Agreed and agreed. We can just look to Bethesda for some weak sauce dlcs (aside from Far Harbour) ( and Only aside for that one --mechanist was Not that good)
And of ALL things this is someone who LOVED Rome 2! And the reason why is cause I got conned into running that “This is total war” achievement and spent DAYS (ok maybe weeks) playing Baktria (Bactria?) trying to never spend a turn without being at war with a faction. Lord was that game a mess --at first. But it really got better over time AND --the dlc for Rome 2 (esp Ceasar in Gaul) wasn’t half bad.
Attila seemed like a processor drain at first – but when you realized that game had macro and micro drivers on both the strategic and tactical levels --you realized CA finally got it honed in. TW:Warhammer is like the ultimate culmination of all the lessons learned. But with less strategic depth. But more dragons. And spells.
I am not sure where I am going with this. But heck --it’s worth the price of admission. The game. Not my posts.
Sometimes I’m tempted to revisit that one, since I hear they gussied it up a bit. Sometimes. Then I remember there’s no reason to play a Total War game that doesn’t have Shogun 2, Attila, or Warhammer in the title.
I’ll be just the rebel and say this: I LOVED playing Rome TW2 – It was broken a bit at the start, the ai was terrible, and god forbid you move the mouse wrong and you crashed.
But you know – When you are Rome and lining up and the barbarians are screaming at you – it can get very good especially after all the patches.
Plus: The mods for Rome TW2 were great really. Though all in all I spent the most time in Total War games in Med2 and playing stainless steel or 3rd age.
I tend to say that I am a critic but… I am a sucker for total war.
Tom I used a ton of mods in Rome 2 --even from the beginning --I may have to look back –
First I used a 4x turns a year mod – helped build generals and they didn’t die as often. Hegemony I think by Dresdon --and it had some nice enhanced difficulty parts as well.
I used a mod that had resources in provinces – until CA thought that was neat and I think they added that.
I used a variety of AI/Combat mods – I am gonna go look --obviously the Radious mod was a comprehensive overhaul – (it has multiple parts). I never really preferred radious – I will look back – I am thinking “Close Combat” was pretty good – but some of these modders got mad at steam or something --and they put everything over at TWcenter --and those were a pain to use and install. I think I generally stayed with STEAM mods for the most part.
I had a TON of Bactrian mods lol – I mean why not? Mostly just a variety of troop types.
CA Battle AI improved over the year and a half I played --and by the end vanilla felt pretty good.
Because that achievement was so difficult to do manually (“This is Total War”) I decided in the end to play the Romans with that Hegemony mods (oh I forgot --Traits something something – that’s a good one) and crush everything. Believe it or not playing the Romans and trying for a “This Total War” chievo is frankly pretty tough --EVERYONE hates you and you have a ton of enemies.
I will look back at the mods on steam and post more -seems I also used a mod that prevented barbarians from using artillery, and another that increased shield blocking for missiles. My goal was a realistic simulation. I know. I realize how dumb that sounds lol in a Total War game.
(Ok “Traits, Talents and Toadies” lol and I think I did use “Realistic Legionary tactics” – the first helped with general/leader traits to make the game more interesting --and the latter made the romans a bit better – especially because it considered tactics in the Roman way --though it buffed the romans maybe too much).
Honestly it’s been over a year but I do believe that last attempt at the “This is Total War” chievo was a vanilla run – The last incarnation of Rome 2 (Emperor?) was pretty good. Well compared to the hot mess the first one was.
It sounds like the community is fixing a lot of stuff Creative Assembly should have been doing at the design level. Does Creative Assembly specifically build their games to be mod friendly, or is just a matter of the community being so determined that they just brute force it?
Looking back on it and I m sure others can chime in – but my thinking is Rome 2 was so broken at first it invited serious mods --while TW games after had less mod support (as to systems). I know I used less mods for Atiila – and for Warhammer? Even less. But I’d love for others to chime in.
Rome 2 did get good with a balance of CA improvements and modding. I will venture that opinion.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel every Total War game since Rome 1 (and maybe Rome also) had serious issues out of the gate that were or were not cleaned up later. Relatively, TW:W seems pretty functional at release. Features work, AI mostly works, combat while dumbed down in sieges works…
It might be the best TW release. Supporting evidence seems to be most talk about it is DLC grumblings rather than crying out for updates.
Anyone know why the AI just stays behind their walls during a siege, even if they have superior forces? Twice now in my game that is about 50-60 turns in I besieged a city when the AI had superior forces. They stayed in their walls and they dwindled to almost nothing when they came out to fight.
While I do think this is probably the best TW game I’ve played (note I never tried Shogun 2, Napoleon, or Atilla), I think I already feel my interest waning. It’s weird because on paper this should be a series I like. Maybe it’s because I’ve been fighting very similar battles this entire time. Maybe it’s because each battle just seems like it takes a while to resolve. I really wish I knew.
Once again I know I’m in the minority here, like I am in Age of Wonders 3, but I think I’d like it more if each side were limited to like 8-10 units.
On a side note: Do I need to do anything to activate my Runemasters powers in battle? I can’t seem to find anything in the UI for them.
I agree with you. As much as I like the game. 10 on 10 battles are way more interesting that 20 on 20. Easier to read and more interesting composition choices. I guess they could double the amount of units per squad and half the number of squads, so you keep the epic number of units at half the attention cost (plus, this might actually nerf heroes)…
What I want is Dominons 4 creatures, spells, and items, with the Total War engine running the strategic and battle maps (sprites replaced by TW models). Although that would probably lead to a mental breakdown as I try to give out gems and set up communion slaves and thugs during the battle.
Not to take away all the great coding that Illwinter has done, but the sprite mechanism has been around for at least a decade.
Oh man, Akaoni, now that you’ve put that in my head, I can’t get it out. Imagine if Creative Assembly hired the two Illwinter guys and gave them the resources to do Total War: Dominions. Total Warwar Hammer is a glimpse of what that could be, isn’t it?
Absolutely, the Warhammer version of TW is very close to what it could be with Dom4. Its got the character screens, the ability to give items to the characters, the characters can do melee or spells, there is a research tree, the strategic map even has provinces.
The one big hurdle I see is converting the thousands of sprites into TW models. I mean, Dom4 has sprites for mosquitoes and scorpions up to Titans and Rocs. That would be a lot of work. I could see breaking it down by Early, Middle and Late Age, with each age being a DLC or something like that.
Kristi - any possibility you could make a “mod collection” in your steam workshop so we could all just pick everything off that to use for our own Rome2 game? I bet I would enjoy it a lot more based on what you put together!
JP let me try – I don’t even have Rome 2 installed atm – I do away with the ld and bring in the new – but I thing I might have a way to make something that will help…
Yeah, I think every Dom player has thought that at some point. “How cool would be this game but with an AAA budget, for example in the TW engine!”
Content wise, It would be really more like 3 separate games, each for a age, and even then half of the nations would be DLC for each game.
