Europa Barbarorum II FAQ

[alin]

I wonder how EB team ended up being that proffessional and disciplined, other modding teams are usually either a completely chaos without an order or 1-2 skilled and willing members going on with their personal effort, but as far as I see EB team works like a machine with team work, is it related to guys who laid the foundations ?

It's related to the mindset and dedication.

[Dom Pedro II]

What CAI and BAI difficulties do you guys recommend in order to play a realistic campaign - preferably not too many bonuses to AI but preserving their best behavior wherever possible.

[QuintusSertorius]

If I remeber correctly if any culture faction captures any different culture settlement the same penalties apply, ie. it is the same if Makedonia captures Kart-Hadast or Alexandreia, despite eastern greek Alexandreia being more similar to western greek Makedonia than semitic Kart-Hadast. There are other factors such as distance between settlements and perhaps, if a settlement has different culture buildings.

I EB1 there was, I rember capturing Pergamon, or Halikarnossos was a pain when playing as Seleukia. I suspect that different religion/political system being represented as religion in EB2 will make thing a bit harder, in addition to being of different culture.

I meant in EBII - whether there are any variations in how culture is applied rather than EB1's "if it's different, there's a penalty, same for anything different".

[Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ]

I meant in EBII - whether there are any variations in how culture is applied rather than EB1's "if it's different, there's a penalty, same for anything different".

Yes, I didn't express myself clearly. If I remember correctly the situation is the same in m2tw, I think it's hardcoded, the culture penalties that is. Modders can't set different values for each culture's tolerance of other culture, they are all treated as completely different cultures despite similarities between some of them. I could be wrong, it has been a while since I played m2tw, and EB2 team might have found a workaround.

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

It some cases the culture penalties should be rightly be high, in others much less so, in my opinion. The lower orders of let's say as example an example Sogdiana are not really going to care too much, if they swap one ruling Greco-Makedonian dynasty for another. They just carry on doing what they had always done, there was no nationalism. And as for the former élite they would just serve the next basileus- providing he measured up! And of course bumped off threats.
The coup in Baktria is a good example, as is Antiokhos seizure of Ptolemaic possessions. When it came to Demetrius ruling Gandhara, he left Indian ruling class in place, and ruled through them.

[Sarkiss]

Indeed, I'm one and the same.

hang on. is that your guide that Yakaspat (aka Candelarius) got a visual companion for? I used it ages ago for RTR 6, and kept a print out that is several years old.

[QuintusSertorius]

hang on. is that your guide that Yakaspat (aka Candelarius) got a visual companion for? I used it ages ago for RTR 6, and kept a print out that is several years old.

It probably is; I did play RTR before I found EB.

[Sarkiss]

It probably is; I did play RTR before I found EB.

I guess we all did (although I later 'went back' to play relatively recent RTRVII). the two guides are identical so thanks for a lovely 'manual'. it came handy when I still played as Romans a while ago. I found a print out a couple of weeks ago in my papers and assumed that the authors have long since moved on from TW titles. good to see some of the 'old guard' sticking around

[QuintusSertorius]

I guess we all did (although I later 'went back' to play relatively recent RTRVII). the two guides are identical so thanks for a lovely 'manual'. it came handy when I still played as Romans a while ago. I found a print out a couple of weeks ago in my papers and assumed that the authors have long since moved on from TW titles. good to see some of the 'old guard' sticking around

I went away, did some tabletop roleplaying and had two children, then made my way back again. Amazing to see the progress, and well worth the wait.

[Sarkiss]

I went away, did some tabletop roleplaying and had two children, then made my way back again. Amazing to see the progress, and well worth the wait.

indeed. I wasnt around much after EB1 either (apart from briefly engaging with RTRVII). was busy with my BA and MSc and have a second child on the way (due any time now). never did tabletop roleplaying. is it online at all?

sorry for the OT. to get back on topic, will features of Marvin's 'spoils of victory' mini-mod for EB1 make an appearence in EB2 in any form or shape at all?
cheers!

[QuintusSertorius]

indeed. I wasnt around much after EB1 either (apart from briefly engaging with RTRVII). was busy with my BA and MSc and have a second child on the way (due any time now). never did tabletop roleplaying. is it online at all?

Hope it all goes well with the new addition, I remember that change well. Just when you think you've got it all sorted with one child, the second upends everything!

No, it's face-to-face, pen-and-paper roleplaying; I did run a game which drew heavily on EB, set in Massalia 300BC (campaign wiki). Currently writing those rules up into a proper supplement for Adventurer, Conqueror, King (the game I tinkered with to run it).

[Sarkiss]

Hope it all goes well with the new addition, I remember that change well. Just when you think you've got it all sorted with one child, the second upends everything!

No, it's face-to-face, pen-and-paper roleplaying; I did run a game which drew heavily on EB, set in Massalia 300BC (campaign wiki). Currently writing those rules up into a proper supplement for Adventurer, Conqueror, King (the game I tinkered with to run it).

thanks for clarfying. I'm dreading the sleepless nights that the second kid has in store for us

[JB2500]

First off let me just say that EB1 is probably my favorite RTW mod, with Roma Surrectum a close second. One thing I would like to see in EB2 however is the way players manage their economies and grow their cities.

Taxes

In Roma Surrectum 2.5/6 the economy was set up in such a way that if you fleeced your cities for too long with very high tax rates your population will eventually run out of money and your profits will crash despite having tax rates still set to very high. You'd have to have settlements at normal/low tax rates and only set very high tax rates for a quick cash boost to fund an invasion or fund an army to repell an invasion.

Growing Settlements

In Stainless Steel 6.4 you realllly had to work to get your settlements up to 'large city' and beyond. This was a really nice touch and again added to the difficulty/realism of the mod.

Will any of these elements be included in the mod?

[Artorath]

Honestly, I think very high taxes might be a bit overrated even in vanilla. Maybe not so much for M2, but definitely in Rome, using low/enslave until you get large/huge cities led to much faster map domination for me.

I guess my question is, how can we expect taxes to affect traits? Is the low/very high (on construction) oscillation still ideal, or will it depend on the personality orientation of the governor?

[Kull]

First off let me just say that EB1 is probably my favorite RTW mod, with Roma Surrectum a close second. One thing I would like to see in EB2 however is the way players manage their economies and grow their cities.

Taxes

In Roma Surrectum 2.5/6 the economy was set up in such a way that if you fleeced your cities for too long with very high tax rates your population will eventually run out of money and your profits will crash despite having tax rates still set to very high. You'd have to have settlements at normal/low tax rates and only set very high tax rates for a quick cash boost to fund an invasion or fund an army to repell an invasion.

Growing Settlements

In Stainless Steel 6.4 you realllly had to work to get your settlements up to 'large city' and beyond. This was a really nice touch and again added to the difficulty/realism of the mod.

Will any of these elements be included in the mod?

Yes to both. High taxes limit growth, which is slow at best Choices will need to be made.

[TheMacchiavelli]

How fast will settlements grow? Also, will say German villages, town be able to reach huge/large city size? Because that would be unrealistic.

[Kull]

How fast will settlements grow? Also, will say German villages, town be able to reach huge/large city size? Because that would be unrealistic.

It's never happened in any playtest, so it seems unlikely. Won't say something is "impossible" - we'll see what you guys find as you play the mod into the many hundreds of turns. All I can say with confidence is the pace of growth is MUCH slower than EB1.

[Sint]

It's never happened in any playtest, so it seems unlikely. Won't say something is "impossible" - we'll see what you guys find as you play the mod into the many hundreds of turns. All I can say with confidence is the pace of growth is MUCH slower than EB1.

Hmm I think he meant if they are capped at a certain size like in EB1 or if they can grow as much as other factions,at least that is what i would want to know .

[TheMacchiavelli]

It's never happened in any playtest, so it seems unlikely. Won't say something is "impossible" - we'll see what you guys find as you play the mod into the many hundreds of turns. All I can say with confidence is the pace of growth is MUCH slower than EB1.

That's great to hear since I would like to see villages remain villages.

[TheMacchiavelli]

Another question, how is the mod lag wise? I remember huge mods like Roma Surrectum II lagging on me even though my computer is well above the spec range.