Buildings...

[attilla]

So will the european "barbarian" tribes, such as germans/gauls/britons be able to build paved roads, advanced ports and such? that was such a pain in RTW being unable to move your troops greater distances. You would think any conquering nation would see the use of roads and be able to employ them in their respective empires...

[Urnamma]

The Gauls will have paved roads (though they'll eventually look different), as they had a kind of proto-highway. It won't be a Roman highway, by any stretch, but it is a step above typical dirt roads. Barbarians don't all share the same technology though, and some will be better off, and some will get rather short-changed, based on what they historically built and used.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

We can't imitate this 'stolen technology' thing like you find in Civ. The game just doesn't operate that way. The Gauls definitely have regular roads. We've debated whether or not they could have some kind of reform that occurs years after the encounter paved roads in greek or roman conquered territories, but we can't put a reform building in just for that purpose. It's actually something we're not sure about yet. Urnamma is probably thinking of the log roads that we have as unique buildings in some provinces in the north of Europe; they give trade bonuses, but don't allow you to move your units along them any faster (as they were usually used in conjunction with sites that had heavy mining or trade uses).

[QwertyMIDX]

We could probably tie it to one of the gallic military reforms.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

It would be hard to add it to the requirements for the regular level, but we might be able to do it with a separate option only available for them - and then we can make the requirements easier. I don't think we knew about building options back when we were thinking about this earlier actually - till Black Crow found them and posted on them.

[Blizzard]

Let's say a barbarian faction manages to expand so much it becomes an large kingdom or an empire (lots of provinces, large cities, lots of gold, their infrastructure already developed) and it manages to keep it's size for a few decades - I'd say that some reforms would inevitable occur (in all domains: military, economic and cultural).
The trigger could be the conquest of a few "civilised" cities, becoming the protectorate of a civilised nation or viceversa, or simply sharing borders with such a faction for lets say 50-100 years.
These reforms would be more likely imitations of their neighbour's structures (like the legionaire imitations) filtered through local traditions and adapted to fit barbarian valours.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Where does it stop though? I think we have to limit ourselves with all factions to adoptions that actually did occur (if a little later than our period in some cases) and even then only very carefully. Otherwise every faction would be the same in respect to buildings - greeks would get taverns, sauromatae could build gymnasia, Hayasdan would build amphitheatres, Casse would build epic stone walls, etc. (plus, it leads to a hell of a lot more reform sets and scripts and building code additions and graphics).

[Blizzard]

Where does it stop though? I think we have to limit ourselves with all factions to adoptions that actually did occur (if a little later than our period in some cases) and even then only very carefully. Otherwise every faction would be the same in respect to buildings - greeks would get taverns, sauromatae could build gymnasia, Hayasdan would build amphitheatres, Casse would build epic stone walls, etc. (plus, it leads to a hell of a lot more reform sets and scripts and building code additions and graphics).

let's take for example the gauls and their way of life - the advance would occur in the direction provided by thier religious beliefs: the main divinities they worship - would be a direction to improve in those sectors patronised by their main gods
each faction has it's own cultural identity already and by conquest and expansion would try to improve and spread the valors that promoted them in the position of being a powerhouse
a barbarian leader ruling over three quarters of europe would
either think about himself as a demigod and take advice from no one continuing to walk on the old barbarian ways
either would accept advisors from the "civilised world"
you can't maintain an empire with a tribal mentality also an intelligent leader can't ignore the improvements of civilisation (even if only for the amount of taxes and increased control it would bring - that was why so many kingdoms adopted christianity in the later period)

in terms of military reforms that would not bring a fundamental change since their militar might already helped to conquer the huge teritory - but a change would be needed in reorganisating the logistics and improve the discipline of the troops (paved roads and maybe highways + training for most of regular armies)

in cultural and economic terms the advance from a tribal confederation to empire or republic would require some form of institutionalised training (maybe a change in what the government types would allow you to build?) - some sort of teaching system maybe given by upgrading the temples to another level which might serve as school or academy too and maybe the warrior hold would be replaced with something that would teach some strategy too beside the raw force of arms.

it would be much to discuss over this matter taking in count the particular terms for each faction (sauromatae for example would follow the pattern of later mongolian hordes)

[Lusted]

There was a similar discussion at Chivalry about the Byzantines and what their troops would have been like if they had stayed strong. Chivalry went for the "lets stick to what they had in history" approach, which is the best in my opinion.

[Solar]

Gymnasia and amphitheaters are very linked to cultural background, and thus would be less likely to be imitated. It's unlikely, tho, that any conquering civilization with a large territory would refuse to build paved roads in their homelands after having seen the benefits for military traffic when conquering "civilized" provinces...