Will Rome II: TW cities be generic or unique?

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

Will historic cities such as Rome, Athens, Jerusalem (and dozens more) be built with the usual generic buildings or will they resemble their real-life counterparts? Also, will the streets and assembly of buildings be random or in accordance with how they were in reality?

Watching the 19-10-2012 trailer has really got me thinking - what would it be like to attack a Gallic city that would actually look like a Gallic city instead of a generic, randomly-generated collection of buildings?

[Steward Denethor II]

Hopefully they will be unique...

[XxAndrewxX2525]

The work that would require ...

[PlacidDragon]

I think its a safe bet to say that at least some cities will be unique (Rome, Carthage, Athens, etc), but that most will likely be relatively generic in terms of their ethnic group (IE, Germanic cities will look nothing like a Roman city, etc) and what structures they've built, and so on.

[Tia]

Rome and Carthage are confirmed for being unique.

[sleepyx732]

Have you played Rome through shogun 2?

The siege battles get more and more generic with each new installment. Sure, they have Rome & Carthage.. cities that are likely only to be played in historical battles. An aspect of the game no one even cares to talk about. They can boast all they want about improved animations and fancy new graphics, while the game play itself continues in a free fall as they feel the need to make everything play like a 1980 arcade game. It's no coincidence this new campaign region system moves less away from siege battles and moves more towards land battles. Or at least they say..

Mehh.. that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Also what makes you think Jerusalem, Athens (and dozens more) will even be in the game? I've heard talk of Memphis but that's about it.

[Lockcaps]

I'd expect these cities to be custom:
Rome(confirmed)
Carthage(duh)
Jerusalem
Alexandria
Sparta + Athens(as these will be factions, you'd expect their capital would look a bit different)
That large Gallic city that i can't remember the name of
Since they are extending the map farther east i guess they have to put one custom in current Russia

[Bobz]

I'd expect these cities to be custom:
Rome(confirmed)
Carthage(duh)
Jerusalem
Alexandria
Sparta + Athens(as these will be factions, you'd expect their capital would look a bit different)
That large Gallic city that i can't remember the name of
Since they are extending the map farther east i guess they have to put one custom in current Russia

Can you actually think of anywhere in what is now Russia to make a custom city? A lot of it wasn't even settled.

[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]

As already written there will be some unique cities with large scale like carthage,rome ct. I would expect Corinth too which was sacked the same year as carthage and was one of the great metropoles of ancient europe. I would expect too Alexandria and Antioch as the main cities of the Diadochy States. I they are funny they make Alesia to a nice castle

Athen isn't really needed because it was more a cultural center at this time and irrelevant as major power, but could be nice with the characteristical Acropolis.

Other cities will be generated like the games before which isn't bad if we have enough models. The few in Shogun were not enough for me^^

[Marvzilla]

Popular Cities will get unique models,but I think every other city will a general cultural model.

[Kraut]

Can you actually think of anywhere in what is now Russia to make a custom city? A lot of it wasn't even settled.

I see Mummy Egyptians fighting Roman Burning Pig Gladiators in the ruins of... Stalingrad!

[Necromancer]

One thing I'm concerned about is whether or not the 'uniqueness' of cities will be fully implemented in sieges. There were some pretty cool looking cities and castles in M2TW (half the wall being built on a hill or cliff etc.) and the potential for some truly unique and epic battles was there. But, most times there was no real reason to place troops on the walls of the 'unique areas' because the enemy would never attack those areas. So, even though you had a unique looking city, it ended up just feeling like a very generic siege. It was a bit disappointing.

Hopefully, things will be a bit different in TWR2.

Perhaps being able to build 'unique' siege engines at 'unique' cities? That alone would add so much. The Helepolis at Rhodes, or Caesar's containment walls surrounding Alesia, for example?

[Holger Danske]

They will certainly be generic. If we're lucky we'll have a select few cities that stands out such as Rome and Carthage, (and maybe Athens and Babylon) the rest will be generic.

[Lockcaps]

It'll probably be like in Rome1, the apperance depends on where the city is and there is 1 per culture(maybe it'll be random between 2-3 models/culture for the cities, we can always hope)

However the generic huge cities will probably be very big. Maybe not as big as the custom ones, but still very large.

[TR00PER7]

I would hope so, I dont know if every city will get the same treatment but the major ones probably will

[Kinjo]

Yeah Carthage looked great and it would be cool if some of the other major cities like you mentioned Rome, Athens, Jerusalem, etc had their own custom model on the campaign and battle map kind of like Kyoto did in Shogun 2. I really enjoyed that feature and hope it is in Rome II on a grander scale.

I think Jerusalem would look epic

[Aeneas Veneratio]

I hope that a lot of the cities will be unique. I also hope it will be HBO Rome, HBO Carthage, HBO Alexandria, instead of Hollyrome, Hollycarthage and Hollyalexandria. By HBO, I mean more realistic, dirtier and not some overly glorified modern work of art. The cities shouldn't look like a thousand servants went around vacuuming and dusting off the whole place every hour, they should have rich people, busy/dirty markets, beggars, slaves and poor people.

[CelticSlav]

Yeah Carthage looked great and it would be cool if some of the other major cities like you mentioned Rome, Athens, Jerusalem, etc had their own custom model on the campaign and battle map kind of like Kyoto did in Shogun 2. I really enjoyed that feature and hope it is in Rome II on a grander scale.

I think Jerusalem would look epic

Well I heard that there's a giant model of Jerusalem at the religious theme Park "Holy Land Experience" in Orlando, FL. Here's a pic:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[roarer]

I am pretty sure Rome will be unique. I hope Athens, Syracuse, Babylon and Antioch will be unique. It was said that it take great amount of time to hand craft Carthage.... so I am not sure how much campaign features I am willing to give up for unique cities / . \. It would be great if we as players can take part in hand crafting our cities ... or else it would take years for CA to create the game. Maybe we can do that through Modding ?

[MathiasOfAthens]

I dont see any reason why CA cant make some unique cities like how they made Kyoto in Shogun II. Its a lot of work but they can do it. However, the vast majority of cities would have to be generic due to the time needed to design and test the cities. Rome, Athens, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, Alesia. Maybe they can all be unique cities. CA would definitely have to redesign their celtic and german cities. I want actual hillforts. Long hills with walls around it. Perhaps two layers of walls. I want Roman and Greek cities to have tight and winding streets. Greek cities have to have a central acropolis... Rome would have to have several hills. Some cities have to have ports within them.

Real question is what will they do with the steppe. Technically there were very, very few cities much less towns north of the crimean. There were a few scattered villages but mostly it was nomadic tribes moving with wagons. Never stationary? How can CA represent this? Movable cities? Permanent settlements? Possibility of settling down and forming a village/town? How do they combine this with regional borders? Otherwise what will they have? Steppe provinces that have generic nomadic villages of tents? I would prefer nomadic villages to be wagon laagers.