Interesting post on Rome 2 Total Wars release/bugs/glitches/development/buying.

[3instein 10]

This post is about Rome 2 Total War release.

It's from a developer/customer and writes about the dangers/pitfalls and eventual buying of a game that is deemed rushed out seemingly unplayable at launch,and what that means for the fans of the genre.

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/81021-Review-from-an-Anonymous-Developer?

Mick. :)

[ProfTournesol 956]

As i'm not ready to beta test every single released game i buy, i think i'll wait another six month for this one :)

[Tonci87 163]

It is my professional opinion that CA have taken what was an immersive, detailed, tactical, and market leading series and have turned it into a better looking but fundamentally simplified and dumbed down version of its formal self. They have seriously damaged the tactical element to this game, taken out tried and tested elements and have replaced them with arcade elements.

And this is why I won´t buy another CA Game unless they return to making quality content again.

Shogun 2 is the last CA game I bought.

I reinstalled Medieval 2+Kingdoms a few days ago and I´m now playing a very fun Hungarian campaign with the excellent Stainless Steel Mod. I can tell you that there are WORLDS between this and Shogun 2. I don´t know what happened after Medieval 2 but CA removed so many great features and added stupid arcade stuff, even the AI in Medieval is actually better than the one in Empire or Shogun.

I suspect that is has something to do with SEGA

contracted to release X amount of games at Y timeline, with Z budget

Saying that Mods will fix the game is not valid since CA has basically removed support for any in depth mods that could fundamentaly change game mechanics starting with Empire. Shogun 2 was even more restrictive when it came to mods.

Size of Darthmod for Empire: Almost 3GB

Size of Darthmod for Shogun 2: 130MB

There won´t be a new Darthmod for Rome 2.

[Dwarden 1125]

it just shows how complex projects are problematic to be 'flawless' enough ...

[Tonci87 163]

Don´t defend them Dwarden, the quality of their games has been declining since years and they are notorius for releases full of bugs.

[hellfire257 3]

The game is very good, but certainly needs patches. It isn't perfect but I'm happy to ride it out because the game has real promise.

[Tonci87 163]

Just out of curiosity, did you play Rome or Medieval 2?

[suprememodder 11]

haven't bought a tw game since napoleon. the terrible and widely reported launch issues that never get solved doesn't help market their products.

[Smurf 12]

TW games are good to buy in GOTY editions: All the DLCs and the game is already stable after some patches.

Good they keep a good support after release and already have acknowledged that the game has several flaws: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/10/et-tu-ca-rome-ii-devs-apologize-for-issues/#more-168118

[messiahua 0]

good review:

personally i wouldn't even mind if there where bugs (which would be fixed with the lapse of time), but they really dumbed down gameplay process, which is really disappointing, thank god they didn't remove modding support

[krycek 349]

Bargain bin for me and only if they fix AI,I've watched enough gameplay/reviews of it and it seems they derped it(preparing to move the franchise to consoles?).

AI is bonkers,they introduced capture the flag on battlefields,tactical map AI is tard and not offering challenges even on higher levels.If you indeed find a challenge it's the "AI raising armies from thin air" CA way.Reduced role of agents on map and so on.

It's really friggin' sad that the two of the pc-exclusive most waited franchises for this year(Coh 2&Rome2) ended up huge failures for me.Gotta love Sega.

[Tonci87 163]

good review:

personally i wouldn't even mind if there where bugs (which would be fixed with the lapse of time), but they really dumbed down gameplay process, which is really disappointing, thank god they didn't remove modding support

You sure of that? Moding is seriously cut compared to the old TWs partly due to their DLC crazyness

@MessiahUA Really good review

Edited September 11, 2013 by Tonci87

[Caselius 94]

I liked Empire & Napoleon Total War, as I love 18th & 19th century wars. For who got Napoleon: Total War, I recommend testing "La montée de l'Empire 4" mod. That mod changes the game totally and is very fun if you like Napoleonic Wars.

I hope next game is about late 1800's or 1700's and without any dumbed down features compared to earlier Total War games. (Even that is very unlikely seeing the Rome II)

I am not interested at Rome II, because I didn't like SHOGUN II. If i get Rome II, I buy it later on after some patches.

[[evo] dan 79]

Also annoying that you still need to port forward, otherwise you keep losing connection in mp, really wanted to play the coop campaign but haven't been able to. (Cant port forward, shared house and I cant access the router, same for my friend). It was something I was expecting to not have to do since I consider this in the AAA budgeted games, especially as some much smaller games get around it (i.e. arma) or suppport gameranger (i.e. supreme ruler).

[David77 10]

This is one of my favorite franchises. I've always enjoyed them.

[Tonci87 163]

And this is why CA officially sucks and why the "new" TW Games have been so simplified

Frankly I think this behaviour is disgusting

[Smurf 12]

Good image and the TW part on the video aswell.

[bangtail 0]

<<Snip>>

That image pretty much says it all.

It's very sad.

[krycek 349]

It's not all lost,the indie scene exploded these last couple of years.Right now on my "to buy at release" list at least half of titles are from indie and these guys deserve support.These companies grew up so big that they can't afford even a small amount of creativity anymore,they aren't even making games for us,they're hoping to score a quick buck and to please their shareholders.You know something is fucked up when the marketing department gets bigger and bigger than the dev team.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

I absolutely loved Rome I and Medieval II, with all the great mods that came with them, they were still fun (for me) in Vanilla.

Re Rome II ...

Can someone simplify this for me.

Is it worth it, or will I be disappointed?

[Tonci87 163]

I absolutely loved Rome I and Medieval II, with all the great mods that came with them, they were still fun (for me) in Vanilla.

Re Rome II ...

Can someone simplify this for me.

Is it worth it, or will I be disappointed?

I would suggest that you wait a few months, maybe half a year.

Not only will you get the game cheaper but it might be a better game by then. And maybe there will be some cool mods by then too.

If you really want a new TW then maybe go for Napoleon (Darthmod) or Shogun2 (Radious mod collection)

[st_dux 26]

It's been about a year since this game came out, and I must say, it has improved by leaps and bounds. Anyone who (reasonably) forewent this game when released may want to take another look now. The "Emperor Edition" (just a renaming of the game, not a special edition that costs more anything) doesn't just meet original expectations; it exceeds them (albeit a year late). Fifteen (!) major patches have been released over the last year, and it shows. Plus, there has been a substantial amount of free content, including several playable factions (Pontus, Selucid, Backtria, Getae), some new units, and even a free secondary campaign that focuses on the dissolution of the Second Triumvirate and the establishment of the Roman Empire under Augustus. The game has now officially surpassed Shogun 2 as my favorite Total War game.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Is the AI so poor as it was in NTW ?

[st_dux 26]

Is the AI so poor as it was in NTW ?

The AI isn't perfect of course, but at this point I can safely say that it's best the series has seen, certainly much better than NTW. Even the siege AI has been improved to the point where it's really a challenge both on offense and defense. There are still hiccups here and there, but they are infrequent; the difference between the AI now and the AI at release is night and day.

[ProfTournesol 956]

The AI isn't perfect of course, but at this point I can safely say that it's best the series has seen, certainly much better than NTW. Even the siege AI has been improved to the point where it's really a challenge both on offense and defense. There are still hiccups here and there, but they are infrequent; the difference between the AI now and the AI at release is night and day.

Great ! How is it performance-wise ?