Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans. Today we have something a little different. A download for you to enjoy!
While EB 0.8 is still in development, and while we have been and still will be releasing previews of 0.8, we decided to give you more of a taste of it that you can actually put into 0.74 and play with: the 0.8 Roman culture GUI (Graphical User Interface) for EB.
In EB 0.8 the Romani will have their own culture group. They will also have their own GUI for their culture group. The Roman GUI is visible below in screenshots and is based on Roman wall paintings for the most part. Now here is the catch: in 0.74 the Romans share a culture with the Western Greeks. So if you are playing as Makedonia, the Koinon Hellenon, or Epeiros, you might not want to download this immediately, because if you do you would wind up playing as a Greek faction with this Roman interface. But if you are playing as the Romani, you can try out our new GUI for them and it will seem appropriate.
The GUI is still a work in progress, but it's pretty close to being completed. It is also quite different in its look and style from the 0.74 build's GUI for this culture group, so it could be a bit of a shock for you. But it is easy to install and uninstall, so you can try it out or put the Greek one back if you like. And you can see the screenshots here, so if in viewing them it looks like something you won't like, then just don't download it.
Europa Barbarorum 0.8 Roman Culture GUI
General Strat/Campaign Map View (my build has Prom's Res Gestae cities in it - so ignore those in the screenshot)
Strat/Campaign Map View of Construction Menu
Diplomatic View on Strat/Campaign Map
Strat/Campaign Map View of Announcement Messages
Battle Map View (my build also has Prom's Res Gestae grass currently, so ignore that)
Instructions (probably more complicated than they need to be - this can be boiled down to a single drag and drop step if you don't want to back up your old GUI, but I warned you to back it up first!):
1. Download the ROMAN08GUI.rar file onto your desktop. Download it here: ftp://europabarbarorum.org/ROMAN08GUI.rar (about 3 megabytes in size)
2. Open up the Program Files\Activision\Rome Total War\data\UI\Greek\ directory (on your hard-drive).
3. There will be a file there called INTERFACE. Rename it INTERFACE_Greek and then leave it alone as a backup.
3b (optional). Rename your advisor portraits too if you want to back them up, but they are in the general GREEK folder, not the GREEK\INTERFACE folder, so you'll need to "back up" one folder first to do that.
4. Open the ROMAN08GUI.rar file and inside it you will find a folder that is called GREEK. When you open that folder up, you will find three things: the INTERFACE folder and the two advisor portraits. Drag those three things into your build's data\UI\Greek\ directory and then drop it there. If you didn't choose to rename your old Greek interface files or back them up, then it will ask you if you wish to replace the current ones. Say yes if you want to install these new ones.
5. That is it. Start EB back up again and you should have the new GUI there for that culture group.
6. If you want to switch back, just rename the current INTERFACE folder (the one with the Roman GUI) INTERFACE_Roman and take your INTERFACE_Greek folder and rename it just plain old INTERFACE again and you should go back to your old one then.
Any advice about these steps would be appreciated (e.g., if something isn't described well or a problem in the steps exists), but we've tested it on a couple of pre 1.5 builds and it seems to work well on them. Enjoy this little bit of 0.8 now, and we hope to have good news about 0.8 development before much longer too (though I'm not saying you should expect the actual release, just hopefully more progress announcements, and maybe even another mini-preview too).
edit: Possible (minor) future changes:
-Advisor's shoulders poke out from behind the circle
-Battlemap "kill ratio bar" needs a darker bar behind it to contrast it better (reds bleed over)
-Left and right selection buttons (to different cities or generals) need more contrasting edges
-Mini-advisor button needs to match big advisor
-Faction icons/buttons may need filtering to match GUI (may leave them as-is though)
-Battlemap middle panel has one pixel tall "bar" on top that is only visible on half the panel
-Battlemap map may look better with a border
-Battlemap timer probably will have colors removed
As always, if you have questions or comments, the best place to post them is here, where the EB team is most active:
Europa Barbarorum ORG forum
Europa Barbarorum TWC forum
We give special thanks to Imageshack that provides us with a simple, foolproof, and free way to show you all these pictures each week.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
The Europa Barbarorum team.
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