Ancient Conquest v1.0 Full Release

[Samar]

** ANCIENT CONQUEST v1.0 **
(No Real-time Battles)

Introduction:
"Ancient Conquest" is a 'Medieval II Total War' modification, which is set in the Classical Antiquity, in 395 BC, an era in which Greeks and Persians, Phoenicians and Egyptians, Barbarians and Etruscans, all struggle and clash in brutal wars that shake the very foundations of the Ancient World.
The Map spans from the mighty Alps to the vast Arabian Dunes, supporting 16 unique factions and 117 regions. The mod is a complete overhaul, which means that it has new units, new buildings, new models, and pretty much everything has been changed to fit the Ancient time-frame. Despite all the changes however, it still stays faithful to the Vanilla, with only minor changes in scripts and mechanics. This makes the mod almost completely bug-free, which is vital for a smooth Hotseat experience. If someone has grown tired of the Medieval II' map and factions, and wants to play the same game but in another time-frame, then this is the mod for them.
This mod is designed solely for Campaign playing, with a lot of attention given to the map, the models and the ui. It does NOT support real-time battles, which means that you can ONLY auto-resolve your battles. It does however support Hotseat Campaigns, and that’s where the mod truly comes to its full potential. Tested by experienced Hotseat players, bug-free and balanced, this mod guarantees an epic Hotseat experience.


Historical Setting:
Ancient Conquest is set in 395 BC, in the dawning of the so-called Corinthian War in which Athens, all but subdued after the brutal Peloponnesian War, rebels against mighty Sparta with the help of Thebes, Corinth and Persia. A rebellion orchestrated by the cunning Satrap of Lydia, Tissaphernes, who, unable to halt the Spartan King and his mighty host in Ionia, chooses a smarter course of action. In the meantime the Kingdom of Macedonia, only 30 years before the arrival of Phillip the II, tries to find its feet but buckles under the repeated raids of Thracians and Illyrians, who, under the rule of charismatic leaders, have created mighty kingdoms from which they descend upon the south.
So war ravages the Greek world. But this maelstrom of war knows no boundaries. In the east, the Persian Empire, battered after a bloody power struggle between the two sons of Darius, finds again its footing. With blood and vengeance on his mind, the new Great King, Artaxerxes, is now ready to punish the traitors and destroy the rebels. But these ‘rebels’ will not go down easily, for Egypt, after centuries of servitude, is once again free of Persian rule, with Pharaohs ruling once again the blessed lands of the Nile.
Even the distant shores of the West however, cannot escape the chaos. The mythic island of Sicily, trembles under yet another brutal war between the city of Syracuse and mighty Carthage, while at the same time, Rome makes its first tiny steps towards world domination by capturing its great enemy, the city of Veii. The Etruscans, now in a course of steady decline, have to face the warlike Gauls who cross the Alps by the thousands and descend upon the civilized south, and all this while a new danger arises in the distant Saharan desert.
Total War, in a nutshell.

Playable Factions: Sparta, Athens, Syracuse, Macedonia, Rome, Illyria, Thrace, Carthage, Sarmatians, Berbers, Satrapy of Lydia, Carthage, Egypt, Etruscans, Gaul, Satrapy of Cilicia, Satrapy of Syria.
Not-playable: Persia, Thebes, Rhodes, Tarantas


Screenshots:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Download Links:

DepositFiles: http://dfiles.eu/files/j67t1mpeh?redirect

MEGA: https://mega.nz/#!XNZnQJaD!UdWMhQ7_W...4Z3wxIH2vsieJI (Thanks to Vipman)

The setup's size is around 250mb. The size of the mod around 950mb.


‘Designer’s’ Note:
This mod started off as a personal, fun-made project, its only goal being to entertain my friends and allow us to host a Hotseat game in a different setting. However as time passed and I put more and more effort in this mod, I figured that other people might enjoy it as well, so I decided to ‘release it’ officially.
However, I was completely inexperienced and alone, and so in order to finish this project I needed to borrow from the work of other mods and artists. To support real-time battles was out of the question, as it would take many more years to achieve it, and quite frankly I was always more into the campaign map. The campaign map of Medieval II is still interesting after all these years, while the battles, meh, you might as well go and play Rome II .
Here, I should say that both the inspiration for this mod and the constant support and testing was provided by my beloved Hawtseat team. This is a team of around 20 people, all dear friends, with whom I’ve been playing massive Hotseat games for almost 3 years. We’ve played Hotseats in Retrofit, in Westeros and in custom mods; we’ve tested AC and are currently playing a new grand Hotseat in the public version of the mod.
Here are some videos that we’ve created for some of these campaigns (more to come):
17 Players Campaign (Retrofit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Gkr4IYSRc
12 Players Campaign (Retrofit) – older: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6g7yH9nEgE


Credits:
As I’ve previously stated, none of this could’ve been possible in the first place, if it hadn’t been for the generous support of some of the greatest modders and artists on these forums. This mod also owes its existence to the amazing Total War Center forums and its members, who stood by me in every step of the modding process. So here are the credits:

Mods that I used content from:
De Bello Mundi: many 3d strat models.
Diadochi Total War (RedFox, Maraxus, unDa): Unit cards.
Peninsula Italica: Unit cards, few UI tgas and some 3d models.
Extended Cultures: Unit cards.
Europa Barbarorum: Unit cards.

Artists whose models I used:
Riczu74
Davide.Cool


Permissions:
All the content that is created by me (Samar) is free to use in any way. Credits are always welcome. The content from De Bello Mundi is also free to use (amazing mod, go over there and see for yourselves), as is the work of Davide.Cool and Riczu74. (Give them credit where it’s due.)
If you want to use any content that belongs to the other mods (Peninsula Italica, Diadochi, EB, Extended Cultures) you should ask directly permission from their creators. If you want to use any of the unit cards (both unit_info and #unit) you should pm me first, because there is a good chance that it belongs to one of the above mods.

Note: It’s very hard to keep track of everything when you’re working alone, which means there might be some mistakes in the credits. Please pm me here and I’ll edit it immediately.

[Ciciro]

Waaaaaat.

[Warcrafthero]

Impressive!

[Vipman]

It looks great, can't wait to try it out! Hopefully it'll be a good mod to revive the TWC HS community, if you balanced the factions unit rosters and economy it will be awesome

[Macrath]

A Torrent download? Already on the right track. If this is good you better believe i will be seeding this for a long time to come..Also probably host a bunch of HS with it, depending on how the DBM HotSeats turn out of course.

Looks Great, many thnx +rep to the developers. Downloading now, will play when i get home later tonite

[Ashton]

Καλή δουλειά φίλε μου! Nice work my friend!

[Fernandez_1492]

Downloading...

[ultimateteam6]

Eddies!!!!

[ultimateteam6]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ew-Mod-Hotseat

[Vipman]

The mod is great, simple but perfect!

Can I ask why some factions (besides Persian empire) are unplayable? At least Thebes seems well done.

[Samar]

Thanks for the warm reception!!
I made Thebes, Rhodes and Tarantas unplayable because they are not meant for Hotseat games. I've not taken them into consideration for the balance of a HS game, they are just eye candy. However if someone wants to play with them for fun, he can just make them playable through descr_strat and try them out, they have all the units/buildings/agents etc.

[Vipman]

I see, thank you for the answer It's good to know they can be played if willing.

By any chance did you test how the secondary hit points behave in autoresolve? I guess not since unit stats are not designed for played battles in the first place.

And I guess neither with the separation_missile_add or adding new kingdoms settings in descr_campaign_db about autoresolve, like these, that take into account settlement defenses.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

      <sally_att_def_draw_divisor float="2.0"/>				<!-- sally battles are a draw if attacker lost and (number of attacker troops) > (number of defender troops)/divisor -->
      <use_new_sett_autoresolve bool="true"/>				<!-- do we use the new settlement autoresolve -->
      <switchable_defence_exposed bool="false"/>				<!-- can unit switch exposed state during autoresolve -->
      <gate_defence_num_oil_attacks int="3"/>				<!-- number of gate oil attacks -->
      <gate_defence_strength_oil_base float="8.0"/>			<!-- gate oil attack strength -->
      <gate_defence_strength_oil_level_modifier float="0.0"/>		<!-- gate oil attack strength += modifier * oil_level -->
      <gate_defence_num_arrow_attacks int="2"/>				<!-- number of gate arrow attacks -->
      <gate_defence_strength_arrow_base float="2.0"/>			<!-- gate arrow attack strength -->
      <gate_defence_strength_arrow_level_modifier float="2.0"/>		<!-- gate arrow attack strength += modifier * arrow_level -->
      <gate_defence_num_default_attacks int="2"/>			<!-- number of gate generic advantage attacks -->
      <gate_defence_strength_default_base float="1.0"/>			<!-- gate generic advantage attack strength -->
      <gate_defence_strength_default_level_modifier float="1.0"/>	<!-- gate advantage attack strength += modifier * fortification_level -->
      <sett_defence_num_arrow_attacks int="2"/>				<!-- number of settlement arrow attacks -->
      <sett_defence_strength_arrow_base float="2.0"/>			<!-- settlement arrow attack strength -->
      <sett_defence_strength_arrow_level_modifier float="2.0"/>		<!-- sett arrow attack strength += modifier * arrow_level -->
      <sett_defence_num_default_attacks int="0"/>			<!-- number of sett generic advantage attacks -->
      <sett_defence_strength_default_base float="1.0"/>			<!-- sett generic advantage attack strength -->
      <sett_defence_strength_default_level_modifier float="1.0"/>	<!-- sett advantage attack strength += modifier * fortification_level -->
      <display_strength_oil float="1000"/>					<!-- additional effective army strength for defending residence with oil -->
      <display_strength_arrow float="1000"/>				<!-- additional effective army strength for defending residence with arrows -->
      <display_strength_default float="500"/>				<!-- additional effective army strength for defending residence with fortification levels -->

[Vipman]

By any chance are you planning to expand the campaign / add new faction like Dacia/Getae ?

[Samar]

I don't think I have the courage to work any further on this mod for now :/ Maybe in the future, but as of now I kinda look forward for other projects.
However, I've given permission, and I encourage anyone who is willing, to take this mod and take it a step further. To create a new faction, add in the battles, balance it out etc. The mod now belongs to the community
Personally, if I was to change anything (apart from the autoresolve balances that you brought to light ), I would expand the map to the east. Maybe add a few more satrapies, Susa, Persepolis, Babylon . Or to the west all the way to Iberia. If someone wanted to start such an expansion or any alteration in general I would give him my full support

[Vipman]

I see, well maybe someday I'll make a submod, not sure if to add factions, maybe just better balance of economy, buildings, unit autoresolve or new regions.

So you made the mod all by yourself? Wow, it really is something

BTW, look what I happened to stumble upon http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12858626

There's something with this descr_campaign_db file I should have asked what mod you were working on, but I had no idea what would become of this "small" mod

[Samar]

Hahahaha I would still be searching for that line

Yeh, I've been working alone, thanks a lot ! I used a lot from other mods though so it kinda balances it out.

[the man, the myth, the legend]

Awe man, finally mod with Philip AND Alexander. Thanks for this.

edit: OK so I didn't read the whole OP, are the units just renamed vanilla Med2 with vanilla stats? If I were to say, just reskin all the units would I be able to play the battles?

[Samar]

Yep, all the units are just vanilla models with new stats and icons.

[Hoplite of Ilis]

0==D::::::::>

[adutrix111]

When we can expect real time battles?