I have no idea, though I guess there is some reason. Creative Assembly has learned to be able to answer most of these types of questions with some form of evidence.
Hi all,
Bit longer between updates in this thread at the moment as you are getting a regular does of Rally Point episodes and faction reveals.
Today I will answer some questions that have come up as a result of the faction reveals along with some new screenshots showing some of the variety in shield patterns there will be in the game.
Q. Why are the Iceni a playable faction?
A. The playable factions in Rome II will largely mirror those available in the original game. The Iceni have an interesting start position and their mix of chariots and celtic ways of fighting make them fun and different on the battlefield. They are a nice faction, and varied from other factions such as the Arverni and Suebi.
Nationalism played no part in our decision, they are in because they are interesting and fun.
Q. We don’t know that the Iceni or Suebi were around at the start of the game so why are they on the map?
A. We don’t know for certain about who lived in huge parts of the area covered by the campaign map simply because records of who was where do not exist until the Romans or some of the Greek nations encountered them.
What we do know is that there were people in those areas, with material links to later tribes we do know about. We can’t say for certain that they were one and the same and there is definitely evidence in some places they weren’t. But using the earliest known names we have for tribes in areas such as Britain or Germany to us is much better than just having a great big question mark over those parts of the map.
Q. The cheekplates on a lot of helmets don’t fit very closely with the faces, why is that?
A. The helmets have to fit on a large variety of faces and making them fit closely to one of them would make them clip through the model of another.
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And now for screenshots of shield patterns for the Britons, Celts and Germans:
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These pictures show off the variety we can achieve in Rome II with our updated variant mesh definition system.
For each of these sets a single shield model is shown for each. The background and rim colour variations are not achieved via textures but by colour masks that can be varied between the three colours available to a faction in the variant mesh definition. In Shogun II to do this would have required different texture sets to change which colour masked colour would be shown where.
The shield patterns are decals applied over the top, so can be re-used over multiple shield type variations and maximises variety for minimal texture memory cost.
I hope you have enjoyed this update,
Jack
I have to admit. Those shields do look pretty. And I love how they are forced to answer all kinds of odd questions from fans. Like ill-fitting helmets.
Also, here's an interesting tidbit that I really enjoy:
From PCGamer UK
...a subtle but major change to the Total War formula: every unit now has dynamic, terrain-based line of sight, and no enemy unit is visible by default. No more steering your men towards a general magically marked out by a star on the battlefield.
"Each individual man is actually looking around him," Ferguson explains. "He can only see what he can see. As a result of that you get a much more claustrophobic effect when you're in a forest situation - and much less time to react.
I've always wanted to have a more realistic line of sight system. One caveat, however. The AI must be equally limited, because I don't really care about the AI's movement, but I would like to be able to play with the line of sight myself. This could also make the useage of forward scouts much more necessary in a forest. Or it might not even be noticeable.
