Hello to anybody who might be reading this, this is the first bit of news to be posted for Lines of Battle. As we ensure our compatibility with the current build of Patch 9, we want to let people know where we are in development.
Currently the majority of the new units have been successfully added into the game. What this means is that our packs now include several hundred new or redone units for nearly all of the major factions. In addition to the new units many of these units have brand new skins or at lease different variations. Ahiga has been hard at work on loads of new textures, especially for the Eastern, Hellenic, and Punic factions. You can see one such example in the screenshot of the Parthain Cataphracts. Gunny has also been working on getting things set up for the Barbarians, and in addition to the "late era" units that have been added, we have also incorporated some skins from Prussian_Warrior's Armored Suebi mod, to give our late Germans more of a proto-migration era feel.
Right now a lot of work is also being put in to the new structure of unit unlocks. A number of units were unnecessarily locked, so we are fixing this to allow for unlocks to feel like they are coming at the right time, as well as setting up later techs to have the opportunity to unlocked some of the aforementioned late era troops.
Similarly, we are working with the campaign to improve the overall experience. Agents are being totally reworked in order to ensure that one can not field hoards of level 8 agents to pummel anyone who stands in your way into the ground. Rather, agents numbers are being restricted some, and gaining experience on an agent takes time. Therefore, agents become more important, and losing an important agent has more of an impact, especially one that a lot has been invested into. The campaign experience will be further enhanced with the implementation of several mods, namely Traits, Talents, and Toadies. This will provide for a better traits and ancillaries system, which, combined with our two turns per year setup, will bring a sense of attachment and importance to the characters that come by in the campaign. Also included will be Meaningful Resources, by Xil0. This excellent mod serves to add several trade resources throughout the map, as well as provide for a proper trade system, and trade routes. For example, if country A is producing horses, country B may trade with country A. Following this trade, country B may now build a building to allow them to trade in salt with country C, and so on, leading to massive trade routes that can span from Albion to Asia.
Also an important aspect of the campaign are the startpos changes that are implemented, these changes are as follows:
Carthage: Absorb Novo Carthago and Corsica
Rome: Absorb Etruscan northern Italy
Ptolomies: Absorb Cyrene
Seleucids: Absorb Media.
These changes will serve to both enhance gameplay and allow for major factions to be a little bit more major, without going too overboard.
The campaign is also marked by a number of AI changes, notably to assist armies recruitment, ensuring the AI will spring for units it can afford, rather than ones with low upkeep. In addition, the major factions are all around more aggressive, so late era campaigns will see proper power blocs forming, hopefully diminishing the "Time to steamroll another 1 province minor again" effect.
Finally, the last major point is actual battle gameplay. Lines of Battle started off as a mod focused on this, and will strive to continue to provide truly enjoyable battles. This comes both from reducing blobbing and dancing whilst in formation, as well as increasing battle time. Battles are no longer over in 7 minutes, rather they can last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on a number of variables.
In the end, we are striving to improve Rome II. It has so much potential, and that is what we are trying to bring out. Through our battle and campaign changes, we seek to make Rome II into the experience it deserves!
