ahowl11’s Vanilla Enhancement Mod

[ahowl11]

ahowl11's Vanilla Enhancement Mod v6
Sons of Zalmoxis

Yet another faction that has not received a ton of love in the RTW modding community (aside from realistic overhauls). Dacia is a very interesting and diverse faction. Historically, they were located in modern day Romania, and were known as the Getae to the Greeks. A large debate has existed between scholars on whether the Dacians were actually part of the Thracian culture. Since RTW features both Dacia and Thrace I  thought I'd simply expand on that feature instead of merging them into  one faction like other mods.

Spoiler

Veteran Swordsmen waiting for the Romans to advance

The Dacians are more barbaric than Thracians so they keep the Barbarian culture, but we did majorly overhaul the look of their units.  Here are the features:
- Complete overhaul of Dacian Roster
- New Barbarian City models on the map, made by Lanjane
- New Bastarnae Mercenary unit model and texture
- Macedonian Cavalry units have normal unit sizes instead of unusually large sizes
The thing that bugged me about vanilla Dacia is that they were basically the Gauls in brown with a falxmen unit, and it was pretty boring. Now they have a full fledged roster full of unique units. Even the common units don't look like Gallic copies. See for yourself!

Spoiler

The Dacian Unit Roster

The Dacian Roster in detail:

Spoiler

GOVERNMENT

Tier 1 - Warband
Tier 2 - Levies
BARRACKS
Tier 1 - Spear Warband & Sword Warband
Tier 2 - Spearmen & Axemen
Tier 3 - Veteran Spearmen, Veteran Swordsmen, & Pikemen

Tier 4 - Chosen Spearmen & Chosen Swordsmen
Tier 5 - Chosen Pikemen & Champions
RANGE
Tier 1 - Slingers & Skirmisher Warband
Tier 2 - Archer Warband & Chosen Skirmishers
Tier 3 - Chosen Archers & Ballistas
Tier 4 - Onagers
STABLES
Tier 1 - Light Cavalry

Tier 2 - Heavy Cavalry & Dacian Horse Archers
Tier 3 - Dacian Noble Cavalry

TEMPLES
Tier 2 - Falxmen
GENERAL
Barbarian Warlord
Barbarian Chosen Warlord
The Dacian Roster is one of the most diverse, and the largest roster that we have formulated so far. They have a lot of heavy infantry, as well as good missile units and a diverse cavalry selection. They even have some siege units for the late game. All in all, this should make one of the more boring factions one of the most interesting factions in the game!

Spoiler

New Barbarian City Models by Lanjane

Download and Installation:

Download v6 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




Credits:
- Lanjane for unit work, ui cards and new settlements, as well as fixing some sprites
- Kirilakristi for expert advice and analysis on Dacia
- crazyroman for testing
- Diadochi Total War for the Veteran Swordsmen, and Veteran Spearmen models as well as a texture
- Barbarians Revenge Mod for Dacian Noble Cavalry, and Dacian Horse Archer base models
- Macedon Expansion Mod for Chosen Skirmisher and Chosen Archer Warband base models
- Rise of Empire Mod for Chosen Spearmen, Pikemen, Chosen Pikemen, Champions and Heavy Cavalry base models
- 77 BC mod for Axemen base model


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



~ ahowl11

[Jubal]

Goddamnit, I'm going to have to rewrite a whole segment of tomorrow's newsletter on this now

Nice work!

[ahowl11]

Haha yeah I am trying to release something every 2-3 weeks

[korsakoff]

Those Dacians are looking good! 

[Jubal]

Got this in Updates again anyhow:
https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5792.0

[ahowl11]

Thanks Jubal, Thrace is being worked on now, followed by Scythia.

[Jubal]

Ooh, looking forward to seeing Thrace. Always one of my favourites

[ahowl11]

ahowl11's Vanilla Enhancement Mod v7
Rise of the Serpent

Thrace is by far the most obscure faction in Rome Total War. It seems like the devs had originally planned for an Illyrian faction when at the last minute, they decided to make Thrace instead. Why? Every faction in this game that is non roman had a significant war or series of wars against Rome. Thrace had some minor altercations it seems. I was so perplexed by the idea of this faction that I almost turned them into  Illyria. However, this is a vanilla enhancement mod that is supposed to  add some historical flavor, not a realism mod.. so I left them in, and  made them as interesting as possible!

Spoiler

Thracian Infantry

Thrace is a weird faction to mod in game terms as well. They are 'greek' in culture but historically they seemed to be a mix of Greek and Barbarian. The engine doesn't allow us to do much with that, and I didn't want them to seem 'barbarian' so I kept them as Greek, but made their units wild and fearsome. This faction is extremely unique compared to some of the others, and they should be a lot of fun to play with!

Here is a list of all the features in V7:
- Complete Overhaul of Thracian Roster
- New Feature: Culture. This is based off the BI religion feature and heavily influenced by XGM
- Thracian 'Faction Destroyed' video now properly appears
- Two new music tracks added to non roman and non barbarian campaigns. They are the Greek and Eastern intro tracks
- Mod now runs with -noalexander. This enables intro videos to run again, so make sure you put that in your target line or the mod won't work!
- Thrace has an exclusive Mercenary Unit to recruit in it's homelands: Bastarnae
- All sprites are corrected, so there shouldn't be any missing anymore.
The Thracian Roster is large and diverse, a far cry from the vanilla faction that seemed so bare. Check it out!

Spoiler

Thracian Army

The Thracian Army in Detail:

Spoiler

GOVERNMENT

Tier 1: Peasants
Tier 2: Hillmen
BARRACKS
Tier 1: Swordsmen & Spearmen

Tier 2: Thracian Infantry & Thracian Spearmen
Tier 3: Veteran Infantry & Pikemen

Tier 4: Thracian Heavy Infantry & Royal Pikemen
Tier 5: Thracian Noble Infantry & Noble Falxmen
RANGE
Tier 1: Peltasts & Slingers
Tier 2: Archers and Thracian Peltasts
Tier 3: Heavy Peltasts & Ballistas
Tier 4: Noble Peltasts & Onagers
STABLES
Tier 1: Militia Cavalry & Thracian Lancers
Tier 2: Thracian Cavalry

Tier 3: Thracian Noble Cavalry
Tier 4: Thracian Heavy Cavalry
GENERAL
Thracian General
Thracian Armored General
MERCENARIES
Bastarnae
This was one of the most fun rosters to make, and it should make for a very interesting campaign. As a player, you have multiple strategies to choose from. There are strong infantry and skirmishers as well as cavalry. There are also pikemen, so a smart general will use his selection wisely!

Spoiler

New Feature: Culture!

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION:
Download here

To Install:

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.
READ CAREFULLY: If you have the last version of the mod, you must first go to HRTW/data/world/maps/campaign and delete the Alexander & Battlefields folders. Then, 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. THEN in your target line, make sure to add -noalexander to the end of it.

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 -noalexander
IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS, NOTHING WILL WORK!

Features listed in the forum or the latest article, once approved!



Credits:

- Lanjane for amazing unit cards and some model/texture edits as well as his own creations
- BHL_20 for his awesome work on culture. He gave it his own flavor, and it fits in perfectly!
- kirilakristi for analysis on Thracian Roster
- Mausolos for letting me not forget about the Bastarnae
- crazyroman for testing
- XGM for Noble Falxmen Model & Culture idea
- ME mod for some models & textures
- Barbarians Revenge Mod for some models and textures
- Rise of Empire mod for some models and textures
- webbird for Thracian face skin
- Everyone who's following and supporting this mod on moddb, Exilian and TWC
- Everyone on Slack who keeps the community alive

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

[Jubal]

Very nice! The eye-shields are a fun touch I always loved Thrace as a faction, not sure why exactly.

[ahowl11]

Thanks Jubal, Scythia is next!

[Jubal]

Any news on the Scyths?

[ahowl11]

If you follow the mod on twcenter.net you would have seen that yesterday I posted news of a Grand Christmas release...
Alrighty, this is slightly embarrassing but everything has changed.
Lanjane, the magnificent unit maker and ui creator, is no longer able to help the mod due to the fact that he needs to take care of things in RL, and he doesn't know if he will come back.. if he does, he doesn't know when. I want to personally thank him on all of the great things he has done for the RTW community, as well as my mods. I have known him since 2011, and I hope he can come back some day. Until then, I wish him the best of luck going forward in his life.
Now, the problem with him leaving is the mod now needs to change course in direction. There is absolutely no way I can continue with this mod and keep it consistent with what we have done with the previous releases, beginning with v3 Gallic Pride. I have to revert unit rosters to v2 Egyptian Makeover. Now, notice how I only said 'unit rosters', that means that all other features from v1-7 will stay in, as well as the intended features I had for v8..

Why am I going back to the old unit rosters?

I first need to provide a short backstory of why I am reverting:

In August I released the 2nd Version of the mod, making over Egypt. My plan was to then enhance all of the barbarian factions, by giving them some units to fill some holes. These were not going to be new units, but reskinned vanilla units. For example, Swordsmen for Germania, Archer Warband for Gaul. It was going to be it's own release, and I started with Gaul. One of the researchers who is no longer on the team convinced me to be more in depth with the rosters, and Lanjane also wanted this and offered to make the units. At first, I did not want to, I simply wanted vanilla style, with maybe some tweaks. However, Lanjane created some very beautiful units, and I could not resist.. thus Gallic Pride came about. However, I wondered if he would have enough desire and energy to continue with me on EVERY faction.. he seemed like he did, so we pressed on. The researcher left, and so the unit roster forming took a hit.. then around the Thracian release Lanjane became very busy and had no motivation to mod.. Then just today he gave me the news. With him gone, I see no need to continue with creating new units for every faction, as it's almost suicidal for the mod.. the mod simply WILL NOT live to see it's final state going in that direction. I have to go back to my original plan for units for this mod to succeed. Maybe when I am done, I can be more detailed with unit rosters.

So, why am I just not going with what I have, and making due with what is out there to continue?

It's simple: I want my mods to be consistent.. and by Lanjane leaving, his unit making and unit card making are no longer in the mod... There is no way the other factions will look or feel like the ones he worked on. The mod would be lopsided. Also, if I did continue in the same direction, it'd take me years to finish this. Even with Lanjane, we were not going to be finished until next fall as every faction is slowed down by the fact that units and their cards (and implementing them in general) are not easy or quick to make. It's a lot to implement a full unit, let alone a ton for each faction!
Put more simply: creating/editing units is hard and takes a long time, time that I do not have, or am willing to give. I am thankful that Lanjane did what he did, as it was not easy.

I will keep the old releases up and running, so you will always have access to the cool looking units, however I cannot continue in that direction.

The plan moving forward, and what you can expect?

I'll get all units and unit rosters reverted back to v2, where Egypt is a Hellenistic Kingdom. All other features will stay the same, so gameplay will remain..

For units going forward, I will first stick to vanilla units and reskins, to keep the original theme. I have a lot of other things that I would like to add into the mod to make the game balance complete, and by having units take a back seat, I can finally focus on finishing the mod.

Also, a map is in the making.. it is nothing crazy, but it will add more regions. We will see how far we get with that, and how it will effect the mod.

Units and unit rosters will eventually be reworked and may include Lanjane's works again.. but it will be different from what you have seen as of late. There are many mods out there that have many units that would fit into this mod.. I just want to finish the actual mod and worry about units later.

Finally, since I will be finishing the mod much more sooner than expected, this will allow me to have time to create separate mod campaigns that will give the game better immersion.

I hope this all has made sense.. I will try and get a pretty finished and stable product out for Christmas. If you have any questions, just ask. Just know that this mod is not dead, and that I am here to stay but I have to operate to my own accord and not rely on others.. because of this, expect a fully polished mod to be released much sooner.

Also, again many thanks to Lanjane, he is a dear friend of mine, and I wish him the best of luck.

~ahowl11

[ahowl11]

ahowl11's VE Mod v8 - Nomads on the Horizon

Hello and Merry Christmas!

It has been awhile since a release, but if you have not been following, a lot has changed. In this version, all of the units that had been previously made are not included. Don't worry, eventually most of them will make it back in, and they are still available for download here if you want them.
This version seeks to pick up from where I left off in Version 2 but also retaining all of the features that were included in versions 3-7, except Barbarians getting 5 tiers of recruitment.

Here is what is included in v8.


Nomadic Culture:
This was ported straight from Barbarian Invasion, including all of  the traits and ancillaries that made sense for this time frame. It was given to Scythia only, and includes a new rebel banner, new city models for the map, and new portraits.

Spoiler

The Four Tiers of Nomadic Settlements

Spoiler

Some of the New Nomad Portraits

Vanilla Balance Mod:
This mod is located on totalwar.org and I have taken most of it's features and added them to v8.


LANDBRIDGES
New land bridges - narrow stretches of water which  can be passed by both ships and armies - have been added to the campaign  map to compensate for the poor Naval invasion AI, and to promote the  growth of realistic-looking empires that straddle bodies of water. The  new landbridges are:

* Strait of Gibraltar, between Baetica and Mauretania.

* Strait of Messina, between Sicilia Romanus and Bruttium.

* Hellespont, between Propontis and Phrygia

* Dardanelles, between Propontis and Bithynia.
You can now expect to see empires that take in both Greece and Asia Minor, while Carthage sometimes invades southern Italy from Sicily if the Scipii are defeated.


* The game no longer revolves entirely around Rome, so factions' victory goals are individually tailored to their likely real-life ambitions. Whilst every faction must still conquer 50 provinces, the specific territories that must be included in those 50 now vary from faction to faction. For example the Spanish must conquer 50 provinces while ensuring that their empire includes Baetica, Taranonenis, Hispania and Celtiberia. Victory goals for the Roman families, the Gauls, the Germans and Carthage still include conquering Rome. The Successor kingdoms represented in the game - Macedonia, the Seleucid Empire and Egypt - share the goal of reuniting Alexander's empire by taking Pella, Antioch, Seleucia and Alexandria.


* Completed text for victory and defeat screens for every faction. No more lame generic "You have won, all your people celebrate" text when playing as Numidia, Dacia etc., the victory text for these is now just as specific and stirring as for the main factions!


* Capital of the province of Macedonia is now Pella, not Thessalonica


* There is a bonus cheat/feature, enabling the "perfect spy". This allows the player to see details of army composition and city details as if you had a spy right next to them, no matter how far away they are. To activate, press F1 while on the campaign map to bring up the keyboard  shortcuts scroll. Click on the question mark and when the advisor  appears, click the "show me how" button to activate the script. You can  deactivate it at any time by repeating this process. For best results,  use with the fog of war off.


* There is a bonus cheat/feature, enabling the "perfect spy". This allows the player to see details of army composition and city details as if you had a spy right next to them, no matter how far away they are. To activate, press F1 while on the campaign map to bring up the keyboard  shortcuts scroll. Click on the question mark and when the advisor  appears, click the "show me how" button to activate the script. You can  deactivate it at any time by repeating this process. For best results,  use with the fog of war off.


* The range of names for women in the Pontic, Armenian and Thracian factions has been increased to reduce the problem of repetitive family names. In pure vanilla it has been known for a general from one of these cultures to have a wife and three daughters all with the same name! Thrace and Pontus have gained some carefully-selected and appropriate names from the Macedonian list, while Armenia has received a small number of names from the Parthian list. These are culturally appropriate and historically justifiable (at least no less historic than pure Vanilla).


* All factions now have a public order bonus attached to the  Government building in any settlement, ranging from 5% for a Governor's  House to 25% for an Imperial Palace.


FACTION REBALANCING

* Summary: Various factions have been  strengthened and weakened by having their starting denarii, starting  provinces, armies, and sometimes units tweaked. This has been pretty  successful in generating a balanced campaign. Carthage, the Gauls, the  Germans and the Seleucids - the four big losers under pure vanilla - now  usually survive to 200BC at least, and will expand to powerful empires  in 30-50% of campaigns.


Britons

* Eburacum & Deva are now ruled by rebel Britannic tribes at the start of the game. (ahowl11's version)


Spain

* Carthago Nova lost to Carthage


Carthage

* Carthaginian empire now larger at game start, with Carthago Nova gained from Spain.
* Starting denarii increased
* Forces on Sicily slightly rebalanced
* Carthage can now recruit Scutarii at a City Barracks.
* Carthage can now recruit Archers at Lvl 2 Range
* Carthage can now build the top level of temples (Temple Complexes) in Huge Cities.
* Carthaginian Paved Road building card no longer shows pyramids in the background!


Roman Families

* Praetorian Guard now only recruitable in Rome,  reducing the unrealistic Praetorian-dominated armies often seen in late  game. (ahowl11's Version)
* First Cohorts can now be recruited in  each Roman family's starting capital, as well as Rome. Early Legionary  Fist Cohorts can be trained at an Army Barracks and Legionary First  Cohorts at an Urban Barracks in Arretium, Capua, Rome and Tarentum.


Greek Cities

* Diplomat moved from Sicily to Aetolia
* Pergamum gets an extra Militia Hoplite


Pontus

* Scythed Chariots can now be recruited only from a level 2 smith and above instead of level 1.
* Pontus can now build sewers and paved roads.


Seleucid Empire

* Starting denarii slightly increased
* Sidon gained from Egypt with modest garrison
* Some other starting garrisons increased, with a unit of cataphracts in Hatra (most nations get a "bonus late military unit" which they can't recuit, the Seleucids originally didn't).
* Better walls around Antioch and Hatra
* Scythed Chariots can now be recruited only from a level 2 smith and above instead of level 1
* In one of the most successful bits of modding, removed the river crossing from the river between Armenia and Assyria, ending the Armenians' manic obsession with Hatra and greatly improving the chances of the Seleucids surviving the first 50 years.


Parthia

* Parthia can now build sewers and paved roads.


Egypt

* Shrines removed from all cities to make presence of garrison more necessary at start of game
* Sidon lost to Seleucid Empire
* Base farming levels of Nile provinces very slightly reduced. They still collectively constitute the world's most fertile region though.


Armenia

* Armenia can now build sewers and paved roads.


Rebels

* Garrisons of Petra, Bostra, Ancyra, Nicomedia and  Apollonia increased, within reason, along with a small Judean Army near Jerusalem.


EVENTS

Quite a few of the historical events found in the campaign  don't actually happen as no date had been set for them. With a bit of historical research to find out when they happened, they are now back in the game. Look out for espionage in carthage and the completion of the great library at Alexandria. These have no effect on gameplay, they just  restore a little flavour that CA put in and then took out for some reason.


New Units:

Spoiler

The New units in v8

Okay so they aren't exactly 'New Units' as they are all vanilla  units. However, they are all units that I felt should have been on their factions in vanilla. I also removed some units, here is the Log:

Armenia - Gains: Eastern Light Cavalry (renamed Pontic Light Cavalry), Eastern Heavy Cavalry (renamed Pontic Heavy Cavalry) Imitation Legionaries (Armenian Legionaries name changed) *Post-Marius Unit


Britons - Gains: Axemen, Naked Fanatics, Skirmisher Warband, Archer  Warband, Barbarian Cavalry, Barbarian Warlord, Barbarian Chosen Warlord;  Loses: Head Hurlers, Britich Light Chariots, Barbarian Warlord (Chariot); Changes: Woad Warrior now at lvl 2 recruitment, Naked Fanatics at lvl 3 Andrasta


Carthage - Gains: Scutarii, Archers


Dacia - Gains: Axemen, Bastarnae, Slingers, Skirmisher Warband, Barbarian Noble Cavalry (renamed Gothic Cavalry - Barbarian Noble Cavalry from vanilla now known as 'Barbarian Heavy Cavalry') Loses: Naked Fanatics; Changes: Bastarnae available from lvl 3 temple


Egypt - Gains: Heavy Peltasts, Macedonian Cavalry


Gauls - Gains: Slingers, Archer Warband, Barbarian Noble Cavalry


Germans - Gains: Warband, Swordsmen, Chosen Swordsmen, Slingers,  Archer Warband, Barbarian Noble Cavalry; Loses: Spear Warband, Naked  Fanatics, Chosen Archer Warband


Greek Cities - No changes


Macedon - Gains: Heavy Peltasts, Militia Cavalry


Numidia - Gains: Town Militia, Elephants, War Elephants *Numidian Legionaries Post-Marian unit now


Parthia - Gains: Peltasts (Eastern), Cataphract Archers; Loses: War Elephants, Cataphract Camels


Pontus - Gains: Imitation Legionaries  *Post-Marius Unit; Loses: Chariot Archers


Roman Families - Gain: Samnite Infantry; Lose: Roman Archers, Urban  Cohort; Changes: Town Watch is now Post Marian, Cavalry Auxilia is now  Post Marian. Triarii is now available at tier 3 Barracks. Also, changes  from VBM mod implemented.


Scythia - Gains: Warband, Skirmisher Warband


Seleucids - Gain: Heavy Peltasts, Macedonian Cavalry


Spain - No Changes


Thrace - Gain: Levy Pikemen, Heavy Peltasts, Light Lancers, General's  Bodyguard, General's Armoured Bodyguard; Lose: Thracian Bodyguard,  Barbarian Chosen Warlord


Other Features:

-All Nomad Ancillaries & Traits added from BI
-Warlord Trait Added from BI and given to each Barbarian/Nomadic faction
-Spear of Wotan Ancillary added from BI and given to the Germans
-Added Greek and Eastern Advisors & UI from BI and Alexander

Download and Installation:

DOWNLOAD HERE
-If you have an old HRTW version, delete it as this will not work with it.


-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.

-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 -noalexander


IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS, NOTHING WILL WORK!

CREDITS:

crazyroman - Support, testing and fixes
bhl_20 - Deleting a river crossing to prevent Armenian swarm on Hatra
xeofox - Nomad Settlements, Portraits
Barbarossa82 - Vanilla Balance Mod
comrade_general - Textures and unit cards from THS mod
xcmhx - Textures, models and unit cards from Rome: Total War Enhanced
Barbarians Revenge Mod - Textures and unit cards
Macedon Expansion - Textures and unit cards
Guerro Sabino - Textures and unit cards
Lanjane - Textures and unit cards
Extended Greek Mod - Some descriptions, textures and unit cards
All of you - For Helping, testing and playing this mod, thank you!

[Jubal]

Pity to hear about the modelling problems - it's always been one of the limiting factors on TW mods in my experience. The new set of changes sound good, especially the land bridges - the lack of decent naval AI is really frustrating with the RTW engine at times.

[ahowl11]

Yeah but it's the reality and I'll have to make do with my limited abilities. Luckily there are so many mods out there and I can reskin pretty well, so I think I'll be okay.
Regarding Naval AI, we are actually discussing how to further improve it.