Confirming some basic features for Rome 2

**Patronus86** · October 22, 2023, 01:14 PM

Hello All,

Long-time Total War Player (Rome I, Medieval II, Empire, Napoleon). I've just recently gotten into the newer titles (Warhammer I/II, Rome 2) after a bit of a hiatus from the series and I've noticed quite a jump in gameplay mechanics and gameplay features from the OG titles of the series. I am hoping to get some Rome II questions/assumptions verified by the larger Rome II community:

Agents - all capped at level 10? I assume the reason behind this was to force the player to specialize each character? I had started off my early campaigns trying to go after all the juicy-looking skill sets/perks, but I'm now realizing that is not a viable strategy. It seems like agents have enough progression to specialize in 1 of 3 areas: 1) enhancing army stats, 2) degrading enemy agents & provinces , or 3) enhancing friendly province. Does this seem accurate?
Generals - same cap as for agents, and also seems like you need to specialize them. I don't really see any obvious perk categories for generals, other than the obvious (admiral vs general).
Missions - There is an interesting mix of tactical and strategic mission sets, but I have same major complaints with the design behind it. Firstly, I cannot zoom to targeted army in a "kill army/fleet" mission - the original mission pop-up screen allows you to zoom to the targeted army/fleet, but after the mission goes to your active mission tab, there is no way to find that army/fleet. Was this an oversight by CA or an intentional gameplay feature? It also seems that you can miss out on a lot of the strategic missions if you complete overall strategic objective - you basically, have to hold-off on acquiring the required territory in order to give yourself time to accomplish the side objectives. Again, seems like an oversight to me, but maybe this was intentional?
Settlements - some nice additions over earlier titles (dynamically growing cities, interesting building perks). However, there are some major (and unnecessary) constraints. 1) not all cities can be walled-up (which is historically inaccurate and makes defense of strategic settlements next to impossible). 2) the limited building slots basically forces you to specialize and compromise on each city/settlement (whereas you could build basically whatever and however much you wanted in the older titles). 3) it doesn't seem like you can build up trade routes between individual cities/settlements. I understand that maritime and local commerce can be promoted (with regional buffs and buildings), but you only actually see trade routes and import/export trade value from trade with outside nations - again, not historically accurate, and it also penalizes you for killing of potential trade partners through expansion. The reality is that if you build up a network of Mediterranean coastal cities, you should have a thriving trade network - that is not the end-state from conquering those regions in-game. Not much of a question here, but more an observation, that I'm sure the rest of the community is aware of.
Political Intrigue & Activities - I've begun to understand some of the nuances of building political influence and managing rival factions, but a lot of the political mission/feature buttons are not well explained. For example, if you send a character (party member or from another faction) to conduct a diplomatic mission with another faction, 1) you don't see the tangible benefit of a successful mission and 2) the game doesn't quantify the penalty if you fail (morale or tech penalty). The whole system doesn't seem to well-explained nor is it fully fleshed out.
In-game browser and guide - Does the game provide anyway to view a building browser or skill tree browser. I know that you can view the optional building tree for a specific category of buildings, but how do you view the entire list of optional buildings for a settlement? Same question for agent/general skill trees - it seems that you can only view them when an upgrade is available. The older titles allowed you to explore all the optional buildings for a settlement in-game.
Unit buttons - Is there a use for "formation attack?" Unlike some other unit capabilities, the game provides next to zero explanation of buffs/nerfs that are related to this capability.
Capture zones - they make sense for the settlements, but I've noticed instances where a single enemy unit charges into a victory/capture point which is held by multiple friendly units and my army begins to lose control the point - why is that happening? I would think the weight of numbers would decide who "controls" a point or location.
Food levels - interesting mechanic, but not very well explained. I understand that certain buildings consume food. Is there anything else that consumes food at the global level (like armies, agents or fleets)? The reason I ask, is that I had a fairly mature campaign where I had at least 40-50 food and, within 3-4 turns, my food levels plummeted into the negative and some of my armies began to starve. Other than noting the food requirements for buildings, the game does not provide any context on how your food surplus is getting consumed/used. For a feature that is so centrally important to this game, you would think there would be a centralized screen detailing all of your food production and consumption so that you can make informed decisions on how to manage your supply.
The User Interface - The UI is simply not good, and I certainly favor the older titles in this regard. In the older titles, you maybe had to delve through 1-2 levels of screens and pop-up's to get all the information which you might need (building info, trade, settlement public order, ect.). With Rome 2, the interface is just not as intuitive, as I find myself scrolling through multiple screens or cursor pop-up's to get very basic information. Nor is the location of some information very logical. You go to the strategic map overview to find a province's available trade resources, but that info is nowhere to be found on the economic or settlement tabs. This makes very little sense to me.
Additional question/comment (edited) - Gifting settlements - Apparently, the game doesn't allow the player to hand settlements over to AI nations? Not sure why this was taken out of the game, but it seems to be a serious omission in a campaign setting where the player is enabled to create client/buffer states.
Additional question/comment (edited) - Diplomatic relations - I'll acknowledge that Rome 2's diplomacy is leagues ahead of its predecessors, but I don't see why the dev team left out obvious features. You can create a client kingdom, but you have zero ability to influence that kingdom's military actions and wars. I also don't see any way to appease nations through regular gifting; the game allows you to gift money, but the amounts are preset (and the gifting amounts get quite insane as your treasury builds up). Gifting aside, is there any other way to keep up good relations with your neighbors? The diplomatic intrigue mission for characters seems to be hit or miss with its results.

All in all, I do like Rome 2 a lot, despite some flaws & complaints. The gameplay is very fun and immersive and I can see myself getting into some mods (DEI) as I become more familiar with the core gameplay mechanics. However, the gameplay mechanics are somewhat difficult to grasp and the CA dev team seemed to put little to no effort into explaining and showcasing how it all works.

**Alwyn** · October 29, 2023, 02:27 AM

Agents - yes they have a level cap and yes, I think the idea is that they're specialised.

Generals - you can specialise them, but it depends on what you need and it might also depend on the cultural group that your faction belongs to. If you're playing a Celtic faction with sturdy Oathsworn generals, buffing the stats of your commander's unit might be more useful than if your general is squishy and needs to stay out of the fighting.

Missions - I wouldn't wait to get all of the side objectives before completing a main objective. Generally I simply expand in the way that makes sense to me, and if that fulfills a mission, that's a nice bonus.

Settlements - yes, I'm aware of this. This is where playing as different cultures, and with different starting locations, makes a significant difference. When I play as a Hellenic faction with a Mediterranean sea port, usually it's possible to build a good trade network quickly. In my current campaign as Baktria, trade really took off after I got a Black Sea trading port. While it's true that killing off potential trade partners through expansion hurts your income, you can make a lot of money in the late game by specialising provinces and (when your agricultural research and upgrades allow this) upgrading economic buildings to the higher levels.

Political intrigues - as I see it, the main point of a diplomatic mission is not the small bonus or penalty you get - it's the increase in loyalty, for the party of the rival party member I sent on the mission. Welsh Dragon and I wrote a two-part guide to politics and the family tree - you might find part 1 and part 2 helpful, and there's a page on the TWC Wiki.

In-game browser - if I want to see the building tree for a faction, I generally use the Royal Military Academy. The same applies for agent/general skill trees, although as you said, we can see them when we level up characters (which is generally the only time I need to see them).

Unit buttons - I don't generally use the formation attack button. Maximus Decimus Meridius posted on YouTube some experiments he did with units, to test the mechanics, so you might want to check out his channel - for example he posted a video where he tested formation attack (although that was on patch 7, which is a lot of patches ago).

Capture zones - I believe this is a fairly simply mechanic - if there are only units of one faction in the zone, they control it; if there are units of the faction which controls a zone and an enemy unit arrives, control becomes disputed.

Food levels - armies, fleets and your own agents don't reduce your food supply. (Enemy agents can reduce your food supply by deploying in your territory, but the effect is small and wouldn't be likely to explain the drop you saw). You mentioned that your faction suddenly plunged into a famine. Various things can cause this - such as losing a provinces which you relied on your food (in a rebellion, an enemy attack or a secession/civil war), upgrading lots of buildings at once. Players of earlier games tend to be used to upgrading all of their buildings to the highest level because there is no usually downside to upgrading in earlier games. In Rome II, it's usually better to be more selective until your agriculture research is well advanced - and to have some provinces specialising in farming and fishing. If you have a food crisis, there are ways to resolve this. Select each province, and you can see the food surplus or deficit - stop taxing the province and its food deficit will reduce to 0. Of course, you can also upgrade farms, convert other ports to fishing ports, do agricultural research, deploy spies in enemy territory (they steal food when deployed in another faction's territory), and - as a last resort - destroy food-consuming buildings.

User interface - I think it depends on what you're used to. When managing a large empire, I prefer clicking through 10 provinces (and seeing public order, food and income in each one at a glance) compared to clicking through about 30 regions individually. I like the map filters of Rome II as well - they provide a useful overview of where there are problems with public order, which provinces are under the influence of rival parties and (especially in the late game, if I'm fighting multiple wars) where the friendly and enemy armies are, across the known world. When a region has a trade resource such as glass, olive oil or leather, this is shown in the government building (apart from that, I don't generally need to look up a province's available trade resources).

Gifting settlements - that's right, it was removed (except for gifts of settlements after a critical success in a diplomatic mission). I generally don't miss it - particularly since regions belonging to client states and full military allies (not defensive allies) count as belonging to the player, in relation to the victory conditions. If you really want a settlement belonging to an ally or client state, you have two options: cancel your treaties with them and wait 10 turns before conquering them (this avoids damaging your diplomatic reputation), conquering them immediately (damaging your diplomatic reputation), or sending lots of diplomatic missions to them (occasionally a diplomatic mission results in a critical success and the other faction gifts you a settlement - but you don't get to choose which one.)

Diplomatic relations - yes, apart from giving them money, you can improve your relations with a faction by methods such as joining their wars and making treaties with their friends. Diplomatic relations are easier in the early campaign (as your Imperium rises, you'll get an increasing territorial expansion penalty). Yes, diplomacy can be awkward when you have client states - it is frustrating (at least for me) that when an enemy offers a peace treaty, I can't accept it on condition that they make peace with my client state(s) as well. If you're frustrated by not being able to control what client states do, you might want to play as an eastern faction. They create satrapies instead of client states - and playing as Baktria, for example - when I go to war or make peace, my satrapies do the same (their only alternative would be to declare war their overlord, to fight for their independence - which is what some satrapies of the Seleucid Empire about on the brink of doing at the start of the grand campaign).

**Patronus86** · November 04, 2023, 12:36 PM

Alwyn - thanks for the feedback! Very helpful indeed.

I acknowledge that you make solid points on most of the topic (i have a few dozen more hours of campaigns under my belt since my original post). However, I still see the UI as a major turn-off. I agree that it is nice how you can pull up side-windows and map overlays which display a wealth of information, but I still see a lack of cohesion and consistency in how and where that information is displayed. Example: sanitation and banditry (for Empire Divided) are displayed in two different locations of the UI, nor is it readily apparent which buildings/effects influence a particular region versus the entire province. I think the lack of an in-game building or skill-tree browser is a major hindrance for planning progressions; yes you can view the browsers when upgrades are available, but I see no reason why the player isn't allowed to view them at all times of gameplay. The UI just feels like it was slapped together in some areas, rather than offering a cohesive and intuitive means of reviewing strategic and operational info.

The explanation on food was helpful, but again there is no way to discern how and where your food is being consumed, other than to do some manual math with all of the food-consuming buildings you have in your empire...that sort of info is easy enough to aggregate and show on a screen somewhere.

Still love this game, but I do believe the developers could have done a better job with polishing it up a bit...I say that knowing full well how much this game has progresses since its initial launch.

**Alwyn** · November 05, 2023, 04:54 AM

You're welcome - and you make good points, yes it would have been better to be able to see building trees and skill trees at any time, and the UI could have been improved.