I think that they are missing a proper realm divide mechanic to keep things interesting into the late game. I assume the civil war mechanic was supposed to take on that role but it’s just very very lame and easy to counter as is.
Sadly, the biggest issues so far is the missing Dynasty / Roman politics issue and of course the missing Siege AI. I say sadly because those are unlikely to become much better.
Now this is interesting. CA has just released a rather comprehensive suite of modding tools, according to an RPS article.
“The Assembly Kit contains a series of tools to help modders edit ROME II’s database and variants, and process data such as textures, models, animations and campaign-game start positions. A suite of exporters also enables users to then edit unit models and animations using third party software,” it says here, factily.
Sadly, I suck at this kind of stuff, but it does make it much more likely that some enterprising modders will make a great game with these tools. Classy!
CA - throws hands in the air - Fuck this, we can’t fix it, maybe the community can!
On a side note, hopefully EA is watching! :)
The one thing we need is competent AI and further increases in performance. Too bad those tools won’t help in that respect.
Hey, so I just jumped on this after the 9th patch. GamersGate was selling it for $30, and I was playing the shit out of Shogun 2, and I thought why not?
Turns out it’s pretty great!
I’ve had no technical problems of any kind. Performance is excellent, even with everything at max–and it looks amazing. Turn times are fine so far, though I expect them to go up in the endgame. The loading time coming from a battle back to the campaign screen is very long.
I love how the game is focused on fewer pieces, from grouping settlements into provinces to limiting the armies/agents you can have based on your Imperium score. Designing my provinces to take advantage of all the % modifiers while getting enough food and happiness is a neat little puzzle. I love the new army stances. The way imperium works nicely models overextension, in that when as you gain more territory you have to defend more space with the same size army, until you have enough to support more generals. At first the very small % buffs seemed absurd, but I realized how you’re supposed to combine them together for focused settlements and armies. (+5% household bonus, +5% army tradition bonus, +20% province bonus – it adds up nicely).
I started as the Icini, and lost the first few “hard” campaigns. I bumped it down to normal, and lost the first campaign there, too, all on the island. But now (normal campaign 2) I’ve solidified Britain and pushed onto Europe, with a nice chunk of provinces that take me down the border of Italy–war with Rome is inevitable. I’m trying to round up all the barbarians into defensive alliances so when the war comes we can present a united front. None of this divide and conquer crap.
The battle AI seems solid, though it’s not a genius. But it does a pretty good job against non-genius me. As usual, it plays a bit too fast and loose with its generals. It’s done some great agent play (stalling my armies so it can defeat them one at a time).
The game is pretty much in a league of its own in terms of sheer spectacle. I’ve had battles with over 10,000 men. I’ve had naval sieges where my longboats fought their way through a storm to land in a city’s port where the defenders were waiting for them. I’ve torn advancing infantry apart with my ballista. Standard stuff for a Total War game, I guess, but the increase in visual fidelity and the fact that units are more lively (the soldiers react to events around them, with contextual lines of dialogue and animations) push it up to another level. I’d say this has the best battles in a Total War yet. Not as strategically perfect as Shogun, but the cultural variety of units and, again, spectacle make up for it.
There are problems, sure. The campaign interface can be a bear (love the province interface, struggle with the army/general interface), though once I got used to using the number keys it became a lot faster. The whole politics system is a mess and needs to be overhauled. There need to be shorter victory conditions, and more options to peacefully get settlements in provinces you share with other factions. The agents are unfocused (they can all assassinate, for example). Taking walled settlements is still a problem for the AI.
But my campaign swallowed this weekend without a trace. And I can’t wait to get back to it.
Its a decent game now, however the stupid politics system never really fitted into the series anyway, and i hope the games workshop version will fokus on battles and war strategy, and keep the diplo from shogun. I never got why people have such a hardon for diplo stuff in these games anyway, its a frigging combat game, not democracy 3
I think its because people like their combat to make sense in a greater context. I always hated it when close allies and lucrative trade partners would turn on me for no good reason.
I never ally or really bothered to trade or make ties, i just conquer my neighbours, its the point of the game anyway, in shogun unstable short term alliances was the best you got, same in rome, and why not, there is no goal in this game that includes biggest trade empire, or largest group of friendly alles .
That’s actually the opposite of true! Your military allies counts towards your settlements owned goal, and there is a victory condition (the economic victory condition) that requires trade relations with 15 factions.
Which isn’t the point I was making. Many people like to have a larger context for the wars that are taking place, and having a working, logical diplomatic aspect to the game helps a lot. War, in real life, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Diplomacy and economics are often as or more important than what happens on the battlefield. Setting up a trade empire in the Total War series helps to facilitate the production of armies a lot better than relying purely on agriculture. Making an alliance with one of your neighbors helps to protect your flank while you fight another neighbor.
I’ll agree that a game called Total War should focus on the fighting, but if you’re only interested in gratuitous battles then why are you playing anything other than custom battles? A military campaign is necessarily about more than just fighting, and many players like the campaign aspect of the game to reflect that.
Giaddon - Did they fix the blobbing by now? I haven’t played since Patch 7 I think and the problem was very noticeable there.
What is blobbing?
Fights devolving into just a huge bungled mass of men, instead of staying in formation like in previous games. It was attempted fixed quite a few times, alongside with “loose” formation.
I don’t mind the blobbing, as long as I still retain tactical control of my squads, you can’t expect a melee to be two row of dudes standing in a line waiting to ‘connect’ to something…this isn’t Tetris.
Also, earlier on, I get the need for diplomacy, I just don’t get the need for advanced stuff like fora’s and other rome specific things, when the game is as you said, called total war. Also I never noticed any other victory conditions other than eat up everything else really. I know vassals may count, but who makes vassals…I mean…bleh …splutter, I am here it vanquish AI, not be their friend…YAY me, Victory at sea!
RE: Blobbing, hard to say. When units meet, soldiers do move around. Like Janster says, it’s a battle, not a line dance. It hasn’t seemed problematic to me. Maybe check out some post patch 9 youtube videos to see if the armies behave the way you want? Units won’t engage unless they are attacked by an enemy, or I tell them to attack, so the formations are pretty clean unless actively involved in melee.
Well, the problem is that blobbing happens both during but also before combat - And that is not how Roman Legionaries fight, according to most scholars. They maintained discipline and formation to enable tactical advantages. Barbarians, sure - they use mass and numbers, but thats also why they often lost to the more disciplined troops like Roman Legionaries. Now, there should be some difference in how the tribes of Gaul or Germans fight, as opposed to how Romans, Athenians and so on fight.
Never really noticed any blobbing before combat but last time I played was who knows how many patches ago. How about phalanx, are the blobbing too? I just like saying “blobbing”. :)
Blobbing.
P.S. Has anyone played that Gaul DLC? Is it released? I am interested in a shorter, tighter campaign, should I pick it up?
Before combat my troops (Icini barbarians) stay in formation, for sure. I make extensive use of the group formation buttons too, not sure if that matters.
The Gaul DLC is released, but I haven’t played. I’m curious too, but the main game has enough to keep me happy until a nice sale.
I don’t see how formations can be kept in a melee combat, don’t mistake a units ability to march in proper formation for something that can be repeated on the battlefield. The only thing I can say, is that units with some experience and discipline will not run off after the enemy, or leave the group to do some stupid solo stuff, like untrained soldiers was likely to do.
Take a look at Gods and Generals , some of the formations there, they aren’t straight lines, but its still a line formation, and I think they are as close to real as you are going to get.