Total War: Rome 2

I will say the latest beta patch really did smooth out huge battles. I was getting big slowdowns in the heat of a battle (when all the troops were engaged in battle), but it's running much smoother now. I think it was related to poorly optimized AI.

It's progress, but still a lot more is needed. I may just have to completely shelf this for a few months.
 
I've finally conquered the whole of the map LOL. Turn 178 IIRC. Getting military victory was turn 139.

So now I've downsized my armies/navies, and my income is finally positive (this is at the minimum tax rate). Now I'll be managing public order (and probably food, but I'm at a huge surplus right now) to find the right amount of tax. LOL

Then I'll create a narrative of rebellions (since there won't be rebellions when public order is high, I'll probably intentionally increase squalor for that LOL) to make things interesting.
 
I uninstalled the game a about 2 months ago. The patching process looks like its moving along. They have an expansion planned for the 12th as well that I might end up picking up. I think they can salvage this game, things are slowly getting better. I wish they would have waited 6 months or so to make an expansion, I much prefer a 30 dollar large expansion rather than a 15 dollar smaller one.
 
I bought the game recently on Steam's 50% sale. Patch version 7. Frequent lock ups is my main gripe about the game. By lock ups I mean the game just locks up for no reason and I have to control+alt+delete to task manager and quit and then restart the game again. I have to constantly save as I go. This is worse as Rome faction. I also been playing Spartan and Mecedon factions and it also locks up often but not nearly as bad as when playing the Rome faction for some reason. The game definitely has issues still. Anyone wanting this game but sitting on the fence I'd say wait for it to became 75% off. Maybe by then they'll fix it more. Right now I give it a 6 out of 10 and not worth even the 50% off.
 
Skott said:
I bought the game recently on Steam's 50% sale. Patch version 7. Frequent lock ups is my main gripe about the game. By lock ups I mean the game just locks up for no reason and I have to control+alt+delete to task manager and quit and then restart the game again. I have to constantly save as I go. This is worse as Rome faction. I also been playing Spartan and Mecedon factions and it also locks up often but not nearly as bad as when playing the Rome faction for some reason. The game definitely has issues still. Anyone wanting this game but sitting on the fence I'd say wait for it to became 75% off. Maybe by then they'll fix it more. Right now I give it a 6 out of 10 and not worth even the 50% off.
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had the same issue, game locking up and having to ctrl-alt-del to kill exe.
i did read on TWCenter that unticking 'core 0' in 'set affinity' resolves most crashes. i tried it and it did reduce my crashes/lock-up dramatically.

the game still needs a lot of work.
 
aphasia said:
had the same issue, game locking up and having to ctrl-alt-del to kill exe.
i did read on TWCenter that unticking 'core 0' in 'set affinity' resolves most crashes. i tried it and it did reduce my crashes/lock-up dramatically.

the game still needs a lot of work.
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I'll look into that. Thanks for the tip. :)
 
So Beta Patch 8.1 seems to have resolved the passive battle AI that I recorded in Beta Patch 7. I ran almost the same exact test as before, except I gave the AI fewer towers to mitigate pathfinding problems (not to mention, the AI will never field that many towers).

Beta Patch 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROL_2yoYFlE
Beta Patch 8.1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfUJxTlJWik

We see at 2:30, the AI breaches the gates and bum rushes all his men. Brain dead simple, but effective at punching through a phalanx. In Patch 7/8, the AI's reserves would stand and stare at my walls until the timer ran out.

Then at 3:39, the AI actually brings its units down from the wall. In Patch 7/8, AI units on the wall would become passive.

That's the last gameplay issue that really prevented me from enjoying the game. Still far from perfect, but at least the AI is fighting.
 
This thread hasnt been active in a long while, whats the state of the game regarding the AI issues and all now?
 
They patched SLI to work. But you will only see some moderate gains in some instances because the game is so poorly optimized for CPU. I still hear people complaining about crossfire not working, but I thought it was fixed. The game is not to say great, but I would say it will likely not get much better than it is at this point.
 
I kept an eye on this game for a few months after release, just never seemed close to competent. I would be very interested to hear if people are enjoying it now.
 
My son and I play this every so often in some long marathon matches and we enjoy it. I would not recommend it though, as there are still AI problems, (much better than launch but still issues). The fact that they released DLC to add the blood to combat like a month after release really turned me off on the game though. I only really play it because my son is strategy junky.../sigh
 
was a massive TW fan until this title. Firstly couldnt bring myself to pay 60$ at launch, and all of the reported problems with AI i still hvae not bought it even when its been on sale. First TW title i have no bought at launch.
 
4saken said:
was a massive TW fan until this title. Firstly couldnt bring myself to pay 60$ at launch, and all of the reported problems with AI i still hvae not bought it even when its been on sale. First TW title i have no bought at launch.
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UI change really sucks, they had it great on Shogun2.
 
bloodhawke83 said:
UI change really sucks, they had it great on Shogun2.
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After trying really hard to like Rome II for about 20 hours of playtime, it's now uninstalled with Shogun 2 back in it's place... ;)

Absolute ridiculous UI was one of the major reasons.
 
I hope they come out with a new game engine for their next game. it seems that is the culprit behind a lot of rome 2's issues in addition to the poor a.i.. There was a good video on youtube about the engine.
I don't know if they ever will make improvements in a.i., but that is the main thing holding the series back in general. It was broken for the most part in shogun 2 vanilla and especially in fall of the samurai.

I'm still playing shogun 2 and will probably move over to airland battle or that new men of war game when I get tired of it.
 
xSneak said:
I hope they come out with a new game engine for their next game. it seems that is the culprit behind a lot of rome 2's issues in addition to the poor a.i.. There was a good video on youtube about the engine.
I don't know if they ever will make improvements in a.i., but that is the main thing holding the series back in general. It was broken for the most part in shogun 2 vanilla and especially in fall of the samurai.

I'm still playing shogun 2 and will probably move over to airland battle or that new men of war game when I get tired of it.
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I think the engine was ok. They just tried to do too much, by the time they realized they overshot what they could get done, it was just too late. Personally, this is what I would like to see

-Less focus on Naval combat, more focus on land based battles and balancing.
-Dont worry about making the towns so interesting, I don't really mind mediocre looking towns and villages ala Medieval 2 as long as the sieges actually function

You know what, forget it, there are so many problems with this game, I doubt that it could ever be fixed.

The only really good thing about this game is the city system. It was a cool idea that worked really well, I loved it. Everything else is just not very good and I don't care about it. I guess the things that I have a problem with that I doubt will ever be fixed are

-Family Tree, a family tree is absolutely crucial.
-Leader traits that are either randomly assigned or based on habits (stay home too much, get a "shut in" trait that gives -1 to command and -1 to authority). I loved these traits, they really added personality to your generals and are absolutely key in making the game interesting.
-Historic tidbits, I loved the pop ups in Medieval 2, explaining what happened around that time in history and its impact.
-Generals that live longer, they are so generic and unmeaningful, they die all the time and you never get a chance to grow attached.
-The sieges are terrible, get rid of small town walls or make cities more simplistic to allow for more manageable siege mechanics for the AI. I would rather have simple towns/castles rather than really cool looking cities that are impossible or the AI to figure out.


There is just no heart and soul to the game, thats something that they probably can't patch in. I haven't given up on CA as a team, they have done some great games in the past. I hope the next title is Medieval 3 and that they have learned from a lot of these mistakes.
 
We're now on Patch 12. Although it's playable, I wouldn't call it challenging. Siege AI still fumbles about, but they at least use siege equipment. This game really needs to be played head to head with another player to make up for the AI's shortcomings.
 
For those that want to just play something mediocre in between good games, I can understand coming back to this game once in a while to see what if it has gone from bad to mediocre. But those that say "it will eventually be fully patched" about these games like Rome 2 are true morons. Every in-depth review has pointed out Rome 2 is fundamentally lacking in its design and core feature-set. Publishers/developers as large as Sega/Creative Assembly, and more importantly ones with the record they have, do not go back and finish completely unfinished games.

Rome 2's features do not even come close to the depth of Rome 1 features. The game does not even make use of the unique concepts offered by a Roman-era theme - it's a completely generic reskin of a Total War game, and a bad reskin at that. It is completely ridiculous to think that eventually, after many patches, the game is going to be half-way redesigned. Therefore, it is silly to keep coming back saying "is it a good game yet?" There is no way for them to make it a good game, at least not without pouring millions of dollars into re-developing large portions of it, which they are not going to do. If you are looking for a polished mediocre game, that is possible, but still unlikely considering the Sega/CA record.
 
all i wanted was Rome in the current engine that was great, Shogun 2.
 
For me that would have been worth playing too, since I never got to play Rome 1. I was not the least bit surprised when I heard it was a completely broken game and saw the crazy videos - no surprise there for a Total War game. But when I heard about all the features that were left out, that were in Shogun 2, Empire, and Rome 1 (especially Rome 1), my jaw practically hit the floor. For example, I could not believe that there was hardly any internal politics concerning the state government and/or your family tree. And this was the sequel to the most praised of all the Total War games. Completely dumb.
 
GearChoices said:
For those that want to just play something mediocre in between good games, I can understand coming back to this game once in a while to see what if it has gone from bad to mediocre. But those that say "it will eventually be fully patched" about these games like Rome 2 are true morons. Every in-depth review has pointed out Rome 2 is fundamentally lacking in its design and core feature-set. Publishers/developers as large as Sega/Creative Assembly, and more importantly ones with the record they have, do not go back and finish completely unfinished games.

Rome 2's features do not even come close to the depth of Rome 1 features. The game does not even make use of the unique concepts offered by a Roman-era theme - it's a completely generic reskin of a Total War game, and a bad reskin at that. It is completely ridiculous to think that eventually, after many patches, the game is going to be half-way redesigned. Therefore, it is silly to keep coming back saying "is it a good game yet?" There is no way for them to make it a good game, at least not without pouring millions of dollars into re-developing large portions of it, which they are not going to do. If you are looking for a polished mediocre game, that is possible, but still unlikely considering the Sega/CA record.
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I do become tempted to come back and try again but I've come to the realization that there are some core features that I just cannot live without. Namely, the Family Tree...I really really like having generals with large lists of stats based on behaviours and random chance. It adds so much character to the game and should have never been left out. I also miss the historical pop-up information, and the videos. The game just has no soul at all and thats not something they can patch in. I love Medieval 2, my guess is the next game will be Medieval 3....and I hope they've learned their lesson.
 
huxley said:
I love Medieval 2, my guess is the next game will be Medieval 3....and I hope they've learned their lesson.
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I love Medieval II and in fact am still playing it (with mods). It's awesome and one they really got right. I want to get a GTX 770 just for this game :)

As for Rome II, I haven't bothered with it for months. It looks good but playwise it's a dead duck.

I really hope they have learnt from Rome II and they make a Medieval 3 next!
 
I do not know how many times it is going to take for them to "learn" though. AI diplomacy has been terrible since at least Medieval II (the first TW game I played, besides just playing the original Shogun demo way back when), and they touted that as one of the major things fixed in Empire. And Empire turned out a disaster, only second to Rome II, with diplomacy still broken, along with most everything else. Three games later, AI diplomacy is still completely broken. Besides learning to NOT remove way too many features (duh), I am not sure what else they could have learned in Rome 2 that they could not have already learned in Empire.
 
Wolfdale75 said:
I love Medieval II and in fact am still playing it (with mods). It's awesome and one they really got right. I want to get a GTX 770 just for this game :)

As for Rome II, I haven't bothered with it for months. It looks good but playwise it's a dead duck.

I really hope they have learnt from Rome II and they make a Medieval 3 next!
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Me too...I spent many many hours in that game w/ the Stainless Steel mod, so good!
 
GearChoices said:
I do not know how many times it is going to take for them to "learn" though. AI diplomacy has been terrible since at least Medieval II (the first TW game I played, besides just playing the original Shogun demo way back when), and they touted that as one of the major things fixed in Empire. And Empire turned out a disaster, only second to Rome II, with diplomacy still broken, along with most everything else. Three games later, AI diplomacy is still completely broken. Besides learning to NOT remove way too many features (duh), I am not sure what else they could have learned in Rome 2 that they could not have already learned in Empire.
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Well, in my opinion, there are fixable problems and non fixable ones. Stupid AI can always be fixed but rarely will they implement features that were not in the release (movies, family tree, historical tidbits or anything else). I can handle the game being bad out the get go, as long as it has promise.
 
CA makes the same fundamental mistakes in every game they make. I want these guys to succeed so bad over the years but now I'm thinking they simply cant or wont learn. Its truly sad. Rome 2 was their worse fuck up yet. Yes, they patched a lot but a game shouldn't need so much patching on release. And as some have said above they still have a very broken game. Its as good as its going to get unfortunately. Only thing left for them to do is start over again on a new game. Which makes me cringe because I'm afraid of which previous game they made they will probably just screw up even more.
 
huxley said:
Me too...I spent many many hours in that game w/ the Stainless Steel mod, so good!
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I still go back to play a campaign every few months, it's a shame that development of the Stainless steel mod seems to have stopped. My favourite Total War game of them all, just seems to have an epic, varied world compared to the rest.

The games before it are just too outdated graphically for me now (among other things). And although I go back and play Empire and Napoleon (I love the naval battles), pretty much all the games with the Warscape engine haven't impressed me as much, especially regarding sieges.

On saying that, I haven;t played Rome 2 in a few months now, maybe I should try it again after all the patches.
 
Stryke1983 said:
I still go back to play a campaign every few months, it's a shame that development of the Stainless steel mod seems to have stopped. My favourite Total War game of them all, just seems to have an epic, varied world compared to the rest.

The games before it are just too outdated graphically for me now (among other things). And although I go back and play Empire and Napoleon (I love the naval battles), pretty much all the games with the Warscape engine haven't impressed me as much, especially regarding sieges.

On saying that, I haven;t played Rome 2 in a few months now, maybe I should try it again after all the patches.
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It may be worth a shot, personally....the flaws run so deep that no amount of patching will fix it. Not having a family tree really is a deal breaker for me. I simply don't care about my generals/nation, feel detached.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
We're now on Patch 12. Although it's playable, I wouldn't call it challenging. Siege AI still fumbles about, but they at least use siege equipment. This game really needs to be played head to head with another player to make up for the AI's shortcomings.
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Well, we're now post Patch 14. I haven't really sat down to flesh out a full campaign since Patch 8. So I started a Hannibal at the Gates campaign about 2 weeks ago (post Patch 13) as the Romans and have noticed a lot of improvements.

  • Crashing has subsided considerably. Used to crash randomly every 30 or so minutes.
  • Campaign AI moves its armies in larger stacks, prefers poorly defended settlements and weakened armies when it attacks, and remains elusive.
  • Siege AI now use and re-use deployed siege weapons (e.g. ladders and towers). Torching the gate only seems to occur during naval invasions that aren't accompanied by heavy missile ships (onager/ballista ships).
  • AI's army compositions are well-balanced, but Eastern factions still field slightly too many missile troops (i.e. 40-60% of the army).
  • Diplomatic AI will offer/favor deals that ensure their survival in the face of absolute destruction. I've seen 3 AI factions offer to become client states (i.e. vassal) when I was close to eliminating them.

There are still a few problems:
  • I encountered passive siege AI in one of my several dozen siege battles. I have my battle timer set to 60 minutes, so I had to wait out the entire hour in triple-time for the battle to end.
  • Campaign AI still have the uncanny ability to zero-in on undefended territories (cheating?).
  • Diplomatic AI is irrational at times. For instance, I had a small obscure faction from across the map declare war on me, then offer me a peace treaty with 5000 denarii the following turn. Why would a faction I've never encountered with agents or armies, much less even SEEN on the map declare war on me, then basically give me free money?
  • Campaign AI still struggles with the food mechanic. AI armies wither away from attrition as a result. Not so much a problem with larger factions, but smaller factions with 1-5 settlements seem to struggle the most (e.g. Estruscan League).
  • Eastern factions field too many missile units. I've seen army compositions of 40-60% slingers/javelin units. It only takes a few cavalry units to mop them up.
  • The Senate feature is still as irrelevant now as it was when the game was released in 2013.

I'm only running the Rome Total War classic soundtrack mod (HIGHLY recommended) and nothing else. Had the game been released in this state versus the wreck it was in 2013, I would've easily scored it at around 80-85% as an exceptionally fun, yet somewhat flawed, game. In contrast, I would've scored the original release around 50-60% where it was fun at times, yet flawed enough that I couldn't get into it.
 
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So is it safe to say that Shogun 2 is the better of the two?

Such a shame, a total war game set in ancient Rome should be my dream game but...
 
VladDracule said:
So is it safe to say that Shogun 2 is the better of the two?

Such a shame, a total war game set in ancient Rome should be my dream game but...
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Generally yes, Shogun 2 is better in almost every way. There's a bit more variety in Rome 2 granted by the diversity of the region/time. Post Patch 14, I'd say Rome 2 has Shogun 2 beat in siege battles vs AI, otherwise Rome 2 always had it in PvP (multiplayer campaign specifically). Overall, it is a shame that Rome 2 was rushed out as it was. For everyone who was waiting on Rome 2's patching to try it, I think it's safe to say your wait is now over. The game is actually enjoyable if you can look past the "political system."
 
CA announced the "Emperor Edition" a few days back (aka Patch 15).

The headline changes in this beta are:
  • Politics and civil war improvements
  • Overhauled building chains
  • Special regions
  • Campaign balancing changes
  • Land battle changes
  • Naval battle balancing changes

It also includes a new Emperor Augustus campaign for free. The biggest eye opener is the political system improvements, since it's been useless since release. It's currently in beta, which you can opt-in via Steam.
 
Is this free to current owners or are they finally fixing the game and re-charging us?
 
did they fix the gui and show the build paths like before? think shogun2.
 
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