New Features news

Just wanted to update you guys on our developments with Insularis Draco. Just a few more important elements remain to be modded before we can go on to a full release, presumably near the end of the year. We're still having no luck changing the faction accents and some unit models are pretty low quality so we're working on those. Now, on to the news:

CAMPAIGNS

Main Campaign
The main 'Insularis Draco' campaign is pretty close to being finished. Belovèse from SSHIP came in and streamlined the script from 900 to 450 monitors. He's also cooking up an original script involving the Fianna, for an extra mercenary/rebel dynamic in Ireland. Should be up and running soon!
Letau = Cernou
I also made the decision to split up the faction called 'Letau' because, at this point in history, there was no unified Britanny. The advantage of this is that we now have two factions straddling the Channel between Cornwall and Brittany: Cornovia (in Cornwall) and Dumnonia (in Devon). The Cornovians had settlers in Breton Cornouaille and the Dumnonians had the same in Domnonée. This makes both factions' starting positions more interesting and challenging as they're deeply entwined allies but also rivals in the tin trade and in territorial expansion. Declare war and you'll likely lose your economic interests on the other side of the channel, where the balance of power is reversed.
This involved a redesign of the old Letau faction symbol into something more Cornovian-specific: the Ram of Cornouaille.

CUSTOM CAMPAIGNS:
This is pretty big news. You might've seen LughLámhfada's awesome mods 'Ireland 657' set in 7th century Ireland and 'Dawn of a New Era' set in 6th century Britain? Well, he gave us permission to use his campaign maps for custom campaigns! These are good tidings, because this will enable us to have entirely different playing styles (as the maps are so big and detailed) than the main campaign. I'm planning on having variations between turns-per-year, movement points bonuses and other gameplay elements in these maps as opposed to the main campaign.

Of course, campaign descriptions still need filling out, as do the factions on the map itself. The Britain campaign is almost completely filled in with factions but there's so much detail to be added, on (hamlets to enable AOR levies, monasteries, etc) and off map (hidden resources enabling the construction of certain buildings, horde targets, religion percentages, detailed rebel factions, etc). Let's just say it'll be a monumental task to finish it by december but they're coming!

Lastly, because I said I was adding three campaigns: there's another one in the works, one that'll ensure this mod's entire timeframe will span four centuries and cover late antique/early medieval North-Western Europe on a level of detail unseen in Total War mods: 'Germania Libera 355 AD', the map of which will cover this geographical area:

Factions present will be the Danes of the Isles, the Jutes of Jutland, two Anglian factions in Angeln, two Saxon factions, the Frisians before they settled western Frisia, the Thuringians as a horde, two Frankish factions before they became entangled in Roman power politics, the powerful Alamanni and of course their hated enemies: the Romans, led by the ambitious young Caesar Iulianus the Apostate, eager to prove himself a military commander in Barbaricum.

BATTLEMAP UI

I recently redid the battlemap UI, complete with custom buttons, selected unit lighting effects and culture-specific colour themes. Here, have a look at the Roman battle UI:

All in all, the mod is still in development and, I daresay when it is finally finished, will be one of the most ambitious historical mod projects in M2TW.

Lastly, I redid the Battle Editor location selection window. Now you can choose where you want your custom battle to happen in great detail.