GA in VI?

[pow902]

Am I the only one here who misses the GA mode for VI? I only play MTW in GA mode, because it´s so much funnier than having to conquer the world, wich gets pretty boring quick. The historical feelign you get when playing GA is great, and you don´t really feel compelled to expand more than you wish. You can be a relativley small nation and still pull off a grand win by economic sanctions etc etc against rivals.

In my opinion Glorious Achievments for Viking Invasion should be considered for some kind of patch, it would really help keeping the game alive for longer than a couple of map conquests.

Just my two cents.

[Sir Robin]

This one kind of confused me. Apparently the GA in MTW was broken by the 1.1 patch? There is a post at the .com about a corporate decision not to fix it.

I never noticed a problem besides incorrect scoring. Since I have never played a campaign all the way thru it was not a concern.

GAs may not be part of VI because of issues with GA in the regular MTW campaigns.

Hopefully they will have some sort of GA mode for RTW. Though from what I have been reading it seems like RTW will be based more on a mission tree.

[MalibuMan]

I take your point, I usually play MTW in GA mode, but I think the idea is that the period focused on in the VI campaign is even more combat-dominated than the medieval period (if that's possible).

[Skie Mirror Silvanoshei]

The patch did break MTW. If you look at GA in Early mode, you can see it. It has nothing but Crusades and Jyhads all the way down.

[squippy]

Quote[/b] (Skie Mirror Silvanoshei @ May 15 2003,20:32)]The patch did break MTW. If you look at GA in Early mode, you can see it. It has nothing but Crusades and Jyhads all the way down.
No it doesn't, I am currently playing a post-patch (1.1) game as the French, and it still has Notre Dame and the Italians had trade GA's

But I am EXTREMELY distressed to hear that there is no GA Mode in VI How was that allowed to happen? Of all the ways to play any conquest game, hunting-down-and-extermintaing-everyone-else is the LEAST fun, IMO. Why is it fun to have to manage 50 provinces while only needing to conquer a handfuly more to win? That is not entertaining IMO; I only play on GA mode and am quite worried about this developement. It substantially reduces the value of the game IMO, and is rather suddenly making me wonder whether I want to actually pay money for VI.

Is the GA component of the game moddable in any way? Can we create our own GA campaigns, or has anyone experimented with the GA component of pre-VI MTW?

[Shahed]

There IS GA in VI, just not for the Viking campaign.

[Brutal DLX]

I'm not such an expert concerning that time period, but I think it would be quite hard to put together enough GA goals for all factions, let alone balance the scoring so that every faction can get about the same maximum score.

And yes, the GA mode is still available for the original campaign in VI. Just not for the Viking Era.

[squippy]

Surely it couldn't be THAT hard; doing something as simple as instituting the Homelands rule would mean you could reasonably WIN by succesfully holding off the hordes without having to hunt down and personally kill every last peasant unit. Various Viking factions could get score by achiving Treasury levels or something. Really, how hard could it be? Victory conditions are one of the basic components of all game design, essentially their absence reduces the game from being a game to being just a sim engine.

[A.Saturnus]

I think the point of VI is that conquering Britain is the GA for every faction.
BTW, does anyone know if the GAs for the MTW campaign are fixed now?

[Brutal DLX]

Saturnus, there's a discussion about that in another thread. Bottom line is, even the devs aren't quite sure whether they are fixed, not fixed or even in need of fixing at all.

And squippy, just getting homeland points doesn't offer much of a change, especially since the AI will not stop conquering other lands while you sit in your homeland, thus continuously outscoring you with the conquest points it would get.
A GA mode would need at least a couple of faction specific goals,in my opinion, and frankly, none come to mind other than plunder all for Vikings, and convert Vikings to christianity for everybody else.

[squippy]

Quote[/b] (A.Saturnus @ May 16 2003,04:58)]I think the point of VI is that conquering Britain is the GA for every faction.
Yes, thats was I was afraid of. So why do I want to pay for that? I mean, its not even as if historically the Vikings did conquer Britain.

[Brutal DLX]

God, then don't buy it. There's more than just the VI campaign though. New units for original campaign, the excellent pre-battle screen, buildings not being destroyed unless the castle has fallen, vices and virtues gained update each turn, generals dying, sorted listing of strat pieces as well as provinces and sea zones, ability to add your own music and lots of minor tweaks.

[pow902]

Hmmm, it seems that I made people confused about VI, sorry folks, that was not my intention. I was referring to the viking era, but it still a pretty big issue in my mind. After all, a large part of the charm in VI is the viking era, and for the matter of what exactly the objectives would be I have a couple of ideas.

For Vikings, perhaps conquer some of the provinces they held IRL, the danelaw and maybe gain x amount of money from raiding until the year x. For Northumbrians, maybe construct x amount of abbeys before year x, for saxons to take some mercian provinces and vice versa, for Ireland to unite their island so on and so forth.

It´s really not that big a problem if the GA is not perfectly balanced or exaclty historical, since, after all, this game does not recreate history but instead gives us a chance to change it. To simply kill everyone and destroy all other cultures isn´t very rewarding in the long run.

The orgiginal MTW campaign is however improved in the VI expansion, new units is always fun and the new siege features greatly improves realism and excitement.

[Nowake]

People, CA said that this is going to look like Shogun very much ...

[DDogwood]

I would be thrilled to see a GA mode for VI. I also prefer to play MTW in GA mode - and the goals don't have to reflect what happened, just what various factions would have tried to do. The period and regions covered in VI were basically my specialization in grad school, so I could help come up with some more ideas for Glorious Achievements if someone has the technical know-how to mod a GA mode. The above suggestions are really good, BTW... all three Anglo-Saxon factions could have the unification of their lands as a goal; the Welsh should want to reconquer Britain, sure, but maybe they could win by maintaining a more advanced civilization than the Germanic barbarians. Converting the vikings should be a GA for all Christian factions, and the vikings should get something for staying pagan, and maybe even for dragging some other souls down with theirs... both the Scots and the Irish should try to unify Ireland (which the English called Scotland up until the 11th century). The Saxons historically developed the Fyrd into a potent enough force to drive back Viking raids - maybe they should have to build at least 16 units of Fyrdsmen in each Saxon province?

[Longasc]

Probably there is no GA-Victory in Viking Invasion because...

it is already short and combat-oriented. And the goal is to conquer all of Britain.

I think it would be rather dull to sit in Ireland and wait for the Vikings to convert to Christianity. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I think it would be hard to bring up fair GA goals for every tribe in VI, so they decided, its already all about combat, so let it be all about that.

Right now I am having lots of Archers to back up my Vikings. Enemies tend to run up slopes and retreat.

Okay, that might be realistic, and I had some really nice battles with the Picts that involved a clash between a stronger enemy force and my troops. That I won of course... :>

But I think the Infantry based system misses some nice tactics of MTW, because there is just so much lack of good Cavalry units and so many spear units in the game. And I am a f****in cavalry lover. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

The upside is that there are far more battles and the greater mobility (of the vikings at least) allows for some really nice raiding tactics.

[squippy]

Hmm, more oddness happening.

I installed VI and fired up a game as the Italians, BUT the controll trade GA I had seen previously was missing. All I've got are Crusade and Homeland GA's. The french still have Notred Dames and Krak de Chevaliers, tho... anyone know whats going on?

Also the behaviour has changed somewhat; previously a completed crusade disapeared, now it stays visible and red unless the province is lost at which point it clears again.

So, to ask again, can the GA's be modded? Do they also have a file that can be decoded? It seems to me that theres quite a lot of room for expanding this element of the game and it might add a bit of depth. Anyone know anything about that at all?

[HindSight2020]

Quote[/b] ]So why do I want to pay for that? I mean, its not even as if historically the Vikings did conquer Britain.

Are you really trying to play STW or MI or MTW or VI to the point where it reflects what happened in history? That's a pretty tall order. MI was blatantly unhistorical, since not one of the ships of the Mongols made it to Japan. How can you play MTW in order to get the game to the point of historical accuracy? I thought the goal of the game is to do what ifs. What if the Mongols actually landed? What if the Egyptians began expanding? What if the Vikings attacked Britain in a different way? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

I can see the reason for your disappointment, though I've never played GA mode.