Opinion on 2.35A

[nickygg]

I just installed the latest version of EB and was quite shocked by what I saw. So I feel an urge to share my thoughts.


I think that 2.35A R3.5 was a huge step back from a user experience point of view.


1. A bucket full of grey paint was thrown all over the colourful world of EB II.


Right now the unit cards are hardly distinguishable - just like regular TW games. The user needs to read carefully the unit name to make sure its the right unit. Something that previously required a cursory glance.


As somebody who has spent easily several thousand hours with EB (1 and 2), I am utterly annoyed by this absolutely pointless change which only make the player's life more difficult.


It is great to make the game more difficult, but that should be though making AI more intelligent, not by handicapping the player - in this case making him blind.


2. From aesthetic point of view some of the loading screens that show before and after battles were also massacred with extra pictures slapped on them - to the point they are visually annoying. The previous screens were light and stylish and still brough up a ton of information. Some of the new ones urge me to look aside.


3. Removing the unit banners is another wrong move - again, handicapping the player visually. This does not contribute to any additional realism.


4. On the battlefield units have become indistinguishable - again with the use of grey paint. Previously, the player instantly knew which unit was swordsmen, which was spear, etc. Now, a click on the unit followed by reading is necessary to verify what it is.


All these changes seem to try to satisfy an urge for greater difficulty but they do it in a perverse way - mainly by blinding the player. Please reconsider this path of development.

[QuintusSertorius]

1. The unit and info cards have been redone for 2.4.
2. There are some more loading screens, but you'll have to judge them for yourself.
3. Banners are a setting in the config, you can switch them back on yourself.
4. Can't speak to that, it's a matter of taste.

[Pooploop]

Point number 4 is an interesting take. EB2 has some of the most distinguishable units, each instantly recognizable from afar with their own unique brand of style. You can tell if it's a hetairoi, Pontid aswaran, Pritanoi heavy horse, or Roman Extraordinary Infantry immediately. This problem is more apparent if playing Rome Total War I (if zoomed out there the units all pixel up a bit). I say this as a guy who recently tried out stuff from RTW R and Attila TW to try to get an EB2 like fix. Couldn't really (FOTE+EP is probably the best unique experience I discovered but is a separate thing from the whole EB2 scenario).

P.S. I mean EB2 is the mod that taught me to instantly identify the trend between italic (small pectoral plate or mail shirt) and hellenistic style units (linothorax or full curaiss).

[nickygg]

P.S. I mean EB2 is the mod that taught me to instantly identify the trend between italic (small pectoral plate or mail shirt) and hellenistic style units (linothorax or full curaiss).

What I am saying is that this is exactly what is missing now. If you have a lowest level Greek spearmen standing next to Hoplites, you cannot say which one is which.
Granted that my impression of the new version is only from playing with the Egyptians.

[QuintusSertorius]

What I am saying is that this is exactly what is missing now. If you have a lowest level Greek spearmen standing next to Hoplites, you cannot say which one is which.
Granted that my impression of the new version is only from playing with the Egyptians.

Are you seriously trying to tell me you can't tell the difference between Pantodapoi and Hoplitai?

Even Hoplitai Haploi and Hoplitai don't look similar.

[Lusitanio]

What I am saying is that this is exactly what is missing now. If you have a lowest level Greek spearmen standing next to Hoplites, you cannot say which one is which.
Granted that my impression of the new version is only from playing with the Egyptians.

I'm not sure if you're playing the same game as us...