What do you do to keep the SP game fresh?

[econ21]

I need suggestions from people about how to keep the SP game fun. I played a lot before Christmas, but find it hard to keep my interest in the game now. But I do still think it is a game that can be great fun - I really enjoyed taking part in a couple "Who wants to be king of..." games in the Entrance Hall, whereby people play out a reign and then pass on the save game.

I guess the problem is that after about 50-100 years, when you have, say, wiped out another faction, the game becomes rather unchallenging but very slow to play out to the end.

I'm wondering what to do - I tried playing different factions, eg Poland most recently, but paradoxically the problem is more acute with difficult factions as you more or less have to expand quickly to survive whereas you can play a slower game as a bigger faction.

Some possibilities:

(1) Try high and late eras - I've only played early, as I like starting from scratch.
(2) Raise the difficulty level - I tend to play on "normal" as the combat results "feel" more right.
(3) Play the WesMod - tried an earlier version and it was more challenging, although I have a conservative preference for the familiar.
(4) Restrict trade routes - getting lots of money makes the game too easy
(5) Play iron man: yes, I confess I don't do this and it could be fun as the AI can sometimes really surprise you.
(6) Impose some other house rules - I tend to play GA and not attack other factions but could try to create some others (eg not take ahistorical territories?)
(7) Wait for VI I'm not too keen on the new campaign, but would appreciate the promised fixes for trade, GAs, inbetween battle saves etc.

What do other people still playing the SP game do to keep it fresh?

[terryblack825]

Sometimes I try to achieve a certain goal with one faction like destroying the byzantines with the Turks or controlling the iberian pennisula with Spain and trying to get a million florins.

[Lord Of Storms]

I would say try some of the Mods that are available, some are quite good and change the play just enough to make a good game that much more interesting, I started to get bored as you did , and took to learning about Modding for myself , I spent alot of time in the Dungeon downloaded various Mods , faqs, read me's whatever info I could get on Modding. To me it opened up a new perspective to be able to make a great game that much better by adding and modifying in your own personal touches. I would suggest The Lords Napoleonic Unit mod v 1.5 (look for the nap. mod thread in the Dungeon for a link) It has musket and carbine units, Cavalry, Hussars, Dragoons. It is a lot of fun, also I have played the Patrician Mod I thought it was excellent very well done. So for me that is what made the game interesting again http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Nowake]

What "Play the iron man" means, Simon?

[econ21]

Sorry, playing iron man means don't reload to replay a turn if things turn out unexpectedly bad.

[Nowake]

Thx ... I never do that, it doesn't seems fair and I guess would make me feel bad.

As about keeping the game fresh: take a pause, don't play a while ... that's what happened to me when playing Shogun, and that's what I did; after a month, I started again playing like crazy.

[Praylak]

For some reason I just can't get bored of playing this game. I've never seen that in any other title and I own hundreds. But I do tend to take breaks between campaigns.

One thing I would like to add to your list is playing as a police faction. My only goal, besides establishing a reasonable sized empire is to make great effort in stopping aggressors. Sometimes it can actually get pretty hairy helping out two other factions at the same time that are in trouble. And it always includes a good sized fleet, so that I can get to factions that need help. What I do is I just raid, pillage and kill the aggressor to weaken him. I don't keep their provinces. Still it can be difficult, and I don't always succeed but it makes for grand entertainment. My allies of course really appreciate it.

[NateEngle]

Just recently I found myself in that "bored" situation and took a quick stroll through some old favorites - flew a couple missions in RedBaron3D, played a game of MOO2, and considered starting a game of Civ3, but before long the call of the battlefield was drawing me back in. And rather than the harder difficulty levels, I found that I had more fun playing at normal since I agree with you that the combats make more sense when my MAAs and light cav aren't slaughtered by enemy archers.

My last two games have both been high (middle) period, first as the Russians and then as the Danes, and in each case the focal point that kept the game interesting was a deliberate decision to go head-to-head with the Mongols (either to defend my Russian turf, or as a way of helping out a Russian ally who was getting chewed up).

I could see how any "house rule" might lend a little extra spice. I'm tempted to play my next game as a Catholic faction that deliberately gets ex-communicated from early on and plays under that as a handicap for the entire game (getting re-ex-communicated as needed). I mean, screw the pope, and the horse he rode in on. Who does he think he is telling me to leave the poor little French alone?

[Satyr]

I have been hooked on this game like no other. I have been playing since the 2nd week it was out and I still can't get enough of it. HOWEVER I have loaded Wes's mod to make the challenge harder. I do play by ironman rules (no reloads, no spies, no assasins, no heir or king killing) and I just lost my first campaign in many months because I had 8 factions attacking me at the same time, all with good quality troops. I play all factions and all time periods. I make it a point to be very aggressive and to try to stretch too thin and then see if I can hold on and avoid rebellions and many opponents at once. That is the challenge. That is why I play, to be challenged. Oh, and to watch a company of cav charge into, break thru, and rout a company of infantry. What fun

[NewJeffCT]

Well, I've only had the game since this Christmas, thanks to my wife who got it for me... but, I can see how one can see the game getting stale. I try to do something different... So, this time around as the Egyptians, I built up my navy, and decided to invade Sweden and Norway to see if I could hang on to them so far away from home So far, so good, and now I have Finland, plus all the English Isles & Flanders... as well as my original Egyptian territories. But, I'm worried that either the Almos or the Byz can cut me off with their big fleets. I tried to help out those two factions as "Crusade stoppers" - and the Catholic factions are down to France with one territory under siege by me, the Pope with two, the Italians with Corsica & Sardinia and the Polish with Poland and a few other territories. Everything else is either me, the Almos, Byzantines or the Horde...

[insolent1]

Simon,
I've been playing this game since it was released last summer & i'm bored. I think Wes's mod is good but i don't like some of teh changes he has made to the units ie nizaries are chivmaa. This takes away from the individuality of the factions. Btw I think some of teh changes are good like lower support costs & such.
U should try teh Praetorian mod its great the roman legion unit is really well done.
Btw i was thinking about starting the thread The Sultanate of the Seljuk Turks with the Gloriuos achievment of elimating christinanity from Europe http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif
PM me if u r interested

[ShadesPanther]

ok use the WEs mod and mod things you dont like eg byz inf size ( it dont seem right at 60) and other things untill you get a nice balance. I would install it just for the smarter AI.

Or

You can play MP and everynow and then play single player. It is really fdun to try new tactics and such during battles. Tho the AI is nowhere near as good as even the worst player online. I used to get bored after conquering europe many times with turks and byz MP changed that and breathed new life into the single player.


Modding makes it much better as it make it the way you want it or go online and have lots of fun and enjoy single player( it is a great pity you need default settings for MP so you have to swap it alot or not at all)

[Swordsman]

Mod, mod, then if you get tired-- mod some more http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

While I know some people aren't real comfortable doing this, I've found the Gnome editor a relatively simple way to make conservative changes. I haven't messed with combat stats much as I too like the "flavor" of different factions.

But (IMO), some simple changes like lowering support costs a bit, reducing build times, streamlining building requirements for units, etc., can not only give the AI an easier "decision tree" (and reduce impacts of "province swapping"), but can also reduce the time it takes to play a turn (not counting battles of course).

One of the great things about this game is the ease with which you can personalize it. I started with the "No Agents" mod because I just didn't like the gazillions of extra pieces on the map and felt they were a distraction. Just tweak it until YOU are happy with the gaming experience. Don't like Crusades? Can 'em Longbows don't shoot far enough for you? Crank up the range This is the only thing that keeps me playing MTW relentlessly. If it wasn't so easy to "tweak", I probably would have stopped playing it regularly some time ago.

BTW, the synergy in this forum is amazing-- someone comes up with a basic idea, other people add to it (or denounce it http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif ) and at the end is usually a darn good option for modding. All the companies that pay thousands to consultants to teach "brainstorming" techniques would do well to scroll through some of the threads here.

[Lord Godfrey]

I just started a new campaign in the Late era as Poland to get a new perspective on the game. I usually play as the English starting in the early period. I have never progressed far enough to see pikemen or cannon units and want to try them out.

Once I got past the initial learning phase, I stopped reloading. I do use assassins and spies as I feel they are part of the game, but only in a limited role-playing sense. I have found that role-playing as much as possible keeps the game interesting. As the English, I never aligned with a Muslim faction, and tried to stay on the good side of the Pope.

I haven’t tried any of the mods yet, mostly because I haven’t played enough to get bored. Hopefully VI will extend the life of the game, but I have certainly gotten more for my initial investment in MTW than I have with any other game I have purchased.

[YunDog]

I like to build up - so I can build all the special units for each faction and then build huge uber armies and then send them on huge expeditions like to take constantonople or to chase some other factions king around the map trying to wipe his faction out in a single battle or siege a citadel or fortress with huge seige cannon. The last faction I played was the turks - they were hard intially cause they cant get boats - by the end of the game I was having huge battles 6000 v 6000 against the pope and after I chase the almo sultan all over the map I finally trapped him and his race collapse causing all these minor factions to appear like the swiss, burgundeons and saxons. Basically I still like to play for the huge battles with all the top line units and titled heros etc and role play that bit like oh no the king of jerusulem was killed etc. Some of the battles I fought near the end game were some of the greatest battles I had ever fought. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ShadesPanther]

I found a very nice trick.
Remove the ability to build peasants and urban militia and the cpu now uses knights and good units

[Galestrum]

role play

mod

follow history

dont use cheats or wimp outs

[NewJeffCT]

The only time I have ever reloaded was when I thought I had hit pause early in the battle to use the bathroom, only to find out I did not…you don’t get a replay/reload in real life.

But, some ideas... if you are a Catholic faction, try to follow the Pope and stay on his good side. If he calls for a Crusade, do you best to launch one at the offender. Do not attack other Catholic factions – concentrate on the infidel Almohads, Egyptians, Turks and Byzantines. Try to launch a crusade to Antioch or Tripoli and then hold on to it. If another Catholic faction attacks you, just counterattack that once and withdraw when the Pope asks you to. Then, ask for peace.

If you are Muslim faction (me currently) I am having fun converting all of Europe to Islam. I have at least 1 alim in every province, and I put an imam and an alim in the Papal States and Rome. And, I tried to snag Sweden early for the iron and the trade goods, and I have held on to it. My goal is to wipe out all Catholicism, and right now, the Poles have 3 provinces, the Italians 2 and the Pope 2. All the rest is Almohad, Byzantine, Egyptian or the Golden Horde.

[Brutal DLX]

Well, I purposely didn't play as the Turks in a campaign, I saved them for the stretch drive http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif This will last until May, I presume...

[Kensai Achilles]

if u've tried mods then try playing as rebels on campaigns. we can actually lose easily playing as rebels, so that adds some excitement if not annoyance http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif.

or try mp games get new friends and do fun stuff.

[Papewaio]

Quote[/b] (Simon Appleton @ April 09 2003,09:42)]Sorry, playing iron man means don't reload to replay a turn if things turn out unexpectedly bad.
Unless the unexpectantly bad thing is after winning the last third tough battle in a row the game crashes to desktop...

[RTKLamorak]

gah y not drop sp altogether and come online to play an entirely new experience and one that keeps its fun for longer than single player could ever do imo i played mabye 3-4 hours SP in the whole time ive had this game (since day it came out). I must have played on average 4 hours a day everyday online since that day, every single day except brithdays/funerals http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif). im just doing my bit to try to enlarge mtw multiplay gaming community as best i can, so at least give it a go for me http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
however after playing online i doubt u'l get much enjoyment from single player, its just to easy once you've played skilled humans.

Seriously tho guys you really havent experienced the brilliance of this game until you play a 4v4 online with 7 of your frineds.. it just plain rocks

[ichi]

Simon:

In addition to the numerous ideas given by others (role play, multi-play, mod, take a break, vary the period and faction, impose rules like: no fleets, no aggression, total aggression, Iron Man) I would suggest trying the Historic Campaigns and then some testing/experimentation.

I also bounce back and forth between MTW and STW, SP and MP. I get ideas in MP that I use in SP, and vice versa.

I rarely see anyone talk about the Historic Campaigns in here, but they can be fun. Nice diversion.

Try going into Custom Battles and run 10 tests with Order Foot Soldiers against Italian Infantry, both in Hold Formation. Then do it again with the OFS in Attack at Will (am I giving away the fact that I do not have a life). Or match up Boyars with Byz Cav.

Or. . . If you really need a challenge, try:

Play SP with tough rules, like you can only take provinces alphabetically (start with Anjou, then Champagne, then Friesland . . .), or only with Gay Generals (AKA the Fruity Faction) or no armies, just agents.

Play with the monitor turned off (very hard, improves other senses like smell and hearing) (alternately, stay really drunk throughout a campaign)

Finally, when I get bored I come to the Org and BS. When it gets really bad I load SP on expert and just attack the French. If all else fails, I go clean out the garage.

ichi

[Aelwyn]

Something I had been meaning to do for a while, was marrying every heir I ever get to their sister (one of the princesses). I've been meaning to try this out sometime, but just never have. I want to see how hard it is to keep loyalty up to a king that's the seed of several generations of inbreeding. Might be interesting http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Brutal DLX]

Yes, I second ichi. Historical campaigns are fun, there is often one trick you have to figure out in order to win the battle. I recommand playing these campaigns.