Suggestions for further releases

I play EB for quite a while now, although very occasionally because of lack of time, and although this mod is awesome in most aspects (and far better than the original game), it’s very bad concerning this issue discussed here.

I see (saw?) EB as a realism mod, and I think most people will agree here. But the question is where to draw a line between extreme realism and enjoyable play. And currently, imo, the line is drawn much too far to one extreme (= enjoyable play) that is for me sometimes becoming rather frustrating.

So the main problem is money…

I think the ‘Section 4a: Difficult Start Help’ in the EB script should be removed, or at least adjusted, and ‘Section 4b: City Income Bonus’ should be definitely removed. Being attacked by insane armies has nothing to do with realism nor historical accuracy. And succeeding in making an empire your protectorate, and by that in the first turn receiving insane amounts of money, can only disrupt your game.

So… what about players who complain the game is too easy. Yes, the AI is a bad strategos. So, the solution is (and hopefully was) to give it insane amounts of money (2k/city), so it can pose a challenge at great expense of realism (for example, killing ratios of 1/20 and above). Another solution seems to be that the EB-folks suggest to play the campaign on very hard. Those two combined and what you get is not 1 heroic victory, but 4-5 in a row (and noo…, AI doesn’t get scared, in a few turns he is back again looking for more , and noo..., you are not that good strategos either ). Also, they suggest to play battles on medium because some people obviously complain about their elites being wrecked by levies. (but that’s at least one good EB policy imo ). What I propose on the other hand is to scrap the money help, play the game on M/M, and stimulate people to play the battles from the generals viewpoint (it's one of the 3 camera modes). This will make the game much more difficult, the AI won’t seem to be very stupid anymore (at most stupid), and you will not be continuously attacked by the AI (their stance against you is aggressive on H/VH, no matter the diplomacy?).

Another improvement imo (but much more difficult to execute I suppose), would be to extend the recruitment times in cities for al units (2x or 3x). This will thwart the current reality that empires, after losing a battle, can very quickly and without making great money sacrifices, can easily build a new army from many of theirs cities/mercenaries and attack you again (this fact and money abundance = endless battle). To compensate for my proposed “direct unit scarcity”, one could use very expensive (recruitment and salary) mercenary units. So, using these mercenaries would be good in short term (for defense), but not cost-effective in the long term (campaigning). (I don’t know if its possible to ‘trigger’ any code when someone disbands a unit into a province, so to make the unit instantly available for next turn) I think that after this is implemented, the huge attacking mercenary armies will be undone, and the battle-loss recovery would be more realistic.

And, at last, concerning the “house rules”… I don’t see it as a solution. If everything goes right, then playing by your self-imposed house rules is fun, but when things turn ugly, and knowing that your opponent is cheating (i.e. not respecting your house rules), makes you easily elude your rules. So, in this sense, rules become futile, and whats a futile rule worth? (imagine the possibility to recruit Spartans everywhere, but imposing a rule to yourself to recruit them only in Sparta, or think about the moral of the story of Gyges and his ring). So the way I see the house rules is a way of lying to yourself. That’s why some things should be ‘ruled’ by the game engine itself.

I hope no-one reads this as a “must do”... it’s merely a suggestion, although I am willing to defend it. I would rather have you read it as “a merely possible way to evolve, or whatever.” In the end, everyone can adjust the script to suit their own needs.

EDIT: Some people seem to misread "general's view" so I made it clear that it is referring to one of the 3 camera modes.