Rome 2 Patches, Hotfixes, Betas and Such (patch 17 live!)

[sassbarman]

A lot of solid changes here. Unit cards scaling horizontally uncluttering the screen, units and agents levelling up animation staying on campaign map and the improvements to the diplomacy screens are very welcome.

[Sp4]

A lot of solid changes here. Unit cards scaling horizontally uncluttering the screen, units and agents levelling up animation staying on campaign map and the improvements to the diplomacy screens are very welcome.

I have not really seen any of this unit card scaling.

[sassbarman]

I have not really seen any of this unit card scaling.

Im just going by the patch notes. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet but I hope it's better because it annoyed the hell out me.

[Sp4]

I have not really seen any of this unit card scaling.

Now I have seen it and.. woohoo! I am impressed :D

[nearchos]

I played two campaigns with Parthia, with patch 3, legendary which i quit and start a new in very hard.
In both cases i had a dificult time, i had to deal with a lot of enemies, an aggresive AI, invasions and enemy agents all over my lands, some times there were 3 or 4 agents, where my main stacks were operating.

After beta patch 4, i desided to start a new camapign, so i start with Pontus in very hard.

I see most of the changes posted, in diplomacy, in AI army composition, agents, etc, ok.

Now the AI. I currently own 9 settlements, by destroying 4 factions, Cappadocia, Galatia,Armenia and Kartlii( not sure how is writen).
I have defencive alliances with Bythinia and Trapezon and trade aggreements with most of factions.

Until this point, no enemy army, since the start of the campaign, moved from their settlements, i was just murching my armies and attack, the settlement and waiting armies, destroying them and capturing the town.
They just never moved aggresively.

And moreover, Trapezon, was for many turns at war with, Armenia, Kartlii and Colhis, but no army of theirs ever moved to capture their only settlement, which was not heavily guarded and an easy pick esspecialy for Armenia.

I also can see that most of the factions, not only enemies have still problems with food sortages.

Has anyone else same experience with AI aggresivenes with patch 4? should i turn to patch 3 until they fix it again?

[Bramborough]

After beta patch 4, i desided to start a new camapign, so i start with Pontus in very hard.

I see most of the changes posted, in diplomacy, in AI army composition, agents, etc, ok.

Now the AI. I currently own 9 settlements, by destroying 4 factions, Cappadocia, Galatia,Armenia and Kartlii( not sure how is writen).
I have defencive alliances with Bythinia and Trapezon and trade aggreements with most of factions.

Until this point, no enemy army, since the start of the campaign, moved from their settlements, i was just murching my armies and attack, the settlement and waiting armies, destroying them and capturing the town.
They just never moved aggresively.

And moreover, Trapezon, was for many turns at war with, Armenia, Kartlii and Colhis, but no army of theirs ever moved to capture their only settlement, which was not heavily guarded and an easy pick esspecialy for Armenia.

I also can see that most of the factions, not only enemies have still problems with food sortages.

Has anyone else same experience with AI aggresivenes with patch 4? should i turn to patch 3 until they fix it again?

Interesting difference in experience with early Pontus campaign. Galatia, Cappadocia, and Cimmeria have all acted pretty aggressively toward me, I've had to defend starting capital and port vs full-size invading army several times. They've also repeatedly blockaded Sinope...driving me to completely change my near-term strategic plan in order to deal with it. I will agree that Armenia - formally at war with me - was strangely passive while I was preoccupied with these other folks. Other than that, I've got no complaint about AI aggressiveness. I began the campaign on Patch 3, but this kind of spunky AI behavior has continued with patch4beta.

This has been on Normal...counterintuitive that AI would get less aggressive on a higher difficulty level. Maybe I was just lucky.

[nearchos]

Interesting difference in experience with early Pontus campaign. Galatia, Cappadocia, and Cimmeria have all acted pretty aggressively toward me, I've had to defend starting capital and port vs full-size invading army several times. They've also repeatedly blockaded Sinope...driving me to completely change my near-term strategic plan in order to deal with it. I will agree that Armenia - formally at war with me - was strangely passive while I was preoccupied with these other folks. Other than that, I've got no complaint about AI aggressiveness. I began the campaign on Patch 3, but this kind of spunky AI behavior has continued with patch4beta.

This has been on Normal...counterintuitive that AI would get less aggressive on a higher difficulty level. Maybe I was just lucky.

No such experience for me, but im not sure, if there is something wrong with the patch 4 because i started the campaign just after i instaled the 4 beta.

I started being at war with Cappadocia and an unfriently attitude from Galatia.
So i gather an early army of slings and eastern spears and invade the lands of the Cappadocians, after few turns i have destroyed the faction.
Galatia remains unfriendly but makes no move.Trapezon is at war already with Colhis, Armenia and Karlii and im not sending any troops to assist them since i want them out of the way in order to take Trapezon for me.I assume that sooner or later they will be destroyed, but no, no one is moving away from its settlements.

As i see the time passes, i assept the invitation from Trapezon to join the war with Armenia and i acept for 2000 dinarii, i cupture their western settlement and next turn i acept a peace trety for 3000 dinarii.

Finaly i decide to wipe the Gallatians, so i invade them with 2 armies and destroy them as a faction at turn 25.

And a detail, i only have the starting fleet and 4 armies from the 6 i can have and dont need more.

After i got access to higher level units, level 3 barracks, i declared war to Armenia and destroyed them in 3 turns.

And by watching also other factions behaviour, sending spies around to see what is going on, Seleucids, Media, Media Apopatene, they all standing around their settlements, starving....

Only further west there is movement, Sparta destroyed Athens, Rome is geting strong, Cyrrenaica is expanding.

Oh and other factions agents are passing through a couple of times.

I dont think you were lucky, because as i said, with patch 3 the AI was aggresive and used its armies and agents with efficiency.

By the way your Walkthrough of Pontus campaign is great, im looking forward for the next chapters.

[Bramborough]

I dont think you were lucky, because as i said, with patch 3 the AI was aggresive and used its armies and agents with efficiency.

By the way your Walkthrough of Pontus campaign is great, im looking forward for the next chapters.

Hmm...perhaps because I started with Patch 3, the basic behavior patterns set in place at campaign start continue despite the patch, but if I start another with Patch 4, they'd act more passively? Does that even make sense...could the programming work out that way (as an unintended consequence)?

Thanks for the thumbs up on the AAR. I did it just add a bit more activity. I'd enjoyed Hooah's, thought I'd give back a bit to the forum. As it turns out, it's significantly adding to my enjoyment of the game, imagining the storyline in my head as I play along.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Has anyone else same experience with AI aggresivenes with patch 4? should i turn to patch 3 until they fix it again?

I started a new campaign as VH Pontus after installing the Patch 4 Beta. I spent the very beginning wiping out Cappadocia and Galatia, same as most people do I expect. After that, I inadvertently figured out how to make my campaign extremely interesting. I had been eyeing Armenian lands since they destroyed my ally, Trapezos. I decided to go ahead and seize their two closest towns while they were busy finishing off the Kartlii elsewhere. Shortly thereafter, every Black Sea faction and their landlocked neighbor declared war on me. Things got even more interesting when I accepted an alliance offer from the Seleucid. It seemed that every turn, 2-3 factions went to war with them and, by honoring our alliance, I was soon at war with every non Greek faction in the eastern part of the map.

My lands are swarming with agents. Every turn I get an average of 3 enemy agent actions against my towns/provinces/armies. The makeup of the enemy armies is much better. The issues I'm seeing now are enemies coming in and conquering settlements close to my borders and then leaving them completely undefended while I've got an army sitting in my border province right next door. Also, for some inexplicable reason, Armenia, which has plenty of troops, is sending its armies via the sea even though we share a common border with the province they are attacking.

In short, if you want an interesting campaign, ally with the Seleucid early on and honor the alliance until the bitter end.

There are still issues to improve upon, but I do feel the game is heading in the right direction.

[nearchos]

I started a new campaign as VH Pontus after installing the Patch 4 Beta. I spent the very beginning wiping out Cappadocia and Galatia, same as most people do I expect. After that, I inadvertently figured out how to make my campaign extremely interesting. I had been eyeing Armenian lands since they destroyed my ally, Trapezos. I decided to go ahead and seize their two closest towns while they were busy finishing off the Kartlii elsewhere. Shortly thereafter, every Black Sea faction and their landlocked neighbor declared war on me. Things got even more interesting when I accepted an alliance offer from the Seleucid. It seemed that every turn, 2-3 factions went to war with them and, by honoring our alliance, I was soon at war with every non Greek faction in the eastern part of the map.

My lands are swarming with agents. Every turn I get an average of 3 enemy agent actions against my towns/provinces/armies. The makeup of the enemy armies is much better. The issues I'm seeing now are enemies coming in and conquering settlements close to my borders and then leaving them completely undefended while I've got an army sitting in my border province right next door. Also, for some inexplicable reason, Armenia, which has plenty of troops, is sending its armies via the sea even though we share a common border with the province they are attacking.

In short, if you want an interesting campaign, ally with the Seleucid early on and honor the alliance until the bitter end.

There are still issues to improve upon, but I do feel the game is heading in the right direction.

Well, you have a point here and i thank you very much, this must be the reason since i am very careful with my diplomatic moves.
I only have defencive alliances with Bythinia and Trapezon, and some non aggrecion pacts and a lot of trade aggreements and moreover im very carefull with my moves not to cause non nessecary unfriendly attitude by any other faction.
So perhaps in reality what seemed to me as an extremely passive AI is just a more balanced diplomacy.

Last night, i finished of the Colchis and the Cimerians, the last were hard to fight, i destroyed their main armies with 50% cassualties and then took their last settlement with the help of 3 armies of Royal Schythia.

So now i own 2/3 of the Black Sea coast and will plan my next moves.

I suppose from now on i will have to bleed since my target now is to unite all of Asia minor so i will go to war with Selleucids and their satrapies.

[Slaists]

I played two campaigns with Parthia, with patch 3, legendary which i quit and start a new in very hard.
In both cases i had a dificult time, i had to deal with a lot of enemies, an aggresive AI, invasions and enemy agents all over my lands, some times there were 3 or 4 agents, where my main stacks were operating.

After beta patch 4, i desided to start a new camapign, so i start with Pontus in very hard.

I see most of the changes posted, in diplomacy, in AI army composition, agents, etc, ok.

Now the AI. I currently own 9 settlements, by destroying 4 factions, Cappadocia, Galatia,Armenia and Kartlii( not sure how is writen).
I have defencive alliances with Bythinia and Trapezon and trade aggreements with most of factions.

Until this point, no enemy army, since the start of the campaign, moved from their settlements, i was just murching my armies and attack, the settlement and waiting armies, destroying them and capturing the town.
They just never moved aggresively.

And moreover, Trapezon, was for many turns at war with, Armenia, Kartlii and Colhis, but no army of theirs ever moved to capture their only settlement, which was not heavily guarded and an easy pick esspecialy for Armenia.

I also can see that most of the factions, not only enemies have still problems with food sortages.

Has anyone else same experience with AI aggresivenes with patch 4? should i turn to patch 3 until they fix it again?

When you are at war with the AI, they move aggressively alright if they feel strong enough (this is patch IV beta). The standard AI move is: move an army (or two) close to your army, then attack with the third army dragging the other armies in as reinforcements. Usually, the autoresolve shows my army being annihilated to the man. Of course, playing out the battle gives a different result.

[nearchos]

When you are at war with the AI, they move aggressively alright if they feel strong enough (this is patch IV beta). The standard AI move is: move an army (or two) close to your army, then attack with the third army dragging the other armies in as reinforcements. Usually, the autoresolve shows my army being annihilated to the man. Of course, playing out the battle gives a different result.

Interesting, but im not sure if this is something good or bad for the campaign.