Rome II - 2 Months Later - Feedback needed

[DarrenTotalWar]

Hi there, I'm doing a video for the site about the state of Rome II 2 months after release.

I wanted to get some feedback about the game from everyone. I have been scouting the forums and looking to see what people think but I still have some questions that need to be asked.

Bear in mind that there we are 4 patches in, and there has been several DLC drops (Greek States, Seleucid and Nomadic Tribes packs)

I will ask you to pretend as if the game has just released (in this state). FORGET ANYTHING YOU THOUGHT BEFORE PATCH 4.
and please dont just spam hate on the game, please just be reasonable.
the purpose of this video is to inform people of the game's current state, if they should purchase it, or if the game is now acceptable or better to the people who originally gave it 0/10 on metacritic.

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

Thanks very much everyone.

For those who have commented and may be represented or quoted, they will appear in this channel:

youtube.com/darrentotalwar

Subscribe to see the video on November 3rd. Rome II, 2 months later.

I'd just like to thank all of you who have responded to this and to those who gave me +rep for it. The more the better so keep the feedback coming, hopefully the video will be done by november 3rd and can shed some light on the state of the game currently.

[totalwar_legend]

1. 9/10. At launch it was 6/10
2. The haters on the total war community threads are the worst. Some people have legitimate complaints and address them well. However, the most outspoken ones are morons that only enrage other small minded buffoons like a rabble rouser at a riot.
3. Yes. But they aren't finished yet.
4. Shogun 2 and Rome 2 cannot be compared because they cannot ever be alike. They are two vastly different time periods, land masses, cultures, and technologies. But Yes, I recommend Rome 2 and endorse it. 1.5 is what it should have been at release so its good now. That being said, I would prefer to have a broken game on September 3 than 1.5 on October 15. I've had the pleasure of watching Rome 2 evolve for the past 2 months and its been a great ride. But If you expect Rome 2 to be like Shogun 2, then No.
5. $100 AUD
6. Huge scale battles (battles with more than 6000 men). The difference between professional troops and peasants is huge. About time. Many wonders with pretty good buffs. Much larger campaign map.
7. AI need to be a lot more aggressive and less defensive in both campaign and battle. Food and public order penalties for lvl 3 and 4 chain buildings needs to be reduced by at least half - It's almost never worth getting anything to lvl 4 if you already have one in your empire. Performance optimisation could be better. The before battle speeches suck big time, but I don't care if no changes are made. Political system is kind of lame since it's solely to do with civil war.
8. 500
9. Multiplayer battles I have never enjoyed in any Total War title. I love multiplayer campaigns.

[Medina]

1. I would give the game a solid 7/10. Its not that bad, but i still has major issues.
2. Optimalization of CPU/GPU and the lack of emergence without the famility tree.
3. Mediocre. Some good UI fixes, some better performance, still in need for more.
4. No, I would yield a negative NPS score.
5. Around €29,99.
6. Actually nothing in particular. Only beautiful thing is the Phalanx.
7. See 2. But most importantly: optimalization for more men on the Battlefield. With 5000 I get huge framedrops with high-end PC hardware.
8. 95 hours.
9. I havent played the multiplayer. I loved naval Multiplayer in Napoleon though.

[Rittsy]

1. 8/10. 6/10 at launch.

2. Siege AI is still an issue. Although 'upset' is a strong word, I generally just auto-resolve defensive sieges and move on.

3. Whilst the release was objectively iffy, CA have done a great job communicating and supporting the game.

4. If they've got the urge to play another Total War game I definitely would. If they're not too fussed I'd tell them to wait another month or two, just for another couple of patches.

5. Hard to say. Obviously you should try and buy it at the lowest possible price...but I paid $80 and in no way do I regret my purchase.

6. Graphically it looks great and I really enjoy zooming in and just watching men march prior to a battle. The improvements to diplomatic AI are also very welcome.

7. Rejig the 'Civil War' so it is more than just a revolt when you reach a certain size; improved siege/battle AI; additional diplomatic/conquest options ie: gifting regions, liberating factions etc; deeper trade system; more challenging endgame (without being Realm Divide-esque).

8. 134 Hours.

9. I never really play multiplayer.

[♔hammeredalways♔]

1-Being impartial and unemotional as the game stands it is 6/10

2-I think the most disappointing aspect continues to be BAI, in particular the siege aspect when the AI is defending. There seems to have been little evolution here despite an obvious issue from the start with the Warscape engine.

In fact the BAi has a remarkably similar issue that occurred in Empire with various no forts mods, in that it sits passively just taking casualties, it is as if it believes there are walls there to protect them. This aspect has not been addressed in RTW2

3-I think their initial proposal of a patch a week was rather ambitious, and many of the patches seem to issues in that should have been identified in actual game alpha/beta testing or in patch testing. I think if the beta testing requirements are swamping CA's ability in terms of resource then they should look to develop a stronger cadre of testers (if they have already, then they need more or should examine the quality of the testing)


4-No, I would have to advise wait until the game is patched fully and discounted in Steam

5-£24.99

6- The graphics despite the lack of optimisation are good, but eye candy is just that

7-Given that I do not expect significant changes beyond some patch tweaks and more DLC, BAI (siege in particular) some form of increased optimisation to improve FPS and the release of modding tools

8-circa 150

9-I'm afraid I don't play multi-player

[Pseudolivius]

Please note that this is just my opinion.

1.Launch date 3/10 now it`s a 5/10

2.Most I`m upset about it`s the disgusting marketing stunt and behavior of CA towards it`s long standing fans ,we don`t deserve this at all.We respect CA and TW franchise and this is how they repay us.And for the game : no family tree, no politics, no religion,no depth, low fps (yes I have a high-end rig),no AA, crap animations (they went for 1 on 1 soldier animations wich is stupid and causes those blobs and broken formations because units scate around trying to find someone to sword play with, this is not medieval Japan, even shogun 2 with those kind of animations maintained formations),no multiple turns per year, no seasons, useless generals (because they die in a few turns),stupid skill tree, CUI , BUI, CAI (worst), BAI (improving but still crap), SAI (siege AI is brain dead), few walled cities ( wtf!?!?), Unit formations don`t work ,Horrible sieges aaaaand so on.Basicaly they messed up almost everything.

3.Slightly

4.NEVER!!!!No way , No , no NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.The game is a disgusting ripoff.

5.About 10 $ We just got the skeleton of the game. (Modders will complete the game, they always had THAYNK YOU MODDERS I WUV YOU GUYS )

6.The potential of the game, and those expanding cities look awsome.

7.Everything.

8.A lot 241

9.Enjoy what ?You`re joking right ?

[raest]

1. 5/10 (feeling generous today)
2. misleading marketing, performance, AI, unit balance/variety/rosters, faction balance, transport fleets, weird strat map projection, 1TPY, poorly implemented province system, walls, AI, 3 traits limit, gamey building system, AI, lack of wonders, poor strat-to-battle map translation, flaming javelins, wardogs, nuclear torches, AI, performance, misleading marketing
3. NO
4. NO
5. they need to pay the players for being testers, so i guess -10$
6. the marketing and the CA apologists (do "neat ideas but horribly implemented" count? if yes, then politics, provinces). and army stances (finally a worthwile feature)
7. re-hire the people that were responsible for MTW2 and make them project lead, fire Heaton, Simpson, the AI dude and krisslanza, scrap warscape and develop an engine that makes sense, actually listen to the fans/no more sophistry
8. 47
9. no

[vietanh797]

1-What would you give the game out of 10? 7/10 at launch 8/10 now mostly because good marketing move and some fix still need more improvment but I think around Christmas it will be a good game to buy

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything). The most failure in this game is siege AI in attacking since about 80% siege battle the attacking AI not working properly. Aside from that the internal politic is also a feature that "failed"

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes? Pretty good for minor bugs and CAI but still no news on major AI fix in short it is so-so

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now? I had one that hasn't got Rome 2 but he don't like Europe's culture so he won't play anyway, the rest of my friends already have Rome 2. But if I had one I think I will tell him to wait till Christmas for sale off

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?I paid 30$ for pre ordered it I and think it worth every single cent for me. The perfect price right now should be about 45$(DLCs included)

6-What are you most impressed with in the game? graphic and sometimes battlefield AI

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything). Fix the AI and politics is what this game need

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played? 440 hours

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer? Don't have free time that match with my friends so I can't but I think it will be fun.

[Demetrios of Messene]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

1- 7 out of 10

2- I have to mention two items here: a) too fast pace of battles, which is fixable by mods and b) unit unresponsiveness, which seems un-fixable. By unit unresponsiveness I include things like disciplined units like roman legionnaires going out of formation to duel it out, pike phalanxes not able to keep attacking AI units unle you babysit them, hoplite phalanxes unable to maintain formation on an attack order, cavalry getting stuck on melee despite repeated orders to disengage (sometimes disengaging only to re-engage when you are not paying attention), chariots needing constant babysitting etc.

3- Average to good.

4- No. I would advise them to wait until a gold version comes out (and more elaborate mods are available).

5- Depends on a lot of things. Cannot reply.

6- Visuals. Has always been CA's strong point.

7- Too many things to mention or to single one out.

8- About 100 hours.

9- Was looking forward to multiplayer and tried it from the first day. Right now it is one of the most pronounced failures of the games imo. The absence of drop-in battles is a huge miss. The fast pace of battles, the constant re-balancing of units after each patch and the various bugs eventually destroyed my immersion in classical mp.

[Arbolianus]

1. 6/10
2. I'm disappointed that so many important features from previous games, such as the family tree and proper character traits and ancillaries, have been completely ignored. The least CA should have done is kept open the possibility that they could be modded in or added in the future.
3. Each update has been a slight improvement on the last. However, I don't want to be bribed with a nomadic tribes DLC, I want the ability to enjoy a full campaign all the way to the end.
4. No. I'd advise him to wait a year or so and see if anything improves. Currently Rome 2 does have some improvements over Shogun 2, but not enough to justify the price.
5. £20. If it were anything like what I hoped it would be before it was released, it would have been priceless.
6. I like having lots of minor factions to interact with. Also coastal and port battles where I can attack from the sea.
7. The siege AI still needs work, as do faction politics and civil wars.
8. 95
9. I've played a couple of multiplayer battles, and they were actually quite good.

[Tsarsies]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

1. 6/10. It has potential.
2. The AI and Political System - the lack of depth!
3. They have made good progress, which leaves the door open to possibilities.
4. No, but i would tell them that it has huge potential.
5. I am a firm believer that everything should be free. The monetary system should be done away with.
6. I know most people complain about end turn times, but for me im impressed with how fast it is compared to previous games. Currently, on my system, end turn takes no more then 20-30 seconds at most and usually under 10 seconds. I am also impressed with provincial system and feel this has a lot of potential. The number of factions, minor and major, compared to previous games is a nice improvement also. (If only there was more depth).
7. The political system needs to be properly fleshed out and made more interactive/involving. This includes everything surrounding the civil war. Clearly the AI also needs to be improved. There needs to be more depth.
8. A little over 100 hours.
9. No. Although i do plan to when the game is 'complete'.

Also, depending on the level of the modding tools that they release, this will determine if Rome 2 can live up to Rome 1.

Id like to add that in my opinion any game that releases DLC clearly released an unfinished game, else, why the need for DLC?. Expansions to a game are different and i can understand that (only when that expansion is almost big enough to be a game in and of itself, otherwise, the game clearly was never finished upon release - which is most games these days). But DLC, its just a money grabbing scheme that the industry does. The first DLC i ever got for a game i was like "oh, this is cool, new content" but then i thought, why wasn't this in the original game? Its a pure rip-off.

final comment: Gaming is not anything like it used to be. This is how the current breed of gaming is. Half finished games... Get used to it.

[DarrenTotalWar]

Id like to add that in my opinion any game that releases DLC clearly released an unfinished game, else, why the need for DLC?. Expansions to a game are different and i can understand that (only when that expansion is almost big enough to be a game in and of itself, otherwise, the game clearly was never finished upon release - which is most games these days). But DLC, its just a money grabbing scheme that the industry does. The first DLC i ever got for a game i was like "oh, this is cool, new content" but then i thought, why wasn't this in the original game? Its a pure rip-off.

final comment: Gaming is not anything like it used to be. This is how the current breed of gaming is. Half finished games... Get used to it.

Felt I'd chime in here.

I come from a game development background, I've worked in studios and the like. DLC is a great thing for gamers. Reason being, lets say Rome II was to be finished by July, allowing 2 months for certification and packaging. So the game is done. In the old days, developers would be let go at this point or assigned a new project completely.

It only makes sense, to keep the developers working, right up until the game hits stores, to deliver updates and free DLC (or paid in some cases). They are working on stuff that simply couldnt be in the final game, because the game wasn't in their control anymore, not because they are just trying to grab money.

Some developers will charge for DLC because it is extra work the devs are doing. EXTRA, not stuff they shouldve done, but extra work that previously the developer would've been let go or assigned to something else.



Anyways, Thank you all so far for your contribution, this is great feedback to hear!

[Kraut and Tea]

1: Right now 8.

2: The constant demise of major factions at the hand of the incompetent AI

3: Yes

4: Yes

5: 40 Euros

6: The beautifull and unique feeling of building a historic empire that has not changed in the past 10 years of the series.

7: AI needs improvement.

8: 203

9: Not yet, waiting for patches, unit packs and faction packs.

[ToonTotalWar]

1-What would you give the game out of 10? - 5

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything). - AI/Sieges and graphic performance

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes? - Not at all

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now? - Not at all

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion? - £19.99

6-What are you most impressed with in the game? - Animations, Units and Graphics

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything). - AI/Sieges and graphic performance need to be fixed with immediate effect!!

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played? - 100 hrs

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer? - no, not played as yet

[Frost, colonel]

1. 6.5/10

2. Battles, Phalanxes(non pike)don't defend as they should and the phalanx formation switches off. Blobby battles, units turning sideways, balancing generally(ie oathsworn too powerful), missiles ie horse archers ineffective, cavalry skirmishing mode can't evade infantry properly, fire javelins are silly. Sieges AI can't use equipment, resorting to flaming torches to burn gates(really crap). AI can't see your units while rushing for a flag in a settlement, so your 1 unit wipes out a whole AI army.
Naval battles, troop transports ramming Naval units, no point in having a navy.

3. 6/10. Some good effort on CA's part, nearly 2 months on and I can't see me wanting to play for quite awhile as too much is wrong.

4. NO, I have told friends to stay away until further notice.

5. Half finished game, so half price!

6. Some of the graphics, military traditions, the province system.

7. The battles, optimize game performance, at least 2 turns per year so generals live longer, or artificially increase their age just to give the game more immersion. Add family tree. Campaign balance, The major factions should last longer and be stronger, the AI should work out what to build so it doesn't starve, less tiny weak factions, speed up research, less chance of fires, floods, enemy agents destroying all your settlements, as it's tedious, even more so with long research times, as it ends up with just end turn, end turn.

8. 114 hrs

9. No.

[bangell99]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?
3/10

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).
Many of the game's features, especially the AI, are so broken that the game isn't even fun. I'm upset, but more than anything amazed, that this wasn't picked up on pre-release. It goes to show that CA doesn't care if its games are released in a completely unplayable state.

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?
The fixes have been minor - the most important aspects of the game have not been repaired. For example, the siege AI (both attacking and defending) remains completely incompetent. I guess you can't expect them to fix a game that's messed up to this extent in such a short space of time, though.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?
No. I'm hoping Rome 2 will be a good game after mods and patches in maybe a year or so, but Shogun 2 right now is at least playable.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?
It shouldn't be sold! It doesn't fulfill the functions of a game!

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?
The scope. The cities in particular look amazing - which is why it's so irritating that we can't play proper, epic battles in them.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).
First and foremost: AI

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?
20 hours<
I 'm not going to bother to go into a deep campaign while the game remains so poor and so boring.

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?
Played 2 or 3 battles. Battle speed too fast to be enjoyable.

[BigHairyMelon]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

Thanks very much everyone.

For those who have commented and may be represented or quoted, they will appear in this channel:

youtube.com/darrentotalwar

Subscribe to see the video on November 3rd. Rome II, 2 months later.

1. 4/10

2. I am most upset with the current state of the BAI and CAI, naval battles, lack luster politics system and civil war.

3. Yes, progress is good. Waiting on the AI patches now.

4. No I would tell them to stick with Shogun 2

5. Not full price. It should still be in early access/beta or not released.

6. Graphics and that's it.

7. AI needs to be vastly improved, battles need to be longer, game needs to provide a challenge, politics needs work, families need to be redone so it is not just random people popping up.

8. 107 hours

9. I tend to avoid multiplayer, unless it is multiplayer campaign. Did not enjoy that as it was unplayable.


For those still reading I shall explain my points.

Current state of the AI is bad and makes the game far too easy. The CAI still struggles with building balance often starving itself to death as you leave the early game, this should have been picked up in beta testing. That so far is the only issue I have with the CAI. I do not expect it to be a genius or even on the same level as another player, but any AI should be able to keep itself alive if nothing else is threatening it.

BAI needs a lot of work, in battles where it attacks without a capture point it is about as good as Shogun 2's AI so that's ok. When it defends it only reacts to you and poorly at that. It will stand there and die from missile fire and let you come at it. Most of the time in my case during bigger battles it just gives up and stops doing anything with its units. When there is a capture point it will ignore your army and focus on your capture point. It will even walk through your men to get to it. Needs fixing. Should have been picked up during beta testing

Sieges are broken, when AI attacks it ignores your army for the capture point, when it defends it doesn't defend it will not react to its own capture points being taken. In walled sieges it just stays on the wall. You can easily win a siege by only engaging half its army. Should have been picked up during beta testing.

Politics system is lifeless, the menu is boring, family members mean nothing when one dies he will be replaced by a randomer who may or may not even share the family name.

Yes the current patches have fixed many small issues that might not have occurred during beta testing. Long term times really short battles and poor optimization across the board. CA may have only had powerful computers so issues on lower end PC's not being picked up is understandable.

What I cannot let go is the fact that the core parts of the game managed to get through beta in the current state. How no one picked up on any of them is unbelievable which makes me think that the game was barely beta tested. These core issues really ruin the game which is why I have given a score of 4/10. Once the AI is improved then I will increase my score. IF the AI is improved overall to shoguns AI standards I would give it a 7 or 8/10. but in its current state I would tell everyone to not bother wasting there time and money on it.


I think I will stop here otherwise this post will be ridiculously long.

[Dunadd]

1-What would you give the game out of 10?

4

2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything).

Insta-warship-transports ; historically irrelevant, out of period and made up factions destroying atmosphere and slowing down AI turns ; major cities with inner and outer walls and citadels appearing in game as unwalled villages or hamlets ; broken AI in assaults on walled cities and towns

3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes?

Good for battlefield AI and campaign diplomacy - nothing much done for siege AI. The game should never have been released with so many bugs, missing features and shoddy, half-done ones that will now likely never be finished.

4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now?

No.

5-What price is this game worth in your opinion?

£10 maybe, if that. It's clearly been rushed out half-done.

6-What are you most impressed with in the game?

Nothing in this game is anything more than ok / mediocre.

7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything).

Get patching finished and make sure it's done in a way that allows mods to work after that.

Release modding tools and info.

Nerf insta-warship-transports till they can't win a sea battle against actual warships, no matter how much they notionally outnumber them - sheep outnumbering lions shouldn't do them much good.

Remove made up and out-of-period minor factions which only make the game annoying and help it run slowly with over 100 AI factions leading to game turns getting longer and longer and longer the further into the game you get.

Make every settlement a town or bigger and give them all walls from the start (except Sparta and in Britain).

Fix siege AI.

8-How many hours of Rome II have you played?

45

9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer?

Not tried it. If i enjoyed the game i might try it after honing my skills a bit first in single player, but can't even be bothered with single player in it's current state

[TuuSaR]

1. 5/10
2. Campaign map crashes within minutes(tutorial map is stable)
3. Phase has been expected
4. no
5. 25 euros
6. Nothing
7. Stability, AI, performance
8. Less than 10 hours
9. no

[Sharpe]

1-What would you give the game out of 10? - 4/10 on launch, 7/10 now - with potential to improve.


2-What are you most upset about currently? (if anything). - Small unit sizes when unmodded, 160 men max? Come on! Also some certain members rep-whoring and reiterating their same over-inflated, ego-boosting opinions over and over. It's embarrassing.


3-Have Creative Assembly been doing a good job with updates and fixes? - Unsurprising yes


4-If you had a friend who plays Shogun 2, would you recommend them Rome 2 now? - Yes, but each to their own.


5-What price is this game worth in your opinion? - As much as any other new release, bit of an irrelevant question.


6-What are you most impressed with in the game? - Campaign map, animations (Dat shield flip), the music in certain areas (The best pieces are on the loading menus! What's that all about? Get them in the main game!)


7-In your opinion what needs to be done to improve the game? (if anything). - Scale, intelligence, unit variety. SIEGES.


8-How many hours of Rome II have you played? - Around 40


9-Have you played/ enjoyed the multiplayer? - Never play multiplayer.