The controls were thoroughly tested by our own QA department, Beta testers, and eager staff keen to give it a whirl. You can even draw squiggly paths and circles with your finger like you would in a painting app, giving the iPad touch controls even more precision than the desktop controls. In ROME: Total War, the pinch, spread, rotate and pan gestures behave exactly how you'd expect. In the same spirit of keeping things simple, we made the camera controls match those already used on the iPad. We reserved the tap and hold function for tooltips and info panels.
Navigating the UI with touch controls was kept pointedly simple, using taps, holds or swipes to interact with the options. We then brought these controls to the battlefield so players could draw paths directing their troops into combat. This is how we began thinking about touch controls.Ĭontrols that manoeuvre units on the Campaign Map were based around drawing paths onto whatever you want the units to interact with, be that a peaceful settlement or a threatening enemy army. We always knew we wanted the player to feel like a General in their tent, drawing directions onto a huge Campaign Map and pushing models of troops into position.
