EB 0.8 Romani GUI Released

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans. Today we have something a little different. A download for you to enjoy!

While EB 0.8 is still in development, and while we have been and still will be releasing previews of 0.8, we decided to give you more of a taste of it that you can actually put into 0.74 and play with: the 0.8 Roman culture GUI (Graphical User Interface) for EB.

In EB 0.8 the Romani will have their own culture group. They will also have their own GUI for their culture group. The Roman GUI is visible below in screenshots and is based on Roman wall paintings for the most part. Now here is the catch: in 0.74 the Romans share a culture with the Western Greeks. So if you are playing as Makedonia, the Koinon Hellenon, or Epeiros, you might not want to download this immediately, because if you do you would wind up playing as a Greek faction with this Roman interface. But if you are playing as the Romani, you can try out our new GUI for them and it will seem appropriate.

The GUI is still a work in progress, but it's pretty close to being completed. It is also quite different in its look and style from the 0.74 build's GUI for this culture group, so it could be a bit of a shock for you. But it is easy to install and uninstall, so you can try it out or put the Greek one back if you like. And you can see the screenshots here, so if in viewing them it looks like something you won't like, then just don't download it.

Europa Barbarorum 0.8 Roman Culture GUI

General Strat/Campaign Map View (my build has Prom's Res Gestae cities in it - so ignore those in the screenshot)


Strat/Campaign Map View of Construction Menu


Diplomatic View on Strat/Campaign Map


Strat/Campaign Map View of Announcement Messages


Battle Map View (my build also has Prom's Res Gestae grass currently, so ignore that)

Instructions (probably more complicated than they need to be - this can be boiled down to a single drag and drop step if you don't want to back up your old GUI, but I warned you to back it up first!):

1. Download the ROMAN08GUI.rar file onto your desktop. Download it here: ftp://europabarbarorum.org/ROMAN08GUI.rar (about 3 megabytes in size)
2. Open up the Program Files\Activision\Rome Total War\data\UI\Greek\ directory (on your hard-drive).
3. There will be a file there called INTERFACE. Rename it INTERFACE_Greek and then leave it alone as a backup.
3b (optional). Rename your advisor portraits too if you want to back them up, but they are in the general GREEK folder, not the GREEK\INTERFACE folder, so you'll need to "back up" one folder first to do that.
4. Open the ROMAN08GUI.rar file and inside it you will find a folder that is called GREEK. When you open that folder up, you will find three things: the INTERFACE folder and the two advisor portraits. Drag those three things into your build's data\UI\Greek\ directory and then drop it there. If you didn't choose to rename your old Greek interface files or back them up, then it will ask you if you wish to replace the current ones. Say yes if you want to install these new ones.
5. That is it. Start EB back up again and you should have the new GUI there for that culture group.
6. If you want to switch back, just rename the current INTERFACE folder (the one with the Roman GUI) INTERFACE_Roman and take your INTERFACE_Greek folder and rename it just plain old INTERFACE again and you should go back to your old one then.

Any advice about these steps would be appreciated (e.g., if something isn't described well or a problem in the steps exists), but we've tested it on a couple of pre 1.5 builds and it seems to work well on them. Enjoy this little bit of 0.8 now, and we hope to have good news about 0.8 development before much longer too (though I'm not saying you should expect the actual release, just hopefully more progress announcements, and maybe even another mini-preview too).

edit: Possible (minor) future changes:
-Advisor's shoulders poke out from behind the circle
-Battlemap "kill ratio bar" needs a darker bar behind it to contrast it better (reds bleed over)
-Left and right selection buttons (to different cities or generals) need more contrasting edges
-Mini-advisor button needs to match big advisor
-Faction icons/buttons may need filtering to match GUI (may leave them as-is though)
-Battlemap middle panel has one pixel tall "bar" on top that is only visible on half the panel
-Battlemap map may look better with a border
-Battlemap timer probably will have colors removed

As always, if you have questions or comments, the best place to post them is here, where the EB team is most active:

Europa Barbarorum ORG forum

Europa Barbarorum TWC forum

We give special thanks to Imageshack that provides us with a simple, foolproof, and free way to show you all these pictures each week.

Have a great day!


Sincerely,

The Europa Barbarorum team.

[Orb]

Looks great! I'm sorely tempted to play as Romans...

[JeffBag]

Love that rough and ready look about it.

[abou]

Very, very nice. The only that sticks out is the hourglass in the battle interface, but other than that it looks great. It really invokes the feeling of Rome when so many buildings were brick and frescos heavily used before Augustus's reign and the use of marble became more prevalent. This also comes across as more mature than the previous preview for the GUI.

[Bonny]

Nice, the new Res Gestae Cities and Harbours look great, too.

[edyzmedieval]

Well, Prometheus actually works for us, so...

[Imperator]

that......is.......friggin'.......awesome


Romani are my favorite faction so now I look forward to .8 all the more now that my Romans aren't just un-hellenized, they're Roman-ized!!!! I also like those cities, do all cities look like that on the strat map? even barbarian ones?

[Obelics]

wow, i dont play romans for now, so i will wait for 0.8, any way i like it, as I sayd for the preview the "reds" are very well used for me, and it is very good, the only think i dont like is the "green" background for the unit cards in the BM, and that 2 thin red lines at the borders of the world map (left-down corner of the CM), for the rest i like it very much and im eager to try that faction in 0.8

PS i guess the 2 thin red lines on the background of the world map could be fixed using a neutral background color for that part of the GUI? just wondering.

greet work!

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I've not made actual borders for the minimaps in strat or battle maps. But I've thought about it, esp. for battlemaps as CA did that successfully with BI and I see how it can be done. For strat maps having a nicer border might mean cutting into the map itself, but it's still something I might think about doing with the ones I'm dealing with.

[Obelics]

well i was talking of just this 2 thin lines, the only think that appear a bit strange for my eyes in the CM (it make to seem the world map as just placed on a red background), anyway it is a very minor think, and it could be just a problem of me, so as i sayd, the map looks great so far and waiting for the final relase!

[Wardo]

Help! I'm drowning in my own drool!

[Radier]

The GUI looks awesome.

Is that Proms grass mod I see?

[Sarkiss]

awesome!!!
thanks

[The Spartan (Returns)]

great.


will reinstall EB..

[Ptolomey]

Really outstanding work as always,the new GUI is awesome ,and the new unit cards provide the real ancient Flair too even though the Romans are my enemies for ever gg

[NeoSpartan]

I bow to EB.

[Simmons]

I noticed Cannae is gone does that mean I'm going to have to print off the EB map again I just got mine laminated.

GUI Looks great it really changes the feeling of the whole thing can't wait to see what effect the music will have.

[CountArach]

Great job guys!

And interesting to see Canusium has changed.

[Demivrgvs]

Good job as always.

Prometheus' cities look great too! Where can we find them apart Res Gestae? Maybe in EB 0.8?

[Krusader]

Good job as always.

Prometheus' cities look great too! Where can we find them apart Res Gestae? Maybe in EB 0.8?

Prom is also in EB and we help eachother out. The cities should be in 0.8.

[CountArach]

Prom is also in EB and we help eachother out. The cities should be in 0.8.

Excellent! Last I heard they weren't going to be in 0.8! Great news!

This day is just getting better and better.

[Janius]

Great! Just installed them, very nice work, keep it up!

Going to continue my Romani campaign in style

[Geoffrey S]

well i was talking of just this 2 thin lines, the only think that appear a bit strange for my eyes in the CM (it make to seem the world map as just placed on a red background), anyway it is a very minor think, and it could be just a problem of me, so as i sayd, the map looks great so far and waiting for the final relase!

Agreed. The rest looks great, just the border around the map could be better.

[Oldgamer]

Excellent! I might just abandon the minimal UI on the battlemap for this ...

[C.LVCIANVS]

Thanks! Wonderful!

Prometheus we're waiting for your's masterpieces in EB!
Thanks again for RG... I'm a lucky man! My favorites mods had his sign...

[iberus_generalis]

where can we get the cities and the ports? it's not in res gestae prom's legions or is it?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

There is no add on. Those are from the mod Res Gestae itself. You will need to download Res Gestae.

[iberus_generalis]

nice...it's done, and i didn't even need to edit any txt file...=)

[Demivrgvs]

nice...it's done, and i didn't even need to edit any txt file...=)

Have you find a way to bring Prom's cities on EB?

[iberus_generalis]

its quite simple... unzip the resgestae mod into any folder that is not a rome TW instalation...
then go into the unziped files and search for models_strat folder and copy this folder into or EB rome instalation data Folder, and when the OS asks if you want to overwrite the files in Models_strat folder just say yes to all...and voilá its done..you should get something like this...



now all i have to do is to figure out how to mess around with the sea...tired of this color already..