Rome II

[mikeck]

Developers apologize.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/10/et-tu-ca-rome-ii-devs-apologize-for-issues/#more-168118

Well, they apologized that some people were having issues. They didnt apologize for the game. In fact, they point out that only 2% are having problems...which is hilarious because there is no way to know that! Basically, they said "he, sorry if you are having trouble...big we wil get right on that". Not a lot of help for people having major issues.

Geek, I am using Yarkis' personal combat mod. Keeping an eye of Radious combat mod though. I think Radious AI mod and building mod is a must. Unfortunately that we have to use mods but they really help the manage things
.

[undercovergeek]

i think it comes with the territory Mikeck - not a problem for me

i think the 2% refers to the proportion of people whove bought it and brought it to CA's attention

[PanzersEast]

So... has anyone created a mod that removes the random hold the Banner location?  That was a pretty stupid idea on CAs part.


PE

[MengJiao]

Angry Joe is hilarious. I watched his earlier review of the game last week. But I haven't seen some key behavior, like enemy troops charging up to the last second and then disengaging, that he shows. Yet. Same way that in Nefaro's game AI factions are falling apart from bad morale but in my current game they are thriving. Hard to know what to make of stuff like that.

Mikeck I am not using any mods yet.

  Near as I can tell, when the AI is under threat or seeking to expand or building up its armies it tends to go a bit too far.  If it wins or holds ground as expected, then it supports its armies okay, but if things go wrong, very often you see the skulls popping up.  Usually it is pretty clear what the problem is (they have lost a province or two for example).

[Gusington]

Last night I had a weird bug where those skulls popped up on the campaign map over...nothing. Anyone see that on their machines?

For the mods, do the Radious ones require a new game start?

[MengJiao]

Last night I had a weird bug where those skulls popped up on the campaign map over...nothing. Anyone see that on their machines?

   I saw one that floated up after I sank some skirmishers at sea and another rise from a fog bank off Crete.

   Which reminds me, nobody seems to have anything bad to say (wait there were some boats that didn't unload properly) about the sea fights.  I think they are pretty good myself.

[Nefaro]

   Which reminds me, nobody seems to have anything bad to say (wait there were some boats that didn't unload properly) about the sea fights.  I think they are pretty good myself.

I experienced the same ram/board button mayhem as mentioned in the first Angry Joe preview.  It was definitely frustrating because I have to keep clicking it all the time.  I stopped playing naval battles and just auto-resolve those so I don't have to fight with it.  Also with the occasional crew refusing to board even though I had worked the bugged UI to supposedly order it.  Pretty much gave up on manually fighting naval battles, but no big loss there as I'm not all that interested in them anyway.


Just started a new campaign with the Yarkis Combat Mod, and a couple of the Radious mods to hopefully help out the AI.  We'll see if it improves the long game any.

[MengJiao]

   Which reminds me, nobody seems to have anything bad to say (wait there were some boats that didn't unload properly) about the sea fights.  I think they are pretty good myself.

I experienced the same ram/board button mayhem as mentioned in the first Angry Joe preview.  It was definitely frustrating because I have to keep clicking it all the time. 

  I didn't see the Angry joe thing.  I assumed that ships switched off the ram priority when they were otherwise engaged or had no valid ramming targets or possibly they had damaged rams or the oarsmen were fighting fires or something.  I've generally been able to ram when ramming made sense.  The sea fights may be tricker than I thought at first.  There are all kinds of attack options and such that I haven't tried and the variety of ships is pretty incredible.

[mikeck]

Last night I had a weird bug where those skulls popped up on the campaign map over...nothing. Anyone see that on their machines?

For the mods, do the Radious ones require a new game start?

No, you do not need a new start

[Gusington]

^Awesome...I'm not quite ready to mod yet though...

[mikeck]

You can drop in one of the several battle mods Gus. They don't change anything accept unit speed, kill rate and formations

[Nefaro]

You can drop in one of the several battle mods Gus. They don't change anything accept unit speed, kill rate and formations

I believe at least one also changes morale, doesn't it?

[mikeck]

I just had my first huge battle. 2400 vs 2400. My legio Appolonus (2nd legion) vs bracea barbarians. My legions are all set up the same (like a good roman). I have a general, 1 "1st cohort", 10 legionary cohorts (for a total of 11 but I always attach a veteran cohort to the "first cohort" in a group to simulate the traditional double-sized 1st cohort), 1 war dog unit, 3 cavalry units, 2 siege weapons and 2 velites. 

The enemy army had 20 units as well. 12 spearman (heavy and light 50-50), 3 bow cavalry, 1 light cavalry, 1 general and 3 foot bow units. A decent mix for a mid game barbarian army actually.

I had force marched to a location in a valley hoping to ambush. I was attacked by the enemy next turn which put me at a big disadvantage. When you end in a force march, you suffer fatigue and morale penalties. So I was defending and there was one victory location on a small hill, to my right the hill dropped into a saddle rising up to a higher hill. I placed my artillery, one legion, one velite and one cavalry unit here for defilade fire. The rest of my legion formed up in a line with 3 legions in reserve. Cav on left flank.

The enemy approached me quickly in formation with light spear guys in front, then heavy spear, then bows. They stopped short of my line and then stated chucking javelins into my formation while the bows fired flaming arrows at me. I orders my line to move straight at the double time...they did and began to melee. Meanwhile, I swung my cavalry out and tried to hit the bow cavalry.

Battle lasted 20 minutes start to finish. The melee part lasted about 6-8 minutes until the enemy started to break. I sent the reserve legions around to hit the enemy flanks. By this time there was fighting everywhere and I couldn't tell what was going on. Pisses me off you can't move the camera or issue orders while paused (I play
Battle realism mode so none of that).

Anyway, it was a close run thing. I took about 35% casualties and the enemy about 70% once I finished running them down.

All in all it was a good fight. The enemy at was a decent full stack mix, it attacked me, in the tactical battle it formed up and attacked and did what it should have really. Now this is one battle and maybe it goes nuts next time...but I just didn't see this hysterical Ai than"angry Joe" goes on about. They did come rushing at me once they got close and that seems to happen every battle. But if my worst complaint is that the enemy barbarians are charging my lines, I'm ok

I would like to see the tactical AI be a little more patient and not just charge though

Good fun

[mikeck]

You can drop in one of the several battle mods Gus. They don't change anything accept unit speed, kill rate and formations

I believe at least one also changes morale, doesn't it?

I think Radious' original did before he knew how to adjust kill rates. I use Yarkis' and I don't believe his does...there are several

[jomni]

Nice story mik. Is your wonderful battle a result of mods?