Rome Preview and Interview

[Cobra]

Recently we had some questions answered by CA, and heres the results.

preview and an interview (http://www.worldwidegamenet.com/PC/Strategy/RomeTotalWar/index.htm)

PS-I've noticed you sometimes put entire articles like this up on the Org, but may I respectfully ask that only the "in quote" part is posted here, with a link to the article on the site, if anything.

There are a couple bloopers on the index, so just ignore the fact that the org has become official. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Catiline]

I'm a bit curious, in hte interview CA talks about the factions, saying there are 6, but mentioning barbarians twice. Is htis your typo or theirs?

[Spino]

Quote[/b] ]I'm a bit curious, in hte interview CA talks about the factions, saying there are 6, but mentioning barbarians twice. Is htis your typo or theirs?

My guess is that there are two kinds of barbarian cultures in RTW; western barbarians and their counterparts in the east. The western barbarians would consist of Celts, Germanic tribes, etc. while the eastern barbarians would consist of Scythians and other nomadic steppe peoples.

[Cobra]

Thats hwo it came, I was confused as to whether it was a type, or two barbarians myself, but decided best to just put up what CA said, I've posted this in the official forums, so if they make any notes on it, I'll correct it, otherwise, it'll stay that way. I'm currently thinking it's probably what Spino here is thinking.

[Galestrum]

another thing, they say population is a resource, and they mention that you can upgrade multiple units at a time now, what i didnt see was the ability to raise multiple units at once (1 game turn), which i think would be a major improvement. I always thought it odd that a populous province like constantinople could oly raise the same amount of troops as say the sinai http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif . I hope they allow recruitment to be dependent upon pop size, i recall lords of the realm 2 being like this, where you could draw more troops from areas with higher populations.

for instance, in history, rome would create entire legions within a short time after disasterous losses, yet if its like MTW it would take decades to recover instead of a year or 6 months.

[Cobra]

Yeah, thats a good thought, but with many cities perhaps you can recover quicker, there will probably be more cities in a province I'm thinking, so that could help speed.

But also imagine the cost if you put decades of TW creation into a just a few turns?

[Stormer]

Quote[/b] ]Rome sports six totally unique cultures; factions

This means theres not 6 factions but kinda like 6 areas the factions come into for example:

Rome
Greece
Africa
Europe
Easten world

and another.

also iv just read about ingame footage, WOOOOOOOOW and 20 units not 16, WOOOOOOOOOW.

[Intrepid Sidekick]

Hi guys,

There seems to have been an element of miscommunication here. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

There are 6 basic cultures.
However they are Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Carthaginian, Barbarian and Eastern.

"Culture" is an umbrella term for a group of loosely related factions

There are variations between Barbarian factions but there is only one Barbarian culture.

It appears someone has said Barbarian twice when they in fact meant to say it only once. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

I hope this clarifies things for you all.

Galestrum - "I hope they allow recruitment to be dependent upon pop size,"
Yes we will. This is the case, as stated in the interview. A large city can produce troops in greater numbers than a small town.

Yours helpfully

Jamie (Intrepid Sidekick)
~CA Staff~

[Stormer]

Yea interepid sidekick thats basiclly waht i meant.

[Cobra]

The Thank you for clearing that double culture, it shall be fixed.

[RisingSun]

Dear God.. Just... so... awesome Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet that half those features will have bugs up the wazoo, and that they won't be fixed by a patch... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

[Cobra]

There will be soem bugs, but I doubt that CA will wreck the game.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Quote[/b] ]Thanks to the success of Medieval: Total War we have the opportunity to put a bunch of effort into polishing and refining the game and when it hits the shelves it's going to fundamentally change peoples perceptions of strategy gaming.

Perhaps now some of the naysayers will revise their opinions and judge the game by its post release merits instead of basing their negative oratory on speculation.

[Stormer]

Iv posted the link on www.totalwar.org and some key points i hope thats ok with you cobra?

[Cobra]

Yeah, thats great, a higher up mentioned about it being WorldWideGameNet rather than WorldWidegames, but it doesn't matter to much, and is a very common "mistake" almost everyone (me included) makes. So don't worry, but yeah, that news post is great, thank you.

[Stormer]

Gah, if you want it changed just say http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif i go to it now.

Thanks for info again.

[Stormer]

done http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Cobra]

So, if I want anything done, just http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif . http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
Oh, well, actually
its not games.net
its WorldWideGameNet.com but you can drop the .com.
But thanks anyways.

[Stormer]

Geeez, was you born a pain in the A** or u just spent to long on this forums http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Stormer]

Changed. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/shock.gif

By the way that site you work on its pretty nice, Good job.

[Cobra]

Thanks, I'll pass that on.
there isn't an s after game. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif But yeah, take the s out and it looks good to me.
I like the selection of quotes you chose.

[Stormer]

GAH This change is the last one http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Cobra]

Good, because it's right this time. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Monk]

i just saw the preveiw and interveiw...i only have but 1 thing to say,http://66.227.101.70/cwm/cwm/eek2.gif ok well two things http://smilies.jeeptalk.org/contrib/corky/corkysm60.gif

[Cobra]

Haha, thats a cool smiley.
The culture mix up has been fixed.

[Rosacrux]

I hate to sound nitpicking and all, but by "Egyptian" culture, what excactly do you mean?

We all know (we do, don't we?) that Egypt, during the timeframe of RTW, was a hellenistic kingdom, ruled by the Macedonian Greek house of the Ptolemeans... and that the bulk of the "Egyptian" army was also Greek, because the Greek rulers didn't trust much the bulk of the natives with arms.

I certainly do hope we are not going to see an absurdity, like "Egyptian" units on battlefield in 300 BC... that would be grossly innacurate.

And this whole thing makes me wonder of how the other Hellenistic kingdoms shall be represented...

This game is going to be a real knock-out, it has potential to become perhaps the best computer gamer ever. Do, please, not sew it down by inserting fantastical elements just to add "spice" and boost the "coolnes" factor.

Please...

[Sockeye]

Wow, great interview, with a heap of really interesting tidbits http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Populations and armies based on pop size - major Yeah Retiring units into a city to bump up the population sounds good - I wonder if there's any "reservist" linked to this - ie gives an option to raise a legion again?

"look at your armies while they set up camp" - this raises all sorts of questions in my mind

Looks like batteries of artillery - 3 cats Yeah
Border forts on borders, city raids to knobble production - fantastic.

This brings to mind that old choclate advert - "with these tidbits ambassador you are really spoiling us" (said in an eastern european accent)- CA are really generating a wave of anticipation that's going to surge over the world

Looking very very good http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[Basileus]

very nice indeed, but Rosacrux raised some good points there which i totaly agree with http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[frogbeastegg]

Rosacrux my guess is that when they say Egyptian culture they mean Hellenistic with a hint of Egyptian. After all that's what happened, the two cultures merged. The Hellenistic Pharaohs took Egyptian names and had portraits done in traditional Egyptian style. Some architecture still had the old look and mummification was still popular. The old Gods survived alongside newer ones and so on and so forth. I guess that the other Hellenistic cultures would be done on a similar basis - a Greek core with native elements that were adopted from the local populace.

At least that's what I hope they mean, branching out into fantasy would spoil the experience. I've been waiting for RTW for over 10 years - it had better be good

Monk where did you get those smilies?

[Divine Wind]

Ohhh very intresting...very intresting in deed *rubs hands together, with sadistic smile appearing* http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/shock.gif

[Cobra]

Ok, that last post just scares me.

The Hellenic's did merge with egypt rather than just conquering it and making it a classical greece state.

A reservest feature would be great, they're still there as citizens, but can be retrained cheaper.

[hoom]

Quote[/b] ]Platforms: PC | XboxQue?


Quote[/b] ]On the battle field, up to 40 of your units can be on, however, you can only control one army, which can have up to 20 units, and opt to have computer generals lead more of your armies into battle. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif so longed for for so long http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif


Quote[/b] ]you can also zoom down to look at the map even when armies aren't clashingLegendary http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Combined artillery == a bloody good idea http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif


Quote[/b] ]The largest units can have up to 200 troops http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif I wanted more for Barbarians. But then, I'm guessing thats normal size units, so on max it'd be 400? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Or does this

Quote[/b] ]large barbarian 'hordes' with larger than normal numbers.mean that hordes are bigger than 200?

I wonder if destroying the ambient buildings will affect the population resource?


Quote[/b] ]There will be in game movies for major events such as capturing wonders and natural disasters.He didn't say 'prerendered fmv' he said 'in game' as in game engine movies.
Given the quality of the game engine I have no problem with the difference http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif


Quote[/b] ]Unit's can't split up. We looked at this, but the battles rapidly degenerated into fiddly micromanagement. Good I didn't like the sound of that splitting units bit for exactly that reason.

OMG I am so looking forward to this game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif
So many forum based suggestions actually winding up in the game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif
You guys noticed that RTW is breaking well into the territory of Civilisation?
Kinda Civ with realtime battles & glorious 3d city viewbut only during the ancient period rather than a progression to the present & future like Civ.

The main question I have now is whether it will be possible to sneak an army past the defending army & take the city easily leaving the enemy outside the walls? Or rampage through enemy territory refusing to engage enemy armies?
I can see this being fun but also incredibly annoying when the AI is doing it & you can't bring them to battle.
Of course, this is the actual historical fact. It was historically possible to bypass an enemy army defending a strong point.
Hmm I think that if you bypass a defending army, your ability to retreat should be lost/reduced & maybe start taking losses like in a siege due to supplys being cut off?

[Cobra]

Quote[/b] ]Quote
Platforms: PC | Xbox
Que?
Those are the sections the site does, along wtih PS2 and GBA opening this week, not what Rome is on.


Quote[/b] ]Quote
The largest units can have up to 200 troops
I wanted more for Barbarians. But then, I'm guessing thats normal size units, so on max it'd be 400?
Or does this

Nope, normal size is 60-80, and the max is 200.



Quote[/b] ]There will be in game movies for major events such as capturing wonders and natural disasters.
He didn't say 'prerendered fmv' he said 'in game' as in game engine movies.

Perhaps, but the question was about FMVs, and he did say movie rather than cutscene, so I hold out hope.

[hoom]

Ha I was trying to figure out how xbox could possibly manage to run a Total War game witout a mouse...


Quote[/b] ]Nope, normal size is 60-80, and the max is 200. The way I read it is that with 'unit size' set to 'max' in options (assuming there will still be a unit size option) then 'normal' setting will be 60-80 for average units and 'max' will be 200.
But then there are the 'double size' units that at 'normal' size setting will be 200 so on 'max' they would be 400.

[Cobra]

No, they said 200 are the largest you can get a unit. 200 is not the max for normal units, but the biggest units.

[Monk]

Quote[/b] (frogbeastegg @ June 27 2003,05:11)]Monk where did you get those smilies?
My Smiles.com (http://www.mysmiles.com) thats got alote of good smileys for use on any forum...have fun now http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[frogbeastegg]

Thanks Monk The link sent me to a shopping web site but I searched with yahoo and found one by the same name. http://burns.thefinaldimension.org/ups/kamikaze/smilie_groupflip2.gif

I found this one rather disturbing considering my name
http://216.40.249.192/s/ups/kamikaze/frog.gif

Now I just need to add this one to my sig....
http://www.gamers-forums.com/smilies/ups/unknown/lsvader.gif
But I think it would annoy people more than Lehesu's dancing thingies (Better not on second thoughts, people might get ideas from the frog above )

I think you've created a monster Must resist smilies, must resist....

On topic - from what I've seen of Rome I think it will be a very fine game in deed. If they put in just a quarter of what people asked for it will be so versatile and varied I'll be playing it for years. The only problem is I want three different addons for it and we will probably only get one. I want one to cover the classical empire with Trajan, Vespasian etc, one to cover the fall of Rome with barbarians at the gate and one to cover Greece in it's golden age Vs the Persians. There's no way we'll get all that

As for total war on the X-Box they would probably make a special X-Box mouse. To match the rest of the console it would be as big as a dinner plate http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

OK thats it These smilies are going to be locked in a draw where they can't escape and run rampant anymore

[Cobra]

If this is as moddable as it's sounding like it may be, perhaps some non official (but still some pretty good) mods like taht will show up.

[Kongamato]

Quote[/b] ] However, you can bring multiple armies onto the battlefield at the same time. So you could have up to 40 of your units on the battlefield, although you will only be directly controlling one of your armies.

Could a dev please verify what this means? Does this mean that we can bring a Bot army on the field to help us, or is this just describing reinforcements?

[King James I]

Quote[/b] (Kongamato @ June 28 2003,00:51)]
Quote[/b] ] However, you can bring multiple armies onto the battlefield at the same time. So you could have up to 40 of your units on the battlefield, although you will only be directly controlling one of your armies.

Could a dev please verify what this means? Does this mean that we can bring a Bot army on the field to help us, or is this just describing reinforcements?
Kongamato, from what I've read you can only control up to 20 different units at a time and the rest are controlled by A.I generals. What the answer means is, I think we will be able to take 2 stacks of 20 units each onto the battlefield, but we will be only able to command one stack and the other gets commanded by the A.I allied general.

[hoom]

But max size units in M:TW are already 200 http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

I'm sure that I counted 280 in one of the R:TW screen shots.

[Cobra]

Yeah, but now you can control 20 units.
I'm not to worried.

[Aide de camp]

Quote[/b] ]the other gets commanded by the A.I allied general

That sounds good, but I hope the player can set the A.I's behaviour (aggressive or defensive, which flank to attack, flee the battle,...). This could help to coordinate your action with A.I's and have more complex battles.

[Cobra]

I wonder if we can communicate with them during battle.

[some_totalwar_dude]

I sure hope so, but this ould mean you sort of controle the second stack to.

I would hate to see the A.I general wast half of my troops by making stoopid moves.

*gets flashbacks from foolish AI moves in medieval*

NOOOOOOOOO

[ShadesWolf]

## Rosacrux ##

Just a thought, with this the might be talking about building etc more than armies.....