Rome 2 released!

[debux]

This is why I don't tend to buy on day one and wait for steam sales

Although it seems the few mods out there really help. I remember seeing quite a few that helped a bit with performance, which seems to be a widespread issue

[Will]

This is why I don't tend to buy on day one and wait for steam sales

Although it seems the few mods out there really help. I remember seeing quite a few that helped a bit with performance, which seems to be a widespread issue

I pre-ordered on Amazon and it cost £25.

Also, there is a tournament going on right now with a few youtube Rome 2 players. It is being streamed on twitch with the semifinals and finals tomorrow.

http://www.twitch.tv/readyuptv

[debux]

Yeah, I think I heard a bit in some videos (specifically PoM), but I guess I'll save it for whenever I'm bored

[Jubal]

I probably won't get it for a year or so tbh

I just don't want more game modding possibilities hanging over me if nothing else...

[debux]

Also, you wouldn't have to spend all your time in updating your modded files after every patch

EDIT: I just cannot BELIEVE they have announced a Blood & Gore pack, especially by the part of "Featuring hundreds of gruesome animations that play out in combat between multiple different unit types (...)". SERIOUSLY? If I recall correctly, the reason why there isn't a fire at will option in R2TW for pila/javelins (what would have been the "prec" attribute in RTW) was because they didn't have either time or space for it's animations. And they are really charging 3$ for animations that will make all the 300 fanboys whoop in glee?!?! Really pissed about it.

[Clockwork]

If you read the piece from the devs they explained why they needed to charge for the blood separately (to do with age ratings and availiability in different countries or something...). They have fire at will option and have done since the start for javelins. Pila are thrown before the charge, there is no fire at will button with them because the range of the pilum is so short there would be no point.

I bought the blood pack today and it makes the game so much better and adds to the character of it.

[debux]

I might be really, really tacky, but I find almost 3 dollars too much for what it's supposed to be. But well, I won't be buying it, so I don't care that much... still pissed about the fire at will thing. Not all nations used a throwing weapon as heavy as a pila, so it's a really gross simplification. I do really think it was in part to simplify the game for the many newcomers to the TW series (which seems to be pivotal in CA's current policy, as they have shown in that interview where they said they would delete features based on Metacritic reviews, or something like that... TotalBiscuit had a video on that), as they don't have the "Loose Formation" in the default game, although it is within the game files (there is a modder that enabled it). In any case, I was checking the forums again, where I had read the comment on disregarding the pila-throwing animations, and it seems it was just a pun from a user...

I'm just worried that the game is changing to favour a wider audience: rather than making them adapt into the pretty good mechanics in former games, they are trying to introduce elements that could make it more attractive for newcomers.  That's the perception I've been getting anyways, and I know it isn't entirely fair for me to comment on a game that I don't even own (more by the fact that my current pc barely handles RTW on "Large" unit settings, rather than skepticism).

[Clockwork]

Yeah there are so many things that have gone downhill only from S2. Building menu won't be looked at and there are still huge imbalances in the units but I'm hoping those will be addressed. I think the reason for them dumbing down R2 is actually because of the next game they want to release, Total Warhammer (name pending ) which requires a couple of layers of global strategy to be taken out. I believe they'll be hoping that this game will smooth the way for the more 'streamlined' next total war game instead of recieving a ton of backlash if they had made R2 a strategy behemoth then completely turning that element around for the next release. Makes little sense from a business point of view and absolutely none from a gamers, I know but I can also sort of see the logic.


With patch 5 I think loose formation is an option also. Though that it needs a patch a week says something about the game in itself.

[debux]

I'm glad to see that I am considered a gamer, because I have trouble in understanding that logic I wish they would have done a different series for a more streamlined experience, but that would never happen... I just wish they had some kind of real competition, I can't think of any other war game that encapsulates all of TW's mechanics in a good way, especially for the roman period (I do believe there seem to be good "clones" of medieval times and the napoleonic wars)

And yeah, I can understand the frustration of a weekly patch... it sounds good in theory, but not at all for the player... I guess campaign savegames get corrupted? Or do they remember the state of the game from when the campaign was initiated (it keep whatever is changed later on in the patches?)

[Clockwork]

Probably just my rambled interpretation of it

saves are compatible with each patch, just not most mods xD

[debux]

Oh, that's nice... shame about the mods. From what I see I wouldn't be able to play without mods, and having to start a new campaign everytime a new patch comes out

Yay for Steam Sales and buying games two years after release, once everybody stops playing them!

[Clockwork]

There's already a 25% sale on at the moment.

[Will]

It is kind of lame that there are so many DLCs that you have to pay for, really this kind of stuff should be free.

[debux]

That's why you wait for 75% or bundles (or both!)

I think the argument is that they replace the expansions... not sure really

[Son of the King]

Well I've been playing this game again a fair bit recently, now its been patched a little I felt I'd give it another chance. This time I went into it expecting less than the first time and I feel that at its heart is a good enough game to keep me entertained. However it feels like it is missing the "spark" that made the original Rome so good, even to the state where it feels more like a game that some company made to cash in on the TW style of strategy/tactics mix, rather than a bona fide TW game from Creative Assembly.

I've also found myself giving up completely on fighting battles on the battle map. I did a similar thing with Medieval 2 (although that was because the fps was unplayable, not because they are so riddled with crashes its not worth trying) and felt a similar way about the game until I played it on a new computer that could run it properly. I'm hoping that the worst of the battle map issues (namely it freezes up and then crashes my video card every now and then) is due to my computer, rather than another of the random bugs in the game, and that the purchase of a new computer will allow me to get the best possible experience.

I still take issue with some of the feature/design changes, but overall it just feels different - not necessarily vastly worse. Public order is a pain, but on the whole the multiple regions per province thing is good. Unit variety is good, and the recruitment system is fantastic. However the biggest let down of all is the UI. It is badly designed and feels frustrating to use. I also miss family trees, and feel like they would have fitted in really well with the internal politics stuff (ie multiple families per faction vying for power). Also I wish that there was more than one turn per year, simply because I am sick and tired of just when my agents and generals get really useful they die of old age.

It would also be a damn sight easier with regards to having to autoresolve most battles if the small one-city AI factions would freaking do something other than train two full stacks and camp their city with them both and a garrison army...