FILL MY MOUTH WITH PATCH NOTES.
Update 6 September 15:30 GMT – Patch 1 has been released. Patch 2 beta coming Monday
Update 10 September – The latest on Patch 2 is that it’s delayed, instead Patch 1.5 (which may fix campaign map lag) has been released to beta.
The first patch for Total War: Rome 2 has crept out a little early. At least, it’s possible to access it early if you opt in for the beta version before its official release tomorrow. If you wish to do that, then right-click on Rome 2 in your Steam library, select “properties,” head over to the “Betas” tab and choose “patch1beta” from the drop-down menu to apply it to your game.
Creative Assembly accompanies this with the usual disclaimers, stating that “you take part in any beta tests at your own risk.”
So, what’s going to be in this first patch? Well, you may be slightly disappointed in the contents because performance and AI issues don’t seem to rank too high in this opening effort. It may be because this one has been worked on prior to release and the developers need more time to address some of the new problems that have cropped up now that the game is “out in the wild,” so to speak.
Here are the patch notes. It’ll be officially released tomorrow (6 September) if you want to wait for that rather than downloading the beta version:
• Higher average frame rates with out-of-the-box settings (more conservative settings)
• Fix for DirectX 10.0 Lighting issue reported – environment map wasn’t being created leading to black reflections.
• Fixed a sunken Samothrace temple complex world wonder on the Campaign map.
• Fixed defender being able to create encampments when involved in a combined battle.
• Added some localisation fixes to audio packs in French, Russian, Italian, German and Spanish.
• Fixed lock up in Multiplayer Campaign battles when a desynchronisation occurs. Players are now notified of the desynchronisation, and the battle ends.
• Fixed Multiplayer Campaign battle “overrun” prompt, which was not being shown to a player if they were a reinforcement and the other player was spectating.
• Fixed corrupt loading screen when changing to fullscreen / windowed mode after a battle, and then going into another battle.
• Fix for Multiplayer Campaign host being unable to move the camera in campaign, after reloading a save game on some rare occasions.
• Safe guards added to prevent a very rare crash in coastal assault battles.
• Fix for game lock up during end turn sequence / Celtic AI faction turn in single player campaign.
• Improved AI use of walls on Athens large settlement battle map.
• Improvements to Auto-resolve balancing in Single Player and Multiplayer Campaign modes.
• Aligned ship unit upkeep costs with land units – made mercenary ships more expensive and non-mercenary ships cheaper.
• Fixed slow turning rates for transport ships.
• Improved civil war balancing in relation to campaign difficulty.
• Fixed vehicle ground pipes, to prevent Siege Towers becoming immovable when they are left empty during the Deployment Phase of a Siege Battle, then units were moved into the Siege Tower when the battle has started.
• Fixed bug when ramming sideways into moving ship, which caused the ramming ship stick to target and strafe along with it in battles.
• Reduced the chance of Naval units sometimes clipping through the ground or harbours / ports during Port Assault battles when attempting to disembark.
• Fixed issue where armies would be stuck in Muster stance and could not exit that stance in Campaign modes.
• Fixed case where spies could get stuck on top of fleets in Campaign modes.
• Fixed rare post battle lockup in Campaign modes.
• Improved unit pathfinding in Barbarian village battle maps (fixed no go zones).
• Fix for Multiplayer Campaign lock up when the player was reinforcing an AI ally who was victorious in battle, causing the player to become stuck with no victory / continue / exit battle user interface functionality.
• Fix for cultural influence bonus from the Shrine of Neptune building
• Fix for “Zone of Controls” of hidden armies being visible to both players in head to head Multiplayer Campaign mode on mouse-over.
• Assorted minor fixes to city battle maps.
• Fix for “Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day” achievement failing to unlock when its requirements were met in some situations.
