We’ve been able to grab hold of DVK and Tone from the ‘Roma Surrectum II’ modification for ‘Rome: Total War’ to ask them some questions about Life, the Universe and Everything. Or, as some modders like to put it: Life, the Mod and Modding. They’ve also been kind enough to provide us with a host of exclusive, never before seen screenshots from the mod, so read on.

MR: Hello DVK! Thanks for agreeing to talk to us. Could you, as an intro to this interview, tell us a little bit about yourself, and then give us a quick overview of what Roma Surrectum II is all about?

RS2: I’m a 58 year old unemployed computer technician at the moment. I have five children, one of whom still lives with me (a 19 yr. old son, Matthew). I’m a Roman Catholic, and in my twenties began a lifelong study of theology, the early Church, and Roman history as a hobby. I’ve always been interested in archeology as well, and I’m a voracious reader of books on just about all subjects. I don’t have a college education, as I grew up during the tumultuous Vietnam years and was required to serve in the U.S. Navy, but I have a pretty broad education simply because I read on a lot of subjects. My expertise in the area of computers is ’self-taught’ as well. I was never much of a ‘gamer’ until a few years ago when my son urged me to give RTW a try. I found it confusing and frustrating at first…and initially gave up on it. But after leaving it shelved for a few months I gave it another try…this time, determined to figure it out. I feel in love with the game after that for a number of reasons. My love of anything ‘Roman’, and simply the play style of RTW. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Macedonian Hiera Ile (General's Bodyguard)

MR: What’s your expertise when it comes to modding? Which areas would you say that you are especially proficient in?

RS2: Although I’ve dabbled in just about all aspects of modding except creating models, I’d have to say the area I am most proficient in is the coding of the game….the things that make it ‘tick’……figuring things out, making things work the way I want them to, tweaking and adjusting, and drawing out of the RTW engine it’s fullest potential.

MR: And related to the above question: what do you personally get out of modding?

RS2: A sense of accomplishment, I suppose. But I think more than anything, since I first started doing this, I have enjoyed working with people from all over the world on a common interest and helping to ‘make things happen’ there. RS2 turned into a very big project…much bigger than I ever imagined it would. But it has been fueled by the ideas and work of dozens and dozens of people who’ve contributed in big and small ways.

Achaian Phalangites (Free Greeks)

MR: Modding can often be tedious and repetitive, and not always a rewarding experience – especially in the time between releases. Do you have any thoughts on why you keep at it?

RS2: Well, for one thing, I just like doing it. But for another, I wanted to put a lot of history and relevant content into RTW that just wasn’t there originally. Not that that is a criticism of CA…rather, I’m grateful for the platform in the form of an interesting game where you can subtly teach people young and old about a subject they might never delve into on their own. It’s a good way to provide something that’s fun, but also informative and educational.

MR: What has been the driving vision behind RSII? What are you trying to achieve?

RS2: For my part, as I said above, I want people to see in RS2 a mod for a game that is not only fun, but rewarding in other aspects. Playing this mod will give one a glimpse into the past and ‘put a face’ on the people that lived during this time of ‘empires’. I find the achievements of the Romans, in particular, nothing short of astounding given the obstacles they faced as a people. In my mind, they created the first ‘modern nation’ composed of government, laws, boundaries, infrastructure, concern for it’s citizens, and economic and scientific advancement. In many respects, when we look at the Romans, we are looking at ourselves in another time. I think it’s valuable to understand them, and learn from them. So in a small way, RS2 is mod that’s meant to be enjoyable…but also educational.

Gallaeci Skirmishers

MR: Roma Surrectum, or Rome Arises as it translates, is on the face of it a mod focused on the Romans – how does that affect the mod in general, and the other factions in particular?

RS2: Although my original small vision of RS was focused on the Romans, others who joined me in this project brought a wealth of knowledge and ideas that really turned RS2 into a mod for all factions. We have people who love Greek history and things ‘Greek’, we have Armenians, and people who love the Celts and Celtic history. And we have people who are Carthaginian and Sarmatian or Scythian fans. I guess my very ‘open’ style of management and focus just gave many people an opportunity to share ideas and passions they hadn’t found elsewhere. My rule has been, if you share anything and want it in this mod, and it has a good historical and common sense base….I’ll do the best I can to put it in. So gradually, the focus of RS2 shifted from a ‘Romanocentric’ mod to a mod that attempts to do some justice to every nation or people portrayed in it. Consequently, every unit has been redone beautifully…and even I have acquired a deep sense of respect and admiration for peoples I knew nothing about before. As best we can, all of this will be reflected and refined in the units, buildings and text of the game.

MR: Which are the factions we will be able to play as in the mod, and do you have a favourite among them?

RS2: The list of factions is as follows:

The Romans… a unified faction.

Celtic tribes:

• The Arverni
• The Belgae
• And one tribe I can’t reveal yet because it’s not been previewed.

Non-Celtic Barbarian tribes:

• The Gallacei
• The Dacians
• The Cimbri (possibly a Germanic\Celtic mix of peoples)

Punic peoples:

• The Carthaginians

What we call ‘the Successor states’ (the extant remnants of Alexander’s empire in 217BC):

• The Ptolemaic Empire
• The Seleucid Empire
• The Kingdom of Macedon
• The Kingdom of Pontus

Greek states:

• The Kingdom of Pergamon… sometimes known as the ‘Attalid Kingdom’.
• The Kingdom of Sparta

Nomadic peoples:

• The Scythians
• The Sarmatians
• The Parthians

And last but not least:

• The Armenians

Secret Celtic faction advance through snow

MR: One of the more interesting features of RS has been the 35 Roman legions. Could you tell us a little bit more about them?

RS2: Well, to begin with, the 35 Legions got paired down to 28 in RS2 because of RTW limitations, and because RS2 isn’t intended to address any history beyond 100AD. But the 35 Legions of RS1.5 were an attempt, as I mentioned above, to ‘put a face’ on the Roman people. Rome was the first nation to have a ‘professional’ military supported by the state…as far as I know. It is one of the aspects of a ‘modern’ nation I mentioned……a standing army in the field to protect itself. This was something I felt was really lacking in the original RTW, because it was this unique feature that separated Rome from all other nations of the time. They didn’t just have ‘warriors’…they had trained, organized and professional soldiers who gave much of their lives (25 years) in service of Rome. Considering the life expectancy of people back then, one can well imagine that 25 years out of one’s life was indeed most of their life! But beyond these facts, there were other aspects of the Legions that I admired. They were proud men who valued their position in life, the unit (cohort) they served in, their Legion’s name and banner, and the symbol of the Eagle beneath which they fought. They stamped their Legions name or cohort on bricks they made, roof tiles, stonework….and had them carved on their gravestones. So one can see that being a part of a Legion meant a great deal to these men. So I felt it should be an integral part of the story that RTW tells. Also, these military organizations had an incredible history…with long lists of campaigns they fought in, Emperors with whom they fought or for whom they fought, and awards and medals they won for valiant and heroic service. Several of them were cohesive standing units for over 500 years…..which is just amazing to me….and even after the fall of the Western Empire, a number of them ended up in the service of the Eastern Empire though they were technically ‘western’ Legions. So yeah, in my view, these men were the ‘embodiment’ of Rome and the sole reason it held sway for so many 100’s of years.

MR: Would you say that RSII is a complete overhaul of your previous releases, or is it more of a continuation?

RS2: Although RS2 does continue on the theme of RS1.5, given what we’ve done to it, I’d have to say it is a total overhaul of the mod and RTW. There is little we haven’t touched yet in this game, and we intend to keep changing things even after the initial release.

Dacian Captain (right) fights Celtic Champion from the secret faction

MR: How interested are you in getting the era you are depicting “right”? Is it a major concern for the RS team?

RS2: Yes, it is a major concern. But, the concern is focused on ‘getting it right’ as far as when the Campaign starts. We have no concern to ‘force’ history on the player or make things happen because they did. As soon as you click the start button, you are ‘creating your own history’. We want to be as historically accurate as possible, but also, we want people to have fun with it.

MR: Recent previews have shown that you are adding new battlemap environments and a new user interface. How much of a total conversion would you estimate the mod to be at this point? Are there any areas of vanilla Rome: Total War that you have not modified in some way?

RS2: I’d say we’re around 85-90%. Believe it or not, the ‘text’ part of the mod has been the most tedious and difficult to get done. We’ve revamped the environment for the third time, actually, and the text part still isn’t done! As far as Vanilla RTW…..you won’t recognize this as RTW anymore (beyond some of the coded flaws we can’t do anything about).

Alpine forest with Norway spruce and silver firs

MR: The detail on a lot of the units I’ve seen in the previews is outstanding. Perhaps you could tell us a little about the work that has gone into them? Are there any units in particular you would like to bring to our attention?

RS2: (Answered by Tone)

As the main unit modeller and skinner for Roma Surrectum, I joined the mod in December 2006 with no experience in modding, unit skinning or 3D modelling. To begin with it was a question of just getting up to speed and doing the things that other people were doing, but I gradually realised that things would look way better with extra details modelled or skinned onto the units. There was never an intention to reskin the whole mod at the beginning, just to update some of the worse looking units, but as the mod progressed it became more and more clear that a total reskin was what would be required. So literally hundreds of hours of time over the last 2 years have been invested in creating new higher resolution models and skins for the mod, and I’ve been joined at times along the way by a couple of other skinners along the way.

One of the things that I learnt along the way is that observation of the way light falls on objects is really important (so being careful to show things like shading under cloaks at the shoulders) and also to use as many real life pictures as possible.

The other thing that we’ve tried to do where possible is to use real historical sources for our units, whether ancient artistic renderings or the results of recent archaeological finds. As a result I’ve become somewhat of a helmet fanatic – I think I can safely say that I’ve modelled and skinned nearly every main kind of helmet from that period, from the more commonplace ones to the near incredible.

It’s certainly been a lot of fun but extremely hard work – lots of late nights, lots of sleep deprivation but I think the results will be worth it. Thanks go in particular to DVK for the original concept, and to my fellow skinners: Leif Ericson, Dr Hobo, Pacco and Bebbe.

Macedonian Bottian Phalangites

MR: Have any of the hardcoded aspects of the RTW engine been giving you any problems? If you could remove just one of them, which would you choose?

RS2: Well, if I had to choose just ONE, it would be the limit on units in ‘export_descr_units.txt’. We hit the 500 unit limit very easily, and it really put a dampener on what I would’ve liked to have done. But others I’d like to see changed would be the faction number limit (we could easily have had 25-30 of them), the model limit, the population numbers at which cities go to the next size, and certainly a better way to adjust economic things.

MR: What is, in your opinion, RSII’s most interesting feature?

RS2: Regardless of all the focus on the non-Roman factions, I’m afraid that people will find the Romans to be ASTOUNDING! Tone has put so much work and detail into them, along with Leif, Pacco and others that even I’m amazed. The Roman preview will be so big that we’ve decided to break it into several parts!

Saka Elite Cataphracts

MR: And the most fun aspect of the mod?

RS2: Well, if you love strategy\war games and you’re a fan of the ancient world I think people will see RS2 as a fun modification because it ‘updates’ an old game to a more modern look and feel. There really isn’t any other game like RTW out there, and CA\Sega has persisted in a course that seems to say there won’t be another one for a long time. I personally feel there is a ‘market’ for this era that has been ignored, so we’re just filling in a gap as best we can. Roman history and this time period are always going to be of interest to people….heck, we learn new things about the Romans, Celts, Greeks every year as more and more things are dug up, discovered under ground or in the sea.

But also, I think RS2 will be fun for non-Roman players especially….because we’ve given more attention to all the other factions than any mod ever has. There are no ‘crappy’ units in RS2. Every unit from a Sarmatian levy spearman to an elite Celtic Champion to a Greek Athenian Hoplite to a Roman Legionary has been rendered with same care for detail and accuracy. So no matter what faction you play, I don’t think people will feel ‘cheated’.

Gallaeci units charge the enemy!

MR: What lies in the immediate, and the more distant, future of the mod?

RS2: Well, once we release, we might take a break….I don’t know. It has been a long hard road and a lot of work. But eventually, we’ll be improving and further enhancing RS2.

Maybe…just maybe….CA\SEGA will give us a break too. Who knows? I would LOVE to see them release a Patch for RTW that updates it in a number of ways that would allow it to be more ‘modern’.

Massilian Spearmen

MR: The Total War games have vibrant modding communities and new mods are started every day, and I’m sure there are RS fans who will be ready to start sub-mods once the mod is out. What advice, if any, would you give to aspiring modders to give them the best chance of success in their endeavour?

RS2: One thing I see happening often enough that it’s disturbing, is that people start mods without some kind of ‘unique focus’. This is a lot of work, and yet you are literally trying to ’sell’ a game even though you’re doing it for free. You need a ‘good idea’, a ‘hype line’, a story that will make your mod different from all the others. Let’s face it, I threw 35 Legions into RS2’s ‘ugly step-sister’ RS1.5, added a few buildings, Tone redid some units, and wow! It’s a very popular mod. Why? It just has some unique concepts and ideas that people like…so they enjoy playing it. That, I think, is the key. A mod that tries to do everyone else’s mod one better…and yet is the ’same old same old’ compilation of ideas will go nowhere. You just need something that’s ’special’ about what you are offering. And the neat thing about ideas is that they are bloody NUMEROUS, and they’re free.

Secondly…..don’t get discouraged by what others say or do. I can think of one very anticipated mod that died out because it’s creators got discouraged. They focused too much on what people were SAYING about their mod, and it’s lack of popularity…rather than on what they were doing and getting it done. I am almost CERTAIN that it would’ve been a hit, and very popular…but they gave up!

Thirdly…probably most importantly….be patient, kind to others, and understanding. I have learned through this process that we deal with all ages of people, and with people from all walks of life. There are cultural and language problems. There are difficulties understanding what someone says as opposed to what they meant. There are simply difficulties UNDERSTANDING through a ‘typed’ medium where you can’t see the person you’re talking to. So be respectful of others and their ideas. Be gentle in disagreeing or pointing out a mistake. Be considerate even if you know someone is wrong. I know for a fact that letting ‘ego’ control you, or having no concern for what anyone else thinks will kill a mod and a team in a heartbeat!

Finally, I believe that you need to give people ‘ownership’ of anything they are willing to contribute to a mod\mod team. If they are a talented graphics person, don’t second guess and nit-pick them to death…because artists are a fickle bunch and they’ll leave. Just kidding…but seriously, if you have a person who takes pride in what they’re doing, no matter what it is, you need to value that and respect their contributions. If you don’t, they will go elsewhere.

Syracusan Heavy Cavalry

MR: Do you have any final words for all the fans out there patiently, and perhaps some not so patiently, waiting for Roma Surrectum II?

RS2: I know it’s taking longer than we had hoped. We\I greatly underestimated the amount of work involved in dealing with all the ‘little things’. Once all the factions and the brunt of the new units were all put in the tendency was to think, “Oh, we’re almost done!”. But then you realize nothing has a description…all the new buildings you wanted to add aren’t in yet, unit stats are a mess, recruitment is only partly done….and on and on. The ‘big stuff’ is done for the most part…it’s all the little details that have been a killer. And, as many things go, you learn along the way. We have learned we can do things to RTW that we didn’t know could be done. So we’re doing them, because they will add tremendously to the value of this mod. So all I can say is….it will be worth the wait. The first time you bring up RS2 and go into a battlefield…well, your first attempt at a campaign might be just ‘looking around’.

MR: Find out more about ‘Roma Surrectum II’ by proceeding to their forum. Many thanks to DVK and Tone for the interview. Tone should also be thanked profusely for supplying all the screenshots and legends for them. More screens can be viewed below:

Phrygian Heavy Cavalry (Mercenaries)

Dacian Xystophoroi

Scythian Hoplites (Free Greeks)

Winter in the Alps

Boiotian Xystophoroi (Free Greeks)

Alpine wooded terrain

Secret Celtic faction advance through Alpine woodland

Syracusan Heavy Cavalry on the march

Discuss in the forums.

Tags: Classical Antiquity, Creative Assembly, DVK, History, Interview, Modding, Roma Surrectum, Roma Surrectum II, Rome: Total War, RS2, RTW, Tone