ahowl11's VE Mod (Old Discussion) v7 Rise of the Serpent

[Enriqueestrella]

Aun hay quienes juegan Rome I
There are still those who play Rome I

[Saul Tyre]

Is that a question or a statement laddie?...either way the answer is yes, that's correct

[The Despondent Mind]

This is what I do not understand
[QUOTE=ahowl11;15643650]
My goals for this mod are:
1) Keep vanilla look and feel intact
2) Keep Vanilla factions, but enhance them and fix historical inaccuracies
[QUOTE]

How do you keep the vanilla feel if you want to fix the historical inaccuracies, I feel like you have to pick one.

[ahowl11]

[QUOTE=The Despondent Mind;15661552]This is what I do not understand
[QUOTE=ahowl11;15643650]
My goals for this mod are:
1) Keep vanilla look and feel intact
2) Keep Vanilla factions, but enhance them and fix historical inaccuracies

How do you keep the vanilla feel if you want to fix the historical inaccuracies, I feel like you have to pick one.

It depends on how you define the vanilla feel. For me I define it as keeping units and faction colors their same color as vanilla, mercenaries being green, rebels off-white. It also means that with environments and vegetation that even though they’ll be enhanced it won’t be like RS2 environments where it’s completely different. Or the map.. sure I’ll enhance the map and it’s geography but it won’t be at a different scale or go to India or drastically change the textures. That’s what I mean by vanilla, others define it as the simplicity of the base game.

I’m also trying hard to keep the 4 Roman factions in tact as that’s a huge part of the vanilla game but I’m also tempted to make new factions and have a unified Rome. Time will tell on that one. As far as making it historically accurate, it’s just adding more immersion to each faction.. making them diverse and not so simple.

When it comes to the game mechanics I’m not trying to get too crazy there either. In RTR we overhauled stats, economy, recruitment, building times and costs, traits, and placed in a complex script. In this mod I’m trying to keep the pace and features of the base game in tact but also add more to it or tweak it to ‘enhance’ it. An example would be instead of overhauling stats, I implemented darth’s stats and formations as well as the ReallyBadAI battle script. Neither takes away from the speed and feel of vanilla battles but they certainly make them better!

I hope this answers your question

[cocobongoclub-DJ]

Impressionant @ahowl11 ! These were the two factions which most needed care in Vanilla, well done !

[ahowl11]

Impressionant @ahowl11 ! These were the two factions which most needed care in Vanilla, well done !

Thanks friend!

[ahowl11]

ahowl11's Vanilla Enhancement Mod v4
Way of the Woad

Not many mods gave the Britons a chance.. forums everywhere debated on what factions to replace them with. EB gave us the most accurate representation about 10 years ago, but no other mod tried. My own beloved RTR even scrapped them, and no vanilla mod did anything for them except maybe give them a few anachronistic units. That has all changed, in v4 of my mod, you will find the Britons to be exceptionally well done, all thanks to the wonderful and expert help of lanjane.
In vanilla, the Britons were a bit of a mysterious faction, until we all saw them destroying the Germans on every play through. They like the Gauls were a simple faction with chariots of death, in this mod much has changed.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Britons ready for the Fray!

Here's the list of features in v4:
- Britannic roster completely overhauled
- Veggiemod by Robbe Aerts implemented (his work is amazing!)
- Higher Level Buildings available for Britons
- Grain Resource re-added as it's not a bug, take advantage of it in the 6 regions it is located in!
- Phalanx bugs fixed.. they are more cohesive and men don't slide backwards and glitch out
- Redid Fatigue.. All heat modifiers based on the vanilla -2 - 5 scale, and all units have either hardy or very_hardy. This is a better solution to turning fatigue completely off
- Mercenary Peltasts now have Peltast skin in mercenary color. Illyrian Mercenaries are back to the way they looked in vanilla.
- New Transparent bases under settlements.. No more white patches!
- New Strat Map Captains for each faction, thanks to crazyroman!
- Culture Specific Battering Rams, from tutorial made by Seasoned Alcoholic
- Towers rate of fire reduced, thanks to Robbe!
- Peasants in Settlement viewer don't have the faction colors anymore.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

New Britannic Roster

The Britannic Roster in detail:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

GOVERNMENT

Tier 1 - Warband & Youths
Tier 2 - Levies
BARRACKS
Tier 1 - Spear Warband & Sword Warband
Tier 2 - Spearmen & Axemen
Tier 3 - Swordsmen and Fanatic Spearmen
Tier 4 - Chosen Spearmen & Chosen Swordsmen
Tier 5 - Champions & Sword Masters
RANGE
Tier 1 - Slingers
Tier 2 - Skirmisher Warband
Tier 3 - Ambushers
Tier 4 - Archer Warband
STABLES
Tier 1 - Britannic Light Chariots
Tier 2 - Britannic Heavy Chariots
Tier 3 - Light Cavalry
TEMPLES
Tier 2 - Woad Warriors & Wolfhounds
Tier 3 - Druids
GENERALS
Barbarian Warlord (Chariot)
Barbarian Chosen Warlord (Heavy Cavalry)
The roster is a bit backwards in some regards but that is because the Ancient Britons were not as developed as the Gauls, they were somewhat behind the times. As the game begins in 270 BC, we didn't want to have a time warp, so the Britons will have a really weak roster to begin the game and later on develop into a very strong roster. This should change game play in that area of the map drastically.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Chariots charge in with their javelins hurling!

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

DOWNLOAD HERE

One thing that I need to be clear on, is this mod runs on the Alexander.exe not the regular Rome Total War exe. Please make sure you use an Alexander Install.
If you have the last version of the mod, simply extract into the same location and overwrite your files. Make sure to delete the map.rwm file in HRTW/data/world/maps/base folder.
If this is your first crack at my mod then follow these instructions:
To Install, simply extract HRTW into your Rome Total War Directory, or if you use steam, your Rome Total War Alexander Directory. when making a shortcut, use the Alexander.exe or in steam go to Launch options and include this: -show_err -mod:HRTW

Features listed in the forum or the latest article, once approved!
For more visuals, check out the screenshots area on my moddb page!



CREDITS

Lanjane - Thank you for for the careful precision that you put into the units and their detail
crazyroman - Thank you for letting me use your mod!
Robbe Aerts - Thank you for all of your work with Veggiemod and allowing me to use it, as well as your advice on the phalanx bugs and fatigue, and finally slowing down the rate of fire of towers
Saul_Tyre - Thank you for testing and putting my mod into the youtube world!
EB - For the inspiration especially on Sword Masters and woad tattoos.
Suppanut - for explaining to me the secrets of the Grain Resource and how it's not a bug, but misunderstood and misused
Quinn_Inuit - for helping me with fatigue
BHL_20 - for testing and helping with the battle script
Seasoned Alcoholic - For tutorial regarding culture specific rams
webbird - For some elements of the new Woad Warrior model
Rise of Empire - Champions unit
comrade_general - Skin & UI for Barbarian Chosen Warlord from THS mod



Finally, thank you all for downloading and making this mod happen!
~ahowl11

[Lanjane]

Hope you guys enjoy my units and UIs! Happy campaigning!

[20ninescene]

Congratz with the release, this mod is getting better and better!

[Caesar16]

It has indeed come far away...I still remember when I just though it would be like Darthmod or something but its a totally different thing and is really good!
+rep

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

Suppanut - for explaining to me the secrets of the Grain Resource and how it's not a bug, but misunderstood and misused

I just came across this mod yesterday but I am very excited about it since you have included a lot of ideas I had for a little mod for my own plus a lot of other great stuff I couldn't do.

I do have two questions:

1) What are the secrets of the Grain Resource? This is something I have not heard of.

2) There are no peasants for the Britons and the Gauls. Is it supposed to be this way?
Also the initial Ptolomaic armies have peasants in them which strikes me as unusual.

Thanks to you and your assistants for creating this great mod.

[ahowl11]

I’ve messaged suppanut about your question, I will let him explain it.

Barbarian Peasants have been split into Warband/Levies so they are basically your peasant unit.

As for the Ptolemies they were simply given a vanilla style roster, they’ll be overhauled just like the other factions.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

I’ve messaged suppanut about your question, I will let him explain it.

Barbarian Peasants have been split into Warband/Levies so they are basically your peasant unit.

As for the Ptolemies they were simply given a vanilla style roster, they’ll be overhauled just like the other factions.

Thank you.

[b0Gia de Bodemloze]

Wow so much nostalgia, from the good old times when i was a kid and playing Vanilla Rome total war again and again and again. Please fix Makedonians with this Λ of Spartiatai. The good of being a kid, couldn't understand that AI totally sucks. No, you are the best commander since Alexander the Great.
Thanks.

[ahowl11]

Wow so much nostalgia, from the good old times when i was a kid and playing Vanilla Rome total war again and again and again. Please fix Makedonians with this Λ of Spartiatai. The good of being a kid, couldn't understand that AI totally sucks. No, you are the best commander since Alexander the Great.
Thanks.

Thanks b0Gia!! Each faction will be overhauled, and yes eventually some ahistorical oddities like the Macedonian faction symbol will be changed. I hope that when this is all said and done that the ai will be a lot tougher than the vanilla game!

[ahowl11]

ahowl11's Vanilla Enhancement Mod v5
Germanic Mystery

The Germans have a few representations in the RTW modding world. Realistic mods like EB, RS2, RTR and Res Gestae all have very nice rosters. However for fans of a more simpler vanilla fee, they are lacking. XGM has a decent roster, but there still felt like a lot was lacking. In this mod, they finally got their overhaul.

The Germans are a hard faction to approach when modding. There is not a whole lot to pull from and look at to get an accurate idea, but after some research, discussion and viewing other mods from other games, we came up with something that we believe really enhances the German faction. This is not aimed at historical realism, but more game play driven with a historical flavor to it.. With that being said, don't expect any mythical or fantastical units either! In this installment, you'll receive a brand new German roster and building tree, as well as night battles and some traits and ancillaries from BI. Other features and fixes will be listed below!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bear Warriors await orders

Here's the list of features in v5
- Germanic roster completely overhauled
- Bugs from Veggiemod fixed (no more random crashes from weather, climate or day types)
- Internal feature, but we saved over 30 unit slots. Lanjane has made a few 'shared' models that each barbarian faction can use and still have the unit look distinct based on culture. Kudos to him for this idea, it was a lot of work, but it paid off! (This will allow for more units in future releases)
- BI traits and ancillaries from BI that fit in the RTW timeframe have been added. More will be added in future releases. Included are the UI and sounds for messages.
- Night Battles from BI have been added fully. Some characters can fight night battles from the beginning, check it out.
- Britons have a small shakeup to their roster.. They lose Youth Slingers, but gain Britannic Slingers.. they will still have regular Slingers, now available in their government building. This was done mainly due to us wanting to conserve unit slots.
- Britons also lose their chariot general sadly :'(. They were not working well at all and I was getting a lot of negative feedback. Historically, chariots were just transportation service for nobles, so don't think that they were used like they were in vanilla! Britons now have standard Barbarian Warlord for an early general.
- Mercenary Peltasts have correct UI
- All units have working sprites, this took awhile and we had an entire day worth of CTD's but it was fixed and everything runs smoothly. If you have any issues with the sprites, please let me know.
- Teutoburg Forest Historical Battle updated to be playable with new Germanic roster.
- New Mercenary unit exclusive to the Germans, Harii Warriors. Look around to see where you can recruit them!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

New Germanic Roster

The Germanic Roster in detail:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

GOVERNMENT

Tier 1 - Warband
Tier 2 - Levies
BARRACKS
Tier 1 - Spear Warband & Clubmen
Tier 2 - Spearmen & Axemen
Tier 3 - Veteran Spearmen & Swordsmen
Tier 4 - Pikemen & Chosen Swordsmen
Tier 5 - Chosen Spearmen & Chosen Axemen
RANGE
Tier 1 - Slingers & Skirmisher Warband
Tier 2 - Archer Warband
Tier 3 - Forester Warband
STABLES
Tier 1 - Light Cavalry
Tier 2 - Heavy Cavalry
Tier 3 - Germanic Noble Cavalry
TAVERN
Tier 1 - Night Raiders
Tier 2 - Berserkers
TEMPLES
Tier 2 - Wolf Warriors
Tier 3 - Bear Warriors
EXCLUSIVE MERCENARY
Harii Warriors
GENERAL
Barbarian Warlord
Barbarian Chosen Warlord
The Germanic roster starts off very weak, you'll find it hard to sustain minimal casualties in the early game as nobody has armor and you basically have spears, clubs, javelins and slings. Germania is also a tough location to start in due to lack of population growth. If you can expand though, you have a lot of great warriors available that do AP damage and strike fear into their enemies. I broke down recruitment to also include the tavern, as vanilla uses it, I thought I would expand on that. So you have multiple ways to supply your Germanic raiding party!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Romans running for their lives as the Harii give chase!

Download and Installation:

Download v5 HERE

One thing that I need to be clear on, is this mod runs on the Alexander.exe not the regular Rome Total War exe. Please make sure you use an Alexander Install.
If you have the last version of the mod, simply extract into the same location and overwrite your files. Make sure to delete the map.rwm file in HRTW/data/world/maps/base folder. *If Downloading v5 and you had v4 installed, delete your HRTW/data/world/maps/campaign/Alexander folder before installing v5.. it got cleaned up, and if not deleted your campaign map will look a bit different than intended!*
If this is your first crack at my mod then follow these instructions:
To Install, simply extract HRTW into your Rome Total War Directory, or if you use steam, your Rome Total War Alexander Directory. when making a shortcut, use the Alexander.exe or in steam go to Launch options and include this: -show_err -mod:HRTW


Credits:

- Lanjane for awesome unit detail, as well as a few ideas for internal benefit.
- Crazyroman for testing and support
- Robbe Aerts for willing to fix some bugs
- RTRPE for the Harii Warrior model, and parts of Veteran Spearmen Skin
- EB for hair and leather helmet, as well as inspiration
- Res Gestae and RS2 for inspiration
- Barbarians Revenge for Bear Warrior model
- ME and Lanjane for Chosen Axemen model
- XGM for Club model
- comrade_general - Skin & UI for Barbarian Warlord for Britons from THS mod


Finally, thank you all for downloading and making this mod happen!


~ ahowl11

[y2day]

Great work ahowl!!! Wish I had time to contribute something to all you hard work. I look forward to checking this out!!

[Foxcon]

incredible work. Good vanilla-styled mods are still underrepresented imho. There are plenty of vanilla-styled improvement mods out there but a lot of them are limited to simple things like texture fixes and more recruitment options. Your used units look new and are not over the top which is good.
And thank god you got rid of those barbaric egyptians. Can't believe CA actually did this. What a sloppy research. It seems to me that laymen were employed there at that time...

[ahowl11]

incredible work. Good vanilla-styled mods are still underrepresented imho. There are plenty of vanilla-styled improvement mods out there but a lot of them are limited to simple things like texture fixes and more recruitment options. Your used units look new and are not over the top which is good.
And thank god you got rid of those barbaric egyptians. Can't believe CA actually did this. What a sloppy research. It seems to me that laymen were employed there at that time...

Thanks man I appreciate it, excited to really see how this mod will be when I’m finished. I think CA was going for what seemed cool, and it definitely backfired haha

[crazyroman]

And thank god you got rid of those barbaric egyptians. Can't believe CA actually did this. What a sloppy research. It seems to me that laymen were employed there at that time...

Actually they did this cause the artistic department wanted a different approach to the Ptolemies than another hellenistic faction.A developer from CA said that himself in a very old thread in total war.org.