Europa Barbarorum 2.08e is released!

[Coronatus]

First of all, thank you Quintus for doing all the stuff to improve V 2.01. Especially thank you for re-integrating "Year in History" which is always nice to read and which I really missed in 2.01.

Now some things I can report for 2.03f in comparison to 2.03d that I played previously:

- Seleucids are THE force in the game; they quickly start finishing off the Ptolies in Minor Asia and Syria first (although the Ptolies are doing better especially in 2.03d related to earlier versions), then turn against Pergamon, who bravely try to defend but have no chance against 5, 6, sometimes 7 Seleucid full-stacks; tried to adress it myself by decreasing Seleucid money excessively, but failed - little to no impact on their power
- Parthia and Pontos doing zero to nothing
- Baktria growing but only in direction of Saka and China (they know for good reason why they don't mess up with the Arche!)
- Gandhara expanding to Eastern (former Rebel) regions of Persia, then stopping at Seleucid border (we all know why!)
- Bosphorans sometimes invading Hayasdan in earlier versions, now doing some little war on Sauromatae
- Saba and Nabatu building up huge stocks of money, expanding quite well in Arabia, then finished by Arche (at least this is true for the Nabatu)
- Hayasdan doing pretty well, expanding all over Armenia and Kappadokia; unfortunately the Seleucids turn the eyes right to them after killing Pergamon
- Makedonia: no chance; stuck in the middle between Hellenes and Epeiros; in most of my games they are THE loser in Greece
- Koinon Hellenon progressing quite well in Hellas but avoids invading Minor Asia
- Epeiros without a chance in Italy but nail on the grave of Makedonia
- Getai building up an imperium all over Thrace and neighbouring regions, doing quite fine
- Boii have bad luck settling in the middle between Getai and Sweboz; get killed by either one of them mid-game
- SPQR: in earlier versions I played (2.03c, d) they progressed quite well heading South; since 2.03f they are looking North again; in one game they finished the Boii somewhere in Southern Germany (!)
- Carthage is one of the winners of the revised money script; doing quite well in Africa, maybe a bit too well (Numidians get crashed in early-game, always on the run)

When having to decide between a weak and a strong Carthage I really prefer the later though. It adds a lot more depth to the game, since Roma is no longer the sole superpower in the West. Arche has to be stopped somehow but after reading the thread I'm coming to the conclusion that this gets already addressed. This was a lot better with 2.03c (or was it d?), when half of their empire instant-rebelled. The problem with them is, they are not only sending full-stack after full-stack but also win almost every battle against other AI-factions.
Next thing I would emphasize is giving Baktria a Hellenistic Metropolis. When I was playing them it was really annoying that I had to create Allied States in every new acquired region being unable to increase Hellenistic "religion" effectively for turns.

Last thing, I experienced CTDs in EVERY battle I fought personally on battle map. Don't know why. This happened only in v2.03f for me and didn't occur in one battle for the previous versions. CTD seemed to happen when AI troops started marching, irrespectively of the faction I was fighting with or on. 2.03g is currently installing. Will see how that works.

Thank you so far. I hope I could contribute sth valuable.

Coronatus


Edit:
Almost forgot: PLEASE do sth against the excessive spamming of assassins by Ptolies and Seleucids. When playing Baktria the Seleucids killed either Basileus or Kleronomos every turn (sometimes both of them). This happened also for me playing Pergamon, when I was spammed by both Arche and Ptolies. Choosing Makedonia, they "only" destroyed all my markets every turn, sending about 4-5 assassins to Greece every season. Maybe a tweak in decreasing their success chances for killing faction members and sabotage would be the right thing to do.

[QuintusSertorius]

First of all, thank you Quintus for doing all the stuff to improve V 2.01. Especially thank you for re-integrating "Year in History" which is always nice to read and which I really missed in 2.01.

Now some things I can report for 2.03f in comparison to 2.03d that I played previously:

- Seleucids are THE force in the game; they quickly start finishing off the Ptolies in Minor Asia and Syria first (although the Ptolies are doing better especially in 2.03d related to earlier versions), then turn against Pergamon, who bravely try to defend but have no chance against 5, 6, sometimes 7 Seleucid full-stacks; tried to adress it myself by decreasing Seleucid money excessively, but failed - little to no impact on their power
- Parthia and Pontos doing zero to nothing
- Baktria growing but only in direction of Saka and China (they know for good reason why they don't mess up with the Arche!)
- Gandhara expanding to Eastern (former Rebel) regions of Persia, then stopping at Seleucid border (we all know why!)
- Bosphorans sometimes invading Hayasdan in earlier versions, now doing some little war on Sauromatae
- Saba and Nabatu building up huge stocks of money, expanding quite well in Arabia, then finished by Arche (at least this is true for the Nabatu)
- Hayasdan doing pretty well, expanding all over Armenia and Kappadokia; unfortunately the Seleucids turn the eyes right to them after killing Pergamon
- Makedonia: no chance; stuck in the middle between Hellenes and Epeiros; in most of my games they are THE loser in Greece
- Koinon Hellenon progressing quite well in Hellas but avoids invading Minor Asia
- Epeiros without a chance in Italy but nail on the grave of Makedonia
- Getai building up an imperium all over Thrace and neighbouring regions, doing quite fine
- Boii have bad luck settling in the middle between Getai and Sweboz; get killed by either one of them mid-game
- SPQR: in earlier versions I played (2.03c, d) they progressed quite well heading South; since 2.03f they are looking North again; in one game they finished the Boii somewhere in Southern Germany (!)
- Carthage is one of the winners of the revised money script; doing quite well in Africa, maybe a bit too well (Numidians get crashed in early-game, always on the run)

Always appreciate detailed feedback.

Something to be aware of: trying to decrease AI faction money via the console won't have any impact. They are reset above negative by the script, because if they spiral into the red, they go passive. The lesser evil is making sure they can't go bankrupt.

When having to decide between a weak and a strong Carthage I really prefer the later though. It adds a lot more depth to the game, since Roma is no longer the sole superpower in the West. Arche has to be stopped somehow but after reading the thread I'm coming to the conclusion that this gets already addressed. This was a lot better with 2.03c (or was it d?), when half of their empire instant-rebelled. The problem with them is, they are not only sending full-stack after full-stack but also win almost every battle against other AI-factions.

The change that caused so much stability was me turning all their starting Captains into Generals. They're all back to Captains again as of 2.03g. Things should also be less stable with the alteration to distance penalty and turmoil cap.

Next thing I would emphasize is giving Baktria a Hellenistic Metropolis. When I was playing them it was really annoying that I had to create Allied States in every new acquired region being unable to increase Hellenistic "religion" effectively for turns.

Baktra doesn't have a Metropolis for good reason, because the Greek population density wasn't high enough in 272BC. The update to the independence script, granting bonus colony points, should alleviate this a little (two of the three will let you put a helcol_three in Baktra), but you can always change it yourself. Search the descr_strat for Baktra, and simply change the line with polis_two on it to polis_three.

Last thing, I experienced CTDs in EVERY battle I fought personally on battle map. Don't know why. This happened only in v2.03f for me and didn't occur in one battle for the previous versions. CTD seemed to happen when AI troops started marching, irrespectively of the faction I was fighting with or on. 2.03g is currently installing. Will see how that works.

Thank you so far. I hope I could contribute sth valuable.

Coronatus

I'll ask z3n to take a look. Do you have some error logs from the battle crashes? These help a great deal in terms of locating what's causing the instability.

Edit:
Almost forgot: PLEASE do sth against the excessive spamming of assassins by Ptolies and Seleucids. When playing Baktria the Seleucids killed either Basileus or Kleronomos every turn (sometimes both of them). This happened also for me playing Pergamon, when I was spammed by both Arche and Ptolies. Choosing Makedonia, they "only" destroyed all my markets every turn, sending about 4-5 assassins to Greece every season. Maybe a tweak in decreasing their success chances for killing faction members and sabotage would be the right thing to do.

Limiting agents per faction is difficult. The reason those two have so many is that they have the higher-tier markets in a number of places. In 2.03h I'm dropping the maximum chance of success which should stop super-assassins a bit.

[Coronatus]

Always appreciate detailed feedback.

Something to be aware of: trying to decrease AI faction money via the console won't have any impact. They are reset above negative by the script, because if they spiral into the red, they go passive. The lesser evil is making sure they can't go bankrupt.

Thank you for replying so quickly!
Well I changed it via script giving Arche a huge money penalty in king's purse when having more than 20 settlements but leaving a bonus when dropping below 15 settlements. Unfortunately they even grew above 25 settlements. (Of course I kind of deactivated the debt script for them.)

Baktra doesn't have a Metropolis for good reason, because the Greek population density wasn't high enough in 272BC. The update to the independence script, granting bonus colony points, should alleviate this a little (two of the three will let you put a helcol_three in Baktra), but you can always change it yourself. Search the descr_strat for Baktra, and simply change the line with polis_two on it to polis_three.

Thank you for the hint!

I will try 2.03g for now and see what will happen with it.

[QuintusSertorius]

Thank you for replying so quickly!
Well I changed it via script giving Arche a huge money penalty in king's purse when having more than 20 settlements but leaving a bonus when dropping below 15 settlements. Unfortunately they even grew above 25 settlements. (Of course I kind of deactivated the debt script for them.)

Ah, I see. They do seem to start off well past the tipping point into superpower status.

Thank you for the hint!

I will try 2.03g for now and see what will happen with it.

The change to the Baktrian script isn't in just yet.

[QuintusSertorius]

Changelog for 2.03h:

• Reduced maximum assassination chance from 95% to 80%
• Increased experience of the new bandit bodyguards.
• Increased cost of pirate fleets.
• Added Kretan infantry to the polis_one (on Krete only).
• For the final time, amended the Koinon Reform - this time the Sympoliteia/kh7 construction part. Building should now complete.
• Added a colonisation bonus to the end of the Baktrian independence script.
• Updated missing Field of Games description for Pergamon.
• Slight adjustment to costs for Hetairoi/Hellenistic BG and Baktrioi Stragegou/Baktrioi Hippeis.
• Baktrioi Hippotoxotai adjusted to reflect medium, rather than heavy cavalry status. Less armour but faster; cheaper and more widely available to Baktria.
• Settlement mechanics altered; distance penalty will now apply; corruption capped to prevent negative income; health bonus cap raised.
• Altered starting Seleukid and Pahlava armies/garrisons.
• Carthaginian trade colonies now allowed in Allied Government settlements.
• Changed apostrophes and quotation marks in historic_events.txt that was causing crashes on some systems.
• Reduced some Rebel garrisons in major settlements and added armies to the region instead. That should make for more active Rebels and less passive expansion.
• Increased battle experience of Rebel generals.

No CAI/BAI changes, z3n isn't back online yet.

[Saigrin]

Hi team! I've noticed something funny:

The Iberi Caetratii regiment leader uses the wrong extreme of his spear to fight :D

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Vermin]

I may be in dangerous waters here but seeing as this is now up to 2.03h I am torn between waiting for the new release of EBII or giving 2.03h a go. Any thoughts of how much of 2.03h will make it into the summer release?
Regards
Vermin

[QuintusSertorius]

I may be in dangerous waters here but seeing as this is now up to 2.03h I am torn between waiting for the new release of EBII or giving 2.03h a go. Any thoughts of how much of 2.03h will make it into the summer release?
Regards
Vermin

All of it. I dual-edit the test versions 2.03 and the development build. Occasionally, something has to be removed, but that's been rare. Most of the changes you see in these test versions will be in the summer release. I wouldn't wait, though, better to play a game you won't mind ending when the summer release happens, such as a faction you don't usually play.

[Vermin]

Excellent - thankyou.

[QuintusSertorius]

Changelist for 2.03i:

• Kill rates for cavalry missiles equalised with others at 0.4.
• Reduced maximum assassination chance from 95% to 75% (actually applied correctly this time!). Spies adjusted to make chances of opening gates lower. Enabled spies for the Rebels.
• "Armenian" cavalry renamed "Anatolian" as intended, alteration to mercenary pools and recruitment in Anatolia made to accomodate.
• Attempt to use recruit_priority_offset to make the AI recruit more balanced armies.
• V.T. Marvin's update to Roman offices applied. Legate more widely available, Quaestors can be elected in other cities in Italy, and pro-magistracies last 5 years, rather than 3 years.
• Spartan Agoge re-enabled, though not yet tested.
• Rewrite of season script.
• Update to Pergamon's reform script - now it is possible to fulfil by defeating any combination of big Galatian or Seleukid armies. Also added announcements, so there is feedback.
• Added conversion bonus to numidia4 and numidia5 to help with late-game order issues.
• Temporarily given Epeiros the ability to recruit Illyrioi Peltophoroi in Ambrakia to counter their lack of heavy infantry in the early game. They are replaced with Deuteroi Phalangitai in the full release.
• Wholesale fix of entertainment building access.
• Some text updates on historic events and units.
• Altered Seleukid/Ptolemaioi balance of power in Asia Minor in favour of the latter.
• Alteration of Makedonian government building in Pella; for the human player it's still a precursor, for the AI it's a Basilike Patris.
• Ephesos gets an Epistateia epi Hellenas and upgrade to polis_three. Also Halikarnassos get an upgrade to polis_two, a helcol_one, and their farms upgraded to farms_two.
• Removal of anti-trait bugs for agents. Indeed agent traits have all been reworked. HasAnc bug for unique retainers fixed.
• Slight change to "early support" money script values for Ptolemaioi, Pontos, Getai, Aedui and Arverni.
• Added an index of categories to the EDU, thanks Casual Tactician.
• Succession script amended, so only factions with a family tree can choose.
• Updates to Saba, Nabatu and Taksashila traits. Taksashila Mantrin and Senapati offices enabled.
• New BAI (more reactions and regrouping) and CAI (more expansion, more active Rebels).

[bisthebis]

What is the gameplay purpose of Metropolis in Ephesos ? Increased Ptolemaic colonisation ? Increased syrategic importance of the city ?

[QuintusSertorius]

What is the gameplay purpose of Metropolis in Ephesos ? Increased Ptolemaic colonisation ? Increased syrategic importance of the city ?

Increased troop availability for the Ptolemaioi in Asia Minor and the size and significance of the Greek population in Ephesos. It's also in a bit of a strange local troop-availability black hole, you can only recruit Greek units there.

[QuintusSertorius]

Just a quick heads-up everyone: there's an error on the background_script (where the BAI is stored), which will need to be fixed ASAP - so a new version coming as soon as I have that.


EDIT: Turns out it was a case-sensitive typo, which I've fixed. Just waiting to see if I can also bundle in a fixed Baktrian/Hayastan independence script as well in 2.03j.

[QuintusSertorius]

Updated to 2.03j - if you downloaded 2.03i I'm afraid you need to download this and start again, the BAI is broken in 2.03i.

But you now get a working Baktrian/Hayastan independence script in the bargain.

[TvFootball]

Many thanks to the EB team for their hard work. I just have a few comments on 2.03j. I started a campaign with Koinon Hellenon and in about 3 turns Phyrrus destroyed all of Thermon's armies and Thermon had no units left in its city. The next turn Phyrrus retreats mainland and in the next few turns Macedon ends up taking Thermon. I thought that was weird so I started another campaign and the same thing happened. Also, in the second campaign, one of Macedon's generals turns rebel along with his army. No apparent reason.

[QuintusSertorius]

Many thanks to the EB team for their hard work. I just have a few comments on 2.03j. I started a campaign with Koinon Hellenon and in about 3 turns Phyrrus destroyed all of Thermon's armies and Thermon had no units left in its city. The next turn Phyrrus retreats mainland and in the next few turns Macedon ends up taking Thermon. I thought that was weird so I started another campaign and the same thing happened. Also, in the second campaign, one of Macedon's generals turns rebel along with his army. No apparent reason.

The AI does inexplicable things sometimes. Though Pyrrhos not following through on a battle is actually quite in character.

FMs randomly turn rebel if they have low Loyalty. That happens. It can happen to your FMs as well.

[QuintusSertorius]

Changelist for 2.03k:

• Upgraded helcol in Ptolemais-Akko to helcol_two.
• Roman provincial governorship implemented.
• Spartan Agoge bug fixed.
• Seleukid anti-trait bugs fixed.
• Fixes of many antitraits and trigger issues. Not complete by any means, mind.
• For those who use them, banners have been shrunk to be less intrusive.
• Rebel armies added in Germany and Spain to slow early AI expansion. Changed Waldawa's garrison/commander to Balts, rather than Sauromatae.
• Shortened charging distances and made a small tweak to the battle_config to improve cohesion.
• Slight tweak to the recruit_priority_offset for elites to make them less recruited.
• Rebel spawn rate increased.
• Turned base spy chance back up, but multiplier for being in a settlement down.
• Slight increase in Korinthos' garrison, and change of government from makedonia2 to makedonia5.
• Another slight tweak to Baktrian and Hayasdan independence scripts - the indemnity should come the following year after a refusal of tribute, not immediately.

[Not_a_Strategist_yet]

Greetings and many thanks for the improvements since 2.01.

Playing as Boii I have to love the new campaign AI (and battle but change campaign AI change is more profound). First time I started campaign in 2.03h I was still thinking about stock medieval 2 total war AI. So ended in a bloody stalemate where me, Lugiones and Sweboz had only the strangth to fend off each other and no economy.
The first time the enemies attacked a city with full stack when I dared move my stack out of range it was a real shock
So ended up restarting and now playing much more serious than in the past, thanks to your wonderful effort.

One thing that I noticed is the Londo Epatoi in 2.03h cannot fire their javelins easily because they skirmish just as they get in range. The range they started retreating was a bit too much with the new infantry speeds, they clearly had more than the necessary distance to flee.
Can I suggest changing the forced skirmish distance for cavalry in battle_config to 2/3 of the current range? If they have trouble getting out one can reduce the response time a bit.
Hopefully that will solve the issue. I had tried it in EB 2.01 and it worked beautifully back then. In the process of reinstalling, and I'll give it a try.
Btw would the current version be save game compatible with 2.03h?

In the meantime, hat's off gents as usual superb work.

PS: forgot to say great thanks to the historians for the Boii history and descriptions , very detiled and very nice.

[bisthebis]

I'm quite sceptic on Ptolemais Akho and Korinthos upgrades, they seem OP to me. (For Iudaia i don't know how mych colonised it was though)
Especially for Korinthos : as Makedonia, ypu are filthy rich by turn 10 with mining income (unless it has been changed recently) so building Korinthian government is an invedtment that had to be done, but may be delayed if you use all your money elsewhere.
Maybe you should consider making this upgrade AI-only ?

(Furthermore, I especially liked having strategia in Korinthos for RP point of view : IIRC, Antigonidai didn't control Korinthos legally at this time, but only had a garrison in the Akrokorinthos. I felt that Strategia was the best way to model this)

This said, I haven't played for 7 days and still haven't upgraded my mod, so gameplay context may have changed)

[QuintusSertorius]

One thing that I noticed is the Londo Epatoi in 2.03h cannot fire their javelins easily because they skirmish just as they get in range. The range they started retreating was a bit too much with the new infantry speeds, they clearly had more than the necessary distance to flee.
Can I suggest changing the forced skirmish distance for cavalry in battle_config to 2/3 of the current range? If they have trouble getting out one can reduce the response time a bit.
Hopefully that will solve the issue. I had tried it in EB 2.01 and it worked beautifully back then. In the process of reinstalling, and I'll give it a try.

Most infantry are slower, not faster. It's only skirmishers that are faster than they were. Indeed cavalry are all faster than they were in 2.01. Most importantly of all, javelin ranges are longer than they were in 2.01. I seem to remember in 2.01 no cavalry javelineers ever threw their javelins, so I'm not sure I understand the comparison. The threshold is higher than it was, rather than lower.

Is it only Londo Epatoi, or are Akus Eporedoi having the same issue with skirmishing?

Btw would the current version be save game compatible with 2.03h?

No, none of the updates are ever savegame compatible, I'm afraid.

I'm quite sceptic on Ptolemais Akho and Korinthos upgrades, they seem OP to me. (For Iudaia i don't know how mych colonised it was though)
Especially for Korinthos : as Makedonia, ypu are filthy rich by turn 10 with mining income (unless it has been changed recently) so building Korinthian government is an invedtment that had to be done, but may be delayed if you use all your money elsewhere.
Maybe you should consider making this upgrade AI-only ?

(Furthermore, I especially liked having strategia in Korinthos for RP point of view : IIRC, Antigonidai didn't control Korinthos legally at this time, but only had a garrison in the Akrokorinthos. I felt that Strategia was the best way to model this)

This said, I haven't played for 7 days and still haven't upgraded my mod, so gameplay context may have changed)

Ptolemais-Akko: there was a Ptolemaic colony there. Some time after the battle of Panion, it started producing phalanxes. It's unlikely to be overpowered considering the Seleukids have Antiocheia a stones-throw away producing phalanxes, elites and elephants.

Korinthos: the only meaningful differences with a makedonia5 are better public order and better building access. But we'll see what the feedback is.

[Not_a_Strategist_yet]

No i did not compare to eb2.01 it's much better now for cavalry with your changes and I'm grateful for them.
I just mentioned a trick I used to test back in EB2.01 days that's all not comparing the 2 at all.

The issue I had was with Londo Epatoi using huge group size. For some reason in campaign every time I ordered them to attack let's say a point in the enemy battle line they only fired very few javelins and then skirmished before finishing the shot. If I recall correctly it was against enemy light infantry.
I'll test with Akus eporedoi and different group sizes right now.

[Not_a_Strategist_yet]

EDIT: Managed to reproduce the issue in the following manner:
1) Put huge unit scale,
2) Custom battle 1 unit of londo epatoi vs 1 unit of slaganz
3) I order the epatoi to attack without changing their formation
4) They never seem to be able to launch javelins because they skirmish before in range.

EDIT2: Also have the same issue with Akus eporedoi in huge scale

EDIT3: Changing these lines in battle config, so the skirmishers start skirmish mode later seems to help the issue without compromising their ability to disengage too much at least in custom battle:

<!-- must skirmish if within this range -->
<min-range>40</min-range>

<!-- stop at this distance if the enemy is blocking the path -->
<min-stopping-range>60</min-stopping-range>

<!-- don't skirmish until attackers are within this fraction of the missile range -->
<range-factor>
<moving>0.6</moving>

<shooting>0.5</shooting>
</range-factor>

[Sarkiss]

how do i install the latest version? just extract over the previous 2.03x? (i currently have 2.03i). thanks!

[QuintusSertorius]

how do i install the latest version? just extract over the previous 2.03x? (i currently have 2.03i). thanks!

Yes, and if you've already performed the batch operation to remove the Huge City files, you don't need to do that again.

Beware, it may take as long as 5 minutes to generate the very first campaign, it hasn't frozen, it just takes time. It won't take that long again.

[Not_a_Strategist_yet]

Diggin further into the earlier issue with javeliner cavalry I just post some thoughts of why the javelin infantry work almost perfectly and cavalry not so perfectly.

2.03k cavlry section @ battle_config.xml:

<!-- must skirmish if within this range -->
<min-range>70</min-range> // forcing the cavalry to skirmish at 70m seems way too high since most javelins barely got a 70m range

<!-- don't skirmish until attackers are within this fraction of the missile range -->
<range-factor>
<moving>1.1</moving>
<shooting>0.9</shooting> //again let's say a cavalry prepares to throw javelins perhaps it would be better to tell them not to skirmish until enemies are within 0.7X range or 0.6X so he has time to finish the animation before running out of range. The issue is if they run they can outrun the infantry and that means with a high value they'll get out of range before letting their javelins fly.
</range-factor>

Looking at the infantry section about skirmish those things mentioned above are already there maybe that's why there is difference:

<!-- must skirmish if within this range -->
<min-range>30</min-range> !//javelins have min 50m so this is good means they have times to launch

<!-- don't skirmish until attackers are within this fraction of the missile range -->
<range-factor>
<moving>0.75</moving>

<shooting>0.60</shooting> //again they have time to launch before running away, unlike cavalry they don't run away as soon as enemies in range
</range-factor>
</default>

The above would also explain why making those changes in post 142 seemed to help the issue.
And I'm sorry if I bring trouble with the post. I am not attempting to look a gift horse in the mouth as we say (this mod being a really good gift horse), I have nothing but respect for your work, that's why I'm testing things in the first place.

[QuintusSertorius]

You're exactly right; they were adjusted to help horse-archers, but unfortunately that stiffs javelineers. @z3n is looking into a new balance.

[QuintusSertorius]

Changelist for 2.04:

• Restored government in Korinthos to makedonia2
• Increased experience and traits of Rebel generals.
• Fixed the fault in the Hayastan Independence script where war is never declared if you refuse tribute and indemnity.
• Fixed the fault in the last part of the Saka Reform script.
• Added punitive expeditions to the Hayastan/Baktrian Independence scripts. No more phoney wars with no response from the Seleukids.
• Gain message attached to spoils traits removed.
• Ambrakia upgraded from epeiros5 to epeiros7. eastcol_one added to Epidamnos.
• Hypaspistai removed from gov6 building.
• Native Italy pool added to Epeiros government buildings.
• Update to Faction Heir loyalty.
• Script to make AI Koinon Hellenon use the army on Krete to actually take Knossos.
• Removed helcol_one from Side.
• Revised govslave recruit_pools - now the Rebels actually have some decent options available to them, at reasonable refresh rates.
• Updated Succession script.
• Corrected one Epirote FM's missing ethnicity trait.
• Changed all faction personalities to balanced smith (settled) or balanced henry (steppe), to allow all the other factors to influence their behaviour.
• Amended some invalid characters in the export_ancillaries that might cause crashes on mouse-over.
• Got rid of Toutanakoi's precursor rocks. Now they're just spearmen.
• Moved Pyrrhos slightly, moved Alkemachos closer to Thermon, given Thermon's commander the ImmobileRebel trait. Increased Alkemachos' Command stars and decreased Pyrrhos'. All to reduce the Thermon trap for AI Makedonia.
• Altered govallied roster in Latium/Italy.
• Roman conquests are renamed like every other faction's - no more Latin names in parenthesis.
• Improved colour contrast of popup announcements. Should be more legible now.
• Updated the names of the Leusitane roster in the EDU, so it should be much easier to find them if you've seen the unit card in game.
• All Rebel FMs improved to stop them being so easily defeated in autocalc - all start with 2 Command stars and GoodDefender (which gives another one when attacked). All Rebel governors made immobile, to stop them wandering off and leaving their settlement undefended.
• Slightly increased the culture penalty cap, and increased the distance penalty modifier. Also increased the cap for law and entertainment buildings. That should mean more revolts.
• Added new missions for Baktria. There's a new means to earn your colonists (they no longer happen with independence).
• Added Rebel garrisons to two PSFs on Krete when KH is player.
• All new, non-script-based BAI. Updates to CAI. See here for more details.
• Reduced army size requirement when facing Galatians in the Pergamon Reform script to 1000. Should be easier to qualify for people not playing on Huge Unit Scale.

[Ice]

Haven't tried your new version, but my thoughts from 2.03k:

-Good, good, good! AI is much more aggressive (I had to attack Carthage when they laid siege to the rebel held southern Italian province). Carthage also moved through Spain and is conquering some regions near the Alps.

-I've seen limited Naval invasions which is kind of cool.

-Culture buildings seem to be functioning correctly.

-Game is much more interesting, challenging, not a total push over.

-Rebel armies actually move around their province, so laying siege and starving them all out is not the cake walk it use to be.

The one issue I have is that the AI now spams assassins. I mean, I understand a few, but when all my generals are paranoid, survivors, and obsessed with security, I feel the AI is going a bit overboard. Every turn I have 1-3 assassins, 95% of the time unsuccessfully, trying to either sabotage or assassinate a FM.

[Lizardo]

nice

[Not_a_Strategist_yet]

Playing with previous version (2.03h)
Near 162 BC in the Boii campaign. Thing's I've noticed so far:

=On the positive side=
*Campaign AI much better than vanilla when waging wars. Had to really sweat at times to defeat Sweboz and Lugiones + Romani were hard.
One time I had an army on a bridge in Latium and was expecting an easy win. Did not notice there was another crossing to the region but the AI sure as hell did. Fighting 2 Romani armies one before the bridge and one to my rear was a nasty surprise.

*AI also seems way quicker to grab opportunities like undefended cities when they are at war with you than vanilla.

*Naval invasions are more rare than land invasions but they seem to be working. Have the Pritanoi with 2 regions in Gaul and Arevakoi disembarking near my regions in Italy. This is quite a feat since we all know how unheard of where naval invasions in stock Medieval Total war.

*The AI focus on maintaining large stacks with merging in case of casualties (unsure of retraining) is great

=On the negative side=
*Factions seem to at times overexhaust themselves building large stacks in such numbers they totally crumble their economy. For example and these are only the fulls tacks I can see from my spies/watchtowers:
-Arverni had 7 regions and about 7 full stacks, bankrupt every turn
-Arevaci have 11 regions and at least 8 full stacks, bankrupt too for the last 30 turns
-Pritanoi have 12 regions and 13 lol full stacks + a full city , in the red so much they are screwed, only defending and nothing else.

So seems like top notch work on the AI. I don't know if this was changed after 2.03h but I hope there is a way to stop factions driving themselves bankrupt in such a way. On the other hand if it's game limitation well nvm.