*Campaign Play-through Preview - Roman Republic*

[MrMerisi]

Hey guys - a couple of times people have asked if the mod supports 40 unit armies. Yes?

Can't wait to give this a try - I hope you get a team to help you out as you've been at it for 3 years!! Insanely awesome.

[Petellius]

Hey guys - a couple of times people have asked if the mod supports 40 unit armies. Yes?

Can't wait to give this a try - I hope you get a team to help you out as you've been at it for 3 years!! Insanely awesome.

Only Scipio and Hannibal have 40 units. Using 40 units causes balance and performance issues.

[MrMerisi]

Only Scipio and Hannibal have 40 units. Using 40 units causes balance and performance issues.

Ah ok so what will the max army sizes be and max number of units on the battle map? Thanks!

[Julio-Claudian]

Ah ok so what will the max army sizes be and max number of units on the battle map? Thanks!

The same as vanilla. You can't change the battlefield limit.
You can easily make the limit 40 units per army just using the save game parser in any campaign though.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...al-Here-is-how!

[fumagalli]

Only Scipio and Hannibal have 40 units. Using 40 units causes balance and performance issues.

So after the punic wars, the survivor will be the only faction in the world to be able to field a 40 units army ? That's a balance issue too.

[Commissar Caligula_]

So after the punic wars, the survivor will be the only faction in the world to be able to field a 40 units army ? That's a balance issue too.

I assume that if Scipio/Hannibal lose a unit, they can't recruit it back. So eventually after losses and stuff they'll be taken back down to 20 units.

[MrMerisi]

The same as vanilla. You can't change the battlefield limit.
You can easily make the limit 40 units per army just using the save game parser in any campaign though.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...al-Here-is-how!

Thanks dude! I already modded my saves in DeI (and the excellent DV submod) to use 41 units and it makes for the most epic campaigns. Being able to put a full legion on the field with manipulae-sized "units" makes for a fantastic experience and the battles can be fairly challenging versus multiple 41-stack AI. (Yes can't believe I wrote that!)

I am curious as to how that changes the game balance in AE and would request a submod to allow for the necessary adjustments to balance it out.

Really looking forward to this release!!

[_Tyr_]

Thanks dude! I already modded my saves in DeI (and the excellent DV submod) to use 41 units and it makes for the most epic campaigns. Being able to put a full legion on the field with manipulae-sized "units" makes for a fantastic experience and the battles can be fairly challenging versus multiple 41-stack AI. (Yes can't believe I wrote that!)

I am curious as to how that changes the game balance in AE and would request a submod to allow for the necessary adjustments to balance it out.

Really looking forward to this release!!

Holy , do you have a damn NASA computer or what? I thought above ~12-15k units Attila tends to lag even on high end gaming pc's due to poor optimization - not even dreaming of 20k units or more without it being utterly unplayable. :-O
If you are able to play this with only slight lag I'm incredibly envious.

[Julio-Claudian]

Holy , do you have a damn NASA computer or what? I thought above ~12-15k units Attila tends to lag even on high end gaming pc's due to poor optimization - not even dreaming of 20k units or more without it being utterly unplayable. :-O
If you are able to play this with only slight lag I'm incredibly envious.

It can be terrible but it only becomes unbearably laggy when the units are concentrated (ie when the AI is running all of its units around smooshing them together for no reason, or when it piles 5 units on top of each other trying to attack) or there is a forest or water, or if its a city battle and the AI charges all 40 of its units through one gate. Also odd things happen like the battle timer counting down 10 times as slowly or all sound stopping et cetera. I find its okay most of the time though on ultra or extreme graphics. I have a reasonably powerful computer but it isn't built for gaming. I've always thought those issues were due to the game itself not being optimised all that well (if thats the correct term) and not the computer. Battles are boring in attila anyway, just the same thing over and over again.

[Petellius]

So 90% of the time?

[HM Murdock]

Great job! Congratulations!

[MrMerisi]

Holy , do you have a damn NASA computer or what? I thought above ~12-15k units Attila tends to lag even on high end gaming pc's due to poor optimization - not even dreaming of 20k units or more without it being utterly unplayable. :-O
If you are able to play this with only slight lag I'm incredibly envious.

Ha - I was referring to battles in DeI for Rome 2. I haven't tried enormous battles in Attila (yet) but I'll let you know when I do.

As others have said, when the AI blobs its units (which it does sooooo often) then I assume it will get laggy as heck.

I had a fort battle in DeI with 12k units on the screen, using GEMFX plus the Cheat Engine LOD increase, no 3D to 2D fade, etc, and it just crumbled to 5fps because of the massive fort blob plus the fire and smoke from the wooden walls burning down.

I haven't found any Cheat Engine graphics configs for Attila and maybe that's a good thing

[Julio-Claudian]

So 90% of the time?

Pretty much lmao.

[_Tyr_]

Ha - I was referring to battles in DeI for Rome 2. I haven't tried enormous battles in Attila (yet) but I'll let you know when I do.

As others have said, when the AI blobs its units (which it does sooooo often) then I assume it will get laggy as heck.

I had a fort battle in DeI with 12k units on the screen, using GEMFX plus the Cheat Engine LOD increase, no 3D to 2D fade, etc, and it just crumbled to 5fps because of the massive fort blob plus the fire and smoke from the wooden walls burning down.

I haven't found any Cheat Engine graphics configs for Attila and maybe that's a good thing

Ah, I thought you were trying to apply what you did with DeI to (is apply >to< here the correct preposition btw? ^^) Attila. Sorry for my misunderstanding there. In Rome II and with DeI+GemFX I have had almost no issue going up to ~15k units ultra settings. I even want to say a higher number, but can't quite remember such a large battle off the top of my head.^^

Yes, it's so annoying that the AI problem of the TW games never got fixed and I kinda lost hope for future titles, seeing how they approached the issue with WH I and II, the lazy siege layouts and super quick battles. I fear they're going to rather change settings, stats and maps and so on, instead of tackling the real elephant in the room, which is proper and functioning AI.
I highly credit CA for bringing us such great games in the past (with mod support obv.), but it's frustrating that they could be so much better, if only...

[Julio-Claudian]

Ah, I thought you were trying to apply what you did with DeI to (is apply >to< here the correct preposition btw? ^^) Attila. Sorry for my misunderstanding there. In Rome II and with DeI+GemFX I have had almost no issue going up to ~15k units ultra settings. I even want to say a higher number, but can't quite remember such a large battle off the top of my head.^^

Yes, it's so annoying that the AI problem of the TW games never got fixed and I kinda lost hope for future titles, seeing how they approached the issue with WH I and II, the lazy siege layouts and super quick battles. I fear they're going to rather change settings, stats and maps and so on, instead of tackling the real elephant in the room, which is proper and functioning AI.
I highly credit CA for bringing us such great games in the past (with mod support obv.), but it's frustrating that they could be so much better, if only...

It really is frustrating. Of course we must be grateful that they make these games at all. I used to sit and stare at fields as a child imagining battles going on and armies marching so when I discovered TW I was amazed.
But the things that we all complain about are things that they could fix or improve yet they just don't. Think how supremely brilliant these games could be if the people that made them cared as much as the modders. Its maddening.
I don't think I'll ever even buy another TW game unless I see a mod such as this one for it.

[_Tyr_]

It really is frustrating. Of course we must be grateful that they make these games at all. I used to sit and stare at fields as a child imagining battles going on and armies marching so when I discovered TW I was amazed.
But the things that we all complain about are things that they could fix or improve yet they just don't. Think how supremely brilliant these games could be if the people that made them cared as much as the modders. Its maddening.
I don't think I'll ever even buy another TW game unless I see a mod such as this one for it.

I actually still do the imagined battle thing form time to time. ^^

But yes, we are on the same page regarding that issue. I can ofc understand the forces that are driving the market and that companies go for revenue instead perfect games - so CA is searching to balance that, unfortunately a little bit in the wrong direction. Also we must not forget, that we here in this forum are probably a tiny minority, although probably the most hardcore fans as well. With WH I and II they opened their product to a much larger audience and I think they will continue the path they chose with those titles (certainly with the upcoming TW 3 kingdoms for example). Less historical accuracy, more story and character driven campaigns, more effects and flashy lights, instead of sober, solid TW games. But maybe I'm wrong, we shall wait and see...

[MrMerisi]

It really is frustrating. Of course we must be grateful that they make these games at all. I used to sit and stare at fields as a child imagining battles going on and armies marching so when I discovered TW I was amazed.
But the things that we all complain about are things that they could fix or improve yet they just don't. Think how supremely brilliant these games could be if the people that made them cared as much as the modders. Its maddening.
I don't think I'll ever even buy another TW game unless I see a mod such as this one for it.

I played Rome II for 4 hours when it was first released. Then deleted it for the next 4 years, knowing that an EB type mod would eventually get done.

Should we be grateful that CA makes these games? Assuming they and Sega make a handsome profit, they should be grateful we pay them to presumably do something they enjoy for a living.

Should we be grateful that not only do we live in a time where we can play wargames on thin LCDs, we live in a time when for the vast majority of us this will be as close as we come to combat? Absolutely.

We've all been in situations where we see a guy taking a girl for granted and we say to ourselves, that guy doesn't care and doesn't deserve her and I would treat her so differently if she were mine. We all know that rarely, if ever, happens.

Either a new indie studio will release something (like Operation Flashpoint back in the day) that blows everything else away, or an open-source movement will happen, with powerful SDKs and neural networks watching every multiplayer move, etc. Or both will happen.

But as long as we the players continue to vote with our wallets and validate CA's choices, we'll be little more than Uber riders who whine about surge pricing and tap the app the next day.

[You_Guess_Who]

I noticed on Jackie's play that in such early stage, the Hastati can be upgraded to another kind of Hastati. This surprises me because its just several turns into the game - how about marian legionnaires, imperial legionnaires? This led me to a speculation: You guys do more than 3 tiers of unit upgrades?

[UMCenturion]

I noticed on Jackie's play that in such early stage, the Hastati can be upgraded to another kind of Hastati. This surprises me because its just several turns into the game - how about marian legionnaires, imperial legionnaires? This led me to a speculation: You guys do more than 3 tiers of unit upgrades?

the marian, augustan and imperials are essentially tiers. We have the three legion classes as upgrades as well.

[You_Guess_Who]

Plus Polybian, that would be 4 tiers, and what I surmised from Jackiefish' vid is that even Polybian have 2 tiers; that what interests me; so you have 6 tiers and made it works? So the in technical sense, it is possible for unit to be upgraded into another unit which has similar tier in the main_units table - i.e. the tier in that table is merely an ui thing?