Sorry From CA - Current State of the Game and What Happens Next (06 Sep 2013)

Bart_CA

Hi All - I’m just posting this on behalf of Mike Simpson, Creative Director on Total War here at Creative Assembly - Bart CA

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Hi everyone and thanks for your attention.

We just wanted to reassure you that we do know it’s an extremely annoying and frustrating time for some of you at the moment and we are working around the clock to sort out those issues that you are having. The first patch has just gone up - it's not trouble-free we know and are fixing with a hotfix, but there will be another next week and every week after that till the problems are gone.

At the moment it may seem that the changes are slight, but they aren’t the only ones we are working on currently and bigger changes are happening now for future patches.

If you are having a problem, it is totally unacceptable and a big deal for us, please know that we are spending all our dev effort on fixing outstanding issues.

I realise in our rush to do that we haven’t updated you on the situation, so if you are interested, please read on.

Scale of launch issues
First and foremost let me say that if even one person has a problem running the game we would want to fix it, this is why we’ve set up 24 hour support and if you post in the support forums you will get an answer or discover a solution that’s already posted for your issue.

I appreciate that it doesn’t help to know this if you are somebody having an issue, but the vast majority of people are running the game without problems. At the moment we are seeing 2% of people playing reporting a technical issue. Let me be clear, that is 2% too many and we will be helping them into the game and working very hard to make sure they get the best possible experience.

To these people we are really very sorry that you are having problems, we really want to get you enjoying our game, please do take the time to post your issue in the Support Forum if there isn't a fix for you available in there already.

Technical Issues
ROME II is a big and complex game and, especially on PC, we are always conscious of the wide variety of different combinations of hardware out there and, while we do test extensively before launch, it is clear that we have failed some of you and we will look at the way in which launch games in the future. Again, I know this is scant comfort to you if you have a set-up that is not performing well, but we do intend to fix your specific problem – whoever you are and whatever it is - as soon as we can.

Many issues have been alleviated by the workarounds and system tweaks posted about in the Support Forum, please do head to this thread as your first port of call http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/82113-Solutions-found-across-the-support-forums, if your issue is not solved by stepping through these solutions please do post your issue in the Support Forum and one of the team will get back to you.

Gameplay Issues
If you have concerns on the actual features and mechanics, like gameplay balancing and AI behaviour, we do want to hear about them. As mentioned before launch we absolutely intend to support ROME II post-release with plenty of content, further development and comprehensive balancing through-out – and no I’m not thinking of DLC you have to pay for. We have already planned for some very interesting stuff and we wanted to do that with advice from the community.

Please do keep posting your concerns, our code team are focussing on tech issues to get people playing, but our design teams are very aware of your concerns and are already looking at ways to add further options and rebalance aspects of the game.

You will see our community team dropping into threads to ask questions, please do chat to them, but even if you don’t see a response please do know that we look at the forums every day here and do appreciate what you have to say.

Thank you for reading,

Mike Simpson

jagks100

thanks

Styo

At least give us 1 free playable nation, after the game is playable.

Tornadium

I require Clarification.

Does this mean Gameplay Overhauls are on the table or not?

Edit: To further clarify, I don't mean stat balancing or small things. I mean overhauls of core gameplay mechanics.

Also thank you, this post has gone some way to restore my faith in CA.

TacoLife

A fix for the AI turn time on COOP campaign would literally do wonders for a large number of players who bought this game in tandem with a friend for the sole purpose of epic coop campaigns. Just bringing it in line with the time it takes for AI turns in single player would do wonders.
Thanks for hte updates and thanks for the continued support.. this must be a rough time for CA so heres hoping thing turn around

maciora

Blood Patch introduced for free should be, family tree given to us should be. Then forgive we will.

Maximus Thrax

Well, please fix the perfomance,

This should be the top priority,

Is it normal when you run shogun 2 on high with high sized units perfectly and you can't run rome 2 on low?

Tornadium

maciora wrote: »

Blood Patch introduced for free should be, family tree given to us should be. Then forgive we will.

Technically they don't owe us anything but a working product that is up to the standards of the previous titles.

Asking for free dlcs is a bit over the line.

jonsnow

thanks but i still dont think its only 2%. i mean youtube, steam, amazon, this forum, metacritic, all the other forums in gaming sites.

Eptesicus

You know what I want to know CA? I want to know what CPU runs this game acceptably? As far as i see, loads of users iwth modern, highly clocked i7's and i5's all experience a massive bottlneck and less than 50% GPU usage in medium - large battles.

I have an i5 2500k @4.4GHZ and two GTX 670's in SLI and i cant play the game, even with low-medium settings without the whole thing chugging a long when i have about 10 units on screen.....GPU usage has gone as low as 25% in some cases...

Also...it very much isnt 2%

nomisum

Well, thats a nice move from some marketing guy. 2% reporting suggests only 2% are having problems. I would sell my right nipple to anyone who played the campaign for 20+ hours without having any issues :P

Thanks for this lukewarm apology, I appreciate you appreciate our wrath :rolleyes:

Caesa

One step at a time CA, good start

kieran12

Rome 2 is playable, but only on very low graphical settings. I have a GTX 570 AND 4 Gigs of Ram and 2.6GHZ CPU. I was well able to run Shogun 2 on Ultra graphical settings

Low graphical settings. The men look like match sticks and the terrain looks barren and empty. Most of the battles involve less than 2,000 men- so how the hell is this game lagging so badly even on low.

Low i can play but the frame rates are still not great. Its sad i haven't even played a campaign yet because of how bad the game looks and performs.

DaveTheBrave

Sounds good for me. I hope people stop complaining now and starting to help CA to fix the game. CA can't record back in time and fix it the problems from the realease. Done are done. So lets help CA to their best game ever!

Tornadium

Just to follow on from my first page response, I would very much appreciate an answer to the question "Are gameplay overhauls a reasonable possibility"

maciora

Tornadium wrote: »

Technically they don't owe us anything but a working product that is up to the standards of the previous titles.

Asking for free dlcs is a bit over the line.

Over the line is not. My product does not work, free dlc I want. Or next game crack will I ...

Crappius Maximus

Much better after support and communication than other companies and launches. Glad to see that CA are paying attention.

However, people need to realise that whilst they might want feature A and change B and potentially dozens of other things, it doesn't always mean that CA can or will deliver as they'll make any changes based on the most common requests in the forums - IF they deem it something worth changing in the first place.

WillensKraft

Please don't stop supporting like you did with Empire and I thank you that you guys admit that there are problems.

I'm looking forward to see the Poll changes (obviously >80% should be a yes)

AngryBear37

As long as the focus for the first few patches is on optimising the engine, mainly for CPU and GPU.

CPU spikes alot after the end turn is over or after returning to the map after a battle, which im convinced is at the root of the problem for many "laggers" on the campaign map)

and ofcourse some rebalancing of the AI is important too, and lets not forget the MP

A 60 / 20 / 20 divide ratio in terms of what to focus on per patch, would be great.

TW fan

Help! I keep getting the blue screen of death ( or whatever) everytime i play a battle and restarts itself!

Teutonic Knight

Thanks for the response, CA. I look forward to seeing the improvements made by the patching and development process.

The AI is certainly an issue, but it sounds like you are already working on the big ones like that. A proper SDLC will really turn this around.

GoAwayNow

2% who are reporting issues obviously represents a larger number who are actually having issues. Many people just rant angrily, or attempt to return the game or just give up.

Crappius Maximus

nomisum wrote: »

Well, thats a nice move from some marketing guy. 2% reporting suggests only 2% are having problems. I would sell my right nipple to anyone who played the campaign for 20+ hours without having any issues :P

Send me your bank details so I can make payment, also pictures of your nipple for authentication

Kuldeiris

It's nice that CA are actually starting to communicate a bit, but they sort of ruined it all with that 2% nonsense. I mean....come on.

Every member of the CA dev team will know full well the majority of people playing this game are experiencing unacceptable performance issues. Just because on some estimated volume of players, you worked out all the registered official complaints only came to 2% of the number you think are playing doesn't mean only 2% are having problems.

That's utterly ludicrous and rather disappointing. You know full well this game isn't in an acceptable condition full stop. NOT just an unacceptable condition for 2% of your customers. You're making it out to be a minor problem affecting a few people.

Sorry but you're just making it worse coming out with stuff like that.

Bloodlance

Fix the AI, nothing else is needed, its the biggest problem Rome II has atm.

1. AI vs Walled city or city , AI broken 100% : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeISAr7m70k (example 1)

2. AI vs Walled city or city , AI broken 100% : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ZdBZ2Q8H0 (example 2)

3. AI defending in a city or walled city, AI broken 100% : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwC98pZsGqQ (example 3)

4. i just finished a short 4 combat video with Sparta in a 100% new install with the new patch, i dont even have the energy to upload that video, the AI does not defend the gatehouses at all, it just lets the army inside and then brainlessly attacks your forces when you have all your troops in the city. = it should defend the actual gatehouses as it has visibility 100% to all directions.

1. 2. 3. are game breaking and proves the AI is broken, also the same kind of videos is everywhere, Angy Joe etc.

Sidenote on Testudo : testudo broken , skill that is 100% useless : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6rieUh_v7k

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I accept the apology and feel now much better, thank you CA and its employees, i know its not easy to make games but some aspects of the bigger issues makes us gamers very frustrated and thus, we act.

2% in your whole market area is only the tip of an iceberg, as i work in marketing and advanced business modelling and in IT i know that 2% in reality is (with some margin of an error) around 30-40% of the actual whole customer base, as many of the customers do not have the energy or will to complain.(plus other smaller points but i wont go into them now).

Thank you, i really mean it.

masaldana2

i love you

balrog1987

THANK YOU! This is what was needed

removeflags

2% ??? is this a joke?

luraz

Thanks for the response CA and keep up the good work. I am satisfied with the current game, but we all know that so much more can be achieved with this game. I am not gonna rage about the current situation, but we could get a free DLC for our patience and I prefer the blood mod Or make a poll about what free DLC your customers want?

VaLee

I'm still ****ed about the problems that this game has, and wouldn't change my rating towards it atm, but atleast they are open and willing to redeem themselfs. Saying sorry goes a long way for some people.

theoverlord33

a CA mods needs to remove that stupid 2% line from his message. its dam right insulting to loyal Paying customers.