Rome II General Info Thread

[B3RS3RK]

I HATE that they have seemingly kept the build interface they employed for shogun 2 - It looks minimalistic and idiotic to me.Loved the RTW1 or MTW2 Interface.

[okiN]

I prefer the newer style. Less pointless micro, and the available resources actually make the locations different from each other. In the older games I always just built every place the same way, in the same order. Ostensibly there's more options there but really you're just going through the motions.

[Turboflex]

yep much better in stw2

[okiN]

I think my favourite building system was in Napoleon, because it let you change buildings into different ones without completely demolishing them.

[Bulzur]

Haven't seen anything about the Generals/Governors. Maybe i haven't searched well enough though.

I liked the idea of Shogun II, with one General and a skill tree, where you could clearly favor in different directions.
Rome I with auto-traits popping up every now and then, retainers gathering, then "giving them out" to a younger general, so as to keep them wasn't to my liking.

And even for battlefavored General, i hope they continue distinguishing Strategist types ( Shogun II : +X moral for all troops, new formations, etc...), from the Brutal ones (Shogun II : +X armor for the bodyguards, more bodyguards, more hp, etc...). And maybe make the "brutal" one more even with the Strategist. You just "had" to take some obvious skills for formations, and all troops bonuses are way better than just 30 tough cavalry.

Yes, i'll play RTW for the battles more than the diplomacy and management.^^ Though i like developping my provinces, and how diplomacy is sometimes necessary.

[okiN]

I doubt governors will be back. Honestly I hope so, it was a pain in the ass trying to have enough governors everywhere and generals are much more interesting.

They said something in that E3 video about generals, I didn't really understand it but it sounds like instead of a skill tree where you need to progress in a certain order, they might have more like a skill list that you can choose from with more freedom? I dunno, we'll see how it is.

[Overdriven]

Yeah I ended up turning off the option where you needed a governor to manage a city. Got annoying and generals are deffo more interesting.

The battles will also be the most interesting part. I'm really looking forward to playing Parthia after reading this series of books:
http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store/dp/B0053D6NBE

[Ninja_Khorin]

Official Post-E3 info from CraigTW:

Hi all,

It was a rather exciting week last week with a huge amount of information being split all over the internet from E3 as the press finally got to see the Total War: ROME II campaign map in action and go hands-on for the first time with a sample battle featuring Egypt and Rome duking it out on the banks of the Nile.

As a result, there’s a bit of misinformation doing the rounds on the forums generated by putting different sources together and not getting it quite right, so here’s a few answers to questions that have cropped up from the show.

Hope it helps your discussions by getting some facts in there, and also hope you’ll be able to join us at Rezzed this weekend and other events over the summer to go hands-on with ROME II yourself.

----

Q: Why are animations so over-the-top when men are hit by chariots or artillery?

These animations aren’t final – we’re currently in the process of toning them down to have the right balance between visual impact and realism. There are important gameplay reasons why it might be necessary to indicate that something’s gone very wrong for one of your units, especially when you are zoomed out, but we also need to balance that with the need to maintain a degree of immersion.

They will fly less high in the finished game.

Q: Are Chariots and Artillery over-powered?

The above effect will over emphasise the impact, but it’s important to note that not every solider knocked over by those units’ attacks are killed; a proportion will get back to their feet. These units, and others in the game, are important disruption weapons alongside the direct damage they do. Such attacks are important to use strategically, slowing, demoralising and disrupting the formation of enemy units, causing follow-up attacks to have greater effect.

Q: Does every battle have a capture point?

No.

Most battles in ROME II are either normal field battles or open sea battles. These do not have capture points or baggage trains. Ambush battles don’t have capture points either.

Capture points for cities have been present in all Total War games since “Rome: Total War”. Larger city battles in ROME II now have multiple capture points as this increases the skill and tactical requirements for attacking and defending cities while allowing the use of elements of stealth and surprise, rather than previously where sides could just camp in the centre of the city. Smaller cities will have one, and are likely to be first type of siege battle encountered by most players at the start of the game.

Additionally, the new feature of Baggage Trains (the capture point type you saw in the E3 footage) occurs in battles where an army is attacked while it is in Forced March stance on the Campaign Map. This represents the army being caught while on the move and so being more unprepared for battle. This disadvantage balances out the advantage of being able to move further in a turn and means that players need to judge their strategy more intelligently when selecting this stance. Conversely, as an attacking player, you would do well to time the interception of Forced Marching enemy armies to take advantage of their additional vulnerability.

Also, where there are land and naval forces combined in a battle, the defender’s baggage train will be present to prevent any remaining defending navies winning a battle unrealistically by hiding out at sea, waiting for the battle to end or the attacker to give up, while remaining attacking land forces are unable to reach them from the land.

In this particular instance, the attacker has the disadvantage of time in which to capture the defender’s baggage train, but the tactical advantage of picking the battleground in the first place.

Placement of the baggage train will vary from battle to battle, while still being in the defender’s deployment zone. Both sides will be able to see exactly where during the deployment phase.

In whatever form they appear, Capture Points are not instant wins. They have a timer on them that allows for any reasonably astute player to react to the situation.

The defence of the baggage train was a genuine issue for armies of the ancient world. Losing your supplies, spare equipment and possessions was a disaster that led to some of history’s most catastrophic defeats.

Q: Are you going to change the unit cards?

No, we have no plans to change the unit cards. When you’re hands-on in battle, we find the new card design to be particularly useful for identifying which unit is which in the heat of battle. You should reserve judgement on their effectiveness until you’d had an opportunity to use them. Needless to say, in the thousands of hours of testing so far they have proven their worth.

We like them a lot as their style is in period for our game and the Romans were rather fond of mimicking the art of other cultures, including Greece.

Q: What is the multiplayer element of ROME II going to be?

ROME II will contain traditional TW multiplayer modes such as versus battles (1 to 4 players per side, 2 sides) and 1v1 campaigns (co-op or versus), there will be some additional features added in here including a neat MP battlefield selector which we will be talking about soon. However, the Avatar Conquest mode from SHOGUN 2 will not be returning in ROME II; we believe we can create a much more compelling persistent multi-player offering for Total War that will appeal to multi-player fans with Total War: ARENA, and we’ll be bringing you more on that at a later date (get involved with the beta for ARENA here).

Q: Will there be blood DLC in ROME II?

Possibly, but it won’t be in the core release due to the age rating we want to adhere to for Total War games, which we intend to be in line with all previous releases. There is the option of potentially doing a DLC down the line, as we did with Shogun 2, but at the moment we don’t intend to talk any further about this before ROME II is released.

Q: Will there be a BETA or demo for ROME II before release?

There will not be, no.

Q: Why does Julius Caesar change into a horse when moving on the campaign map demo?

This is an animation to indicate quick movement across the campaign map, which we find preferable to a ‘Benny Hill’-style fast walk. This is subject to change for the final release.

Q: Will there be a hotseat multiplayer campaign?

No, the hotseat feature hasn’t been present for a number of Total War games. There will, however, be a 1v1 multiplayer campaign – both co-operative and head-to-head.

Q: Why is the battle in the E3 demo so fast?

The Battle of the Nile features a lot of fast-moving units, such as chariots and cavalry. This has an impact on the perceived overall speed of the battle. We’re still tweaking the final foot-speed of units, but we’re happy we’re close to final. It is also worth saying that the battle was chosen to fit within the time we had available with journalists at E3, which is often all too brief. Overall you can expect to experience longer battles on average.

Additionally, we are constantly testing and updating the distances between deployment zones depending on the size of the engagement, while constantly adjusting movement speeds for armies. All of which can have a significant effect on how quickly or slowly battle is joined.

Q: Why aren’t there any minimum or recommended specs available yet?

There are, our current expected specs are listed with retailers at the moment [http://store.steampowered.com/app/214950/]; these are subject to change as the game is optimised. Our intent is to get the minimum spec as close to Shogun 2’s requirements as possible. When the specs are finalised we will post them on the TW Wiki.

Q: If I pre-ordered the game before the Pre-order bonus was announced, will I still get the Greek States Culture Pack?

Yes, as long as your retailer is participating in the offer. Check with your retailer if you have any doubt.

Q: How cool are the Iceni?

The Iceni are extremely cool. In test, the first ever properly completed game of Total War: ROME II was accomplished by the Iceni by way of cultural victory.

[Lt_Anders]

Q: How cool are the Iceni?

The Iceni are extremely cool. In test, the first ever properly completed game of Total War: ROME II was accomplished by the Iceni by way of cultural victory.

sounds like Civ 5 right there

[Corwin]

I just saw recommended requirements on Steam:


Recommended:
OS:Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
Processor:2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor (or greater)
Memory:2GB Ram (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows 7 or 8) GB RAM
Graphics:1024 MB DirectX 11 compatible graphics card.
DirectX®:11
Hard Drive:30 GB HD space
Additional:Screen Resolution - Minimum spec: 1024x768 minimum/ Recommended spec: 1280x1024 minimum (ALL SPECS ARE CURRENTLY NOT FINAL AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME)


Can Anyone tell me if I will be able to play on my laptop?

Lenovo G780
Intel's Core i5
GeForce GT 630M
8 GB RAM

[Overdriven]

I'll be fine then 

Probs won't be able to play on full graphics but then I always expect TW games to push my hardware. I think Shogun was the first one where I could still play on high settings comfortably with no upgrades needed from NTW. Otherwise I usually need something new.

[Havoco]

I just saw recommended requirements on Steam:


Recommended:
OS:Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
Processor:2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor (or greater)
Memory:2GB Ram (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows 7 or 8) GB RAM
Graphics:1024 MB DirectX 11 compatible graphics card.
DirectX®:11
Hard Drive:30 GB HD space
Additional:Screen Resolution - Minimum spec: 1024x768 minimum/ Recommended spec: 1280x1024 minimum (ALL SPECS ARE CURRENTLY NOT FINAL AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME)


Can Anyone tell me if I will be able to play on my laptop?

Lenovo G780
Intel's Core i5
GeForce GT 630M
8 GB RAM

U should be able to play it on that laptop. Then again laptops usually have overheating problems when running close to their max.

Btw 30 GB!? Between m2tw, empire, Napoleon, and shogun I probably have 70GB of total war games installed already.

[Smoothrich]

Looking forward to the arena total war game then, I got really into persistent unit and commander leveling.

[Lord_Bernie_of_Voodoo]

Maybe this was already asked, but just out of curiosity, what is your guys most liked faction? Or the faction that you're most excited to see/play? For me, i'd say the Suebi and Arverni look really cool, along with Athens.

[Overdriven]

Parthia Parthia Parthia.

Old habits die hard I guess.