New Promotional Map Preview

[ABH2]

Thanks to Saffron, we have a new and prettier preview map to show the starting positions of factions for 202 BC. This one features some corrections to the old one, factions who are hordes are better indicated, some new factions have been added etc. Hopefully people will like this one a bit more.

[Petellius]

Looks damn good

[ipwnu678]

Mmmmm very nice

[Spadde]

really pretty, nice one

[rem123456]

Looks great but I have noticed that there are two factions called boii with different faction symbols, one north of Rome and the other to the north-east.

[zombieflanders]

Looks great but I have noticed that there are two factions called boii with different faction symbols, one north of Rome and the other to the north-east.

There's also two Veneti factions, although technically that's historically accurate.

To the modders: Any ideas for what the final choices for cities will be? I noted in the latest video preview the Attila names are still in place. Also, will the territory in the far northeast be desolate at the start?

[Totalknight]

Sweet holyness!! Sigh... Mod so .... Far ... Away

[Anibal at portas]

i think the kingdom of pontus was important at this time and the territory of trapezos must be integrated into pontus at the start of the campaign,historically is correct,with historic objectives to win the campaign,the conquest of adjacent territories to the black sea including crimea peninsula.
i think that all factions must have historical objectives to give realism and immersion to the campaign.

[ABH2]

Pontus at this time was still completely insignificant. This is 202BC. No one knows when Trapezos came under the control of Pontus - only that it was a port of the Pontic fleet under Mithridates VI. I've seen its conquest ascribed to both Pharnaces (whose reign is after 202 BC) and Mithridates himself. If you can find a hard date, I have no problem giving them the territory. If you look at your map, you'll see a settlement called Pharnaceia established by Pharnaces after whom it is obviously named. The town of Cotyora was a colony of Sinope as was Cerasus (nearest to Trapezos). There conquest is attributed to Pharnaces's war with Sinope. Which would explain the founding of Pharnaceia.

According to this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=3y...rnaces&f=false

Trapezos was part of Armenia Minor at the time, and submitted to Pharnaces, regained its independence, and then resubmitted to Mithridates. I don't know the source for that.

If anything, Trapezos should perhaps represent Armenia Minor rather than be independent.

[The Wandering Storyteller]

Love the way the map has been built, and its going to look very good indeed

[Totalknight]

Although I like this has more settlements, I still see large areas that could be broken up within the provinces but, they don't have tools to modify the map yet...,

[Petellius]

Cities will eventually be renamed, maybe not at release though.

[zombieflanders]

Cities will eventually be renamed, maybe not at release though.

So I had some free time this weekend, and decided to take a crack at a list of my own. For the most part, the cities in Attila either don't need name changes, or line up pretty well with predecessors or nearby settlements. Some good examples of the latter are Constantina (Kirthan/Tzirta), Ctesiphon (Seleucia), Kotais (Aea/Aia), Ptolemais (Cyrene), and Constantia (Salamis). That said, I've run into some issues, and I'm wondering what your preferences are regarding location, ownership, and naming.

For instance, there's a number of factions that won't have ports as they did in R2. Most notable of these are Massilia and the Odrysian Kingdom, because sea trade tends to be one of their notable characteristics, yet Aquae Sextiae and Marcianopolis (Massalia and Odessos, respectively) are land-locked. The reverse is the case for others, such as Pergamon, which was an inland city but would be represented by the port city of Cyzicus. In some other cases, the cities are located far from their Rome 2 counterparts and/or controlled by factions that would be out of place. One example is Chersonessus, which was a city of the Cimmerians (more or less), but is on the other side of the Crimean Peninsula from their capital at Panticapaeum. Another example is Pompaelo, which you have controlled by the Cantabrians on your map. A good geographical match would be Iruna, but that was the capital of the Vascones; a good match for the Cantabrians would be Aracillum, far to the west.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention some stuff that I noticed. I'm still really excited about the mod, even in pre-pre-alpha teases like this.

[surg3on]

Honestly looks like too much for a mod team to handle unless the playable factions subset is much smaller than the mapped factions. You guys are nothing but dedicated though! good luck.

[Willhelm123]

Honestly looks like too much for a mod team to handle unless the playable factions subset is much smaller than the mapped factions. You guys are nothing but dedicated though! good luck.

I think we have the skills to do every part of it. All we need is time.

[ipwnu678]

Honestly looks like too much for a mod team to handle unless the playable factions subset is much smaller than the mapped factions. You guys are nothing but dedicated though! good luck.

I think the playable factions are shown on the map with bigger icons

[Spadde]

what distinguishes the playable factions from the nonplayable factions? Why cant all be playable? Is there alot of work to make a faction playable or is it simply turning a 0 to a 1?

[Petellius]

what distinguishes the playable factions from the nonplayable factions? Why cant all be playable? Is there alot of work to make a faction playable or is it simply turning a 0 to a 1?

Its a lot more work in terms of the extra levels of detail we'd be putting in. Also it takes a bit of work getting it to work in the first place, specially with AE as complex as it is.

[ipwnu678]

There will no doubt be faction unlocker mods when AE is released

[Doomon18]

Wow really cool map, definitely love how its coming along, and the races too are very very vast which is awesome.