May 9 Patch OUT NOW! Alt F4 fixed! Max 14k funds! Flanking penalties! And More!

[Dionysus9]

Ok, the new patch is out and while its downloading and installing I have nothing to do but check the release notes. There are a number of substantial changes and some cool stuff in this patch! http://www.totalwar.com/news/5077).

Here's a brief summary of just some of the things the notes claim to have done:
Alt F4 "fixed" (loss and ranking penalty for droppers)
14k is now max funds in MM battles!
Warrior monk units toned down.
Inspire bonuses greatly reduced.
Flanking morale penalties increased.
Avatar customizations now visible in battle.
Team MM battles no longer always small funds.
Hold Firm and Scares Enemy fixed.
Can't clone vets.
Can't delete heros (and if you deleted them, you now have them back)
Random ranking point loss fixed.


Unit changes:
• Increased multiplayer costs of Cannon bune and Nihon Maru to 4000 and 5000
• Morale for Warrior Monks reduced by 2
• Naginata Warrior Monks melee attack reduced by 3
• Bow Cavalry cost reduced to 650
• Katana Cavalry cost reduced to 800
• Yari Cavalry cost increased to 850
• Fire Projecting Mangonels cost increased to 1500
• Fire Rockets cost increased to 1800
• European Cannons cost increased to 1500


This one is cool: "New weather gameplay effects added: Fog now causes a range penalty to all missile units, and causes non-commanding units to be hidden at a distance of 600m or more, even if they are out of cover ."

THANK YOU C.A. FOR LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND TAKING ACTION.

Could this patch be a Heroic Victory?

[CanCritter]

no..

[Swoosh So]

YES and more finally theyre adding the kind of maps most of us have been asking for, these maps are tournament quality really great imo. Great changes to matchmaker settings as well.

Great patch! and Great job CA! Credit where its due. :)

[Kalle]

I agree with Swoosh and Dionysus! Looks really good!

Thanks!

Kalle

[Kocmoc]

I didnt play yesterday, but it looks promising. I gonna judge on it the next days, after I played some.

[East East Wild]

The good news to me is the nerfing of naginata monks, monks morale in general and the re-adjustment of arty accuracy/price. But the best of all for me is that Avatars are correctly represented by player's customisation. Hooray!

Previously, the game play is generally good and flanking morales penalties doesn't seems to have any problems described by some players here. The battles I have played so far feels right, the fights are long and flank/rear charges can be tide turners... (with the exception of naginata monkey spam of course). Soh sooooh... what's wrong with flank charges now? No idea..

While the patch seems good. I believe it is a little too early to celebrate.

One thing though, now there are new monk units ie; hero monkey, nun~key and monkey cav... how are we to unlock these units? Honestly, why is Onabushi not a playeble unit for MP too???

I did notice some good stuff though, despite the bugged white lotus retainer being removed(weeps...my precious drops). There are now of new retainers with side effects and bonuses available as battle drops now. Koooeeeelll!

[Sp00n]

Nice job CA, flanking actually works well now and MM games are good at 14k which imo seems to be the most balanced funds, I'm also pleased with the changes to certain cav costs.

Good riddance to the dull 22k games.

Nice to have some new maps, Aki seems almost the same as the old Shogun map.

One thing give us Totomi :)

[FasT]

Oh great ;) now maybe it's worth while playing now..still gotta lvl up , but flanking bonuses increased back etc and no more alt f4 .. And no more havin to farm insane 22k armies units..
Just hope it feel rite now and hopefully skill matters more than the armies u pick...

[chrisj]

ALT-F4 May be fixed, but they've screwed up. Any disconnection of any player automatically gives that team a loss. My friend got dropped in our 2v2 matchmade and the battle kept going. Me + AI beat the two players we were faced with, and we now have an additional loss and -1 win streak to our record.

[Swoosh So]

Oh great ;) now maybe it's worth while playing now..still gotta lvl up , but flanking bonuses increased back etc and no more alt f4 .. And no more havin to farm insane 22k armies units..
Just hope it feel rite now and hopefully skill matters more than the armies u pick...

Its well worth it fast this game if nurtured correctly could be better than stw1 MP, more balance needed ofc and also a big step from CA to make many of the campaign maps available for hosted games like shogun1s 500+ multiplayer maps (community made).

[Chimpyang]

On a purely MP level, the patch is a success for me. (It's added even more instability into the game for my system though. But that's a sep. issue) Congrats CA. Good job on the patch.

[East East Wild]

Nope...somthing seem amiss, played a coupled of MM matches vs lvl 10s, took the ususal balance army with decent amount of missile troops.
All 4 lvl 10 player took 2 to non missile troops and spam swords. Got over ran by a direct charge, no manuveuring required. WTF...

Did the same, spam melee or take minimal missile troops. Fight against lvl 10s and over ran those unwary bugger with just meele troops. So much for the the perfect patch, GG baby.

[Swoosh So]

Melee spam is easy to stop m8.

[East East Wild]

It was also many easy wins for me anyway once I do melee spam against my oponents. I don't even need to manuveour. Just straight up with ashigaru as meat shield.

No offense, but if everyone who are not aware of this are beaten by melee spam despite bringing their usual "balance" builds precusor to the patch, something is probably wrong with the system.

[Kocmoc]

WoW! Im impressed so far. Moral is back! Units start wavering and rout even, if outplayed badly. Movement means something.
Very good patch, good job and well done CA!

Im glad, that we got heard and many, already almost all, suggestion found its way into the patch.
A huge step in the right direction, Im very pleased, and this actual happens once in a year…

Now lets keep working on it, finetuning is needed, some polish here and there. I have to admit, that I didnt thought Im gonna see this happen.
S2 is very close to STW.

Thank you guys! You had to take a lot of critic lately, but you hammered a hardcore patch out! You showed us!

[Zarobien]

Nope...somthing seem amiss, played a coupled of MM matches vs lvl 10s, took the ususal balance army with decent amount of missile troops.
All 4 lvl 10 player took 2 to non missile troops and spam swords. Got over ran by a direct charge, no manuveuring required. WTF...

Did the same, spam melee or take minimal missile troops. Fight against lvl 10s and over ran those unwary bugger with just meele troops. So much for the the perfect patch, GG baby.

I confirm this.

Just 15 minutes ago I was playing against 8 star gen with ridiculous amount of loansword ashigaru. I was exited on the amount of corpses I'm gonna leave on the battlefield with my balanced elite samurai army... He basicly run towards me and by the time he passed my both flanks (I frequently let opponent do this.) My front line where hammering down his loandwords and my cav was sandwitching them... My whole army started to rout... I mean? "Hey theres loansword ashigarus... lets run like real elite samurais!" Something whent wrong with that...

25 minutes earlier I was keeping hill top with spear covering the back side. My swords where upfront and equally matched & supported by general... Opponent moved cav on my backside; few arrows skirmished themself there for opponents cav to take... I didnt think much else than "ah, the weak hearted are getting honorable death and we go melee out this one like usual"... But; 2/3 of my army decided to rout?!? (The last 1/3rd rout after the gen died.) So somethings wrong with that...

Guess I go test the "Ashigaru Loansword chiken run" tacktic... Easy wins if its like this.

[Kocmoc]

I confirm this.

Just 15 minutes ago I was playing against 8 star gen with ridiculous amount of loansword ashigaru. I was exited on the amount of corpses I'm gonna leave on the battlefield with my balanced elite samurai army... He basicly run towards me and by the time he passed my both flanks (I frequently let opponent do this.) My front line where hammering down his loandwords and my cav was sandwitching them... My whole army started to rout... I mean? "Hey theres loansword ashigarus... lets run like real elite samurais!" Something whent wrong with that...

25 minutes earlier I was keeping hill top with spear covering the back side. My swords where upfront and equally matched & supported by general... Opponent moved cav on my backside; few arrows skirmished themself there for opponents cav to take... I didnt think much else than "ah, the weak hearted are getting honorable death and we go melee out this one like usual"... But; 2/3 of my army decided to rout?!? (The last 1/3rd rout after the gen died.) So somethings wrong with that...

Guess I go test the "Ashigaru Loansword chiken run" tacktic... Easy wins if its like this.

You might want to read the patchnotes once again and after that you will realize, that the general dont give moral support anymore.
movement means something again, Its easy to counter rusher.


moral 5 units, can get pushed below moral 2, with bad omen, general (-1 moral retainer) and a monk… just to call a few penalties. there are more.

[chrisj]

WoW! Im impressed so far. Moral is back! Units start wavering and rout even, if outplayed badly. Movement means something.
Very good patch, good job and well done CA!

Im glad, that we got heard and many, already almost all, suggestion found its way into the patch.
A huge step in the right direction, Im very pleased, and this actual happens once in a year…

Now lets keep working on it, finetuning is needed, some polish here and there. I have to admit, that I didnt thought Im gonna see this happen.
S2 is very close to STW.

Thank you guys! You had to take a lot of critic lately, but you hammered a hardcore patch out! You showed us!

I absolutely agree with this. CA have done everything right for multiplayer this patch, and I'm happy to learn to play the game differently. I'm not sure who to blame for how unsteady the multiplayer is, and I can't tell if it's the same or worse than before the patch.

[East East Wild]

You might want to read the patchnotes once again and after that you will realize, that the general dont give moral support anymore.
movement means something again, Its easy to counter rusher.


moral 5 units, can get pushed below moral 2, with bad omen, general (-1 moral retainer) and a monk… just to call a few penalties. there are more.

If that is the reason, I honestly do not see how this patch is the all so "WOW! I'M IMPRESSED..." patch the people are talking about.

Previously, the battles hang in a balance where the untimely death of the general means certain defeat. Now, I see generals dying but solider flying. I can lose my general and still crushed my enemy with melee spam. Same thing happens to the people to spam melee against me, I killed his generall early but his troops still fight like demon possesed. Now I would say "WOW! I'M IMPRESSED!!!" to those ashigarus.

By the way, thanks for the tips to counter melee spam with retainers, if only we can tell what the oponent is taking every match...

One more thing, Katanan cav spam just came out in the game, a lvl 6 brought an all katanna cav army suround my army which usually has a mix of spears, swords, cav and missle, charged me and clean me of the battlefield despite me forming a defensive against his charge.

Now I am truly impressed by that. Lvl 6 beating lvl 10 and his semi elite balance army, with just a katana cav army.

Maybe that extra penalty to flanking and removing generals moral boost is making the game fun for cav spammers and melee rushers, but it is definately not fun for me. Very disapointed.

[Sp00n]

I've played a number of games now against swords rushers, I'm not seeing any issue I've beaten each one fairly easily over a number of different maps, with spear blocks cav flanking/charge breakup charging and missiles. Patch updates seem to be working well to me, its playing more like the original game which is a good thing imo.
Also seen a large number of Cav Archers being used again they are tricky but easily overcome to an experienced player with a balanced setup. I do always take at least one form of morale penalty from the list Kocmoc mentioned.

I mainly noticed a larger increase in missile use recently.

[Dionysus9]

East East-- its hard to reply to your post without a replay. Did you perhaps happen to record the replay on that? Level 6 has an advantage against Level 10 in that their general costs almost nothing compared to yours. It gives them extra units.

As Rocinante mentions-- the changes require an adjustment of playing style. If you are worried about cav spam and melee rushers then take a bunch of naginata monks?

It seems like people are just struggling with the new style. There are complaints of cav spam, melee spam, and ranged spam. If there was one over-whelming unit or unit-type then we wouldn't see such a broad set of spamming types.

[AMP]

It's p2p, so that still leaves room for other exploits, plus you have steam drops giving you losses. Dedicated servers are the best option I would think...

I would've taken a different path with monk such as lowering it's combat bonus vs cav and lowering morale (and morale across the board) and never touched it's melee combat points. There is no point upgrading bonus vs cav when it's starting bonus is that high, where upgrading melee combat points is good enough because it goes towards cav and melee combat. Monks are there for warcry and their still high morale, but not so much a warrior in combat, it's all for the best I guess.

Seems like people are saying spams vs balanced armies win where balanced armies are at a serious disadvantage. I don't have much trouble against spams with a balanced army, but maybe it's just me. When people do link replays or ask for advice most disagree with what I say anyway or don't know what I mean, so I'll just stick to playing the game and reading the forums about the complaints.

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

Why aren't you all criticising the game,calling it crap and calling CA corrupt(it makes very good dialogue and description for a script I'm writing,so it can reveal er...other stuff.)

[AggonyKing]

Why aren't you all criticising the game,calling it crap and calling CA corrupt(it makes very good dialogue and description for a script I'm writing,so it can reveal er...other stuff.)its within your right to criticize any product that you buy, especially when said product does not meet the standards expected for its price. This game's mp was boderline unplayable at times before patch 2. Now its much better, but still needs more work as there are still stability issues and of course, the ladder issue.

which of course brings up the question of why this game couldn't be pushed back a month to fix most of these issues. I would had gladly paid more for a more stable game.