Europa Barbarorum II FAQ

[alin]

Can someone from EB confirm that this is true for EB2.

Also, I will be buying the steam version, does anyone know if I have the option to install only one of the expansions? - space is limited.

Yes I can confirm that, afterwards you can even uninstall that campaign(I did that) from the expansion.
We only need the kingdoms.exe and some of the vanilla files.

[Sarkiss]

there were some fascinating screens posted by alin of a newly playable indian satrapy. how incomplete will the faction be on the first release? Im thinking of giving it a go, absolutely loved the map textures in that area and settlement strat model as well as character models. all looks amazing! Im also attracted by the fact that the faction is a tributary entity at the start, which adds to the faction's enigma, imho.

btw, great idea for changing "population" to "households". devil is in the detail and it is little things like these that add to the immersion!

thanks!

[Darkan]

how incomplete will the faction be on the first release?

As already stated by alin and/or other team members, they tried to give the same amount of attention to all factions, therefore I expect you won't be disappointed with your first choice. I do imagine however that for many people, the first few hours will be something along the lines of "Start x faction campaign, play 5-10 turns, exit to menu, starts y faction campaign, play 5-10 turns, exit to meanu, repeat..." It's close now so very soon we'll be able to see how EB2 is (we already know it's the be(a)st).

[Casual Tactician]

Some questions on general's abilities in EB2:

1- You have renamed the abilities. Is this correct: Command unchanged, Chivalry => Confidence, Loyalty/Authority unchanged, Piety => Influnce?

2- I recall the team once entertained the idea, to totally dump Dread. Has that happend? Or is it in - and if so, was it renamed?

3- Assumed there is no Dread in EB2, will executing prisoners and exterminating settlements still reduce a general's Chivalry though?

4- Will the effect of the abilites be the same as in m2tw? Or have they in any way been modded, if that is at all possible - and if so in what ways?


Any information on general's abilities, beyond answers to the above questions, is highly welcome!



Regards!

[stevietheconquer]

why no dread,it looks like there was never more dread then in this period of time.

[Brezkimra]

In previews the pikes of macedonian phalanxes (sarissas) shortened than the historical lenght. Why? Or make longer is hardcoded too?

(sorry my bad english)

[Seljuq Prince]

why no dread,it looks like there was never more dread then in this period of time.

Well, I didnt come across dread in the pictures too. I was wondering about that too..

[V.T. Marvin]

Some questions on general's abilities in EB2:

1- You have renamed the abilities. Is this correct: Command unchanged, Chivalry => Confidence, Loyalty/Authority unchanged, Piety => Influnce?

Correct.

2- I recall the team once entertained the idea, to totally dump Dread. Has that happend? Or is it in - and if so, was it renamed?

Dread is indeed out.

The effects of this pair of attributes are both hard-coded and poorly documented and the dread especially quite prone to exploitation. So the conclusion was that our game would fare better without it.

3- Assumed there is no Dread in EB2, will executing prisoners and exterminating settlements still reduce a general's Chivalry though?

Of course not!
It might have influence on other traits, but not on the Chivalry/Confidence attribute. It would not have made much sense it it did.

4- Will the effect of the abilites be the same as in m2tw? Or have they in any way been modded, if that is at all possible - and if so in what ways?

descr_campaign_db.xml allows, among other things, to modify a little otherwise hardcoded effects of various attributes and we did use that. Namely chivalry has no effect on settlement growth, we are using Brittania campaign alternative piety mode (i.e. piety = influence), etc.

Hope it answers your question.

[Casual Tactician]

Thanks a lot and +rep! I've got the one or other follow-up though...

1- Just to be clear... So in EB2 we can execute prisoners and exterminate settlements without any negative effects to the Chivalry/Confidence attribute of our generals. But doing so might affect traits in EB2's new traits and ancillary system - right?!

2- Also I assume executing prisoners and exterminating settlements still increase the FL's authority, and the latter also still deminishes the faction reputation, right? Or were these mechanics somehow related to the general in question gaining Dread because of him executing/exterminating?

3- I guess having very high taxes now doesn't reduce a governing general's Chivalry/Confidence attribute either then. Which it does in vanilla m2tw, as it increases Dread. (I guess it could perhaps affects traits though - but that's a different mechanic)

4- Where's the difference in the Brittania campaign's Influence in contrast to the normal Piety?

EDIT:

5- Does eg. occupying settlements and releasing prisoners after battle, still increase Chivalry/Confidence though, even though Dread is now removed? Calling Chivalry and Dread a "pair of attributes" made me wonder, that it might only be possible to remove both of these mechanics (ie. executing/exterminating increases Dread and occupying/releasing increases Chivalry) in unison.

[V.T. Marvin]

1- Just to be clear... So in EB2 we can execute prisoners and exterminate settlements without any negative effects to the Chivalry/Confidence attribute of our generals. But doing so might affect traits in EB2's new traits and ancillary system - right?!

Exactly!

2- Also I assume executing prisoners and exterminating settlements still increase the FL's authority, and the latter also still deminishes the faction reputation, right? Or were these mechanics somehow related to the general in question gaining Dread because of him executing/exterminating?

The mechanism involved here is based on traits. In vanilla these actions led to the general acquiring certain traits that have had the "Dread" (technically a negative Chivalry value) attribute. In EB2 these actions are still accounted for but either impact different traits or the traits have different effects because the negative Chivalry is strictly avoided and impossible to get.

3- I guess having very high taxes now doesn't reduce a governing general's Chivalry/Confidence attribute either then. Which it does in vanilla m2tw, as it increases Dread. (I guess it could perhaps affects traits though - but that's a different mechanic)

Yep - see above.

It never, even in vanilla, affected the Chivalry/Dread attributes directly, but only through traits of which these were the effects.

4- Where's the difference in the Brittania campaign's Influence in contrast to the normal Piety?

In M2TW vanilla Piety Increases religious unrest, if the province has other religion other than your own.

In M2TW:K Brittania it Decreases religious unrest, if the province has other religion other than your own.

5- Does eg. occupying settlements and releasing prisoners after battle, still increase Chivalry/Confidence though, even though Dread is now removed? Calling Chivalry and Dread a "pair of attributes" made me wonder, that it might only be possible to remove both of these mechanics (ie. executing/exterminating increases Dread and occupying/releasing increases Chivalry) in unison.

See above - it is possible because the traits triggered by these events no longer have such effects.

What was impossible to change on Chivalry/Dread was their effect on battlefied, where Chivalry increases the morale of general's own troops, while Dread decreases the morale of enemy troops.

That is why Chivalry became "Confidence" in EB2. In EB1 morale bonuses played a very important role and by this we have got an opportunity to display a total sum of positive morale boni directly on the general's UI card. However for negative morale effects one still has to scroll the list of traits because - annoyingly - "Dread" - which is a negative Chivalry value in the code - does not have exactly opposite effects. But still it is worthwhile use of otherwise hard-to-use game concept, making the game a tiny bit more user friendly IMO.

[Kirila the Kitten]

Hey EB2 team, have you ever considered at some point to use the Britannia culture system for EB2? I thought it was pretty neat and actually very useful for an AOR system.

[Casual Tactician]

Hey EB2 team, have you ever considered at some point to use the Britannia culture system for EB2? I thought it was pretty neat and actually very useful for an AOR system.

Afaik the m2tw religion mechanism is repurposed to represent socio-political affinities (ie. Arid Nomadism, Steppe Nomadism, Eastern Imperial, Eastern Tribal, European Tribal, Forest Tribal, Western Mediterranean Polities, Hellenistic Polities and Indian Tribal) which will influence eg. which governments and units are accessible for a faction in any given settlement/province. Here's a post by a team member on that.

========================


@ V.T. Marvin

Thanks for your answers, once more. However...

However for negative morale effects one still has to scroll the list of traits because - annoyingly - "Dread" - which is a negative Chivalry value in the code - does not have exactly opposite effects.

I'm a little confused what this is supposed to mean. Above you said: "In EB2 these actions are still accounted for but either impact different traits or the traits have different effects because the negative Chivalry is strictly avoided and impossible to get."

Anyhow, having to scroll through traits (and ancillaries), to see what effect they have on morale (or other attributes) is a standard procedure I'm used to. Though, iirc, isn't there some kind of 'traits and/or ancillaries sorter'-submod/code around for m2tw, that more or less allows devs to sort/list the traits and/or ancillaries the way they want? You could then list battle related line of traits first, for example. Also it's always a little annoying in some m2tw mods, that important ancillaries (eg. special title-ancillaries only the FL and FH get, or title-ancillaries for governing generals such as 'duke of xy') are often not displayed first an foremost.

In M2TW vanilla Piety Increases religious unrest, if the province has other religion other than your own.

In M2TW:K Brittania it Decreases religious unrest, if the province has other religion other than your own.

I'm a little worried now, that this might make pacifying provinces with a different religion just a bit too convenient. In some mods for m2tw it's often ridiculously easy to keep public order in the blue or better, even with high taxes, little garrisons and mediocre generals. Don't get me wrong, I don't want pacifying to be a total nightmare each and every time, but I do like a stiff challenge. I guess, I'm concerned for no reason though... right?!


Two last questions (for now )...

1- Will the way faction reputation is influenced work normally, eg. releasing prisoners/occupying settlements raises it and executing prisoners/exterminating settlements reduces it. I'd guess that mechanic is totally seperate from a generals traits and/or attributes (with the exception of the FL's chivalry adding to reputation), right?! Any other infos on faction reputation and how it will work in EB2 are highly welcome.

2- Is it possible to somehow make traits that lower loyalty more common for one's generals, the more provinces one owns (eg. using the total amount of the 'Province buildings' or other very basic buildings like roads or market-buildings)? That could help, to make the late game more interesting. And it could represent the troubles large empires normally had with opposing, internal factions/dynasties, without having to use shadow factions (which are out of question for EB2 anyhow).
A different option, that doesn't use the number of provinces one owns, could perhaps be, to make eg. the highest- and second highest-tier market-buildings and/or barrack-buildings for both factional and regional units trigger traits that decrease loyalty. That could represent the local governing general getting full of himself ("I'm rich, I've got the military capabilites - why not be king myself?"). With only a few provinces (or many fairly undeveloped ones) that wouldn't occur that often and would be fairly easy to handle. Also, if the player only has a few governors, it would be quite easy for him to spot and counteract such loyalty-decreasing traits. But once his empire grows larger and larger, it would (hopefully) lead to more rebellions occuring, which could make up for external enemys (mostly) not being a real threat anymore.


Regards!

[Menidas]

2- Is it possible to somehow make traits that lower loyalty more common for one's generals, the more provinces one owns (eg. using the total amount of the 'Province buildings' or other very basic buildings like roads or market-buildings)? That could help, to make the late game more interesting. And it could represent the troubles large empires normally had with opposing, internal factions/dynasties, without having to use shadow factions (which are out of question for EB2 anyhow).
A different option, that doesn't use the number of provinces one owns, could perhaps be, to make eg. the highest- and second highest-tier market-buildings and/or barrack-buildings for both factional and regional units trigger traits that decrease loyalty. That could represent the local governing general getting full of himself ("I'm rich, I've got the military capabilites - why not be king myself?"). With only a few provinces (or many fairly undeveloped ones) that wouldn't occur that often and would be fairly easy to handle. Also, if the player only has a few governors, it would be quite easy for him to spot and counteract such loyalty-decreasing traits. But once his empire grows larger and larger, it would (hopefully) lead to more rebellions occuring, which could make up for external enemys (mostly) not being a real threat anymore.

Without knowing anything about the engine's infrastructure and feasibility of your suggestion: That's a brilliant thought. I really like the idea of your empire becoming increasingly unstable as you continue to expand your borders. May also help to keep the game entertaining in the later stages when "steamrolling" the remaining minor opponents becomes a bit of a chore.

[QuintusSertorius]

Without knowing anything about the engine's infrastructure and feasibility of your suggestion: That's a brilliant thought. I really like the idea of your empire becoming increasingly unstable as you continue to expand your borders. May also help to keep the game entertaining in the later stages when "steamrolling" the remaining minor opponents becomes a bit of a chore.

It also accurately simulates the contrast between the vast and hyperactive Seleukid holdings, and the relatively smaller, but more stable Ptolemaic domains.

[Casual Tactician]

Perhaps also having some kind of script/mechanic for the late game, that triggers a line of traits which increases the likelihood of negative boni for the FL's authority, once the player's empire grows (very) large, might add to my above idea. Please note, I only mean it to increase the likelihood of negative boni - it shouldn't be an inevitability, that all FL's in the late game have low authority. I suppose an increased likelihood of lower authority for FL's of (very) large empires, is even fairly historically accurate, esp. if they were born into an already large and established empire. Even if I'm wrong here, gameplay-wise it could still be beneficial for the late game.

A combination of both (ie. traits that deminish general's loyalty and a line of traits that lowers the FL's authority) ought to be more or less infallible, to make (very) large player-empires prone to rebellions.

Either way it would require some carefull balancing, to have such a feature (ie. more rebellions far large empires due to loyality/authority issues) work out the way it's intended. It's no use having all these clever triggers/traits/scripts only to see them hardly working (ie. no real increase in rebellions) - or working too well (ie. too many rebellions).

[V.T. Marvin]

I have not dealt with campaign artificial intelligence so unfortunately I cannot offer any insights into faction reputation mechanisms.

But don't be afraid, keeping good public order certainly is not ridiculously easy, rather the opposite might prove to be true.

Regarding decreasing loyalty as an empire expands - that has already been accounted for and there are (hopefully!) interesting mechanisms to play with FL's authority as well.

We of course do not know yet how balanced it all is in mid- and late-game because in the fast-paced development nobody actually played many long campaigns. We expect that some fine-tuning will certainly be necessary based on the feedback and data we get from you, the community, after the first release. So far it is all based on guesswork of what values might work best and it is really difficult to get it right at the first shot in such a hugely complex system where lots of moving parts interact with one another. So we will see how it all works. But certainly a lot of effort and thought was put into these mechanisms to make them challenging and fun throughout the gameplay.

[Casual Tactician]

But don't be afraid, keeping good public order certainly is not ridiculously easy, rather the opposite might prove to be true.

Regarding decreasing loyalty as an empire expands - that has already been accounted for and there are (hopefully!) interesting mechanisms to play with FL's authority as well.

I'm so pleased to read that! (You can't see it, but I have an enormous grin on my face right now)

It seems to me, this mod, for it's initial beta mind you, has more meat on it's bones gameplay-wise, than any TW mod I know... and it looks fantastic at the same time.

Once again - a big, big 'Thank you!' to everyone involved in this mod, presently and in the past!

[Brezkimra]

Making longer spears for phalangites is possible or hardcoded?

[QuintusSertorius]

Making longer spears for phalangites is possible or hardcoded?

Hardcoded, as is the number of ranks.

[Kirila the Kitten]

But don't be afraid, keeping good public order certainly is not ridiculously easy, rather the opposite might prove to be true..

Man, I really hoped it will be easier than in EB1.