Rome II Complaint Thread

[The_Dude]

From user reports to reviews, it's pretty unanimous that his game does not run well for most people. It's clearly not optimized very well at the moment.

The game looks nothing like what was advertised. It is, at the moment, jaggy / blurry looking and looks below Shogun 2 overall. It shows nothing visually to justify the bad performance people are experiencing. I know how the game looks, no need for youtube videos - I'm playing on maximum settings.

yeah....so basically what you're saying is you pulled "majority" out of your a**...

So we should just forget about it? Stop making excuses for CA, they need to fix this, they've only had 8 tries now.

you said it yourself...this is their 8th try at AI ... id also prefer better AI but at this point its nothing im gonna get worked up about ... it was to be expected ...

[Humble Warrior]

Thanks for ignoring our plea to make Steam optional. Cheers a bunch.

Guess it doesn`t matter since, from what i`ve been reading, you`ve made some major mistakes on the battlefield.

Capture points on the BATTLEFIELD??? In cities is bad enough, but on the battlefield completely destroys any semblance of warfare tactical reality. I hear Guard mode is gone and battles last 2 seconds.

Anything to please the kiddies who want to pretend Roman, but care nothing for military tactical warfare. shame, CA.

[weirdoascensor]

Steam is not the problem, nor what makes the shortcomings of The Game.

I'll be more than happy when Steam downloads Patches for this buggy game for me...

[Totalheadache]

Steam really is the tip of the iceburg....I knew Rome2 was going to have issues but I didnt really think they could match Empires release or actually I think it's worse.

There are some things like capture points and no walls for most settlements which I think will never get fixed and are more or less game breaking for a lot of people.

At least know we know three very important things.

1. Warscape must go
2. We need demo's for future releases.
3. Dont ever believe CA marketing/hype.

[OTZ]

2005 called, it said you're welcome to play games from that year if you don't want Steam.

If you think the Total War series ever represented any semblance of "tactical" level warfare, you might be a weeeee bit deluded. This game has never done anything other than present tactics (whatever definition of the word you want to use) as a facade. It's not - nor has it ever been - a combat simulator at a tactical/operational/theatre level. It's a RTS - where the "S" is a reflection of game based strategy, and the not real-world.

Games that actually try to present real-world tactics/strategy are few and far between, and usually cater to a much much much smaller market. They are niche games, and the Total War series is not a niche game.

I can do nothing but laugh to myself when I see posts complaining about the lack of "military tactical warfare" in TW games. There is a yawning chasm between the two for a reason.

[Thorn]

Steam really is the tip of the iceburg....I knew Rome2 was going to have issues but I didnt really think they could match Empires release or actually I think it's worse.

There are some things like capture points and no walls for most settlements which I think will never get fixed and are more or less game breaking for a lot of people.

At least know we know three very important things.

1. Warscape must go
2. We need demo's for future releases.
3. Dont ever believe CA marketing/hype.

Sorry man.., but point 3 should have been your main concern since M2TW..... I miss old days when I mod that game...

[warlordmb]

I Have read many of the comments posted, and would like to add my own.

I have purchased and played every Total War ever released and that includes every expansion and every DLC. I still have on this computer all TW games back to RomeTW and still play them from time to time.

Like a lot of you guys i was very excited about this game coming to us. I had watched the videos and read the threads

from CA about what we were getting, seen the public forums where the devs sat in front of fans and talked about what we were getting and how awesome this game was going to play.

So, like a lot of TW fans, I was hugely expectant that they had looked, listened and learned from the mistakes of the past releases [Empire/Napoleon in particular] and were finally going to give us a polished and immersive game.

The game arrives and I'm like a kid in a sweet shop who has just been told he can eat as much as he wants.

I've played about 30-35 hrs of game time thus far - and I am deeply shocked and surprised!

OMG! - CA what have you done!!?

I played as the Roman/Julii faction on Normal setting to get a feel for the game mechanics before re-starting on a harder more challenging campaign.

Combat or Battle AI - isn't just poor, - it's broken!

My longest battle lasted 5 mins 02 seconds - I had a full 20 stack army and was fighting 2 armies and a fleet force that was larger than my own. I attacked on three sides- keeping a small force of three cohorts with my general in reserve.

Enemy AI run around like headless chickens - confused by my multiple approach vectors and end up doing nothing except retreat to the capture point in a huge mob. A huge ruckus ensues, my units formations dissolve as they pile in, some without orders to. In 60 seconds I slaughter over 1400 enemy troops for the loss of 69 of my own men. Another 60 seconds
pass an I hunt down the rest of the enemy force. {the other 3 minutes where spent marching my units to the fight]

Another fight- same legion, my veteran 3rd legio, I outnumber the enemy force by about a third. They attack me and I form up my cohorts on top of a steep hill - a line of cohorts 10 strong as my main battle line, spear auxilia on the flank to protect against enemy cavalry, 2 javelin skirmishers in front for disruption, my general behind the main line with the cohort reserve. My cohorts are all veterans - at least 2 chevrons of experience. most have 3 chevrons and 2 of my cohorts have 1 silver chevron. they also have weapon and armor upgrades, should be pretty unbeatable - I'm facing a smaller enemy force attacking uphill composed of standard spear infantry and some militia infantry. I also have defences, - barricades, pit traps and hayballs to roll down on them.

The enemy advance to contact and I order 1 veteran cohort forward to release the hayballs.
They set them off and then retreat to their position in the line - Ok i thought, that's a pretty cool start.

That was as good as it gets. The hayballs stumble forward slowly, barely rolling. 2 stop after a short distance sputtering into life, 2 roll sideways along the slope, and 1 - get this! - rolls back UP THE HILL into the veterans that released them an kills 7 of my men.
The pit defence I placed - the tool tip says it causes heavy damage to any unit that crosses it, an enemy spear unit crosses them and loses 5 men..?? I later charge 1 of my surviving units over them to see if that has any effect and lose 9 men.

The enemy has a unit of archer levies who stand off and fire at 1 of my cohorts. I stare in disbelief as they are anihalated before my very eyes. This is one of my silver chevron legionary cohorts with armor upgrades, I saved the reply and was able to time this, the archers fired what appeared to be 5 volleys - they killed 87/120 men in 27 seconds of battle time. The rest of the cohort rout of the field.
My nicely ordered battle line has disintegrated, all but anihalated. I watch the replay closely as an enemy unit attacks 1 of my cohorts, the cohort next to them begin streaming into the fight a few at first then more and more till the whole cohort charges downhill into the melee where most are killed by enemy javelins in the back. I counted on the replay as the enemy spear militia infantry hit my main line - I lose over 600 men in less than 30 seconds. These are veteran legionaries with experience and upgrades in a shieldwall defence and they are attacked uphill by spear militia and are all but destroyed.

The only reason i won this battle is because i had many more men to fight with.

Battle result - I win, but lose 1447 of my veteran army to 1625 enemy composed of standard spear infantry and rubbish militia without experience or upgrades attacking uphill through pits, caltrops, and barricades and of course the fiery [supposedly] hayballs that kill only my own men and none of the enemy.

This is not an uncommon experience - though it was the worst of them.
I have fought at least 30 battles in my campaign over the last three days and I am absolutely appalled by the battle mechanics. The BAI is awful, structure and unit cohesion are all but non-existant, missile troops are practically god-like in accuracy and damage. Troops stream into fights without being ordered to or fall apart into 1 huge mob melee then stand around doing nothing even though they are under missile fire.

In different battles I have tried different tactical formations - net result- don't bother!
Tactical finesse or compatance will get you very little return for trying to fight smartly or with some degree of historical accuracy. All my battles now consist of massing my army together and charging with everything! Try to get some enemy to rout first and you win because the moral system is aweful and so are the damage and defence mechanics! You will
lose large numbers of men no matter what you try - but that's ok, cos they will be replaced in the next turn so it doesn't matter how many you lose - only that you win.

Naval combat is just as bad, though at first I was overawed by the visuals and the possibilities and the immersion factor!
Ballista armed ships sometimes don't want to fire or have to move so close to the enemy to fire they end up getting rammed anyway - tiny little biremes can ram and sink heavy quadrimes in under 30 seconds - ships of near equal size and mass ram each other head to head and 1 explodes as if hit by a modern cruise missile or smart bomb.

Generals only have 1 use - to stop your men from routing in battle.
Doesnt matter if they are killed cos you can replace them next turn. They will only be around for about 30 turns anyway, so their skills will never really develop enough and they have exactly the same skills as all your other generals. Individuality has gone completely in the new dumbed-down versions of army leaders. [And every general has acquired negative traits as well]

The legions are what count with their inheritance abilities- and that too doesn't matter if they are slaughtered to a man, cos you re-invent them and all the skills the old unit had.
Caring about your leaders and your troops has gone altogether. Lose them and they are replaced next turn - they are now just tools. Immersion and interest/preservation have been removed by the often mystifying mechanics.

City management has been dumbed-down as well- no more populations to worry about. Just grow your city to the max and your done. Every city has an expansion limit of 4-6 slots that has nothing to do with population numbers.

In my latest campaign i get a message that my capital province is having trouble, so I head over for a look.

WTF! -57 happiness and falling...? why?
squalor -47
slaves -10
...?
where did the squalor come from and what has the slave numbers got to do with it?
I have absolutely no idea, even the encyclopedia doesn't say much and certainly gives no indication that this might cause a problem. The other big issue here is that there is nothing I can do with the game mechanics to redress this. Adding more troops to the garrison did nothing. I can't build another temple or any other building because ... simply put I cant, I haven't reached the next 'building population cap increase', or whatever its called, so I cant build when I want or when I need to in response to game mechanics because CA have designed city management to function like that.
A real time strategy game that you cannot respond to because real time response is denied you.

How utterly stupid is that!!?

Authority, cunning, gravitas and a number of other equally baffling numbers - does anyone know how they effect game mechanics beyond the mandatory limited explanation in the encyclopedia that give you no idea what to do with them or what the rewards, or penalties, for not paying attention or ignoring them in game might be?

I decide to attack Syracuse - to complete another province! Its being blockaded by an ally! So i decide to land my veteran 3rd legio and attack from the land.
Smart move - you would think so, especially as this is the last Carthaginian city they have left and will knock them out of the game.

Uuuugh Uugh!
Tooltip message - you cannot attack an enemy player that is in the zone of control of another enemy player.
But he is an ally not an enemy - we can attack together!?

No! You cant!
Why not?

Because the enemy city in in the zone of control of another enemy/player
So what do I do then?

No idea mate! I'm just the tooltip messenger around here - take it up with the devs if you have a problem!

So I wait a while - then decide to end my alliance with the attacker and ally with the Carths who surprisingly accept a non-agression agreement. Still nothing happens so i end my non-agression and declare war on the Carths hoping my again new ally will let me attack Syracuse.

No chance! .. 'you cannot attack an enemy player that is in the zone of control of anoth....' here we go again!

I wait, as I know have a mission from the senate to conqour Syracuse as well.
I wait a total of 17 turns before the ally fleet leaves because of losses from attrition and then capture Syaracuse. 17 turns my veteran 3rd legio stand around doing nothing, unable to capture an enemy city with ally support because the game mechanics wont allow it...????? Oh! One other point - Enemy troop loss due to attrition in the city during the blockade - none. All city defences forces are full stack.

The ally fleet is almost destroyed by attrition and because they made no attempt beyond blockade to capture even though they had large armies available to support the blockade - I know this because, now becoming very frustrated and wary of the games mechanics, I sent my one and only spy to my ally lands and discovered ally forces stood around doing .. not a lot really except posing in they nice shiny armor for the ladies. My ally was not at war with any other nation except the Carths and was not attacked or bothered by any other faction. So why they didn't support this stubborn blockade till they fleet was all but destroyed by attrition escapes me.

Shortly after I decide to expand and send my veteran 3rd legio from Syracuse to attack Alexandria, some 3 or 4 hundred leagues away, by sea.

Are you kidding me?
7 turns to reach Alexandria? 7 years in game time to reach the Alexandria coastline by sea transport? From Syracuse...????

Oh! And by the way, Alexandria is held by some minor faction now cos Egypt was destroyed early in the game. Even though Egypt is resurrected every 4 or 5 turns in Jerusalem and then destroyed by the local minor factions.
Sparta/Athens/Epirus/Carthage/Macedon and Egypt - all the main factions have all been destroyed by small local factions.

There are a whole other list of instances in my campaign to relate about mystifying or irrelavant or simply awfull game mechanics, but this post is already long enough.

Suffice to say - in my opinion - this game is absolutely awful! Shocking BAI and battle experiences. Mystifying and incomprehensible Campaign mechanics that leaves me not only saddened by this game but also, and surprisingly, angry for the waste of my £30 I spent buying a game that I now regret buying.

A lot of people are saying -'oh, give them time, they will patch and fix most of the issues, they always do'. - that may be good enough for some but no longer acceptable for me, nor for many others I think!

From what I have experienced thus far, some of these issues I suspect cannot be fixed easily baucuse they are hard-coded into the game engine and may require a major change to the game engine. Will Sega/CA do that or want to, given that they may be considering porting this game to a console format that in its present state could be easily ported over with
little effort on CA behalf.

I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but i suspect the present state of the game has much to do with this potential, and quite financially lucrative, expansion to the console market.

I expect some of you will disagree with my comments, tha'ts ok - i don't have a problem with that - we live in a democracy after all. I am saddened and frustrated by this game that I felt the need to air my frustrations, particularly as I am a long time fan and supporter of the TW franchise.

I would love for CA to prove my experience/comments wrong by turning this game into the sort of RTS Juggernaut we all expected it to be and were led to believe it would be by the comprehensive and sustained marketing by the producers.

I wont hold my breath.

Thanks.

Warlordmb.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/image...thumbsdown.gif

[The_Dude]

yes...we clearly needed another new thread reposting what has been raged about a hundred times before...

[ShadowMassa]

I know.. but then again... the customers must be heard. I'm sure they are sweating bullets in the office right now and looking at each other in silence.

[PROMETHEUS ts]

yes we do every thread that shows how that game is crap is welcome to open the eyes of CA developers to how crap that game resulted from the ignoring of our complains !

[Jihada]

That's an interesting and detailed post and reflects some of the frustration I've experienced playing quite a few hours of an Epirus campaign. Time to move on to something else I think until some changes are made to this . Not very likely unless the modders can work some miracles.

[Tighd Mhic Dubhghaill]

In time all will be well. For some reason all you seem to have decided that despite historical precedents (this is like Empire all over again) and are now shocked and horrified at the shambles that is Rome II. Clam down and play another game, give it a few months Rome II will be fixed and have a crack at it then.

[pajomife]

Man ,be cool mos tools are comming ,it will save the day.
PS:Mod tools by Mitch,daniu and company not from CA.

[pajomife]

Man ,be cool mod tools are comming ,it will save the day.
PS:Mod tools by Mitch,daniu and company not from CA.

[Black-]

If you can't mod AI directly like in every other TW game, mod tools won't help you.

[tungri_centurio]

@tighd mhic, calm down?? why shoud we?you pay 50+euro to play a game.and when its out you supposed to play other games and wait a few months to play rome2???? where is the logic,in time it will be a good game yes.but why they made the battles so arcade and fast that you not got the time to do what a strategy game is all about.move troops around,defend your position with defencive stance and trow pilums to your enemys,hard fight for walled citys( have taken carthage with 2 units of triaria against 15 units of carthage) minor citys sieges are the same like capital citys only yhe wall is not there to help the dfender, i expected open field battles for minor settlements not sieges without walls.

[Diamat]

You know, I do enjoy the game, and I think that in many ways it's great and that there was lots of innovation.

However, I find the campaign rather monotone at this point. My enemies either self-destruct or can't defend themselves. They literally leave almost every city undefended and are incapable of attacking me in a single, full stack. Instead they send a bunch of little stacks at me, one by one, in a completely suicidal attempt to defeat me, which any sane person would know to be futile. As such, the campaign has been quite easy at this point. Carthage was destroyed by me in three turns...with only one army. I'm not getting any giant epic battles.

[Eisenhart_IV]

I have changed 3 video cards in the past 3 days, in my attempts to run Rome 2 without a lag.Admittedly, my rig is quite old. I have Intel Pentium D 3.0GHz processor, with 2GB DDR2 RAM. First I tried to run the game with my super ancient Radeon HD 2400 Pro. That was a pain. I was able to play Shogun 2 on low settings with this card and with twice as less memory, but not Rome 2. The lag was unbearable. I felt so disappointed in CA's promise that they will be aiming for the same minimum specs as S2, that i just went straight back to bed after i had woken up very early in my anticipation of the game.In the evening i decided to give R2 another shot with a different card. This time I tried GeForce 8600 GT. The card was partially broken itself, so i couldn't judge the graphics of the game really, but at least i was able to play prologue with very little lag or no lag at all. All was fine until i decided to start a campaign. The lag of the campaign map, and the waiting time a few turns in was just torture.So I decided to try another card. Today i got GeForce 9600 GT which is probably 3 times better card than 8600 GT, and a more powerful PSU to accommodate the power demands, but i was surprised when i discovered that the performance of the game with this card was even worse! On top of that this time my generals had no colour on their uniforms whatsoever! How is this all possible?P.S. Why is this forum so laggy as well?

[Jugurtha King of Numidia]

Thank you posting this VERY through thread. I am watching a "Legendary" difficulty LP by LegendofTotalWar and have to say that I am not impressed by the battle A.i> and overall not much of a challenge has happened and this after 5 hours and 15+ turns. Where is the challenge CA??

[total relism]

I think we all feel as the op does, the game sucks battles are no fun, i know auto resolve after only 20-30 battles 90% of the time.