Rome 2, your thoughts?

Hi all, well I just bought total war rome 2 as I have been craving an rts to play recently, however if you check the official forums it does not look good at all. Many players are very dissapointed/angry of the state of the game and now I am feeling slightly worried about my purchase. What do you think of it so far and when do you think patches will be released?

Framerate issue is annoying but they can fix that. Overall they made a lot of drastic changes to the core of the formula. I have yet to really dig into the campaign to see how they all work together.

It could be the best Total War game ever made if it wasn't so buggy and rushed. Once they patch the game it will be amazing.

I don't really care for the UI, but I can probably get used to it. I have yet to really dig into it and I'll be needing a new graphics card. Rome II makes my 275GTX beg for mercy. I can hardly wait for the 800 series next year.

Tick on "Use full video memory" and set your settigns to medium/high. It should be stable and playable. Once we get new drivers from AMD/Nvidia, and a patch form CA, performance should improve.

The game itself is fun, my only main complain is the AI hasn't improved from Shogun, and some fo the systems are inscrutable at the moment. Why doesn't my food reserves add up based on what the detail screen says?  How does crcifying x member of y household affect me? What the heck are champions good for?

I'm sure these thigns will become apparent as I continue to pla, but they could have done a better job of presenting you with mroe information. It's like Draogn Age, where they thought that by hiding things like +1 to this -1 to that woudl make the game more "approchable", but it only made it frustrating.

Again, I'm having a blast with it. Just hope patches fix some of these nigglign issues.

I'm playing on hard as Rome, and already have had a few memorabl battles. Amphibious assaults on port cities are super fun!

It seems like a lot of the changes and improvements have gone into the battles rather than the campaign map. If you are the kind of person who likes to autoresolve everything it might be a dissapointment but I'm personally loving the combined land/sea battles playing as Carthage and also the battles that take place in towns without walls. 

Tick on "Use full video memory" and set your settigns to medium/high. It should be stable and playable. Once we get new drivers from AMD/Nvidia, and a patch form CA, performance should improve.

 

The game itself is fun, my only main complain is the AI hasn't improved from Shogun, and some fo the systems are inscrutable at the moment. Why doesn't my food reserves add up based on what the detail screen says?  How does crcifying x member of y household affect me? What the heck are champions good for?

 

I'm sure these thigns will become apparent as I continue to pla, but they could have done a better job of presenting you with mroe information. It's like Draogn Age, where they thought that by hiding things like +1 to this -1 to that woudl make the game more "approchable", but it only made it frustrating.

Again, I'm having a blast with it. Just hope patches fix some of these nigglign issues.

 

I'm playing on hard as Rome, and already have had a few memorabl battles. Amphibious assaults on port cities are super fun!

Kinthalis

Yeah I am playing on Hard as Athens and I agree with the AI, especially in a battle.

I just load my army with a few Ballistas (Scorpions) and lay into the enemy... My five scorpions are incredibly experienced at this point, and they just go ham on the enemy army while they just stand there.  Those five ballistas can wipe out literally half an enemy army before I ever even send my hoplites in and by that point, they have sh-t morale anyways and break right after our lines meet...

I guess that is how it was back then and the whole point of weapons like ballistas (they are made specifically for shooting at people, not structures)... But still I would expect them to ride out and try to stop me... I just shoot until I have no more shots and kill hundreds of men (one battle over a thousand because they all piled up in a tiny town square)...

Still love the game.

In the two hours that I've been able to mess around a bit between school work, the bugs that are plaguing the game are not ruining my enjoyment of it. everything just seems to work. The framrate is annoying, and I don't like the idea of having to turn downt he graphics to med. but it's not a big deal and I'm sure that once patches come out, then it will be a much better experience. I can't wait to start playing against some buddies this weekend.

So far so good.

Not as good as Shogun 2 imo. But like all Total War games, it's a great game with scope no game can touch, unless it's those low budget paradox games that are made of paper.

In the two hours that I've been able to mess around a bit between school work, the bugs that are plaguing the game are not ruining my enjoyment of it. everything just seems to work. The framrate is annoying, and I don't like the idea of having to turn downt he graphics to med. but it's not a big deal and I'm sure that once patches come out, then it will be a much better experience. I can't wait to start playing against some buddies this weekend.

So far so good.

soolkiki

Loving it, unless this is your first total war game on release, this type of this always happens.

Hell every big releae on steam gets tons of flack the first week.

For me this is an improvement over both the last two TW games, Shogun 2 and Napoleon.

Only issues I have is that the turns take super long when in coop campaign for the AI and there is some bugs that could be fixed. But as the case with any TW game, you are never going to get everything right in a game this big and expansive. The TW vets know that every TW game has gotten TONS of updates, hell Shogun2 got over 30gb just from updates over the years.

Have played 11 hours and loving it, it took awhiel to learn all the new features and the new interface but overall its fantastic. There was bitching and complaining about shogun2 and empire also, but months later those same people where saying its the best TW game yet now. If you didnt expect some issues with a TW release then that is all your fault for not doign some research.

The game seems good, but it's almost unplayable for me on anything above Medium. The campaign map is really laggy too.

Any nvidia drivers out?

Also they ahve announced the first patch will be here on friday... this is nothign new to TW series people.. You cant get games this big and expansive perfect with out patches.

Any nvidia drivers out?

uninspiredcup

The latest nvidia beta drivers work best for me so far.

I'm hoping they patch the battlecam into Shogun 2. Probably never going to happen. I imagine it wouldn't be too much work though.

I'm hoping they patch the battlecam into Shogun 2. Probably never going to happen. I imagine it wouldn't be too much work though.

uninspiredcup

Just out of curiosity, have they allowed you to sim battles and watch them play out in real time yet? My biggest issue with the TW games is that whilst I enjoy the world map politics/civilization portion of the game, I am so dire at the actual RTS elements that I'm put me off after a few hours of seeing my armies get cut down due to my utter tactical incompetance. 

Just out of curiosity, have they allowed you to sim battles and watch them play out in real time yet? My biggest issue with the TW games is that whilst I enjoy the world map politics/civilization portion of the game, I am so dire at the actual RTS elements that I'm put me off after a few hours of seeing my armies get cut down due to my utter tactical incompetance. 

dommeus

You can put your units under AI control in the Battlemap.

Best TW i've played, and I've played them all.  Performance asisde, it's stellar.  And as a long time huge fan of custom battles over campaign, I'm super excited they added so many customization features in custom battles....I mean, the entire campaign map is ripe for picking now instead of preplanned maps!

[QUOTE="dommeus"]

Just out of curiosity, have they allowed you to sim battles and watch them play out in real time yet? My biggest issue with the TW games is that whilst I enjoy the world map politics/civilization portion of the game, I am so dire at the actual RTS elements that I'm put me off after a few hours of seeing my armies get cut down due to my utter tactical incompetance. 

Squeets

You can put your units under AI control in the Battlemap.

[QUOTE="Squeets"]

[QUOTE="dommeus"]

Just out of curiosity, have they allowed you to sim battles and watch them play out in real time yet? My biggest issue with the TW games is that whilst I enjoy the world map politics/civilization portion of the game, I am so dire at the actual RTS elements that I'm put me off after a few hours of seeing my armies get cut down due to my utter tactical incompetance. 

dommeus

You can put your units under AI control in the Battlemap.

I have no idea, its under grouping options... It says "Group: AI Attack" and "Group: AI Defend" I believe... I would assume you can do it with an entire army.  But it takes the selected group and AI commands them attack or defend.  It says on the tooltip that the AI will remain in control until another order is issued.

I can try it out later and let you know, I have class now.

Wow lots more responses than I expected, plus they are all positive which is great news! Should be receiving it by tommorow so will install it then and post back on here my thoughts. How complex it rome 2? does it require knowledge of the first game to be able to play properly? I actually have the first one but never really played it!

Do the castle sieges feel like sieges again or just speed bumps like in Shogun 2?guynamedbilly

Feels like a larger scale siege style of Rome 1/Medieval II

[QUOTE="guynamedbilly"]Do the castle sieges feel like sieges again or just speed bumps like in Shogun 2?wis3boi

Feels like a larger scale siege style of Rome 1/Medieval II

...after the patches that is.

[QUOTE="dommeus"][QUOTE="Squeets"]

You can put your units under AI control in the Battlemap.

Squeets

I have no idea, its under grouping options... It says "Group: AI Attack" and "Group: AI Defend" I believe... I would assume you can do it with an entire army.  But it takes the selected group and AI commands them attack or defend.  It says on the tooltip that the AI will remain in control until another order is issued.

I can try it out later and let you know, I have class now.

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="guynamedbilly"]Do the castle sieges feel like sieges again or just speed bumps like in Shogun 2?guynamedbilly

Feels like a larger scale siege style of Rome 1/Medieval II

[QUOTE="soolkiki"]

In the two hours that I've been able to mess around a bit between school work, the bugs that are plaguing the game are not ruining my enjoyment of it. everything just seems to work. The framrate is annoying, and I don't like the idea of having to turn downt he graphics to med. but it's not a big deal and I'm sure that once patches come out, then it will be a much better experience. I can't wait to start playing against some buddies this weekend.

So far so good.

Sweetbackhair

Wow lots more responses than I expected, plus they are all positive which is great news! Should be receiving it by tommorow so will install it then and post back on here my thoughts. How complex it rome 2? does it require knowledge of the first game to be able to play properly? I actually have the first one but never really played it!

sn4k3_64

[QUOTE="Sweetbackhair"][QUOTE="soolkiki"]

In the two hours that I've been able to mess around a bit between school work, the bugs that are plaguing the game are not ruining my enjoyment of it. everything just seems to work. The framrate is annoying, and I don't like the idea of having to turn downt he graphics to med. but it's not a big deal and I'm sure that once patches come out, then it will be a much better experience. I can't wait to start playing against some buddies this weekend.

So far so good.

soolkiki

If school wasn't in the way here!!

It does lack the polish of Shogun 2 but stating the obvious it's only been out a couple of days there are bound to be some bugs. All in all I have put in about 20 hours so far in a co-op campaign and I'm absolutely loving it. 

Graphics and performance are awful, whats with the lack of AA options?

It seems like a lot of the changes and improvements have gone into the battles rather than the campaign map. If you are the kind of person who likes to autoresolve everything it might be a dissapointment but I'm personally loving the combined land/sea battles playing as Carthage and also the battles that take place in towns without walls. 

with_teeth26

Hrm, I'm not one to judge but this genuinely intrigued me -- there are people that play Total War games for the non-combat part :| ? If I wanted a grand-strategy game with less emphasis on combat, I'd stick to one of Paradox Interactive's titles.

[QUOTE="with_teeth26"]

It seems like a lot of the changes and improvements have gone into the battles rather than the campaign map. If you are the kind of person who likes to autoresolve everything it might be a dissapointment but I'm personally loving the combined land/sea battles playing as Carthage and also the battles that take place in towns without walls. 

iHarlequin

Hrm, I'm not one to judge but this genuinely intrigued me -- there are people that play Total War games for the non-combat part :| ? If I wanted a grand-strategy game with less emphasis on combat, I'd stick to one of Paradox Interactive's titles.

I know one guy who plays Total War without playing the battles. I'm sure there are others, hard to imagine though. 

Wow lots more responses than I expected, plus they are all positive which is great news! Should be receiving it by tommorow so will install it then and post back on here my thoughts. How complex it rome 2? does it require knowledge of the first game to be able to play properly? I actually have the first one but never really played it!

sn4k3_64

I have noticed over the years since the early TW games that some people have short memory... when a TW game comes out there is tons of complaints (Shogun2 and Empire had complaints for months and the same people that said THIS IS THE WORST TOTAL WAR EVER! Ended up saying it is now there favorite in teh series months later when patches came.

This series has so much depth and so many things going on you cannot get every single thing right. Just look at how many GB's worth of updates both Empire and Shogun2 got. IMO the game is great now and will be even better with some patches, as the case has bene with every TW game ever released.

[QUOTE="sn4k3_64"]

Wow lots more responses than I expected, plus they are all positive which is great news! Should be receiving it by tommorow so will install it then and post back on here my thoughts. How complex it rome 2? does it require knowledge of the first game to be able to play properly? I actually have the first one but never really played it!

kozzy1234

I have noticed over the years since the early TW games that some people have short memory... when a TW game comes out there is tons of complaints (Shogun2 and Empire had complaints for months and the same people that said THIS IS THE WORST TOTAL WAR EVER! Ended up saying it is now there favorite in teh series months later when patches came.

This series has so much depth and so many things going on you cannot get every single thing right. Just look at how many GB's worth of updates both Empire and Shogun2 got. IMO the game is great now and will be even better with some patches, as the case has bene with every TW game ever released.

Made it too aracady imo. Shogun 2 was fantastical with hero units and what not and even that wasn't this level arcade. The UI is also highly suspect, makes me think they have consoles mind.

Made it too aracady imo. Shogun 2 was fantastical with hero units and what not and even that wasn't this level arcade. The UI is also highly suspect, makes me think they have consoles mind.

uninspiredcup

I havent played it, but from what I have read and seen via people streaming it, the biggest problems it has right now are:-

- Low framrates, even for people with high end pcs

-Bad/Stupid AI

-Poor UI

-Long waits for enemys to finish their turns on the campaign map

Will likely all get fixed with the comming patches, they really should have had an open beta for a couple of months to eliminate many of these launch problems though...

I'm really dissapointed with this launch, they need more time and polish, they need Paradox's new strategy, CK2 and EU4 were much more polished at launch than Victoria 2 and HOI3 mess.

Made it too aracady imo. Shogun 2 was fantastical with hero units and what not and even that wasn't this level arcade. The UI is also highly suspect, makes me think they have consoles mind.

uninspiredcup

I haven't played too much but it doesn't seem arcadey to me. I liked the look of my Sparta hopilites blocking arrows and the look of their phalanx. I also like the option of having your men run, and then there is an option to have them run even faster which I think is great.

I think people are too quick to judge this game, particularlry people with negative reviews. I mean have they tried all the factions, maybe a certain faction would appeal to them more. Maybe battles get harder after 50 Hrs, who knows. I expect my hopilites to have no problem taking on a mob.

I havent played it, but from what I have read and seen via people streaming it, the biggest problems it has right now are:-

- Low framrates, even for people with high end pcs

-Bad/Stupid AI

-Poor UI

-Long waits for enemys to finish their turns on the campaign map

Will likely all get fixed with the comming patches, they really should have had an open beta for a couple of months to eliminate many of these launch problems though...

anab0lic

Only 4 Hrs. in and I have had no slowdown yet. I remember hearing somewhere framerates aren't that important in strategy games they are more important in First Person Shooters, that person could be wrong. According to my benchmark I get 20 FPS on Extreme graphics; I haven't noticed any poor performance though. I really like the UI it has a bunch of options; it is vastly improved from Rome 1. The AI has managed to trick me once and held its own with the units it had in a couple of battles.

Framerate issue is annoying but they can fix that. Overall they made a lot of drastic changes to the core of the formula. I have yet to really dig into the campaign to see how they all work together.

It could be the best Total War game ever made if it wasn't so buggy and rushed. Once they patch the game it will be amazing.

Wasdie

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

Framerate issue is annoying but they can fix that. Overall they made a lot of drastic changes to the core of the formula. I have yet to really dig into the campaign to see how they all work together.

It could be the best Total War game ever made if it wasn't so buggy and rushed. Once they patch the game it will be amazing.

jwsoul

you are very, very alone or lying

[QUOTE="uninspiredcup"]

Made it too aracady imo. Shogun 2 was fantastical with hero units and what not and even that wasn't this level arcade. The UI is also highly suspect, makes me think they have consoles mind.

wis3boi

I've been satisfied with my performance on my GTX 670 (maxed @ 1200p, 'use Unlimited Memory' ticked). The graphics are gorgeous and it's by far the best looking TW game yet. I don't feel like I've spent enough time to give a good analysis on the good or the bad of the gameplay, but there are some things that stand out to me.

- It takes too long to wait for the enemy turns in the multiplayer campaign

- Compared to Shogun 2's UI, Rome 2's UI feels a little stripped down and cryptic

- Battlecam sucks and is the last button I want to hit if I want to get a good view of the action

I was really hoping they put enough effort into the animations and 'combat' AI that the microbattles between units would look like actual melee fights as opposed to one group of troops simply swarming into the other. It's really just a cluster**** of units running through eachother and randomly swinging around until one of the groups retreat.  CA really gave me the impression they wanted Rome 2's battles to be more cinematic than the last games, with a Battlecam that really puts you into the battle and lets you see the graphics. Instead it's just more of the same 'ol battles.