STW vs S2TW

[edyzmedieval]

Simple question which I could not insert in the title, would make it too long.

What do you think CA should take from the original STW and insert in S2TW to make it capture the "feel" of the original? It's different from "what would you like to see", it's more of what was in STW you would like to see in S2TW...

My list:

- bring back Jeff van Dyck - his music was incredible, particularly for STW
- make good use of "nature" - the battlefields brought you in the mood, and were complex, allowing you to use your brain for tactics
- work on the AI, the STW AI was challenging
- make sure each clan has special "abilities", such as cheaper castles for Hojo and superb cavalry for Takeda
- SIEGE - pathfinding in castles, make castles complex, and make sure castles have UPGRADES!!

For the moment that is all.

Opinions?

[Sp00n]

They should definately take a long look at the MP setup of the first game, while not perfect it worked and created a very competitive and close nit community. The music rocked tbh as did some of the maps.
Id imagine they won't bring over the superfast infantry who could outrun a greyhound, they are bringing back night battles, assassination videos please.

[Andres]

- The Throne room should be brought back. It was one of those things that made the game special.
- The assasination movies.
- 4 turns/a year (seasons)
- definitely the music;

[Skullheadhq]

I have never played Shogun I, but will try it now Shogun II is announced.

[andrewt]

Every unit in STW had a purpose. In later games, there were too many units that were virtually alike. I know there's a wonderful historical reason and some very extensive historical background on why 1 sword infantry unit has 19 attack/20 defense while costing 800 gold while another has 20 attack/19 defense while costing 805 gold. Gameplay wise, though, they are essentially the same unit with the same purpose and I could care less that my faction has 5 very minor variations of the same unit.


I also really want them to bring back the heavily accented speech of the original. The guy saying in heavily Japanese accented English that "The enemy taicho has forsaken his honor and is running like a whipped dog." is one of the highlights of the series.

[Veho Nex]

The ability to have Japanese dialog and not English.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I think it's too early to compare these two titles because 1) not many have played STW(me included) and 2) because S2TW is not out yet.

- The Throne room should be brought back. It was one of those things that made the game special.
- The assasination movies.
- 4 turns/a year (seasons)
- definitely the music;

Throne Room is still there under Totalwar series category. If something should be brought back then the people who played there.

[Incongruous]

Every unit in STW had a purpose. In later games, there were too many units that were virtually alike. I know there's a wonderful historical reason and some very extensive historical background on why 1 sword infantry unit has 19 attack/20 defense while costing 800 gold while another has 20 attack/19 defense while costing 805 gold. Gameplay wise, though, they are essentially the same unit with the same purpose and I could care less that my faction has 5 very minor variations of the same unit.


I also really want them to bring back the heavily accented speech of the original. The guy saying in heavily Japanese accented English that "The enemy taicho has forsaken his honor and is running like a whipped dog." is one of the highlights of the series.

I agree, the limited unit roster made Shogun's battles increadibly enjoyable.
If CA wanted to allow for unit variation, simple armour and mon differences between samurai and ashigaru units would be enough, along with a well implemented experience and customisation feature.

I'm not too sure about Van Dyck, after MTW I felt he sort of lost the feel of the games, RTW and M2TW both sported rather poor soundtracks when comapred to STW, ETW and MTW.

The throne room is a definite must have, as are the beautifull battle maps which reflected the seasonal changes of the country.

[Gregoshi]

- The Throne room should be brought back. It was one of those things that made the game special.

- The assasination movies.
- 4 turns/a year (seasons)
- definitely the music;

Agreed.

To expand:

- The Throne room as said above but with more things to do in it, which should be possible with the improvements to the campaign since STW.
- weather: fog, rain, snow. I don't remember seeing these so much when the series got away from seasonal turns. Nothing quite like the suspense of marching blindly across the battle map.
- koku and the variability of the harvest - alas, even a Shogun wanna-be cannot control everything, especially nature.
- the end video showing the statue of the Shogun (your clan) in modern day Japan. Nice touch to place you in historical context.
- wasn't there a joyous voice announcement when a son was born? Which reminds me...
- GOOD voice acting!!
- overall, the use of video, music, artwork, voice overs and poetry (for the diamyo death?) really added to the immersion factor of the original.

With regards to the 3D campaign map vs the risk style map, I like the idea of the 3D map. However in my experience (with RTW only), with the 3D map and roads, there simply wasn't enough variety in battle terrain. Whereas with the risk style map of STW/MTW, you were forced to fight in all kinds of terrain. If a 3D map can introduce a means of producing a variety of battle terrain, then I would be a little more agreeable to a 3D map. That is all I can think of at the moment.

This announcement of S2TW and wishlist exercises such as this thread and a few other has been rather fun.

[InsaneApache]

I have never played Shogun I, but will try it now Shogun II is announced.

Be prepared to have your bottom handed back to you on a plate.

[Monk]

- The Throne room should be brought back. It was one of those things that made the game special.

If this game includes a throne room PLUS the advisor who gives philosophical nuggets when i click on him... that would be a very tempting feature.

[Swoosh So]

The heavy fog in shogun i thought was great, cant beat a nagashima map 4v4 in heavy fog where you cant fully see enemy movements/deployments.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I see that many "old timers"(looking their join dates) are returning.

[gaelic cowboy]

Hmm I liked the Throne room too but I remember that is was actually one of the features people complained about back in the day.

[Vlad Tzepes]

The soundtrack in STW was brilliant. There was that perfect combination of longer pieces and music accents, meant to set a tense atmosphere, a pre-battle feeling of the imminent clash... It was simple, clean, refined, intelligent.

Also - I dunno why, but I feel weather effects in STW where the best in the whole TW series, and I played all the titles. No matter how good graphic cards are today, the fog, the snow, the rain in STW were perfectly adapted to the gameplay.

The units had personality.

For me, STW remains the best title in TW series. I do love the others as well, but STW was great. The others were good, at most.

All in all, I think STW followed the KISS principle - keep it simple, stupid! After that, TW got flamboyant and complicated in unnecesary ways.