EB criticism from woman's point of view

[Semigall]

As i read in one other topic, u here lack women opinions about EB. So i decided to post (in short) what my sister said about EB.
As my sister mainly focuses on realism of different pc games, this was the point she also criticized in EB.

So the main drawbacks she accented:
flaws in graphics:
- some textures look bad/weird from distance (ground textures, some bush textures, etc)
- lack of some details that add feeling realism (trails, blood, etc)
- some animations are too stiff/unrealistic (skirmishers and those with javelins on horses)
flaws in gameplay
- unability to engage diplomacy with small tribes
- sometimes weird AI behaviour in combat (sending his troops forward and backward for no appearant reason and such)
- too weak aspect of troop morale in battlefield (low morale troops obeying totally idiotic orders, etc)

Hope this helps u :) This all is short and censored version of what my sister said. I suppose, i don't have to say that she didn't liked EB at all...

P.S. Oh, and this probably is my first post here, so hi to everyone ;)

[Mad Guitar Murphy]

I think those gameplay 'issues' are all hardcoded.

At this time EB is imo the most realistic game you can have but it is still limited by hardcoded stuff.

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

As i read in one other topic, u here lack women opinions about EB. So i decided to post (in short) what my sister said about EB.
As my sister mainly focuses on realism of different pc games, this was the point she also criticized in EB.

So the main drawbacks she accented:
flaws in graphics:
- some textures look bad/weird from distance (ground textures, some bush textures, etc)
- lack of some details that add feeling realism (trails, blood, etc)
- some animations are too stiff/unrealistic (skirmishers and those with javelins on horses)
flaws in gameplay
- unability to engage diplomacy with small tribes
- sometimes weird AI behaviour in combat (sending his troops forward and backward for no appearant reason and such)
- too weak aspect of troop morale in battlefield (low morale troops obeying totally idiotic orders, etc)

Hope this helps u :) This all is short and censored version of what my sister said. I suppose, i don't have to say that she didn't liked EB at all...

P.S. Oh, and this probably is my first post here, so hi to everyone ;)

Tell here all of these problems are hard-coded and the exclusive responsability of The Creative Assembly, not of the Europa Barbarorum MOD. We can't do anything about them since they are unmodable.

[GodEmperorLeto]

So the main drawbacks she accented:
flaws in graphics:
...
- lack of some details that add feeling realism (trails, blood, etc)

Blood in Rome: Total War! If only!

Sadly enough, all of the problems your sister detailed are not only hardcoded, but if could be fixed (with the exception of the horse-skirmisher example), they'd run havoc on your memory. I mean, the computer is already rendering hundreds or thousands of shooting, fighting, and running troops/horses, missiles, vegetation, and unbelievably gigantic landscapes! Some of the battles I've fought in Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul are breathtaking, by the way. But anyway, imagine if your computer had to give every single soldier a gruesome (albeit realistic) death (i.e. hacked limbs, beheaded, disemboweled, etc.). It would be way cool, but not really practical. Besides, mothers everywhere would croak if they saw all the gore a realistic ancient warfare game should have.

[Cheexsta]

- some textures look bad/weird from distance (ground textures, some bush textures, etc)

Unit sprites aren't done yet (being done for the move to 1.5, from what I've gathered from these forums), other textures and such aren't because of EB. It might be the graphics settings that are at fault.

- lack of some details that add feeling realism (trails, blood, etc)

Hardcoded. Modders can't change this. There is a blood mod out there but it only works for missile weapons and looks pretty average.

- some animations are too stiff/unrealistic (skirmishers and those with javelins on horses)

Agreed, some of the animations are stiff. Equites, for example.

- unability to engage diplomacy with small tribes

Hardcoded. RTW has a limit of 21 factions, including Rebels (Eleutheroi in EB). The Eleutheroi are one of these factions, so engaging in diplomacy with a "small tribe" is like doing so with a single, big faction. EB has done some work on this by adding "alliances" that smaller cities have with larger factions, such as Kyprus being "allied" to the Ptolemies, but I don't think there's much else that can be done.

- sometimes weird AI behaviour in combat (sending his troops forward and backward for no appearant reason and such)

AI is hardcoded. The move to 1.5 might rectify some of the AI issues, though, such as advancing in cohesion.

- too weak aspect of troop morale in battlefield (low morale troops obeying totally idiotic orders, etc)

Good idea, but hardcoded. Unless someone can come up with a battle script where certain commands are greyed out when a unit has reached a specific morale level (which I doubt is even possible, without a ton of code), then it can't be touched.

[Arman]

MTWII will have blood and all the rest if you wish! :-) So preper your computer get Pentium 64 3Mz 1GB RAM PCIExpressx16 VideoCard 256Mb Video RAM. And then may be you will have all those issue things. But IMHO AI will still be stupid, this is the biggest issue of all strategic games never seen one with smart AI, this is generally true for all games.

[Dayve]

That's true... AI in all games is terrible... Especially strategy games, my favourite type...

Although, the AI in BF2 is phenominally good... But they only allow 15 AI's on any map with you so that's probably how they got it so good... Give it another 4 or 5 years and we should have great AI...

[Arman]

Give it another 4 or 5 years and we should have great AI...

Very hard. Development of artificial intellects is the weakest point of software development now, still most of the software either does imple stuff or relies on human decisions. We few improvements in this area for last 10 years, software become bigger, has more capabilities, better graphics but from AI point it's as good and as bad as 10 years ago.
The real smart neuron network system doing very complex analisys requires suppert computers or computing greeds. Remember you need Deep Blue monster to win Casparov in chess. And strategic games are more compless than chess since battle field is much more diferent than chess board. I simply play MP when I want to have descent battle.

[the_handsome_viking]

I find it really hard to fight back the urge to do this...

Oh I just can't...

To your sister



Forum police men forgive me =(.

[Turin]

Oh god that's hilarious Viking! Did you do that one yourself? (not sarcasm)

But yeah, they're all part of the game EB has already done a heroic job of mitigating a lot of the problems. For example the AI actually forms meaningful alliances and such now. On the battlefield the AI marches in close order right until they attack, then it's RTW CA style!

FYI many of the diplomacy and battlefield AI problems are fixed in 1.5. It was quite orgasmic to see a phalanx actually sticking together somewhat to attack you.

[Urnamma]

And locked.

[khelvan]

Viking, this is the second time you've crossed the line between "funny" and "offensive." I like to give a lot of leeway, but the comments you made a few weeks ago and this one together show a lack of tact. I hate to start giving out warnings, but I will be forced to if this continues.

Please remember that what may be funny to some can be offensive to others, and try to exercise a little restraint. In this forum we must err on the side of those who might be offended, no matter how that might grate on the nerves of some of our posters.