Major Improvements

[Shoko]

So what are goin to be?
I know more units, better graphic's.
But how's the overall morale system,speed of units etc.
What are the ppl upstairs really tryin to improve.I know all of what is ask in these forums, can and will not be implimented.
So what are u working hard on improving.
Target if ur about could u let us in on this? http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

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Clan Kenchikuka (http://pub14.ezboard.com/fclankenchikukakenchikukacouncilchamber)

[theforce]

Well Shogun lacked very good graphics. Now it has better graphics that l really like. Well l will have to be working in EA to post smt :P

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Don't use only honour, use theforce, too.
http://lod.nipogames.com/default.html

[Target]

If I could tell you guys what we're doing outright I would, but the fact is the game is still a few months away and we can't risk broadcasting stuff that's there at the moment that not be there when the game gets finally released. What I can tell you is stuff that you probably already know, which is sort of pointless.

What can I tell you ... well, they've let me loose on a few area of the game but I'm currently doing the most damage on the strategy map. We've got a whole pile of extra stuff at the moment that's been implemented into the game - the heroic characters and RPG-esque aspects that go with them, additional trading and diplomacy stuff, religion plays a more significant part, additional events to flavour the gameplay, all built around the 12 playable factions and the handful of not-playable ones. The features are all but in there and we're concentrating on eliminating the bugs and actually making the game play properly and be balanced and ( above all ) be fun.

Battlemap wise, the guys who are working on it are bursting bloodvessels to make it all a new gameplay experience but also hauntingly familiar. LongJohn's back on board working his magic with the troop AI and adding extra realism to the troop behaviour, so you're really going to have to know the strengths and weaknesses of the units in order to effectively command them in battle.

With all the troops we're adding, balancing is a daunting task, but we've got top people on the job. We'll start off making unit characteristics as historically accurate as we can and add "artistic licensing" to make them fun to play. As Michael De Plater said in his Atomic interview, gameplay has to come before historical accuracy, because that's what games are all about. We are keeping an eye on the troop stats ( routing, speed, attack, defence, etc ) and we have allowed a bit more time for balancing than we did for Warlords.

Wow. An entire reply that doesn't really tell you guys anything new. A masterful piece of hyping. Magy Cham would be proud.

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Quote MagyarKhans Cham:
i even suspect Target is coming here to hype things up.[/QUOTE]

[Target]

Oh, and I'm afraid working at EA won't learn you anything about Medieval, Force. We're with Activision for this one.

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Quote MagyarKhans Cham:
i even suspect Target is coming here to hype things up.[/QUOTE]

[KukriKhan]

Target wrote: "...Wow. An entire reply that doesn't really tell you guys anything new.."

Still, a decent roll-up. Thanks. I assume, then, that the user/gamer interface will be about the same: a few hotkeys, arrow-keys for camera, right-click menu's, etc. I mean, were not going to have to learn a whole new set of 3 or 4-key keyboard commands?

[BSM_Skkzarg]

Target,

I know your limited in what you can say, but perhaps you could address on bit of concern that has been voiced. The bit on multiplayer being Gamespy only?

I understand the reasoning, but is there any chance of getting a secondary, direct tcp/ip game ability? If gamespy dies, or they decide to move a couple of servers to another game, MTW multiplayer will suffer or disappear entirely. With the number of online gaming services that have dropped off the radar over the last couple of years, its a big concern for alot of us. Since activision is not hosting the game like EA was, they don't have to think about making an extra buck getting someone to pay for the "full package", like EAPlay did. That being the case, and with the concerns of the MP service going away, its sensible to protect us by including a straight connection.

Would you be so kind as to perhaps inquire on this? I, along with many others, would appreciate it. Especially if the answer was good news.

Qapla!

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BSM_Skkzarg
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."

[Kraellin]

thanks target and thanks for that secret email. the bribe is in the mail ;)

bsm,
i believe, and this is very qualified 'believe', that you can build a direct ip interface, with chat room, on any game that does direct play. i have a friend who did this with railroad tycoon II. he contacted the game devs and got the access addresses and built his own. folks could then just log into his machine and play direct ip. maybe we could get something like this going for M:TW as well.

K.


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The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

[evilc]

3 cheers http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[nokhor]

heya target,

any chance of a random map generator?

[which would still factor in things like terrain types, starting locations, weather, defensive advantage etc. depending on where the battle took place on the strategic map.]

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indeed

[BSM_Skkzarg]

Kraellin,

I HOPE that is feasible if needed. Better yet, I would hope that its already set for us. We will find out. Something to keep in mind tho for sure. May very well ask about it after the MTW release.

Qapla!

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BSM_Skkzarg
"ARG when I'm Happy, ARG when I'm Sad, ARG when I'm good or bad. ARG!"
"ARG to port! ARG to starboard! Arg from stem to stern! ARG!"

[Tac]

Bomb for Target:

Will ye be releasing upgrade patches for STW & STW:WE?

The AI and much balancing issues are still unresolved in those games, plus it'd be neat if we could actually use Ninja for something else than losing honor 4 ninja to a -1 honor general when they have 95% of killing him.

Here's something I posted in the other Shogun forums, forgive the length of the rant, but I would really like you to consider this for the future (and besides, I do hope Medieval has its own assassin units too!)

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Its just too bad that the Ninja are almost completely useless in STW. I mean, CMON , whats up with the BS of an honour 4 ninja having a 66% chance of killing an honour 0 general? Or an honour 3 ninja with a 95% chance of killing an honour 0 emissary.. and FAILING more than half the time????????

IMO, ninja's chances should be completely dependant on his skill (honour), size of army in province with a modifier of the buildings in said province and modifier of target's honour with modifier of friendly shinobi bonus with modifier of province loyaly.

example:

Honour 2 ninja vs a 200 man army with honor 1 general on a province with a small castle, port and border forts. There are 2 honour 1 Shinobi on the province which has 100% loyalty.

So, ArmySize * General Honour * total building points / ninja honour * # of Shinobi + added shinobi honour (aka, if 2 shinobi of honour 1 on province, then =2)

(for math purposes, honour 0 = 1 , honour 1 =2 , and so on ; buildings each give its own points.. no castle = 0 small castle =1 , large=2, and so on, having a PORT gives a -1, border forts= 2, church = -1 , cathedral = -2 , budhist temple = -1, temple complex = -2 *note: famous budhist temple counts as a budhist temple*, tea house= -1, fam. tea house= -2, legendary = -3, tranquil garden = +1, palace = -1 , golden palace = -2 , legendary palace = -3, ninja house +1 , inf. ninja house +2 , Geisha House -2,Drill Dojo +2, Batt. Ninja Dojo=+2)

200 (200 man army) * 2 (gen. honour pnts) * 2 (small castle +1, port -1, border forts +2 ) / 2 (honour 2 ninja) * 4 (2 shinobi in region + 2 from their added honour). Divide total by population loyalty in province (make the % loyalty into a number.. aka, 50% loyalty=50).

200(2)(2) / 2(4)
= 800 / 8
=100 /50
=2
=20% chance.

I realize my math will not work 100% of times. Im no programmer, but you get what I mean.

The reasoning is that a Ninja, being an assassin, has to get to his target, kill it and get out. This was usually accomplished by detecting the target's routine and strike taking advantage of it.

The bigger an army with the general, the tougher it is to get to the general (more guards), the higher honour of the general, the more personal guards he has and the more aware he is that he is a ninja target.

The buildings in a province provide an obstacle or a benefit to the assassin.

Work AGAINST your ninja:

Castles for example are very secure vs. ninja, due to the sheer number of people in a closed space.. and the larger the castle the more people are inside it and the more guards it has..not to mention the general dwells and sleeps in rooms deep inside the castle, making it harder for a ninja to get to. If the army was in a province without castles, it would have to camp in the open, and that is VERY good for a Ninja to slip into, as the camps were usually quite large and the generals and daimyios usually were set apart from the rest of the troops (read: easy to locate).

Having ninja houses and tranquil gardens are an obstacle, because that province actively persues the arts of the shadow, and thus the province is more experienced on how to counter or spot a hostile ninja's move.

Population loyalty.. if its higher than 100% it benefits the general.. as the populace would report suspicious characters.

Works in FAVOR of your ninja:

Churches,Temples,Palaces,Ports and Tea Houses translate into places where the general population is allowed into, giving the ninja an excellent chance to slip in. They also provide a great "find the target's routine" scenario.. a budhist or Christian general would always go to religious services. Palaces were constantly visited by the high rankers due to social status (and social pressures), Ports give easy entry and getaway to the ninja, and finally the Tea House, although STW uses it as a training for shinobi, were really used for the Tea Ceremony, where the important people were REQUIRED to leave their weapons outside and the place was lightly guarded (tradition of it being a place of peace did not allow to have armed guards surrounding the place). And that means a ninja could hit the target with relative ease.

Also helping the ninja would be the friendly shinobi you have in place and the population loyalty towards the enemy clan. If the population loyalty is lower than 100%, they are more likely to help the ninja, either by indifference or indirectly giving out vital info to help the ninja plan his strike. Having your own shinobi is a no-brainer. If your spy has infiltrated the place, he'll be able to open the back door for the ninja and assist him in the attack. The more shinobi, the more chances.. the more skilled those shinobi are, even better the chances (kinda like having a spy that has infiltrated the lowest ranks of the soldiers vs. one that was so skilled he managed to infiltrate inside the castle, real close to the high rankers).

Ninja's should also have more options. Instead of just assassinate, they should be able to sabotage (lamely addressed by giving them "OPEN CASTLE DOORS" option when sieged).. sabotage should have 2 categories: ARSON (which would, at random, set fire to any building in the region. If the building is an upgrade, then it would lose the upgrade) or MISINFORMATION (which would let you spread false rumors which you could select who the target of the rumor was. For example, if you're Imagawa and you wanted to increase tensions between the Hojo and the Takeda, you could spread a bad rumor about the Takeda in a Hojo province. Result=hojo MAY send troops to his provinces in the border with Takeda, but not attack.)

When you look at it from a historical point of view, Ninja had a serious impact in those times. When I was in Japan I had the chance to visit the temple where one of their Shoguns was assassinated by a Ninja.. he was killed at the stairs to the main temple buildings, just by a HUGE tree thats said to be almost 1000 years old.

Oda Nobunaga used his Ninja at early stages to overthrow the minor clans that controlled Owari (when he started he only controlled like 1/4th of Owari) by sowing dissension amongst them and killing their men and messangers. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used his Ninja to spy (Oda Nobunaga learned of Takeda Shingen's death because Hideyoshi's (who at the time was a General of the Oda) ninja had overheard a conversation between Takeda Katsuyori and his advisors) and infiltrate enemy castles before a siege began..and then set them afire when his armies had the castle surrounded. Heck, Hideyoshi even got one of his mistresses because of his ninja, the youngest daughter of one of the castles he was sieging was entrusted to Hideyoshi in a gentleman's pact between Hideyoshi and the castle commander, who had listened and believed the rumors hideyoshi's ninja had been spreading and accepted to surrender the castle after he had commited suppukku.

I dont see why STW has the Geisha as a super-assassin. They WERENT. They were SUPERB spies and if required, they were quite adept with poisons which they usually slipped into the target's food. But a geisha (as an entertainer) or courtesan (what we would term today as a whore, but employed for the use of high ranking castle officials) were far too useful as spies to risk losing them by killing someone via poisons.

RANT OFF

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Tac this is the wrong forum to discuss STW. You should discuss this in the general discussion forum.

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Yes the camel sprites do look good, hope they sound good also...

[Tac]

it may also relate to Medieval if they are using assassination units. Since this company has shown it will not fix issues on earlier games, I can hope they dont mess up the new ones in these issues.