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After I had thanked spanakoryzo I just remembered I have done no work on the Lusitani :rolleyes:
Hopefully the Arevaci (thanks also to Sarcasm and oudysseos previous work, not to mention the scripters and artists) will add more Iberian fun for you.
As noted in a recent twitter update we are currently discussing options on how to give the Arevaci a unique style of government which, if successful, will make for some challenging gameplay.
How will you be handling the Koinon Hellenon government and "Family Members"?
Wonderful news. Cant wait.
This is great news! Keep up the good work, guys!
My prayers have not been invain! Thank God!
Any idea if the alpha release will be in December? Normally I wouldn't ask such a question here but this Month is a bit special since I have free time until next semester starts, and I know Christmas time is when a lot of modders like to "surprise" their followers. But honestly is their any hope of this mod's Alpha seeing a December Saturnalia release or should I not have my heart set on it (and no longer check back here every 2 hours)?
It will not be in December, even if we would like to do as a Christmas gift to the fans.
There's still a bit more work to do and to polish things.
Since the wait was longer than what we hopped we wan't to make it worth the wait.
That is the reasons we're also changing the vanilla settlements, vegetation, climates and many other.
Thnx for letting me know, as odd as it sounds it's actually a relief to know it won't be coming out this month
I like this idea a lot. If I ever acquire the skills to do it it could be an unofficial sub-mod in the very distant future. The only thing I would add would be non-exile prominent statesmen, family members or generals (what ever works best) which either by traits or certain actions (say wiping out a city's population completely) impacts diplomacy.Quote:
Originally Posted by antisocialmunky
Example: Factions could demand the expulsion of or death of this figure as a diplomatic option, failure to do so would prevent coming to a ceasefire, or obtaining trade rights, or something else.
I've been re-reading Thucydides, which is the reason I jumped from witches to statesmen that your enemies despise. I'm thinking specifically of the Spartan demand (before the outbreak of fighting between Athens and Sparta) that the Athenians "drive out the curse of the goddess", which was more or less their way of suggesting the Athenians should exile Pericles and the Athenian counter reply that the Spartans drive out the "curse of the brazen goddess" which was connected with Pausanias (Book 1 Para:126-135). For whatever reason, the ways in which some of the Greeks used their religion as an instrument of foreign policy has always fascinated me (don't get me started with some of the ways an oracle at Delphi feature could be used as a game feature) this one in particular.
Its fun to think about, but I think everyone recognizes the fact that the EB 2 team has had to pass on a thousand of good ideas (most of which are probably better then my own) or else the mod will never be released. I'm excited to see what made the cut, and glad to see its really starting to come together.-Nick.
but do get started i always fancy to read new and interesting subjects
How goes it?
Just checking in about once a week to see how things are going...
btw:
what about pre release announcements?
I mean, will the mod be anounced like a week before it's released or will you just surprise us? Normally I would not care, but I'm still on the verge of buying a new PC and the EB release would certainly be a good reason to finaly get it :D but imagine the horror: EB is released and poor Ca Putt can't play it because he did not get his new pc yet D: we would not want that to happen^^
It won't drop unannounced from the skies, i assure you! There's still a number of things on our "must-do" list and a far larger group of "we really should do's". The whole process of figuring out how to package this thing up and distribute it and install it without causing nightmares for the fans is a pretty big project all in itself, and that isn't ready yet either. So we are still whacking away, and you will be grateful for the delays - every day that passes, new content goes in and game play improves.
That's what they said about Duke Nukem Forever....j/K ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Kull
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaertecken
How dare you sir! :clown:
Are we there yet?
Here's the thing. We have ironed out the horrific bugs that caused the game to CTD and resolved others that severely hampered playability. What we are still working on are the MULTITUDE of factors that combine to make the game interesting - or not. Things like recruitment, the economy, AI faction survivability, and a host of related, complex interactions, could not be tested and addressed until the worst of the stability issues had been resolved. The good news is, we are there. The bad news is, those are major issues, and none of them are subject to quick fixes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rex Somnorum
When the original announcement was made last fall, there was a feeling that the mod had been in process for far too long, and it was better to release an alpha than to just keep moseying along forever. But since then we have made quantum leaps in many areas, and have a deeper team working in a larger number of areas. That has allowed us to "raise the bar". Rather than dropping a half finished, barely playable mod on those who've long awaited it, the goal is to deliver a product that is historically rich in detail AND interesting and exciting to play.
We are also painfully aware of the Total War community's reaction to the playability issues affecting R2TW. For us to do the same thing to our fans? That would be unconscionable. So when will it be released? Hard to say. This year absolutely. In the next few months, probably not. There truly are too many variables at play to say any more than that. You can be confident however, that a large team is working every single day to get this done. It will be worth the wait.
You, the staff, have been working off your backsides for 7 years (I think the first announcement of an EB II actually being worked on was in spring 2007).
You did so despite all the obstacles real life or hardcoded limits threw at you.
We, the drooling fans, have been waiting - more or less patient - for the same time.
And I honestly think that neither you nor we will die if the game (I'm deliberately avoiding the term "mod", for obvious reasons) is delayed for some months more.
Suffering may happen (more serious at your than at our end, as I suppose), but there are no lives in danger from any such delay, as far as I'm aware.
In other words: take your time. I expect the game to keep me busy for several years at least. Probably it will - for me - be the ultimate strategy game, replacing my alltime favourite Civilization II.
What are a few more months (or even one or two years?) of waiting compared to that perspective? Nothing, seriously.
To quote you: "It's done when it's done."
To quote me: "Whenever EB II is ready, I'll be here to appreciate it." And I'm pretty sure there are many others who feel the same. :yes:
Sounds great actually!
And I can agree with Shadowwalker, If it takes the time then take the time, Rome 2 has shown how it's not done, your move :D
you know that that actually is an euphemism ;)Quote:
quantum leaps
To add to Kull's post, you guys should also know that there have been many things that we want to change or include, but that the team has democratically elected to be for a second release. We are aware of feature creep and have been limiting it.
Thanks for the honest answer. Although I'm sorta disappointed that the mod isn't coming out in the next month or so (especially since I was expecting it sometime in early 2014), I'm content that the extra time for development will be spent improving the game. And compared to seven years, a few more months isn't that much time anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kull
So, what's mostly left is game balancing and adding shiny features, then?
The modding group is working pretty closely with the Beta Testing team (and we have a FANTASTIC group who are all active and contributing - just a huge plus) to identify problem areas with game balance/playability. There is a LOT to that, because there is so much interaction among all the elements that comprise EB2, so it can get pretty complicated. The good thing from the fans perspective is that allows the artists to spend more time adding "polish" and likewise, the historians have time to add to the immense amount of historical text that is going to accompany this mod. There is so much to love about EB2, but I'm in awe at the incredible ability of our historians to immerse you in all the cultures of this period.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rex Somnorum
my only regreat about the entire waiting time is that due to shortage of time and lack of usefull skills i was not able to contribute and therefore if i can´t help i don´t think i can ever have the morals to put into question those that work hard to furfill something that i hope will bring me much joy
Yeh here that guys! We're gonna get some creepy features in EB2!Quote:
Originally Posted by abou
Werewolves?
Vampires?
Zombies?
Kull,
From my point of view, the longer the team takes in getting AI faction play balance right, the better.
I never finished a campaign in EB1 due to frustration with AI factions like Seleukia and Ptolemies becoming uber-powerful with stacks of elite units while I was trying to play a slow, role-playing campaign on Medium. My EB1 experience is one of playing the first 50 years of a campaign with all the various factions, then starting again - the game only remained 'historically balanced' (but still interesting and challenging) for me in the early years.
So please take your time and beta-test to the max with long test campaigns! After 6 years of waiting, what's 6 months more?
This sums up my thoughts as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Titus Marcellus Scato
My personal guess is flaming pigs to be honestQuote:
Originally Posted by Grimmy
Anyway, i can only concur with shadowwalker, i'll be patiently waiting and can only appreciate all the great work you guys have been doing
Don't make me turn this chariot around!Quote:
Originally Posted by TylerX5
hehehe. this made my day. thank you, sire! :bow:Quote:
Originally Posted by RAWROMNOM
7 years? I can't believe it's been that long, and I'll admit that when they announced R2 that I thought it may be abandoned, I'm glad I was wrong.
Really looking forward to this, more than any game coming, it's really unbelievable the dedication to this mod.
AAAARRRRGGGHHHH... This announcement is more than enough to make Duguntz come back to life! How long did I waited to hear (mostly read) this new, probably like everybody else in this community! I'm drooling with excitement, sharpening my sword, blunting my clubs and gettin painted all black! The sooner we spill blood, the better! congrats for you, for your hard work and your dedication!
Well then, how about December 2014? It would make a fine christmas present.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kull
I still laugh when I remember me thinking "Well, Rome 2 will blow everything out of the water, those screens and gameplay videos look so awesome"... Now people are eagerly waiting for EB2, like a shining light in this world of useless DLC :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Olek
Anyway, I can't wait to play this, and I salivate every time I check your Twitter! Beta test the ~:flirt: out of it!
if EB II be released i will abandon Rome II
I'll keep it, just as a reminder of darker times, times that are nearly over...Quote:
Originally Posted by KurdishSpartakus
Personally I already left R2. I reallly prefer to play M2TW mods like IB2 or just enjoy the early spring we have in western europe atm than give anymore of my time this non-immersive flat piece of software.Quote:
Originally Posted by KurdishSpartakus
And dreaminfg while watching at the fantastic screenshots of EB2 on twitter.
Scope creep (also called requirement creep and feature creep) in project management refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a project's scope. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. One of the many downsides of scope creep is that it delays release of the product.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kull
Despite the fact that this is clear evidence of scope creep, it's fine. This is volunteer work and I'm sure it will be worth the wait. Actually, that it is lie, that stuff does matter. Even volunteer projects should be managed well, but I've got a really nicely modded version of EB to play that is tweaked just to my liking, and I am not sure the first releases of EBII can touch it.
Scope creep is when you add things to a project that were never part of the original plan. There's nothing we are doing now that wasn't intended all along. The difference is that circumstances changed, and we were able to get the mod to a point where it was possible to do a lot more for the first release. Keep in mind that the mod had many bugs which had been there from the beginning, and one reason for the "early release" idea was to get more eyeballs on the problems - that need no longer exists.Quote:
Originally Posted by fallen851
lol indeed yes. but i just like Animations of Rome II. and i think its the only Advantage and nothing more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bovarius
yes indeed. i played Rome I for more than 9 years, and still i love playing it online and custom battles. and thats because of Conquering everywhere so many times! but still tired of it generally!Quote:
Originally Posted by Alcibiade
i personally love the gameplay of Rome I and a bit of Med2 and Empire & Napoleon. the Shogun II anything except the gameplay its exactly like Rome II. but there's something you want to play it sometimes !!
its strange people never left Rome I & Med2!! someone made a thread in totalwar.com's forum that say goodbye to Rome I. well he was attacked by so many Rome I lovers including me!! hehe !
i think only Rome I and Med2 will be somehow Immortal!! and the other are just released and should be abandoned.
but EB is something else.
besides, i couldnt run IB! dont know why! when i click on CAMPAIGN button it says "select a faction from the list" sadly.....
anyway...... i think there is something in this world that everything good is From Past and its First! its not just about Games but Movies Musics memories and..............dont you agree?!
Not just nostalgia. The present, even allowing for a certain fuzzyness, is much smaller than the past. Anything good in the present soon joins the ever increasing past.Quote:
Originally Posted by KurdishSpartakus
The present just can't keep anything. Which might be why it seems to be sulking so much of the time.
but i guess nowdays "Presents" are getting more & more rubbish than it was in the past "Presents"!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Maeran
Indeed, i felt that too.Quote:
Originally Posted by KurdishSpartakus
Interesting to note that Pliny was making similar comments those above in the 1st century BC.
Welll, it's clear that its been downhill all the way since then, then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brennus
i prefer to believe the spartan quote i read a few weeks back that weakling old men miss the time where they where young and their envy lends them to devaluate the present and make the past look more palable even though times have not changed people tend to think that before was better
lets make a reality check dieing of a badtooth a common cold or starving to death check the past was so great ...
hability to go to one place to another in 24 hours or less in the past 50km nowadays with a average carrier considering we loose 4 hours to land and refueld 40.000 km´s give or take
possibility of dieing or being severly wounded by a wild animal natural catasthrophe floods and so forth in the past high chance nowadays we get tsunami alertsistems better buildings prepared for fires and earthquackes points the pst again ...
chances to be bored in the past none you´re either working not to starve or you´re working cause you have no rights and whoever rules your lands will cut off your hands if you don´t work nowadays too many boredom opurtunities
when reaching an old age social protection if you didn´t had kids or lost it to hundreads of events you´re screwed nowadays you get your retirement fund but it gets kind of lonely so you bitch about the present and say that the past was great so someone will give you some attention checked
indeed it´s been all downhill since the last 3.000 years
I must remember; Irony does not translate well in written form.
It's true that last time I started a EB campaign after a long time, the flute notes from the campaign screen music sent me directly into a warm section of my memory.Quote:
Originally Posted by KurdishSpartakus
But I think that the awesomeness of RTW and M2TW is something real that doesn't need any help from a nostalgia effect. It's just plain, objective awesomeness.
To me, the fact that the game industry created a game that could be modified by the talent and passion of some modders and become such a fun and immersive type of wargame is almost miraculous. A perfect blend of fun and simulation obtained by serendipity.
And when I see the road CA is taking with R2 I feel like this kind of miracle won't happen twice.
After R2, I tested numerous strategy games and a long succession of disapointment brought me back to M2TW and RTW mods. All the way back to... EB.
once eb2 is out expecially the future versions wich should be better balanced and more primped i don´t think i will ever need to play another strategy classical game since taking account of eb1 i think eb2 will be the closest to perfection one will ever get without like icharus being burned to the ground
I think it's a tribute to EB that the war aspect is my least favorite part of these games now :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Alcibiade
Total Economics:laugh4:
:beam:Quote:
Originally Posted by Maeran
Well no for me its the cultural roleplay
Personally I try to breed a line of unselfish/disloyal/charismatic/langourous governors and gather them all in Rome around some banquet or hear their battle speech being something like :
"Here we go another battle. I know some of you didn't want to be here but sometimes we have to do something we don't want to just because somebody tell us to. I didn't want to be here today but I promised my mother I'd make a good show of it"
Somewhere y'all said you were adding creeps.
I do hope y'all stick to your roots and have historically accurate creeps.
I mean, we really don't want sparkly vampires, nice guy werewolves and zombies that want to be like normal people.
And, please, no fast zombies. Fast zombies are soo not historical.
the representation of creeps is hard in history cause before the invention of wierd glasses and vans the creeps where just like regular people just with wierder maneirisms some of them where considered holyman in the same manner as epilepsical dudes
the same happens with the accurate representation of douches it´s night impossible to distinguish them from regular soldiers before the invention of spraytan
assholes on the other hand is fairly easy since they always give themselfs away with the smallest promotion they show their true collours
How Much EXACTLY This beautiful mod.....oh Sorry this beautiful Game will be released?!
The same here. I was so disapointed by r2 that i got back to EB. I bought myself the Alexander Addon and installed jirysis mega mod pack. Its a bit different from BI.exe now, but the AI is not that enhanced. Still i play EB again since months.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alcibiade
I am so disappointed that there is no development on Novus Ordo Mundi anymore. I was really waiting for playing the hasmoneans and kick ass the Roman empire. Unfortunately this mod really is dead.
Yes, well the EB uchronia mod looks promising and in the meantime, I really enjoyed using jirisy's mega mod for alex.exe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eastern Foot-Rocker
It has been a very long wait, but my confidence never diminished.....I would love to help, but I dont think I am usable, so continued good luck guys
Thank you. We're still at it, never you fear, even if we are not as far along as we (and you) would like to be at this stage.... well, back to my Gauls.
What requires the most work ATM?
My PhD:clown:
Good question. @Kull or @V.T. Marvin would be best placed to answer that question.
We still need the standard compliment of volunteers with requisite skills; 3D modellers, 2D artists, programmers, scripters and people with the neccessary historical and archaeological knowledge.
It may seem odd, but one of the biggest issues is to develop a system for packing and installing the mod, and solidifying the update process. This mod is large and complex and we have found that while the mod "plays well with others", M2TW does NOT. So we have to account for that, and other things in order to make the distribution, download and installation process as seamless as possible. When the mod is released, neither you nor we want to be deluged with legitimate cries for help. It should install properly and correctly with a minimum of fuss, so the whole team isn't bogged down by installation problems instead of working to adress bug fixes and new content. Don't take that to mean that we'll be releasing right away once this issue is addressed. However. It WILL allow us to set an internal date and work toward identifying and completing the final "must haves" prior to the first release.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cybvep
70% 80% 90% 95% 99.99999 repeating %?
Difficult to say. In some areas we can quantify how much there is left to do. For example 85% of the strat map characters are finished, whilst 100% of the British province descriptions are done, as are about 90% of those for Germania, Poland and the European Steppe.Quote:
Originally Posted by TylerX5
The problem is that the goal posts change position at times. So, for example this time last year it looked as if we had completed the Celtic governments and inheritance system for those factions. Then somebody (me) decided that this didn't do justification to the way in which Celtic societies operated, and that it ignored important regional variations which existed in this period and so new government systems were added (btw this means playing as the Gauls will be very different to playing as the Pritanoi, it also means that once your Aedui/Arverni/Boii empire reaches a certain size you will need one hell of an influential FL if you want to keep it together).
Thus its difficult to say, overall, how far we are along. All we can say is that every day we are getting closer to being ready. I know its not very helpful but we can't be much more accurate than that.
thanks for the info brenus. no one says to rush this. but at least give us some previews or a video until this is released
The problem with previews is that they take such a long time to produce (the Arevaci one took me 4 months) and in doing so it drags team members away from more important jobs. For example, I could feasibly do a preview for the Aedui or the Averni, but that would mean I wasn't working on the missing province descriptions for Gaul (just finished making notes for Armorica).Quote:
Originally Posted by clone
We do have a new volunteer who is looking into producing videos for us. Once we have some new ones I'm sure the team would be happy to preview them.
In the mean time the team will try to keep the Twitter feed updated as regularly as possible and answer any questions which people may have.
...now back to my archaeology :book2:
All of the above. We have a master planning thread where the team keeps track (at a high level) of progress in all areas that are being worked. Here's a short snippet showing progress in two areas (there are 61 in total):Quote:
Originally Posted by TylerX5
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tux
God damn it I love this team's design philosophy. When I read about delays I do get disappointed, but when I see it's for a design reason I just get so glad you guys do what you do. I'll take historical authenticity and game quality over an expedient release any day. You guys really are bringing History alive in a way the people you're representing would be proud of. Fight the good Fight EB devs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brennus
It's not nostalgia that makes Rome 1 (and the wonderful EB mod) better than Rome 2, not at all. It's the same as how the first Pokemon games (Blue, Red and Yellow) were better than the most modern ones (X and Y). This isn't nostalgia at all, the games back then were more lovingly made. Nowadays the ultimate goal of most games is "How can we design this to make as much money as possible?" whereas back then it was "How can we design this to give the best experience of ancient civilizations trading and fighting with each other?".
I bought Rome 2 the day it was released almost a year ago and I've still only played it for 19 hours. 18 of those hours were in the first 3 days of it being released, 1 of those hours was last week when I reinstalled it again to see if it was good yet (it's not, I uninstalled it again).
So a few weeks ago I installed Rome 1 again, no mods, just vanilla Rome 1 fully patched up. I played for a few hours and enjoyed it a million times more than Rome 2. The music is better, there's a family tree, my generals and family members all have tons of traits and retinues, there are more buildings, I can connect my empire with roads and naval battles are way better in Rome 1. HOW CAN NAVAL BATTLES BE BETTER IN ROME 1 WHEN IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE NAVAL BATTLES!?!?!? Because naval battles in Rome 2 are horrendously boring, tedious AND pointless.
Then I installed the EB mod (which I have played for thousands of hours since it was released back in 2006 or 2007) and got so immersed in it that 5 hours of real life passed by, even though all I had done is started a game as the Seleukids and played about 8 turns (2-years). I was reading building and unit descriptions, character biographies and traits and retinues, installing different types of governments in my provinces (I absolutely love how you can have homeland and vassal type provinces with the government system in EB1) and so on and so on. I can barely play Rome 2 for 30 minutes without getting bored. I can play EB1 for 5 hours just reading the unit and building descriptions and listening to that beautiful music, imagining the way people lived back then quite clearly thanks to the detailed descriptions of everything which just suck you right in to the game.
Can't wait for EB2!
I wish I'd given my $60 to the EB team instead of buying Rome 2. Still hurts to see it on my Steam games list.Quote:
Originally Posted by I_damian
got the same experience with the seulekids but my 1st 2 years lost me 8 hours