Rome II

[tgb]

^It's actually kind of cool.  You feel like you're standing in the middle of a mob of sword armed soldiers viewing the carnage first hand.  But I read somewhere that you can actually influence the unit selected in this view and was wondering if anyone has done it.  I need to double check menu/options/controls/in battle controls again to see if any commands are mapped to the keyboard during this view.

I did it accidentally.  In the lower left corner it says something like "press spacebar to assume control".  I assumed it meant the camera, so I did and started panning with the mouse.  Next thing I knew I had ordered my army all over the place.

[MengJiao]

^It's actually kind of cool.  You feel like you're standing in the middle of a mob of sword armed soldiers viewing the carnage first hand.  But I read somewhere that you can actually influence the unit selected in this view and was wondering if anyone has done it.  I need to double check menu/options/controls/in battle controls again to see if any commands are mapped to the keyboard during this view.

  Yep, you hit the space bar as directed and you can direct the unit via the usual "Where are you in the future?" yellow broken circle cursor thing.  I usually pick a unit that is in a nice charge situation, put them on full charge and then jump in to watch the Celtic Slingers pop up in the air as the Socii Extraordinarii crash into them.  I still haven't check to see who is wavering since -- yes -- I'm too busy getting cinematic with the Socii Extraordinarii.

[Gusington]

There was a 1st person control option in Fall of the Samurai too wasn't there? I never remember to use it. Still haven't used the cinematic view either...I would probably love both if I could only remember :/

[MengJiao]

There was a 1st person control option in Fall of the Samurai too wasn't there? I never remember to use it. Still haven't used the cinematic view either...I would probably love both if I could only remember :/

Yep.  It was especially effective on torpedo boats.

[Gusington]

I always wanted to use it while controlling a Gatling gun...have to remember next time. Does using the first person feature tax system resources at all?

[Sir Slash]

I used to use it in FOTS to aim the cannons where I wanted them to hit and watch the shell travel at the terrified faces of the poor enemy slobs. But you can lose a battle easily while watching all the fun.

[Martok]

So performance issues aside, what's the verdict on Patch 3 so far?  I've had my finger over the "Play" button for the last couple days now...

Bump. 

Anyone? 

[Gusington]

Snip from previous page:

For me Patch 2 really optimized everything graphically very well, the Patch 3 came along and poo pooed in my graphics cocoa puffs. But with some tweaking Patch 3's weirdness can be overcome.

[MengJiao]

So performance issues aside, what's the verdict on Patch 3 so far?  I've had my finger over the "Play" button for the last couple days now...

Bump. 

Anyone?

  I don't know what patch I'm on because I let all the beta-patches go in so I'm always in developmental Rome II.  Whatever the current patch in development is, I have to say, it's working well for the Romans.  Why Just last night I attacked a pretty huge barbarian army in some mountaneous forests.  Just to keep things straight, I put my leader with the cavalry, sent the Velites in a skirmish line into the woods and lined up the hastarii and Italian Spearmen.  As luck would have it, the barbarians moved diagonally across my front to turn me from uphill.  I went after the tail of their march with all my cavalry and started rolling them up from the opposite direction.  It was a close fight until my hastarii came up and the Italian Spearmen hit their noble horse.  I had to pull back and readjust things a few times and in the forest, cinematic view was more revealing than tactical view.  I actually went cinematic scouting with the Tarantine Horse to figure out what was what in the center of their forces.  Fortunately I discovered the Hastarii had punched right through the barbarian line while I wasn't looking and I was able to exploit my scouting trip by using the Hastarii to exploit and clean up the barbarian speamen that were holding things up and making life hard for the cavalry.

Which reminds me -- some of those seiges of barbarian towns are pretty cool visually as well.

[Gusington]

^If you're subscribed to the betas you're on Patch 4, which contains a lot of goodies.

[MengJiao]

^If you're subscribed to the betas you're on Patch 4, which contains a lot of goodies.

  The AI has seemed more aggressive and downright sneaky, but maybe that's the way those barbarians are.  In the prolonged aftemath of  obliterating megatons of slave slingers in the scrub of Illyria, a few sneaky Celtic types in a real forest may seem to pursue lots of illusory strategies even in Patch 4 where things are more wonderful than ever as long as you scout and skirmish properly.

[Nefaro]

Snip from previous page:

For me Patch 2 really optimized everything graphically very well, the Patch 3 came along and poo pooed in my graphics cocoa puffs. But with some tweaking Patch 3's weirdness can be overcome.

My experience has been the opposite regarding performance.  ???

[Gusington]

Multiply that by 1 million and that's the current state of optimization.

[JudgeDredd]

mmm...so they made taxes tribe wide as opposed to region wide? What's the consensus on this? I haven't played enough of this to get a hold of whether it's a positive or not, but my initial reaction is "eugh"...I mean - not all regions are the same.

Interested in anyone's thoughts who have played a lot.

I think it was the same in Shogun 2 - and I didn't like it there. It was really difficult to keep public order under control and get enough money for armies and infrastructure.

[Gusington]

It took me about 15 hours to master food production/taxes/morale but once I got it I liked it...it feels more robust and real than past TW games.