HUGE Update: Rome 2 PICTURES, ARTICLES & VIDEOS - 12/6/13

[Gugg]

Looks like ancient Israel maybe? That reminds me of the Temple of Yahweh because it's multi-layered, and I can see a resemblance of the various structures that pic to the historical depiction of the Temple. It's not the same as modern recreations, but there's definitely some similarities I think.

As for the Pyramids,



I normally hate the small nitpicks people make, but this is something that should be addressed because of how incredible these structures are. The pyramids should actually be covered in limestone and gold at the top - they should be brilliantly shining in the sun. Maybe CA can fix this before release, or a modder can give the Pyramids the attention they deserve eventually.

I actually like your argument to fix the pyramids, but we don't know when the pyramids lost the limestone and gold coverings. The first ones were made nearly 3000 years before Caesar came to Egypt, and the last ones were made about 1500 thousand years before he came. So that's a pretty long time. Maybe the cover were looted and destroyed soon after it was made or maybe it stayed that way for thousands of years. Who knows? So for all we know they could've looked like they look today even back then.

[ManuelKomnenos]

Someone noticed this???



Looks like a kind of Babylon or?!? at least the "way" in the middle... a little bit gg

I am pretty sure that's Egyptian. Pylons, processional axis, obelisks; typical ancient Egyptian urban planning. It's probably Luxor, if that city is included. Although I don't believe the temple was located within the city...

[Greve Af Göteborg]

Not so sure about that, I don't see a river in that picture.

[SkyTrickster]

Campaign map looks OK... dunno im not blown away. I guess my expectations were too high.

[Kadoken]

Dumb nitpick, but shouldn't the pyramids be shinier? Much like how marble temples in Rome were dismantled in order to make Cathedrals, over time the smoothed shiny material that they used for the pyramids was taken off to be sold and such.

The map looks sweeeeeet. I see that Hibernians and the Scots/Picts are seperate factions even though we saw the Caledonia et Hibernia thing.

[Epic28]

This is a joke right? I did not come to this thread to find out you guys are ******** about the damn pyramids???

[Gugg]

This is a joke right? I did not come to this thread to find out you guys are ******** about the damn pyramids???

I know this whole thread is just a huge big laughed ass joke. I can't believe I actually contributed to that.

[Serkelet]

This is a joke right? I did not come to this thread to find out you guys are ******** about the damn pyramids???

Can we have an opinion, please?

[Steel*Faith]

It's likely the Pyramids were looted by the Islamic invaders, and the Sphinx was broken and looted by them as well. There's no way they were stripped over their gold and limestone prior to the Romans conquering Egypt, so they should be portrayed in their full splendor in this game.

[Anna_Gein]

It's likely the Pyramids were looted by the Islamic invaders, and the Sphinx was broken and looted by them as well. There's no way they were stripped over their gold and limestone prior to the Romans conquering Egypt, so they should be portrayed in their full splendor in this game.

Didn't a respectable amount of Pharao tombs including tombs from the Valley of the Kings were robbed relatively shortly after their construction ? I don't see why you would have the wait the Islamic invaders.

[Steel*Faith]

Didn't a respectable amount of Pharao tombs including tombs from the Valley of the Kings were robbed relatively shortly after their construction ? I don't see why you would have the wait the Islamic invaders.

So you can't see a difference between sneaking into a tomb in the middle of the night, and noisily stripping a massive pyramid, out in the open for guards to easily see you? Common sense alone dictates that these structures were stripped bare from one of the occupying armies over Egypt's history after the fall of the Pharaohs. Most likely candidate being the early Islamic Khalifah.

As a modern reference, think of how the Taliban blew up that ancient Buddha statue in Afghanistan over a decade ago; this has been a common practice of Islamic conquerors to destroy sacred structures and places of worship, primarily because these sites are idol worship and are offensive to them; the Khalif taking control of the conquered territory has a responsibility to transform the land in the image of Islam. It's also widely known to most native Egyptians and muslims what happened to the ancient Egyptian burial sites and religious structures. Most of the actions taken by the early Islamic Khalifs aren't recorded, as their record keeping was very poor, so much that happened was passed on by word of mouth - hence the variety of stories we have now as to who did what.

Back to topic:

So based on what we've seen in these new Screenshots, how can we expect those local animal resources to work? So if the Romans conquer a territory that has Elephants and Camels, then they will be able to start training native units or some kind of mercenary Elephant and Camel riders? Could these animal resources be used for trading? The Ptolemaics sold elephants to Epirus to use against Rome; is it likely you will be able to do this in-game?

Also, who is that African (Numidian?) infantry stack near the Roman army in the Egypt map screenshot? Is that an army or some kind of agent?

[Anna_Gein]

So you can't see a difference between sneaking into a tomb in the middle of the night, and noisily stripping a massive pyramid, out in the open for guards to easily see you?

Why do you think they decided to move from great constructions to secretive tombs ? Their mausoleums and pyramids were no more saved from robbers.

Common sense alone dictates that these structures were stripped bare from one of the occupying armies over Egypt's history after the fall of the Pharaohs. Most likely candidate being the early Islamic Khalifah.

Early Islamic Caliphate is the most likely candidate ... if you ignore 1000 years of history. Why could not the Assyrians, the Kushite or the Persians loot the pyramid ?

As a modern reference, think of how the Taliban blew up that ancient Buddha statue in Afghanistan over a decade ago; this has been a common practice of Islamic conquerors to destroy sacred structures and places of worship, primarily because these sites are idol worship and are offensive to them; the Khalif taking control of the conquered territory has a responsibility to transform the land in the image of Islam. It's also widely known to most native Egyptians and muslims what happened to the ancient Egyptian burial sites and religious structures. Most of the actions taken by the early Islamic Khalifs aren't recorded, as their record keeping was very poor, so much that happened was passed on by word of mouth - hence the variety of stories we have now as to who did what.

I think you are a little too much on a "modern" vision and Taliban.

As you said that's not the subject of this thread so I won't continue to spamm over this topic.

[Wilder]

So you can't see a difference between sneaking into a tomb in the middle of the night, and noisily stripping a massive pyramid, out in the open for guards to easily see you? Common sense alone dictates that these structures were stripped bare from one of the occupying armies over Egypt's history after the fall of the Pharaohs. Most likely candidate being the early Islamic Khalifah.

As a modern reference, think of how the Taliban blew up that ancient Buddha statue in Afghanistan over a decade ago; this has been a common practice of Islamic conquerors to destroy sacred structures and places of worship, primarily because these sites are idol worship and are offensive to them; the Khalif taking control of the conquered territory has a responsibility to transform the land in the image of Islam. It's also widely known to most native Egyptians and muslims what happened to the ancient Egyptian burial sites and religious structures. Most of the actions taken by the early Islamic Khalifs aren't recorded, as their record keeping was very poor, so much that happened was passed on by word of mouth - hence the variety of stories we have now as to who did what.

Anna_Gein is right, there is really no reason to single out the caliphate as perpetrators of tomb raiding, although I'm sure that if anyone of them happened to find a gold filled room, their actions would be predictable (as would most people's). The reality is that even during the native Egyptian dynasties, a Pharaoh who was a little unscrupulous (or did not like his Grandpa, or had a religious disagreement, or Egypt was in a time of tumult) would have the temples of his predecessors raided, thus the eventual switch to secret tombs in the valley of the kings and elsewhere. Additionally, there where many waves of invaders that could be responsible for such acts. In fact, some of the worst damage was done in the modern era under the Ottomans/French/British. Obviously by then the pyramids had lost their gleam, but raiding tombs was just the thing to do. So many unwanted mummies where found that there was a period that they where being used as fuel for steam engines!

Additionally, (totally of topic, apologies), many people use groups like the Taliban as a sort of mental model for comparison to the Arab caliphates, but that does the people of the caliphates a great disservice. Largely due to the fanaticism of the Taliban many assume that they are "old fashioned", including many modern Muslims, but the truth is that the Taliban are regressive, but in a very modern way, a better comparison might be drawn to the third reich's obsession to return to a fictional "Aryan golden age". In contrast, the Caliphate was expansionist and sometimes brutal, but in a way that they compare favorably with many of their contemporaries, although that is admittedly a low bar. For example, minority religious groups where generally allowed to maintain places of worship, and where to a varying degree integrated with society, all this very much conflicting with the Taliban's ideology of "kill everyone". Finally, one last note, while it is true that the very early Caliphate kept poor records, we are talking about the first couple of generations after Mohamed, by the time of Omar and certainly the invasion of Egypt record keeping was some of the best in the world, perhaps only second to China.

[Lord Tomyris]

The pyramids do have their gold tops in-game, it seems...but you have to look closely to make them out in the screenshots (both battle map and campaign map).

[trinhbot]

same problem all over again. soldiers on the campaign map are bigger than cities and boats. anyone with common sense can see that the character can't ride that boat, it would sink immediately. so disappointed that CA did not get it right this time. guess i'll stick to call of duty.

[* Matolo Swazulu *]

same problem all over again. soldiers on the campaign map are bigger than cities and boats. anyone with common sense can see that the character can't ride that boat, it would sink immediately. so disappointed that CA did not get it right this time. guess i'll stick to call of duty.

If the characters were smaller than the cities, it's be easy to miss the people. Can you imagine how hard that'd be to find everyone turn after turn. Just keep them big so they don't get lost. You go back to cod...

[trinhbot]

If the characters were smaller than the cities, it's be easy to miss the people. Can you imagine how hard that'd be to find everyone turn after turn. Just keep them big so they don't get lost. You go back to cod...

hahaha i can't believe you took my post seriously

[Gugg]

same problem all over again. soldiers on the campaign map are bigger than cities and boats. anyone with common sense can see that the character can't ride that boat, it would sink immediately. so disappointed that CA did not get it right this time. guess i'll stick to call of duty.

Not sure if troll, or just retarded.

[Dan113112]

Not sure if troll, or just retarded.

Or sarcasm perhaps?

[-=PHX=-Hades]

Or sarcasm perhaps?

I'm hoping that's what it was. Especially the Call of Duty part.