https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U_u3cXRpNA
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/69...mpire_Divided/
Screens:
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https://cdn.creative-assembly.com/to...inal-1080p.jpg
Printable View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U_u3cXRpNA
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/69...mpire_Divided/
Screens:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
https://cdn.creative-assembly.com/to...inal-1080p.jpg
New DLC pack, something they already hinted at. Interesting to see what it is.
Im really hoping it is something that will port a bunch of Attila's features into R2 such as the expanded politics system and family tree. I remember reading about how they wanted to do that.
I want new stuff for Attila too...
Also https://www.totalwar.com/blog/update...rical-releases
This twitter vid is reference to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Previously they showed a concept art that was almost certainly Arminius
https://i.imgur.com/sBzFDxz.png
Teutoberg Forest is seen as the start of the Decline & Fall by my understanding.
So I think its a Germania campaign.
For the Saga (standalone game but not full new Historical Game) section they reference this pic
https://cdn.creative-assembly.com/to...saga-logo1.png
which has been identified as the East coast of Ireland near Dublin.
'Beware the crows' seems to fit an Irish setting too.
But when?
This makes me nostalgic for my Marcomanni campaign. Though I think the beware the crow thing is a Norse reference.
It's not Germania, the pic of that warrior belongs to the saga game. I know that it says ''next campaign pack'', but that was a mistake. Also Germania doesn't fit their claims about the largest dlc yet not to mention that only few care about Arminius. I guess we will learn on Thursday or Friday, but I would bet to Alex.
I don't think it does unless the Saga game covers the Rome time period since its a Cherusci guy with winged helmet ie Arminius.
Maybe a broader setting than Germania but it fits with a crumbling Empire theme of the twitter vid.
Just looking at a thread over at TWC, I'd skimmed over this bit (my bold)
So apparently we're getting a free patch/upgrade to main game as well as the new paid Campaign :bow:Quote:
What are you looking forward to most about the release?
Maya: Well of course we want players to get a big kick out of the new expansion, but I think seeing people’s reaction to the big free update we’re making to the main game at the same time will be really interesting. It’s great to be able to go back and look at a whole area of the game and make some changes.
https://www.totalwar.com/blog/empire...r-politics-faq
http://store.steampowered.com/app/69...mpire_Divided/
Crisis of the 3rd Century.
Beta of the main campaign patch available on Steam now 1.1GB, opt-in. (they say make sure to disable mods first)
Also they've made a Beta for 'patch_17' for people who want to keep existing version of the game.
The politics update seems interesting, if their claims are accurate and it's implemented flawlessly, then it's definitely a step to the right direction.
Mixed feelings about the DLC. It looks similar to Augustus, only not free this time. I'm not a fan of the scripted campaigns, so all this talk about unkillable characters and the obedience to a specific narration puts me off.
Don't get me wrong, the era is interesting, but there have already been mods about that and it looks a bit over-priced, given the map and roster similarities. The map doesn't offer any new possibilities to modding.
I think it's a bad choice for CA. Sure, copy-pasting the map and many units contributes positively to their money and time resources, but the DLC seems very forgettable, I predict a fate identical to that of WoS, much hype, little impact.
I just finished learning about the Crisis of the 3rd century at university, so this looks pretty cool. Will probably pick it up when I get more money and reviews come in. Hopefully its not a flop, but we will see. Maybe Ill even dust off my AAR skills again. Though I should probably finish my Marcomanni one first. :rolleyes:
The free politics update sounds really cool, but also kinda frustrating. Like the whole idle generals things making them lose loyalty. Like I get it since thats kinda how they operated in real life, but in my games I would have armies garrisoning frontier towns to protect them, and it seems like it will be annoying to constantly have to micromanage them to keep them happy.
Not sure I'm entirely impressed.
Wasn't expecting a full map new Campaign.
Seems a bit too likely to play out very similar to Augustus maybe? But I've always been more interested in the factions other than Rome :ave:
More depth to politics stuff may bring more life & polish but like Hooahguy I feel there is a good chance it'll just add a bunch of annoying micro-intensive crap I'd prefer to do without.
There are a bunch of UI quality of life improvements like an actual functional building/unit browser instead of the long broken external Encyclopaedia, though somehow the implementation seems inferior to previous TW implementations.
List of bug fixes feels a bit smaller than I'd maybe hoped but on the other hand any fixes are absolutely welcome.
Possibly some of the trait/bonus effect fixes will actually cause much more significant cumulative improvement than a simple 'fixed' patchnote line directly implies.
Would perhaps be nice to know which ones were broken & how badly.
Some gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjHJ7O75Swg
They need to work on the animation for the chariots, they look kinda wonky.
DLC & Patch is officially out now.
So did anyone play? Any impressions?
I have a problem with R2 after DLC update. Game crash to desktop after running launcher...
1. Verify cache.
2. Opt out of the beta.
If nothing of these works, then:
3. Delete (not only disable) every mod you use.
Played a couple of 1 unit vs 1 unit custom battles in the beta to see if there was obvious combat difference & went into a campaign start to look at GUI changes.Quote:
So did anyone play? Any impressions?
Didn't notice anything in combat.
GUI (ingame encyclopedia stuff) generally good improvement but the minimal GUI in battles seems to be AWOL (or I remember wrong).
Basically not in TW mode at the moment, did play a bit of Shogun 1 the other day & prior to that I'd been playing Third Age mod of Med2.
I got all excited, bought this and tried to play it. All my attempts at recruiting agents make the game crash to desktop. Does this actually work for you guys?
Edit: Never mind that. I came to think of verifying the files, which solved this.
I Think This DLC Is Really Awesome :) :bow:
Cool, care to expand on that? What improvements are you seeing? Or is it mostly the setting/time period you're liking?
Well since all of the GUI and other gameplay changes are in every other campaign since the pre-release patch, the only thing to get excited about is the setting.
With all the recent action I've started playing again :yes:
Trying Galatians.
First time thought I was doing OK until a Seleukid stack came out of the FoW & captured half my fledgling empire :thumbsdown:
Rebuilt a bit only to get stomped again by Seleukids with Pergamon joining in for kicks.
Pretty sure is basically a repeat of what happened last time I tried Galatians many years back :no:
Was going to fall back on one of my favs with easier start pos like Cimmerians or Baktria but thought a bit, had a poke round tech-tree & figured out a way to start without aggravating Seleukia, seems to be working & I've got Asia-Minor nearly secured :rtwyes:
Edit: so of course a wild Rhodian stack appears & captures the Western parts just as I was heading inland and as I move back the damn Pergamene stack reappears on my East :juggle:
Anyway, regarding recent changes there are definitely some improvements but the increased dilemma stuff is pretty annoying micro stuff.
Feels like there may be excessively much in the way of female characters, early on had 2 female family members, no males other than my King.
One thing that still bothers me: basically never get good terrain to defend on, always seems to be a hill that'd make a good defensive spot just outside the boundary, meanwhile computer player seems to almost always get a good hill to defend on :shrug:
Edit2: I mean the dilemma stuff isn't horrific, its just that they come up like every 4-5 turns.
Some of them do give handy bonuses if you choose right but already in the relatively early stages of one campaign I seem to have cycled through the options a couple of times. (possibly a short list because Galatians are a minor faction)
It does have the advantage of encouraging regular checks for promotion availability & I'm actually making an effort to optimise retainer allocation which I've never really done before :bow:
On females: with about 8 faction members I'm getting constantly about 3 female.
From recollection Gauls did historically have relatively high female political participation so possibly some of the more paternal cultures will have fewer/none.
I'm not against female leaders, there were a bunch known in historical references & its good to have that represented :yes:
I just don't want them suddenly over represented, like while there were some politically active Roman females I don't recall any female Roman generals so it'd be dumb to constantly have several.
Couple of things with Sieges: Not that CA said anything about fixing them but I wish they would.
AI Cavalry never dismount to attack walls & defending infantry never tries to climb up walls to defend.
From recollection there was an older TW game with dismounting cavalry where AI always dismounted & wound up needlessly sending cavalry up ladders to their deaths but in battles where the AI has cavalry whose dismount is strong infantry that could easily clear the walls of garrison levies/slingers its annoying to see them just sit at the back until all other infantry is dead/routed then stand infront of the gates getting shot giving me a win that should have been easy AI victory.
Similarly you can just send missile units up on a wall once its cleared of initial defenders & they'll be left alone (other than by missile units on ground) to shoot safely at superior infantry below.
Campaign progress:
Pergamon had expanded East along the South of asia-minor, pushed the Seleukids away from Syria & I was able to destroy their mainland empire while the main force was taking Crete, Rhodes sent 2 very annoying expeditions that set me back, Pergamon 1 but I was able to fend them off & take Rhodes, expand east to the Caucausus Mts, now down the Levantine coast (Nabataeans dominate inland Desert areas) and I've just secured Crete while the Pergamene main force has been off trying to raid, should be destroying that force soon when they try to take a coastal city, I've got armies ready & waiting.
After that I should be pretty much free to expand as I see fit, my economy is booming, my Empire core secured from nearby threats, I've got plenty of armies available & pretty decent mid-tier troops.
Edit again:
Hotfix today apparently improves the seige AI, earlier pathfinding changes apparently broke it :yes:
Edit4: been reading some good suggestions for things that CA can improve over on the official .com forum. (ugh my eyes gonna take forever to recover from reading all that white text on black, one of the reasons I came here all those years ago)
I'd add I wish there would be a return to pushback in combat.
One of the coolest things (& generally handy visual cue to how combat is progressing) about older TWs is watching the front line bend/buckle as the battle progresses, heavier/deeper formed infantry pushing back lighter armed/weaker/thinner lines of infantry, breaking through the middle or themselves getting mini-cannae'd by the lighter unit wrapping round the flank.
In some of the Rome1 (in particular) mods there were light units with very good defense stats who could often win that way, giving lots of ground but not suffering huge losses, while other weaker stat units would get steamrolled with quick big losses.
So a bit of an update on the Female leaders.
I've finished the Galatian campaign & pretty consistently had 3-4 female leaders at a time, some of my best Faction Leaders were Queens.
Have started an Emperor Augustus campaign as Armenia, with 6* important characters 1 is a female, came via an event with the option to adopt or not, has a Trait "This character can't lead armies or become a party leader" so that is I guess how WG dealt with that problem, seems reasonable.
I do have another female in the Hire Politicians list but she doesn't show up in Raise Forces so presumably has same Trait.
Also the siege AI fix does seem to have made a good improvement:
Defending AI now not only tries to hold the wall (bug was causing them to run away, you could take walls without a fight) but it actually sends up reinforcing infantry which is a big improvement over previous R2 behaviour where you only had to fight the initially deployed units, its not even just zerging in all infantry, it sends some in but holds several units in reserve at the city center which is cool :)
AI also supports with missile units on the ground which can be very painful when you haven't yet secured a stair down.
Wow so without the nearly constant General turnover in Grand Campaign & with the female character who can't become a General I've been doing the Diplomatic mission a bit.
I'd thought the point of the Diplomacy missions was just to try to boost their attitude to you but apparently there are a bunch of interesting outcomes from it.
Its a bit annoyingly vague what exactly happens in game terms, really needs a line showing what the actual effect is but I've witnessed some of them.
Supposedly one got executed (not sure who because it wasn't the lady & I had another one but he didn't disappear)
Other times when it goes bad you get penalties to stuff like research & I even had -10 happiness for 3 turns faction wide (it just said 'happiness' but I found it in the faction screen) from one, at a time when I was really struggling with happiness ~:eek:
The positive outcomes can be pretty huge though, I seem to have scored some quite big tributes eg balance after turn 15k when my income was under 10k -> 5-6k tribute which is cool.
I've even had a huge surprise when Anthony handed over Jerusalem, not sure I'm super happy about it :inquisitive:
At first I was like 'yay a port on the Med' since I've allied with the small factions in asia-minor and expanded East, taking out Parthians & Satrapies, but then realised that its not actually a port and even if it was one its not linked up to my other territory so wouldn't have helped with trade routes anyway...
But then a couple of turns later Pontus handed me Trapezus which is both a port and connected to my other territory :rtwyes:
Edit: this may be a bit broken, Anthony just handed over Tyre as well, its still not connected to my territory but its one province closer & is a port :)
Edit2: well he executed her next turn, guess I pushed too hard :shrug:
Edit3: and then a few turns later in successive turns my allies Pontus and Kartli have handed over a city each north of the Caucuses which is really handy as I've been expanding there & those cities were blocking me having contiguous territory :bow:
A bug I've been getting is Allied missions to defeat 'fleets' but its Armies that are designated so when I defeat them it just gives me 'mission abandoned' because I defeated an Army :rtwno:
https://i.imgur.com/jqHxgU1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/b3qGWoN.jpg
After playing Attila for so long, seeing those bright maps...