Instant transports are back!

[GoTW Kubee]

http://gameovercast.co.uk/index.php?...es&episode=192

At around 1h06, the CA devs reveal that instant transports will be making a return in Attila. I'm honestly fairly disappointed about this as I truly thought they were awful in R2.

[PointOfViewGun]

Yet, they worked better than the instant transports of the previous games.

[GoTW Kubee]

Yet, they worked better than the instant transports of the previous games.

How so?

And when did I call for a return to the system in previous games or say that I thought it was particularly good? I was hoping CA would take on board player feedback and implement a system which simulated to a degree the cost and time required to build a transport fleet for your troops.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

How so?

And when did I call for a return to the system in previous games or say that I thought it was particularly good? I was hoping CA would take on board player feedback and implement a system which simulated to a degree the cost and time required to build a transport fleet for your troops.

This. CA doing a great job listening to their fanbase as per usual. Bar family trees I don't see anything decent or in high demand so far....

[PointOfViewGun]

How so?

And when did I call for a return to the system in previous games or say that I thought it was particularly good? I was hoping CA would take on board player feedback and implement a system which simulated to a degree the cost and time required to build a transport fleet for your troops.

Probably when I told you that you called for a return to the system in previous games or that they were particularly good. The current system does provide a penalty of removing movement points if you try to embark from a beach.

[GoTW Kubee]

Probably when I told you that you called for a return to the system in previous games or that they were particularly good.

I know that you said that since I happen to possess a pair of eyes and basic reading comprehension skills. But you still haven't pointed out where I said that I wanted CA to keep the transport system the same as it had been since RTW. And what were particularly good? Your sentence makes no sense.

The current system does provide a penalty of removing movement points if you try to embark from a beach.

But it still assumes that an army can conjure up an armada of ships off the shore of some African desert at no cost and within the space of very little time.

[AnthoniusII]

Why supriced! I have told this a numerus of times! CA will sell us the same crappy Rome II with new "cover"!!!!!!!!

[Dynamo11]

No surprise there, of course CA wouldn't bother actually trying to fix the AI so it utilises naval mechanics and would rather just make it so the AI treats the water as land and magically turns into a navy.

This is what I feared from Rome 2, I had hoped CA would have learnt their lesson but it appears not.

[z3n]

If they can make the AI work better that way, and actually invade from sea, why not?... It's better than RTW/MTW2 so at least they're making some progress. It's really hard to work and optimize the AI, I should know.. I did some work myself on it. Even if they're professionals they have to work on all aspects of RTW and I'm not sure if their AI team is even that big or talented (except for a few brave programmers).

Yes instant transports are somewhat unrealistic BUT this is a game and like I said it's really hard to make a good AI (we're barely two decades into creating an AI), so why don't we pretend they commandeered some poor merchant fleet of grain ships and be happy because the AI isn't completely spastic. If you bring up STW/MTW, I have only one thing to say, chess computers have been around for awhile. It's not that hard to make a computer into a chess grandmaster on a normal sized board but when there's a waaaaaay bigger playing board the computer starts to have problems.

[Humble Warrior]

No surprise there, of course CA wouldn't bother actually trying to fix the AI so it utilises naval mechanics and would rather just make it so the AI treats the water as land and magically turns into a navy.

This is what I feared from Rome 2, I had hoped CA would have learnt their lesson but it appears not.

I thought it was quite clear from what they said on release hyping. I mentioned this was the case a week or so ago just from reading between the lines.

Well, CA don't feel there are enough people against it and well, Civ 5 did it! It saves them from having to make an effort making a good army-port-sea AI. I have never felt immersed in this insta-ship mechanic which doesn't even work. The AI doesn't see the sea as different to land and it will no doubt retreat to water whenever it feels like it. It is not a difficulty preparing for sea sailing like it should be. An army should never be able to instantly retreat to sea after being defeated in a battle either.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

If they can make the AI work better that way, and actually invade from sea, why not?... It's better than RTW/MTW2 so at least they're making some progress. It's really hard to work and optimize the AI, I should know.. I did some work myself on it. Even if they're professionals they have to work on all aspects of RTW and I'm not sure if their AI team is even that big or talented (except for a few brave programmers).

Yes instant transports are somewhat unrealistic BUT this is a game and like I said it's really hard to make a good AI (we're barely two decades into creating an AI), so why don't we pretend they commandeered some poor merchant fleet of grain ships and be happy because the AI isn't completely spastic. If you bring up STW/MTW, I have only one thing to say, chess computers have been around for awhile. It's not that hard to make a computer into a chess grandmaster on a normal sized board but when there's a waaaaaay bigger playing board the computer starts to have problems.

Yet they don't bother to mention this; if they did then I'd understand. They just need to admit that there are limitations to this line of work.

[DarrenTotalWar]

I wish armies had build options like in older games. Instead of build watch tower and build fort, if you click from coast to ocean, it would say "Build a transport fleet for 1000?" Quite cheap but I think the upkeep should increase for each unit at sea by like 25% or something.

[RedGuard]

the difference is here, the ai will torch their last settlement before making for the high seas

[Butan]

How are games older than Rome 2 related to Attila auto-transports Setekh?

If it was bad in Rome 2, it will be bad in Attila.
The propensity of apologists on those features threads is mind blowing.

[craziii]

I like transports come at me bros, come at me! hehehee. I like how they make army movement fluid. And how 1 stack of navy can kill 5 stacks of transports without losing a single ship.

The only problem I see with transports is that CAI(if island nation or got alot of coastline) tends to keep 50% of their armies in transports when they do sooo much better on land. Fix that, and I got zero complains in the transport department.

[GoTW Kubee]

I like transports come at me bros, come at me! hehehee. I like how they make army movement fluid. And how 1 stack of navy can kill 5 stacks of transports without losing a single ship.

The only problem I see with transports is that CAI(if island nation or got alot of coastline) tends to keep 50% of their armies in transports when they do sooo much better on land. Fix that, and I got zero complains in the transport department.

But don't you dislike how completely logic-defying and unrealistic it is? The fact that water has always been difficult, expensive and time-consuming to traverse for armed forces is one of the fundamental rules of military history. Now, I understand that this is a game, but a system along similar lines to what Darren has outlined would make the game so much better from both a realism and strategic point of view.

[Humble Warrior]

I like transports come at me bros, come at me! hehehee. I like how they make army movement fluid.

But it shouldn't be fluid. I suspect you don't bother reading up on naval warfare at all, but every single sea voyage even TODAY, is never fluid. It's not an instant land -sea- go, not for armies going abroad. It needs TIME, PREPARATION.

In fact it's one of those mechanics that's anti-intuitive. for instance, I'm always surprised by the AI now because it can just instantly jump to sea on the same turn and attack my army if it wants. I've had this happen. previously, you would know that you had some time to attack somewhere because it would take the AI army a turn or two to get to a port, then onto a ship, then to you. It's instinctive. We know it by default as it happens for real.

You could plan and think the same way that real strategists could, knowing that. It was always nice in Shogun 2 (and previous) because when you saw an enemy naval invasion coming and dealt with that you knew it was going to be a few turns before another one- if at all. You could also try and predict where likely invasions would come from and perhaps prepare for it.

Now that is impossible. Before I first saw this insta-ship armies in Sept `13, I couldn't understand how my enemy could jump onto my land so fast, there was no indication and I was using the go to a port and get on ship (which you can do incidently) - it was my very first huge disappointment even before I saw the rest of it.

It will be even worst with the time being every month or quarter, than yearly.

[Kinjo]

I think this is a terrible feature in it's current state, there needs to be some adjustments before I'm on board

Seriously though these 2 little tweaks would make a huge difference imo.

• Only allow armies to transport from port cities or crossing points.
• Make it a naval technology that has to be researched first so we don't see Barbarian Hordes taking to the sea as their primary mode of transportation.

Think about the potential this would bring to the table, with the scorched earth option you could slow a faction down by taking out port cities and using your fleet to block crossing points.

[Huberto]

using your fleet to block crossing points.

Was this ever sorted out in TWR2? Last time I checked fleets had zero impact on land armies crossing straights.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

The old system was superior, and also realistic if you think of the combat vessels as the escort rather than the actual transports. Transporting an army across the waters with just one escort would be very risky (Even more so if the interception system is further evolved for the naval combat). This would encourage factions to build fleets and discourage them from just sending armies across the waters. Streamlining this feature has only been detrimental to the series.