Rome Total War II

[oscar]

Sounds interesting that map-painting has been made harder than Rome 1. Especially as this is an era where map-painting is justified.

 

[Malakal]

Sounds interesting that map-painting has been made harder than Rome 1. Especially as this is an era where map-painting is justified.

Yes it was the era of map painting buy during the first Punic war Rome took what, Sicily? After 20 years of warfare. Conquest wasnt very fast at all. Gaul also fell after several years, in other areas it took longer even. Of course Britannia took only few years but thats "late" game when you can afford to send there 4-5 full legions.

Those revolts also do a good job of simulating barbarian revolts that Rome faced all the time. I am more pissed by lots of slave revolts.

Conquest mechanic seems fine to me overall.

 

[Declinator]

You must have noticed by now that some minor factions actually expand now where before they would just just do nothing. I've also noticed AI armies incorporate high value units like elite hoplites or oathsworn so there's some improvement.

They used some elite units even before the patches. The question is do they now recruit enough of them (as in stacks full of them or at least half of stacks)? Some three or so Oathsworns in a stack otherwise full of levy spearmen/javelinmen just didn't mean anything.

And I saw some minor factions expand slightly before patches. Certainly they were never very stable (couldn't handle rebellions) but neither were the major factions. It seemed as though the minor factions had a cap for their armies so they couldn't expand beyond a certain point (about 4-5 settlements) or otherwise they would always be spread too thin. Could be that it was the food problem also.

 

[Bradylama]

Yes, the AI is utterly incapable of managing food. I've seen 6-region empires collapse because they've spent the last 20 turns starving to death.

 

[Brinko]

http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Patch_3

So let's see if all the battle changes fix anything. I'm going to take the safe bet and say no fucking way.

 

[Commissar Draco]

So after which patch the game will be out of beta? 2.0? Will wait for Rome mods for MTW2 they will be released sooner than Empire Rome 2 made playable.

 

[Caim]

So after which patch the game will be out of beta? 2.0? Will wait for Rome mods for MTW2 they will be released sooner than Empire Rome 2 made playable.

Patience, bro. Rome was not build in one day and neither will its patches.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Combat in Empire is still broken without mods.. Just sayin'

 

[Kem0sabe]

So after which patch the game will be out of beta? 2.0? Will wait for Rome mods for MTW2 they will be released sooner than Empire Rome 2 made playable.

I'm expecting that by the next time the game will be on sale on steam, it will be the ideal oportunity to try it.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

genocidal, WWII-era Japanese nationalism. Great fun.

 

[Vibalist]

• When the player is attacked whilst in a minor settlement (not provincial capital), a new "Sally Forth" button is available on the pre-battle panel to fight the attackers in an open field battle.

This is such a shitty solution. Rather than tweaking the AI to make it better at handling city battles, they just turn every city battle into an open field battle instead. CA are just papering over the cracks rather than actually fixing things.

 

[Raghar]

• When the player is attacked whilst in a minor settlement (not provincial capital), a new "Sally Forth" button is available on the pre-battle panel to fight the attackers in an open field battle.

This is such a shitty solution. Rather than tweaking the AI to make it better at handling city battles, they just turn every city battle into an open field battle instead. CA are just papering over the cracks rather than actually fixing things.

What are you talking about? This is an option for these who don't want to fight in tight city streets, because they have unit composition that needs open fields to be efficient.

 

[Vibalist]

• When the player is attacked whilst in a minor settlement (not provincial capital), a new "Sally Forth" button is available on the pre-battle panel to fight the attackers in an open field battle.

This is such a shitty solution. Rather than tweaking the AI to make it better at handling city battles, they just turn every city battle into an open field battle instead. CA are just papering over the cracks rather than actually fixing things.

What are you talking about? This is an option for these who don't want to fight in tight city streets, because they have unit composition that needs open fields to be efficient.

Well, yes. But it's also clearly there because the AI can't handle these city skirmishes very well when on the defensive. So rather than fixing that, they do this.

 

[Acheiropoieta]

• When the player is attacked whilst in a minor settlement (not provincial capital), a new "Sally Forth" button is available on the pre-battle panel to fight the attackers in an open field battle.

This is such a shitty solution. Rather than tweaking the AI to make it better at handling city battles, they just turn every city battle into an open field battle instead. CA are just papering over the cracks rather than actually fixing things.

What are you talking about? This is an option for these who don't want to fight in tight city streets, because they have unit composition that needs open fields to be efficient.

Well, yes. But it's also clearly there because the AI can't handle these city skirmishes very well when on the defensive. So rather than fixing that, they do this.

Except that doesn't make any sense because according to this the AI can't use that function when they're on the defensive. This game deserves to be shit on, but the least you could do is critique actual issues...

 

[Delterius]

Roman soldiers are Codex members and the horse is ... a worn out subject for discussion?

It was cheaper than sending Andy to the glue factory.

 

[Raghar]

It would be nice if pirates would get an update at least every other week.

 

[Shannow]

It would be nice if pirates would get an update at least every other week.

What are you talking about? Pirates are intelligent enough to wait for the gold edition (or at least a few months).

 

[fizzelopeguss]

• When the player is attacked whilst in a minor settlement (not provincial capital), a new "Sally Forth" button is available on the pre-battle panel to fight the attackers in an open field battle.

This is such a shitty solution. Rather than tweaking the AI to make it better at handling city battles, they just turn every city battle into an open field battle instead. CA are just papering over the cracks rather than actually fixing things.

What are you talking about? This is an option for these who don't want to fight in tight city streets, because they have unit composition that needs open fields to be efficient.

Well, yes. But it's also clearly there because the AI can't handle these city skirmishes very well when on the defensive. So rather than fixing that, they do this.

"When the player is Attacked"

 

[Raghar]

It would be nice if pirates would get an update at least every other week.

What are you talking about? Pirates are intelligent enough to wait for the gold edition (or at least a few months).

You need to have a taste of what will come with a gold edition. There is a patch out anyway, so it's no problem anymore.

Thought when I looked at Shogun 2 FotS gold edition, group one stance was EA can kiss our ass, and group two stance was we don't play stupid games like Shogun 2, why would we do something? All work done was a home brewed stuff from some fans.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Just had my first major battle since the patch (RLD version). AI seems to be massively improved, he gathered up his armies on the field and sent his skirmishers up the arse of my legionaries to surround me. Normally the AI just goes full retard and hurtles forward to cap the flag (where i'd just destroy or hunt down each army piecemeal).

I'm not saying it's great AI, but maybe it might actually put up a fight this time.

 

[Bradylama]

There's also some collision now. I haven't been able to test it much, but maybe players can't just do mover orders past the spear points of a pike formation anymore.

 

[aris]

It's Empire all over again, right down to the diplomacy AI, battle AI, and "dumbed down" game play decisions. Even the naval AI is "Empire-like". It makes you wonder: maybe Shogun 2 was an entirely different team, and some dumbfuck CA team have been working on Rome 2 since they worked on ETW and Napoleon, and never fixed all the problems, just like they never fixed them for the earlier games. It would explain the insanely short release time between STW2+RotS+FotS and RTW2.

1. Nah, this isn't even close to being as bad as empire, not even close.
2. Besides, it seems like they are being more hands-on about fixing stuff this time around. In empire, they barely fixed anything at all.
3. It seems like creative assembly works best when they don't get crushed by their own crazy ambitions, while at the same time hyping the game to all heavens, building a new engine, which is always buggy as hell until at least the third game in the series using that engine.
4. Shogun 2 was a little hyped and a focused game. As a matter of fact, it fell completely under the radar for me, I wasn't even aware of the game before some time after it was released. That also happens to be the best iteration in the game series yet, with its absolutely superb expansion, fall of the samurai, which was everything that empire should have been, and more.

 

[Quilty]

Never knew so many fellow 'dexers admired the Shogun 2 expansion, I might just pick it up if I see it on a sale somewhere.

 

[Jugashvili]

Never knew so many fellow 'dexers admired the Shogun 2 expansion, I might just pick it up if I see it on a sale somewhere.

I was skeptical about it first, but now that I've played it I feel it's definitely worth it. Yes, the battles are the usual popamole Total War fare, but at least they're fun, and calling in naval artillery as if the IJN Yamato was off the coast never gets old, historical accuracy be damned. The campaign is also nice, although it slows down due to a retarded Realm Divide event towards the middle that pretty much makes diplomacy impossible. Finally, I felt that the historical battles were actually worth playing, unlike the ones in most other TW games. The scale of the battles actually feels appropriate to the Boshin war, even though the casualty rates are, as always, way too high.

It also gets bonus points for having enough originality to portray the late 19th century in a setting other than the American Civil War.

 

[Vibalist]

Except that doesn't make any sense because according to this the AI can't use that function when they're on the defensive. This game deserves to be shit on, but the least you could do is critique actual issues...

"When the player is Attacked"

Regardless of what the patch note may say, enemies do sally forth on occasion when you attack their unwalled settlements. I've had it happen twice in my most recent game already.

Also, since applying patch 3 everything seems to be running much slower on my PC. Loading times especially, they're much longer now than earlier. Have any of you guys experienced anything similar?

 

[Malakal]

I have seen noticeable improvements as of patch 2, especially in AI behaviour. Battle AI is still worthless during flag battles but campaign AI and battle AI when no flags are present seems way better.

They also fixed dignitaries which I suspected were bugged. Also few nice addons to the interface.

Units still lose all cohesion and formation when attacking tho - gives a huge bonus to the defender who can hide behind the phalanx.

 

[Spectacle]

Units still lose all cohesion and formation when attacking tho - gives a huge bonus to the defender who can hide behind the phalanx.

The same thing happened in Rome 1, the best way to attack with pikemen was to order them to move to a position behind the enemy line. I'll give the tactic a ago in Rome 2 once the Seleucid DLC is out.