Rome Total War II

[BlackAdderBG]

Still, best mods are for Medieval 2

 

[Declinator]

Medieval 1 is about as good as it gets for Total war series, i still play it today from time to time and it reigns supreme.

For me Total War is all about the battles so I cannot see why Medieval 1 is so revered by some. Sure, the CAI might be better in Medieval 1 but the BAI is much better in Rome and Medieval 2. The BAI in RTW/MTW2 is rather predictable and rigid but at least it makes sense while in MTW1 the AI practically self destructs without any input from me. Though truthfully I haven't played much of Medieval 1 as the BAI problems seemed overwhelmingly bad.

On the open field I'm somewhat satisfied by the BAI in RTW/MTW2 (or at least with the Stainless Steel improvements) but it's a pity it implodes so horrificly when it comes to the sieges. Seems like sieges are always the main problem in TW games.

 

[Irenaeus]

Sieges battles should be forbidden.

 

[Topher]

Medieval 1 is about as good as it gets for Total war series, i still play it today from time to time and it reigns supreme.
Shogun 2 is a runner up in that it works and has some interesting features.

I'm still pissed that it won't run on my Nvidia card.

 

[Turisas]

So is the verdict that the game still blows?

 

[fastjack]

Medieval 1 is about as good as it gets for Total war series, i still play it today from time to time and it reigns supreme.

For me Total War is all about the battles so I cannot see why Medieval 1 is so revered by some. Sure, the CAI might be better in Medieval 1 but the BAI is much better in Rome and Medieval 2. The BAI in RTW/MTW2 is rather predictable and rigid but at least it makes sense while in MTW1 the AI practically self destructs without any input from me. Though truthfully I haven't played much of Medieval 1 as the BAI problems seemed overwhelmingly bad.

On the open field I'm somewhat satisfied by the BAI in RTW/MTW2 (or at least with the Stainless Steel improvements) but it's a pity it implodes so horrificly when it comes to the sieges. Seems like sieges are always the main problem in TW games.

I also play for the battles and still prefer MTW1. The speed at which they develop seems much more realistic, and along with the way morale and fatigue are handled it gives you a reason to use reserves instead of just making your line longer and wrapping around (they might not get there in time since they move much more slowly). The slower movement speeds, longer lasting fights, and morale mechanics also seem to lead to more areas of conflict within a single battle, which again seems more akin to the battles I read about on wikipedia at least.

As for the AI, I think VI with the latest patch is at least as good as any of the games that have come since. (though jedi generals and the reinforcement system both suck badly)

edit: but most importantly, the different strategic gameplay means less sieges and more meaningful and decisive battles.

So is the verdict that the game still blows?

I haven't played since like patch 4, but from reading the forums periodically I haven't seen anything mentioned there or in the patch notes that would indicate any real incline.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Sieges battles should be forbidden.

I wouldn't mind playing a decent siege battle strategy game. There is so much more they could do to make it strategic but it doesn't seem to have been developed much.

 

[Brinko]

The only thing that is of any interest in this 7 minute display of the UK's work program for the mentally disabled is the Wonders and Seasons FreeLC; a pack of shit that comes with the ability to see wonders on the battle map, seasonal ui and gameplay effects that has existed as a mod for about 4 months now, and the Carthaginian "update" which is nothing more than adding 5 new merc units instead of a more refined core roster that is pretty much the staple of every carthage mod out right now.

Fuck me why do I still care? Oh that's right I'm a fucking idiot.

Edit: I just noticed this after I posted but holy fuck whoever decided to use the frame where both of the morons talking have just this dead eyed stare is a genius. Truly encapsulates the entire development and patching process CA has done for Rome 2.

 

[Trash]

Amazing. Even the girl in the video can't hide her annoyance with the retard.

Anyway, seasons. Mods had that for months now but whatever. Wonders on the battlemaps. Nice. Game is actually getting some of the things they promised before launch. Wow. Yeah, it is a bit of incline. Then remember Rome with its distant visas of cities, active vulcanoes, mountain passes and other campaign map features that were ported 1-1 into the battle maps.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

I think it's slowly starting to incline itself. The fact that they added seasons the base game really surprised me. That means drastic changes to visuals. Gives me hope for a complete UI revamp + politics, family three.

It is possible that this game becomes good at some point. If the patches don't stop in the coming months and gifted modders appears with their creations. They might actually pull a fall of the samurai and give us a great Standalone which has everything that was retarded fixed.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

ginger cunt

 

[Konjad]

No wonder Total War AI is terrible.

 

[Brinko]

New patch again.

Seasons and Wonders Update

The Seasons and Wonders Update adds a selection of new content and functionality to the main game. It also Includes AI, technical and gameplay improvements and prepares the game for players who purchase the Hannibal at the Gates Campaign Pack DLC which is released on the 27th March.

Carthage Roster update

After the Sicilian Wars of the 4th and 5th centuries BC, the trading empire’s armed forces were left dangerously depleted, and their senate instituted a greater reliance on mercenaries to bolster their elite citizen infantry. To reflect this we’ve expanded Carthage’s mercenary recruitment pool to include three new units: Numidian Noble Cavalry, Mercenary Noble Fighters and Italian Swordsmen, along with Celtic Light Horse and Balearic Slingers. Any foreign factions who find themselves in Carthaginian territory will also be able to hire the two latter units as mercenaries.

Twitch.TV support

ROME II now natively supports Twitch.TV broadcasts, which enables you to send live gameplay streams to your Twitch.TV channel and chat directly with viewers. Check out the options from the main menu. You’ll find a new Broadcasting tab in the options menu which gives you a number of variables to tweak to get your stream looking and sounding right, including bitrate, server selection, framerate, microphone volume and so forth. When you’ve set up a Twitch.TV account and logged in via ROME II’s Broadcast tab, simply hit the new Twitch button in the ROME II UI in-game, and away you go. We’ve posted a full broadcasting guide on the Total War Wiki, which will help you set up a Twitch account, get broadcasting, and talking with viewers and fellow broadcasters. Please note that loading screens will appear black to viewers while broadcasting; this will be addressed in the next update.

Seasons in the Grand Campaign

Seasons are now in the Grand Campaign, and will cycle through 1 season as each year passes. Like Caesar in Gaul, these come with their own visual and gameplay effects, such as winter attrition.

Battlefield Wonders

If you fight a battle in the vicinity of one of the following wonders, you’ll see these epic sights on the battle map. New Battlefield Wonders include:

Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Pharos of Alexandria
The Colossus of Rhodes
Bam Citadel
The Oracle of Amun Re

Touchscreen Support

If you’re playing ROME II on a touchscreen device, such as an Ultrabook, we’ve implemented touchscreen input support in partnership with Intel. You can browse the input instructions in the ROME II Encyclopaedia, which explain how to use the camera, navigate maps, and give army and unit orders via fingertip gestures.

Technical and Performance Improvements

Battle

• Improved battlefield pathfinding.
• Crash fix for an infrequent AI crash which occurred during encampment battles, after a palisade had been destroyed.
• Improved the plane of water in battle maps, to reduce harsh edges when it intersected with the terrain.
• Fix for large pathfinding spikes in barbarian siege battle, which caused battles to stutter.
• Fix for the battlefield terrain sometimes turning black when switching between graphics settings on some configurations.
• Fix for a rare crash while units disembarked from ships during combined battle.

Campaign

• Fix for a large frame rate drop when placing the mouse over a blockaded port with an agent selected. Agents can now act on blockaded settlements.
• The sea on the campaign will no longer clips through the land around some coastal settlements on various screen resolutions.
• Fix for a client crash when the host switches from a Multiplayer Campaign lobby to battle lobby whilst client is joining.

Modding

• Added support for disabling / enabling out of date mods in the Launcher. This is likely to stop game crashes when an update is released.
• Fixed the "showmessage_event()" campaign script function. The function takes an event key from the "message_events" table, an integer X co-ordinate and an integer Y co-ordinate as parameters. Custom events can be added by modders, but must have an event key beginning with "custom_event", followed by a number (e.g. "custom_event_678").

Gameplay Improvements

Battle AI improvements

• Improvements to how the Battle AI calculates the priorities for attacking/defending certain areas in cities and minor settlements, to reduce passive AI in some situations.
• When the player disembarks defending units, the attacking AI will no longer flip-flop between attacking the city and the newly disembarked units.
• Improvements made to the siege battle AI’s ability to re-use previously abandoned siege vehicles when attacking.
• Fixed a Barbarian minor port battlefield variant, which previously only allowed the battle AI to access one side of the map that they were deployed in. The battlefield AI will now be able to use all of this map as intended.
• Artillery units are now moved to a more useful position during battles, for example closer to the settlements if they are out of range in order to bombard them.
• Improvements to Battle AI bracing.
• Improved disembarking behaviour for AI Naval units in battle.

General battle improvements

• Victory conditions in un-walled settlements and encampment battles are no longer based on victory points. These victory points remain, but now provide a morale bonus to nearby troops holding the position.
• Victory conditions in walled settlements are now based on a single victory point only, rather than three in some maps. These victory points remain, but now provide a morale bonus to nearby troops holding the position.
• Following the changes made to the victory conditions in minor settlements and encampment battles, the battle AI is free to leave the victory point when defending to engage attackers outside, and will now attempt to do so when beneficial.
• The "Weak points" feature in siege battles was deemed counter-intuitive and therefore has been removed. Previously, this feature caused some sections of city wall to be weak which could be exploited by the attacker, even if the city had no damage in the campaign.
• In the Zarmizegetusa (Roman city map variant) battle map, captured gates will now be owned by the correct army when taken.
• Fixed a problem in the Alexandria siege map, which sometimes lead attacking AI into a dead-end, or made the AI only focus on 1 victory point. Also fixed some collision on some stairs in this map.
• Tweaked sidestepping/strafing speeds of units on the battlefield.
• Fixed elephant riders incorrectly using firing animations while facing in the wrong directions.
• Missile cavalry will now draw melee weapons correctly when charging.
• Minor improvements to the terrain heights in the Carthage Historical Battle.
• Horse Archers and other fast skirmishers are now more effective in auto-resolved combat.
• Improved ladder docking points, and the terrain beneath them in the medium Egyptian port battlefield settlement, to allow ladders to dock more effectively.
• Fix for missing secondary weapons for Dacian Noble Horsemen and Persian Cavalry.

General AI improvements

• Improved public order management in Campaign modes.
• Improved the Campaign AI’s strategic analysis of enemy force distribution.

General Campaign improvements

• Improvements to end-turn times in Campaign modes.
• The pool of Factional mercenaries in campaign mode is now replenished after a mercenary is recruited.
• When an agent attempts to assassinate a barbarian warlord, the warlord will no longer move to another location before the wounded animation begins.
• Agent actions that extend building construction time no longer stack. Cancelling and restarting construction no longer circumvents extended construction time.
• Fix for flammable rounds not being available in campaign.
• Indian Armoured Elephants added as a unit available to generals in campaign for Baktria.
• Changed transition cost from land to sea.
• Increased cost of moving across sea on campaign, increased navy ship action points to compensate. Land armies moving on sea will now travel a smaller distance each turn.
• Moved Cohort Organisation to higher in Roman tech tree.
• Adjusted siege techs for most factions so siege towers and battering rams are unlocked earlier.
• Changed unlock requirements for tier II Hellenic main barracks to same as for tier II Hellenic light barracks.
• Changed raiding stance to reduce GDP in region instead of giving an unhappiness penalty.
• New minor industrial chain now available in all campaigns.
• Fix for Campaign AI accidentally declaring war by converting neutral agents.

Persistent General's Bodyguards

If a general/admiral is leading a force and is replaced, then his bodyguard unit is retained with him and slowly replenishes (no upkeep costs are paid for this unit though).

If that general/admiral is reappointed to a force then the player has the choice to retain the existing bodyguard for free (including experience and unit upgrades), or to pay to change the bodyguard (to a fresh unit with no experience or unit upgrades).

When a general/admiral dies you must still pay the normal costs to replace them. If there are no free replacements available (for example an admiral dies and all of your possible replacements had land bodyguard units) and you do not have sufficient money for any of the available replacements then you must reappoint an existing general/admiral with a changed bodyguard for a reduced cost, but the size of the bodyguard will also be reduced.

If a general/admiral dies and you have no generals/admirals available to replace him and you do not have sufficient money to hire a new candidate, then you must hire a candidate at a reduced cost, but the bodyguard will also be reduced in size.

Balancing Changes

• Scythian Royal Horse Archers now have the Heavy Shot ability.
• Gallic Hunter arrows are no longer missing while they are reloading.
• Adjusted military generator templates for AI to produce more balanced armies.
• Reduced damage, ammo and reload rate of javelin armed missile units.
• Reduced AP damage of slingers.
• Rebalanced cavalry melee attack and melee defence, reduced horse hit points.
• Adjusted pike balancing.
• Reduced chariot mass.

Usability Improvements

Battle

• Audio bug fixed for units sometimes using "selection" voice over, when they began wavering on the battlefield.
• Improved use of battle order response audio for several units.

Campaign

• Added XP, bonuses, man count, cost & inactive states to General’s Bodyguard panel to support new General’s Bodyguard design.

Encyclopaedia

• Regions on faction pages now click through to interactive map.
• Abilities/attributes on unit pages now click through to relevant manual articles.
• Touch controls article added to manual.
• Garrison unit cards display numbers of units.

Gotta love how they cheaped out and it's only really 6 wonders. The one thing I do like is that the general's bodyguard retains all the experience and upgrades should they be replaced and put somewhere else or wounded. Also the re-adding of the minor industrial change and armored elephant generals makes me actually want to play as Baktria again. Would help that I only ever play as Carthage or Egypt to try other shit.

 

[Dead Guy]

 

[KoolNoodles]

 

[Emily]

So it ends....

 

[Caim]

"Comments are disabled for this video."

Gee, I wonder why...

 

[Dreaad]

Man that touch control crap looks so uncomfortable, in addition to ... you know... covering up half the fucking screen with your own hands. Hur Hur so much immersion, you really feel like you are a Roman commander waving commands to your troops.

They should have combined this with that other really great idea from a few years back, when there was several games released with that awesome mechanic which made you have to scream instructions at an inanimate object.

 

[Steve]

I love how they denied the rumours of a console port and it turned out to be even worse.

 

[Jick Magger]

It's good to know that Creative Assembly is trying to deal with the massive bugs and broken AI by continuing to release mini-campaign DLC and porting their game to a platform that's best suited to simple, arcadey games that you can pick up and play for a few minutes, and not games with fairly complex user interfaces and controls designed to be played for hours at a time.

It's good to have contempt for your audience.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Just saw it.

Comments turned off.

Rating are also off.

GOOD JERB

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...roach_to_achieving_high_Metacritic_scores.php

Spoiler

Total War is now officially both dead and buried.

 

[catfood]

Nice I always wanted to command war camels while on the can.

 

[Konjad]

GOOD JERB

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...roach_to_achieving_high_Metacritic_scores.php

Spoiler

Total War is now officially both dead and buried.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/total-war-rome-ii

Seems like it works for them pretty good.

 

[Disgruntled]

Just saw it.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...roach_to_achieving_high_Metacritic_scores.php

Im both disgusted and enraged reading that. Man that was fucking crackpot maniacal. Caricature bad guy levels of evil. Its like some sicko despot telling his subjects its in their interests to get dismembered. I mean wow, how can someone who actually enjoys playing and making video games approve of such a practice.

There really is no hope for the studio. I wish all the talent quits and makes a kickstarter or something.

 

[Brinko]

So decided to start up a new campaign and use the Bullgod unit cards mod so I can actually start telling shit apart and I keep finding new ways for this game to piss me off. Why in the flying fuck do they keep changing the starting general units for every faction, Baktria went from noble cav to cataphracts to elephants, Egypt went from Companion Cav to royal peltasts to now Chariots. Do they have schizophrenia on what the generals starting unit should be? Or if you have this OCD to constantly change shit at least let me have a way to immediately change it back to the shit I want it to be and not the roundabout way you have to do it now.

 

[Kattze]

So long CA. I really hope that EB2 gets released sooner than later, so we can see how much it blows R2 out of the water. Thank god I haven't bought this abomination.

 

[anus_pounder]

So decided to start up a new campaign and use the Bullgod unit cards mod so I can actually start telling shit apart and I keep finding new ways for this game to piss me off. Why in the flying fuck do they keep changing the starting general units for every faction, Baktria went from noble cav to cataphracts to elephants, Egypt went from Companion Cav to royal peltasts to now Chariots. Do they have schizophrenia on what the generals starting unit should be? Or if you have this OCD to constantly change shit at least let me have a way to immediately change it back to the shit I want it to be and not the roundabout way you have to do it now.

Why do you do this to yourself, man?

 

[titus]

Coming soon on Facebook. Now you can farm your friends' fields!