I demand a compensation from Will and Craig! (My impressions from the Gamecom!)

[Clone1710]

Hey guys,

I just came back from a long long day at Gamescom (been there since 9 am CEST) and got a chance (two actually) to play Total War: Rome 2!

But first off, I have to grumble!
I travelled there a very long way to visit the CA booth and maybe get a chance to see our rally point heroes.
And what?
They weren't even there! I saw Craig leaving the booth earlier and didn't get a chance to talk to him.
I came back later, but no, those pretty pretty CA ladies told me, that he just left and I missed him AGAIN:
Unbelievable.

I really hope you guys have some kind of compensation for me. I am really, REALLY disappointed.

(nah, just kidding of course, but I don't mind if you'd send me a CA shirt or something if you want to! )

Now to the more important part.
As I said, I could play Rome2, and I was impressed, although we couldn't test the campaign map but both the Battle of the Nile and the Ambush at Teutoburger Forest.
I'm german, so what, I chose Teutoburg first. BAD decision.

First try was on hard difficulty.
As in the video that was shown about the battle, I was playing on the Roman side and had to evacuate the legion eagles, while Varus had to survive.
And this is where it get's difficult!
I didn't manage to get far away from my starting position, when Varus was sniped by some german archers.
Damn it, next try, normal difficulty, for the sake of completing the battle.
Now I was able to move Varus and the eagles somewhat farther, but still - at some point, Varus got sniped by archers.

As I didn't want to occupy my seat too long, I now chose the battle of the Nile.
I played, again, the Roman side (I am unsure whether it was the same in the video), and had a land army (completely with some mercenary elephants) and five or six ships.
My task was to conquer the egyptian occupied hill with my army, so I moved my more "expendable" troops to the frontline, while leaving the elite behind, hoping I could lure those fireballs, elephants and chariots out of their good position.
In the same time, I ordered most of my fleet to attack the enemy ship, for but one ship, that should drop the troops in the back of the enemy.
I don't want to make this post too long, so yep, my tactic worked out, the egyptians where hammered (mostly due to the one regiment in their back, this helped me A LOT!)

What do I take with me from this experience?
Well, I really can't await the release date, as the battles are really, really awesome.
I took some time to look at the details of the troops, and I was stunned, as there are SO many things to see.
I am really glad I got this chance, got to talk with a few CA members (swings angry fist at Will and Craig) and I hope those two CA girls (forgot their names ) didn't mind me annoying them with my amateur english!

Still, there is one point that really annoyed me, and that was that Varus got sniped on every try.
This annoyed me in Shogun 2 already, because it was pretty easy to kill the enemy general this way, and I hope it will be better on release day, either through patches or maybe through mods.
Other than that, everything was fine, one or two little things I myself don't mind as much (e.g. legionnaires not keeping formation in melee or long long lines of fleeing enemies), but I mention them here if somebody would be upset about something like that.

As I said, I can't wait for Rome 2 to be released, and once again THANK YOU to the nice CA crew!

If you guys from TWC have any questions, don't mind asking me, I'll try to answer them.

Greetings!

[CDR Hurricane]

I really hope you guys have some kind of compensation for me. I am really, REALLY disappointed.

Maybe one of them will reply to your thread. Nothing is more personal than that, right?

[Lathrim]

Heh, that ought to be a nice experience. Full of envy here.

Seriously though, did your fleet actually defeat the Egyptian ships?

[babydoc]

DirectX 11?
Ultra settings?

Without TW-bias, did the game blew you away or you got the feeling of a spiced up Shogun 2?

[Clone1710]

Heh, that ought to be a nice experience. Full of envy here.

Seriously though, did your fleet actually defeat the Egyptian ships?

Hah, honestly, I don't think so, most of my ships got hammered between them. I just managed to get some troops in their army's back and that broke the same for them.
I didn't pay much attention to my ships though, as I wasn't really used to control both at the same time.
I think that will be quite a new experience for most of us.

My catapult ship dealt some damage though, but I think they fled because the rest of the army was fleeing as well.

DirectX 11?
Ultra settings?

Without TW-bias, did the game blew you away or you got the feeling of a spiced up Shogun 2?

I don't know which settings they used, but for the sheer level of detail it should be DX11 with ultra settings.
Seriously, it looked stunning, I haven't seen a RTS game with that huge amount of details on the units etc. pp., this is the least thing I'd worry about.

Well, it's quite hard for me to do something without TW-bias as it simply IS there, but I was there with a friend who didn't know the series (quite a shame, isn't it?), and he WAS blown away.
I would say, yep, you still feel that it shares the same engine with Shogun 2, but that's it. I already got so many different troops in my army, it was for this few time quite hard to tell which unit serves which purpose. And of course the combination of land and sea battles gives a whole new tactical level to the game. (if you manage to...well, manage it)
The unit cards are very strange in the first minutes, as well, and I think you have to get used to them to get all the information you wand.
Personally, I minded that there wasn't shown the amount of soldiers left; you had to move the cursor over them, but maybe you can change the level of information you get their in the options, and still it isn't gamebreaking for me.

[theDaedricPrince]

How much detail did each unit have?

[Mortarion]

When you zoomed in, how was the transition with the unit detail level? Was it clear to see, when the higher detailed soldiers started appearing. And like the sprite distance and such?
I remmember in Shogun 2, if i set a unit to 4 lines deep. Troops at the fourth line where alot less detailed than those in the third, second and first line. How was it in Rome 2 if you noticed?

[Luzspit]

It's possible to turn off those icons above the troops? (Like those "green eyes")
I guess it will be like the banners that you can turn on/off but who knows

Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience with us

[Kadoken]

Honestly, if this game was supposed to be a reskinned Shogun 2, than that's for the better, as Shogun 2 and FOTS are to me the best in the series especially AI wise, and responsiveness of units.

[Fanest]

u know not everything should be easy and getting Varus out of the forest alive should be one of those things... nevertheless sniping generals in STW2 isn't that easy, except if your enemy is a rookie

[Legio]

The topic of the thread is a user's impressions of the game following a visit to Gamescon, and nothing else. I have deleted a few posts which added nothing to the discussion; PM me if you have any questions.

[alQamar]

@OP Thank you for your insights posted here they were really helpful!

[iWarsaw]

Good post OP. Glad to hear some positive feedback, which all of it already has been. I hope you get craig or will to stop on by and give you a hello on the forums or something. That sucks you travelled all that way only to be greeted by girls. Ewww gross!

[Huberto]

Varus was sniped by some german archers.
Damn it, next try, normal difficulty, for the sake of completing the battle...at some point, Varus got sniped by archers.

As I didn't want to occupy my seat too long, I now chose the battle of the Nile.

Still, there is one point that really annoyed me, and that was that Varus got sniped on every try.
This annoyed me in Shogun 2 already, because it was pretty easy to kill the enemy general this way,

I saw this AI "sniping" in at least one of Al Bickham's play thoughs. Somewhere I believe CA staff even bragged about the AI targeting your general.

Expect this to be a regular feature in your campaigns and a big part of the Rome II experience.

[Jester]

I saw this AI "sniping" in at least one of Al Bickham's play thoughs. Somewhere I believe CA staff even bragged about the AI targeting your general.

Expect this to be a regular feature in your campaigns and a big part of the Rome II experience.

well, this is a good thing, isnt it?

i do the same and other human players as well. if you get the chance to kill the enemy general you wont hesitate and do it.

[Huberto]

well, this is a good thing, isnt it?

i do the same and other human players as well. if you get the chance to kill the enemy general you wont hesitate and do it.

Depends on what sort of game you like to play. In the Al Bickham playthough the AI wouldn't hold a line because several of his units broke formation to play chase the general which didn't work real well since they were on foot. Anyhow a "chance" is different than a focus.

[killua]

Depends on what sort of game you like to play. In the Al Bickham playthough the AI wouldn't hold a line because several of his units broke formation to play chase the general which didn't work real well since they were on foot. Anyhow a "chance" is different than a focus.

Which one are we talking about ? If you were speaking about the Macedon vs Rome battle. the AI didn't really actively seek out AL, he just charged his general under fire and got him killed.

played it at gamescom aswell, on legendary, the same scenario ... , the ship battles are as silly and dull and epic waste of time as they looked on the video shown earlier, remember those guys jumping on the other ships one at a time that takes ages.... guess what happens when they win the boarding fight and are on the enemy ship that just lost all its crew and you conquered, before you can use any of your now two ships, you have to wait 3 minutes to see them all jump back again to their original ship one at a time before you can use that ship for any fighting action again ... epic facepalm

and the big double tower Egypt ship, what a joke it should stood still not even trying to ram any of my ships, i think it cant ram ships that are boarding process, just sat there taking hits doing absolutely nothing .... so disappointing ...

Did it feel final or was it a bug you ran into ?

[Huberto]

Which one are we talking about ? If you were speaking about the Macedon vs Rome battle. the AI didn't really actively seek out AL, he just charged his general under fire and got him killed.

No the one I watched was a battle from the prologue campaign (not the port battle).

The OP played a different battle

[Pesticide]

played it at gamescom aswell, on legendary, the same scenario ... , the ship battles are as silly and dull and epic waste of time as they looked on the video shown earlier, remember those guys jumping on the other ships one at a time that takes ages.... guess what happens when they win the boarding fight and are on the enemy ship that just lost all its crew and you conquered, before you can use any of your now two ships, you have to wait 2 minutes to see them all jump back again to their original ship one at a time before you can use that ship for any fighting action again ... epic facepalm

and the big double tower Egypt ship, what a joke it stood still not even trying to ram any of my ships, i think it cant ram ships that are boarding process, just sat there taking hits doing absolutely nothing .... so disappointing ...


Did it feel final or was it a bug you ran into ?

the computer froze up on me right after i was almost done getting my boarding ships back to take on the big ship just sitting next to all my other ships , who all where bussy getting their guys back from the enemy ships, basically all i could do was turn my thumbs and wait watching all these guys jump back, expected them to use the enemy ships at least that i just conquered . I was about to point out the weird behavior to anyone around from ca , evidence lost, i retreated and went to cry in the bathrooms

[Jester]

Depends on what sort of game you like to play. In the Al Bickham playthough the AI wouldn't hold a line because several of his units broke formation to play chase the general which didn't work real well since they were on foot. Anyhow a "chance" is different than a focus.

are you talking about that Macedon vs Romans video? Al has lost that battle. but yea, i agree, a too strong focus would be silly of course. have to play some matches for myself before i want to judge this though


EDIT: oh, i see you mean another battle. cant excatly remember what happened there. but i think the prologue and historical battles are whole different story anyway since they re heavily scripted. plus the prologue has fixed easy ai