The Total War: Rome 2 Thread

suitepee7

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Dec 6, 2010
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weirdo8977 said:
I actually have a quick question. if I'm able to run Shogun 2 pretty well on high settings will i be able to run Rome 2 on decent settings?
the devs stated that they want rome 2 to run similar performance wise to shogun 2, so i'd say you'd be fine.

personally i haven't played a TW game since medieval, and its good to get back into it. i really like how environment makes an impact (mud slows down troops, hills block LoS) but its taking some getting used to. i really like how all units can now embark on sea to travel, so crossing short stretches of water no longer requires a fleet to do it, and i like having to have a general to command each army.

i hate ship battles though. not sure if it was me, or it was buggy, but my ships didn't do anything (yes they were battleships). they just stood next to enemy ships and died. so i'm gonna go ahead and autoresolve ship battles xD
 

Blaster395

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My favorite improvement is the inclusion of small settlements without walls to replace most siege battles. In every total war game previously you would play siege battles 80% of the time and siege battles, while ok for a bit of variety, were never quite as fun as open ground battles.

I prefer the way armies work now that they are tied to specific generals. It also means there are significantly less instances of AI campaign army placement stupidity. I actually lost the first settlement I captured as Rome on hard difficulty to an AI army after 2 turns, and had to recapture it. Combined with settlements having a relatively large amount of levies (especially once fully developed), this means you always have a reasonably fun battle when capturing anything. Contrast this to Shogun 2 where your typical siege meant killing a single samurai retainer unit with archers because the AI doesn't know how to defend its borders.
 

McKitten

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Provided you're not suffering from bugs, the game has pretty amazing performance. I tried it on an old AMD 2.8GHz quadcore with a 9800 GT and the benchmark got 41 FPS at medium settings.
The game does look like arse though, no matter what your settings are. It's not a question of performance it's design. For some reason they made everything look brown. Seriously, even the sky is brown. So it might run faster than Shogun 2, but it looks much worse.
Also, the interface is the crappiest i've seen since Skyrim.
 

Smeatza

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Really happy with it so far.

The computer turn times on campaign mode are vastly shorter than what I was getting on Shogun 2 (but a couple of my friends with superior rigs are getting slow computer turn times so maybe that's just me).

Battles are so much more responsive. The sluggish response times to orders that haunted Shogun 2 seem to have been completely stamped out.

Graphics are fine, noticeably better than Shogun 2 but nothing groundbreaking, although I did find that the graphics looked nicer on "high" than on "extreme."

The addition of fog of war for real time battles is genius.

And it runs a hell of a lot smoother than Shogun 2 did.

Although I'm not a massive fan of the new interface, especially for the technology trees.
 

oplinger

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I'll toss in my two cents, but only because I have a semi-unique technical issue it seems.

First off the game is fantastic(relatively). I like most of the changes, and for a total war game the release here is definitely one of the better ones. I like the streamlines city management, and I like the massive variety of things in which I may use to murder people. It may not be the best thing ever right now, but I believe it -can- be.

Now, my technical issues have been minimal, but there are a few things worth noting for this game:

1. The system requirements are actually quite low, the game only uses two cores and only one gig of video memory (there is a checkbox for it to use more, but..still.)

2. It is a large and ambitious game, so I don't think it's worth asking for perfection.

However, the two main problems I have, are in coastal battles, all units(just the units, my framerate is fine) on the battle map stutter and become somewhat unresponsive, the path finding becomes horrible as sometimes boats that go to land spin in circles on the coast forever. I think this may be somewhat related to the dumb as shit AI. Though, you could argue the AI in all the total war games is kind of stupid. It seems as if when there is just so much going on, and there will be a lot going on, the AI takes the first hit. All of these things seem to be threaded through the CPU as well, the animations, the AI, etc. My GPU (HD6870) registers as a very manageable 18% utilization, and that is on extreme.

The other problem I seem to run in to is if I wait for better weather conditions the above problem appears in non-coastal battles, or is much worse. Which seems to be a problem other people are having.

As much as I love the game, I don't think I will be able to fully enjoy it until a patch. The game is still fun, and playable, there are just a few bumps in the road.
 

Mr F.

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I preordered it, downloaded it at snail pace and my computer... Refuses to run it properly. I think this laptop could be pretty borked.

A friend has an almost identical laptop (2gb more RAM and a core that is one generation up by benchmarks almost identically according to review website) and he is playing it on medium/high.

On the lowest settings I benchmarked at an average of 13.1 FPS. The game is simply unplayable. I really hope the new computer I am building (Almost purely for Rome. With Watch_Dogs being another game I am hyped for. Also, Video/photo editting.) will be able to run it properly.

It all looks pretty fucking good. From what I saw at least. Also, the friend I have who is playing it pretty much constantly, he is loving it.
 

oplinger

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Maiev Shadowsong said:
oplinger said:
I'll toss in my two cents, but only because I have a semi-unique technical issue it seems.

First off the game is fantastic(relatively). I like most of the changes, and for a total war game the release here is definitely one of the better ones. I like the streamlines city management, and I like the massive variety of things in which I may use to murder people. It may not be the best thing ever right now, but I believe it -can- be.

Now, my technical issues have been minimal, but there are a few things worth noting for this game:

1. The system requirements are actually quite low, the game only uses two cores and only one gig of video memory (there is a checkbox for it to use more, but..still.)

2. It is a large and ambitious game, so I don't think it's worth asking for perfection.

However, the two main problems I have, are in coastal battles, all units(just the units, my framerate is fine) on the battle map stutter and become somewhat unresponsive, the path finding becomes horrible as sometimes boats that go to land spin in circles on the coast forever. I think this may be somewhat related to the dumb as shit AI. Though, you could argue the AI in all the total war games is kind of stupid. It seems as if when there is just so much going on, and there will be a lot going on, the AI takes the first hit. All of these things seem to be threaded through the CPU as well, the animations, the AI, etc. My GPU (HD6870) registers as a very manageable 18% utilization, and that is on extreme.

The other problem I seem to run in to is if I wait for better weather conditions the above problem appears in non-coastal battles, or is much worse. Which seems to be a problem other people are having.

As much as I love the game, I don't think I will be able to fully enjoy it until a patch. The game is still fun, and playable, there are just a few bumps in the road.
You'll actually find that almost all modern games only use two cores. It seems absurd, but they've been genuine tests done. Not many games will touch anything over two cores.
I wouldn't say most, there are a fair amount that use quad core (there are even non-modern games that are capable of using 4 cores well) Most dual core games are console ports though.

This however is the same problem with GTA4 and LA Noir on PC, which isn't just because it's dual core. It's the fact that they thread everything through the CPU almost.

Being a PC exclusive, they could easily make it run on 4 cores. The methods and know how is out there, we've had quad cores since 2006. It's a poor excuse to just say "well no one else is doing it, so we won't either!" especially with all the asynchronous animations going on for literally -thousands- of things. Valve figured out this multicore thing for the HL2 episodes (special case I guess, they developed their very own method of multithreading for the source engine, see: Hybrid Threading) in 2007.

There is really no reason a game like this can't, or won't, use more than 2 cores.
 

Alarien

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Sadly, I'll be sitting Rome 2 out until it has been heavily patched and the price has dropped. I've loved every TW game since Medieval 1, but my experience with Empire and Shogun 2 was that the game was nearly unplayable due to bad balance, bugs, and other issues near launch. Granted, these were definitely fixed over time, but I don't want to struggle with early pre-patch versions.

Also, don't ask me to buy a game early to give me access to two factions (Athens and Sparta) that frankly have no excuse not being in the base game at full price. Pre-purchasing a game should give me a DISCOUNT to the price, not access to stuff that should have been part of the main experience. Thanks Sega.
 

OneCatch

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wombat_of_war said:
weirdly im finding the actual battles run fine on my old pc but its the campaign map where things really slow down bad.
Eduku said:
Yeah, battles are fairly smooth for me, but it gets a bit choppy on the campaign map. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that they're now using the same engine for battles and campaign maps (they previously used different ones), which reduces the load time significantly, but also leads to the problem you described.
SmellyMessiah said:
Same. But between the low frame rate on my mid-range pc (variable from 5-30 frames on medium-high settings), and the fact that the other factions turns takes about a minute or two to complete, I find the campaign game very frustrating at the moment. I'll wait for the inevitable patch in the coming days before trying again.
I've found that the campaign map only lags when you've got a unit selected. A bit daft, but for now if you're having problems just leave your units unselected when you're doing surveying. I imagine it'll get patched in short order.

OT, I've enjoyed thus far. There are a few optimisation issues and framerate varies too much, but gameplay wise I'm thoroughly enjoying. Marine assaults and decent naval battles are great, and the new concealment mechanic is mixing things up a bit, even if the battle AI itself isn't much better. And I love the level of detail within units - with centurions shouting at their men, bracing themselves against missiles, better animations than in Shogun 2 even.

And the campaign AI seems a lot better now. In that they'll do things like abandon a city if it's hopeless in order to consolidate forces, utilise the new stances to be aggressive if you don't defend cities, etc.
 

BloatedGuppy

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OneCatch said:
Marine assaults and decent naval battles are great, and the new concealment mechanic is mixing things up a bit, even if the battle AI itself isn't much better. And I love the level of detail within units - with centurions shouting at their men, bracing themselves against missiles, better animations than in Shogun 2 even.
Mmm, yes. I'd forgotten to mention the concealment mechanic/fog of war in my write up. It's kind of slick, actually. I've yet to have it seriously impact a game, but it makes the idea of actual in-fight ambushes and surprises a lot more feasible than in previous editions.

Agreed about animations. I had a unit fleeing from battle getting pounded by slingers, and they had their shields up over their heads. Was a lovely little touch. Didn't help much when the javelins came in from behind, but oh well. No one ever said war was fair.
 

wooty

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Aug 1, 2009
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ERaptor said:
wooty said:
Not happy with it. All this hype on "cinematic" graphics and new textures, physics, blah......the game looks like arse, even on extreme settings, the FR drops like a horse turd and the gameplay just feels very...."sluggish" to me.

I can't say I'm happy with the overall experience so far.
Try applying Custom Settings. It seems the Game has issues with setting them automatically.
I've honestly tried, I spent more time adjusting the settings than playing the game last night :S.

But, I've just read that theres a big update coming on Friday, so I'm not going to dismiss the game as trash right away. I've been in this lifestyle long enough to understand that PC launches can have a few issues seeing as everyones rig isn't identical. Time heals all glitches.
 

TheBelgianGuy

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wooty said:
ERaptor said:
wooty said:
Not happy with it. All this hype on "cinematic" graphics and new textures, physics, blah......the game looks like arse, even on extreme settings, the FR drops like a horse turd and the gameplay just feels very...."sluggish" to me.

I can't say I'm happy with the overall experience so far.
Try applying Custom Settings. It seems the Game has issues with setting them automatically.
I've honestly tried, I spent more time adjusting the settings than playing the game last night :S.

But, I've just read that theres a big update coming on Friday, so I'm not going to dismiss the game as trash right away. I've been in this lifestyle long enough to understand that PC launches can have a few issues seeing as everyones rig isn't identical. Time heals all glitches.
Total War's launch bugs are pretty spectacular. So many people, me included, could barely play Empire total war even 2 months in.
 

OneCatch

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TheBelgianGuy said:
Total War's launch bugs are pretty spectacular. So many people, me included, could barely play Empire total war even 2 months in.
Empire is still unplayable if you don't get that mod which gets rid of all the forts!
BloatedGuppy said:
OneCatch said:
Marine assaults and decent naval battles are great, and the new concealment mechanic is mixing things up a bit, even if the battle AI itself isn't much better. And I love the level of detail within units - with centurions shouting at their men, bracing themselves against missiles, better animations than in Shogun 2 even.
Mmm, yes. I'd forgotten to mention the concealment mechanic/fog of war in my write up. It's kind of slick, actually. I've yet to have it seriously impact a game, but it makes the idea of actual in-fight ambushes and surprises a lot more feasible than in previous editions.

Agreed about animations. I had a unit fleeing from battle getting pounded by slingers, and they had their shields up over their heads. Was a lovely little touch. Didn't help much when the javelins came in from behind, but oh well. No one ever said war was fair.
It is rather good - they've even implemented things like people starting to slouch and look out of breath as they get more exhausted. The flip-side is that zooming in is horribly CPU intensive at the moment, but that might improve with time!

The concealment thing only really comes into play in really broken terrain, but for me it's added a whole new element - I reckon invading Germany is going to be legitimately horrible for the same reason.
For example I was doing a beach assault against Corsica and genuinely wasn't sure where to land my general because the enemy units were screened by market stalls and bushes and stuff.
Speaking of which, the destructibility is great as well - bushes and awnings and things get trampled underfoot if formations march through them now.
 

Krantos

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Subscriptism said:
1)More than once the AI had landed ships and just stood there on the shore while I shot them.
That's a bug I hope they get fixed. What's going on is that unit can't do anything until they are ALL off the boat. So if one idiot gets stuck on board... Yeah.

The really annoying thing, imo, is you can't directly attack them in melee when they're like that, so if you're ranged units are off doing other things, you have to trick one of your units into position on top of them, then let them fight that way.
 

BeeGeenie

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Like some others have said, overall it's a good enough game, but:

The UI is just awful. Shogun 2 was so streamlined and elegant that Rome 2's interface is fugly and obtuse by comparison.

I still have no idea what "Authority, Cunning, and Zeal" actually mean in terms of gameplay, beyond having my agents focus on just one, since they all seem to do the same thing. What they do for my generals, I have no clue.

And the lag. I wasn't expecting miracles in the battles, but the framerate chugging on the campaign map was a bit surprising.

I can also kind of excuse the Biblical waiting times between turns, since that's what happens when you have to process turns for 200+ factions, but it's still disappointing that I need to bring a good book to keep me entertained between turns. :/

Also, my ship reinforcements glitched and just sat there on their boats, watching my ground troops do all the fighting.

I'm looking forward to the patches that can turn this Beta version into a finished product.
 

BloatedGuppy

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BeeGeenie said:
I still have no idea what "Authority, Cunning, and Zeal" actually mean in terms of gameplay, beyond having my agents focus on just one, since they all seem to do the same thing. What they do for my generals, I have no clue.
From the Rome 2 forums...can't vouch for the accuracy but it's better than hapless speculation...

Authority, Cunning and Zeal are 3 separate attributes that can level up and affect your general in many ways.

Authority for example, make's your general a better leader the more it gets higher. To elaborate, you will notice his leadership aura in battles grows as his Auth. grows. Furthermore at certain milestones, such as 4 Auth. your general unlocks Inspire.

It's a similar thing for the other two traits Cunn. and Zeal.

Cunning = more crafty

For example the more cunning your general has, the quicker his unit's abilities recharge. Furthermore at 4 cunning he unlocks battle rhythm (make's a unit get stronger and stronger for a short time, after which they exhaust greatly)

Zeal = more brute force

Higher brute = units do more melee damage, and missile units do more upfront damage at all times

Higher brute also unlocks you more skills.
In regard to agents its even more interesting. each action done by an agent can now be specifically altered to have a bonus effect with the success chance dependent on your agents auth. cunn. or zeal.

let me give you a example. i have a german scout/spy called olaf.

by having a higher cunning than normal when i choose to disrupt an enemy army olaf is better suited to poison the food supplies.because it relies on the cunning attribute (which olaf has more of). the other alternatives to sabotaging would.have been a zeal-option to destroy the equipment of the army. theres also an authority based approach to sabotagingt the army with a bonus effect but i forgot

just remember sabotaging an army is always gonna slow/stop em if its successful but that cunning allowed me to poison em and kill some men at the same time

furthermore cunning makes my scout harder to find and catch.

zeal and authority ay out similarly but im not at my pc at the moment so i cant remember exactly.what they help with when it comes to agents.
Not even going to try and fix his spelling and capitalization.
 

BeeGeenie

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BloatedGuppy said:
BeeGeenie said:
I still have no idea what "Authority, Cunning, and Zeal" actually mean in terms of gameplay, beyond having my agents focus on just one, since they all seem to do the same thing. What they do for my generals, I have no clue.
From the Rome 2 forums...can't vouch for the accuracy but it's better than hapless speculation...

Authority, Cunning and Zeal are 3 separate attributes that can level up and affect your general in many ways.

Authority for example, make's your general a better leader the more it gets higher. To elaborate, you will notice his leadership aura in battles grows as his Auth. grows. Furthermore at certain milestones, such as 4 Auth. your general unlocks Inspire.

It's a similar thing for the other two traits Cunn. and Zeal.

Cunning = more crafty

For example the more cunning your general has, the quicker his unit's abilities recharge. Furthermore at 4 cunning he unlocks battle rhythm (make's a unit get stronger and stronger for a short time, after which they exhaust greatly)

Zeal = more brute force

Higher brute = units do more melee damage, and missile units do more upfront damage at all times

Higher brute also unlocks you more skills.
In regard to agents its even more interesting. each action done by an agent can now be specifically altered to have a bonus effect with the success chance dependent on your agents auth. cunn. or zeal.

let me give you a example. i have a german scout/spy called olaf.

by having a higher cunning than normal when i choose to disrupt an enemy army olaf is better suited to poison the food supplies.because it relies on the cunning attribute (which olaf has more of). the other alternatives to sabotaging would.have been a zeal-option to destroy the equipment of the army. theres also an authority based approach to sabotagingt the army with a bonus effect but i forgot

just remember sabotaging an army is always gonna slow/stop em if its successful but that cunning allowed me to poison em and kill some men at the same time

furthermore cunning makes my scout harder to find and catch.

zeal and authority ay out similarly but im not at my pc at the moment so i cant remember exactly.what they help with when it comes to agents.
Not even going to try and fix his spelling and capitalization.
Well that helps, I guess, although I still don't quite see the point of giving me three different ways to assassinate a unit depending on whichever stat is highest. Why give me three options if I'm only going to use the one with the highest chance of success?

Now, if they had the little assassination videos, and you got a different one based on which skill you were using, then I could see a point to having three different stats instead of just the one.

It's just another example of a simple, elegant, intuitive system that they had been perfecting in Shogun 2, made needlessly complicated.