Caesar in Gaul DLC

[BroskiDerpman]

It depends, I frequently have meaningful discussions there unless if somebody really pisses me off with some wacky jumbo stuff.

Though I think it should be a gradual process if people were to come here. (Though most really don't see the incentives) You also have to note that some people don't like the .Org in general due to lack of activity or any discussions to relate to themselves. (Imagine talking to a wall about late antiquity) Plus it's not like they really have the urge to go create something when they have everything they need and more; it wouldn't be worth the hassle at all compared to the activity you'd get in return.

Then the forums could be extremely unresponsive due to high activity and you got to remember that TWC is quite bloated with personal avatars, much more discussions and such. Then you got to note that there's many private subforums especially for modding, and I know of one for IBFD battle reenactment from 2007 which isn't active anymore but TWC still hosts that. Yet it still loads...

Though for some reason the .org has been acting up on me a lot and for some apparent reason it's loading slower than TWC at certain moments. Sometimes my touchpad goes Derp when I'm at the .Org...

[Mhantra]

Broski,

I have been playing it only for a couple hours, but it has been very solid for me. I am a fan of the main game, but this one is refreshingly more manageable. Again, initial thoughts, but I don't see it as tiny and over in one night. The seasons have their own stat changes and at times cause havoc with your travel. It feels slower, but smaller, your generals and agents live longer so can develop them and any chance I can get to go kill romans as barbs, I am thrilled.

It is running literally perfect for me, haven't seen the bugs, crashes etc that others report and it seemed to smooth out performance a bit.

I love it, but really, it is a different version of more of the same. if you just don't like Rome II vanilla, not for you. If you feel vanilla needed more polish, focus and not be a freaking huge, then this is definitely for you.

Oh ya, and if you like to kill Romans with barbs, or barbs with Romans, you will like it.

[Hooahguy]

Yeah the site has been so slow today, took me almost 5 minutes to delete your double post!

Anyways, glad to hear about the DLC, I will probably pick it up during the steam sale. Not sure yet, want to get my Baktrian campaign/AAR started.

[Mhantra]

Baktria is great as well. I loaded mine up, was going to wait on the CiG campaign though I had already purchased it, but the culture shift absolutely jacked my public order. I think I will start a new Baktria instead haha. Baktria is a wonderful faction, don't mind at all.

[Myth]

Hmm. How useful do you guys find elephants in your army rosters? BTW if I want an elephant faction I think I'd go with the Seleucids. Especially with the nerf to pike units I think the varied Selecuid roster outperforms the Macedonian one now (and by birtue - all other hellenic rosters. Bar maybe a fully decked out all hoplite Spartan army)

[BroskiDerpman]

Thanks for the responses folks.
@Myth

Have at least one in your army if it's a offensive stack, preferably two-four or maybe six. Especially in the footage I seen they have very good chances to kill several hundred troops through decent management. They can be used against nomads too but you got to be more careful and use a different mindset.

[Nelson]

Especially in the footage I seen ...

Broski, do you have the game now? You give a very specific answer. It sounds like you have used elephants extensively, but then you slip in the footage reference and I wonder if you have actually used elephants at all.

[The Outsider]

Do you guys have any idea how the new culture system works? Or is it just broken? Im playing as galatia on normal, i have taken out pontus , pergamon and bithnia but now i gave contant rebelions almost every turn. Pesants, slaves and old loyalists, i just dont seem to be able to assimilate anyone. This is so annoying.

[Sp4]

I have not played it yet but I will give it a look after I managed to get the actual game working again.

[Sp4]

Yeah I have no idea how it works. 7 of my influence vs 2 foreign and my culture going down. Hrrrrrmm? =X

Also, I can't build quarries like the patch notes said I would be able to. Is that DLC only stuff or do you have to be in a specific settlement for that to work?

[Hooahguy]

The quarry seems to be only for minor settlements.

[Sp4]

Yeah, I have tried that. Rome starts out with 2 minor settlements and it works in neither. Epirus starts out with 2 minor ones and it wont work in either.. Do you need some sort of resource, like lead or marble?

[Hooahguy]

I wonder if it is just a CiG thing?

[Sp4]

I wonder if it is just a CiG thing?

That is what I said! Why is everyone repeating me today?

[Hooahguy]

You are very repeatable.

[Sp4]

What?

[Mhantra]

Yeah I have no idea how it works. 7 of my influence vs 2 foreign and my culture going down. Hrrrrrmm? =X

Also, I can't build quarries like the patch notes said I would be able to. Is that DLC only stuff or do you have to be in a specific settlement for that to work?

I am sure you have all seen the explanation stickied on the main forum page: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...Culture-System

Basically, it seems as though your are trending down to equilibrium for the province. I look forward to checking this out more.

[Sp4]

Oh so basically that is to stop you from undermining the culture of an entire province by spamming temples in one town?

[BroskiDerpman]

Broski, do you have the game now? You give a very specific answer. It sounds like you have used elephants extensively, but then you slip in the footage reference and I wonder if you have actually used elephants at all.

Of course I give a very specific answer to help Myth as being specific is helpful most of the time. I don't need to buy the game to even know what's recommend. Plus I know how the Warscape engine's combat has that specific feel and just by looking at some footage I almost can feel myself actually using those units. You also got to note that I tried some Rome 2 so I can confirm that I know how the battles feel; Something (the feeling of how units act, how game clicks, how ui presses down when I click, how graphics look, etc) rather generally termed and hard for me to explain.

Chariots and Eles in Patch 7 and above so far.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hYvlprqsID4

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t-zeza4UC6w

Still in patch 8/8.1, I can pull up more links if you still doubt me or the video maker's credibility. I can also pull up forum links if needed.

Simply because I don't have Rome 2 at the moment (Not counting my short testing) doesn't make my advice to a fellow member not credible especially with numerous other people to back it up until CA adjusts stats a little. It also doesn't mean I have no clue on how the game works either or have no rights to make specific criticism of balance, graphics, etc.

[Mhantra]

Oh so basically that is to stop you from undermining the culture of an entire province by spamming temples in one town?

I think that is exactly it, yes. In fact, I used to just build 2-3 temples, crank the culture to 100, then just destroy them all and go with whatever else I needed, military, order, food etc. So yeah, made culture kind of a non-factor.

Some interesting points for anyone else reading:

If there are 4 settlements in a province, it makes some sense that just getting one wouldn't allow you to completely eliminate the native or competing cultures. In fact, the cultural resistance and pushback would be strong. So taking the full province will help with a lot of this.

The much disrespected Dignitary is now much more important, almost to the point of bringing them along behind your conquering armies.

Also more important are research paths that add faction-wide cultural conversion and also any traits on generals or other agents. In fact, it changes a lot of the game's factions' power because some of them have a natural cultural conversion. The +4 cultural conversion literally eliminates the static native tradition cultural pushback of the conquered settlement.

[easytarget]

Anyone had any luck forming confederations? I've tried repeatedly and gotten no takers, made no difference if we were on friendly terms, not friendly terms, I'm about to wipe you off the planet, we're equal militarily, not equal militarily, etc etc etc. At this point I've tried under just about every possible circumstances you can cook up, nothing.

Is this a last stage then beyond military alliance and therefore just about so hard to attain there's no point? Yet I see these being formed by the AI frequently.

W/O the ability to get some diplomacy cooperation I've fallen back to plan B, which all of these barbarians in my midst appear to understand well enough, which is a spear through the eye socket.

[Hooahguy]

In the main game or in the DLC?

In the main game I managed to form one once, when I was toying around with my Suebi campaign post-AAR. The Aestii were attacking the Lugii, who really needed help since they were on the verge of losing their last settlement. I offered it first to the Aestii, they declined. Then I offered it to the Lugii who accepted, probably because if they didnt, they would be killed off by the Aestii.

[Myth]

Anyone had any luck forming confederations? I've tried repeatedly and gotten no takers, made no difference if we were on friendly terms, not friendly terms, I'm about to wipe you off the planet, we're equal militarily, not equal militarily, etc etc etc. At this point I've tried under just about every possible circumstances you can cook up, nothing.

Is this a last stage then beyond military alliance and therefore just about so hard to attain there's no point? Yet I see these being formed by the AI frequently.

W/O the ability to get some diplomacy cooperation I've fallen back to plan B, which all of these barbarians in my midst appear to understand well enough, which is a spear through the eye socket.

Try wiping out one of their stacks (if they have more than one) and laying siege to their last city. They should be happy to accept then.

[easytarget]

This is in the DLC. Ok, I'll give pushing them to the very brink a try. I was sort of hoping this campaign option would be, I don't know, perhaps a bit more rational. If I destroy your stacks and encircle your last city, that would be the point where frankly I don't care if you want to confederate or not, I can simply wipe you off the face of the map and be done with you.

The way this should work imho is either, we're the best of friends, to the point of years of having a military alliance together, proving in both our minds we're on the same page and pursuing the same agenda, in which case a confederation is an obvious option, or, I've just destroyed the only army you have, you are under attack from the opposite flank, and therefore your only hope in surviving in this cold cruel world is a confederation with me that keeps you alive.

The tragic part in my eyes about both of the suggestions I've made above is they can be coded to be checked for by the AI, one looks for military alliance and number of years the threshold is set to (make it a variable so it's not predictable) and the latter checks army count status, generals and number of parties you are at war with (again, set this threshold wherever you feel is a good game balance).

Right now this option is to me is as useful as satrapy which robs you of the ability to complete provinces and issue edicts.

[Myth]

It is still prefferrable if they have more than one stack and you destroyed one and besieged their city. You'd get their remaining troops for free. That's how I did it anyway.

[Kamakazi]

do we know if they will put the dlc on the steam sale? or am I holding out for no reason?

[Hooahguy]

We dont know, I would wait until the last day of the sale if it doesnt go further on sale in the coming weeks.

[Alcibiade]

Hi

Grand campaign bored me to death but I had a feeling that CAI was broken because of the equation huge sea regions and amphibious troops. Plus I really missed the seasons on an immersion as well as a strategic side. So I bought CiG.

Well, I'm not disapointed and I love this expansion. It brought back this one more turn feeling, sleepless nights and argument with girlfriend. There are some really good ideas in the tech tree as the civil and military techs are more intricated.

I feel sorry for those who were disapointed by the grand campaign, like me, and choose to express their frustration with a useless boycott.

Merry christmass.

[easytarget]

Got to agree, I like it better so far than the main campaign as well. I though had a pretty good idea I would because I'm fully convinced CA isn't up to the task of making large campaign map games (i.e. Empire and Rome 2 vs what for me is the best game they ever made, Shogun 2). Lower the number of AI combatants, scale down the map, give me my beautiful seasons back along with agents and generals I can develop and not have die off before I remember their names and viola, Rome 2 turns into a game I once again recognize and enjoy.

[Barkhorn1x]

+1 - I feel the same way!!