We want your feedback - what do you think

[Brusilov]

I've been asked by MCM to create this thread.

There is a standard method to provide feedback through the survey ( http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=138613 ) but this may not be appropriate to use at this moment - you may want to play the game a bit longer.

All comments are welcome (gulp). Negative comments are acceptable but please try and explain why you don't like something rather than you simply don't like it.

Anyway, hope you are enjoying the game!

[Aedelric]

Great work, been playing for about three hours now, the game works perfectly apart from a slightly odd thing which happened when I started as Carthage quit then started as Iberia. (I will post about it once I replicate the bug and find a relevant thread.)

So, feedback;

Models/Textures - The troops look superb, the best RTW models I have seen to date, the battle map looks so much better now, the sky is beautiful and everything seems to have a nice soft orange dark depth to it which adds a lot of atmosphere. The landspace is beautiful, though the a few of the ground textures give a tiling effect and do not pass on close inspection like the high quality units do.

Music - Really fantastic so far, it really does capture the imagination, it must have taken ages to produce such fine work. My only negative comment is the Iberian win tune ends slightly abruptly.

Sounds - Great but why do I hear a screaming bird when I finish loading? Odd but I kinda like it now.

User Interface - Beautiful work, easily captures the main theme of the factions. My only suggestion is change the dropping icons (The ones that give information) they really need a facelift.

Videos - Top work on this, from the moment the game loads you are drawn in by a beautiful professional video, hell it beats the originals hands down. Great choice in music, scene selection and rendering of a beautiful three dimensional map. The main menu again is great though personally I do not like the ugly bearded guy. The starting faction videos are truly a nice touch and I was quite surprised by them, great work.

Text Work - History! At last a game that truly delves into the past, from regional information, faction leader information for Carthage, detailed building/unit information, the depth seems endless. Though I have only played for three hours the generals/leaders ancillaries I have received have been good and relevant to my faction for a change, they have obviously been thought through. Superb work on depth, there is little that can be done to improve.

Balance - Damn the game is tough! I would say the balancing is good but to be honest I am not one for noticing overall balance very well, you will have to wait for other people that notice such things better to give you decent feedback on such.

General Gameplay - The Historical information is a major plus, unbelievable work, I mention this because I especially loved the mini historical tutorial for Carthage at the start. My only suggestion is a little more for Iberia in that regards as their is no build up for that side upon start. The map size is perfect, not too big or too small, regions divided up evenly it seems to provide a very satisfying moderate length game. I sometimes get overwhelmed when forced to manage too many locations and troops in such games.



As you can read I have little to suggest for improvements mainly because it is neigh on a perfect Rome Total War modification, I am very much eager in waiting for the next instalment.

Superb work by the entire team!



Edit - I sort of assumed him Pannonian, soon as I read through the Carthaginian introduction historical tutorial, but that does not make him any nicer to look at.

[pannonian]

Videos - Top work on this, from the moment the game loads you are drawn in by a beautiful professional video, hell it beats the originals hands down. Great choice in music, scene selection and rendering of a beautiful three dimensional map. The main menu again is great though personally I do not like the ugly bearded guy. The starting faction videos are truly a nice touch and I was quite surprised by them, great work.

Hamilcar Barca

[MCM]

@Wolfen

Yes-

Hamilcar Barca, rendered by the amazing artist Catalin Daniel Ghita rendered back to real life from a statue.

You are right, there are areas of the game that could still do with more work and more detail. With a small team, there is only so much that can be done.

But at least you have an idea of where the team is headed now...

All suggestions considered and noted!

Cheers,

MCM

[Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Videos - Top work on this, from the moment the game loads you are drawn in by a beautiful professional video, hell it beats the originals hands down. Great choice in music, scene selection and rendering of a beautiful three dimensional map. The main menu again is great though personally I do not like the ugly bearded guy. The starting faction videos are truly a nice touch and I was quite surprised by them, great work.

Thanks for commenting on the videos much appreciated here.

but- there aren't starting movies- they are actually the victory movies. We surely need to fix that in the first patch. So next to the fact that defeat movies are in the wrong place- we also need to fix those ones.

Q.

[Tiberius Tosi]

Hi, I've never posted on the forums before but I've been on 'em for like a month, I just did a survey and I would like to apologize to whoever reads it in advance for its extreme length. It's not long because I had negative things though.

One thing that I said in the survey that I would just like to post is a suggestion for the next mini-campaign you guys do is you could put small villages and towns that can "concede" to your side from the enemy if you win a major battle in the area. I know very little about computer software stuff and I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but it would add to realism because this type of thing happened a lot in the Punic Wars (so I would assume it happened when Hamilcar/Hasdrubal/Hannibal conquered Iberia) because if one town(or army) was conquered and slaughtered many others would offer aid to that side out of fear. I know it is probably impossible to do but it is just something that would be kind of fun.

[MCM]

Ha ha thats fine!

The more information- the better.

Cheers and enjoy,

MCM Felix

[chenkai11]

Hi, I've never posted on the forums before but I've been on 'em for like a month, I just did a survey and I would like to apologize to whoever reads it in advance for its extreme length. It's not long because I had negative things though.

One thing that I said in the survey that I would just like to post is a suggestion for the next mini-campaign you guys do is you could put small villages and towns that can "concede" to your side from the enemy if you win a major battle in the area. I know very little about computer software stuff and I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but it would add to realism because this type of thing happened a lot in the Punic Wars (so I would assume it happened when Hamilcar/Hasdrubal/Hannibal conquered Iberia) because if one town(or army) was conquered and slaughtered many others would offer aid to that side out of fear. I know it is probably impossible to do but it is just something that would be kind of fun.

Very nice idea, but is it possible?

[Tiberius Tosi]

That's the thing, I think it would be impossible to do

[AngryTitusPullo]

One thing that I said in the survey that I would just like to post is a suggestion for the next mini-campaign you guys do is you could put small villages and towns that can "concede" to your side from the enemy if you win a major battle in the area. I know very little about computer software stuff and I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but it would add to realism because this type of thing happened a lot in the Punic Wars (so I would assume it happened when Hamilcar/Hasdrubal/Hannibal conquered Iberia) because if one town(or army) was conquered and slaughtered many others would offer aid to that side out of fear. I know it is probably impossible to do but it is just something that would be kind of fun.

What you imagine is certainly not doable, but the idea itself is already implemented in vanilla RTW. That's why the whole province turn to your faction color (in mini map) after you conquer the main settlement..

The rebels that pop up represents some elements of the surrounding area who do not like your rule and turns to brigands.

The thing is, we can't put two settlements in one single province...

[Angmar_nite]

Just wanted to say amazing work MCM.

I had a unit of sacred band being heavily pressured so I turned off guard and they slowly formed a shiltrom like formation against 3 elite scitarii, while my carthiginian cavalry arrived from across the map.

You have truly out done yourselves and have turned out a work, that I'm sure the original team would be proud to call a successor to 6.0.

[MCM]

@Edmund Burke

Thank you for the praise- but don't thank me-

thank the RTR team- these guys deserve all the praise

[Sarkiss]

just played a custom battle.
what did you do to AI? it is freaking amazing how it handles cavalry and general maneuvering. i know BI is partially to thank for cavalry flanking but it aint only that! battlefield AI is noticeably improved judging by what i've seen so far i actually got my ass handed to me just now as a punishment for my usual relaxed approach to SP battles.
btw, will MP work?
great stuff, loved the drums!

[MCM]

Yes- we will be putting together a MultiPlayer set up guide soon enough

[Ketchup]

Only played a couple of hours at the moment but I'd like to say the first impressions that I get are; WOW. I love the scripted start for carthage where Hamilcar gets forced into a tough battle (believe me it was tough!) that is pretty much make or break. Also, my rig is pretty piss poor so I'm only able to run the game on medium-low settings but i'm convinced the models still look way better than RTW on high settings. Awesome work guys!

Any updates on Tiberius' suggestion? If implemented it would be awesome; add loads of realism but its never been done before so maybe it can't be done?

[Raygereio]

I just have to say; TIC is deffinatly worth the wait.

Usually when I play a game that forces me to fight a battle like the first one for Hamilcar Barca, I get angry.
I'm just a firm believer of: numbers alone do not make a victory, but they sure do help. That and I just don't like the game dictating completly what I have to do (I for one also didn't like the senate mission in the original Rome-TW).

I guess it says something that I went right back in for another try after poor Hamilbar got trampled in my first go. That first battle lasted almost a hour and a half this time and when I saw this... trust me: I cried a little.
And to my surprise; I like the missions; mainly because they make sense.

The unit art and the music are both impressive, but for me TIC's challenge rating is it's strong point. Difficult, but doable.

I just can't find anything really bad about this mod. Maybe I need to play it more to find it, or maybe it just ain't there and TIC is all good.
If this is the standard the RTRVII team has for the next minicampaigns and RTRVII itself; then I can't wait to see and play it.

Edit; by the way. Look at the general's portrait in the link I posted. Did Hamilcar get shave before getting his picture taken?

[MasterOfNone]

MCM asked me to take a look at TIC.

I have had a brief look at the installation process, the folder structure and the game.

It is certainly one of the better mods in its presentation. It seems very stable and well designed. I must commend you for your wisdom in producing a limited campaign release such as this. I wish all major mods would consider this modular approach.

Would I have done anything differently? I probably would have liked to see the music pack as a separate download to reduce the size of the mod download. I am not too keen on seeing the BI vanilla movie permanently displaced in the vanilla BI folder (though it is good you have backed it up) though I do understand the nature of this problem.

Overall I am impressed and you have set a high standard for other mods to follow - and I am not easily impressed

I'm going to take a quick look at the coding and will report back anything I feel of note.

[GiorgioIII]

Everything looks great, superb. One thing that makes me a little bored is how long the battle goes on. I mean sure your goal is to make it harder, but yesterday i fought a battle two hours. I charged more than ten times in an already angaged enemy infantry with a general's bodyguard unit and they still didn't flee.

[Brusilov]

Everything looks great, superb. One thing that makes me a little bored is how long the battle goes on. I mean sure your goal is to make it harder, but yesterday i fought a battle two hours. I charged more than ten times in an already angaged enemy infantry with a general's bodyguard unit and they still didn't flee.

What difficulty levels are you playing on? If you play at VH on the battle map it's very hard to get a unit to rout (which is why I don't like VH).

Maybe you should hit them with the larger cavalry force you have or even better the elephants (make sure you keep them out of the way of unengaged units that could turn them into pin cushions).

[GiorgioIII]

I didn't change the difficulty, it is at medium. One more question. I have arrived at the greek colony and just as i beggined sieging it, a mission arrived that i had to face some rebels at some mountains. I chased them and finally beat them. Then remarched for the Greek colony. Another mission like this arivvedd saying some warlord rebeled. I am in two minds now whether to leave them or chase them. I fear if i go after them i may lose time. What is your opinion?