Rome Total War II

[Irenaeus]

I'm starting to doubt my resolve to buy it in 2015.

 

[MapMan]

So what are the best Rome I mods? I like the roman setting so I just want something that improves and expands on the original formula, not a total conversion with like with elves and shit. Europa Barbarorum 2?

 

[AMG]

Roma Surrectum 2 and EB are the best. There is also Rome Total Realism but I think it is outclassed by the former two. I recommend EB, especially if you like to read about history. Invasio barbarorum is also a cool series of mods about decline of roman empire.

 

[praetor]

So what are the best Rome I mods? I like the roman setting so I just want something that improves and expands on the original formula, not a total conversion with like with elves and shit. Europa Barbarorum 2?

the alpha/beta release should be out relatively soon. a dev posted for christmas a short AAR playing as arverni. there's still a couple of things to change (arverni diplomat still uses the mtw2 merchant model) but i'm fairly optimistic the first version(s) should be out before easter (fingers crossed)

 

[Commissar Draco]

77BC, BI series and EB; RSII looks avesome but is unplayable on my Rig.



And this Mod, despite having Elves and shit... but its 100% pure Tolkien shit with no Jackson

 

[poocolator]

Well they pushed back that lulzocalypse of a Mod Summit to late January. And I was looking forward to a hilarious vacation by the fire with my family laughing at the incompetency of the CA staff.

Oh well I guess I can laugh at the ginger cunt suffering from eating a pepper like a tard.

Hmmm, new fetish discovered.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Still can't into feeling bad for sheeple who payed 60 jewgold for this shit:



And Roma Surrectum is only one of the many mods which totally destroy Rome II; heck Vanilla Rome one is better game than Rome II.

Best Rome 1 mod right there. Always liked it over EB, which I thought too overrated.

Invasio Barborum has some really great mods too. BRG being the best among them.

 

[Brinko]

So I finally got Rome 2 and after 9 patches so far I can say that is playable but boring as fuck. I tried 2 games as Macedon and Egypt and my Egyptian game so far is actually proving to be somewhat enjoyable but there are the nagging problems like politics being a worthless affair other than to secure a promotion to make one general better at reducing anger and spreading culture. I have no fucking clue as to what the 3 stats do aside from give me more special powers that I barely use. But after 50 turns seeing people complain that most factions don't upgrade troops or just slinger armies has only happened once and that was Rome of all things having a doom stack of peltasts running around because they had no barracks but it was on patch 8 not 8.1. Now I see the africans to the south of me fielding cav and chariots, the eastern factions are bringing out noble swordsmen which are on par to Greek thorax swords, but factions like cyprus still go full throttle into the ranged barracks only for some reason.

So my verdict with 24 hours clocked in is a 6/10, not good but the glaring flaws like factions not attacking or even running away have stopped.

Also fuck the seasons mod that shit is retarded as fuck, all it seems to do is give me brutal shit like -10 happiness every fucking turn. It also seems to make shit like floods and earthquakes happen way more often because with it off I've only had 1 event that fucked me and it was a big fire in a city.

 

[Darklife]

Hell, I didn't play this, but it's probably telling when even Angry Joe is trashing the game.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Say what you want about Angry Joe but he does know and likes to play his TW games; so the KKKodex Consensus is to play Rome 1 instead? Game might be decent with 20th patch or something and Mods in two years if Sega won't go full Jew and allow modding.... Correction if would require the elimination of kill moves and Commissar doubts Modders will have skill to rewrite the game engine, since I am too old too look on the monitor and watch entire formations fighting duels 1:1 I will pass on this.

 

[DemonKing]

I finished my Roman Campaign last night with a military victory. You can go for an economic or cultural victory but as both of those options still require you to control multiple big provinces you might as well just go ahead and crush the opposition. I've been playing a few hours a week since release and according to Steam it took me 80 hours to finish.

The interface takes ages to work out and even then it's a bit clunky (although things have improved a bit with patches). I never bothered to fight a naval battle except through autoresolve as I've always hated naval combat in these games. Land combat I fought personally only if I had inferior forces. It is quite easy to beat the AI with minimal tactics even with dramatically poorer forces most times (especially if you are the defender in a walled town since the AI can't siege effectively at all). The hardest battles were usually against massed mounted archers as the AI is reasonably good at skirmishing meaning even pursuing cavalry will get worn down by missile fire.

Diplomacy makes little sense. I could completely crush a civilization, leave it with a single province under siege by huge forces and it still would refuse to become a client state even with masses of cash offered to sweeten the deal. At one stage civilizations that despised me would happily trade with me but by the end of the game not even those that liked me would do so (I hit a high of 42 trading partners and ended up with 2). Politics makes even less sense but at least has the decency to barely intrude on the game at all.

It was kind of fun building up my empire. Britain was a particularly tough nut to crack (I had to retreat my forces off it and return at one stage). I ended up expanding into Gaul/Spain and to Greece/the East simultaneously eventually circling down south and conquering Egypt and Africa from two directions. I had one decent Ally (Rhodes) that never turned on me and was actually useful in a few fights. Sparta was also a staunch ally for a while except their sole town was captured by rebels and their few remaining forces never achieved much apart from some elite guys memorably turning up as allies during one battle I had and almost turning the fight in my favour.

Overall I felt I probably would have enjoyed the game if it took half as long to complete. For the second half of my playtime victory seemed pretty much inevitable. The original Rome was much better (I don't know why they scrapped the fun family dynasty bits) but I found this passable enough given I'm a big fan of classical history.

 

[Brinko]

What was your experience with looking at how certain factions build their settlements? I'm playing as Egypt and just got around to looking at how Rome has built itself because I'm wondering if vassalization to get those great Roman units for my Eastern campaigns or just wipe them out and it seems they always build the Aux barracks but factions such as Athens and Macedon go for the hoplite barracks. Even then though it's a crap shoot because Cyprus has a level 4 skirmish barracks so I can only assume its totally random to how the AI conducts itself when building a military.

 

[DemonKing]

I didn't pay too much attention to be honest - usually if you build an Auxiliary Barracks you can recruit units native to that part of the world as part of your mainstream (non-mercenary) forces. I usually rebuilt whatever kind of town I conquered into a Roman town to ensure better defenders if it came under attack, and demolished any buildings which were less than optimal (Noble's Quarters which does nothing or anything that improved the cultural influence of other factions).

 

[Brinko]

I get that but they only have one barracks, it being the Aux barracks, in central Italy. So I am trying to get a glimpse into the mind of the how the AI makes it decisions for military recruitment and digging up on minor factions they usually shoot for the skirmisher barracks because it gives good ranged and melee troops but for Rome to go Auxiliary in Italy makes no sense because the Socii troops are more expensive and do less than their main infantry.

I guess shit is still somewhat fucked up but it does make a little sense though not enough to be considered intelligent.

 

[anus_pounder]

I get that but they only have one barracks, it being the Aux barracks, in central Italy. So I am trying to get a glimpse into the mind of the how the AI makes it decisions for military recruitment and digging up on minor factions they usually shoot for the skirmisher barracks because it gives good ranged and melee troops but for Rome to go Auxiliary in Italy makes no sense because the Socii troops are more expensive and do less than their main infantry.

I guess shit is still somewhat fucked up but it does make a little sense though not enough to be considered intelligent.

You too?

Found almost nothing but aux barracks in the 'main' roman provinces in my gaul campaign. Admittedly this was a few patches back...

 

[Spectacle]

Here's a question for all the Total War fans: will there ever be a Total War game set in the 20th century? And should there a game in that time period in the first place?

I don't think it would work well, because 20th century warfare doesn't really have clearly defined "battles" like earlier periods did. Fighting took place over large areas for weeks, even months.

 

[Jick Magger]

If they did, then it would have to be over large-scale battles that would require so much micro-managing that the game would probably be unplayable, or small scale ones that lose the spirit of Total War so much that they'll essentially just be making a Men of War/Company of Heroes clone.


Either that, or most of your time will just be spent on the battle map using artillery and air-strikes so that you can knock the shit out of enemies so badly that you can just auto-resolve every battle, at which point it just becomes a Poor Man's Hearts of Iron.

 

[Brinko]

You too?

Found almost nothing but aux barracks in the 'main' roman provinces in my gaul campaign. Admittedly this was a few patches back...

I think I figured out why some factions go for the auxiliary barracks instead of the main barracks. it comes down to the AI actually making rational decisions on how to manage its happiness levels in a normal environment instead of just retardedly killing itself by plummeting its happiness into the toilet. All auxiliary barracks use food instead of eating happiness and since the new patches have added on extra food and happiness modifiers to the AI it can now actually survive in most cases, I've even seen the Seleucids start on a warpath against its old satraps and become a powerhouse.

Also auxiliary barracks provide enough units for both greek and roman factions to provide a decent challenge but I would suggest patching it in so that level 3 aux barracks for romans can produce principes because the AI isn't too bright and just recruits velites and maybe some socii hastati. But overall it seems the campaign AI has gotten to M2 levels of sanity instead of having the shit for brains AI of Empire.

Also CA put this up on their twitter.

Can't wait for the mod summit at the end of this month so i can laugh at that fucking mess of an event while they scramble to cover their asses. Bonus points for cosplayers who dress up as units with the fucked up zombie faces.

 

[Brinko]

http://www.strategyinformer.com/new...of-total-war-rome-ii-assembly-kit-for-modders

Modders assemble! Creative Assembly have just released the beta of the Rome II Assembly Kit which lets mod enthusiasts get their hands on approved methods to creating new content for Total War: Rome II.

It's available in the Tools section of Steam to download. The strategy game's database, variants, "textures, models, animations" and other gems are all for the pillaging.

Let loose the modders of Total War. The studio will be beefing up the Assembly Kit overtime as feedback reaches them, and expanding its scope for Rome II.

"To get modders started, The Assembly Kit comes packaged with example data, such as naval vessels, soldiers, animation sets, and the complete ROME II database backend. When a mod is complete, it can be uploaded directly to the Steam Workshop via the ROME II launcher, where over 1000 user-created mods can already be found," said Creative. An official Game Mods section has appeared on the Total War: Rome II forums.

TWeak with the following two plugins
◦ DaVE – the game database editor
◦ Variant Editor – for editing the look of characters, units and ships

• BOB – for processing data including:
◦ Textures
◦ Models
◦ Animations
◦ Database tables
◦ Group formations
◦ Campaign starting positions
◦ Packing files into mod pack

• Exporters ◦ 3ds max for models
◦ Motion Builder for animations
◦ Maya for animations

• Data
◦ Example data for each supported data type
◦ The complete database backend

"This Beta release is designed to allow for the tools and processes to be tested by modders through usage, and to make sure there are no issues. We’ll post official documentation over the next few days and weeks, which will ultimately cover all areas of the Assembly Kit," continued the studio.

"We’re looking forward to seeing what everyone will make with these tools, and the Assembly Kit will be updated over time to include other tools as well. To download the Assembly Kit, open your Steam client, and click Library->tools. Scroll down to Total War: ROME II – Assembly Kit BETA and double-click to install."

Here's the one thing I've always wondered about modding on warscape, CA basically took the super easy way out when making shit like swords and ranged attacks by compressing all ranges or attacks into 1 attribute to copy paste 300 times like missile_arrow is going to have the same damage and armor penetration. So is it possible to add new weapon types or are they going to have to pull a Shogun 2 where bow samurai and bow monks share the same range attribute but bow monks get another attribute that adds on more range? Either way it's going to make any overhaul mods a fucking tedious endeavor even without trying to mod in new maps.

 

[Brinko]

Patch 9 BETA up to anyone who gives a shit.

Technical and performance improvements:

• Performance and memory optimisations in Campaign modes.
• Further work to reduce the CPU costs during battles.
• Improved framerates when units clash in battles.
• Siege battle performance optimisations.
• Eliminated several rare crashes found in battle scenarios.

Support for AMD switchable graphics:

• Game now correctly detects and reports the discrete GPU on an AMD switchable graphics configuration (primarily laptops with an Intel integrated GPU and a discrete AMD mobility GPU).
• This fix ensures that the ‘unlimited video memory’ graphics option is enabled correctly on AMD switchable configs.
• Note that the Catalyst Control Centre Switchable Graphics UI must be used to select between the discrete and integrated GPUs for each application that the player wants to run.

Support for ‘Virtu MVP’ Desktop Switchable Graphics:

• Virtu MVP is a common OEM-installed application for selecting GPUs in a multi-GPU desktop configuration e.g. a desktop with an Intel integrated GPU and a discrete desktop GPU – both typically routed to the same motherboard display output connector.
• We now correctly detect and report the correct GPU used in this scenario.
• Note that the Virtu MVP Control Panel application must be used to select between the discrete and integrated GPUs for each application that the player wants to run.
• New option in the Advanced Graphics Settings menu, for selecting between graphics cards / GPUs when more than 1 is available.

Support for multi-GPUs with multi-monitor configurations:

• Game now detects multiple GPUs and allows the player to pick which GPU is used to render the game.
• In this configuration multiple GPUs are shown in a combo-box in the Advanced Graphics Options UI.
• Improved video-memory detection to prevent the game from sometimes detecting the video memory limit from the wrong/lower graphics card in a multi-GPU configuration.

Battle AI and behavioural improvements:

• Improved pathfinding of siege vehicles near walls.
• Improved multiple siege ladder functionality parameters.
• Improved siege vehicle docking placement.
• Units now consistently disembark from ships with raised bows.
• Improved AI infantry awareness of cavalry, making infantry brace when threatened by a charge.
• AI controlled units are now more likely to use flaming arrows against elephants where available.
• Improved logic of multiple battle maps, to allow the AI to interact with these maps better and cause fewer behavioural issues.
• Improved AI General's use of special abilities.
• Rebalanced AI's battle-plan analyser/attack-or-defend decision making, to take into account that the enemy alliance may have weaker but longer-range missile units, to prevent static behaviour under missile fire.
• In ambush battles, the defender’s units which are under missile fire that outranges their own are now more likely to respond by moving to intercept the missile unit attacking them.
• Altered some of the AI's usage of various ammo types.
• Pike Phalanx now reform properly once engaged in melee.
• Idle units attacked when set to Formed Attack attempt to keep their current facing.
• Formed attack charges will now penetrate less than free attack barbarian charges.
• Attacks from units in formation are now more powerful than attacks from unformed units.
• Reduced the chance of units walking while routing from the battlefield.
• Routing units no longer turn around/play matched combat animations as they are being killed.
• Units now no longer head through breach in a wall rather than using the siege engine they are attached to.
• Artillery with special ammo now show the correct model while loading the weapon: e.g. animal carcasses.
• Reduced instances of unit collision which caused jittering on the battlefield.
• Eliminated a battle replay desync caused by presence of war dogs units.
• Units now correctly stop firing at a building if they take ownership of it.
• During multiplayer siege battles, the defender can now see the attacker's units during deployment.
• Rebalanced hit-point bonuses for officers and standard bearers.
• During battles, units can now burn down open gates with torches.
• Men positioned on a gatehouse will no longer die when the gate is destroyed.
• Artillery ships can now consistently disembark.
• Added more effective collision detection to barbarian watch towers in encampment battles.
• Charging at Pikemen now consistently selects the correct matched combat animation, keeping pikemen in line more effectively.
• When dog handlers unleash their dogs, the handlers will no longer attack as well.
• Added blood to chariot horses and drivers, and to attackers and defenders during knockdowns. (Only active if the player owns the Blood and Gore DLC.)
• Artillery on ships can no longer be picked up (previously resulted in loss of unit control).
• Improved unit reforming on the battlefield.
• Projectiles no longer remain in mid-air when the siege weapon that fired them is destroyed.
• Improvements to naval disembarking functionality.
• Technical improvements across a range of battle maps (including pathfinding, deployment, general unit interaction, walls, gates, battle tooltips etc).
• Multiple minor unit behavioural improvements.

Campaign AI improvements:

• AI no longer underestimates its strength when ending a move in Forced March stance within a settlement.
• Campaign AI now considers maintaining sieges for longer, in order to build more siege equipment.
• Campaign AI now less likely to sue for peace shortly after declaring a war.
• AI factions now recruit more siege units.
• Revised the Campaign AI settlement occupation decision system.
• Adjustments to Campaign AI Financial Management.
• AI factions are now much less likely to declare war on distant factions.
• Adjustments to composition of recruited forces.
• Improvement to Campaign AI food management.

General Battle Improvements:

• Eliminated an exploit allowing players to bypass unit-caps in custom and multiplayer battles by modifying a saved army setup.
• Units can no longer use loose formation when manning siege equipment.
• Buhen (Egyptian battle map) is now playable in custom battle mode.
• Caltrops are now placed in more uniform rows.
• Tortoise formation is now unlocked in the Seleucid faction when the player owns the Greek States DLC.
• Improved multiplayer responsiveness: movement paths and attack arrows are now shown instantly upon giving the order. (Previously the game waited for all clients to confirm the issued order, causing a small delay).
• Multiple combat animation blending tweaks.
• Orders issued on lower framerate machines now register more effectively.
• Added a horse bonus upgrade icon to show different levels of horses on their unit cards.
• Improvements to group collision sounds during battles.
• Pre-battle voiceover no longer occasionally cuts out.
• Tweaks to some Hellenic unit looks to make them more distinct.

General Campaign Improvements:

• Added a countdown timer to the Exchange Panel in Multiplayer Campaign mode.
• Settlements on the campaign map will no longer continue to emit smoke from damage or construction when they are no longer damaged/under construction.
• Right-clicking the mouse during the end-turn cycle in campaign while an agent/army is selected will no longer trigger audio responses from the selected agent/army.
• Opening and closing the pause menu, while the Declare War On *Overlord/Make Peace With Satrapies panel is open in Campaign mode, will no longer close the panel and make peace with the satrapies.
• Help I'm trapped in these patch notes.
• An army in Forced March stance will now have their Recruit Units button reactivate immediately when they are put back into the Default stance.
• Replacing an immortal general will no longer trigger a General Wounded message in Campaign modes.
• The Zoom To Location button no longer pans the camera to the bottom-left corner of the Multiplayer Campaign map when pressed with an army selected.
• The Nervii faction is now immune to snow attrition in the Grand Campaign.
• If a general reaches level 25 in a statistic, all of the attribute increases and abilities granted by that statistic will consistently remain.
• Addressed a rare issue during campaign ambush battles where, if the user conceded defeat, they might suffer no losses and could then retreat.
• When recruiting a unit on the same turn as a researched technology that replaces that unit type is completed, the unit recruitment will no longer be cancelled.
• Fix to allow Praetorians to be upgraded to Praetorian Guards once the appropriate technology has been researched.

Battle rebalancing:

• Improved behaviour and benefits of Formed Attack ability.
• Slightly reduced the spacing of melee units.
• Widened the pike cone-of-engagement, so they can hold off units more effectively.
• Reduced pike damage.
• Reduced the mass (and therefore impact) of chariots and elephants.
• Major adjustments to unit costs, to better reflect the combat value of units; there is a much greater spread of values now. For example Oathsworn now cost 1340, Celtic Warriors 350.
• Adjustments to unit speeds, stats, and more to help diversify the unit rosters, and give more distinct roles on the battlefield.
• Improved AI army compositions in campaign mode, when a faction doesn’t have access to early land or navy units.
• Campaign AI is now more focused on acquiring early military technologies.
• Certain total casualty morale penalties have been set to 0 so there is less stacking of morale effects.
• Reduced minimum hit chance, base hit chance and maximum hit chance for melee combat.

Campaign rebalancing:

Auto-resolver balancing:

• Smaller defensive bonus in minor settlement battles
• A small global penalty for the player in autoresolved battles
• Unit threshold has been increased, so severely damaged units are less likely to survive an auto-resolved battle.

 

[Trash]

Still nothing on the naval combat, political system and seasons. Meh. Sieges also continue to suck balls. Also increasingly clear that while they do seem to try and fix the biggest bugs and problems they're not going to look at the crappy mechanics that make this such a poor installment in the first place.

Game is doomed. Only slight bit of entertainment I had with it is through the Divide et Impera mod. Mind you, it doesn't fix it. Merely makes it feel a little bit less of a clusterfuck.

 

[Calapine]

It was probably said before somewhere on those 70 pages, but Shogun 2 got a bit bland due to the sole focus on rather samish japanese clans (and the constricted map), but mechanic, game content and gameplay wise it was the highwater mark of the series. I would kill/be very nice for a Shogun 2 set in the Rome universe.

I bought Rome 2 at release and for that I feel should have been made to wear a dunce cap and sit in a corner. Such a waste of 60 €.

 

[Santander02]

Still nothing on the naval combat, political system and seasons. Meh. Sieges also continue to suck balls. Also increasingly clear that while they do seem to try and fix the biggest bugs and problems they're not going to look at the crappy mechanics that make this such a poor installment in the first place.

Game is doomed. Only slight bit of entertainment I had with it is through the Divide et Impera mod. Mind you, it doesn't fix it. Merely makes it feel a little bit less of a clusterfuck.

Whoa Trash, At the beginning you were actually hopefully this game would eventually become good after some moddin' and patchin', at which point did you loose all faith? Just curious...

 

[Trash]

Because I took some time to learn the basic gameplay mechanics and came to the conclusion that they're severely underwhelming. The patches so far have also completely been about fixing the worst bugs and AI behaviour without changing one bit of the aforementioned underlying mechanics. Thirdly, 9 patches in the game is still piss poor.

tl;dr somewhere along the last 9 patches that didn't really improve the base game one iota.

 

[spectre]

Thirdly, 9 patches in the game is still piss poor.

Holy cow, this must be some sort of a record.