RTRVII concerns
Being a major fan of Rome Total Realism and having played the mod for many, many years now, I can only say that I was delighted beyond belief when I saw that RTRVII had been released. Having now installed it and had time to play, though, I have some major concerns, none of which have to do with factions or gameplay - from a purely game-experience perspective, RTRVII is impeccable and I applaud the RTR team for their efforts and incredible achievements.
That being said, I am very concerned with the use of images and information from the HBO series Rome. Don't get me wrong, there was never a greater fan of the series, and I frequently re-watch it, having both seasons on DVD. That being said, despite being more accurate than movies like Gladiator or The Eagle, entertaining though they both may be, Rome is all the same not an accurate depiction of Roman history or, more to the point, the Roman army. The point of RTR, to my understanding, is to bring realism to a game that was nearly as devoid of it as these aforementioned movies, the idea being to keep the gritting, high-stakes feel of the game but in a believable environment, the goal of which I believe the latest version 6 of RTR (RTRPE) accomplished without equal.
So it is quite concern, to my mind, to see RTRVII riddled with images of Rome and even making use of the style of helmets and shields depicted in that series. To begin with, RTRPE kept me focused and entirely subsumed by the game, so that it was likely to be closest I would ever come to experiencing the conquest of the Mediterranean basin, even if the RTW vanilla cards as bit goofy - that was part of the experience because at least they were cartoony. With the stills from Rome, however, every time I look at my financial stats or I attack an army (or am I attacked) or anything happens, the still from the series draws me completely out of the game and ruins the effect. Maybe this is just me.
More concerning, though, is a still image of in-game legionaries (which I see during the load screen) that shows the legionaries equipped as the legionaries in Rome, namely using the bronze helmets with the loop hole at the top and the shield style from the series. Neither of these is accurate to the historical record, the helmet itself being a great sticking point which embarrassed at least one museum in Spain when it was pointed out to them that the helmet they had was a modern-created hoax.
I don't wish to degrade the achievements accomplished by the team, but rather provide some constructive criticism and express the concerns of at least one avid gamer. Perhaps these concerns are my own alone and no one else agrees, but all the same I feel compelled to express them. Is there perhaps a way to "turn off" the images from Rome in favor the RTW cards?
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Re: RTRVII concerns
Originally Posted by Ter. Catalonius Luciano
