Second statement from CA on Rome II's release (11 Sep 2013)

Mike CA

Hi everyone,

We’ve just put up a hotfix that significantly improves campaign map frame-rate on a variety of hardware combinations that were getting frame rates less than 15 fps. It took us until Monday to get a case of this happening in the studio, but it was a very simple fix, so we’ve decided to put it out as a single issue patch. This bug was introduced very late in the process, but we absolutely should have found and fixed it before release.

This release has obviously not gone as planned for some people, and I want to apologise to everyone out there who had issues with the game, whether they were hardware issues or disappointment in the performance of game features. We obviously don’t plan to release a game with any bugs, performance and AI issues. How this has happened is something we’re beginning to post mortem in detail now.

Fortunately, the same tech that gave us the rope to work on the game right up to release lets us keep working on it after it’s out, and the flaws in the game are mostly just bugs, not structural defects. We can and will get the game to where we wanted it to be for everyone.

The top priority is stability and performance – both frame rates in battle and campaign, and end of turn times and loading times. Then gameplay spoilers – AI flaws and exploits, balancing tweaks and the level of challenge on higher difficulties. Then minor bugs, lesser features that really didn’t pan out, UI improvements, and longer term adjustments to features and systems that could be better. Because there are a lot of us working in parallel there will be a mixture of different priority fixes in each patch. Much of this work would be part of the usual planned improvements we would make to our games post-launch anyway, but we are aware that they have now taken on extra significance and importance.

We have a major improvement to end of turn times in the pipeline, along with around 100 fixes in the next patch. We have another 100 or so fixes already being tested for the patch after that. At this point the limiting factor on getting issues fixed in patches is not our ability to fix issues, it’s our ability to test them and guarantee that we don’t repeat past mistakes by putting a patch out that breaks something new. We’ll also be putting each patch up as a beta you can opt in to before releasing it. It’s our aim to continue patching more or less weekly until all the bugs are dealt with.

Then we can start the kind of dialogue we always want to be having with the community – which new features you like, which you don’t like, which deleted features from previous games you really miss and so on. That’s a good conversation to be having, and since it’s our intention not to fall in to the trap of just re-skinning the previous game each time, it’s one that hopefully you’ll be having for years to come.

Lastly, I’m hoping we can fundamentally treat our releases differently in the future. Long open betas are the way things are going, and while that model hasn’t been compatible with the way Total War has been built to date, that could be the way forward.

Mike Simpson
Creative Director
Creative Assembly

DJ18

Thank you.

I will be looking forward to future patches.

PraetorianGR

good

Malova

Great news

Maximus Thrax

as long as you keep working on the performance lol

ag_derp

good

Drippy

I appreciate the honesty and decision to lay out a gameplan for us. I really look forward to the polished Rome that I know is under there somewhere.

TheUndefeatedGaul

100 fixes? Can't wait. Keep it up, I'm one of the few that understands it takes time to make something great.

panzerschreck

Performance is the main goal, there are a lot of people who can hardly play beccause of the huge lags, the worst are in battle, more than campaign.

Yngve

Lastly, I’m hoping we can fundamentally treat our releases differently in the future. Long open betas are the way things are going, and while that model hasn’t been compatible with the way Total War has been built to date, that could be the way forward.

Testing your games before you release them sounds like an excellent idea! I support that wholeheartedly.

Revanius

No worries, i have faith in CA.

zanderfal

Thank you CA

Teutonic Knight

Thanks, Mike.

I look forward to seeing the fixes implemented.

Doug3575

Thanks Mike, this is great news. Looking forward to the dialogue on included/missing features.

Knut

the flaws in the game are mostly just bugs, not structural defects.

Uuuuhm... Nope.

What I gleaned from this statement is that you deny the major gameplay flaws and that you're not going to fix them. You've lost a customer, goodbye.

GrudgeNL

Currently enjoying Rome II (without the patches) a lot. Can't wait to see what the future holds!

Mike, and everyone else at CA, I want to thank you for the communication with the community and the passion you've shown to patch the game for everyone. I hope the majority in this community is now more willing to move forward.

Knut wrote: »

Uuuuhm... Nope.

What I gleaned from this statement is that you deny the major gameplay flaws and that you're not going to fix them. You've lost a customer, goodbye.

What I gleaned from this comment is that you picked out one sentence and ignored the rest of the entire statement.

Joey CA

We are constantly working to improve your gaming experience. I'm on the night shift these evening if anyone is experiencing issues

Luremaster

Well this statement works for me. Better not fail with the next patch!!!!!

Eothaine

Fantastic news CA!

Really appreciate the honesty.

UnofficialJoe

Cheers for the hard work CA, it's appreciated

Zarkis

We will carefully observe how far you will go for ROME II. Most of us already went so far to buy the game. Now it's your turn.

Shiloh Veteran

Glad to hear it! Looking forward to seeing the improvements

lwc126

Good to hear.

HOWEVER, AI > WAITING TIME. PLZ FIX AI FIRST......

Eptesicus

Thanks for the update, You absolutely MUST beta test a game for a few months with a large group of loyal fans in future. If you did this for this release, you would have instantly known that "capture the flag" in open battle was a huge no-no and also instantly known that you shouldnt have removed the guard/fire at will features ( there are many more, these are just examples). Even Angry Joe was questioning as to why CA didnt do this!

Also with regards to performance. Is it REALLY supposed to perform like this or is there a problem you can fix:

http://pclab.pl/art51958.html

That is just horrendously CPU limited! It doesnt matter if you have a 660 ot a titan, if you have the same CPU you will get the same framerate! Also, even a Haswell i7 at 4.5GHZ...pretty much the fastest thing you can get right now without going 12/16 core only gets just over 30fps AVERAGE! Obviously that is an average so when zooming into battles that will no doubt drop to 10-15fps...

This has GOT to be fixed, your carthage promotional video seemed to run fine, what CPU were you using with that?

Lordvermon

CA is the only one in my opinion and experience that is so openly towards there community. Nothing but props to you guys!

Terdioleth189

Good news
This game has lots of potential, I hope it will be better that the original Rome. Anyways, thanks alot CA, for listening to the community and improving the game.

Jammin

Great thread thanks mike. Hopefully this help to quell alot of the hostility in these forums...but from past experience probably not!

Agenteusa

We have a major improvement to end of turn times in the pipeline, along with around 100 fixes in the next patch. We have another 100 or so fixes already being tested for the patch after that. At this point the limiting factor on getting issues fixed in patches is not our ability to fix issues, it’s our ability to test them and guarantee that we don’t repeat past mistakes by putting a patch out that breaks something new. We’ll also be putting each patch up as a beta you can opt in to before releasing it. It’s our aim to continue patching more or less weekly until all the bugs are dealt with.

Really CA, I don't mean to beat the dead horse, but when is the company going to figure out that you just can't launch a game without involving the community and serious testers???

I mean , what you describe in this paragraph should be done in a Alpha and then Beta stage.

Come on, you guys know you can't fix most of the issues that people have been complaining about in a heartbeat, much less without making sure it doesn't break anything else. Everytime you change the AI behavior it will all have to be tested again.

I'm sorry, this isn't the way to make games, much less release them.

Tthat said I wish you luck, you guys sure gonna need it...

Zarkis

Lordvermon wrote: »

CA is the only one in my opinion and experience that is so openly towards there community. Nothing but props to you guys!

You obviously don't know many game companies.

ArieShole

Thank you for info, keep good work guys!!!

Stardog765

Still nothing about the graphics quality for a lot of customers. Is that being addressed? Why does this game look so terrible for many people compared to pre-release screens? Why do you not bring this up?
All the work arounds you have stated do not fix it. IS THIS BEING ADDRESSED?

ARRGH!