This month we have an exclusive interview with the mod leader of this upcoming and highly anticipated EB II Mod: Foot
MorganH:
Q1: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What are your interests?
Foot : Hello, MorganH. First, may i say, thank you very much for having me.
My name is Matt (reward for the person who can figure out how that is related to my user-name Foot ) and I was born and raised in the city of Brighton in the UK, where i now live and work. In real life i work for Disney, supporting their online gaming customer base, which basically involves writing a lot of emails and the occasional phone. I also design and build websites, which doesn't pay at the moment, but I'm hoping that it will in the future.
Outside of that i also read philosophy (which i studied for seven years, from school through to University), and I'm also a keen cyclist. I particularly enjoy cycle touring, and that all began with my largely unprepared cycle tour to Barcelona and back from the UK, which was over 3000 miles in just under 10 weeks.
Q2: Before the arrival of TW games, how did you express your love for (Ancient) history? Was it through other games, wargaming, model building etc ?
I studied history in both secondary school and then in sixth form college, but topics for those four years focused on English and American history from the early modern history. In particular i studied the English Civil War extensively and still hold the radicals of the New Model Army to be some of the most interesting figures in history (and I'm surprised that CA have never devoted a game or add-on to that period).
My study and knowledge of ancient history never really began until I joined EB, and it was only really sparked due to my study of philosophy (which of course dealt extensively with Plato and Aristotle, and later the practice of philosophy and theology in Medieval Europe).
However I do fondly remember one book that i must have read several dozen times as a kid, which dealt exclusively with the Greeks. It was from the Horrible Histories series of books and was called the Groovy Greeks. It was a lot of fun, and certainly my favourite book about history when growing up. I enjoyed it so much that for a school project when i was about 10, me and my dad made a fibre-glass model of a bronze Corinthian helmet, which i kept for a long time afterward (until it eventually broke apart).
Q3: How did you get into Total War games? How did you end up modding on TWC?
My first contact with the Total War series was with Medieval TW, which I picked for £10 second-hand. Previously to that i had only really played Age of Empire style strategy games, and Medieval TW came as welcome steel-toed boot kick to the frontal lobe. Quite apart from the gorgeous campaign map (which is still my favourite of the series - though Shogun II does come in a close second), i had never seen such epic battles before in my life. It truly was a game that ruined all other strategy games for me until Relic came along with Dawn of War and Company of Heroes.
After Medieval TW I lost interest in strategy games and didn't return until i read an excellent article in PC Gamer UK, which was all about playing just the campaign of Medieval TW, and just auto-resolving the battles. Focusing on the campaign like this really trained the game and i was able enjoy Medieval TW all over again.
My first inkling that there were even mods for Total War games came just before Rome TW was released in 2004. I was looking for information on Rome, itself, and in my search came across the Medieval TW mod MTW XL here at the TWC forums. However I didn't download it at the time as I didnt have Medieval TW installed at the time.
After I completed Rome TW (which I did enjoy at the time, and was floored by the beauty of the battles) I decided to reinstall Medieval TW and check out the mods that were available. It was the MTW XL that opened my eyes to the possibilities of the Total War franchise, and particularly what can be done to improve and promote historical accuracy.
After playing that mod, it was impossible to go back to a game that didn't include AOR and more complex campaign game-play. For that reason I began looking for mods for Rome TW that could satisfy. I first came across RTR (5.4, if i remember correctly), but there were so many different versions and sub-mods, and I never enjoyed much luck getting it to work (I was not particularly savvy with the technical side of modding, so no doubt I made it harder for myself than it really should have been).
Q4: Before we get into the EB II Mod specifically, it's a known fact i believe that the EB Mod's main base is the TW.org site. Whats the story behind that?
That's right, we have our main forums over there, including our development forums, which the org team are kind enough to host for us - at over 200,000 posts in almost 6,000 threads, there is a lot of work that they look after for us.
When Europa Barbarorum first began it was just a group of like-minded lovers of ancient history, who had come together to collect information that they hoped would persuade Creative Assembly that the "barbarian" factions in Rome TW deserved better representation than initial previews suggested they were. Most of the core members of this open discussion group (and you must remember that in the beginning this was not going to be a mod) were more active on the org than on the TWC, and so that's where the conversation first started. By the time Europa Barbarorum was formed as a modding team, its members were all members of the org, and so that became the natural home for development forums.
As far as our public forums are concerned, we maintain active forums at both the org and the TWC. Most of our members have accounts with both communities (especially those that are active publicly) and we make sure that both communities get all the information and help they might for both our mods. I make a habit of visiting both equally and frequently.
Q5: How exactly did you team up with the EB II Mod. Were you also involved in the original EB for RTW ?
After discovering mods for RTW, it was Europa Barbarorum that caught my eye, even though there was no public release at that time, and for one very simple (and very pretentious) reason, which was that I was studying Latin at University, and it interested me that there was a mod that used that self-same language for its title.
So i waited and haunted the forums for sometime until there was finally a release (the 0.7x months). I played the mod and absolutely loved it. Two particular campaigns stood out for me. The first was an Epeirote campaign that saw me lose Pyrrhos and his son Ptolemaios in two fiercely fought battles, both of which were won by unit of phalangitai that stood their ground when all around them had lost their nerve - in a beautiful piece of narrative, the captain of that unit was promoted to a general in the very next turn. The second was defining in a different way, as it got me interested in working with the EB Team, and that campaign was the Hayasdan campaign.
After the release of EB 0.74, which was the last version on Rome TW 1.2, one of the EB Team posted a request for help for the Hayasdan faction, and were looking for people to write building descriptions for them. I adored the Hayasdan faction, and hated to see them so neglected, and so i began writing building descriptions for them, and researching their history in the University Library. I never intended to join the team, but when I was asked to, I leapt at the chance.
I joined the team without a clue at how a modding team worked and was chucked into the deep-end immediately. As the only person able to work on Hayasdan I was immediately made faction coordinator for them, which is a position that comes with a hefty amount of responsibility as all decisions about a faction are the decision of the FC. I was immediately asked to comment on approve unit concepts and other things, and i was way out of my depth. Thankfully everyone was very supportive, particularly Angadil - whose knowledge of the east was unsurpassed - and Artavazd - whose knowledge of the language was invaluable.
In the beginning I was concerned only with acting as historian for the Hayasdan faxtion, but at some point I made the fateful decision of volunteering to maintain the internal build (which at the time was maintained by a single person, who collected all the work from different people and the integrated it into there local copy). There is no finer way of learning the data files for a game than having to maintain a build in this way as you have to touch and understand every file, and when you introduce a bug into the build you have to know how to fix it. Thankfully we know use versioning software to maintain the build, but that time was invaluable to me.
As we worked toward releasing 1.0 i became more and more involved with the game mechanics of Europa Barbarorum (which led me to develop the reforms for Hayasdan), and in administrative side of the team as well. That meant that when it came time to begin working on a version of Europa Barbarorum for Medieval 2 TW, I felt confident that i could act as mod-leader for the team.
Q6: For all those who do not know anything about EB II(or EB I), can you explain what the differences will be between them? We would very much like to hear everything you want to disclose about Factions, scripts, provinces, new structures etc.
Now that is a question and a half! Where to start?
Europa Barbarorum started as a project to change how history was represented in total war games. We wanted to show people that not only was a finer appreciation of history as fun as the watered down version in Rome TW, but that it could inspire new and exciting game-play - and so we saw EBIs Governments and our extensive trait system.
In EBI, however, it was not our goal to change how Total War games were played, and though changes were made, these were piecemeal and not wholly complete. You may notice that alongside our Government buildings, we also had plain old vanilla-style temples (which, while having some quite excellent descriptions, offered bonuses that were wildly exaggerated); that alongside our advanced AOR system, our recruitment was still based around vanilla-style barracks (even if we did try to expand their remit to include all military industries into one building). These areas of the mod were never fully explored because they were never part of our plan - with EBII they are.
One of my problems with the Total War franchise is its lack of a consistent viewpoint for the player, and my favourite example of this is the Farm building in the Total War games - what is it trying to represent. The scope and scale of the gameplay suggests that it might refer to control of land in general, but the building description and name all suggest that it refers to the construction of actual farms. That is ridiculous, not least because the plausibility of suitably arable land, populated by a sedentary people, not being turned over to farming already is preposterous - you don’t need a king to decide when and where new farms are going to be established. Another example is that of the Blacksmith: again the description and name of the building suggests that, contrary to all reason, the player-as-king is somehow getting involved with the nitty-gritty of establishing a new blacksmithing enterprise. However, contrary to this perception, the Blacksmith actually has an affect that could not be the result of a single building, as it can equip entire armies with new armour and weapons.
In Europa Barbarorum II we want to deal with this issue head on, and for that reason we are developing different types of buildings, that maintain a consistent scope in their description and affect. You will still be able to build single buildings, known as Civic Buildings, which will represent Palaces, Theatres, Royal Stables, Temples, and other such awesome buildings commissioned by the Governor of that settlement. These Civic buildings will affect the acquisition of traits and ancillaries (for example, if you build a Temple, you will be more example to get traits and ancillaries for generals in that settlement relating to religion). These buildings will be limited in number for each settlement, and will be prohibitively expensive, so that you will be able to create unique identities for your settlements.
Following from this, the main building type with be the Infrastructure Buildings. These will represent the control and manipulation of industries and means of production that impact the economic assets of the province. These Infrastructure Buildings will cover a number of concepts, not simply the presence of a particular building, but the control of land, the appropriation of trade networks and storage for the benefit of the controlling faction. The Farm Infrastructure building, for example, will represent the control of food production and trade, and even the ownership of land. The latter is of particular interest as this also becomes a political tool, and can be used by the player to introduce foreign nobility and colonists into a province, altering recruitment and administrative options for that faction, but at a cost.
This clearer distinction between building types, which will also include the Populace and Authority building types, will, we hope, produce a clearer and more accurate campaign than EBI. Each building type has its own demarcated zones of influence: Populace buildings affect recruitment options, while Authority buildings represent government options, affecting Public Order. There will be cross-over between all four building types, but these more complex interactions can be ignored by the player should they not wish to be bogged down in the minutiae of the campaign.
As you can see, even just one of our responses to the vanilla campaign in the Total War campaigns is quite a hefty answer in and of itself. We are truly creating a total modification, where each area of the campaign and battles are being looked at and revised to ensure that we produce a consistent, engaging, historically accurate and enjoyable experience.
Q7: What exactly will the time-frame be for EB II? Will there be any early Roman Imperial legions in the Mod ?
Europa Barbarorum II will have the same start date as Europa Barbarorum, and so you should expect to see very similar starting positions for those factions that appeared in that mod. We have however revisited our research on every faction, and so I don't think there is one that does not have some small but important change to how they are represented in 272BC.
Our end date has not been changed either, however that is because a final decision has not yet been decided. Interestingly enough, the end date for our campaign will likely depend on whether we have room to include Imperial Legionaries and the Augustan reforms. If we do then the end date will likely stay the same 14AD, but if we don't then we will probably end the campaign slightly earlier. At the moment we are focusing on the first third of our campaign and making sure that every faction and province are equally well represented in beginning. After our first release we will turn our attention to the later periods of our campaign.
Q8: Will EB II use a traditional music soundtrack like in EB, and/or will there be a newly composed soundtrack by team members or other musicians?
EBII will use the same soundtrack that appeared in EBI, including the fantastic music especially composed and produced by Morgan Casey and Nick Wylie. We will also be using the original work of Prehistoric Music Ireland, who are making ground-breaking work in the reproduction of ancient music.
There are no solid plans to expand this catalog of music for our soundtrack, but we would certainly enjoy working with other composers and musicians who were looking to work with our historians to explore the music of the ancient world.
Q9: The EB II team must be a very massive team. How many people are working in it and how exactly does your role as Mod leader work?
As with all mod teams our team contracts and expands with the seasons, and while we count over 60 members on our team currently, the active number is certainly a little less than that, at around 30. The largest group on our team is probably our historians, but many of them also delve into that dark of modding the game directly.
My particular role on the team as Mod Leader, is to ensure the smooth running of the team. Sometimes disputes can arise that need to be arbitrated by someone else to ensure that hot tempers don’t ruin working relationships. I also act as the public face of the EB team, though many of our team members enjoy and actively participate on the forums. My modding work is focused on the campaign game, and that is the area that I lead and develop with others on the team. My main focus is on buildings, but I’ve also developed scripting and trait mechanics to support the building work.
Q10: The historical research of the EB mod is very impressive. Besides team members doing research, are you guys also receiving help from secondary sources like universities, museums, etc? Professionals so to speak.
Some of our team members are indeed professionals who active academically (one of whom is even now out on the field). We have also corresponded with professional academics, who are not active in the Total War community, but who have kindly given us their time and their expertise. Most notably, perhaps, is our work with Professor David Mattingly who is one of the few experts studying the history of the Garamantes, a North African tribe, who we worked closely with to create the beautiful Garamantes warriors (lovingly drawn on paper by Nate and appearing in both EBI and EBII). He was very pleased to see the people he has studied on paper for so long be recreated both on paper and in a video game. We hope that a) we have done them and his work justice, and b) that our fans have been able learn about this all but forgotten culture.
Its amazing to be singled out in that way and have our work praised so by the Creative Assembly team. Its an incredible feeling and really boosted morale in the team. We love it when our work is enjoyed by anyone, and when a someone posts praise on our forums (or elsewhere) we gather round it like moths around a flame (quick note to fans of any mod: if you like it do post about your experiences, even the smallest post is incredibly rewarding). There was something particular rewarding about Craig's comment, though, and that is that the EB Team originally formed to be heard by Creative Assembly, and to have that confirmed was something wonderful.
We have not had any direct contact with anyone from CA, and we wouldn't want to be specially treated by them in anyway. If CA can give any feedback or advice about the game engine, then we hope that this would be public for everyone in the modding community to benefit from (and that is something that I'm really glad to see happening in the TWC forums). If anyone from the CA team did wish to provide any feedback about how Europa Barbarorum I plays, and what they enjoyed and did not enjoy about it, then we would love to hear from them, just as we love to hear from our fans about how we can improve our mod.
Q12: Will there be a public 'beta release' to iron out bugs and inconsistencies?
Yes, we will have public betas. Our experience with Europa Barbarorum is that feedback from our fans is very important, and this is doubly so given that we will also be able to mess around with the Campaign and Battle Ai’s (I dont capitalise the "i" in Ai for obvious reasons) and the more campaigns we can record and the more experiences we can draw upon, the more accurate and balanced we can make those areas of the game.
We are planning several releases of the game, each one focusing on different components of the game. The first release will include some 150 units, drawing mainly from those that we expect to see at the beginning of the campaign, while the campaign itself will include an entirely new economic system and government system. Later releases will see an overhaul of the traits and ancillaries, designed specifically for EBII and an compelling take on population growth that will allow for a form of economic warfare to be waged across the map.
Q13: Are there any plans to release or develop any Sub mods covering specific regional campaigns during or after EB II is released?
Our entire effort is focused on the main campaign, and there are no plans to develop provincial campaigns. However the Medieval 2 TW engine does support provincial campaigns very well and we hope that our fans will take the opportunity to use our mod as a stepping stone for creating more focused campaigns.
We are using the provincial campaigns internally to develop testing areas, where we can focus on a small number of factions, so that we can make changes over 4-5 factions instead of 30. We may release these maps with the main campaign to provide a few different areas to play in, but they wont be anything more than a chopped up version of the main campaign.
Q14: Besides the involvement in EB II,what other TW Mods are you loving, playing or maybe participating in?
Europa Barbarorum really does take up all of my time, and so I am not involved in any other mods. I'm not playing it currently, but I’ve really enjoyed FOE and I love the focus that the RTR team have brought to the game. I prefer the shorter, focused campaigns and i rarely play past 150 years in the main EB campaign.
I haven't played many Medieval 2 TW mods as my copy of Medieval 2 is entirely turned over to modding and not particularly stable enough for anything else. I did play For King or Country for a short time, as it deals with the English Civil War, a period that I’m very interested in. I also enjoyed Broken Crescent, as it was really nice to Armenia being given the attention they deserve. Their history during the period in the 5th Century onwards is really interesting, and it’s great to see their odd situation being portrayed as nicely as BC did in their mod.
Q15: If it was entirely up to you, what particular period or specific military campaign in history would you like to see covered through a TW Mod?
I think I've already mentioned this,but I would love to see Creative Assembly make a great game about the English Civil War that really focused on the religious and political radicalism of the time. In the meantime, the fantastic mod For King or Country has proven to be an enjoyable attempt to bring that period to the game. I would really like to see that period recreated in a more advanced engine, and using the government mechanics that were featured in Empire TW.
Q16 Do you play any of the new TW games like Empire up to Shogun2 ,and how do you see them in the light of the decreased Modding possibilities?
I bought both Empire and Napoleon. I was very disappointed by Empire, and while some of the campaign map developments were fantastic, the battle-map was a huge disappointment, particularly the Ai. I was very frustrated with how the game dealt with melee units (a rarity, admittedly), and often found myself watching as Native American units ran backwards and forwards in front of my muskets. I was, however, very impressed with Napoleon,and I much preferred the focused campaigns in that game. But I'm not really a fan of the Napoleonic period (unless it involves Sean Bean) and after completing the game I haven't returned to it.
I was very impressed by the Shogun 2 game, and i think it is the most polished of the franchise. The campaign map is beautiful, and the developments there make for a very engaging game. I havent yet purchased the game however, as Japan is not an area of history that i am particularly interested in, and i have had other games on my must-play list. However, i look forward to picking it up later on this year when ive played through those games that are sitting at the top of my list.
It is a terrible shame that both Empire, Napoleon and Shogun2 do not appear to have been developed with support of the modding community at its core, instead of that support being a promise added at the end. I understand that changes, in particular to the campaign map, has meant that modifying the engine is far more complicated than it was in the RTW/M2TW days. It is a shame, however, that, as part of the development cycle for the engine itself, that in-house tools were not also developed that could later have been released to the community. I know that I, at least, would have been far more interested in picking up a copy of Shogun immediately following its release if there was a release of modding tools at the same time. As it is, there is no real incentive for me to pick up the game at time of release.
Q17: What would you ,and the team, expect from a highly anticipated new Rome 2 TW game?
The ancient world is an interesting time, as it is the one point in history so far shown in the TW series that realy shows the clash of violently different cultures and people at war for survival and supremacy. I would really like Rome 2 TW to really focus on the differences between the different cultural groups and how they lived their lives, and what values they brought to the table. I dont want to romanticise the Celtic people, but i do want CA to show the player just how different they were to the cities of the mediterranean. That is something we want to show in EBII, and we hope that it is something that CA would wish to emulate in their own work. I personally feel that it is of great importance to tell the story of that time from all the different sides equally, and that can only be done if each faction is given their own voice.
Q18: Of course I cannot trick you in saying anything about the release date of EB II right ?
Would that you could,but the truth is that we dont know ourselves.We have a plan of what the first release will look like,but we are not yet at a position to say when that will happen.
Q19: Have you got anything to add to this interview ?
Just that im incredibly grateful for your time and the opportunity to speak about myself and about the Europa Barbarorum II mod. From all the team,a big thank you.
MorganH.:You are welcome,and thank you very much for your time and the indepth answers you provided. Good luck for all the team on the further development,and very much looking forward to the release.
*For everyone interested in the upcoming EB II Mod;the EB II TWC forums can be viewed Here.
MorganH.
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