rome vs medieval2 feature breakdown

[dude4]

i want to knoe which is better and why\
is there a feature breakdown on whats new in medieval2 and expan vs rome explansions
i have to admit im more partial to roman times but is it worth the dumbed down features?if there are any
are there mods for rome that could eliminate those shortcomings if the exist

thanks

[Guy]

Moved to Medieval II: Total War General Discussion.

[Mr.Excitement]

Medieval 2 has way better diplomacy. That is all.

[D.B. Cooper]

Don't forget better AI, (WAY) better graphics, better campaign map

[Mr.Excitement]

I'll have to say the armor and face textures need more variation for both games. Ex, when a unit receives experience for being in many battles, they should have pieces of armor missing/the bandages around head thing/dents and cuts

[Ratbag]

Ex, when a unit receives experience for being in many battles, they should have pieces of armor missing/the bandages around head thing/dents and cuts

Nah, you would have your armor and yourself fixed up before you went back in to battle...

[Mr.Excitement]

Nah, you would have your armor and yourself fixed up before you went back in to battle...

Not always, some marks were there for a while

[Yojimbo]

Rome:

Much better atmosphere
great voice acting
Stunning music
great feel
much more varied factions and armies including many unique units
every faction feels different from Germania's axemen to parthias cavalry to romes legions
no Christianity or pope being shoved down your throat
Far less buggy and all units work how they should.


M2tw:

Buggy and partly broken
Less variety of units with many cloned ones
Voice acting not as good as rtw
still great music
Atmospheric sounds and graphics with far improved battlefield from Rome: bigger more detailed with better skies. Overall darker and more serious feel than Rome.
more involved campaign
cities and castles different
Christianity is shoved at you like your trying to be conmverted
New battle animations are a gimmick that hardly works
papal elections add a new dynamic
Diplomacy is still broken
Promises before release were not lived up to

ETW

Crap feel with no atmosphere
Crap music
Mostly crap sound
crap bugs including many ctds
crap dynamics including every person needing to be in line to fire and no "fire" button
Many bugs in sieges with horrible path finding
Game feels half finished and is rather boring
Battles feel like lots of mindless dolls fightign rather than an army
Extreme campaign map lag no matter what the settings on a good pc
Unoptimized as heck
No firing orders, crap drums, no bagpipes
Better battle animations by far tho thye are canned
more involved campaign
New naval battles that are fiddly and annoying
new trade system makes eco deeper
New city system makes countries like France extremely easy to destroy
AI cant launch naval invasions
AI is often stupid in battles tho better than the previous 2
Diplomacyis somewhat better


Rome is a better game than m2tw is but m2tw beats the crap out of etw so far.

[Pink Beard]

Rome is a better game than m2tw is but m2tw beats the crap out of etw so far.

Well, personally I think m2tw is better then Rome but I absolutely agree that m2tw currently is kicking Etw's ass...

[Darkpriest667]

Rome:


no Christianity or pope being shoved down your throat



M2tw:

Christianity is shoved at you like your trying to be conmverted

thats a matter of opinion.. i never have a problem with the pope as i usually am an islamic faction.. also never have a problem feeling like christianity is being shoved down my throat... sounds like youve got some repressed religious issues to deal with..


Also.. Rome was good... but i always felt like Medieval 2 was a lot better... basically you are going to find two groups of people... people that think Rome total war is the best.. that hate ETW .. and people that think Medieval 2 (w kingdoms) is the best that hate ETW... the one thing we are all on consensus on is that ETW sucks balls compared to the previous titles...

Medieval the original had some pretty good features as well... particularly were the titles feature... which i liked.. but what i really miss is being able to assassinate your own people... i would often assassinate disloyal generals and other agents that i didnt like... saving me time and money... usually i would wait until the general had a child or two so as not to hurt the family tree..

[CobraStallone]

Rome was a very good game when it came out, it had a better atmoshpere, music, and theme, Medieval didn´t advance that much in the scale but it has much better graphics and slightly better AI. I play Medieval but only after years of playing Rome and mods.

[Ascarona]

Forlorn Hope pretty much answered this, ?

[General Nuisance esq]

Forlorn Hope pretty much answered this, ?

Although I would add
Rome
Some factions pathetically weak
Large cities have problems

MTW 2
Far better trade which adds a new dynamic too
Assassins can be utilised a lot more effectively
improved building set
you can go on great holidays (crusades)

Personally I think RTW was a classic of it's era whilst MTW 2 is the best medieval game around and if you've had your fill of RTW then MTW 2 is a great game to play. ETW well to me it's just a boring shoot em up (you either love it or hate it)

[General Nuisance esq]

I also think that ETW has lots of new ideas and concepts, (maybe too many) trouble is they don't work properly either

[Hannibalus]

By me only the ultimate AI works without bug from all MTW2 mods.
By RTW all mods are working.

[SigniferOne]

On top of all the other things (graphics, diplomacy), Medieval 2 also has editable AI, which means that all of the top-tier M2TW mods are extremely hands on in having to manage your empire to survive, and frequently quite challenging. Just the other day a person in the Stainless Steel forum said that the AI was too good for him and asked for advice, getting a recommendation to pick a corner faction far away from all the fighting... That's quite a testament to Medieval 2's power, and in my opinion it's shining moment in all comparisons with ETW.

[eggthief]

I think graphics are a bit lame to compare, of course m2tw has better graphics cause its newer, but then again I'm a person who prefers gameplay and I think they tied.

[Yojimbo]

I think graphics are a bit lame to compare, of course m2tw has better graphics cause its newer, but then again I'm a person who prefers gameplay and I think they tied.

Kingdoms has much better looking units than vanilla m2tw i think and looks much better than etw. etw looks dull.

[Viking Prince]

Kingdoms has much better looking units than vanilla m2tw i think and looks much better than etw. etw looks dull.

I agree. Even my sweetie likes to look in when I am playing the Britannia Mod.

And for what it is worth, I have not had a real problem with unstable Mods after about one year after release. Some like Kingdoms itself, Retrofit, Custom Campaign -- these are the basic building blocks for the other mods. They are as stable as the game. Though I did not care for SS personally, I had absolutely no problems with the stability of the mod.

If there are stability issue, they should be well documented in their sub-forum. Just look, browse, load, and play. If you do not like the mod, you can just delete the folder. I have avoided any that do not install in their own folders for that very reason.

[eggthief]

Well I'd rather had one campaign instead of 4 small ones for kingdoms and it's 'new features' especially the reinforcement control were dissapointing. Nonetheless, modders have the amazing ability of turning dissapointments into hours of fun.