Demo Impressions

[Gregoshi]

I know what you all are talking about with regards to the speed of the game, BUT could it be "rushed" only when the units are running? At the beginning of Trebia, when the Romans are just walking towards you, the movement seems almost painfully slow. Same with giving your units (even the cavalry) movement orders - they take their good old time about it. Give them running orders and the afterburners kick in. After playing Trebia a couple of more times, I'm beginning to think that the speed issue is that the speed between walking and running is greater than it was in STW/MTW. When you are playing the battle, it seems very fast, but when you look at the scale of things and then the speed at which the units are running (fast!), it doesn't really look unnatural - at least to me. Maybe STW & MTW coddled us too much with a reduced running speed. Well, that is my impressions on the speed issue.

I don't believe I've read any comments here about the Numedian Cavalry's special "circle" attack. I gave that a try and it is a very neat attack to watch. I don't know how effective it is, but visually it is impressive. I wonder what other cool special attacks this game has in store for us.

About the music, the piece that I really fell in love with today was the one that plays over the menu. There is a part where the music has a sweeping and almost majestic feel to it - but in a very subdued way. That isn't a very good way to describe it, but there it is.

I messed some more with the camera controls. I do believe there is a bug in there. The "rotate" controls don't rotate, they strafe. So we have two ways to strafe with keys and none to rotate. Unfortunately, I'm more comfortable rotating with the left/right keys rather than using the mouse, so changing my view is a bit awkward for me.

Does anyone else notice the odd behaviour of some of the units, the light barbarian infantry (sorry to those of you who cringe at that name). At the beginning of the battle, more often than not, some of the barbarians (maybe 8-10) start walking towards the rear, like they are leaving the unit. This is as the Romans are still approaching and I haven't given the barbarians any orders yet. Could CA have added deserters or something like that?