EBII Interview in the latest edition of the Eagle Standard

[Foot]

Check out an interview about EBII with yours truly in the latest edition of the Eagle Standard over at the TWC. Features some never-before-seen screenshots, and some information about EBII gameplay mechanics.

Foot

[Arjos]

Amazing!
All the reading about the buildings and the uniqueness of settlements got me very excited :P
The officer (an iberian?) with the fur coat is so cool! His scabbard is so beautifully engraved :O
LOL at the Ai XD

Oh btw funny how imperial troops are so demanded XD

[Maeran]

Do I see rightly? The soldiers with scutum/thureos type shields seem to be holding them the right way up. Has the model been fixed?
Yes, the buildings stuff was interesting too. And I do think those are Iberians. They have those "motorcycle helmet" helmets. Do those helmets have a proper name anyone?

[LusitanianWolf]

Yaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
Loved it!!!!!! Can't wait to see how the new building's system will work!

And amasing celtiberians, now what I want to know if they will have a faction (Arevaci? ) or are just Regional troopsThe italians also look cool!

[sephwhite]

I generally don't write anything on the forum even though I've been reading it pretty much daily since 0.74 release (office job), but I really enjoyed reading a bit about your involvement in the team and where the project is going and as you said you appreciate comments I thought I'd finally pipe up and say I have really enjoyed EB and I have spent way too much of my time just reading every unit and building description, never mind actually playing the game.

Thank you to the team, current and past for all the hard effort and I hope you keep up the good work.

[Populus Romanus]

Sweet!

I know your name now Foot. I will hunt you down...

[Tuuvi]

Nice read. It was interesting to me to find out how you ended up joining EB, for some reason I thought you were with the team from the beginning. I found EB and started playing it when it was in version 0.74, and I was given the opportunity to write descriptions for the Sweboz. Unfortunately I wasn't successful, and it makes me sad to know I had the opportunity to be on the EB team in the early days and I missed it.

[stratigos vasilios]

I know your name now Foot. I will hunt you down...

You should have checked his youtube account to find out his name earlier, you would have had all this extra time to hunt him down!

Also this particular paragraph, while not giving much away, was very nice to read

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

...(in response to differences between EB1 and EB2)...In Europa Barbarorum II we want to deal with this issue head on, and for that reason we are developing different types of buildings, that maintain a consistent scope in their description and affect. You will still be able to build single buildings, known as Civic Buildings, which will represent Palaces, Theatres, Royal Stables, Temples, and other such awesome buildings commissioned by the Governor of that settlement. These Civic buildings will affect the acquisition of traits and ancillaries (for example, if you build a Temple, you will be more example to get traits and ancillaries for generals in that settlement relating to religion). These buildings will be limited in number for each settlement, and will be prohibitively expensive, so that you will be able to create unique identities for your settlements.

Following from this, the main building type with be the Infrastructure Buildings. These will represent the control and manipulation of industries and means of production that impact the economic assets of the province. These Infrastructure Buildings will cover a number of concepts, not simply the presence of a particular building, but the control of land, the appropriation of trade networks and storage for the benefit of the controlling faction. The Farm Infrastructure building, for example, will represent the control of food production and trade, and even the ownership of land. The latter is of particular interest as this also becomes a political tool, and can be used by the player to introduce foreign nobility and colonists into a province, altering recruitment and administrative options for that faction, but at a cost.

This clearer distinction between building types, which will also include the Populace and Authority building types, will, we hope, produce a clearer and more accurate campaign than EBI. Each building type has its own demarcated zones of influence: Populace buildings affect recruitment options, while Authority buildings represent government options, affecting Public Order. There will be cross-over between all four building types, but these more complex interactions can be ignored by the player should they not wish to be bogged down in the minutiae of the campaign.

Great job Foot! Very nice PR skills and good explanations/teasing of what EB2 is about

Also, should the interview be stickied on the front page?

My name is Matt (reward for the person who can figure out how that is related to my user-name Foot)

What's the reward? Best I can come up with is a mat is where your put your feet, or foot on...

[Shadowwalker]

Very interesting read indeed (and fully agreed on the M:TW map!).
And painful at the same time since with every new bit of information revealed I am convinced a bit more that EB II will indeed leave the somewhat limited strategic gameplay of the TW series behind (within the still present limits of the engine of course) and will indeed become kind of a "bastard" between Total War and Civilization.
Which is as far as Strategy games go my wildest dream coming true.

And therefore it is painful to maintain the patience.
Keep up the fantastic work please.


(I really hope to see - sometime after the release - a series of tutorials/explanation papers similar to the one about the Hayasdan reforms by the way. All the new features proposed by now - not to mention the ones still secret - will for sure make me need such. )

[antisocialmunky]

"Europa Barbarorum: We make better hats than those Valve guys."

[Hotseat_User]

thank you for that truly interesting interview Foot! nevermind the teasing effects it has. I really await more news about those campaign-game-mechanics as i don't focus my campaigns on every battle but the growing up of the played empire/state. May the team will come up with more exciting news. Keep it up!

[Noble Wrath]

Let's just say that although I have rather limited free time (yes, time has caught up with me and being almost 30yo, I have RL responsibilities), I am definitely going to play your mod. Because after all we are but grown up kids. Hell, when I have children I will force them to play it even if by that time Playstation 10 is out!

[Unintended BM]

I like this interview. These type of things are usually just generic questions and generic answers, but you actually go into great detail about a lot of stuff. Good work.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Thank you.

EB is outstanding in many regards. The historical accuracy, the linguistic accuracy, the wealth of innovative concepts introduced into the game make it stand out against any other mod / game. The edutainment approach is a very "bold" concept these days (whatever "these days" mean), and the whole EB team and the people contributing to it truly deserve praise. They've spent me hundreds of hours of joy, and I might add that EB formed (and still forms) a part of me personally.

[Brennus]

Thank you for this Foot! I must say I was very very very (I should like to emphasize this) surprised to find you work for Disney, I was convinced you must be an archaeologist or historian of some kind.

[Satyros]

In EBI, however, it was not our goal to change how Total War games were played, and though changes were made, these were piecemeal and not wholly complete. You may notice that alongside our Government buildings, we also had plain old vanilla-style temples (which, while having some quite excellent descriptions, offered bonuses that were wildly exaggerated); that alongside our advanced AOR system, our recruitment was still based around vanilla-style barracks (even if we did try to expand their remit to include all military industries into one building). These areas of the mod were never fully explored because they were never part of our plan - with EBII they are.

We are truly creating a total modification, where each area of the campaign and battles are being looked at and revised to ensure that we produce a consistent, engaging, historically accurate and enjoyable experience.

This is great news , with EB1 in mind , coming from the head of the team .

Great news indeed !

Yay

Thank you all .

Satyros

[Blxz]

Nice interview, very long and detailed. I was expecting some piddly little thing like most online interviews. And the touching on gameplay mechanics, love it! Also nice to know roughly what the team is aiming for in a first release.