Ideas and Concepts from other Mods

[ahowl11]

Here are mods that have some unique features to them. My hard drive doesn't have enough room to download every single mod so we may need to assign certain mods to certain people. I'll assign names for now, if anyone wants to change their assigned mod just comment.

All you need to do is download the mod, and get a solid overview of it. Maybe it has a certain look that makes everything look good, maybe a mod has a nice interface, maybe a mod just has one really nice unit that would fit in with our mod. Also, go through the mod forum and look at the features and screenshots. Just do some in-depth research on the mod, and then come back here with your analysis along with what you think we should take from it.

I will post each mod here, with my general thoughts and knowledge (If I have any) along with the mod leader to contact and who I'll be assigning the mod to.

Aristeia - Never played, I know it's based on Trojan Wars. - Up For Grabs

B.C. Series - Multiple mods made by Sony Costanzo. Hastily made, and none of them are polished but some feature a lot of different looking units. - Up For Grabs

Hegemonia City States - Never Played, leader is Jarlaxe. Mod has amazing settlement layouts as well as a new accurate hoplite animation.

Rise of Persia - Don't know much about it.

The Greek Wars - I know literally nothing about it

The Hellenic States - Made by our own comrade_general, I'm sure he could explain any of the features in it that would be to our benefit. Has a few new models.

Troy: Total War - No nothing about it

Warlords of Sparta - No nothing about it

Amazon: Total War - From what I've heard it has some of the most unique features for a RTW mod, besides women Warriors. The Mod leader is Parthian Shot, you can PM her here if you'd like.

BarebonesWars - Older mod, may have some features to use. Leader is repman

Casus Belli - Italian mod, I'd like to really dive into this one. Maybe there mod leader, Iulianus Apostata, would be willing to help us? - Bercor, would you take this one? Or anyone who speaks Italian?

Classical Age Total War - French mod that has English version. Known for plethora of units, but not very quality looking ones. Mod leader, z3n. - Mausolos, would you be willing to look into it?

Darthmod - Never got into it, but apparently it has best AI for mods.. Leader is Darth Vader.- b257 could you check this one out?

Diadochi Total War - We really need to look into this one. Leader is RedFox. We already are using it's Walls and lighting/sun.

Europa Barbbarorum - Do I need to explain? Many people to go to for reference. Who wants it?

Extended Cultures - Basically gives all cultures and factions the same attention as vanilla romans. Leader is Zarax, and Suppanut contributes immensely. I really want to use a lot from them. - Who wants it?

Extended Greek Mod - XC and DTW are offshoots of this original mod. Leader is DimeBagHo. - Who wants it?

Fall of the Republic-Rise of the Empire - Later time period but worth a looking into. A shootoff of RTRPE. Davinci is one to contact.

Iberia Total War - Last release was in Spanish. May have some interesting stuff - Bercor?

Invasio Barbarorum - Never played but they might have some things that we could use

Lusted's Terrae Expugnandae - Made by Jack Lusted, apparently is one of the smoothest running mods. Worth a solid look as they have a few new units.

Rome Total History - Unique mod and fresh but lacks good visuals. There is a lot we could use. Philadelphos is the creator - I will take this one

Paeninsula Italica - I'm not sure about features but they sure offer many choices for an Italian AOR. - Who wants it?

Res Bellicae - Italian mod but looks like it has a similar look to RTR. I wish I could find a download link that worked. Anyone know of any?

Res Gestae - A lot of interesting features were previewed but I'm not sure if they were released. Leader was Prometheus ts, and Salvor Hardin finished it. -b257 could you look into it?

Roma Surrectum 1 and 2 - Dvk901 is the leader, most popular mod I'd say right now. - Alavaria, can you give us an in depth look?

Roma Vicit - A mod that had much promise but never was finished. There were BETA releases though. Many ideas were discussed!

Rome Total Realism - our ancestors. I'll take it since I'm already deeply involved and have all of the materials.

Sicilia - Mod based on Sicily. Halie Satanus made it

SPQR Total War - One of the most enduring mods, yet very simple. Probably the hardest mod I've played. Made by Lt1956. -Bercor?

Sparta Total War - Don't know much about it. Leader is Amorphos. I do know they reskinned the siege engines

Vlad Total War - Similar to BarebonesWars I believe. Vlad is creator.

There are others but let's cover these first.

Make sure you really read through the forums to get a good feel for the game, as well as playing it yourself to see what you come across!

[comrade_general]

I'm honoured to be mentioned among such more-noteworthy titles.

[ahowl11]

Can you explain to us what THS could offer? I have not played in a long time, so I don't remember.

[comrade_general]

I haven't either, so I'll have to get back to you on that one.

[Mausolos of Caria]

I have played the following mods you said you didn't play:

Hegemonia City States (more or less)

Invasio Barbarorum (a lot, all versions I think)

Rise of Persia

The Hellenic States (never knew comrade did that one!)

I'll elaborate on these as soon as possible (need to sleep right now, sorry).

[ahowl11]

Cool! Looking forward to it Mausolos!

[Mausolos of Caria]

Hegemonia: You already said it, the city models are unique and very impressive. If we could get that, at least for the likes of Rome, Carthage and Alexandria. The rest was a good, but not stable mod, we should probably find out if there is a connection to either the unique city models or the Persian invasion script.

The Hellenic States: Not going to be disrespectful to comrade_general, but it was still quite close to vanilla. It was decent to see a mod for the early Diadochi wars, with the changed map, factions, characters etc., but I can't remember any really new features.

Invasio Barbarorum: Well, there are different versions here. Flaggellum Dei makes full use of the horde features and adds great new buildings and units. It's still closer than vanilla than other versions, but it's that improved version of the original Barbarian Invasion any player would like. Very stable and the Campaign AI never seems to give up, but not really an unique feature here. Then, the mod/series (since they are different campaigns) about Emperor Julian and his foes. They feature a complicated religion system (you either have to destroy all Pagan or Christian buildings and convert to opress mass riots) and a new camera perspective in battles, which is interesting, but a bit complicated. Other versions are similar, they crash sometimes, but for the great armies and dozens or hundreds of new units it's still pretty stable. Most of the post- Flagellum Dei campaigns are very challenging, maybe too much for the common player. The graphics are greatly improved in the later versions, too.

Rise of Persia: ROP is a very interesting, and the only, attempt to show Total War from the perspective of the Achaemenids. The campaign map is a but unbalanced, especially in the West with too many rebel settlements being overrun by Tarentum and Sparta mainly and Athens seems to be flawed, because in 90 % of the campaigns it neither expands nor loses since it allies with Sparta. ROP has some unique and nice units like the Indian generals, who sit on elephants and have parasols There is also a script for several turns a year, but you always need to activate that one when loading and I sometimes forgot to. Graphics are not superior, but some units are, as I said, very creative and show some unexpected possibilities.
I completely forgot about their government system, cities can be governed by tyrants, democracies or aristocracies, which brings different levels of public order and happiness. The modders used BI's religion system to implement it- government is initally set by the atrributes of the settlement's governor, unless you build new buildings to change it.

[comrade_general]

The Hellenic States: Not going to be disrespectful to comrade_general, but it was still quite close to vanilla. It was decent to see a mod for the early Diadochi wars, with the changed map, factions, characters etc., but I can't remember any really new features.

No disrespect to be had because that's exactly what it was and was intended to be.

[Mausolos of Caria]

You can see me relieved then 

[Prince Eugene]

I have played Res Gestae before. The quality of unit models is quite good (although I don't know if they are historical accurate) but I am not very satisfied with the AOR system. It seems that the recruitment area is limited to the starting provinces of a faction. For example, playing as Macedon, I cannot recruit any phalanx units in Asia Minor. Personally I like an AOR system like EB, which has some reasonable possibilities. The one in RTR is also great, as factional units could be recruited after a long period of assimilation. I think it strike the balance between gameplay and reality.

[Ballacraine]

Can I just go out on a limb here.

I realise work is well adavanced, but is it not worth considering basing a RTR iteration around the M2K engine at some point?

Peninsula Italica & De Bello Mundi have tried it.

Balla. 

[ahowl11]

People asked dvk of RS the same thing, and I'd agree that the M2TW engine has some interesting options that could be added, but in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't be very much different to RTW.
Plus it would take very long for us to get accustomed with the engine etc.
Also, I do not want to be the next EB II.

[b257]

Maybe once this mod is done we could make a Medieval Total Realism

Edit: Actually that's not such a bad Idea, I have learned a lot in regards to modding, hmmmm. Eh, once this one is done.

[Ballacraine]

I like that idea! 

Balla.  8)

[Mausolos of Caria]

Hehe, the diplomacy is so much better, though...

Also, I added another part to my text about Rise of Persia (government types), which might be interesting.