EB2. Mod for Vanilla or BI?

[SlickNicaG69]

I was thinking... if EB I went from the beginning of Vanilla to 14 AD, then why does EB 2 do the same thing?... I understand it is being made to use the newer engine, but come on. If you're making a new game, why not change the time period as well? I'm not saying the early periods sucked. They are great because of the many cool factions and times, but I was imagining the other day playing as the Huns, or the Goths, or playing as the Imperials Romans 300 years after EB 1 when most of the army were actually mercenaries than Romans... I understand the timeline is the best in terms of the factions, but do we really want to same game again? Or should EB2 be a mod of BI?

[Krusader]

I was thinking... if EB I went from the beginning of Vanilla to 14 AD, then why does EB 2 do the same thing?... I understand it is being made to use the newer engine, but come on. If you're making a new game, why not change the time period as well? I'm not saying the early periods sucked. They are great because of the many cool factions and times, but I was imagining the other day playing as the Huns, or the Goths, or playing as the Imperials Romans 300 years after EB 1 when most of the army were actually mercenaries than Romans... I understand the timeline is the best in terms of the factions, but do we really want to same game again? Or should EB2 be a mod of BI?

We do. When we made EB1 our agenda was to make EB like how we wanted RTW to be. And EB2 is just EB1 taking advantage of M2TW engine + some changes.
And most of us enjoy this time period more too.

[Foot]

What makes you think its going to be the same game just because its in the same timeframe. Was EBI the same as RTW? Was MTW2 the same as MTW? Don't think so.

Foot

[bobbin]

Besides it's a bit late to change the setting now, unless you want to wait and extra few years for it to come out...

[Bucefalo]

Also, the area of expertise of the historians in the EB team is about the RTW period. A different period would require different people who have knowledge and interest in it, plus starting all the work from scratch. With EB II the team can use the work done with EBI, specially the research.

[A Nerd]

Why fix what isn't broken? I like the current EB timeframe.

[Watchman]

[oudysseos]

Uh.. not an issue that a poll will have the slightest influence on.

[Subotan]

Oh man, these threads are classic

[Ibrahim]

there is a reason we have a mod series called Invasio Barbarorum.

as a result, I find it a silly idea to make EB2 set in the later Roman Empire. besides, work on EB II has already started.

thus, I decree that the OP of the thread be banished to the "Blagole", in Place of the SpoonyOne.

[Zlovie]

I was thinking... if EB I went from the beginning of Vanilla to 14 AD, then why does EB 2 do the same thing?... I understand it is being made to use the newer engine, but come on. If you're making a new game, why not change the time period as well? I'm not saying the early periods sucked. They are great because of the many cool factions and times, but I was imagining the other day playing as the Huns, or the Goths, or playing as the Imperials Romans 300 years after EB 1 when most of the army were actually mercenaries than Romans... I understand the timeline is the best in terms of the factions, but do we really want to same game again? Or should EB2 be a mod of BI?

Come on, guys.

I think you guys can be a little bit nicer to your fellow forumites.
Maybe this suggestion has been done very often.
However, you can also give a polite answer that involves that fact.

@SlickNica:
I guess you have seen it from most of the answers, but a huge amount of work has already been done on game in the normal timeframe.
It would cost years to start over again, and for as far as I know, it's not the policy of the team.
If you haven't done it yet, read the previews and see what stuff they have changed/added using the new engine...

It's absolutely gonna be a different game :D

[Macilrille]

I recently joined The Team.
Believe me, no-one not on it can imagine the amount of work being undertaken. It is stunning as a newcomer to see how much is, and has, and has yet to be, done. Notice how little I post in the public these days? Keep an eye of my # of posts and you will have an idea on how much goes on in there. To change timeframe- even if we wanted to- would be like turning the course of Maersk's largest supertanker, with a rowing boat... as I said, you have no idea.

EB II will be set in the same timeframe as EB was, because with the better engine EB II may be able to rectify all the issues the RTW engine left EB with. Issues that I know Slickniga is also not content with. I join others to suggest instead that you go have a look at mods for BI if you like that period.

[Pikenier]

Aside from the impossibility to change the timeframe I would not prefer an EB in the Barbarian Invasion timeframe. But instead one starting in the 6th century BC. Quasi a large scale version of the superb "Rise of Persia" mod. This would be an interesting timeframe with all the large eastern (asian/african) empires of that time and the classical greek city states.

[ziegenpeter]

Well I usually prefere the Migration Period aswell but for this, there is already IBFD and IBFD2 for MTW2

[mountaingoat]

lol @ the BI votes ... wth

[vartan]

Oh man, these threads are classic

Not yet, but certainly getting there. I think there are several really nice mods for M2TW that are set in the time period of BI. If anybody has any that they've played and personally appreciated, aren't they allowed to list them / suggest them for the OP?

[Macilrille]

Not yet, but certainly getting there. I think there are several really nice mods for M2TW that are set in the time period of BI. If anybody has any that they've played and personally appreciated, aren't they allowed to list them / suggest them for the OP?

Good Idea.

[SlickNicaG69]

I started looking up some of the previews on EB II and I liked what I saw about the Roman Government remake. That's exactly what I was talking about. But I still regret not being able to play EB-style RTW throughout the whole era of Rome herself. I read up earlier how EB II should mod the era from the founding to the Phyrric War. Well, instead why not having it prolong until 476?

[Mediolanicus]

I started looking up some of the previews on EB II and I liked what I saw about the Roman Government remake. That's exactly what I was talking about. But I still regret not being able to play EB-style RTW throughout the whole era of Rome herself. I read up earlier how EB II should mod the era from the founding to the Phyrric War. Well, instead why not having it prolong until 476?

And how are you going to do that?

All those factions coming and going. Besides, it would be history on rails then, wouldn't it?
I mean... When you play in your alternative reality and by 50 BC you've conquered Germany as Carthago. You keep on playing and suddenly you get the message The East Roman Empire has appeared along with German hordes on your borders...

[Megas Methuselah]

I VOTED FOR BOTH OPTIONS BECAUSE I LIKE VOTING IN POLLS.

Also, I must agree with Odiseeios:

Uh.. not an issue that a poll will have the slightest influence on.

[SlickNicaG69]

Alright dudes. That's cool. I don't mind waiting for a complete remake of EB - (I like the new, historically lesser known factions, trait/government system a lot too!) - but after playing EB for a little while a short time ago I realized there were some hardcoded things in it that I wished would be greatly enriched in EB2. Namely, the things I came up with were the following: 1) Battle Map lethality (when a whole line of Roman Principes throw both pilas at 1 unit of Greek Elite Phalanx and no greeks die, there is something wrong with that), 2) Campaign Map AI (factions aren't rational, and rebels don't do anything; I think rebels should be less strong, but more active), and, really, if you make it imperial, make it well into the period to fully experience its transition. How about 79 AD?

[Mediolanicus]

1) Always play on M battle. And just don't throw anything straight into a fairly well armoured unit protected by a well of a hundred long pikes. Distract them and hit them in the rear.

2) Imperial? 79BC? What?

[anubis88]

2) Imperial? 79BC? What?

He wrote AD

[Mediolanicus]

He wrote AD

Oops! Yes, ahum... err.. that changes things...


Imperial? 79AD? What?

[SlickNicaG69]

Yea think about it Mediocrenus... EB 2 would last until the completion of the Amphitheatre and the Fall of Pompeii... perfect starting point for EB3... where the Golden Age of Imperial Rome begins - maybe unto Eternity and against The Demonic Huns and their 1000 barbarian subject-peoples!!!

Oh and btw... I play the game at VH/M, so although they are elite, they are not on steroids, and yet... Shooting a unit in the back by a complete unit with both volleys of pila on level ground kills a total of 3 units out of the 120 tightly-bunched-completely-yellow-naked-barebacked-greek-stickbearers... come on man... you really gonna say the battle map is straight?

I recently tried out Rome Total Realism a little while ago, and although it is too much like vanilla in terms of campaign gameplay for my liking, I like how, in battle, you experience the grueling, time-enduring battles when in strict face-to-face fighting; but even if your recently recruited hastati come upon an ENGAGED unit of elite greek pikemen, they cut them down like a butcher on a dead pig... but with moderation. Check it out and let me know what you think Mediocrus...

[Krusader]

No EB3 will be made.
Plus a good number of EB members prefer the Hellenistic/Roman Republic time period.

[vartan]

No EB3 will be made.
Plus a good number of EB members prefer the Hellenistic/Roman Republic time period.

Aye aye. Antiquity is a wonderful time!

[SlickNicaG69]

Wow. Out of the 3 paragraphs I wrote about... you guys respond with... "people like the time period more." What about the fact I said 272 BC - 79 AD, which includes the classical period u like? What about the battle map, which was my MAIN point!? What about the Campaign AI? Now I know why they say: "Forums are for Dummies."

[bobbin]

What about the fact I said 272 BC - 79 AD

Would require loads of research, more units etc. Extending the time frame further makes the game more and more unrealistic as well, because we lose historical sources for many of the factions (on account of them being destroyed) and there are also no new ones coming in to replace them.

14AD is a good end date, it represents the end of Hellenistic Era and the Roman Republic, in fact if anything a case could be made for having it earlier.

What about the battle map, which was my MAIN point!?

Concerning battles, if a unit of heavily armour soldiers carrying large sheilds is attacked with javelins from the front then one wouldn't expect many to be killed. One of the main advantages of the pila was more often than not, that it didn't kill an enemy but that it could lodge in his sheild, rendering it useless and making him more vunerable in melee. This cannot be properly simulated in EB so we have to choose the most realistic situation we can achieve within the limitations of the game.

If your unhappy with the effectiveness of things like javelins you can always mod the game yourself, its pretty simple to make the changes.

What about the Campaign AI?

Not something we can change much, this is a inherent problem in RTW and M2TW (although I think it's much better in the latter), blame CA for writing rubbish AI.

[Phalanx300]

No EB3 will be made.
Plus a good number of EB members prefer the Hellenistic/Roman Republic time period.

Its already certain there wont possibly be an EB3?