Some Bad News, but it's also Good News

If you follow the mod on twcenter.net you would have seen that yesterday I posted news of a Grand Christmas release...

Alrighty, this is slightly embarrassing but everything has changed.

Lanjane, the magnificent unit maker and ui creator, is no longer able to help the mod due to the fact that he needs to take care of things in RL, and he doesn't know if he will come back.. if he does, he doesn't know when. I want to personally thank him on all of the great things he has done for the RTW community, as well as my mods. I have known him since 2011, and I hope he can come back some day. Until then, I wish him the best of luck going forward in his life.

Now, the problem with him leaving is the mod now needs to change course in direction. There is absolutely no way I can continue with this mod and keep it consistent with what we have done with the previous releases, beginning with v3 Gallic Pride. I have to revert unit rosters to v2 Egyptian Makeover. Now, notice how I only said 'unit rosters', that means that all other features from v1-7 will stay in, as well as the intended features I had for v8..

Why am I going back to the old unit rosters?

I first need to provide a short backstory of why I am reverting:

In August I released the 2nd Version of the mod, making over Egypt. My plan was to then enhance all of the barbarian factions, by giving them some units to fill some holes. These were not going to be new units, but reskinned vanilla units. For example, Swordsmen for Germania, Archer Warband for Gaul. It was going to be it's own release, and I started with Gaul. One of the researchers who is no longer on the team convinced me to be more in depth with the rosters, and Lanjane also wanted this and offered to make the units. At first, I did not want to, I simply wanted vanilla style, with maybe some tweaks. However, Lanjane created some very beautiful units, and I could not resist.. thus Gallic Pride came about. However, I wondered if he would have enough desire and energy to continue with me on EVERY faction.. he seemed like he did, so we pressed on. The researcher left, and so the unit roster forming took a hit.. then around the Thracian release Lanjane became very busy and had no motivation to mod.. Then just today he gave me the news. With him gone, I see no need to continue with creating new units for every faction, as it's almost suicidal for the mod.. the mod simply WILL NOT live to see it's final state going in that direction. I have to go back to my original plan for units for this mod to succeed. Maybe when I am done, I can be more detailed with unit rosters.

So, why am I just not going with what I have, and making due with what is out there to continue?

It's simple: I want my mods to be consistent.. and by Lanjane leaving, his unit making and unit card making are no longer in the mod... There is no way the other factions will look or feel like the ones he worked on. The mod would be lopsided. Also, if I did continue in the same direction, it'd take me years to finish this. Even with Lanjane, we were not going to be finished until next fall as every faction is slowed down by the fact that units and their cards (and implementing them in general) are not easy or quick to make. It's a lot to implement a full unit, let alone a ton for each faction!

Put more simply: creating/editing units is hard and takes a long time, time that I do not have, or am willing to give. I am thankful that Lanjane did what he did, as it was not easy.

I will keep the old releases up and running, so you will always have access to the cool looking units, however I cannot continue in that direction.

The plan moving forward, and what you can expect?

I'll get all units and unit rosters reverted back to v2, where Egypt is a Hellenistic Kingdom. All other features will stay the same, so gameplay will remain..

For units going forward, I will first stick to vanilla units and reskins, to keep the original theme. I have a lot of other things that I would like to add into the mod to make the game balance complete, and by having units take a back seat, I can finally focus on finishing the mod.

Also, a map is in the making.. it is nothing crazy, but it will add more regions. We will see how far we get with that, and how it will effect the mod.

Units and unit rosters will eventually be reworked and may include Lanjane's works again.. but it will be different from what you have seen as of late. There are many mods out there that have many units that would fit into this mod.. I just want to finish the actual mod and worry about units later.

Finally, since I will be finishing the mod much more sooner than expected, this will allow me to have time to create separate mod campaigns that will give the game better immersion.

I hope this all has made sense.. I will try and get a pretty finished and stable product out for Christmas. If you have any questions, just ask. Just know that this mod is not dead, and that I am here to stay but I have to operate to my own accord and not rely on others.. because of this, expect a fully polished mod to be released much sooner.

Also, again many thanks to Lanjane, he is a dear friend of mine, and I wish him the best of luck.

~ahowl11