Fans suggestion thread for future releases

[QuintusSertorius]

All the reform scripts are basically human-only; the AI versions are either much simpler or the date-based fallbacks. Same goes any missions, they don't apply to the AI either.

Buildings with human-only capabilities is tricky. We do have an event_counter for each faction that's switched on/off depending on who's playing it, but that would necessitate 28 capability lines - one for each faction and the same all over again for each applicable capability too. I don't know what the limit is for capability lines; given how long some of the building's recruit_pool sets are, I suspect it's in the thousands. But it would be laborious to code, a lot of copying and pasting.

Finances is the other way around; giving the AI regular, steady amounts means they'll just spend it on recruitment. Lumpy additions, lots in one turn then nothing for a few after, encourages it to use the leftover surplus for construction. That's why their bonus money comes in spring, when they don't have many recruitment slots (winter gets a bonus).

[James the Red]

Ah, OK. Makes sense.

Buildings with human-only capabilities is tricky. We do have an event_counter for each faction that's switched on/off depending on who's playing it, but that would necessitate 28 capability lines - one for each faction and the same all over again for each applicable capability too. I don't know what the limit is for capability lines; given how long some of the building's recruit_pool sets are, I suspect it's in the thousands. But it would be laborious to code, a lot of copying and pasting.

I suppose it's possible to get around that. If a modder wanted a building that the AI Isn't intended to use, instead of doing all that work of making it give benefits to some factions but not others, instead have the AI easily and cheaply be able to "upgrade" the problematic building to, say, something that gives no benefits or negatives. That should work so long as the player knows to destroy that building whenever s/he finds it.

[Kaskad]

Maybe it's hardcoded (?), anyway is there any way we can implement a system that makes the "Rebels" stack more active ? There is already nice things happening on the Campaign Map. Currently playing an Epeiros save (much more challenging campaign now on 2.3): the stack in Aitolia stood the ground until year 258, moving into Pelopponese in the middle of the 60's then...standing there in front of Corinth (Macedonian) without attacking it or attacking any AI armies. Would it be possible to make it more aggressive/active to make it besiege Corinth for example in our case ?

[Kaskad]

I remember in DLV the Rebels attacked you and besieged your towns

[Colos1987]

Campaign difficulty of H/VH do just that.

[VINC.XXIII]

In H/H those starting armies of rebels often rescued besieged cities. Some ambushed me when I ventured in their territories.

Those spawning during the campaign(4/5 units) rarely sieged my cities, but it happened when Massalia has only 3 units as garrison.

The starting large stacks attack AI Romans(I observed it in Liguria and Venetia where I'd spies).

[Assur Nikator]

Here's the following idea that I came up after a Numidia game, discovering what humongous piles of money you can make if nobody ever threatens you (I'm looking at you, perpetually allied Carthage):

On the death of the Faction Leader the player could get a sort of Funeral Event, where he could make a choice if he wants to spend some money for the burial, sacrifices etc. (remember how often slaves, animals or even old battle companions were buried with the kings in the best Indo-European tradition). This in turn could even be linked to the new Faction Leader who could be rewarded with a point in authority or influence, since the passing of the old leader and his confirmation as a new ruler would be intertwined. Many representatives would be there from both near and far. Heck, the succession policies are almost worth an event chain in themselves (or a series of traits), but I'm not sure if it's possible.

And just a fun story: A Numidian noble from my court adopted a strange Graecus from the mysterious lands of the Hellenes. He was intelligent, unselfish and not very loyal, but quite competent. On his very first turn he acquired the trait Calm and the ancillary "evil mother-in-law", who probably pestered him about his non-Numidian choice of clothing and so on. Imagine the poor Greek foreigner crossing the desert with his retinue to meet the King, calmly taking the curses of the vile hag. (Of course he rebelled the very next turn and I felt sorry having to hunt him down).

[Sarkiss]

Maybe it's hardcoded (?), anyway is there any way we can implement a system that makes the "Rebels" stack more active ? There is already nice things happening on the Campaign Map. Currently playing an Epeiros save (much more challenging campaign now on 2.3): the stack in Aitolia stood the ground until year 258, moving into Pelopponese in the middle of the 60's then...standing there in front of Corinth (Macedonian) without attacking it or attacking any AI armies. Would it be possible to make it more aggressive/active to make it besiege Corinth for example in our case ?

rebels already do that on H campaign. i lost my capital and an FL to one such attack whilst my royal host was away and the capital's garrison was only 6 units strong. though i do wish this would be more consistent and rebels even more agressive towards human player. it would make the game even more interesting and strategically demanding, slowing down human expansion and giving the AI-controlled factions some breathing space.

[QuintusSertorius]

There is very little we can do with the Rebels, their CAI is stunted compared to the proper factions. The only option is to make them more aggressive towards the human player, which is already being employed.

[VINC.XXIII]

There is very little we can do with the Rebels, their CAI is stunted compared to the proper factions. The only option is to make them more aggressive towards the human player, which is already being employed.

I think its related to balance of power between AI/player armies and their own stacks, in some areas they're pretty active.

In my actual Aedui campaign, a general from Cornelia family rebelled when he was in Sicily, hence now Syracuse has 3 stacks as protection(2 mobile armies+ full garrison). I may try later to invade Sicily, and have a big battle with those syracusean stacks.

[Kaskad]

I play H/H. Rebels are moving of course. However they tend to be quite passive after moving into another province. While they are quite aggressive when my or the AI army moves into their province of origin.

[Kranos]

yes they should be more aggressive instead of having several army stacks at their disposal even for some minor settlements you have to clean by yourself because the AI factions dont seem to be even at least willing to deal with some of them.

[Rad]

Unit modification suggestion: Change the melee weapons of the Thureopherontes Hippeis to swords or spears proper.

Right now, even though that some of them are carrying swords, for melee they're armed with very small javelins... javelins that they should be throwing at the enemy. Further, even after they expend their ammo, they are still shown using javelins as a melee weapon, and some being held in the shield arm, which I find inconsistent.

P.S. One of their plummed helmets has some black lines along the cheekplates.

[nickygg]

I just finished a 300+ turn campaign on v2.2 with the Pritanoi. You guys are doing great work!


I want to suggest a slight correction in the BAI, if possible. I noticed that when I am on the attacking side, if I send a single sling to kill 3%-4% of the enemy soldiers the AI will attack. In essence, by doing this I turned a lot of offensive battles into defensive ones. I generally think that this AI behavior makes sense and is much better than the EB I AI, which was inclined to stand still and get showered with slings and arrows. However, I want to suggest that, when defending, the AI does limited attacks with available cavalry on single units - like slings and archers - when these are isolated from the main body of the opposing army and shooting at the AI.


I think such a correction will fix an unfair advantage on the human side. On a number of occasions when attacking, I position my army on a good defensive ground and then send a single sling or archer to provoke the AI to attack. If that were to happen in real life, that single unit would be massacred immediately and the standoff would continue.


Also, I noticed that when provoked to attack, the AI moves the entire body of its army towards the large body of the human army. In doing so, the AI ignores that single sling unit (which is just off the path of the AI). As a result, the AI army parades in front of the sling giving it ample of time to continue to shoot and kill.


Cheers and keep up the great work!
Nick

[Palaiogos]

May you please add some more actual mythology to the temples? Like: Zeus-Ammon was the father of blah.

[Roma_Victrix]

I'd like to see an infinite variety of Thorakitai-style heavy infantry units for Hellenistic factions, but that's just me.

Barring that, I'd love to see some more eastern cataphract units.

Also, have you guys ever considered making custom battle maps for certain important cities of Antiquity? Like Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, Syracuse, Rhodes and Athens? I might have asked this question before but I can't remember if I ever got an answer or not. The work that the Roma Surrectum II team did in custom-modelling their settlements is amazing. The same can be done for M2TW as all of you know, not just from the ancient cities you've made for the various cultures of EB II (via De Bello Mundi's original models), but also from the unique custom settlements in Third Age Total War.

It would be so cool to see the actual Athenian Acropolis and Parthenon in EB II. Or the Lighthouse of Alexandria right outside the city!

[nvm]

I feel avaliability of nomadic troops from enclaves/or just cavalry for Lougiones might need to be slightly reduced to stop Lougiones from spawning horrors such as this. While this is the first time I have witnessed this, and this army was created was prior to claiming their capital, at which point I got to experience the sheer avaliability of cavalry for recruitment myself without even constructing a government, and almost every one of their armies I have fought prior to this {a lot of them, and at least half-stacks, my Faction Leader had seen the elephant at this point} had at least 4 if not more cavalry units. Seriously, I could have as well gone to the steppe to fight Sauromatae if I just let this continue.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Kravixon01]

I'd like to see an infinite variety of Thorakitai-style heavy infantry units for Hellenistic factions, but that's just me.

Barring that, I'd love to see some more eastern cataphract units.

Also, have you guys ever considered making custom battle maps for certain important cities of Antiquity? Like Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, Syracuse, Rhodes and Athens? I might have asked this question before but I can't remember if I ever got an answer or not. The work that the Roma Surrectum II team did in custom-modelling their settlements is amazing. The same can be done for M2TW as all of you know, not just from the ancient cities you've made for the various cultures of EB II (via De Bello Mundi's original models), but also from the unique custom settlements in Third Age Total War.

It would be so cool to see the actual Athenian Acropolis and Parthenon in EB II. Or the Lighthouse of Alexandria right outside the city!

I would love to have custom maps for Rome, Carthage, Athens, and Alexandria at least. But I think the team has said that the problem (aside from manhours to create) is that the maps can't change or scale with city size.

[Kull]

I feel avaliability of nomadic troops from enclaves/or just cavalry for Lougiones might need to be slightly reduced to stop Lougiones from spawning horrors such as this. While this is the first time I have witnessed this, and this army was created was prior to claiming their capital, at which point I got to experience the sheer avaliability of cavalry for recruitment myself without even constructing a government, and almost every one of their armies I have fought prior to this {a lot of them, and at least half-stacks, my Faction Leader had seen the elephant at this point} had at least 4 if not more cavalry units. Seriously, I could have as well gone to the steppe to fight Sauromatae if I just let this continue.

Yeah, the team will have to talk about that.

[Tactics Mayers]

Sinc3 the Arevaci now have unique government path. Will the Lusotannians get a Kingdom government similar to the Aedui and Arverni? They historically already have a King (Viriathus).