Rome Total War II

[BlackAdderBG]

Second survey from twcenter.

http://kwiksurveys.com/app/rendersurvey.asp?sid=dacuet04yi9nunt406511&refer=IntroSiteLink

 

[kris]

I did some replaying on Empire and Rome2 with all patches.

Empire is a game I so wanted to be bad, but it still seems to be utterly broken. I suspect the changed the AI so it now at least protect its capital. Of course that means that it doesn't seem to attack at all. More than before just send out raiding parties. Of course the larger problem is still the broken province system with large countries like France being one province.

Rome2. Actually seems to have an AI now and on the higher difficult cheats at an hilarious level to give a big challenge. I gotta tell this...

When playing as Rome on very hard I had just deafeated the Etruscan league by defeating their last armies outside of Neaples. but when I clicked the turn button something surprising and almost shocking happened. The Etruscan league which only had one general with no armies left attacked cosentia. They had hired 8 mercenaries and took the city. I moved there the next turn, but then I saw at which level the AI cheated. They had now hired FOUR regiments, something which should not have been possible, and had more mercenaries as they also took Brundisium. As Veneti had at the same time attacked in the north I now had negative income and had to disband armies. While the Etruscan league by no means should have been able to do what it did.

 

[kris]

Eh Eye always did stuff like that, even on default difficulty. They have monetary and upkeep bonuses to prevent the idiots from bankrupting themselves every second turn, and depending on the game, bonuses to trait and command generation rates, or the amount of units that could be produced per turn. Medieval 2 modders, being cyclopean dumbfucks, loved to create scripts that spammed full stack reinforcements whenever the AI fell below a certain income/number of provinces etc.

I noticed these things in previous incarnations. But Rome before the patches was laughably easy as AI couldn't do tricks like the one I mentioned above. I now have problems on very hard, especially since I hardly can support my armies. I even bought an mercenary elephant for just one battle and then disbanded it since its upkeep is 700+.

 

[spectre]

It's a crying shame they cannot design a game and then an AI to handle it.
I would turn a blind eye to it earlier, but it's gotten really blatant in Shogun 2, where it would conjure up armies of level 8 samurai when you weren't looking. Literally. They always appeared outside your line of sight.

 

[Brinko]

It's a crying shame they cannot design a game and then an AI to handle it.
I would turn a blind eye to it earlier, but it's gotten really blatant in Shogun 2, where it would conjure up armies of level 8 samurai when you weren't looking. Literally. They always appeared outside your line of sight.

I think what pissed me off more was after downloading the anti-cheat mod that turned off the convert peasants into samurai was that the AI just only built one army and didn't put up a fight at all.

The biggest AI fuck up of all time though was with their adding on of the Hero Unit DLC as now with that on the AI just immediately rushes cavalry no matter what because the 3 cav heroes are so fucking ridiculously strong compared to other units you get and it only takes 15 turns to tech up. Just this mad dash that has no pay off because the auto resolve usually kill them instantly.

 

[Morgoth]

Full changelog of Patch 15/EE released:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Patch_15

Patch should be out today "soonish".

 

[Brinko]

Couldn't find this in the patch notes but from what I can tell some of the wonders have been buffed significantly which is a godsend as most were shit. Also the bonus for holding Baktria is shit as well, fucking rome gets more recruitment and bonus to all wealth, haven't conquered pergamon so I have no idea what they get, Pella gets industry buffs, and Carthage gets commerce buffs.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

yeah, I'm done with this company forever.

I've told myself that so many times. So many times. I say to myself "I'm going to pack my bags, grab the kids, and leave this disgusting, incompetent, drunken brute of a developer forever". And it never happens. I just dry my tears, put on a brave face for the neighbors, install a mod, and make the best of it.

 

[Irenaeus]

Really? Last game I bought from CA was Medieval 2. Btw I was just thinking of installing Europa Barbarorum II.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

EB II crashes and freezes too frequently for me to play

I've being replaying the MOS Third Age mod compilation instead. Anything to avoid downloading Rome II Emperor edition only to discover that, in all probability, the siege AI is still hopelessly broken.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Sorry to hear that, it has been fairly stable for me.

 

[kris]

Full changelog of Patch 15/EE released:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Patch_15

Patch should be out today "soonish".

The building changes was needed. for the first time I played long enough to get to the higher tier buildings, but even with just temples and farms I hesitate building them. Farms and temples on their own almost take each other out with their penalties.

here is a gem though:

Reduced general dead morale penalties for the AI.

Oh, so just for the AI then.

 

[titus]

Oh, so just for the AI then.

How did one guy once put it.... "You have a brain, the AI cheats". I think it was an AI programmer

 

[Morgoth]

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/09/total-war-egx-booth-images-hint-at-next-game-reveal

Hmm..... it's definitely not Empire II. Good.

Probably Rome II Standalone Attila expansion, or Medieval 3.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Probably not Total War: Warhammer too...

 

[hoverdog]

Probably not Total War: Warhammer too...

Maybe that's for the best.

 

[Morgoth]

A Total War Warhammer wouldn't even be legal. Merging two IP's together with different owners? Nah.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Total Warhammer?

edit:I want to believe goddammit

 

[Forest Dweller]

A Total War Warhammer wouldn't even be legal. Merging two IP's together with different owners? Nah.

It's simply a matter of licensing the setting.

 

[Cyberarmy]

MEH, Atilla and Huns are on their way.

 

[Infinitron]

Eurogamer re-review(!): http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-09-total-war-rome-2-re-review

It's so refreshing to see Total War: Rome 2 smoothed over and playing smarter. It's a noticeably better game. Unfortunately, it's not always that much better and I can't help viewing it as a charming toddler: as something that sometimes surprises me with its smarts, sometimes walks just fine by itself and sometimes pukes in my lap with nary a moment's warning.

Battles at sea feel slower and better paced: great! My spearmen are running up and down the ladder they just erected to climb over city walls: oh no! A seaborne army pathfinding their way from the tip of Italy to north Africa want to take an overland route through France and Gibraltar: oops! And so on.

I don't always mind. Not much. The battles look fantastic, particularly when hundreds of lunatic warriors clash with each other in slow motion. Fighting a pitched battle against a deadly foe is as much fun as chasing down the ragged remains of a once-great army (there's something about ordering 20 units to attack one that's far too satisfying). Building an empire is alarmingly addictive and it might just be that Creative Assembly have perfectly captured that compulsion that so many megalomaniacs have felt throughout history.

Right now, I have a problem in the Alps. My Alps. I don't know where this well equipped, well trained army of 2000 rebellious slaves came from, since my records confirm that I've hardly taken any slaves at all and the few I've brought home from war might be a quarter of that number. It's frustrating, but part of me doesn't care. I'm still having fun. I'm going to have fun beating them and I'm going to have fun pushing my way into France.

Total War: Rome 2 is still rickety in many places and, for all its improvements, it remains a very similar experience. It's not worth getting now if you were on the fence before. It's not a radically different experience or a dramatically changed game. Like the Roman Republic itself, it's still prone to collapsing and to repeating its mistakes over and over, but that doesn't stop it from being terribly entertaining and, at times, worryingly compulsive. Total War: Rome 2 is good, quite a bit better even, but it's not the best thing since sliced bread.

7 / 10

Same score as before, lol.

 

[Konjad]

but is the reviewer the same person?

 

[Rahdulan]

OH, YOU SICK FUCK.

 

[Agesilaus]

Looks like we're finally getting another Peloponnesian War game! TOTAL WAR: WRATH OF SPARTA.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/327280/

Does anybody know anything about this? I will actually buy this once Rome 2 goes on sale again, and only because I love the theme/setting.

 

[DeepOcean]

Looks like we're finally getting another Peloponnesian War game! TOTAL WAR: WRATH OF SPARTA.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/327280/

Does anybody know anything about this? I will actually buy this once Rome 2 goes on sale again, and only because I love the theme/setting.

After 16 patches, the game is playable, bought Rome 2 dirty cheap on the last Steam sale and most of the issues that made the game unplayable are fixed, still worse than Shogun 2 and nowhere near the original Rome but isn't an abortion of a game anymore . If you wanna buy it, buy it on a sale because I have a feeling this DLC will just re use assets of the campaign like crazy.

 

[Agesilaus]

According to the reviews... Sparta has walls? Count me out, thanks.