Wait, what? Aside from the man-hours thing, I don't understand the problem here. If Third Age Total War can do it for M2TW, why not EB II? I mean, have you seen the "White City" of Minas Tirith in that game? It's freaking huge. Same with Osgiliath (both the ruined version and restored version).
http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/12/11169/6.1.jpg
http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/12/11169/12.jpg
TATW has cities that never change. Minas Tirith doesn't start as a town and grow through various stages. That simply means for many locations (like Rome), we can't use a custom model since the settlement has to be allowed to grow beyond it's 272 BC start size. Now there ARE some possible locations (Alexandria, maybe Carthage) where you could set the city as Huge (meaning no additional growth is possible) and put a custom model there. But because of the "manhour thing", that is VERY low on the priority list.
EBII Council
It would be immersion breaking for me, no sense that one or two cities have an unique model while the capitals of two historically victorious factions, Rome and Parthia, are regular cities, plus there are plenty of other ones that would become prominent during the EB timeline but have to start as (medium)cities.
"First get your facts straight, then distort them at your leisure." - Mark Twain
οὐκ ἦν μὲν ἐγώ, νῦν δ' εἰμί· τότε δ' ούκ ἔσομαι, ούδέ μοι μελήσει
Should EB II include the Greek gastraphetes, a large handheld crossbow cocked by using the concave of the stomach?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastraphetes
Use of the gastraphetes was perhaps rather rare, but it was apparently used from time to time in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek worlds. It was also rather large and unwieldy, more of a small siege artillery piece than a handheld crossbow akin to the contemporary Qin and Han-period Chinese weapons (or for that matter the later medieval European crossbow). Its appearance in EB II, however, would allow the player to pack some serious firepower on the field of battle without relying on the large, wheeled artillery engines, the Oxybeles and Lithobolos.
Last edited by Roma_Victrix; February 01, 2018 at 05:57 AM.
As far as I'm aware, the gastraphetes was solely a siege weapon, not used in regular battles.
Yes, that is most likely the case, but it could add some unique flavor to the game. Think about it, the Oxybeles and Lithobolos are pretty slow, cumbersome, almost stationary artillery pieces that must be wheeled around and set still in a secure location, guarded by surrounding troops. On the other hand, you could essentially have men wielding the gastraphetes running around the battle map, making them a far more mobile and pressing threat, and able to run behind a defensive wall of nearby phalangitai pikemen should the enemy try to charge cavalry at them. They would also be very dangerous as defenders in a siege atop the walls.
A personal request, to anyone who's listening (especially experienced battle map editors like XHolyCrusader): could you guys please reconsider revisiting the Western Greek medium, large, and huge cities on the battle map? I think they could be spruced up just a bit, especially the huge city model. The Roman cities look significantly more developed, in my opinion. Just a few small things could really help with immersion. I mean, just look at this temple and other unique structures in the Roma Surrectum II mod for Rome Total War:
http://s8.postimg.org/qjo3ntf51/athens_stadium.jpg
Compare what is seen here to the colorfully-painted reliefs decorating the pediments of your average Greek temple:
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4-17...?cb=1501346709
The Frieze of the Parthenon, as depicted by the painter Lawrence Alma Tadema, compared to the real thing (now part of the Elgin Marbles in London):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...is_Friends.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...n_Marbles5.jpg
Something like that would really breathe life into the settlement that you're besieging, making it feel more authentic.
Would anyone be interested in editing the existing battle maps for Greek cities, in order to decorate them a bit? I would give it a shot, but I have no idea how to do so and I lack any sort of skills in using IWTE "world editing" software stuff.
Don't watchtowers attract nearby bandits? Because I just realized that if you change the Eleutheroi faction so that it doesn't build watchtowers, but does already have watch towers on the map at the start of the game you might be able to have Eleutheroi armies sticking around where the team might want them to easier.
Is it possible to make just the rebel faction have invisible watchtowers? And is it possible to put a watch-tower directly on the same spot as something else, like a river-crossing? Because, if bandits stick to watchtowers, it's theoretically possible then to have an Eleutheroi army stay on a bridge if placed on one, at least for a while I guess maybe. Or make a target by bandits of some minor settlement locations, or at ports. Or at a location where a wonder is located on the battle map, or any spot on the map.
Last edited by James the Red; February 06, 2018 at 07:45 PM.
Yes, watchtowers do attract bandits, so it's an interesting idea to use pre-placed watchtowers instead of minor cities - that way you'd have a chance of facing an eleutheroi "garrison" if you approached one. It also means that you could have culturally correct "minor city models" sprinkled across the map (instead of the single model we currently use). However, that would also mean they'd really have to be "unbuildable" (otherwise you'd have minor city models popping up all over the place), plus you can't change the underlying mechanics, so the minor city would have a visibility radius, and thus when it went "dark" in your provinces you'd know there was a rebel stack there. I'm pretty sure you also have the same restrictions on placement, so they can't coexist with other structures like ports or sit directly on a river crossing.
The two main issues are that you'd almost certainly have to make them unbuildable, plus they would exist everywhere at game start so conquering any province would automatically give the player an immediate visibility benefit that currently doesn't exist. It's also possible that eleutheroi armies will be less aggressive toward the player and instead will simply hunker down on the nearest "minor city".
It would make for an interesting sub-mod, if somebody cared to pursue it.
EBII Council
I would suggest to mod team to bring back princess agent. The stealing other faction generals is such a fun feature of M2TW, and with 4 turns per year player would have enough time to move princess across the map to the selected general while she is still "fresh".
I want to bring back princesses for completely different reasons, although for factions that are republics (Rome, Carthage, Koinon Hellenon) and lack a king/royal family it doesn't make much sense to have royal marriage alliances. Still, princesses can also be married to your other family members so long as they are not one of her brothers. It ensures the main dynastic line of your faction. M2TW has some sort of hard-coded thing (I've seen it in every mod) where the game makes every attempt to undermine and kill off the main dynastic line in your family tree due to them having bonus "royal blood" traits. The annoying thing about EBII is that you can literally do nothing to save and rescue the original royal dynasty from dying off, since there are no princesses for them to marry and the game eventually denies them marriages (usually focusing only on adoptions or marrying off girls instead).
The Romans did maintain the practice of marriage alliances between other Roman houses and Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius did develop a love affair with Cleopatra that fostered a real military alliance with Ptolemaic Egypt. However, when it came to foreign nations I think this was a feature the Roman Republic simply lacked, due to the democratic and civic nature of the Roman government with two supreme executives, the consuls, being elected year after year. Even when Augustus assumed full control of the Roman world (whether directly or indirectly with his subordinate institution the Senate maintaining certain provinces), he still maintained the fiction that he was a citizen head-of-state and not a dynastic king who could arrange marriage alliances like the eastern kingdoms did. This is evidenced by the fact that Phraates IV of Parthia asked for the hand of Julia the Elder in marriage in 23 BC, but Augustus declined this offer and married her off two years later to his chief general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa instead.
I still hate when AI builds random watchtowers on most ridiculous locations. I do plan to make a map sub-mod, when I have some more time, and I'll probably include pre-built, town model, watchtowers.
So what you're saying is that implementing princesses with these, I assume hard-coded, limitations would be immersion breaking for the Ptolemaioi player.
That said, I believe that princesses don't fit well within the EB timeframe, at least not with the M2TW princess mechanics.
"First get your facts straight, then distort them at your leisure." - Mark Twain
οὐκ ἦν μὲν ἐγώ, νῦν δ' εἰμί· τότε δ' ούκ ἔσομαι, ούδέ μοι μελήσει
I wish you guys would reverse Makedonia's starting Antigonos Gonatas' portrait to the previous one. It looked a lot more badass, grizzled and gritty. This one makes him look like an inbred little . Winning battles with him isn't nearly as joyful.
Aha, nice to know! My campaign with Makedonia was still short.
Dear EB II Team, thanks a lot for your brilliant mod! I hadn't had so much fun with Medieval II Kingdoms battles for a very long time!
My suggestions...
1) make siege engines available for barbarian factions - I know historically...but isn't it all about writing history new?!? There could be a building for stolen/conquered siege equipment with very long recruitment times for barbarian factions
2) give the player the option before starting a campaign wether he wants to play with full upkeep and recruitment costs or with reduced upkeep and recruitment costs (-50%) - this would make the mod more popular even to unexperienced, lazy or impatient players...the first thing I do whenever there is a new EB I or EB II release is to change the whole export_descr_unit.text to half upkeep and recruitment costs to have even more fun playing EB! I started a Sweboz EBII2.3 campaign for several times on all difficulty levels with full unit costs and made the experience that now with reduced upkeep and recruitment costs (-50%) my current Sweboz campaign on VH/M is ideal for me...I better say...exeptionally awesome!!!
We won't be doing either of those things, but there's certainly no objection if you were to create a sub-mod which does. Just create a thread in the "EB Unofficial Modding Projects" forum, explain what your submod does (and why you think others should use it), indicate which version of EB2 it applies to, and post a download link and instructions.
EBII Council
More units. Like say the gymnetes, (naked skirmishers) grosphomachoi, (skirmishers with axes, likely) and the lithoboloi (men without slings that throw stones).
Can you make it so client rulers do not get bored? It appears agent_type = family also includes generals that aren't family members for the purposes of this trigger. And it's pretty annoying to have to move client rulers for any purpose other than attacking stacks in their own province when the description says they are supposed to stay within the city. Just doesn't feel appropriate for them.