Shogun 2 Mods
I started off by trying to put Tadaktsu Honda in the game with new art work and antlers on his helmet as my first mod.
It took me days to figure out. It involved way too many areas of the game for a starter mod. This touched variantmesh definitions, character art sets, and worst of all startpos editing.
But thanks to the help of TWCenter.net and the people there, I was able to pull it off. This lead me down a much longer path.
First Mod
Next i decided to rip all my favorite Chinese characters from Koei's Dynasty Warriors and put them into feudal Japan as their own factions.
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This taught me a lot about the structure of games in general, especially Total War. This also exposed me to 3D modeling software, and I learned to rig all thanks to modding for S2.
This wasn't enough for me though, as next summer I took it upon myself to do a full conversion to ancient China.
Map Editing
Prior to this, map editing of this scale had only been done by 1 person for S2 - UAnime5
I was treading heavy water trying to pull this off.
Map editing for this title consisted of editing multiple 2D spline layers in 3Ds max. Some of the layers were region borders, settlement locs, trade routes, AI pathing, mountains, forest terrain types.
This then had to be exported an ran through a custom tool CA provides called BoB. Lastly, massive TGA texture files had to be edited to control the heightmap and the fog of war effects. This part was equally as challenging as the first as finding the right plugins to import and export such massive files was difficult.
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This was the last title CA supported map editing.
Factions
With the map out of the way I could finally start designing the custom factions.
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This was something I excelled at. Translating my deep understanding of these faction leaders and gamifying those personalities into unique faction bonuses that created different play styles.
Custom units
I rigged in over 200 models used to design and create over 50 balanced , unique and historically accurate units
Other Changes
This overhaul is huge, and includes everything like major innovations to the building chains by creating a fork in the settlement upgrade line that unlocked different sub building options, collaborations with other modders for new matching battlefield maps, custom gate map, New tech trees, new sound tracks, changes to AI personalities and diplomacy.
90% Complete
After working 6 months of 8h+ a day on this project, Creative Assembly announced it's next new title in the series would be Total War Three Kingdoms. Essentially an official release of this mod.
I was crushed because I had gotten it in my head, that I could use this mod to apply to CA and pitch the idea of making this game. Turned out they had been far ahead of me. I applied anyway and didn't get hired.
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At the time of writing this, this mod has over 52,000 views on TWC and 35,000 on moddb as an unfinished project