So Total War

[oldmanpaco]

I rebought Rome today together with BI and Alexander.
Did BI and the patches (I understand that 1.5 is the latest one for vanilla and 1.6 for BI) improve the game?

I just played one battle and the AI seemed as stupid as I remembered it to be. Oh and something else: I dunno, maybe its because i played 2nd manassas recentłly which is slow as hell, but units seems to be almost skating around the battlefield. I dont remember them moving so ridiciously fast...

The only way to truly enjoy Rome is with the Europa Barbarorum mod. The BI expansion is much better with the Invasio Barbarorvm mod.

 

[spacemoose]

Total War? More like Total Bore amirite?

u r so rite

 

[nomask7]

I tried Das Heilige Römische Reich

It's not that good compared to most of the other mods available.

Is any of them? I downloaded and installed the Stainless Steel as well, but didn't try it much. It didn't have its own campaign anyway. Is any of the offical campaigns particularly good?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

What do you mean it didn't have it's own campaign? SS was a campaign, and a good one at that.

Some of the Kingdoms campaigns are okay (didn't like the Americas), and BIs campaign was alright too, if you purposefully played as a hard faction.

 

[Kaiserin]

Try Chivalry II: The Sicilian Vespers or Deus Lo Vult, specifically.

 

[snoek]

CA has stated that the lack of naval invasions is a bug, and high on the list of priorities, as well as the general passive ai (as well as the possibly suicidal minor nation AI). I think the Zone of control thing is also a bug, and will hopefully be fixed by CA, but if not you know that the modders will fix it eventually..

I don't get how they could miss it, what do they have in their QA department? monkeys? and if i'm not mistaken i remember that this was also even the case in medieval 2:total war (the naval invasions thingy then)

 

[Trash]

It was even there in Rome Total War. At the moment modders are making more progress patching up ETW than CA. Darth has returned and has already put up a first beta version of his AI enhancement stuff. It's far from perfect but the campaign AI seems quite a bit harder to defeat. Noone however has managed to fix the naval invasion bug. Hope CA will soon give more info about their patch. It was supposed to come out early last week but all we got was a post on friday were they said that more info would be coming early this week. Seems they still have the same idea of good PR they had during MTW2.

Anyway, I'm thinking of starting a new RTW game and plan on adding a few mods. RTR was like a boring mmorpg grindfest to me, so I would like to avoid mods like that. Europa Barboram looks interesting though. Can anyone say what's good about it?

 

[Eldritch]

EB is more neat and decently detailed with better gameplay, while the LATEST VERSION of RTR is more "fancy". Pronounciate the "fancy" like Eddie Izzard and check that RTR LP I posted in this thread.

I'd say try both, they can both be fun in different ways.

EDIT: Sorry I was at work and didn't notice in your post that you already played RTR, what version did you exactly play, because it has gotten pretty neat with the later versions after the modders "worked out" some of their issues. Also define the boring mmorpg grindfest play, what's so wrong with having too many cities and why would you want to ridiculously conquer the entire world in a jiffy anyway? Set up some less ambitious objectives then.

As I said, RTR really improved with the latest version both in art, historical accuracy and gameplay. Yeah there's a lot of cities but EB also doesn't have as few as the vanilla too iirc.

 

[Trash]

Played RTR a few years back. What I didn't like about the ridiculous amounts of cities was that I was fighting nearly only siege battles. It felt like a grind, especially concerning the excellent balance BI managed to strike concerning cities and region sizes. Guess I just like my field battles and manouvring my armies around.

Thanks for the pointers though. I'll go and read the LP. Anyway, concerning the maps. CA now seemingly acknowledged through a Q&A on their blog that the campaign map and the battle maps do not have a direct correlation any more. I really like how they try to make it sound like an improvement.

The campaign map for at least a year and a half was somewhat of a minefield of new features and experimental tech, a lot of new coders and new ideas mixed with a now un-tiled handmade map, made in 3d Max(…. that one took a while ) this map would drive the path finding and was originally meant to be the graphical side of things too, however with some rather frank admissions that this would be unworkable as both sides of the map, the wonderful graphics programmers worked their butts off to make me a more usable system that would give us (well me and Ben the other artist working on the map) greater control of the graphical side of the map. The campaign programming team on the other hand we’re using my max map to the fullest, as we started to create something that looked so unbelievably complex just so you the player would get a continuous experience across the world. Over the Last 6 months and many late nights we’ve all brought this together and polished it to be the largest TW map and something I hope all the players spend many, many months looking at.

http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/2009/03/ ... r-team-qa/

 

[oldmanpaco]

The beginning of any RTW game is usually a siege fest as you capture rebel cities. After everyone gets built up more action happens on the field. If you do use EB make sure to use the BI exe as it makes the AI much more aggressive (actual sea invasions). You also need to play with VH campaign setting (not battle setting) or the AI will just sit around. There is also a sub mod that causes the AI factions to more aggressively go after there victory objective areas.

 

[Tigranes]

The campaign map for at least a year and a half was somewhat of a minefield of new features and experimental tech, a lot of new coders and new ideas mixed with a now un-tiled handmade map, made in 3d Max(…. that one took a while ) this map would drive the path finding and was originally meant to be the graphical side of things too, however with some rather frank admissions that this would be unworkable as both sides of the map, the wonderful graphics programmers worked their butts off to make me a more usable system that would give us (well me and Ben the other artist working on the map) greater control of the graphical side of the map. The campaign programming team on the other hand we’re using my max map to the fullest, as we started to create something that looked so unbelievably complex just so you the player would get a continuous experience across the world. Over the Last 6 months and many late nights we’ve all brought this together and polished it to be the largest TW map and something I hope all the players spend many, many months looking at.

Way to go spending a full paragraph saying nothing. Which makes sense, because apart from the ZOC the campaign map is basically THE FREAKING SAME

 

[Erzherzog]

Empire got a small update, nothing but some minor fixes as far as I'm aware.

- Load time detection on trade routes to fix pathfinding crash in campaign

- Some General Sound balancing improvements

- Fixed UI Chat hang when spectator leaves unranked match with 3+ players

- Various Campaign Crash Fixes

- Some Save/Load fixes

- Boarding fix where cannon crew board order was not being deleted properly causing crash

- Fix to kill characters instantly to stop crashes in campaign on agent/general deaths.

- Save games limited to 1000

- Fix to animation glitch causing repetitive sounds when battle is launched.

- Multiplayer - can now find friends across regions

 

[Panthera]

Well, it looks like they're going to be releasing regular patches, in an alternating fix-upgrade cycle. Which is a lot better than M2TW's two patch only limitation.

Dear All,

I'd like to take this opportunity to outline our update plans more clearly.

The next hotfix will be released very soon, this fixes those critical issues described in Sensei's recent post. We're working very hard to get that tested and released as soon as possible.

We're currently following a model of releasing a hot-fix, followed by a large gameplay update afterwards.

This will then be followed by further hot-fixes and again, a later large gameplay upgrade.

The gameplay updates address everything to do with gameplay, naval landings, AI behaviour, unit balancing, the lot. The hot-fixes correct game code issues that cause crashes and instability on some systems.

The larger gameplay upgrades are being developed in parallel and will be released in a timely fashion following the fixes.

So in summary:

i. The next patch is coming shortly, this will fix a number of critical code issues.

ii. Following the next patch a massive gameplay update is being prepared which will address: balancing, naval units, AI behaviour and other issues.

iii. This cycle of 'fix-upgrade' will then continue.


We are genuine about intending to support the community in the long run and we are all still working on Empire, games sold are not games forgotten.

I'm aware everyone will inevitably ask 'when' and all I can say is very shortly for the next hot-fix and within a few weeks for the major gameplay upgrade.

Kind regards,
Kieran

I'm happy to see this, because it means they've openly acknowledged the problems with the AI and naval landings and plan to fix it.

 

[Erzherzog]

Oh my, the last patch has seriously fubar my game. Can't fight battles without a ctd.

 

[Kaiserin]

Oh my, the last patch has seriously fubar my game.

Same, I can't get past a certain turn in the campaign w/o it crashing. I've had more problems after it than I did before it. Oh well, I knew this would happen, I'll probably just wait about 6 months before I bother again.

 

[poocolator]

This game is painfully large to remove from inventory.

 

[oldmanpaco]

I played Empire for about 2 days after I bought it which was about the same as M2 and RTW before that. In a year or so I'm sure it will be all patched up, an expansion will have been released, and there will be some kick-ass mods. I look forward to loading it up again.

 

[Shannow]

In danger of sounding like the Bitcher but how are

Following the next patch a massive gameplay update is being prepared which will address: balancing, naval units, AI behaviour and other issues.

not patching issues? Balancing...ok, but Blizzard also patches balancing without calling it anything else. Naval invasions reportedly don't work, so making the work is patching. If AI doesn't behave correctly solving that is also patching. Adressing "issues" is clearly patching.
OMG, DU was right. We have entered the age of devs pretending to do us favors by calling patches "upgrades". Claiming to do their customers favors instead of admitting to putting out an unpolished game with serious problems that need patching. At least they don't expect us to pay for that yet (, but I'm growing suspicious of Blizzard's "new financial model" for D3 and battlenet).
/sad little camper

 

[Forest Dweller]

I just installed EB and started a campaign as Baktria. Any pointers?

 

[Trash]

Do install the EB minimod package which can be found in the EB forums. It runs the game with the alexander exe, which means that you'll get a much better AI against you. Someone at CA really spend a lot of time polishing the RTW AI with the Alexander expansion. Too bad they never implemented it in a patch for the basic game and the BI expansion.

 

[Mr Happy]

I have been playing Invasio Barbarorum recently, and I must say it's pretty great. Pretty much like Europa Barbaroum, accept for the Barbarian Invasion time period, a disgustingly underrated period in history. It has a level of attention to historical detail similar to that of EB, though changes the gameplay systems less. On the other hand, I'd say initial setup is better than EB: as all the factions I have tried out, you are in a challenging position and fighting big battles and large scale sieges with artillery and all that in the first turn, which is really what the game is all about. Western Rome is in a fabously dire position, and there some other great factions to play as also (Roman pretenders, Eastern nomads, etc. )

 

[poocolator]

I have been playing Invasio Barbarorum recently, and I must say it's pretty great. Pretty much like Europa Barbaroum, accept for the Barbarian Invasion time period, a disgustingly underrated period in history. It has a level of attention to historical detail similar to that of EB, though changes the gameplay systems less. On the other hand, I'd say initial setup is better than EB: as all the factions I have tried out, you are in a challenging position and fighting big battles and large scale sieges with artillery and all that in the first turn, which is really what the game is all about. Western Rome is in a fabously dire position, and there some other great factions to play as also (Roman pretenders, Eastern nomads, etc. )

I haven't played it. Who do you mean by "Roman pretenders" just out of curiosity?

 

[Trash]

Tried EB and just didn't get into it. Dunno why really, for some reason it just didn't grab me. Most likely because they forgot that the most awesome aspect of any TW game is the kick ass battles and not the dull strategic part. Also the dull new campaign map graphics and the book like faction, unit and building descriptions are just no fun.

In the end I uninstalled it and got Invasio Barborum. Now that got everything right. Every faction you choose is hard pressed at the start with you indeed fighting big battles and sieges in the first turn. It's fast, bloody and difficult and a shitload of fun. Best RTW game I played so far was with this mod.

Oh, and the roman pretenders are the former western european rebels. The Invasio Barborum campaign has a western roman civil war going on in which you can pick sides for the pretender emperor in France or the Rome based one. Both camps are in an utter shit position however. Which is kinda fitting since it's about the end of the roman empire. :wink:

 

[oldmanpaco]

Tried EB and just didn't get into it. Dunno why really, for some reason it just didn't grab me. Most likely because they forgot that the most awesome aspect of any TW game is the kick ass battles and not the dull strategic part. Also the dull new campaign map graphics and the book like faction, unit and building descriptions are just no fun.:

Heathen - How dare you disrespect the holy EB. Anyway I like the in-depth research that was done for each faction. The descriptions of units and buildings are one of the big draws for me. If you think it is boring at the start play as a faction that’s getting beat down like Pontus, Hayasdan, or the Grey Death. The starting difficulty varies greatly from faction to faction.

 

[oldmanpaco]

I just installed EB and started a campaign as Baktria. Any pointers?

Baktria is a tricky one to start. You basically need to combine your army and take one city then upgrade the two cities while waiting for Seleukeia to get tired of attacking you. After awhile about 5 other factions have a run at them so they leave you alone. The best bet is to set up one army and get the AI to attack you on river crossing/bridges to minimize losses. After the first 100 turns or so it’s smooth sailing. And the elephants are fun.