Rome Total War Vs Legion Arena

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Mudshovel 18:51 01-20-2005

hi guys , so , i have a question , do you believe that legion arena can beat rome total war???? i prefer rome total war , but this game , LA is in process ,

I love Rome total War !!!! for my own , Legion Arena Sucks ,

look :

http://www.slitherine.co.uk/LegionArena/ArenaIndex.htm

lol
sorry again for my english

Spino 19:39 01-20-2005

Whatever you do don't give a small, independent game developer a fair shake by checking out more than their screenshots. Legion and Spartan are actually decent games if you're willing to overlook the fact that Slitherine doesn't have a large, dedicated art and animation staff like other developers who are funded by massive publishing houses like Activision and EA. But I guess the world only needs one decent strategy title, right? What we really need now is more RTS games with shallow gameplay and lots of eye candy!

Would your opinion of Legion Arena change if its multiplayer gameplay actually turns out to be superior to that found in Rome Total War? Stranger things have happened in the gaming industry.

Despite their humble origins Legion and Spartan were successful strategy games that made some waves in the industry. The good news is Slitherine is improving their work product with each title. There's more than enough room for two companies that make games with both a strategic and tactical element.

Turbo 19:51 01-20-2005

Originally Posted by Mudshovel:
hi guys , so , i have a question , do you believe that legion arena can beat rome total war???? i prefer rome total war , but this game , LA is in process ,

I love Rome total War !!!! for my own , Legion Arena Sucks ,

look :

http://www.slitherine.co.uk/LegionArena/ArenaIndex.htm

lol
sorry again for my english

I hope that they develop the tactical battle mode more than they did with Spartan. That battle mode was very very crappy.

Dooz 19:53 01-20-2005

HOLY CRAP!!! That game looks amazing! The barbarian (or rebel?) factions have a million different skins within each unit, and not a uniform dress code. The screens with a bunch of them and a bunch of Romans clashing is awesome! Looks like it straight out of the movies. And I personally like the whole, kind of, cartoony feel it gives. I am now officially looking forward to this game.

IceTorque 03:00 01-21-2005

at last CA will have some competition
which can only be a good thing for us gamers

Oaty 06:41 01-21-2005

Looks good and they have on there website there should be an open beta this month.

I like the terrain too, maybe not as graphically good as RTW, but they have cliffs(unflankable position) and they seem to have more realistic looking battlefields.

Originally Posted by :
Before a battle the player deploys their troops, but after much feedback we’ve decided this is not where the control should end. Players will be able to direct their troops once the battle has begun. The number of orders the player can issue is limited by the experience of the general in charge. The idea is to allow the player enough control so that they can swing the course of a battle, but without turning it into a frantic click fest. We think the order system we’re developing does this perfectly. Just to clarify – you can select a unit during a battle and tell it where to march, as well as who to attack, but how often you can do this depends on the quality of your general

Sounds like it is'nt geared for a 3 minute engagement and cripples the player to a degree to allow for better A.I. tacticul manuevers instead of a head on charge to route unit after unit.

Originally Posted by :
Legion Arena will be downloadable for free! That’s right, you can play for free! Players can sign up and get their free user account and play the game as soon as we launch. The free trial limits which units you can buy and to access the elite troops you'll need to register your copy.

You can play a barebones version before you even buy it and should be downloadable before the end of this month. I'll have to give it a try.

Scorpion 13:09 01-21-2005

It seems that their unit scale is smaller than RTW:s though. Of course, it might be scalable, and it might not be the most important thing if the game is otherwise great....but I like being able to play in 1:3 in RTW.

Those legionaries in the checkerboard formation seemed to be in something like 1:12 ....?

Zawath 14:52 01-21-2005

Testers have said that the battle engine and AI is lot better than in RTW and the game is only going to cost 20 bucks.

Servius 15:35 01-21-2005

When game companies are financially independence and are motivated by the love of design, playing, and the fans, you can get great games. IMO Blizzard is an example of this (the server performance of WoW asside). But when producers like CA are held by the balls by publishers like Activision or EA, the only way to ensure high-quality games is through tough competition that creates an environment where rush-jobs and dumbing-down will cost companies fans.

Arrowhead 18:37 01-21-2005

Give me more info! WOW

Díaz de Vivar 09:15 01-22-2005

Legion Arena is the bridge to make Legion II a great game. Slitherine has had a excelent progression and, as small company, have few resources but a lot of illusion, talent and desire for doing big things.

Arrowhead 15:41 01-23-2005

when is it coming out? are there any other games made by slitherine?

Turbo 15:54 01-23-2005

Slitherine at least quality tests there product before releasing it then patching it. Spartan wasn't a great game but then again it had very few bugs and Slitherine supported the users by addressing them promptly with good communication. Contrast this with CA who uses the community to playtest the game then acts like it is doing the community a favor when it releases 1 (and only 1) patch.

Dooz 21:37 01-23-2005

Originally Posted by :
Slitherine at least quality tests there product before releasing it then patching it. Spartan wasn't a great game but then again it had very few bugs and Slitherine supported the users by addressing them promptly with good communication. Contrast this with CA who uses the community to playtest the game then acts like it is doing the community a favor when it releases 1 (and only 1) patch.

Turbo, you gotta take into consideration that Slitherine is a very small company compared to CA, and although that shouldn't excuse CA from neglecting their customers (which I don't really believe their doing. The game hasn't been out for THAT long to have a million patches yet) or not making a bug-free product (which they caved on that one), it's just common sense that Slitherine has more time on their hands perhaps to address issues more frequently.

This post is very wierdly constructed. Sorry if it doesn't make sense. One giant sentence with a bunch of sub-sentences hidden in parentheses... Confusin stuff...

ellinelle 22:36 01-23-2005

Originally Posted by Wonderland:
Turbo, you gotta take into consideration that Slitherine is a very small company compared to CA, and although that shouldn't excuse CA from neglecting their customers (which I don't really believe their doing. The game hasn't been out for THAT long to have a million patches yet) or not making a bug-free product (which they caved on that one), it's just common sense that Slitherine has more time on their hands perhaps to address issues more frequently.

I disagree. A bigger company should have more resources to allocate to QA. I find that the problem with games today is that too much time is spent making them look pretty and not enough to making the gameplay right. The AI suffers even more here as it's the hardest thing to get right. Companies see the solution as making the game multiplayer as then you don't need an AI. If CA had spent as much time on the AI as they did on the graphics we;d have a vastly better game where maybe infantry didn't keep charging cavalry al the time and where several phalanx unit would cooperate and advance together to protect their flanks.

Ziu 04:47 01-24-2005

13/1/05 Customize your troops on a squad
basis, not just one colour for the army.

13/1/05 Graphically personalise
each squad and name them

13/1/05 Choose your shield designs
from a variety of options

Sounds interesting!

Red Harvest 06:56 01-24-2005

Interesting. I'm going to take a look at their demos while I'm waiting on the patch.

Dooz 07:38 01-24-2005

I downloaded and played Slitherine's game, Spartan... kinda sucked ass... Well the battle aspect of it anyways, graphically speaking. I know it's terrible of me to have not liked it cause of graphics but after playing RTW for the past few weeks, then playing a game that felt like a terrible graphics version of it.... guess it wasn't a fair chance. But the rest of the game was pretty much identical to RTW. The campaign map and everything, really similar (in my opinion). Again, I didn't get too into it, so I might have missed a few details (or many). Anyhoo, I think I'm gonna give it another shot after I cool off RTW for a while. I usually love games that are more fun and interesting, not necessarily graphically astonishing, and that's what this game is supposed to be.

hellenes 11:15 01-24-2005

Originally Posted by ellinelle:
I disagree. A bigger company should have more resources to allocate to QA. I find that the problem with games today is that too much time is spent making them look pretty and not enough to making the gameplay right. The AI suffers even more here as it's the hardest thing to get right. Companies see the solution as making the game multiplayer as then you don't need an AI. If CA had spent as much time on the AI as they did on the graphics we;d have a vastly better game where maybe infantry didn't keep charging cavalry al the time and where several phalanx unit would cooperate and advance together to protect their flanks.

Well they resist making ANY MP!!! Why do you think this AMAZING engine is not so popular in the RTS crowd?
The graphics alone wont make it sell heh even a trivial crappy fast clicking RTS like Battle for middle earth is selling more copies...
Rome's developers tried to decieve the common RTS fans into buying a TURN BASED game with NO MP and FAILED!!!

Hellenes

KyodaiSteeleye 14:44 01-24-2005

Well, looking at the site, i'm actually quite impressed - the graphics are actually pretty good - and as they say - who wants multi-texturing blaa blaa if the gameplay is crap? I think you're comparing apples and oranges here anyway - Legion Arena is an entirely battle-based - there is no strategy map.

And i really like the idea of choosing units colours and names, and of being able to upgrade specifics on each unit/loyalty etc. - you really do get to want to look after your poor little troops then, they're not just 'another' legion cohort sent into the barbarian fray. Also the limited number of battle commands depending on experience sounds interesting - no click fests!

Oh - and you can play it with a free download first off, which sounds like a pretty good to me!

Dooz 23:18 01-24-2005

KyodaiSteeleye, if you were responding to me, I think you misunderstood. I was talking about the game Spartan, not Legion Arena.

Originally Posted by :
Legion Arena is an entirely battle-based - there is no strategy map.

I don't know about you, but I'm happy to note that there is going to be a version of Legion Arena that is with a strategy map and everything, Legion II - Civilization & Empire. It'll use the Legion Arena engine but add the campaign and everything. Yay

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