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Title: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ingmar on July 02, 2012, 04:29:27 PM Woop woop woop, send up the Paelos signal.
http://www.totalwar.com/en_us/rome2 Not out until 2013. There's all of one screenshot so far, but it does look pretty sexy. Hopefully they spend the next year figuring out how to not make the load times totally suck? Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 02, 2012, 04:30:01 PM :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: koro on July 02, 2012, 07:24:03 PM While more Total War is always nice to see, I can't be the only one who thinks another numbered sequel to a previous Total War game is a bit worrisome, especially since Shogun 2 is still pretty fresh. I just hope the Total War series being one of Sega's only profitable franchise pillars doesn't lead it down a road of eventually tired rehashes every year or two. I mean what's next? Medieval III in 2015? Empire II?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Malakili on July 02, 2012, 07:25:12 PM While more Total War is always nice to see, I can't be the only one who thinks another numbered sequel to a previous Total War game is a bit worrisome, especially since Shogun 2 is still pretty fresh. I just hope the Total War series being one of Sega's only profitable franchise pillars doesn't lead it down a road of eventually tired rehashes every year or two. I mean what's next? Medieval III in 2015? Empire II? Crossovers. Total War: Shogun vs. Medieval 2015 Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ingmar on July 02, 2012, 08:13:50 PM Yeah I have the same thought about another rehash instead of a new setting. I'd love someday for some game designer to notice India and make a game there. TW seems like as good a choice as any.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Morat20 on July 02, 2012, 08:22:56 PM Don't look at me. I want TW games in fantasy settings. TW: Warhammer? TW: Codex Alera?
I mean I like smashing Romans together, or having knights run over archers, but sometimes I'd just like to unleash some space marines, or an army of Gorgons or something. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 03, 2012, 07:33:39 AM I've wanted Rome II for a long long long time.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Daeven on July 03, 2012, 10:04:50 AM Don't look at me. I want TW games in fantasy settings. TW: Warhammer? TW: Codex Alera? +1 Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: JWIV on July 03, 2012, 10:25:50 AM Don't look at me. I want TW games in fantasy settings. TW: Warhammer? TW: Codex Alera? I mean I like smashing Romans together, or having knights run over archers, but sometimes I'd just like to unleash some space marines, or an army of Gorgons or something. I would happily pay money to see a a computerized version of a block of savage orcs with a big stabba run into well anything. Or god forbid the shitstorm of fanatics eating your own troops in real time. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ingmar on July 03, 2012, 10:54:12 AM Well... there was Mark of Chaos. It was OK-ish (definitely did not reach "good"). I'm not sure anyone played it other than me and kildorn.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: satael on July 03, 2012, 11:23:52 AM Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen were great games though not all would agree with me. I wish they made a new game based on the mechanics of those games
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on July 03, 2012, 12:51:13 PM I would like to see them do something like Civil War, World War 2, or I don't know, UNFUCK Empire with a sequel since Seven Years War is my favorite wargaming time period.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ruvaldt on July 03, 2012, 01:46:26 PM Civil War could work, but I couldn't see WWII working. They'd have to play with the dynamics of the Civil War though; the CSA never really stood a chance in reality. Maybe they could throw in some Turtledove alternate history possibilities? And then there is the whole slavery thing...
I think the Renaissance/Reformation is ripe for a tactical/strategic level wargame like those in the TW series. The religious wars in France, the Thirty Years War in the HRE, the English Civil War, etc. That is ground that hasn't been covered other than the grand strategy games from Paradox, and those never have a tactical level. China has all kinds of amazing possibilities. Also, count me in for a TW: Warhammer 40k. I'd pick that up in a heartbeat. Though there are some full conversion fantasy mods for Medieval II; the Third Age comes to mind. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ingmar on July 03, 2012, 01:57:43 PM There really need to be more than 2 sides (way more, really) for TW to work IMO, unless you make major changes to the non-fighty parts.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Morat20 on July 03, 2012, 05:10:48 PM There really need to be more than 2 sides (way more, really) for TW to work IMO, unless you make major changes to the non-fighty parts. Codex Alera could do it -- Magic Romans, Canim, Marat -- three sides at least. :) Hard to balance properly, but that's why they charge the big bucks for the game. (Theoretically).I dunno, though -- there haven't been many fantasy games that worked out too well in the more 'tactical' games like TW. I guess Age of Mythology is probably the only one that sticks out as a big-budget name, and that was pretty pure RTS. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on July 03, 2012, 05:41:08 PM Having only tried to play the original Rome for the first time a year or two ago, I'm glad this is getting an update. The controls in original Rome feel terrible compared to Shogun 2.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ingmar on July 03, 2012, 08:29:36 PM There really need to be more than 2 sides (way more, really) for TW to work IMO, unless you make major changes to the non-fighty parts. Codex Alera could do it -- Magic Romans, Canim, Marat -- three sides at least. :) Hard to balance properly, but that's why they charge the big bucks for the game. (Theoretically).I dunno, though -- there haven't been many fantasy games that worked out too well in the more 'tactical' games like TW. I guess Age of Mythology is probably the only one that sticks out as a big-budget name, and that was pretty pure RTS. You could try King Arthur, if you have a high jank tolerance. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Teleku on July 03, 2012, 09:54:45 PM Very excited by this. Rome, IMO, is the best of the series, and they've come back to form with Shogun 2, which I think is a very good game (baring the retarded loading speeds). I mean, the AI actually gives me a run for my money in Shogun. Last time that happened was Rome. So yeah, :drill:.
On the topic of the civil war, I also would love to see that. Though frankly, what I want is Sid Meiers Gettysburg done up in the TW graphics engine. Dear god that was a fun game, and it could totally work in a modified form of TW's combat mode. Just need to add in the moral bar stacking for if units have their flanks covered plus generals/terrain, and probably slow down the rate units break a bit, and you'd be pretty close. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 04, 2012, 05:59:37 AM I hope they make Rome 2 easily mod able, simply because there is a large community of freaks like myself that love the historical mods.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Lemming on July 06, 2012, 09:00:25 PM I'm actually very excited for a sequel to Rome, despite all the sequels in the series. I actually dusted off the original just a few weeks ago, and while I had a blast, I missed a lot of the features the newer Total War games have.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on July 10, 2012, 09:24:08 AM Yeah I've jumped between STW2 and MTW2 and the lack of the former's improvements really show in the latter. CA has actually made some decent progress over the years.
Not sure why so many people want musket/rifle era TW games, IMO it shines best with pre-gunpowder eras, perhaps renaissance at the latest, wouldn't mind some melee focused fantasy experiment either (Warhammer would work). I think it's great CA revisits RTW/MTW every 3-5 years with a new engine/AI. I would like to see more depth added to distinguish the two though. Medieval should have strong feudal dynamics added (crusader kings style), so the player as king would have more trouble controlling his lords while Rome should have a strong emphasis on republican politics for Roman players. The player perhaps just owning his household assets, and being assigned commands/governerships/campaigns by the senate, and building his assets/prestige through that while competiting against other households and factions in the political realm. I didn't like RTW1 system where there were 3 factions running 1/3 italy each, and the senate just acting like the pope. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 10, 2012, 12:50:18 PM I really disliked the map changes in Shogun. I felt like it really dumbed down the overland strategic and economic part of the game.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on July 10, 2012, 01:00:40 PM Like what? Agents?
When I play medieval 2 it gets really tedious moving so many agents around. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 10, 2012, 01:05:44 PM Like what? Agents? When I play medieval 2 it gets really tedious moving so many agents around. No I don't like the way the cities work with their overland maps. They decreased the building options and really shoehorned in this system of controlling points on the map that offer no value other than the fact you don't want them burned. Also, I hate the stupid trading ship to random islands thing. I'm all for making agents much more powerful, less populous. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on July 10, 2012, 02:22:34 PM That's to increase field/high seas battles, get people out of city turtles, which is way too easy to do in MTW2.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 10, 2012, 03:57:29 PM That's to increase field/high seas battles, get people out of city turtles, which is way too easy to do in MTW2. While it was great in theory, it didn't work in practice. All it created was stupid small armies harassing your farms from LOS issues, which was a pain in the ass to stop because upkeep was ridiculous on any good units. Also, cities were all that mattered in these periods. There's a reason sieges took forever. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on July 10, 2012, 07:34:33 PM I only really had problems with that when I was getting bukake'd by the AI on legendary, and was infact turtleing in my cities. The prominence of sieges vs field battles is debatable, but it's tedious gameplay when every battle ends up being one. I do agree CA could do a better job on the economy and strategic depth, but I like the initiatives to get more battles onto the map.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on July 10, 2012, 08:20:32 PM I'm not against more battles being on the map. I'm against a random army showing up, fucking up my farm, and running away all within their turn. There's no strategic counter for that, other than garrisoning worthless troops at a farm. They should at least have to hang around the farm and allow me to respond before they destroy it.
If they really want to have us fight for something, we should have to fight for what mattered in real battles (ie - bridges, key roads, mountain passes, etc). Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Dark_MadMax on July 18, 2012, 06:53:24 AM While more Total War is always nice to see, I can't be the only one who thinks another numbered sequel to a previous Total War game is a bit worrisome, especially since Shogun 2 is still pretty fresh. I just hope the Total War series being one of Sega's only profitable franchise pillars doesn't lead it down a road of eventually tired rehashes every year or two. I mean what's next? Medieval III in 2015? Empire II? I dont care. Total war games are awesome and Rome was my favourite. The only issue I had with their games is god-awful inept AI. I did actually like Empire very much -but solely for the amazing sea battles. I just like 16th-17th century ships Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: NowhereMan on November 01, 2012, 10:03:45 AM So just because I saw it up recently: More gameplay footage from the siege of Carthage with developer commentary (http://uk.gamespot.com/total-war-rome-ii/videos/carthage-battle-gameplay-walkthrough-total-war-rome-ii-6398557/)
I've just had a playthrough of Rome again and had a blast, although the final stage of the game got pretty dull in terms of smashing whoever got in my way with stacks of elite legionaries and cavalry. I don't think I could be bothered to actually go fight through the civil war itself at the moment since the other two Roman factions control pretty much the other half of the map between them and have been spending the last dozen or so turns just cranking out half stack armies. Which is a problem all the games have sort of had up to this point, after a certain stage victory is inevitable and the amount of mini-management on agents and settlements is a pain (caveat, I haven't played Shogun 2 although hearing about the gameplay improvements has started to make me really want to). It sounds like they might be trying to get away from that somewhat by making the campaigns more focused so you're remaining actually pressured even into the later game. After watching that battle I'm also worried my computer is going to seriously need replacing when this comes out. Finally I've also been looking at the modding scene for TW games, something I'd not really bothered with before and the stuff that's out there for Rome and MII is pretty impressive. Third Age: Total War is Lord of the Rings Total War, definitely worth checking out if you want to see hordes of Orcs being crushed by the knights of Gondor, or regiments of halfings getting massacred. I also just installed Roma Surrectum II and by god the graphical changes are awesome, battles look much more impressive without any real performance hit. That said the Rome campaign sees you start off with Hannibal right on top of you and if you try and avoid battle or lose (and it's not an easy battle to win) all of Southern Italy rebels and craters your income, all while trying to figure out how the fuck the strategic map actually works with completely changed buildings. Some of these modders definitely do not think players should get any sort of hand holding. For Empire, Darthmod's meant to have the best put together collection of stuff (including AI tweaks) as long as you can tolerate Star Wars splashscreens and other 8 year old type stuff. I've got a lot of faith in the CA guys that they can make an awesome battle system, if it looks anything like the pre-pre alpha footage they've got there it'll be kick ass. I'm just hoping they can sort out the strategy level gameplay somewhat. It's never been that deep and I don't know to what extent they've got the AI sorted out in it but they're saying they've hired a lot more AI programmers this go round so hopefully we won't see anything like the shit that happened in Empire. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phred on April 24, 2013, 11:41:26 PM Just watched this gameplay vid they posted recently. Looks pretty cool. I love the satellite view for troop overwatch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUYfBfVUTbc Heh over 120 days old. Arise my minions. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Sheepherder on May 05, 2013, 11:17:22 PM I think it's great CA revisits RTW/MTW every 3-5 years with a new engine/AI. I would like to see more depth added to distinguish the two though. Medieval should have strong feudal dynamics added (crusader kings style), so the player as king would have more trouble controlling his lords while Rome should have a strong emphasis on republican politics for Roman players. The player perhaps just owning his household assets, and being assigned commands/governerships/campaigns by the senate, and building his assets/prestige through that while competiting against other households and factions in the political realm. I didn't like RTW1 system where there were 3 factions running 1/3 italy each, and the senate just acting like the pope. The Roman legions as you know them didn't exist during the Republic. EDIT: Damn you necromancer! Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Soln on May 06, 2013, 03:38:14 PM It's great. Necro or not it's worth bumping this franchise.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 06, 2013, 05:35:32 PM It's great. Necro or not it's worth bumping this franchise. I want this game to be out yesterday. DAMMIT. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phred on May 06, 2013, 05:52:15 PM I checked the date on the youtube video before posting and it's definatly new news IMO.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 11, 2013, 11:32:12 AM Game will be released September 3rd supposedly! :drill: :drill: :drill:
Also collectors edition info. It's beyond too expensive for my tastes, but there are people who will get it. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/05/09/total-war-rome-ii-release-date-pre-order-bonuses-and-collector-39-s-edition-revealed.aspx Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Modern Angel on May 11, 2013, 12:13:27 PM So how am I supposed to feel about non-Roman nations being DLC, as is implied with that Greek States DLC for free with pre-orders?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 11, 2013, 06:23:48 PM So how am I supposed to feel about non-Roman nations being DLC, as is implied with that Greek States DLC for free with pre-orders? I imagine that several nations will be DLC, but I would expect that most of them will be included in the base package. Romans, Gauls, Britans, Carthage, Scythia, Germanic, etc. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ceryse on May 11, 2013, 06:30:14 PM Base game, I believe, is the Romans, Carthage, Egypt, Parthia, Pontus, Macedonia, Iceni (Brits), Arverni (Gauls), Suebi (Germans). Stuff like an Iberian faction, Scythia and such will be DLC most likely.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Modern Angel on May 12, 2013, 07:10:02 AM That's not great but better than the disaster I was suddenly fearing.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ceryse on May 12, 2013, 09:30:49 AM Its not something I'm overly liking either.
Regardless.. I'll probably end up pre-ordering this when its closer to release simply because I enjoyed the original TW: Rome so much and would love a more modern version of it and some of the changes sound pretty good and I'll want to play it when it comes out. Pretty rare for me, these days.. I only buy 1 or 2 titles a year, if that, at launch. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 12, 2013, 11:04:08 AM This will be my only preorder of 2013
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: WayAbvPar on May 16, 2013, 01:41:47 PM This will be my only preorder of 2013 And you roll your eyes at the people supporting the Hex KS! At least they don't have a proven track record of releasing buggy, unfinished messes :awesome_for_real: edit: oops. meant to edit my post. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Rasix on May 16, 2013, 01:43:41 PM The dollar amounts involved allows anyone, anytime to make fun of Hex preorders. Forever. No matter how good.
But yes, TW preorders seem silly. It's not like they'll give you something worthwhile. Hey, we unlocked Madagascar! Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on May 16, 2013, 01:50:58 PM But yes, TW preorders seem silly. This. Shogun has pretty much burned all my goodwill with Creative Assembly, especially when it comes to preordering. I'm just not sure they can make a game that doesn't shit itself anymore. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 16, 2013, 01:53:27 PM No they won't give out anything meaningful, but I'm going to buy it at release, so something > nothing. I don't really care if it's buggy out of the box, and it probably will be. This is THE THING that I wanted from them. If I can't get excited by this, I can't get excited about gaming. I'm a well known Total Whore.
Also, I will continue to roll my eyes at the Hex cult. The amount of money in there could fund several people's steam accounts for the next decade. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on May 16, 2013, 01:56:15 PM It doesn't bother me so much if Rome is buggy out of the box. It bothers me that Shogun 2 is still buggy 2 years, tons of DLC and 1 expansion later. As is Empire 4 years after release. Their last 3 products have had pretty severe issues that are never fixed despite a litany of DLC and at least 1 expansion/campaign DLC per game. Until they bother to fix those games, they ain't getting money from me again.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: WayAbvPar on May 16, 2013, 02:01:09 PM It doesn't bother me so much if Rome is buggy out of the box. It bothers me that Shogun 2 is still buggy 2 years, tons of DLC and 1 expansion later. As is Empire 4 years after release. Their last 3 products have had pretty severe issues that are never fixed despite a litany of DLC and at least 1 expansion/campaign DLC per game. Until they bother to fix those games, they ain't getting money from me again. This. I would love to play Rome II Electric Boogaloo, but I have no reasonable expectation that it won't be a fucking disaster. If they get their shit together and get it out in a playable state, I will probably pick it up. I would have grabbed Shogun II a long time ago but everything I hear is that it is still a mess. Pre-ordering (at least to my mind) says 'I forgive you all your trespasses. Please shit directly into my gaping maw again at your earliest convenience.' Make them EARN your money, son! Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 16, 2013, 02:02:38 PM I didn't like the time periods on those, though. So I played them minimally at best. I wasn't really going to like the games even if they did work, so I didn't even buy Shogun 2 at release.
It's Rome. It's my favorite time period of all history. WHEEEEEE! Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on May 16, 2013, 02:40:50 PM It's Rome. It's my favorite time period of all history. WHEEEEEE! Mine is the 7-Years War. I preordered Empire. Though I still love it, it is buggy as fuck. And a lot of the problems in Shogun are leftovers from both Empire AND Napoleon. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: WayAbvPar on May 16, 2013, 02:51:42 PM Empire was the first game I bought for my new quad core PC. What a huge disappointment that was. I hated almost everything about it. Have never gone back to see what the patches might have cleaned up since I just didn't care for the whole design. /sadf
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on May 16, 2013, 04:46:14 PM Empire was a total disaster, don't get me wrong. I ordered it at release, and it was a clusterfuck. The AI was broken, the maps were stupid, and the strategic points system was pointless and annoying at the same time. Not only that, they streamlined everything so much you had no idea how to actually set towns to do stuff. The menus made zero sense from the jump. The agent system was convoluted. The load times were horrific.
Shogun fixed most of that except the loads. I'm guessing Rome will fix the loads since that was the A#1 complaint they heard over and over and over. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: rk47 on May 16, 2013, 06:15:19 PM Nice.. I'll get the BBQ pit ready on release.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: K9 on September 03, 2013, 11:11:30 AM Get hyped
Who's playing this? Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ceryse on September 03, 2013, 11:19:39 AM I started the prologue just to see what's what, before I jump into a proper campaign. Have to say I miss the old interface though. New one may be far more minimalistic and 'stream-lined', but I hate it.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: jakonovski on September 03, 2013, 03:20:10 PM The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all. Basing this on RPS and Eurogamer reviews.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ceryse on September 03, 2013, 03:51:26 PM Only bug I've seen so far is the achievement for finishing the prologue didn't fire off. There are a number of small issues (announcements flash on your screen when they arrive and then vanish, forcing you to go to the announcement interface to see them, as an example) and some design decisions I have not taking a liking to at all (armies can only exist with a general, apparently, which are capped in terms of how many you can have -- no more moving troops between armies unless they're right beside each other, and no more stand-alone garrisons to help keep unrest down).
Overall, thus far, its what I expected; an updated Rome with shitty changes. Still, I expect I'll get at least 70 hours out of it, at least. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on September 03, 2013, 06:14:25 PM I've spent a few hours with it tonight and haven't encountered any noteworthy bugs. Most of my Total War experience comes from Shogun, so most of my play-time so far has been spent agonizing over how to develop my cities.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on September 03, 2013, 07:42:49 PM The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all. This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ghambit on September 03, 2013, 09:02:28 PM stable==no cata :why_so_serious:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on September 04, 2013, 01:31:23 AM The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all. This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable. Hmm. No stability issues here in singleplayer. Multiplayer yes...quite some desynchs. The setting wasn't my favorite one in Shogun but overall it felt to me like one the best rounded versions of the series. Empire had a large map, many nations, different units, but the AI didn't seem to be able to handle it, so games got stale pretty quick. Compared to that Shogun 2 felt smaller in scope, but worked better. A tight knit game (if that phrase exists?). Which left me with great hopes for whatever title they'd make next. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 04, 2013, 08:05:43 AM Luckily for my wallet this released right as the second round of tax season stuff comes into full view. That means I'll have to wait until Halloween to pick it up, hopefully with the first set of patches that fix anything stupid.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Teleku on September 04, 2013, 09:03:55 AM The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all. This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: WayAbvPar on September 04, 2013, 09:08:23 AM Saw Phildo playing this last night on Steam, which is how I learn about all the new game releases these days :oh_i_see:
Would like to try it out, but can definitely wait for a Steam sale (and the inevitable much needed patching). Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on September 04, 2013, 10:56:49 AM I'm a weak-willed man.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ingmar on September 04, 2013, 11:06:34 AM The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all. This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable. Yeah, while I haven't put crazy hours into Shogun 2 it's always been rock solid for me. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Zaljerem on September 04, 2013, 12:38:04 PM One of my favorite things about the first RTW was the family tree / heir / traits system. Does that exist in RTW 2 ?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on September 04, 2013, 01:13:58 PM I got 15 hours into a Shogun 2 campaign and it would hitch every time I clicked on a city for the last hour or two that I played (obviously not all in one sitting). Then, every time I started a battle, CRASH. Finally, I just gave up. The campaign game was fantastic but something they did in the tuning of the real-time battles made them end too quickly.
If they remade Empire and fixed it, I'd be all over that, because that is my favorite time period. But I haven't really dug what they've done to battles since Napoleon and Shogun's crashes just drained me of all desire to play this series. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Daeven on September 04, 2013, 01:15:10 PM I've only done the first bits of the Prologue. No idea if they do Family Trees. I hope they do. Although adding abilities to Generals through experience gain does make one 'care' about them significantly more. Now if only I didn't have to do that whole work thing. It's getting in the way of my entertainment. Bastards.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Zaljerem on September 04, 2013, 01:27:56 PM I've only done the first bits of the Prologue. No idea if they do Family Trees. I hope they do. Although adding abilities to Generals through experience gain does make one 'care' about them significantly more. No family tree, says the forums. :heartbreak: I'll wait until a decent sale, assuming I even bother. Plenty of other things to play. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on September 04, 2013, 01:30:24 PM I've played the campaign enough now that I've encountered the extremely long delay in between turns that people are complaining about. It takes a ridiculously long time to work through all the AI's turns.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on September 06, 2013, 09:41:57 AM So the AI is apparently a mess? barely functional from what I've seen.
Shame on CA if true, this is why I never buy their games at release anymore. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: ShenMolo on September 06, 2013, 10:26:29 AM I was still playing a modded version of Shogun II last night.
That's the best things about these games, the mods make them playable for years and years. Even if they suck balls at release they only get better and better. Downloading it right now. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 06, 2013, 11:11:29 AM Supposedly the patches are already rolling out.
http://www.videogamer.com/pc/rome_ii_total_war/news/total_war_rome_2_patch_live_now_second_patch_coming_next_week.html Notes: Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: satael on September 06, 2013, 10:25:04 PM The Horrors Of Total War: Rome II (http://www.somethingawful.com/news/total-war-rome/) (from SA). Since I haven't played the game myself I don't know how accurate the article is but I thought it was pretty funny.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on September 07, 2013, 01:57:36 PM Seems like the last patch actually made the game perform worse on my PC.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ashamanchill on September 07, 2013, 05:59:59 PM This new patch has made it so I can't even load up the game on my pc now. You know what, fuck this game. It's a joke.
Edit. I actually blame myself on this one. I knew this game would be shitty, based on the nonsense me and a buddy went through with SHogun II vis-a-vis Steam. But I went ahead and bought this on release anyways :oh_i_see: Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on September 07, 2013, 06:28:55 PM My issue aren't not the bugs that can be patched out - they are almost expected with Total War - but some game design decisions.
The UI looks soulless and gives a detached feeling. Instead of giving the feel to control cities with actual buildings one clicks on click on abstract icons. The harbor is an anchor symbol. Improved Harbor is Anchor + roman II. Wee...existing. No family tree. No seasons that change the look of the map, but instead 1t=1y. Overall the game feels too streamlined. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on September 08, 2013, 07:08:40 AM CA already is being "sorry":
Quote from: Creative Director 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 Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Tannhauser on September 08, 2013, 07:17:26 AM For a fucking change I managed some self control and haven't bought this. Actually playing Rome TW1 right now. I guess it helps that I'm not a huge TW fan. When it drops in price and is patched six ways from Sunday I'll get it.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Dark_MadMax on September 08, 2013, 10:17:59 AM I never buy TW games on release. they take a while to get into playable state albeit TW2 seems to have reached new lows in this regard
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: kildorn on September 08, 2013, 03:09:00 PM I never buy TW games on release. they take a while to get into playable state albeit TW2 seems to have reached new lows in this regard Rome 2 is just designed poorly. Empire was the lowest point of "seriously, this thing is supposed to function?" Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 08, 2013, 04:55:05 PM I had heard nothing but bad things about the actual performance, bugs, and other things from a close friend of mine in beta. He told me in no uncertain terms not to buy the game at release, because as a huge TW fan I would have.
He was right, of course. This thing is a mess right now. I've really REALLY hated the moves they made away from cities and the building UI. That was one of the things that made you feel like you managed an empire. Your cities couldn't usually build everything, but they could focus on cavalry, or melee, or archery, or spies, etc. The fact they got rid of family trees is just shocking to me. I await the mods and a drop in price. In the meantime I'm still playing Medieval 2. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Pagz on September 08, 2013, 09:10:12 PM Was playing this co-op, was fun until we had a weird de-synch where my ally started a battle and was waiting for me to click participate or spectate, however on my screen their armies weren't anywhere near each other and because I wasn't getting the popup we couldn't progress further. Reloading didn't fix this error so hopefully our next game we can get past turn 11, where 50% of our time playing was waiting for all the a.i turns to finish :uhrr:.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: jakonovski on September 09, 2013, 01:24:04 AM . Empire was the lowest point of "seriously, this thing is supposed to function?" I have fond memories of AI cavalry units standing still while artillery trains charge my line. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Teleku on September 09, 2013, 02:41:15 AM I had heard nothing but bad things about the actual performance, bugs, and other things from a close friend of mine in beta. He told me in no uncertain terms not to buy the game at release, because as a huge TW fan I would have. Yeah, I made the mistake of pre-ordering. I had hyped myself up for it since they did such a great job with Shogun 2 (IMO, obviously) I thought they had returned to form, and were now remaking my favorite total war game. Not only is the AI a mess, but the game runs like shit and looks way worse than Shogun. The UI sucks, and they dumbed the whole damn game down. No more multi faction Roman Republic being commanded around by a senate, with eventual all out civil war gangbang. Just one faction. No family line. For fuck sake, Shogun 2 had family lines! He was right, of course. This thing is a mess right now. I've really REALLY hated the moves they made away from cities and the building UI. That was one of the things that made you feel like you managed an empire. Your cities couldn't usually build everything, but they could focus on cavalry, or melee, or archery, or spies, etc. The fact they got rid of family trees is just shocking to me. I await the mods and a drop in price. In the meantime I'm still playing Medieval 2. How is there such a massive difference in design philosophy and programming ability between these two games? WTF happened? Though on the town building thing, you still had to specialize in Shogun 2. You were limited by the plots of lands pretty heavily, so you had to decide what each city would specialize in. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Megrim on September 09, 2013, 05:00:04 AM Hey, uh, does anyone know where I can pick up Shogun and Medieval, the original games? I was hoping that Steam would have them, but it turns out to not be the case.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Dark_MadMax on September 09, 2013, 11:27:40 AM How is there such a massive difference in design philosophy and programming ability between these two games? WTF happened? competent people could have left and/or working on another projects. very premature release could also be a large factor ( I heard a lot of bad things about empire, but I bought it recently and its quite decent game as of 1.6 patch, with many flaws but nothing fundamentally broken except sieges) Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on September 09, 2013, 11:59:14 AM Another : tin foil: reason might be that CA is officially considering porting Rome 2 to next-gen consoles.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 09, 2013, 12:08:53 PM Another : tin foil: reason might be that CA is officially considering porting Rome 2 to next-gen consoles. Take it back. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 13, 2013, 11:59:38 AM Patch 2 is out, with more bug fixes:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ceryse on September 13, 2013, 04:16:48 PM Looks like field battles still have the flag of stupidity, though, so still not going back to play it yet. That, coupled with the UI and sheer lack of 'something' (soul., I guess?) just makes the game tedious and unfun to play.
That and my game went from no performance issues and no crashes at all, on max settings, to crashing every 20-30 minutes since the first patch. Honestly, Rome 2 would have been a great game -- if it had been the very first entrance into the Total War series. But this late in the series they should know how to make fun games and avoid retarded design decisions.. and yet they get further and further away. Shogun 2 was a step towards the right direction. Rome 2 is several steps back. I'm not worried about having pre-ordered the game; I'll eventually get enough play out of it. It is, however, the last CA game I'll be buying, however, for more than a couple bucks during a Steam Sale. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on September 13, 2013, 08:10:51 PM A guy I declared war on has one city left, and someone else is sieging it. Every turn, the other army lifts the siege and immediately resieges the town. This has been going on for about 40 turns, with my own army stuck squatting there and waiting for a resolution.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Khaldun on September 14, 2013, 04:56:45 AM I think it's pretty clear that they're trying to do this on a shoestring development budget and just coast on the goodwill towards the whole series in order to get box sales early which will then fund the necessary six months worth of patches. Definitely not something any of us should reward with a buy.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Lemming on September 17, 2013, 02:46:53 AM Hey, uh, does anyone know where I can pick up Shogun and Medieval, the original games? I was hoping that Steam would have them, but it turns out to not be the case. If you're OK with physical media, you can always check out Amazon. I can't find a US site where you can purchase and download these games, but the EU Sega store has them available for download.Shogun: http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Shogun-Total-War-Gold-511-43.html (http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Shogun-Total-War-Gold-511-43.html) Medieval: http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Medieval-Total-War-Gold-510-43.html (http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Medieval-Total-War-Gold-510-43.html) Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Mortriden on September 17, 2013, 08:38:52 AM Hey, uh, does anyone know where I can pick up Shogun and Medieval, the original games? I was hoping that Steam would have them, but it turns out to not be the case. If you're OK with physical media, you can always check out Amazon. I can't find a US site where you can purchase and download these games, but the EU Sega store has them available for download.Shogun: http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Shogun-Total-War-Gold-511-43.html (http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Shogun-Total-War-Gold-511-43.html) Medieval: http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Medieval-Total-War-Gold-510-43.html (http://eu.download-shop.sega.com/buy-download-pc-games/Medieval-Total-War-Gold-510-43.html) Be sure to look for the new patches, might even have to be fan based. I tried to re-install these a year or so ago and Win 7 didn't work well with it. Lots of CTD's. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on October 24, 2013, 08:15:03 AM Nomadic Tribes Culture Pack (http://store.steampowered.com/app/258270?snr=1_41_4__42) New DLC for Rome that is free until the 29th October. So no reason not to download it really.
Quote New Features: New Playable Factions – The Roxolani, Massagetae and Royal Scythians each offer a unique new way to experience the campaign, with their own rosters of powerful military units, distinct traits and play styles. The Roxolani gain wealth from their skills as migrant traders, and as committed conquerors, fight harder when in enemy territory; the Royal Scythians are experts with the bow, and enjoy increased wealth through their high degree of craftsmanship; and the fierce independence of the Massagetae leads them to fight harder when defending their territory, while their expertise in animal husbandry means increased income from livestock. New Cultural Traits – All Nomadic Tribes benefit from extra recruitment slots in their home provinces, enabling them to raise armies swiftly. They have also refined raiding and looting to an art-form, and their forces gather greater wealth through raiding than other factions. New Cultural Objectives – The Nomadic Tribes have their own new set of military, economic and cultural victory conditions, as well as sharing a unique set of bonus objectives drawn from the history of The Steppes. Additionally, each faction will have to contend with its unique events and dilemmas. New Military Tradition – The armies of the Nomadic Tribes can benefit from a unique new military tradition: Nomadic Horde. This tradition increases the movement range of the army, increases its unit morale when fighting in enemy territory and, commensurate with the tribes’ heavy use of horse and rider, reduces the recruitment costs of cavalry units. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on October 24, 2013, 08:38:23 AM Have they remotely fixed anything?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on October 24, 2013, 12:01:37 PM Have they remotely fixed anything? I wouldn't know. My plan is to wait out a few more patches and then find the most recommended overhaul mod. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on October 24, 2013, 12:03:20 PM Our plans are similar. I'm waiting for the Winter Sale.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on October 24, 2013, 12:07:14 PM I don't play it but keep track. They've been patching frequently which has fixed up a lot of the worst crap and made the game decent especially with some of the player AI tweaks. They still plan to keep patching so maybe in a few more months it will be pretty respectable.
Waiting for winter sale would most likely hit a sweet spot of significantly better game and better price. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Mithas on November 07, 2013, 06:20:43 PM This is 25% off on Steam in case someone wanted to pick it up. I think I might still wait until the Christmas to see if it goes on sale again.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on November 08, 2013, 05:46:16 AM I haven't played it since week 1, have the patches been effective?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 08, 2013, 06:11:30 AM I haven't played it since week 1, have the patches been effective? I don't think anybody here is actually playing it yet. I might be wrong. Apparently by the notes they are working on Patch #7 (in basically 2 months, yikes). So, it seems like they are committed to not making it suck. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Teleku on November 08, 2013, 06:36:22 AM Yeah, I also haven't touched it since the first two days it was released. I'm going to hold back and not pay attention until somebody is brave enough to come here and make a post saying its actually kinda fun/playable now.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: jakonovski on November 08, 2013, 08:31:04 AM I'd like to play it but I have Napoleon and Shogun 2 with full DLC sitting on my Steam account, almost untouched.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 08, 2013, 01:36:09 PM Patch 5 was huge, so I'm posting that as it was the most recent big update:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on November 08, 2013, 01:51:57 PM That was patch # FIVE? :ye_gods:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 08, 2013, 02:02:27 PM They are working on number SEVEN.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Teleku on November 08, 2013, 04:25:40 PM Again, only when somebody here is brave enough to publicly state the game is worth playing again, will I try it. :awesome_for_real:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on November 08, 2013, 08:35:57 PM It's like we're all sitting around a table, daring each other to be the first to break.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 08, 2013, 08:36:37 PM If it gets below $40, I'm going to be that guy.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ceryse on November 09, 2013, 02:55:32 AM I'd recommend waiting until at least the Steam Christmas sale before biting the bullet. By then the number of patches thrown at it might have addressed most of the major issues (but also likely adding others, this is CA, after all).
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 09, 2013, 06:59:12 AM Oh that's the plan. I'm not crazy enough to get it in the autumn sale.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 24, 2013, 12:22:35 PM Patch 7 came out this week. They are working on 8 and 9 now. I think 8 is going to hotfix the shit the 7 broke. :facepalm:
The major complaints are still that the FPS is bad, and the performance on the whole is bad. Fans on the forums have expressed major disappointment that they've removed features that made the previous Rome fun, while focusing entirely too much energy into the graphics and soldier facial expressions, which almost nobody notices when you are controlling 1,000 troops. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Draegan on December 15, 2013, 07:46:40 AM Almost bought this on a bored snowy Sunday. Glad I came here first! Sorry for bumping.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: WayAbvPar on December 17, 2013, 07:50:54 AM No, it is a good bump to warn off anyone else. Also to get an update from the
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on December 17, 2013, 08:28:15 AM No, it is a good bump to warn off anyone else. Also to get an update from the If it's in the deeply discounted territory of the winter sale, I'm probably going to be a sucker. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Teleku on December 17, 2013, 11:34:47 AM I pre-ordered it. :oh_i_see:
I was so pissed off at it after the first few days of play that I haven't touched it since. Again, only when somebody is willing to step before everybody on this forum and say that it's been patched into a somewhat decent game will I re-install it. As I wrote earlier in the thread, just............ bleh. Can't understand how they went from Shogun 2 to this. Sounds like they are at least attempting to salvage it, which is nice. But that still wont fix some of the really stupid shit like dumbing it down not only from the original, but dumbing it way down compared to the game they just released before it. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on December 17, 2013, 01:41:09 PM I picked it up again a few weeks ago, but I'd been drinking so my analysis is suspect.
I did eventually get to capture that one city that the AI kept re-sieging, though, so at least that was better. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on December 17, 2013, 01:51:43 PM http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Patch_8
Patch 8 is out. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on December 30, 2013, 10:32:23 AM No, it is a good bump to warn off anyone else. Also to get an update from the If it's in the deeply discounted territory of the winter sale, I'm probably going to be a sucker. I pulled the trigger at 50% off. I'm a sucker. I have to get the new computer I ordered up and running, and then this will be the first thing I try. Reports coming in 2014. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on December 30, 2013, 12:27:31 PM Godspeed, sir.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on January 02, 2014, 06:48:30 PM Here's my report. It crashes my brand new PC to bluescreen within 20m of everything I try. Sooooooooooo, I'm probably going to ask for my money back.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Ginaz on January 02, 2014, 06:56:50 PM Here's my report. It crashes my brand new PC to bluescreen within 20m of everything I try. Sooooooooooo, I'm probably going to ask for my money back. Through Steam? Good luck with that. :awesome_for_real: Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Trippy on January 02, 2014, 07:10:32 PM They may do it just this once but if he tries it again in the future they'll probably just ban the account and all his games will be gone :awesome_for_real:
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on January 02, 2014, 07:27:03 PM Well I'm gonna try making sure drivers are updated, etc.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Mithas on February 13, 2014, 01:24:45 PM So this is on sale again, this time 50% off. Is it worth it yet?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on February 13, 2014, 01:40:34 PM The people at twcenter.net still seem pretty angry about it.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on February 13, 2014, 02:51:30 PM So this is on sale again, this time 50% off. Is it worth it yet? I don't think so. They are on patch 9 (or more) now, but game is fundamentally flawed, beyond mere bugs. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on February 13, 2014, 03:00:33 PM I've yet to play it without it bluescreening my system. My brand new system I bought at Christmas.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: eldaec on February 14, 2014, 12:34:20 PM So this is on sale again, this time 50% off. Is it worth it yet? My advice, which applies to all total war post Rome questions, is to play the original Rome game, and forget any later games in this series ever existed. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on February 14, 2014, 12:38:08 PM Unfortunately my old Rome game won't play nice on the new systems. I don't know if it's age or the Windows 7 problems working with it off Steam.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Mithas on February 14, 2014, 12:38:52 PM I thought the new Shogun had its moments. I really would just like to replay the original Medieval, but I don't believe that runs on Windows 7.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on February 14, 2014, 01:22:27 PM I've enjoyed all the games since Rome, especially Empire and even Shogun 2. But they really are just unmitigated disasters bug and performance wise, and they've gotten progressively worse with each new game. What exacerbates the problem is that they don't ever seem to really get the game's fixed before releasing 1) a new game and 2) selling expansions and tons of DLC.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on February 14, 2014, 02:04:22 PM I loved the shit out of Shogun despite the bugs, but I still can't bring myself to boot up Rome 2 again.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: calapine on February 17, 2014, 08:04:50 PM New unit DLC coming out, including such gems as the:
the Beehive Onager, Scorpion Pot Ballista and, even better...Snake Pot Ballista. :argh: Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on February 18, 2014, 07:10:06 AM haha wow, what a mess of a game.
Hard to conclude at this point they haven't taken a TW Empire like step backwards in the series. Before they followed it up with two games which were more popular (NTW, STW2), although they accomplished this by mostly scaling back the scope of those games compared to Empire. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: ShenMolo on February 18, 2014, 06:12:45 PM Shogun 2 (with radious mod) is the only game I still play with any regularity.
I almost click on Rome 2 in Steam about once a month, then I come here to check to see if I should. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Sophismata on February 18, 2014, 10:42:11 PM They've all been rubbish since Medieval: Total War.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: NowhereMan on February 19, 2014, 01:41:54 AM I love TW games, plenty of people seem to think that Shogun II is one of the more fun 'games' in the series, if not the best strategy game. Most of the people who loved Shogun II think Rome II is kind of dull. I really want to try this but am currently limited to a laptop and I'm not convinced that it would handle it that well graphically plus it sounds like a lot of the better gameplay elements from Shogun have been stripped down or replaced with less interesting mechanics.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: March on June 27, 2014, 08:54:46 AM 66% off on Steam... but still $20 - after 12 patches is this a yes or no?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Phildo on June 27, 2014, 09:03:43 AM I want to say that it's still a no, but I haven't played it in 6 months. A little cheaper and I'd be more inclined to say yes.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on June 27, 2014, 09:37:27 AM No
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: brellium on June 27, 2014, 02:29:23 PM No Is it better or worse than Empire?Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on June 27, 2014, 09:04:30 PM Worse. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: brellium on June 29, 2014, 04:06:04 AM Worse. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on June 29, 2014, 10:12:08 AM I enjoyed Empire, but Shogun 2 totally killed the series for me. All the worst bugginess of Empire with streamlined combat and extra crashiness. Rome 2 apparently still hasn't been unfucked from all accounts I've heard and the game's almost a year old.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: brellium on June 29, 2014, 11:08:50 AM I enjoyed Empire, but Shogun 2 totally killed the series for me. All the worst bugginess of Empire with streamlined combat and extra crashiness. Rome 2 apparently still hasn't been unfucked from all accounts I've heard and the game's almost a year old. The complaints leveled at Empire were that sea invasions didn't work well (which is a problem for many engines) and that combat was essentially park your mean with guns opposing the other side with guns and shoot until the other side breaks. The second one is pretty much how wars were fought at that time.Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on June 29, 2014, 08:04:55 PM Rome simply doesn't work. There's still crashes. That alone should be a warning flag. Still, the AI hasn't worked either in a way that people wanted.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: NowhereMan on June 30, 2014, 12:22:08 AM Reading on the SA forums people do seem to enjoy the game but it seems like once every page or so in the megathread there's someone who can't launch it. There's also a general acceptance among people that enjoy it that sometimes the AI will bug out and your enemy will stand around not doing anything (or your skirmishers won't actually use ranged weapons or somethingsomething). The other complaint is stuff like upgrading past level 2 throws food/squalor bonuses out of wack so, counter-intuitively for a game, you should only upgrade buildings when you need them for units/tech. Basically upgrading public order buildings still results in an overall decrease in bonuses, which seems hugely dumb but if it hasn't been changed yet must have been intentional.
I also bought it in the last day sale, I don't think I'll finish a campaign or anything but I really, really want a Rome fix and to watch my armies massacre barbarians. How bad could it be? Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on June 30, 2014, 06:29:36 AM Play it for 5 hours and then report back, soldier.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: NowhereMan on July 03, 2014, 01:01:07 AM Well I'm only 2 hours of play time in so things could change significantly (so far still in the prologue/tutorial but have been taken off rails for, so can research/recruit/build whatever). Battles have been fun, reminding me more of older Total War games than Empire (I think I fundamentally didn't like gunpowder combat) but it definitely feels more gamey than Medieval or the original Rome. Generals have get abilities to use in battle and their stats matter a lot more, so based on descriptions of Shogun 2 if you hated that there's just as much of it in Rome.
I so far prefer the Empire style army/recruitent mechanic and I think it actually suits the period better to have the general/army be the focus of recruiting rather than the cities. I'm interested to see some more of the naval combat, so far its been limited to garrison units being able to dump a couple of skirmisher units on the beach to try and flank. Line of sight having a role is cool, doesn't seem to have much of an effect in regular battles but in fog it does actually make having scouting units an advantage. Since I"m living in Malaysia right now I don't have a desktop, playing on a laptop that definitely meets the minimum specs. First long play attempt ended in a memory leak issue that actually managed to crash Windows 8 outright pretty much (game didn't have sufficient memory so it stopped, desktop wouldn't load properly so I restarted and the machine just hung at the insufficient memory, restarting screen until I pulled the battery out). That's only happened once but... Opinion might change but it looks like if you hate the Shogun 2 type game you'll not love this but one game crashing bug in 2 hours isn't exactly a ringing endorsement this early into playing it. I'll probably carry on with it but would love to be able to rampt the graphics up a bit more. Playing in 1024 results in the menus taking up way too much screen real estate in battles. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on August 12, 2014, 07:32:16 AM I fixed my computer, so I've fired this up after patch 14 hit. That's right, they are up to 14 patches now, so don't let it be said that they are giving up.
I finished the prologue and will play through a campaign in full. It's not crashing at the moment so I take that as a positive spin. I will say the prologue is way too long for what it is, and I still encountered a bug where it halted my progression. I had to give the Greek Cities a trade agreement. I did that, and the game didn't recognize it. The prologue wouldn't advance without the trade agreement so my only option was to cancel it, reissue the agreement, and only then did the game move forward. In patch 14. Ugh. You really can't have shit like that happen in the fucking prologue. It's the first hour and change of your game. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on August 13, 2014, 08:56:50 AM I can only hope they have learned something from this debacle. When ETW was a similar release disappointment (though in hindsight, not nearly as bad as RTW2), they patched it a bit but rushed out Napoleon TW in about a year.
They really fucked up this time though. 14 patches, a year later and it's still a giant mess of bugs & AI issues. Lots of hate over at twcenter.net, heavy censoring at the official site. Guess the patching is a desperate way to show fans they are trying. Meanwhile there doesn't seem to be a new game ready, maybe they realize they can't do another shovel job and actually have to fix the fundamental problems for whatever TW game they have next (or warhammer universe version, don't want to screw that up). Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Mortriden on August 14, 2014, 07:57:44 AM Having only played as Rome, one of the things I have noticed is the difference between AI restrictions and Player restrictions. Or at least, what I perceive to be a difference. As Rome I am limited in the number of Armies and Fleets I can deploy. Even with a massive empire I can finally field 8 armies at once. The computer as Carthage, seems to be able to field 8 all the time, with only 6 broken settlements and one province. I could be missing something, but it appears that the restrictions between the AI and the Player are different. Now, given the fact that the AI is generally dumb, and the game is once again MY DOOMSTACKS ARE BIGGER THAN YOURS!!!1!1 Maybe this was their way of trying to balance it.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on August 14, 2014, 08:06:31 AM Having played only 2 hours of the campaign as Rome, my first observation is that public order is a fucking PITA, and they do a shitty job of telling you how to fix it.
I do like garrisons over the old way of just cramming cities with troops though. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on August 15, 2014, 06:53:52 AM About 5 hours into an actual campaign now.
Things that pop out to me: 1 - Having limited armies means you have limited options protecting your empire. Garrisons are laughably shit so far in the early game. I mean like if somebody decides to attack, you have zero chance at effectively commanding a defense. The towns don't have walls, nor can I see an option to build walls outside of a capital in the province. This sucks for defensive-minded people because there's no way to shore up your borders within the town that I can see. 2 - Town attacks are now forgone conclusions if you don't have an army nearby, because see above. I've almost never fought a battle in a town, because I can autoresolve the things with about 95% of my troops left. 3 - I do like the fact that troops auto-regen inside your borders. You can't have to go to cities anymore to retrain new troops. They do that over time now. 4 - Public order is a massive problem in this game. Massive. You'll find yourself destroying items in conquered towns to put up temples so you can steam the culture problem. The culture problem feeds the public order problems, and if you let public order get out of hand, you get large rebellions against poorly defended garrisons. Did I mention how useless garrisons are? They are fucking useless. 5 - You research tech now, so you have some control over your military v. cultural expansions. It's about 6 trees under 2 headers, and you'll probably want to focus on culture first or you run out of cash or patient citizens. 6 - When you control a whole province, you get to issue a special order that gives you a huge bonus. This is a nice feature and also feeds into the "I need that city" aggressive play style the game demands. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: NowhereMan on August 17, 2014, 01:18:25 AM I've played this a bit now too and have been lucky enough to avoid hitting any particularly noticeable bugs. On the other hand between living somewhere that's usually around 30C and using a laptop this thing can cause my laptop to crap itself and lock up. The game itself is pretty good fun but my god the prologue does a terrible job of actually explaining how the mechanics work. They pretty much just make you do a couple of basic tasks (ooh unrest, reduce taxes in the empire!) without ever explaining how those tasks actually tie into the game or what kind of feedback they have. Ok taxes wasn't a great example as that is a fairly straightforward once with pretty immediate effects. However at no point do they explain what different technologies are about or what those promotions you give agents/generals are actually doing. The 'manual' isn't much better, telling me that taking this upgrade increases my spy's zeal doesn't help me when I don't know what the fuck 'zeal' does (for anyone else confused, actions are grouped into types so sabotage will have 3 choices, assassination will have 3, etc. and each of these will skill check against a different attribute. Also characters targetted by agents will have checks against their authority, zeal or cunning).
One of the main areas that isn't explained is the importance of food surplus. Seriously every guide I've read about this kicks off talking about keeping an eye on food surplus is crucial, you get bonuses for having it (up to +20, then it caps the bonuses) and massive public order penalties if you don't. At no point is it even mentioned in the prologue, which is a bigger problem since buildings above level 2 tend to give a greater penalty to food than bonus to public order so if you're following traditional play patterns and responding to public order issues by upgrading temples and entertainment places you are actually making the problem worse. Which may be intentional (encouraging players to build up major cities and limiting them from turning every town into a hulking megalopolis) but not making that kind of change clear to the player at any point is just so careless. Battles themselves are fun though and I'm really enjoying sending my troops all over the place. Capital sieges are so far good fun too, provided you're not in any kind of hurry. All I need now is a better rig to play it on so I can start really enjoying the graphical goodies when I'm in cinematic mode watching my legionaries massacring peasants. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 23, 2014, 07:07:33 PM Okay so they just released patch 15 which is an enormous balancing patch. It brings new features to the political game, making it actually semi-important. It also rebalances garrisons which were total shit previously. Buildings have their negative penalties reduced so you can build more in cities and provinces.
I've played on a new save (it won't work on older saves) and I like it a lot. My biggest complaint was that buildings were too much of a balancing act of negatives, and that nobody fought actual battles in cities since the garrisons were terrible. This fixes that, and more. I'd go as far as to say the game is playable now. It's by no means perfect, but it's actually fun to build and play where the old version was a pointless slog. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on September 25, 2014, 06:40:11 AM Does the AI deploy and move its units properly in battles or do they stay still? Do they path properly in sieges?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on September 25, 2014, 07:20:00 AM Does the AI deploy and move its units properly in battles or do they stay still? Do they path properly in sieges? Of the sieges I've done (early game), the AI tried to hold the city center because there were no real walls. There were reinforcements but they arrived late. In both cases, they tried to use units to get to my guys, but they had no real shot due to overwhelming force. Wall attacks are on the list of fixes, I haven't tried them yet. So far the AI hasn't done anything really stupid yet. Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on September 26, 2014, 12:03:29 PM AI problems with walls have plagued the series since the beginning. That's why in I think it was Napoleon TW they just gave every infantry unit some hooks to climb them, and in Shogun 2, any footmen could climb castle walls. Unfortunately defensive sieges are usually a big part of the game, especially if you pick a smaller nation next to a larger hostile one and are outnumbered 2:1 or greater.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: eldaec on September 28, 2014, 09:09:50 AM Steam have this on 'play for free' this weekend, they are also doing 75% off on the earlier, less broken games.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: HaemishM on September 28, 2014, 12:51:17 PM I love that they are discounting every game and DLC, except the game that is the most broken even after a bazillion patches.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Mithas on November 27, 2014, 05:45:33 PM This is on the Steam sale at 75% off. Worth $15 at this point?
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Paelos on November 27, 2014, 06:04:48 PM It's playable at that price, but it's not as engaging as the previous one.
Title: Re: Total War: Rome II Post by: Speedy Cerviche on November 28, 2014, 09:47:56 AM I think I might give Attila TW a chance. CA has done well before on these mulligan releases, and I am not so bitter like most of the TW community is because I never purchased RTW2 (I know the feeling when I bought Empire TW on release, didn't even want to touch Napoleon).
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