hehehe the beast has been unleashed !
I've managed to add in new incidents that can trigger upon certain conditions, which can allow stuff like World Wonder movies to play once the next turn upon taking a specific region ("rom_britannia_dumnonia" for Stonehenge, for example). With this you could also have movie events for constructing new buildings ("BUILDING_LEVEL" incident generator, and choose whichever building you want from the building tree), researching technologies and looooads of other possibilities - you could make a storyline narrative out of them if you wanted (*cough* Hannibal at the Gates *cough* Caesar in Gaul *cough*).
Below is an example of how the movie events will play out - a 10 second intermission to allow the player to get ready to play the hotkey combination to play the custom audio, from the soundboard running in the background of the game (unfortunately, it's the only way to get the audio to work, since we can't add / replace non-music audio in ROME II).
It's not fake like in my first post (the cursor moves over the movie to prove it), and it actually works. The .bik video file size was 15MB, which is reasonable.
Movie Event Mod (WIP) - Wonder Captured - Stonehenge
The actual Stonehenge cutscene bit is not mine - it was made by xtheatron (original link below) - and is just example video of what I'd include for where my video will be. I'll make my own later.
Original Stonehenge Wonder Video
Last edited by Benjin; January 31, 2017 at 11:07 PM.
Sweet mother of mercy! I can't imagine the game with those small cutscenes! *nerdgasm*
This is so good! Would it be also possible to see this this cutscenes in full screen mode?
While on the campaign map? I don't think that'd be possible... not sure, I haven't tried it. Then again, if I made all of these movies fullscreen, it'd make the file sizes much bigger (fullscreen-quality videos will be more than quadruple the file size). I do know that it's possible to have custom intro movie events though, and they are fullscreen.
On that topic, I wonder if it's possible to have custom ending movie events? If so, I would love a slightly edited version (i.e. get rid of the scenes with Mark Antony, frozen Spartan and Cleopatra committing suicide) of this trailer playing for the Rome faction's Caesar in Gaul campaign ending (instead of that dull, vanilla ending you always get).
... or this for a scripted event of Hannibal's army crossing the alps in Hannibal at the Gates...
... possibilities for movie events to add more cinematic narrative is almost limitless. I'd strongly encourage any Total War Machinima directors to do some videos which could fit with this mod, then more of them could be implemented (they would need to try to match the aesthetic style of Rome II, otherwise they'll feel off, so that means no over-use of GEM / After Effects... especially blurs, they can easily destroy the look of most videos if not carefully used).
Last edited by Benjin; February 01, 2017 at 06:37 PM.
Let's hope it is possible and then we can have nice use of CA trailers. Maybe DEI team can help you with this question, this is really immersion changing mod.
Here's the second and last movie event test - the Necropolis of Giza (Pyramids). I wanted to see if the cutscenes played even after the first turn as a faction who already owns a wonder, and it still works. I made one tiny mistake, though... I set the movie event reference to "Alexandria", when it's meant to be at "Memphis" (Alexandria is supposed to have the "Pharos of Alexandria" (aka Great Lighthouse) wonder movie event instead).
All of the "Wonder Captured" incidents have been implemented into my mod's DB files - now they just need new videos. I'll start making my own videos of Stonehenge, the Pyramids, as well as all the other wonders in the Grand / Wrath of Sparta campaigns some time next week. Once that's done, I'll then upload a DeI and vanilla version for everyone to use / take a look at.
Last edited by Benjin; February 02, 2017 at 04:23 PM.
This looks sweet, always missed the cut scene videos in Rome 2.
Wow! You are very good! Any news?
Currently busy with my university stuff (I'm on my final year - only 2 and a half months left), but I will definitely continue with this some time, so don't worry - these cutscenes will be done soon.
Last edited by Benjin; February 27, 2017 at 07:36 AM.
I can do short music pieces if needed
+ rep to begin with. Congratulations of course. Do you think you will be able to make faction intros/endings?
Last edited by Hoplite of Ilis; February 28, 2017 at 10:53 AM.
Yes, I tested those out as well and they worked 100%.
Eventually I plan to do faction intro cutscenes as well to the Grand Campaign - I imagine that they'll first be by culture + subculture groups to fill the gap of there not being any intro cutscenes (Roman, Carthaginian, Egyptian, Greek, Barbarian, Eastern), but then later on maybe doing one for each individual faction. I don't know yet how they'll be planned out, but I would like them to be sort of in the style of Attila's. I'd need to sit down and properly storyboard them, and write up what lines the narrator would say.
EDIT: I remember a month ago I was thinking about them, I wrote up a bunch of notes for what I'd want to be the general formula for an intro video with some very rough ideas for narrator dialogue. If anybody wanted to write proper dialogue scripts for the narrator then by all means, do so - it'd speed things up for me.
ROME II - INTRO VIDEOS
DIALOGUE - Repeating pattern
1. The year (272 BC)
2. Their history
3. The world map (situation - zoom out from capital location)
4. What they're good at (family clan, unit specialities etc)
5. Final speech (the future)
INTRO - PROLOGUE (for all factions, plays before the proper faction intro starts) - Generic Narrator
1. The year
• "The year is 272 BC"
• "The world is splintered... fragmented..."
• "Many tribes... kingdoms... republics... vie for domination..."
• "It awaits the arrival, of an empire... " - foreshadows the events that will occur under your rule; your victory goal is to form a gigantic empire
ROME - Julii
1. (map zoom into capital location on map, current territory fading in, transition to cinematic renders of civilian life in typical city?)
• "The Romans"
2. Faction history
• Etruscans - Former masters, formation of the Republic ("much to the boasting of the Junii")
• Pyrrhus - Faced hard times, recently driving Epirus away from Beneventum 3 years ago
• Samnites + Magna Graecia - Conquered
3. The world map (situation, zoom out from capital)
• "The Romans are beset from all sides" (Surrounding (known) factions, highlighted red enemies)
• "The Etruscans blah blah blah" - currently at war, they're decadent and weak
• "The Barbarians blah blah blah" - mention them being a priority if playing as the Julii (Barbarian Subduers)
• "The Greeks blah blah blah" - mention Epirus + Macedon?
• "And worst of all... the Carthaginians. For Rome to rule the Mediterranean, Carthage *must* be destroyed."
4. What they're good at
• Sword infantry
• "The house of the Julii reign supreme in the Senate..."
• Barbarian subduers (morale bonus)
• Romanisation (conversion bonus)
5. Final speech
• "Romans, the sons of Mars blah blah blah, must have a strong frontier, if they are to survive."
• "They will not let stuck-up Carthaginians, pompous Greeks, or stinking Gauls to stand in their way!"
Last edited by Benjin; February 28, 2017 at 09:05 AM.