Greetings fans of Europa Barbarorum!
It's been over two years since our last release, a lot of things happened which conspired to stop the patch releasing within just a few months of 2.35, as we had originally hoped. The team's roster has gone up and down, people have been pulled away to deal with things in their personal lives, and much else besides. Contrary to rumours this would never appear, we have actually been very rigorously playtesting this patch for about the last two months.
Sure we could have released one of those earlier versions, but if you could see the number of bugs, omissions, gaps and silly errors, you wouldn't have been impressed with the final product. We didn't want to be in the position of releasing a Day One patch, like a lot of AAA games do. We also had some fun and games working out how to apply this patch to Mac and Linux, without having to release a "fat patch" that was three times the size of this one. Fortunately, some clever people found a way, and so everyone can download the same file.
As a result of all that playtesting, we are pretty confident that this is a very stable release, and as long as you follow the instructions and do your own research, you will be able to complete any campaign you begin. As ever, we still expect people to find things that have been overlooked; while we have new tools and more internal playtesters, there are things we may have missed, or which need a longer play-through to appreciate the impact. Use this thread to report your feedback, if you have any bugs, use the appropriate subforum. If you feel inspired enough to do a Let's Play or the like, let us know so we can promote it.
There is a lot of new content here, not just the new units you've seen previewed on the feeds. We might add a changelog at some point to give more detail, but many factions will have changes specific to them, and overall gameplay has had some updates which will apply to everyone. Including faction re-emergence that now works properly (thanks Erken)! What isn't here, I'm afraid, are the new settlement models, because they're just too big to include. You will get them in 2.4, which will be a full installer.
Whether you are new to EBII or have played before, we'd still recommend you browse the updated Player's Guide.
As always it's necessary to be absolutely explicit about this point:
THIS RELEASE IS NOT SAVEGAME COMPATIBLE
Installation instructions
These instructions are not optional, we've learned through bitter experience what is necessary to make the game work on the various platforms out there.
We would recommend that you uninstall and make a fresh installation of EBII v2.35 before you attempt to patch, following the instructions in the thread for 2.35. As always, make sure your M2TW installation is outside of Program Files/Program Files x86. If your game is installed there, the patch will not work.
Let me repeat that, if your game is installed in Program Files or Program Files x86, the patch will not work. The files will be selectively applied, if at all, and the patch won't run.
1) Download the patch: Torrent link | Direct Download 1 | Direct Download 2
If you have the means to host the files, please do so and share the link - I'll update this post with it.
1a) Download this post-release fix. Check it says "v2.35A R3.5" on your main menu to confirm successful patching.
2a - Windows) Open the zip and copy and paste the "data" folder over that same folder in your EBII folder. Say "yes" to overwrite all files.
2b - Mac) Use ditto to copy the files and directories intelligently. Say "yes" to overwrite all files.
2c - Linux) Use the rsync command to copy the files and structure. Say "yes" to overwrite all files.
3) Start a EB2 campaign. WAIT for the game to generate the world, the game has not frozen, it takes time to do this on your very first campaign. It's generating the map.rwm file.
4) There may be a “Fatal Graphics Error” and crash to the desktop when you start the campaign only on the very first time. This is normal (though is less common than it was), just start the game again.
Change List
And finally...
In closing - EBII is still not complete. We are not finished - there will be future releases. We are at around 85% complete now - what we still need, what we always need, are more willing volunteers. If you are a 3D artist able to work with 3DS Max or Milkshape, or a 2D artist skilled with Photoshop who can work to instructions, we want you. If you have a knowledge in ancient history and a desire to contribute, we want you. If you are a scripter or coder, and have some familiarity with the files used here (compiled with C++ I believe), we want you. If you can proofread and edit XML files accurately, we want you. If you can playtest the ever-living crap out of a game, then do it all over again after a minor change, we want you. If you like the mod, and are eager to learn how to do something that can help to contribute, we want you. Apply here.
As ever, thank you for your support and remember to read more history.
- The Europa Barbarorum II Team
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