Rome Total War II

[spectre]

Still, it's probably same shit as Fallout 3 endings, inflated to look impressive in the press. 3/4 of them will be just texture recolors.
The real question is, how many of them will be playable, and how meaningful will be the differences.

 

[Trash]

Still, it's probably same shit as Fallout 3 endings, inflated to look impressive in the press. 3/4 of them will be just texture recolors.
The real question is, how many of them will be playable, and how meaningful will be the differences.

It's already been known for quite some time that most of those factions will belong to specific 'culture' groups and will share (mostly) the same units with perhaps a few recolors and stat changes. The playable factions will get special attention design wise and I'd wager we'll see a shitload of faction dlc to flesh out other interesting ones. I'm not against it as waging war against a Gaulish tribe at least won't mean I start a war with all of France anymore*. Plus hey, this should make modders be able to go absolutely crazy.

Turn times however. I'm wondering how that will work.

EDIT: Still, it seems like they're really pouring a lot of ambition into this one. Let's hope it will lead to another RTW instead of an Empire:TW.

* In Paradox's EU: Rome there was a feature that would mean that everyone at war could and would draw their allies in. Who then would call all of their allies in, who would... You get the idea. I didn't know that at first and send in my legions to crush a puny barbarian province. I fucking started WWIII right there as within months the rest of the world either declared war against me or with me. They since then squashed that feature but part of me was sad when they did. That really was the best, hardest and most hilarious gameplay experience I ever had in any Paradox game.

 

[Borelli]

I'm glad for the 117 factions because after playing Paradox games i don't think i will be able to get used to seeing gray "rebels" again.

 

[Malakal]

Just popping in to point out that they usually lie a lot pre release and promise features we wont find in.

 

[lophiaspis]

Game is very important to the future of DRM. It has about the same potential market as SimCity but will be essentially DRM-free. If it sells more than 1 mil in the first month then that is very good. Seriously considering a D1P over this. And lets be honest it looks pretty great.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Plus hey, this should make modders be able to go absolutely crazy.

Did they open up the modding again after Empire? I haven’t played much of these games since M2 but I remember the hubbub about not being able to mode Empire and perhaps SG2.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Just read the last 10 pages of this thread. It's funny how you all went from optimism to despair over the last 4 months. And that modding still sucks in Empire and Shogun. Oh well. EB2 should be released in a year or two anyway.

I wish they finally took a leaf out of EB's book and add Bactria.

They should add Bartix.

And good times were had by all that day.

Anyway looking at the Parthia Faction page you can see a Bactria province on the map. There does not seem to be any provinces beyond it so it may be the very edge. Anyway incoming DLC and all that.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Just read the last 10 pages of this thread. It's funny how you all went from optimism to despair over the last 4 months

Given the releases in the past 2-3 years it isn't that surprising. Especially with CA's latest track record.

I won't post another wall of text stressing how terribad Shogun 2 was in both multi and single player but they promised mod tools for Empire a long time after they stopped releasing DLC for it and delivered peanuts. Why should Rome 2 be any better?

Yeah, a large part of the fans said how this is CA's last chance at keeping their reputation untarnished and retaining their dedicated fanbase but this isn't the first time a company shat all over us to appeal to a wider audience and go for increased sales and intensive DLC milking. I know almost a hundred people and several clans/teams that I played with and competed regulalry in TW games and all of them said to me the same thing. After the fail that Shogun 2 was in multiplayer (I won't even mention FOTS or the banality of the campaign and lack of mods) Rome 2 will make it right or break the series.

 

[Jick Magger]

I'm still looking forward to it.

 

[Spectacle]

The one thing I really want them to do is to simplify the strategic map and focus the game more on the battles. IMHO the board game like map of the original Shogun and Medieval was better than the more detailed map of Rome+.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I actually enjoy the complicated board game aspect of the Total War games.

It makes the multiplayer games more interesting than a quick battle.

 

[Trash]

The campaign map is never ever going to back to ye olde TW. Unfortunately. That said I am looking forward to see the new way they want to manage provinces. Larger regions made up of several areas with only a central one being a city or settlement? Could be interesting or retarded depending on implementation. At the very least it should be a nice way to pull back on the neverending siege grind that got introduced with the original RTW.

Plus it should be fun to see whether or not they managed to come up with a decent CAI this time.

 

[Malakal]

That idea in R2 is quite similar to their first campaign maps though, hopefully they axe some of the useless agents too, it got ridiculous how many of those they had.

 

[Brinko]

I just hope they don't have every goddamn agent able to take each other out. Shit was retarded in Shogun 2, everyone is a goddamn assassin now.

 

[Brayko]

Yeah besides the heavy "Rock Paper Scissors" mechanics in Shogun 2 the game is actually quite an improvement over their previous few titles, which were quite stale. If they get rid of that and "realm divide" (where everyone stacks up against you if you get too powerful, also a stupid design decision) it will already be quite good. They've already confirmed that battle speed will be a bit slower so I can't really see any practical way that this will be disappointing, but I know better than to be too optimistic, there's always that chance that they could botch something.

 

[Malakal]

I can see one risk already: the new fog of war system in battle. If detecting units will indeed as hard as they say battles could devolve into tedious searches for last enemy stragglers. Or waiting for the time limit, but seriously, 20-30 minutes each battle?

 

[DeepOcean]

I can see what they are trying to do with the not every province has a city but I don't know if it the best way to solve the excessive number of sieges and not enough battles on a open field problem. The AI cities should surrender to you if there isn't a big garrison or there isn't a big army nearby. I remember how horrible it was trying to assault those little villages and conquer the center of the village that was protected many times by the ridiculous overpowered enemy generals that could rout three hastari even when surrounded. The jedi generals, the retarded mechanic of having to conquer the center of the city (they could add places to be conquered nearby the walls, so if you breach the walls and there isn't a enemy unit nearby for 1:00 you should automaticaly win) and the completely broken unit cohesion inside the city streets made sieges a nightmare.There was a problem of you just letting the AI commit suicide over and over again trying to conquer the nearest city (that you had a massive garrison protecting) instead of the AI attacking deeper on the least protected cities. The hunger mechanic should work faster and the AI should wait a little more to kill a few of your troops of hunger before assaulting the city, you should loose population for every turn that the city is sieged, so sitting inside the city forever shouldn't work so well. From what I see, they are much more worried trying to make battles cinematic than to correct those problems.

 

[Trash]

The hunger mechanic should work faster

Then do not bitch about the rest of the ahistorical stuff like flaming pigs and pharaoh troops and so on. Roman era sieges often took years with the besieged usually only falling due to either treason or a lack of supplies instead of head on assaults.

Although Carthage was the exception to the rule. Mind you, that assault was incredibly bloody with Roman troops apparantly even using the bones/dead bodies of people to aid them in making a ramp for the final assault on that ancient enemy. Not something they were keen on doing as routine.

 

[CaptainAwesome]

Yeah besides the heavy "Rock Paper Scissors" mechanics in Shogun 2 the game is actually quite an improvement over their previous few titles, which were quite stale. If they get rid of that and "realm divide" (where everyone stacks up against you if you get too powerful, also a stupid design decision) it will already be quite good. They've already confirmed that battle speed will be a bit slower so I can't really see any practical way that this will be disappointing, but I know better than to be too optimistic, there's always that chance that they could botch something.

Realm divide was actually pretty awesome in my game.

Of course, I was playing a mod, so instead of it being everyone against me, it came down to a glorious war for all of Japan.

In the south, countless minor clans and fiefdoms fought under one banner in against my bloated Oda empire, while the north was host to a titanic struggle between the Takeda (Allies who I sunk so much money and marriages into in anticipation of this very moment) and the Date.

It was fucking awesome, especially since by this point in the game, both sides were fielding doomstacks against one another every turn.

 

[Brayko]

Well it was shit in my game. I had a crapton of vassals because I'm GENEROUS and am willing to allow the people I conquer to live independently as long as they pay homage and a little tax, and I only had like 3 more territories to conquer to win when all of a sudden they all spring up against me! That is NOT how shit goes down, I am NOT Napoleon Bonaparte, I'm the kind of bro who makes the conquered glad they were conquered because I'm the man. There was NO legitimate reason to do this other than the designers pissing on my work. When I reconquered everything and FINALLY won it was a shit tasting victory, would have been much more satisfied if I could have just completed my playthrough earlier.

 

[CaptainAwesome]

Well it was shit in my game. I had a crapton of vassals because I'm GENEROUS and am willing to allow the people I conquer to live independently as long as they pay homage and a little tax, and I only had like 3 more territories to conquer to win when all of a sudden they all spring up against me! That is NOT how shit goes down, I am NOT Napoleon Bonaparte, I'm the kind of bro who makes the conquered glad they were conquered because I'm the man. There was NO legitimate reason to do this other than the designers pissing on my work. When I reconquered everything and FINALLY won it was a shit tasting victory, would have been much more satisfied if I could have just completed my playthrough earlier.

Get the Radious mod, or at least his Realm Divide Submod.

Changes Realm Divide from EVERYONE HATES YOU FOREVER to VASSALS AND ALLIES SHALL STAND WITH YOU AGAINST THE TIDE OF FAGGOTRY.

I really recommend it, otherwise the game just becomes shit during the finale.

 

[MapMan]

I used the Darth mod and at some point (like halfway through) I already had so much land, cash and army that nothing could stop me. Dunno why. I didn't play on the very hardest difficulty but I did play on hard or very hard, I don't remember.

 

[CaptainAwesome]

I used the Darth mod and at some point (like halfway through) I already had so much land, cash and army that nothing could stop me. Dunno why. I didn't play on the very hardest difficulty but I did play on hard or very hard, I don't remember.

I prefer Radious mod.

Lots of new units, combat is much more drawn out and brutal, extensive changes to the buildings and unit system, overhauled diplomacy, and a realm divide that actually lets you keep your allies.

One other thing I think is neat, is that while the initial cost to purchase a unit is increased, it's upkeep is much smaller than it once was.

It encourages you to preserve your armies rather than just churn out new ones, which I think is a nice touch.

For example, my most crippling defeat in my Oda game was when one of my armies reached too far into enemy territory. They took the fortress, but it was bloody, and when the enemy counterattacked with three stacks, I had no supporting armies to bail them out. Their general was the best I had, but I felt the loss of all those veteran soldiers far more keenly.

It was pretty much a full blown "GIVE MY BACK MY LEGIONS" episode that set me back years, and ensured that region would remain contested right up till the end of the war.

Of course, I think that just shows how great it is.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

The campaign map is never ever going to back to ye olde TW. Unfortunately.

Yeah,but why?This shitty 3d map is the core for all the bad CAI and stupid and unrealistic battle movement.Does any of the fans care that much for the 3d map,did they ever said why the change from 2d?Not to mention that in Shogun2 it's masked old map,provinces are 1turn close to each other and with most 2 ways to enter any of them.They could do so much cool stuff with the old map...

That said I am looking forward to see the new way they want to manage provinces. Larger regions made up of several areas with only a central one being a city or settlement? Could be interesting or retarded depending on implementation. At the very least it should be a nice way to pull back on the neverending siege grind that got introduced with the original RTW.

Plus it should be fun to see whether or not they managed to come up with a decent CAI this time.

So it will be like Empire/Napoleon then,I will be able to chain siege(and conquer) half Europe in one turn.

 

[Trash]

So it will be like

Not really. Apparantly you'll also need to 'conquer' all the regions without a city. Dunno how they intend to do that but from recent articles it would seem that they've at the very least introduced more battle types. We'll see. Do hope it won't mean a specific battle that fires for every region you try to take though.