what do you think should be in Rome 2 totalwar

[Zemdu]

just wondering

i myself would'nt mind if you could research technologies and tactics like phalanx and testudo, made the diplomacy more advanced and stuff like that

also 5 campains instead of four, one for, gaul and britain , the punic wars, greece, the middle east and one combining all together and you should be able to play all factions in the game.

modding tools

[shikaka]

1. enough playtesting to find bugs before release

2. easy moddability

3. Good campaign AI (inculdes diplomacy with sense)

4. Good battlefield AI (maybe some scripts should be needed for river crossings/city assaults)

5. remove agents (merchants, clerics, princesses, diplomats), only keep one which combine spies and assasins

6. more complex diplomacy screen, so you don't have to move the diplomat over (maybe before doing anything there should be an option to send emissary/establish diplomacy for a certain amount of gold)

7. more start points as in MTW, example is 'rise of rome' 'after Marian reforms' 'fall of the empire'

8. bigger provinces for more field battles and less sieges

9. more individual factions, barbarians should differ from each other (no thrown together factions like RTW Dacia or Thrace)

[Xerrop]

i myself would'nt mind if you could research technologies and tactics like phalanx and testudo, made the diplomacy more advanced and stuff like that

Technologies do develop existing and well known formations or weapons and such - I hope not.
Ancient times can´t be compared to the 18th/19th century featured in ETW and NTW.

Advanced diplomacy - Yes of course.
And please no more diplomats wandering around the world - the diplomacy screen implented in ETW was a good feature that should stay for all future TW games.

also 5 campains instead of four ...

There were four campaigns in Rome? Can you name them to me ...

1. enough playtesting to find bugs before release
3. Good campaign AI (inculdes diplomacy with sense)
4. Good battlefield AI (maybe some scripts should be needed for river crossings/city assaults)

Yes, yes and yes.

5. remove agents (merchants, clerics, princesses, diplomats), only keep one which combine spies and assasins

merchants, clerics and diplomats should be removed, yes. Althought of the four named from you only the diplomats appeared in Rome:TW.
But princesses could be a nice and new touch for RTW2 - especially for monarchic factions. Marriage was an important factor of politics.

7. more start points as in MTW, example is 'rise of rome' 'after Marian reforms' 'fall of the empire'

Well you can have two early start dates with some changes and new factions like 280 and 220 bc. And maybe a third starting somewhere around 130bc. But anything later would mean an unbalanced campaign cause Rome would be too big.

About 280 or 220 a change (aside from territorial gains and losses) could be that Baktria and Parthia are playable only in the 220bc campaign while they will be a non-playable emergent (rebell)-faction when starting the 280 bc campaign.

edit: Oh and "Fall of Rome" is a very different time. This can due to obvious reasons not be included into the main game.

8. bigger provinces for more field battles and less sieges

Less sieges yes, but that has to be solved with other ways than simply bigger provinces. This only makes the game longer with many unimportant and non-decisive battles and you still have to fight a siege to conquer each town.

9. more individual factions, barbarians should differ from each other (no thrown together factions like RTW Dacia or Thrace)

Would be nice, yes. Give them some different looks.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Well you can have two early start dates with some changes and new factions like 280 and 220 bc. And maybe a third starting somewhere around 130bc. But anything later would mean an unbalanced campaign cause Rome would be too big.

Could be an interesting challenge for the remaining factions to try fending off a massive Rome

Less sieges yes, but that has to be solved with other ways than simply bigger provinces. This only makes the game longer with many unimportant and non-decisive battles and you still have to fight a siege to conquer each town.

Could be solved by having regions that were made up of several provinces and one key province.

• The normal provinces could be occupied by moving into the main city of those provinces, which would result in a field battle outside the city if it was defended. These provinces would generate income, but wouldn't have an advanced construction tree or allow recruitment.
• The key province of each region would have the normal RTW construction and recruitment options, to conquer these provinces one would however have to siege the main city. If a key province is conquered, any non-garrisoned cities of the region would automatically fall into the hands of the conqueror. There should only be a few of these key provinces, fewer than the vanilla RTW provinces.

[egervari]

1. enough playtesting to find bugs before release

2. easy moddability

3. Good campaign AI (inculdes diplomacy with sense)

4. Good battlefield AI (maybe some scripts should be needed for river crossings/city assaults)

5. remove agents (merchants, clerics, princesses, diplomats), only keep one which combine spies and assasins

6. more complex diplomacy screen, so you don't have to move the diplomat over (maybe before doing anything there should be an option to send emissary/establish diplomacy for a certain amount of gold)

7. more start points as in MTW, example is 'rise of rome' 'after Marian reforms' 'fall of the empire'

8. bigger provinces for more field battles and less sieges

9. more individual factions, barbarians should differ from each other (no thrown together factions like RTW Dacia or Thrace)

I agree with a lot of this list. The diplomacy is all of the games is not quite good, and the AI is senseless and hard to strategically plan against because it is whimsical at going to war, or trying to cause a ceasefire when it's in their best interest.

I also thought all the merchants and other agents just cluttered up the game too. I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought that. It just takes away from the elegant simplicity of what you're trying to do - wage war. Napoleon was a big step forward here actually.

And likewise, I can't agree more about the sieges. Why does 90% of the battles have to be seiges for? I know it's supposed to be a big deal, but actually it becomes a bother to do it so often when my favourite battles are the ones on the open fields.

I would add twos thing: The ability to tech up faster while not having to commit yourself to a 50-province campaign. The only way to get better units is by conquering 20 provinces, but this is just tier 2. It's a little slow and makes the short campaign unsatisfying.

The other things is the ability to rush-build buildings. In RTW, I have like 80,000 gold and still waiting 4 or 6 turns for stuff to build.

[Steforian]

5. remove agents (merchants, clerics, princesses, diplomats), only keep one which combine spies and assasins

Why would you remove diplomats? that would be ridiculous!

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Why would you remove diplomats? that would be ridiculous!

There are no diplomats in ETW and NTW, it's actually better that way.

[xccam]

Good multiplayer. that is all.

[Chris Death]

Good multiplayer. that is all.

I'm pretty sure CA could satisfy you with another patch for RTW 1 too then if that's
all you demand for a successor.

~S~ CD

[Magic_8_Ball]

I'm pretty sure CA could satisfy you with another patch for RTW 1 too then if that's
all you demand for a successor.

~S~ CD

I doubt they'd go all the way back to fix what's left for a game this old, though.

[Chris Death]

I doubt they'd go all the way back to fix what's left for a game this old, though.

I never said they would - just found it strange that people would pay the full price of a game if they did.

~S~ CD

[Lucarius]

Some eggs with the bacon next time please

aah finally sombody who understands me

[Plant]

They should include something which RTW, MTW2, ETW and NTW doesn't have...a capable campaign AI and a capable battle AI.

[Chris Death]

Not going to quote you Plant (we both know why), but whenever i hear the call for the better ai (especially on battle map)
i always ask myself: "where should they take it from?"

We are still talking about computers which do have limitations especially when it comes to unorthodox moves by a player.

I mean on a chess game it is some kind of possible to manage a very very good ai but on a larger scale game like total war
there are still too many things to be considered which a human player still could bypass by using unorthodox strategies.

The only way to make a real challenging ai at the moment would still be to limit the players and this is me thinks not what
we all are looking for.

Off course they could still improve the ai a lot and there's still space left to do so but the real deal will still remain on human
opponents.

~S~ CD

[Xion]

A decent Ai would be nice..we'll see how they do with STW2. If that's good..we may have a chance with a good Ai.
For RTW2- Better Barbarians. It's no fun just rolling over them with Pre-marian troops..or basically anything.
Historically Accurate Egypt-It looks like the Egyptians from the movies..the Mummy or something like that.
More regions.
Several Campaigns, with emerging Factions(if needed)
Alexander's War against Persia, The Diaodachi Wars, regular start point, late republic of rome wars, the Punic Wars..and so on.
Historical Generals
Basically I don't want to see Rome crush almost anything in its way in SP
Also maybe a unit editor with variety of armours that the player can customize for astheic taste.(same with banners)

[Plant]

Not going to quote you Plant (we both know why), but whenever i hear the call for the better ai (especially on battle map) i always ask myself: "where should they take it from?"

We are still talking about computers which do have limitations especially when it comes to unorthodox moves by a player.

I mean on a chess game it is some kind of possible to manage a very very good ai but on a larger scale game like total war
there are still too many things to be considered which a human player still could bypass by using unorthodox strategies.

The only way to make a real challenging ai at the moment would still be to limit the players and this is me thinks not what we all are looking for.

Off course they could still improve the ai a lot and there's still space left to do so but the real deal will still remain on human opponents.

~S~ CD

They could take it from Shogun and Medieval AI. They don't chase whatever is nearest to their unit, or run backwards and forwards with archers, nor are there armies made up of pure catapults or lone generals army.

[Xerrop]

They could take it from Shogun and Medieval AI. They don't chase whatever is nearest to their unit, or run backwards and forwards with archers, nor are there armies made up of pure catapults or lone generals army.

Well but there are many peasants present in MTW sometimes.
But I you seem right that STW and MTW were superior games regarding AI. Went back from playing RTW+MTW2 to good old MTW. The first (and welcomed) difference I noted were huge casualties on my side and compared to RTW many lost battles even with equal numbers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But now ontopic:
Aside from a senate and also two or three families for Carthage if they don´t skip this system for the Romans, please also more focus on the other four major powers of the era. Including rebell (shadow) factions as in Barbarian Invasion for Macedon, Seleucids, Ptollies and the Parthians. So other factions can ally with them and when playing one of these factions you should also have the choice to side with the rebelling family member or stay loyal to the old government.

[Mercuri]

Well i would have to be an unit and map editor which you can alter the map. But thats way out there. More historical accuracy i believe since RTWs historical accuracy is questionable as a whole at best.

[Calisthenis of Dyrrachium]

TECH RESEARCH??!! I completely do not want Tech Research!! It would add an unessessary layer of complexity that would defeat the simplicity that I love about RTW.



I would also like:

• Multiplayer camapigns built-in to the game.
• Easy moddability, with mod tools and map editor.
• Better diplomacy
• Several minor factions that have a rather similar roster for each culture, with a few unique units.
• Hellenic-centered Egyptian roster.
• More campaigns.
• A map including all of the British Isles.
• The "look and feel" of RTW but with better quality.
• A "loot" option that allows the player to pillage the settlement without slaughtering the population.
• Start army banners like original RTW, not like ETW.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

An option to punish the population of a rioting settlement without letting it revolt and exterminate again?

Mp campaign. Real egypytians not some fossils.