EB v.80 - First Impressions?

[Imperator]

I can offer some perspective, from a (recently converted) RTR fan.
I tried .74 but was chased off by the 1.2 build, and rough appearance (I admit it! I'm shallow! ) and preferred RTR's shiny, less complex and historical veneer to EB's rough, kinda buggy, but complex and super-accurate look. Now, however, when I started EB up, the first thing I noticed was a sort of intangible feeling of completion- it seemed like I wasn't dealing with a beta but a mod that was much closer to completion. Sure there are a few bugs I noticed in my Romani campaign (equites extrodanarii don't have spears- just air and Prom's cities don't quite work) but then I've stopped calling RTR more finished than EB. EB has a few peasant skins but have you seen RTR's Gauls- not exactly heavily modded. I'm not saying one is better- I liked RTR a lot more than EB for a long time. But now, for me, EB has caught up with RTR in terms of completion and is better in terms of accuracy, balancing (no uber-nations like Macedon), depth, and now even eye-candy.

I cannot begin to fathom the amount of work that it took to make this game- it must have been staggering and I've seen mod teams crumble under only a fraction of the problems EB pulled through. They made the most extensive, exhaustive, realistic, balanced and deep mod despite having more problems and troubles than almost any other mod team- you are all worthy of congratulations indeed.

All in all, from my limited experience, .8 is the best mod I've ever played. In any other mod, I've been interested in 1 or 2 factions- I've only ever been able to play as Rome or maybe Carthage in RTR- but in EB there isn't a single faction I wouldn't want to play as. There is so much flavor I feel like I'm really there! When I'm on the strat map, I see city names in native languages, I see the natural and man-made resources of each province and I can role-play effortlessly with your incredible trait system. On the battle map I feel like I'm really there- I hear Romans calling out in Latin and fighting Epirotes- all deliciously accurate in every sense of the word and I just burn up with pleasure!


Thanks EB, for a mod so great it only took an afternoon to totally convert and rapture me, and is only getting better as I go into my campaign, into other campaigns, and as future releases get closer and closer!

[Julian the apostate]

The change in how moral affects the game seems huge especially for some of the light infantry starter units. got a big suprise when every unit but my general pannicked and ran against an inferior army, i'm guessing exhaustion factors in more now cuz they were tired.but wow fantastic map fantastic game

[Grimmy]

First impressions:

I only got so far as picking a faction (Romani) and looking around the map area local to them and checking out some of their cities.

and, so far...

Wow. Ok, new game. I mean, new game to learn to play and enjoy so just added another multiplier to the bang/buck ratio of RTW. I feel like a parasite. Y'all do all this work and I just get to play with it.

Specifics, so far. The GUI looks very Roman. I'm not a fan of big UI with lots of unused realestate and overly large buttons and drill down, but none of that is y'all's doing. The changes you made look good and add to the imersion.

Music... umm... ok, it actually fits what my brain tends to make up for itself when I have my Roman army out and about marching its way to some conquering.
Matter of fact, it was a bit distracting. While I was browsing the building and unit browser, my mind kept drifting to the image of a cobble paved road, shaded by old growth olives and an approaching Roman army marching along on a victory procession.

All in all, so far, extremely well done. I'll be spending another couple hundred hours playing this mod to the ol' RTW instead of the M2TW campaign currently on hold.

Yeah, that's right. At least in one verified case, you managed to put RTW back in front of the newer M2TW.

Now I'm gonna spend the rest of tonight reading up on this mod and the hints and tricks stuff so I dont feel so numbskulled when I start my Romani campaign tomorrow.

[Sol Invictus]

I have been waiting for two years to play this mod and finally jumped into it tonight as the Romani for about ten turns. I am absolutely stunned by the amount of work this must have required. It is a very impressive accomplishment and I think I will play a campaign of EB before I play MTW2; even if/when the patch comes out. I salute you.

[Dram]

my impression is basically that of being overwhelmed by the new content and amount of choice/direction avaliable, as well as being blown away by the quality and polish already evident, even in a beta!

the music in particular blends in so well with each culture and adds an epic, cinematic feel to the game.

overall im really amazed and very respectful of the amount of work put into it all.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

My first immpressions were somewhat tainted by anger/annoyance. Turns out if you copy the RTW folder then uninstall, it removes the original as well as the copy (and the mod with saved games therein).

But once I played the game I thought, "Wow, shiny!" I had never downloaded the Rome UI or the resources addons, so that plus everything new was a real change (for the good).

Second immpression was remembering how long the battles could go without anyone dying...

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Overall:

[nikolai1962]

It's lost that beta feeling for sure. I only meant to play a few turns before going back to modding but ended up spending hours trying to get to the Getai guy's Unifier trait thingy. Big thumb's up.