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Total War: Rome II patch 8.1 puts a stop to inappropriate use of flaming projectiles

total war rome 2 creative assembly sega

No matter how many times a teacher says not to, schoolchildren will always throw flaming projectiles when they shouldn’t. It’s a fact of life as embedded in our cultural history as salting the earth of your neighbour’s garden when they go on holiday. But not in Rome II. Creative Assembly are going back on centuries of tradition to make sure their siege artillery only use flaming projectiles when it is appropriate, “when attacking walls and towers”.

The 8.1 patch “fixes” many other “bugs”, too.

Other changes see your troops better trained. They no longer “march off in a random direction when reforming on a siege tower.” And a ‘No open flames’ sign has been put up next to the boiling oil because troops must have been setting that, already pretty nasty stuff, on fire. It was burning battering rams when poured over the side of the parapets. But the sign should put a stop to that “boiling oil no longer causes incendiary damage”.

Here are the full patch notes lifted from the Total War wiki:

Patch 8.1 – Build 9066.483605

Technical and Performance Issues

Battle

  • Fix for dark squares which appeared on the battle terrain, whilst using the “Shader Model 3” graphics setting.

  • Improved performance on the medium Rome siege map.

Campaign

  • Resolved an issue that caused the UI to become unresponsive when the Triumph video plays at the end of a campaign.

Gameplay Improvements

Campaign

  • Improved AI parameter balancing: increased tactical focus and aggression, especially for major factions in both Grand Campaign and Gaul Campaign.

  • Improved campaign AI raiding behaviour. AI factions are now more likely to raid during campaigns.

Battle

  • Siege artillery now uses flaming projectiles appropriately (when attacking walls and towers).

  • Fixed an issue in siege battle AI which could lead to the general’s unit exposing itself to attack when trying to use its special abilities to support assaulting units on walls.

  • Fixed a range of issues with the AI’s interaction with walls in siege battles, enabling the AI to conduct a more effective assault using siege towers and ladders.

  • Improved the tactical co-ordination between different sub-groups of units when assaulting the walls in siege battles. When the AI attempts to enter the settlement via the gates, it is now able to do a better job of first eliminating the threat of boiling oil.

  • Fixed an issue which caused units to march off in a random direction when reforming on a siege tower.

  • Improved the behaviour of units when a unit on the ground is ordered to melee-attack a unit on the walls.

  • Boiling oil no longer causes incendiary damage (so won’t burn battering rams for example).

  • Improved pathfinding when attacking units on walls with units on the ground or vice versa.

  • Improved attacking siege AI’s interaction with walls, and its use of battering rams.

Usability Improvements

Campaign

  • Fixed a bug that made it impossible to exchange units during a multiplayer campaign, unless the “Turn time” option was set to “unlimited”.

  • Fixed a progression blocker in the Grand Campaign, which occurred when a “Triumph” video played (celebrating a high ranking Roman General). This prevented the player from continuing the game, by making the games UI become inactive.

Cheers, VG247.