Total War: ATTILA - Casus Belli Mod Pack

[Stealth4Health]

Hello guys,

I had been working on a historical unit mod for Total War: ATTILA since its release day. About four months later, in June, when I was about to release the mod, I figured that it had not the quality and extent I wanted to go for. You might remember this thread there: [WIP] Wargamer's Unit Pack

So now with Casus Belli I am starting to redo everything with a completely different approach on things with much more attention to detail. I am not only going to create new models and textures for the most needed dress and equipment but also redo a lot of CA's models and textures to be more accurate. This will of course take a lot more time especially since this is an one-man project. So I came to the decision that I won't let you wait for a couple of years for the complete mod to be finished, but already release little separated unit packs as soon as a group of units is finished. Once all the units are actually finished I will of course also put them together in one complete final mod pack.




The first of those unit packs will be a "Roman Legionarius Unit Pack". It will include a couple of Legio Palatina units, among them the Joviani and Herculiani. If there will be enough time I may also add the Mattiari and some Legio Comitatenses units. Otherwise, I hope to be able to add them later via an update.

This one will be released on March 27th.

If everything goes as planned I hope to be able to release one unit pack each month! I will also show progress on the work once each week on Sunday.

First Week	Second Week	Third Week	Fourth Week
Modelling / Rigging / Animating	Texturing	Converting / DB Work	Graphics / Texts / Testing / Bug Fixing / Balancing

At the end of each week I plan to show progression on the respective work done during the week. This means that I will post screenshots of the 3D models or something like that inside of 3ds Max next Sunday. In two weeks, the materials and textures should be finished so I will be able to show you some renderings of the new assets. On the third week's Sunday I am going to be able to already show you some screenshots of the new units ingame! The last week will be used to create graphics, texts and for testing so I can fix any bugs and balance the unit stats. Sometime after this fourth week I would be able to release the unit pack. I will probably release each mod on the last day of its month.

Again, this is my plan I hope to be able to abide by. I am also quite busy besides this project so I might have to put the previews back a bit sometimes.

The first unit packs will be dedicated to Roman and Byzantine units. Pictish and Scots/Irish unit packs will follow. After that there are going to be unit packs for Frankish, Saxon, Vandal, Visigothic, Ostrogothic and Hunnic armies. For the first version of my complete mod to be finished I will lastly do unit packs for Palmyran, Sassanid and Blemye armies. A second version of the complete mod and therefore second wave of unit packs may lay focus on the Dark Ages from the 7th century onwards. When that is all done I hope to finally do the same for Rome II with units from around 4th century BC up to the start of my Attila units to round it off.
I will start now already with some screenshots of some of the new models I have created for the first unit pack, the "Roman Legionarii Unit Pack":

Spoiler for LEGIONARII: 

3DS MAX SCREENSHOTS (added on 6th of March):

Spoiler for Roman Oval Shield: 

You can see a new roman oval shield. It is quite large and almost flat. You can spot a rack in the inside of the shield. Some small lead weighted throwing darts, called Martiobarbuli or Plumbatae, stabilised by a feathered tail are going to be stored there, in the hollow of the shield. Their model is not completely finished yet so the rack is empty here.

Spoiler for Roman Spatha: 

This is a long bladed Spatha of the Lauriacum-Hromovka type. The website of Armae, a company selling copies of Roman, Greek and other periods' weapons and armours, was a great help here. Without the great reference pictures of their sword, I probably wouldn't have got all the shapes as correctly looking.

Spoiler for Roman Late Spatha: 

Spoiler for Spiculum and Verutum: 

Spoiler for Augst Helmet: 

In two weeks those and other models should be all textured. This means I will post some high definition renderings here on Sunday, 13th of March.
I am very happy now to have the thread of my first serious larger mod project I have thought of for so long posted here! I hope you will like and look forward to the previews and the releases of the unit packs! I appreciate any comments about the project and I am looking forward to what you guys will think about it.

PHYSICAL BASED RENDERINGS (added on 13th of March):

Spoiler for Roman Spatha: 

Spoiler for Roman Late Spatha: 

Spoiler for Roman Oval Shield: 

Spoiler for Roman Martiobarbulus: 

Spoiler for LANCIARII: 

3DS MAX SCREENSHOTS:

Spoiler for Roman Lancea: 

PHYSICAL BASED RENDERINGS:

Spoiler for Roman Lancea: 

INGAME SCREENSHOTS:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

New renderings and screenshots will be added soon and note that many of the models and textures are still work in progress!

Sketchfab Casus Belli Collection

Stealth4Health

[Majorien]

thnigs i link :
- your approach, with care for the community's expectations
- dividing a big overhaul mod in many parts, we can have a taste of it before eternity
- the historical accuracy you want
Good luck with your project !

[Stealth4Health]

thnigs i link :
- your approach, with care for the community's expectations
- dividing a big overhaul mod in many parts, we can have a taste of it before eternity
- the historical accuracy you want
Good luck with your project !

Thanks!


OP updated with screenshots of new 3d models.

[213]

doesn't the game already have roman oval shields?

[Stealth4Health]

doesn't the game already have roman oval shields?

It does have oval shields, but no proper ones.

[Eldgrimr]

This seems great, but integrating this with FotE would be extreme!

[Eldgrimr]

Accidental double post, sorry.

[Stealth4Health]

Physical based renderings added to the OP!

[CROWNROBIN]

Good job! I think you're the first modder who made scabbards and plumbata-carriable shields for Romans in TW:Attila.

Your Ioviani & Herculiani Seniores & Iuniores shield patterns seems wonderful, are you planning to make some 3rd century Roman legionares ?

[robtim92]

Stealth, your stuff is always amazing. Keep up the good work my man

[Stealth4Health]

Due to Substance Painter 2 just being surprisingly released this week I am redoing or refining some of the textures now so the ingame preview has to be delayed. Sorry for that.

Good job! I think you're the first modder who made scabbards and plumbata-carriable shields for Romans in TW:Attila.

Your Ioviani & Herculiani Seniores & Iuniores shield patterns seems wonderful, are you planning to make some 3rd century Roman legionares ?

Thanks! The Plumbatae are just not properly represented in the vanilla game. But the rack in the hollow of the shield won't be the only addition there, I will also create a new Plumbata model and change the way they are thrown. If there is enough time I might create a completely new animation for an underarm throw. Otherwise I could use the javelin throwing animation for an overarm throw, I would just have to reposition the Plumbata so that they will be hold at the very end and make them spin while flying.

Regarding the 3rd century Roman Legionarii, I am really looking forward to doing them but they will be part of my planned Casus Belli version for Rome II, but until I get there it will definitely take some time!

Stealth, your stuff is always amazing. Keep up the good work my man

Thanks a lot, I hope I will!

[CROWNROBIN]

Just take your time, Stealth4Health, your pioneering works are definitely worth the wait！

[Stealth4Health]

Yeah, I have to delay the release of the first unit pack now due to some issues with my 3ds Max. I hope to be able to finish it within the next days though. In the meantime, Happy Easter!

[Stealth4Health]

The Roman Legionarii Unit Mod Pack has now been released on Steam Workshop. There are some bugs currently though, I am working as quickly as possible to fix them! And new units and features will be added soon as well.

[Stealth4Health]

(Today's little preview has to be delayed, due to internet problems. No connection for more than one day now.)

Edit: Screenshots of new models had been added to the OP.

[d35966n]

Hey man, I'm excited to see another attempt at righting the gross historical inaccuracies of Vanilla unit rosters. Specifically the Roman ones...

My biggest qualm with vanilla, and with almost every mod out there is that they seem to ignore the fact that by 400 AD, Roman units used the hasta spear as their primary melee weapon. The spate was of course used, but only once close formation combat gave way to chaotic melee with more room to swing the longer sword.[1,2] So if you're going to making a historical mod, please equip regular Limitanei, Legio Comitatenses, Legio Palatina, and other bread & butter infantry units with a spear. I'm really tired of seeing the (usually worse) Roman spear units dubbed with the lanciarii moniker, while the basic infantry unit of that rank is just "comitatensis" or something like that.

Now, back to lanciarii. This refers word to the lancea, not that hasta with which late (and very early) roman infantry units equipped. The lancea was [most likely] a light spear/javelin that was mainly used for throwing. The lanciarii, then, were probably light infantry, filling the role of the antesignani before them. Other plausible theories include 1) semi-elite, escort, or bodyguard units without a specified role, 2) or just regular units of infantry with a vestigial title (like many other units in the ND) but not not notably different from other roman legit units. Whatever the case, they were clearly not called lanciarii because they carried the hasta spear... that almost all Roman infantrymen used as their primary weapon. [3]




1] https://faculty.nipissingu.ca/muhlberger/ORB/LRA.HTM
2] Elton, Hugh. Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350-425 http://s22.postimg.org/q0kofldfl/Screen_Shot_2016_04_07_at_4_37_39_PM.png
http://s9.postimg.org/p1xfgaufz/Scre...4_40_51_PM.png
3]http://lukeuedasarson.com/Lanciarii.html If you haven't check out his site do so here

[Stealth4Health]

Hey man, I'm excited to see another attempt at righting the gross historical inaccuracies of Vanilla unit rosters. Specifically the Roman ones...

My biggest qualm with vanilla, and with almost every mod out there is that they seem to ignore the fact that by 400 AD, Roman units used the hasta spear as their primary melee weapon. The spate was of course used, but only once close formation combat gave way to chaotic melee with more room to swing the longer sword.[1,2] So if you're going to making a historical mod, please equip regular Limitanei, Legio Comitatenses, Legio Palatina, and other bread & butter infantry units with a spear. I'm really tired of seeing the (usually worse) Roman spear units dubbed with the lanciarii moniker, while the basic infantry unit of that rank is just "comitatensis" or something like that.

Now, back to lanciarii. This refers word to the lancea, not that hasta with which late (and very early) roman infantry units equipped. The lancea was [most likely] a light spear/javelin that was mainly used for throwing. The lanciarii, then, were probably light infantry, filling the role of the antesignani before them. Other plausible theories include 1) semi-elite, escort, or bodyguard units without a specified role, 2) or just regular units of infantry with a vestigial title (like many other units in the ND) but not not notably different from other roman legit units. Whatever the case, they were clearly not called lanciarii because they carried the hasta spear... that almost all Roman infantrymen used as their primary weapon. [3]




1] https://faculty.nipissingu.ca/muhlberger/ORB/LRA.HTM
2] Elton, Hugh. Warfare in Roman Europe, AD 350-425 http://s22.postimg.org/q0kofldfl/Screen_Shot_2016_04_07_at_4_37_39_PM.png
http://s9.postimg.org/p1xfgaufz/Scre...4_40_51_PM.png
3]http://lukeuedasarson.com/Lanciarii.html If you haven't check out his site do so here

Hello d35966n,

thanks for the input,

I will indeed equip all my Lanciarii and Auxilia Palatinae melee units with spears! I have just finished modeling a new Lancea some days ago (New screenshots and renderings in the OP by the way)!
I am aware of the different possible roles of the Lanciarii. In my mod they will definitely be primarily light infantry. And they won't be the only ones carrying spears!
Regarding the Legionarii units, I originally wanted to equip them with Veruta (maybe additionally Spicula, in the case that I'll include some early units) but the game unfortunately only allows the proper use of one missile type per unit. So I decided in favour of the Martiobarbuli. But I might add some Legionarii units using Veruta instead of Martiobarbuli in the future at some point. Otherwise they use their Spathae.

And yes, I know Luke Ueda-Sarson's fantastic Notitia page! It is and has been very helpful! But I as well have a nice copy of the ND lying right next to me on my desk, so you can be sure that the shield patterns won't be a problem!

[Stealth4Health]

New Tunica Manicata WIP:

[LinusLinothorax]

If the time has come I can provide you Nobadian sources, mostly swords and quivers.

[Stealth4Health]

If the time has come I can provide you Nobadian sources, mostly swords and quivers.

Yes, that would be great!