The FAILURE of Total War: Rome 2

[Nesai]

[EternalSilence]

I agree with this when the game launched, and you didn't have some good mods.
now with patch 5 and radious mod, the game/campaign gets a lot harder.

on my new rome campaign, the AI alreay had siege equipment after 20 turns and was pounding my armie while i was charging the wall.

naval combat: my navy guarded the sea at my borders.
The AI was sending 2 full stacks of armies across the sea to my capital. My navy just destroyed that 2 full stack armie on their transport ships.
So navy isnt that bad anymore.

[Sun Jetzu]

its a total war game, how good do you expect the ai to be?

[SKSlave]

its a total war game, how good do you expect the ai to be?

After almost a decade and a half or so of trying, I'd expect to see some improvements.

Pretty disgusting that CA have got their fanbase lapping up their so much that things like piss poor AI are now accepted without problem. It's been over a decade, people.

[Rittsy]

Pretty disgusting that CA have got their fanbase lapping up their so much that things like piss poor AI are now accepted without problem. It's been over a decade, people.

Yes, but no RTS or Empire-building game has been able to create a really challenging AI. Coding an artificial intelligence which responds at a level to actually challenge the player without 'cheating' is one of the big challenges of video games.

[Humble Warrior]

Good review. Most interesting because the Reviewer actually seemed to be apologising for his previous pre-release rave of RTW2. He goes to some lengths to explain why he was basically `tricked` into thinking it was good. I wish more Reviewers could be as honest with an explanation. thumbs up for him.

I think he`s more or less spot on about the faults- CA certainly shares a good dose of it; at least 50%, much more if they said they could do what they couldn`t.

EternalSilence
I agree with this when the game launched, and you didn't have some good mods.
now with patch 5 and radious mod, the game/campaign gets a lot harder.

on my new rome campaign, the AI alreay had siege equipment after 20 turns and was pounding my armie while i was charging the wall.

What does that AI do with its siege equipment?

The AI is still awful after 5 patches. Neither should Mods have to hand-stitch a game to be barely playable. Unacceptable.

[VINC.XXIII]

What does that AI do with its siege equipment?

The AI is still awful after 5 patches. Neither should Mods have to hand-stitch a game to be barely playable. Unacceptable.

yep, all the eye candy stuff, as from private modders as DLC works just can't save the game, we need(players), mods need a stable and polished platform. Otherwise it won't be fair. What the point to spend time in CS or any software when the devs themselves don't care about cardinal things like making the AI using the siege machines.
If you want my point, the devs knows that machine sieges won't work, and this have some much incidence on game design, its have leads them to:
-invent the burning torches
-make from historically fortified cities some damned ugly villages
-do not care stone forts, there too for limit the number of bugged sieges.
-invent completly ahistorical units like "celtic" and "germanic" giant ballistas. There too, for replace the ladders the barbarians should use.

Cause to an AI trigger that don't work correctly, they denatured their own game, accumulating the historical non-senses.

[Crymson]

Yes, but no RTS or Empire-building game has been able to create a really challenging AI.

Umm, what? Do name those empire-building games that don't work. As far as RTS, there are plenty of games that provide a challenge.

Coding an artificial intelligence which responds at a level to actually challenge the player without 'cheating' is one of the big challenges of video games.

Yes, and it's a challenge that numerous developers have overcome. I'm really tired of these strawman apologisms for CA's cruddy work. The Total War AI is horrific, plain and simple, and that's on CA.

[chris33]

After almost a decade and a half or so of trying, I'd expect to see some improvements.

Pretty disgusting that CA have got their fanbase lapping up their so much that things like piss poor AI are now accepted without problem. It's been over a decade, people.

And pray tell what other game with real time battles and a turn based campaign map has there been in that time that has bettered it ??

[SKSlave]

And pray tell what other game with real time battles and a turn based campaign map has there been in that time that has bettered it ??

Napoleon: Total War. Shogun II: Total War.

Stop being such an apologist. Just because there aren't any other devs making games like TW does NOT give CA the right to do a pathetic job. That's one of the most sorry arguments that I have read.

[Pedalos]

Campaign AI is MUCH better in Rome 2, Battle AI not so much, the AI was never good at sieges and it still sucks at it. But the new campiagn AI really suprises me sometimes. No region is safe, it dosn't matter if it's an island or a backwater city somewhere, there is a chance that the AI might attack it. In all the earlier total wars, you pretty much knew what cities had a chance to get attacked so you just defended there.

Also the AI seems much better at determening if it has a shot at winning before it attacks, often in ETW/NTW (never played shogun) the AI attacked my full stacks with half stacks or less and just died. Now they pull back and wait for reinforcments or use them to defend cities instead.

[Arkonath]

its a total war game, how good do you expect the ai to be?

Are you trying to justify their lack of aptitude at developing a proper A.I? May I remember you a certain rally point of 8 minutes talking about how outstanding and awesome the A.I was going to be? It has been 4 years since the release of the new engine, I think they had enough time to work on a new A.I. I refuse, I repeat, I refuse to believe there is not a single individual out there capable of developing a decent A.I.

[Crymson]

its a total war game, how good do you expect the ai to be?

I expect it to improve. I certainly don't expect it to get worse.

[Jester]

its a total war game, how good do you expect the ai to be?

the AI was better in Napoleon and Shogun2. on campaign map as well as BAI


nobody expected they could make such a huge step back after the ai was more and more improved over the last games

[nameless]

the AI was better in Napoleon and Shogun2. on campaign map as well as BAI


nobody expected they could make such a huge step back after the ai was more and more improved over the last games

Hmmm it's about the same IMO.

Playing as the Seleucids on VH I've managed to take over up to Sides and then Nubia and secured a defensive alliance with the tribes to the left.

Then I'm currently engaging with all of the Satrapies and various factions on the North and East side. It's literally pushing me to the limits as I'm fighting multiple fronts.

To compound things the AI deploys its agents to damage my infrastructure and while I can defend myself when it's 5 against 1 factions with their agents the numbers tell.

About 50 turns while some factions are still deploying spearmen which are still a havoc with me I'm forced to upgrade to better units as factions like Persia, Ma'In, and Armenia are starting to deploy noble swordsmen, noble spearmen, thorax swordsmen and pikemen which again is pushing my economy. To make matters worse these armies are "gold weapons/shields" I'm trying not to push too hard as I'm pretty close to instigating a civil war.

The army limits are sorta helping as it's given me a breathing room chance to regroup after wiping out 1-2 enemy armies. Compared to Shogun 2 where it was an endless wave of AI stacks in Zerg Rush down a specific corridor here it's all over the map.

And to make things worse the AI goes into defensive fortification mode when an army gets past my borders and I send an army to chase it down.

And even worse is when the AI sends in two armies side by side and put them into raiding mode to damage my economy. I'm forced to put two armies to keep the enemy at bay and work my way in building up my infrastructure to support higher quality troopers.

So while the AI isn't perfect it can be tough at times.

[Jester]

Hmmm it's about the same IMO.

Playing as the Seleucids on VH I've managed to take over up to Sides and then Nubia and secured a defensive alliance with the tribes to the left.

Then I'm currently engaging with all of the Satrapies and various factions on the North and East side. It's literally pushing me to the limits as I'm fighting multiple fronts.

To compound things the AI deploys its agents to damage my infrastructure and while I can defend myself when it's 5 against 1 factions with their agents the numbers tell.

About 50 turns while some factions are still deploying spearmen which are still a havoc with me I'm forced to upgrade to better units as factions like Persia, Ma'In, and Armenia are starting to deploy noble swordsmen, noble spearmen, thorax swordsmen and pikemen which again is pushing my economy. To make matters worse these armies are "gold weapons/shields" I'm trying not to push too hard as I'm pretty close to instigating a civil war.

The army limits are sorta helping as it's given me a breathing room chance to regroup after wiping out 1-2 enemy armies. Compared to Shogun 2 where it was an endless wave of AI stacks in Zerg Rush down a specific corridor here it's all over the map.

And to make things worse the AI goes into defensive fortification mode when an army gets past my borders and I send an army to chase it down.

And even worse is when the AI sends in two armies side by side and put them into raiding mode to damage my economy. I'm forced to put two armies to keep the enemy at bay and work my way in building up my infrastructure to support higher quality troopers.

So while the AI isn't perfect it can be tough at times.

i started several campaigns (everytime a new patch was released) always on highest difficulty and none of these campaigns were ever as hard as Shogun2 s . i remember how i had to restart my Uesugi playthrough over and over because the AI was merciless and exploited every weakness. same thing on the battlefield. every time you got more powerful, you got also at least 2 additional enemies. some might say this was cheap cheating, but for me it s exactly what i expect and what i want when i m playing on legendary.
all TW games (vanilla) so far had at least 1 or 2 factions which offer a bit of a challenge at some point, but in R2 i feel no challenge at all. if there is a situation where the ai could potentially overrun me by superior numbers then it happens that they go in passive mode all of a sudden

also, too many of the big factions get wiped out pretty early in the game and the smaller factions seem to be too dumb to tech up, so i always have troops of superior quality. autoresolve is also too powerful in the game and favors the human player. it was the other way around in all TW games before.
i really cant find any challenge in this game

[VINC.XXIII]

the lone advertising vids with actual english playing romans make me sick. And morover the contents itselves shown us they only made RII to profit of HBO rome success...

"Show me your advertising vids, and I will tell you how much your game is ugly"

[Jihada]

the lone advertising vids with actual english playing romans make me sick.

They probably speak French or German in those editions of the game. Would you prefer Latin ? I doubt the gents at CA have much knowledge of that ghastly language and slept through their Latin ablative absolute lessons like the rest of us.

[VINC.XXIII]

Would you prefer Latin ?

Yes, latin, greek voices on the battle, and allow the advertising money for a new engine, recruit more wiser game designer, recruit historians(not "star" reenactors, I means usefull historians)
Stopping recruit "star" like Mark Strong, rather take dudes who speak latins, and further extend the ancient and vernacular voice system to other parts of the map.

English voices in battle and english faces for legionnaries are gamebreaking, break immersion. Its just trashy.

From my point, its this kind of advertising that start to kill a game. The money isn't used correctly, in despite its a symptom of a misconception about historical approaching.

[Gauloisier de la Gauloiserie]

English voices in battle and english faces for legionnaries are gamebreaking, break immersion. Its just trashy.

Word for word my thought-
R2TW is an anglo-americanized version of the ancient world. Only romans eating hamburgers and greeks drinking coca-cola is missing.
Really a pity.

But lets face reality, this game is crap and will remain crap. Patches wont correct it, only make it "playable". I've lost all hope in it.
And I still have difficulties to find one -yes, one!- thing R2TW has over RTW except maybe the "up to date" graphics -and even there, badly optimized...-
R2TW is a stripped off RTW version.