillZone GB
Events Period Art by jarnomiedema
Campaign Map City Graphics by jarnomiedema
Ancillary Period Art by jarnomiedema
Character Period Art by jarnomiedema
Historical Mini-Maps by jarnomiedema
Gun Ports Mod by jarnomiedema
Fixed Headwear Mod by Ahiga
Cross Straps Mod by Ahiga
Selectable Leather HUD by manonmars
Selectable Transparent HUB by KillZoneGB
Pipmod by waronmars
Launcher Interface Screen by Argent Usher / husserlTW
Loading Screen Art by Voice Of Treason
Old DMUC Art by Voice Of Treason
Various 2D Art by husserlTW, Shokh
Special Effects
Smoke and Blood Mod (BSM) by Mech_Donald
Enhanced BSM version by DARTH VADER
Sounds
Sgt Mellin's Sound Mod by Sgt Mellin (edits by DARTH VADER)
Atmospheric Sounds by Pisoiasul (edits by DARTH VADER)
Realism Sound Pack Mod by Gerald Duval (edits by DARTH VADER)
Music Overhaul Mod by La-De-Da Brigadier Graham (Deployment & Battle Music edits by DARTH VADER)
Drum and Fife Music by Hollowfaith (aka Caligula)
Various Musket Sounds used also in ACW Mod by Shokh (find his special mod here: American Civil War - The Blue and the Grey)
Recorded Musket sounds by General Andy. You can find his standalone mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=537218 (General Andy's Musket Sounds).
Campaign Editing
DMUC Ultimate Campaign by husserlTW / DARTH VADER / hip63 / Shakyrivers
DMUC Ultimate Late Campaign by husserlTW / DARTH VADER / hip63
Uprising Campaign by husserlTW / DARTH VADER / hip63
All Factions Playable Custom Campaign by husserlTW / DARTH VADER / hip63
Grand Campaign by DARTH VADER
WarPath Campaign by DARTH VADER
Multiplayer Campaign by DARTH VADER
Various
UPC Localization by applelover and Swiss Halberdier
Selectable No Forts Mod by Shokh
Equipment Tweak Mod by erasmus777
Selectable Modified Deployment Zones by Baron von Beer (Old) / Albtraum23 (New)
Selectable Technology Tree Research Rates by Isabelxxx
Selectable Blue Skies Mod by adiuvat
Selectable No Borders Mods by Isabelxxx
Selectable Grenades Mod by hip63
Selectable 2, 3 or 4 Turns Per Year by hip63
Selectable Artillery Mods by Tharoth / Topcat / hip63
Unlocked Factions for Custom Battles by hip63
GUI Font Sizes by Just
Family Tree Mod by GeorgiaPeanuts / Umberto202
USA Faction Custom Battles by Demokritos / hip63
Euro Faction Custom Battles by Demokritos / hip63
Eastern Faction Custom Battles by Demokritos / hip63
Sealord Lite Mod by Bladerunner
Original DMUC Launcher by hip63
Menu Movies by hip63 / Creative Assembly
Movies and Promotional Content
New DME Introduction Movie by TheatroN
Old DMUC Introduction Movie by The Nanny
Splash images by Tango12345
Special Video Editing by MasterBigAb
Promotion Videos by naxzul666
Special Thanks
The Creative Assembly for giving us the successful patch 1.6 which finally put some order to the game.
Lee Cowen "Creative Assembly Senior Games Programmer" for giving me valuable tips.
TWCenter for the excellent forum support.
ModDB.com, StrategyInformer.com for their very helpful file hosting services.
husserlTW for his help in the new starting positions of DarthMod, for the new Launcher, for his modified Napoleon PFM with which I pack/unpack the formations and for his 2D art.
hip63 for the excellent collaboration, for the creation of DMUC idea and Launcher and for being an "Ultimate Commander" for the mod.
LtChampers, taw, Alpaca and all who helped to create the DBEditor and PFM tools.
taw for his formation tool.
The Hedge Knight for helping taw make the Formation tool.
Tango12345 for helping every user of DarthMod Empire whenever he can.
Mech_Donald, Spanky, jarnomiedema, Ftmch, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar for their graphics & sounds mods included in the first DarthMod Empire.
Zowrath for the very helpful ideas which gave me innovation for CAI developments and also for his unit and animation mods.
elianus, Hofan and Lordsith for the valuable help they provided for the special animations of DarthMod.
yanxu, Primergy, Xwhyzed for their animation mods.
Xwhyzed again for his special all around help.
Alhoon for his always helpful feedback.
shokh for the very helpful feedback/tips, the musket sounds, his 2D art and his No Forts mod.
Argent Usher old artist of DarthMod, creator of the first official artwork.
Voice of Treason old artist of DarthMod, creator of many fine pieces of artwork.
diadok for the epic screenshots he usually gives en mass (and of course all the others who keep feeding us with nice screenshots).
Isabelxxx for the all around good help in past versions of the mod.
Nanny for the fine promotion videos and his volunteering spirit.
Swiss Halberdier for being super helpful and willing to collaborate in adapting his mod and other mods to DarthMod.
Luntik for the inspiration he has given me to nullify some charge parameters which created the melee bug.
Tharoth for maintaining the sub-mod section of DarthMod Empire during the early stages.
Don of Atheos, for helping me to moderate my forum during the early stages (Also thanks to Anbar and Rammstein).
La♔De♔Da♔Brigadier Graham, for the all around collaboration and true support for my modding efforts.
yelowdogg23, Pizza de Oveja for creating extra DarthMod signatures.
NogaOsibisa for giving me the idea to create the Commander Edition of DarthMod.
I-R-Cannonfodder & JCR for the research they offered me about wind speed and sail degrees (that I implemented in the mod).
billydilly, JFC for some early splash screens.
Midknight for helping me to optimize the reload rates of the mod early on.
Bythesword, Thorn for helping me to balance the Musket Lethality during the early stages of the mod.
You ...the fans who give me all the feedback I need.
People who helped greatly for the Gold Edition of the mod (old version of 2010)
hammeredalways, Syntax, No0dle, Tango12345, diadok for the invaluable help in the forum and for giving me the honour to collaborate with them.
Humble Warrior, FedeM, alhoon, CamilleBonparte, Marku for participating actively and helpfully in the beta testing.
I also thank the rest of the beta testers who offered to help at the early stage of the beta.
If we forgot someone, forgive us and tell us who to add!
Installation Instructions
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
How to use the Launcher
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Try the Multiplayer
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Read HERE!