Total War: Rome 2

Is this free to current owners or are they finally fixing the game and re-charging us?

Free to current owners. They're going to rebrand the game as the "Emperor Edition" on steam and in stores. Either way, if you buy it now or after the EE version is released, you'll get the same game.

did they fix the gui and show the build paths like before? think shogun2.

They're "overhauling" the building upgrade system. I'm not participating in the beta, so I can't tell you much beyond that. UI is the same as far I can tell, but it's not something I've had trouble adopting anyway.
 
It just makes no sense to me, they had a GREAT UI starting with Empire (minimal UI option) and then Shogun 2's defautl UI was the "minimal" one.

Then Rome 2 completely 180 flipped it and went to their gigantic "take up half your fucking screen" UI that no one owanted/asked for/likes and didn't even give you an OPTIONAL "minimal" ui like they did with empire.

It felt like going back to some 1990's mmorpg.

I want to see the action and battle, not have giant fucking unit portraits and other crap cluttering up half of my screen.
 
I'm not sure if I should be glad that there are actually developers who still try to fix the game 2 years after the release, or sad that a games are rushed out so fast that it takes another full development cycle to fix the game.
 
I'm not sure if I should be glad that there are actually developers who still try to fix the game 2 years after the release, or sad that a games are rushed out so fast that it takes another full development cycle to fix the game.

R2TW is approaching its first year. Granted it shouldn't have been released in this state in the first place, I'm glad to see CA stuck with it and hammered out some of the serious issues, instead of simply abandoning it.
 
Might give this game another go now that they've fixed some bugs
 
I'm critical of CA. I have been for years now. However I am glad to see they are fixing it. I still point out they should have done this in the beginning. I'm not letting CA off the hook because I'm worried they will do it again.
 
Also, are they still charging for DLC to add blood to the game, a game which I might add is called total war. I love the series but damn man, they were trying to bleed us, and pun intended.
 
Also, are they still charging for DLC to add blood to the game, a game which I might add is called total war. I love the series but damn man, they were trying to bleed us, and pun intended.

Yes, and I understand why they sell it separately since it bumps up the ESRB rating from Teen to Mature, and PEGI 16 to PEGI 18 in EU. If that's the reason though, I don't believe they should charge $2.99 for it. :mad:
 
So they have to CHARGE for it? Bullshit, there are many companies that would release something like that for free (hell even Bethseda, who are infamous for the horse armor dlc, released a high res texture pack for Skyrim for free).

Especially considering the fact that many previous total war games had that detail without a patch/dlc.
 
So they have to CHARGE for it? Bullshit, there are many companies that would release something like that for free (hell even Bethseda, who are infamous for the horse armor dlc, released a high res texture pack for Skyrim for free).

Especially considering the fact that many previous total war games had that detail without a patch/dlc.

Medieval 2, as far I remember, was the first TW game that integrated blood without DLC. But it was very superficial (basically a red-ish decal that covered wounded/dead units, and small puffs of blood from missile hits). After that, I barely played ETW, so I don't recall if it had blood. Skipped NTW entirely. But I know Shogun 2 did have blood/gore DLC, which for the first time brought in dismemberment and glorious blood sprays.

I believe they need to charge for it otherwise ESRB/PEGI will jack up the age rating on the game. If that were the case though, they could've simply charged a few cents for the DLC. They very clearly went the cash grab route charging $3 for it.
 
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The thing is though that the modding community made blood mods for the games. Just so people wouldn't have to buy a dlc from CA.

btw: when does this beta patch (15) go gold/finished and live?
 
The thing is though that the modding community made blood mods for the games. Just so people wouldn't have to buy a dlc from CA.

btw: when does this beta patch (15) go gold/finished and live?

September 16 is the launch of Emperor Edition (aka Patch 15).
 
sigh, would they please just making empire 2 :(

Napoleon was Empire 2? :D

I kind of want a Medieval again to be honest, I loved medieval 2. Empire and Napoleon are still relatively new.
 
I'm relatively sure the next Total War game will be set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, but I would love to see a return to the medieval era. The game previous to R2TW was Fall of the Samurai, and was chalk full for gunpowder, so I'm fairly burnt out (hah pun) on that type of warfare.
 
Napoleon was Empire 2? :D

I kind of want a Medieval again to be honest, I loved medieval 2. Empire and Napoleon are still relatively new.

Apparently on Sept. 25th CA is announcing the next game in the Total War Franchise..
 
Does anyone actually think they are capable of making good games anymore? Medieval 2 was unfinished. Empire was broken. Napoleon was a "patch" DLC that cost as much as the original game (was not even slightly lower "expansion price"). Shogun 2 had broken multiplayer for a long time (probably still not fixed), and the only reason the singleplayer worked was because they stripped the game of most of the features added over the previous several games. And then Rome 2 was the most broken one yet, despite being just as simplified as Shogun 2.

Don't see why anyone is looking forward to anything...

Play regular RTS and tactical games for the "battle" fun, and play Paradox games for serious strategy.
 
I sometimes feel like I'm the only one that liked Empire/Napoleon.

MAinly because those eras aren't really dealt with that much in an RTS game like what the TW games do with real-time battles.

Most games are like medieval/fantasy based, so it was a nice change of pace.
 
Whatever their next project is I hope its not the fiasco TWR2 was at release. I keep hoping they would get better at game making but my hopes keep getting doused. :(
 
You guys know SEGA played a big part in forcing TWR2 to be released half baked right?
 
Does anyone actually think they are capable of making good games anymore? Medieval 2 was unfinished. Empire was broken. Napoleon was a "patch" DLC that cost as much as the original game (was not even slightly lower "expansion price"). Shogun 2 had broken multiplayer for a long time (probably still not fixed), and the only reason the singleplayer worked was because they stripped the game of most of the features added over the previous several games. And then Rome 2 was the most broken one yet, despite being just as simplified as Shogun 2.

Don't see why anyone is looking forward to anything...

Play regular RTS and tactical games for the "battle" fun, and play Paradox games for serious strategy.

Because below..

You guys know SEGA played a big part in forcing TWR2 to be released half baked right?

But I'd have to disagree about the state of the franchise. Medieval 2's launch wasn't half bad and in its final state became one of my favorite TW games ever. ETW was awful technically and by design. Then Shogun 2 and its expansions restored the faith. R2TW was about as bad as ETW, but mostly for the design choices CA made (e.g. torching gates, transport fleets, no family tree, useless political system). The patches fixed many of the technical issues, so right now I'd peg R2TW at a notch or two above ETW.
 
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You guys know SEGA played a big part in forcing TWR2 to be released half baked right?

I do realize that publishers make the game developer's lives much harder and push them to do things they feel they shouldn't but I do hold the game developer ultimately responsible. They shouldn't do business with publishers that make their games worse. I know its not easy to get a good publisher but if you do business with someone that adds problems to your game then that's your fault especially if you keep going with that same publisher time and again. Again, I hold the game developer ultimately responsible. The buck has to stop somewhere. Maybe CA should try a kick starter campaign and try and bypass the bad publishers?
 
Emperor Edition is live today. Patch notes here.

Excited to try the tweaked political system and new building chains. Not mentioned in the notes are some graphical improvements. I don't know exactly what they've improved there, but I'd like to see for myself.
 
Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about it. I'll have to give the game another try tonight and see how it goes. :D
 
I know a lot of people are enjoying EE and say this is what it should have been at release. Excited to give it a try.
 
I have to say it does look like they are trying to redeem themselves. Only took a year.
 
As a Total War vet since the original Rome, Emperor Edition is a massive improvement so far over the original Rome 2.
 
The original RTW feels far better. Played it a couple months ago after all the patches, and it still felt like a dumbed down prettier RTW.

How is it now?
 
R2TW plays fantastically. If the game were released this way, it would've blown me away.

But there are still a few design and gameplay flaws that linger.

- Torching gates. Terrible design decision; for the millionth time, this has to go.
- Siege Battle AI has gotten better at utilizing siege engines, but they still don't build towers/rams and are uncoordinated.
- Campaign AI still leaves its perimeter settlements largely undefended. They instead try to play musical chairs with your settlements (i.e. attacking the settlement that you launched your attack from).
 
Because below..



But I'd have to disagree about the state of the franchise. Medieval 2's launch wasn't half bad and in its final state became one of my favorite TW games ever. ETW was awful technically and by design. Then Shogun 2 and its expansions restored the faith. R2TW was about as bad as ETW, but mostly for the design choices CA made (e.g. torching gates, transport fleets, no family tree, useless political system). The patches fixed many of the technical issues, so right now I'd peg R2TW at a notch or two above ETW.

I can't bring myself to do that. ETW even though its still broken and has shit AI i find infinantly more fun to play then an toher series, I still play it to this day as different countries and have alot of fun. I REALLY REALLY hope someday we get an ETW that isn't buggy as shit, slow to take turns and has good ai
 
I think the EE is nice and this is the way RTW2 should have launched. Its not a perfect game but a decent one. I give CA a thumbs up for the continued attempt to fix things. I'm not letting them off the hook for their original blunder though. That will take time proven through better games in the future.

I dont think the AI is any worse or better than the original RTW. About the same but RTW2 has more going on inside the game. AI making is a tricky thing and not easily done IMO. Can it be done? Yeah, some programmers have the talent to pull it off but I think there are few of these guys around. Can CA make a better AI? That is the better question and the bigger question. Can they? I wonder.
 
For the first time in a year, politics (in vanilla) is actually relevant, fun, and engaging. It follows the same basic structure as before where you're vying for influence, but now there's a purpose for it. Basically you want just enough political influence to grant public order, income, cultural conversion, and other campaign benefits, but too much influence will gradually increase the risk of a civil war breaking out. I haven't seen a civil war yet, but from what I've read, it will divide your generals by family/party along with its armies, territories, and agents. As you increase your imperium rating (via conquering territories, research, and perhaps more), political encounters will become more frequent and difficult (e.g. expensive) to address.

Now I find myself in situations where I'm more mindful of my generals' positions; I ensure that my family/party's generals are in key locations of my empire, so that if a civil war breaks out, those loyal are in the best position and amply equipped to deal with the coup. I also make sure that I'm mindful of which political party a certain general belongs to; if my party is pulling away, I'll let another party's general take point on a siege/battle to boost their gravitas. If I'm running away with it, then I start divorcing my generals' wives like mad. All this adds an interesting layer to manage, which is totally unlike the irrelevant political system we had prior.
 
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Just started playing with 2 970s and it seems more jittery than the 980 I was using. Any setting I need to change?
 
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so I just got my asus 970s to replace the crap evga ones I had, still seems way more jittery and choppy as opposed to the single 980 I was using. Also now I am noticing some shimmering on the map which is kind of annoying. Any thoughts?
 
I run two 290x and cant say I noticed any jittering or choppiness. Still see an occasional crash but that is game related. This game is tempermental (buggy) still so you may have better game play with a single card.
 
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