We knew it was happening, and now it has: today sees the release of patch 5 for Total War: Rome 2, as well as a free content drop and support for the Steam Workshop.
Said free content drop is the Seleucid Empire. According to the forum post, “This content update includes new unique Seleucid units, building and technology trees, Campaign Objectives and the Paradise of Daphne; a unique new wonder.” The Selecuid’s were apparently renowned for “expert cavalry regiments”, so I guess that’s what we’ll be seeing.
But most of you, I suspect, are more interested in patch 5. Expect optimisations to Campaign Map performance, a speed up to end-turn times when you’ve got multiple allies, improved diplomacy AI, improved world map AI (insofar as armies won’t hang around in Forced March mode, so they shouldn’t be so easy to ambush), and tool tips have been added to Agent actions so you can see the chances of normal and critical successes and failures. Neat, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
As is tradition, here’s the best patch note: “Fixed bug in Ambush visibility which made unleashing war dogs invisible while the handler unit is hidden, causing the dogs not to be seen by the enemy.” Yep: no more invisible war dogs. Which sounds like a Doctor Who episode, if I’m honest. Actually, one more: “There is now a chance for Campaign characters to spawn with a wife in their household.”
You can have a look at the (extensive) patch notes over here. The game itself should be auto-updating on Steam right now, if you’re logged in.
Finally: Steam Workshop support. Mods should now be a lot easier to find and install. Huzzah!
