Back to work

So, we are all "still alive" in this promising new year. Well then we'd better get back to work!
As I told some of you, I took a small vacation, for the holidays and stuff, but now since they've passed, I'm gonna resume work on the mod.

Thank you to everyone that reported problems and made suggestions for the past few weeks. One of my mottos is "bugs will only get fixed if they are reported... or if I find them", but since I don't play the game that much, you'd better report those bastards...

For now my "to do" list is composed of this:
1. try to implement a new "Export" like resource for the Europeans, for which I still don't have a proper use...
2. fix as many of the reported bugs as possible and try to implement some suggestions
3. finish TWC campaign remake

Then we'll see where the road leads us next.
That would be all for now, thank you for playing my mod and remember, REPORT THE BUGS!

Texture Bug Fix-ish!

Along with the height adjusting camera, a possible fix for the terrorizing "texture bug", which plagues all AoE3 mods, has been released. After some tests did by my self and my friend Martin it turns out it really fixes the problem, which is amazing!

For those who don't know what I'm talking about let me explain.
The process of "creating a new unit" in AoE3 is composed mostly by texturing, since you don't actually create a new model, just re-texture existing models and mix up different animations and accessories.
This is how all mods do it. Lately, the possibility of creating and importing new buildings and animations from other games appeared, but units are still tricky.

You would wonder why is AoE3 modding so restrictive or hard compared to other games. I don't think anyone really knows, but probably the developers didn't knew or didn't want anyone to mod it so much, thus they didn't released any official modding tools or info...
Who knows...

So, the bug makes the game to basically refuse new textures in order to keep the game running smoothly. This probably was a big problem back in 2004 when the game was made, but now we're in 2012...
This bug, of course, results in new textures reverting back to the model's default texture in the middle of the game... Most of you have probably seen it. All of you had it even if you didn't notice. No matter how powerful your PC is, it will happen.

Fixing this bug raised the system requirements a bit, but it's nothing huge, don't worry.
I played AoE3 on a 64mb video card, so I really don't worry about it, still, I wanted to let everyone know.

What I did was to enable an existing engine code which keeps new textures no matter what.
This will basically make everything so much better and awesome, since now we can have more "new units" and have more variation between cultures and civilizations without the fear that it will all go to hell while playing...

Thank you for your time and enjoy!


PS: And why the hell don't you people tell me the zip download is incorrect, it's a zip with the installer in it...
It should be like on ModDB, a zip with the mod's files for manual installation...
I got zips mixed up, that one was for AoE3 Heaven... Gonna fix it...

The Campaigns Updates

A very upsetting and sad thing I saw throughout all big mods is the lack of campaigns, where even the vanilla campaign is scrapped. Even I my self made changes that affected campaigns in negative ways, though I always wanted them to be playable.

Well, no more mistakes. The next big updates to be released through the patcher, starting tomorrow, will fix, tweak and improve all campaign scenarios and cutscenes.

The first update will improve only the vanilla campaign, "Blood, Ice and Steel".

After that I will start working on TWC "Fire and Shadow" campaign, with TAD's campaign being the last to get worked on.

These updates will make them more enjoyable and fun, also more accurate and detailed. I strongly recommend playing all of them again after the updates.

I don't really want suggestions for scenario changes so please don't do it...

Thank you and have fun!

Improvement Mod version 5.2

So here it is, as promised. If you have used the patcher, then this update is nothing new, you are already up-to-date, but if not, THEN GET IT NOW!!!
As you will see, this update is veeeeery big. And it wouldn't have been so big without the patcher, which let me release and test stuff at anytime. Big thanks to everyone that reported problems and especially HUGE THANKS to Shyke!

Now lets get down to business...
Change log:

- Europeans get an infinite tech at the Capitol which can be used to sell Export for home city shipments, as you use this tech it gets more expensive 3 times
- fixed Canoe sounds
- State Religion now increases healing speed of Healers
- added the Independent Government tech to the Revolution civs, replaces Civilized Government
- added the Dove (female assassin) as mercenary
- added the 7 Dove Assassins card to the USA, British and Russians
- the Spy can now score critical hits
- added the Sapper to the Revolution civs, can build military buildings
- added the Saker to the Spanish, Indians and Knights of St. John, first European Age2 cannon
- to unlock the Saker and Monitor, Asian players need to ally with an European (or US) nation
- you can have only 20 chests of coin at a time from the Treasury (spamming issues)
- fixed a long standing bug with archers flaming arrows
- Warrior Priests, Generals, Shoguns and Mansabdars can now score critical hits
- the Skull Knight now has a melee attack against buildings
- the Oneida Rider now has a torch as main weapon
- added hoof walking sounds to all horses (if you notice missing ones please let me know)
- added the Baron (coin production unit) to the British (removed Bank)
- renamed "Colonial Age" to "Expansion Age" and "Fortress Age" to "Enlightenment Age" (fits Natives and Asians better)
- improved the Renegade Spanish cards, now also sends Conquistadors and Sakers
- enabled map specific mercenaries for Natives at the Native Embassy
- added new animations for the Halberdier (awesome)
- added more units on trade routes (?)
- added the Fishery (water building) to all civs (buildable by Fishing Boats)
- the Portuguese Covered Wagons can now train Settlers
- the Mortar now has a melee attack in the fixed Bombard Mode
- improved the Regicide Regent (higher damage and some new skills)
- added the Native Confederacy Support tech to the Council's Hut and High Temple
- fixed some Native projectiles
- improved civs descriptions...
- fixed population additions...
  - Age4 and 5 will give 10 pop each for all civs
  - Chinese Age5 will give 20 pop
  - Independent Government will give 10 pop (revolution)
  - all Revolution civs will have a max pop of 220
  - Civilized Government will give 20 pop to all civs
  - all civs will have a max pop of 240 except for the Chinese who will have 250
- bug fixes...

The next installer release... is so far... But I can tell you one important thing that it will contain...
Although the community didn't seem to agree, I WILL be replacing the Dutch with the USA, but HOLD ON, don't rage just yet.
It's not as bad as some of you might think. I will combine the Dutch and the USA and make a new awesome unique civ, and when it's done I am sure that most of you will like it.
Anyway, that's more of a future project so uhm... enjoy everything else until then.

How to fix the Rifleman bug!

To fix the US Rifleman bug you must:

1. Go to where the game is installed...

\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires III\

\Steam\steamapps\Age of Empires 3\bin\

2. Then go to...

\art\units\infantry_ranged\

3. And delete the "riflemanus" folder...

4. Then run the Patcher...

5. And it's fixed! Enjoy.

In other news, a new installer powered update is coming. If you are using the patcher then you are already up-to-date, but I promised I will also release installers so that's what I'm going to do.

Oh, and the forum is online... I don't expect it to be active, but if I already made it, why not make it public...

Thank you for playing.