Creative Assembly Jack Lusted Answers Questions, Parts 2 & 3

Direct link to Part 3.

Hi all,

I am here with another set of answers to your questions. Again, I’m afraid that due to the sheer number of questions (well over 1,100) there is no way for me to answer them all.

HOWEVER!

Starting later today I will be posting up the first part of a campaign play through as Macedon. I will put up screenshots and text describing the campaign as I go along and try to provide details about new features as I encounter them.

So for this answer session I have focused on more battle related questions, and will do a few sets of answers like this alongside the campaign playthrough.

What kind of multi-core support will there be in Rome II?
There is improved usage of multiple cores across all areas of the game.

How will missile units be balanced now that shields have returned to the game?
Missile units have been balanced so each type has a role (archers, javelins and slingers)

Archers have a fast fire rate, good range and damage, but little of their damage is armour piercing so they struggle against the more armoured units.

Javelins are short range, but very high damage so can hurt anyone.

Slingers have the longest range and a lot of ammo. Their weakness is low damage, but they will do something against everyone.

For Rome II the morale penalty for being under missile fire has also been increased to make that a more important factor in battles and also to help make sure missile units are always useful on the battlefield.

Will the AI expand and form large nations on the campaign map?
This was true for Shogun 2 and is true for Rome II as well.

What is the largest warship in the game?
The Egyptian Eight with 2 fighting towers.

How great will the unit variety be in Rome II? There was a noticeable drop from Rome I to Shogun 2, will this be repeated?
The unit variety depends on the time period we are covering. Shogun 2, depicting a civil war between many clans from a single nation, had a small number of units because the factions involved fought in the same way.

Rome II, covering a much larger area geographically and a diverse time period features a lot of units, over 700 in total. They will differ visually and in their stats.

Will Massilia be a Greek or Celtic faction?
It is a Greek faction, with some low level Celtic units in its roster.

What siege engines are available when attacking a settlement?
Rams, gallerys, ladders and siege towers.

We saw flaming balls of fire being used in the Teutoberg forest video, are they available in the actual game and what other kinds of deployables are there?

Yes, and there are also barricades, spike traps, stakes, caltrops and more.

How big are the battle maps?
2km x 2km.

Direct link to Part 2.

Will soldiers ever lose their swords, spears or shields when fighting?
Soldiers will drop them when they die, but not during combat as this would require individual soldiers swapping to a different animation set to the rest of the unit for the rest of the battle.

In a battle, can I disembark troops from ships anywhere or only at certain points?
You can disembark on beaches or in harbours.

Can buildings and grass be set on fire?
Buildings yes, grass no.

Can chariots and elephants cause casualties to friendly units if they run through them?
Yes they can. Best to move them around other units rather than through them.

I've not seen the movement compass UI in any screenshot, has that been removed?
It is not part of the user interface anymore, but the controls for it still work and we also have added an additional way to move units around. If you hold left click over a selected unit, or a unit that is part of a selected group, the cursor will change to a four directional symbol and you can drag the units around the map and they will keep their current formation and facing as you do so. You can hold the ctrl key to then rotate their facing as well.

Are province capitals captured in a single battle, or are there multiple if they are a port city?
The capture of a settlement is resolved in a single fight. The ports are part of the city, not separate parts of them.

How do garrisons work with limited armies?
The auto-garrisons that have been in since Empire make a return, but with better units and large numbers. Multiple different building chains can add units to the auto-garrison for a settlement. If you want more troops to defend a settlement you will need to station an army in it. As a player you will need to keep a balance of how many armies you are attacking with and how many are protecting your territory.

How do transported armies work? Can they be merged with navies?
Armies can embark and become transport navies. These can move around on their own, or can be attached to a navy and they can move around together and will fight together on the battlemap.

Are battlemaps generated from the campaign map like in Rome I, or are they preset tile maps like in Shogun 2? How many of them will there be?
So in Rome I battlemaps were generated via information from the campaign map. Culture, height details, terrain types, things like that. There was then code that took all of that to generate battlefields. Siege maps were big pre-made chunks dropped into middle of one of these maps.

With Shogun 2 battle maps were a mixture of tile template maps and premade maps. We use tiles as it allows for complete control over what kind of battle maps people will encounter compared to the old code solution. The tile template maps were tied to areas on the campaign, generally a few covering each region, and the game would pick the nearest one to where your army stood and fight a battle based on that. All of the templates were based on the geography and layout of the campaign map. siege maps were premade maps, including the outfield, and there were a few variations repeated across the campaign map.

Rome II takes a different approach. It is still tile based, but the entire campaign map is basically one giant tile map. There is a huge variety of battlefields and all based on where you are standing on the campaign map. Siege maps are also done as tile maps, not only is there the greatest variety of siege maps for settlements ever in a Total War game, the outfield will also reflect where that settlement is on the campaign map.

How big are the tech trees? Can you trade tech with other factions?
Big. Macedon has 56 techs it can research for example. No this is not possible in Rome II.

Do all families within a faction have the same tech tree?
Yes tech trees are done by faction.

Does the army cap affect all factions and cultures?
It applies to everyone.

Can minor settlements be upgraded in the campaign to have walls on the battlefield?
No only province capitals have walls and only they will have walled siege maps on the battlefield.

Will the city/castle split from Medieval II return?
This is up to players this time around. With the limited number of building slots in each settlement, and the number depending on if you've expanded the slots in a settlement, choices have to be made about what you specialise a settlement in. You might decide to turn a minor settlement with iron into a town for industrial wealth, or a big province capital into the heart of your military machine with every military building you can fit in it.

Will there be religious buildings like in Rome I?
Temples make a return, and there is a greater variety of them all with their own effects. The chain starts out as a basic building which then branches into all the different types.

With the new recruitment system, where units are recruited directly to the army, will there be any small scale battles?
Yes, it will take time to build up to 20 units in an army, so you'll see both large and small scale battles, though each with more importance than in previous titles.

What are the sizes of different units and what are they on the different unit size settings?
These numbers are by type, and then huge/large/medium/small unit size. Melee infantry 160/120/80/40, missile infantry 120/90/60/30, cavalry 80/60/40/20, artillery 40/30/20/10 and 4/3/2/1 engines.