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The Shogun:
Guys, those of you that are involved with other fansites should contact me about geting some questions here, from your community. This latest batch is from is the Rome Total War Heaven Forums. More from the Org forums next week and TWC the week after.
Q: What are the non-playable factions in Barbarian Invasion?
A: Berbers, Celts, Romano-British, Slavs, Ostrogoths, Western Roman Rebels and Eastern Roman Rebels
Q: What time frame will Barbarian Invasion span?
A: 363AD to 476AD. From the death of the last Emperor of a unified Roman Empire and the abdication of Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the West.
Q: Will there be any new modes of gameplay?
A: No
Q: Will there be any improvement to naval battles?
A: We haven’t touched naval battles. This would be a huge new feature, not something added in an expansion pack.
Q: How will night battles differ from day battles?
A: Besides being at night? (Sorry, couldn’t resist). Well, only faction generals with the “Night Attacker” trait will be able to start a battle at night. This trait can be earned by winning a night battle or by having sufficiently good command abilities.
Commanders with this ability will be at an advantage over their enemies who are not skilled in this aspect of war. Also reserve armies cannot join a night battle unless their commander is night battle capable.
Q: What is the horde ability? Will all factions have it?
A: It is the ability of some barbaric and all nomadic factions to literally pack up the last vestiges of their civilization, goods and chattels and head of in search of a new home in a new region. All Romans, Romano-British, Sassanids, Saxons, Alemanni, Celts and Berbers are unable to horde. All other factions can horde.
Q: Are there any significant advantages of horde units?
A: Horde units are like normally hired units in a number of respects. However they have some distinct differences:
They do not cost money to maintain and they cannot be hired.
They only get created, in numbers proportionate to your settlement population, when your faction leaves its last settlement and goes in to Horde mode.
They are not as well trained as the permanent forces you normally have at your disposal.
When you resettle you lose a proportion of the Horde army.
Q: Will there be different campaign objectives than in the original game?
A: Yes. It’s more than 300 years on from the original game so objectives are different. For the nomad factions not getting crushed by the Huns becomes an important objective.
Q: Will the Western and Eastern Roman Empires be allied like the Romans in the original game?
A: At the beginning, yes they will be allied but not unified and it doesn’t have to stay that way! If you are to win the game as the Eastern Romans, one of your objectives is to bring Rome back under Eastern control. It’s up to the player how this is achieved.
Q: Will Barbarian Invasion use the same campaign map as the original game?
A: Well, it is the same continent of Europe but the borders, regions and settlements will have changed. Also a few familiar factions have bitten the dust - the Egyptians and Carthaginians being notable examples. A few others have changed location and some others have emerged such as the Franks, Saxons, Goths and Huns.
Q: Will barbarian factions be more advanced technologically than they were in the original?
A: Yes. By this period the use of heavier troops and cavalry are more widespread than in previous eras. The feel of combat has changed too. Barbarian cities can also grow to the top level of the tech tree but will have more difficulty in dealing with issues such as squalor. Building aqueducts was not a thriving art in the lands of the Barbaricum.
Q: Will some gameplay and other changes be applied to the original game?
A: Some but not all, as we didn’t want to completely change the way the original played. However there are a significant number of alterations that should please fans of Rome Total War.
Q: Are there any changes to the character system of retinues, traits, etc.?
A: Yes. There has been at least half a bucket load of changes to reflect changes of period, and the political and social make up of the time.
Q: Will Barbarian Invasion use the original game's music, or have a soundtrack of its own?
A: It will use the original game’s music. No new music is scheduled for inclusion.
Q: Will the game be easier to “mod”, will it be harder, or will it be about the same as the original game?
A: It will be somewhat easier to mod than the original. But again, it will not be an undertaking for the casual gamer. We have exposed some elements to greater ease of alteration and made it clear where those alterations should go.
Q: Will there still be elephants?
A: There are Sassanid War Elephants but most people had worked out how to deal with them by this time, and their expense made them less than ideal for widespread use. There were also less elephants about. The North African elephant population had been rendered extinct by hundreds of years of exploitation.
Q: Is the expansion going to focus more on historical accuracy or gameplay balance?
A: We tried, where possible, to accurately reflect the arms, armour, equipment and fighting style of the period, without sacrificing gameplay. As an example: portraying the degree of specialization and diversity of units that existed in the late Roman army, by itself, would not have been possible without leaving out every other faction. Instead we have settled on units like Equites Sagitarii, Comitatenses, Limitanei and Foederati etc. In that sense, gameplay won. The flavour is there, but the nit-pickers will be able to have their day ‘correcting’ our choices. :) There are also a couple of units that are included more for fun than because they played a central role in winning wars.
We think aiming for complete historical accuracy would also have been utterly boring for everyone except the dozen or so people who want a painstakingly accurately depicted Vexillationes Equites Sagitarii Seniores and a complete list of tribal factions and nations, all behaving like they were stuck on historical tramlines, with no choices for the player. Instead we create a start point that is a close approximation of an historical situation and then allow the player to alter history by their actions, thus probably creating a counter-factual outcome.
Q: Will all playable factions be available from the beginning, or will I have to unlock them?
A: All playable factions will be available from the start.
