Rome Total War II

[Declinator]

Sorry but no, just no. Of course SEGAs negative impact can not be excluded, but CAs incompetence stands on its own. These guys couldn't program a decent AI for the battle or strategic map if their life depended on it. The passive/downright stupid AI has been a problem since at least Rome: Total War, yet all CA has achieved is to make the computer enemies even dumber with each new iteration.

No.

Medieval 2 has a markedly better AI than Rome 1 at least in sieges as in open field it seems much the same.

Shogun 2 campaign AI seems more effective than the R1/MTW2 campaign AI though this may be due to the AI cheating or due to the fact that there are so few different paths to things. The fact remains that it put up more of a fight.
S2 battle AI is more like a step forward and a step backwards at the same time.

MTW1 battle AI is horrid compared to even Rome 1. The campaign AI may possibly be better but I have not played enough of it to form a solid opinion about that.

Now Rome 2 seems worse in all respects AI-wise. One of the ridiculous things the AI does is that they cannot control public order at all. I call in a military ally to help in my wars and they might easily lose almost all of their (now without armies) cities to rebellions.
I do not remember the proper factions in R1/MTW2 ever (or very rarely) losing cities to rebels.

AI simply cannot siege-by-sea. They'll come up to a settlement with a huge rebel garrison, blockade it, then keep blockading it perpetually. In my Sparta campaign, Rome has been sieging Syracuse from sea for well over three dozen turns. I can't do shit about it because the game won't fucking let me attack it from land so long as they have the blockade going.

The perpetual siege has a solution but it's not pretty: you must take every single roman city so that they'll be forced to capture Syracuse with their now-starving fleet. Good luck with that. (It worked against an egyptian siege in my game)

Of course you may find simply destroying the fleet easier...

Even the worst units can throw torches to siege gates and can burn them down. (which magically open after burned down ...) No need to use any battering ram or ladders when your mobs can burn down Carthage's massive doors...

Games getting shallower with each passing turn....

Yeah I thought that one was kind of funny. They have that whole siege tech tree branch and I've yet to use any siege equipment. It's simply not needed.

 

[Cursed Platypus]

Anyone looking at Sega's recent releases would start to have doubt has to why this game is so fucked up.

Them meddling in more than just enforcing a release date is highly likely. The retarded UI, graphical effects, political system and such are probably of their doing.

Looking back at the Carthage video they release in 2012, the city was huge, and much more magnificent compared to the current one. Why would CA decide to throw away content they had already coded?
They initially said they had made different UI for the different factions, or that the Campaign would be full of events and new mechanism tailored for your specific faction.

I blame a more retarded than usual corporate culture at SEGA which meddles and fuck up each game they're involved with, hence all these recent failures, and those having lost so much in the past decade.

Sorry but no, just no. Of course SEGAs negative impact can not be excluded, but CAs incompetence stands on its own. These guys couldn't program a decent AI for the battle or strategic map if their life depended on it. The passive/downright stupid AI has been a problem since at least Rome: Total War, yet all CA has achieved is to make the computer enemies even dumber with each new iteration.

And those problems couldn't be caused by Sega instead of CA ? The AI could very well be SEGA not allowing more than 1$ to be put into AI development, or them enforcing retarded management policies where they manage to lose their AI programmer after each new installment. The guy who did the Shogun 2 AI isn't there anymore, same thing happened before Empire.
They can't get a single AI guy to stay with the team for more than 2years. They don't have a consistent AI team.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Any recommendations on the best mod out there for Rome 1 Total war? I have it on steam but never got around to installing it, came bundled with Empire. I remember playing vanilla years ago.

 

[JarlFrank]

Any recommendations on the best mod out there for Rome 1 Total war? I have it on steam by never got around to installing it, came bundled with Empire. I remember playing vanilla years ago.

Somnium Apostatae Iuliani

 

[Storyfag]

Any recommendations on the best mod out there for Rome 1 Total war? I have it on steam but never got around to installing it, came bundled with Empire. I remember playing vanilla years ago.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/so-rome-total-war.84489/

 

[kris]

Now Rome 2 seems worse in all respects AI-wise. One of the ridiculous things the AI does is that they cannot control public order at all. I call in a military ally to help in my wars and they might easily lose almost all of their (now without armies) cities to rebellions.
I do not remember the proper factions in R1/MTW2 ever (or very rarely) losing cities to rebels.

Not in all respects. The BAI is more than decent and better than several other TW games. Well, apart from the special situations, like sieges and with victory points. (although I have only seen one fuckup myself.)

 

[Raghar]

I lost yet another few battles. Though one of them was because I hunted fly and thought they would take care about themselves. It looked like they would if there wouldn't be that one unit of chariots. Kinda wonder if these posters who are complaining even played the game.

 

[Santander02]

Heh, Joe might have a shit taste in RPGs, but it seems he knows his Total Wars

 

[Malakal]

AI simply cannot siege-by-sea. They'll come up to a settlement with a huge rebel garrison, blockade it, then keep blockading it perpetually. In my Sparta campaign, Rome has been sieging Syracuse from sea for well over three dozen turns. I can't do shit about it because the game won't fucking let me attack it from land so long as they have the blockade going.

Speaking of Sparta, I was told that Creative Assembly said this would be one of the hardest campaigns in the series, one which would challenge even the greatest Total War veteran. With this AI, it's arguably one of the easier campaigns I've played thus far. Sure, you start out in a somewhat awkward position (next to Macedon and Athens, who are allied with one another, with the only other way to branch out being through Epirus), but once you get the tech which churns you out Spartan Hopilites, who are simply qualitatively superior to anything the other Hellenic factions have to offer, and even give Roman Legionnaires a run for their money, it's not too difficult to blitzkrieg through Athens and Macedon before they even realize what's happening, take over most of Greece, and get a stable economy going, from which you can basically go anywhere you want. Their passive ability to reduce slave pop decline also makes slave rebellions much less of a headache as they were with the other factions I've played.

Think the main problems for me right now are that the Champions are just too damn good (just get them to focus on training perks, attach them to an army, and I guarantee that you'll have gold chevron rape trains in a handful of turns), and the unit replenishment times are just too fucking short (the most I've had to wait for an army to replenish itself, even when they've gotten into scraps that reduce units to barely a dozen men, is two turns). I haven't had as much trouble with the combat AI as I did before, now it's just standard Total War fare (they march up to me, start shooting with their skirmishers, then march their troops in when I start shooting back, etc). If the campaign AI were to just get more aggressive, I'd guarantee that I'd be having a much harder time at this than I am right now. At least the battles are nice and purdy.

The hardest faction is actually Egypt. I got declared by on by everyone I know on the map within the first 20-30 turns. And they keep throwing at me full stacks, from the west, sought, east and over the sea.

Sparta on the other hand was extremely easy. Turn one I captured Athens, turn two I captured Larissa, then AI killed my army in Larissa so I made a new one and killed off Epyrus and then Macedonia. Once I had that it was easy with a solid power base and enemies not as rabid as with Egypt.

 

[Mortmal]

Thats an excellent in depth reviews, hes not bashing the game just for the purpose of getting viewers, he do seems to really care about gaming and total war games.

 

[Jick Magger]

The hardest faction is actually Egypt. I got declared by on by everyone I know on the map within the first 20-30 turns. And they keep throwing at me full stacks, from the west, sought, east and over the sea.

Sparta on the other hand was extremely easy. Turn one I captured Athens, turn two I captured Larissa, then AI killed my army in Larissa so I made a new one and killed off Epyrus and then Macedonia. Once I had that it was easy with a solid power base and enemies not as rabid as with Egypt.

Ironically enough, Egypt was the first (and only) faction to declare war on me in all the thirty hours I've played thus far. Even though, as Sparta, I hadn't even done anything to them or their allies to warrant it. They sued for peace the following turn, so I think it was some AI quirk hiccup.

Even the worst units can throw torches to siege gates and can burn them down. (which magically open after burned down ...) No need to use any battering ram or ladders when your mobs can burn down Carthage's massive doors...

Games getting shallower with each passing turn....

Eh, siege equipment has its uses. Even levy pikemen gave my Spartan hopilites a hard time when they were guarding a chokepoint through the gates, with burning oil getting poured on my men as they ran in, with skirmishers on the wall throwing shit down at me. Artillery isn't as useless as it was in the original Rome (i.e. they can actually hit shit fairly accurately), and since the AI still can't fucking figure out how to deal with them I've had my fare share of victories brought up by just sitting back and letting it tear up a general's unit and routing the remains with a charge.

 

[Malakal]

Started another campaign as Egypt after reaching a point in my previous when I was sure I am going to get killed off slowly. This time somehow Cyrenaica sued for peace right after I captured their first province and since then not only no one declared on me but also some AIs offered me trade agreements. So in 3 campaigns as Egypt everyone on the map declares war on me and slowly crushes me under the weight of their countless armies and in one I play passively choosing my enemies at will. Fourth one was easiest definitely and felt quite boring actually.

Think AI needs a lot of work since I suppose both behaviors described here are not WAD.

 

[Caim]

Thats an excellent in depth reviews, hes not bashing the game just for the purpose of getting viewers, he do seems to really care about gaming and total war games.

That's why I cannot help but like Joe. Yeah he says some weird shit at times but he loves games and want to see them succeed and blow everyone's minds. He's like the anti-Codex.

 

[spectre]

Didn't play it too much, though initially it felt like a really screwed up beta test - graphical artefacts everywhere, characters look as if there was too much inter-breeding, and all that on very high details.
I tried to patch it today with the skidrow patcher. It gleefully proceeded to try and dump 10 gigs worth of data on my C: partition. It didn't bother to check the free space (there's 5 gigs), couldn't get the message that the fucking game is installed on the D: partition, and so was the patch. Le sigh. Asking for user input is so 2000.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Eh, siege equipment has its uses. Even levy pikemen gave my Spartan hopilites a hard time when they were guarding a chokepoint through the gates, with burning oil getting poured on my men as they ran in, with skirmishers on the wall throwing shit down at me. Artillery isn't as useless as it was in the original Rome (i.e. they can actually hit shit fairly accurately), and since the AI still can't fucking figure out how to deal with them I've had my fare share of victories brought up by just sitting back and letting it tear up a general's unit and routing the remains with a charge.

Well, they've got some uses, especially if you start with Brits their balistae can win lots of battles easly.
But we really don't need any of them when we start sieges, I just send some cannon fodder to burn the gates. Often brilliant AI came out 1 by 1 after that...

 

[kris]

Heh. I shouldn't have played Romans. It is so ridicously easy with them that it is silly. On the highest difficult, but nothing can face their armies and win. Only thing hindering expansion is happiness.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Spartans, which ironically are supposed to be the "hardest" according to CA(shows how much they know about their own game), are arguably the easiest. Can tech up to Spartan Hoplites in just a few years, while preying on weak lesser Greek states nearby and letting Athens/Macedon protect your ass, and then just steamroll everyone with those elite troops. They even give Roman Praets a run for their money. Hilarious. Also Spartan special ability makes slave uprisings negligible, which seems to cripple the AI.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Yup, both Rome and Greek campaigns are easy. Also Brits have a nice starting area and some weak neighbours which lead to easy and quick expansions. I ditched them all and started with Carthage.
BOOM. Defeat after 10 turns O_o Noone likes Carthage it seems but I do like a challenge! I want to see that "marvelous" elephant AI :D

 

[Jick Magger]

It's weird with the diplomacy AI; in some ways it's arguably better, and in others it's worse. In Shogun II, the AI would take into account shit like my expansionism and history of breaking alliances/trade agreements. To put it bluntly, they don't here. Sometimes they'll even be happy about it since the faction in question is an enemy/different culture. This actually makes it even easier to steamroll through the one-province big minor factions, since their neighbours simply refuse to give a shit.

 

[DeepOcean]

Yup, both Rome and Greek campaigns are easy. Also Brits have a nice starting area and some weak neighbours which lead to easy and quick expansions. I ditched them all and started with Carthage.
BOOM. Defeat after 10 turns O_o Noone likes Carthage it seems but I do like a challenge! I want to see that "marvelous" elephant AI :D

You silly. Produce one unit of elephants and there isn't one army that can stand you, why you need human friends when your elephant friends can do all the work alone.

 

[Cyberarmy]

You silly. Produce one unit of elephants and there isn't one army that can stand you, why you need human friends when your elephant friends can do all the work alone.

Well, one of them "minor" Africa factions (some African man posing on flag) literally ate my elephants and general which was my last real army. They swarmed with such fury that I thought they may be The Zerg O_o
Rome and other Itallian factions allied against me also.

 

[Raghar]

Well, one of them "minor" Africa factions (some African man posing on flag) literally ate my elephants and general which was my last real army. They swarmed with such fury that I thought they may be The Zerg O_o
Rome and other Itallian factions allied against me also.

Yes they are eating elephants in Africa. They shot them with a poison dart, and elephant falls down.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Thats an excellent in depth reviews, hes not bashing the game just for the purpose of getting viewers, he do seems to really care about gaming and total war games.

That's why I cannot help but like Joe. Yeah he says some weird shit at times but he loves games and want to see them succeed and blow everyone's minds. He's like the anti-Codex.

Still game has brain dead combat and battle AI which is utter failure in strategic game and gets 5-6/10 from Angrus Joesus... which is like 1/10 from Codex Amarite? and how this game is modable BTW? Will Moders fix it in 2-3 years?

 

[Caim]

Thats an excellent in depth reviews, hes not bashing the game just for the purpose of getting viewers, he do seems to really care about gaming and total war games.

That's why I cannot help but like Joe. Yeah he says some weird shit at times but he loves games and want to see them succeed and blow everyone's minds. He's like the anti-Codex.

Still game has brain dead combat and battle AI which is utter failure in strategic game and gets 5-6/10 from Angrus Joesus... which is like 1/10 from Codex Amarite? and how this game is modable BTW? Will Moders fix it in 2-3 years?

From what I understand it's a bit of a pain to mod, sorta like Shogun 2 and nothing like Rome 1/M:TW 2

 

[Commissar Draco]

Will pass this shit than, happy milking of casuals and consoltard cattle with DLCs Sega.