The game has been fully tested on the mini including the older mini 2 (my main development device as an iPad mini 4). The main thing some people might notice is the unit sizes are reduced to the lower settings on this device as they are not as powerful as the newer iPads. This is similar to Windows where lower powered machines have to run on lower settings. This is a cosmetic difference (doesn't effect gameplay progression) however some people are used to higher settings on their high end gaming PC so noticed the lower unit numbers. We have different levels of graphics on the different devices this so you get a good experience on all devices new and old, however with the newer devices you can take advantage of the extra power to have a few more units on screen and slightly higher graphics. This avoids the issues some other iPad games have where the performance on older iPads have issues as the game only has one set of settings for all devices instead of scaling depending on the device. The UI was tested/designed for mini screens as well as larger ones so should be just as easy to use. Hopefully a few people can chime in with their views but I can tell you we tested the game and made sure it was enjoyable on every device we support both new and old.
Thanks for the response! I will try get something into support later tonight. I can recreate it all the time and experimenting with it over the weekend, it does matter where you place your finger. If you start the drag slightly ahead of the unit they will go forward, but still stop and form up where you originally started the drag, then charge. This ONLY happens when dragging to attack. Dragging to just move forward they do not stop to create a formation before moving, they move correctly. I am on an iPad mini 4 if that makes a difference.
Given all the possible battle situations, levels and troops I don't have specific numbers for all combinations. However I can say that the game was optimised so it should feel smooth and good to play on all the iPads and we do this by having different settings depending on the hardware you are using. So far we have not had any major complaints about performance. We've had a couple support issues reported in reviews but given their hardware (Pro) it's looks more like an issue with their specific iPad setups as many other users are playing just fine on the same hardware. That lines up with some of the other testing we've done here however we're still doing more investigations here. If you contact our support we can certainly keep you updated with our internal investigations and add your details to the internal tracking.
Rome Total War, the first game, released in 2004, twelve years ago, is the benchmark in the PC gaming community for whether your computer is too old to run anything. It will categorically NOT make the "latest" computers run slowly on the highest graphical settings. Most modern gaming computers priced around $800 USD, at the time of this post, have quad core processors which run at least 3.0 GhZ, and most gaming oriented graphics cards have over 2GB of VRAM. Not to mention the standard 8 GB of ram that a 64bit system uses. Rome's RECCOMENDED requirements, as stated online in the total war wiki, are an i5 processor (latest is at least an i7), 4 GB of RAM, and 1 GB of VRAM, in order to run at a 1080p resolution. I understand that we're comparing apples to oranges as far as processing power goes, and you folks have done something fairly special by finally and successfully bringing this game to tablets, but saying that a 12 year old game makes modern gaming rigs run slowly on max settings in order to justify a perfectly reasonable graphics limitation on tablets isn't factually true. Rome 1, modded with HD unit skins, increased flora, all that stuff, maybe. Vanilla Rome 1 causing lag on a modern PC? No way. Thought I'd chime in with that, for the edification of the more casual, non-PC gaming crowd here. To be clear, I think the hardware specific graphics limitations are a clever way to ensure a uniformly satisfactory product, but claiming those limitations are due to the product's hardware requirements on a different hardware platform, not saying what those are, AND objectively misstating facts is not alright. Y'all see like decent folks otherwise, I'm gonna keep an eye out on what else your studio develops, I'm on an iPad 3, and I'm having serious doubts about continuing to buy new ones based on how the premium gaming market is going, but barring statements like your gaming PC assertion, I do hope y'all's enterprise is profitable, and continue bringing even more complex titles to the mobile audience.
I'm sorry you seem to be confused at our explanation and think we misstated any facts. We have no intension of doing that at all! Our explanation was to help give more background to the complexity of the title, most people reading have played on Windows so an explanation of the complexity of the original game would help people understand a little more about the challenges of bring it to an iPad. As you mentioned specific hardware your post I'll try and give a little more detail for you. You quoted i5 (or i7), 4GB RAM and 1GB VRAM to run at 1080p at recommended settings. If you play with everything maxed out on a full stack custom battle you will see the fps drop dramatically compared to lower settings on this hardware. It's not unplayable but it's much lower than you'd expect for a game of this age. The min spec iPad has 1GB RAM and runs at a higher resolution with 1.5x more pixels than 1080p (The iPad Pro has over 2x more pixels than 1080p). Additionally iPads all have a Unified Memory Architecture which mean that both the CPU and GPU share system memory so you don't have any dedicated VRAM. There is no dedicated video memory on these devices. The disadvantage to this is that you share the same memory bandwidth for gameplay and graphics. The more memory bandwidth you dedicate to graphics, the less you will have for gameplay and physics etc. This explanation was used as an illustration of the complexities of the engine and why we had to set the graphics depending on the iPad hardware. It wasn't meant to indicate any 1:1 relationship between iPad's and Windows just give people a high level explanation. I hope that explains the issue in more detail and removes your reservations.
All good, much obliged. My gripe was with the latest PC things, which realistically have double the power the wiki recommends. Not to mention that a custom battle with full stacks is a hefty benchmark by which to judge a TW game, but like I said, deff appreciate your clarification, and will deff keep earn eye out for stuff y'all develop. Real strategy games on tablets have been the dream since the beginning, and it's a shame that the hardware's artificially limited by the manufacturers. Do y'all make games for non iOS platforms? I'm thinking about getting a Windows tablet PC, whatever those are called now, and touch control Rome would be nifty.
Feral I for one want to thank for this awesome game! I been greatly enjoying this on my pro! I really hope you guys can port some more hidden forgotten gems down the road
I would also like to say how awesome the game is. Other then the one minor issue I brought up earlier, this is an amazing port. I hope Feral gets to port other Total War titles to IOS as well.
Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are much heavier than iPad even without the keyboard. And Windows Tablet battery life is bad for 3D gaming. This problem already in Windows notebook long long time ago. It seems that MS don't care this real practical problem. For some Windows 3D killer game, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book user even need to set a much lower resolution(e.g. 720p) for the game to have a good fps. That's why Surface series cannot sell as good as iPad series. Windows definely has many good old game. But MS cannot combine Windows and mobile hardware as good as Apple. Just because Apple design computing hardware much longer than MS.
It elates me to no end and fills me with pure joy when a developer understands the power of "gestures" especially when incorporated intuitively and ergonomically. Feral you've just become my top devs alongside aspyr media. I have phuking Rome: Total War on my phuking ipad mini 4. I mean damn! This is huge. I'm having so much fun with this classic, then enjoying the YouTube videos with Biscuit Total War being one of those channels providing knowledge. All he plays is Rome Total War. Perfect learning grounds for me! Anyways, thank you Feral. This is a big win for you. My request: Not iPad, because of Apple limitations on hardware. But for Nintendo Switch (which seems beasty through the leaks and running pascal architecture) Port Total War: Warhammer! Now that - I would love to have on the go alongside my Skyrim.
Damn, that's a shame to hear. I'm fairly far off from buying a new tablet, money wise, but I'd only go Windows if I could use it as a dedicated gaming tablet, which it sounds like I'd be better off upgrading the gfx card in my PC from what you're saying lol. The FPS issue and 720p resolution might honestly be a complete deal breaker, I don't like Apple devices for gaming in general, let alone much of anything, but I have to admit I like just turning on the iPad and booting a game I know will work well, despite not being able to upgrade it like a PC. Thanks a bunch for the advice. I don't want to derail the discussion any more with my PC issues though lol. ------------- How are people liking the gesture system for the real time battles in this one? I was skeptical when I read about it, but it seems they're working well? Also, for the devs, I know medieval 2 has some shinier textures than Rome, how's the prognosis look for that one showing up on tablets in the future, or is it too early to tell?
I really hope Feral bring more games to iOS. Does anyone know if they plan to bring anything like Dawn of War over?
They just ask us for suggestion before. I suggest Company of Heroes, a RTS game with less units but more physic and explosion. This is under Sega too so they may paid to get the license for porting iPad verion. Some old RTS game like Warcraft 3 I think they cannot easy to get the license.
As much as I would like to love this game, after the tutorial I have completely no clue what to do (and after it asked me to take over a small town to get some income). There are tons of buttons on the interface and clicking them doesn't really do anything and little description to guide you to what to do next. Any good teaching videos would be helpful.
There is fairly comprehensive help in screen overlays taking you through the buttons, but took me a day or so to call it up. I'll post later how to access, because it gets you started very well. That said - there is so much you could do in this game (I a newbie) that a half hour spent reading a strategy guide, helps give context
Help can be found using a standard method across the entire game. Here is a list of the three methods to provide extra information. Hold you finger on over button or item in the game and the help box will let you know what that button/item does. This works for buttons and for minor things like the corn logo in a settlement status screen. Hold your finder on the advisor in the top left of the screen and a dynamic help will appear where you can flick through explanations for all of the controls. These screens also have guides on all of the movement controls for both battles and campaign. Tap on the Advisor for advice if the advisor has a pursuing glow then they have some active advice for you right now. Hope that helps. Edwin
Okay, so for example, after I walked to the first town and it asked me to take it over, I didn't expect it to happen automatically (ie no fighting involved). Then the city screen showed up and it says I need to repair some buildings but then in a subsequent turn they are all fixed by itself. I tried to move my army elsewhere on the map but it kept saying it was outside of my "green" zone and won't let me move, so I'm stuck either just keep pressing end turn and letting the AI have its turn or randomly pressing buttons like "buildings you can build" or "units you can train" or etc. When I pressed an advisor it said I should build some shrine if I remember correctly but the build buildings option doesn't have that shrine. Honestly, I was on a 9 hour plane ride and I had all the time in the world to figure it out but it just got so frustrating I ended up just turning it off.
