Res Gestae

[dvk901]

I've been looking at the Res Gestae Romans that were released with the small mod a while back, and after I shoved my eyeballs back in my head and stopped slobbing all over, all I could say was 'OMG!' If the rest of these units are half as good as these Romans are, Roma Surrectum will be on FIRE when you download version 2.0!!

I don't know what I was looking at when I made the first assessment of whether to merge with 'Res Gestae', but I surely was looking at the wrong skins. 'Ultor' told me these units were historically accurate and astounding, and he wasn't kidding. Best get a better video card, because these things will melt anything I've got....

I can't believe the good fortune of this mod to be able to gain these works of art from Res Gestae, and I think they will fit into the multi-Legion scheme like a glove.

It will take some time though, 'cause I'll have to tear this mod apart unit-wise to include all the new units. Ultor told me ALL the units of Res Gestae are NEW units, so there will be a ton of changes. But that's for 2.0

[tone]

This is amazing news, although it'd be hard to beat some of the existing RS skins - see the screenshots and loading screens thread.

@DVK: BTW if you're still using a computer with an AGP graphics card, the one I recently got is great and runs on all max settings -it's a BFG Geforce 7600GS with 512MB RAM - it's slightly overclocked out of the box, is quiet and comes with a lifetime warranty.

[cherryfunk]

Yes, the RG skins are amazing, and not just the Romans. The Mauryans are unlike anything I've seen in any other mod, especially those beautiful painted elephants:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=49911

But I think my favorite might be their Seleucids, check out the fantastic use of color on shields, headresses etc.:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=49910

[tone]

I agree, fantastic skins on all those factions - love the Seleucid scythed chariots, the Syrian elephants and the kataphractoi - and the Mauryans of course. Really can't wait to see this happen.

Though there are a number of units in RS that I prefer compared to their counterparts in Res Gestae - the Belgians:

and the Sarmatian horse archers for example:

[dvk901]

Well, let's keep a record here of the one's that already in RS we'd like saved. As I've said before, the Res Gestae skins will be used alongside any we want to keep. And as far as the Romans...historical is nice, but this gives the opportunity for even greater variety in the legions. Since there are basically four levels of legionary units in RS, I'm sure both Riczus and Res Gestae's skins can be worked into the scheme of things. Sometimes, what you like, and what appeals to you can be just as important as being 'correct' or historical. Same goes for Webbird's units...I like many of them.

[cherryfunk]

So basically we need an excel spreadsheet with all the unit skins embedded as thumbnails linked to full-scale images, and then we can start taking votes.

dvk, I know you've got nothing else to do, can you get started on the spreadsheet?

[tone]

The other thing that would be really good would be to try and improve some of the unit cards if possible. Anyone able to do that?

I'll get going with taking shots of as many units as I can!

[ultor]

The skin from the belgae you show is strongly inaccurate:
First, the shield pattern is a bronze one with some rubis discovered from a chief tomb, so the common warrior have a wooded painted shield.
Second, lorica hamata was very expensive and belgae was really a savage tribe (cf caesar commentary).
Third, why 2 belt?!

Then look at the ResGestae version and you see the diference...http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53367

[tone]

Fair enough! Thanks for the correction. I'm not a historical expert so it's good to have your input Ultor.

[dvk901]

One of the things I came across while doing some work on the Dacians, and also in consulting with Cherryfunk early on, was that the Barbarian tribes are often portrayed with very drab, brownish shields. From what I read, archeologists are convinced they actually liked bright 'base' colors in their dress and shields. So the Res Gestae units are probably more accurate. However, the unit in question here is one of the 'theory' units of Roma Surrectum. The 'theory' is, that just as Rome advanced and became more modern in it's military, the same should be true for the player of any faction. This may not exactly be historical, but if you're playing the Gallics you shouldn't have to fight with the same naked units 200 years after the start of the campaign. The same would go for any faction/culture. So I tried to include for each faction at least one or two more advanced units that would appear later in the game at higher building levels. This is a 480 year mod...so it should include a progression of style for all involved.

[ultor]

"Fair enough! Thanks for the correction. I'm not a historical expert so it's good to have your input Ultor."

Thank's you very much Tone for you're kindness!

"This is a 480 year mod...so it should include a progression of style for all involved."

Interesting point of view, but historicaly speaking it was exatly the contrary!
Roman army of 4th and 5th century have completly changed and were really weak. Same with the Greek army of 5th BC outpassed by the macedonian 200 years later.
Then i just want to say that i'm so happy now that ResGestae can live thank's to you dvk901! Long live to Roma Surrectum!

[dvk901]

I understand what you mean Ultor, but there were reasons for that that had nothing to do with technology. The Roman Army of the 4th and 5th centuries AD was weak because of poor discipline and training, and cheap armour because the Empire couldn't afford to keep a decently trained and equipped army in place. The situation in the East was very different. The Eastern Empire was wealthy and had much better troops and equipment..thus, it survived a thousand years longer.

I guess, overall, I look at the 'trend during these days from greek type phalanx warfare (which Rome had to reject) to 'legionary' heavy infantry warfare, and eventually to a large cavalry based military. I'm just theorizing, for the sake of, and from the perspective of a player of Macedon, for example, that if it had survived Rome, it would've eventually realized that the phalanx type warfare was antiquated and would've started using infantry warfare more like Rome's Legions. I know it's all BS....but it's like the Barabarian factions having nothing to build after certain building levels in the original RTW. They weren't idiots. The Dacians had city plumbing and aqueducts just like Rome did...

[tone]

Here's an idea...how about if we change to use all Res Gestae units for all factions, and use the existing Roma Surrectum units for the free peoples? You end up fighting the free peoples often enough (probably as much as you do other factions) and yet they tend to suffer with worse skins.
The only thing that leaves is the need to do a little bit more with skins for some of the Greek-based cultures.

[dvk901]

You read my mind...if at all possible, the extra greek factions, slave and free peoples will benefit fantastically. If I can fit them all in.

[tone]

Are there any factions which aren't available from Res Gestae? What about the Carthaginians, Greeks, Macedonians and Iberians?
If you can get permissions, these look good:

Carthaginians:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=19581&page=28
Greeks:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t=62949&page=4
Various:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60630

And various others.

[dvk901]

[QUOTE=tone;1362282]Are there any factions which aren't available from Res Gestae? What about the Carthaginians, Greeks, Macedonians and Iberians?
If you can get permissions, these look good:

Carthaginians:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=19581&page=28

DVK: I used these in the MOD. If Res Gestae's are better, Free People will inheret them hopefully.

Greeks:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t=62949&page=4

DVK: Never saw these before...downloading. Can never have enough Greeks for this mod, with seven Greek factions.

[ben259]

As for greeks, you should have a look at xgm, if you can get permission, there are some nice units over there too
http://www.wmwiki.com/hosted/xgm/xgmreadme.html