HUGE Mistake,

[Just A Girl]

Well I origionaly bought RTW when it was released,
I did not like it,
and i sold it on to a freind,

He did not like it either And sold it back to me For less money,

Well i just installed the game,
And spent the last 20 mins Yelling at the dumb bint who kept telling me stuff i already knew,

After almost boring my self to tears i was forced in to a battle.
What A tedious and Utterly Annoying battle it was,
the infantry were as fast as the cavalry,
They also acted like cavalry Charging then falling back and then charging again,
Mean time theres some Guy in the top corner of my screen telling me what to do,
So i decided not to listen to him and helped win the battle in my own way,
by now I was Almost in tears with boredome.

but now i was allowed to moove
Great i thought,

Il take that setelment,

Then the stupid cow pops up again, Telling me to go do what i was about to do,
GAH!!!!

Any way i found out you can swich her off, and i decided to walk north Where i found a smaller barbarian setlement,

Ok i said to my self il take this place over,

so i lined up my catapult thing and got my men ready,
i told my catapult to attack the enemy;s within the wall,

I went to make a coffe.
When i came back most of my opponents were dead,
So the catapult was told to attack the gate,
It fell in 2 shots.

I then stormed the settelment and had a heroic victory, 1 loss.

Guess i should have shot the towers,

At this point I again quit the game,
And uninstalled it.

This game sux some thing chronic,
I dont know how you guys can play it after playing games like stw or mtw,

The thing is like treacle on a cold day,
the units look nice and moove well enough But Honestly,
The game play sux,
The battles Are a joke
The ai is retarded,
And the infantry act like cavalry,.

Im sorry about this post,
But damn that game sux, And i just wasted a good hour or so on the damn thing,

I hope that ca get their acts together or stop making the total war games,
cos if they keep progressing in this manner,
i think Mickey mouse's magical advanture would be a better game than this trash.

[Drusus Magnus]

Your text looks like a poem.

Anyhoo, just turn off the advisor and try to exchange the game for another or something.

[Ragnor_Lodbrok]

Yes... very interesting... what are you trying to tell us?

[Just A Girl]

Yes... very interesting... what are you trying to tell us?

Just had to vent some steam.
Playing that for an hour prety much ruined my day.

[zukenft]

Ah! you forgot 2 fundamental things that made RTW enjoyable:

1. Patch

2. Modding

[BalkanTourist]

I remember how I used to dread and expect every battle in MTW with utter anticipation. The battles in RTW are simply annoying. There is no tactics involved. Infantry can outrun cavalry. Skirmishers charging infantry. British general unit is worthless. The game is just a pure eye candy.

[Just A Girl]

the game play is just to slow for me,

I see an aproaching unit of oponent's, and i can go make a coffe and read a book then come back and their about 1/2 way their,

Its really slow, And i probably shouldnt but if i compare that battles to Shogun tw,
Their a joke,

I was vs the ai And they sent a group of men to cross a bridge, i told my archers to shoot at them...

What do you think the oponent did?

Well it used all of its inteligence and Ran back and forth on the bridge whilst geting shot,
In shogun
they would have stormed over the bridge.
then id have FRANTICALLY tried to find a unit to counter the attacking units,

I would have lost my archers by the time i could have counterd their attack,
I really think rome Went a bit far in making the game New player freindly,

It gives players to much time to think and make decisions Which takes the exitement out of the game,

Attacking setelments is Just So easy its laughable,
those catapult things make it even Easier.
"i wasnt to happy about them in MTW either"

Theres NO way i should be able to take a setelment with only 1 loss.
yet i can, which means to give the ai any chance at all i haft to auto calc my battles,
And whats that leave behind?
1 boring game thats what.

Im realy dissapointed with this situation,

Maby if i went and increased all unit moovment speed by 60% and cav moovment speed by 90%
(cos cav can bearly even catch fleeing archers)
It may become a bit more exiting,

The ai Also decides to place all its men in 1 spot so i can Easily slaughter them with my catapult.

the Only redeeming factor is the way armys depoly in regards to where you came from when you attack.
I think thats a good idea,

But apart from that i cant beleve people gave this game Such good ratings,
All I can imagine. Is the people who rated the game
never played shogun or mtw,
becous if you compare even 10 seconds of battle in rome to 10 seconds of battle in the other 2 games, you see how Slow and boring RTW battles really are,

No wonder Most auto calc their game,

Im sorry to be raining on your parade like this,
But it really is true,

The rome Battles Suck compared to stw or mtw.

Next time maby theyl spend less money on the GFX and concentrate on game play.


To sum it up,
RTW Was made to be New user freindly, Becous of this You have Way to much time for decision making,
The difrence between RTW and STW battles can be compared to Going in to a corner at 100mph on a rusty ugly motor bike that shakes you to hell.
and going through the same corner On a really Nice looking bike with stabelisers attached doing 10 mph.

One of them May look nice But it simply is not fun.

[Viking]

It`s all a matter of taste.

[Sir Chauncy]

Just out of interest, which infantry units were running as fast which cavalry units? What type of town where you assaulting with who and against which army?

Personally I think the battles in this game are bit slow to start and over too quickly, but that could just be me.

The assaults on towns can be fantastically easy when attacking a little fort or an exercise in pain if attacking the Epic scale walls.

I think it could just be that expectations were built too high, after all, the game does [I]look[I] fantastic and if any part of the game doesn't reach such sparly standards then it really shows up. I have to say that I have never seen the AI do the things you say : running backwards and forwards across a bridge under arrow fire seems just plain silly. In the BI game I have played I have seen the ememy start to attack me and draw back to lure me across the bridge, walk its archer units to the edge of the river and swim some cavalry across at the extreme edges of the river to try and flank me.

Sounds like you may need to tell your game off and buck it's ideas up :)

[Sardo]

That's the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about the battles being too slow.
Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here, but it sounds as though you neither patched the game nor bothered to try and make it past the Prologue (at least that's what the 'annoying advisors' bit seems to suggest. At any rate, after turning off the advisors I've never had trouble with all the things you mention. Sorry to hear that yours was not such a pleasant experience.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Just out of interest, which infantry units were running as fast which cavalry units? What type of town where you assaulting with who and against which army?

Think JAG is referring to the Prologue (tutorial) campaign, aka the Sons of Mars.

[SMZ]

Well I origionaly bought RTW when it was released,
I did not like it,
and i sold it on to a freind,

He did not like it either And sold it back to me For less money,

ehh? why did you buy a game you didn't like twice?

you may want to try getting the newest patch for said game, and playing the "Imperial Campaign" instead of the introductory one... you'll stilll likely find things that could be worked on - but your experience should be much better

[gardibolt]

Yeah, I'm not getting why you thought the game would be different the second time around. You didn't like it, fine. But why buy it again if you didn't like it and expect the experience to be somehow improved??

[HarunTaiwan]

Perhaps she needs to use the triple speed button to speed up the units getting to battle.

I agree the battles are easier than STW or MTW, but I also have to say that in the ancient period there were a lot of routs with 11 dead Romans and 11,000 dead Armenians, etc.

Game play is still a problem though.

[antisocialmunky]

Wow, if you put your rant in iambic pentameter and set it to Ballad of Green Berret, you could make rallying theme for those who have major issues with RTW.

[Just A Girl]

well i bought the game for £50
Sold it for £35
bought it back for a £5
so now Ive only played £20 for the game,

I knew i hated the game, but atleast this way i technically got £30 back on it and still have the game,
(Maby this could be a reall money spinner for me LOL)

I dont think il be trying BI jut yet,
(ive already seen the 2 mile long bug list)

The ai would have a torrid time in fooling me to cross a bridge when its un safe,
(been playing STW to long for that)
"if only it could learn to anticipate my style of battle or have a better style its self"


But the BIGEST problem i have with the game Is The Thinking time you have.
The exitment of split second decision making Is gone,
You have MASSES of time.
"this could be becous of those guys on the tv having to tell their freinds what to do."

also it dosent seem to matter that much who you attack with what,
you seem to come out best any way,
I remember from the 1st time round I just Could not loose a battle,
Even if i left the room My men would have beaten the opponents.

at 1 point when i 1st owned the game,
I had a battle vs the ai the ai had eliphants and everything.
all i had were some archers a few of those spear throwing guys. And one of those big catapults,
I deployed half way up the hill,

And that was about it, The eliphants didnt die to fast, but they never arived at my men, I beleve there was 1 skirmish when i sent my men down hill to draw the ai in to my arrow fire,
(the ai didnt hesitate and ran up hill in to a hail of flaiming arrows and red hot bolders.)
Theres just no exitment in the game.

The patches dont address any problems i have with the game as i installed them last time.
Infantry still think their cavalry,
cavalry are still just as slow as the infantry.

and the ai is still as dumb as any one or thing could possibly be.

But atleast i have my beloved shogun to play :)
"AHHH Blissfull Lovley Exiting Shogun.... I love you my little shoggy poo"

[Butcher]

Erm, regarding AI.. check out the new 1.3 patch for HOI2 for good AI.

[PSYCHO V]

Ah yes.. good old HOI2

[Slug For A Butt]

well i bought the game for £50
Sold it for £35
bought it back for a £5
so now Ive only played £20 for the game,

Dammit, you spent £50 on it? Did they see you coming?

Oh, and my personal opinion is that STW bored me to tears after playing MTW. I prefer the diversity of units that MTW/RTW offer.

[Butcher]

Ah yes.. good old HOI2

Now there is developer support.. incidentally, a minor bug was found 4 days after the 1.3 release, and already 1.3a is in the works.

[Puzz3D]

But the BIGEST problem i have with the game Is The Thinking time you have.
The exitment of split second decision making Is gone,
You have MASSES of time.

STW/MI v102 is a very fast game, and the tactics are razor sharp. It was designed for above average players, and I think the game is running even faster than it did back in 2002 because the computers are faster now. RTW/BI could easily seem like a slow game in comparision especially when the armies are walking, but combat was resolving too fast in RTW v1.2. I think that's been corrected in RTW v1.3 at least if you use large unit size. I would say there's still a little too much time pressure at the height of the battle in RTW/BI with 20 units to control. Players talk about anticipating enemy unit placement before the battle starts as the most important tactic in RTW. In STW, making proper unit matchups is what's important.

The kind of player that RTW/BI is aimed at can't handle STW/MI because you have to make very good RPS type decisions very quickly. The RPS in RTW/BI is very weak by comparision which incidentally hurts the AI because, if you notice, the AI is trying to make RPS matchups but they aren't as effective in RTW/BI as they are in STW/MI. RTW/BI is more about flanking, but the AI doesn't protect its flanks.

also it dosent seem to matter that much who you attack with what,
you seem to come out best any way,
I remember from the 1st time round I just Could not loose a battle,
Even if i left the room My men would have beaten the opponents.

The Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) is quite weak, but the AI used in RTW/BI is designed for a strong RPS system.

the ai didnt hesitate and ran up hill in to a hail of flaiming arrows and red hot bolders.
Theres just no exitment in the game.

I'm convinced that the AI has been made more aggressive in the sense that it will make frontal charges even when it has the weaker unit. Of course, the human player doesn't have to do anything to win when that happens. It never did this in STW or even MTW. Also, the AI doesn't seen to assess potential losses from ranged fire. So, with highly effective ranged fire such as that from artillery, it's a disaster for the AI. The AI can do a considerable amount of damage to the human player if it has artillery since it's movable in RTW/BI. STW/MI doesn't have artillery, but the overpowered muskets do detract from the gameplay.

The patches dont address any problems i have with the game as i installed them last time.
Infantry still think their cavalry,
cavalry are still just as slow as the infantry.

I think it's just infantry with a high charge bonus that acts like cavalry. I actually haven't noticed this in my RTW v1.3 battles.

Some skirmishers do run too fast relative to cavalry. All the running speeds are a little too high from a realism standpoint, but you can't slow them down without a complete rebalance of fighting speed and ranged unit effectiveness.

and the ai is still as dumb as any one or thing could possibly be.

That's why good multiplayer is important, but RTW/BI falls short on that as well. As far as I can tell, everyone who was on the RTW v1.2 beta team has stopped playing RTW. That tells you something because these were all dedicated players who had been around a long time.

[GreatEmperor]

Did you try to beat the AI on Very Hard? I can tell ya, there's challenge when you put it on very hard.

[Viking]

Perhaps she tried it after installing 1.2...

[AquaLurker]

My advice, don't waste ur time on AI go online and get your butt kicked around, then you will want more online action and start kicking butt. BI is the better online RTW game with a major flaw...8/10 games lag, you need a host with a powerful computer and good connection.

One thing I don't get about BI and RTW 1.3 is...I can play games like Fear and BF2 online smoothly, does BI demands more from our graphic cards? Or just bad programming from CA or Gamespy???

[Prodigal]

Change options to quick win for the first "dentist-chair-needle-approaching-the-gum-this-won't-hurt-a-bit" game, v.easy, v.easy so you can finish it ASAP.

In strat map hit the space bar, this will move the units about quickly rather than making you watch them take 10 seconds to crawl across the map.

OR

Google Rome Total Realism, download their patches & then play. Much more fun, & even better music. Also it does away with that horse sized enema of an intro game. Which I confess annoyed me as I only got the game so I could kill romans.

[Kaldhore]

Im afraid cafine has alot to answer for, after reading all those angry statements about how RTW is crap compared to MTW and STW. Thats a load of bull.

Ive played every game from Vanilla to fully patched - when they were first released. The AI in ALL of them isnt that great (yea including STW).

Out of them all I think MTW is the best but not by that much. STW was easy Im afraid. Sure the battles lasted longer, but I used to speed it up anyway.

Dont glorify the past cos this game didnt live up to your expectations. In my opinion the AI has got better in the last patch - just yesterday I had a routing enemy Gen of 5 horsemen come back from the border ( I stopped chasing him) only to weave his way through my lines and decimate half a group of archers I had firing on a group of hedgehogged spearmen. I was very happy to see that.

Kamikazi Generals no longer charge my front lines....

Oh and btw in history settlements WERE taken with minimal losses, sometimes none. It depended ont he general.

I remember in MTW Placing just 1 stack of Byzantines in the Area just before horde showed up, and I beat all of them with just that stack. Thats more improbable that taking a settlement with only 1 loss.

Besides Im glad of the graphics in RTW I didnt pay all that money to play a jumped up version of the by far old graphics of STW.

Dont get me wrong - Ive been a dedicated fan of all the TW games. I just hate seeing constant incorrect comparisons.

And please dont compare this to real time strat games like C&C etc...
Thats just sick... :P

[Just A Girl]

Im afraid cafine has alot to answer for, after reading all those angry statements about how RTW is crap compared to MTW and STW. Thats a load of bull.

Ive played every game from Vanilla to fully patched - when they were first released. The AI in ALL of them isnt that great (yea including STW).

Out of them all I think MTW is the best but not by that much. STW was easy Im afraid. Sure the battles lasted longer, but I used to speed it up anyway.

Dont glorify the past cos this game didnt live up to your expectations. In my opinion the AI has got better in the last patch - just yesterday I had a routing enemy Gen of 5 horsemen come back from the border ( I stopped chasing him) only to weave his way through my lines and decimate half a group of archers I had firing on a group of hedgehogged spearmen. I was very happy to see that.

Kamikazi Generals no longer charge my front lines....

Oh and btw in history settlements WERE taken with minimal losses, sometimes none. It depended ont he general.

I remember in MTW Placing just 1 stack of Byzantines in the Area just before horde showed up, and I beat all of them with just that stack. Thats more improbable that taking a settlement with only 1 loss.

Besides Im glad of the graphics in RTW I didnt pay all that money to play a jumped up version of the by far old graphics of STW.

Dont get me wrong - Ive been a dedicated fan of all the TW games. I just hate seeing constant incorrect comparisons.

And please dont compare this to real time strat games like C&C etc...
Thats just sick... :P

Well i dont agree that the AI in mtw or vi is better than STW,
In MTW and RTW. if you use a catapult to attack the opponents,
80% of the time they moove More men to the area your decimating to strengthen their lines,
Only so they get decimated 2.
(thats MTW and RTW ai for you)

The nearest mistake stw did comparing to this is, SOMETIMES, it will leave men in gun fire range,
and wont moove them, (that agrivates me to)
"but atleast STW is not Totaly Idiotic, And it does not moove more men to the place where Every 1 els is getting shot"

On a plus side though, Ive began playing the campaign side of rome a bit more now though,
And its not to Bad, I like the deployment and ambush side of things,
I have a hard time reading most of the text though as its tiny, (i use a tv not a monitor) But that is not the games fault,
I supose i like the campaign map aspect of things,
"Its A little bit to much like heroes of might and magic for me,"
but i supose if i dissliked it for that there wouldnt be anything i liked about the game.
it really is a shame about the game play in battles,

Shure i have all the best gfx settings. smoke, High building detail, highe effects, high shaddow detail, high Grass detail, No slowdown at all, so that cant be bad,
But is it worth it?
i haft to scroll in as close as i can to see any benafit of these graphical improvemnts,
And i dont care what you say,

I should not have enough time to go scroll up close to wach my cav charge in to the side of a unprotected opponent unit and watch his men go flying (funny as it is)

if i wasted my time like that in shogun I could ashure my self of defeat,

The battles in RTW have become more of a slide show than a real Exiting battle.
click on your man.
Send him over their,
(OOh look at the pretty grass get cut)
Few people go flying
(a couple of laughs here and their till novelty wears off)
And then youve won this battle you didnt even need to do anything to win. And its a Heroic victory.

When i 1st got STW i had to auto calc battles becous I could NOT win,
In RTW i haft to auto calc battles becous I cant loose,

I still play STW, And By no stretch of the imaginition Are RTW battles More difficult.
I can Actualy loose a battle in stw.
But their still not as good as real players in MP,
So saying play RTW MP for a good game, Is just a dumb sentance,
I play STW for a good game, And play STW online for a great game,

So why play RTW sp for a bad game, and Suffer the pains of game spy to Try and make it playable?

Beauty is only skin deep.
As this game Moset definatly prooves.

p.s
Game Is on hard, (although i beleve the proloug was stuck on some other setting)
and Why would any 1 Buy a game and play it on easy and waste ALL their money,

[AquaLurker]

But their still not as good as real players in MP,
So saying play RTW MP for a good game, Is just a dumb sentance,
I play STW for a good game, And play STW online for a great game,

So why play RTW sp for a bad game, and Suffer the pains of game spy to Try and make it playable?

Erh because you already have the game... & you are not happy with the ai...maybe try selling it again if it really bugs you?

Honestly I play STW too and the only reason it was difficult is that the AI has the same unit type (therefore not much advantage) as you and if you start with poorman factions, every battles counts and we all like that, great challenge.

RTW units are alittle more diverse and rome always have the better units plus they get more money. Makes everyone else looks like wheat for the harvest.

I have played all TW series and all I can say is RTW has way better and more dynamic battle system which the AI can't cope with but it gives a way better MP battles experience, we just have to wait for CA to deal with the lag in the next patch hopefully.

STW=basically every one uses the same thing, when egage the soldiers in the back line just stand around while the front guys fight, no attempt of pushing or overlapping was seen from the back guys, IMO very static very unrealistic. Not to mention the lame scissior paper stone model for battles. Limited tactics limited advantage, no element of "phycis", AI doesn't need to be brillant, player does. It "was" great for its time no doubt.

MTW=STW with more diverse units and new features, more enjoyable then STW.

"Patched" RTW=dynamic battles engine & more diverse units with some elemets of phycis and a little more realisim=more creativity in terms of tactics from human player=doomed for AI with zero creativity. Only challenge, endless hordes from richer factions. Better play MP if you are looking for tactical challenge.

BI=Cross between MTW and RTW, lesser diversity in terms of units but AI is still struggling with a human tactician, you get the message I hope. Quite a number of MTW MP fans like it very much.

Like you I think the AI is crap in tactics so I wouldn't waste my time on the AI, but the strategy AI is not bad considering that the campaign map is more complex for it.

But like others say, you can try RTR mods the AI is much a little better because of the darth formation I think, and you will hate want to fight horse archers army in that game.

Enjoy.

[Viking]

Well i dont agree that the AI in mtw or vi is better than STW,
In MTW and RTW. if you use a catapult to attack the opponents,
80% of the time they moove More men to the area your decimating to strengthen their lines,
Only so they get decimated 2.
(thats MTW and RTW ai for you)

I don`t recognise that AI, not in RTW at least. The AI will either stay out of rang(if it`s outnumbered) or advance on you.

[KRALLODHRIB]

Just a girl,

I'm no fanboy and like to call a spade a spade when I see 'em. And while this game may have its flaws, considering the level of intelligence required of players in most other games out there, I believe that your criticisms are a bit harsh (I'm not quite sure how many times I've reiterated this observation to players).

RTW provides initiates to Roman history two crucial lessons:

1st, in regards to the Empire itself and the overall strat map, that it was never homogenous and rarely at peace. Thus sustaining/governing an empire is really a quite complex thing, beyond the scope of any game to adequately capture, but RTW sure makes such ambitions enjoyable!

2nd, and most important to fans of the TW series, it schools players in the value of, with the tactical level screen, flanking and enevelopment.

The subtleties of RTW must be discovered with time. Certainly one must come to them in one's own time. And I wouldn't expect this to be everyone's cup o tea (especially those not used to being labelled armchair generals), but for those with a love of specific Roman tactics, the details of military history, the units and weaponry, and the incredible battles, this is their cup o tea.