I wrote THIS in the comments section, but perhaps it is better to write this in discussion section as a whole comment, just... as a whole, not to bluntly interfere:


12th Nov2023:
For me personally, there is not really a point to play Age of Bronze at all.

I still think, Total War Saga Pharaoh is the lost DLC of Troy, cause what CA says regarding, is garbage anyway, and that Pharaoh differs from Troy - YES, they saw, that another Troy DLC would not sell, which was in the making already, and implemented the DLC into a "whole different" game setting, et voila, a "whole different" game, I actually do believe that, so that they could sell a 60 (!) bucks full title instead of a 10 bucks DLC for a dead game like Troy.

Plus, I still think, the creators of Age of Bronze got frightened that Pharaoh overtook their mod and released it FAR TOO EARLY, in a barely playable stage not even reaching 1.0. Their progress anyway is slow, so, even if they would have released that one year later - probably same outcome - and I can do it just MY PACE, I wont kill myself by fixing huge gaps. :)

~~~

That humans still argue about Pharaoh being NOT the lost DLC of Troy is hilarious, good old human idiots. Cause Pharaoh is EXACTLY the OTHER PART, if you wonder why Pharaoh has no west coast Asia Minor? Yes, that is TROY! The missing part is EXACTLY TROY. It is obvious. There is no doubt. That humans still argue, or cannot see, is cause they are blind and stupid. Why making Pharaoh nobody asked for? Cause it happened exactly like I told. To squeeze more money out of a dead DLC. Sounds likely? No. Is a fact. No matter what CA or idiots say.

Age of Bronze has really a great style, but it is a highly unfinished project, which should not have been released in 2023 in the first place. I am glad they did it, cause I am a Modder and I can do with that workpiece whatever I like - but really PLAYABLE ............ grrrrr, probably not. :)


13th Nov2023:
I got the fair hint, that my arrogant ramblings pissed off some people, and that just because I found out how to open the PFM, that means nothing compared to a whole new DLC for Rome 2.

I said, I know, I am just not insane enough to actually dare to do such a SHT load of work from scratch, if you are 2 or 3 people and you do that in your spare time beyond work, RL, etcetera, you can basically just... hold the storm with your bare hands, like Gyrosmeister told Negativac, that it is "plain disrespectful bla bla bla". You just hit a nerve! They work, drop by drop, and get a little frustrated themselves that probably they see that there is still much to do.

They decided to release it in this current stage of barely playable 0.6, and... that was THEIR decision, not ours! Gamers, just complain, for what they GOT, cause that is what they GOT!

~~~

And when PFM alone, just to unlock factions, doesnt help, cause most minor factions are still broken - yeah, not sooooo good for the gameplay.

My two thoughts always were: They released a half broken thing far too early, and most gamers who would try, would leave again, caused by that fact. Like, I know some. I suggested to fix about 10 new playable minor factions FIRST, to gather the gameplay, BEFORE releasing another 2 playable factions Ass Babe (Assur Babylon, I found that funny), cause just to release another 2 playable factions into a broken surroundings would not fix the thing. You would just waste 2 major factions. So fix some then playable minors, and THEN, do the climax of Ass Babe! :)

So, sorry, but "plain disrespectful" maybe, but to whine in front of a half broken thing, is rightful. Pharaoh, I dont care for. Age of Bronze, I DO CARE FOR. But a gamer, just complains for what he GOT, and that is not disrespectful, that is a freakin reaction about the AS IS. :)


:)

I am proud to have made my AUG MOD 2.0, Imperator Augustus All Factions Mod, I finished that great thing in 26th Sep2023 and uploaded it TWcenter.

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?800662-Imperator-Augustus-All-Factions-Mod

Currently thinking about creating some extra Unit Models and pimp it and upload it Steam finally, cause that thing should be fully capable, so that no Steam comment critics should annoy me.

After that I found Age of Bronze for the first time, and played it a little, and found it more worthy than Pharaoh, great style, but not really playable for me personally, -sure! I came out of five weeks of finalizing and playing my AUG MOD, and that thing is bruteforce, that was fun from turn 1 til turn 200, and I could have played along-, and began instantly to overhaul Age of Bronze. After two weeks I had 4 full rosters, Egypt and Hittite rosters up to 25 units each, Meshwesh/Libu full roster, Kush/Punt full roster, Meshwesh/Libu/Kush/Punt fully playable, but I didnt want to... override Age of Bronze / Stability Patch with yet ANOTHER thing without at least... find out some stuff FIRST, talk perhaps, FIRST, and dont... just... like I always do as a German arrogant axehole, just... "BAMMMM I dont care F U!".

I wanted at least to... know some insights, to know how/if I should proceed.

> They had 7 years to complete the rosters, at least Egypt, nothing done
> They work since YEARS on the campaign, MANY crashes, use Github BS
> They fire the Crash fixer Kelly, who now does his own parallel thing
> Age of Bronze Main Mod, then Stability Patch by Kelly
> Better Loading Screens Submod by Benjin
> Absolute Bronze / Population Submod by Kelly / crepax80 aka Trasibulos80
> Which includes the Stability Patch
> And sure as hell they all want to be ontop of the Loading Order
> If they wont ever edit this patchwork together again, it got his overkill ALREADY
> By freakin DAY ONE of the freakin release! That was an overkill START ALREADY
> Instead of giving the gamers what they want in a Total War Game:
> More playable factions with completed rosters, good building chains, good enemies
> They seem to just... implement "stuff" - and I personally cant fix that in ONE MONTH
> Well I could, but I wont (over)kill myself by that

That seems to be a Total Unholy Mess! How to proceed doing rosters and stats overhaul, more playable factions and spawns? I still dont know if it is worth the effort. Sometimes in life, the BS happened already and you just havent recognized yet, sometimes the realization hits slowly - that the BS happened already and that you just react, and that it is gone already. Perhaps, to fire the Crash fixer, and the head of the team, does a bit of everything, would have NEEDED BADLY a potent Crash fixer, insisting on Github BS to drive all co-workers right into plain madness and burnout - WAS the overkill already, and they just handle the shards.

~~~

I do like "BAMMMM" most, cause people cannot really talk, they are TALKERS, but they cant. :) You always try to show consideration for others, and they thank you via utter complete bloody bottomless BS. To show consideration for amateurs and madness, generally spoken, is NEVER a good idea. So, I usually dont really like to argue, the by far most you always get is just braindead garbage, I prefer to do my stuff GOOD, and then basically give a F, cause quality stuff doesnt need the utter BS of most people, it just needs to be DONE, and so, hopefully, without the shameful disgrace of most people, or you basically can forget about it. :)

Bloody fact. Bloody truth. Either, you do such a project straight forth, or, adios. And IF, I dont know exactly, okay, IF, the head of the team, insists on Github, no clear vision, no clear divisions of labor > You appoint ONE GUY doing THAT TABLE, THAT TASK, to implement it easily, YOU DO THAT, we implement it, YOU DO THAT, we implement it, instead, everybody does a bit of everything, and we need Github or we implode, how do you think DLCs are done.

They have dozens of fulltime workers, and ONE art director, tells the divisions WHAT to develop, that is the reason they have sometimes... different quality, even different style, within stats/styles of the same game, cause different divisions got the tasks, and THEN it is edited/implemented together. They dont really compare, they have parallel fix tasks, and after done, patch them together, DONE. Then the core team is sent to the next SHTy CA title without better engine/AI/etcetera, and the trainee team fixes balance and crashes until they too, leave, END. They just order parallel fix tasks to the divisions, patch it together, leave, the younglings do some balancing, leave, and then, CA gives no cold SHT anymore.

No clear vision. Insists on Github BS. Results in crashes. Fires the Crash fixer. Doesnt seem to really delegate tasks to the divisions to have CLEAR tasks to patch together. Hm!!!

~~~

So, after I waited for some talks, I will probably do my "BAMMMM I dont care F U!" thing and bruteforce override Age of Bronze stuff. Cause I CANNOT PLAY Total War anymore without my spawns. Total War is BOOORING after the early game, once you got 2 fullstacks the AI is not capable to hold its ground, and you basically steamroll, and... yes, you could play along, but you wont get any... mighty realms, or mighty fullstacks, versus you. At least not in Rome 2. That is the reason Warhammer for example spawns constantly!

Age of Bronze should have spawns! If you play Egypt, you get Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian spawns versus you, and vice versa. That is the only solution to get Total War going in middle and late game! :) 40stacks, with 10 chariots inside, near Kadesh, I WANT THAT! :)

Age of Bronze, for me, is not worthy to play, without a 40stack near Kadesh, sorry. :)

My spawns, would do the following: If you play Egypt, you load the Hittite and probably Assyrian spawn triggers, mini mods, probably called a_strong_hittites.pack and a_strong_assyrians.pack, that I can do without complicated Lua grrrrrrrrr stuff. Yeah. These spawn triggers would give Hittites and Assyrians every 20 turns another fullstack to conquer their realms. Once you are a full blown Egypt, you would... encounter... a Hittite vast empire with 40stacks near Kadesh, and hordes of chariots - you would encounter a HUGE Hittite Empire spanning whole Asia Minor down to Kadesh, or, a HUGE Assyrian Empire spanning ALL EAST, with mighty 20stacks til 40stacks of INSANE ARMIES. I cannot play that without, anymore, sorry. That works too freakin awesome!

Have you ever played Empire Divided? To play with... em, whoever, the roman main guy, that early game is HARD. The AI cant handle that at all. The harder the early game, the huger the AI realm, the more likely is, that the AI is just GONE. And since Age of Bronze has hard to tackle early games with enemy spawns, the AI is highly likely to get wiped out, so, you wont encounter huge Hittite, Egyptian, Assyrian, whoever, realms, as AI enemies, and after the early game, as usual, in Rome 2, you will encounter sheer NOTHING, just an endless boring steamroller over the shards of stupid AI "empires". You NEED increasingly hard Imperium Levels, and you NEED spawn triggers for AI enemies/empires!

I dont play that without anymore, sorry, but once you got that, you want that. :)



If you play the glorious mod for Rome 2, Alexander the Great
EVERY Rome 2 fan should know and have played:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=654040574
and its Extreme Edition:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=757854841
with an 80stack, you know what I mean. Or you play AUG MOD. :)

A lot of what you are writing here have no connection to reality.
Kelly wasn't "fired", it was his decision to step back from the main team. The plan to try and release the campaign sometime in the summer was laid out before Pharaoh was even announced.
If you think it's easy to produce a ton of custom made assets and process them into the game when the people who can do 3D in the team are select few and often have a lot of other commitments aside from producing 3D assets for a mod.
Yeah, there will be issues, do you think we had an extensive network of testers to literally do anything imaginable on the campaign map to make it 100% free? Demetrios Poliorketes also had quite a few bugs at its first iteration, I can tell you that, you can test thoroughly, and you will still miss some stuff.
The Ultimate Bronze submod, population submods etc were not released on day 1 after the campaign release, but afterwards. And they are submods, you don't have to use them.
There are no dozen of "fulltime workers" I don't know what you mean.
And since you talk so much about your spawn_ideas, you can go ahead and make a submod for them to ramp up the difficulty, it's not that we prohibit submods or anything.