Expeditions: Rome - the final Expeditions game from Logic Artists

[notpl]

I rushed that guy and killed him in 2 or 3 turns on Hard. His sword sounds good at first but is pretty mediocre compared to most other legendaries.

 

[notpl]

IIRC there's literally a pile of javelins right next to him. And you have friendlies on the map, it's overall one of the easier fights in act 1 whichever way you decide to do it.

 

[Oropay]

Haven't bothered more than skimming a few replies in the thread, but on the default difficulty settings for Hard, the game is extremely easy. My soldiers are barely even damaged, let alone incapacitated. Also I've seen a few people throwing around the word 'puzzle' to refer to the combat encounters in the game, but that could not be farther from reality. The player has a wide variety of methods at his disposal, such different ways to kill particular a enemy or tactical approaches to complete objectives.

I submit that many people are not fully utilizing all the tools that the game offers the player, or simply just bad.

 

[notpl]

Haven't bothered more than skimming a few replies in the thread, but on the default difficulty settings for Hard, the game is extremely easy. My soldiers are barely even damaged, let alone incapacitated. Also I've seen a few people throwing around the word 'puzzle' to refer to the combat encounters in the game, but that could not be farther from reality. The player has a wide variety of methods at his disposal, such different ways to kill particular a enemy or tactical approaches to complete objectives.

I submit that many people are not fully utilizing all the tools that the game offers the player, or simply just bad.

Considering most of us in the thread gave up on the game because it was insultingly easy on Hard, I'm gonna go with "just bad." Saying "you have very few ways to shred the enemy's armor" about a mission where they literally positioned the boss next to a barrel of armor-shredding weapons says everything you need to know about the speaker.

 

[Bastardchops]

I am not going to watch some 16 minute of some dork on youtube talking about American culture wars.

However here is a TL;DR for you: There were black slaves, freedmen (I.E liberalis like the static one in the game), mercenaries and raised auxiliaries in Rome. Black citizens were rare until Caracalla.

The video is focused on the history not on the culture wars. But if you want to be willfully ignorant that's fine you'll just become progressively more retarded.

 

[Bastardchops]

Yeah shouldn't have responded to someone learning their "history" from 16 minute youtube videos. "History" in this case of course being whether or not an ancient states had black people in it, which is what these "Rome fans" often learn as history, just collection of anecdotes.

Nice job shifting the goalposts there. See you're defending the game including black people as Roman nobles, whilst retreating to the claim that the Roman empire had black people in it.

 

[Sensuki]

yeah Viking was a pretty easy game as well, so Insane seems like the only difficulty to play really.

I am not saying these are not winnable, I am just saying they are not fun. The fight against Archeus was exactly like this. Overwhelming odds (of trashmobs), the catch (he had so much armor you couldn't do damage to him unless you shred the armor first), the catch #2 (you had very limited means to shred it at that time, and he couldn't be locked down with most builds, and could just run around ignoring attacks of opportunity and take out your backline), so eventually you had to resort to the cheap way the developers intended (bring enemy number down to 5). So it's like instead of focusing on fun combat, you are playing the game of "guess how the developers wanted you to tackle this shit".

I understand. I can see why someone wouldn't like it, and I think it's possible the devs have 'overused' the objective-based design even.

The Archelaus fight used to be different, in the demo it was too easy to win, at least coming from the Harbour because it was too easy to kill the required enemies in 1-2 turns with AI help.

The idea with armor in this game is that you're supposed to throw Pilums at high armored enemies or enemies with shields to remove their armor or disable their shield, that's just the design. In that particular fight coming from the harbor there's a Pilum box in the fortification right in front of you, you kill the guys guarding it, grab the 3 Javelins and then throw them at Archelaus and focus him down.

I prefer how it is now but yes doing it by reducing the enemy numbers is more difficult compared to how it used to be.

I'm 10/11 regions conquered in Asia Minor and I definitely do not have optimized builds on anything, and I just finished a fight in the first turn by just alpha striking the boss guy down and then the fight was over and he goes 'we surrender'. It's a very different design to normal. I'm keeping in mind what others are saying in the thread and I'll reserve my comments until I play more of the game.

 

[The_Mask]

After you unlock this skill on veles all battles end in one turn

• Reaper: Every time the character kills an enemy, their Action Point is replenished, all used skills are reset, and movement is fully restored.

Monks should be over powered. I see nothing wrong with this. :D

 

[HoboForEternity]

I am not saying these are not winnable, I am just saying they are not fun. The fight against Archeus was exactly like this. Overwhelming odds (of trashmobs), the catch (he had so much armor you couldn't do damage to him unless you shred the armor first), the catch #2 (you had very limited means to shred it at that time, and he couldn't be locked down with most builds, and could just run around ignoring attacks of opportunity and take out your backline), so eventually you had to resort to the cheap way the developers intended (bring enemy number down to 5). So it's like instead of focusing on fun combat, you are playing the game of "guess how the developers wanted you to tackle this shit".

I just burned him with fire arrow he died within few turns.

 

[hivemind]

conquistador was so comfy I can't believe that this studio spent like the next 8 years developing below average pseudo-rpgs with ever increasing budgets and declining quality instead of carving out their own interesting niche

 

[FreeKaner]

The video is focused on the history not on the culture wars. But if you want to be willfully ignorant that's fine you'll just become progressively more retarded.

The video didn't prevent you from being retarded. You will not learn anything relevant about history from 15-30min half anecdote half buffoonery youtube videos which is what 99.9% of "history" (in reality history themed entertainment and/or culture wars).

Nice job shifting the goalposts there. See you're defending the game including black people as Roman nobles, whilst retreating to the claim that the Roman empire had black people in it.

What claim am I retreating to you dumb fuck? I talked about black liberalis in the game which the people here showed a screenshot of as it is a persistent character rather than a generated one, you responded to me with 16 min video which I didn't watch. If the video is talking about black nobles go take it to the whatever culture warrior that made that claim. I did not watch your 16min video and I am not gonna respond to it. You are the one that responded to me so you make an argument against what I wrote.

 

[Alpharius]

Playing on insane, the combat was not bad at first but then after i've got the "block all attacks from front, left and right" shields it declined signigicantly(that was after 3rd fight in the game i think). Then there is this unlimited overwatch bow that oneshots most enemies without shields. Didn't level up the reaper skill that allows you to kill all trashmobs on first turn yet but it already feels like i'm playing nuxcom with endgame gear.

The legion combat is aslo popamole. Doesn't seem like anything i can do affects the outcome of battles signigicantly apart from the number of troops (but this only increases the likehood of victory which 99% of the time is assured anyway). Unlocked a bunch of strategems but most of them are shit so like in any shitty card-based system i'm now less likely to get the good ones because my "deck" is filled with crap. (Didn't find an option to remove them).

Also most loot is trash. And crafting needs at least level 2 to produce something decent i think, apart from unique items. Didn't unlock it yet.

Finishing Asia minor now, i guess i'll drop the game soon after.

 

[HoboForEternity]

I think a lot of people agree the legion gameplay just doesn't click compared to the other expeditions game. Instead of being a legate they should just make us a small strike team limited to infiltration and small skirmishes while the big army are done in the background. Same story, same settings, but the character doesn't become a legatus, instead just make up a special task force like commander shepard or whatever and go with it.

 

[Reinhardt]

the most obvious good choices always brings better results.

The most obvious good choice is Caesarism, not bowing down to patrician snobs as Parsimonious cook has done.

Lol, nigger, you would gift Rome to Cleopatra or some other bitch, like you did in wrath of the trannies. And wouldn't even get sex in return.

 

[Sunri]

the most obvious good choices always brings better results.

The most obvious good choice is Caesarism, not bowing down to patrician snobs as Parsimonious cook has done.

Lol, nigger, you would gift Rome to Cleopatra or some other bitch, like you did in wrath of the trannies. And wouldn't even get sex in return.

I didn't know we had Romans in wotr

 

[Jermu]

Uninstalled game. Last act missions are too retarded and game is way too easy on hard. I would switch to insane if I had some willpower to keep playing. Pacification missions are also shit.

Spoiler

You visit the village which Lurco captured and you are supposed to meet him. There are 4 buildings locked in the middle of village which is quite suspicious I was thinking Lurco is trying to kill me now. But no it was leftover Gael enemies which Lurco somehow managed to "miss"

I enjoyed act 1, act 2 was fine but act 3 is too much same boring shit you have already done million times. Uninteresting busywork.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Annoying game. Some interesting ingredients like the setting, but no flow, no joy.

 

[Shrimp]

Had the game been shipped as a short 10-20 hour campaign (and with a matching price tag) that only took place in the Asia Minor portion of the game it would honestly have been great.
I stopped playing just before marching on Alexandria. Knowing I had an entire new map to go through after almost finishing up the second one was the straw that broke the camel's back. I should've stopped earlier since the game got stale and repetitive a long time ago but I erroneously powered through more of it hoping it'd change, but it just never did.
If I have to say one thing I did like about the game it's the cast of characters. I didn't expect much from them based on the previews before the game's launch, but I found them to be surprisingly enjoyable and varied even if they could have been used more.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

The idea with armor in this game is that you're supposed to throw Pilums at high armored enemies or enemies with shields to remove their armor or disable their shield, that's just the design. In that particular fight coming from the harbor there's a Pilum box in the fortification right in front of you, you kill the guys guarding it, grab the 3 Javelins and then throw them at Archelaus and focus him down.

That's exactly my point though. I never said it was hard, which the retards above cannot seem to grasp with their catlike brains. What I said was all combat encounters are structured around some contrived bullshit, like Archelaus having some ridiculous armor (9) as a light infantry, and/or magic pilum stores next to him or whatever. So every fight, instead of just being immersed into and enjoying the combat system, you are constantly trying to figure out how the devs meant for you to tackle the fight. And that's just not fun.

 

[Sensuki]

It's the opposite of D:OS that's for sure.

I think I prefer the system in Viking to Rome, but I do like that you actually need to use items on the harder difficulty in this, and enemies actually use them too. They'll grab the pilum and throw it at you if you don't get it, which I think is cool. In Viking enemies didn't use items, and you almost never needed to either.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Yeah, I like Viking a LOT more than Rome so far. The combat was just combat, use real world tactics, e.g. shield wall in front, archers behind, disable enemy shields with hooking, etc. Rome has much of the same system in place, but instead of throwing tough enemies at you in straightforward fights, they just throw waves of shit with various handicaps or tricks. Also Viking was a much better flowing game, most of it was on the party level, Rome is Shitmaker-like in its loading screens, and constant transitions between party, world map, legions, etc.

 

[Sensuki]

I definitely agree about the flow of the game part, the flow of the game in Viking was great. In Rome it is a bit awkward.

 

[Saduj]

Found a funny bug last night. It was on the last leg of the final mission of Act 1. I failed the mission because I assumed it was ending at a certain point, got careless, had Bestia go down, didn't bother sending anyone after him and failed to kill the last enemy before Bestia bled out because the little bastard retreated to a back corner of the map. Game Over.

Reload and decide to use the catapults to fire bomb the back of the map so that enemies can't drag things out by hiding back there. I kill enough enemies to trigger Mithraides' escape only this time the path he takes is completely firebombed. So he's running away and taunting me but also taking burn damage and making the "uh oh aaaaaaah!" noises that burning enemies make. Right when he's done with his scripted taunting, he crumbles in a heap and dies. Very satisfying even if the game still considers him alive....

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the problem isn't even the combat goals but how overused they are as if they were required to implement them by a manager or something
the one where you're ambushed and have to go over and heal the dude and escort him away from battle while holding off the attacks is an example of it being done well

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Combat goals (other than winning the combat) or contrived combat situations are bad in the same way that modern RPG quests are bad. In classic RPGs, you would just be given a high level goal for a quest, e.g. find that thing or defeat that guy. Then it would be up to you to figure out how to do it, and it felt free and empowering, like it was YOUR game. In modern RPGs, they break every quest down into a series of simple tasks, go here, do this, go there, do that, so you feel like an errandboy.

Well, combat is similar, if you just start duking it out with someone in freeform format, it's fun, its your fight, but this contrived shit makes you jump through somebody else's hoops like a dog. Oh, now these dudes magically appear behind me for a "secret" ambush, and oh now, I can't use my main healer, and now this enemy has this magic armor that I can't touch, so I have to do that. It just takes all the agency and fun out of it. And it's becoming a worrying trend with nuRPGs.