General impressions

[V.T. Marvin]

Hello EB2 fans,

hopefully your download and installation proceeded without too much trouble. Now we are eager to hear about your first impressions from playing the game for the first time. Your feedback is important for us to fine-tune various gameplay mechanics in order to provide even better experience in our next official release. So have fun and share your thoughts!

[mr mojo risin]

its fantastic and it looks stunning ,
the province descriptions are really immersive and i just spent 20 minutes to study one unit,
all this and it's only going to get better. A+

[Dutchhoplite]

First impression: a bit overwhelming (but in a positive way)

[amelius]

[Hro3a]

Great job realy great..i´m lookin forward for more reforms in next realeses..especialy Romans..becaouse of Legionaries.
For me is a little bit bloodless..is there any blood mod or something like that...can I use on this mod?..

[Noviomagus]

Install went quickly and smoothly, liked how it actually worked for my steam version of the game without lots of problems. Loved the intro and design of the menu. Had a quick custom battle to see how well my rig could run it, and I must say that it looks stunning. There are however some things I like less:

I probably just need to get used to it more, as I'm used to Rtw graphics, but the faces of some units, their proportions and the general design still needs to grow on me. There are some units that looked amazing like the hoplitai and the cretan archers (loved the shields of both), I also liked the shields of the Celts and Germans (I always thought they looked to thin when viewed from the side in EB, but now they look a little thicker.)

I also like and dislike the vegetation, only played a few battles yet so just like the units this is probably something I'll get used to. I love the trees, the ground, skies and pretty much everything but the grass. I think the grass is to sparse and 2D, It lacks the consistency and grassy look of Rtw (especially with RSII graphics). It didn't look like how it did in the previews but I'm aware that this could just be because of the map I played on.

Last thing I dislike is the font/color of the text, it's pretty hard to read on some backgrounds. Did you guys use the white with black lining type? Because that usually makes it readable on every background.

^ These are all minor things as I haven't played the campaign yet, only 2 custom and one quick battle and the graphics arent even that important to me (and it's definatly an improvement over EB)

Also the game crashed when I clicked on the Seleucid faction icon as I was clicking my way through all the factions, but thats probably the MTW2 bug that happens when you click to many factions.
I have yet to play a campaign but for a Beta it looks really good!

-Noviomagus-

[Floren d'Asteneuz]

The state of my life now :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L6i5AwVAbs

[Noviomagus]

*Don't think I can edit posts yet...
So here is my campaign first impression:



Holy cow on a stick does it look and play amazing.

[binarystar]

Install went smooth and easy on non-steam version. Launched no problem, havent had any CTD or errors. One thing I noticed right away, that I dislike, is the fonts seem too blurry and a bit hard to read. I play at 1920x1080, would like to see a bit more sharpness and crispness in the fonts. I'm torn on the foliage as well. Some places it looks good, other places, seems too colorful and vibrant. Also, not sure if it's the mod, but Anisitropic Filtering seems to not work? I have it forced to x16 via NCP.

Otherwise friggin GREAT mod so far, going to be playing all night (probably take the day off from work tomorrow lol). I really love the faction intros, the production quality is fantastic. Great starting point for a mod that is sure to get better and better!!! Well done EB team! I salute you all!

[Floren d'Asteneuz]

Otherwise friggin GREAT mod so far, going to be playing all night (probably take the day off from work tomorrow lol). I really love the faction intros, the production quality is fantastic. Great starting point for a mod that is sure to get better and better!!! Well done EB team! I salute you all!

For anisotropic, try IG settings rather that graphic drivers settings (set them as "let the application decide"). Frequently the apps does what they want despite the driver settings.

[AntigonosDoson]

The mod is great!

Played a few turns with Nabata and Macedon and a bit less with Pergamon, Ptolemaoi, Epeiros, Roma. Loved the scripted events like choosing the future successor. And I don't get the colony system yet for Hellenistic factions.

I didn't quite like the M2 map (not EB team fault, I hated it in SS6.4 too), but I modded it quickly and now it looks more acceptable (borders of regions added).

I have questions concerning several elements which may not be yet finished or I may not be doing something correct.
1. I don't see the year counter only the turns counter. Am I stupid or years have not been implemented yet?
2. Is it game design that you cannot trade members of retinue?
3. I see I cannot choose the faction heir. I understand it is realised by the event of choosing future successor?

Anyway, congrats once more on the release. It's absolutely phenomenal!

[Kull]

I have questions concerning several elements which may not be yet finished or I may not be doing something correct.
1. I don't see the year counter only the turns counter. Am I stupid or years have not been implemented yet?
2. Is it game design that you cannot trade members of retinue?
3. I see I cannot choose the faction heir. I understand it is realised by the event of choosing future successor?

1) Over the minimap (left) not above the turn # (right)
2) Yes. In real life, do you frequently swap your friends to somebody else in exchange for his?
3) M2TW hard code prevents choosing of heirs. The EB event is designed to improve the odds that the next heir will be somebody you choose.

[AntigonosDoson]

ad 1) Strange... I see empty space there, but not year number. Maybe I found a first bug... or am just stupid ;-)

[Majasprat]

It seems awesome. I have crashed to desktop twice however. Once when I clicked on grand campaign and the second time when I clicked on a faction in the campaign menu.

[qylees]

Installed without any trouble.

I got one CTD on the screen where you choose factions - I just clicked on every one and read the descriptions and it crashed like in the middle. Never happened again - maybe becouse of the steam version of the game? And I got a little confused, as options in menu are in different places (on the left side, on the bottom of the screen and so on) than in vanilla - I need to get used to it.

I started the game as Bosphoros and I'm just shocked. This game is a masterpiece - I got a hard time fighting with the rebels (!), they attack my forces, they helping each other. When I was trying to siege a city they just waste my army, faction leader barely escaped. That was just awesome, never got more challenge in any TW game since EB1. AI is very good and it handles diplomacy pretty well - Sauromatae demand tribute (and threathing me with attack), as they were much stronger than me when I was licking my wounds in capital.


Great job, guys. Just great job.

[monkian]

Great so far, no campaign crashes but crashed when browsing through factions.

Sometimes hard to read in places when playing as Rome

Is there a guide anywhere to playing as Rome ? What buildings am I supposed to destroy then build to stop Tara rebelling after capturing ?

[Kull]

ad 1) Strange... I see empty space there, but not year number. Maybe I found a first bug... or am just stupid ;-)

Hmmm. Good point. I just checked my installer game and it's missing. It's present in the test-bed version of EB2, though. Good catch, we'll look into this.

[Total_Wallyer]

I'm having fun and enjoying new indepth features however I have to be totally honest that I do not like the campaign map skin, it's almost too dark. I think I would enjoy the game more with the stainless steel campaign map.
thats my only bugbear so far

[AntigonosDoson]

I like the campaign map. It seems a bit darker than EB1, but it's ok.

Also I like the battles. They are difficult! Maybe because I decided to play on H/H right away, but still: victories don't come easy. Nor cheap.

[AntigonosDoson]

Hmmm. Good point. I just checked my installer game and it's missing. It's present in the test-bed version of EB2, though. Good catch, we'll look into this.

Happy to be of some use :-) The year of the game really adds to the immersion, so I hope it will be easy to reintroduce via some hotfix. Good luck!