Europa Barbarorum 2 questions

[gran_guitarra]

I wanted to know a few things about EB2,
1) Will it be on Medieval 2 Total War, or its expansion, Kingdoms?
2) Will there be new factions, new units for existing factions, and new traits/ancillaries?
3) Will it incorporate the different models for units so that we don't have to suffer the Clone Wars?
4) Will it incorporate the different settlement types, castles and cities, or simply overwrite this feature?
5) Will religion play a larger role in the Europa Barbarorum or remain the same?

Just a few questions I was hoping you'd answer.
btw, I was curious,
Argyraspidai translates as Silver/Silver Shield, and Thorakitai translates as Heavy Spearmen, so wouldn't Thorakitai Argyraspidai mean something along the lines of Shilver Heavy Spearmen, or Silver Shield Heavy Spearmen?

Just out of curiosity.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I wanted to know a few things about EB2,
1) Will it be on Medieval 2 Total War, or its expansion, Kingdoms?
2) Will there be new factions, new units for existing factions, and new traits/ancillaries?
3) Will it incorporate the different models for units so that we don't have to suffer the Clone Wars?
4) Will it incorporate the different settlement types, castles and cities, or simply overwrite this feature?
5) Will religion play a larger role in the Europa Barbarorum or remain the same?

Just a few questions I was hoping you'd answer.
btw, I was curious,
Argyraspidai translates as Silver/Silver Shield, and Thorakitai translates as Heavy Spearmen, so wouldn't Thorakitai Argyraspidai mean something along the lines of Shilver Heavy Spearmen, or Silver Shield Heavy Spearmen?

Just out of curiosity.

1)Probably Kingdoms, seeing as it is supposed to provide more options and features.
2)Yes, probably, most likely.
3)Yes. A nice feature of M2TW.
4)Yet to be decided.
5)Yet to be decided.

EDIT: I know not Greek. But I do know that Argyraspidai means silver shield. And Argyraspidai were the elites of the Seleucids and Makedonians. So Thorakitai Argyraspidai are elite Thorakitai.

[gran_guitarra]

Thanks. Good to know, especially the no Clone Wars thing.

btw, what about the translation question?

[sgsandor]

Those are VERY GOOD QUESTIONS!!!

[Ludens]

To my limited knowledge, thorakitai derives from thorax and refers to the armour. Argyraspidai Thorakitai would mean armoured Silver Shields. The rendering of Thorakitai as "heavy spearman" is a functional and not literal translation.

[Chiefwiddler]

Seeing as you guys are obviously the chaps for the job, are there any plans to "do an EB" to Med 2?

I mean revamping Med 2 so that the game is more historically accurate?

Not in the EB timeframe, but in the Medieval timeframe?

[bovi]

If the engine allows, we will make EB2 for MTW2 (possibly Kingdoms). It will still be the ancient era. Wasn't there an Mediæval Arcturoso or something that wanted to make a historical medieval mod?

[Foot]

Seeing as you guys are obviously the chaps for the job, are there any plans to "do an EB" to Med 2?

I mean revamping Med 2 so that the game is more historically accurate?

Not in the EB timeframe, but in the Medieval timeframe?

We are obviously not the chaps for the job, our historians are historians of our timeperiod, not of the medieval timeperiod. There are already two other mods that will be doing what you wish, MA and MTR, there is no reason for us to spread resources even thinner than they already are.

Besides, the ancient period is way cool.

Foot

[Musopticon?]

^Yes.

[gran_guitarra]

Actually I was checking around in the forums last night and I found a mod called Feudalism Total War, which seems to be trying to achieve (or has achieved) just that. It's added several Orthodox and Islamic factions, along with a Pagan faction or two (can't remember the specifics).

Thanks for clearing up on the translation.

Another couple of questions:
1) Will guilds be integrated into Europa Barbarorum 2? I think that some of them would be a possibility, but other would be nearly impossible.
2) Will the Knightly Orders be replaced with something appropriate (such as a mercenary army which sells its services to a specific faction) , removed, or used to create something more realistic?
3) Will Princesses still be used by certain factions? I know for a fact that Spartan women were awarded the same rights as men of the same class, except for appearing before the senate and going to war.
4) Could Crusades be turned into a sort of "Invasion" to simulate faction migrations and invasions that happened reallistically?

If the expansion is done on Kingdoms:
1) Since Kingdoms offers a variety of mini-campaigns, would it be possible to translate these focalized campaigns into EB2? For example, the British Isles campaign could become an Arche-Seleukeia campaign, in which you can play as the Seleukids trying to re-establish their empire, or one of its Breakaways or the Ptolemaioi trying to defeat the Seleukids and take control of their empire.
2) Kingdoms offers the ability, for certain generals in Historical battles, to have "Special abilities". Could this be translated into all generals of a certain faction to diferentiate more between generals? For example, the Romans could have one that made it so they do not lose morale or do not get tired for a short period of time (say 10 seconds?), call it Roman discipline or something.

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for clarifying the translation question btw.

[I Am Herenow]

For number 4, do you mean would Aedui (for example) be able to rally lots of cheap, rubbish troops and swarm the Romans, Crusade-style?

[gran_guitarra]

Sort of. Basically certain factions, who migrated historically (like the Celts), would have the option of transforming a whole bunch of their cities population into a large force of cheap units (often lousy since they'd basically be levies/militias) and have those units attack a certain settlement. If you don't make a certain amount of progress to the settlement units could leave you behind, etc.

Basically it would be like Hording in Barbarian Invasion, but instead of losing the city you'd just lose a large part of the population and gain a bunch of mediocre/crappy units, which have to assault a city.

I guess its kind of hard to explain.

[bovi]

It's too early to answer such specific questions on functionality, sorry.

[gran_guitarra]

Okay, how about some more general ones?

Will you be able to use the different "Military Periods" (early, high, and late) to script reforms for the various factions?

Will we still be able to choose our faction heir, or go with the Medieval system (where the game automatically chooses the faction heir and the only way to change him is to kill the guy off)?

Will you move mercenaries into regional MIC's so the AI cannot spam Merc. Stacks (since Medieval has such few mercenaries to start with, that would deprive the player of any mercenaries at all)?

Will cavalry charges function like Rome (where they just need to be in formation for it to work), or Medieval (where they need to keep formation, build up speed, but are obscenely devastating even against pikes)?

Will the phalanx formation, which does not exist in Medieval, function just like it does now? Or will it work like the very strange Medieval one?

Will you use factions like the Aztecs/Mongols/Timurids to simulate emerging factions, so that factions which existed during the time-frame of the game, but not at the begining can be integrated?

[bovi]

Not very general . I don't think we'll use emerging factions as they require faction slots better spent on a faction playable by the human.

[BozosLiveHere]

IIRC, it's possible to have playable emerging factions.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

How do you play emerging factions? Just curious.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Okay, how about some more general ones?

Will you be able to use the different "Military Periods" (early, high, and late) to script reforms for the various factions?

I haven't played M2TW much, but I thought there wasn't different eras like in MTW. I thought they just had things like Gunpowder reforms. So:

Will we still be able to choose our faction heir, or go with the Medieval system (where the game automatically chooses the faction heir and the only way to change him is to kill the guy off)?

I pray to God that that isn't hardcoded. It in on the verge of breaking M2TW for me. It makes me so made and I just ignore who is my faction leader and treat all family members the same in M2TW.

Will you move mercenaries into regional MIC's so the AI cannot spam Merc. Stacks (since Medieval has such few mercenaries to start with, that would deprive the player of any mercenaries at all)?

Mercenaries will probably work the same as in EB1. In M2TW, you can retrain merc in a region that has more mercs of those type available. Also, mercs are dynamic, changing with time, technology, and Crusade/Jihad events. Mercs in M2TW have much more possibility and most likely will stay in.

Will cavalry charges function like Rome (where they just need to be in formation for it to work), or Medieval (where they need to keep formation, build up speed, but are obscenely devastating even against pikes)?

I would amagine charges are hardcoded and are stuck working the M2TW. Charge bonuses could be changed though, to lessen devestation.

Will the phalanx formation, which does not exist in Medieval, function just like it does now? Or will it work like the very strange Medieval one?

There is a phalanx formation in M2TW. It is called Wall of Spears. It seems to be the exact same formation as the RTW phalanx, but no units have long spears in M2TW.

Will you use factions like the Aztecs/Mongols/Timurids to simulate emerging factions, so that factions which existed during the time-frame of the game, but not at the begining can be integrated?

Most likely, these faction slots will be used for more factions at the beginning of the game.

[Tellos Athenaios]

^^ According to the custom battle setup, there are three different era's in M2TW: Early, High and Late. So, I suppose there needs to be a way for the game to separate them, hence there should be a way for EB to use it dynamically - provided it's not hardcoded. (E.g. after a certain number turns, the game automatically switches to a different era)

[Tellos Athenaios]

How do you play emerging factions? Just curious.

Perhaps you start a few turns later than you normally would?

[BozosLiveHere]

Yup. The game plays in hotseat mode until it's time for your faction to emerge.

[Zenith Darksea]

Argyraspidai translates as Silver/Silver Shield, and Thorakitai translates as Heavy Spearmen, so wouldn't Thorakitai Argyraspidai mean something along the lines of Shilver Heavy Spearmen, or Silver Shield Heavy Spearmen?

No. A thorax is a cuirass (armour for the torso). So a thorakites (or thorakitai, in the plural) is a person who wears a cuirass. So really a thorakites argyraspides is a Silver Shield Armour-Wearer.

[king hannibal]

who much better can you get the AI than it already is on MTW2?

will you give people with tunics, trueses and hardly any clothing +1 to armour stats?

[Foot]

who much better can you get the AI than it already is on MTW2?

will you give people with tunics, trueses and hardly any clothing +1 to armour stats?

We don't know the full capability of what can be modded with regards the AI, that will take a lot of research.

We have spent a lot of time developing the stat system for EB, and whilst some areas may have to alter slightly to sit with the MTW2 system, we won't be changing our policy concerning the attribution of armour points.

Foot

[IrishArmenian]

If the engine allows, we will make EB2 for MTW2 (possibly Kingdoms). It will still be the ancient era. Wasn't there an Mediæval Arcturoso or something that wanted to make a historical medieval mod?

Yes, but we've become MXAD: Italia Invicta, so we can move faster, we have had some personnel issues.

Great to see EB2 getting the official go-ahead.

[bovi]

I found the mod's forum, for those who are interested. It's looking good, I am very excited about the feature previews (of which I read number 5 through 7). I think the feature-by-difficulty announced may make the modding too complex though, but have at it if you think you can pull it off!

[Sarkiss]

hey, they have managed to make viewing your cities possible in M2TW!
will EB implement this feature into EB2?

[Foot]

hey, they have managed to make viewing your cities possible in M2TW!
will EB implement this feature into EB2?

Well I imagine that is hardcoded. The button no longer appears on the settlement scroll, and we won't be able to add a button for that function (if that function even exists in MTW2). So we won't be implementing it in EB2, unless some budding young modder finds a way to do it.

Foot

[bovi]

Italia Invicta has found that way, see their feature preview 1. That particular feature is uninteresting to me though, as I've only viewed my settlement once in RTW.

[Kepper]

EB will be base in MTW2 Kingdoms correct?
If a read correct MTW2 Kingdoms is got to add 15 new faction to MTW 2, so in total they are 45 faction in EB 2?