Does EB have to end in 14AD?

[mountaingoat]

why would they all be Eleutheroi?

[Alsatia]

Probably because big bad empire decays and revolts??

[Andros Antonius]

i don't know if i'd be able to make it that far, because i'm only around 200 bc and i'm getting CTDs more and more frequently. what's up with that?

[Cassus Belli]

Thank you Aemilius Paulus for your elaboration

Aemilius Paulus replied:

Actually, realitically, I was optimistic about CTDs. Most people seem to find it impossible to get that far, although with 1.2 the chances are higher.

This is truly disheartening, though I personally admit that I have seldom played a campaign through to its end... usually there has been some essential non-backward/SAV game compatible upgrade or patch that entices me to start the campaign over, as I'm currently doing. I was well into the EB v0.81a main campaign, then restarted so I could play EB 1.2 in BI.
But I had always assumed that it was not only possible but highly probable to be able to complete a campaign if one stuck to it long enough.

Since it now seems to be such a rare occurrence I would very much like to hear from anyone in the EB community who has actually finished a campaign in EB v.1.2?

...still preserve the 4 turns per year and other elements of the script?
Aemilius Paulus responded:
The underlined part: no. EB script is what creates 4-urns-per-year. BUT, you can go and modify the EBBS script, extending it. I do believe it is quite a simple process, and you can make a thread asking how to prolong the script.

Thank you for that advice, I should do that, especially as I get further into this mod.
From what I remember in RTR sub Mod posts from long ago, somebody shared how to add a 4-turns-per year script, so perhaps that could be incorporated into any extension of the script as well?

Aemilius Paulus said:

AI would be quite weaker, although VH campaign difficulty should mitigate that somewhat. You can however employ the console (~) to add money to AI via cheating.

I read a post where somebody said that EB was balanced for most realistic play on "Medium" difficulty?
If that's true I already erred by starting this campaign on "hard" at all levels.
Would one have to restart a campaign or is it possible to change the difficulty level in mid-campaign to either increase or decrease the difficulty level?

If one were to employ the (~) to add money to the AI, how would one apply it?
Do you give it to a specific faction or does a specific amount automatically go to all?
How much money would one give?
Would the amount be static or would it change?
How frequently would one have to do this? Each turn?

But really, playing until 14 CE is highly unrealistic & unlikely, as I doubt it would be a fun thing to do the whole way. Your expansion would have to be on a gastropodian pace. And the AI factions are most likely all going to disappear save for two, maximum three superpowers, as balance is a tricky thing, and the longer you play, the more likely it is to tilt in favour of one or another. Simply probability.

Wow, truly disheartening... I imagine that is because it must be such an incredibly difficult task to keep such a long campaign reasonably balanced throughout the centuries?...

So what is the optimum range of best play for this game?
Can we get past the "Marian reforms" and still expect decent gameplay?
Should one even dream about making it to Caesar's Gallic campaign era?

BTW, does the current script have all these historical characters (Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Spartacus, Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, et al) appear at the appropriate times?
Right now I'm looking around for the birth of Hannibal and Scipio so that they can be matched up after 220 BC. Will they appear?

I guess what would be ideal then would be to to have a series of adjoining campaigns for best historical balance from period to period.
For continuity, though, it would be nice, if it's possible, to be able to preserve the gains of the played faction at the beginning of each continuing campaign as they were from where they left off in the succeeding one?
Would any of this be possible?
Is anybody working on it as we speak?

[Azathoth]

BTW, does the current script have all these historical characters (Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Spartacus, Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, et al) appear at the appropriate times?
Right now I'm looking around for the birth of Hannibal and Scipio so that they can be matched up after 220 BC. Will they appear?

No. It's almost impossible for those two specific humans to be born after 272, right?

[DaciaJC]

If by finishing a campaign you mean completing the victory conditions, then yes, many people have, myself included (Getai 1.2). If you mean by going to 14 AD... not many people see the point in campaigning that far.

The EB Team recommends that you play at Very Hard campaign difficulty, Medium battle difficulty. If you feel a strong urge to change the difficulty mid-way through a campaign, then try RomeSage. Don't forget to make a backup of your savegame.

[Cassus Belli]

BTW, does the current script have all these historical characters (Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Spartacus, Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, et al) appear at the appropriate times?
Right now I'm looking around for the birth of Hannibal and Scipio so that they can be matched up after 220 BC. Will they appear?

Azathoth said:
No. It's almost impossible for those two specific humans to be born after 272, right?

Well, I thought since this is such a historical mod that they might have scripted as many of the most famous historical personages as they could to appear in the appropriate time frame.
Since all of these people were relevant (to the Roman faction, anyway) and appeared on the scene well before 14 AD I was just hoping that they might show up....????

Frontline1944 said:

If by finishing a campaign you mean completing the victory conditions, then yes, many people have, myself included (Getai 1.2). If you mean by going to 14 AD... not many people see the point in campaigning that far.

Oh, I see... I've been deliberately restraining myself, trying to play along with what I thought was a historical script...
At this point I've taken Italy proper, from Aemilia & Liguria and the penninsula south, and attacked the Epirotes in their homeland and plan on taking Epeiros & Illyria from them in the appropriate time.

I was going to hold off an invasion of Sicily until Carthage broke the treaty around 264 BC and then capture Messana and attempt to kick Carthage off the island. Likewise I was going to try and capture and annex Corsica & Sardinia sometime during the latter part of the 264-241 BC First Punic War period. I was figuring that If I didn't behave too aggressively that Carthage would sue for peace, though I would probably have to send an expeditionary invasion force to Africa to make my threat credible. I was hoping then the "script" would cooperate and allow a 20 year peace for Carthage to build up in Iberia before we fought again in the second Punic War with an invasion by Hannibal in 218 BC.

In fact my spies have already told me that a Carthagenian family member named "Hamilcar" is in Lilibeo. If he is still there when war breaks out and I meet him on the field of battle I was planning on allowing him to escape, if I could, as he may end up being Hannibal's father ("Hamilcar Barca") and I wouldn't want to break that family line... In the name of trying to play along a historical timeline myself.
And I have a couple of Scipio nameskes in my own Romani family tree, one of which I'd hoped would soon have a son named "Publius Cornelius Scipio" that I would groom to be the general to defeat "Hannibal."

Anyway, this had been my planned strategy up to now.
I was going to follow as closely a historical timeline so that I could better play along with a historical script... But if those characters aren't going to appear, and if the script is ahistorical, then I may as well do my own thing and try and meet the objectives of the game as quickly as I can before some unforeseen CTD puts a premature end of the game altogether....
So much for 14 AD... I guess.

The EB Team recommends that you play at Very Hard campaign difficulty, Medium battle difficulty. If you feel a strong urge to change the difficulty mid-way through a campaign, then try RomeSage. Don't forget to make a backup of your savegame.

Okay, so I need to try and change a couple of settings: Up the campaign to Very Hard, and Lower the battle setting to Medium.
So I can do this without restarting using "RomeSage?"
Forgive my ignorance, but is that an in-game program that I am unaware of?
How do I access "RomeSage?"