Servius
02-11-2005, 15:55
To give credit where credit is due...
Bridge battles are much better. There are still some instances where units on Hold by the coast will turn, revert to their default formation (usually 3 ranks deep, for archers at least) and in doing so drown troops, but at least it's not as bad as it used to be, and I think units keep formation when on bridges, rather than moving in a rabble formation, no front line
Ships and agents can move much further across the Strat map now
Marius occurs much later, so Triarii are worth building as they are not immediately replaced
Squallor has been tuned down, so managing cities is easier, allowing more focus on war and less on SimCity
Rebels are more active
AI not so stupid in that it does not always stand still now when being hit by missile fire. Still does occur sometimes, esp. when the AI is outnumbered, but at least it doesn't happen as much.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
However, a few things still, in my opinion, need to or should be fixed. Some are bugs, some are just game factors I really don't like. Those are...
Bug - Cavalry still does a bad job of killing after the first charge. If they are even in a possition where thier target is split, some in front of the cav line, some behind, the cav unit will just trot at the same speed as the fleeing nme. They won't move forward to kill those in front, nor will it loop around to get the entire nme unit in front for another charge.
Feature - Family fertility is still a function of empire size. The ratio is still about 1 male heir per city. This means that you cannot have a governor in each city and a General controling each field army. That just seems dumb. The problem only gets worse as your empire expands and you have more and more armies in the field. Please revert to the MTW practice of allowing any unit to be made a governor. I think one kind of tradeoff would be to restrict the number of ancilaries Captain-Governors could have, as well as cap the level of beneficial traits Captain-Governors coudl acquire. Thus General-Governors would still be preferable, but Captain-Governors could fill in in a pinch. Also, from a historical perspective, Generals often had deputies who handled stuff like this. Legates, Tribunes, Prefects, etc. all were leutenants of the General charged with running logistical stuff like cities, camps, supplies, etc. so that the General was free to focus on the fighting.
Bug/Feature - Roman infantry still have a LONG pause between when you order them to attack with pila, when they actually throw it, and when they actually charge the nme unit. To be honest, I bet it would actually be more effective to throw the pila WHILE RUNNING as I think it would actually increase the momentum behind the throw. Maybe we should find a way to allow them to throw WHILE charging. Not sure, just an idea.
Feature - Infantry still move way too fast. Velites and Hastati seem to move at the same speed, which seems okay because they're both classified as Light Infantry, but Hastati have way more armor so they should be moving slower. Even heavy infantry like Principes and Triarii run pretty damn fast. I think the speed difference between infantry and cavalry is too small. Cav speed seems okay, but infantry speed should be slower.
Feature - battlefields are extremely bland. They lack any of the significant terrain features that were integral to MTW. I am irked by, but understand, the removal of the easily-defended hills in the corners of the map that MTW had, but there are hardly any defendable hills AT ALL on these maps, nor are there impassible cliffs to create chokepoints on the battle maps, nor have I seen any river battles with two bridges instead of just one. Also, the forests are seem to be either the whole map or almost not there at all. The MTW France and Germany maps were great forest maps I think. Mostly flat, but with a few significant forests on each map.
Feature - Height seems to give very little range advantage to missile units. I don't like that. Up it.
Feature - Rank bonus seems to have been removed. I don't like that either. It seems even worse given that phalanx units were good only because of the rank bonus. What made them so effective was the quantity of spear points one had to contend with before even reaching the first line of men. That advantage was granted by long spears and the ranks of men behind the first who weilded them. Rank bonus should come back.
Bridge battles are much better. There are still some instances where units on Hold by the coast will turn, revert to their default formation (usually 3 ranks deep, for archers at least) and in doing so drown troops, but at least it's not as bad as it used to be, and I think units keep formation when on bridges, rather than moving in a rabble formation, no front line
Ships and agents can move much further across the Strat map now
Marius occurs much later, so Triarii are worth building as they are not immediately replaced
Squallor has been tuned down, so managing cities is easier, allowing more focus on war and less on SimCity
Rebels are more active
AI not so stupid in that it does not always stand still now when being hit by missile fire. Still does occur sometimes, esp. when the AI is outnumbered, but at least it doesn't happen as much.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
However, a few things still, in my opinion, need to or should be fixed. Some are bugs, some are just game factors I really don't like. Those are...
Bug - Cavalry still does a bad job of killing after the first charge. If they are even in a possition where thier target is split, some in front of the cav line, some behind, the cav unit will just trot at the same speed as the fleeing nme. They won't move forward to kill those in front, nor will it loop around to get the entire nme unit in front for another charge.
Feature - Family fertility is still a function of empire size. The ratio is still about 1 male heir per city. This means that you cannot have a governor in each city and a General controling each field army. That just seems dumb. The problem only gets worse as your empire expands and you have more and more armies in the field. Please revert to the MTW practice of allowing any unit to be made a governor. I think one kind of tradeoff would be to restrict the number of ancilaries Captain-Governors could have, as well as cap the level of beneficial traits Captain-Governors coudl acquire. Thus General-Governors would still be preferable, but Captain-Governors could fill in in a pinch. Also, from a historical perspective, Generals often had deputies who handled stuff like this. Legates, Tribunes, Prefects, etc. all were leutenants of the General charged with running logistical stuff like cities, camps, supplies, etc. so that the General was free to focus on the fighting.
Bug/Feature - Roman infantry still have a LONG pause between when you order them to attack with pila, when they actually throw it, and when they actually charge the nme unit. To be honest, I bet it would actually be more effective to throw the pila WHILE RUNNING as I think it would actually increase the momentum behind the throw. Maybe we should find a way to allow them to throw WHILE charging. Not sure, just an idea.
Feature - Infantry still move way too fast. Velites and Hastati seem to move at the same speed, which seems okay because they're both classified as Light Infantry, but Hastati have way more armor so they should be moving slower. Even heavy infantry like Principes and Triarii run pretty damn fast. I think the speed difference between infantry and cavalry is too small. Cav speed seems okay, but infantry speed should be slower.
Feature - battlefields are extremely bland. They lack any of the significant terrain features that were integral to MTW. I am irked by, but understand, the removal of the easily-defended hills in the corners of the map that MTW had, but there are hardly any defendable hills AT ALL on these maps, nor are there impassible cliffs to create chokepoints on the battle maps, nor have I seen any river battles with two bridges instead of just one. Also, the forests are seem to be either the whole map or almost not there at all. The MTW France and Germany maps were great forest maps I think. Mostly flat, but with a few significant forests on each map.
Feature - Height seems to give very little range advantage to missile units. I don't like that. Up it.
Feature - Rank bonus seems to have been removed. I don't like that either. It seems even worse given that phalanx units were good only because of the rank bonus. What made them so effective was the quantity of spear points one had to contend with before even reaching the first line of men. That advantage was granted by long spears and the ranks of men behind the first who weilded them. Rank bonus should come back.