Barbarian Tribes indirectly confirmed ?

[Asgaroth]

Hy guys, I was just reading this text :

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/...-war-in-rome-2

And at the last part I came into this when they were talking something about the game mechanics :

There should also be plenty of interesting mechanics to dig into in terms of units relationships and how different types stack up against each other in battle. “You should bank on ancient world combat mechanics. You’ve got phalanxes and pikes that are very strong against cavalry. You’ve got a lot of skirmishing units, a lot of precursor weapons, we call them; melee units like the legionaries throwing pilums before they go in and charge. We’ve got some weapons that are stronger against armor and others that are very devastating against less armored troops, but not so much against armored troops. It’s very important for us to make sure there are really strong, intuitive relationships between the unit types, and there’s a huge variety of them. There’s a lot more unit variety than even in Rome. We want the campaign map to play differently if you’re a barbarian tribe versus Rome versus all these different cultures. That means different technologies, different agents. With Shogun 2 we could focus on one culture and do it really deeply, but it meant that one faction and another faction were different in terms of flavor but they weren’t radically different in the way that we want to be the case in Rome 2.”

Does the red part indirectly mean they will divide Barbarians into tribes finaly ?
That obviously also confirms that some barbarian factions will be playable.

One more thing :

Does this mean that spies, assassins and DIPLOMATS are back !?!?!???

[Trentest0]

Probably spies and assassins... but if they bring back diplomats I'll be annoyed.

[Asgaroth]

Probably spies and assassins... but if they bring back diplomats I'll be annoyed.

Diplomats brought relism to the game. You now just open a menu and speak to the other faction, with what ?, a telephone or telekinesis ??

Diplomats were too good. I wish they were back.

[Jazx]

Diplomats brought relism to the game. You now just open a menu and speak to the other faction, with what ?, a telephone or telekinesis ??

Diplomats were too good. I wish they were back.

I %100 agree, I hope they give us diplomats back. In ETW diplomats could be needless because in 18th century technology was higher you know but in 200 BC we need diplomats

[Tim_Ward]

Diplomats brought relism to the game. You now just open a menu and speak to the other faction, with what ?, a telephone or telekinesis ??

Diplomats were too good. I wish they were back.

No, dude.

The travel time between, say, Rome and Carthage in the olden times was about 4 days (worked out using this: http://orbis.stanford.edu/, which is awesome as hell). Rome could send a proposal to Carthage and have a response in just over a week. The shortest period of time ever covered by a turn in a Total War game is 3 months (four turns per year).

There is no realism in personally having to recruit and move around your diplomats in your role as Emperor, Consul, King &c or whatever you are. Diplomats were, dumb, stupid, rubbish and basically all negative adjectives in the english language and getting rid of them was one of CAs best ever decisions.

The only thing you get from them that you don't get from the current system is the ability to have diplomats with different skill levels and characteristics (e.g. this dude hates greeks. don't send him to propose a treaty to the greeks) but this was crap in Rome and Medieval 2 because:

1) the AI just refused everything you offered anyway
2) Like a lot of stuff back then, there was basically no feedback through the UI so you had no idea if your proposal was rejected because they were going to reject it anyway (see 1) or because the guy you sent was a massive dick.

If they wanted to do that from Rome 2, they can still do it by abstracting it in the same way they did for government people in Empire - "Here's a list of diplomats - pick one to go and treat with Pontus" and it would be pretty cool because they've learned that giving feedback is important in making game mechanics feel worthwhile and also that there's no point in diplomacy if they AI won't use it.

[Sol Invictus]

No, dude.

The travel time between, say, Rome and Carthage in the olden times was about 4 days (worked out using this: http://orbis.stanford.edu/, which is awesome as hell). Rome could send a proposal to Carthage and have a response in just over a week. The shortest period of time ever covered by a turn in a Total War game is 3 months (four turns per year).

There is no realism in personally having to recruit and move around your diplomats in your role as Emperor, Consul, King &c or whatever you are. Diplomats were, dumb, stupid, rubbish and basically all negative adjectives in the english language and getting ride of them was one of CAs best ever decisions.

The only thing you get from them that you don't get from the current system is the ability to have diplomats with different skill levels and characteristics (e.g. this dude hates greeks. don't send him to propose a treaty to the greeks) but this was crap in Rome and Medieval 2 because:

1) the AI just refused everything you offered anyway
2) Like a lot of stuff back then, there was basically no feedback through the UI so you had no idea if your proposal was rejected because they were going to reject it anyway (see 1) or because the guy you sent was a massive dick.

If they wanted to do that from Rome 2, they can still do it by abstracting it in the same way they did for government people in Empire - "Here's a list of diplomats - pick one to go and treat with Pontus" and it would be pretty cool because they've learned that giving feedback is important in making game mechanics feel worthwhile and also that there's no point in diplomacy if they AI won't use it.

Exactly! I hated having to herd Agents all over the map and have it take several years to get where they were going when in reality it would have taken a few weeks which equates to one turn in TW. It was a constant pain in the neck.

[TuranianGhazi]

Exactly! I hated having to herd Agents all over the map and have it take several years to get where they were going when in reality it would have taken a few weeks which equates to one turn in TW. It was a constant pain in the neck.

Getting rid of Diplomats and Merchants was the best decision ever.

For me, I found enemy Merchants much more annoying than Diplomats. Instead, I think adding back marriageable Princesses and other new unique Agents makes more sense.

I like Col. Tartleton's ideas. Agents accompanying an army should have a different bonuses and benefits than Agents milling around in cities or countryside - just like the direction S2 went with. Also, this reminds me of Mount & Blade: Warband's system where an army needed engineers, medics, priests, tacticians, trainers, etc

For example, a Military Trainer Agent. If accompanying an army, faster replenishment rate. If sitting in city, faster training rate. C'mon!

[Adreno]

i wouldnt mind diplomats actually, if they could do more than just diplomacy.. the godlike diplomacy doesnt really work for a title like rome.. where it could take months just to send a message or order somewhere.. you shouldnt be able to be able to contact every civilization from the get go.. maybe they will do it like in shogun, where you first have to explore the map and are only able to do diplomacy when youve encountered a new faction.. maybe it should take a few turns for a faction to respond to your requests, and the furthere they are the longer it will take to get a message back.. i really hope there's plenty of agents, i love em

[Gaius Augustus Caesar]

They could do what they do in the Paradox games where you have the godlike diplomacy but it take about a month to return.

[Fabricus]

Diplomats were cool! I hope they add merchants as well.

[Asgaroth]

Diplomats were cool! I hope they add merchants as well.

Oh, yes I totaly forgot about merchants from MTW II, they were really special also !

[MathiasOfAthens]

Can you not write in all caps in your threat titles.

[Punic Hoplite]

Diplomats made it easy to level up assassins

[Asgaroth]

Can you not write in all caps in your threat titles.

I don't understand the question ?

Diplomats made it easy to level up assassins

Yes, but the were good for bribing armies, factions as well , nevertheless they were a good target for the assassins.

[MathiasOfAthens]

I don't understand the question ?

I misspelled thread. All Caps means your yelling on the internet. Its annoying. Its like you want everyone to see your thread.

[Adufka]

Everything in this interview sounds good..and we know now the game will be released in late 2013...i think sometime before christmas...looong time to wait

[Asgaroth]

looong time to wait

As long as they game won't be buggy and half finished when it comes out, I have nothing against that.

[Adufka]

As long as they game won't be buggy and half finished when it comes out, I have nothing against that.

Yes sure..rather I will wait longer..and i can enjoy completed game without bugs..

[krisslanza]

Diplomats, and especially Merchants, were really annoying agents in my opinion. I won't be too happy to see them return, but I guess I wouldn't be furious either.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Diplomats, and especially Merchants, were really annoying agents in my opinion. I won't be too happy to see them return, but I guess I wouldn't be furious either.

Exactly my oppinion, it was really tedious to walk the diplomat all around the world in the first turns just to exchange maps and trade agreements with everyone.

Merchants I didn't even bother with they were completely pointless agents and I made more than enough money anyway.

Hopefully spies and assassins will be combined into one agent like ETW's rake. Having one type of multi-tasking agent walking around is more than enough in my oppinion, hopefully there will also be a max 5 agents limit. For the Romans the agent can be called Aracnia, for Gauls druid, for Germans hero, for Greeks envoy etc...