[Strategy / Risk] Rome II : Total War

[GolluM_KoMe]

The map has been uploaded here.

 

[Korialstrasz]

First of all: When I looked at the Name i thought -
Oh well a Map for a crossover game, this can't go too well.
But after looking through this post, I changed my mind. This looks incredible good.
But after reading your gameplay features it is also clear that this is an Infinite project,
which honestly looks incredible hard to finish as a single person, but that's just my guess.
Another thought that I had was: Can you show us something about the unit models?
To achieve a good Rome:Total War, it would be cool to have unique unit models for every faction.
Or are you planning to use just 3-4 different types? We also gotta talk about Map-Size then,
since there already seem to be a lot of textures and models in it. Don't get me wrong,
the cities do look AMAZING. Pretty much something I always wished for a Risk style-game.
Thus far, I love every small detail you've put into the map, e.g. the Temple of Athene.
You even got the Pyramids, I can see that you really spent your hearthblood into this map!
The cities look really flawless, and even better than the real Rome Total War cities.
However, I'm really interested in this project, and I'll definitely checking by from time to time,
since this looks really promising. Good luck with the further construction of your Map!

 

[APproject]

Looks pretty good, I love the way you designed those cities.

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

But after reading your gameplay features it is also clear that this is an Infinite project,
which honestly looks incredible hard to finish as a single person, but that's just my guess.

You raised an interesting point. You're right that it s really long to do, but mostly the terrain, not the triggering: if you check my other maps, you'll see that they all have diplomacy/complex economic and trade systems. I am used to that and can also recover my previous triggers (especially diplomacy).
For the battalion system, I am currently being helped by Fingolfin who may come up with a custom system for the map if he has time (finger crossed)

The game will be made step by step, by adding features at each version while balancing the units. But the alpha version is far ...

Another thought that I had was: Can you show us something about the unit models?

Done

To achieve a good Rome:Total War, it would be cool to have unique unit models for every faction.
Or are you planning to use just 3-4 different types?

Well, the good thing about this period (Hellenistic period) is that there are greeks everywhere (greece, anatolia, egypt, middle east) so I can re use some models; but I may not. By altering some models they will look the same but not quite and it will do.

We also gotta talk about Map-Size then,
since there already seem to be a lot of textures and models in it.

For now, even though I imported stuff I haven t used yet (or may never do), I'm good . And textures' quality can always be decreased.


Thanks for this long and constructive comment !

 

[Fingolfin]

Looking at this map, i'm really inclined to finishing my ancient units set. I'm going to finish up my macedonian units, and maybe work on some gauls. Overall, this looks amazing, and i wish you the best of luck.

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

That would be AWESOME ! I really lack good Celtic units and a Macedonian phalanx would look so great ...

 

[Pinzu]

Can't resist to revisit this thread only to watch your amazing terrain.

I recall a campaign taking place in the American war of independence, where you could deploy your soldiers and such, I found it very novel, but at the same time slow and boring. My honest fear is that a multiplayer campaign map of RTW will have the same "weakness" as that campaign. Either way, good luck with this gem of a map.

 

[purparisien]

This map promises to be very good. I just hope it will not overshadow my own map about Rome ^^

 

[ExMortis]

I've tried to make a similar Total War map with Warcraft races. The problem is it lags a lot and I didn't even succeeded in making the Battlefield work. It takes to figure out how the Attack ability works OR making a custom spell for that. So I'm interested to see how can you do that.

 

[GhostThruster]

i sincerely hope those noldor elf models are stand-ins

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

This is exactly what they are (replacing Ptolemaic Egyptian units before better stuff)
New units from Fingolfin have been done already that I didn t show here: Seleucid, Macedonian Phalanx, Punic Soldier and a Roman Archer

 

[fladdermasken]

Opened on request.

 

[Emm-A-]

Is this project still being worked on? The minimap picture looks very interresting!

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Yep I m hard working it these days ; )

 

[Valandil]

This is very huge project with a custom battle army systems. Good Luck !
My question is if there will be present naval battles ?

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Thanks
Yes there will be naval battles; even the coastal sieges will have boats. There should be these kinds:
-Classic range (arrow) Small band of archer when disembarked
-Raiders (melee) Larger band of soldiers; useful for sieges
-Ram : Ramming boats useful against other ships
-Ballistae : Very long range; useful to destroy the defenses of towns (towers, walls, gate)

EDIT :
Here are a couple pictures of the battlefield of Rome I juste finished

 

[purparisien]

This is impressive ! You should ask Fingolfin to deliver some epic Roman models. He has made quite some good stuff about it.

 

[Danor]

Great terrain! Good luck on this project, hope you finish it!

 

[Valandil]

Oh my God I can t tell you how good its looking ! Wish I could test it now !

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

I've started the triggering ! (and Alexandria's battlefield)
And thanks to N41, I now have my set of flags ! You can download them in the link btw !

 

[Binsu]

Something we always expect from you - a total masterpiece. I have played before some of your games with the same genre of gameplay and I must say that this one is as promising as your previous projects. I always get the wide and unique gameplay vibes from your maps and hoping as well from here once released. More updates from this projects and hopefully, more to come. Good luck!

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Thanks mate .

EDIT:

I simple post this message here so you are aware that you now can DL a pre-alpha version of the game!! (See in first page)

 

[redbaron4850]

This map looks great. Going to check out the pre-alpha. Really interested to how this map progresses.

 

[Emm-A-]

Hi GolluM KoMe,

I just tested your pre alpha a bit and want to share my thoughts about it.

First of all, the detail of the cities is absolutely amazing! I also admire, how you managed to balance this with functionality by simply using city dummies. I think, that the flags somehow interfere in a bad way with this atomspheric landscape ... Maybe making them a bit smaller would be better?

Next, I wanted to say, that this cooldown UI, you implemented, is very comfortable and eye pleasing in the same time. Very easy to catch the progress in the heat of the battle I guess (You might publish this one on the hive even, as I read numerous posts about something like this ..)

I dont know, if you planned to use Black Mask later on in the game? Allthough, I am almost sure, you wanted to implement something like this anyway.

As I am a big fan of world interaction in video games, I would suggest, that you think of implementing visible changes in the cities for their upgrades. Nothing really special, but maybe include sheep running around the village, once you upgraded "herding ground". Or may it be a steaming factory, once you upgraded olive farms or something like this. It would increase immersion a lot

To sum up, I think that you did a great job so far, as I can see, how much time you invested in creating all this until now, and I think, this map will be a lot of fun, once it progresses more, as it is already now fun to explore.

Have fun making this

Emm-A-

suggestion for post release updates

Also, when I was playing the units in the roman city, I thought it would be absolutely amazing, if there was one building per nation, that you could enter. Like the colosseum in rome ...

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

First of all, the detail of the cities is absolutely amazing! I also admire, how you managed to balance this with functionality by simply using city dummies. I think, that the flags somehow interfere in a bad way with this atmospheric landscape ... Maybe making them a bit smaller would be better?

Yes I can reduce the size of the flags and it's true that there's already a visual thing that shows the owner : the color of the city name; but I think it's important to have a model indicating towns so people have to target to point with there armies (attack, garrison etc...)

Next, I wanted to say, that this cooldown UI, you implemented, is very comfortable and eye pleasing in the same time. Very easy to catch the progress in the heat of the battle I guess (You might publish this one on the hive even, as I read numerous posts about something like this ..)

Well; I "stole" it from an other map so I can't post it unfortunately...

I dont know, if you planned to use Black Mask later on in the game? Allthough, I am almost sure, you wanted to implement something like this anyway.

Yep; I am also working on a custom minimap to "hide" the battlefields.

As I am a big fan of world interaction in video games, I would suggest, that you think of implementing visible changes in the cities for their upgrades. Nothing really special, but maybe include sheep running around the village, once you upgraded "herding ground". Or may it be a steaming factory, once you upgraded olive farms or something like this. It would increase immersion a lot

Well, the problem that I had when I wanted to have changes with cities and their buildings is that there's almost no interaction possible with doodads with that shitty Editor (mainly destructibles which cannot be placed wherever you want). Right now, i am adding recognizable stuff on the map so that people know that there is ressources in some regions (iron mines, olive press etc)
About the little stuff like sheep, that's a pretty good idea even though it would be veeeeeery small ^^ But it gave me the idea of changing the terrain around cities with Farm tiles when they're built.

Have fun making this

Thanks ! I am having great fun !

Also, when I was playing the units in the roman city, I thought it would be absolutely amazing, if there was one building per nation, that you could enter. Like the colosseum in rome ...

Well, thing is these are to be generic towns so I cannot truly personalize them. Although I can had stuff like theaters and palaces.


Thaaanks a lot ! It's a real pleasure to have feedback !

 

[Emm-A-]

Thaaanks a lot ! It's a real pleasure to have feedback !

No worries, I think thats what the community is for, isnt it?

But it gave me the idea of changing the terrain around cities with Farm tiles when they're built.

Actually, stuff like that is what I meant by "interaction". Sry, I did not express myself correctly.
I also know that there is almost no interaction with doodas possible, but I just meant as you said recognizable stuff like these things you are planning. Also, I thought, you could simply create a locust-, hidden-, special building next to each city, that is shown upon completed research. E.g. an olive oil factory near southern roman cities. Stuff like that. It just popped up in my mind when I was exploring and thought "this would make it perfect"

Yep; I am also working on a custom minimap to "hide" the battlefields.

You could also think of creating black masks for each player on map init on the different little regions and disable it for specific players that should be allowed to see a certain subset of your map and enable the black mask later to cover it again.

but I think it's important to have a model indicating towns so people have to target to point with there armies (attack, garrison etc...)

I defenitley like these flags, I just thought, they were too big. But as I do not have the future gameplay in mind, it is probably too early to judge this from my perspective. Sry

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Actually, stuff like that is what I meant by "interaction". Sry, I did not express myself correctly.
I also know that there is almost no interaction with doodas possible, but I just meant as you said recognizable stuff like these things you are planning. Also, I thought, you could simply create a locust-, hidden-, special building next to each city, that is shown upon completed research. E.g. an olive oil factory near southern roman cities. Stuff like that. It just popped up in my mind when I was exploring and thought "this would make it perfect"

I unfortunately don't have recognizable building models for each production building... but that would be a good idea!

You could also think of creating black masks for each player on map init on the different little regions and disable it for specific players that should be allowed to see a certain subset of your map and enable the black mask later to cover it again.

Yep ! That's the plan !

I defenitley like these flags, I just thought, they were too big. But as I do not have the future gameplay in mind, it is probably too early to judge this from my perspective. Sry

No need to apologize I can't expect people knowing what I have in mind for the future ^^

 

[redbaron4850]

I have to say man the pre alpha is looking great. I hope you are continuing to work on this map and I am very curious to see how it progresses. I am a big fan of the total war games and this just looks stunning for being a wc3 map.

 

[Valandil]

Can you update your pre alpha map so we can see how is work going on ?)

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Can you update your pre alpha map so we can see how is work going on ?)

It's done !

 

[Lord_Disasthorm]

This project makes the sight of The Emperor redirected at it. Well, this' looked appealing and good! Reminds me of CK2 anyways. Good luck at it, have fun on creating it!

An additional note, don't open it if you don't want to read it :p

I am just wondering, where could you get those desert-people's (and all european's too, actually) buildings and walls, and those units models, and where can I get those? I am desperately searching those on The Three Great Modding Site, and I could not find those! Pardon for asking this. Please, don't mind if I bothered any of you.

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Spoiler: Teaser of Alpha0.1

Finally !
Here is the first playable alpha ! You may play ROME or CARTHAGE in solo or with a second player.
-MAKE SURE you only pick ROME and/or CARTHAGE and only wage war on one of these factions. The units of the other factions are not done : if you attack their towns, no troop will spawn for them and the battle cannot end.
-Many issues are yet to be fixed, but I would love to get any feedback ! Please come back to me after playing !

I hope you'll enjoy it !

 

[A]mun]

Looks mighty fine, having a go at it.

edit: Nice doodad work and overall presentation (custom ui bonus). No custom music to fit the scenario sadly, which helps the mapsize ofc.

Surely needs more nations to play out properly and give further feedback. Make it at least 2v2 playable i'd say. I have found no bugs so far, just give some f9 info for ingame commands (how to reset camera?).

I think this is a pretty special map, no doubts!

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Surely needs more nations to play out properly and give further feedback. Make it at least 2v2 playable i'd say. I have found no bugs so far, just give some f9 info for ingame commands (how to reset camera?).

Yep these are planned for the next version(s) : )
I'll be able to quickly make Greece, Pergamon, Seleucids and Egypt (all the systems are ready, aswell as the models and their skins thanks to Fingolfin); but the other factions (mostly celts and germans) will demand more work (mainly on skins). A 6 player map will be much better all of a sudden ^^
The map lacks a lot of tooltips, and the F9 is definitely essential.

Thanks !!

 

[Nordmar]

this game needs a F9 help. I had no idea how to play it.

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

It's being written right now : )
Btw, I am curious. Have you ever played a game from the Total War series before ??? If yes, it means that the map is not enough self explanatory. If no, it is normal without an F9.

 

[Nordmar]

i haven't played Total War games. I played Age of Empires but I don't think this is similiar

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Ah ok, you reassure me ^^
I thought it was really unintelligible. I will post a tutorial with pictures on the Hive, in addition to the F9 in the game.

 

[Blake8]

I support your project mate, looks really interesting, I'll try it out

 

[TheFrenchLeprechaun]

So I've tested this out ^^!

First, congratulations for your work. The map is a coherent whole, and everything fits the Total War series (units, UI, icons, terrain, ...). I like particularly the models you use, I'll have to give it another try to see those chariots in action! The terrain is simple but very smooth and nice to browse. Huuuge work on systems (building upgrades, regiment system, diplomacy, battles, ...). All the "campaign aspect" is very successful.

I faced some difficulties with the "battle aspect", in my opinion it was lacking handiness. This is due to two main things :

• right click and attack button doesn't work in most cases, the regiment doesn't react
• selection of multiple regiments in the same time is impossible (except if you're fast enough ^^)

I've also noticed two bugs :

• it is possible to attack ships with a landed flag bearer. And impossible to end the battle, quite annoying but I guess very easy to fix
• a texture glitch on the walls of Carthago (the texture was clipping)

And last thing : you've forgotten to remove one Lybian fighter on one of the battle fields

Spoiler: Forever alone

 

[A]mun]

^ yeah that one fighter seems placed suspiciously in-your-face (i noticed him too).

Is that an attempt of the author to describe the loneliness of being?
Or perhaps a portrayal of how singled out and forsakened individuals must've felt in the grand scheme of massive battles and progressively so in wars which lasted for centuries.

We may never know...

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

right click and attack button doesn't work in most cases, the regiment doesn't react

Yes this is something I need to work on. For now you should actually only use attack-click moves to attack. What I'll probably do is that if the selected regiment is melee, it will give this move-attack order at the position of the target; and if it is ranged, each unit will receive the order to attack a random unit of the targeted regiment (otherwise, you cannot target specific regiment with attack-move, only the closest).

• selection of multiple regiments in the same time is impossible (except if you're fast enough ^^)

Well, that's something I added to prevent "unit lag" : if you give the same order to many regiments at the same time (i.e to possibly a hundred units), Warcraft 3 doesn't handle it nicely and the units will seem to be "lagging" (and break regiment formation)

it is possible to attack ships with a landed flag bearer. And impossible to end the battle, quite annoying but I guess very easy to fix

Woops ^^ that's the kind of stuff that wouldn't have come to mind. Thanks for reporting

a texture glitch on the walls of Carthago (the texture was clipping)

Ow, I guess it's due to the size of the destructibles. It will be hard to prevent it. (and unfortunately, this is not Carthago, just a generic coastal walled mediterranean ( ) city; Cartha will get the room you see on the top right corner)

And last thing : you've forget to remove one Lybian fighter on one of the battle fields

Aha woops ^^ Love the meme. (it's just one of the test units that I have to remove each time I save a playable map)

Thanks a looot ! That's great feedback ! And I appreciate the fact that you noticed the amount of work on interface/campaign map. The battle part definitely needs improvements !

Or perhaps a portrayal of how singled out and forsakened individuals must've felt in the grand scheme of massive battles and progressively so in wars which lasted for centuries.

Sorry to disappoint you ^^

 

[A]mun]

Well, that's how easter eggs are born.
Therefore i demand a "contemplating warrior" or sth that resembles what has been described. ;>

 

[Lord Siler]

I support this project, looks really good, can't wait to see the completed version

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Units of Greece and Seleucids have been made. Pergamon and Egypt coming next ! It's hard to contain myself from playing ME Andromeda but I really want to upload the next Alpha next week (6 factions playable)

 

[A]mun]

looking sharp - except for that elephant, looks rather bloated!

 

[Lord Siler]

Looks good, I like the war elephant, never seen that model used in any map before

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

Well, the war elephant is based on a Mumakil which I tweaked ^^
I'll probably add some attachment point on the model to place a soldier in the howdah and some shields around it.
But the elephant itself is still too "warcrafty"... I'd need to thin out his limbs and body

 

[Lord Siler]

Give the elepahnt a passive like war stomp if possible, it's very fitting

 

[GolluM_KoMe]

It s already the case : ). you can try it with the first alpha by playing Carthage (you need to have a Camp level 3 to recruit them; in the province of Africa only)

Seleucids and Greece units/armies have been implemented :