Once you leave the early game, the game becomes BORING. Here's my ways to fix it.

[SKSlave]

A recurring theme I have seen on these and the official forums is that of boredom - once the early portion of the game is complete, it devolves into tedium and isn't very fun to play at all. There are a few fundamental problems with the game that cause this - the passive AI, the naval invasions mechanic, fighting enemy armies and awkward diplomacy to name a few. I recently played about 60 turns of a Roman campaign but got bored and decided to call it quits.

The AI is still extremely passive. Not once did a faction declare war on me during my 60 turns of play time. This needs to be rectified immediately because it's hardly a Total War game when no one even challenges you! I think a good fix would be as follows. We must consider that most factions on the map are 1 or 2 province minor factions. Groups of factions together share a culture, and this culture should give the tribes a hefty diplomatic bonus (especially in the hands of the AI). The AI should form defensive pacts with its cultural kin or even ally with them, especially when the player is getting close to their lands. Now, the AI can consider itself at least twice as powerful. When you leave a province unguarded (which is very easy to do now, thanks to the limited armies mechanic) the AI should sense the weakness and invade the player. This would add some much needed challenge; you'll need to maintain your borders well or plan your diplomatic game ahead of time so you know where to expand to, and also adds some realism because Rome itself was CONSTANTLY plagued with barbarian incursions into its lands. Most were repelled but some caused some serious harm. I'm not saying EVERY Gallic tribe should ally against the player - there should still be an element of randomness to it. If the diplomatic game is played well, the player could ally with some Gallic tribes against the opposing alliance. I know there's the "confederation" feature in the game but I haven't seen this occur yet so I can't comment. Cultural kin should stand together in the face of common adversity.

Another crippling problem is the naval invasions and ability for armies to instantly turn into boats. I'd say a good 80% of battles I fought in my campaign were naval sieges and I was sick to my stomach of them by the end. The AI WILL NOT use roads for some reason, instead preferring to take the aquatic route. Who can blame them, though? When the transport boats rival the largest, most advanced war ships of the era. I want this to be balanced a bit. Since the transport feature is likely to stay, let's limit it. First of all, let's make it a technology unlockable. For the Romans, let's say you need to research Ship Pumps and Advanced Construction Techniques before you can create transports. Next, it should take time. I'm not sure if waiting 2 turns would be too harsh before the player can move again, but this is to simulate the construction of the ships by the soldiers. To have them instantly appear is ludicrous. In addition, I think imposing a levy for each unit on the water is fair too - say a cost of 50 gold per unit per turn. This can be justified to pay the navigators who are piloting the boat, or perhaps the craftsmen the soldiers hired to build the boats. Of course, I'm not sure if the AI could cope with all these things but I desperately want to see a reduction in the amount of ships in the water because at the moment it is horrendous.
OR, as an alternative... code the AI to use roads more. This is probably the easier option.

Enemy armies are still problematic. Slingers, slingers and more slingers are what most armies are made of. Can't an AI build an army depending on the type of enemy it is fighting or expecting to fight? So for example, if the AI is playing Rome and they encounter the Carthaginians and their elephants, they should produce more velites to counter their elephants, and use their infantry and cavalry to hold and flank their hoplites. The armies should be more light cavalry based to fight against the Parthians and their horse archers. A little bit of variety goes a long way.

Of course these are just my thoughts but I think they would improve the game in many ways if implemented. I really, truly want to love this game but in it's current state it's just not possible. It's very sad.

[alhoon]

Hmmm... I suggest you trade save games with this fellow:http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...n-attacking-me

[Obi Wan Asterix]

I get too many attacks... and annoying small factions having a go at me... feels generic, so we have different behavior

[VektorT]

Well, in my gameplay the AI managed to do some important alliances between themselfs even before patch beta 2. Also some of them actually grew into important factions. I also think is kind cool the "local conflicts" between neighbors struggling to grow...

But I'm with you. Even with all that, the CAI didn't was very smart and performed very poorly. The biggest challenge I have was the etruscans in early game, and after that, was a walk in the park. A good sign of the bad CAI was when I actively supported Sparta to conquer all of the Greece, that was in Athens hands. Even with me sending around 3000 to Sparta every turn and defeating even the minor stacks of Athens, it took more than 30 turns to they actually march into a enemy city and capture it (I supported them in battle, of course).

Not just that, but I only have my starting cities plus the etruscans ones when the war Sparta / Athens was over, around turn 70-80, cause all my efforts was into it. Nonetheless, even with only a single full region, and 4-5 cities out of it, I already was far more strong than any AI, all my armies were full chevrons, I have all buildings that my tech allows me and I have no use to the huge amount of money I was making every turn. Carthage, Egypt, Siracuse, celtics, etc, all was a walk in the park.

I saw that the AI has some good things. I saw other factions realize when Sparta was very weak and tried to conquer it. I saw some strategic alliances form and be used against me. All of my neighbors was of two types: or they feel threatened by me and never accepted even an trade agreement and start to do alliance between them, or decided that they shoud be my friends, accepting non agreesion agreements of full alliances (but oddly not the trade). I didn't had any problem to have trade agreements with distant factions though. But none of that was really powerful enough 'cause even the biggest factions was very weak economically and militarily. The diplomacy seems fine to me and better than ever, but the CAI management of their countries and armies seems really, really, really poor.

[daelin4]

It is boring even if you are attacked or at war: there's just not much you can DO in the game. You move armies around, generals die so you replace them, agents level up so you have to select the same abilities as the ones that died before them, you might attack a city, your fleet might be attacked, you may even not auto-resolve, and build the next structure because you've finally unlocked it from research. But that's about it. And that's the reward you get for waiting a long time for the factions to do their own turn.

It's worse than Empire because instead of finding all the settlements, they are all found in the same panel. Which is good...if said panel had a ton of information that is relevant to your income and unrest and such. But there's hardly any good information there, since they consolidated all settlement effects into a single province. The game is so barebones that after the initial early campaign phase, all you just do is he exact same but without the rush of fielding enough armies to quell threats. SO what if five factions joined war against you in turn 100? You already have like three or four armies with the best units and high veternacy: and if you were unlucky you can raise a new one with an army that was destroyed long ago.

[RZZZA]

in my game it seems like the AI is having trouble managing its public squalor. I've had a few big factions form but they inevitably get swallowed up by emerging factions. The Seleucids were very strong but eventually broke up and some new faction called Media Atropane or something took most of the old core Seleucid lands.

[SonOfCrusader76]

The ability to have the armies magically generate their own ships was something that had me concerned even before release - seems that my concern was justified. Another of CA's peculiar design decisions.

[Jedi]

passive ai sounds like a perfect time to do online campaignsa instead.Play a mate 1v1 and hope for no desyncs? Try it on legendary for the cam restricions and see who really is the best general.And the AI unlike in Shogun will not be stomping your face while your mate plots how to destroy your kingdom.

Just a thought....

[Drowsy]

The AI backdooring you by sea is annoying indeed. Though note that 10 ships constructed at a proper military wharf will absolutely destroy any army or armies foolish enough to cross its path by sea. One of those things can sink a standard admirals ship in 1 hit.

[chris10]

The AI backdooring you by sea is annoying indeed.

I remember all these cheaters who were backdooring the AI in RTW back in the day cause the AI was not instructed to guard its settlements properly

payback is a b_i_t_c_h

[zlamaj]

What stops me from launching the game is the lack of anything meaningful to do after you defeat the early 2-3 nations in the start. I seem to be spending most of my time upgrading buildings, recruiting units, and just hitting end turn. It feels empty. Building cards are just laughable. We had amazing looking building cards (for its time) with M2, Empire & Napoleon. Then we started this cartoon-y feel in Shogun and now it's down to a 2-year old drawing their unit and building cards. All those resources in making the campaign map look good, and their skimp out on making the UI pop out? I hate my cities, and I don't want to invest in them. Just find the one that gives food, or public order and hit it...who cares! The province system worked for a while, then I felt disconnect with my settlements. I really don't care about them like I used to in Empire for example. Then I wanted to make sure my cities grew so I can get an economic, cultural or educational center in that region. I could see how that translates from a population growth and what affects it. Now all this is a green bar and another slot with a drawing that pops up. These things will not be fixed by patches. The dumbing down is a conscious decision that made for their future releases, and with every name game they produce it will keep getting worse.

I realise lots of people love what they have done, but I played their games as they seemed a little easier to get into than Europa Universalis, yet it had a little depth to keep the player wanting to play that same faction they just tried a few more times, and approach empire-building from a different angle. For someone like me who has 2-4 hours a week to play and only plays their games it is the breaking point really. For the last 8 years I purchased all their games more than once. Yes, it is stupid for some of you, but I wanted to support them and the only way I knew was to buy more games so I can ensure more money is going their way. This was done to thank them for the endless nights of M2 & Empire. Napoleon and Shogun with their scale didn't give me the same feeling, so they are the only games I only bought once. And with this Rubbish II, I wish I can unbuy and unsee what I saw.

[daelin4]

The thing is that this game is not made for us. It was made for SEGA, according to Mike Simpson.

I mean there's a reason why they said when they announced the patch that they will START to listen to feedback to us post-release: all the years we talked about what could be in the game were ignored. And I bet the fruits of that mod summit thing is hardly evident in this game as well.

[zlamaj]

The thing is that this game is not made for us. It was made for SEGA, according to Mike Simpson.

Please don't word it that way. It just kills me inside when I keep hearing about this rotten relationship. They should have balls for God's sake! SEGA makes money out of them. What kind of spineless studio is this! Rome II is not the end of this. Just wait and see how stupid and dumbed down the next one will be. Total War: Pony Wars

Guess I will have to learn how to play Europa now. It's the only game that has depth and I can trust its developers won't whore their products.

[AngryTitusPullo]

I have the AI attacking me part 100 turns. They are mostly because they declared war on my allies though and I'm dragged it war because if this.

[Carlucio]

The AI doesn't know how to use the transport fleets, they leave their cities unguarded and end up losing it everytime, in my campaign i could see it a lot of times, they send their fleed out to attack someone and then lose their cities to another faction or to rebels. Combine that with AI's inability to handle uprisings and you have a game that the AI rarely, very rarely become a meaningful empire.

[Captain W. Handberg]

After Civil war struck me as the Suebi, three factions declared war on me ever since.


...each turn.

[karamazovmm]

interesting

I have wars that pop up on my most undefended regions. In my latest campaign I had blitz done by one of the northern factions against dacia, and pontus caspia, they blitzed there, I lost 5 settlements before my armies arrived there (they were mostly on retraining down on hellas)

when they did arrive, the AI started doing scorched earth tactics, one very tricky and annoying army stayed in my territory and was capturing settlement, razing them and moving to the others. that did a major economic impact, mostly I was out of food for 15 turns, my armies were very degraded, to the point that I was the one fighting the battles.

they did the defines of the territory using 2 armies, off course in the end they were overwhelmed because I just launched against them 6 half stacks of elite units and 2 of my early army that was full gold chevroned.


the diplomacy works as intended, after I got those territories, a bunch of people started trading with me, because I had leather or furs or something. one thing I did notice is that there is an algorithm that the ai uses and the player too for giving payments in the campaign, I think it calculates the wealth for around 10% and with a minimum of 100, when someone pops up to say that they want to trade with you and demand 200k, just counter propose and offer 1k or so, they will be very satisfied, or you might not even need it, there are some factions that will demand more, the maximum that I got to spend was 10k, and I really wanted that trade. So trade is a matter of what you have to offer, if you don't have interesting resources, you are doomed.

its interesting that I suffered a bunch of land invasions, and the path finding always prioritises land paths, not sea ones, despite the one at sea being faster.