Greetings all and welcome to the Scriptorium's Editorial for July 2013! We have a lot of exciting news this time around including information on the 2013 Summer Writing Competition, general staff news as well as some great article reviews and a list of the latest articles added to the Scriptorium. Gen. Chris has also done a great special featuring the Arts Review forum.


Top News

Summer 2013 Writing Competition
The Scriptorium is proud to announce the 2013 Summer Writing Competition! Be on the look out for the official announcement thread in the Questions and Suggestions forum soon in about a week. For now though we can tell you this competition will have themed and non-themed categories and will officially start at the beginning of August . If you're unfamiliar with our writing competitions have a look at A Guide to the Scriptorium Writing Competitions, which contains lots of useful info on the competitions. This one is going to be big with the usual medals and rep prizes, but also something extra special. Keep a look out for the announcement thread at the beginning of August.

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Other News

A Special Look at the Arts Review Forum
Have you ever thought about exactly how you feel about some movies, TV shows, or albums? Aspects such as the tone, the quality, the sound, or just how the movie, TV show, or album made you feel by the end of it? Have you ever had the urge to just write down what you feel, be it a rant, a mild opinion, or a testament of love, towards any of these three things? Or even, perhaps reading what others have to say on the matter? Have you ever wondered if something that is new, or even old, is worth the time to watch or even listen to?

Look no further. Here at the Arts Review, you can examine and even create your own reviews for the things you love and hate. Did you feel somewhat disappointed by a movie you had been waiting to see for months? Write about it. Did you feel surprised by the quality or tone of a TV show? Let us know. Did you hate a song or album so much that your ears bled? Warn us all.

The Arts Review is always looking for quality reviews on whatever is your whim. Whether you have a knack for writing or would like to try it out, all are welcome to share their views.

Come visit The Arts Review sub-forum, where everyone's opinions are valued.

- Gen. Chris

The Conclave Opens
We are happy to announce that Harvester of Sorrow and knight of meh have joined the librarians.

The Scriptorium may have a need for a few more librarians. Anyone interested is invited to apply via PM to the chief librarian, StealthFox.

See here for additional info.

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Recent Articles

Below is a list of all articles added to the Scriptorium catalogs since the time of our last editorial in April 2013.

Recently Added Articles

April 2013
[M2TW Guide] Vampiresbane's Art of Diplomacy
[M2TW Modding] Single Model Units in Campaign
How to use the Assembly kit

May 2013
[Tutorial] IWTE - Custom settlements - Step by Step for creating. Most impportant things you must know.
[Modding] Easy tips for mapping
[Tutorial] How to mix skins and models
[Modding] Unique Names (and avoiding labels)
[Modding] How to create an emerging faction with Barons Alliance script
[Tutorial] A Guide for Guilds
[Modding] Family trees compendium of knowledge
[Tutorial] On motion capture for the common man--especially for walking.
[Guide] Introducing the Medievalopedia
[Guide] Deus Lo Vult v6.1 Strategy Guide
[Guide] FAUST Unit guide for M2:TW and Kingdoms
How to add a new faction and modify existing ones
[Modding] How to change the voice accent of a factions characters

June 2013
[Modding] Creating and adding new 2d building art with GIMP (for beginners)
[History] Athens during the Hellenistic age
[modding] How to split a region (Shogun 2)
[Modding] Learn-by-Example Modelling 01: Medieval Dagger

July 2013
[Modding] W.A.L.I
[Modding] Krn3ll Guide to add brand new buildings to RTW 1.5
[Modding] DBEditor 1.8
[Modding] Weapons in 3dsmax
[Modding] Making Historical Battles
[Modding] Porting M2TW models to RTW
(Tool) Easy Launcher (updated 26/05)



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Article Reviews

Athens during the Helenistic Age - Review by Harvester of Sorrow

Scriptorium Thread: Athens during the Helenistic Age

From the first few lines it is clear that Mausolos of Caria has a passion for the Antiquity. This article forms part of Mausolos' series on Hellenic history. It paints a detailed and informative, possibly too so, picture of Athens during the Hellenistic period. It can be seen from the article that whilst the history of Athens was calamitous, there were times when Athens was in a more that admirable position. He has used helpful and meaningful visual aids along with comprehensive text, in order to create a very interesting read, which in turn creates anchor points for the different sections of this well structured article. I would argue that this article is well written and informative enough to be part of the introduction to Athens in Rome II.

Whilst my knowledge of the Antiquity,especially the Greek states, is fairly limited I felt that I learnt a lot from this text. However due to its length, I did find it hard to read the article right the way through to the end. Despite this I recommend the article to anyone with even a slight interest in the Antiquity period.

- Harvester of Sorrow


How to Split a Region (Shogun 2) - Review by Princess Luna

Scriptorium Thread: How to split a region (Shogun 2)

For how long have we not have to hear that modifying the map in the latest Total war games are impossible? That we can't improve the map, not make true total conversion mods like the EB and Third age total war on the new games?
Or at least split region X into the more historically accurate Y and Z?

Well, thanks to people like uanime5 and spartan_warrior that has changed! In Shogun 2, you may now split a region and thereby make new regions, and many other things. They are effectively making map-making possible for the newest game! The first one where it has been possible since Medieval 2!

This tutorial is written by uanime5 and is unique in the way that it tell you, or anyone else, how to make new regions in shogun 2. using the official modding tools 3D Max. This hopefully revolutionary tutorial was created after countless requests, where people would learn how to make their own regions without having to go through the entire thread where the breakthroughs were posted. It is a fairly standard tutorial, telling you step by step what you have to do to make new working regions.

Anyone who wants to seriously help the shogun 2 modding community should dive into this and later help them solve the unanswered questions about modding. Maybe a total conversion is not as impossible as we have thought.

- Luna


The Easy Launcher - Review by knight of meh

ScriptoriumThread: The easy launcher

In the olden days of modding in Medieval 2 and Rome Total War the most troublesome thing to my mind was "is this mod stable" , the most dreaded thing was crashes to desktop. But to my dismay a new demon has risen it's ugly head to ruin my modified gaming experience, this demon is the difficulty that now comes with installing and launching mods on newer titles. In recent times this has been less the chore it used to be and more a battle to get working mods on my machine. Adding the fact that steam dislikes you installing things into steam not specifically prepared for it then you have yourself a recipe for a headache and maybe a rage quit.

In walks the hero husserlTW who has produced this easy launcher that automated the process of producing a launcher that has saved me personally a lot of time when it comes to installing mods and actually having them work , the program is currently in beta stage but i personally have had no issues and add to that a list of positives in it's favour:

~it is intuitive
~easy to understand
~and works with Empire , Napoleon and Shogun 2

All in all a pretty handy piece of programming that could save modders and casual gamers valuable free time , i know it gave me back some spare time so to anyone that installs lots of mods on supported titles this could be something for you to check out

- knight


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Closing Remarks

Thanks for reading the editorial this month! We hope to see your submissions in the upcoming writing competition! Good Luck!

Also, we're always on the watch for new additions to our collections. If you have something you think is worthy of being saved here please PM any librarian.

Valete!


The Scriptorium Team
Princess Luna - Writer & Librarian
Gen. Chris - Writer & Librarian
Mhaedros - Writer & Librarian
Harvester of Sorrow - Writer & Librarian
Knight of Meh - Writer & Librarian
StealthFox - Chief Librarian & Editor





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