Second Statement From CA (Sep 11)

[CaptainCrunch]

From the official forum -> Mike CA on Rome II's Release

Of note;

... The top priority is stability and performance – both frame rates in battle and campaign, and end of turn times and loading times. Then gameplay spoilers – AI flaws and exploits, balancing tweaks and the level of challenge on higher difficulties. Then minor bugs, lesser features that really didn’t pan out, UI improvements, and longer term adjustments to features and systems that could be better. Because there are a lot of us working in parallel there will be a mixture of different priority fixes in each patch. Much of this work would be part of the usual planned improvements we would make to our games post-launch anyway, but we are aware that they have now taken on extra significance and importance...

New patch is out, my game just updated. Posted in the sticky...

[Barkhorn1x]

Now this message is really what I want to hear and time will tell if CA can fulfill these promises.

Also of note for the future:

Lastly, I’m hoping we can fundamentally treat our releases differently in the future. Long open betas are the way things are going, and while that model hasn’t been compatible with the way Total War has been built to date, that could be the way forward.

[BroskiDerpman]

If the next TW has a long "open beta" I swear....

Though if it's like CoH 2 beta then sure.

[Vuk]

Long open beta? Isn't that what has unofficially happened with every TW game since Empire?
So now they are just making it official?

[ShadesPanther]

Long open beta? Isn't that what has unofficially happened with every TW game since Empire?
So now they are just making it official?

I think it's because Rome II has turned out to be such a PR disaster for them, that they feel they have to do something like this for future releases and patch this game up like crazy.

I'm glad that they are trying to do something about it as it has the potential to be a great game and I want the franchise to keep going

[BroskiDerpman]

Just fix the ui and I'll be somewhat happy.

[Barkhorn1x]

Long open beta? Isn't that what has unofficially happened with every TW game since Empire?
So now they are just making it official?

You know as well as I do that making it official changes the perception (if not the reality) and doesn't raise expectations. That would be more than acceptable to most of us.

[AntiDamascus]

So long open betas for Medieval 3 or Shogun 3?

[Monk]

Long open beta? Isn't that what has unofficially happened with every TW game since Empire?
So now they are just making it official?

Shogun 2 had a crazy long closed beta. Not surprisingly it turned out pretty good...

[Ituralde]

I'm really happy with their response and look forward to them following up on it. If this leads to them devoting fundamentally more time to beta testing in future releases, I'm happy as well.

I mean what more can you expect from CA? A perfectly polished product at release you say, but that's in the past. In the situation we have now pushing out patches on a weekly basis and a commitment to improve upon the game really is the best result I could have hoped for.