One Year One Turn

[TheFra]

For me the big miss will be attrition. Even if we get seasonal variation its hard to work attrition in with only 1 turn per year.

While not a massive game breaker I liked the extra challenge it offered. As mentioned above we can’t really tell the impact until we see the new campaign in action, even with a few existing features missing it could still work out a lot better. Maybe we’ll get terrain based attrition instead, i.e when crossing mountains or deserts.

[Stath's]

And i was hoping for a rebellion of TWers, because of the characters traits being left out (since 40 turns lifespan for a general)....Better luck, next time
Then, i hope for an interesting skill tree for the generals with many options. Try to avoid making the player build the same generals over and over again.

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

So no winter or is it all was winter?

[The Roman Republic]

I think another factor of CA doing this is because of their target audience, people like us TW veterans/fans wouldn't mind the 4TPY however to the outside world new people coming to the series won't like it, in thinking its to long or boring. Also the aspect of younger audience with shorter attention span getting bored as well.

[jrhindo]

Oh wow, i was reading that they'd be dumbing down the game but sheeet! Welp, if all that would not be moddable later on, then no buy for me...

Edit:

I think another factor of CA doing this is because of their target audience, people like us TW veterans/fans wouldn't mind the 4TPY however to the outside world new people coming to the series won't like it, in thinking its to long or boring. Also the aspect of younger audience with shorter attention span getting bored as well.

I have a 13 years old cousin, hes THE stereotypical was CoD player fanboy but then I introduced him to RTW last summer and since then he got hooked! Gave him RTW gold with the RS2 mod WITH 12 TURNS PER YEAR submod, and he doesnt mind! He loves that hes actually getting more turns to kill his enemies!

[The Roman Republic]

Oh wow, i was reading that they'd be dumbing down the game but sheeet! Welp, if all that would not be moddable later on, then no buy for me...

Edit:
I have a 13 years old cousin, hes THE stereotypical was CoD player fanboy but then I introduced him to RTW last summer and since then he got hooked! Gave him RTW gold with the RS2 mod WITH 12 TURNS PER YEAR submod, and he doesnt mind! He loves that hes actually getting more turns to kill his enemies!

Yet not every 13 year old is going to get into the game without someone directing them into it

[Durnaug]

"Movement is less of an issue. Yes, the map is huge and the turns long: why would it take my army one year to get from Roma to the alps? Forces are effectively moving in a state of battle-readiness but may be ordered into a ‘forced march’ (armies)or a ‘double-time’ (fleets) stance. Their movement extents are vastly increased, allowing them to assemble from afar in preparation for invasion or to support threatened possessions, albeit at the expense of their offensive and defensive capabilities: long-distance headshotting will not be a valid tactic."

If we have 1 turn years then surely we need loads of movement points? However I am not sure of the meaning of the above paragraph that I have quoted. Are CA stating that it should not take a year to get to the alps and so we are giving units loads of movement points?

Without lots of freedom of action with a year then the year counter itself becomes meaningless and we have just lost a layer of immersion. Might aswell just have a turn counter because a year counter would be purely cosmetic under such circumstances.

[wangrin]

There's no way CA will not show season changes in Rome II as they have done in Shogun 2 because like it or not graphic sells the game so there'll be seasons though I hope 4 rather than 2.

Seasons could alternate between years for the campaign map for example 270 starts with Spring, 269 Summer, 268 Autums and 267 Winter and so on.

This would look particularly strange, isn't it ?
Sorry, but I don't think CA would use such system, instead of Jack Lusted confirming this statement or explaining more clearly how "seasons" would work.

Moreover, did this means that, with the 1tpy system, we will not have attrition anymore ?
If not, how CA attrition system will work ?

[...]
We understand that seasonal variety is important to campaign map flavour and that the four season cycle from Shogun 2 worked well both visually and in terms of gameplay.
One year turns are not the only thing to overcome with regards to this: the map is huge, with many climates that would each require visual and gameplay representations of their individual seasonal variants.
The climates themselves do cover the extremes that one would expect to experience at the height of the baking summer or the depths of the long, dark winter, and rest assured that we are continuing to explore effective methods of representing seasonal change regardless of the yearly turns and map scale complexities.
[...]

In previous games, seasons affect the Campaign Map as well as Battle Map.
So, what I want to know if, if it is possible to mod "turns per year", it will also be possible to create 4 seasons and not in a same turn.

[emotion_name]

Hmmmm, i have to say i love the long Campaigns, longer the better infact. I simply could not accept something as "cheap" as certain areas on the map always being certain seasons, if this was to be the case within the 1 turn per year, but how could they reflect changing of the seasons? Having the season change each turn is just as useless an idea, and is a step down from what S2TW gave us.

Maybe, seasons changing during your turn, as you move legions/agents. So say i move my Tenth Legion at the start of a turn, then move an agent. The Campaign map could change seasons as your units move, in this way it could maybe add a layer of tactics as you consider in which season to move your armies - move them in spring and your ambush could be sprung in summer, but leave them until summer and as winter rolls round your ambush units suffer attrition etc.

Not a perfect solution, but i couldnt go back to certain areas of campaign map always being a certain season.

[Aeneas Veneratio]

Seasons could alternate between years for the campaign map for example 270 starts with Spring, 269 Summer, 268 Autums and 267 Winter and so on.

A season per year sounds like a good way to keep me from buying the game... It's just so arcade(sp?).

I don't see, why we can't have options for the number of turns per year. In Civ5 I played campaigns with 1200 turns, which gave me a chance to enjoy every kind of warfare. In R2 it would give me a chance to feel something for my characters.

[Cyrus the Virus]

Thanks for the information.

I can only speak for myself, but I very much prefer multiple turns per year mainly due to my love over the characters you controls.
It really adds to the campaign in my opinion. Now the generals could very well appear more shallow and throwable, disposable is another meaning. That is sad.

[Lord Tomyris]

If the campaign is completely sandbox as soon as we start it up, I don't see why it's so important that we get to 14AD or thereabouts at the cost of fewer turns per year...unless there are emergent factions and the like?

[Schepel]

I was very much hyped for this game, but this is really disappointing. So much so, I am really reconsidering whether I even want it. 1 turn/year simply won't do. I don't want a hyper fast game. I want to get lost in a campaign. Most of what I have read so far, seems to point to less instead of more. Really, really disappointing.

[Xoo]

Understood, campaign designer Dominique Starr.

BUT!

Add the option as setting:

1-12 turns every year.

It will make many players be happier to play so longer....

If no, then ADDON/MOD is my friend to set 12 turns per year! No more to discuss!

[prima legio]

i think that 2 (or more) turns for year is better,and it seems that all the forum want this....

[sertorio67]

WFT 1 turn=1 year , thanks In Rome 2 always be summer ,or ........winter?

[Dan113112]

Is it just me or are people interpreting much of the information in the wrong way? People are assuming because each turn is one year then the movement of armies would be to fast. It sounds as though CA is balancing it so that you armies don't reach half way across the map in one turn. He said it was huge. So maybe they've done what RTRVII did and zoomed in the map so that you have farther to travel.

I see people complaining about TWS2's campaign and how most factions were gone in about 40 turns. My response is what did you expect? Especially if many of the factions only occupy one region. Maybe two at the start.

I would like a more realistic campaign (about 4 or 12 turns) but I am not overly bothered by it. Remember M2TW? Every turn was several years so I don't know why people are so heart broken about TWR2 since they keep praising M2TW. CA has to cater to a large market. Most people would get easily bored if it took 1200 turns to reach the Imperial era and get Segmentata legions. I would love it if CA put in an option to select how many turns per year we wanted but that would take time to do. They'd have to readjust a lot of variables for each selection.

[Charsi]

I see two interesting details:

Movement is less of an issue. Yes, the map is huge and the turns long: why would it take my army one year to get from Roma to the alps? Forces are effectively moving in a state of battle-readiness but may be ordered into a ‘forced march’ (armies)or a ‘double-time’ (fleets) stance. Their movement extents are vastly increased, allowing them to assemble from afar in preparation for invasion or to support threatened possessions, albeit at the expense of their offensive and defensive capabilities: long-distance headshotting will not be a valid tactic.

- The hint at a concept of "double time" (as opposed to "orderly march"), with double time allowing you to move much further on the campaign map but with a tradeoff - when you get there, you have to "recover" and take time to reach battle readiness once again. The reference to headshotting means, you can't just use this mechanism to advance far into enemy territory and attack immediately, taking their capital.

Lastly, every general is affiliated with a ‘party’ within their faction, such as one of the major Roman or Carthaginian dynasties or the royal household of an Eastern kingdom and their court rivals

- The mention of parties within every faction. This is something I thought they'd be doing from the start, but it seemed to fall out of mention with the later faction reveals.

And lastly, a generational legacy of units that outlive the unit or it's general.

I have four questions for JL which echo those of others:

1. Will we still be able to mod the game to change the months-per-turn value (from 12 to say 1)?

2. If we do, will seasons actually be graphically represented on the map, or has this feature been dropped?

3. If we leave everything as delivered (one turn per year), will all battle maps take place in the same season? Will it always be summer? Or will there be snow, as well as the expected rain/lightning from S2?

4. Bonus question: will there be night battles? Will your General need a trait to engage in them, as you did in Shogun 2?

[Dan113112]

i think that 2 (or more) turns for year is better,and it seems that all the forum want this....

You're forgetting that TWC and other TW forums are a minority of the playerbase that also tend to be the most hardcore fans. A few thousand dedicated forum members against millions of customers. . . Hmmm.

[hanbarc]

Without lots of freedom of action with a year then the year counter itself becomes meaningless and we have just lost a layer of immersion. Might aswell just have a turn counter because a year counter would be purely cosmetic under such circumstances.

Bingo. I'm afraid your priorities may be messed up here, Jack. Is it not poor game design to make forced changes/sacrifices to both gameplay and realism, to keep a purely aesthetic feature (the year count) linear?

Another possibility would be to state the passage of time via an 'era' system. For example - quarter centuries, 'Early nth century BC', 'Mid nth century BC', 'Late nth century BC', 'End nth century BC'. This would let you keep the same well balanced features in as Shogun2 (seasons, movement points etc) but allow you to prescribe a certain number of turns per 'era' to allow the campaign to proceed through history at the required rate.

As a nice side effect, it would mean you could implement historical events at slightly randomised times within their correct 'era', so they would be realistic but not entirely predictable/gamable for the player.