Rome II General Info Thread

[Mr_Oujamaflip]

Better optimisation ftw

[Ninja_Khorin]

Here you, go:

Hi all,
We are now back up to full speed here at CA after the Christmas break, working hard on the game.
Today I will answer some of the most discussed topics on the forums recently, and post a couple more new screenshots.

Q. How tall will soldiers be, will soldier height vary inside a unit and between Romans and Germanics, and why do some shields seem to be smaller than they were in reality?

A. The base skeleton for soldiers in Rome II is 1.7m tall or around 5’ 6”. We will be portraying height differences between say the Romans and the Germanics, though there is a limit to how much we can scale the skeleton before animations start to look weird in combat. There will also be variation in height between soldiers in the same unit for the first time in a Total War game.

The size of some shields and weapons is different than it was in reality due to the fact there is a wide range of equipment that has to fit onto the animation sets we have. This means we have to homogenise sizes a bit to make animations fit, though keeping as close to the actual sizes as possible.

Q. Are the images of the campaign we’ve seen so far representative of the final campaign? If so why does x faction not own y region?

A. The images we’ve released so far are artistic representations of the campaign map. I understand that as it is the only images of it you have so far it is all you have to go on, but I would ask holding off on comments until you have seen the whole map and all the regions and factions on it.

Q. Will factions in the campaign follow the path they did historically? Could this be an option?

A. We will not be constraining the AI to the path factions took historically. This would make every campaign play out the same, apart from the actions of the player, and the player could very easily exploit this. If a player knows that Carthage and Rome will always go to war at a certain point they could plan their campaign to then attack one of those factions once they’ve gone to war. It would also reduce the replayability as you would not see different campaigns evolve each time, giving you a different story and experience.

Offering it as an option would be a huge amount of work, and essentially require developing two different campaigns at the same time which would massively reduce the effort we could put into them. We instead focus on producing one campaign with the best gameplay we can, following in the sandbox-y nature of previous Total War games.

Q. Why has there been such a focus on Carthage?

A. The Siege of Carthage was the first playable asset we finished to a state we were happy to show to the public Since then we’ve been working on a lot of backend part of the games and producing more assets. There will soon be something new for you all to enjoy, but be reassured we are not focusing on Rome and Carthage to the detriment of the other playable factions.

Q. What is the status of the game?

A. The game is still pre-alpha, I know I’ve seen a few people stating the game is in beta but it is not. Beta happens very late on in the development process.

Q. Why do you not provide more options for the player to customise every option they could want such as campaign map features, the speed of units and how fast combat is etc?

A. There have been quite a few different options proposed on the forums, but it is something that would be very difficult to implement. Not only would we have to test each of these options and do a full sweep on each, we would have to test every combination of options possible which would reduce the effort we put into the core game and making sure we make the best game we can. We would still have to make sure those options were balanced, and that they worked together, that is time that could be spent doing the same to the main game.

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Below is a screenshot of some Greek Linothorax and some Italian chest armours.

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I hope you have all enjoyed this update.

[Turboflex]

thanks

I guess not much new info yet

[Havoco]

new wiki site

http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_Rome_II

[ThePoopy]

Macedon revealed http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Factions

[Havoco]

Macedon revealed http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Factions

In b4 spartan hero unit

[okiN]

In b4 spartan hero unit

...for Macedon?

It's odd that they picked classical hoplites for the screenshot. Have they not modeled phalangites yet or something?

[Ninja_Khorin]

They're "Shield Bearers"(they're going with english name) according to Jack Lusted from Creative Assembly. There will of course be phalanxes, aswell.

[Havoco]

...for Macedon?

It's odd that they picked classical hoplites for the screenshot. Have they not modeled phalangites yet or something?

Doesn't have to be "classic" spartan units, but I'd bet they get some units from Sparta I'm sure. Probably fairly good units as well.

[okiN]

It wouldn't be surprising at all for them to include a Spartan elite unit again, it's practically expected, but it wouldn't make sense for it to be a Macedonian unit. Even if there's no separate Greek faction this time (and I would be surprised if there wasn't), then it would probably be a mercenary unit or something, if those still exist, or otherwise tied to the area of Sparta. Maybe a DLC unit, who knows.

[Lord_Bernie_of_Voodoo]

All of the revealed factions have been Mediterranean, and all look pretty unique, which I love. But I think it's time to go North and reveal some Barbarians 

[Taser]

All of the revealed factions have been Mediterranean, and all look pretty unique, which I love. But I think it's time to go North and reveal some Barbarians 

They will. Germans and Britons will most likely be in there as well as Gaul. I think they may be splitting them up though. Not having them as a complete faction. Not sure if I'm remembering something I read wrong though.

I'll be corrected if so.

[Ninja_Khorin]

Hi guys,

An answer to one question that has been quite common on the forums recently.

Q. Why aren’t you using the actual Latin/Ancient Greek names for units? Does this mean we will see generic named units such as “guy with spear and shield”, and for the barbarians spear warband just with a different faction/cultural name on the front?

A. This question spawned from a post I made where I confirmed the unit featured in the Macedon faction preview is the Shield Bearers. In ancient Greek it was called Hypaspists, which translates to shield bearer.


We always try to strike a balance between flavour and ease of understanding with our unit names. We’re not going to label each and every unit with a name in the original language because 1) many people would have no idea what the names would mean and 2) a lot of the languages don’t exist anymore.


So we want flavour, but in a way that doesn’t overwhelm people with terms they won’t be familiar with, and the vast majority of players will not be familiar with the Ancient Greek or proto-Germanic names for units. We also factor into account whether some terminology is part of common use. Hoplite is a very well-known name, so we use it for Hoplite units in the game.


People voiced concern about the use of Shield Bearer as they felt it was a generic name, however only one unit will have that name, the Shield Bearers based on the Hypaspists of Alexanders and the later successors armies. Those armies will also feature units such as Royal Peltasts, Thorax Swordsmen, Thureos Spears, Companion Cavalry and more. So we use well-known names (Companion Cavalry are well known thanks to many documentaries and books on Alexander) and in some cases mix in historical terms (Thorax meaning body armour) with generic terms such as Swordsmen. Thorax Swordsmen historically would have been Thorakitai, we decided to call them Thorax Swordsmen as it contains flavour in the use of a historical term alongside a word that gives a good indication to players the role of the unit.


In the case of the ‘Barbarian’ factions there will be unique rosters based on cultures, so the Gallic factions will have different units to the Briton factions who will have different units to the Germanic factions. You will see units with names such as Oathsworn, Naked Warriors, Painted Ones, Heroic Nobles, Sword Brothers and more. Names which have flavour to them and try to communicate some of the nature of the cultures they represent without having to use languages which very very few people understand.
I hope this has help explained more about how we name units, and why we have made the decisions behind that.

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[Tom Cruise]

[okiN]

Hm. Segmentata. So they're going to make the time scale slide from Polybian to late Augustan again.