Total War: Rome 2 huge second patch is coming

It promises performance and AI improvements

Source

Technical and Performance Issues

• Campaign performance optimisations.
• Campaign AI round time improvements (greatest effect during early game).
• A new Limited option has been added to the Show AI Player Moves settings in Single Player an Multiplayer Campaign modes, this enables the player to see all movement of enemy factions, all
• movement within the players regions, and all movement within sea that the player has ports in during the AI turns.

   

• Improved AI recruitment decisions in Campaign modes. Further improvements planned for subsequent patches.
• Pathfinding optimisation on the Campaign Map.
• Fix for Level of Detail distances scaling incorrectly when the Field of View is changed which reduces the chance of the Intelligent Zoom [N] key, causing zombie like low quality textures on unit faces in battles.
• A new warning message has been added to loading screen to inform the player when graphics memory is running low, and the game is downgrading the players graphics settings. This can be overriden, allowing the game to use system memory for graphics (VRAM) by ticking the Unlimited video memory option in the graphics menu.
• Increased the frame rate and reduced frame stuttering in battles on certain GPUs.
• Improved compatibility for graphics cards with multiple GPUs.
• Added earlier Multiplayer Campaign resyncronisation detection, upon loading save games which allows resyncronisation in more cases.
• More conservative out-of-the-box graphics settings and resolution for DirectX 10 and 11 on Mobile GPUs
• Improved the processing speed of the default deployment placement, reducing battle loading times on some battle maps.
• Fixed battle crash bug caused by the default deployment placement.
• Crash fix for when the player placed the mouse over a garrison force of a region in Campaign mode.
• Fix for crash loading save games that were created on the settlement captured screen in Campaign modes.
• Fix for a crash when holding the [SHIFT] and [CTRL] keys down, and selecting a unit card, when no unit cards where previously selected in Campaign and Battle modes.
• Fix for crash caused by forming a Confederation in Campaign modes.
• Some desyncronisations have been fixed in multiplayer city / port assault battles.
• Crash fix for when multiple AI reinforcements arrive in a single player siege battle in Campaign mode.
• Fix for crash when selecting Custom Battle mode after fighting several different Multiplayer battles.
• Fix for a crash in 4v4 custom or multiplayer battles caused by the battle AI.
• Fix for crash when cancelling a game request for a password protected game whilst in a Multiplayer battle lobby.
• Fix some crashes in multiplayer campaign mode, when one player quit the game, it would cause the other player to crash.
• Fixed a Multiplayer crash which happened when a client joined a lobby and was being allocated to the wrong slot.
• Fix for a very rare crash when launching a new campaign.
• Fixed rare battlefield loading lockup.
• Fix for a rare crash caused by animal handlers in battles.
• Fix for crash that happens when AI unit triggers raise banner special ability when no human units are selected in battles.

Gameplay Improvements

• Reduced infantry run speed, charge speed and acceleration in battles.
• The low level casualty moral penalties have been significantly reduced in battles.
• Improved balancing for Food and Squalor in Campaign Mode.
• Campaign AI is more likely to make a stand when defending its final settlement, but may still seek out another home, if they fear losing the final battle.
• Encampments battles are no longer incorrectly merged with Coastal battles, which lead to forts floating in the air when a friendly navy reinforced an army in the Fortification stance.
• Improved ship movement speeds in battles.
• Shock cavalry run speed and charge speed have been increased in battles.
• Increased flanking morale penalties.
• Added icons to indicate activity in the Technology and Faction screens during a campaign.
• Fix for the boarding/ramming button which showed the incorrect state in certain circumstances in battles.
• Fix for a bug that sometimes made it impossible to exchange units between a transported land force and another land force on the Campaign map.
• Fix for armies on the sea getting stuck in patrol stance in Campaign modes.
• Fixed splitting an embedded army from a navy which sometimes caused the player to get stuck in the Prologue Campaign.
• Some missions in single player and multiplayer Campaign have been fixed and now execute correctly.
• When a settlement is captured via a siege battle, with a friendly naval fleet blockading its port, the ownership of the port is now changed correctly to the friendly navy fleet on capture.
• Fix for AI taking inappropriate sized siege equipment into battle when the user changed the settlement wall height, via the map selection settings, in Custom Battle mode.
• Fix for defending armies under AI control grouping together at the edge of their deployment zone, during Ambush battles when the player choses to wait before attacking them.
• Improved AI and scripting in the Raphia Historical Battle.
• Fixed a bug preventing the player from progressing in The Invasion of Samnium prologue chapter, if they had spent all of their funds before being instructed to recruit a General (and therefore
• having no funds to do so).

   

• The Attribute increases for an agent accompanying an army now activate its associated effects on the general of that army in Campaign modes.
• Improved AI collision detection with Deployables in battle.
• In Multiplayer Campaign mode, one player can no longer cancel recruitment during the other players turn.
• The order of events leading up to the Battle of Bovianum in the prologue have been re-scripted. The player now gets multiple turns to construct siege equipment.
• Fixed issues with not enough time being given for certain advisor lines to play in different languages in the prologue.
• Fix for units floating in the air while climbing siege towers in battle, when the tower is placed on a slope.
• Attacking siege ladders will no longer clip through the gate house in the siege on Bovianum battle during The Invasion of Samnium chapter in Prologue Campaign.
• The victory screen in Multiplayer Campaign mode now shows the correct title for both players.
• The Basilica of Vulcan religious building now applies the correct bonus to recruitment cost reduction in Campaign Mode.
• Added level indicators to the Sanctuary of Austro & Sanctuary of Fraujaz shrines in Campaign mode and the Encyclopaedia.
• Fix for settlement expansion trapping / blocking units movement on the campaign map in very rare cases.
• Improved the terrain in a small Barbarian city battle map.
• Minor bug fixes for Roman and Barbarian siege battle maps.
• During battles, players are no longer able to un-pause the game while in the options menus.

Usability improvements

• In Campaign mode, exempting a province from tax will no longer incorrectly adjust the food number in the province info panel left side of the screen.
• Improved multiplayer lobby discovery, reducing the chance of finding *multiplayer lobbies with the wrong battle type.
• Removed the red tint from the sky in battles.
• Fix for Rome Wasnt Built in a Day achievement failing to unlock when its requirements were met in some situations.
• The Quaestor achievement should now unlock correctly, when completing the Prologue campaign
• Fixed the inability to select the previous faction, when an army is automatically loaded due to a battle type change during battle setup.
• Improved the clarity of stats displayed for Slaves Economic Effect when placing the mouse over Slaves in the Province Details panel on the Campaign map.
• Fix for rare cases of broken save games in Campaign mode.
• Fix for Campaign mode bug, where a hostile agent and the players ship became stuck in the same position, with neither one able to move.
• Fix for very rare agent pathfinding issue, which caused the game progression to become impossible in Campaign modes.
• Removed the ability to loading the wrong type of units into a battle from a saved army pre-set in Custom Battle mode.
• In Multiplayer battle setup, unit restrictions related to Battle type are no longer desynchronised between the host and client, so only the correct units can be chosen.
• Defending armies in an Ambush Battle can no longer load an army containing *Fixed Artillery and other Siege Equipment.
• Fixed the tooltip displayed when placing the mouse over the garrison in enemy settlements, while the settlement is under siege.
• The Public Order Change per turn stat is now displayed as the sum of all of its Contributing Factors on the Province Info panel in Campaign mode.
• Right-clicking on the Aggressive, Balanced and Protective stance buttons when Autoresolving a battle in campaign mode will now take the player to the Encyclopedia, where these stances are explained in more detail.
• More detailed descriptions added to the tooltips for the Occupy, Loot and Raze buttons after successfully capturing a settlement on the Campaign map.
• Improved icons for Province Effects in Campaign mode.
• Fixed an error with uploading stats when a multiplayer battle was ended prematurely.
• The Force March movement effect on the campaign map (looks like a whirlwind) are now correctly removed from the screen when the AI move their army.
• Correction to the Assault Hexeres unit card in the Parthia faction during battles, which had no colour mask and appeared black.
• The buttons to change pages in the Leaderboards menu have been fixed, so more players can be seen on the Leaderboards.
• The Provinces list in Campaign mode can now be scrolled with the mouse wheel.
• Units in a recruitment queue, in a province with its capital under siege, now have an infinity sign icon to indicate that the turns to recruit is infinite while the siege is maintained in Campaign mode.
• In the Controls menu under the Settings option in the main menu, when the player modifies the keyboard controls, and saves them, the new name for these controls is now replaces the Classic Total War name.
• Added a tooltip to say Left-click to remove unit from recruitment queue for units that are queued for hire in Campaign mode.
• Added a tooltip to make ruined buildings more obvious in Campaign mode.
• Added tooltips to Weather and Time of Day settings in the Custom Battle menu.
• Fixes and corrections for text in the encyclopaedia have been made.
• Minor text and grammar corrections in Campaign Modes.
• Fix for some German text not fitting into the available text space in the campaign mode user interface.
• Improved text formatting in the Objectives panel in Campaign mode.
• Added some localisation text fixes for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish and Turkish.
• Fixed some missing text on the Diplomacy screen in Campaign modes.
• Added white outline to Armoured Legionaries unit cards in battle.

There's already a beta version of this on steam, was using it yesterday. Really sped up the time in between turns.blue_hazy_basic

combine the beta with some of radious' mods and you have a much better game than when it launched.

thanks for the broken game sega

Been using the beta as well.

I'm very happy with the campaign map's AI improvements. They no longer throw stacks fo slingers at you. Army unit balance is much imrpved. Theya re also much less likely to abandon territories, and more likely to defend and go on the offensive more ofen as well.

I'm hoping patch 3 brings in more performance improvements, and, critically, brings fixes to the battle AI.

Banner, and sieges still pose a problem for it.

Unlike most console games, PC games actually get developer support for years to come.

They usually also don't "pull the plug" on them when it comes to online play, which means you can still play certain PC games that are well over 10 years old.

Not to mention the huge community support which make stuff and mods for the games for free.

Meanwhile, console gamers are stuck with payable online, payable DLC and yearly rehashes of shallow, overdone games that bring nothing significanlty new to the table. (sans for a few rare exceptions)

loving the removal of red skies :D

Holy crap, that IS a huge patch, probably turning 8 game into a 9 game.

You can already download it.. just gotta set your steam/ROME II to BETA.

It is a fantastic patch, fixed all the isssuess I had with ROME II (enemies turns take way less time, ai is WAY better, perforamnce on the campaign map is better to).

With this beta patch and the Radious mod package, along with sweet fx and GEG graphics mod, this game is fantastic. Realy improves it a good deal if you ahve this new patch AND teh AI improvements from Radious, they work together very very well.

Holy crap, that IS a huge patch, probably turning 8 game into a 9 game.

Lumpy311

I decided to give the game a second chance and was quite enjoying it lateley. I loved new province-based design to manage cities. My main problem was the campaing AI which was really bad. By some reason AI was splitting his forces too much.

For example, it made very good move by infiltrating my backyard province. And he  actually had a real chance to seize a city. My foces were a few turns away so I couldn´t do nothing. But instead it devided his forces into three groups and attacked three diferent settlements instead of uniting his forces against on single. That was pretty dumb. As a result, all his armies were defeated by my garisons.

And when I pushed my army to conquer his last city, AI abondoned it right after  my arrival. And when I took the city, AI started attepting to take it back. Why did you left the city in fist place idiot ! :evil: And that happened not just once, but twice. The second time, AI abondoned the capital city which had walls. At the end , I conquered all Italy losing only some 5% of my forces in the process. All fights were so unequal. And I was playing the game on hard.

I am sure this patch will fix the game. I will have to restart my campaing though, I don´t want easy wins. 

Wow, I hope that helps. I didn't know the game was that bad until I saw a couple of reviews yesterday. They actually took a few steps back from Shogun 2, which was fantastic in every way, in core areas such as multiplayer (which is amazing on Shogun 2 and looks like shit in Rome 2)? For shame. I didn't know the inter-turn loading was a matter of minutes - hell, the thirty or so seconds it took in Shogun 2 was enough to annoy me - nor did I know that the AI was borderline retarded (doesn't keep in formation, doesn't attack, etc.). That, added to very, VERY bad design ideas (capture the flag? Seriously?), makes this game look like it got way more than what it deserved here. No wonder that patch has so many changes.

iHarlequin

How about you try the damn game yourself instead of just making your opinions based of what you have heard.

The gaem is great, and as with EVERY TW game at launch it has some issues, that are ALWAYS fixed with patches. Remember Empire Total Wars launch?  Hell even one of  my friends couldnt play Shogun2 until the 2nd or 3rd patch. This series is big and grand and alot of the time they need to patch it later on, just the way that it does.

Rome II is great, it just needed a few patches, playing it with this new patch and a few mods and it is as enjoyable for me as shogun2 and Rome I was.

[QUOTE="Lumpy311"]

Holy crap, that IS a huge patch, probably turning 8 game into a 9 game.

deeliman

Agreed, but oh well, atleast they worked hard to fix it unlike most devs.

This is just the way its been for TW series for ages, I own every one of there games and none have been perfect on release.  This new patch worked wonders though, its to bad it didnt get released in this state, almost all the issues are fixed totally or almost all fixed now.

Anyone have a handy link to the AI mods?

Sounds great! I took a break from the campaign because the waiting time in-between turns was unbearable. 

Anyone have a handy link to the AI mods?

Kinthalis

Sounds great! I took a break from the campaign because the waiting time in-between turns was unbearable. 

klusps

[QUOTE="iHarlequin"]

Wow, I hope that helps. I didn't know the game was that bad until I saw a couple of reviews yesterday. They actually took a few steps back from Shogun 2, which was fantastic in every way, in core areas such as multiplayer (which is amazing on Shogun 2 and looks like shit in Rome 2)? For shame. I didn't know the inter-turn loading was a matter of minutes - hell, the thirty or so seconds it took in Shogun 2 was enough to annoy me - nor did I know that the AI was borderline retarded (doesn't keep in formation, doesn't attack, etc.). That, added to very, VERY bad design ideas (capture the flag? Seriously?), makes this game look like it got way more than what it deserved here. No wonder that patch has so many changes.

kozzy1234

How about you try the damn game yourself instead of just making your opinions based of what you have heard.

The gaem is great, and as with EVERY TW game at launch it has some issues, that are ALWAYS fixed with patches. Remember Empire Total Wars launch?  Hell even one of  my friends couldnt play Shogun2 until the 2nd or 3rd patch. This series is big and grand and alot of the time they need to patch it later on, just the way that it does.

Rome II is great, it just needed a few patches, playing it with this new patch and a few mods and it is as enjoyable for me as shogun2 and Rome I was.

Give me one good reason to get a game that's unfinished, for fifty dollars, when not only are there better games for less, I already have a TW game that's consolidated and I think universally agreed on to be better than Rome 2? I love the Total War series - it is easily my favorite strategy franchise - but I won't buy it on name alone, or pre-order because TCA has a great rapport with its playerbase. They released an unfinished product (be it their or Sega's fault), and it still isn't finished. I don't need to play the game to know how it is, the same way I don't need to eat shit to know it doesn't cater to my taste.

And it's not just the bugs that bothered me - they streamlined several features, and, as I said, actually worsened them in comparison to its predecessor, Shogun 2. The diplomacy is even worse (wasn't that fantastic in Shogun 2), you have childish in-battle objectives (capture the flag - I've seen videos of the A.I. throwing itself upon the player in the most idiotic fashion just to get to the flag) and a traits system that you can't make plans for without consulting an online source. They took away AVATAR CONQUEST, how can I back that? It was a fantastic mode that meshed the game's battles with a great meta-game to keep you interested. I played Shogun 2 at launch and it didn't look nearly as terrible as this - quite the opposite, actually (but the 10-point metacritic difference should tell you that already). I do agree that Empire Total War also had a shitty launch, but I didn't get that game when it came out either.

Holy crap, that IS a huge patch, probably turning 8 game into a 9 game.

Lumpy311

The bueaty of PC gaming.

Console games never get this kind of treatment.

How do they take YEARS making broken games and then fix them in a couple of weeks?Ninja-Hippo

Incompetence from the publisher's part, I think. All they had to do was allow TCA to release the game in December, with a two-month period of extensive testing by players and the dev. team, and we'd have a game that'd likely be better than anything they'll get with patches.

Anyone have a handy link to the AI mods?

Kinthalis

look up "radious total war rome 2"

[QUOTE="Kinthalis"]

Anyone have a handy link to the AI mods?

deeliman

No, thats a link to google clever clogs.

You can download the beta version of the patch already. I am using it myself. I still don't get as good of performance as I do with Shogun 2 (GPU usage is still hovering between 40-60%), but I am still getting acceptable framerates with lower settings than what I could have with full GPU usage. However, my friend who's using a 2500k is getting 97% GPU usage; so pretty much all your issues are solved if you use Intel.

The game AI has also improved considerably. I haven't seen anymore full stack armies filled with nothing but slingers. Overall, huge improvements. 

They should have gotten more testers and changed the release date its a pain waiting for a game to be fix a least its usually weekly they release a patch

lmao look at all the fixing it needs.  Flop of the year

Does the game work yet? Do the "AI" have intelligence now?

[QUOTE="Lumpy311"]

Holy crap, that IS a huge patch, probably turning 8 game into a 9 game.

Jankarcop

The bueaty of PC gaming.

Console games never get this kind of treatment.

Console games tend to work on day 1. :roll:

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

[QUOTE="Lumpy311"]

Holy crap, that IS a huge patch, probably turning 8 game into a 9 game.

Peredith

The bueaty of PC gaming.

Console games never get this kind of treatment.

Console games tend to work on day 1. :roll:

[QUOTE="Peredith"]

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

The bueaty of PC gaming.

 

Console games never get this kind of treatment.

GioVela2010

Console games tend to work on day 1. :roll:

I'm probably still going to stick with Shogun 2 for the time being.

[QUOTE="Peredith"]

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

The bueaty of PC gaming.

 

Console games never get this kind of treatment.

GioVela2010

Console games tend to work on day 1. :roll:

http://kotaku.com/5885358/why-skyrim-didnt-play-nice-with-the-ps3

http://kotaku.com/5735494/2-years-later-broken-xbox-360-game-gets-fixed

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Assassin-s-Creed/Assassins-Creed-3-is-Buggy/td-p/17358720/page/4

http://www.giantbomb.com/red-dead-redemption/3030-25249/forums/why-is-this-game-so-glitchy-418998/

http://www.gamesradar.com/8-funny-red-dead-redemption-glitches-that-will-make-you-smile/

http://www.shacknews.com/article/71385/fallout-new-vegas-dev-talks-ps3-memory

lmao look at all the fixing it needs.  Flop of the year

GioVela2010

You mean GTA V, the most hyped console game of this year? ;)

Oh and countless multiplats that have the same issues on all 3 platforms, where PC almost always gets a patch first and faster. :cool:

Picked up the box ver from walmart (like the art) shouls i open fellows..granddogg

[QUOTE="GioVela2010"][QUOTE="Peredith"]

Console games tend to work on day 1. :roll:

Jankarcop

http://kotaku.com/5885358/why-skyrim-didnt-play-nice-with-the-ps3

http://kotaku.com/5735494/2-years-later-broken-xbox-360-game-gets-fixed

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Assassin-s-Creed/Assassins-Creed-3-is-Buggy/td-p/17358720/page/4

http://www.giantbomb.com/red-dead-redemption/3030-25249/forums/why-is-this-game-so-glitchy-418998/

http://www.gamesradar.com/8-funny-red-dead-redemption-glitches-that-will-make-you-smile/

http://www.shacknews.com/article/71385/fallout-new-vegas-dev-talks-ps3-memory

When you play a console game you play it at sub-30 FPS and 720p, and no patch can fix that. :lol:

Does the game work yet? Do the "AI" have intelligence now?

Peredith

Yeah, I'd say so. Patch 2 really fixes a lot of stuff. 

[QUOTE="Jankarcop"]

[QUOTE="GioVela2010"] Lmao JankafailiHarlequin

http://kotaku.com/5885358/why-skyrim-didnt-play-nice-with-the-ps3

http://kotaku.com/5735494/2-years-later-broken-xbox-360-game-gets-fixed

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Assassin-s-Creed/Assassins-Creed-3-is-Buggy/td-p/17358720/page/4

http://www.giantbomb.com/red-dead-redemption/3030-25249/forums/why-is-this-game-so-glitchy-418998/

http://www.gamesradar.com/8-funny-red-dead-redemption-glitches-that-will-make-you-smile/

http://www.shacknews.com/article/71385/fallout-new-vegas-dev-talks-ps3-memory

When you play a console game you play it at sub-30 FPS and 720p, and no patch can fix that. :lol:

Giosmella :lol:

Unlike most console games, PC games actually get developer support for years to come.

They usually also don't "pull the plug" on them when it comes to online play, which means you can still play certain PC games that are well over 10 years old.

Not to mention the huge community support which make stuff and mods for the games for free.

Meanwhile, console gamers are stuck with payable online, payable DLC and yearly rehashes of shallow, overdone games that bring nothing significanlty new to the table. (sans for a few rare exceptions)

nameless12345

Well...that was something...

Unlike most console games, PC games actually get developer support for years to come.

They usually also don't "pull the plug" on them when it comes to online play, which means you can still play certain PC games that are well over 10 years old.

Not to mention the huge community support which make stuff and mods for the games for free.

Meanwhile, console gamers are stuck with payable online, payable DLC and yearly rehashes of shallow, overdone games that bring nothing significanlty new to the table. (sans for a few rare exceptions)

 

nameless12345

Console kids can only dream of such support. 

INstead they get broken/buggy games for 2+ years , if not forever. Which is why they get less AAA/AA games than PC every gen :)

[QUOTE="granddogg"]Picked up the box ver from walmart (like the art) shouls i open fellows..blue_hazy_basic

woah, thats a pretty big list of changes.

Typical PC game...nothing but problems. Just saying...Damn.

Typical PC game...nothing but problems. Just saying...Damn.

Puckhog04

Atleast our problems get fixed, your versions stay shitty forever, peasants.

[QUOTE="Puckhog04"]

Typical PC game...nothing but problems. Just saying...Damn.

Lumpy311

Atleast our problems get fixed, your versions stay shitty forever, peasants.

And let's be honest:

How many TPS corridor shooters NEED patches?

(other than an obvious NEED for a 'fun patch')

Does it fix the terrible UI as well?

Typical PC game...nothing but problems. Just saying...Damn.

Puckhog04

atypical you mean.