Hey everyone, I have been a huge fan of the total war series for quite a while now and I was really looking forward to Rome II. After playing for 20 minutes I seemed to remember CA talking about Rome II having slightly higher system spec than Shogun 2. I can play shogun fine at high/ultra at 1080p, but not Rome II at low quality and resolution? Some say that Rome II isn't "optimized" My real question is how does game optimization work? and does CA deserve to be let off the hook again for releasing a game in what seems to be a beta state?
The creative design director even admitted it was unnaceptable, so should we forgive them no. Also the game is just no good. Considering the game was scheduled for release later on and then they just released it even though it wasn't complete, it really is unaceptable. To top it off alot of stuff got cut from the game (city management, governor/general systems, political systems (like the senate), religious systems, etc..etc..). I don't like it, it kicked me out of the tutorial for waiting for my army to replenish (after telling me not to worry about the financial deficit).
They have admitted that they don't beta test their games, but that they will beta test for future releases. I'm surprised that they do not beta test for such a complex game. It goes some way to explaining why every Total War game has had problems on release. Granted, Rome 2 has a greater share of problems.
I can't answer your question directly. All I know, all that I hear, is that coding for PC is a double edged sword. It is easy enough to do, in comparison to some old console hardware. However, it is hard when computer components are not uniform. Everybody uses different combinations of hardware.
Currently, it is luck of the draw, it seems. I can run the game fine on extreme, but with some performance dips. On the other hand, people with performance comparable to my own are struggling to run it. Same with some of the bugs, some people get them, others do not.
I would have to disagree with Jacobite. Much of the city management and other features still exist within the game, but much of the user interface is completely foreign. I will agree that they have changed much. Though, after a while, the new system is much better. People miss the family tree panel, but it wouldn't make sense in a game where you can endlessly assassinate members of your own family during internal political strife. Some people feel it is a step backwards, a "stripping down" of the game. I honestly disagree. It has paved a way for the game to be so much more. The new political system has much more user input than the previous Rome. The game just needs to be explored, and it is currently very easy for people to miss the new inclusions to the game. I happened to miss those things, initially. After spending more than 70 hours on the game, I have now gotten to grips with the new mechanics.
If you're having performance issues, download the 2.0 beta which is available on Steam. They are updating the game on a weekly basis. I would like to see the politics system become increasingly unstable on a higher game difficulty, and much of this will be addressed in the balance patches. At this time, some of the games new additions are not brought to the fore. Maybe a little more unit coercion, because they break up fairly easily in battle. Creative Assembly are promising a lot with the coming patches.
So, it does need quite a bit of polish. After they fix performance, I would dare to say this is the best Total War game to date. I've been playing since the original Shogun TW.
I admit I haven't played much of it yet, but from what I have played there is so much content compared to RTW,MTW2 that is just not there anymore including the city management(a couple of building slots doesnt compare with the variety of buildings in MTW2,RTW). I used to enjoy looking at my family members traits, you could identify with them because the traits would be personality traits (often based upon your actions). And your generals would get cool titles like 'the horribly scarred', 'the terrible', 'the builder' etc..etc..etc. It would be like a story. The AI seems even easier and the battles are a mess at the moment.
Also if you know how to change the denari limit in those custom battles.... If I cant change the denari limit in MP and they removed all the content from the SP then the game is pretty much useless to me and I may as well go back to RTW, MTW2.
My friend is very much the same way. He likes the family tree for "roleplay purposes" - as he put it. I think the family tree would be much more appropriate for Medieval 3, whenever that is released. Obviously, it would be important to have a line of succession. However, it wouldn't work in Rome 2. Thinking of the political systems that existed, it is important to have a continual character generation. So after a while, it does make a lot of sense.
The building queue, though I enjoyed it in previous games, was extremely inefficient. I must have played 5 new campaigns in Rome 2 before I could work out how to control squalor in my settlements.
I promise you, when you explore the game, it has got a lot of depth to it.
The politics system, in the previous Rome, you just had those two popularity meters between the senate and the people. There was no real input. The new system, if one of your generals wins too many battles, gains fame and popularity, he can be a political rival. It creates barriers, it creates trade-offs and choices. Your own generals can try to sieze power from your ruling family. That is incredible! However, it needs to be balanced. It's not in your face, it doesn't get increasingly difficult on a legendary campaign.
The ingredients are there, so to speak. But I have to say, it is 100% over Shogun 2. I mean, I would have uniform armies, generals with the same skill tree. There's much more diversity in this latest addition. Having armies that specialise, versus choosing all the best general traits. I mean, I genuinely think the older TW political systems, and general upgrades are boring by comparison.
It is very easy to miss. As I said, I played for 70 hours before I understood much of this game. I couldn't work out what buildings did what. You have to build the familiarity with each and every faction tech tree. They can improve it, they should improve it. I don't want to spend lots of time in the encyclopaedia working it all out. So I do share some frustrations, but it just requires some balancing. It really is a promising game.
The AI needs to be difficult. That includes the aforementioned politics system. Then it should all come to light.
One thing that I do hate is that Carthage looks crap in the campaign, and it looks brilliant in the historical battle. I kinda want that answering. Does the city need to be fully upgraded before we see that trademark harbour? I'm not even sure.
I know that you can change the denarii limit. I am pretty sure I have done it in a custom battle.
You simply double click the numeric value and change it.
e.g 10000 denarii << double click that until the cursor appears. | <<
I can run Shogun II at High/Ultra setting at a consistent frame rate. But I can barely attain 10 fps at "Low" presets in Rome II. You're not alone.
I find it hard to believe people still think it's ok to release software in such a state in this day and age.
True. But you can go and download the beta patch now which fixes much of the performance.
Hopefully they won't do it again.
For everything else, there are mods.
Well, at least there's still Europa Barbarorum 2. That's the real Rome 2 for me. (when it gets released)
I have already tried the beta patch and I've found no improvement in performance, going by the user reports there's a 50/50 chance that the patch fixes the frame lag issues.
were can i find this patch?
Steam
Right click Rome 2
Click properties
Click beta
You will find it in the drop down.
As the name suggests, the beta patch is just an early release of the official patch. So the official patch will update your game automatically, but the beta is for those of us that cannot be bothered to wait. It also provides feedback if you participate in the TW forums. The next patch has 100+ "fixes".