ROME: Total War YEA? or NEA?

[NoMeansNo]

Here we are, almost in June, and I'm itching for a new game.

Folks out there still playing RTW?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  Community support good?  Company support existent?

I'll start poking around the net to read some reviews/etc., but I value the GG opinions.....

Thanks
NMN

[FlyingElvis]

Huge YEA.

It was my GOY for 2004. I played it for several months before finally taking if off my HD. When the expansion pack comes out, its right back on.

Great combination of Civ type strategic gameplay and tactical battles.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

I'd say Nay.

I didn't like it.  It didn't grab me.  The graphics are good, but the gameplay is just hollow.

[warning]

I believe there's pretty good community support.  I recall several mods including some that tweak units and difficulty levels.

[Chaplin]

The game was looking like a pretty big hit for me, until I realized the AI is just not that hot in city fights.  It does fine in the open, but it is terrible when it comes to city fighting (or was when I played it).  When a game is almost exclusively single player, AI is a huge deal.  The AI killed the game for me.

[Scuba-V]

Yeah I played it a fair amount after I first installed it, then realized I was using the exact same tactics for every battle and the exact same overarching strategy.  Needless to say the repitition wore on me.  I still boot it up every so often for a half hour of play, but that's about it.

[corruptrelic]

Same thing here, the game over all is pretty good but the AI (or lack of) really killed any enjoyment you might have in single player. It's been a while since I've played but I don't ever recall losing a castle siege to the computer because they simply don't know how to siege a castle. (Stronghold 2's AI seems to be the same way.) In the open, as Chaplin said, the AI isn't that bad in battle.
But when it comes to the castles and cities, it's a joke. I brought the game back to EB a few weeks after having it and got something else. Maybe the expansion will make it better.. but then again, we shoudn't have to pay for an upgrade to something that should have been there in the first place.

[Sepiche]

I think it's a good game.  I think the guys that made it are rather like ID.  They made a great engine and had some spectacular ideas, but the actual game has a number of flaws that more talented designers could have worked through.

That said I never play vanilla R:TW anymore as there are a number of great mods.

My personal favorite is SPQR.  I've raved about it before, so I won't go too much into it, but it changes balance out all the units, fix a number of bugs, make the unit skins more realistic, increase army size by lowering recruitment times, give the AI a boost by making the game so that it plays better.  Really an outstanding mod.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=61

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[NoMeansNo]

Ok, I think I'm going to hold off for the time being from R:TW.

In fact, I just downloaded and installed.............FATE, and am having a blast with it.  Will play it a bit more, and will probably spring for the $20 fee.
Giving me a good break from SWAT4, and may tide me over until June/July release of games.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
NMN

[wonderpug]

My only gripe with the game was that the auto-governing wasn't effective enough, you really had to micromanage to keep the cities from doing non-stupid things.  Are there any mods that do well to automate gruntwork and let you focus more on the bigger strategy?

[jpinard]

YEA!!!!

[Crowley]

jpinard pretty much said what I was going to in picture form.

Though I will give a loud shout out to the total realism mod. Dont get me wrong the original product is still golden, but the mod just spices it up and adds more a more strategic feel to it, lengthening battles and adding adding and subtracting units. 6.0 should be out soon, and with it comes a COMPLETE conversion of the entire game.

http://www.rometotalrealism.com/preview.htm

[jpinard]

Wow they've really come far with that!