Empire: Total War WWI Naval Mod

[iambecomelife]

As you probably know, the Creative Assembly's getting ready to release their latest masterpiece. There's already substantial interest in creating a WWI mod for this game - in fact, at least one WWI modding team has already been formed. Now that the game will feature 3d sea battles for the first time, some people have even been speculating about adding dreadnoughts. Yes, I know that it's a big leap from sailing ships to those metal monsters, but consider:

-The game definitely has steamships, so getting the vessels to move against the wind and emit smoke will not be an issue.

-Adjusting unit speed has always been very simple. It should not be a problem to bump speeds up to the 21-22 knots that most WWI battleships were capable of.

-Adjusting projectile range is also very easy - in fact, I did it last night on my installation of Medieval II.

-There will be a number of technologies included that were not historically released (or not widespread during the 1700's). For instance, I think there will be submarines and balloons. These could potentially be modded into their more modern, early 1900's incarnations - U-Boats & Zeppelins.

-The devs have said that implementing new units will be even easier than it was for Medieval II (which is pretty amazing, when you consider all the quality Rome TW and Medieval II mods out there).

-The lack of heavier-than-air aircraft will not be a problem, since they sank very little tonnage during the Great War, and never sank any dreadnoughts.

-Close range combat will not be totally ahistorical. IIRC several engagements during WWI were fought at extremely close range - for instance, the sinking of HMS "Black Prince", destroyer actions at Jutland, and so forth.

IMO one of the biggest problems will be modeling turrets. Cannon ports are roughly similar to the casemates that were used on some ships - with a little creativity they can probably stand in for modern guns. I know that they had swivel guns during the early 18th Century but I don't know if they were placed on ships (and, hence, likely to be in game). However, if they are it just might solve the turret problem.

Long-range gunnery might also be an issue. If necessary modders could perhaps use a little license and have battles fought at a slightly closer range than normal.

Any thoughts?

[A Very Super Market]

Hm....

Odd thought, but because the cannons cannot swivel, this would create problems with bow and stern turrets?

[Raptor1]

I dunno about a naval mod, but a WWI land mod would be very interesting, even more considering how little attention WWI got in gaming compared to WWII

[Boris]

I don't really think the Total War concept would be suited to a WWI mod.
For a small naval stuff-around mod, perhaps, but I don't see how a WWI TC would work.

TW games have always been empire building in their nature and span centuries. In WWI the fronts were more or less fixed, and the majority of fighting was done from trenches, with very little in the capturing of territory. I really don't think trenches could be modded into the current engine... and what would the gameplay be like... with pointless bayonet charge, after pointless bayonet charge?
Not to mention tanks and planes...
The more I think about it, the more unplausible it seems.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Boris

I don't really think the Total War concept would be suited to a WWI mod.
For a small naval stuff-around mod, perhaps, but I don't see how a WWI TC would work.

TW games have always been empire building in their nature and span centuries. In WWI the fronts were more or less fixed, and the majority of fighting was done from trenches, with very little in the capturing of territory. I really don't think trenches could be modded into the current engine... and what would the gameplay be like... with pointless bayonet charge, after pointless bayonet charge?
Not to mention tanks and planes...
The more I think about it, the more unplausible it seems.

I disagree, while Trench Warfare on the Western and Italian fronts do signify WWI for most people, there was plenty of mobile fighting on the Eastern Front, the Balkans, Sinai/Palestine, Mesopotemia...

Second, tanks shouldn't really be a problem, they'll be like chariots were in Rome Total War (It should be able to be done somehow in Empire too), Aircraft might pose a problem though

Third, a WWI mod wouldn't necessarily include only WWI, for example, the WWI mod for HoI2 runs from 1892 to 1920-something

[Zachstar]

The most that you could get out of this engine is MAYBE a Civil War mod. And even then you are really Pushing it.

The engine "Behaves" Like the enemy is doing a 1 shot then load. There is no hopping for cover or ducking or whatever to reduce area to hit.

So for land battles they would be decided basically by who stops the army and lets the other guy or AI walk into the crosshairs. It would be over in moments. And not very fun.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

The most that you could get out of this engine is MAYBE a Civil War mod. And even then you are really Pushing it.

The engine "Behaves" Like the enemy is doing a 1 shot then load. There is no hopping for cover or ducking or whatever to reduce area to hit.

So for land battles they would be decided basically by who stops the army and lets the other guy or AI walk into the crosshairs. It would be over in moments. And not very fun.

That's where the "Empire: TW" improvements come in.

It has already been confirmed that units will in fact take advantage of cover when they are traversing ground. In addition, trenches & other field fortifications WILL be modeled. They will even have mines (not the small kind - the giant explosives-filled kind - like what that the British excavated under the German lines at the Somme).

Also, not all of the weapons will be one-shot/reload pieces. There is going to be a primitive gatling gun, which would likely make a fine Maxim (or any other WWI machine gun) with a little work.

Tanks will almost certainly not be a problem. Someone already modded a rocket-launching buffalo unit for Medieval 2. :rotfl: It's not a big jump from that to more plausible types of mobile weaponry.

Additionally, last night I looked at the tech tree for naval research. I noticed an icon that looked like a swivel gun. If there ARE in fact swivel guns, the problem with turrets will be much less difficult to solve.

[iambecomelife]

FWIW, I have confirmed that the game features submarines. Now to find out if there are any rotating guns...