Thoughts after thorough playtesting 2.1b
Hi folks.
This isn't really a bug report, it's closer to a short review, although I'll start with a couple of things first.
I know the heartache Medieval II causes for phalanxes, but is anyone getting them to stay in a vague formation? Even on guard mode mine tend to derp into a close knit mess.
Secondly, even though I didn't think those files have changed since 2.01 etc., I've noticed that the textures for the Keltoi armour reforms have some displacement, giving me some very peculiarly patterned helmets.
Now on to the good stuff. The quantity and, more importantly, quality of work that has gone into EBII is amazing, a HUGE thank you to all contributors to this project!
In regards to faction expansion, most of the map seems well balanced. The Middle East in particular has been very interesting, each playthrough (regardless of who I play as) has led to a different faction(s) dominating that area. Whilst Rome, Epirus and Carthage are consistently balanced in the western Mediterranean. The only oddities are the Arevakoi and the Bosporans who very often expand way too far, way too quickly, the former taking over the whole of western Africa on a few occasions and the latter always dominating the Sarmatians.
Like a number of people, my campaigns have been flooded with assassins, leading me to simply make them unrecruitable for all factions. Other than restricting them to only the highest level buildings I'm not sure how to convince the ai to go easy on them, but personally I don't find them any use except against other assassins and would argue that, unlike spies and diplomats, assassins belong in the bin alongside merchants.
I'd also like to ask about the changes 2.1b has made to the Keltoi roster. I would argue that the archaeological evidence, and Caesar's commentaries , supports the previous version's weapon layout. I feel too many Keltoi infantry have javelin/swords when they really aught to have spear/swords. Is there a historical, gameplay or mechanical reason for this change?
Otherwise, the additional units to all factions are amazing, with fantastic work gone into every design, texture and model and a very big thank you to this community, who since the first days of the original Europa Barbarorum have helped bring the ancient world to life.
Re: Thoughts after thorough playtesting 2.1b
Feedback is always welcome, without it we're only able to respond to things we notice ourselves.
The root of the issue with phalanxes is something we left in place for them: the spear attribute. One of the big changes for 2.1b (and the testing patches) was replacing the spear attribute almost universally for light_spear - but phalanxes were left unchanged. One of the problems caused by the spear attribute was that rapid loss of cohesion, which is even more problematic in a phalanx than other formations.
In the upcoming 2.2, I've made that same replacement for phalanxes, and cohesion is improved as a result.
There have been quite a lot of CAI changes for 2.2, too many to list here. We've also fixed the unwitting issue with the money scripts that didn't fire.
Assassins; every faction is limited to 4 maximum; however, if they all choose to target the player, that doesn't really help much. Note assassins are most effective at sabotage to assist spies in causing revolts.
Changes to the Keltoi roster you're observing is because of a bug in M2TW: infantry with spears and swords never use their spears. Or only do at usually inconvenient or irrelevant moments - never to protect against cavalry charges, for example. So it was better to reflect the universal usage of the javelin in Celtic warfare.
Re: Thoughts after thorough playtesting 2.1b
Quote:
Like a number of people, my campaigns have been flooded with assassins, leading me to simply make them unrecruitable for all factions.
Although it has been mentioned in several posts, the agent spam of the AI is imho not a big issue. I have played a lot of Hot Seat campaigns, and one thing the human player does, if you don't take up counter measures like e.g. blocking bridges with troops, is flood you with assassins and spys.
