Improvements I'm looking forward to or Why I'm patiently waiting for EB II

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

NOOOO

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

IMO, campaign AI in M2:TW is significantly better but the battle AI is still just as bad. That said, peace is usually attainable in M2:TW mods for years on end while in Rome that is usually just a pipe dream.

[QuintusSertorius]

IMO, campaign AI in M2:TW is significantly better but the battle AI is still just as bad. That said, peace is usually attainable in M2:TW mods for years on end while in Rome that is usually just a pipe dream.

To be honest, even building better armies on the campaign map (both in terms of size - not fragmenting into pathetic little armies - and composition) would be an improvement.

[Drunk Clown]

...IMO, campaign AI in M2:TW is significantly better...

In what way?

[GenosseGeneral]

well, at least in vanilla M2:TW it still has some very weird army composition (like armies consisting of militia units only, or, even worse, fullstacks of artillery). However, it is possible to have a lasting peace with the AI. hat generally improves diplomacy is that you can see what the AI "thinks" of you and your offers. the AI always keeps the balance of power in mind; it will attack those, who have not many allies and lots of enemies. this is why most M2TW campaigns start with a longe peacetime, until the first war breaks out somewhere; after the first war has started, europe will be in flames, since the AI tries to exploit its neighbours waging war somewhere else.

[Drunk Clown]

the AI always keeps the balance of power in mind; it will attack those, who have not many allies and lots of enemies.

AI vs AI? Cos they have waged war against me eventhough I was a superpower.

[Captain Jazzy]

CAI for me atleast was a great improvement in M:TW2. The most notable example being a VH Denmark game where I had a brilliant time making and breaking alliances with my neighbours against the Holy Roman Emp. France was a stalwart ally throughout the whole thing even when we bordered and the other Ai factions opperated with a semblence of intelligence and both helped and turned against me!
So I think its fair to expect a nice little improvement in EBII :)
Also showing the improvements and retained foolishness: Scotland was at peace with England and launched a massive naval invasion which I wasnt expecting... The crazy buggers ended up gaining 3 cities in Northern France as after I beat one stack they agreed to peace and moved on.

[Alrik]

AI vs AI? Cos they have waged war against me eventhough I was a superpower.

Well there is the degenerating relations, if you play hard or very hard, your relations will steadily go down until you are inevetably at war with everyone, except the Pope, who'll be your bestest friend once you've annihilated all the Catholic factions, since then you'll not be at war with any of them and undoubtably be butchering heathens.
There's also the fact that almost every faction has a few "must have" provinces and if you're a superpower, chances are that you've aquired a few of those.

As for the campaign AI, I've noticed that if you don't sell them your map, they will be more reluctant to enter your lands and if they do, wander about, while if you do, they hardly even hesitate, they march in and besiege your cities. A good discouragement to selling your map for a few florins, though as one can usually butcher the AI in vanilla anyhow, perhaps not so much, but it does show for a bit of improvement on the AI.

What I'm looking forward to the most is the very much improved pathfinding on the battlemap, there's still plenty of weirdness going on, especially in cities, but nowhere near as bad as in RTW.

One thing I'm a bit sceptical towards is the city walls, in RTW you can capture the towers, in M2TW, the defender always hold the tower as long as he/she's got a unit close by, even if the ttacker has held the tower for half the battle and has his troops all around it and the defender just now comes remotely close with a unit, as in not a chance in hell to take it back, it still starts fireing in his/her favour. (The best an attacker can hope for is an inert tower.)

Shadowwalker's (6)§3, Makes me think of Britannia (The campaign) which has this very feature, instead of religions, there's culture, and culture defines what you can build in the cities. M2TW also has the "free garrisons" and in the Main Game it is "Militia units" in Britannia, it is whatever the town/city can actually build. I'm fairly sure it's CA's way of getting rid of the pesky pesant garrisons that rule Vanilla RTW. Perhaps I'm an exploiter, but I liked Britannia's way better, combined with the culture determining what can be built, this often have the invading force leaving in favour of local troops. (Which I assume would make the citizens more happy in RL-scenario as well.)
I dunno if it is a good or bad thing, but I liked the way forts worked in Britannia as well, they also offer free garissons, but more importantly, they conrolled roads, they were fixed, as in that you didn't build them, they were there and remained, even if left unguarded and they were present at chokepoints of the road. (Just sounds to me like a way for EB II to represent lesser settlements, you might not get revinue from them, but feeding a couple of units there for free is payment too.)
But EB II is based on the Main game and not Britannica isn't it? (I Just found EB I, so you'll have to excuse my ignorance.)

[Horatius Flaccus]

It's based on Kingdoms, so all those options are available. And there will be permanent forts representing lesser settlements.