New patch?

[Jacobin]

Any thoughts on this ?

I am seeing a different wallpaper on the menu screen for FotS, different unit cards, walls and gates appearing on castle battle loading screen maps, enemy unit status (confident/shaken etc) adding to the mouse over info at legendary (which I really dislike as the whole point of legendary is that you know no more than your general would about enemy unit morale), my own unit cards disappearing completely immediately after they hit rout status.

Oh and the fog of war effect on campaign map seems darker somehow - the islands off Kyushu I don't have ships near have virtually disappeared.

Overall deeply underwhelmed.

EDIT see there is a patch description and much heated discussion over at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=529388

[Fagar]

I am actually a fan..
I like the subtle little sound bytes that have been added, I like the sharpening of the graphics and the changes to the fog of war..
However most of all I really enjoy the changes to the diplomacy scales and the addition of the predicted outcomes and the "verbal" interaction now with the rival Daimyos..

Even the changes to the in game battle is great..the addition of the status of the archery towers in sieges but what really blew me away was that during a siege I was the smaller attacking force but was given the option to play as the larger force!!!!!! How much does that rock!!!!

[sassbarman]

I love the new features they've added; thank you CA, but man have the graphics taken a beating. I used to love zooming in and watching the action up close, the units where beautiful, but now all the amour is flat black. Helmets no longer have chips and dents, no more wet armour effects, glint off weapons, and the draw distance is lowered drastically. Very disappointing!

[Maltz]

Here are fixes that could affect our play habits:

- Only primary generals now get full XP in battles; generals commanding reinforcements get reduced XP
- Removed timer from certain battles to prevent exploit

It is good to see fixes to get rid of exploits/inconveniences. The reinforcement practice is particularly bad, as we are pretty much forced to split up generals to receive the maximum benefit. Hopefully there are still other ways to properly level up generals.

Not sure under which circumstances the timers are removed. Like the sally attack in the last season of a besieged castle?

[Jacobin]

I have seen the timer remove but didn't make any note as to the circumstances - may well have been a siege sally though as almost all of the mid and late game battles I fight are sieges.

Having played through a new Shimazu legendary domination campaign through to the 1570s post-patch there are so many changes that it feels almost like a different game:

a) Units lose exp when they regenerate - thanks to various bonuses I had some +6 bow ashigaru some of which after many battles are back down to +1 or +2 (I almost never merge under-strength units but there now seems little point in not doing so).

b) The AI builds many more ships and seems to use them much more aggressively - pre RD my main naval problem was with pirates popping up and blockading key ports, now I rarely see the pirates as AI fleets are chasing them down - and am currently being persecuted by lots of single bow kobaya fleets that are raiding my trade routes and blockading ports and that my fleets can't catch on the campaign map as I haven't researched any naval technologies.

c) Possibly because they are building more ships the AI seems to be sending out fewer stacks on land - so far I've never had to fight more than two full-ish stacks at a time when pre-patch I'd have seen 4 or 5 or 6 stacks gang together and set about besieging my castles one by one by this time.

d) The AI is much less aggressive diplomatically - previously I'd almost always have clans from the other side of the map like the Satake and Imagawa declare war in the early game and send out invasion fleets - this campaign most of the eastern factions stayed at peace with me right up until RD even though most went to hostile quite early.

e) Perhaps because of this I haven't seen any great power rise on the AI side as I normally do - in particular minor clans seem to last longer.

f) The graphics are indeed worse and I can't see any improvement in performance - quite the opposite as I have had to go back to the 20 minute timer due to the game stuttering when fast forwarded.

Overall these changes seem to make the game considerably easier - I avoid exploits and usually turtle before RD to make sure I have a robust enough economy to survive without trade and so tend to end up battling against the clock to get that last province and finish a legendary domination campaign by 1600 - at current rate this one should be over before 1585.

However it may make the the hard central and eastern clans more playable.

[Maltz]

Confirmed: the sally battle during the last siege season still has the timer on.

[Narcisista]

So graphic performance is indeed worst as I noticed. Bummer.

The game ran beautifally even at the highest setting, and now I've had to reduce graphic quality and it still doesn't play as well.

[Sp4]

It is better for me lol =D Hey, I got a patch just for me \o/

[jepp21]

Graphics still run fine here, but the avatar menu is lagging every time i complete a battle or select an avatar, tried reducing graphics settings, butt that was not the problem, mi internet is also well above recommended

Still i love the new graphics, and especially the new diplomacy details. Makes it seem more realistic instead of every rival diamyo saying "That will be an affront to a mountain monkey, BAH!"

[frogbeastegg]

Have battlefield unit movement speeds changed at all? I've seen a few people suggesting that FotS' slower speeds might have carried over to the original campaign and RotS, but I haven't seen a conclusive yes or no yet.

[Sp4]

You still using that unit movement reduction mod?

[frogbeastegg]

You still using that unit movement reduction mod?

Yes. I do not like the original vanilla speed - I can't keep up without copious pausing, and I find the battles look absurd.

If someone who is already playing without a mod can confirm that speeds have altered I'll remove the mod and see what I think. I'd try it myself, only FotS has sent my loading times through the roof and I don't fancy spending an appreciable amount of time to test a question others can probably answer.

[Sp4]

I think units move a lot slower in FotS, at least the rifle/musket infantry does.

They are really slow.. annoyingly slow sometimes.

I see if I can test it though.

[Grin]

I went to check this and discovered they removed the 'speed' stat from the encyclopedia unit pages... not that i expected it to be that easy.

another question have bow cavalry always gotten those huge boosts to their ranged stats in swooping crane? I've never noticed it before.

[Sp4]

These formations do stuff to unit stats? Wow oO

[Narcisista]

I haven't noticed any change in speed in Shogun. If anything the units seem faster when the game doesn't start to freeze.

Might be the fact that I', playing mostly RotS, with it's smaller units...

[Jarmam]

Just got home from 15 days in the US and A and I couldn't be happier to see this - a Shogun 2 patch that sounds like it addresses actual real issues with the game! Exciting! Especially this

Here are fixes that could affect our play habits:
- Only primary generals now get full XP in battles; generals commanding reinforcements get reduced XP
- Removed timer from certain battles to prevent exploit

I went to check this and discovered they removed the 'speed' stat from the encyclopedia unit pages... not that i expected it to be that easy.

another question have bow cavalry always gotten those huge boosts to their ranged stats in swooping crane? I've never noticed it before.

Weird that they removed movement speed stat from the screen. But yes, Bow Cav always got a massive, massive, massive accuracy bonus from sweeping crane. They also keep their distance in sweeping+skirmish against melee to the point where they're always just 5 feet away to maximise casualties. Bow Cav are absolutely devastating against Katana/Yari/Monk Naginata based armies as they inflict absurd amounts of casualties and can act as big squads of Light Cavalry after that (they are actually surprisingly effective in melee against Katanas and archer units). Play a Takeda all-cavalry campaign and use 6+ Bow Cavs in each stack to learn more!

Edit: I dont know if this is general knowledge but now Agents get a 3 point xp per turn from being in towns as opposed to just 1. This is *colossally* important and will change the way I would play Chosokabe, Tokugawa and Hattori fundamentally.

Also the new 40 unit battlefield just made Oda 3 times easier. The 20 man setup worked fine for me in terms of unit casualty rates, speed etc but with 40 units I really wish they'd reduce movement speed a little. It becomes very chaotic *very* quickly and it seems like speed on foot units has not been changed.

Also it seems the Unmannered Samurai for the Ninja now provides a 7% movement bonus as opposed to the 2% it used to give. Quite a significant upgrade.

[Andres]

Is it just me or did the game (Shogun II; I don't have FoTS yet) become less stable with the new patch. I used to have CTD's when clicking on the quicksave button or right after a battle, but I'm now having them more frequently. In fact, I can only play 3 or 4 turns before the game CTD's.

[Jacobin]

I have had not just a couple of CTDs but a blue screen of death complete crash in mid-battle.

Sieges seem to be the main problem as there is more going on graphically.

And I have also noticed my metsuke and monks levelling up a lot quicker just for sitting in towns - didn't realise ninja got the same benefit as well though, so could have saved all the money I've been spending on sending them out to sabotage farms just to gain XP.

[frogbeastegg]

Looks like I should leave my mod in place then. Thanks.

[Harleyquin12]

This is probably a trivial issue, but since the big FoTS patch was installed on my copy of Shogun 2 my game has almost completely lost the ability to play pre-battle speeches in the main Shogun 2 campaign. Yesterday was an exception as speeches were mysteriously reenabled (Field battle against Ashikaga Shogunate, citadel siege, field battle against Tokugawa army) on one playthrough only.

After an expected power outage and a restart, I find that speeches don't play anymore. Previously if I laid siege to a Christian rebel castle something along the lines of taking out Christians would play. Similarly battles with small forces would have a quick blurb on family and last thoughts.

I own all of the DLC with the exception of FoTS. I've installed and reinstalled the latest issue of Flash Player countless times to no avail.
There is nothing in the patch notes stating that pre-battle speeches were disabled in the main Shogun 2 campaign, I don't own FoTS so did they reduce the number of occasions when speeches would play in the new patch? I've altered no settings on my PC since the big patch so this issue is perplexing me.

[Jarmam]

Harley, have you tried verifying the integrity of your game cache in Steam? I also have all DLCs except FotS, but no problems with pre-battle speeches. Admittedly the TW games have a habit of crashing if a file isn't acting the way it's supposed to, but just in case try letting Steam detect the problem for you.

[Harleyquin12]

Did that again soon after my first post, again no dice. (Siege battle at Echizen with Tier 3 fort against Christian Rebels). The game somehow updated itself with a 20+ Mb mini-patch but I have no idea what changed.

Other problems I've noted:
1. The order for Encyclopaedia entries for buildings in Shogun 2 is messed up, in particular the final tier upgrades for various specialty buildings (e.g. Ninja fortress is lasted after Burakumin Village, not the Smuggling Network).
2. Nanban Trade Ships are far less accurate than pre-patch, in addition cannons no longer sink ships and the morale hit is less pronounced than previously (definitely undocumented, I had a replay pre-patch where one Nanban ship sank 7 Hattori warships without so much as a scratch, replaying that same battle after the patch saw the Nanban ship go up in flames. I had to delete that reply afterwards which is a bit of a shame).

[Andres]

I noticed the Nanban Trade Ships being less powerful too. It's still possible to win with two or three Nanbans against a half stack fleet, but at least, the opponent now manages to put one of the Nanbans on fire. Personally, I considered the Nanban ships a bit overpowered, so I don't necessarily find this change a bad thing.

[Harleyquin12]

Pre-patch Nanbans made Christianity a huge draw for Western Clans, although they're still powerful and save a lot on naval upkeep post-patch it seems a little unrealistic that ships can be struck 4-5 times with direct cannonballs and NOT sink. One pirate raid I repelled using Nanban ships saw one of the trade ships lose its main mast, get hit by half a dozen cannonballs, lose over half of its crew and still be one of the last ships to rout!

I suspect the programmers changed the way cannonballs work in Shogun 2 because of the big March patch accomodating the new expansion, but they did not document it.

[Jarmam]

So wait... Nanban Trade Ships aren't Battlecruisers with trade capabilities anymore?

Now that would change the way I play a lot of clans - can't say I'm sorry to hear this.

[Harleyquin12]

Another bug I've noticed with the new patch:

Prior to March I could not unlock a single battle-related achievement on Steam, now with the patch I unlock the common ones like Unnecessary Force as well the multiplayer-only Master of the Waves even though I don't play multiplayer at all...

[faker01]

Since the patch it is harder to beat the oda with the tokugawa. At least my tactic doesn't work anymore. So I have to bribe one stack and try to beat the other Stack in an very unfair fight. (I only played on legendary)

[Harleyquin12]

Continuing my Mori Hard campaign, I think I've pinpointed the exact problems I'm facing which were not an issue prior to the March patch:

1. All-samurai army led by any general against Christian rebels (Field/siege battle, attack/defence) will not have a pre-battle speech prior to army deployment, in contrast my Daimyo leading a samurai-majority army with 2 yari ashigaru, 2 bow ashigaru and 2 wako raiders does play a pre-battle speech when sieging a Shimazu castle.
2. Mori Nanban ship cannons can sink enemy ships PROVIDED said ships had red hull strength and almost no crew remaining prior to the battle. The cannons have no way of sinking enemy ships if the starting opponent's ships were undamaged at the start of the battle. I'm not sure if the presence of the Nihon Maru and its Inspire Fleet ability made the difference for the cannons.

If anything in this forum is kind enough to verify whether or not they're experiencing the same issues, please reply. Also, how do I contact Creative Assembly regarding the above issues in the hopes of getting them fixed in whatever patch is coming up in the pipeline?

[frogbeastegg]

Nanbans are nerfed that heavily? I'm a sad froggy - they were the only reason I could see to convert to Christianity! They were overpowered, but considering the time, expense and future hassle involved in converting, the reward needs to be suitably alluring.

I can't remember seeing any general's speeches since I installed FotS. I haven't tried a S2/RotS campaign yet, so I can't say whether it's a general lack or something specific to my campaign.

Prior to March I could not unlock a single battle-related achievement on Steam, now with the patch I unlock the common ones like Unnecessary Force as well the multiplayer-only Master of the Waves even though I don't play multiplayer at all...

That one has been around for a long time. I unlocked it in June, if I remember correctly I 'earned' it during a castle siege. I have never played a single MP game.

I've been given another MP achievement: my 'requiem of the dead' has been exchanged for 'skilled warrior'. The unlock date remains the same, meaning that I supposedly unlocked the achievement 4 months before it existed! No idea if I will be able to unlock requiem a second time.

1. The order for Encyclopaedia entries for buildings in Shogun 2 is messed up, in particular the final tier upgrades for various specialty buildings (e.g. Ninja fortress is lasted after Burakumin Village, not the Smuggling Network).

The in-game encyclopaedia, or the one you can access outside of the game via the steam menu?

Also, how do I contact Creative Assembly regarding the above issues in the hopes of getting them fixed in whatever patch is coming up in the pipeline?

There are bug threads on the official forums, totalwar.com. CA do read them, although they frequently do not reply. There's a few CA staff who read threads here too. I think that there is a way to submit bug reports via Sega's technical support pages.