Thoughts After Patch 2 And What Still Needs to Change

[Quickening]

When the patch 2 beta was released I was in the middle of a game as Rome on Very Hard. The difference after the patch was like night and day. I test the patch further I started a new game as Rome on Normal, and even on that difficulty the AI is far superior to what it was. Previously I could steam-roll even mighty cities like Carthage, but now even small factions are pro-active and put up a good fight. But as great as this patch is, the game still isn't polished. In fact, the game still isn't finished. In my opinion, as well as the numerous bug fixes required, these are the things that should change:

- I do like the fact that taking a faction's last settlement doesn't eradicate them, but on the other hand dispatching their tiny armies in their futile attempts to attack is nothing but a chore. Maybe do away with these armies but still leave the dead faction the means to be resurrected via rebellion later on.

- The ammunition that javelin units have needs to be reduced by at least 75%. The amount of ammo they have is just ridiculous and ruins the immersion for me. Same with the flaming javelins.

- War dogs need to be significantly nerfed. It's possible to clear out entire garrisons with just two units of them in the early game.

- It was good that they reduced infantry running speed and made it take longer for them to break from combat, but they haven't yet gone far enough in this regard. Entire armies consisting of thousands of men still routinely dissolve away.

- I don't know what it is, but it seems remarkably hard to kill off an army. There have been times where they've escaped with only twenty men left and still been present on the campaign map even after I chose to slaughter those I captured. This is especially annoying when dealing with the last of a dead faction's units. I'm starting to believe you have to kill their general in the battle to completely finish them off.

- It's really annoying how your soldiers start cheering the instant a unit breaks and runs. They could be using that time to kill those enemies that are right next to them. In past Total War games it seems like the enemy had to be a certain distance away before your unit started the celebrations. Even better, keep the celebrations until the battle is won.

- Just like the case was in Medieval 2 originally, chasing down units seems a bit broken. If you send cavalry after a fleeing unit it takes a good degree of micromanagement to have a hope of them actually killing anyone. Also, why can't we have the pure white retreat flags back? Makes it much easier to locate shattered foes.

One last thing, which isn't an opinion but a question: why is it that Rome starts with a statesman somewhere in terra incognita? Somewhere in Africa it seems. Is this a bug?

Anyway, thoughts on future changes?

[AzureNight]

Siege AI is still completely broken, especially when naval units are involved. The battle doesn't end when I make the last naval assault unit rout...it seems units get stuck near the capture point in unwalled towns. Walled cities also have horrible AI.

[DanMLee88]

Agreed with everything except the javelin ammunition issue. This is a matter of missile unit damage in general - it's sometimes ridiculous the amount of crazy difference in damage they do at near max range vs point black, and missile damage in general. Also one important point: Bring back the old missile unit system where they DONT HAVE TO BE FACING THE ENEMY TO FIRE. As it is now, the whole unit needs to shift their whole formation wasting precious time if the enemy is outside of the 'arc'. This type of thing maybe acceptable for firearms with fire by rank, but this is ridiculous.

[Quickening]

Update on my point about it being hard to destroy armies from the campaign map: I just went out to face a single ship and slaughtered every last man on board... but it was STILL on the campaign map after I'd slaughtered those captured. What the...

[GM207]

Battles are still too laggy, my machine can handle 50,000 troops on the battlefield with Napoleon Total War, but with Rome 2 having only 20,000 troops and it laggs like hell.

[Metallistic]

I completely agree with the points that you brought up. I would add several more things:

- Guard mode
- Fire at will for melee units
- Gates cant be destroyed by units throwing torches (dumbest feature in the game)

... and eventually - a family tree.

[Igor85]

Fully agreeing to your list. Also plz nerf transport fleets, and slow down battle speed way more.

[Wheatley]

Rome and Carthage (especially Carthage) falls too easily in early game. Usually Libya destroys them.

[Humble Warrior]

The speed thing makes little sense to me. In Shogun2 it was too fast and everyone said so, and they reduced it, then they sped it up again in RTW2 as if they had the memory of a gold fish and it`s not like it could be a bug since it was easy for them to fix back. I can only use conspiracy theories as to why CA continue to do this...

1. They really do have the memory of goldfishes.
2. SEGA being the creators of games like Sonic the Hedgehog, force CA to speed up their games by 75% because they just can`t understand that we in the West actually want our battles at something approaching Human speed.

[Killerbee]

The speed thing makes little sense to me. In Shogun2 it was too fast and everyone said so, and they reduced it, then they sped it up again in RTW2 as if they had the memory of a gold fish and it`s not like it could be a bug since it was easy for them to fix back. I can only use conspiracy theories as to why CA continue to do this...

1. They really do have the memory of goldfishes.
2. SEGA being the creators of games like Sonic the Hedgehog, force CA to speed up their games by 75% because they just can`t understand that we in the West actually want our battles at something approaching Human speed.

Dude what the hell is wrong with you, you don't even have the game. You're completely hijacking this constructive (!! rare as they are) thread just to make your stupid goldfish and Sonic jokes whilst also blatantly making statements in name of the entire West. If you don't like the game, no wait, if you don't even have the ing game, get out of threads like these.

On topic, stuff that needs to be changed imo are :

Transport ships - make them weaker, give them a cost, and make them slower.
Cavalry suicide charges
Enemy still creates waves of Levies and Slingers
Politics system - there's some greatness in the new system but right now it's just too shallow and, most of all, ineffective. You can do all the bribing and marriaging and blackmailing you want, you will never control your influence efficiently and civil war will always happen
Add some importance to controlling the Mediterranean, especially if you hold key cities like Alexandria and Carthage. Being able to impose fees on the trade that passes through your are or whatever, but right now it doesn't have any bonuses (not even economically) and it shows : Carthage is downright UP and gets assraped all the time by the notorious Afro-Spanish hordes of doom

[Queen Annes Revenge]

Dude what the hell is wrong with you, you don't even have the game. You're completely hijacking this constructive (!! rare as they are) thread just to make your stupid goldfish and Sonic jokes whilst also blatantly making statements in name of the entire West. If you don't like the game, no wait, if you don't even have the ing game, get out of threads like these.

Yeah, it would be nice if the people that don't have the game (and passing judgement on it based on the forum reaction) would find something better to do with their time.

[Gaizokubanou]

1. More optimization and bug fixing

2. Better unit cohesion for more 'professional' unit types

[RagingCroppy]

1. More optimization and bug fixing

2. Better unit cohesion for more 'professional' unit types

I would like more unit cohesion overall. Maybe more for more professional troops but the way it is now makes the battles a little too chaotic, and confusing.

[Downtown1]

I think the armies routing too easily might be at least partially a problem of the army compositions that AI keeps building.. at least in my game they seem to spam armies of Levies (Spearmen, Archers, Skirmishers, take your pick).. It is then entirely unsurprising that their entire army starts routing once a unit takes a whee bit of 40-50% loss.

When I was in civil war, the AI finally spawned some formidable enemies, more than half T1/T2 units (not levies) and they would actually stand and fight for a long time, I actually got so surprised I ended up losing one battle since my guys routed before the enemy! Of course the problem is that the CW is scripted, so after that the game goes back to being a lot easier.

Another issue of speed is that units almost never get fatigued anymore. Even in desert, they happily run around across the map and still they stay Fresh. This needs to be significantly fixed, otherwise the tiredness mechanic is pointless.

[Quickening]

Another issue of speed is that units almost never get fatigued anymore. Even in desert, they happily run around across the map and still they stay Fresh. This needs to be significantly fixed, otherwise the tiredness mechanic is pointless.

This, a thousand times over. The mechanic really is pointless at the current time. Because the javelin units have so much ammo I often defeat entire garrisons with them alone, but even after all that throwing and running around, they remain on "Fresh". I've never ever seen a unit go below "active".

[Korburss]

This, a thousand times over. The mechanic really is pointless at the current time. Because the javelin units have so much ammo I often defeat entire garrisons with them alone, but even after all that throwing and running around, they remain on "Fresh". I've never ever seen a unit go below "active".

Only seen it once. During civil war, the loyalist reinforcements came from the opposite side of the map from the first group. After having a pitched battle and running through the whole of Rome they became exhausted. Then after about thirty seconds of standing still were fresh again.

[panzerschreck]

OPTIMIZATION! LAGs are awful in melee!

+ bowmen are really passive
+get rid of exploding ships (better animationS)

[Queen Annes Revenge]

They also really need to remove the capture points from open battles, even if they implemented this better I still can't see the gameplay justification for them.

[BigEl_nobody]

First of all things: Make the game HARDER, WAY HARDER. Make it as hard as you can, because until the game is even a slight challange, all other gameplaychanges are useless, because at the end you still have an unplayable und boring easy game...

[Smiling Hetairoi]

Nerf minor factions. I'm getting quite tired of seeing one settlement factions being able to steamroll major factions.