Hello everybody,
This is the announcement of the version 2.0 of the Retro Submod for Game of Thrones Enhanced.
Before I start explaining what is new, allow me to remind you that without the 4GB patch for Medieval II Total War, this mod won’t work. The patch is free, look for it here on Moddb or google it. As far as I know, the patch does work only on the original version of Medieval Total War and the Kingdoms expansion, not the pirated ones. This mod is bulletproof on my PC and if you do everything correctly, it should be the same for you.The Kingdoms expansion is also necessary for the Game of Thrones Retro Submod. The installation is pretty simple, just drop the GoT folder to your mod folder for Medieval II, same as you do for most mods.
I think the 1.2 was very successful in improving the campaign experience, the new buildings, the scripts, the trustworthy AI etc. made this mod rather successful. The 2.0 version is about polishing it even further and also improving the battle experience. This is how:
1. The biggest update for 2.0 are the new custom battle settlements provided by Peaman and his Game of Thrones: Fire & Blood mod. Thanks to him, now the ones who plays the Retro Submod can enjoy new battle map models for:
Winterfell
The Dreadfort
White Harbor
Pyke
The Twins
Riverrun
Harrenhal
The Bloody Gate
Casterly Rock
Highgarden
Oldtown
Dragonstone
Storm’s End
Yronwood
Sunspear
Also I used Peaman’s beautiful model of Meereen for Volantis (Targaryen’s starting capital) and another of his castles for The Eyrie. Also there are still the models created by Makanyane for Westeros Total War for King’s Landing, Castle Black (used for the 3 castles at the Wall) and Moat Cailin which I finally could make it work on my submod.
There are certain issues on some of the new settlements; whenever there is an elevation, some units look to go up in the air before returning on the ground. But it happens on just a few of them and only on certain points of the battle map. I have reported these bugs to Peaman, hopefully he fixes them in the future. Also hopefully he reintroduces the boiling oil and arrows from the towers as in my opinion these new settlements are way too easy to capture. But undoubtedly they are beautiful models, he did a great job.
2. As soon as you start playing the mod, you will notice the campaign has been reduced to just 250 turns and there are no victory conditions. 250 turns are translated to 25 years here and even that is a bit too much in my opinion. The scope of this mod is to rewrite the story of the characters we love so much from the Song of Ice and Fire books and the Game of Thrones TV show.
The victory conditions have been moved to the campaign script where it was possible to customise them. As soon as you start playing the game, you will receive a message just before or after the one about the fate of Eddard Stark. Read it carefully as it won’t show up again.
This looks pretty straightforward, as rulers of the North, the Starks of WInterfell have to defend it from the Ironborn, the Wildlings or whoever else tries to invade the North. Also they have to punish the Lannisters of Casterly Rock and their puppets in King’s Landing for the vile treatment they reserved to the honourable Ned Stark and the young Bran Stark. But this may change if they declare the kingship.
As King in the North, the Stark players have more responsibilities. Now they should expand a bit further and besides destroying the Lannisters (and Joffrey) they also have to wipe out the treacherous Boltons. Before it, just taking the Dreadfort from them was enough. Also since the Riverlords have declared for King Robb, the Starks have to protect them and maintain the alliance of House Tully. This way they will meet the victory conditions.
Also I wanted to point out I didn’t write all the settlement names on the intro message. I suppose you all are familiar with the lore, and you will recognize the regions on the map. When the message says: defend the North or defend the Riverlands, you will know the map and all the settlements belonging to the North and the Riverlands. Writing 20 or more settlement names on the intro message isn’t straightforward, most of us won’t remember all of them anyway.
Now, for most factions the victory conditions will be very straightforward and easier to meet. For the ones who can declare their kingship (Starks, Greyjoys, the three Baratheon branches) it is a bit harder. Unlike the Starks and the Greyjoys who simply seek their independence from the Iron Throne, the three branches of House Baratheon plus House Targaryen claim the overlordship over all the Seven Kingdoms. For them, it means controlling King’s Landing and making sure no other faction claims their kingship. So they don’t have to wipe out rival factions now. With the latest edits on the campaign script, the AI will give up their kingship on their own if they control just a few settlements, like 3 or 4. Also whenever the player loses his original king, his heir can either choose to uphold the crown or give it up.
3. In the 2.0 version the hero abilities from Medieval II Crusades have been introduced. They are the same as the ones Richard the Lionheart or Saladin have on that version. There are just 5 abilities and can be used only once per battle.
Therefore very few characters get a hero ability, read the list below:
Mance Rayder
Jon Snow
Eddard Stark
Robb Stark
Brandon Stark
Ramsay Snow
Euron Greyjoy
Petyr Baelish
Brynden Tully
Tywin Lannister
Jaime Lannister
Tyrion Lannister
Stannis Baratheon
Brienne Tarth
Loras Tyrell
Oberyn Martell
Therefore almost every faction gets at least one character with a special ability. Daenerys Targaryen doesn’t need any as she rides dragons in the campaign. Also as you can see in the image the battle UI has been improved a bit, no more vanilla. And finally the below issue has been fixed:
4. The economy has improved. Now all factions start with more money, something I should have done since the 1.2 version when I added many new buildings. Also the script that reduces the King’s Purse to ZERO kicks off a bit later on 2.0, so you can enjoy some more money for longer. But once Winter comes, after more than 100 turns, the King’s Purse will go negative but not by much.
Also some of the buildings are more useful and grant a bit more income now, while unique buildings like Winterfell or Dragonstone offer one more free upkeep slot. Also there will be way more money coming with the Reinforcements Scripts. The money was supposed to help the player and AI with the upkeep of the new armies but it wasn’t enough. On 2.0 it should be a little bit better.
5. There are a few more scripts now and some of the existing ones have been slightly improved. These scripts aren’t as significant as the ones introduced on 1.2 but are nice nonetheless. Among the new ones, there is an event when Sansa Starks gets free. Another one concerns House Tyrell, if Renly Baratheon dies they go back to neutrality while contemplating their future actions. This will give a chance to other factions to ally with the powerful Tyrells. There are new faction specific scripts for the Greyjoys, Arryns, Targaryens ect.
Also some scripts from the old Westeros 0.53 have been introduced and edited to fit this mod. Scripts like “A Grand Tournay” or “The Conclave Called” which mainly grant new unique ancillaries. The script “The Watch asks for Help” has also been improved. Moreover the Targaryen invasion of Westeros has been enhanced but for the AI only. They will get more troops as they expand in the Crownlands, so they shouldn’t be a pushover anymore.
6. There are new agents as well. Some people asked for Spies and they will get them on 2.0. They are called Outriders and can be recruited from the dungeons only. Besides granting a view on the map they also have the ability to raid the supplies of other factions and steal money from them as a result. Enemy outriders can do the same to you.
There are also assassins, called the Faceless Men. Unlike the Outriders they are available only throughout scripts and are very rare and expensive. The player should have the dungeons building and over 20k gold. From here, there is a 20% chance the Faceless Men Guild will offer you an assassin. They have great stats but can be used only for one kill and they disappear.
The priests are redundant for this mod, same as merchants, although the Night’s Watch do start with a single merchant, called Recruiter or Wandering Crow. The Watch needs all the help they can get. Also there are more princesses in this version.
7. Unlike the previous releases, there won’t be new units here, with the exception of the Frozen Shore Chariots for the Wildlings. Some models got slight updates and a few units got revised stats. Mainly the Halberdiers who have a proper formation now and are way more useful.
The hidden family tree has been expanded for all factions besides the Targaryens and the faction who uses “Teutonic” style and no family tree. This means the faction survives longer and fewer adoption requests.
8. Very much like the previous releases, there are new ancillaries on 2.0 as well. In my opinion, they help with the immersion and also grant several bonuses. This time there are a few ancillaries for agents as well.
Enjoy it and let me know about any bug you encounter during your playthrough.
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, custom settlements, set of voices and more. The creator allowed me to use everything from his 2.5 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 in 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 the long process of creating the Retro mod for GoT Enhanced.
Hopefully I didn't forget anybody.
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