My Rome: Total War 2 review

[Leferd]

Another mea culpa from CA, this time from the man himself - Mike Simpson.

 

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/89314-Second-statement-from-CA-on-Rome-II-s-release-(11-Sep-2013)

 

Second statement from CA on Rome II's release (11 Sep 2013)

Hi everyone,

 

We’ve just put up a hotfix that significantly improves campaign map frame-rate on a variety of hardware combinations that were getting frame rates less than 15 fps. It took us until Monday to get a case of this happening in the studio, but it was a very simple fix, so we’ve decided to put it out as a single issue patch. This bug was introduced very late in the process, but we absolutely should have found and fixed it before release.

 

This release has obviously not gone as planned for some people, and I want to apologise to everyone out there who had issues with the game, whether they were hardware issues or disappointment in the performance of game features. We obviously don’t plan to release a game with any bugs, performance and AI issues. How this has happened is something we’re beginning to post mortem in detail now.

 

Fortunately, the same tech that gave us the rope to work on the game right up to release lets us keep working on it after it’s out, and the flaws in the game are mostly just bugs, not structural defects. We can and will get the game to where we wanted it to be for everyone.

 

The top priority is stability and performance – both frame rates in battle and campaign, and end of turn times and loading times. Then gameplay spoilers – AI flaws and exploits, balancing tweaks and the level of challenge on higher difficulties. Then minor bugs, lesser features that really didn’t pan out, UI improvements, and longer term adjustments to features and systems that could be better. Because there are a lot of us working in parallel there will be a mixture of different priority fixes in each patch. Much of this work would be part of the usual planned improvements we would make to our games post-launch anyway, but we are aware that they have now taken on extra significance and importance.

 

We have a major improvement to end of turn times in the pipeline, along with around 100 fixes in the next patch. We have another 100 or so fixes already being tested for the patch after that. At this point the limiting factor on getting issues fixed in patches is not our ability to fix issues, it’s our ability to test them and guarantee that we don’t repeat past mistakes by putting a patch out that breaks something new. We’ll also be putting each patch up as a beta you can opt in to before releasing it. It’s our aim to continue patching more or less weekly until all the bugs are dealt with.

 

Then we can start the kind of dialogue we always want to be having with the community – which new features you like, which you don’t like, which deleted features from previous games you really miss and so on. That’s a good conversation to be having, and since it’s our intention not to fall in to the trap of just re-skinning the previous game each time, it’s one that hopefully you’ll be having for years to come.

 

Lastly, I’m hoping we can fundamentally treat our releases differently in the future. Long open betas are the way things are going, and while that model hasn’t been compatible with the way Total War has been built to date, that could be the way forward.

 

Mike Simpson

Creative Director

Creative Assembly

[Rosbjerg]

This might ultimately turn out to become a service recovery paradox haha.. At least judging by the comments.

[JFSOCC]

Shogun 2 was easily the most polished and best game of the series so far, though ironically enough, probably the one I've played the least.

likewise, I think it has to do with a small campaign map. All other games had a significantly larger map.

[Leferd]

It was definitely a game with a smaller focus than the others, and the units were fairly homogeneous but it played like a dream. It's probably the only game in the series I feel like not having to mod.

 

Plus the ninja videos were hilarious.

[Monte Carlo]

I'm finding with more and more big releases that I buy them then stop playing them... because I need to wait until they're bloody well finished. *sigh*

[Walsingham]

I'm familiar with the problem of getting bugs to appear dev-side. We actually use some software that was developed by some very good people, who have been trying - literally - for years - to replicate the problems we have. I know they aren't lying, because I've been with them, trying to get the problems to happen. Something to do with the .NET framework we're using.

 

Anyway, I can accept an honest open apology like that in the way it's intended.

 

By way of contrast, Relic's chosen support THQ never even answered emails or posts about the NAT errors on Company of Heroes.

[Calax]

Sooooooooooooooooooooo

 

Won my Rome game via culture. Owned all of Germany, Spain, France, Britain (via client states) and was starting an Alexander style march east when it finally kicked in.

[Serrano]

With any luck the problems with Rome's release will spur CA onto making Warhammer: Total War even better than it would have been otherwise. Because let's face it, Warhammer is going to be the ultimate Total War setting and all others will pale by comparison.  

[mute688]

Another update from CA on the future plans for Rome 2.

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/94255-Battle-and-Unit-teams-What-we-are-working-on

 

 

 

Battle and Unit teams - What we are working on

As you have already heard, the TW team is currently working flat out to fix issues with the game. The highest priority has been given to technical and performance issues, but we are also working on changes that affect AI performance (on battle and campaign).

It’s worth noting that the issues some players are reporting regarding AI behaviour are primarily a result of bugs influencing the input the AI receives before deciding how to react. The brain itself is working but the info it gets isn’t always appropriate.

Like a soccer forward whose team don’t always manage to get the passes to him, he can do all the incredible shots on goal he likes, but he’s going to look silly without a ball.

Of course, that makes no difference to the player, because the end effect is the same, the AI doesn’t perform as it should in some situations. However, it does mean that as various other fixes go in the AI starts getting the right info and you’ll start seeing those issues go away.

Because AI changes have to be effective across all situations in the game, and not create any knock-on problems, they are much more complicated to test, so it’s not always possible to release updates that affect the AI as quickly as we would like – but we are doing everything we can. Over the coming weeks you will begin to notice changes to the AI in campaign and battles as we patch the game. We will also let you know more about those changes as we roll them out.

Beyond technical & AI considerations, various gameplay issues have also been raised, and we wanted to comment on just a few of these, and make a start by explaining some of our thinking behind what’s in the game, and what we intend to do in the near future.

We’ll comment on campaign issues soon, but first – battles.

Capture Points

There has been a lot of hostility to capture points – at least outside of standard siege battles. The battle design plan was for 2 main instances of this kind of battle:

First, when you have a combined battle (land forces and navy fighting on an open field). The capture point was added to force a fight for control of the land, avoiding the situation where a defender, with a reinforcing navy, would be untouchable and thus undefeatable for an attacker without a navy.

The second situation was for an attack on an over-extended enemy army caught in “Forced March” stance. Here the capture point was introduced to reduce defender advantage, and introduce a change in tactics, requiring the defender - who was meant to be on the back foot & unprepared - to defend positions they may not want to defend.

Outside of settlement sieges, the plan was to create a variety of battle experiences in specific circumstances, with a variety of tactical scenarios. The frequency of capture point battles was not intended to be high.

So for patches 3 and onwards, we’re currently testing a number of changes:

First off, attacks on armies in forced march will be ambush battles instead. Ambushes are very intense and have a clear penalty to the defender who is attacked as they are more likely to be overwhelmed by well-prepared attacking forces. It is important there’s a risk to committing to a Forced March stance, and this should help make that more apparent.

Secondly for combined battles, we’ll make sure a capture point only appears when there actually is a reinforcing defender navy taking part in the battle. In all other combined battle instances the capture point will not be present.
Thirdly we’re increasing the time required to capture the point, to improve the gameplay in the few remaining situations that instigate capture point battles. Small forces making a dash for a strategic position while the rest of the enemy is engaged and distracted should still be a viable and creative tactic if it can be pulled off, but this change will increase the chance of both sides reacting to that in a more realistic way.

Fourth, follow up attacks - attacking a defeated, retreating army - will be treated as a normal battle with any penalties that are accrued as a result of campaign game situation, and the inability to retreat any further without being destroyed.

As a result of all these changes, the frequency of capture point battles should be significantly reduced. We are looking at alternative mechanics to resolve combined land & naval battles. We will talk more about this when we feel we have tested and tried out the possibilities and settled on the best solution.

Guard Mode and Unit ‘Blobbiness’

A number of people have expressed disappointment that we have removed the Guard Mode button. In fact (as many have realised), guard mode behaviour has not been removed – it is now an inherent property of units: they have guard mode behaviour by default. If you want units to chase down routers & retreaters, you have to order them to do so. However, some unintended pursuit actions are occurring and will be fixed in upcoming patches. This should improve some of the line cohesion issues people have been raising. Also, we have fixed an animation control code bug where formed units have not been fighting in a formed manner, causing some “blobbing” issues.

The design intention was to have some unit types (e.g. some less disciplined barbarians) fight in an unformed manner, so on contact that unit would ‘collapse’ into the enemy to find individual targets. Formed units (e.g. your disciplined Roman legionary) are intended to fight in a more rigid manner and try to hold their formation cohesion as much as possible (meaning some unengaged men would stand in position and not seek an enemy target). A specific formed combat bug has been fixed in the forthcoming patch 3, which should significantly improve formed melee behaviour.

We also intended for some traditionally unruly units to not behave as though in guard mode, but instead be undisciplined in their behaviour, and disregard attempts at holding the line if their opponents retreat or route. We are looking at the behaviour of this currently.

Speed of Battles

In terms of battle speed, we are looking to tweak combat with on-going stat balance improvements. We are looking at reducing some run speeds, combat speed, and some morale balancing, but of course it depends on the campaign situation too – strong, disciplined troops are intended to rout light undisciplined men with ease. We also wanted to allow scope for the campaign-derived morale buffs to be significant, but not overpowered. This means un-buffed morale for some weaker/ lighter units needs attention… stat balance updates are coming. We’re also looking at improving missile balance overall.

The first part of this rebalance is in patch 2 with reduction to infantry run speed and tweaks to the morale system with more significant changes in patch 3. We’ll be keeping an eye on community feedback after these patches come out and make further changes based on that.

Special Abilities

A variety of opinions have been expressed about special abilities. To be clear, our design intent is that they are not necessarily meant to turn the tide of battle on their own, nor are most meant to be used all the time and frequently throughout a battle. The design is for them to be used in certain circumstances to provide a reasonable bonus, and for there to be real choice in when players use them. They are not meant to be “magical” and are based on real world behaviour expressed in a game setting. For example: Rallying calls to units, urging your tired troops to fight harder, getting men to run faster by pushing themselves to the limit, calling on their loyalty, threatening them and so on.

We are looking at making a number of changes, particularly in relation to the cool down times and the effects of some abilities. This is a current focus of ours and once we have more definitive plans of what we will be doing with them balance wise we will let you know. Do expect to see changes in patch 3 and upcoming patches. We are also looking at changes to when and how some abilities are triggered and improving their behaviours. These changes can’t always be instant as there are interconnections between Campaign and Battle.

Naval Battles

Many have raised concerns about the balance between transported units and naval ships in naval battles. We are looking at relative strengths of these as well as potential changes on the campaign map as well to improve this situation.

The design intent was that transported armies are weak and vulnerable. Thus moving an army without an escorting fleet should be a bigger risk if they encounter a sufficiently well-armed attacking force. We are looking to address this issue. You will see the first parts of a series of changes in both patches 2 and 3 with further changes occurring in later patches. Some of these changes need to be made across both campaign and battle so aren’t trivial to achieve.

PS: On a point of History

We always look to history for inspiration and if there is any mention of something that seems fun we use that as a basis for a game mechanic. As an example some people have asked where we got the idea for flaming javelins from. Our source in this case was primary. Please refer to Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars.

We hope this not only shows you all that we are looking at raised issues and are making changes to address them but also the design intention behind some of the features in the game as well. These changes will not all come in one update, but we have a number of updates planned already and are working on those full time. Thank you for taking time to read this and for your continued support.

 

[Rostere]

It's kind of funny to talk about Warhammer: Total War when we already have SotHR and Dark Omen, games which frankly in my opinion have more interesting battles than the current Total War games.

 

But I guess it's the strategical map that people are after...

[Leferd]

I've stopped playing for the time being but I am liking and appreciative that CA is addressing many of the raised concerns. R2 definitely has the makings to be a really good game, but time will tell if they can really salvage the game from its current state. I'll revisit in a few weeks/months and will be fairly optimistic

 

CA has bought plenty of goodwill from their past catalog.

[Calax]

I've stopped playing for the time being but I am liking and appreciative that CA is addressing many of the raised concerns. R2 definitely has the makings to be a really good game, but time will tell if they can really salvage the game from its current state. I'll revisit in a few weeks/months and will be fairly optimistic

 

CA has bought plenty of goodwill from their past catalog.

From what I've been playing it's gotten very very good. Although the germanic/barbarian factions seem to have not that much in the way of unit variety.

[Serrano]

It's kind of funny to talk about Warhammer: Total War when we already have SotHR and Dark Omen, games which frankly in my opinion have more interesting battles than the current Total War games.

 

But I guess it's the strategical map that people are after...

 

SotHR and Dark Omen were both amazing and Mark of Chaos was also very good. The hand crafted battles will be missed in the W:TW version but the TW style campaign map is as much a pro as a con, people love the TW games for a reason. Creative Assembly could surprise us and do a campaign more like the older games though. Also don't forget multiplayer which has a lot of potential in this instance, it may end up getting as much or more focus than the campaign if they're going to really dive into the whole Warhammer on the PC experience.    

Edited September 19, 2013 by Serrano

[obyknven]

Total war series have traditionally terrible portraits ( and names ) of non-major faction members .

For example Parthia campaighn in Rome: Total War 2.

http://youtu.be/230GGV5Z3nA

Their portraits make me lol. Why Parthians looks like stereotypical Azeri traders from Bazaars

 

 

Instead of real Parthians

 

[Lord of Lost Socks]

It's kind of funny to talk about Warhammer: Total War when we already have SotHR and Dark Omen, games which frankly in my opinion have more interesting battles than the current Total War games.

 

But I guess it's the strategical map that people are after...

It's both at the same time.

 

Separate both of them are relatively mediocre but together they create a very appealing game, since Creative Assembly doesn't exactly have any competition in their niche.

[Llyranor]

I'm enjoying it as a co-op Total War game (Nick as Sparta, me as Carthage). But yeah, AI is bad, AI turns are looooong, bunch of bugs here and there. But, overall, still enjoying it a lot. Haven't tried it since the latest patch, though.

[Calax]

Latest patch (#2) updated it so that you see a lot more empires showing up rather than individual kingdoms. The next patch seems like it's going to be doing even more smoothing.

 

 

Here are the patch notes for Total War: ROME II- Patch 3 (in BETA as of 20/09/2013):

Disclaimer: There are one or two known issues with the beta that we are looking to resolve before rolling this out further, with ALT-Tabbing and changing game resolution. We are aware of these issues and there is no need to report them in our patch feedback threads.

Technical and Performance Issues

• Significant improvements to multiplayer campaign speed, which is now limited by the slowest players machine.
• Frame Rate improvements on Campaign map on low spec Core2 Duo cpu’s in windowed mode.
• Fix for lock-ups reported on loading into battle in DirectX9.
• Frame Rate improvements on Campaign map across all configurations when setting Effects Quality to Low or High.
• Fix for minor stutters & terrain rendering glitches on some gpu’s when rendering the terrain.
• Fixed a bug in the Graphics Benchmark frame rate display that reported the wrong per-frame time.
• LAN multiplayer modes are now accessible when Steam is in Offline mode.
• Fix for graphics crash caused by changing the games screen resolution shortly after loading a new Campaign.
• Fix for a crash when performing an agent action on a wounded/assassinated unit in Campaign modes.
• Further campaign map optimisations.
• Optimised fire and smoke effects on the campaign map (improving the frames per second on all graphics setting, especially during the late gameplay where all faction territories are revealed)
• Fix in Multiplayer Campaign, after Player 1 offers diplomacy to Player 2, Player 2 made a counter offer, then cancelled the offer, which caused the game to lock up for Player 1.
• Fix to prevent the games user interface from flickering when SLI is enabled.
• Improved culling on the campaign map to prevent props (e.g. the pyramids) from disappearing when the camera was set to certain angles.
• Improved the desktop icon for Total War: ROME II to support multiple resolutions.

Gameplay Improvements

• When the player is attacked whilst in a minor settlement (not provincial capital), a new "Sally Forth" button is available on the pre-battle panel to fight the attackers in an open field battle.
• All armies that are forced to retreat, and then are attacked, no longer have a *Baggage Train battle. It is a normal open field battle with any campaign generated penalties applied as before.
• When an army in forced march is attacked on the Campaign Map, an ambush battle is now triggered, rather than a baggage train Victory Point battle .
• Combined battles where there is no navy in the defending alliance do not have *Victory Points/Baggage Trains.
• Combined battles where the defender has a navy will retain their Victory Point.
• Victory Points have had their capture time increased by 3x their previous length.
• Attacking AI is now more likely to prioritise taking Victory Points in Siege Battles / City Assault Battles.
• AI controlled Agents are now more likely to act upon the player's settlements instead of standing around outside of them.
• Fixed issue in battle AI which prevented siege assault groups from responding to nearby threats.
• Fixed timing issue in battle AI which could cause the attacking AI in port sieges to stop updating.
• Substantially reduced free hits from enemies in battles, when moving a unit through enemy units (without attacking them), so units can disengage with less penalty.
• Smaller and depleted AI controlled forces are now less likely to survive auto-resolved battles in Campaign modes.
• Cavalry can no longer capture Victory Points in battles while mounted. They can still neutralise the Victory Points if they were previously in enemy control, and capture Victory Points when dismounted.
• The size / radius of capture points has been increased in Coastal battles.
• Fix for some instances of passive AI during River Crossing battles, when the AI is defending.
• Fixed issue which prevented reinforcement artillery ships deploying.
• Fixed issue in Siege Battles where the AI attempted to use breaches and gates which they could not reach.
• In Battles, the number of ranks now factor into bracing mass bonus for collision system, i.e. thin lines will make you lose your bracing bonus against cavalry charges from the front
• Fixed chasing down of routers at the end of battles, so they engage in combat more often and can be killed more easily.
• Satrapies can no longer sign peace treaties with the enemies of their overlord (but still able to automatically make peace if their overlord signs a peace treaty with the enemy) in Campaign modes.
• Snow ground type now replaces grass in snow attrition areas of the battle map.
• Units in Testudo formation will now respond to an order to attack city gates in a City Assault battles.
• Men throwing torches to ignite gates in battles, now have less chance of failing to throw their torches and hit the gate, if ordered more than once to ignite the same gate.
• AI houses can no longer secure promotions without first meeting the required age and rank in Campaign modes.
• Removed old concealed by distance logic, that was incompatible with the newer visibility system. For example, units that are visible at range could look like they were hidden on their user interface, when they could be seen.
• Pikemen can move out of melee when pike phalanx is active in battles. For example, If only one of the pikeman is attacked, the entire unit will no longer start to be unresponsive to orders.
• Improved responsiveness of Siege Equipment when dropped and picked back up multiple times.
• In Campaign modes, the number of siege equipment entries is now capped to be the length of the siege - 1
• Further improvements to AI collision detection with Deployables in battle.
• Units that charge while in formation (e.g. block formation) stop sooner on contact with the enemy, to reduce "blobbing" where units converge into a disorganised brawl.
• Fixed bug with missile units on ships not firing on enemies reliably during battles.
• Fixed bug with ship artillery not firing on buildings reliably in battles.
• Fix for ships surviving on the campaign map after sinking on the battle map.
• Fix missile ships getting stuck when targeting land units just outside of their range.
• Reduced the chance of AI (enemy) reinforcements and the players reinforcements joining a battle from the same location and therefore engaging in combat instantly in battles from Campaign modes.

Balancing Changes

• Hit points for all units have been increased in combat.
• Melee defence has been reduced for most melee cavalry units and for some elite infantry units.
• Reduced melee weapon damage in battles, and increased melee defence from shields.
• Various trait effects are now working as intended.
• Improved pike weapon damage balancing in battles.
• Fatigue for running and being in combat has been increased in battles.
• Further tweaks and rebalancing has been made to unit morale in battles.
• Elite infantry morale has been reduced slightly during battles.
• Experience level thresholds have been increased for units.
• Special ability cool down times have been re-balanced in battles.
• Building costs have been updated to reflect the changes in building effects in Campaign modes.
• Morale bonuses from training and religious building chains have been reduced in Campaign modes. Instead, these buildings now give more varied bonuses to the units.
• Cost of experience bonuses for Custom and Multiplayer battles have been reduced.
• Squalor and food consumption have been rebalanced (reduction for higher-level buildings) in Campaign modes.
• The Headhunt ability has been re-balanced in battles.
• The charge bonus for Celtic, Briton and Germanic units have been reduced.
• The masses of horses and men on the battlefield have been made more reasonable.
• Reduced the mass of camel units in battle.

Usability Improvements

• The Balance Of Power bar on the Diplomacy screen now shows the correct ratio, rather than just 50/50.
• Improved the desynchronisation detection in Multiplayer Campaign mode, and players are now given a popup message when a desynchronisation has occurred, with the options to resynchronise the game to continue, or quit the game.
• When the host leaves the team lobby in Quick Battle multiplayer mode, a new host is found.
• Improved multiplayer compatibility between players who own the Greek States DLC and those who don't.
• In Multiplayer Ambush Battles, if Player 1 clicks the "Start Battle" button, and the Player 2 waits for the timer to run out for the battle to start, Player 2 will no longer be locked into Cinematic Mode with limited user interface controls.
• All battles now end 5 seconds after the victory is decided (This used to be 10 seconds).
• In Multiplayer Land Battles, when deployment is over, enemy armies will no longer be visible, when they are supposed to be hidden, for a couple of seconds before fading out.
• In Multiplayer battles, a player who has conceded defeat will now turn into a spectator. They can then exit the battle if they want to.
• Fix for battle music getting paused while in slow battle speed.
• When on the campaign map, if an agent is placed close to the edge of an enemy settlement as it expands (builds a building in a construction slot) the agent is now teleported out of the way of the expansion, so they do not become stuck within the settlement. If the agent was already stuck in an expanded settlement before this update, they will remain stuck, and have to be disbanded. This update will prevent this situation from happening in the future.
• Slightly improve combat responsiveness and animations for formation attacks in battles.
• Fixed bug with ship artillery not firing at all after using first-person mode in battles.
• The Attacking Testudo can no longer be activated in melee during battles.
• Battering rams moves out the way correctly after battering a gate down in battles.
• The Tortoise battering ram animation has been tweaked slightly so it collides with walls better, at the point of impact when a wall is destroyed.
• Multiple waypoints displayed for units in siege equipment, as previously only 1 was displayed.
• Selecting Dismount on mounted units continuously during deployment in battles will move the units towards their last ordered position less after dismounting.
• During battles, if a cavalry unit is ordered to move to a location, and then ordered to dismount, the men will now dismount but not continue to move to the previously ordered location.
• The number of arrows is now correctly depleted when units fire whilst moving during battles.
• Correct bonuses are now being applied to units from Workshop buildings.
• Fixed bug with pike phalanx not getting back into pike stance after running.
• Charge bonuses are now correctly applied to units recruited in certain provinces.
• Projectile impact effects hitting units and buildings are now positioned more accurately.
• Improved fire effects for buildings, siege vehicles and deployables during battles.
• Improved some visual effects for during battles. Better burnt version of buildings with burning embers, and running water down roofs and vertical surfaces in rain.
• Damaged visual effects have been improved on the campaign.
• Fixed Briton Chariot unit attributes.
• Fix for Scythian horse unit variation.
• The achievements "Noble Master", "Spymaster" and "Champion of the Gods" now unlock sooner after their requirements have been met.
• Fix for the Campaign map terrain disappearing when repeatedly toggling between the Campaign Map and Campaign Tactical Map.
• Province level bonuses (such as edicts with food bonuses) are now taken into account in the food level displayed in a province overview in Campaign modes.
• Settlement labels on the campaign map are now positioned more accurately and no longer get offset from the settlements.
• In the Province panel in Campaign modes, provinces can now be sorted by their level of food production.
• Several Eastern buildings now correctly consume food (instead of either not consuming anything or giving contradicting public order effects) in Campaign modes.
• The Qanat building (in the Eastern agricultural chain) now produces a small amount of food in campaign mode.
• The warning message that informs the player that they are not researching any technology when they press the "End Turn" button in Single Player Campaigns is now also displayed in Multiplayer Campaigns.
• The players armies in Ambush stance will no longer move by themselves in Campaign modes, which happened on rare occasions.
• Fix for user interface bug showing the wrong tax level on the Province Details panel when the "Tax province" button was ticked in Campaign modes.
• Culture conversion coming from some characters now correctly shows up as "character" in the culture tooltip, no longer as "building".
• In Campaign modes, the culture that Consecrated Grounds belong to is now displayed in their title, to make it clearer why they need to be converted.
• The "Reduces slave population decline" icon in the information panel when placing the mouse over the "Slave Trader" in the Commons buildings section in Campaign modes is now displayed as green instead of red (as it's a positive affect).
• The first building in the equipment chain (E.g. Workshop for Hellenic, Quartermaster for Eastern etc.) can no longer be bypassed by converting from another faction's equipment chain without researching.
• Technologies are now required to create the Level 4 Jewelsmith building, to prevent an exploit.
• Improved ship melee/ramming target selection in battles.
• Fixed boarding mode button state issues when attempting to board a ship in battle.
• In battles, men who have already boarded an enemy ship no longer jump into the sea once their ship has started to sink or back onto their sinking ship. (Men who remain on the sinking ship still jump into the water.)
• Improved Advisor lip sync in various pieces of advice in Campaign modes.
• Clicking the "Square" special ability as a unit is attempting to man a siege tower will no longer stick the siege tower to that unit in battles.
• When an agent is selected in Campaign mode, and the player right clicks on a settlement to sabotage the enemy, the menu will no longer act erratically.
• When the player had a subject to deal with in the politics screen and the subject had an infamy effect, this effect once seen persisted in being shown for all other characters even if the subject is dismissed. This has been fixed.
• Fix for some misaligned text on a tooltip displayed when a settlement with a port is blockaded by an enemy, and the player selects the enemy and places the mouse over the settlement.
• Improved small glitches with Campaign selection markers and Forced March visual effects sometimes being displayed in the wrong positions when units move.
• Fixed some inconsistent ability names for General Skill Types.
• In Campaign mode, Roman "Basilica of X" temples have now been renamed to "Precinct of X".
• Tooltip regarding the "Armoured Siege Units" technology bonus effects on pre-siege vehicles (all variants of Galleries, Siege Towers, Ladders and Battering Rams) is now clearer.
• Fixed the tooltip when placing the mouse over the Columns I, II and III for War Exercises, Warrior Code, Tribal Economy and Druidic Council technology trees in the Technology Panel in Campaign modes.
• Two pieces of advice from the Battlefield Advisor relating to flanking were mixed up in Italian and Spanish. These have now been corrected.
• Fixed a couple of instances where what the Battlefield Advisors was saying did not match the text displayed in Spanish.
• Some steep terrain in a Greek Minor Port battle map has been levelled out, to stop ships from going under the beach when they disembark.
• Improvements to the wall connectivity in a Greek Port battle map.
• Boiling oil poured from gate houses in battles will look better where it intersects with the ground.
• Improved impact animations when pig carcasses hit the ground when fired as poison rounds form artillery in battles.
• While crossing rivers in battles, units footsteps now default to mud sounds instead of water sounds.
• Fix for a small hole in the terrain in a Greek Minor Port battle map.
• When the player is defending in a siege battle from Campaign mode, and the enemy partially capture a Victory Point on the battle map, then the player re-gains control of the Victory Point, the Battlefield Advisor will no longer say "Our enemy have lost a victory point".
• Fix for the Battlefield Advisor sometimes referring to the players own reinforcements as "Enemy Reinforcements" during battles.
• Added some localisation text and audio fixes for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish and Turkish.
• Added Stonehenge back to the custom battle map at these coordinates 0.137, 0238 (Iska).
• Fixed typo on 'Conscription' edict in English.
• Improved culling of certain rocks on the battlefield.
• Added French, Italian, German and Spanish localisation to the word "Settlement" in the Agent Action Panel in Campaign modes.
• Various text and grammar fixes for the Campaign user interface.

Also My Macedonian campaign is going... uniquely. Where Creative Assembly set up the game to have me attack Turkey then immediately turn and charge west into Rome (through their bonus objectives) I've ended up taking only the coastline of Turkey, and then leapfrogging into Persia and am slowly kicking the heads in of all the former Selucid Satraps. It's kinda wierd to have a disconnected empire like that, without even a water route to get between the two portions. Currently have military access with Bilynthia so it's not a HUGE issue, but I'm still debating killing either them or Pontus (the other major Asia-Minor power) just to connect things before I start flinging armies west.

 

Also debating starting a Carthage game becuase I've heard it can be fun and challengeing. As it is, I've been finding myself to easily set up with a constant stream of money coming into my ports that makes it so I don't ever need to worry about cash as much as I do food.

[Walsingham]

It's kind of funny to talk about Warhammer: Total War when we already have SotHR and Dark Omen, games which frankly in my opinion have more interesting battles than the current Total War games.

 

But I guess it's the strategical map that people are after...

 

I'm ambivalent about CA doing it, to say the least.

 

Can you imagine trying to defend Prague when the Chaos hordes can do their ETW 'spiderman' trick over the walls?

 

[Rosbjerg]

 

Latest patch (#2) updated it so that you see a lot more empires showing up rather than individual kingdoms. The next patch seems like it's going to be doing even more smoothing.

 

 

Can't wait to buy this game... in december.

[obyknven]

Egyptian fraction again look's terrible. Again instead of Hellenistic Ptolemaic Greeks we have  modern Egyptian Arabs dressed as actors from "Mummy" movie.

 

IRL

 

 

Carthagians look's like modern Tunisians too

Hannibal Barca in game

 

Hannibal Barca IRL

 

 Developers just take modern nations and dressed them in pseudo-historical outfit. For historical game this is totally wrong.

[Calax]

I don't think you can call a Bust or coinage "IRL" given that those are historical items designed to make their subjects look their best. The Hannibal bust isn't even rock considered properly historical depending on the circle of historians you ask.

[obyknven]

I don't think you can call a Bust or coinage "IRL" given that those are historical items designed to make their subjects look their best. The Hannibal bust isn't even rock considered properly historical depending on the circle of historians you ask.

Modern "historians" know better than contemporaries of Hannibal, realy.   

http://blackhistoryfactorfiction.com/hannibal-barca-of-carthage/

[Walsingham]

It must be wonderful to be such a collossal buffoon. Like having a fairground in your head. Made of whirling emotions and meat.

[obyknven]

Total war Developers just make non-professional work constantly.

 

In Total war medieval 1 Russians have funny mongol portraits and strange names.

 

In Total war medieval 2 even worse situation - Orthdox factions build Catholic temples and marry in them, their unit commander's wear western fullplate armors and have mongolian nomads in their army ( who IRL firstly appeared in this region only after Mongol invasion in 13 century). Situation with other  factions not better  probably.
 

In Total war Rome 1 again New Kingdom of Egypt with retarded military technologies ( 1500 years BC, chariots etc ) instead of Helllenistic Egypt. Other factions looks strange too. For example early Roman elite infantry (triarii) is  very weak even in comparision with own light infantry.

Add to this weak AI, boring time-consuming gameplay, bugs and strange system requirements (Rome total war 2 want 35 GB on hard drive ... for what?). It's just a low-quality product.

[Calax]

Ya See skippy, That hannibal bust? Probably wasn't made by his contemporaries. The style is wrong for most roman busts. To much detail.

 

As to historical inaccuracies? Sometimes history has to go under the bus in order to provide good gameplay. The Triarii weren't really the elites, they were just the oldest. And if things were historically accurate, we'd have significantly shorter fights, larger armies, and much longer amounts of time to move around the continent.