What are the main things you want to see fixed from EB1 in EB2???

[MisterFred]

I want EBII to continue to be the best Total War game ever made.... EBI still reigns supreme right now, and I have no doubt in the general awesomeness of everyone on the EBII team. Seriously, my respect and admiration for everyone on the team. That said,

Perhaps the number-one thing I'd like to see the EBII team keep or enhance is the occasional presence of aggressive eletheuroi armies. Like the one that goes after Ippone early. I think in one Sweboz game I had one attack my capitol in the first 10-15 turns (and take it, lolz). However these are created, I'd like more of them. Makes the eletheuroi seem less passive. It seems to me this could be scripted. I don't know how that works, but perhaps something like:

1) (every 4th spring-staggered between provinces so the invasions don't all happen at once) the script checks to see if (aggressive province X - places like Dalmatia or Galatia, but not perhaps places like Greseoallra [Massilia]) is controlled by the Eleutheori. If no, end script.

2) If yes, check to see if province x (the province most likely to be invaded from the aggressive province, say Illyria_Helenike for Dalmatia; Phygria or Bithynia for Galatia) is occupied by the player (or if necessary, any playable faction). If no, check next most likely province to be invaded (less-preferred or wealthy neighbors). If all no, end script.

3)If yes, spawn eletheuroi force allied with home province tribe at map point x [just within the borders of the target province] consisting of (list of units customized according to invader. Galatia, say, could send a general with Gallic Mercenary Light + 3 short swordsmen + a heavy spear unit. Dalmatia could send 2 Illyrian Thereuphori and 4 Coastal Levies with no general - whatever would seem best for gameplay/historical size of region's raids or invasions). Most importantly, whatever trait makes an eleutheroi band aggressive (willing to attack a city), this is assigned to the spawned army.

This seems like it could be a great way to simulate the vigor of eletheuroi-represented factions and the problems with barbarian raids on civilized borders Also, scripts could cause one of the Illyrian provinces to counter-invade if a player takes the other one. Maybe even a few years after, when the main army has moved on to Dacia :). Probably not possible - but if it could be scripted, the EB team would have the experts that know how!

The second biggest thing I'd like to see is a truly significant penalty for burnt fields, blackened ground, whatever you want to call the foraging or ravaging of the countryside by an invading army. As it is now, most of the countryside can be blackened and it barely even dents the farming revenue. (Although this sounds like one of those things that might be hard-coded.)

I want EBII to keep the excellent mercenary recruitment system (allowing for tweaks in AoR, spawn rates, etc). While in EBI I sometimes felt that there were too many mercenaries available at any one time, what mercenaries were available where was generally excellent.

I would like to see phalanxes be considerably less invulnerable to missile fire from the front. Taking 2-3 shield defense (depending on elite level of the unit) and adding it to armor or defensive skill (again, depending on the unit, but mostly armor) would vastly improve the realism of arrow fire doing moderate damage to phalanxes - rather than next to nothing. I realize that the shields are probably as strong as they are to enhance the general invulnerability of the phalanx frontally and the vulnerability of the back for MELEE combat, but I think the unreality of the effectiveness of missile fire is a real problem. I currently have no specific battles to reinforce that description, but I think one of the primary purposes of peltasts and psiloi in diadochi combat was to protect the phalanx from being disrupted by enemy missiles - not for the phalanx to be sent forth to absorb the foolish AI's javelins.

I would like to see elephants be more powerful and fewer in number. Currently on huge settings, the "historic" size of an infantry unit is 10-20 times larger than the in-game unit size... except for elephant units, which are more like 2-1. I also think their base melee attack, armor, maybe hit points (maybe just more armor again) should be upped considerably, so that they are dangerous even if slowed. I don't think that fewer, more badass elephants would be unrealistic (especially Indian elephants). I think Bush elephants should probably be removed from the game, unless historians more expert than I have a solid source for their actual use in combat. It would also be nice to see them better at adopting a chariot-like tendency to continously charge and move through the enemy lies - making them more useful for a frontal attack.

I would like to see the Mauryan empire represented as a faction, rather than the independent cites along the Indus + independent Kophen, Alexandropolis, and Pura. I don't think the map needs to be extended to do so. I think the three Indus provinces + the 3 greek or eastern-culture cities west of the Indus region would do a fine job representing the resources the empire could bring to bear on that front. And perhaps a capital in the southern most Indus province+culture and religion problems (and maybe diplomatic preferences in favor of Baktria/AS?) should keep the AI from expanding too much. I realize, however, there are limited faction slots available and the lack of a Mauryan push west post-305BC is an issue, as is the collapse late in the EB time frame.

Similar preferences for a Nubian faction based out of Meroe.

I would like to see the M2TW trade revenue system make more sense - best of luck with that :).

Once again, my thanks to the team.