Rome Total War II

[Raghar]

So CA has released a beta patch now. Not only do they want us to beta test the game proper, they also want us to be beta testers for their fucking patches. Beautiful. Fucking amazing. Why can't they just release the shit (both the patch and the game) when it's done? Ugh.

It's CA. What did you expect? They have crappy programming.

Did I say ETW wasn't playable? No. I said it was a turd and is still broken, those statements are both true. When after all this time the game still has crashes, MP campaign is a joke, still poorly optimized, still has BAI bugs even with the best mods, trading is still a joke, naval boarding combat is finicky at best, and the campaign map design is pathetic, then yeah....it's a broken turd.

Edit: I forgot siege mechanics, don't make me puke.

I didn't bothered with naval boarding when I could blow up enemy ship. But of course these naval battles get old quite fast.
Trading was of course problem. It wasn't realistic, a intra-empire trading should gradually replace inter-empire trading when empire grown large, and was subject of embargos for long term.

I never had crashes, and I didn't bothered with MP. What for? It wasn't designed for MP, and even MP in Shogun 2 felt forced into it because people like MP and simplicity.

The main problem was no 4 turns per year, which considering the length of the campaign didn't allow for proper gameplay and domination without abusing game mechanic, or never losing and miscalculate.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'll just wait till they release a gold edition like with Shogun 2.

 

[Caim]

Looks like CA spend some of their extra marketing money on the Salarian sounding dude from Extra Credits to talk about the first Punic War:



Money that should have been used for fixing bugs.

 

[Zeriel]

Fixing bugs doesn't sell copies, sir.

Also, instead of watching that nonsense, check this out:

http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/page/6/

It covers the entire history of Rome from mythical founding to fall, exhaustively and interestingly.

 

[Mortmal]

Why can't they just release the shit (both the patch and the game) when it's done? Ugh.

Because impatient manboons like you are cheaper more competitve betatesters than a hired army of paid betatesters.

Thats exactly that, and once manboons like myself have reported for free all those bugs and that team of manboons release europa barbarorum 2 for free it will be an excellent game for you to enjoy. While sega pocket all the benifits it doesnt deserves.

 

[Zeriel]

No one releases a game this buggy and unoptimized without knowing it has glaring issues.

"Oh, dear! The game runs like shit! And roman centurions are riding a boat through the sands of Egypt! This completely eluded our internal QA."

Someone just decided, "Hey, you know what would be great? Big bales of money. This game is ready for release."

 

[Raghar]

No one releases a game this buggy and unoptimized without knowing it has glaring issues.

"Oh, dear! The game runs like shit! And roman centurions are riding a boat through the sands of Egypt! This completely eluded our internal QA."

They don't have internal QA.

 

[J_C]

Ok, this UI is getting on my nerves. Maybe I'm stupid, yeah, I'm probably stupid. But I cannot find the menu where I can see my resources. I've just established a trade route with the greeks, and the game tells me that I'm selling 65 marbles to them. Cool. But where can I see that what resources do I have, where is that 65 marbles coming from.

The other thing is the buildings. Figuring out what buildings you have currently is a mess. As I see it, you can only see what you have built last, and what you can build in the future. But where are my already built buildings? For example in one region I can only build Legionaries and throwing spear dudes but in the other, I can also build Triariis. And for the hell I can't figure out that which building makes that difference. Am I blind, or this awful UI really unusable?

 

[Vibalist]

Why can't they just release the shit (both the patch and the game) when it's done? Ugh.

Because impatient manboons like you are cheaper more competitve betatesters than a hired army of paid betatesters.

It was more of a rhetorical question, I guess, though point taken. It just makes me fucking angry that they have the nerve to pull something like this.

 

[Cursed Platypus]

................................................................................

 

[J_C]

glorious Shogun 2 pic


shitty Rome 2 pic

................................................................................

This sums up pretty much. I can't think of a single element of the game, which was improved compared to Shogun 2. The AI is not better, the UI is retarded, graphically it is a step back, the only positive thing is that you have a huge European map in the campaign, compared to the relatively small Japanese map.

 

[Vibalist]

What graphical settings are you playing Rome 2 in? It looks a lot better on my PC, better than Shogun 2 really.

 

[J_C]

What graphical settings are you playing Rome 2 in? It looks a lot better on my PC, better than Shogun 2 really.

I'm playing it on a little below extreme. Textures are on max, only the shadows and the anti-aliasing is OFF, and no way it looks better than shogun2.

 

[TheCatsofSanktPetersburg]

Money that should have been used for fixing bugs.

Oh be quiet, that was actually pretty good.

 

[Mortmal]

Ok, this UI is getting on my nerves. Maybe I'm stupid, yeah, I'm probably stupid. But I cannot find the menu where I can see my resources. I've just established a trade route with the greeks, and the game tells me that I'm selling 65 marbles to them. Cool. But where can I see that what resources do I have, where is that 65 marbles coming from.

The other thing is the buildings. Figuring out what buildings you have currently is a mess. As I see it, you can only see what you have built last, and what you can build in the future. But where are my already built buildings? For example in one region I can only build Legionaries and throwing spear dudes but in the other, I can also build Triariis. And for the hell I can't figure out that which building makes that difference. Am I blind, or this awful UI really unusable?

You arent the only one,i dont know where its located either, worse i had to browse the web to find how to use edicts,since theres no manual , those are so old gen, but an online encyclopedia. Of course the info wasnt in.
I wanted to go to next turn then received the "you can have a new edict" message , but couldnt find where this was located, completely unintuitive . Same for buildings, uninformative symbols instead of a clear pic of a building like in previous games. its a simple game much simpler game than paradox games yet i find it more confusing, the UI is a nightmare . A simple exemple why placing the strategic map button right next to the end turn half the time i open the map when wanting to end turn, this button doesnt even have a map icon on it...

Now that i think about it am not even sure if building in one province allows recruitement of said units in all owned provinces. I really wanted to like this game, but i really cant find anything postiive to say about it , its one of the worst release i witnessed ever , and ive seen lot of shit release.

They must have a lot of extra credit after all the playtesting they skip .

 

[Trash]

Interestingly there is a lot that Rome II does right. The unit banter on the battlefield, the integrated general's speech at the start of battle, the victory points and siege battle mechanics, the slightly more diverse normal battles, warscape battles that actually take into account the geographical features of the area in which the battle takes place, the potential for much better and clearer diplomacy through the new mechanics, the graphics in battle that sometimes really do look stunning, the muted filter which I dig, the unit icon art style, some of the music, the myriad of factions, the core sea battle mechanics.

But then it just piles up the crap. Shit siege AI, unintuitive UI, lack of any seasons, battles that run at breakneck speed, bugs galore, diminished campaign gameplay (they really lost half of the gameplay through this), the incredibly slow turn passovers and, my bet irritation, the fact that ships you sink in a naval battle are not neccessarily the ships that are gone in the campaign. Amazingly disappointing release after the incline that was Shogun 2. This one feels like it should've been kept in production and QA for at least a month or three. Still, it has a shitload of potential. I'm far from sure it's ever going to reach that however.

 

[Caim]

Money that should have been used for fixing bugs.

Oh be quiet, that was actually pretty good.

Sure, I like these guys and the story they told here was good and informative. Still, I think developers look a bit dopey if they spend money on this sort of thing instead of making their games work.

 

[MetalCraze]

The victory flag in open battles is comletely retarded,who did this should be shot int he balls, it force you to place your troops in horrible strategic locations . In strategy games i used to place archers in woods , hide units for ambushes , place cavalry in top of the the hill and charge that kind of tactical stuff you know . Nothing of that anymore, defend the fucking flag at the bottom of the valley

I had about 50 battles thus far (excluding the ones I autoresolved) and never I saw a single victory point in anything but town / fortress maps. So I'm not sure what you are talking about.
All that you've named above I (and even AI at times) do without any issues.

Disregard everything sun tzu said in his little book, it seems the purpose of the game is to be played with a pad for mainstream audience, we are just beta testing for the upcoming ps3 xbox one port.

Yes the interface is very gamepad friendly and consoles will totally run this game.

Paranoid much?


The only things that can be bashed are bugs and instability (it crashed on me in the middle of the Epic Final Rome vs. Carthage Battle and I raged hard) but that's the usual thing with any TW ever.

Also I like the limit of slots per city a lot. No more of MOO2-like shit where you end up building all of the same buildings in every city. Now you actually have to specialize. I just wish you could see what enemy have built so you could specifically strike at the towns producing food to cause starvation for example, without cutting an enemy from resources by a pure chance.

 

[Chef_Hathaway]

ships you sink in a naval battle are not neccessarily the ships that are gone in the campaign.

I destroyed Epirus as Macedon, and they had an admiral's Hexareme that I, no joke, sank 5! times before it eventually decided to disappear off the campaign map.

One time I even cracked it in half with a ram attack, just to be informed I had taken 7 captives and the ship leisurely retreated off the coast of Apollonia.

 

[Brinko]

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthre...rrent-State-of-the-Game-and-What-Happens-Next

Sorry From CA - Current State of the Game and What Happens Next
Hi All - I’m just posting this on behalf of Mike Simpson, Creative Director on Total War here at Creative Assembly - Bart CA

--------------------------

Hi everyone and thanks for your attention.

We just wanted to reassure you that we do know it’s an extremely annoying and frustrating time for some of you at the moment and we are working around the clock to sort out those issues that you are having. The first patch has just gone up - it's not trouble-free we know and are fixing with a hotfix, but there will be another next week and every week after that till the problems are gone.

At the moment it may seem that the changes are slight, but they aren’t the only ones we are working on currently and bigger changes are happening now for future patches.

If you are having a problem, it is totally unacceptable and a big deal for us, please know that we are spending all our dev effort on fixing outstanding issues.

I realise in our rush to do that we haven’t updated you on the situation, so if you are interested, please read on.

Scale of launch issues
First and foremost let me say that if even one person has a problem running the game we would want to fix it, this is why we’ve set up 24 hour support and if you post in the support forums you will get an answer or discover a solution that’s already posted for your issue.

I appreciate that it doesn’t help to know this if you are somebody having an issue, but the vast majority of people are running the game without problems. At the moment we are seeing 2% of people playing reporting a technical issue. Let me be clear, that is 2% too many and we will be helping them into the game and working very hard to make sure they get the best possible experience.

To these people we are really very sorry that you are having problems, we really want to get you enjoying our game, please do take the time to post your issue in the Support Forum if there isn't a fix for you available in there already.

Technical Issues
ROME II is a big and complex game and, especially on PC, we are always conscious of the wide variety of different combinations of hardware out there and, while we do test extensively before launch, it is clear that we have failed some of you and we will look at the way in which launch games in the future. Again, I know this is scant comfort to you if you have a set-up that is not performing well, but we do intend to fix your specific problem – whoever you are and whatever it is - as soon as we can.

Many issues have been alleviated by the workarounds and system tweaks posted about in the Support Forum, please do head to this thread as your first port of call http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...support-forums, if your issue is not solved by stepping through these solutions please do post your issue in the Support Forum and one of the team will get back to you.

Gameplay Issues
If you have concerns on the actual features and mechanics, like gameplay balancing and AI behaviour, we do want to hear about them. As mentioned before launch we absolutely intend to support ROME II post-release with plenty of content, further development and comprehensive balancing through-out – and no I’m not thinking of DLC you have to pay for. We have already planned for some very interesting stuff and we wanted to do that with advice from the community.

Please do keep posting your concerns, our code team are focussing on tech issues to get people playing, but our design teams are very aware of your concerns and are already looking at ways to add further options and rebalance aspects of the game.

You will see our community team dropping into threads to ask questions, please do chat to them, but even if you don’t see a response please do know that we look at the forums every day here and do appreciate what you have to say.

Thank you for reading,

Mike Simpson

I really would like the breakdown on the 2% of people reporting. Like how many people have just written TW off completely because of shit release after shit release and how many see the thousands of threads and say "well I guess my issues have already been reported"?

Also the glossing over the gameplay issues section is fucking hilarious. You can really tell that their ego has been really bruised by people calling this turd what it is.

 

[J_C]

The victory flag in open battles is comletely retarded,who did this should be shot int he balls, it force you to place your troops in horrible strategic locations . In strategy games i used to place archers in woods , hide units for ambushes , place cavalry in top of the the hill and charge that kind of tactical stuff you know . Nothing of that anymore, defend the fucking flag at the bottom of the valley

I had about 50 battles thus far (excluding the ones I autoresolved) and never I saw a single victory point in anything but town / fortress maps. So I'm not sure what you are talking about.
All that you've named above I (and even AI at times) do without any issues.

That's true though, playing some more battles, it seems that only city defence/attack maps have those, and in those cases you station in the city anyway.

Disregard everything sun tzu said in his little book, it seems the purpose of the game is to be played with a pad for mainstream audience, we are just beta testing for the upcoming ps3 xbox one port.

Yes the interface is very gamepad friendly and consoles will totally run this game.

Paranoid much?

No, consoles will not run the game. But the UI is still shit.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

LoL some codexers failing hard to find simple info,then criticize the game for not having good UI.

Ok, this UI is getting on my nerves. Maybe I'm stupid, yeah, I'm probably stupid. But I cannot find the menu where I can see my resources. I've just established a trade route with the greeks, and the game tells me that I'm selling 65 marbles to them. Cool. But where can I see that what resources do I have, where is that 65 marbles coming from.

The other thing is the buildings. Figuring out what buildings you have currently is a mess. As I see it, you can only see what you have built last, and what you can build in the future. But where are my already built buildings? For example in one region I can only build Legionaries and throwing spear dudes but in the other, I can also build Triariis. And for the hell I can't figure out that which building makes that difference. Am I blind, or this awful UI really unusable?

Just uninstall.

You arent the only one,i dont know where its located either, worse i had to browse the web to find how to use edicts,since theres no manual , those are so old gen, but an online encyclopedia. Of course the info wasnt in.
I wanted to go to next turn then received the "you can have a new edict" message , but couldnt find where this was located, completely unintuitive . Same for buildings, uninformative symbols instead of a clear pic of a building like in previous games. its a simple game much simpler game than paradox games yet i find it more confusing, the UI is a nightmare . A simple exemple why placing the strategic map button right next to the end turn half the time i open the map when wanting to end turn, this button doesnt even have a map icon on it...

Now that i think about it am not even sure if building in one province allows recruitement of said units in all owned provinces.

You too.

 

[Quilty]

Still, the UI is so bland and uninspired that it's very easy to miss things. Especially if you make it that minimalist that one has to go pixel hunting for tiny little icons in a bland transparent window ripped straight from Windows 7...

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Also I like the limit of slots per city a lot. No more of MOO2-like shit where you end up building all of the same buildings in every city. Now you actually have to specialize. I just wish you could see what enemy have built so you could specifically strike at the towns producing food to cause starvation for example, without cutting an enemy from resources by a pure chance.

Don't know how it is with the patch but you don' even need to do that. AI keeps building shit despite public disorder cost and has 1000 rebellions after turn 50.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Still, the UI is so bland and uninspired that it's very easy to miss things. Especially if you make it that minimalist that one has to go pixel hunting for tiny little icons in a bland transparent window ripped straight from Windows 7...

I agree that is bland,but missing things when there is 6 buttons overall is just retarded.Minimalistic?So you want to be able to see the icons from the couch, ah?