Rome II Praise Thread

[Stangler]

I just bought the game so I didn't have to live through the bad launch but I will share my first impression.

Overall I am happy with the game and it seems like a big improvement over the last 2 games but I am not sure it will be a classic like Rome 1. Time will tell.

Things I like in no particular order.

1) Happiness management is improved. I find the new system really easy to manage and understand quickly.

2) Graphics and animations look great.

3) The province system works really well. It is easy to manage, makes sense, and is fun strategically.

4) The changes made in Empire and Shogun 2 seem more polished and effective for the most part. This includes the tech tree, replacing barbarians with named groups, no more armies with 5+ family members with over powered cavalry, etc. Rome 1 was a great game but I appreciate CA's attempt to add depth and update the graphics even if their decisions don't always pan out. I think they are getting better and headed in the right direction.

5) Limited Generals make the game more interesting IMO.

The game is far from perfect but none of the games have been. I have no problem with the DLC because I feel like I got a lot for my money with the Emperor's Edition. I am sorry people paid to beta test it but at least it isn't a subscription game.

[Comrade Kane]

I like this game a lot, but really wish they would make either a more modern game like ww2 total war or else go right back and make a bronze age total war.

[Lord Saruman]

How can someone not say this the best Total War ever made is beyond me!

CA you will always have my money with whatever Total War you release!

I guess you could say I am a CA fanboy.

[Lord Saruman]

Honestly, all total wars are made better with mods, heck, vanilla Medieval II is nearly unplayable, it sucks, but TATW was born of it. We are only in the beginning of Rome II, seriously. Total War is like a green fruit, that takes years to become ripe through endless modding. And with all the resources Rome II has, we will have on the future the best Total war experience, heck DeI is already a top 3 experience in my opinion.

[Lord Saruman]

I don't want to sound ungrateful or cocky, but the settlements in Rome II are a work of art, and they loose nothing compared to those you have shown here.

Since I started playing this game, I can't see myself going back to RTW, and playing with only 20 units at a time. I am sorry to say this, but RTW is obsolete.

I agree that CA had a couple of moves in the development and marketing of TWRII, but since it's release the game has improved and become in my opinion, the best TW ever.

I completely agree with the unmoddable campaign maps, that is a sad reality. Hopefully our community finds a way to mod the campaign map in the future, whenever CA is not making anymore money out of this game.

[Maximinus Thrax]

Off-topic posts removed. Mind you that this is not the Rome II Complaint thread. Please stay on-topic.

[Telenil]

I started playing Rome II two months ago, as my first Total War, and absolutely loved it. A few things could be improved, but the cultures feel very different from each other, games can be won through diplomacy instead of brute force, the way factions behave mostly made sense to me.

What I enjoyed the most was the historical setting: not only did I learn a lot playing the game, but it also prompted me to read books about this time to know the story behind the factions or units. Hats off, it's been years since I enjoyed a game like that.

[KingsofCanada]

Please creative assembly and sega do not make any more total wars like you did rome

[shnukshnuk]

I bought Rome 2 at emperor edition and thankfully never experienced the horrible launch that people seem to talk about. I am a veteran of 11 years of total war and i own every game and almost all the dlc besides (nomads,beats of war, Langobards, and the 2 special edition unit packs for napoleon) And since i am a long time veteran of total war games and have experienced the majority of every game besides the said 6 DLCs throughout the series above. i feel my opinion is very valid and should be listened too.

Rome 2 is my favorite Total war game of them all, not even the new Attila comes close to it. I have never experienced any bugs and the Ai is fantastic on both battles and campaign maps (sieges are a bit low on ai though ) Besides the game laking the superior Campaign Building system and more options of previous total war games i feel it is the best and most immerisive. Battles are awesome and very strategic and the Ai is quick to exploit weaknesses such as having your back turned to a capture point in sieges and sneakily running to it, or using flanking and pushing at vulnerable spots to help them in battle. in campaign i have seen the Ai block off valleys to make it hard for me to push through without a huge fight that could turn either way, Exploiting unguarded lands where nothing is defending it. the list goes on.....

however i have seen people on these forums absolutely smash rome 2 on a frequent basis because they were burned 1 year and a half ago. fair enough but its been a long time and i think its time for you to stop beating a dead horse and try the game again rather then preach features that where in base launch version. I am tired of seeing youtubers bring up more youtbe videos as late as december last year saying how rome 2 is bad. one guys even said its a horrible game because there isnt unit card numbers (if he bothered to look its in game options as well as missile tracers) People hammer rome 2 so much still its just annoying then when i get into fights with them and they lose because they are nearly always wrong and using 2013 rome 2 as todays rome 2..

i think people are forgetting that Rome 1 had some pretty bad issues let me name a few....

1. in sieges units would break up all over the place and become disorganized especially when going through siege gates and getting stuck.

2. pikemen would lift pikes up and down all the time.

3. units would sometimes fly off to who knows where floating and fighting invisible enemies

4. Missiles did absolutely nothing and were extremely ineffective.

5. hoplites were a joke.

6.no physics on artillery projectiles.

7. stupid demands in diplomacy (please do not attack, accept or we will attack)

8. only 20 factions or so with a rebel faction representing the many minor factions (rome 2 does this better)

9. EVERY CITY HAD WALLS so dont anyone have a go at wrath of sparta for that! and still say rome 1 is better.

10. combat was odd and individual fights would drag on for 20+ minutes. however the stab in the back thing is something i miss

11. EXTREMELY inaccurate. Rome 2 is very historically accurate in comparison toe Rome 1. in Rome 1, hoplites had pikes???? roman ninjas????? Berserkers??????

12. VERY stupid battle AI. i won almost every battle on the hardest difficulty through 200 years of campaign as thrace......


i think everyone forgets about the issues of Rome 1 and just run it off nostalgia. don't even get me started on medieval 2 and its issues....

[=ANTiKES=]

@shnukshnuk,
I can see where you're coming from, because I as well do believe that a lot of people do not even bother to test the current version of R2 and rather prefer to keep bashing it on the forums with outdated information or experiences.

That being said, I don't think that battle nor campaign map AI deserves such high praise considering that battle AI does barely more than flanking with 2-3 units on both sides while running straight into center with the rest. I like that AI uses CAV to attack my rear and that it apparently focuses on pike units with its range but that is really all that it got which isn't in all seriousness a whole lot to write home about in my opinion. CA should watch more youtube multiplayer tournaments to get an idea of what is possible when we talk strategy & tactics. For example, splitting an army into two to attack from two sides instead of only focusing center would force - no matter what - the player to react to it. I mean, R2's battle AI is so unimaginative that my favourite game during battle is to beat my casualty record instead of wondering if I had a chance to win or not. They are also always using the same army composition which makes different approaches during battles for AI even harder. The only difference here make those horse archer factions but that's about it...

Campaign map AI frequently declares war on me for no reason, even when way weaker or far away. The only explanation I can come up with to justify their behavior for myself is that another faction probably paid them to do so. A positive thing is that the AI indeed uses agents to cleverly stun one of my armies to attack my second one with superior numbers. A negative point is that AI constantly gets ambushed by my armies due to the fact that it simply has no clue how and when to use 'forced march'. It constantly loses entire armies by sending them over the sea without any protection while the game mechanics, on the other hand, allow it to attach one army to a fleet for protected sea transport. Allies conquer settlements just to lose it one turn later against bigger numbers right next to the settlement and without using other available forces in the immediate area. That behavior forced me more than once to stop my advance to clean up the mess which the AI had caused. Allied AI wastes its forces by taking over settlements which are way too far away from their reign of power just to lose it one turn later instead of concentrating on targets which they're actually able to hold and reach.

There are still a ton of bugs which are admittedly not game breaking anymore but still annoying (see list below). Naval combat, on the other hand, desperately needs fixing. Vessels occasionally get pushed around as if the hand of a divine being was pushing them. AI can use magnetic powers to board vessels. AI can use a second ship to support an ongoing boarding battle while it's impossible for me to do the same. A very awkward situation is when you defend a coastal settlement against an attack from the sea. Such maps only offer a restricted amount of spots to land on, once this amount depletes every other unit of the attacker will just wait on sea without anything happening. This is especially very frustrating when you decide to play without battle timer. Therefore, you either give up or wait until the timer runs out!

I play on legendary and got about 500 hours of R2.

My main problem with R2 at this point besides buggy naval combat is that the whole thing simply turned way too fast into one of those 'shut off your brain and do the same thing over and over again' games almost as bland as fetch quests in MMOs. Instead of streamlining CA should rather take a look at overly complex paradox games like EU4 or CiV5.

The more options AI and player have, the longer players can enjoy the game instead of streamlined boredom...

List of bugs which are still present and annoy me:
1. Forts which are covered in hills. Happens in Wrath of Sparta campaign DLC. You've to attack a fortified AI army in the area between Larisa and Pharsalos.
2. Character portraits which get stuck half-way during the process of popping up so that only their foreheads are visible (bottom left of screen) in vanilla and Wrath of Sparta campaign DLC.
3. Arrow towers which are impossible to be taken over in Wrath of Sparta campaign DLC. I cannot remember anymore on which siege map exactly this bug occurred.
4. Diplomacy and other buttons which are randomly greyed out in vanilla and WoS DLC. You've to fix that by opening a different screen like politics (where you can see influence etc).
5. Army signs/emblems which randomly disappear (become invisible) on campaign map in vanilla and WoS DLC. I think it has to do with reinstating armies but I'm not sure.
6. Factions where way too many generals have the same name in WoS DLC and very rarely in vanilla, too. As Athens, I had once the name Pericles five times spead over three different parties at the same time!!
7. When you click too fast between leader portraits on the diplomacy screen, the next leader will finish the sentence of the guy before him with full lib synchronisation! Happens in vanilla and WoS.
8. Sometimes, especially during turns the faction flags of armies flicker black several times in vanilla and WoS DLC.
9. During battles units shout randomly their name even when you do not even own this type of unit but fight it! Happend in vanilla and WoS DLC.

[Durnaug]

I've messed around with the EE for a bit and I think the game is now okay. I'd give it a 6, maybe a 7 if I'm not totally frustrated by...okay this is a praise thread Fairplay to CA for persisting.

[BunnyPoopCereal]

Hello everyone I'm trying to find that old video by CA where they announced having 40% more budget for ROMEII. First one to find the video gets REP!

edit: Found it.

[Frankly]

I've started playing both Rome II and Medieval II for the first time a few weeks ago, just to see what all the fuss was about when people were saying Medieval II was way better.

I really like both games! Rome II I'd started out with some mods first thing on recommendations and watching some Youtube gameplay, the "Better Campaign AI" mod (to stop trash spam), "Traits, Talents and Toadies" and a "4 Turns Per Year" mod (more interesting and powerful generals/agent possibilities), so these might flavour my praise a little. It does feel like a cop-out though to know that I felt the need to mod out some features of the game for my first playthrough, especially considering Shogun 2 and Napoleon were not games I needed to mod to enjoy the first time around.

Campaign wise I really like the improvements from previous games. Instant transports helps cut out the fuss of moving troops around (and are suitably weak against actual navies), stances are a nice new addition, faction variety is very good and I never had to worry about an incoming 'Realm Divide' type scenario as late-game I'll be fighting whoever managed to take over the other side of the map. The province and building system I quite like, I like the relations between towns and buildings in settlements and the effect of taking slaves on public order and your economy. Agents are a bit of a step back in vanilla from Shogun 2, they die faster on 1 turn = 1 year and their vanilla skill trees aren't too amazing. I wish they did more to differentiate them in the base game, but at the same time I appreciate the freedom to 'min/max' agents into different roles to create that differentiation as the player.

Battle-wise the game is decent and the detail is pretty good, I like the little voice taunts and siege equipment mostly works fine and has enough variation to fill different roles (not sure why siege towers take as long as ladders to build, I just assume ladders allow more men onto the wall at the one time and that's the trade-off?). Actual battle animations is where Rome II lets me down, after the brutal fights in Shogun 2 and the detail in Medieval II's formation fighting I'm now seeing units blob up a lot and the actual fighting is not that impressive until you get a unit totally slaughtering a lower tier one. From a strategic perspective they look nice though. Naval battles are a mess with path-finding but are a lot more fun to watch cinematically than most non-gunpowder Shogun 2 battles, I still auto resolve most of them though.

AI-wise it's hard to say how much to 'praise' as that aspect is modded for me but it's one of the more challenging and reasonable AI's I've played against in the series yet. Armies would retreat from positions they felt they couldn't hold, they used stances effectively and are forever harassing border provinces that I don't have fully defended. Diplomacy wise I've managed to cement long-lasting meaningful alliances and bully some smaller factions into becoming client states, as well as enemy factions becoming increasingly afraid of dow-ing me the larger my coalition grows. Allies will actually attack war targets which is neat, my big fight with Carthage (as Rome) actually boiled down to my allies in the Celtiberian Confederation and some one-province Client state eating up Nova Carthago and smashing their way through Libya and scattering the huge fleet Carthage had assembled to retake Syracuse from me.

DLC-wise I don't really like what they've done with locking up the factions into DLC content, that being said a lot of the DLC is quite good from what I hear and the fact that the factions still appear as enemies even without purchasing it I like. This being said, being sold on the Steam platform means I've been able to pick them all up for -90% off in various sales, including the campaigns so I'm not too upset about it myself. I can understand those being upset at things like the Greek States being locked behind DLC.

Overall I'm quite enjoying the 'finished' product of Rome II so far aside from a few issues, I just hope for their future releases CA get enough time or motivation from their publishers to actually release a solid game like they did with Shogun 2, which seems to have mostly happened with Attila (sans faction variety/multiplayer balancing)

[apostrophefz]

Installed the game earlier today and started a campaign as Massalia; I'm in the fourth turn. My first hour at R2TW.

Astounding and delicious campaign map! What a treat!I feel like 9 years old, seeing all this different wondrous things in my screen! What a polish; this is top turn based strategy game of this generation.
Neutral, I am to the city building. The infrastructure is really dim, compared to the Rome and Medieval 2. Massalia is small still, but I can have only 3 buildings. Also, about technologies. Seem trivial. Wholly interesting, but gameplay wise, seems like one more thing to keep an eye at.

ahem... bare with me, the first moments ... I've yet to battle someone, and to see the hangups of the game. All is still marvelous.

update, 21/05
the game is an entire new beast, not kin to Rome and Medieval 2.
The battles are faster. There's a vigour in all units, found only in the cavalry of previous games. Troops run all around at will, and of course it tires them, but it's envigorating. They all feel energetic like boys. Battles seem more express as well. I Haven't seen many brawls from up close to attest against the new unit collision.

Like I said, the game is far from the predecessor. The new general-unit mechanic is not nice... There's a grand emphasis on the general as head of the army, but in a situation when you want to, for example, exchange generals but remain the units, is more troublesome. In this case, you have to give and take the units, while the generals remain immobile. I miss the stack management of other times. Also, the traits. I also miss the big holster of aspects the general would have in his personality. Now, I believe, it's a question of focusing on one of the 3 traits of attitute, authority, zeal and cunning.

One mishap made me learn two things: I accidentaly declared war to the Arverni (I'm Masselia) instead of their south neighbor, because I didn't quit Arverni's diplomatic screen. OK, let's learn with that. Arverni attack my city. And, gladly but surprisingly, I have not 2 generals (one inside and the other outside the walls) , but 4 to repel the attack. I can assume that I have 1 garrison fleet stack and 1 land garrison stack, hidden, for town defense.

One neutral feature: I'm struggling with the diplomacy. NO ONE wants to have trade relations with me. I'm declaring wars left and right to get close to people, but to no vail.

[Doctor Weir]

Haven't played it yet. Currently watching the Roman faction gameplay tutorial on YouTube to get myself familiar with all the new features and surfing this forum for the same purpose. Just wanna say: The game is AWESOME . Especially the new campaign map and battlefield map features - I used to dream about those exact features while playing MIITW and Napoleon, and now they're finally here! So, it's a dream come true for me! Again, AWESOME, I say .

[Basileos Leandros I]

I wanted to add a little hidden gem - custom battles.

I just noticed that siege battles, on the preset maps made by CA, can be a ton of fun. Having accurate representations of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, Cyrene and others makes it a real pleasure.

Love this feature, it's really beautiful to see historic landmarks represented properly.

[Navissos]

Whoa, I'm totally hooked on Rome II.
I think the game gets treated way too harshly by diehards (hehe)... but a lot of the criticisms are fair. For some reason there is a huge amount of simple hatred toward Rome II out there (I've only played since Emperor Edition though). Having played many other RTS's including Rome I, Rome II is my favorite of all time.

PRAISE!
- Battles seem to have a nice balance between strategy and quickness. They seem to average 8-12 minutes, fine for me when there may be many battles per turn during a campaign
- Excellent graphics, nice campaign map, long grand campaign

WISHLIST
- More development and character in the Celtic/barbarian factions (my special favorite part of history)
- More advanced diplomacy

I mean, short of some kind of time travel simulation where you can actually be an ancient army commander in full-vision virtual reality (seems to be what a lot of people want ), I think Rome II is pretty good.

When I finish the Arverni campaign I'm going to load up some mods to make it what I really want, and do it again!!!!!
I'm thinking: Large/XLarge Unit Sizes, Aggressive Campaign AI, 4TPY, graphics enhancement

The community around this game doesn't seem to drop the ball, it's really cool. Thanks y'all

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

I like most things, especially after the patches. I was mostly a bit annoyed in the early days at the unit blobbing and some stuck sieges but these seem fixed. Since I have almost only praise, I have posted under praise, except I have one or two minor somewhat personal gripes. One is I would have liked more classical-looking faces, and with eyebrows. Far too many faces have no eyebrows, but no big deal.

The spelling and grammar of some of the Greek words in the Wrath of Sparta DLC is sometimes a little bizarre. Try for example to look up Kalkidiki or Kritiko Pelgao on google or in a dictionary or encyclopedia. It should have not been too hard to check the spelling in a dictionary or asking a Classics student. Is there a patch or a mod fixing this, or perhaps an easy way to edit the place names without unpacking and backing up the entire game folder?

[Risasi]

I'm also pretty happy with the state of things. I too skipped the bad launch, but with great reservation bought a couple licenses during the spring Steam sale for $15ea. I initially played vanilla about 40 turns in and then also tried DeI about the same number of turns. I thought it was just okay, wrote it off and then shelved it. Now this past month or so I've reinstalled it again since changing laptops for work, and am about 50 turns deep into plain old vanilla again. I'm having fun. It's very streamlined, in a beer and pretzels sort of way.
I totally understand what they were trying to achieve, and I actually think it is due to feedback from the masses. I also like that I am able to get in a couple of battles and it not chew up my entire evening. I have a wife and three young kids and they do take much of my time.

I do miss certain aspects of RTW/M2TW though. Are any of them better or worse? Yes. All of them...every title is better and worse.
I don't think I will ever abandon the older engines simply because of the mods. Roma Surrectum is still my favorite for RTW and creates some epic battles (and more aesthetically appealing). I'm eagerly awaiting RS-III. EB2 is coming along nicely also. But for the rest of this summer I think I shall stick to Rome II.

[Rorarii]

I'm still amazed CA haven't learned from CIV5 on how to produce addictive games. Romans always learnt from their enemies, pity CA are so arrogant.