Announcement: Europa Barbarorum II 2.2r released!
Greetings fans of Europa Barbarorum!
We've been working on all sorts of things the last few months, and have made lots of progress. We're not ready for a full release yet, however, there are lots of things we'd like to test, especially around how the AI behaves over lots of longer-term games.
As always it's necessary to be absolutely explicit about this point:
THIS RELEASE IS NOT SAVEGAME COMPATIBLE
How to install:
Step 0: You must have a working copy of EBII v2.2b installed. I'm not going to repeat all the instructions on how to get one here, it's all covered there.
Step 1: Download - EBII 2.2r Patch.zip.
Step 2: Extract the file directly into your M2TW/mods/ebii folder. (note that if you have done it correctly you will be asked to overwrite files, say yes to all, if you don't know how to extract use 7zip)
Step 3: Go into your \data\animations\ and copy the pack.dat, pack.idx, skeletons.dat and skeletons.idx files. Put them somewhere else - this is a backup.
EDIT: Step 4: Download this file (animations) and extract the contents into mods\ebii\data\animation\
EDIT: Optional: Download this file (barbarian settlement updates) and extract the contents into mods\ebii\data\
Step 5: Start a new campaign - again this is not save game compatible and will make any 2.2b saves unplayable.
Changes
All sorts of things have been updated, though as a patch, not full release there are no new units (well, there's a new placeholder unit in the Baltic, which is better in the dev build since it at least has an altered model). A rough summary of what's happened:
- z3n's AI, diplomacy and other changes from his thread are all incorporated.
- Fixes to broken and unattainable bits of reform scripts
- A revision of the finance script so that the AI no longer gets +5000 mnai whenever their debts are levelled, along with something that takes money away if they're stockpiling cash.
- A major overhaul of recruitment, including several new "crossover" regions, plugging the "post-Marian gap" in Italy, fixes on infrastructure access and building upgrade paths.
- Changes to settlement mechanics and underlying order - which should be trickier than it was before. Looking to make larger empires more unstable.
- New features like the selective garrison script, failsafes for date-based reform events, income from raiding for barbarian and nomadic factions.
- New unit stats, lots of changes to things like defensive skill for cavalry and infantry formations.
- A significant update of traits, though they're still very much a work in progress.
- (In the link at Step 4) New animations, including a change to the balance between swordsmen/axemen and spearmen which should make the latter less overpowered.
- Several settlement moves/renames.
- Forced Diplomacy and perfect_spy are moved to the campaign_script, so no longer need activating with "show me how". Just click on the "?" button to achieve the same effect.
- Updated projectiles and battle_config - missiles deadlier but less accurate
- Some map updates both to aid pathfinding and make certain early moves less "obvious" for the AI
- Fix to Hemithorakitai problem
- Added a \log folder which may help in some cases of non-appearing logs
- Fix to the turn 253 crash caused by the non-existent Arevaci reform
- Corrected the monitor sequencing error preventing the Nabatu reform from working
- Recruitment limitation script restored.
- New "war triggers" script which causes war when certain Rebel provinces are threatened by specific factions.
- Changes to cavalry defense stats to make them less tank-like in melee. Also finalisation of defensive skill adjustments for cavalry.
- Update to recruit_priority_offset values for skirmishers, light cavalry and medium infantry to address AI army compositions.
- All AntiTraits restored for now, should address the issues with Roman offices and other random errors.
- More order penalties for non-native governments in Greek communities (for Hellenistic factions only) - attached to the province building for now, but will be a special unique building in 2.3.
- Starting armies equalised and in most cases increased, totals relative to number of settlements.
- Numidia now starts out Steppe Nomadism, and changes to Western Mediterranean Polities on reform.
- Three camps Central Asia turned into towns.
- Culture mixes in Africa and central Asia reviewed and amended.
- Saka and Pahlava pre-reform governments now give penalties to order after reform.
- Reduced movement penalty for ClientRuler to reduce stacking of penalties over time/in winter.
- More adjustments to recruit_priority_offset
- Unit upkeep revised to 3/16th recruitment (50% increase on previous numbers)
- Some changes to charge pathfinding for cavalry
- Complete overhaul of Dahan/Sakan recruitment
- Large trait update including correction of some AntiTrait issues
- Changes to descr_campaign_db to make revolts more likely for the AI
- Corrected some errors in Numidian governments and horse herds following change of Numidian religion
- Corrected erroneous faction reference in Numidian reform religion-change
- Numerous settlement name changes
- Adjusted starting armies/garrisons downwards (not as low as before the previous change).
- Added Voini to Allied Government pools and Parthian Border Marches government.
- Overhaul of Sauromatian factional pools
- Numidian, Mauretanian, Egyptian and Ethiopian recruitment pools rewritten. Plugged hole in polis on Korsim/Shardin.
- Revision to the availability of Celtic professional swordsmen - now only in Celtic factional governments, colonies and as mercs. Gargokladoi now universally available.
- Updated capabilities of farm buildings to provide progression, and functioning bonuses.
- Change to stats of a number of Celtic line infantry units. Revision to mercenary Celts and their availability.
- Changes to placeholder models for some Client Rulers
- Roman formations switched around again.
- AP removed from cavalry lances - makes them overpowered when charging from the front.
- Fixed Thermon client ruler bug and PotentialSuccessor trait.
- Correction to faction standings bug.
- Update to faction re-emergence to prevent it happening while target city is under siege. Also updated spawning stacks to be era-appropriate. Added some new locations for a number of factions.
- Closed three Alpine passes to the north of Medilanon to stop Rome going directly north. Removed land bridge across Straits of Gibraltar/Pillars of Hercules, between Byzantion and Nikaia, between Mysia and Mytilene and between Attike and Euboia.
- Added new faction missions for Ptolemaioi and Carthage.
- Update to battle scripts to account for reinforcement battles.
- CAI updates including correction of an error. Also a new "switch" to move between diplomatic and warlike states.
- New fallback triggers for Hayastan/Baktrian independence - if they lose seven key neighbouring provinces, then they are independent by default. Also punitive expeditions now scripted to do something.
- Update to "war triggers" to prevent perpetual notification.
- New AI "opening moves".
- Expanded Baktria's Hellenistic options in Custom Battle for era0.
- Updated appearance of the Zagros mountains on the campaign map.
- Zero'd starting Roman naval pools to prevent them going on an early ship-building spree.
- Pergamon's starting non-levy pools zero'd and given additional money.
- Updated export_units so new mercenary Celtic Heavy Spearmen display properly.
- Removed camera zooms in Baktrian mission that focus on now non-existent forts.
- Updated assignment of Alpine provinces - there are now only two.
- Adjusted Hellenistic/Carthagnian settler colony prerequisites to be pastoral settlement compatible.
- Corrected the cavalry error in the kh3/kh4.
- Corrected appearance of Blastophoenicians in southern Iberia - no longer in Ilergetes territory.
- Civitas Libera, Provinciae and Roman Trade Colonies now properly restricted to outside of Italy.
- Updated Epeiros' colonisation script to match the others.
- Halved war-weariness threshold to 6. Removed weariness-reducing "winning battles" section. Some factions start out with the diplomacy label, instead of warlike.
- Removed Pergamon mission.
- New reform for Pergamon. Defeat of Galatians and acquisition of territory are the triggers.
- New "Galatian Shakedown" event for the Pergamon player.
- New government structure for Pergamon - few options outside of Anatolia before their reform.
- Galatian independence script - it will keep adding new Rebels for a goodly while.
- Ligurian resistance to the Roman player script.
- Rebel "hotspots", 15 provinces with an additional response beyond the normal bandit spawns.
- Merc hiring for KH and Arevaci - option some springs to lose recruit pools for money.
- Closed off some of the north-south passes through the Caucasus to stop the AI walking around the Black Sea.
- Hidden_resource ioudaioi added to Damaskos. Availability of Ioudaioi Taxeis revised; no longer available with Hellenic governments in Antiocheia/Alexandreia.
- Included the updated export_units.txt this time, not the xml.
- EDCT update and removal of non-existent building triggers.
- Galatian Shakedown only ends with the Pergamon reform - not simply by taking Galatia.
- Increased chance of shakedown event from 20% to 50% every spring.
- Consolidated Galatian Resistance into one occurrence when triggered (boost garrison AND spawn an army).
- Garrison script condensed down from 30 to 1 monitor. Added a handful of Rebel settlements that were major centres in their own right to the factional capitals.
- KH Reforms adjusted to use many fewer monitors.
- Select a successor script consolidated down from 64 to 8 monitors. Together with the change above, almost 200 monitors have been removed.
- Halved value of spring bonanza for the AI.
- Changed Baktrian/Hayastan tribute events to use the existing seasons, rather than their own special counters.
- Switched off the second part of the "opening moves" script when the targeted faction is the player. Avoids the weird teleportation-siege-battle thing.
- Added Getai to the horse herds building.
- Jewish Garrisons now only work for the faction who actually controls Ioudaia. Previously they were available as long as any of the three chosen factions held it.
- Carthage can now convert camps to cities.
- Changed recruitment slots of Caucasian Tribal Kingdom to match that of others.
- Changed formation of Thorakitai Epilektoi and Peltastai Makedones.
- Shrunk Hai Nizagmartik to a regular infantry unit size (not levies).
- More EDCT updates and cleanup.
- Errors in KH governments in EDB corrected.
- Collapsed "Control of Ioudaia" script into one monitor and expanded to Ioudaia or Babylonia.
- Corrected folder name for merc Retainers.
- Reduced most slingers shield value to 2.
- Reworked KH merc script and Pergamon's Galatian Shakedown - they should now repeat.
- Corrected stats for Skythian Horse Archers (and Bosporan bodyguards).
- Given free upkeep to Lakonikoi, removed "hide anywhere" from Parthian Levy Spearmen and ap from Sauromatian Nobles' secondary lances.
- Increased defensive skill of Sabeaen professionals/elites.
- Reduced secondary attack stats for Komatai Hippotoxotai and Komatai.
- Implemented several planned features for Sab'yn.
- New descriptions for Pergamene governments.
- Added shipbuilding to Shardin/Korsim port buildings. Major revision of higher port building recruitment; heavy fleets only come from specific places, not everywhere.
- Removed Rebel recruitment of pirate fleets, given them light ships instead. Pirate still spawn randomly in the usual manner.
- Revised southern Arabian recruitment pools.
- Removed the Captain-triggered loop of the Ligurian Resistance script.
- Updated Southern Arabian Rebel Alliance script - spawned "support" now acts.
- Switched Galatian Raider placeholder in Hellenistic Colonies for Celtic Mercenary Swordsmen.
- Switched Ligurian Slinger/Corsi Infantry placeholder to Balearic Slingers.
- Added eastcol pool to eastern Sicily, adjusted those in western Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Massalia.
- Major revision of north African and western Sicilian recruitment.
- Changes to Pergamene elite recruitment.
- Adjusted size and cost of Komatai Epilektoi.
- Tripled cost of Marib Dam unique.
- Updated faction re-emergence script to remove duplicated counters. Changed order of army spawn and re-emerge.
- Amended models for Libyan Infantry (javelins removed) and Numidian Skirmishers (spear as secondary weapon instead of knife).
- Moved the garrison commander of Nertobriga to the actual location of the settlement.
- Another reworking of faction re-emergence, spawn moved back to the top.
- Corrected add_settlement_turmoil values.
- Put the unrest part of the Troublesome Regions script into a conditional IF statement - only applies when not Rebel-held.
- Libyan Infantry gain powerful_charge. Also updated their models - slight increase in armour.
- Revision to Celtic mercenary pools (removing levies). Revision to Hellenistic mercenary recruitment, ensuring proper transition of units over time.
- Slight shrinkage of polis pools and reduction in cavalry. Rebalance of helcol pools to feature more cavalry.
- Revised KH and polis-imitation governments in line with the above.
- Corrected eastcol conversion in Delta Neilou (gone).
- Revised "Core" recruitment in Seleukid and Baktrian Supervised Hellenic Admin governments.
- Link to the updated barbarian settlement files included in the installation instructions.
- Adjusted recruit_priority_offset for Trieres and Liburnes fleets, to reduce naval spam.
- Corrected kh7/kh8 which weren't updated last time.
- The Greek medium cavalry of the Nile Delta are Hippeis, rather than Xystophoroi.
- Corrected accidental bleed-over of Xystophoroi/Aspidiotai Hippeis in Bithynia.
- Removed trailing spaces from EDU and EDB - probably won't make a difference to most installations, but may aid the most fragile.
- Slight tweaks to neighbour and governor conversion rates - both lowered.
- Lowered the AI-switch thresholds, peaceability should come sooner for warlike factions.
- Adjusted numbers of elephants and chariots so there aren't mysteriously disappearing men when you start a battle.
- Ptolemaic mission now works, damned typo...
- Added Thebais to Troublesome Regions script.
- Rewrite of starting Carthaginian armies/garrisons.
- Adjustment to availability of British Noble Cavalry - increase in frequency after the CelticTwilight reform.
- Removed culture limits in the casse_mig so it's the same as the others.
- Kretan Archers now appear in the Roman Provinciae in Syria.
- Added a new building for nomadic/semi-nomadic factions: the Nomadic Enclave. It has no icons for now, but functions fine otherwise.
- Reduced morale of all cavalry units by 2 points (as per LusitanianWolf's submod - but not Client Rulers).
- Removed command from Roman Equites.
- Increased shield value of certain Iberian infantry units.
- Changed secondary weapon of Komatai Toxotai to match that of Komatai/Getikoi Hippotoxotai.
- Updated formations of Brigantinoi and Mezeugenoi.
- Removed loosest formation (2.7m x 2.7m). Tightened close order of Kretan Archers and Bosporan Heavy Archers.
- Reduced recruit_priority_offset for Trieres and Liburnes a little more.
- Decreased missile hit rate against elephants from 0.175 to 0.15.
- Added a series of "AntiTrait triggers" for a number of paired/antagonistic traits.
What we're primarily interested in is how the game progresses over a 100+ turn run. Is it any different? Is it better?
And finally...
We're still not done. If anyone was in doubt about this project and the apparent slowing of previews on the feeds, I hope this will allay any concerns. The team is still hard at work improving the mod, there will be future releases, and the hungry maw that is EBII is always ready to consume new talent. We have particular needs for skinners/texturers to help with units, and can always use people who can work in 3D. I can't promise when 2.3 will be, but hope it will be soon. In the meantime, we hope you'll enjoy this latest offering and update on 2.2b.
As ever, thank you for your support and remember to read more history.
- The Europa Barbarorum II Team
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