Med2 Preview Event... the answers

[Soulflame]

Heya people,

So I'm just back from the preview event (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=68785). I still have to write out all my notes into something readable (I think all the people there can attest that my scribbling isn't the most legible of writings), but I don't want you to go empty handed today.

The event;
First off, a big thank you to all people involved in the preview, I had a great time and I definately learned a lot about Medieval, CA and Atari.
The people present from CA England were;
Ian Roxburgh (Marketing)
Mark Sutherns (Marketing)
James Whitston (Game/Historical battle designer)
From Atari Benelux;
Johan de Windt (Senior Product Manager)
Wouter van Vugt (Executive PR)
There was also a lady from Sega present, but she was very busy dealing with stuff, and the other half of the time I was talking to other people. So I didn't get to meet her.

I was also considered important enough that I was actually allowed to personally interview the CA people in advance of the presentations, as they 'really wanted to get to know the community and answer the questions they have'. Since I was the only one from the 'community' there (the rest were all game press), I got this special opportunity. It did however cut back on the time I could see the non-demo part of the game in action, but I think the questions were more important.

Allright, so here are some brief, major points. I'll make a bigger post tomorrow with some more stuff. Some questions (mostly the modding ones), they weren't sure about, since that's neary all done in Australia. The CA people present gave me their emailaddresses so I could email those questions later and they will get the answer from CA Australia (they said they could get answers probably within a week).


==========
*There are 21 factions, namely;
England, Holy Roman Empire, France, Venice, Spain => these 5 are starting factions.
Milan, Sicily, Hungary, Russia, Egypt, Moors, Danes, Scotland, Portugal, Byzantynes, Turkey, Poland => these are unlockable factions
Aztecs, Mongols, Timmerids, Papal States => These are non-playable in campaign, but you can play them in custom battles.
The reason those 4 are non playable is obvious; Aztecs appear through the discovery of America, the Mongols and Timmerids are invasion armies and Papal states involves the Pope.
*Unit speeds and kill speeds have been decreases;
I can't really put it in numbers, but it *is* down.
*There are 8 Historical Battles planned, I have played a demo which had the Battle of Avincourt (the famous battle which involves a lot of arrows and mud :p) and the battle of Pavia (where you play the HRE with Spain AI allies versus the French).
*A public demo is in the works and nearing completion
*They are aiming for minimum specs of; P4 1.8 Ghz Geforce4 128.
*Cow launching is IN!
*Timmerids get the funky rocket launchers
*Generals can't be given titles like in Med 1 :(
*No eras like in Med1, there is only one campaign period.
*Campaign battle replay... is uncertain. It *was* in, but they all thought it might have been recently removed. They asked if I thought it was an important feature. Since this question was asked multiple times, and I personally felt it is really nice as well, I said we would all really like it and they responded that they will try to convey that to CA Australia and hope they put it in.
==========

Allright, more coming tomorrow...
Cheers all,

Harm - aka Soulflame

[TB666]

*They are aiming for minimum specs of; P4 1.8 Ghz Geforce4 128.

Oh that stings
I had hoped that it would be lower then that.

[Bugout]

Very nice to get all that information from the destriers mouth as it were. (At least I will be able to have small armies with those computer requirements.)
Thanks Soulflame.

[Silver Rusher]

Unit speeds and kill speeds lowered eh? Added to the AI we gotta give that to CA. CA - 2 Whiners - 0

[Mount Suribachi]

Thanks for all that Soulflame, much appreciated

Regarding min specs, I'm amazed that that its so "low".

With this event and other things they're saying & doing, it seems to me that CA & SEGA are really putting in the effort to win back the community.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

The titles thing is very annoying, they should really have restored them.

[econ21]

The titles thing is very annoying, they should really have restored them.

That's weird - because they were sort of in BI (Romans could get "Count of the Saxon shore") and so on. Maybe there will be such offices (sort of as ancillaries), but just not one for each province? (As governors in RTW are just the appropriate resident general). If so, I would not have a problem with that. I found fussy over each province governor in MTW a bit of make-work - it was the funky titles that added command stars etc that really mattered. But to have no offices at all would rather diminish the RPG elements that I thought CA were trying to enhance.

BTW, great news on the kill and unit speeds.

[highlanddave]

thanks alot for your work, Soulflame and for posting some of the answers so quickly.

rats, that leaves me out, my machine is 1.6ghz

[r johnson]

Heya people,


==========
*There are 21 factions, namely;
England, Holy Roman Empire, France, Venice, Spain => these 5 are starting factions.
Milan, Sicily, Hungary, Russia, Egypt, Moors, Danes, Scotland, Portugal, Byzantynes, Turkey, Poland => these are unlockable factions
==========

Allright, more coming tomorrow...
Cheers all,

Harm - aka Soulflame

Yey I can have a proper war with Scotland ! I'm a happy boy thanks for the information soulflame

[Lord Adherbal]

CA - 2 Whiners - 0

if CA actualy changed those things that it's a victory for the whiners (regardless if they influenced these decisions or not), and certainly not a defeat. Unless you mean those whiners who whine just so they can whine but I don't think there are many of those around. Blind fanboyism is much worse and frequent.

[TB666]

if CA actualy changed those things that it's a victory for the whiners (regardless if they influenced these decisions or not),

I think it is more directed to the whiners that stated that CA will never change these things because they are going after the 7yo and so on.
Same people that stated that the AI will never be improved, that CA is turning TW into a click-fest and so on.
So in a way yes it is a "victory" for CA and not those whiners.

[|Heerbann|_Di3Hard]

Hi,

thank you for so much informations. :) Did you get any informations about the multiplayer? It is the most important part for our clan.

[Divine Wind]

Good news on the unit/kill speeds being decreased.

However im slightly disappointed with the Mongols and Timmurids being non playable factions. I was really looking forward to having a go with both those factions. Hopefully they are both moddable, and wont be CTD infested like the other emerging factions in RTW i.e. Slavs and Romano Brits.

[Dinsel]

Very nice.

Did you tell them about my wishes? To include the rebel fight inside the city?
And to include the possibility of controlling more then 1 faction. So you can play a campaign with your brother/friend by both/all of you controlling different factions?

[Bob the Insane]

Thanks for the replies man, and looking forward to the rest...

[x-dANGEr]

To be honest.. I only read this:

*There are 21 factions, namely;
England, Holy Roman Empire, France, Venice, Spain => these 5 are starting factions.

Now this sucks.. No muslims starting faction?! That means no extra content for any muslim faction.. GAH BAH DOH whtver!

[Martok]

Thanks again for the info, Soulflame. Some general comments:

1.) Slower unit & kill speeds good.
2.) Minimum specs about I expected (still have to upgrade my comp, though).
3.) No titles for Generals bad.
4.) No Eras bad (although I'm not surprised).
5.) I really really hope they include campaign battle replays. It's still one of my favorite features from MTW.

Now this sucks.. No muslims starting faction?! That means no extra content for any muslim faction.. GAH BAH DOH whtver!

Believe me, I've already raised this issue and went on about it at some length. Why they included the Spanish and the Venetians, but not the Byz and at least one of the Muslim factions, is simply beyond me.

[IrishArmenian]

I jig. I jig with glee.

[Satyr]

They had announced only one era long ago so that shouldn't be a shock to anyone. I would rather they get one era really well balanced than have 3 crappy ones. The rest is good to hear and in that I just build a Core2Duo 6600 machine I will be playing Huge battles on my computer.

[|Heerbann|_Di3Hard]

They had announced only one era long ago so that shouldn't be a shock to anyone. I would rather they get one era really well balanced than have 3 crappy ones. The rest is good to hear and in that I just build a Core2Duo 6600 machine I will be playing Huge battles on my computer.

The balance of the eras in mtw 1 was really good. Without eras it makes the multiplayer faster boring.

[Basileus]

The balance of the eras in mtw 1 was really good. Without eras it makes the multiplayer faster boring.

there will be eras for multiplayer though so dont worry mate:)

[redriver]

thanks alot for your work, Soulflame and for posting some of the answers so quickly.

rats, that leaves me out, my machine is 1.6ghz

same here and my video card's gf4 128mb :)

just bearly meet the min. specs. guess me not buyin' the game after all. will have to wait for the demo to find out.....

[Servius]

Thanks for the info. Please tell them that titles are really important and that they should put them back in. Working them back in as an ancillary would be fine I guess. The ancillary could be the generarl/governor's viceroy who actually governed the province in the general's stead or whatever.

Anyway, the titles were cool for RPG reasons, but they were also cool for combat reasons and they had a noticable impact on the ease of governing a province (if the governor had a high Dread rating).

I can do without the eras, but I can't tollerate more SimCity micro-managing of the plebs.

[Kourutsu]

GODS BE PRAISED!

My specs exceed the minimums!

[Tamur]

GODS BE PRAISED!

My specs exceed the minimums!

Anyone else hear that RTW Roman battle-over voice saying this?

[highlanddave]

Anyone else hear that RTW Roman battle-over voice saying this?

haha Tamur i thought the same thing. i do not mind my general saying that as long as he does not say his mother told him he must fight this battle.

*still stinging over my darn computer not making spec*

[luo bin]

There still to be things that everyone is missing. Im in with those that will miss titles for one. I just wonder how much of that which will miss will, in the end, be found in the add on. At least some of those things which we are talking about now will be left out until the "something invasion" gets released (here im thinking something with the islamic factions).

On a side note...balls...bloody min specs...thats still high.....Although im getting it anyway and ill try and twist my machine to cope with it...only when that fails will the word upgrade enter my head...

[Quickening]

There still to be things that everyone is missing. Im in with those that will miss titles for one. I just wonder how much of that which will miss will, in the end, be found in the add on. At least some of those things which we are talking about now will be left out until the "something invasion" gets released (here im thinking something with the islamic factions).

On a side note...balls...bloody min specs...thats still high.....Although im getting it anyway and ill try and twist my machine to cope with it...only when that fails will the word upgrade enter my head...

Aye same here. My PC is a 1.7 Celeron with 756MB of RAM and a GeForce FX 5200. Ive had the beast five years now and it's run games when even the developers claimed otherwise. Medieval 2: Total War shall be no different!*




*I pray

[Zatoichi]

Thanks Soulflame - looking forward to seeing the rest of your info! Very decent of you to give up your chance to see the non-demo stuff in order to get your/our questions answered!

[Mount Suribachi]

Thanks for the info. Please tell them that titles are really important and that they should put them back in. Working them back in as an ancillary would be fine I guess. The ancillary could be the generarl/governor's viceroy who actually governed the province in the general's stead or whatever.

Like econ21 said, they are in BI as transferrable ancillaries, and also in mods like RTRPE with the Legion banners and stuff. The only thing lacking from MTW is the loss in loyalty when you strip a general of a title.