Vae Victis for Attila
Vae Victis is coming to Attila.....
It is with great pleasure to announce that Vae Victis is coming to Attila.
As it stands over 550 new unique units have been ported over to Attila from Rome 2. The first stage is to get the custom battles ready so people can play ancient world battles in Attila with Vae Victis unique units.
Once this has been completed it shall be released and the team will start work on the campaign side. Battle machanics, Vae Victis armour stats, all Vae Victis factions and more but new work will have to be carried out on Attila's additional features.
We are all excited to be able to bring you this news and comes after a long period of work for custom battles so we have something before posting this WIP thread.
Vae Victis Overhaul
Our Vision
Our vision at Vae Victis is to produce the highest quality and most historical total overhaul mod for Total War: Attila. Our driving principle is on historical accuracy and realism and are willing to put in the extra time and effort to develop and get things right the first time.
Our unit rosters are based on historical data. Unit stats are based on historical data and realistic physics. We never do anything without investing the time to make sure that the end result reflects historical reality as much as possible.
This isn't a 'new' mod. It is the porting of the rome 2 mod to Attila to take advantage of the new Attila mechanics available which we hope will offer a completely unique experience from the Rome 2 mod. We are able and capable of benefiting of the previous 2 years worth of research and implementation that we've already done that will allow a smooth workflow and transition to the Attila mod.
Who We Are
The mod thus far is the product of 13 months of hard work by over 40 contributors, not counting the creators of smaller mods that we got permission to integrate into Vae Victis. We come with diverse backgrounds from all over the world, united by our love of history. Made up of researchers, modellers, textures, database editors and more the bringing together of these varied skills has resulted in on of the best mods for Rome 2 and hope to translate that to Attila.
Faction Roster Overhauls
We are determined to give equal attention to every faction great and small. We also have very high historical standards, so researching all 115 factions is a time consuming task. We build each roster from scratch; no vanilla unit will survive. To date we have created historical rosters for 44 of those 115 playable factions plus the Achaean League, which exists only as a rebel faction and in custom and multiplayer battles. Even that rebel faction got the same detailed attention as everyone, with a new faction specific shield model and unique textures.
Battle Mechanic Overhauls
Unit Stats
We chose to throw out all vanilla units and build our own unit creation system from the ground up. We documented as much information as we could
about each historical soldier, from the equipment he carried to his age, socio-economic background and training level to the cultural background that
also impacted the way he went to war. We then use all these data points to create all the stats for each unit. Unit costs and upkeep are based on detailed
historical data as well with each piece of equipment having its own cost and upkeep.
Unit Visuals
When creating the visual look of units, we rely as much as possible on archeological depictions married with descriptions from historical texts. We also
try to give an equal level attention to all factions and all units and are not afraid to take our sweet time to get things right. We have several modellers
churning out new models for weapons and shields and helmets and more so that the final product will reflect the historical depictions better.
We have over 200 unique hoplite shield textures (and need more for the Anatolian factions) and 170 shield patterns for the Germanics. We don’t cut
corners when it comes to getting the historical look right, though it does take a lot of manpower to do this and our demand for textures is always greater
than the ability of our team to supply them.
Battle Changes
We have worked hard to make battles flow as realistically as possible. Every aspect from morale to fatigue to terrain to weather effects has been
overhauled. Tactics like flanking have a huge impact and keeping your troops fresh is harder but important. Your general is more important too, and
if you kill the enemy general take advantage of his death quickly because the penalty to enemy morale is not permanent anymore. Troops tire faster
so walk, don't run, to your next battle if you want to keep maximum advantage.
Experience
High levels of experience are harder to come by in Vae Victis, but they are also quite valuable. We have modded in several factors that impact how
fast different units gain levels of experience. In the long run, very few units will be recruited with experience except for units like veteran legionaries.
For the most part, it will be up to you to keep your units alive and in one piece if you want them to become hardy veterans.
Formations and Unit Spacing
We overhauled each of the formations to better reflect the historical use of each formation. This means, for example, that it is unwise to turn on hoplite
formation while hoplites are engaged in melee combat. They get a huge negative to attack and defense for a duration when forming up. Use formations
wisely and they are quite powerful however.
We are also planning a more complete overhaul of unit spacing, but we want to do it right and as such have to finish putting together all the data on
how much room a soldier needs to swing a sword versus a spearman to wield a spear etc. We don’t just want it to look good and feel natural, but to
be realistic.
Naval Overhaul
While we have not had the resources to create new naval units from scratch, we did do an overhaul for naval battles. We researched the speed, mass
and durability of ancient ships and used that to create a naval combat system where transports do not stand a chance against triremes, which means
that building a navy and fighting naval battles is important and hopefully fun.
Campaign Mechanics Overhauls
Campaign Map
We take our history seriously, and as we have been doing the research needed to overhaul faction rosters we kept our eyes peeled to see what factions
actually controlled each region in 272 BC. The result is that our Seleucid Empire starts off much stronger, as do Rome, Egypt and Carthage. We added
an entirely new faction in Greece, the Aetolian League. The campaign map will undergo more refinement as our research continues.
Recruitment
In Vae Victis, we want to make historical armies available to you, and we want recruitment to have historical limits. This means several things. First,
your faction’s native units will only be available for recruitment in your home province. Roman legions were recruited in Italy and then marched off to
the frontier. Second, we want to make historical mercenaries available to you to fill out your armies. A Spartan army’s backbone is it’s native heavy
infantry, but historically they went to war supported by mercenary troops such as Thracian peltasts, Kretan archers and Rhodian slingers. Our
mercenary overhaul is still off in the future and you can expect mercenary costs to come down quite a bit.
In addition, in any territory you conquer there will be troops native to that region available for hire. Just as Alexander the Great filled his army with
Anatolians and other eastern troops, you will be able to build a grand coalition as you conquer the world. Rome of course has its historical socii and
auxiliary system filled with all the historical units we could find that fit the period.
Seasons Overhaul
In Vae Victis we have developed a complex system in which sixteen economic and military effects on the campaign map are affected by the current season
and weather, and by the climate and terrain of each region. Agricultural income is not flat, but goes up in autumn and down in winter. Winter has many
negative effects, from increased recruitment costs and increased upkeep costs while in enemy territory to negative replenishment rates, desertion and
negatives to morale.
AI Army Composition
We will work to get the AI to recruit more historical armies based on the army compositions of ancient battles.
Garrisons
Historically regions were defended by more than just campaign armies, and conquering cities and regions was hard work. Our garrisons are larger
than vanilla to represent this, and eventually we plan to come back and create custom garrisons for every faction.
Army Stances
Though we were the first to get creative with army stances, what we have in the mod right now is merely a placeholder. We eventually hope to create
unique stances that are historical and provide tactical options for every culture in the game. In the meantime, Roman, Greek and barbarian armies
already each play differently.
Politics Overhaul
The politics overhaul is also a work in progress. For now, there are already several different historical political paths in the mod. Which you use depends
on the government and culture of the faction you choose to play. In time every unique culture will get its own political progression ladder with unique
effects that are, you guessed it, based on history. Work on the politics overhaul is well underway, but in the meantime Magnar's beta release of this feature
is available as a separate and compatible mod on the Steam Workshop.
Agent Overhaul (future)
We have tweaked agents to keep them from ruining gameplay via action spam, but in the long run we plan to overhaul everything about them from the
ground up.
Building Overhaul (future)
You may have noticed that we have barely touched buildings, and the reason is that we have plans to get rid of all vanilla buildings and replace them
with an entirely new set of buildings. We want our buildings to represent historical economic and cultural development, with unique building sets for
every subculture. This is a major project on par with the unit overhaul we did, but when we get around to it be assured we’ll do it right.
Technology Overhaul (future)
The technology trees will also be replaced some day. There is no historical basis for technologies that make men run faster (ancient steroids or gene
therapy?), but there is plenty of legitimate technology to be researched that is historical.
FAQ
If you have more questions about Vae Victis, what we’ve done or where we’re going, ask us and we'll start building an FAQ thread.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Linke
with such a comment but...doesn't the 272BC start date get boring to you? Surely AT LEAST moving forward to the Rome 1 start date would be better. Obviously this will have more features than the Rome 2 campaign but it remains the same scenario.
