Re: Encyclopedia pictures?
I just hit the 75 hour mark last night in terms of time played, so I feel like I can give this game a fair shake. My sentiments about Rome 2 have changed a lot in the past week. The honeymoon phase of loving the game, when it's unpacking and you're as giddy as a little school girl... It gets stomped out when you have that first round of bugs, and crashes. Kinda like when David Goyer shreds one of your childhood heroes. I wrote earlier in this thread "Good not great", and that is still generally my feeling. It's not the best Total War game I've ever played, but it's most certainly not the worst or even second worst.
That being said I really dig this game, a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as everyone else that tear it apart with such hostility and bile. I get bugs sure, like: Antioch fully upgraded is a siege nightmare for the computer. AI bull rushing for the capture point, defeated armies with only a handful of units suiciding into full stacks, lag, fps drops... There's a really weird thing where when I start the game in windowed mode I have to always select the proper resolution, I guess Rome 2 isn't dual monitor friendly?But none of the Total War games are. Stuff like the navy just sitting around not doing anything or ignoring orders. During a siege the troops won't throw their fire sticks at my gate, sometimes the sticks go through the gate causing 0 damage. Sieges not happening because siege weaponry won't fire (this happened in Rome 1. Yay for continuity). During large sieges on capitals the game always crashes when reinforcements enter for the enemy. It might sound a little overwhelming, but its not all happening at the same time. One of these things might happen ever 3-5 turns.
I'm not apologizing for it. I'm not a CA apologist. These are things that absolutely shouldn't be in the game, and if they are you should run into it maybe once or twice every 100 turns, bugs happen. The marketing department, whoever's fault it was clearly misled consumers about Rome 2. Look at the Teutoburg Forest playthrough and then run the benchmark OR play the battle in game. There is a night and day difference in terms of visual appeal. These are things that are inexcusable in the eyes of a consumer. That may have not been their intention, but more or less CA/Sega played that card. Speaking of that playthrough, whens the next Rally Point? You want to make an apology to fans Mikey boy, that's the perfect avenue. The avenue that put out videos almost once a month for the past year exclaiming about the wondrous things that Rome 2 would have, but fail to deliver on launch day.
All that said, I'm really invested in the current campaign I have going. That's where 90% of those 75 hours are made up of. I love the way they reworked the talent tree system. In Shogun / FotS there were blatantly obvious talents that you wouldn't take if your life depended on it.It was cookie cutter every single time. How many people do you know that went down the right side of the General's talent tree in Shogun? You didn't because Generals where one if not your most valuable resource. If I'm recruiting a General in Rome 2, and I see he gives bonuses to something like Taxes or Public order then I can recruit him as a Governor and specialize in public order, and siege defense. If I have an army in the north that needs good reinforcements then I can spec a General for mercenary bonuses. People were originally upset that Generals would die too quickly, but having played a good bit I don't mind it.They level up quickly and my needs for a particular army change every 30 or so turns. Agents are great as well for most of the same reasons, they are a jack of all trades. Take the Champion for example; you can deploy him in your province to boost public order, throw him in an army to boost experience, morale, or replenishment rate, or throw him in an enemy territory, and have him make money or incite slave revolts among other things.
I also really love the expanded economy from Shogun. It's really a juggling act of balancing taxed income versus public order versus food. In Shogun it was set it and forget it cookie cutter builds. In the 155 turns I've played I've restructured my empire three times, and every single time brought with it its own challenges. Having unit replenishment tied into food, and then food being an inhibitor for what you can and can't build was a fantastic design choice. I've seen people talk about how much a throwaway the economy is in Rome 2, and to that I say where is your economic victory? I have a pretty firm grasp of the economics in this game, and the most I can squeeze without a ton of food / order disarray is around 20-25k talents a turn. That 80k mark seems unfathomable to me at the moment. Point being when you're going for a military victory or a cultural victory the economy is supposed to be secondary or tertiary. Your focus is meant to be taken away from economy.
Even though I'm loving this game there are a ton of things I wish were more fleshed out. I really don't care about politics in this game. There is nothing really steering me towards them, and I feel no connection to the people on that screen. And that's not because they die too fast or some other excuse, it's because they pop up out of nowhere, and every now and then you'll get a random event message about them; and I'm like," Errr, okay I guess you want to adopt someone or something ...? " A family tree or something desperately needs to make a comeback. I will be an apologist for multiplayer. For the past 2 years that Shogun has been out people have constantly cried about the complexity and fairness of the Avatar / Veteran system. It seemed at least to me the vocal majority wanted to go back to the simpleness of custom games that Rome 1 had. Well they did that, but I'm not really surprised those same people that wanted less now want more. I've personally never felt that way because I liked everything about the MP in Shogun 2. It was a game within a game. With Rome 2 though, it gives me the same mixed bag of feelings that I have with things like the political system. A system that's not fully fleshed out or hopefully, (but I honestly don't have a lot of hope)will eventually be implemented all the way.
I'm an avid streamer. Pretty much all of my 75 hours are recorded on Twitch. I've also spent a good bit of time watching other streamers play, and I realized my play style is very different from them. Perhaps that's why I have such a differing view of Rome 2 than most people. I like to play a little more passive, and lure out those field engagements.Those that say the AI is too passive; I streamed for 6 hours last night and only moved from turn 150 to turn 155. I'm constantly getting attacked by people I'm at war with, and not minor armies, but full stacks.When I started out the night, Egypt landed a full stack on the shores of Jerusalem trying to take it back. I sprung a civil war on like turn 152, and 12 stacks that were 1/2 -3/4 full marched out N,S,E,W towards each of my provinces and gave me all sorts of headaches last night (crushed them though, filthy rebel scum). At one point 4 stacks would hit Pergamon resulting in a 60-something minute siege. All the while Syracuse is sieging 3 of my towns in the west.
To wrap this up, I want to quote Reluctant Samurai where he made this point in another thread:I got this game because I love past Total Wars. The novelty of that wore off pretty quick when "Pre-Alpha" Teutoburg forest looked nothing like the "Finished" version. Reality comes sharply crashing down after that.The meat & potatoes of this game fall into the 80/20 rule for me. 80% of this game is fun, immersive and a rewarding experience. 20% as always is what should've happened or what could've happened (as with every game,ever). I don't know if I'll come around to liking this game as much as I like Shogun 2 or even Rome 1, but I'm excited for the future of this game. And that's not a sarcastic, " Oh you mean when the game is out of beta, herp derp ". I'm optimistic about future additions, and playing this game into the ground. Even if the bugs stayed, and there was never another patch , I'd probably still sink hundreds of hours into this game. I'm enjoying it that much.And yes, you may spend considerable time right now, playing the game....How much of your attraction to the game, at the moment, is simply novelty? how much is because of the 'meat & potatoes' of the game itself? how much time will you be spending 6 months from now? or a year?
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Originally Posted by Spoonska
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