A critical observation:

[dvk901]

I mentioned a while back that the Boii Confederation is behaving as if it WERE the old 'romans_senate' and not doing very well even though it has been internally renamed. This behavior is really quite distinct, and even obvious if you recall some other mods (and Vanilla), and how the Senate armies tending to just surround Rome and moved very little. I have been watching this phenomenon very closely in all the tests I've run, and although they occasionally will take the region north of them, they almost 99% do nothing in RTW\BI.

Well, guess what? I started testing them using the Alex EXE, and they went absolutely psycho!! The behavior of this faction was SO different I couldn't believe it. Whereas before they stood around waiting for the Germans to come down and crush them, they took three regions in the first 20 years, distributed their troops in a more normal 'real faction' behavior, built buildings like crazy, and troops...and were in no way content to sit around doing nothing. In fact, testing with the Alex EXE was the first time I ever saw the Sarmatians take a region!! (Of course, that could be stats, too)

Anyway, there is a marked difference playing RS2 with Alex, and I would recommend it.

[swhunter]

So we need alex also?
Could alex be combined with RS on a RTW/or BI engine?
How are the other factions doing also dVK.

[dvk901]

Another issue. Does anyone on this team have a functional EB install? I need someone to take an army in Custom Battles with some onagers, attack Bratuspantium the Belgae capital, and see if the towers turn into the 'Eastern' Walls\Towers when they are destroyed. If they do, I have a REALLY BIG problem with this wall. It looks cheesy, unprofessional, and like a bandaid half done job. I will remove them if this can't be fixed.
I'd much rather have a retured 'Roman' wall made to look sorta barbarian than a wall that turns into a destroyed wall from EGYPT!!

[Arnspac]

No to the EB question, however does Alex also correct the Free Greeks in the Bosphorus ?

[The Sloth]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

No to the EB question, however does Alex also correct the Free Greeks in the Bosphorus ?

Don't be mistaken. From what I have seen, most of these stacks only consist of two or three units. The bosporans want to take a region, but don't want to attack the free barbarians, their only direct neighbour. So they send their armies to look for other targets, but are just too dumb to do it right. Having free greeks and free barbarians start at war with eachother has helped resolve this, but it resulted in the scythians being double-teamed by them and the getae.

[pacco]

Another issue. Does anyone on this team have a functional EB install? I need someone to take an army in Custom Battles with some onagers, attack Bratuspantium the Belgae capital, and see if the towers turn into the 'Eastern' Walls\Towers when they are destroyed. If they do, I have a REALLY BIG problem with this wall. It looks cheesy, unprofessional, and like a bandaid half done job. I will remove them if this can't be fixed.
I'd much rather have a retured 'Roman' wall made to look sorta barbarian than a wall that turns into a destroyed wall from EGYPT!!

Can we do something with existing walls - only to change textures?

Look what Limes did

[tone]

They're a real pain everywhere....just a bit too enthusiastic.
We can make some of their more elite units 1 turn I guess.

[dvk901]

Yes...also, I still need to do more adjusting of their economy. They have too much money right now.

[tone]

I'm just checking out EB.

[tone]

Here are some pics of the oppida walls in EB. I couldn't get any siege engines working in custom battles so I used sapping instead.

Difficult to tell from custom battles, as they don't get rebuilt again afterwards with the Eastern wall.

Here they are in EB. While the collapsed they did turn into a sort of marble look for a short while.

[Aradan]

The collapsing animations/etc can't be changed, afaik, most mods with custom walls remove them (ie EoD2).

[dvk901]

It's not the walls themselves that are a problem...it's the towers and gates. The wall animations 'flicker thru' the eastern wall animations, but in the end the textures look right. The Towers and gates, however, once 'destroyed' assume the complete look of the eastern towers and gate structures.

Aradan...you mean they simply remove the animations themselves?

[Aradan]

I believe yes, the walls don't go through a 'transition' state (when the original textures flicker through). The transition from 'standing' to 'crumbled' is sliiightly abrupt, but you won't notice it if you don't go looking for it.

Makanyane can give you the full details on this, if you do need them, she's fiddled with them more and more deeply than most.

[dvk901]

I have the animation for the gate tower fixed, and can live with the wall collapsing behavior as it stands now. I still need to fix the 'tower' stages of being destroyed. I think the solution will be to just use the same animation that looks right over and over, and there just won't be a visiual 'collapse'....although you'll hear the screaming.

[tone]

I think I've managed to sort the Boii issue too as well as the free peoples around the Bosporan just through getting the stats right.

The Boii have just taken to territories to the north of them here and the Sarmatians are beginning to look dangerous. The only real changes I've made were to rebalance the armour settings.

Also had the most amazing battle in the deep woods around Patavium. Those celts do keep loving to attack in the winter when they get the snow advantage.

Everywhere seems to building / fielding really well balanced stacks now.

I'll watch these developments further.

[dvk901]

The Boii issue is not just stats...they have been behaving like this since day one..even when all the stats were basically the same for most units. However, I have noticed a vast improvement in how many factions do in auto-resolve and the campaign. Things are much better balanced.

[rory o'kane]

hang on a minute - Vindobona was south of the Danube, wasn't it? It was a Noricene settlement, and then annexed by the Romans - it's now Vienna... Looks like you might have to rename it.

[dvk901]

Yes...that and Terrae Volcae are named wrong. Near as i can tell, after wading thru a bunch of German and Czech websites, that Boihaemum town should be 'Gorgobina'...as it seems the Boii and others migrated there from Bononia as a result of Roman expansion in the 300's and established this town. Boihaemum means: Home of the Boii.

Terrae Volcae should be, at this time, Vindelicia.

[cherryfunk]

I mentioned a while back that the Boii Confederation is behaving as if it WERE the old 'romans_senate' and not doing very well even though it has been internally renamed. This behavior is really quite distinct, and even obvious if you recall some other mods (and Vanilla), and how the Senate armies tending to just surround Rome and moved very little.

You might consider switching the senate slot to another faction then, one intended to be defensive like the Free Greeks. I'm not sure Alex.exe is much of a solution, since almost nobody has it.

Did Aradan ever get anywhere with CA on releasing an updated .exe that would incorporate Alex.exe and BI.exe?

[tone]

You might consider switching the senate slot to another faction then, one intended to be defensive like the Free Greeks.

I think ultimately that's got to be the solution and would be happy to help with converting if needed.

DVK,
Has Columcille PM'd you? He did the Crete min-mod and is offering help with some swap faction modding for RS2. Maybe his first job could be to swap free Greek and Boii factions around for the faction slot they use.