Believable soldiers??

**Semper_Fidelis** · August 05, 2012, 09:47 PM

Hey all,

ive heard that in rome 2 they are going to try and make soldiers seem more life like and more real to the player. they are aparently going to add facial animations and conversations to the average soldier. that stuff is good and all but im wondering if they are going to add simpler things that make a battle feel as if it were real. things like the centurion actually saying halt when they stop instead of just the soldiers magically knowing where to stop. or instead of the general saying "units" as if they were a bunch of clones he could say milites or solduros. really just the little things that we dont really notice until it is implimented into the game. some other things that would be cool are soldiers actually dropping their sword and shield to run away if they are broken. and instead of stepping over the vexillarius' body and continuing forward they could actually pick up the legions eagle or standard, the roman standard of the legion was very important. or if an arverni horn blower died someone else would then pick up the horn and use it.

**Okuto** · August 05, 2012, 10:24 PM

I just hope we don't get color coded troops......the romans just being red is victory enough.....we better not get green hoplites or single color gauls/germans.....those days are over.....

I also hope they add to whole "pick up the standard" animation

I just pray they look the part.....for me looking the part makes the game all the more better

**DarthRuanek** · August 05, 2012, 10:49 PM

Originally Posted by Okuto

I just hope we don't get color coded troops......the romans just being red is victory enough.....we better not get green hoplites or single color gauls/germans.....those days are over.....

I also hope they add to whole "pick up the standard" animation

I just pray they look the part.....for me looking the part makes the game all the more better

I don't mind factional color schemes. A large change that M2TW made over RTW, though, is that soldiers within a unit can look different from each other. So that will definitely help.

**Semper_Fidelis** · August 05, 2012, 11:59 PM

yeah i hated that like every german having the same colour, no i think thats rediculous, the same goes for shogun 2. actually the only total war game that didnt have colour codes was napoleon total war.

**Shocked** · August 06, 2012, 12:07 AM

I like faction colours, makes it easier to spot the difference.

**Anna_Gein** · August 06, 2012, 12:35 AM

Agree.
If we could finally get rid of this silly system of colour code the battle would be far more believable.
The presence of this system in Shogun 2 is absolutely incomprehensible since every Japan soldier have a flag at his back.

The rest is also true.
If all units could have their officer or their leader who would order them to advance or stop.
An officer could order his archer to fire each volley etc...
No need far absolute theatrical comportment the most basic would improve the atmosphere by themselves.
Every unit should have their standard bearer too.
And if possible I would like to see this standard bearer going at the middle of his unit when the fighting begin.
(I don't know how that should work with a Macedonian phalanx so take this as a small proposition)

I think the great flag and the coloured circle around the unit you select is enough to recognize your unit.
CA may decide to add more tools but they should make it optional so every player could use what he want.

**daelin4** · August 06, 2012, 01:36 AM

Combination of colours is more refined than one colour. In MTW2 they at least had a primary and secondary colour, so that Scotland and France had blue and white, but the former's was slightly darker. Making patterns and multiple colour templates would multiply this much further, while retaining some colour-coding scheme.

Even in RTW Gaul had green but a hint of red trim, while Brutii was green with white.

**Voodo chile** · August 06, 2012, 02:31 AM

I would think that small things like facial espressions and whatnot wouldnt add a huge ammount unless they looked at the bigger picture.

I would like to see a little more 'imperfect humanness' The post Empire game did this quite well with different soldier walking styles and standing stances.
It would be nice aswell if when ordered to charce or run, your formations would break up quite a bit. - Which could in turn aswell as looking more realistic, create both positives and negatives for the player.
Ordering soldiers to charge or run will break up the formation but give it more shock and knockdown power aswell as an added intimidation bonus.
But it will also mean than the formation or block of troops will have less stability and can get cut down by cavalry more. It will be difficult to rally them back into a formation. Moral may be more prone to dropping after initial impact. There may also be the possibility to break or disperse a 'regiment' or unit.

Imagine this. You have a unit that charges towards an enemy line. Obviously they dont charge in a neat formation and are pretty much all over the place. During the charge, enemy missilt units might fire at them causing some soldiers to slow down a bit and perhaps cower and stop the charge while some soldiers may still charge as before, dispersing the unit further, this may result in half of the soldiers in the unit right up at the enemy lines and engaging the enemy while half of the soldiers may be less enthusiastic and have stayed back a bit still holding their shields out in caution of any arrows or projectiles.

Also, routing. It might be that instead of always having the entire unit rout in one go. That 1 more two may just do a runner. For example. YOu have a line of soldiers of half a dozen units and waiting and on the defence. The enemy army approaches and their archers let loose. Volleys of arrrows fall towards your lines. Yous soldiers react to holding their shields to protect themselves. This goes on for a few seconds and not all your soldiers are lucky and are inevitable hit and wounded or killed. A handful of soldiers decide they dont want to die cowering under their shields and make a runner. Your original unit of 160 loses 8 troops. It may also work vice verse, say your unit is under fire while on the defence. A handful of soldiers may not want to be sitting here under fire and may react without orders and half a dozen may decide to charge the enemy. This may have the chance of furthermore influencing the other men in the unit and may actually result in your whole unit charging without your orders

I would like to see soldiers given more humkan qualities not by these cosmetic additions but by considering the fact that these are just humans are are prone to to the instincts taking over. A bit of psychology would be nice

Some of these things mentioned might be more geared towards undisciplined troops and to a lesser extent, professionals.

But just remember this - Did you ever do P.E in school and play dodgeball? Did you ever play it with handballs and small soccerballs? Did you ever play dodgeball against students several years above your class? Did you ever play a game called 1 team can only stay inside the square and the other team stands on the perimeter and throws tennis balls at them until only 1 guy is left standing?
Did you ever see dodgeball when the entire team saved up the balls and then marched right up to the mid line and did you see how the other team responded? - We have a very good ranged skirmisher behaviour right there.

If you take some of the behaviour exhibited in those cases and more of less transfer them into a game where effectively the same thing is happening, then you have a more human-like experience

**Sir. Cunningham** · August 06, 2012, 11:25 AM

Colour coding is fine and realistic as long as it is not put to the extreme as in RTW1 where we had troops walk around in self fluorescent purple colours and everyone walking in completely identical uniforms.

We don't really have to worry about that for RTWII however, as the few alpha pictures have already shown.

**Hasforth9** · August 06, 2012, 11:39 AM

Colour coded is confirmed.
CA mentioned it wont be over the top, tho

**Asgaroth** · August 06, 2012, 12:00 PM

things like the centurion actually saying halt when they stop instead of just the soldiers magically knowing where to stop. or instead of the general saying "units" as if they were a bunch of clones he could say milites or solduros.

I would really like if the commander said that, but there will be no Latin or native languages in the game. This is not yet confirmed from the CA but I think that they will be English with accents.

some other things that would be cool are soldiers actually dropping their sword and shield to run away if they are broken.

I also hope they add to whole "pick up the standard" animation

Yeah, I agree that it would bring more " life " to the game. But not all soldiers, just some and some not.

As well as the pick up animations.

I just hope we don't get color coded troops......the romans just being red is victory enough.....we better not get green hoplites or single color gauls/germans.....those days are over....

Those days are far behind us as you say.

But from the looks of the pictures that CA gave us for Rome II(Carthaginians vs Romans) they look all differently, so one colored troops will not be back.