Patch 14 Beta Notes

[General George S. Patton]

Another video, this time showcasing the defending ai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq9J...I-vxGRijqiY6SQ

[stevehoos]

Another video, this time showcasing the defending ai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq9J...I-vxGRijqiY6SQ

The one thing that this video showcases to me is, the AI is still incapable of sending its "inside the city" forces up on the walls to reinforce areas when it is being overwhelmed. It is too easy militarily to win with this basic problem. Just numerically gash the AI in a spot on the walls, then bring your archers up and waste them because they stand there. Instead of sending units up to flank my forces, they would rather die wandering around like brain dead chickens. With all the other issues in this game, the one that really bothered me when I turned it on last September was the AI's lack of concern for losing their walls. It's completely ahistorical, flying in the face of siege warfare in antiquity.

[Kaiser]

I know a lot of the emphasis for patch 14 is on the siege AI fixes. However, I saw this tidbit on the patch notes

Attackers can no longer see defenders in multiplayer land/naval battles during the deployment phase.

Just wondering if anyone know if this is indeed the case?

[alQamar]

I know a lot of the emphasis for patch 14 is on the siege AI fixes. However, I saw this tidbit on the patch notes


Just wondering if anyone know if this is indeed the case?

Must have missed that! Thanks for making me aware kaiser. This bug was annoying.

[Sir_Pee_Alot]

I know a lot of the emphasis for patch 14 is on the siege AI fixes. However, I saw this tidbit on the patch notes
Attackers can no longer see defenders in multiplayer land/naval battles during the deployment phase.

Just wondering if anyone know if this is indeed the case?

Yes that bug is finally smashed.

[stevehoos]

Port assaults are still a mess. Had an AI ship get stuck on my routed ship; it stayed there the whole battle essentially bugging it. Also at Carthage, had AI manned siege towers stuck in the middle of a field for a reason I could not see. Another issue was a disembarked AI ship unit, it was not able to be attacked because all the units were not off the ship yet, made for another interesting session. Yep, the siege AI is slightly better, you can't just play a battle and claim that everything is fixed though. It still has a lot of problems.

[potemps]

after almost 1 year of rome 2 get started, im pretty sure that game shouldn‘t be relased in 2013 but in 2015...now its a better game, but still have so many issues, that is a real shame no for game developer i think but for it‘s publisher

[Praetorian_BGX]

After few hours of campaign testing - Enemy Units are no longer camping in downtown waiting in one big blob mess. In case of cities without walls they all rush to your lines in full speed trying to develop a proper line with melee units in front and range units behind. Bombarding them to the death its no longer possible. Off-course they will sustain heavy causalities while they approaching but this aggressive behavior is much better than simple "swallow my artillery in next 5 mins"

[alQamar]

Hello CA this problem still persists in patch 14 beta. no mods of course. started a new campaign and captured Bactria in a rush to have a look if it is resolved.

original thread by Nizam Pasha (Turkish Total War Community)




Some more things I've just noticed in the benchmark:

- the animation of jumping roman soldiers before they got killed by balls of fire is visibly decreased

- no changes on the LoD issues or zombie face issues across all settings

- the good performance gains which came along with patch 13.1 and the 340.23 beta driver now are partly gone again with patch 14 beta.
Again the "high" preset suffered the most loosing nearly 7% performance, while the maxed out and extreme preset are quite same performant.
Some minor decreases also measureable on "very high" and "ultra" presets.

high preset:
Patch 3: 139.5 fps average
Patch 9.1 final: 155.3 fps average (best performance till today)
Patch 12 final : 129.9 fps average
Patch 13.1 final: 138.8 fps average
Patch 14 beta: 128.4 fps average (-7.96% compared to release performance)

For more details have a look at the updated charts and figures in the original thread.



Flickering and blocky shadows issue is also not fixed yet.
It is a common issue as you can see it on every youtube video even machnimas if you look into it.



This is a video showing the same issue on a video from CA itself - pre-release rally point:

starts from 7:00

original thread (reported: 05.11.2013)
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...elated-shaders

[Humble Warrior]

[/COLOR]- the animation of jumping roman soldiers before they got killed by balls of fire is visibly decreased

Actually I thought all those soldiers jumping like jiminy cricket was annoying and unrealistic, like they were waiting to go play football, not fight war. I mean they`re wearing armour and weapons not shorts and t-shirts! They should be conserving energy. Reducing it is better imho.

p.s. By the way I forgot to mention! I ran the benchmark and for the 1st time saw the zombie faced soldiers all walking in parade. Now I believe!! Really shouldn`t be in patch 14...beta.

[alQamar]

Yep HW, I guess so i think we discussed "unit animations" some days ago but I cannot grab the thread right now. I really appreciate it -even they silently seem to adjust animations, just like the holy eles
That's why I marked it green (positive), too. The other things still make me feel odd. I know there more and many things to patch but those issues are problematic since release too (except the Bactria region color bug introduced by a later patch)


Oh by the way Delicious, do you remember our not so fine discussion about I stated "flanking does not work properly" and you disagreed ("lack of skill")
I think this fix in patch 14 beta gives me back a bit of reputation:

Improved the combat behaviour of flanking enemies while attacking in formation, so the units are more concerned with attacking the flank of the enemy unit, rather than drifting to the front of the enemy, and potentially nullifying the flanking attack.

However in the benchmark the triarii unit will still attack the center of the downhill comming germans instead of flanking. So either this is not yet entirely fixed or the pathfinding in the benchmark is not yet revised.

[Causeless]

Yep HW, I guess so i think we discussed "unit animations" some days ago but I cannot grab the thread right now. I really appreciate it -even they silently seem to adjust animations, just like the holy eles
That's why I marked it green (positive), too. The other things still make me feel odd. I know there more and many things to patch but those issues are problematic since release too (except the Bactria region color bug introduced by a later patch)


Oh by the way Delicious, do you remember our not so fine discussion about I stated "flanking does not work properly" and you disagreed ("lack of skill")
I think this fix in patch 14 beta gives me back a bit of reputation:



However in the benchmark the triarii unit will still attack the center of the downhill comming germans instead of flanking. So either this is not yet entirely fixed or the pathfinding in the benchmark is not yet revised.

The benchmark is a pile of crap for testing graphics or gameplay. It's broken - the actual games runs smoother, looks nicer, and works better. It's understandable, too - I'd rather have a good game than a good benchmark

I've tested with battle replays, and the unit pivoting is visibly decreased, and units are more intelligent about attacking the back and flanks instead of "dancing" around.

[Humble Warrior]

Don`t use the Benchmark to test the AI tactics. That is a mistake. AI is scripted in that- It will do the same thing every time It will never do anything different. The Benchmark is just for framerates.

You want to test AI strategy or tactics you must go into quick battles or, best of all, Campaign.

[alQamar]

The benchmark is a pile of crap for testing graphics or gameplay. It's broken - the actual games runs smoother, looks nicer, and works better. It's understandable, too - I'd rather have a good game than a good benchmark

I've tested with battle replays, and the unit pivoting is visibly decreased, and units are more intelligent about attacking the back and flanks instead of "dancing" around.

Discussed so many times why I still rely on the benchmark, against all odds and while the points you bring are basically appropriate mate.
It is the only reliable test we have giving us the the opportunity to see the game in a scripted environment with always the same parameters. There is unfortunately still no mod for the benchmark scene, which could make it more worthy and more realistic in some aspects. I would love to have other options.

Still I would like to remind that the performance, while it is different to the game, is comparable to itself and that's fair and technically objective. Comparing the benchmark with the benchmark of earlier versions is objective. Especially as I do have the chance to compare the Windows environment and driver settings to each other. If I share results about degraded quality, altered unit behaviour or even framerates they results comparable to previous patch states of Rome 2. That's all.
The only reason why I do not retest all iterations of patches with the same Windows version and same driver, which would be then the perfect environment, is the ridicilous amout of time this would cost me.
However I always do make a test before any driver change or any game patch or major windows update (like 8.1 or Update 1) so I have a reliable baseline in regard of the performance.

Don`t use the Benchmark to test the AI tactics. That is a mistake. AI is scripted in that- It will do the same thing every time It will never do anything different. The Benchmark is just for framerates.

You want to test AI strategy or tactics you must go into quick battles or, best of all, Campaign.

I do not test the tactics HW, as this is impossible in a scripted scene. What I actually can see is how and if CA changes the unit behaviour. If we assume the battle is scripted there should be no changes, but there are changes visible from time to time. So either the changed source coude in the patch is changing the behaviour or they are adjusting the script in the benchmark (I doubt they do the last option).

[Huberto]

I hadn't noticed this as much previously because of mods, but vanilla land and naval battles are still way too fast, the kill or sink rate is way too high and skirmishers are way too lethal.

[Humble Warrior]

Generals seem to keep themselves well enough out of the way for me. BUT, I don`t have units flags on and this makes it much harder for me to know who the General is so it`s always very hard to focus on him, especially if he`s on foot. Sometimes I zoom in to try and find him, but in R2 it`s not always so obvious.

I was lucky last battle because I noticed a lone infantry unit stood at the back doing nothing, it had some convoluted name so I figured it might be the boss. I had one cavalry hiding in the trees and charged for him- That tied him up, then some of his other soldiers broke, freeing a few units to engage him as well. Even at this point I was not sure if he was the General, but I was betting he was. Then he died and I got confirmation. It was a very, very tight battle. I saved it because it was really good. hope it pans out the same in replay.

Normally though, I find getting at the General pretty hard.

I guess battles are still too fast but it seems slower to me than at patch 7. I actually have time to zoom and look around and I never Pause. This battle must`ve taken about 20 minutes.

[PhillyPhan321]

I'm really enjoying the patch

[alQamar]

Hi guys, just liked to host a multiplayer game. Quits with an error message. What to do now? Patch 14 beta, mods: none.









another bug I've noticed:

A twitch password longer than 8 chars will work (copy and paste from Windows) but the password willl be truncated if you choose to remember login and quit the game. Anyone else?

[Cavalier]

Hi guys, just liked to host a multiplayer game. Quits with an error message. What to do now? Patch 14 beta, mods: none.









another bug I've noticed:

A twitch password longer than 8 chars will work (copy and paste from Windows) but the password willl be truncated if you choose to remember login and quit the game. Anyone else?

Are you posting all the stuff you find at the totalwar.com forums?

[PointOfViewGun]

Anyone have any idea when this will be launched for real?