Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans.

We were so pleased with the reception our video got we wanted to show in more depth the wonderful work our unit artists and historians have been doing. Focusing on the units that appeared in the video we are going to introduce you to the modellers, skinners and historians who helped bring these units to life in such stunning detail.

Unit Conception

We've completely changed how we tackle the creation of units from when we worked upon Europa Barbarorum I. In Europa Barbarorum II we wanted to bring a little order, not only in the creation stage, but also in the all important conception stage. Over the many long years that Europa Barbarorum I was in the works we had many researchers leave us and with them we lost some of the all important information that we wished to pass on to you. When EBI was released there were obviously some areas, particularly with units, where people were sceptical about accuracy. Unfortunately in many cases we were unable to answer their queries satisfactorily, much to our regret, because some of our historians who had worked upon those units using privileged information had left us and we could not contact them.

We don't want this to happen in Europa Barbarorum II, so we have endeavoured to make sure that any unit is adequately researched and furthermore that that research is archived so that when Europa Barbarorum II is released we can answer any questions our fans have with the decisions we have made. We want people to be inspired and to learn something about the ancient world we choose to represent in Europa Barbarorum, and to do that we have to be more respectful of the historical research that we use and make sure that it is available to all when the time comes.

How this works with unit conception is relatively simple. When a unit has been discussed within a faction's specific thread and it has been okayed by our Unit Co-ordinator and Lead Historian it is then given its own specific thread, which we call Unit Conception Threads (or UCs for short). This then holds all the information, including links to articles, pictures, quotations, or other sources of information that have been decided upon. Then this unit is assigned to a modeller and skinner/s for creation. During this creation process new issues may arise and the UC thread is there for correspondence between the unit artists and the historians so that any discussion is recorded and any changes noted for future reference.


Videos:


Cascos:



Escudos:



Linothorax:



Animaciones (queda chulísimo):





Unit Creation

As you may have noticed units appear a little differently in M2:TW. By allowing variance within a unit, CA have opened up a new, and very beautiful, world for us to represent our time period’s soldiers with ... and in doing so have also created a ton more work to do. Whereas in Europa Barbarorum I a unit would generally have perhaps 5-6 different skins tops (and many would have less), in Europa Barbarorum II we have 5-6 different skins for just one faction. In Europa Barbarorum I we could get away with the Koinon Hellenon skin having one type of pattern on the Linothrax for Peltastai and Makedon having another, in Europa Barbarorum II we need 4-5 different patterns for just one faction. At first glance it does appear as if the task of skinning our units has multiplied by 5 times. However, we should not be so hasty to judge. When one door is closed another is opened, and with some degree of heterogeneity within a unit it allows us to have some degree of homogeneity between units.

We are, in essence, developing a modular approach to unit creation. Where a new helmet or shield is created it is saved as a separate piece and catalogued and archived so that when another unit needs to use the same armour of weapon then it is as simple as adding that piece to the base model. At the moment this is still in its early stages as the database is not fully stocked yet, but eventually it will take very little time to model new units as the parts for it will already exist.

The same is also true for the skins, but this has an even greater impact on how the units look in Europa Barbarorum II. There exist now, two types of skins, Figure and Attachments, and they are assigned individually for each faction and for each unit. This not only allows more detail on the skins but allows us to quicken the skinning process dramatically. The Figure texture, for example, can hold the faces, torso, legs and arms; elements that can be shared between several factions without losing the appearance of heterogeneity. The Attachment texture, on the other hand, can hold the shield and helmets; elements that we can vary by individual faction as these are the most parts of a soldier most obvious to the player. As you will see for the Hoplitai skins by Martelus Flavius, the Figure skins are shared between factions, while the Attachment skins have been created in the old style: one for each of the main factions, one regional, and one mercenary.

But there is also another way we can reduce the number of skins necessary to create the units we need. By carefully mapping the models to the textures (where each element within a texture is associated with a face or number of faces on the model) we can use the same textures for different units. The Hoplitai Figure textures, for example, can be applied to any unit that also have the same elements (Linothrax, helmets and the like): these include the Thureophoroi, the Phalangitai and others. Not only that, but the Attachment textures have also been used for other units as well, including the Hippeis and Phalangitai. As these are the most common elements to the player they allow for some homogeneity within a faction's armies, whilst maintaining the look of a multitude of warriors from different lands and different cities all serving within the same force.

Over time we will be able to revisit some of these re-used skins and change and reorder elements as we see fit, but for the moment this methodology allows us to realise our units that much faster.
The Historians

abou - Historian / Arche Seleukeia Faction Co-ordinator

In my second year at university I began taking Latin, which eventually turned from a curiosity into a minor for me. At some point I got my hands on Rome: Total War and pulled an all-nighter playing it the first time, which began this downward spiral into this current hobby. Eventually, I began reading more and more about the Hellenistic era while at the same time becoming bored with RTW vanilla. I started to focuse on the other socio-political powers that eventually made way for Rome out of sheer curiosity. Most things that I read at that time made it seem like everyone besides Rome was an idiot, which didn't seem right.

I don't even remember what queries I entered into whatever search engine I used at the time, but I stumbled across EB. After about nine months of playing the game, there was a call by the team for the creation of historical battles. This, combined with my interest in the “mistakes” of history managed to get me entrance to the team. With due time and growing knowledge, I managed to become FC for the Seleukids.

In the real world, however, I spend my time studying for a degree in veterinary medicine.


keravnos - Historian / Epeiros & Koinon Hellenon Faction Co-Ordinator

Old geezer here, much older then the new young guns around. Even if I have studied Law in Athens Law school, my greatest love and hobby has been Hellenistic History, as far as I can remember. My surname is the most common in Greece, and my name is a movie starring Keanu Reeves (No I am not called Matrix). Back in 2006 I answered the call for someone to try to put into the game the voice commands that the Ancient Greeks used themselves. Following suit on Teleklos Archelaou steps and with the kind assistance of good old Xenophon, the ancient greek voicemod became a Reality. As I became more involved, I too started to notice some errors, and tried to fix them.

A proud member of the Baktrian faction, and a Faction Controller for the Epeiros and the Koinon Hellenon, two of the not as known factions as the main Diadochoi, aka the Ptolemaioi, Seleukidai/Seleukeis and Makedonia. Epeiros, well, it is a sure soft spot for me as I was born in Ioannina (Epeiros present day capital) and have been to some excavation sites of that era. It was a thriving culture that was annihilated completely by Aemilius Paullus in 167 BCE. It is a challenge to try to re-establish the unique characteristics of Epeiros, or Apeiros as it would be called by the majority of its inhabitants at the time. As for Koinon Hellenon, the challenge is different. How to accurately portray the evershifting realities of that time and place, with Koinon (League) pitted against Koinon, and many of those joining together to form a "Sympoliteia" (League of leagues), which ruled supreme in the region until both Achaian and Aitolian leagues fell to the Romani war machine. Forming Koinon Hellenon will be tough, as it was historically. Even as the player starts as commanding the Chremonidean league, the stated goal would be the formation of the Koinon Hellenon (League of all Greeks), as was done by Antigonos Doson, a Makedonian King, which comprised Epirotes, Phokians, Boiotians, Akarnanians, Thessalians, Achaians and Makedones in 224 BCE. Just not from the Makedonian side.

I guess the stated goal of anyone involved in EB is to create a modification that would teach history while allowing for a great game. If anyone can walk away from playing EB and goes pick up a historical book of that era, then that is a job well done for me, and for all of us, I think.

O'ETAIPOS - Historian / Makedonia Faction Co-Ordinator

Another old time member, I joined in the February 2006, just after the first public release. I had been admitted at first to take care of the ships. During almost 3 years I have helped in unit concepting, solving history questions, 2D graphics etc. Currently I'm Faction Coordinator for Makedonia, my favourite successor state and my real world theme of studies. I finished my MA thesis in classical archaeology ("Weapons of the Macedonian phalanx") this June and I have been accepted to a PhD program.

Though the TW engine is not ideal, as it only provides a very simplistic structure for us to build on, we are working hard to put as much depth and realism as possible into this game. I hope EB2 will provide the best image of the ancient world available in playable form.

paullus - co-Lead Historian / Getai & Ptolemaioi Faction Co-Ordinator

I joined EB in late 2006 first as a beta-tester, then as a historian for the Getai. Over the last two years I've become Faction Coordinator for both the Getai and the Ptolemaioi. In the real world I'm a graduate student working on my dissertation. As regards both factions, I want to find ways to depict them in ways that reflect current research. An actual ancient kingdom or empire was considerably more complex than the relatively simple institutions we find in Total War games. Working with a popular project like EB gives me a chance to 1) share recent research with the public, and 2) delve into the arms and armor sorts of questions that we don't usually work with all that often in academia. I would love to see EB2 reach the point where I could confidently use it in a classroom setting to demonstrate how armies fought one another or how governments ruled their states.


Fuente: http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=108997

Impresionante ¿eh?.

Gracias a Sertorio.

Hola



Esta muy conseguido , esta muy interesante.

Es una gran noticia ..si les queda la mitad de bien que en el EB del Mod de RTW, sera un juegazo impresionante ......

Ahora no es un mod, ahora es un juego ¿eh Ale?.

No se si tengo mas ganas de que salga el EBII o el Empire TW. :?:

No veas como se lo curran esta gente. ¿Saldrá mas o menos cuando el Empire verdad?

(HG)Gale escribió:


Entonces nos haran pagar por disfrutar de ese inmeso juegazo ..!!!!!.... :evil: :wowowo:

Jajajjajaja.

tiene una pintorra!!!

Ahora que lo pienso, ¿ya saben moldear los edificios de las ciudades en el mapa de batalla?

Que se sabe de este mod ?? sigue en funcionamiento? me gustaria echarle el guante ya!!! existe alguna beta? :mrgreen:

Será liberado dentro de un año mas o menos :S

arggggggggg q putada , tendremos q esperar :evil:

Nueva preview de provincias:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=247033

Hola amigos, hace tiempo que conozco este estupendo foro y acabo de registrarme por la siguiente razón:

Estoy tratando de convencer al equipo de Europa Barbarorum para que incluyan una facción celtíbera al menos en el próximo EB2. Creo que no soy el único que encuentra un poco extraña la situación actual con una sólo facción hispana representada por los Lusitanos en la que sus propias unidades son celtíberas en tipo, incluso nombre y armamento.

Agradecería que alguien se animara a hechar una mano en la discusión presente en el foro que incluso ha llegado a acalorarse con la intervención de un forero portugués al parecer representante del departamento ibérico del mod. Este es el link:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=115815

Un saludo celtíberos...