Content Package for MOS 1.6.2
Code:
https://mega.co.nz/#!B4gTyKQT!V1To35Jm5a89uFUuYEEiEiWM8MO8u7Be4b4gZ5HZxjs
(version as of 21 February 2015)
Here's an updated, final version of the content package, which takes into account Stylix's bugfixes. You can usually be sure that this is all you need to download on top of MOS 1.6.2 (to get the latest 1.6.2 and Director's Cut). I hope future work on MOS will move on from these files uploaded here, to avoid my having to once more re-introduce the changes for incorporation into MOS (which is a lot of repetitive work).
I strongly recommend the modifications, and deem them beneficial. I especially recommend descr_strat changes and the changes to the map TGA files as essential.
This is a content package that was prepared for inclusion into MOS 1.6.3 in cooperation with Stylix. Stylix now having gone on a break, I've decided its best to upload the files so that #1 players can enjoy the new modifications, and #2 to allow for future modding to go forward from these latest files that hopefully include as much as possible of the current work on 1.6.3.
Frankly I don't know what this is so I just called it "Content Package". If there's no "official" 1.6.3 in quite a while, as seems very likely, one may as well view this extensive content pack as "1.6.3" . If we do receive a definitive 1.6.3 in the near future, and it does include these changes as planned, then this is a "patch" for 1.6.2. If the changes aren't included as planned, then I guess this is a "sub-submod" of some sort. I certainly hope the latter case will not somehow come about.
Requirements: This requires a clean version of MOS 1.6.2 installed on top of Third Age, with or without Sylix's bugfixes. If you've already installed the three Stylix bugfixes, you won't be losing anything they fix, and if you don't have them - installing this upload will introduce them (i.e. the bugfixes are included in this upload).
Installation: To install download, extract, and merge the "Third_Age_3" folder with your own "Third_Age_3" folder (typically located at 'SEGA/Medieval II Total War\mods\Third_Age_3'), overwriting the numerous conflicts when prompted. That means copy-paste the downloaded "Third_Age_3" folder to 'Medieval II Total War\mods', and overwrite. If you did not get numerous overwrite prompts, you did it wrong. After that, remember to delete the 'map.rwm' file located in 'Third_Age_3\data\world\maps\base'.
Also remember that its always a good idea to back up before modding your game (that means make a copy of your unmodded "Third_Age_3" folder).
This upload includes:
Numerous fixes and repairs for Gondor's regional unit recruitment (which I honestly feel like I've fixed six times by now ): Gondor militia units will not be trainable alongside Lossarnach units in Lossarnach, nor in the four provinces of Lebennin. In these areas, the Gondor militia have been replaced with regional militia units. The Swan Knights unit will no longer be impossible (or damn-near impossible) to see in the game, but now they will be very expensive to train and maintain, as well as much smaller. The Blackroot Archers have now replaced the Gondor militia archers in the one province that is the Blackroot vale. They will no longer be trainable outside the Blackroot Vale (e.g. in Lamedon, as they were before). Pelargir is now the only province that can train the Lebennin spear unit ('Pelargir Militia') and the Pelargir Marines (which have been buffed a bit). The point of that is to not overbuff Gondor with spear militia.
The upload further includes updated heraldry and skins for the new Lebennin regional units. A new Lebennin cavalry unit has been introduced '(Lebennin Lancers'), allowing for the complete replacement of Gondor militia-tier units in Lebennin. I plan to fix these up even further if I have the time, but this is the definitive version for now. Of course, the new Pelargir Marines have been updated in appearance as well, alongside the Lebennin spear unit (the 'Pelargir Militia'). Gondor general units have also been modified. This change was already included in the February upload. Needless to say, all the units can be upgraded twice and will have a different appearance in each version.
The Citadel Guards of Gondor now start with a (relatively) Lore-accurate black kit. And can be upgraded to include full plate in a settlement with a tier 5 blacksmith building.
Further changes:
- I tried to implement a script that makes infantry bodyguards for Gondor optional, but that seems not to be possible (rather an obvious point in hindsight ). So instead, I just reduced the size of the cavalry bodyguards (including Denethor and Boromir). I decided against pushing an infantry bodyguard alone.
- Steps have been taken to finally clearly distinguish (in terms of model design) between the Gondor Bodyguards, the Gondor Knights, and the Gondor Cavalry unit at its final armour upgrade. Gondor Bodyguards no longer have the heavy pauldrons as the Knights do, and they have different (longer) surcoats. The Knights have pauldrons as before, which now distinguish them from the Bodyguards - and they also now have cloaks, which distinguish them from the Gondor Cavalry.
- I reworked the Citadel Guards in accordance with the description of their gear in Lore. The exception is that I didn't make their chainmail black in addition to the surcoats (as per lore), since that would imo be a bit too much black. The reasoning behind this change is that we need more diversity in appearance with Gondor's elite unit roster. The Citadel Guards don't have plate armour as their gear is ancient and ceremonial. Also their chainmail is supposed to be beyond normal steel.
- I reworked the appearance of the Gondor General himself, just a bit further. He has a cloak buckle, gold trim (as opposed to his bodyguards), and no Gondor general will be sporting a drooping Wyatt Earp mustache . This latter change has also been introduced for most Gondor elites.
- Introduced a "light" Gondor horse model variant for use by the lighter cavalry. It just doesn't have the plate of armour strapped to its head: that thing kind of looked out of place on militia cavalry and such.
- Introduced the Knights of Edloss, as a unique Lossarnach bodyguard. Remember folks: Forlong of Lossarnach rode on a horse and fought with a spear.
- Removed grapeshot.
- Introduced a new officer for the Ithilien Rangers to replace the out-of-place, non-Taro model.
- Fixed the problem with leftover unmodified ui unit cards for rebel and mercenary variants of units (i.e. made sure they were the same as with their own faction). Hopefully I got them all.
- Also fixed the ui cards for Gondor settlement improvements (walls, etc.), that used to all look like the armourer building.
- Modified some of the Lossarnach unit descriptions.
- Fixed the bug with the upgraded appearance of East and West Osgiliath.
Strategic map changes are as follows:
- Gondor players will notice that the old Gondor strat map models have been restored, but that they've been reskinned. The goal was to give Gondor's settlements a stone-built look - but also to maintain a correspondence between the strat map models and the battle map appearance of the settlements (which is not the case in vanilla 1.6.2).
- Fixed up the strat map models for the Motte-and-Bailey type of settlement. Mottes now use the model that used to be the Rohan/Eriador/Rebel/Dale wooden castle; this is true for both Gondor and Rohan/Eriador/Rebels/Dale, but Gondor's Motte-and-Bailey uses Gondor skins. In turn, the Rohan/Eriador/Rebel/Dale wooden castles now use the model previously used exclusively by Gondor wooden castles; with modified skins, so they don't look out of place (see image).
- Further: the appearance of all settlements historically built by Gondor is now Gondor-like, regardless of who controls them at start. The exception being Rohan.
- Numerous name changes, both of settlements and regions, have been introduced to the strategic map. E.g: Lothlorien province is now called "Lanthir", meaning "Falls" as in "Falls of Nimrodel". "Celebrant" is now "Naith". "Limlight Fields" just to the south of Lothlorien is now "Parth Celebrant".. because its the Parth Celebrant . 'Orc Encampment' and 'Goblin Town' were given Sindarin names, and "Thamas Thranduil" ("Halls Thranduil") was changed to "Erynnond" ("the Woodland Caves") - courtesy of Arachir . Many other names have been changed as well. I generally tried to get rid of generic names such as "goblin town", etc.
- The island off the Firth of Umbar has been restored (you may recall 'Erelond'?), in exchange for the imo pointless 'Edhellond' settlement near Dol Amroth (which is besides also non-Lore). The Wildmen settlement near Minas Tirith has been replaced with an Anorien settlement, 'Calenhad' (I consider it pointless and non-Lore to give the Wild Men a settlement and province - they're Wild Men).
- The border of Gondor with Rohan has been extended to include the Mouths of the Entwash, as per Lore.
- It is no longer possible to cross through the White Mountains between Erech and Dunharrow (only Aragorn was able to do that). The 'Erech' settlement has been moved to the south along the Blackroot River, enlarged, and renamed 'Rendûl' (in Lore, 'Erech' was not a village, the landscape was deserted). As mentioned, care has been taken to ensure the Blackroot Archers are now readily available in the game, and exclusively in the actual Blackroot Vale.
- The Lossarnach settlement is now a wooden castle, has been renamed, and moved a bit towards the mountains (its supposed to be a mountain valley). Dol Amroth is now a castle (training of all regional Dol Amroth units is ensured). Aldburg is a castle too, according to Lore.
- Changes were made to make the Crossing of Tharbad and the Fords of Isen relevant in the game, as in Lore. It is no longer possible to cross at the delta of the Anduin (per Lore), but instead, since we must have a crossing for Harad, one crosses near Pelargir, giving the second city of Gondor more strategic importance. Care has been taken to ensure contact with Harad is maintained in equal measure. Dol Amroth no longer has a port, the ships are at Pelargir. Its not possible to cross the river Adorn, blocking Rohan from advancing too far west.
- Rohan has been brought to its exact Lore borders. Gineard and Derwath (Adorn) are a rebel provinces (as per Lore: the Adorn was "legally" a part of Rohan but ignored the kings at Edoras).
- Rohan now reaches up to the Limlight at start. The loss of Gineard and Derwath is compensated by giving R. The Wold from the start, which now includes a new province along the Anduin crafted from the superfluous second Fangorn province.
- The region of South Gondor ('Harondor') has been reworked to give the Gondor player a goal to strive towards on the "Southern Front". The provinces along the river Harnen have been set up as an old Gondor frontier, which starts in Haradrim hands. Two (imo pointless) settlements in the "Deep South" have been reworked into border castles (wooden castles) on the Harnen. Crossings over rivers have been modified too in the region, and forts were moved around in a way that makes more sense.
- The region of Umbar has been reworked to establish the Firth of Umbar as a region of its own. This is something I've advocated for a long time.
- An attempt was made to try and fix the AI error at the pass near Imladris. Its still untested, though.
- Cair Andros is now a castle, not a fortress (honestly I think someone just forgot to demote it back to castle once its custom battle map was scrapped).
- Added some forts here and there, mostly at the old borders of Gondor and Arnor. Moved some of them around (fort placement was very weird.. almost as if they were meant for defending Harad and Enedwaith, instead of Gondor and Arnor).
- Added a new province at The Undeeps (from an imo useless province elsewhere); the point there is to make the crossing over the Anduin at the Undeeps more interesting. Also introduced a village province near Lond Daer, to make Lond Daer look good on its own, i.e. as a port with its surroundings.
- Cameth Brin is now a motte-and-bailey, which, as mentioned above, will now appear as an Eriador settlement instead of a Mordor settlement for some reason.
- Moved the capital of the Harad away from the old border of Gondor at Gobel Ancalimon: its now Korondaj. Settlement types, sizes, and buildings have been switched around accordingly (Korondaj is now a city, Gobel Ancalimon is a large town), as has the placement of Harad generals. This is because it was rather strange to have the actual capital of the Harad right there at the river Harnen, which used to be the southern boundary of Gondor.
- Fixed a bug with the skins for Mordor strategic map castles and fortresses.
- Renamed some settlements, fixed some weird settlement ownership, meaning I changed how some settlements appear on the strat map. Mengalen and Cameth Brin will no longer appear as Mordor settlements.
- Removed some strange ports on the Anduin that served no purpose (but only caused the game to create weird roads where there should be no roads)
- Fixed up the Gondor spy skin just a bit. Also made Faramir's arrows white-fletched (instead of yellow), both in the strat map and battle map.
- Numerous province borders were modified to give them a more rounded, less-post-colonial-Africa look.
- I reduced the size of two or three settlements in Eriador that bugged me because they were populous settlements in regions that are supposed to be extremely desolate.
- Changed the upper course of the river Harnen to reflect Lore.
- Modified province layout in Mordor to set it up so that Mordor is defended by one provice in the east (rather than two).
Phew! Listed most of the changes! There are ofc many other miscellaneous fixes, including province border modifications. These changes, along with the package in general, affect almost exclusively the south of the map: Gondor, Rohan, Harad, Enedwaith.
Credit goes to Arachir Galudirithon and Ngugi for their advice and assistance . And, as always, to King Kong, Hero of the West, SHREDDER, Louis_Lux, Razor, Taro_M, MIKE GOLF, Stylix, Ngugi, the FRoME team, and the rest of the fellas that actually created TATW, MOS, and all the myriad units thereof. I of course don't own any of these files. I believe I have obtained the necessary permissions, but if anyone's copyright is being infringed even in the slightest, please inform me immediately and the relevant data shall be removed forthwith. As far as I'm concerned, everyone's free to use any file I've modified, as long as its credited.
Elven Armour Options:
The following packages replace default silver Elven armour with yellow variants (which I myself personally don't recommend). The texture files affect High Elven and Lothlorien top-tier heavy units, and include other changes unrelated to armour colour from DC, as well as appropriate sprites. Install them just as you would Director's Cut, per above instructions: simply merge the downloaded 'Third_Age_3' folder with your own and overwrite. Of course, you have to have MOS 1.6.2. (with or without Director's Cut) installed beforehand.
Yellow armour for both High Elves and Lothlorien:
Code:
https://mega.co.nz/#!11hhRB4B!iuttRLOuk0x5lkTPyIrvknt0_kKzfQfVGXAcaghvtN0
Yelow armour for High Elves alone:
Code:
https://mega.co.nz/#!JtYx0aZR!vDfo54wXfOxUl3gnR07VUYi-7P7HoUbV9KWR3OH8fuY
Yellow armour for Lothlorien alone:
Code:
https://mega.co.nz/#!EhhCRYIa!sACa8g3W4q4A80d93Rs-dnf6JLGJcEoTxjV_6MsllRg
Here follow just a few images to depict some of the changes, first up is the latest version of the New Pelargir Marines. All the way down are the 'Knights of Edloss', the bodyguard of Forlong of Lossarnach.
And here are some additional screenshots for the four upgrade levels introduced to basic Gondor units (note: these are part of MOS 1.6.2 already).