The TWC Emperor Edition Beta Feedback

[Causeless]

First impressions: facelift, no real improvements.



That's been around since September 3rd.

A facelift? Politics overhaul, civil war overhaul, building chains overhaul, combat mechanics overhaul, addition of defensive pila throwing... and "no real improvements".

Some people are never happy.

[Noif de Bodemloze]

I recommend write those issues and bugs to TW support. CA barely look here.

[Humble Warrior]

Good.

1. The battle field AI is excellent. I even notice it holding back troops in a battle until it's the right time to send them in. Never seen that before. I was waiting to throw in my held back Romans and found myself playing a waiting game with the AI hoping it would send its final troops in before me. But i couldn't wait any longer and only after I'd sent them in did he send his in. Now I don't know how much of that was a fluke (could be to do with me in the trees too), but it was nice.

2. Tried taking a gaul fort, annoyingly (in a good way) in my path to my Gaul-taken town and could I take it? heck, no. the AI blocked off all the entrances, except the one I was not going for and held my superior forces off so long that his reinforcements arrived and I had to order a withdrawal- No point wasting any more men.

3. Had a desperate battle against another gaul army and Ardai joined as my ally. The enemy veneti were larger than us, but i figured we had a chance. Towards the end my few battered men were being whittled down. The Ardai had just his General spearmen left. He drove off the final men on him, then turned and supported my beleagured men at the final moment, saving the day! Nice.

4. Framerates are better, in sieges too.

Ok.

The building thing is a little easier to get to grips with and seem more pertinent. It's definietly easier to keep food up and public order good. It's easy for that to drop quickly though as soon as an enemy takes your town!

Not so good.

1. Sieges. The siege AI in itself still uses ladders and towers which is fine, but it is using torches even more than ever! Even during the fight on the walls. Horrible.

[Pheidippides]

Attachment 313242I think they screwed up the campaign AIs army recruitment

LOL I got that exact same army comp from Cyprus in my Seleucid game last night. The highlight of a campaign in which I am getting overwhelmed.

[Cavalier]

1. Sieges. The siege AI in itself still uses ladders and towers which is fine, but it is using torches even more than ever! Even during the fight on the walls. Horrible.

I've noticed this too. I mean, when patch 14 first was released, I never saw any torches. But lately I've been seeing them a lot more. CA needs to remove torches and increase the time the AI besieges you already, since torches aren't really needed anymore.

[Pheidippides]

My thoughts (started Seleucid and Carthage campaigns):

I think there have been some tweaks to diplomacy. It now seems to be easier to get trade than NA pacts at the beginning of the game.
Battles last longer. A lot longer. The gap between spear units and sword units has been significantly closed. Elite units will fight forever- I tested a unit of Silver shield swords against a unit of Galatian nobles and the combat lasted nine minutes. However, cav charges still retain their punch. I have not tested field arty yet.
In my Carthage campaign Rome is beasting. They kicked me off Sicily and have several full-stack armies roaming around. If something isn't done Carthage isn't going to survive in many campaigns because of the public order issues.
One-province factions do not seem to field the typical full two-stacks that they used to. However, the bigger AI empires are still making a lot of little armies and navies, probably because it recognizes the value of the general's bodyguard.
I'm still getting garrison troops from religious and city center buildings.
Haven't encountered any of the new buildings yet, maybe I do not have the right tech or development.

[Jack Lusted]

My thoughts (started Seleucid and Carthage campaigns):

I think there have been some tweaks to diplomacy. It now seems to be easier to get trade than NA pacts at the beginning of the game.
Battles last longer. A lot longer. The gap between spear units and sword units has been significantly closed. Elite units will fight forever- I tested a unit of Silver shield swords against a unit of Galatian nobles and the combat lasted nine minutes. However, cav charges still retain their punch. I have not tested field arty yet.
In my Carthage campaign Rome is beasting. They kicked me off Sicily and have several full-stack armies roaming around. If something isn't done Carthage isn't going to survive in many campaigns because of the public order issues.
One-province factions do not seem to field the typical full two-stacks that they used to. However, the bigger AI empires are still making a lot of little armies and navies, probably because it recognizes the value of the general's bodyguard.
I'm still getting garrison troops from religious and city center buildings.
Haven't encountered any of the new buildings yet, maybe I do not have the right tech or development.

Are you running with a multiple TPY mod or similar by any chance? Mods like that affect the startpos so running them will mean you won't see the new buildings.

[Humble Warrior]

Are you running with a multiple TPY mod or similar by any chance? Mods like that affect the startpos so running them will mean you won't see the new buildings.

Lusted, the siege AI is using torches even more than patch 14 where it was much better. Does CA have any intention of reducing this or removing them? It is making sieges worse.

[Pheidippides]

Are you running with a multiple TPY mod or similar by any chance? Mods like that affect the startpos so running them will mean you won't see the new buildings.

Yep. I'll give it a try without the mod.

[von stoker]

Just had a fantastic campaign field battle as Pontus v Armenia. 3000 v 3000, went for 25 minutes.
1st thing I noticed was that the AI didn't run everywhere. Even their reinforcements marched to position, then marched on my lines.
They didn't form 1 great wall of men, but attacked in groups. One attacked my left flank, while skirmisher and melee troops attacked my centre and a large force of cavalry attacked my right flank.
I'd placed a couple of spear units in square on my right flank to protect my archers and they engaged the cavalry. I beat off the attack on my left flank and rushed those troops over to the right flank.
Prior to patch 15 those 2 units on my right would have broken by now and the cavalry would have rolled up my line but this time they held on long enough to be reinforced and turn the tide of battle in my favour. It's actually the best battle I've had in any Total War game.
I've had a few battles in this campaign and they all have been a big improvement on previous battles. You now have time to manouever and reinforce when needed.
The AI reacts to threats very well. In 1 battle I got a couple of units around the AI flank and charged them in the rear. The AI saw this and sent a unit to successfully intercept them.
Graphics look the same as previously, but they run a lot smoother. The battle described above was in the fog 3000 v 3000. I have on old 570 card and play on extreme graphics with DOF on low. Previously if I'd played this battle I would have experienced some slow down at different times, but with this new patch the battle ran as smooth as silk and I was skimming the camera at ground level quite a bit managing the battle. Edit. I just realised that I had Game Booster off which means that previously with game booster off, that battle would have lagged quite a bit. So quite a boost to graphics power.
All in all, I think CA have got it just about right. You've got time to manouever and still have time to sit back and watch the action.

[AngryPolack]

How's the campaign AI? Like to play as Rome but didn't finish a campaign yet due to campaign AI passivity.

[von stoker]

How's the campaign AI? Like to play as Rome but didn't finish a campaign yet due to campaign AI passivity.

Only about 25 turns into my Pontus campaign, but I've had Factions offer peace, offer trade deals, declare war, offer alliances, so the diplomacy side is interesting. The revamped building lines look very good, much expanded and more immersive than previously. The add another dimension to the province system. Now if you control a province you can specialise each settlement differently. The battles are great.

[tungri_centurio]

Are you running with a multiple TPY mod or similar by any chance? Mods like that affect the startpos so running them will mean you won't see the new buildings.

is that gonna change when patch 15 is out of beta?or are you planning to add more turns per year yourselfs??

[M2TWRocks]

I think you guys who are obsessed with the siege inadequacies would find your game much more enjoyable if you just auto-resolved them. They didn't work well in ETW, NTW, S2TW (so much so that they just had all units climb walls), and now in R2TW. I'm not suggesting that I don't want improvements and wouldn't enjoy playing some awesome siege defenses like I used to in M2TW. But, after 4 games with this engine and still no decent siege mechanics I think you would find your game experience much more enjoyable if you just stuck to field battles. I've tried one siege defense this year and the first enemy wave routed from ladders then the remaining forces just stood there. So like I said, you're better off just pretending like sieges don't exist.

I will say this though: if CA designs a new engine for the next game, making sieges amazing would likely increase interest in this game. There is an entire segment of computer gamers who have bought and played games based solely on sieges. If this was an amazing aspect of the TW franchise, I feel they would squeeze out a larger portion of the market share. I would certainly pay extra money for fleshed out sieges with customizable castles, forts, towns with optional walls, traps, food supplies, etc. This would add more strategic options for both the player and AI, and would potentially make taking more important towns a real nightmare for the player.

Until then, auto-resolve.

[Emperor Arcturus Mengsk]

I would really like to see choices for a 4tpy campaign. I really like the new changes, the only thing that really, Really!!! sets me off is that I don't like to blietkrieg through a campaign, and even though I'm taking my time, everyone seems to die off on me!

[stevehoos]

Yep, seeing a lot of torch using in the beta, hope this gets removed from the game altogether.

[M2TWRocks]

I would really like to see choices for a 4tpy campaign. I really like the new changes, the only thing that really, Really!!! sets me off is that I don't like to blietkrieg through a campaign, and even though I'm taking my time, everyone seems to die off on me!

You're probably already aware of this, but there is a mod that does just that. I agree with you. The generals and agents die too fast in vanilla.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=194937272

[Emperor Arcturus Mengsk]

You're probably already aware of this, but there is a mod that does just that. I agree with you. The generals and agents die too fast in vanilla.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=194937272

Yeah I know, I only play with Divide et Impera, I love that mod, it's perfect

But I only removed it to check the differences!

[JaM]

not sure if anybody mentioned it but battle formations are broken now.. armies are automatically placed into "all melee unit into single line formation" with skirmishers in front of them.. gone is Triplex Acies for Romans and other special deployment formations... just a single line vs another line...

[Emperor Arcturus Mengsk]

not sure if anybody mentioned it but battle formations are broken now.. armies are automatically placed into "all melee unit into single line formation" with skirmishers in front of them.. gone is Triplex Acies for Romans and other special deployment formations... just a single line vs another line...

I didn't see that, I always make my own formations, then press ctrl + g, and it's great