Age of Wonders - Community Content Pack

[Kaucukovnik]

Age of Wonders - Community Content Pack

Download version 1.2: http://www.mediafire.com/?cgi1h97dg597a5b

Now 199 maps (not counting multiple variants of the same map), 7 custom campaigns and 5 game-altering mods all under one roof. Install where your game resides. Easily removed by the provided uninstaller.

Custom exe launchers have been created to run all mods from a single AoW installation. Not based on the Ruleset Changer - these executables switch the game data, start the game and wait for it to exit and then switch the data back. Confirmed to work on Win XP, Win 7 and Ubuntu 10 Wine.

I have piled up all original readme files of all the contet used, you can find them in the Docs\Readme directory. Many had no docs included, but they are listed in my documentation. I hope I haven't forgot to mention anyone, if you find out that I did, please let me know at kaucukovnik.vi@gmail.com.

Pretty much mandatory link - http://aow.heavengames.com
Without that place, this compilation woudn't exist.

This pack also installs (and "forgets" to uninstall) a music track by the original composer, Michiel van den Bos, which was only available in the demo. I just couldn't make it delete one of Michiel's tracks!
It's the song Company.s3m - "In the Company of Elves".

Mods
Each mod has its own launcher and an apropriate AoWEd launcher.

* Warlock's Ruleset by (surprisingly) Warlock. The first and most played AoW1 mod. Doesn't work with vanilla maps.
- included Warlock versions of maps: Atlantis, Ethyria, Hunters of Blood II, Isladia, The Fall of Gondolin, The Mirror of Galadriel, The Silmarillion, Dagor Bragorllach, War of the Magics 1 + 2, War of the Magics 1 + 2, War of the Ring, Global Warming, Gold Rush 2: Arena of Death, Second God War, The Queen Mothers, Westeros (Game of Thrones)
* Lighthawk's Ruleset - based on Warlock's probably second most played
* Arda by Beren V – transforms AoW into Middle-Earth, since AoW is pretty Tolkien-friendly
* Dragonlance v3 by Sir Joseph. Includes enhanced mapmaking features.
* Tactics Ruleset by Lord Dragatus. Based on the concept of counterunits.

+ semi-oficial Dev version of the AoW Map Editor for some advanced possibilities
+ totally unofficial Mapmaker addon by Tekk Zero

Campaigns
Each campaign has its own launcher. All the campaigns are set up to work chosing both sides, but some choices will produce awkward story results.
*Elmar the Keeper by Gandalf the White
*Goblin War Drums v3 by Arctic Wolf, additional difficulty modes in Docs
*Orcs of the Southron Kingdom by Arctic Wolf
*Sarrodin the Storm Priest by Arctic Wolf
*Shadowmane by Arctic Wolf
*Tides of Golgatha by Arctic Wolf
+ custom starting races for the vanilla campaign, by Arctic Wolf

Maps

Mappers:
Acqualung, Alex Mars, Angel Draco, Antichroust, Arctic Wolf, Artofvision, Bluecollarheaven, Brown M., Codius, CrazySlyHawk, CryHavok, Daemon Zrat, Damon Rellik, Dan Donnard, Dan Petersson, darthloki, David Mylan, Digga, Dix, Elvons, Emperor_Bone14, Eriksson, evansmjalz, ffbj, French Kisser, Frogman, Frostlord, Galahad_2, Gandalf the White, Hammerhands, Chris, Jason, jstarkweather, junglesong, King John VI, King Paulos, KoRny3354, Lord Fell, Mitani, munin, Naru Bloodwind, Newsboy555, nopmonhan, Paulos the Knight, Queen Elquein, Raupe, Roger the Rampant, Rorschach, sKout77, TalonThorn, The Jerk, TheHiddenOne, TRON, Twanfr, Vince Bly

All maps names:
3 Hordes, A Battle for Evermore, A Cry In the Heartwood Forest, A Glimmer in the Dark, A Change of Ways, After the Fall III, After the Great Fall, Age of Wars, All Things Unequal, Arctic Clash, Ardunath, Arrival of the Magic, Athendore, Aul Hope is Gone, Banned, Battle of Gail, Berserkers, Black Riders in the Shadow, Blood Feud, Bone Wars 1.1, Bored of the Wings, Circle of Life, Cold Invitation, Coming of the Dread Lord , Conquest of Zanid, Crystal Eyes, Damnation, Darkwood (XL, all races), Deadwood Forest, Death's Darkest Hour, Death's Doorstep, Destination: The Depth I, Destination: The Depth II, Destination: The Depth III, Divide and Conquer, Dragon Rumours, Dragonstorm, Dreamland, Eleventyfirst Day, Emperor of Tun, Europe, Europe 940 BC, Eversong Woods, Fighting Kingdoms of Aloreen, Finbar's Quest, Flamingo March, Forest Wars, Forge of War, From North, From North...to South, From the Shadows - Reborn, Green Valley, Greyhawk Adventures, Greyhawk World, Half Moon Falls, Halfling Wars, Harvest, Heaven & Hell, Hexagon of Death, Hidden Kingdoms, History of the World, Hunters of Blood, Ibandor, Illuminaria, Into The Fray, Just Another Day in Hell, Knee Deep in Undead, Labyrinth, Land of Merhal, Last of his Kind, Last Stand Before Destruction, Legends Of Hectoraze, Light, Lineage, Lord of Nightmares, Lord of the Rings – Reign of Terror, Lost Horizon, Malice in Wonderland, Maze, Middle-Earth, Middle-Earth 3018, Mirages, Mists of Time, Morian Tundra, Mudshire, Necrophose, Nobody's Home, North and South, Od Dwarf and Men, Od Dwarf and Men II – The Unwanted Alliance, Of Wretches and Kings, Old Age, Old Legend, Paladin's Quest, Pelopenisian War, Peninsula of Forsal, Pirates of Zerclea, Poilio, Pride of a Princess, Queen Sarag Map Pack (14 maps), Rage of the Halflings, Red Moon, Blue Moon (Triarchy), Reign of Terror, Repent Charlatan! said the CipClop man, Return of the Dragon Lord - Midkemia (R.E.Feist), Rise of the Orcs, Road to Hell, Rome, Ruins of Empire, Ruins of Tyme, Sacred Lands, Sarrodin and the Black Knights, Scouring of the Shire v3, Sea Power, Second God War, Serpentis, Seven Kingdoms, Shadow Hunters, Shadow's Call, Shadowfall, Shadows of the Past I - Rebirth, Shadows of the Past II – Journey, Shield Isle (XL, all races), Silver Marches, Snowscapes and Mirages, Solinor, Songs of Battle, Sorcerers and Warriors, State of War, Storm at Valhalla, Storm at Valhalla II – Gates to Purgatory, Sword of Ainur, That's Armageddon, The Apprentice I, The Apprentice II - Legend of the Island Girl, The Apprentice III, The Black Forest, The Cauldron, The City, The Dead Mountains, The Demonologist, The Dire Dwarf Menace, The Dwarven Disaster, The Elven and Dwarven Feud, The Eye of Yaka, The Four Cities, The Frozen Isles, The God who was Defeated, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Great War, The Green Azaranor, The Gromfulden Mines, The Human Insurrection, The Marshland Wars, The Menace from the Deep, The Mountain Valley War, The Northern Battle, The Return Of Loki, The Riverland Wars, The Silver Rangers, The Sleeper Awakens, The Trials of Ghengis, The Undead Hallows, The Urlands, The Wargod Tournament, Threkic Mountains, Tides of Golgatha Map Pack (4 maps), Under Feldspar Woods, Under the Ground, Valleys of the Lost, War's Embrace, Warcry of the Caverns, Warm Crevice I, Warm Crevice II - The Quest For Draco, Warm Crevice III - Black Knight's Revenge, Warm Crevice IV - Mirkwood, Warm Crevice V - Black Knight White Knight, Westeros, Whispers in the Wind, World of Paradise, Worlds Under War, Xenobea's Revenge, You Gives! I Takes! Me Happy!


Edit: 1.1 update, 1.2 update, wall'o'text listing

 

[Kane]

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?fsz5huvmpfrca9s

I was nostalgically playing AoW 1 lately, and I searched for some interesting maps and mods, and what I saw was a ton of amazing stuff just left lying there. Especially mods tend to have unwieldy installation and can clash with other ones. The current community solutions are OS specific (32 vs 64bit).

And since I'm developing a stupid simple, yet efficient technique to make modded games run smoothly without messing with anything, I picked up my old love AoW.

This is the result. You can install it wherever your game lives and just play anything that's int there.
The Codexia is the first place I'm posting this right now, and when I have tested some portion of the stuff and maybe received some feedback, I'll put it somewhere like ModDb or AoWHeaven.
-----------------------

184 maps, 6 custom campaigns and 4 game-altering mods under one roof.

Custom exe launchers to run all mods from a single AoW installation. Not based on the Ruleset Changer. My launchers switch the game data, start the game and wait for it to exit and then switch the data back.

You can find my uncompiled BAT launcher files among the Docs, if you want to know what I did there or just mistrust exe fies. I have used the freeware Bat to Exe Converter 1.6 to make bats into nice icon-wearing 32bit executables that run invisible in the background.

I have piled up all original readme files of all the contet used, you can find them in the Docs\Readme directory. Many had no docs included, but there's that table that lists all mapmakers. I hope I haven't forgot to mention anyone, if you find out that I did, please let me know at kaucukovnik.vi@gmail.com.

If you have any candidates for inclusion (or exclusion , let me know as well.

Pretty much mandatory link - http://aow.heavengames.com
Without that place, this compilation woudn't exist.


Mods
Each mod has its own launcher and an apropriate AoWEd launcher.

Arda by Beren V – transforms AoW into Middle-Earth
Dragonlance v3 by Sir Joseph. Includes enhanced mapmaking features.
Tactics Ruleset by Lord Dragatus. Based on the concept of counterunits.
Warlock's Ruleset by (surprisingly) Warlock. Works only with maps specifically made for this ruleset.

+ semi-oficial Dev version of the AoW Map Editor for some advanced possibilities

Campaigns
Each campaign has its own launcher. All the campaigns are set up to work chosing both sides, but some choices will produce awkward story results.

Elmar the Keeper by Gandalf the White
Goblin War Drums v3 by Arctic Wolf, additional difficulty modes in Docs
Orcs of the Southron Kingdom by Arctic Wolf
Sarrodin the Storm Priest by Arctic Wolf
Shadowmane by Arctic Wolf
Tides of Golgatha by Arctic Wolf

Maps
There is a full listing of maps and their authors in the full readme, as well as a spreadsheet version to sort by authors etc.

nice!

 

[catfood]

Thanks for sharing this. I won't lie to you and say I'll play it, because I'm already busy with a 4X game right now (Master of Mana), but I'll bookmark this thread and I'll have a look at your mod when I'm in a mood again for some AOW1.

 

[SCO]

Won't work in wine probably (wine didn't implement the cmd console too well).

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Glad people like the idea.
Please, even if you aren't going to play, but have AoW somewhere at hand, just test it out, whether the mods and campaigns start properly, and let me know... It's a big difference to know that it does work on some variety of computers.

SCO:
I have just tested it on my dad's Ubuntu 10 and it works. I ran Dragonlance map editor and built a few modded walls there, then the Warlock mod and started a map in it (which gives an error if you don't have the mod). The source bat files are extremely simple, I guess that's their strength here.




EDIT: I have found some map name typos and two mismatched exes. You can update by deleting all the [SP]** and [MP]** scenarios and then install the new version over the old one and overwrite.

Updated link in the first post.

 

[SCO]

Yeah, it's just rudimentary support. The BigWorld bat file (for baldur's gate) doesn't work for instance.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

I can convert the .bat into .exe (if you don't have a win PC available). I tried my own bats in ubuntu and they do not work, they run the game/editor, but they fail to swap the data so no mods get activated. So the compiler seems to lift the console limitation. I guess... Where can I download the current/best version of BigWorld?

EDIT: The converter: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Batch-To-Exe-Converter.shtml
Looks like we have a hidden compatibility tool here!

 

[visions]

Bookmarked.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Update! Added 1 new ruleset mod + originally unplayable races for the official campaign.

Here's an update for the one or two who downloaded right away:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3fii9p33ylf8s8f

Full 1.1 link is in the updated first post.

Edit: Weird, the download link pretends to lead to invalid file, but when I copy/paste it, it works!

And guys, where should I post something like this? Moddb has silly terms as I found out now, the AoW sites are all hopelessly dead... Where are some turn-based oldfags who will have use for such compilation?

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Another update!

- added Blood Valley campaign
- added 17 standalone maps
- added mapeditor addon
- uninstaller bug found and squished

And the exe launchers are better named, so orientation should be easier now.

Before installing the new version, install the update:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5xfsrycc6zr4qc6
and run its uninstaller. If you go with the update only, you will get everything ecept the new exe naming.

 

[Icewater]

I've never played any of the AoW games, how is the second one compared to the first?

 

[catfood]

Icewater

They play sorta differently. The second one is more MoM-like in that you play an actual wizard who casts spells and shit from his tower, rather than a hero walking around on a map.

Actually AOW2 is not very good. AOW: Shadow Magic, its standalone expansion, is where all the goodies are: unoffical patches, mods, you know, the good stuff.

Though somewhat different game mechanics in both AOW and AOW:SM are very good, so you can't go wrong with either of them.
The highlights of AOW1 are the awesome nonlinear campaign and the FUCKING AWESOME soundtrack. Seriously it has some of the best video game music out there.
Play AOW2 only if you want to play the campaign, otherwise jump straight to AOW:SM. Get the unofficial 1.4 patch from aow2.heavengames.com and you're in business.

 

[Icewater]

Alright, sounds good.

 

[laclongquan]

Nigga please~ Any game sites can die these days. Your best bet is on the Dex.

Retype your first post originally AoW change to Age of Wonder for instance, add in a few key words, tags, to make search easier. Then wait for google search engine to do magic.

I have plenty of bookmarks died on me these recent years.

Grudgingly I allow those buggers at heavengames can live on. But putting your mod on their sites wont make for an easy to search topic.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Thanks for the tips, I'll edit the post, add more details, so that any particular mod search can lead here.

You are right that AoWHeaven is no place to make something visible nowadays. And we're talking the last AoW community site that has even survived so far. That's actually the reason for this compilation - to prevent the player creations from rotting along with that site as it dies as well.

I should probably post something at GoG forums, since they have re-released the game. One of the mods doesn't work with their version, but that's no big deal.

EDIT: Bummer, can't post a topic on gog, I get bad link error when I try to submit it.

 

[Deakul]

Do any mods like this exist for Shadow Magic?

 

[SCO]

Yes.

 

[SCO]

I can convert the .bat into .exe (if you don't have a win PC available). I tried my own bats in ubuntu and they do not work, they run the game/editor, but they fail to swap the data so no mods get activated. So the compiler seems to lift the console limitation. I guess... Where can I download the current/best version of BigWorld?

EDIT: The converter: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Batch-To-Exe-Converter.shtml
Looks like we have a hidden compatibility tool here!

I just tried the goblin war drums campaign exe:
"This program is not supported on this operating system" <-- this is a wine window, not something from ubuntu.
This happens in all 'Campaign' exes

So, no, it's not working apparently. No pressure.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Thanks! I will investigate.

About AoW:SM - I can't get into it. There are some very good mechanics, but to me it lacks the soul of the first game. The art style is inconsistent (fugly renders next to paintings), the interface is a huge step back from the elegance of AoW1, and the soundtrack, as mentioned already, is generic crap. I also like the scale of AoW1 maps more - a town with its surroundings takes a few hexes, the same in AoW2 takes the whole bloody screen.

As for AoW2 and SM mods - from what I've seen, they are mostly about cramming in units from as many different games as possible.

 

[SCO]

Thanks! I will investigate.

Disregard, i was being stupid. Had wine setup as 'windows 98' to check if some unrelated occasional crashes in AoW (original version) were related to version.

Game is a bit unstable.

 

[SCO]

I was wondering, are there any exe hacks in the mod? If so, is there any possibility to disable the autoresolve AI from using the 'persuasion' skills, (seduce, charm, dominate)?

If a unit has these it will always use them, which makes trouble later on even if you win, which goes against the spirit of autoresolve i think. Those abilities are best used to target single units in the tactics mode anyway.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Nope. My exe files just juggle around with the files so that you don't have to when you switch between different mods. I have no deeper insight into the game's workings, just used my simple technique to put all the mods and campaigns together.

Do you mean the situation when you gain control of a strong, but racially hostile unit that just rebels in the next turn and becomes a diversion behind your own lines?

 

[SCO]

Yes.

 

[CrustyBot]

Wow, this looks great.

Picked up AoW & SM off GoG about a week ago and about to play them for the first time and I run into this.

Thanks heaps, Kaucukovnik

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Playing AOW with this, loving it. I'm still playing normal campaign, only finished with Keepers once, now I'm playing Cult.
Oh, there seems to be a problem in one of the campaigns (I think it was Blood Valley): If you choose one side, then back out and choose any side again, the campaigns will go back to being the default AOW campaign.

When I finish I'm going to start re-playing AOW2 because I never finished it (stopped on Death 1 because Meandor kept pwning me). This time I'm going to play on hard and Ironman my way to victory. Then I'm going to either play AOW again (unsure which path I will take Halflings-Lizards-Highmen? Halflings-Dwarves-Highmen/Undead? Goblins-Orcs-Undead?) or play one of the custom campaigns. Which one I'm still deciding, OOSK I played some previously, so I think I will play Blood Valley.

Oh, can anyone give me tips for first Dark Elf scenario? I fought a short war against the Undead, defeated them and now I'm getting harassed by annoying Hit-and-Run tactic by the Elves, who use Valkyries + Golden Dragons against me. I can defend against Valkyries, but I got nothing that can stop a golden dragon. Also, fuckers are using lots of Nature Elementals. Oh yeah, Dark Elves suck at melee, Dark Elf swordmen and their cavalry are pathetic. Storm Priests are , through. Any tips? Should I just get a ballistas + Storm Priests + Executioner army or get me a Orc city and just crank Warlords + Black Shredders FTW?

BTW, in AOW2, anyone knows if there's any reason to play the third special phase of every sphere? When you finish the second one it liberates the next sphere. Is there any bonus if you win all special phases?