Salve friends,
In light of many recent and old bug reports on barbarian factions, we've come to the conclusion that it would be easier to exclude them for Patch 1.15. By doing so, we'd no longer be under immediate pressure to address some important bugs, and lack of content/depth, that make these factions less fun and playable than others in the repertoire. Of course, this is just the team's opinion, but it would ease the burden a bit and let us focus on the things we want first.
Naturally some of you are playing with these factions already and are perhaps even enjoying them greatly. This kind of move would be unfair in that regard. Therefore, we'd like to invite the community to help us decide on the important matter at hand:
Should Barbarian factions be (temporarily) excluded from the list of playable cultures?
There is an important caveat first, though. The Germanic factions are currently being overhauled and are well under way to match the amount of content and playability of their southern Latin masters... cough - trade partners. Our ambition would be to phase in barbarian cultures one by one, starting with the Germanic culture for 1.15, then Celtic for a future update, and so on. Until all barbarian cultures are playable. By doing it this slow but reliable way, we can not only ensure greater attention to detail for each culture group (e.g. missions, objectives, artwork and balance), but also rule out bugs more efficiently.
At the end of the day we'd like to invite the community to assist us in making the decision.
Feel welcome to leave your vote and/or comment in the comment section!