3D Naval Combat

[King James I]

How important do you guys think it is to have in Rome Total War. As for me, I think it would be very important, as it was important historically as Rome extensively depended upon foreign imports from conquered lands (such as Egypt for its grain, as it was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire), so their mercantile trade was very important, but vulnerable to other hostile, sea-going poweres, such as Carthage, Pontus, and the Cicillian pirates, which meant they either had to have a strong navy or have allies with a strong navy (Rhodes). Other important aspect of Roman marine strategy was troop transport to such out of the way places such as Britain and to deny their enemies their supplies and reinforcement by sea. Rome engaged in many naval battle, especially with such campaigns as, the Punic Wars, their wars against Mithradates of Pontus, Caesar's conquest of the Atlantic Coast of Gaul, the invasion of Britain, and many others.

[rasoforos]

yep . proper naval wafare is very important. The fact that we did not see any screenshots or naval warfare ( as far as i know) is a bit worrying but i guess its too early in the development. Not only it will add an element of more realistic gameplay but it will also look cool , especially the triremes.
What i would like to see is some 'single battles' on the sea from times older than the game's time period . For example the battle in Salamis .

[Longshanks]

I think it would be very important, as naval power was much more significant in the ancient world than it was in the medieval.

One of the reasons Rome became the top dog is because it eventually rivaled, and then surpassed the navies of Carthage during the Punic Wars. At the time of the First Punic War, Carthage was the predominant naval power. That was no longer true by the time the First Punic War had ended.

[Spino]

It would be nice to have 3D naval warfare in RTW but if it hasn't been mentioned at this point then it isn't going to happen. I think RTW is too far along in development for something like naval warfare to be simply thrown in. The AI concerns alone would be considerable as the tactics of naval warfare, even way back then, don't even remotely resemble those of land warfare. While RTW may be a year from release the next six months should see CA solidifying and focusing the game to the point where it should be 'feature locked' by late Summer or early Fall. After that there should be months of refining, tweaking and testing until RTW eventually goes gold. I seriously doubt much of the time between now Summer will be spent incorporating features that clearly weren't called for in the initial design.

Quite frankly given the revolutionary nature of RTW's new strategic map I would sooner have CA concentrate on honing the AI and tweaking the various aspects of game so that its release is much smoother than MTW's.

[Alastair II]

I think that since the current MP land game needs so much work, since MP is the part of the game w/ the most depth and longevity, and since the land has so many more tactical possibilities, RTW should stick to land battles. Also, despite many of the comments made here, Rome's main strength was on land. Even if one wishes to talk about historical accuracy (which MTW is very happily lacking in), Rome's navy was an ad hoc afterthought made to combat the Carthaginians, and was mainly used as a platform upon which to perform naval battles. Also, since quite obviously Medieval has shown no interest in being historically accurate, and the most focus on making good gameplay (which I heartily agree with), the historical importance of a navy should be discounted.

[Juan Madsen]

the naval aspect of the campaigns has to be improved, hopefully up to the level of land warfare in MTW, if this is not possible then the way maritime transport of units is handled in MTW must be revised to make it more realistic.

If are going to move 1.000 troops somewhere by sea, then you need a certain number of vessels. If are moving a larger army then you need even more vessels. Once loaded you should move those vessels to their destination. If there are storms you must suffer them. If you are attacked by other vessels you must face this attack (and hopefully be given the change to realistically battle it). In this way blockades will be more costly to maintain (as they have always been).

Naval power has always been a main issue for major powers in the mediterranean (and everywere), from the greeks and fenicians to present day when the americans maintain a permanent naval force in it.

NAVAL WARFARE MUST BE IMPROVED. Seriously I do not believe it is difficult to model that with the current engine of total war.