Seasons and Wonders Update
The Seasons and Wonders Update adds a selection of new content and functionality to the main game. It also Includes AI, technical and gameplay improvements and prepares the game for players who purchase the Hannibal at the Gates Campaign Pack DLC which is released on the 27th March.
Carthage Roster update
After the Sicilian Wars of the 4th and 5th centuries BC, the trading empire’s armed forces were left dangerously depleted, and their senate instituted a greater reliance on mercenaries to bolster their elite citizen infantry. To reflect this we’ve expanded Carthage’s mercenary recruitment pool to include three new units: Numidian Noble Cavalry, Mercenary Noble Fighters and Italian Swordsmen, along with Celtic Light Horse and Balearic Slingers. Any foreign factions who find themselves in Carthaginian territory will also be able to hire the two latter units as mercenaries.
Twitch.TV support
ROME II now natively supports Twitch.TV broadcasts, which enables you to send live gameplay streams to your Twitch.TV channel and chat directly with viewers. Check out the options from the main menu. You’ll find a new Broadcasting tab in the options menu which gives you a number of variables to tweak to get your stream looking and sounding right, including bitrate, server selection, framerate, microphone volume and so forth. When you’ve set up a Twitch.TV account and logged in via ROME II’s Broadcast tab, simply hit the new Twitch button in the ROME II UI in-game, and away you go. We’ve posted a full broadcasting guide on the Total War Wiki, which will help you set up a Twitch account, get broadcasting, and talking with viewers and fellow broadcasters. Please note that loading screens will appear black to viewers while broadcasting; this will be addressed in the next update.
Seasons in the Grand Campaign
Seasons are now in the Grand Campaign, and will cycle through 1 season as each year passes. Like Caesar in Gaul, these come with their own visual and gameplay effects, such as winter attrition.
Battlefield Wonders
If you fight a battle in the vicinity of one of the following wonders, you’ll see these epic sights on the battle map. New Battlefield Wonders include:
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Pharos of Alexandria
The Colossus of Rhodes
Bam Citadel
The Oracle of Amun Re
Touchscreen Support
If you’re playing ROME II on a touchscreen device, such as an Ultrabook, we’ve implemented touchscreen input support in partnership with Intel. You can browse the input instructions in the ROME II Encyclopaedia, which explain how to use the camera, navigate maps, and give army and unit orders via fingertip gestures.
Technical and Performance Improvements
Battle
Improved battlefield pathfinding.
Crash fix for an infrequent AI crash which occurred during encampment battles, after a palisade had been destroyed.
Improved the plane of water in battle maps, to reduce harsh edges when it intersected with the terrain.
Fix for large pathfinding spikes in barbarian siege battle, which caused battles to stutter.
Fix for the battlefield terrain sometimes turning black when switching between graphics settings on some configurations.
Fix for a rare crash while units disembarked from ships during combined battle.
Campaign
Fix for a large frame rate drop when placing the mouse over a blockaded port with an agent selected. Agents can now act on blockaded settlements.
The sea on the campaign will no longer clips through the land around some coastal settlements on various screen resolutions.
Fix for a client crash when the host switches from a Multiplayer Campaign lobby to battle lobby whilst client is joining.
Modding
Added support for disabling / enabling out of date mods in the Launcher. This is likely to stop game crashes when an update is released.
Fixed the "show_message_event()" campaign script function. The function takes an event key from the "message_events" table, an integer X co-ordinate and an integer Y co-ordinate as parameters. Custom events can be added by modders, but must have an event key beginning with "custom_event_", followed by a number (e.g. "custom_event_678").
Gameplay Improvements
Battle AI improvements
Improvements to how the Battle AI calculates the priorities for attacking/defending certain areas in cities and minor settlements, to reduce passive AI in some situations.
When the player disembarks defending units, the attacking AI will no longer flip-flop between attacking the city and the newly disembarked units.
Improvements made to the siege battle AI’s ability to re-use previously abandoned siege vehicles when attacking.
Fixed a Barbarian minor port battlefield variant, which previously only allowed the battle AI to access one side of the map that they were deployed in. The battlefield AI will now be able to use all of this map as intended.
Artillery units are now moved to a more useful position during battles, for example closer to the settlements if they are out of range in order to bombard them.
Improvements to Battle AI bracing.
Improved disembarking behaviour for AI Naval units in battle.
General battle improvements
Victory conditions in un-walled settlements and encampment battles are no longer based on victory points. These victory points remain, but now provide a morale bonus to nearby troops holding the position.
Victory conditions in walled settlements are now based on a single victory point only, rather than three in some maps. These victory points remain, but now provide a morale bonus to nearby troops holding the position.
Following the changes made to the victory conditions in minor settlements and encampment battles, the battle AI is free to leave the victory point when defending to engage attackers outside, and will now attempt to do so when beneficial.
The "Weak points" feature in siege battles was deemed counter-intuitive and therefore has been removed. Previously, this feature caused some sections of city wall to be weak which could be exploited by the attacker, even if the city had no damage in the campaign.
In the Zarmizegetusa (Roman city map variant) battle map, captured gates will now be owned by the correct army when taken.
Fixed a problem in the Alexandria siege map, which sometimes lead attacking AI into a dead-end, or made the AI only focus on 1 victory point. Also fixed some collision on some stairs in this map.
Tweaked sidestepping/strafing speeds of units on the battlefield.
Fixed elephant riders incorrectly using firing animations while facing in the wrong directions.
Missile cavalry will now draw melee weapons correctly when charging.
Minor improvements to the terrain heights in the Carthage Historical Battle.
Horse Archers and other fast skirmishers are now more effective in auto-resolved combat.
Improved ladder docking points, and the terrain beneath them in the medium Egyptian port battlefield settlement, to allow ladders to dock more effectively.
Fix for missing secondary weapons for Dacian Noble Horsemen and Persian Cavalry.
General AI improvements
Improved public order management in Campaign modes.
Improved the Campaign AI’s strategic analysis of enemy force distribution.
General Campaign improvements
Improvements to end-turn times in Campaign modes.
The pool of Factional mercenaries in campaign mode is now replenished after a mercenary is recruited.
When an agent attempts to assassinate a barbarian warlord, the warlord will no longer move to another location before the wounded animation begins.
Agent actions that extend building construction time no longer stack. Cancelling and restarting construction no longer circumvents extended construction time.
Fix for flammable rounds not being available in campaign.
Indian Armoured Elephants added as a unit available to generals in campaign for Baktria.
Changed transition cost from land to sea.
Increased cost of moving across sea on campaign, increased navy ship action points to compensate. Land armies moving on sea will now travel a smaller distance each turn.
Moved Cohort Organisation to higher in Roman tech tree.
Adjusted siege techs for most factions so siege towers and battering rams are unlocked earlier.
Changed unlock requirements for tier II Hellenic main barracks to same as for tier II Hellenic light barracks.
Changed raiding stance to reduce GDP in region instead of giving an unhappiness penalty.
New minor industrial chain now available in all campaigns.
Fix for Campaign AI accidentally declaring war by converting neutral agents.
Persistent General's Bodyguards
If a general/admiral is leading a force and is replaced, then his bodyguard unit is retained with him and slowly replenishes (no upkeep costs are paid for this unit though).
If that general/admiral is reappointed to a force then the player has the choice to retain the existing bodyguard for free (including experience and unit upgrades), or to pay to change the bodyguard (to a fresh unit with no experience or unit upgrades).
When a general/admiral dies you must still pay the normal costs to replace them. If there are no free replacements available (for example an admiral dies and all of your possible replacements had land bodyguard units) and you do not have sufficient money for any of the available replacements then you must reappoint an existing general/admiral with a changed bodyguard for a reduced cost, but the size of the bodyguard will also be reduced.
If a general/admiral dies and you have no generals/admirals available to replace him and you do not have sufficient money to hire a new candidate, then you must hire a candidate at a reduced cost, but the bodyguard will also be reduced in size.
Balancing Changes
Scythian Royal Horse Archers now have the Heavy Shot ability.
Gallic Hunter arrows are no longer missing while they are reloading.
Adjusted military generator templates for AI to produce more balanced armies.
Reduced damage, ammo and reload rate of javelin armed missile units.
Reduced AP damage of slingers.
Rebalanced cavalry melee attack and melee defence, reduced horse hit points.
Adjusted pike balancing.
Reduced chariot mass.
Usability Improvements
Battle
Audio bug fixed for units sometimes using "selection" voice over, when they began wavering on the battlefield.
Improved use of battle order response audio for several units.
Campaign
Added XP, bonuses, man count, cost & inactive states to General’s Bodyguard panel to support new General’s Bodyguard design.
Encyclopaedia
Regions on faction pages now click through to interactive map.
Abilities/attributes on unit pages now click through to relevant manual articles.
Touch controls article added to manual.
Garrison unit cards display numbers of units.
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