Hello everybody,
This is the announcement of the version 1.2 of the Retro Submod for Game of Thrones Enhanced.
I am glad that many people downloaded and enjoyed the 1.1 version and there were very few bugs or CTDs.
Most of the reported issues were related to the 4 GB Patch for Medieval 2. For those who don't know please google about it. It is necessary in order to run this mod.
The 1.2 version is an update of the previous one, at first glance it may look the same. As I was very happy about how it turned out. Now the mod folder is called GoT instead of Westeros. It is more appropriate as most stuff is based on the TV show, though still there are some references from the books. There are some nice additions, will list them below:
The first thing you will notice is related to Eddard Stark. Yes, the Lord of Winterfell. Since the old releases of Westeros Total War over a decade ago and most GoT versions, the start date has been considered the moment Robb Stark was marching south and Jaime Lannister getting ready to siege Riverrun.
At this time Ned Stark was still alive, a prisoner of the Lannisters in the Red Keep but still alive. And from this version he will be one of the starting characters for House Stark, but not for long.
His fate lies in the hands of King Joffrey "Baratheon"
The player of House Baratheon of King's Landing can decide to execute him or spare his life and send him to the Wall. This is Total War, sparing him won't prevent the War of the 5 Kings. The hostilities between Starks and Lannisters has already begun. Stannis and Renly are preparing to lay claim to the Iron Throne themselves.
If Ned get a royal pardon, he will join the Night's Watch and honorable as he is, he will do his duty to the Wall, despite his family being at war against the Crown.
For gameplay reasons some characters are out of place at turn zero. Like the Greyjoys already holding some lands in the North or Boltons already controlling Harrenhal. Or Viserys being still alive, and Drogo, them being in Volantis, all these choices were made for various gameplay reasons. The rest is more or less lore friendly.
Besides the script above, there are several other scripts, some small and significant. Like:
1. Euron Greyjoy isn't present at the start, he will show up later and kill Balon Greyjoy. Couldn't make him King afterwards as the game wouldn't give him the proper title. But he will be "adopted" in the family tree.
2. Petyr Baelish won't start as an Arryn General, he will start as ancillary, King Joffrey's Master of Coin. He spawns later near the Eyrie.
3. While there won't be a Red Wedding, at certain point Roose Bolton and Walder Frey will break their oaths and turn against their overlords. An event will notify everybody about it.
4. Neither Stannis nor Renly have a legitimate heir at the start, a true Baratheon to succeed them. If either get killed in battle, all their bannermen will follow the other Baratheon. The Stannis player should try to use the powers of Melisandre as soon as possible. This could turn him from being a small and insignificant faction to possibly the largest one very early in the game.
5. Oberyn Martell can challenge Gregor Clegane to a duel whenever he wants. But there is 50% chance he get killed by the Mountain.
6. If Jon Snow gets killed, he will be resurrected by the Lord of Light and will join House Stark as a general.
Most of these scripts require some conditions, a certain character to be alive at a certain moment. These are the main scripts but there are several smaller ones, more generals will show up as reinforcements and some factions have more starting general than in 1.1.
About the economy, there are several new buildings most of them related to the economy. But there are certain scripts now. Even in 1.1 it was hard to keep track of the economy as there are several add money scripts or even remove money if a certain faction gets too many gold dragons. Also the game will ask you to get guilds all the time.
From this version, all factions will loose population on every settlement they recruit units. This will slightly affect your income by taxes. For certain factions there will be other eco scripts, like the Wildlings and Dothraki who get extra money from their main economy activities, hunting and pastoral activities. House Frey get extra money from their tolls on their famous bridge, as long they aren't under siege. While the Night's Watch are the only faction who get a merchant, it will be just one, Yoren the famous Wandering Crow who asks the Lords of Westeros for men and supplies. All of that will help these small factions.
House Tyrell gets extra money from the legendary fertility of the Reach, closing the gap to House Lannister. According to the TV show and perhaps the books, they should be even wealthier than the Lannisters at this point.
There will be a new faction in Essos, an emerging one, just like the Mongols in Medieval 2 though not as powerful. The Ghiscari will emerge at a certain point in order to fight House Targaryen in Volantis (here it is analogous of Meereen) using their Sons of the Harpy and eastern sellswords. This will spice up Essos a little bit, although it remains dull compared to Westeros.
Moreover the Targaryen invasion of Westeros (Danny and co.) has been moved to the Crownlands. That region is a central location for action, especially in later stages of the campaign.
As about the rest there are a few new traits, ancillaries, artwork like loading screens etc.
There are some new units, and some of the existing ones got model updates including some custom generals. Also there are new custom models for Howland Reed (Starks), Salladhor Saan (Stannis), Rattleshirt (Wildlings). House Baratheon of King's Landing finally got access to WILDFIRE!
Besides it, I fixed a few minor bugs or incorrect stuff and updated the recruitment system a little bit.
The torches has been removed entirely because of the bug on banner carriers. No more permanent arrows in battle for improved game stability. The game itself should work as good as 1.1 though the turns might be a bit slower since the population script affects all factions, including the AI ones.
Last, about hotseats, all the repeated event messages will be very annoying but can't help with it. The rest should be exactly the same as in single player. Please let me know about any bug you may find.
Thank you and stay safe as Winter is Coming. Thankfully there aren't any White Walkers on planet Earth!
Credits
- Westeros: Total War for the old mod that started it all and for the custom settlements, some strat models and many buildings from the 1.0 release.
-Game of Thrones: Fire & Blood mod for many great strat and battle models, set of voices and more. The creator allowed me to use everything from his 2.3 version. Check out this mod by Peaman, it is great. The last release to date is 2.5.
- Warhammer Alt-Cut for the Warhammer animations, the dragon models and the mammoths
-A Game of Ice and Fire mod for Attila Total War, the leader of it, the Scouse Sicario created most of the heads on the custom generals.
-Westeros: Age of Petty Kings and Age of Petty Kings: Ice and Fire for many of the buildings on the teach tree.
-Vltima Ratio who brought me into this mod by creating his amazing TV-show based models, without him wouldn’t be much interested on Westeros mods for Medieval 2 Total War. And of course, wouldn’t have worked on this submod.
-Franky317, one of the modders for A Song of Ice and Fire and many other mods. He;s quite good at scripting, most of the new scripts on 1.2 were originally created by him, many years ago.
-Mr.Nygren for helping me out during all the long process of creating the Retro mod for GoT Enhanced.
Hopefully I didn't forgot anybody.
This is my first time trying this mod and it is so much fun thanks for your work!
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Hello, I've recently installed your mod as per your instructions and have used the 4gb patch on both kingdoms and medieval2 exes. However, when trying to load a faction for the campaign mode, the game crashes. Please help.
Frankly the mod shouldn't have any issues if you've done that so I suspect you have installed it wrongly. Remember that the mod is stand-alone and shouldn't be installed over any older version or other mod.