Rekindling the love affair

[Turbosatan]

I was not true. I strayed. I'm only human; my head was turned. Worse than that, I'm a man. We're ruled by the visual.

So I blame the male gaze. It led me astray. It took my heart from its rightful owner, & sent me racing after 3-dimensional hussies.

But last night I stayed up until dog-knows, incurring the wrath of my significant other, to try to salvage my (MedMod IV, Early, Almo) campaign.

After forcing the Spanish to capitulate after a twenty year war, Aragon & Portugal invaded. I was over-stretched. I had a civil war. An unlucky arrow ended the Caliph's life. The army wavered & fled, He had no more heirs (he'd just had to execute them all). I tasted defeat, & it was bitter, & it was good.

I am in love, again.

That is all.

PS: Isn't it ironic that this game is more... I dunno, cinematic than the later ones, despite their eye-candy advantages?

[RRMike]

I'm loving it. Still playing that French campaign on normal so I've gotten out of some scrapes that I would not have been able to on expert. I'm waiting for my excomm. warning to expire on the english so that I can finish taking Scotland/Ireland so while I'm waiting on that I'm adventuring into Iberia. The Argonese wouldn't stop attacking into southern France so I had to deal with them. Now I'm debating moving further into Spain and trying to consolidate it. Not sure how that will work out but we'll see.

[drone]

Yeah, pretty graphics are nice and all, but man needs to be challenged. Welcome back to the dark side, Turbosatan!

[Durango]

Turbosatan, you have, just like all of us, infinitely good taste in games. It's good to have the company of such gentlemen

[Stazi]

...I was young one day...my parents were out for a weekend... about 36 hours of non stop playing...unforgettable. No other game made me do that ever (Panzer General was close). After all those years MTW hasn't lost even a bit of its glory...but...there is one thing I still dream about... MTW source code!!

btw Have you guys ever think about a game that would combine MTW and Mount&Blade features? I always wanted to be a naptha thrower . Just blow things up in the medieval style.

[gollum]

Yeah, its called M2TW.. ;)

[Martok]

Wonderful post, Turbostan! It makes me even more eager to get back into this game than before.


Now I just gotta wait til my new fans and RAM stick get here so I can install them along with my new video card so I can *finally* play MTW again (been having technical issues the last month)...

[Turbosatan]

Thanks all for your kind words.

My current Byz, Early campaign is taking up far too much of my time. Though I am currently ruler of the Balkans & the entire Middle East (the Fatimids have been suffered to live, squashed up in the desert wastes of Arabia), the vast Cuman empire keeps trying to bully me, but they keep having civil wars (which they seem able to recover from with remarkable alacrity).

I had one particularly wonderful attacking battle in which the trad Byz scorpion drove upwards towards massed Cuman spearmen & archers & Khazar Royals atop a bloody great hill (shades of Hastings). Eventually, after a monumental struggle, I managed to extricate my general (& both his remaining bodyguards) & bring on my reserve of seven fresh units of Stratiotai (sp? Byz lancers, at any rate). I had to leave the remnants of my original army dying horribly at the middle of the hill, while I massed a huge flank charge across the face of the slope with the Lancers. Victory was sweet, but it cost me over eleven hundred men (the Cuman lost seven hundred, with four hundred captured). This is from an invading force of about seventeen hundred, & a defending Cuman army of perhaps 1900.

I have no life.

PS: If I went into all the button-fixing, driver-rolling-back, anti-aliasing fiddling & general computery buggering about that needed to be done to get the thing to run, you wouldn't believe me. On second thought, you all probably would, which is probably a damning indictment of something or other.

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi Turbosatan

Sounds like one hell of a fight!

I had to leave the remnants of my original army dying horribly at the middle of the hill...

This is often the only way of getting reinforcements onto the map in a timely manner, I find. Sometime I am forced to order brave warriors to do kamikaze attacks to enable a fresh unit to enter the fray AQAP. I call this my Haig doctrine.

BTW, which mod are you playing?

Best regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

[gollum]

I have no life.

Get one. And fast. There's a whole world out there. People dancing, drinking, smoking, joking, enjoying, having fun, falling in love, making love, creating, helping.

You'll regret it..

[drone]

Get one. And fast. There's a whole world out there. People dancing, drinking, smoking, joking, enjoying, having fun, falling in love, making love, creating, helping.

You'll regret it..

We will have none of that kind of talk here!

[gollum]

Sorry, sorry, my fault.. i know..;)

Just said it..

[Durango]

Getting a life, Gollum? Have you any idea how boring a scandinavian winter is? You guys in Greece have social troubles now, but the weather is still nice.

On topic: Medieval is actually more popular than one might think. A lot of people want to play it but can't due to technical issues, and the game is surprisingly often referenced on the big, post-RTW hub that is the twcenter. Those people say they long for more decisive battles, but seldom realize that it's the very structure of the campaign map that makes the MTW battles so good. It's certainly a solid and realistic engine with adequate AI, but the concentration of force within the regions of the map as well as the fact that the province ownership is always at stake, seals the deal.

No TW game can approach the drama, tension and satisfaction of Shogun/Medieval whilst sticking with the per pixel movement of the 3D map. Never. And that's why I'm here, in 2012, playing this gem like there's no tomorrow! And you know what the funny thing is? I only discovered MTW in late 2008, having played a bit of Shogun as a kid. I instantly recognized the value of the "outdated" game play, despite being as immersed in modern graphics technology as anyone. Therefore, the idea that the TW series has intrinsically "moved on" and that people's love for it is just nostalgia, is to put it bluntly, complete and utter nonsense.

I ****ing love this game.

[gollum]

but the weather is still nice.

Its actually a dreary winter with snow, rain, fog and the like, in fact. Social trouble and imminent bankruptcy is the fun bit.

Have you any idea how boring a scandinavian winter is?

Having lived 11 years in the uk, which is much milder, i kinda get the idea, yes.

Getting a life, Gollum?

I don't play games.

[Gilrandir]

I don't play games.

Drone, what takes you so long? Not playing games and posting here is a double felony.

[drone]

Drone, what takes you so long? Not playing games and posting here is a double felony.

MTW is not a game, it's a way of life.

[Martok]

^ Hmm, I think I may have found a new sig. Do I have your permission, drone?

[drone]

[Turbosatan]

Get one. And fast. There's a whole world out there. People dancing, drinking, smoking, joking, enjoying, having fun, falling in love, making love, creating, helping.

You'll regret it..

Dude, with the greatest respect, if you had an inkling of my real life at the moment, you would not begrudge me spending maybe four hours a week playing fecking MTW, all right? But thank you for the sentiment.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway.

Started a Byzantine Early campaign, autoran it until 1140-ish, took control & prepared to reclaim my empire. It was... a bit shabby. Somewhat badly used. But I've now got The Big C, Nicaea, & the two right-hand Greek provinces back & I'm gonna make a play for Bulgaria. I had intended doing all this to try to face the Horde, but it seems the Turks & the Cumans (who between them own the right-hand side of the map from the middle of Anatolia all the way to Finland) are going to bear the brunt of it & very little will get near me simply 'cos of geography. Or rather, the geographical limits of my territory.

On the other gauntlet, I'm fighting desperately for survival vs the Poles, Hungarians, Sicilians & Venetians, so it's not like I'm going to be bored...

Wish me luck...

[gollum]

Good luck.

[Kikuchiyo]

Get one. And fast. There's a whole world out there. People dancing, drinking, smoking, joking, enjoying, having fun, falling in love, making love, creating, helping.

You'll regret it..

I don't play games.

You can do all that and play games.

:)

[gollum]

This thread is certainly rekindling love affairs.. ;)

[Kikuchiyo]

This thread is certainly rekindling love affairs.. ;)

Meh... not-for-me-can't-get-the-game-to-run, etc...

[gollum]

I know, i know.. i didn't meant that love affair.. 'can't hide from the sun' as the old camelier's proverb goes ;)

[Cyprian2]

There are certainly some good and compelling arguments being made in this thread, including (and I say this at the risk of sounding like a heretic) gollum's. Well, if gollum is a heretic, then burn me at the stake, too. As far as I'm concerned, MTW is a game –– a great one, to be sure –– and not a replacement for real life. However, I'm with Turbosatan and others in seeing no harm in stealing a few hours from a very hectic real life to play a great old masterpiece. Why not? Also, Sir gollum –– and I hate to be the one to point out the obvious –– your continued presence here perhaps belies an enduring love for an old flame? Who knows? One thing is certain, a man of your achievements in MTW modding and general know-how has every right to speak his mind on matters such as these. But, honestly, I don't think a few hours a week will take one too much out of the sun.

Anyway, since someone asked, it sounds like Turbosatan is playing Medmod IV (a very fine mod, though not a "beginner's" mod). I'm with everyone else in saying how nice it is to read about ongoing campaigns. I've travelled far and wide in the various Total War communities (and, yep, I've even strayed into 3D hussy territory ), but nowhere have I found a place to equal the camaraderie and good cheer of the Main Hall. Long may it run.

[Kikuchiyo]

gollum is no longer hooked on the game - he's no doubt exhausted it's possibilities. For gollum it's the sheer "magic of the .org" which still draws him back... :D

Eventually you get burnt out, but you can't quite let go of the .org and the nostalgia of the games... I knew that feeling.

As for me I'm just bored at work, I come back here at times just to engage in random chatter, musings, etc (not to mention 'clandestine' coup attempts). After a short time I usually disable my account and the cycle begins again... eventually I won't return, that much is inevitable.

The problem is that the .org and this little forum in particular are quite simply on "life support". The simple fact is that after Medieval 1 the games evolved into utter for the under 12's - so the .org lost the kind of userbase it had spent 5 years shaping itself around (maturer gamers, the MP crowd, etc) through simple "attrition".

But not a problem, you can still play the first two games on your windows 7 PC with latest hardware right? Wrong...

Never mind, the new games can be modded? Errmm... no.

Unlike the TWC, the .org does not really lower itself to cater to the immature players - and why should it? The .org has been in decline for years, the staff know it, we know it. What can be done? Not a lot.

Combine this with how many people simply cannot get the game to run and there you have it...

But we don't matter, because the little spoilt rich kids will still get mummy to log into steam with her credit card and buy the latest DLC and the CA/SEGA will continue laughing all the way to the bank...

[gaijinalways]

I just recently started playing again (I regularly cycle through some of my games with more playability; finally bought and played San Marino grand theft auto, and got stuck at a point where maybe I need to buy a joystick, ).

My wife asked me a telling question about MTW; "You're still playing that?" And I said yes, because it's a game with a lot of levels to it. The economy, the managing of forces to defend territory, the live battles, spy and religious dramas..this game offers a lot. And yes, I am worried about keeping it running, too. I am playing it on my old desktop, because it won't run on my newer laptop. My older laptop that it did run on was junked when I couldn't get a suitable power cord to use it with. I suppose I could go and buy an older PC fairly cheaply if forced to (and hide it somewhere so my wife doesn't complain).

Some games have a good combination of things, and MTW is definitely at the top. Another one that comes to mind is Warcraft, though that is a different sort all together. That and the thief and Baldur's Gate series (still need a new copy for thief, my Thief II CD spun out and shattered in the drive) and of course Civ, though the battles in Civ have always bored me a bit.

Hopefully this game will limp on, as some of the newer ones are a bit sad. Graphics alone does not a game make.

[Trapped in Samsara]

But we don't matter, because the little spoilt rich kids will still get mummy to log into steam with her credit card and buy the latest DLC and the CA/SEGA will continue laughing all the way to the bank...

Ouch that's bitter man!

That said, I completely agree with your description of how the MTW series has 'developed', Cynwulf.

But I hope you're wrong about Gollum's disaffection.

Re hardware and MTW, I have two MTW-era PCs plus a spare motherboard and AGP video card which I'm hoping will last me until I hit the End Year button for the final time.

Best regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

[gollum]

But I hope you're wrong about Gollum's disaffection.

He isn't Victor. I know i chose the wrong thread to express it. Apologies and thanks to the mods that handled this very diplomatically.

[Kikuchiyo]

Ouch that's bitter man!

I'm afraid there's nothing left for us but to briefly appear every year shake our sticks angrily at the "kids" running the new games and look fondly with rose tinted glasses back to to the days when your "pixels" used to fight it out to the death on a hillside somewhere in asia minor... all in glorious 800x600 resolution on 2000 era hardware...

Believe it or not I used to run the game on Windows 98 with a Voodoo card...

Ok I have to go now, the nurse has come to take me back... if only I could remember where I left my false teeth and underwear...