The BIG (american) RTW feedback thread!

[ElmarkOFear]

I am not sure about the speed. I DO know that I lost a unit of 34 archers to a unit of 4 horse cav in less than 2 seconds. The camera view is so bad, you can't tell what unit is what, who your allies are, nor which units are yours and which are the enemy you are fighting. There is little differentiation.

Gregoshi: Trust me. There is no saving the MP game. The lobby is the worst I have seen. You have no private chat and you cannot tell if someone is in a game or not. The lobby looks like an ICQ chat window. The last sentence typed by someone is cut in half and you cannot read it until someone else types another sentence.

Half the time, in the game, when you give orders to grouped units, they will not move. You have to go back and move them individually. There is no redeeming value in the MP side unless you enjoy Age of Kings or Empire Earth-type games, THEN all you have to put up with is the terrible lobby. It looks like they made it yesterday, before the game was released. :)

Oh well, I will devote my time to other games and seeing if I can get some people interested in an STW campaign.

Good luck with RTW MP: You will need it. It took me 20 minutes to log on and I had to use my old name to do so. My UglyElmo name gives me an invalid cd-key error.

[Icerian Rex]

Well, it looks like everyone but me knew the answer to my "performance" issues.

My girlfriend came in the room, asked me why I was so frustrated, and when I told her the game wasn't working she simply looked at the box, and five seconds later showed me the minimum requirements (holding the box two inches from my nose).

Well, I guess a person just gets so excited, and I hadn't even considered that minimum requirements would come into play. Oh well.

So, I know that getting additional RAM shouldn't be a problem, but is it possible to swap out 800MHz for something any larger? I'm not particularly "computer-inclined", but I could probably do it (or get it done) if the computer can handle it.

Still very excited.... awesome music, and it was nice to see the carry through of the "black silhouettes on red background" theme. I'm just excited to get in there and get started!

[Silver Rusher]

You should try to just go and get it upgraded. You don't have to get a new computer, but you can still get more speed and more ram without losing all ur data. Check ur local yellow pages.

[SpencerH]

So, I know that getting additional RAM shouldn't be a problem, but is it possible to swap out 800MHz for something any larger? I'm not particularly "computer-inclined", but I could probably do it (or get it done) if the computer can handle it.

Its just a guess on my part but I doubt that simply increasing the RAM will allow you to play RTW properly since its very likely that the video card is also 'under specs' and the HD is too small to be really workable (the game apparently takes 3 Gigs of space).

I'd suggest you add at least another 128 to your current machine and see what happens. It wont hurt yout pocketbook much, and it will allow you to run XP anyway (since I'm guessing you've got ME). However, if you're gonna upgrade RAM, CPU, VC, and HD for gaming, you're better off buying a new PC for games.

[Cazbol]

So, I know that getting additional RAM shouldn't be a problem, but is it possible to swap out 800MHz for something any larger? I'm not particularly "computer-inclined", but I could probably do it (or get it done) if the computer can handle it.

Before you go and buy a bigger CPU, make sure your motherboard supports the CPU. Otherwise you could make an expensive mistake.

[Essex_Cohort]

Thanks for the screenshots, looks nice. At least by the time we get the game here in the UK, CA will already be working on a patch, so we can play bug free roll on 1st October

[Soulflame]

Even so, if they'd release it now here in Europe, you have the option to wait a week for the patch and read the manual 'till it's torn apart...
Now we only have 1 option: wait ...

[JR-]

another UK'er here

i'm glad people are so happy with the improved campaign map as for me thats the best bit.

[SirGrotius]

Well, it looks like everyone but me knew the answer to my "performance" issues.

My girlfriend came in the room, asked me why I was so frustrated, and when I told her the game wasn't working she simply looked at the box, and five seconds later showed me the minimum requirements (holding the box two inches from my nose).

Well, I guess a person just gets so excited, and I hadn't even considered that minimum requirements would come into play. Oh well.

So, I know that getting additional RAM shouldn't be a problem, but is it possible to swap out 800MHz for something any larger? I'm not particularly "computer-inclined", but I could probably do it (or get it done) if the computer can handle it.

Still very excited.... awesome music, and it was nice to see the carry through of the "black silhouettes on red background" theme. I'm just excited to get in there and get started!

As mentioned before, there is no hope for your pathetic machine. If you're stapped for cash, you'll need to save up at least 600$ for a decent machine. Make sure it has a good (Nvidia or ATI) graphics card, decent RAM (at least 256K), significant hard drive space (at least 40GB) and a Pentium 4 (you can get a 2Ghz machine for so cheap now).

I was wondering also if that grouping "bug" spoken about concerning the MP game also affects SP battles?

I don't understand why the game got such glowing reviews, yet seems to have a fundamentally flawed combat system, which system by the way is the game's namesake.

[Colovion]

My system specs:

Athlon 1600+
768 RAM
GeForce 4200ti

That's all that matters, really - mild overclocks on the CPU and Vid card. The important thing is this:

I'm running the game at 1024x32 res with everything at High or Highest with Low AA on. NO LAG

And I've already ordered a new computer. Yarg. I'll get FPS up later. It's amazing how much different the demo from the main game is.

It's amazingly addicting. Remember Civilization 3 or Diablo 2? Those games were addicting because you were building something huge from scratch - one small step at a time. The campaign map is no longer a chore to get to the battles - they are one and the same now and you don't say "well, I don't really want to fight that battle because it'll take too long". Now I can understand why CA made the battles "shorter" because they make it so that you never have a chance to get bored. I dislike this for MP but I think that could be changed for a MP specific fix. You contsantly say "well just one more turn, see - that valley looks nice, I'll move my army in there" and you find yourself defending your empire by staving off the Gaul or Rebel forces coming your way. Armies just wander around sometimes too - catching you off gaurd if you leave a city undefended. Seiges aren't boring anymore - you can't seige a city that has a certain kind of walls if you don't have seige weapons. The addiction for games like this come from the fact that everytime you click on a button or an icon you get satisfying little audio bites - change shuffling, cash exchanging hands for the End of Turn Summary - Wood being cut and hammers working in the background when a Construction is complete - the list goes on. It just draws you in; I usually go to bed at midnight because I wake up early - I didn't get to bed until 2AM - and that time felt like 5 minutes.

It's also much more realistic in the way you move your troops as well. I had an army going north through a pass and then across a river ford to take a city. I thought I needed some cavalry so I built two Equites and send them up. It would take two turns to do this as the line shows up when you tell your unit to go further than they can. My Equites were attacked by a unit of swordsmen and I didn't coordinate my attack on both sides well enough that I lost 50% of both of their units, they retreated back over the ford and sat between the hills. This is also true when you attack enemy units. If they think they can't win they will retreat and your soldier on the Campaign map will proclaim victory, you then have a chance to follow-up the initial attack with another. If you defeat the enemy enough without destroying them they'll retreat until they get to a city or can join with a larger army - which makes it so you must have light Cav to run down the routers.

I don't think you can take soldiers prisoners, there isn't any Unit Captured button and you don't have any option after the battle for ransom either - only in seiges.

Population is great and makes you really care more about your cities as a little more than objects which you use to do anything you want - you have to wait till you have the population to build certain units or buildings. This could get annoying but so far it has added to the immersion.

Governers are very important - or i should say - your family members are. I lost a key family member on my second turn and it made it more difficult to expand because I had one city that wasn't doing much besides what the AI told it to. This isn't terrible because you can set the kind of Theme you want the city to run as: Growth, Military, Financial - etc.

I've disobeyed the Senate because they gave me a goal which was a little out of my reach, no ill consequences - just no extra money.

I'm playing on Hard and so far it has been easy, but I'm still inside the Italian Penninsula and haven't gotten to the Gaulish homeland with their large armies. As you look out over the darkened areas you can really look and see where the strategical points are - and they're true to life such as where the passes are to send troops through the Pyrennes and so on.

This has gotten a little long but I'm at work and little to do but think about conquoring Gaul this weekend.

[Ldvs]

Good to see a demo skeptic like you enjoying the full game Colovion

[Colovion]

Heh, yea I didn't think it was possible either.

[Barkhorn1x]

I've disobeyed the Senate because they gave me a goal which was a little out of my reach, no ill consequences - just no extra money.

Well, in addition to no cash, they denied my faction any state offices and sent me a nasty note to boot - the bastards.

Barkhorn.

[Red Harvest]

I'm playing as Scipio on the hardest settings for my first campaign. I've made a few mistakes, but I've fulfilled all of my Senate missions, and crushed Carthage in my spare time (they have one army left, but no territory.) The treacherous Numidians attacked me despite our trade alliance...so I have my hands full at the moment. I made a mistake by not enslaving most of the Carthaginians...loyalty is not as easily maintained as in MTW on the hardest difficulty settings.

The city sieges are pretty cool, although the siege towers don't work as one would expect. You really don't get a good indication as to when your troops will lower the ramp...I think they must all be at the top before it drops. This is awfully cludgy and could use some work. My first siege was a disastrous win as I tried to figure out how to use rams and towers. Getting your infantry near enemy gates or towers seems to be a real bad idea. Sapping works.

The battle speed is a big problem. Units kill far too rapidly in many instances, the effect of base defense should be higher I expect. Cavalry either kills or is killed in a few seconds. With the Numidians, this is proving a real problem. My cav and theirs are nearly indistinguishable on the field. Both sides rout and I can't tell what is going on. I'll probably have to start using pause every two seconds. Use of the pila and shield vs. cav does not appear to work right, but it happens so fast that I can't really tell.

The AI bribed my best army and 2nd best commander early in the campaign. That really sucked, but it did increase the challenge.

[[DnC]]

If anyone could confirm this question I have.

I seem to recall reading that generals don't give 1 valour/experience every two stars to their troops anymore. Has it been implemented in the game this way? I really didn't like being able to put a bunch of rookies under a 9* general and have them suddenly be transformed into these über soldiers. I think more discipline, morale and such similar, not overpowering (or rather annoying), factors (depending on what kinda general you have) a far better supplement to commandrating. I like the idea of soldiers getting stronger (and better) due to battle-experience, not a general. Morale may be the best. For every star, 'bout 0.25 morale (depending on the affected strength per 1 morale to the game) per star or something and the general can add or distract morale and other factors with V&V. +1 attack + 1 defense + 2 morale is just far too much I.M.O.

Anyways this way it's also a lot more fun creating veteran units, have them be more special and make you less keen on throwing them into battle unless the situation requires you to do so.

I'm a bit tired of reading all the reviews now and going insane of anticipation!
So if anyone could help me out here I would very much appreciate it!
I've read this thread partly earlier in the day, but haven't remembered most of it, so it could have already been mentioned in this thread. If it has, then my apologies.