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+--- Thread: Rome: Total War II (/showthread.php?tid=21010)
Rome: Total War II - Marcus F. - 04-13-2013
Quote:I don't think that you can say that Alamanni = Suebi. the Alamanni are referred to as enemies of the Roman empire from different times than the Sueves. When the latter enter Gaul and reach Spain, they are clearly smaller than and different from the Alamanni.Those Suebi, who went to the Iberian peninsula, were just another sub branch and not the Suebi in their entirety. Just because they migrated there doesn't mean that other people, who also saw themselves as Suebi, didn't stay in central Europe.
This is what I found:
"nam regio illa Suavorum ab oriente Baibaros habet, ab occidente Francos, a
meridie Burgundzones, a septentrione Thuringos quibus Suavis tunc iuncti
aderant etiam Alamanni" (Iordanis, De origine actibusque Getarum, 55, 551)
and
"hos secuti suebi, id est alemanni, Gallitiam adpraehendunt" (Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 2,2)
So it seems that since this era (around 15 centuries ago), the Suebi were the dominant element in SW-Germany and merged with the Alamanni.
Quote:In modern Germany, 'Schwäbisch' is a dialect related to 'Alamännisch'. Both belong to 'Westoberdeutsch'.I know that. My impression is that over the centuries, people in Baden, Switzerland, Alsace, Allgäu and Vorarlberg forgot that their ancestors also used to identify themselves with the name Suebi/Schwaben. I had a coworker from Baden, who didn't want to hear anything like that.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alemannic-Dialects-Map-German.png
Rome: Total War II - Vinicius - 04-23-2013
good morning, my great roman friends! i come today to bring something to cheer up your day! well, the video speaks better than myself, enjoy
btw, what's your opinion on the unit cards?Code:
http://au.gamespot.com/total-war-rome-ii/videos/total-war-rome-ii-the-battle-of-teutoburg-forest-trailer-6404632/?contsessid=5e936fb54ecd5682ff3985895be0fe86&prevBounce=6407363Rome: Total War II - Flavivs Aetivs - 04-23-2013
ill check it out when I get home, then I will criticize.
Rome: Total War II - Agricola - 06-03-2013
Here's Rome 2 Cover artwork. The Greek factions of Athens, Sparta and Epirus has also been added.
![[Image: 51EiPxlzNIL._SY300_.jpg]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EiPxlzNIL._SY300_.jpg)
Rome: Total War II - Flavivs Aetivs - 06-03-2013
I hope someone releases a mod so you can play as any faction. Seleucids, Frisians, and Epirus are all on my list.
Rome: Total War II - Diocle - 06-03-2013
The last news about the work by CA are despairing....I'll buy the game, but without any hope about historical correctness & accuracy!
Mafia families instead of true republican politics, one turn for year (what idiotic choice!), an idiotic amount of sieges, '0' historical accuracy....as to say: A Fantasy game about Rome for 13 years old players!
Well the best RTS engine ever, used again to build a chilish game! Compliments!
mile:
Rome: Total War II - Titvs Statilivs Castvs - 06-03-2013
It's a game after all. It has to look good, have good gameplay, and most of all sell as good as possible. I don't mind the inaccuracy. If you dismiss every movie/book/game/... because it's not 100% (or even 50% or less) accurate, then you miss out a lot of fun. :wink: One should appreciate these things for what they are (a good story, a good game, ...) and not for want one wants it to be (e.g. a copy of a highly complex world that's impossible to translate into decent gameplay). I've always enjoyed RTW, regardless of the historical inaccuracy.
For the real business, we've got reenactment after all. :grin: 8)
Rome: Total War II - Valerian Pertinax - 06-03-2013
One game year per turn? Unless an army get a heckuva lot more movement per turn, that really bums me out. I'm happy I resisted the temptation to preorder the Fanboy Trinkets Edition.
Rome: Total War II - Diocle - 06-03-2013
For real business wargaming is the way! (wargaming is my secret love so...).
Reenacting is a good way to test weapons and armors, but to understand in which way a battle of thousands of men was actually working you need tactical and strategical rules and mechanics based on history and a good amount of mathematics, this is called: wargaming! (the Prussian Generals created the first wargame rules and the idea was seriuos and very useful!!!)
I never played RTW without Mods!
But what I want to say is that the engine of TW games is the best real time strategy engine ever, they might do whatever they want with such an engine, the historical accuracy adds fun, and the engine of TW series could do whatever they want! ....instead what do they do? Childish games!
Well! I'll buy their childish game ( €!!!!), but....this will be the last time! probably it's just a melancholic declaration of love for the old RTW and the old good times, before the big companies like SEGA destroied all the beauty in PC Gaming......
MALA TEMPORA CURRUNT!
Rome: Total War II - Barkhorn1x - 06-14-2013
New trailer for E3. The campaign map does look nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zQIFpmdPDc&feature=player_embedded
Here is more info.:
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/t...4/preview.html
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/t...3/preview.html
Rome: Total War II - Domen - 06-24-2013
Gameplay videos from some battles:
Teutoburg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcN_iwm1Ym8
Carthage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo4sEzdxgCk
Nile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdgfXCpWbWE
Rome: Total War II - Domen - 06-24-2013
Some gameplay videos from battles:
Teutoburg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcN_iwm1Ym8
Carthage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdgfXCpWbWE
Nile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdgfXCpWbWE
Rome: Total War II - Narukami - 08-24-2013
Interesting interview with two of the game designers (posted on Face Book by Pass the Garum) about the use of history in designing the game -- striving for authenticity rather than strict accuracy.
http://www.pcgamesn.com/totalwar/placing-authenticity-over-accuracy-total-war-rome-ii
[Placing authenticity over accuracy in Total War: Rome II
23 August 2013 • 1 days ago • Story by Fraser Brown Comment
Playing Total War: Rome II as a classicist is a wee bit like watching the latest Marvel or DC cinematic adaptation as a comic book aficionado. It might be delightful to see something you’re mildly obsessed with transposed to another medium, but god forbid artistic license be employed.
In between stamping out the Samnite threat in Rome II’s prologue, I sat down with Creative Assembly studio director Michael Simpson and communications manager Al Bickham to chat about striking a balance between historical accuracy and entertainment.
“Authenticity is probably a better word than accuracy, and that’s what we aim for,” Bickham tells me. It’s an important distinction. So much of the study of history is focused on cataloguing the mundane minutiae from the lives of now long-dead folk, and these countless little facts don’t necessarily translate very well to a medium more interested in entertainment. Worse, they could bog a title down in needless detail. “Fun wins out over strict, dogmatic adherence to the history books,” he clarifies.
Instead, Creative Assembly is concerned with creating an authentic sense of place with a realistic approximation of the classical setting. What one would expect from the period is still there: slaves can be gathered from conquered regions, players must juggle the needs of the plebs with the demands of the Senate and factions correspond to their historical nations.
“Factions were known for certain cultural traits,” Bickham says. “So, we try and work those in to have a gameplay effect. A certain culture has a certain personality. +2 to your melee ability because you’re simply a very martial nation… talking on a very basic level.” But liberties have been taken with those powers which don’t have an easily identifiable or definable trait. For the sake of game balance, they have been given one, even if it’s not an obvious choice.
Beyond statistical bonuses, these factions all come with their own flavour, from inconsequential details like the garb of their military units to full-fledged features like Patrician politics. Here we see history win out over things like game balance, as “[a]ll factions are not created equal in Rome II,” according to Bickham.
Rome, for example, has three families competing for influence, distinct political entities within the Republic/Empire, and advanced technologies that other civilisations don’t initially have access to. Playing as the Iceni, a tribe located in distant Britannia, will be a very different experience from playing the titans of Carthage and Rome.
Maintaining the sense of a historical setting sees the return of historical events, Bickham tells me. “New objectives will pop up, and some of those will mirror history, so you follow those, and you’ll start playing some historical story arcs.”
One of the major events in the original Rome was the rise of the Marian Reforms. In the days of the Roman Republic, Gaius Marius instituted a series of reforms centred around the Roman military, allowing landless citizens to become professional soldiers, getting the state pay for their equipment; reorganising the legions, making them more mobile; and creating a standing army. Rome II will have a similar event, Bickham reveals. “We do have a kind of Marian Reform system, and you get past that point and your legions look different, they work differently and they’ve got better gear.”
“In terms of playing the game, it’s kind of a sandbox experience - Total War - anyway,” Bickham reminds me. “So it very quickly becomes counterfactual and there are times when accuracy is going to fight the gameplay, and gameplay wins, because it’s a game.” The moment players begin a game of Rome II, they are immediately leaving the confines of history simply because they are in control.
This means we won’t be seeing Julius Caesar rising through the ranks, joining the First Triumvirate or taking command of Rome. “While you can have a general who is your Caesar, he won’t be the Caesar. We give you a start point, and you diverge from that,” Michael Simpson explains. Players can have a general who acts very much like Caesar, even leading to the formation of an empire, Roman or otherwise, but he won’t be the historical figure.
The sandbox allows players to live out their “what if?” historical fantasies. What if the Iceni ended up in the Near East and raised an army of war elephants? What if Carthage emerged victorious from the Punic Wars? What if the Roman Republic persisted, never exploding in civil war, never becoming an empire? Rewriting history is full of fascinating possibilities.
Making players feel like they have choices appears to be key. If one chooses to play as Rome, for example, they aren’t locked into leaving the era of the Republic, forming the Roman Empire. “You can choose to be a good Republican and carry on,” Simpson says. There will be factors that might push a player towards changing the nature of the faction, but by managing the power levels of all the political entities within it, a republic can continue.
This freedom also potentially restores some of the balance that the historical setting precludes. Any playable barbarian tribe can, through diplomacy and conquest, create a confederation, essentially giving rise to a barbarian empire that can compete with the mighty powers of the Mediterranean. Likewise, technologically inferior factions can gain access to new units and tech by conquering settlements belonging to advanced powers. A barbarian tribe can start churning out triremes instead of their slow, oak beamed vessels if they manage to make their way down to the Mediterranean coast, for instance.
The truth is that not a lot of people would know if Creative Assembly was playing fast and loose with history, anyway. The fictional version of Rome and antiquity that Hollywood has created is one of white marble, and clashes between cultures are boiled down to tropes like noble savages fighting evil empires, and that fiction has become so pervasive that it’s seen as factual by many.
It felt appropriate that we were chatting on the set of HBO’s Rome, filled with gaudy colours and graffiti, because for all the show’s liberties, it felt authentic, just as Rome II strives to be. The costumes, sense of place and slew of historical references made the show seem believable, even when it devolved into fiction and TV drama. Similarly, Rome II presents a realistic facsimile of antiquity, with colourful cities, appropriately attired legions and the political concerns of the period demanding a player’s attention alongside military ones, but it allows players to carve their own path through history, crafting their own stories instead of following the history books.
:wink:
Narukami
Rome: Total War II - Robert Vermaat - 08-26-2013
So essentially nothing changed? Graphics are lovely of course, I like the new battlefields very much. But the ground rules are hardly changed. And when I see the battle of Teutoburg Forest, it's exactly like the old version (and still totally unlike Kalkriese).
Rome: Total War II - Flavivs Aetivs - 08-26-2013
They're claiming it will be "Even more moddable than Shogun 2 as our most moddable game yet."
I call Bullshit. Shogun 2 was barely moddable. Don't look forward to any historical accuracy mods Robert.