If thats the case then they shouldnt, unless they flank it or hit it from behind, thats the use of the pike phalanx, to present an imbreagnable wall.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Printable View
If thats the case then they shouldnt, unless they flank it or hit it from behind, thats the use of the pike phalanx, to present an imbreagnable wall.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Thanks for the advise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaists
[/QUOTE]It appears the missile damage has been raised across the board and armor piercing damage as well. Probably, it is now back to where it was upon RTW 2 release. Alas, historically the period was dominated by machine-gunner slinger hordes ;)
Dunno, where did the CA got the idea missiles had to be boosted again. I had not seen anyone complaining about weak missiles before patch 9, LOL...[/QUOTE]
Well, the one day i was taking casualties during the battles from missile fire, slingers mostly as the AI continues to employ them in great numbers, the next day, the pike phalanxes were anihilated in a matter of minutes.
[/QUOTE[/QUOTE]]Quote:
It appears the missile damage has been raised across the board and armor piercing damage as well. Probably, it is now back to where it was upon RTW 2 release. Alas, historically the period was dominated by machine-gunner slinger hordes ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by nearchos
Dunno, where did the CA got the idea missiles had to be boosted again. I had not seen anyone complaining about weak missiles before patch 9, LOL...
Yes those OP missile are troublesome. And the deadly-slinger trend too. Now that the efficiency of slingers has been discovered you've got a whole bunch of slingers fanatics who preach on the official forum. My legionnary cohort have found their nemesis : a bunch of farmers with slings. Thx for the historicity.
I'm going back in my cryogenic cabin until patch 20.
I really don't understand all the complaints about slingers.
I tend to play barbarian factions and even tier 2 units in shield wall/screen can stand under slinger fire until doomsday with minimal causalities. Some of the high end mercs are more dangerous but I can put 3 Celtic Warriors on the field for the same price.
Now javelins... those'll do some damage.
Also, there was a post some days ago, about the non responsivenes of units in orders during battle, during weakend i notised that also, that units are given order to attack and they just standing there.
In one of the ocasions, a unit of hoplites have engaged an other hoplite, i order a ubit of pikes to move just behind the enemy and engage and the pikes are just standing without doing anything.
And also they must fix ASAP the problem with the units in phalanx formation, that breaking the formation to attack.
This destroys the game for a player of hellenic factions.
If you have armies with phalanxes of hoplites or pikes as a core, whats the use if when are ordered to engage they break the phalanx formation and if ordered to formation again they stop engaging.
I think this must be a priority for CA.
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...ublic-beta-now
Hi all,
Patch 10 is now available for public beta by opting in through your Steam client.
You can find full patch notes here:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War...I:_Patch_Notes
Patch 10 brings additional AMD Crossfire support, improvements to CPU bottlenecks and a series of battle and general gameplay improvements.
Please consider un-installing all Mods (until confirmed compatible from the mod creator) before playing and you may wish to start a new campaign to see the full effect of all balance changes. It may not just be sufficient to disable mods in some cases, and you may have to completely uninstall them if you're having crash issues.
Patch 10 is Build 10069.512334 - you can opt into it by selecting the Patch 10 Beta option in your Steam client (look under the betas tab).
1) In the Steam Games Library, right-click “Total War: ROME II” and select “Properties”.
2) In the properties window, select the “BETAS” tab.
3) In the “Select the beta you would like to opt into:” drop-down box, select “patch10beta”.
If you experience any issues - PLEASE do not post in this thread but take them over to the Support Forums where you may be properly assisted!
Thank you!
== '''Performance improvements''' ==
'''General performance improvements:'''
* Additional Support for AMD Crossfire multi-GPU configs.
* Further improvements to GPU performance and reduction in CPU-bottlenecks for all configs.
* Improved core Battle performance scenarios.
* Resolved CPU core-affinity threading issue.
* Implemented borderless window when running at desktop resolution in Windowed mode.
* There is no longer an upper limit on the graphics settings that a user can select in the frontend. Previously if the game determined that a user’s machine was low-end then it would not allow them to select high graphics settings. This limitation is now gone. Note that selecting high graphics settings on low-end machines will negatively affect performance.
* Improved consistency of reflections on shiny textures.
'''‘Unlimited Video Memory’ option improvements:'''
* Unlimited Video Memory is now selectable for all integrated GPUs running on 64-bit operating systems from Windows Vista onward. Integrated GPUs use system memory as video memory at all times, as they have no dedicated video memory of their own. This code change now allows our integrated GPU customers to use all of their system memory as video memory. When Unlimited Video Memory is enabled, discrete GPUs use system memory as an extension of their dedicated GPU video memory, when their dedicated video memory is not enough to run at their chosen graphics quality settings. Please be advised that in both cases, using system memory as GPU video memory can impact performance as it is generally not as fast as dedicated GPU video memory. Also, if system memory runs low (or out), the user’s hard drive will be paged, resulting in reduced framerates.
* For users running on an integrated GPU in 64-bit Windows (Vista onwards), with Unlimited Video Memory available but not selected, we have increased the amount of video memory that the game sees from 800MB to 1024MB.
* Fixed an issue causing Unlimited Video Memory to be unavailable for users with certain discrete video cards.
* Fixed an issue that was causing Unlimited Video Memory to become disabled on some multi-GPU configurations.
'''Battle performance improvements:'''
* Eliminated battle pathfinding performance spike which caused battles to stutter.
* Addressed a crash in siege battles which occurred on some maps after breaching walls with artillery.
* Addressed a crash in Egyptian Large City battle caused by the map data.
* Addressed a crash caused by squads within the same unit attempting to use different formations.
* Fixed a UI lock-up when opening the steam overlay during the introduction sequence at the start of an ambush battle (while defending).
=='''Gameplay Improvements''' ==
'''Battle AI improvements:'''
* Fixed an issue which could cause the attacking siege AI to stall when attempting to breach the walls with artillery.
* Improved coordination of AI defenders in city, port and town battles when they are outside the settlement. This improves the behaviour of disembarked naval units and reinforcement armies.
* Addressed an issue which caused disembarked naval AI defenders in siege battles to become inactive.
* Improved the battle AI's ability to predict the outcome of combat actions, allowing it to better commit its troops in combat.
* Battle AI in field battles is now encouraged to outflank earlier when necessary.
'''General battle improvements:'''
* Improved ladder docking in Rome city map.
* Addressed collision gaps in fort walls caused by auxiliary buildings, which sometimes allowed units to pass through walls.
* Prevented siege ladders/towers being pushed into the wall of a settlement on the battlefield.
* Settlement gates no longer close on friendly units during battles.
* Smoothed uneven terrain under a dockable wall in Egyptian port battle map.
* Fixed wall in large Barbarian city map.
* Fixed floating buildings in some Roman City and Barbarian battle maps.
'''General Campaign improvements:'''
* Improvements made to the campaign auto-resolver's modelling of melee-based infantry, which corrects a wide range of auto-resolver imbalances.
* In campaign mode, garrisoned Hastati will now upgrade correctly after researching the 'Cohort Organization' technology, which converts Hastati to Legionaries.
* Slave army leaders will no longer always look Hellenic in Campaign mode.
* Unit cards no longer appear outside of the merge window UI while merging units in campaign modes.
* Settlement labels in Campaign modes now consistently display the diplomatic relationship status that is currently held with the owning faction. Red = War, Blue = Allied With, Grey = neutral.
* Improvements made to the accuracy of the unit tooltip threat indicator in the battle UI.
* Cinematic Mode shortcut key now works consistently in different languages.
'''Usability Improvements'''
* Addressed a number of minor audio issues.
* Battlefield death animations no longer with the victim in a kneeling pose.
* Category icon no longer incorrectly appears on elephant units once the unit is out of control.
Sigh, I see nothing about toning down the AI agent spam.
To be honest, I spam them too ;) Always at max+ agents. The "+" comes from me converting the AI's agents.Quote:
Originally Posted by easytarget
Well unfortunately there is nothing substantial in this "patch". No siege ai fix, no path finding, no campaign improvements no nothing. And supposedly they have been working on it for quite a while now. This only means one thing :more dlc is coming soon. That has been the drill since release, minor patch that's mostly useless, some free eye candy that was already made pre release and soon after dlc. I am seriously getting tired of this charade. No way I am buying the next total War title before I see some proper community reviews. Enough is enough.
Wow, this patch is pretty light considering the length of time it took them to get it into beta. Although I notice a few positives in terms of fixes, I'm actually pretty disappointed that there was no gameplay overhaul to the politics or something. They recently hinted that they were 'working on something that would keep us playing for a long time' (paraphrasing), in the last Rally Point I think, and that they were considering making some changes to the politics system 'in the future' in a recent interview posted somewhere (I know, my fact finding is forensics level :laugh3:).
After CA (Trish) stated that 'they ran into some problems with the update and that's why the long delay', the rumor-mill started with speculation that the update may in fact include a gameplay overhaul of some sort. I never pay attention to crap like that, but considering the time it took and the aforementioned scraps from CA, I'm actually pretty let down that nothing of the sort happened. How will I ever get over this travesty? Disappointment is such an unfamiliar feeling with this game :grin:
haha, why on earth would you do that, i get 50 or a 100 of them running around just by converting them, kill literally 100's more because they annoy me - trouble is it's all a waste of money, and it turns Total War into something else, like a really stupid spy gameQuote:
Originally Posted by Slaists
when i say it needs a tweak i'm being generous in my description
If you are CA and you want to know how you can confirm w/o a shadow of a doubt your game is a failure?
When the org turns on you as well. :thumbsdown:
Mods.Quote:
Originally Posted by easytarget
Yes, I know about mods. :yes:
The point for me is, how can anyone at CA honestly say they've played their own game and not have come to the conclusion this needs a tweak? And it would be easily done.
I've a better solution than mods, not play the game for say about 5 more patches. I've fallen back in love with ME2 running SS, so much better than R2 I seriously doubt I'll ever be back, and if they finished EB2 this year I can guarantee you I'll never be back. Time as I've said elsewhere is a much harder commodity to come by than, well, anything. So there will always be stiff competition in the gaming dept for my time, honestly R2 just isn't likely to make it back in.
AI armies passing through players armies zone of control nad back? over powered slingers? over powered AI agents? AI 1 settlement factions fielding armies just standing around their settlement? battles over in a few minutes? useless cav archers,( every time ive tried to play with a horse faction, the cav missile units 1. dont cause much damage 2. they are geting killed by the murderous slingers, 3. in a mater of minutes the infantry units of the AI have chase them in all over the map), and many others. Last night an AI army ambushed an army of my own fron the oposite bank of a river!!!! can you believe that???Quote:
Originally Posted by The Outsider
I dont see any of these in the patch notes and i dont care about the barbarian city wall or the smouthenes of the egyptian coast......
For God sake are they serious? usualy i am playing the total war titles until the release of the next total war tittle ( 2 years average), but now after only 7 months i m geting my self geting dissapointed and boring every night i start my PC.
:laugh4: :brood:~:mecry:Quote:
Originally Posted by nearchos
Quote:
Originally Posted by easytarget
LOL, somehow, I never run into this problem at the same scale as you. At most I've had about 20 of each agent type and that happened when playing as Seleucids I allowed my Eastern Satraps to rebel (resulting in many factions sending their agents into my territory). In most times: I have just slightly above my max.
The main reasons why I use agents: 1) to counter the AI's agents; 2) to push regions of my allies into rebellions [an authority focused spy + a dignitary work really well]; 3) crowd control (of AI armies) - any successful agent sabotage action will stop an army from reinforcing.
Money is usually not a problem in TW even on legendary difficulty (except at the campaign start, but then, agents are not a big problem either).
I wish I had kept my latest CIG game, I'd of posted you a picture from it where 25-30 agents were standing around one settlement. This went on the entire campaign.
Don't waste time explaining to me the strategy of how to deal with this, that's altogether too obvious.
What we're talking about in this thread are bugs and/or game design issues that should have been addressed in patches.
Here are the bugs I have found so far:
1. Archer range bonus seems to be bugged: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...tch-10-beta%29
2. Skirmishers run into their attackers; the move towards the attacker seems to be the first move considered as part of the skirmish behavior: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...into-attackers
3. One cannot exit ambush stance if an allied (neutral or enemy) army comes within reinforcement range: the stance button is grayed out: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...-army-is-close
Is stopped playing months ago. And now I'm close to stopping caring wether there's another patch or not.
Sad summation: Eye cand galore, plays like crap. :no:
Yeah I've kind of arrived at that conclusion 5 patches ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barkhorn1x
To be fair to the CA, the campaign has changed a lot since 5 patches ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sp4
Same here, will stay in cryogenic stasis until patch 889 to see if the torches are still here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barkhorn1x
I stopped playing after patch 3.
So out of curiosity, why are you still here?
Hope! =(
Hope to read something positive? =p
This question could be asked of pretty much everyone wasting time in any forum.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
Not really, its not unreasonable to assume that people discussing a game have at least a modicum of interest in playing it. Except to gripe maybe.
Think more broadly then, ask yourself if time spent on a forum is terribly productive given the other options you have available to you.
The answer is clearly no, anyone with a modicum of sense knows this, therefore the fact that we all occasionally hang out here for whatever reason is really beside the point and asking anyone in particular why they are here merely highlights the rather amusing fact that none of us should be here at all.
That, in a Waiting for Godot sort of way, makes me laugh.
Well I have to agree that it is not productive to hang out in a forum but I also don't think it should be pointless. I have been coming to these forum for the last ten years. Was it productive? No, but I really enjoyed it. I don't have anyone to talk about total War in real life. But here it somehow feels like home. That's strange really talking to all you guys that I have never met yet I somehow feel related to in some way. I guess that's the whole point of forums.
I come here 2 minutes every day to check if the game still sucks. I don't believe I am wasting a lot of my time here.
And now, good night everyone, see you tomorrow.
You have in fact grasped my point rather well, there is no point to forums. To put that burden on them is silly.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Outsider
We're here to kill a bit of time in between whatever else we're doing to talk about what for most us is a bit of a hobby, or at least that's how I view PC Gaming.
I'm just yanking Hoo's chain a bit simply because he placed a burned of participation that sounded a lot like you had to like R2 to be here, which is just absurd. So I thought I'd point that out by suggesting in broader terms there's really no point to being here at all, which is in fact the whole point.
So breath, kick back, enjoy yourselves, it's all good.
I dont really see it as a waste of time if you enjoy/play/have an interest the game, I think it crosses over into the wasting time area when you dont play the game anymore/have an interest. I for one still come here because Im a mod so I need to make sure you folks arent slitting each other's throats or something.
If I weren't a mod/cm I'd still come here for hotseats and M2TW discussion. Especially once Stainless Steel 7 comes out. I just don't like the atmosphere in the TWC. Too many kids IMO. And since I'm not the type who will buy every TW title in existence, I like to learn more about the ones I haven't played. I'm still waiting to get a chance to play Napoleon for example.
I came initially because I tried playing Rome 1 like it was Heroes 3, so I got bankrupted and the AI Gauls steamrolled me on VH/VH. I came for advice and in particular, because froggy's guide to Rome 1 came on the first page of Google. I stayed to GIVE advice and to be part of the community, which is great. The patrons here are a lot more mature, most are older than myself (i'm 28). I can, and do learn a lot about history, warfare, politics and whatnot. And I've managed to give back in the form of advice, the hotseat guide, the mini guide to R2 etc. None of these has a relation with me being a mod, so I'd still come back here even if I ever got de-modded.
Actually, It seems I was ignorant. Apparently full conversion mods will be a reality for Rome II once campaign map modding is possible.
I thought this was a very revealing comment:
Ehhh...last time I checked, the game was called ROME II TOTAL WAR, yes? You would think the dominant faction of the era would be wiping the map with everyone....:creep:Quote:
Not mod related but came up in the topic: CA is aware of how poorly Rome does as an Ai faction and are looking into it.
Oh no. That honour belongs to the Adriaei, Rhodos, Lybia and Pergamum.Quote:
Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai
Really? How did I miss this? Is there a rough ETA?Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
So true, LOL... I guess, Lybia makes sense given the game realities. Lybia has Carthage's roster (strong sword infantry that autoresolves well), yet much more defensible starting situation. So, they frequently come out on top.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
I literally come here to read about updates to the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
With hope that someday the game will live up to expectations... and to where public opinion is. If the latter becomes an opinion heavily against what CA is doing, then the former is more likely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
I tried playing some patch 10 beta (new campaign) this weekend. I restarted twice, both times I got a freeze bug on the campaign map. Got frustrated and quit.
I'm going to actually give it a whirl later. What faction should I play this time? ^^
I'd advise you to wait for the official roll out of Patch 10. I'd try the new Epirus if i were you, though I personally am hell bent on seeing a Spartan and Roman campaign until the end, since both of these I had completed to about 60-70% but subsequent patches made me delete the saves and restart.
Are you sure it was a total freeze? I did experience a freeze myself upon updating some agent status at the turn start, but the freeze went away after some 20-30 seconds (I know it's still frustrating). But the bottom line: the freeze was not a total system freeze for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
On a related note, right after I downloaded the patch 10 beta, I experienced a series of BSOD's (blue screens of death). That really made me feel mad... LOL... Until I noticed, I experienced the same BSOD's when browsing internet. It turned out, even though my video driver was up to date, I was several updates behind for my BIOS and chipset drivers. Once I updated those, BSOD's went away (They were not related to Rome 2, but rather to my BIOS being out of date).
Oh, well the first one was related to an agent yes. My spy who had stayed behind while escorting an army while that army mysteriously retreated from an engagement it did not participate in!Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaists
I had a Spartan halfstack sitting ready to go for Larissa next turn, and a single general next to them. The Epirotes, in their infinite wisdom, decide to attack my single general. Perhaps with agent sabotage or through other nefarious means, they isolated that lone general. I braced them into a box foramtion and waited, and waited, but the AI never came to my position (I was on a hill and hidden in forests). I decided I don't want to waste 40 minutes of my life, just staring at the rain falling (it was raining in this battle). I conceded defeat - 0 casualties on either side. Yet the uninvolved main Spartan army also retreated for some reason... As to how my agent was left behind, instead of retreating with the army - that too is a mystery.
The second freeze was after some battle AFAIK. Can't remember what I did, but it annoyed me enough to delete the save and quit the game.
Oh, and the main fight versus Epirus - I shredded their melee and 2 or 3 units of skirmishers. My elite spartan hoplites and royal spartans then got routed and killed by the remaining 5 slinger units while what I would have deemed a simple mop-up of the skirmishers after the enemy pikes and hoplites went down.
In any other TW game I've played, charing heavy infantry at skirmishers after killing the enemy general (Phyrros got surrounded by 4 hoplite units) would insta-rout and win you the fight. Nope. Here the slingers penetrate hoplons and bronze cuirasses and murder royal spartans as if they were levy spearmen.
the AI seems to get considerable morale bonus on legendary ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
Even so, slingers should not be able to shred armoured hoplite units from 20 meters distance, not giving them time to close in before they melt.
Further proof that the whole ranged mechanic is broken: Eprius starts with merc. Africa elephants, right? I focused them with 6 units of slingers. They stood there, 2 elephants dying for the duration of several volleys. And suddenly, after some threshold of hitpoins or what have you was reached, the remaining 10 dropped as if they were headshotted by SEAL team 6 simultaneously.
Somebody suggested this elephant 'sudden death' is a result of their handlers pressing the "kill elephants" button because they are about to run amock. I don't buy it though. I have seen AI elephants run amock without their handlers killing them. I also have witnessed the sudden death phenomenon and think, this is due to the hitpoints being depleted. A similar thing happens when barraging an armored infantry or cavalry unit with missiles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
BTW, javelins are much more efficient at dropping elephants than slingers. A few salvos result in the "sudden death". Even the cheapest Greek javelins will do.
I've always found elephants in this a little underwheling and I dunno why they are even there if they get countered by 2 or 3 of the cheapest, most basic units you can recruit.
Javelins are a definite counter to elephants in the game; yet, in human hands, elephants can be devastating (against the AI). Armored elephant generals win wars for my Seleucid desert spearmen armies... Sure, I kill most of the AI's missiles (using my slingers and light cav) before I charge elephants in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sp4
BTW, elephants were easily killed with javelins also in Rome 1.
Javelins have always been the counter. I simply didn't have enough in that particular battle, and I had no pressing need to go into their skirmisher range. Apart from the idiot Phyrros (seriously CA, he was one of the top 10 classical military commanders) charging at my hoplites and letting himself be surrounded 100 meters from his defensive lines, the other part of the army didn't move much. it was a siege assault on a minor settlement.
What I am trying to say is that I never used elephants much, nor saw the need to. They die too fast and cost too much, not that cost matters after turn 10. Maybe I just don't like them.
One of the reasons for random DOWs: http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...ered-by-the-AI
In a nutshell: the AI fails to consider the consequences of converting agents.
Vanilla game, no mods, campaign started with patch 10 beta
It is kind of stupid, isn't it? I thought agents were meant to be more subtle and less raaaaaawr, army! than.. well.. sending an army. In this though, as soon as an enemy warrior makes funny faces at your rank 9 ladyspy, it's a reason for all out Total War™
It isn't like the game never weighs relative power by at least one means or another so that much work is already done. Since the game already computes that red and yellow bar in the diplomacy window, one would think that it would be easy enough for the AI to consider this value before undertaking any actions at all. The fix sounds easy enough to me.
Imo they should craft a few archetypal AI leader personalities and just randomize them when the FL changes. Currently, everyone is basically a rabid psychopath who will sacrifice his cities and armies just to piss the player off. While it's better than the completely passive, sheep-brained AI of 1.0, it doesn't help with immersion and roleplaying, or with the usefulness of diplomacy.
The Venetii should think long and hard about raiding northern Italy when Rome can march up and completely CRUSH them with 1/2 of their armies. One-settlement minors should a lot more meek when faced with a huge, lumbering behemoth next door, and only grow a spine if said behemoth is actively preoccupied on multiple fronts. Note that this is different from being engaged in multiple artificial wars with factions incapable or projecting power to said behemoth's territories.
"Rome is at war with 5 factions in Asia Minor and 2 satrapies of Carthage who have 1 settlement each. Come on Helvetii, it's our tie to shine! Oh crap, where did these legions come from!?"
Also this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0zVIjtKJ1k
Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
LOL, that Behemoth becomes capable only in human hands... I guess, the AI should account for that too ;)
LMAO!! :bounce: Hot Pepper Games....reminds me of some bets I've taken in my time concerning the consumption of hot peppers..........~D
Diplomacy has been a broken feature since STW I, why would any of you expect it to get fixed more than a decade later?
:creep:
patch 10 live:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Patch_10
Build number is 10270.523837.
Beasts of War Update
Three additional Elite Units have now been added to the Beasts of War DLC, existing owners will be upgraded:
Wolf Warriors
In the Germanic world, the cult of Wodenaz was so large that people of the age often had wolf-related names, such as Vulfolaic ("Wolf-dancer"), Wolfhetan ("Wolf-hide"), and Wolfdregil ("Wolf-runner"). Wolfgang, or "Wolf-gait", has remained a popular German name to this day. The Wolf Warriors are available to the Suebi and as Mercinaries for holders of any province in Germania, drape themselves in wolf-hides and fight with the spirit of Wodenaz.
Sobek Cultists
Defender of the Nile and protector of Pharaoh's power, Sobek was the crocodile-headed god of ancient Egypt from the Old Kingdom period through to the Ptolemaic dynasty and beyond. As such, crocodiles were venerated for their violent, primal qualities, and were even bred on temple sites as a living personifications of the god, and mummified when they died. With titles such as "One who buries the bodies of the crocodile-gods of the Land of the Lake" and "prophet of the crocodile-gods", the priests of the cult of Sobek served him completely in the main temple at Shedet in defence of the Pharaoh and his subjects. Clad in the hides of the sacred crocodile, the Sobek Cultists are available to recruit for Egypt.
Nubian Leopard Warriors
Being Egypt’s neighbour, Nubia also became, at times, its greatest enemy, and the population were often enslaved and used as soldiers. In 750BC Nubians even managed to conquer Egypt, and ruled for one hundred years, such was the deep rivalry that existed between the two. Consisting mainly of mercenaries from its various regions, the armies of Nubia were famed for their aggression and fearlessness on the battlefield. The Leopard Warriors are no exception: clad in the skins of swift and deadly leopards, they are a force to be reckoned with. Available to as mercenaries when holding Egypt in the Grand Campaign.
Molossian Dogs and Celtic Warhounds campaign mercenaries have been added.
Berserker units will now wear bear skins instead of wolf pellets (for all users not just BoW owners).
Balancing changes including strength and durability to:
Molossian Dogs,
Celtic Warhounds,
Mercenary Syrian Armoured Elephants,
African Elephants,
Camel Cataphracts,
Snake Pot Ballista,
Scorpion Pot Ballista,
Beehive Onager.
Performance improvements
General performance improvements:
Additional Support for AMD Crossfire multi-GPU configs.
Further improvements to GPU performance and reduction in CPU-bottlenecks for all configs.
Improved core Battle performance scenarios.
Resolved CPU core-affinity threading issue.
Implemented borderless window when running at desktop resolution in Windowed mode.
There is no longer an upper limit on the graphics settings that a user can select in the frontend. Previously if the game determined that a user’s machine was low-end then it would not allow them to select high graphics settings. This limitation is now gone. Note that selecting high graphics settings on low-end machines will negatively affect performance.
Improved consistency of reflections on shiny textures.
‘Unlimited Video Memory’ option improvements:
Unlimited Video Memory is now selectable for all integrated GPUs running on 64-bit operating systems from Windows Vista onward. Integrated GPUs use system memory as video memory at all times, as they have no dedicated video memory of their own. This code change now allows our integrated GPU customers to use all of their system memory as video memory. When Unlimited Video Memory is enabled, discrete GPUs use system memory as an extension of their dedicated GPU video memory, when their dedicated video memory is not enough to run at their chosen graphics quality settings. Please be advised that in both cases, using system memory as GPU video memory can impact performance as it is generally not as fast as dedicated GPU video memory. Also, if system memory runs low (or out), the user’s hard drive will be paged, resulting in reduced framerates.
For users running on an integrated GPU in 64-bit Windows (Vista onwards), with Unlimited Video Memory available but not selected, we have increased the amount of video memory that the game sees from 800MB to 1024MB.
Fixed an issue causing Unlimited Video Memory to be unavailable for users with certain discrete video cards.
Fixed an issue that was causing Unlimited Video Memory to become disabled on some multi-GPU configurations.
Battle performance improvements:
Eliminated battle pathfinding performance spike which caused battles to stutter.
Addressed a crash in siege battles which occurred on some maps after breaching walls with artillery.
Addressed a crash in Egyptian Large City battle caused by the map data.
Addressed a crash caused by squads within the same unit attempting to use different formations.
Fixed a UI lock-up when opening the steam overlay during the introduction sequence at the start of an ambush battle (while defending).
Gameplay Improvements
Battle AI improvements:
Fixed an issue which could cause the attacking siege AI to stall when attempting to breach the walls with artillery.
Improved coordination of AI defenders in city, port and town battles when they are outside the settlement. This improves the behaviour of disembarked naval units and reinforcement armies.
Addressed an issue which caused disembarked naval AI defenders in siege battles to become inactive.
Improved the battle AI's ability to predict the outcome of combat actions, allowing it to better commit its troops in combat.
Battle AI in field battles is now encouraged to outflank earlier when necessary.
General battle improvements:
Improved ladder docking in Rome city map.
Addressed collision gaps in fort walls caused by auxiliary buildings, which sometimes allowed units to pass through walls.
Prevented siege ladders/towers being pushed into the wall of a settlement on the battlefield.
Settlement gates no longer close on friendly units during battles.
Smoothed uneven terrain under a dockable wall in Egyptian port battle map.
Fixed wall in large Barbarian city map.
Fixed floating buildings in some Roman City and Barbarian battle maps.
General Campaign improvements:
Improvements made to the campaign auto-resolver's modelling of melee-based infantry, which corrects a wide range of auto-resolver imbalances.
In campaign mode, garrisoned Hastati will now upgrade correctly after researching the 'Cohort Organization' technology, which converts Hastati to Legionaries.
Slave army leaders will no longer always look Hellenic in Campaign mode.
Unit cards no longer appear outside of the merge window UI while merging units in campaign modes.
Settlement labels in Campaign modes now consistently display the diplomatic relationship status that is currently held with the owning faction. Red = War, Blue = Allied With, Grey = neutral.
Improvements made to the accuracy of the unit tooltip threat indicator in the battle UI.
Needs more Hamilcar.
Cinematic Mode shortcut key now works consistently in different languages.
Usability Improvements
Addressed a number of minor audio issues.
Battlefield death animations no longer with the victim in a kneeling pose.
Category icon no longer incorrectly appears on elephant units once the unit is out of control.
so where did force march go? im rather missing it
They couldn't fix it, so they got rid of it =)
Huh? I was playing with forced march last night.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamakazi
There wasn't anything broken with it IIRCQuote:
Originally Posted by Sp4
Why is it gone?Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
@Sp4, what are you guys talking about? Forced march was in vanilla game still yesterday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sp4
I am not sure what you guys are talking about, I started to doubt my sanity after seeing your posts, :laugh4: So I re-tried the game with patch ten and forced march is still there:
Attachment 12572
Yes, forced march is still there. Yes, the AI still doesn't know how to use it.
As long as your troops are visible, the AI does a pretty good job of stopping right outside the range of your armies. If your troops are hidden (ambush stance deployed anywhere, even in plain sight on a road), that's a whole different matter. Then, the AI can stop right next to you.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Slaists, what game is this? I've only found this to be true for naval movements. On land I routinely have AI invasion forces coming onto my territory in FM and maintaining that stance until I obliterate them. They even use FM to come right up to settlements that I have armies in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaists
In other news, I posted the patch notes to the Wonders and Seasons patch in the HatG thread and there are AI changes!
They definitely do what Slaists says in Legendary.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Hmm... haven't played on legendary since patch 4 or 5, and since DEI is balanced for normal I haven't played anything other than that for months. However, as far as I know the game's difficulty has never actually affected tactical decisions by the AI (I wish it did). Then again, from everything I've seen and read about this release from the day it dropped it's become evident to me that the game behaves differently on different machines. For example, the survivability of the historically powerful factions like Rome, Carthage, etc differs from machine to machine pretty significantly in some cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by Myth
*Wanna give everyone a heads up on the new patch- There seems to be a bug in the new mod manager that will appcrash the launcher after the update. You might even get the game to launch once, but after you accept the EULA for Twitch, it'll kick you back out and the launcher will crash. I finally got around this by unsubscribing from all my mods and then manually removing any remnants from my data folder. Hope they hotfix this ASAP as I simply can't play the vanilla game.
Fought a couple of battles in the snow though and it was pretty cool. Running speed really reduced.
I have no mods, just vanilla game, very hard or legendary difficulty. What I described was happening in patch 10 version of the game. But I have seen the same behavior since patch 7 or so. Before that, the AI was much more careless about FM. Now, the AI does occasionally stumble into the range of my unhidden armies, but that happens rarely. In those instances, typically there is some "third" factor that throws the AI off: another hostile faction's army, for example.Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
On the downside, the AI unfortunately does not see city garrisons as a threat. They do not mind parking armies in FM stance right next to empty cities. Of course, this allows me to pop out a general, hire some mercs (if needed) and drag the city garrison in as reinforcements (in an ambush battle).
I have also come to suspect that the AI is not as "all seeing" as we assumed it was. If my army is deep inside my territory and away from trade routes, the AI does on occasion run their FM armies into trouble.
As to the new patch: the move point reduction for armies on the high seas is very noticeable. Need to change my starting strategies ;)
On my part: after a few (too many) hours of late-night play: I am pleased. Of course, jumped in with Carthage on VH.
Relations map at start, 272:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Within the first few turns, Syracuse, Edetani, Celtici, Garamantia, Morocco, Rome, and some other desert tribe declared war. Keeping allies and client states alive was quite a challenge.
So, here's relations map in some 20 or so turns, Punic war in full swing:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Seems like not much but it took some doing. At some point, Carthage itself was in danger (garrison led by a single general, besieged by a full stack). For one, the AI no longer blindly storms into your walled settlements. At times, they just decide to lay siege and starve your garrison out; very different from patch 10 (and before). Given the stretched out position of Carthage and money problems of Barcids (barely any trade) this can result in scary situations as Carthage is not always able to send reinforcing armies in time.
The fixed replenishing pool of faction mercenaries (and the extra replenishing mercenary slots in terms of the 5 new units) is a lifesaver for Carthage though: now, can recruit crucial troops in crisis situations. Thumbs up for that. This definitely gives extra flavor to playing as Carthage.
stated up 2 different games one with nervii and one with Egypt and no force march =/
Are you using mods? I am playing a Carthage vanilla game and can use forced march. The AI uses it too. Maybe some mod takes FM ability away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamakazi
The FM is definately there, but i think they have limited the distances the armies can move in both FM and normal.
I believe, the move point nerf applied to armies traveling by sea. Should not have affected armies on land.Quote:
Originally Posted by nearchos
On a side note: an undocumented feature of patch 11 seems significantly increased life expectancy for agents and generals. Now, my generals and agents tend to reach 70-80 years of age rather than die off in their 50s.
DeI does, some so called hard core mods do. There are also the multiple tpy mods that take it away because the game needs to be slowed down >_>Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaists