[三国上] Rise of Three Kingdoms - Official Mod Preview

[Arjan13]

Hi Guys! I got back on this mod to enjoy a campaign ! I am so glad you have brought back the old custom portraits for the majority of the Characters. Good job!

[Seether]

Greetings once again, everyone!

I need to start off by stating that this, with pretty much 99% certainty, will be the last update for Rise of Three Kingdoms. I said something similar years ago, but the mod is now leaps and bounds more complete, stable, and comprehensive than at any other point in it's development. I also had lofty ambitions and a mountain of ideas in regard to how I wanted to Three Kingdoms game to look and play, so there was always a never ending list of improvements to make, bugs to correct, and content to add. After 10 years and putting thousands of hours of time into the mod, I feel confident that it is something I can call complete. While there is still that 1% chance of a patch in the future (thanks to my OCD), it wouldn't be anything more than fixing any outstanding bugs and minor fixes. So, with that said, here is an image of the Wolves of the Frontier, as I had recently fixed the pattern and color of their horse barding.

Now, let's get into the real content of this article: the v5.6 Update contents.

One of the first major additions to the mod, is the inclusion of the Guandong Coalition. While the 190 campaign is much more sandbox than the 194 campaign, it was always a point for me to include the Guandong Coalition, being that it is one of the most well-known events in Three Kingdoms history and lore. How the event works is at the start of the second turn in the 190 campaign, if you are playing as one of the select group of factions historically involved in the Guandong Coalition, you will get an event to join or decline the coalition. Outside of the historical participants, others who either declined or were asked to join (Tao Qian, Liu Yu, & Gongsun Zan) are given the event if controlled by the player. Those who had no role in the coalition (Liu Yan, Lu Kang, the Heishan, etc.) will just be given a notice of the coalition's formation and will not be given the event to join. If you accept joining, your faction leader will be given a special trait and you will declare war on Dong Zhuo along with the other participants. If you decline, you will receive a significant amount of money and greatly improved relations with Dong Zhuo. The coalition members do not becomes allies because Medieval II's alliance mechanics cannot represent the historical dynamic between the coalition members and also, if a large group of factions in the same region were all allied, it would seriously throw off the balance of the game and result in a whole lot of inaction. In addition to all this, an event was created to notify the player when Dong Zhuo is killed. While it doesn't affect the game per se, it is a very good RP element and something I believe most characters would be interested in knowing about when it happens. Below you can see a screenshot of the initial Guandong Coalition event, followed by the notice of Dong Zhuo sleeping with the fishes.

Unlike pretty much all previous updates, this one does not have a lot of pronounced new content, like the above Guandong Coalition event or new units or an overhaul of the campaign map. While there is quite a bit of minor new content, most of the update involves bug-fixing, overall polishing, tying up loose ends, and filling in any of the gaps that were missing in content. One such gap that was filled was experience gains and penalties for Acumen and Benevolence, most as a result of a character being a city governor. Essentially a system of scaling experience (lower trait level receives more experience) was created for city governors in regard to what they do with the city and how they manage it, which affects both Acumen and Benevolence. The system is designed so that any trait gains will be seen over the long term and are more visible to characters who have the room to improve. So a character with 3 Acumen could bump it up to 6 over the course of 10 years or so, while a character that has 6 Acumen may only see it improve by 1 or not at all. Also, Benevolence will take a relatively major hit (again, scaling) if a character exterminates a settlement after capturing it. Another piece of this update is the significant expansion of names for captains and agents (merchants, diplomats, etc.). Previously, if a faction was a hereditary one (Liu Clan, Cao Clan, etc.) then every character would have the exact same surname. So if playing as Cao Cao, every captain and agent would have the Cao surname, which is a bit immersion breaking to see all of a faction's characters have the same surname. Now, however, captains and agents will take their names from a pool of nearly 6,000 names, while family members will still almost always use the respective clan's surname. As an example of this, below you can see several captains and agents with a wide variety in their naming.

As I mentioned before, the changes for this update are fairly extensive, and far too much to explain here, so please check out the complete changelog on the update's download page for a full list of changes.

The Version 5.6 (Guandong) Update can be downloaded here and has instructions on how to properly install the patch (point installer at Medieval II Total War folder).

IMPORTANT NOTE: You must have the Rise of Three Kingdoms v4.5 Full Release installed prior to installing this update. This update is NOT save-game compatible (will break saves).

Happy gaming!

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

Awesome, this was always among the more polished mods and it just got better. Worthy of a front page or section announcement imo if you want to poke Content for that.

[Seether]

Awesome, this was always among the more polished mods and it just got better. Worthy of a front page or section announcement imo if you want to poke Content for that.

Good idea. I’ll bug them about it in the next few days

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

(After mentioning it to Gig,) I gave this a signal boost as it's been roughly a month and might not be well known: here

Happy to make any modification if desired, just shoot a message.

[Seether]

Thanks for that! It slipped my mind and then I got caught up making a Hotfix. But I appreciate it very much!

[Seether]

Greeting once again, everyone.

As was stated a few times over the past several month, now that the mod has finished development, we are releasing a simple, all-in-one full installation of Rise of Three Kingdoms. So no more multiple downloads and installs to get the latest version. In addition to this, Gigantus and myself spent about a week not only cleaning up any last remaining bugs, but also removing all of the obsolete and unneeded content that had accumulated over the 10 years of the mod's development. So now the size of the mod is significantly leaner as well many files, scripts, and text entries having been tidied up. Not only that, but there were several new additions and fixes added to the mod for this final version. First, and most noticeable, is the addition of six new Han light infantry units. These six units are Axe (yue and shouji), Spear (mao), Glaive (pudao), Sword-Staff (sha), Great-Sword (dadao), and Great-Axe (fu) Infantry. The reason for their introduction is three-fold: first, I felt as though there needed to be a bit more unit variation, particularly at the light unit level. Second, I wanted to represent some different types of weapons that were used in the Jian'an and early Three Kingdoms period, but later fell out of usage. And, third, I also wanted to show a, over time, a clear progression to more focused army compositions, arms, and armaments amongst standing Three Kingdoms armies. Each region will have access to two of the new units, with each unit also only being available in two regions. For example, the Zhongyuan region will have the Axe and Spear units, the Jiangdong region the Axe and Great-Sword units, and the Ba-Shu region the Sword-staff and Glaive units. Below you can see images of the new Axe, Sword-Staff, and Glaive Infantry units, along with an explanation of the new weaponry that they wield.

A military axe, the 'yue' was a common weapon in ancient times, but it fell out of use in favor of more refined weapons. By the Three Kingdoms period, it was more associated with tribal warriors. However, it still had its obvious uses as a tool and was, at times, utilized on the battlefield. Ceremonial jade yue were part of court regalia and often issued as a symbol of supreme military authority. The 'shouji', or hand-halberd, was the curved blade and spear of the 'ji', but attached to a short, hand-held section as opposed to something the length of a polearm. While not commonly used, it was a versatile weapon in close quarters. Cao Pi was proficient in the use of the shouji, and paired shouji were Dian Wei’s favored weapons.ed to notify the player when Dong Zhuo is killed. While it doesn't affect the game per se, it is a very good RP element and something I believe most characters would be interested in knowing about when it happens. Below you can see a screenshot of the initial Guandong Coalition event, followed by the notice of Dong Zhuo sleeping with the fishes.

The 'sha', or sword-staff, was a long sword-like blade attached to the end of a long pole, with small metal pegs at the base of the blade serving as handguards. The 'sha' was one of the five main weapons of the Han Dynasty military. It was a powerful polearm with formidable thrusting power, as well as lethal cutting ability. The handguard not only protected the users hand, but could also be used to bind to the opponent's weapon. As a lengthy weapon, and due to it's construction, it was effective against infantry as well as cavalry.

The feasome 'pudao', or glaive, was a weapon that was effective in fighting against those on foot and horseback. The pudao was a large variant of the dao, with the pudao having a handle that was at least twice as long as the blade. The design was intended to let the wielder strike an enemy from a distance and it was also effective for fighting men on horseback. The 'yanyuedao' of the Song dynasty - sometimes called the 'guandao', because Guan Yu wields one in the Sanguo Yanyi - was essentially identical to the pudao, though slightly longer and heavier.

In addition to the inclusion of the new Han light units, there were also many other changes and fixes to this final version. For example, in the Liu Bei missions, once you have completed the mission to defeat the Nanman, Meng Huo will join your faction; a new event, which shows up around turn 4, gives an explanation on the Unaligned Forces and their role in the mod; Gukcheon, Gye-su, and Balgi are now rebel generals in the three eastern Korean settlements in the 190 campaign; the Chaisang/Yuzhang/Poyang mutual commandery borders and the Jiuzhen/Cangwu/Yulin/Hepu mutual commandery borders were all adjusted; and bonuses for the Military Strategist, Huoyi, and Water Element shrines were all updated. There are many more fixes and improvement, all of which can be found in the mod's changelog.

As this full install removes quit a bit of unused and obsolete content that has accumulated over the years, you will need to delete any previous installation of the mod - to do so, navigate to your Medieval II Total War\mods\ directory and delete the rotk folder. The Version 6.0 Full Release can be downloaded here and has thorough instructions on how to properly install this all-in-one, definitive iteration of the mod. Please read the installation instructions carefully as, even though this installation process is super simple, you can mess it up if you fail at due diligence.

Happy gaming!

[Fahnat]

Amazing stuff!
So cool to have watched it since version 1.0
Thanks for creating this mod.

By the way this will not daunt me! I shall make my Wu Hu update again!

[Seether]

The new v6.1 Update has been release. Fixes all of the issues/bugs found in the v6.0 Full Release and adds some other minor content. Check out the changelog for more info.

[Seether]

Greetings once again, everyone.

As had been stated previously by me, version 6.0 (and the subsequent v6.1 update) was fully intended to be the very end of the mod's development cycle and I was totally content with where the mod stood in terms of it's finalized content. In fact, I had rather been enjoying not actively modding anymore, as well as all of the free time I now found myself with. However, with the discovery of a game-breaking bug in the v6.1 Update, I couldn't just let such linger and felt it my obligation to have an official patch to clean up the issue. But while the bug fix itself was easy and small, I decided to put together some more meaningful content for a proper update to the mod. The more I started digging around, the more things I found that could be fixed, cleaned up, polished, or overhauled. In no time at all, me wanting to produce a "meaty" update became a much more in-depth and extensive project than I had originally intended. And so, here we are with the new v6.2 Update.

Throughout the entirety of the mod's existence, there has only been one "culture" amongst all of the factions. Culture is a technical term for Medieval II Total War, specifically regarding the varying of UI elements, portraits, look of settlements on the campaign map, and settlement battle maps for factions of different cultures. For this update I decided to create entirely new cultures, so that the different cultures can have unique-looking settlements on the campaign map. Specifically there is the Korean (Goguryeo), Hundred Yue (Nanman), Mountain Yue (Shanyue), and Hu (Xianbei) in the 194 campaign, and the Qiang (Liangzhou) in the 190 campaign. There are not different UI elements for each culture (because that type of 2D art is not my forte) and there is also not different battle maps for each new cultures' settlements (that is too huge of a project at the moment); all cultures will still use the default Chinese battle maps. With that said, here is a progression of the new Hundred Yue settlements from (L to R) town to huge city and following that is an example of the new huge city model for the Han Chinese.

Along with the major changes in campaign settlements and culture, we were also fortunate to be given use of the incredibly awesome trees from the yet-to-be-released 'Princes, Kings and Heroes' mod by makanyane and wilddog. While there is a wide-variety of trees available, many were not suitable for the climates or biomes that this mod covers, and so only specific trees from PKH were selected for our climates, making modifications and changes where needed or necessary. Their work is truly amazing and the trees they produced are indescribably better than anything else that has ever been produced by the M2TW modding community. Honestly, words cannot do justice to the brilliance of mak and wilddog's work, so a screenshot is definitely needed to display their work. For an example of this, below is an image of our existing city-size Han Chinese settlement (with fixed wall textures) nestled up to a small patch of autumn forest, then a screenshot of the deciduous forests of western Jing meeting the tropical jungles of northern Nanzhong in the winter-time months.

While the changes to the campaign map are perhaps the biggest and most obvious, there is a fairly large list of fixes, adjustments, and changes for this update. One of the more tedious was completely overhauling 'heat fatigue' ratings and ground type combat bonuses for all units, so that now units from the north and south of China will have advantages and disadvantages in both the terrain and climate they fight in. Just one example is that northern troops will suffer extra fatigue in the south, while southern units will have combat penalties in the snow. Along with those changes to the battlefield, nearly every terrain texture on the battlefield have been updated, along with the inclusion of new voices for over 30 heroes when selecting their unit in battle. There was also some improvements to the models of a few units, namely the bodyguards and light-tier units of the Shi Clan (Nanyue), giving them improved uniformity and quality matching those of other factions, as well as some minor improvements to the Xiliang Cavalry and Energetic Tiger unique units. As I mentioned before, the changes for this update are fairly extensive, and far too much to explain here, so please check out the complete changelog on the update's download page for a full list of changes. And with that, here is a screenshot of the improved Xiliang Cavalry as they charge into battle.

The Version 6.2 (Huangchu) Update can be downloaded here and has instructions on how to properly install the patch (point installer at Medieval II Total War folder).

IMPORTANT NOTE: You must have the Rise of Three Kingdoms v6.0 Full Release installed prior to installing this update. This update is NOT save-game compatible (will break saves).

Happy gaming!