Si: Hello, let's please open the discussion with the economy and
religion in Rome: Total War. Will the game feature both aspects, and
how will they be implemented and affect gameplay?
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Si: How does the size of a city affect play, as we understand
recruitment relates to a city's population? And we will be able to zoom
in and witness that population, thus admiring our cities milling with
civilians and resounding with the sounds of the gladiatorial games and
armies marching to war?
Mike Simpson: City size is fundamental to progress through the tech tree - so a lot of
gameplay is centred around managing your cities well. For example, a
number of factors will affect the growth of a city (eg agricultural
improvements, population happiness, tax rates, governor's skills etc)
and a city has to reach a certain population size before the player has
the option of upgrading the city's Government Building. This upgrade is
necessary to allow the next level of all the other building types to
also be built - so if the player wants to be churning out the best
units, they'd better make sure their cities are expanding throughout the
game. All of the player's cities can be viewed in real-time 3D at any
time - with citizens walking through the streets and all of the players
improvements (eg huge stone walls) being accurately reflected.
As far as the battles are concerned, the size of the city is also
represented on the battlemap. There are about 5 levels of city from
village to huge city.
Si: Please give more information about the challenges the Roman Senate
will offer us.
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Si: It is obvious that politics has a large role in the campaign game.
In Medieval:TW there didn't seem to be ramifications for continually
reneging on alliances. Considering the many types of deals that can be
made in RTW and the inclusion of the Senate, how will your political
reputation affect your faction?
Mike Simpson: Your political reputation affects how likely allies are to trust you,
and what kind of deals they'll offer at the negotiating table. There's
also some emotional response in there, so factions do bear grudges. Just
like the real thing.
Si: Now that there are no provinces, does that mean there won't be units
you can train in a specific country/city? Like in MTW's Ireland, when
you conquer it you can train kerns and gallowglasses. What other
training mechanisms will be included?
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Si: One of the few downfalls of gameplay in MTW was the way that turn
times could increase exponentially once campaigns were in full swing.
Micro-management can become tedious in a satisfyingly complex game. RTW
players wishing to detach themselves from the nitty-gritty of
manoeuvring in the tactical game have been allowed the use of AI
generals in battle. What measures will we see to automate any of the
grunt work of the campaign mode?
Mike Simpson: Lots. Basically every city can be fully auto-managed by the AI. So
players can focus on managing just a few key cities and ignore all the
rest. Cities that are auto-managed can be given policies (eg military,
social, financial) that should be pursued if the player wants to provide
a rough direction for the AI.
Si: Regarding diplomacy, will we be able to coordinate assaults with
allies (let's say to agree with the AI to attack army/city A in three
turns time)? What other alliance control options will be included?
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Si: Will the tactical AI utilize different tactics based on either the
faction it controls or the different types of units under its command?
For example, will Parthia's horse archer laden armies fight a battle of
slow attrition via missile attacks combined with feints and ambushes, or
will Rome's infantry heavy armies seek decisive action via direct
contact?
Mike Simpson: Yes. The AI works on several different levels and will look at more than
just the things you mentioned above (such as terrain, battle objectives,
weather, the visible contents of the players army etc) in order to
decide on the best strategy to use at any given time. It will also
respond to the player's tactics during the battle.
Si: Regarding battlefield terrain, has the random terrain generator
been tweaked to produce realistic looking battlefields? Will we see
gentler slopes on hillsides and realistically unpassable terrain that
better represents the area's geography and topography, rather than a
return to MTW-style maps where armies are able to unrealistically camp
on the extreme slopes of hills and mountainsides?
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Si: Is the game still on track for its planned Fall 2004 release?
Mike Simpson: The game is still on track for a Fall release.
