Rome II Total Realism - Beta Feedback and Suggestions

[LestaT]

Unit name: native language
Short description: English name and some info about the unit's role on the battlefield

That is the plan. As of now the descriptions has not been edited yet and they're basically vanilla so you can check what's the actual unit is either by looking at the short description (bottom left column) or the longer one through encyclopedia.

That said however for the next upload we may revised back to vanilla names at least during this beta period for easier recognition of units in case of issues. For thw main release we may provide optionals as some may prefer unpronounciable EB like native unit names (like me) while some may prefer simple English (or any other modern language) unit names.

[Causeless]

few comments:

- Forced march cannot be removed. It destroys AI, as it is way too often using it, therefore i have removed movement bonus, which practically stopped AI using it. At this point of time, it should be not used.
- Replenishment is currently slightly increased when recruiting new units, but i can link it with fortified stance instead. Overall, Replenishment rates are linked with food, therefore, try to have 10+ food. this adds about +10% to replenishment rates.
- zone of control is small because it is ignored by AI. AI can walk through it without issues, which means blocking choke points doesn't work anyway.. i have reported this to CA many times, yet, for them it is working as intended, and AI can cheat as it was developed this way.. sometimes i think CA is sabotaging their own game...

DeI removes the forced march button fully, somehow. There's still the UI box expanding to support a 4th option, but the button itself isn't there so you cannot accidentally click it.

[JaM]

DeI removes the forced march button fully, somehow. There's still the UI box expanding to support a 4th option, but the button itself isn't there so you cannot accidentally click it.

its most likely done somehow via lua scripting, but right now we dont have anybody who understands luac within our team... (T.C, where are you?)

[JaM]

CA just announced another Culture Pack together with free LC. This means once they release it, our current beta will become incompatible and will require some rework. So far they didnt told when they want to release it, which means we will try to release another beta (containing a lot of fixes thanks to your feedback) in next few days.

[Causeless]

If I had a greater understanding of how warscape and Rome 2 handles lua scripting I'd be happy to help, but there's no real documentation and even when I asked on the workshop about stuff, I got no reply. I'm assuming DeI learnt what they did through trial and error, and I'm not really prepared to try that!

I read through some of the vanilla lua files, but there are still big gaps in stuff I want to know.

[Centurio Marcus]

About unit replenishment, is it possible to make the "mustering stance" selectable? Right now the only way to enter to that stance is to recruit units. If possible, it could be selected just like any other stance (raiding, ambush...) and provide certain bonuses (replenishment + something else maybe?) and disadvantages (army can't move) without being forced to recruit units.

[JaM]

yeah, mustering stance is not selectable and its not possible to change it, anyway idea of linking replenishment with fortify stance is good and we will use it in next update.

[JaM]

seems like looting has a hardcoded -50 order penalty that cannot be changed.. not sure why CA decided to do this, especially when they externalized all other values into campaign variables... probably an oversight on their side, which complicate things to us..

[JaM]

Here is the list of changes planned for next version:

- Roman reforms reworked, old units now only upgradeable to Evocati, which cannot be recruited. Evocati upkeep is increased, while their base stats decreased to the same level of normal units (so their only advantage is experience they gained before)
- Reduced base stats for Legionaries and Legionary Cohort (slightly higher than Hastati)
- Veteran Legionaries renamed to Evocati, Evocati Cohort is their Imperial Reform equivalent
- First Cohort and Eagle Cohort were restricted to 18 units, which is maximum number of armies you can have in grand campaign (First Cohort in Caesar in Gaul is restricted to 10 units for the same reason)
- Minor cities received barricades and stakes as a form of defense during city battles. Tier IV city will have standard walls (but sadly invisible on campaign map)
- Slightly reduced amount of deployable (removed from fortified stance)
- Fortified stance increases the replenishment
- Slightly increased damage for Slingers
- sling rocks now don't increase block chance of enemy shields for successor hits like other ranged projectiles, as they are harder to spot.
- Rapid reload and precision shot are no longer restricted for short time period. their negatives were slightly increased to counter this.
- Morale settings improved, keeping formation much more important (higher penalty for exposed flanks)
- Fixed bug where confident, eager and impetuous stances were ignored
- several adjustments to morale bonuses and penalties for different stances
- Hemiolia is no longer able to ram other ships. majority of factions received archer crew to their Hemiolias. Their hull strength was also decreased a bit, so they will be a bit more vulnerable to other ships ramming them.
- reworked occupation stances,Sacking settlement has smaller but long term effect on order, occupation of same culture causes less disorder. looting and razing gives you more money but destroys order in the province (slightly less than before though)
- small adjustment to faction specific monetary bonuses
- reduced success chance and critical success chance for all agents
- defender units in sieges received +50% ammo bonus
- adjusted fatigue effects, slightly increased rates for exhausted, very tired and tired stance.
- reduced ignition threshold to gates, slightly decreasing time gates burn down. iron gates can now be burned down in around 10-15 minutes, so AI will eventually manage to breach them before timer runs out.
- tower occupation timer reduced,city center and gate timer increased
- archers and javelinmens on chariots and elephants now use more accurate projectiles thanks to their height advantage

[AngryPolack]

Awesome job guys I'll be firing this up soon!

[H0CHM31573R]

seems like looting has a hardcoded -50 order penalty that cannot be changed.. not sure why CA decided to do this, especially when they externalized all other values into campaign variables... probably an oversight on their side, which complicate things to us..

No it isn't. I have changed it in the past, it is either "occupation_decision_loot_conquest_public_order_reduction" or "settlement_looting_publicorder_reduction" under the campaign variables table.

Here is a picture that proves it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also, I just read that you have limited the FIrst Cohort to 18 in the campaign, but as far I know you can make a script to limit them to one per army, this way an army is guaranteed to have one First Cohort and one only.
I could probably investigate on this weekend if you like, I've had some experience with programming before, I suppose scripting won't be too different.

[LestaT]

Due to issues with Steam Workshop we have to reupload the mod again. We also take the opportunity to update with the latest changes. Below are log changes for Beta 1.5240514

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Roman reforms reworked, old units now only upgradeable to Evocati, which cannot be recruited. Evocati upkeep is increased, while their base stats decreased to the same level of normal units (so their only advantage is experience they gained before).
- Reduced base stats for Legionaries and Legionary Cohort (slightly higher than Hastati).
- Veteran Legionaries renamed to Evocati, Evocati Cohort is their Imperial Reform equivalent.
- First Cohort and Eagle Cohort were restricted to 18 units, which is maximum number of armies you can have in grand campaign (First Cohort in Caesar in Gaul is restricted to 10 units for the same reason).
- Minor cities received barricades and stakes as a form of defense during city battles. Tier IV city will have standard walls (but sadly invisible on campaign map).
- Slightly reduced amount of deployable (removed from fortified stance.
- Fortified stance increases the replenishment.
- Slightly increase damage for Slingers.
- Sling rocks now dont increase block chance of enemy shields for sucessor hits like other ranged projectiles, as they are harder to spot.
- Rapid reload and precision shot are no longer restricted for short time period. their negatives were slightly increased to counter this.
- Morale settings improved, keeping formation much more important (higher penalty for exposed flanks).
- Fixed bug where confident, eager and impetuous stances were ignored.
- several adjustments to morale bonuses and penalties for different stances.
- Hemiolia in no longer able to ram other ships. majority of factions received archer crew to their Hemiolias. Their hull strength was also decreased a bit, so they will be a bit more vulnerable to other ships ramming them.
- Reworked occupation stances,Sacking settlement has smaller but long term effect on order, occupation of same culture causes less disorder. looting and razing gives you more money but destroys order in the province (slightly less than before though).
- Small adjustment to faction specific monetary bonuses.
- Reduced success chance and critical success chance for all agents.
- Defender units in sieges received +50% ammo bonus.
- Adjusted fatigue effects, slightly increased rates for exhausted, very tired and tired stance.
- Reduced ignition threshold to gates, slightly decreasing time gates burn down. iron gates can now be burned down in around 10-15 minutes, so AI will eventually manage to breach them before timer runs out.
- Tower occupation timer reduced,city center and gate timer increased.
- Archers and javelinmens on chariots and elephants now use more accurate projectiles thanks to their height advantage.

You will have to resubscribe on the main page here however you should not worry if you already have a campaign going on since this update will be save game compatible.

You will find that the file name is change from r2tr_core originally to r2tr_core_pack now but rest assured that everything should work as intended now.

Sorry for all the trouble.

Happy gaming !

[JaM]

No it isn't. I have changed it in the past, it is either "occupation_decision_loot_conquest_public_order_reduction" or "settlement_looting_publicorder_reduction" under the campaign variables table.

Here is a picture that proves it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also, I just read that you have limited the FIrst Cohort to 18 in the campaign, but as far I know you can make a script to limit them to one per army, this way an army is guaranteed to have one First Cohort and one only.
I could probably investigate on this weekend if you like, I've had some experience with programming before, I suppose scripting won't be too different.

thats the thing, its no longer there:




nevermind... my bad... its there.. lol i will change it in another update as it is too late to reupload it..

btw, if you manage to create that script that would be greatly appreciated

[Cidalsleepwalker]

Does this mean you can only get evocati from pre-marian units?

[JaM]

yup, that is correct. And you can get Evocati cohorts once Imperial Reforms kick in, from Marian or Pre-Marian units.


Historically, Evocati were reenlisted veterans. But this game doesn't simulate this properly. If you play long campaign, at the time you get Marian units, your Polybian units are usually silver or gold chevron veterans.. They are perfect to represent Veterans that reenlisted. Plus, because they are not recruitable in any other way, you will end up with limited number of Evocati units, which will even rise their importance and impact, while losing some will hurt.

As mentioned in changelog, Evocati also have a bit higher upkeep than simple Legionary, which means, your economy might even have problem to sustain all veterans in active duty.. So you might even disband some of them (especially, if they dont have high enough experience to excuse their higher upkeep), and replace them with normal Legionaries...

[68 Powers]

Good job on the mod guys, i know you'll make Rome 2 a game worth playing!

[L0n3w0lf9k]

Is the charging in battle looking like the unit is walking instead of running on purpose? o: 'Cause I tried the mod and that is the only thing weird about it. When I order my men to charge, they start running as fast as if they were walking.

As a sugestion I would suggest making the formations stronger to reward the player who uses these formations correctly. The Barbarian skills should also see their benefit increased to make the playstyles different and balanced.

Also the matched combat upon charge should be high so that charges get casualties and look great but the rest of the melee stabilizes as it is which is good.

And these are my suggestions. I have a mod that does all this. But I stopped updating due to lazyness. It's called Total Formations if you wanna take a look at my changes.

[Centurio Marcus]

I was wondering if it's possible to make units to lose their gained experience over time if left out of fighting for long enough? For example, if the player sends his 9-gold chevron ultra-badass veteran unit to some sleepy province where nothing happens and is just left to bask in peace there. And then, lets say after a hunderd years without combat, they have no experience/chevrons left.

[JaM]

not that i know of.. maybe via some scripting it would be possible, something we will definitely investigate once scripting info is published by CA... for now, we will go the way we did with Roman reforms, but we will make it more customized.

[JaM]

Is the charging in battle looking like the unit is walking instead of running on purpose? o: 'Cause I tried the mod and that is the only thing weird about it. When I order my men to charge, they start running as fast as if they were walking.

As a sugestion I would suggest making the formations stronger to reward the player who uses these formations correctly. The Barbarian skills should also see their benefit increased to make the playstyles different and balanced.

Also the matched combat upon charge should be high so that charges get casualties and look great but the rest of the melee stabilizes as it is which is good.

And these are my suggestions. I have a mod that does all this. But I stopped updating due to lazyness. It's called Total Formations if you wanna take a look at my changes.

Charge speeds are reduced to running speeds. On contrary to common belief, real men would not run as fast as they can against enemy weapons.. Yet there will be some adjustments to charging distance and animation in the future.

Regarding barbarian vs civilized there are already a lot of hidden bonuses and penalties that differentiate them. For example Disciplined units fighting in formation get fatigued slower (they are supposed to swap troops for fresh ones - animation is missing in R2, but at least we gave them bonuses to portray that).. barbarians are usually quite vulnerable to morale breaks, swordsmen might be unbreakable when Fenzy is activated, but once its effects are off, their morale goes down, and they are easier to rout. (but they will come back unless damaged really bad)