Mod formerly known as Alternative Colours For Rome 2 or ACR2 has been transformed into...
This mod is for those who seek a more realistic impression of the armies and units in Rome 2, as far as possible based on historical sources
Two versions are available for download: Totus and ACLA
The first gives colour variety to the armies of select factions, and the second compatibility with Legionaries Armies Mod (LAM). The effect of the former is, among other things, elite units standing out more from ordinary units, generals being more recognizable as such, mercenary units looking more independent, and the Spartan army being divided more strictly according to social class. See details of the differences inside the spoilers below.
Totus
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
This mod works in one way or other for all parts of the game, including Empire Divided and Rise of the Republic
It provides new uniform themes for all sides within that scope, including civil war factions, secession parties and rebels
For select factions in the Prologue, Grand Campaign, Caesar in Gaul and Hannibal at the Gates theatres, some diversity in the appearance of the army has been produced
The army diversity has been created with a variety of uniforms for a group of units belonging to a given faction as specified below
Full roster variety* is found among: all playable factions Etruscan League
Samnites
For Rome this means that the Republican army look more "republican" (i.e. "less uniform" etc) For Sparta that Helots appear more like the slaves they are, Perioikoi more like the free men they are, and Spartiates stand out more like true Spartans
Partial roster variety** is brought to:
all African factions in GC
all Arabian factions in GC
Cyrenaica Knossos
Nova Carthago
Little roster variety*** is seen among: Cappadocia Catiaroi
Media Persia
Sardes
Special uniforms that look apart from whichever faction that recruits them (thanks to an idea from DramaBelli):
all (95) mercenary units
all (73) auxiliary units In the Casear in Gaul scenario, the game allows the Roman side to recruit local troops not classified as auxiliaries, but these have now been made to appear very much like auxiliaries
In the Imperator Augustus scenario, there is no factional-based variety, but it has access to all recoloured mercenary and auxiliary units plus praetorians
*"Full roster variety" means that even the siege units and generals are covered; units clad in the normal factional theme are intended to look that way
**"Partial roster variety" means basically the same as full roster variety without siege units and generals being covered
***"Little roster variety" usually means that 1-6 units have special uniforms; if only one unit is made to look apart, it's usually a general's unit (not including the officer)
ACLA
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
ACLA = ACR for LAM
In other words, this is Totus geared for Little Legionaire's great Legionaries Armies Mod
Meaning that you get Totus without any special units, because LAM takes care of that department
I first planned to recolour only the playable factions, some minor factions, and some special units in Rome 2. Did not think I'd take on the whole package this time, as the load of work needed to do so, with the effort behind ACC for Shogun2 fresh in my mind, was really daunting. But after having tested Rome 2 in campaign a bit, I realized I would not like to play this game properly, like in a full campaign, unless I recoloured the lot: it's just no fun having a faction that looks realistic going up against a faction looking unrealistic. So my goal has become to try to make all factions appear as authentic and realistic as possible. I'll need several attempts (i.e. editions) to accomplish that, each version tweaking the themes a little closer to the standard I want. Eventually, all factions will hopefully appear not only believable as armies of the time and place, but also pretty good and interesting to play.
Presentation of all playable factions will follow in this opening post as soon as they're ready for it. Minor factions will be covered in post #2 and special units in post #3.
Expect slow development, for a variety of reasons.
PS: Those who like this mod should know it's had its ups and downs. I very nearly gave up on it. Twice...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Short story of ACR: First release.
Patch 7 from CA destroys much of the fun with it.
Patch 9 brings back the full merit of it.
The Epirus update from CA partially destroys it again.
Patch 12 resuscitates it!
Imperator Augustus DLC motivates the accelerated growth towards full faction coverage.
Christmas 2014 inspires the release of big army diversity.
Spring 2015 sees the final version of the mod...?
No, March 2016 brings a small update, giving more interest to the factions in Africa and Arabia.
And then, in December 2017, time is finally ripe for Totus.
There could be many editions of ACR. So I'm using the same system of designating the different versions as for ACC. First edition of ACR (first known as ACR2) will be called 22a. The number in the version name will indicate how many factions have been recoloured, and the letter if anything in the previous edition has been updated. So if the next edition will contain two more factions, for example, but no other changes, it will be called 24a; if that edition also contains other changes from the previous edition, it will be called 24b instead; but if no new faction is included, it will called 22b. And so on.
Examples of historical colours (the particular ones shown above not necessarily used in ACR2)
Approach
Just like in the situation for Shogun 2 when I decided to start modding, other mods of this visual sort were already available for Rome 2, but none fully satisfactory to my taste. That's why you see me bringing an Alternative to the table. As usual, I'll seek to increase the realistic impression of and interest for the various factions and units in the game. Technically, however, I'll keep the mod simple, perhaps not even including banners this time, to facilitate choice, download and combination with other mods.
My strategy here will be the following. If I find a historical source for a faction to appear in certain way, I'll try to use that source for the uniform theme of the faction in question. If I cannot find info about how a particular faction appeared, but have general info about how people of the culture in question appeared (for example, no info about Veneti in particular, but about Celts in general), I'll try use that general info in a way that suits the particular faction. If I have no info whatsoever, I'll just try to make a more realistic version of CA's theme for that faction.
To increase the interest in a given playable army, I'll introduce a fourth, fifth or even sixth additional hue to the original "primary", "secondary", and "tertiary" colours for the units. More if there was a special unit in history known to stand out in some particular way. I'll do the same for certain minor factions. This will add to the sense of realism, too, as the armies of the time appeared with much variety in the ranks.
But modding Rome 2 to high standards in this area has proven more difficult than Shogun 2. In the latter game, the three colours that could be changed were assigned to a specific part of the uniform: armor, clothing or armor details. In Rome 2, all three editable colours can appear on all parts of the uniform or shield where the colour can be changed. As far as I can tell, the designation of "primary", "secondary", or "tertiary" colour only reflects the frequency by which the colour in question gets applied to a particular part of the uniform or shield. This creates max uniform variety with the smallest means possible, but also some artistic difficulty, as the colour does not come out in the same shade for uniform and shield. So one hue looking good on shield may not look good on uniform. Also, some colour seeming appropriate for tunic may not appear equally good for cloak etc. Add to that the many instances of strange lighting conditions in battlefield mode which drown all colours in some "orangy" or "greenish" haze, for example, depending on location etc. Decent colours can suddenly turn overly saturated and bad in such situations. I'm pretty convinced that there exist no colour solution that works in all settings of this game. All gamers using a mod of this sort should be aware of this limitation.
To facilitate management of this thread, I will limit the number of screens previewing each faction or unit to one. Likewise for source images. And I will, as a rule, only bother to preview one special unit per faction in this manner. The thread will grow large enough in time anyway.
Note: For all previews above hold that in Totus many units will look different due to the army diversity project that makes the factional theme more like the most common colours used by the units of the faction in question.
Thanks to a tip from my friend Noif, CE came with unit cards in matching colours for some of the factions. It's quite nice to be rid of the strong vanilla colours in this area, too. Only 20 major factions were featured here, so the addition was small. Here's an example of the result for Carthage:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Varietas does not have this addition, but ACR may once get it in the future.
Reports of suspected colour editing errors, constructive criticism, suggestions, source material tips, images of the mod in action or simple comments on the work are most welcome.
Cheers,
D
Last edited by Demokritos; October 24, 2020 at 03:45 PM.
Reason: Withholding mod pending decision by TWC
All factions in the game, including the DLC scenarios, will end up being covered in ACR. Currently 330 parties (counting civil war factions, secession sides and rebels, too) have been recoloured. More if you count the factions featured in the great Hellenika mod for Wrath of Sparta, to which I've created an add-on named ACRAH (see here for more info about that). Only those of the newly released Empire Divided DLC remain.
A few of the minor sides will be previewed below. All themes subject to change with new ideas or better source material.
Two lists will follow. One enumerating all minor factions included in the released version of ACR, and the other all minor sides planned to be included. Factions mentioned in former list in cursive text are finished parties set for release in the next update.
Note: All previews in this post are with the gimped unit variety from patch 7 in effect and not as varied in colours as the game optimally provides, unless otherwise indicated..
Minor factions featured in ACR: 293
Scheduled to be addressed in the future:
All those in the ED DLC.
Last edited by Demokritos; December 20, 2017 at 07:46 AM.
GNOTHI SEAUTON (Know Thyself) - precept inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece MEDEN AGAN (Nothing To Excess) - another precept inscribed in the aforementioned place
For added sense of realism and interest for the game, I've created a lot of "special units". Hundreds of them. These are units which have a uniform theme diverging from the main factional theme. By introducing a number of such units for a given faction, as far as possible based on historical sources, the army of that faction appears more diverse and therefore closer to history. All major factions and some minor factions will be given such diversity and this to varying degree. Some indication of the distribution of special units has been listed in the OP. Here, in post #3, the intent is to give detailed info about this distribution and show some examples of it. For factions where the whole roster has been covered for diversity, the change in appearance of the army is rather dramatic compared to the usual factional-theme-dominated one. The effect, where implemented, is not only more interesting factions, but also generals being more easily recognized as such, elite units standing out more from ordinary units, mercenary units appearing more independent, etc.
I will only bother to preview at most one special unit per faction plus half a dozen mercenaries here. The rest not shown is enumerated in a list provided as attachment at bottom of this post, so that you know where to look for them in game.
With the release of VE, I'm offering some alternatives to the uniform themes of some units. You'll find this section below the main one here. There may be added content in that department from time to time.
If you feel like editing some part of my mod accordingly, read the instructions at bottom of this post.
Note that some of the examples of the variety work below are from earlier versions of the mod (as indicated by the abbreviations) which may remain largely intact in VE and above.
Ancient style Celtic brooch
Optionals
Send me a PM if you're interested in any of these, and I'll give you the data for the change. More alternatives might be added later.
Due to site restrictions about text volumes in a post, I've copied the list in the unit_variants_colours table for Totus into a simple notepad file that's attached below. It shows close to 2000 entries. That's about 50% more than in Africanum. Each campaign must have its own colour data for the units in order for them to depart from the main theme in that scenario. That's why some units turn up in several places. If a particular unit for a given campaign is mentioned twice, it means both soldiers and officer have been given uniform themes different from the factional one. If it's mentioned three times, then its standard bearer is also different. I have not bothered to mark which units in Africanum have been edited ("improved") for Totus and which units are totally new for the mod this time.
If you want to tailor the mod more to your preferences, here's how to do it.
1. Open my mod with PFM.
2. If you want to change something in the way a particular faction appears, open the faction_uniform_colours table; if you want to change something regarding a particular unit, open the unit_variant_colours table.
3a. In the former case, find the colour you want, note its RGB values, and enter those as given in the columns for primary colour (columns #1-3), secondary colour (columns #4-6) and/or tertiary colour (columns #7-9). Check the note about which colour order will affect what below.
3b. In the latter case, if you merely want to change some colour, follow the same procedure as above, but observe that the RBG values must be entered in the reverse order here, i.e. the value for blue must be written in the first of the trio of columns for whatever colour is to be changed, the one for green in the second (as before), and the one for red in the last; if you don't want a particular unit to diverge from the main factional theme at all, then click on its row number to highlight the whole row and then hit the delete button on the keyboard.
4. Select an unedited part of the table, and then save your changes (or that last edited field in the table won't register the change).
5. Start the game with your edited ACR in the data folder.
Useful to know:
- Changes in the primary colour will determine the most common colour for tunics and horse armor details, and the one colour used for blankets on horses and elephants, etc.
- Changes in the secondary colour will have effects depending on what faction or unit it is, and the degree of unit variety your comp permits; with reduced unit variety, it often determines the other colour for tunics, hats and horse armour details etc; if a Roman unit, it sometimes sets the third colour on shields alone; and so on.
- Changes in the tertiary colour used to have results similar to those for secondary colour, but with reduced unit variety in effect it most often means changes to pants and some details on tunics and shields alone.
- Officers have randomized access to the three colours given in the theme, which in the case of one sporting both a tunic, cloak, and shield, for example, can mean that only two colours are used in all changeable areas; next time that officer appears on the battlefield, he can have all three colours showing in those areas, but differently.
Last edited by Demokritos; December 19, 2017 at 01:39 PM.
GNOTHI SEAUTON (Know Thyself) - precept inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece MEDEN AGAN (Nothing To Excess) - another precept inscribed in the aforementioned place
Welcome back mate to Rome 2 modding section. Seem your retire is finished and back to work. I can tell you that there are some special recolors too what are made for few special units like Sacred band and praetorians and - guards in db - unit_variant_colors if you didn't know that. Glad you are back here.
@Noif - Check the third post. A lot more of that to come later.
Have updated OP...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Epirote militia hoplites (in darker hues) rushing to assist a friendly unit attacked by Arverni cavalry.
GNOTHI SEAUTON (Know Thyself) - precept inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece MEDEN AGAN (Nothing To Excess) - another precept inscribed in the aforementioned place
I would dispute the decision to keep green on Epirus, sir. It clashes badly with the orange regardless of tone, and makes their army resemble a sort of strange mixing as if the entire faction was permenantly bound to celebrate St. Patricks Day.
Edit: I would propose replacing the green with something, for the record.
As an old song sing "welcome to the jungle" good Sir just giving some poetry and justice to this unlucky game!
Welcome to the ACR2 thread, my friend. I hope you'll find it nearly as good as ACC. Modding Rome 2 in this area is more difficult than Shogun 2, but I'll try my best.
Originally Posted by Actus Reus
Looks good so far... Are you using an ENB? the screenshots look nice..
How far are you to finding out how to change the faction colour for the mini-map in the campaign and campaign strategic map?
Thats where I'm stuck atm..
Thanks for the feedback. I'm not using anything in particular for my screens other than max graphics in game and dedicated graphics card settings for Rome 2 on my new comp.
Haven't considered changing stuff on the campaign map yet. That question will arise when the faction colours are set more permanently. Will let you know when I find relevant modding info about it then.
Originally Posted by Massive_attack
I would dispute the decision to keep green on Epirus, sir. It clashes badly with the orange regardless of tone, and makes their army resemble a sort of strange mixing as if the entire faction was permenantly bound to celebrate St. Patricks Day.
Edit: I would propose replacing the green with something, for the record.
The Ptolemies however, look FANTASTIC!
Yes, I'm quite pleased with the Ptolemies. Thank you.
Regarding green-orange-white combination, I take it you don't like the Irish flag much (with colours always "clashing badly" like that)?
And a green-red-white combination will make it look like Christmas, they say.
Well, I understand your concern, MA, but seriously, if we were to avoid all colour combinations associated with modern traditions in the many different cultures of the world, there wouldn't be much left to choose from to portray the ancient civilizations which existed long before present day, would it? Least of all historically correct. If you ask me, a game portraying historical events should strive for historical accuracy regardless of modern associations. If the historical facts can be established.
As it happens for Epirus, however, I did not have much information earlier and need to reconsider their appearance based on my ideas for the Macedonians anyway. We'll see how that turns out.
GNOTHI SEAUTON (Know Thyself) - precept inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece MEDEN AGAN (Nothing To Excess) - another precept inscribed in the aforementioned place
Happy to see you guys interested in what's under development here. There's already so many other mods out there, so any single mod is easily lost in the torrent of work being made to improve this game. To facilitate for members to find what they're after, including myself, I think it's high time for the moderators to organize all non-hosted mods in sub-forums according to type again, just like they did for Shogun 2.
Originally Posted by MKgr0ss
im eager to wait for this
Hope you'll like seeing the real deal later.
Originally Posted by Hazeyshot
Good to Have You back demo!, i am gunna enjoy the new textures from you and and new screenies will be happening in the future
i have missed you and my mind has also wondered if you were ever going to mod this game!
Hello, my Hazey friend! Long time no see. Yes, it took a while before I decided that Rome 2 needed a different costume, too, and before the final installment of ACC. So here I am. Good to see you show up here as well. Thank you for your faith in me, and I can't wait to see those special shots of yours again.
Originally Posted by Massive_attack
Perhaps a very dull red or brown shade could replace Epirus' green? Its worth experimenting, at any rate.
I'm 1/4 irish by the way Love my ancestors, not crazy about their flag. That could just be the english parts of me though.
Haha. Yeah, I guess those different parts always see things differently, regardless of subject. Almost.
As matter of fact, I'm working on Epirus on exactly those lines. But, I don't share your opinion about green and orange always mixing badly, so this might very well end in me providing an optional theme only for those who're strongly rooted in modern St. Patrick's Day traditions etc. It should be simple enough to edit that part of my mod using PFM.
Originally Posted by McCarronXLD
*Bows down before Demokritos* Let it begin, sir... let it begin.
Haha. Yes, I'm on the modding road again. Who knows where it will end this time? Glad to have you on board for the trip, McCarronXLD.
Originally Posted by Yerevan
So nice to see you here Demokritos. I'm looking forward !
Welcome to the ACR2 thread, Yerevan! Very nice to hear from you, too. Rome 2 presents a greater challenge than Shogun2 to recolour successfully, but I'll try my best not to disappoint you.
Hopefully this new mod of mine is finished by the time CA has patched up the game properly, so that it can be enjoyed to the full.
Guys, as a little return favor for your feedback, here's a second preview of the Arverni, still not from their most colourful side...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Are these serious dudes or not? I believe they are.
Last edited by Demokritos; October 03, 2013 at 11:50 AM.
GNOTHI SEAUTON (Know Thyself) - precept inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece MEDEN AGAN (Nothing To Excess) - another precept inscribed in the aforementioned place
alot of tribes to me arent very aggressive "Look" to me in the game, but it certainly done some improvement on the texture demo! which again i cant wait to try!..
- a tweak if possible( if doesnt effect radious unit mods) only less helmets and more long hair and spiked hair and face paints.
PS I hope you do a good job on the Celtici faction cause they are my favorite faction so far.
alot of tribes to me arent very aggressive "Look" to me in the game, but it certainly done some improvement on the texture demo! which again i cant wait to try!..
- a tweak if possible( if doesnt effect radious unit mods) only less helmets and more long hair and spiked hair and face paints.
PS I hope you do a good job on the Celtici faction cause they are my favorite faction so far.
You mean the Arverni? Yeah, I think they might be my favourite faction so far, too.
Will try some equally serious for the other two "barbarian" factions.
Originally Posted by McCarronXLD
Can't wait! Looking great. I do worry though that the blue on Pontus might be too bright.
Already felt the itch regarding that blue for the eastern units of Pontus. Will address it with "special units" somehow.
Got a new faction for display in the OP.
Last edited by Demokritos; October 04, 2013 at 05:19 AM.
GNOTHI SEAUTON (Know Thyself) - precept inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece MEDEN AGAN (Nothing To Excess) - another precept inscribed in the aforementioned place