Total War: Rome II

[vic]

What Issues To Work On next? Let's talk Battles! : totalwar

Heya guys, Just wanted to post up a thread that went up recently in terms of what we are working on next, gameplay-wise. I hope this information helps clear things up and that we are listening to feedback and it has been nothing but appreciated. You can find this thread here: Battle and Unit teams - What we are working on

Or, if you don't mind, I will copy and post the thread here: "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."

Thank you for taking the time to read this, Reddit!<3

[vic]

ΉΡΘΕ!

[Johnny6RED]

Άντε να δούμε αν με τα patch καταφέρουν να το κάνουν το παιχνίδι που θα έπρεπε να είναι εξαρχής.

[nucleus]

[MENTION=9387]victor[/MENTION]

Περιμένουμε εμπεριστατωμένο mini-review.

[vic]

[MENTION=9387]victor[/MENTION]

Περιμένουμε εμπεριστατωμένο mini-review.

You got it chief.

Meanwhile...

Patch 3

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.
  

[vic]

Πάντως όσο έχω παίξει, δεν έχω συναντήσει κάποιο bug τεχνικής φύσης. Τα γραφικά είναι μια χαρά στο extreme, το ALT + Tab δε μου έχει δημιουργήσει κανένα πρόβλημα, δεν είχα κάποιο κρασάρισμα. Γενικώς από αυτή την άποψη είμαι υπέρ ευχαριστημένος. Δεν ξέρω βέβαια αν φταίνε τα patch για αυτό ή είμαι κωλόφαρδος.

[vic]

Μετά από σχεδόν 50 ώρες παιχνιδιού, έχω αποκτήσει μία μικρή αίσθηση του παιχνιδιού. Έχω παίξει μόνο με Αθηναίους και Καρχηδόνιους, οπότε οι παρατηρήσεις μου σε μερικά σημεία να διαφέρουν από faction σε faction. Ξεκινάμε.

Campaign

Θετικά

Ο χάρτης είναι πανέμορφος και τεράστιος. Τουλάχιστον έτσι όπως παρουσιάζεται στην οθόνη. Κάθε περιοχή στο χάρτη δίνει διαφορετική αίσθηση. Και επιτέλους αντιστοιχίζεται ο campaign map με τον battle map. Δεν υπάρχει πια το επαναλαμβανόμενο μέχρι αηδίας generic λιβάδι (για σένα λέω Shogun 2).

Το σύστημα του Public Order παρότι δε είναι άμεσα κατανοητό είναι καλύτερο. Η οργάνωση σε provinces πολλών πόλεων και η εξάρτηση μεταξύ τους είναι λογικότερη. Αν έχεις κατασφάξει μία πόλη, οι κάτοικοι μίας άλλης μερικά χιλιόμετρα παραδίπλα προφανώς θα επηρρεαστούν.

Το σύστημα με τους στρατούς. Το recruitment μεταφέρθηκε στο στρατό και δεν είναι πια στην πόλη.

AoR. Area of Recruitment. Πολλά mods στο Rome το είχαν. Δεν μπορείς στην έρημο της Ανατολής, σε πόλεις με αποκλειστικά Ανατολίτικο πληθυσμό να φτιάχνεις λεγεώνες με το που κατακτήσεις μία πόλη.

Τα animation όταν λήγει μία μάχη. Έχει μία άλφα ποικιλία. Χαρακτηριστικό το οποίο με όρους gameplay είναι άχρηστο, παρόλα αυτά ομορφαίνει το παιχνίδι.

Επαναληψιμότητα. Με τόσα factions που υπάρχουν, τόσο playable όσο και unplayble, υπάρχουν τόσες δαιφορετικές επιλογές να εξερευνήσει και να δοκιμάσει κάποιος. Ακόμα και οι διαφορετικές οικογένεις σε ένα faction δίνουν διαφορετικά playthroughs.

Αρνητικά

Παρά την ομορφιά του χάρτη, τον βρίσκω κάπως περιοριστικό. Υποθέτω για να κάνουν χρησιμότερα τα διάφορα stances, οι τρόποι για να πας από τη μία πόλη στην άλλη είναι λίγοι. Εντάξει στις Άλπεις, κατανοητό να υπάρχουν λίγες διέξοδοι. Αλλά το να υπάρχουν παντού δάση που μπλοκάρουν το χώρο και αφήνουν μόνο ένα δρόμο, θεωρώ πως στοχεύουν στη μέγιστη αξιοποίηση των stances είτε από το χρήστη, είτε από το AI.

Κάτι το οποίο μας φέρνει στα stances. Μέχρι στιγμής το μόνο stance που έχω χρησιμοποιήσει είναι το Forced March. Ούτε το Ambush, ούτε το Defensive. Αυτό μπορεί να οφείλεται στο ότι παίζω επιθετικά, αλλά ανεξαρτήτως τρόπου παιχνιδιού θα ήθελα τα χρειαζόμουν περισσότερο. Ίσως στον εμφύλιο πόλεμο που εμφανίζονται δεκάδες μερικές φορές stacks, χρησιμέυσουν. Είδωμεν.

Looting, looting, looting. Γιατί να κάνω ποτέ looting παρά μόνο αν χρειάζομαι άμεσα τα χρήματα; Αν η πόλη είναι της δικής μου κουλτούρας την καταλαμβάνω. Αν όχι κάνω raze, για να καταστραφούν εντελώς τα ξένα κτήρια. Το looting όχι μόνο ρίχνει σχεδόν πάντα το Public Order κατά περίπου 4 μονάδες λόγω των σκλάβων, αλλά προκαλεί ζημιές και στα κτήρια. Το οποίο με οδηγεί στο επόμενο παράπονο.

Γιατί όταν το θέλω να μετατρέψω ένα μισογκρεμισμένο κτήριο να πρέπει να το φτιάξω πρώτα; Σκοπός μου είναι να φτιάξω άλλο της δικής μου κουλτούρας.

Political System? Εδώ γελάμε. Ανάθεμα και αν έχει νόημα. Πρακτικά είναι ένα άχρηστο feature μέχρι να έρθει ο εμφύλιος. Το παιχνίδι σε αφήνει να αγνοείς παντελώς την πολιτική ίντριγκα και μετά αυτή σκάει στα μούτρα σου με έναν μεγαλοπρεπέστατο εμφύλιο. Τι πρακτικές εφαρμογές έχει το Gravitas; Τι όφελος έχω αν κάνω bribe κάποιον άλλον στρατηγό; Σε αφήνει να πλέεις μόνος σου μη δίνοντας σημασία, ενώ αργότερα στο παιχνίδι θα το χρειαστείς. Αλλά τότε θα είναι αργά. Με λίγια λόγια... Φτιάξιμο άμεσα.

Το πρόβλημα με τις συνέπεις των πράξεων είναι γενικό. Βγάζει δίλλημα. Πολλές φορές έχει απλά τις επιλογές. Τα αποτελέσματα σε αφήνει να τα μαντέψεις. Θέλω να ξέρω τις ακριβείς μελλοντικές συνέπεις σε χρήματα, σε gravitas, σε σύγκλητο (ή τα αντίστοιχα) κ.τ.λ. και όχι να μαντεύω.

Battles

Θετικά

Οι μάχες είναι απολαυστικές. Νομίζω αυτό είναι που μετράει παραπάνω από όλα τα επιμέρους προβλήματα που εμφανίζουν. Μου αρέσουν ιδιαίτερα οι ατοίχιστες πόλεις, πράγμα το οποίο δεν τον περίμενα.

Αρνητικά

Ενοχλητικά ώρες ώρες τα Victory points. Ίσως όχι όσο έλεγαν μερικοί, αλλά και πάλι έχω παίξει μάχες στα οποία πραγματικά ήταν αχρείαστο να υπάρχουν. Ευτυχώς το 4ο patch όπως λένε ασχολείται εκτενώς με το θέμα αυτό.

Pullo, Formation! Pullo, Formation! Όσοι έχουν δει Rome καταλαβαίνουν. Οι μονάδες χάνουν πανεύκολα το σχηματισμό τους. Διέταξες επίθεση; Πάει η φάλλαγα. Εδώ το Rome ήταν καλύτερο. Ο μόνος τρόπος είναι να διατάξεις τα στρατεύματα να κινηθούν προς τη μεριά των αντιπάλων και να τους σταματήσεις όταν υπάρξει επαφή. Μίλαγαν για τη μάζα των δύο μονάδων, η μία απέναντι στην άλλη, η οποία θα μέτραγε, αλλά μέχρι στιγμής δεν το βρίσκω ικανοποιητικό. Έχουν μιλήσει για αλλαγές. Αναμένω.

Routing Units. Εδώ φταίει ξεκάθαρα η CA και η Warspace Engine. Σε κανέναν παιχνίδι από το Empire και μετά που χρησιμοποιούν τη μηχανή αυτή, δεν έχουν καταφέρει να κάνουν τα units να σκοτώνουν τους εχθρούς που υποχωρούν. Πόσες φορές πρέπει να κάνουν βόλτα γύρω τους, μέχρι να τους σκοτώσουν;

Η αλλαγή η οποία περίμενα περισσότερο από όλες στις μάχες τελικά δεν ήρθε ποτέ. Να καταλαβαίνουν να φύγουν με ένα κλικ. Το υποσχέθηκαν, το έδειξαν σε video. Το feature όμως άφαντο. 10 φορές να κλικάτω για να φύγουν τα άλογα τους στρατηγού. Όχι κύριε, πολέμαμε. Περάστε αργότερα. Στο τέλος πεθαίνει. Ε, f*ck logic.

Technical

Θετικά

Τα γραφικά. Ίσως είμαι τυχερός που δεν αντιμετώπισα κανένα πρόβλημα ή μέχρι να το πάρω είχαν φτιάξει τα περισσότερα. Το αποτέλεσμα μετράει και είναι απολαυστικότατο στο Extreme.

Neutral

Campaign AI. Ούτε κρύο ούτε ζέστη. Έχω δει συμμάχους να συμπεριφέρονται όπως θα έπρεπε και εχθρούς να πράττουν αλλοπρόσαλλα. Σε γενικές γραμμές όμως ούτε κρύο ούτε ζέστη.

Αρνητικά

Σε μετακινήσεις ναυτικού, κολλάει κατά τη διάρκεια της κίνησης. Διορθώνεται άμεσα με το να κλικάρω κάπου αλλού. Παρόμιο πρόβλημα όταν επιλέγω Wait πριν από μία μάχη. Παρόλα αυτά να τονίσω πως οι φορές που εμφανίζεται το πρόβλημα είναι πραγματικά ελάχιστες.

Battle AI. Θέλει βελτιώσεις. Units του αντιπάλου έτοιμα να επιτεθούν, την τελευταία στιγμή κάνουν πίσω τρώγοντας όλα τα φλεγόμενα ακόντια στην πλάτη. Επαναλάβετε μέχρι να βαρεθείτε.

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Οι παραπάνω απόψεις είναι μέσα από το πρίσμα ενός fan της σειράς. Δεν προσπαθώ να είμαι απόλυτα αντικειμενικός. Άλλωστε δεν έχει νόημα να προσπαθήσω να πείσω κάποιον πως το παιχνίδι είναι απίστευτο εάν δεν μπορεί καν να το παίξει λόγω γραφικών. Γι' αυτό ο καθένας εν τέλει διαμορφώνει τη δικιά του γνώμη.

[Dikno]

Τα καινούρια patch λένε τίποτα,ή πίπες?

[Stolis]

[Dikno]

LOL

[Venisk]

Κάτι έχει γίνει με το patch 3 και μου κόλλησε στην μάχη όταν το έβαλα να πηγαίνει αργά κανονικά γρήγορα κ πολύ γρήγορα κόλλησε στο αργά. Επίσης 2η βλακεία που παρατήρησα είναι οτί μερικές φορές δεν ανοίγει η αριστερή μπάρα που εμφανίζει τα στοιχεία της πόλης που πατάω πάνω...

[Stolis]

Γενικά η αριστερή έχει πρόβλημα. Πολλές φορές δεν ανοίγει ή εμφανίζει ελλειπή δεδομένα. π.χ. Τα αστέρια ενός στρατηγού ή πράκτορα.

[Venisk]

Άντε να βγει κάνα σοβαρό patch τέτοια δουλειά σε παιχνίδι και να μην παίζει σωστά είναι αμαρτία..βγαίνουν τόσες βλακείες κάθε χρόνο, μια παιχνιδάρα και δεν παίζει σωστά :fist:

[fatalara]

Αφού δεν παίζει σωστά δεν εχει γίνει καμία δουλειά στο παιχνιδι φίλε, ούτε παιχνιδιάρα ειναι. Ας το φτιάξουν πρώτα και μετα μιλάμε.

[Dikno]

Τα total war είναι η καλύτερη σειρά strategy και είναι κρίμα το rome II να μην ανταποκρίνεται σε αυτήν την φήμη.

[EraserheadX]

GamingOnLinux - Total War: Rome II Will Be Ported To Linux

[Stolis]

Ας κάνουνε πρώτα σωστά το port σε win PC (ffs...) και το γυρνάνε μετά και σε linux!

[Mrmclaren32]

φοβερο. και ρεαλιστικο. για να δουμε τωρα το Age με τι θα απαντησει

[dimgr]

Με όλα αυτά που διαβάζω, συνεχίζω να πιστεύω ότι είναι απαράδεκτο το παιχνίδι και δεν θα ενδιαφερθώ να το αγοράσω, αν δεν το φτιάξουν όπως πρέπει. Χριστούγεννα και βλέπουμε. Βέβαια και το Rome I που παίζω ακόμα, όποτε έχω χρόνο, έπρεπε να φτάσει στην έκδοση 1.6 για να διορθωθεί, μετά από κάτι χρόνια νομίζω από την αρχική κυκλοφορία. Εγώ το πήρα σε Gold επετειακή έκδοση, τότε το ανακάλυψα, οπότε δεν ξέρω τι προηγήθηκε. Επίσης να πω ότι το πρωτότυπο δεν με ενθουσίασε τόσο, το Extended Greek Mod με ξετρέλανε.

[vic]

Ξεκίνησα με Σελευκίδες στο VH/VH. Μέχρι στιγμής το παιχνίδι είναι πανεύκολο. Πήρα όλες τις περιοχές των Κυπρίων στην αρχή και τώρα στο 18ο turn έχω πάρει και όλες των Αιγυπτίων.