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Hello everyone,
I hope you guys are staying healthy as a new version of the Redux mod is nearing its public release. Most probably this version is content-wise the biggest so far. The AI got some neat changes preparing it for a future patch, how the game represents good and evil was improved, the influence system received a major overhaul and the most outstanding part the remastered music.
As you might've guessed I couldn't do so much work alone in this short period of time, so I want to point out many, many thanks to Vociferous who did all the music and textures and we are really excited to hear your thoughts about the new update. Also make sure to check out Vociferous' youtube channel which you can find right here: TFS | Vociferous
English Version
German Version
Spanish Version
First of all the music. Vociferous did an awesome job remastering many of the Black & White 2 soundtracks. Currently finished themes are:
In addition to the music listed, it is planned and already partially done to recreate the Black & White 2 combat music. However it doesn't made it into the current patch as it isn't fully finished yet.
If you want to have a taste of the new music you can listen to the hurricane, earthquake and volcano themes on newgrounds: Apocalyptic themes
Next up the textures and the with them connected ambience. We thought that good and evil wasn't represented at its full potential so far, so we decided to give the textures a bit more personality, as the good textures are generally a bit brighter now whileas other good alignment textures were changed in color drastically. Also the evil textures generally received a darker look to them.
Besides you might know the system in Black & White 1 where sky colors and lightning were altered when you moved inside the influence ring of another god. This is now also integrated into the Redux mod. To conclude the textures and ambience you can see two screenshots below which show the gods playground with the new changes:
As already mentioned the new patch will also feature a completely changed influence system, shifting the focus of placing the buildings nearby the influence ring to maintaining a large population which in the end will extend the influence for the most part.
Most significantly buildings don't have an own influence ring anymore as the town centre is now the only base of the influence ring which gets stronger the more villagers and the more buildings you have.
Below you can see a town equipped with the new influence system with around 275 villagers:
In the end here is the full change log for the next patch. You can also find the changelog in the forum:
Additions and changelog for the new version of Black & White 2: Redux.
Additions and changelog for the new version of Black & White 2: Redux
Additions and changelog for the new version of Black & White 2: Redux
English Version of Black & White 2: Redux 1.7.1.
German Version of Black & White 2: Redux 1.7.1.
Spanish Version of Black & White 2: Redux 1.7.1.
Used for Black & White 2 Redux installation. Not needed in version 1.7 and higher
Install this if you get a crash when loading the fourth aztec land. Yet if it doesn't crash it's not recommended to install this fix.
German Version of Black & White 2: Redux 1.6.2.
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Highest Rated (3 agree) 10/10
Great mod and a great developer. Breathes new life into an aging game, highly recommended!
May 22 2019 by robula1990
Is anyone else unable to build an Altar in skirmish?
I also can't turn villagers into Worshipers at temples, and Tribute is never saved or banked, so its impossible to advance through a full skirmish game..
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You unlock the altar first in the last norse land. So you have to play it first before going to skirmish as in version 1.7.1.
You normally turn villagers into worshippers at the altar.
Last one sounds weird. It might be a faulty game installation, try to reinstall it maybe it'll fix it.
Ny population was limited to around 600, why ?
Terrain on maps is terrible. I might understand it is hard to do right, but when I witnessed you replaced northland map with your own I was like: F**k it. If you can't make proper lands for any reason, just use those that are there already.
This would be a great mod if you just transferred all the stuff from BW2BOTG to BW2 making it one more fruitful game, and adding all your stuff on top of it, making those skirmishes on campaign maps, perhaps even reworking them to be even better.
Other than that I respect the effort, and hate to bring this critic, just can't understand why you done it this way when it could have been so much better.
If you can explain further and which lands exactly you dislike it would be a much more of a help because now it's the time.
Some landscapes get major changes for the update. The northland map for instance has been scrapped completely and replaced by a completely new one. As I said, I'll be able to respond to your critic much more precisely if you can explain your critic a bit further.
All the custom maps. They can't even closely match the detail level of original ones. Those smooth mountains, lack of vegetation, and detail in general makes them look like some crude PvP maps. I just suggest using original maps(is that possible?)
Sad to hear you dislike all of them, anyway thanks for your feedback!
Technically it's possible to get the mod work on the original maps, but it would take too much time for me to make those changes alone.
Meanwhile I hope you like the future changes to the maps but as it is planned the mod will be based on the custom maps.
It would be nice to have new maps creating new challenges and opportunities in building and gameplay, just want them to be at least close to being as good as original, that's why I suggested reworking original ones.
In fact I have no objections to general layout and ideas of maps, just the lack of varying textures, gras, forests, and shape of terrain most importantly. Those mountains have to be sharp with bunch of wrinkles. I understand that takes time and effort to achieve. I have some bit of experience designing maps in few game editors, and I work with 3D modelling on regular basis this days. What program or tools do you use to design new maps? I'd appreciate an opportunity to work on those maps, maybe I'd be able to improve them properly to have some kind of my own version or if I'll be able to make some decent improvement add them to mod in general?
I'm gladly taking any help I can get if you want to improve the maps yourself.
I'm using the bw2 landscape editor for the maps. It comes with the bw2 modding tools located here: Bwfiles.com
According to my experience the installer of the modding tools can cause some troubles. If you need some help installing it or help in general, you can add me on discord: Boxhead#0578
I see now. You made decent job with those maps, just needs to be more detail, but then again, that takes tons of work which none paid for. It's hard to compete with professionals that are paid for their time. We'll see after those updates you mentioned.
That program seems to run alright by the way, just some objects seem to be missing, but I don't think they were or were meant to be used in the game.