Just for fun: What do you think an "EB 0" made with MTW 1 would be like?

[Captain Trek]

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying by any means that the EB team should even consider making an "EB 0", now or in the future, I just thought it might be fun to speculate what an "EB 0" built for MTW with the same standards and objectives as EB would look like, how some of the unique features of MTW could be utilised for such a mod's benefit and also how some of MTWs limitations would hinder such a mod.

Now, I'm not intimately familiar with MTW 1, so I can't really say whether, for example, the seemingly threadbare traits system would be a disadvantage or not (because, even though there seem to be little in the way of traits in regular MTW, there may well be "under the hood" traits that determine the stats of each unit commander that an EB 0 could bring out into the open for the player to see, or else it might be possible for the existing trait system to be expanded out into something worthwhile...

Then there is the battle-system... Could phalangites be represented effectively, for instance? Again, I'm simply not familiar enough with the game to say for certain...

What I do know, however, is that the system wherein cut-down routers become prisoners instead of merely being killed (something that happily returned in M2TW and which I am certain will be used in EB 2) would be good for the mod, as might the player-assigned offices (which could presumably be exploited for a variety of weird and wonderful ends).

Also, I have to say that I absolutely adore the province system in MTW. The Risk-style board no doubt alienated quite a few players who started with Rome or a more recent game and back-tracked for a look at MTW later, but I was one of those people and I found the detailed sieges (wherein the number of turns a castle could hold out actually varied depending on the number of men inside) and I also loved how the rebels were a little bit less "static" than they are in RTW and M2TW, with rebel province acting a little bit more like main factions. I don't know, I just seemed to like everything about the province system, even the dicey could-easily-screw-you-over "95% public order, 5% chance a rebellion will occur this year" stuff didn't piss me off. I can also imagine a myriad of clever things being done with this system...

I also seem to recall that MTW could support a humongous number of factions. Of course, this would have to be balanced out by the creative team being fairly selective about what factions to include (and not overworking themselves trying to "throw in" too many questionable ones), but the scope would certainly be there...

I'm sure you can think of many others... So I ask, what do you think this hypothetical "EB 0" would be like? This question is particularly directed towards you TW players that have experience modding MTW, as I'm sure you can provide valuable insights into just what the engine is capable of and how such capabilities could benefit an EB style mod...

[Olaf The Great]

I really like the art style, music style, and play style of Medieval 1, it just feels so familiar and "fits" the game so well, and I think it would fit EB too. I think the EB team should get their artists to actually DRAW the unit cards so they look similiar to the old Medieval ones. However, I really got spoiled by Rome's combat system, and without extensive modding the system will never truely work with EB, though it would work wonders with autoresolve.

[Ludens]

There was a Rome mod for M1:TW, but I haven't played it. M1:TW has a better tactical A.I. and better battle maps (they aren't dominated by a single feature like in R:TW), and I think the combat engine is more balanced, so if you do not mind the dated graphics the battles are a major improvement. The campaign game has its pros and cons compared to R:TW. The strategic A.I. isn't better, but the risk-style map limits the scope for stupid moves. The A.I. always has a clear idea of how powerful you are, and is therefore less inclined to start stupid wars (although it does seem to think that attacking your fleets is not a hostile act). Diplomacy is rudimentary, and trade very difficult to conduct. The M1:TW trait engine is just poor: you cannot change the traits, only rename them; and once gained a trait can only grow stronger, not weaker. There are other unmoddable bits as well.

So, overall I think that an EB for M1:TW would produce better if uglier battles, but the campaign game would be more challenging in both good and bad ways.

[johnhughthom]

My favourite campaign would be ruined in the MTW engine as horse archers have to stop to fire, the nomad factions would lose a lot of the fun in those circumstances.

[antisocialmunky]

Part of the scariness of the MTW AI were the generals that got 6+ stars and then could autoresolve up to 10 stars and then be a random unit in a BG unit that would be hte last thing to die(or flee through your whole army). It was generally better as it would create a line of dudes and then try to run around your line of dudes.