View Full Version : Creative Assembly Origins of the Total War series?
Urban Legend
08-10-2003, 10:48
Did the developers of this series ever mentioned that they were inspired by some other older game?
In particular, Centurian: Defender of Rome? It sure was easier as the generals tend to be in front.
I still have its combat music playing in my mind.
I think that history inspired them a lot http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Darkchampion
08-10-2003, 13:55
I agree with fire http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Hamburglar
08-11-2003, 03:53
Actually, the game thats closest to the Total War series is
LORDS OF THE REALM II
In it, you pick which map to play on. The maps are usually the size of the Viking Campaign map. Its usually a country like France, Germany, England,etc divided up into various provinces.
Game goes in Seasonal Turns. On those turns you choose how to spend money amassing weapons, improving your castle.
Castle types are Fort, Motte and Bailey Fort, Norman Keep, Stone Castle, and Royal Castle.
You choose how to take care of your farms, etc.
Provinces have Happiness ratings that can go up and down due to harvests, disasters, invasions, change of ownership, conscription, taxation etc. If they get too low you get a peasant rebellion like in MTW.
You have Armies on the map that you put together out of various units - Peasants, Archers, Crossbowmen, Macemen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, and Knights. You can also hire Mercs when they appear.
When you invade someone elses province and meet their army, it turns into a little map with a real time battle like in MTW. Armies can get kind of big, with up to 1500 soldiers each.
After fighting a field battle the enemy often has troops in the castle which you must siege, build catapults, battering rams, siege towers, and then fight a battle to take the castle.
Game is a LOT like a more vanilla version of Total War.
What's funny is that it actually had a more advanced diplomacy than Total War ever did. You could send money and all sorts of supplies like food and weapons to allies and also ask allies to attack enemy provinces and ask them to relieve sieges on your own castles. Oftentimes they'd respond. Pretty good system.
Depends on how you look at the inspiration. The type of game might have come from those games, but I believe the system of tactical battles comes from the movie RAN. There you can see the Yari Samurai, the Yari Cavalry, the Musketeers, the Samurai Archers and the Hatamoto of the Daimyo. They are exactly the same and formed in the same formations we see.
Yes, I think the developers have said in interviews that Kurosawa movies were a big influence on S:TW.
There's also a number of similarities between S:TW and the clunky old Lawrence Schick/Sid Meier game Sword Of The Samurai.
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Sword+of+The+Samurai
I'm pretty certain they drew the inspiration for the No-Dachi from that Ashigaru warrior in 'The Seven Samurai' and his crazy usage of his No-Dachi. The helmet he wears in the final battle looks very much like the No-Dachi helmet and the Sode looks similar too (duh). At least I remember it that way, maybe I just played STW too much. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif
Yeah, hamburglar, Lords of the Realm was a fun game in its day and, now that I think about it, it does have a lot in common with the TW series. I think it's still installed on my computer somewhere http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Hamburglar
08-18-2003, 08:56
That Lords of the Realm game had some cool movies in it if I remember. Every battle win/loss siege win/loss etc had a cool battle scene in it. And when you killed off the last men of a faction you got to see a movie of you executing their king.
It was random stuff every time - I remember there being hangings, beheadings, stocks, torture, burning, and just throwing them in a dungeon.
You forgot about the random things they(the nobles) would say after you beat them. My favorite of all was the knight,
Quote[/b] ]What?? You beat ME?? You must have cheated
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
I loved that game.
The AI opponents had character traits, too.
The arrogant and over-confident Knight, the Bishop relying on economy more than on warfare (sort of), the Lady, snake like with her cold smile not hesitating to stabb your back and the noble Baron, honest diplomat, who will be a faithful ally for a time, but still has his own coronation at the top of his to-do list.
Yeah, the bishop would always start building a royal castle(the best one) from scratch as soon as he conquered a county. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif That takes a lot of resources, and he almost never had them, but you wanted to take the county before it finished, so you could have it. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif
[Edit]And you could send them compliments to improve your standing with them(only the first couple, then they get suspicious and dislike you), and no matter what you typed the AI responded with something like:You flatter me with your kind words. It was funny to totally cuss them out(even though they were AI), and see them respond like that. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
Hamburglar
08-19-2003, 00:08
No matter what in every single game I would wipe out the Countess as soon as I could. I never really had problems with the Bishop much. The Knight was an overconfident ass though. I do remember being able to insult the enemy too about how their mother dresses them funny.
Ah yes, dissing their fashion sense. Those were the days... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif
Cant help feel that someone, somewere along the design route got a hold of the old die and counter game Imperium Romanum.... guess i'll find out soon enough when RTWhits the shelves http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
GilJaysmith
08-19-2003, 21:54
Empires of the Middle Ages was behind a few aspects of Medieval. (Those who know what I'm talking about may be pleased to hear that there are no plans as yet to borrow a game design from The Sword and the Stars... those who don't are referred to www.boardgamegeek.com.)
The board game Samurai was, as far as I know, an inspiration for some of Shogun's design.
And in the very beginning, it seems there was a tech demo, written in machine code, of hundreds of little men charging over a bunch of hill splines...
I remember reading an article in a gameing monthly....they said they wanted to build an engine they could use for a series of games in different periods. It looked great. They have exceeded all expectations. If you guys should read this, damn fine job on the series. Thank you for all the fun,
Dimeolas
Sir Robin
08-20-2003, 21:18
I love those old wargames.
It is hard to find a game today not heavily influenced by earlier games.
One day we may be reading about how their game was influenced by the Total War series. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Captain Fishpants
08-21-2003, 16:56
Quote[/b] (GilJaysmith @ Aug. 19 2003,15:54)]Empires of the Middle Ages was behind a few aspects of Medieval. (Those who know what I'm talking about may be pleased to hear that there are no plans as yet to borrow a game design from The Sword and the Stars... those who don't are referred to www.boardgamegeek.com.)
The board game Samurai was, as far as I know, an inspiration for some of Shogun's design.
And in the very beginning, it seems there was a tech demo, written in machine code, of hundreds of little men charging over a bunch of hill splines...
Gil's right on this one: the idea of provinces having different religious populations emerged from SPI's EoMA.
We didn't include language groups for provinces, which was a feature of the boardgame, so that you had a harder time ruling over people if you didn't at least speak a related language. This might have been a bit of micromanagement too far
The Sword and the Stars was probably a better game, though. I still have both, tucked away in my big collection of old SPI titles and other boardgames.
I also think we used some Wargames Research Group army lists as a starting point for some research on getting troop mixes right for different factions. WRG stuff can be a little dry for the unitiated into the mysteries of figure wargaming, but it's remarkably completist http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
MikeB ~ CA
Praetorian
08-21-2003, 17:07
Quote[/b] (Hamburglar @ Aug. 10 2003,21:53)]Actually, the game thats closest to the Total War series is
LORDS OF THE REALM II
In it, you pick which map to play on. The maps are usually the size of the Viking Campaign map. Its usually a country like France, Germany, England,etc divided up into various provinces.
Game goes in Seasonal Turns. On those turns you choose how to spend money amassing weapons, improving your castle.
Castle types are Fort, Motte and Bailey Fort, Norman Keep, Stone Castle, and Royal Castle.
You choose how to take care of your farms, etc.
Provinces have Happiness ratings that can go up and down due to harvests, disasters, invasions, change of ownership, conscription, taxation etc. If they get too low you get a peasant rebellion like in MTW.
You have Armies on the map that you put together out of various units - Peasants, Archers, Crossbowmen, Macemen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, and Knights. You can also hire Mercs when they appear.
When you invade someone elses province and meet their army, it turns into a little map with a real time battle like in MTW. Armies can get kind of big, with up to 1500 soldiers each.
After fighting a field battle the enemy often has troops in the castle which you must siege, build catapults, battering rams, siege towers, and then fight a battle to take the castle.
Game is a LOT like a more vanilla version of Total War.
What's funny is that it actually had a more advanced diplomacy than Total War ever did. You could send money and all sorts of supplies like food and weapons to allies and also ask allies to attack enemy provinces and ask them to relieve sieges on your own castles. Oftentimes they'd respond. Pretty good system.
thats the best game EVER
General Malaise
08-22-2003, 14:00
Quote[/b] (Kraxis @ Aug. 17 2003,14:49)]I'm pretty certain they drew the inspiration for the No-Dachi from that Ashigaru warrior in 'The Seven Samurai' and his crazy usage of his No-Dachi. The helmet he wears in the final battle looks very much like the No-Dachi helmet and the Sode looks similar too (duh). At least I remember it that way, maybe I just played STW too much. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif
Hm, let's see I believe the character's name in Seven Samurai you're thinking of was Kikuchiyo, played by famous Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. He wasn't an Ashigaru (just a loner) techinically, but he did carry a No-dachi though the helmet is different. The analyst in the film commentary on the DVD version says it was to (over-) compensate for not being a true samurai... or maybe something else, heh. Funny thing is, he got killed charging at someone with an arquebus just like the ND in STW do, hah. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
Yup it was that Mifune guy. I never can remember his name. I believe he has acted as Miyamoto Musashi in a movie... What was its name, do you know?
No he wasn't really an ashi, but he was born by a farmer and he was never accepted as a samurai by any lord or peer, and since there were only two types of warriors (to be simple) he was an ashi.
The part I like the best was when he was drilling the farmers and a guy did something wrong, can't remember it, and he started lecturing the poor guy while pointing his No-Dachi at him with one hand. It looked both scary and extremely funny at the same time.
General Malaise
08-22-2003, 21:43
Quote[/b] (Kraxis @ Aug. 22 2003,09:18)]Yup it was that Mifune guy. I never can remember his name. I believe he has acted as Miyamoto Musashi in a movie... What was its name, do you know?
No he wasn't really an ashi, but he was born by a farmer and he was never accepted as a samurai by any lord or peer, and since there were only two types of warriors (to be simple) he was an ashi.
The part I like the best was when he was drilling the farmers and a guy did something wrong, can't remember it, and he started lecturing the poor guy while pointing his No-Dachi at him with one hand. It looked both scary and extremely funny at the same time.
SAMURAI: THE LEGEND OF MUSASHI (Miyamoto Musashi), Hiroshi Inagaki (1954)
Quote[/b] (General Malaise @ Aug. 22 2003,15:43)]SAMURAI: THE LEGEND OF MUSASHI (Miyamoto Musashi), Hiroshi Inagaki (1954)
Tzankyou verymuch Malaisesan http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Also in Lords of the Realms, everyone had the same units, but the AI would compose their armies differently (though usually mostly consisting of peasants). The cool thing was you had a random start location so you never know what your start will be like.
It is in the nature of us human to wage war upon others. No matter what colour we are, no matter what race or religion there's always somebody else upon whom we can wage war. As long as human beings exist, there's always war to be fought... - LestaT
Do any of you remember a game Conqueror 1086, it was from the same publisher as Lord of the Realm, Sierra. It was a pretty easy game to beat, but it was cool because it also had a first person POV for resolving sieges once the walls breached, and there were tournaments.
I never played Lords of the Realm, but this game came out about a year or two before Lords of the Realm II. I think, that they were testing some game concepts, but I don't think that the first person made the cut.
There is a Lords of the Realm III coming out this fall, here is the link. http://games.sierra.com/games/lordsIII/
ToranagaSama
09-10-2003, 20:45
Quote[/b] (Captain Fishpants @ Aug. 21 2003,11:56)]
Quote[/b] ]We didn't include language groups for provinces, which was a feature of the boardgame, so that you had a harder time ruling over people if you didn't at least speak a related language. This might have been a bit of micromanagement too far
This would be GREAT added to RTW as optionable for those of us who love complexity/micromanagement.
ToranagaSama
09-10-2003, 20:55
Did a quick search cause I couldn't remember if I had seen the Musashi move and came upon this site. Thought some might find it interesting as it list a number of Samurai movies:
Digital Bits: Samurai Trilogy among others listed (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/samuraitrilogy.html#s1)
Hamburglar
09-10-2003, 22:35
I played Conqueror 1086.
It was decent but kind of cheesy at times. It couldn't decide what kind of game it wanted to be.
It was cheaper to train 1000 knights than to buy a suit of plate mail for yourself.
Plus what was annoying was that you could only raise troops from your starting town, no matter how many you took. You could improve your castle but it was worthless because the enemy ALWAYS got in.
The worst part of the game was the fact that if you didn't own London by the time you were 30, it was GAME OVER because you were too old. Now I know guys died rather young in Dark Ages but seriously, 30? Your men could be a mile outside of London's gates but if your 30th birthday comes around you gotta say Well, the game's up boys. Time for me to hit the retirement home
It was cheesy but still fun. If you won enough jousts, and it was really easy, you would fight some super knights TMZ186, he just had a serial number, and get a ton of gold. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif Also if you had a good enough sword you could borrow money and never pay it back because you could kill the money lender's collection agent, and the best part was that next turn you could still borrow money. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif I like the first person point of view part. Sometimes I wish that in MTW you could see the battle through the eyes of one of your soldiers, kind of like the follow projectiles button, but with more hacking.
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