[Feedback] Suggestions, Critiques & Requests

[Kelindi]

I have just come back to the mod after an absence for a couple months, and am still trying to catch my bearings. I had a few suggestions and observations so here it goes:

Currently playing as the Suebi

Cosmetic

Now when my unit has an armor value of 40 or so and they are suppose to be a heavy infantry unit, the fact that I have men in my units that seem to have not only forgot their armor but their shirts as well kinds makes me think "wait a tic somethings amiss". Now I can understand a few shirtless men for the levy units and of course berserkers, wild infantry, and naked men just have to naked, but when they start finding their way into main line heavy infantry I am a little dissapointed. Suffice to say you might be seeing a submod posted up with a few changes.

Examples:
Langobardoz: Armor value = 42 Equipment: cloth, leather, chain, & helmets

Gaizoz Frije: Armor value = 42 Equipment: cloth

Khapubardoz: Armor value = 25 Equipment: cloth, & leather

Korodrougus: Armor value = 44 Equipment: cloth, & shirtless

Unit Rosters

Playing the Germans there seem to be alot of filler units that serve to clutter things up for the most part and serve no real purpose. Now that the blanket statement is done lets go with examples:

The Frijaz version and non-Frijaz version of units that only seem to have a moral difference. Now yes that makes a difference however these are lower tier units and are easily outclassed by medium units, therefore I am wondering why waste the space with two versions when I really don't care about them but for a split second in my recruitment phase? If they serve some other purpose as lets say a Garrison troop then perhaps its time to do some spring cleaning for the recruitment roster and remove some of the fluff.

Gautoz Ridanz Frijaz (light spear) vs Ridonz (light melee) almost the same cost and same upkeep. Now I am wondering why have 2 seperate units that as far as I can see have the same abilities, one is not faster than the other (at least acording to the stat box) and their combat abilities are almost the same.

These are just two examples.

Game Mechanics:

Not sure who proposed that garrisons cause a negative public order impact but it seems a rather silly for a historical mod, already found the submod to correct the issue, 2 cents.

I have not found any shield wall abilities on my german troops....

Not all the troops have the normal title in (insert english designation here) under their name, I do kinda like that.

I don't know why there are giant green numbers on my naval ships.... BUT I SHALL TRACK YOU DOWN! and turn you into pixels....

I am unsure why but my food values are constantly fluxuating for positive 7 down to negative 5 just recently. I checked all my season modifiers in all my proviences, and under my faction tab and there were also no raiding armies, and yes no new buildings. I added up all my listed food values and things just don't seem to add up to what they should.... its almost killing the mod for me, and if I am unable to determine the cause I think this might be farewell for DeI. I also noticed that enabling and disabling taxes has an impact on food supply as well and I can't find any readout or description to explain these values...... and yes I had taxes enabled the whole time during the previous example.



I am not sure if you have gotten to run a balance pass on this faction yet but if you have there is some food for thought. I would really like to see the help docs edited to coincide with your mod as the buildings trees and units could really use something ingame like that. If I can figure out what is causing my food stocks to grow legs and run away I might be willing to offer my assistance in editing the encyclopedia to use with DeI. Anywho just some observations and personal opinions, hopefully it helps.

Cheers!

[gregnaar]

Armies consumes food, normal stance 1, recruiting 2 fortified 1, garrisoned 0 or something along the lines.

[noodles1916]

Maybe native languages like in EB. I can help with Irish translations for the Ebdani.

[noodles1916]

Also maybe have your auxillery army/armies disband every 25 years, since to earn Roman citizenship you had to serve 25 years.

[Marcus Marcellus]

The disband thing could easably be done with a "house rule" that you disband and buy new auxiliary units every now and then(25ish years apart)?

[hellas1]

Hi DEI team,

I thank you for this mod.

My advice: Add female fighters to the Gaul/Germanic/African/British/Steppe based factions

To not do so has a tinge of sexism & I'm fairly positive that all this nations I've particularly mentioned DID in fact have female warriors.

Also, Would you consider removing the Germanica units from Romani? They are not really tough units. I'm sure a more proper legion would suffice instead of them.

Thank you,
hellas1

[Miraklum]

Loving the mod. Hope someone fowards the rest of the unit cards for bullgods DEI version, or even makes normal's ones

[noodles1916]

Another good one would be to have random events happening at certain dates like Hannibal spawning/appearing in Italia at the correct date with a massive army/armies.
Or also have messages appear throughout you campaign such as:
"A ship has washed ashore in Italia by design it appears to be a Carthage warship, the senate has decide to study it to design our own. This will surely help us to retake the mediteranean"
Small messages/events make the world come alive by making you think there is something going on in the background, really immersive I think. Don't know how hard it will be tho.
I believe DEI can and WILL be the most authentic mod for Rome 2.

[Baltizar]

Another good one would be to have random events happening at certain dates like Hannibal spawning/appearing in Italia at the correct date with a massive army/armies.
Or also have messages appear throughout you campaign such as:
"A ship has washed ashore in Italia by design it appears to be a Carthage warship, the senate has decide to study it to design our own. This will surely help us to retake the mediteranean"
Small messages/events make the world come alive by making you think there is something going on in the background, really immersive I think. Don't know how hard it will be tho.
I believe DEI can and WILL be the most authentic mod for Rome 2.

Yes I agree. I miss those messages you got in the original Rome that told you that you were either the richest, the most advanced, or the most powerful plus the stats that told you how you ranked in the known world, with regards to military, economy etc

[DavidG]

I love this mod. Fantastic job.

Is there a resource to help better understand the triggers for reforms and resources? I have read some specific posts about resources affecting unit or building development and I want to know it all!! :-)

I would love to see better unit cards. I have been quite amazed at how much bull godd cards have improved my game experience - but its a shame they dont do all units.....collaboration for version 1.0.....

Ive attacked walled citied on many occasions and been unable to break down the gate with one ballista. Is this intentional or a bug. If intentional - why?

Fantastic overall. Great, great job - thanks.

[noodles1916]

Playing as Rome, just finished uniting all of Italia. Syracuse has just slaughtered Carthage and Massillia eradicated the Averni. Sometimes this game makes me wanna give up.

[Canterbury]

Just finished my first campaign RII after 100 turns. Played as Rome [cornelia] in DEI .95J on hard/hard with 12TPY, Reduced squalor and english language mod. Didn't use agents, didn't burn the gates, didn't gouge money out of the AI. A few observations, all on big picture stuff. I don't really give a toss about the details of the uniforms, names, haircuts etc. You'll have to figure out for yourself what's applicable to DEI and what to RII as I've never played Vanilla.

General outline of campaign, went north and east, battled hordes of barbarians, then got into a war with Massila, which had taken over Gaul. Ended when I destroyed Massila, had control of Gaul, Italy, Pannonia, Ilyria and Sicily. Up until 80 turns it was absorbing, best campaign ever. Last twenty all challenge disappeared and I gave up.

1. Start with the land battles. The good; Big battles, 40 units per side regularly, graphically amazing, strong armies [that I do know is down to DEI] reasonable tactics. The bad; too little cavalry in most AI armies, particularly heavy cavalry [i played with 3 or 4 units of equites and barbarian lights, about right for Roman army. usually had a free run of battlefield.] Little development of troop quality in AI armies, both in troop types and bonuses for skill and armour. I know that's technically a CAI problem but the effect on the battlefield is disastrous. It undermines the whole experience when you can so easily out-develop the AI and all you do is end up fighting teh same rubbish/average troops turn after turn.

2. Campaign army movement. Like the way its done with every army needing a general and unit replenishment done automatically, as well as attrition etc. feels real, though i think replenish overstated. However nowhere near enough times did two AI armies cooperate offensively, which as the game develops and the player is able to deploy pairs of armies, becomes a major handicap for the AI. Have you considered an official 40 unit army submod? The AI needs to focus it's strength if it's going to have any chance against the player, and have all it's forces on the battlefiled from the start. It's too easy to isolate 20 unit armies and kill them.

3. Naval warfare/transports. Loved and loathed. And Bored. Love the battles. Fast and hard, player on the back foot because can't constantly readjust position. Problem is no/slow development of units. Turn 100, still using briemes, as is the AI. Boring with a capital B, O, R, I, N, G. But then why would you develop a navy if all your opponent has to do is put his army to sea and overwhelm you with numbers? You really can't got far enough with weakening transport ships in battle, but I do suggest that you give the player and the AI real ships right from the start and make them a lot cheaper. Leave the small ships to the garrisons, give everyone who can have triremes that at least right from the start. Also make the development of naval tech and facilities a lot faster/cheaper. Much more realistic, much more interesting and will go a long way to encourage proper naval warfare by giving teh owner of a proper fleet a much bigger advantage over those idiotic transports. Naval warfare really is a separate sphere and really needs to be treated as such. Particularly because of the transports.

4. Army recruitment and development, the heart of TW. Unit limits per army good, bargain basement start really bad. Annoying for me, [really, do I have to wait 6 turns to recruit proper Camillian Roman armies, twice that to recruit Socii] but it's a disaster for the AI. The development model used to be just units and armour. Now its that plus skills and weapons and on and on, a race the AI always loses. And that's if its even trying. Massila owned Gaul for more than fifty turns. Unfortunately they put all their money and tech time into economic development, which I then inherited.

The only modding i ever did in Rome I was make all military buildings cost 10 to buy and took 1 turn to build and changed the unit cost/upkeep so that the best was only twice that of the worst. This stopped the AI losing all its money and development time on useless low level barracks and had an extremely positive effect on the quality of the units the AI deployed. I think something like that is a good idea for Rome II. I know the development model in Rome II is designed so that you have at most one military region per province with the rest economic, but this just makes it easy for the player or the AI to headshot the military region. After that the faction can't recruit/equip good troops, can't replenish what its got, and they're pretty much finished. Totally unrealistic and bad from a gaming point of view. Barracks also need a lot more recruitment slots. The AI is much more likely to need to engage in crash recruitment than the player. What is an inconvenience for the player is potentially fatal for the AI.

I like the garrisons, but think the mercenaries are a waste of time. I brought half a dozen barbarian cavalry early on for the sake realism, none being available through barracks. I didn't check the maintenance. Over the next 80 turns or so those six units cost me approximately an extra 100,000 gold over what six equites would have cost. I wondered why I had no money. Mercenaries really are for one battle only. And yes, the AI was using a lot of mercenaries, particularly after it lost its recruiting centres.



Overall, RII is a great game, DEI a great mod but both are badly let down by the same old TW problem, the absurdly steep development track. You start out with nothing, but so then does your opponent, and you outdevelop them and win easily, never having encountered troops distinctly better than yours from a faction that's bigger than yours, or even very much that is any way any good at all. In fact you usually get beyond the point where you lose interest before you even have that much that's interesting yourself. As with all TW games, the only exciting part of RII is the start, when you haven't pulled ahead. it's easy and its boring.

And what's almost as bad is that not only are your opponents weak, they're bunch of nobodies. As Rome instead of the might of Carthage, Macedon and Seleucia you end up facing a bunch of pumped up lightweights who don't have enough money to develop what they've conquered or decent enough unit roster/improvements to defend it against you. They knocked off a faction that might have been some medium/long competition by mobbing it early on with their hordes of cheap and nasty troops because, you guessed it, everyone starts out at the same primitive level. That's a major structural weakness that DEI might want to take a look at.

[gregnaar]

Could you dear DEI team remove the imperium restriction from reforms that affect more then one faction? My reason is that if i play a greek or a barbarian faction, and dont expand fast enough i delay the reform for the other AI factions of my culture. That creates an imbalance in my opinion, their reform should not depend on me the player. (the unique factions could stay as they are now if its possibble)
thanks for the consideration

[KAM 2150]

Reforms for player and AI are separate. AI reforms does not need imperium level.

[gregnaar]

Cool, thanks for the explanation. And should i get 2 notifications for each greek reform if i play as them?

[andrew881thebest]

good job in making the Fulcum realistic with first line sit and holding Pila as Spears, in front, but I don't like the big gap between first and second line of shields. Like, why? it does not make any sense. I think that someone (Moonhoplite) changed animations of phalanx making it very different so you could change the Fulcum (maybe ask him how)

[dom385]

Is it intentional that most of the auxiliary units are missing helmets? I thought roman auxiliary units were well enough equipped for everyone to have a helmet.

[KAM 2150]

Do you use steam or standalone version? Steam version is known for missing weapons etc.

[dom385]

I'm using the standalone version, it's not exactly a big deal I just thought in the unit previews everyone had a helmet.

[nikossaiz]

Hello, I would like to express my gratitude torwards the moders that make the rome 2 playble and after many hours playing making a few suggestions. sorry if someone posted about this or sounds to silly.

a) Naval batlles: ships should burning more rare ( same with climbing ladders on siegies ) as it is right now you cant even came close to a ship that has a few archers on it. ancient naval batlles were mostly ship crushing on ship + the decks used as fighting platforms way more often that happens in the game, cause of the very fast burning.

b) animations: is it me or with the 14 patch the death moves became very rare? When a proper death move happens you can see the blood spreding on the field. after a 30 minutes batlle between hoplites vs barbarian spearmen , around six men died by heart attack , three beacause someone poked them ( not poked, since poke includes a sence of energy i would say toutched ) with a sword or spear and only one died by a spear through his neck. I know that is very tricky the animation section, but i believe medieval 2 tought us that dispate the battle animations all you need is proper death move animations to rise the imertion. so cut of the dancing animation, include a few shield vs shield and sword vs sword clas, even the more static ones, and add as many variaty of death moves as you can ( hoping the death moves can be seperated by the dancing animation)

some units errors, since the balance is for the version 1 of the mod and i trust the modders for that ( a little suggestion, make AOR unts generally better than generic unit ones in order for the player to recruit them, ex: cretan hoplites better than hoplites ) :

c) greek peltasts in the game have thureos shield and wearing linothorax, so in presence they are thyreophoroi carrying javelins. What should be is the majority wearing nothing for armor and carrying a "pelti" as a shield ( as their name suggests, "peltasts" ) pelti was a small oval shield mostly out of thin wood or leather. their class was between psiloi or javelinmen and ekdromoi or very light hoplites.

d) psiloi, sfendonites, and other light skirmishers should not cary a shield at all because they were not. with a few exeptions maybe like the rhodian slingers.

e) epivates ( athenian and spartan marines etch ) should not wearing bronze carcasses in any case. since the mane perpuse was to fight on deck the possibility of drawning forced them to wear only a tunic and at most linothorax ( even linothorax was very heavy when becomes wet ) and a helmet, oplon shield and maybe grives.

f) i am a veteran of medieval and rome 1 so i dont understand why land units can sailing without navy. Should not be more strategical if you have to built navy even for transport?

g) Suggestion for the balancing. The majority if not all of the units in DEI are present in the wonderfull rome 1 mod , ROMA SURRECTUM II. the mod is perfectlly balanced so you can take this as a referance to make your life easier and maye the mod better!

keep it up!