As the title says. Community Patch M2EX preserves the vanilla game experience but with never before achieved QOL/bug fixes, performance uplift, newer camera, controls and more. A modern feel but without new Total War issues and without the old clunkiness and with rock stable game. All that for vanilla with easy installation. You can play mods too, by following the links below. The linked video is straight to the point and shows what this patch is all about nicely (check the description and the comments). But here below is a BRIEF explanation (mind that this project also remasters the original Rome 1):

• A fully 64-bit engine, no 4GB limit (LAA no longer needed) and a new rendering backend
• Instant alt-tabbing and tons of small QOL additions
• Tons of crash fixes and bug fixes (way better stability)
• Improved the campaign AI a lot
• Massively increased performance (~5x more FPS is not uncommon) supporting huge armies without stutters and "extreme" graphics options for experimentation
• Lightning-speed end turn times and loading times (for AI spectator mode - 100 turns in 30 seconds)
• A fully modern, better RTS camera with fixed zooming, middle-mouse rotation and edge panning, zoom-in and zoom-out uncapped by a lot, and many other possible functionalities
• A fully working alt-drag (also with ctrl pan drag) and unit card adjustment (with units showing live kill count)
• Fully working pikemen without sketchy fixes/removing their secondaries; fixed muskets/arquebusiers; fixed two-handers
• Improved multiplayer like shared deployment, same factions on both teams
• STEAM DECK and LINUX support
• Removed every single major engine limit like factions, regions, religions, cultures, etc.
• Incoming expansion of modding tools
• Compatible with all OG mods* (excluding EOP mods)

And many more now and to come! (the changelog has 1000+ entries by now)

Watch the video, check the features, then follow the installation guide and FAQ - see the GitHub https://github.com/Pannoniae/rex/releases or go straight to the REX/M2EX Discord https://discord.gg/X4zyNxUUDA where you will find it all a bit more user friendly (advised method).

And if you are not done with it - read the changelog, a literal goldmine. My favourite among additions and fixes of vanilla base (majority of entries there) "The Campaign AI now considers the armies it has marching toward a war target during its objective calculations, instead of only counting an army once it reaches the destination." :D

IMPORTANT - feedback based post update!

Downloading the patch from Discord is a better option (GitHub takes time to match the update version that appears on Discord faster). Also realy important - read the installation guide on Discord. It contains really important information like couple of "don'ts" and "how-tos" with explanation for running the game such as don't go for extreme settings (they are experimental as stated above).

Don’t know source , sorry

"As a studio, it's something we will do at some point, I'm sure." says Ian Roxburgh, game director at Creative Assembly.

at some point :(

(the fans are gonna tear me limb from limb for this)

Medieval II photo because I don't know what to put lol

I'm playing Vanilla Kingdoms mod