Strategic Map Gameplay - compared to SSHIP

[Victor1234]

I've been avoiding trying out this mod on purpose (waiting for that upcoming release ) and have been playing SSHIP in the meantime. I read through these forums a lot though and I get the impression that the two mods have sort of different strategy map mechanisms (obviously one shouldn't compare the battles).

The loyalty/trait mechanisms for certain factions seem to be giving players a lot of grief in this mod. Whether you agree with that design feature or not, is there an option to moderate it?

SSHIP has similar features but blunts the penalties depending on the difficulty level selected (on medium for example, you can safely ignore an 'illegitimate' faction leader, on the very highest, you get penalties for giving office ancillaries to characters that haven't 'earned them'). I loved playing Carthage in EB1, but my impression is, the mechanisms in this mod would make it very frustrating.

As far as the city management goes, the forums mostly revolve around building the right buildings to get certain reforms/unit pools, but do you get the same EB1 issue where over time, literally every city will become the highest tier possible? I very much like how in SSHIP, you have to want your settlements to grow and even then it takes time.

[Grimmy]

City growth is rather slow and takes some planning.

As to the loyalty/trait system, it's not that hard to figure out or manage. It can get 'fiddly' if trying to 'min-max' your FM on traits and skills and such but its not required to have a fun game.

The knack that works for me is to work up your heir through battles and such so that when it comes his time to rule, he's got the gravitas to pull it off. New FM and adoptions/marriages spend a bit of time in Rome with your ruler and their loyalty grows.

Kinda like how I recall M2TW working.

[Jurand of Cracow]

As the mod leader of the SSHIP I must admit that I find EBII immensely superior as far as the scripts and historicity are concerned, and I wouldn't compare these two mods. The SSHIP is simply much simple and shallow. But I love both mods.
JoC

[Slaytaninc]

SSHIP needs a lot of work to get to the level of complexity and historicity that EB2 has achieved. Part of it is just a limitation of the timeframe. Aside from the (emergent) Mongols, most factions just weren't all that expansionist. Certainly no one had the ambitions the Romans (or even the Rashidun/Ummayad Caliphate Muslims) did. Another issue is that EB2 has so much variation in units to collect, and many of them are amazingly distinct from each other.

[Morrowgan]

I guess this is why there are more regional mods for Medieval 2 than Rome since you can have more accurate expansion there.

[Sarkiss]

in terms of development stage and research put into it, i don't think you can compare the two. but then again EB is miles ahead of any historical mod out there imho. what i do prefer about SSHIP is the campaign map and ground textures. EB is too flat and textures where never fully updated iirc. both are great mods though, i do enjoy them both, as well as Gig's excellent latest installer of the standard SS.

[eyelurker]

I only play regular stainless steel but the infantry are so much more reliable in europa barbarorum and it makes me keep forgetting that in stainless steel infantry are easily killed by missle fire and cavalry charge as my poor scutatoi and feudal foot knight could attested to.

[Jurand of Cracow]

I only play regular stainless steel but the infantry are so much more reliable in europa barbarorum and it makes me keep forgetting that in stainless steel infantry are easily killed by missle fire and cavalry charge as my poor scutatoi and feudal foot knight could attested to.

I think this is a discussion for the SS & submods thread. I may say here that the cavalry's been made much weaker in the SSHIP.

One of the comparisons between the EB and the SS is the dispersion of the fan base. The EB unites all the fans, while in the SS some play vanilla 6.4, some play SSHIP, some play other mods (and some play not-SS-based mods like DaC or DLV or SV). But for the ancient era there's EB or DBM, and the fan base is concentrated.