Did RS spoil me? Yeah.
I pre ordered Rome II (because with 40% budget what could go wrong, right?) and have played about halfway through the roman campaign. Now I find myself thinking that I want to go back to that new 2.6 roman campaign I started not long ago. Now I'm not going to go too far into Rome II's shortcomings because its a pretty popular topic, but I would like to share my thoughts about the subject in relation to RSII. First of all, why do I feel like stopping the Rome II campaign?
Well, I just finished the Roman civil war, brought about by a supremely shallow politics system that also really doesn't do a good job of showing the player how it works. I had done about 100 turns, had conquered north Africa and was expanding into Iberia, with a couple of other territories here and there, but only about a quarter through the imperium meter. So it happened sooner than I expected/would have liked. Aside from the Senate Loyalists appearing and matching your military power (I was playing on hard, not sure what difference if any that makes) you get a quick cutscene of two lions about to face off and then a similar cutscene when they are destroyed and an option to choose republic or empire. Since my Roman empire was relatively still on the smaller end, I chose to keep it a republic, which to my dismay changed nothing except for that fact there seems to be no more political challenge . . . or anything.
-For those who haven't played yet, your family (usually only 1-2 characters) has a percentage of senate approval. As I gained territory it quickly rose. This is what I found a bit odd, that the rebellion is actually triggered when your approval is highest. You can apparently slow this down by selecting certain actions against other characters from different families like marriage, assassinate etc., but is was always so expensive I never bothered.
Another factor that made me less immersed in the campaign was, like the "politics", the characters having no depth. There is no family tree, and with the 1 year turn it just feels like your family members are a bunch of random people that, by the time they gain any skills to become useful, die. And that's the thing, I have never cared about them dying. Another aspect to the characters is perhaps a double edged sword; characters show up like they do in their portraits on the campaign map (I assume the battle map too, can't recall). The bad thing is there are only about a dozen faces(matched with armor type) and you'll see them over and over again.
- Overall I like it. It adds to the immersion, because all characters do end up coming across as more alive. This feature also makes the others factions more alive and diverse feeling.
The last major grip I'd like to bring up is the amount of generic units. I was excited to hear CA say that they would have 700 units. By the time the game was closer to release it was down to 600. I figured that was still a ton. Why then does the playable factions have such meager unit rosters then? Most of your generic units will be shared with every other faction of that culture, with each faction having its own unique elite units. That's kind of to be expected, but in campaign, at least halfway, you'll see the same 3 or 4 units per culture over and over again, with only the occasional elite/unique unit (Averni's Oathsworn is the only one I can recall)
Soooo this brings me back to RSII. You guys took the original RTW and added so much depth and immersion. I really doubt Rome II, even if they didn't drop the ball big time, could ever have given the depth that RTW mods have given, especially RSII. I'd like to thank you guys again for my favorite total war experience, and while Rome II may be lacking, I think with mods it has some realyl good potential. I personally hope you guys will give it a go, or at least keep it under consideration!
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Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix
