Announcing: Europa Barbarorum

[khelvan]

Why didn't you guys post any screenshots?!? It's not like it'd kill ya.

This must be humor, but my joke-ometer isn't registering anything.

I'll tell ya what, I'll make sure that next week the news post is full of new faction descriptions, unit descriptions, building descriptions, and other fun stuff, instead of more silly screen shots. The historians among us have been on my case as to why I don't show that sort of thing more often. So, are you guys all about eye candy, or do you like to exercise your brains as well?

[Mablung]

Wow, great stuff guys. I especially like the idea of eras, something I have really missed from Medieval, the campaigns were often a lot different. Any clues on when the eras will be set and what they will contain?

[Sarcasm]

What in Heaven´s name is THAT?!

Never seen that kind of siege engine before...

[Wishazu]

will the diversity of mercenary troops be improved? Vanillas rather paltry amount of mercenary units allways bothered me. i hated only being able to hire rubbish barbarian mercenaries when i know that ancient generals like hannibal etc. was able to recruit some of the hardiest warriors from iberia and gaul into his armies.

[khelvan]

Mercenaries - you better believe it. In general, troops that were widely used in various armies (Cretan archers, Balearic & Rhodian slingers, as an example) will be available as regional recruitment in very small areas to reflect subjugation (by those factions that would raise native units, given the appropriate government type chosen for that province) and in a wider area as mercenaries to reflect their mercenary activity.

The siege engine - I know there are a ton of guys asking for diversity in siege weaponry. I'm surprised no one has told you what that one is. Well, I'll let you guys guess.

[Malorix]

this is great! thanks for opening some stuff up finally!

[Sarcasm]

The siege engine - I know there are a ton of guys asking for diversity in siege weaponry. I'm surprised no one has told you what that one is. Well, I'll let you guys guess.

I hate it when you do that. *goes and starts yahoo*




I can see how it works....



1- Rope applies tension to the beam
2- Mechanism is released, the beam returns to its original position
3- The beam hits the missiles, and they are fired horizontaly

But what´s it called?

[Divinus Arma]

given the appropriate government type chosen for that province

Please elaborate. We get to choose a government TYPE? If so, then HOLY S.

[Steppe Merc]

Not really. I'll let Khelvan explain...

[khelvan]

Governments - each faction will have choices to make when taking over provinces. These choices reflect how the faction interacts with the people they have conquered, and in some instances the land and resources. For instance, the steppe people will have to choose between a nomadic or agricultural infrastructure, and this will affect the type of troops they can raise and the bonuses and such from the economy and people. The Celts will probably have a choice of four types of government - Directly controlled by a king (subjugated - homelands only), controlled by an installed noble (subjugated, different bonuses/penalties), controlled by an indigenous leader (client), or controlled by a religious leader (assimilated).

As you can see there will be considerable variety between factions. Furthermore, if there is some suggestion you have along these lines for individual factions, we are happy to consider it.

Ok, ok, I won't torture you anymore. It is a bricoli, and while it may look like it isn't very powerful, such devices were more powerful than an arrow and often used for killing mounts. You don't get a sense of scale with these pictures.

The production release will be a fully-automated install. I am not sure about the open beta yet. The size of the open beta will likely be in the neighborhood of 500MB.

I cannot currently forsee anything "sold," as that brings very real legal issues. We may offer a written manual for download. Certainly the mod will require documentation.

[Es Arkajae]

This mod sounds interesting, I know a guy at the forum where I usually post who has been pimping the EB mod for months

But two questions, the first just curiosity the second more important

1) Will barbarian factions get decent walls?, that is walls on which troops can be stationed during a siege?

2)I'm assuming this mod will be a monster in size, how large (guestimate if you will) is it going to be?, I'm assuming it will be hundreds of megabytes at least

And if it is in fact huge would it be possible for you guys to break it up into a few sections for those of us without access to broadband?

Will it also be self executable? (I suppose thats three questions)

I'm speaking of the finished product here not the beta.

[Sheep]

2)I'm assuming this mod will be a monster in size, how large (guestimate if you will) is it going to be?, I'm assuming it will be hundreds of megabytes at least

And if it is in fact huge would it be possible for you guys to break it up into a few sections for those of us without access to broadband?

Maybe we could make the VoiceMod and MusicMod in a separate sound package? Cause those mp3s are gonna add a huge amount to the download and some people might want to do without them so they don't wait days to d/l the game (although I don't have that problem ). You are already going to do a patch for the naked barbarian fetishists in the audience so you can just do the music as another patch, right?

[Ranika]

Where appropriate, the barbarian factions will get better walls. Each faction will have differences, so I'd be wary of saying ALL will. But, Gauls for example, had dirt-and-wood oppida, as well as large braced stone walls that would look similar to Roman or Greek walls, and they'll likely be able to get them.

[thrashaholic]

That siege engine...I'm very sceptical about it...

I can not see how it would work effectively at all I'm afraid to say. Sarcasm's diagram, although the most logical approach, simply could not fire those bolts any meaningful distance. If they are 'fired' by that beam hitting them then because the force applied to each bolt is only istantaneous (the beam only hits the bolts at one place - it doesn't even follow through), not continuous like a bow, an because the bolts are stationary at the point of impact, they will surely just drop to the ground? If you try it with a pencil and a ruler (pretty crude, and not quite the same I know) it does exactly this. One'd need a gigantic force to lauch those bolts and physics tells me that they still wouldn't fly very far or very straight...

If someone could enlighten me to the mechanisms and physics of this contraption I'd be most grateful.

Otherwise I'm pleased to see how well this mod is taking shape, it might just rekindle my interest in RTW.

[eadingas]

That thing existed for real, and it worked. Not very effective, as you say - short distance, low accuracy - but it worked.

[Divinus Arma]

Greetings once again EB crew. And thank you, once again, for your hard work and dedication to this challenging and noble effort. You should be recognized as you are: true and loyal fans to the franchise as well as leaders in modding.

That said and deserved Kudos aside, I have a few brief questions:

1) Do you have a written manual or guide in the works? If not, I would like to recommend that you pursue the effort, and offer it at a price. With print-on-demand, you can publish high quality manuals or books at minimal cost. Whether you decide to seek a small profit for your work is your own choice of course. An accompanying manual would certainly serve to support the educational aspect of your project. I would have no problem paying for such a thing, and I am sure that I am not alone. Hell, I would even work on it myself but for a 55 hour work week and 20+ hours of university study per week (I barely have time for this board, gaming, or my marriage).

2) How difficult will this be to install and uninstall?

3) How large will the download be?

Warmest Regards,

Divinus Arma

[Sarcasm]

There's been an excellent guess already though!

What do you mean? Cabbage? Brocoli? A turnip?

C´mon fess it up!

[Es Arkajae]

A new question which has probbaly been asked elsewhere though I couldn't find it when I looked.


Will the AI be improved under the EB Mod or is that something that is 'hardcoded' and can't be tampered with?

Afterall one can change the ridiculous kill rates and unit speeds to enable better tactics where one has to actually use ones brain, but if the AI is still as inept as it is in the vanilla game then that remains a major problem.

Not to sound too negative, I'm looking forward to this mod (as long as its of size I can actually download!), but if the computer remains just as dumb than how can it be challenging without just handicapping the human player?

[khelvan]

The AI can't be touched.

[tai4ji2x]

The AI can't be touched.

well, there are SOME things you can do... descr_formations_ai.txt and the AI personalities in descr_strat for example. but the bulk of it, yeah, it's hardcoded.