5 page preview RTW

[swe_gamer]

Just received Swedish PC gamer with a 5 page preview of RTW

Here are some of the highlights:


· Option to play battles through the eyes of the general. You have to see the troops in order to issue orders.

· Movement across the strategic map is restricted to the slowest unit in the army. There are scouts and spies that can be used in order to avoid ambushes.

· Allies can support you in battle and will appear depending on how close they are to the battlefield.

· Volcanoes, shorelines, mountains etc are used in the background.

· Campaign consists of 4 roman factions, Julius and Brutus, are two of them. Apart from the roman campaign you can play an additional 4 other cultures. Sounds a bit low doesn’t it? In mp you can command all (24) countries.

· Generals are different family members, the have their own animations, textures and voices such as: Rome forward. They also have vices and virtues as in MTW.

· Main campaign from 300 bc-to about the birth of Christ.

· There will be a tutorial where you play before the campaign starts where you see how the roman empire was founded. This campaign is rumoured to be the enormous demo in the fall.

· You can turn the ai for your own troops on and off, that is they will make independent decisions if you turn the ai on. Ability to pause the game and give orders in the meantime.

· MP: 8 players, maximum 20 units of maximum 300 soldiers in each unit = quite a lot of carnage

· Pics look soo good especially one where a roman army is breaking through the walls of a barbarian settlement at night with the flames rising up from the buildings.

· Top secret project going on on the 2nd floor of CA, no news of the coming project though.

Hope there is something new here.

[Basileus]

kool i might grab it, only 4 other playable factions grrr anyway thanks for the info http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Knight_Yellow]

I strongly doubt the 4 other factions bit.

Ca's already confirmed in the FAQ's that there will be much more than 8 playable factions.

Generals are different family members, the have their own animations, textures and voices such as: Rome forward. They also have vices and virtues as in MTW.

/dies http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif


Pics look soo good especially one where a roman army is breaking through the walls of a barbarian settlement at night with the flames rising up from the buildings.

/dies again http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

Top secret project going on on the 2nd floor of CA, no news of the coming project though.


http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif /realy dies

MP campaign? *yeah i know*

[CBR]

Its cultures not factions. Each culture will have several factions so no worries there.


CBR

[Basileus]

Quote[/b] (CBR @ Feb. 28 2004,13:59)]Its cultures not factions. Each culture will have several factions so no worries there.


CBR
i think your right about that CBR and thats a good http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[neogerry]

Quote[/b] (CBR @ Feb. 28 2004,13:59)]Its cultures not factions. Each culture will have several factions so no worries there.


CBR
sweet http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[ShadesWolf]

The cultures are...

Roman
Egyptian
Greek
Carthagian
Eastern
Barbarian

[Knight_Yellow]

see, this is when it pays.... to pay attention http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif



But all 24 factions will be playable in MP?

Sweet

[rasoforos]

if there arent many factions i will be quite dissapointed. You cannot just put 'greeks' there , there are many different factions...i sincierely hope its wrong.

[nightcrawlerblue]

Sounds like RTW is gonna be awesome Too bad my computer won't run it http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif.

[RZST]

the greek Culture will have 4 factions in them.

[Monk]

In the us version of the mag, Ca has said that in Sp you must unlock 8 other factions by finishing a campaign with one of the Romans.

Unlock? i seriously hope they mean: Complete the tutorial and play through the campaign win or lose and you will recieve the others.

In all my TW history I have completed many campaigns but only 3 ended in 100% victory. Here's the quote


Quote[/b] ]Initially you'll be able to play only as one of the Roman Families, but once you've finished a full campaign, you'll unlock around eight factions

Not sure of what to make of that... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif

[The_Emperor]

oh well that gives us something to work towards. great Stuff http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[RZST]

that sucks monk :( i myself HAVE NOT FINISHED a campaign i have started...well except when i played vi campaign and i just basically pwnd everyone as vikings o.o

[[DnC]]

Citaat[/b] (Ky Kiske @ Feb. 28 2004,16:59)]that sucks monk :( i myself HAVE NOT FINISHED a campaign i have started...well except when i played vi campaign and i just basically pwnd everyone as vikings o.o
I have only finished a few, very few of the many campaigns I've played.

Guess this will at least be a reason to definitly play it all the way through the first time round.

[Stormer]

any chance of someone being able to scan it http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[TosaInu]

Quote[/b] (Monk @ Feb. 28 2004,15:55)]Initially you'll be able to play only as one of the Roman Families, but once you've finished a full campaign, you'll unlock around eight factions
Sounds like you must succesfully finish a full Roman campaign before you can play, say, the Greek one. I certainly hope that this is a false bit of information, I don't like such restrictions. I want to choose the Greeks right away.

[Monk]

Quote[/b] (TosaInu @ Feb. 28 2004,17:57)]
Quote[/b] (Monk @ Feb. 28 2004,15:55)]Initially you'll be able to play only as one of the Roman Families, but once you've finished a full campaign, you'll unlock around eight factions
Sounds like you must succesfully finish a full Roman campaign before you can play, say, the Greek one. I certainly hope that this is a false bit of information, I don't like such restrictions. I want to choose the Greeks right away.
I have to agree with you Tosa, the thing i have enjoyed most about TW is that there was no surprises. You didn't have to beat the game to play as another faction or unlock new units like other kinds of games. I play TW casually, and anybody who visits the mead hall can tell that. Rarely do i finish a campaign, and even when i do it's usualy in defeat.


Quote[/b] ]any chance of someone being able to scan it


I could scan it if i have time, but i will need to hook my scanner back up, look for it later tonight or maybe tomorrow http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[frogbeastegg]

Quote[/b] (TosaInu @ Feb. 28 2004,22:57)]
Quote[/b] (Monk @ Feb. 28 2004,15:55)]Initially you'll be able to play only as one of the Roman Families, but once you've finished a full campaign, you'll unlock around eight factions
Sounds like you must succesfully finish a full Roman campaign before you can play, say, the Greek one. I certainly hope that this is a false bit of information, I don't like such restrictions. I want to choose the Greeks right away.
Agreed. Whoever you have to play and whatever you have to do to unlock the factions will be right at the bottom of my 'to do' list. Unlocking stuff usually means doing things you don't want to before you can get to the good stuff. I dislike the way you have to unlock some of the historical camapigns in MTW, means I have to sit through ones I have completed many times to get to the locked ones each time I reinstall the game.

So I plan to play Roman, followe by Roman, with a bit of Roman, and a touch of Roman just for variety when I first get the game but that doesn't mean I want to play Roman each time the game is reinstalled.

[nightcrawlerblue]

I hope you don't have to unlock it I've started like 5 campaigns but it just takes too long to finish them.

[The Wizard]

EDIT, Edit:: Ok ok, never mind, pointed out and cleared before.

Now, if the thing about seeing the battle from the generals point of view is true..... *dies*

And about unlocking factions: What? I want Macedonia immediately Not after I've led Romans to glory NOW Hetairoi now, legionaries later



~Wiz

[Knight_Yellow]

unlockable factions?

ha ha ha No.

nope. nadda. nyet. nien. no. never. no chance. no.~http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-angry.gif


Any1 from CA want to make me regain faith and actualy buy RTW now?

[Sjakihata]

Oh man

Unlock factions http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif


that will make it look like some stupid racing game. You have to win a race to get the new super-duper car.

bad choice imo

[Knight_Yellow]

There goes my plan to play the britons first.


this has to be a typo right?

i mean come on thats just gay.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif

[Monk]

Quote[/b] (Knight_Yellow @ Feb. 28 2004,22:55)]this has to be a typo right?

i mean come on thats just gay.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif
The quote came directly from Mike Simpson, the development directer at CA. in the paragraph it goes on to say


Quote[/b] ]The design team is still deciding which factions will be made playable at this point. Reguardless of which Factions are unlocked, Simpson promises that each will offer a substantually different gameplay experience

I'd really like to hear from a Dev about this, maybe to explain why this was put in. Unlocking factions make this seem more like a racing game, as pointed out by Sjakihata. It doesn't seem like the thing a TW game should have.

[CBR]

Quote[/b] ]The design team is still deciding which factions will be made playable at this point

Seems more like its a question of what factions are playable/unlocked...


CBR

[Gregoshi]

I hope there aren't unlockable factions but if there are, there is a very good chance there will be cheat codes to unlock them.

Aside from that, I'm liking some of the things mentioned, particularly the general's view and the unit AI.

Thanks for the info swe_gamer. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif

[frogbeastegg]

Quote[/b] (Gregoshi @ Feb. 29 2004,06:10)]I hope there aren't unlockable factions but if there are, there is a very good chance there will be cheat codes to unlock them.
Excuse the pessimistic view but are there cheat codes to unlock the locked historical campaigns in MTW? No. Therefore the best we can expect based on past examples is some kind of file editing to make the factions available but actual proper codes are not so likely IMO.

I don’t like unlocking stuff in PC games, especially strategy games. It isn’t too bad in Dynasty Warriors, unlocking a few new heroes every now and then keeps your interest and stops you from being overwhelmed by 40+ heroes to choose from at the start. That doesn’t apply to RTW and after half a year I am still plodding away unlocking the last few people in DW, not a good thing if RTW ends up like that.

The rest does sound good, imagine general's eye view when your general gets killed by a bouncing catapult rock http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif I wonder if you'll be able to make him dodge...

[swe_gamer]

In PC gamer Sweden, they say that they are PLANNING to lock the other cultures until finishing the Rome campaign. This is not final. The total number of playable factions seems to be 8, 4 roman and 4 non roman. CA please confirm this

One more point from the article:

They worked out a very detailed economic system but this was considered too complex. The most important resource is food and this is a must for expanding your cities. Slaves are also mentioned as well as amber, gold, silver and wine. No details on how trade is conducted etc.

[Ser Clegane]

Quote[/b] (Monk @ Feb. 28 2004,22:17)]
Quote[/b] (Knight_Yellow @ Feb. 28 2004,22:55)]this has to be a typo right?

i mean come on thats just gay.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif
The quote came directly from Mike Simpson, the development directer at CA. in the paragraph it goes on to say


Quote[/b] ]The design team is still deciding which factions will be made playable at this point. Reguardless of which Factions are unlocked, Simpson promises that each will offer a substantually different gameplay experience

I'd really like to hear from a Dev about this, maybe to explain why this was put in. Unlocking factions make this seem more like a racing game, as pointed out by Sjakihata. It doesn't seem like the thing a TW game should have.
Actually, raeding this quote, I do not think that it refers to factions that have to be unlocked by the player by winning a campaign.

I think unlocking rather refers to which factions the player can play in general (just like Aragon or Sicily were locked in the original MTW).

[Knight_Yellow]

Quote[/b] (swe_gamer @ Feb. 29 2004,13:35)]In PC gamer Sweden, they say that they are PLANNING to lock the other cultures until finishing the Rome campaign. This is not final. The total number of playable factions seems to be 8, 4 roman and 4 non roman. CA please confirm this

One more point from the article:

They worked out a very detailed economic system but this was considered too complex. The most important resource is food and this is a must for expanding your cities. Slaves are also mentioned as well as amber, gold, silver and wine. No details on how trade is conducted etc.
thats 4 other cultures, not 4 other factions.


I swear if theres only 8 factions playable and you have to unlock them IM NOT BUYING RTW.

[swe_gamer]

Well you can´t blame CA for being overly active in the forums, which I think is too bad especially since the game is groundbreaking with so many new elements.

A good dialogue with the forums should be an essential part of game development. Why not hire a person who acts as a link with the community and is actively supplying and receiving feedback/votes etc?

Don´t get me wrong, Shogun and Medieval are my favourite games of all time but I feel that the gaming industry are not fully utilizing the forums/Internet in the product development stage. I mean, what other business has such a devoted customer group available 24/7 around the world willing to provide feedback for free?

Don´t know why I am rambling on about this, but if CA decides to hire such a person I have an MBA in Virtual Marketing... Bet they don´t read this though http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[RZST]

Quote[/b] (frogbeastegg @ Feb. 29 2004,05:08)][quote=Gregoshi,Feb. 29 2004,06:10]
The rest does sound good, imagine general's eye view when your general gets killed by a bouncing catapult rock http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif I wonder if you'll be able to make him dodge...
dodging rocks...MATRIX STYLE *does the neo bend back action thingy*

[TosaInu]

Hello,

There will be cheats, no doubt. But it's odd. I can see the need to present players something new in very 'flat' games. Encourage/reward them to play more. But TW is not a 'flat' game. Actually, the techtree and the era features already act as unlock (can't buy handgunners right away). Playing an entire campaign with a faction you don't like is something else though.

Here's a legal cheat to unlock all battles in the VI historical campaign. Campaigns will be unlocked, but due to user activities some can get locked again. It's a small 85 kb file, so keep it around for your convenience.

http://www.mizus.com/Files/k0rgs8gVt/MTW/Stats/MTW_VI_HistCamp.exe

[nightcrawlerblue]

In my experience unlocking things doesn't work well in RTS or just about anything other than action and racing. I think that it will just take away from the fun instead of adding to it. It's alright for some games but it doesn't seem suited to a Total War game.

[RZST]

well if you play warcraft 3 then it goes something like this

Faction A unlocks Faction B unlocks Faction C unlocks Faction D. of course there is a story in the whole campaign and a story is what totalwar doesnt have.

[swe_gamer]

Can somebody please post this thread in the collosseum section?

Thanx

[TosaInu]

Quote[/b] (swe_gamer @ Feb. 28 2004,08:05)]· Option to play battles through the eyes of the general. You have to see the troops in order to issue orders.

· Movement across the strategic map is restricted to the slowest unit in the army. There are scouts and spies that can be used in order to avoid ambushes.

· Allies can support you in battle and will appear depending on how close they are to the battlefield.

· Volcanoes, shorelines, mountains etc are used in the background.


· You can turn the ai for your own troops on and off, that is they will make independent decisions if you turn the ai on. Ability to pause the game and give orders in the meantime.

· MP: 8 players, maximum 20 units of maximum 300 soldiers in each unit = quite a lot of carnage
-Great options http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
-Sounds realistic.
-Great. Hope you can negotiate and plan this on forehand. Allies in STW were always a bit of a surprise.
-Great. Hope they are 3D backgrounds.
-AI for troops is welcome. Great to have yet another option http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
-I'ld rather see up to 20 MP players, 8 units each.
300 men per unit will look impressive.

[RZST]

AND imagine seeing all those carnage on a generals view :) sweet mother mary.

[Monk]

After all the fuse about unlocking factions, i seemed to have overlooked this MP campaign (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=19;t=15872;st=0;&#entry238889)

TWC brought it to my attention and after reading over the article again thats indeed what it says. Expect a Multi player Campaign for RTW. How i don't know, but after all the things i've seen RTW can do and it's campaign map, i'm willing to believe

[swe_gamer]

Regarding MP campaign in RTW:

There is an interview with the project manager Mike Simpson in PC gamer Sweden:

There will at least be online battles in Rome, but having a long strategy campaign online is difficult, as it takes so long time. Look at Civilization mp, there was hardly anybody who played it

So probably not.

[Shahed]

Very nice Thanks for the heads up swe_gamer. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Gregoshi]

Quote[/b] (swe_gamer @ Mar. 01 2004,14:22)]Can somebody please post this thread in the collosseum section?

Thanx
Done. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Spino]

Quote[/b] ]The cultures are...

Roman
Egyptian
Greek
Carthagian
Eastern
Barbarian

Correction ShadeWolf:

Roman
Egyptian
Greek
Western Barbarian
Eastern
Eastern Barbarian

I believe Carthaginian civilization is going to be represented in the Greek cultural/architectural style.

The article's statement that four cultures in addition to the Roman one will be 'playable' is reinforced by the assumption that we will not be able to play any of the factions that sport the Eastern Barbarian cultural style (Scythians, Bactrians).

[Vanya]

GAH

Through eyes of general??

What if general have no head?
What if general in neck-brace, and cannot swivel noggin?
What if general sleeping on horse?
What if general in tent with his harem womenz?
What if general spend all his time distracted or boid watching?

Can youz play as Persians?

GAH

[Spino]

Quote[/b] ]Can youz play as Persians?

GAH

Persians? No. Parthians? Yes.

Oh, and GAH to you. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[nightcrawlerblue]

Quote[/b] (Vanya @ Mar. 03 2004,10:20)]GAH

Through eyes of general??

What if general have no head?
What if general in neck-brace, and cannot swivel noggin?
What if general sleeping on horse?
What if general in tent with his harem womenz?
What if general spend all his time distracted or boid watching?

Can youz play as Persians?

GAH
Then General is probably not who I'm gonna send into battle...

[alman9898]

There will be 11 playable factions as Res Romanae said. Three roman and eight non. Now they're saying that there are four roman families? the more the merrier, but if CA forces me to unlock factions I wanna play from the get-go I'll be very mad.

[Ludens]

Quote[/b] (alman9898 @ Mar. 04 2004,00:03)]Now they're saying that there are four roman families?
Three families and the senate.

[Aelwyn]

Quote[/b] (Knight_Yellow @ Feb. 29 2004,08:54)]I swear if theres only 8 factions playable and you have to unlock them IM NOT BUYING RTW.
Don't try to kid yourself or us, you'll buy it http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif And if they seriously make it so you have to completely finish some Roman campaigns to unlock other factions, a few things will happen:

1) someone will complete a campaign real quick, and save just before they beat it, post it here, making it very easy for everyone to beat the campaign and unlock the other factions.

2) someone will mod the game, or the exe or whatever, making it possible to play as the other factions.

And, either way, you'll be able to play as the other factions in MP, which is the only part that matters anyways.

*Ael waves at SP players http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[Nowake]

Some may say that it's gonna be good to play as the romans first, but still, the first campaign is the most interesting, and being forced to choose only the romans can be a little frustrating.

[caspian]

If you can see the battlefield through the General's eyes, would it be like an FPS? Like his gladium or spear would be shown at the bottom right of the screen? And would it be possible to control him and his escorts to do the flank manouvere and personally dissect the soldiers at the rear?

Man, that's nasty http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

[swe_gamer]

I am looking forward to the generals fps view. Better protect him though. Imagine initiating an attack from a hill and an unespected cavalry charge forces you down the hill with no control over your troops whatsoever. Scary

[Nowake]

Still, how can you issue orders and receive info from your officers from other parts of the battlefield?

[Gregoshi]

Good question Nowake. It will mean more critical choices in your general's actions and location during the battle. A location with a good view would be necessary if you want to maintain complete control over the battle. Should you commit your general (I'm assuming he will have his own unit), you run the risk of losing control over parts of the battle you can't view. I agree with [b]swe_gamer - it would be also cool to be caught up in a rout and lose complete control of the battle

This also seems to indicate that the unit commanders will have some form of AI too. I like. The one thing that bugged me about TW battles was, apart from impetuous and fire at will, you had to tell a unit to take an action. A unit, out in the open, coming up on your flank? Why can't some of your units turn to face this threat?

Anyway, it appears from what has been revealed thus far, we as players are going to have a little less control over things. I'm referring to the above and the AI controlled additional armies when you exceed 20 units in a battle (am I remembering that right?). We will be more reliant on the AI. Let's hope it is very much improved AI, else we'll hear the horror stories about what our AI generals did in this battle or that. Dumb moves are allowed - not all generals are Caesars. But any that makes no sense at all moves by the AI which appear to be bugs in the AI aren't going to fly. I talking about things similar to the strange, unexplanable Crusade movements we've heard about from MTW.

[mercian billman]

I thought I heard somewhere that the victory conditions for a roman faction only required you to rule Rome itslef for 20 years, after which you could play a total domination game.

[Chimpyang]

hmm....it mihgt also be fun to split up your army...so that the AI controls half of it...with specific orders of course....and you ca nget on with fighting your own little corner whilst the AI helps you....ie you pinning the enemy and a AI controlled general sweeps in from behind.
This would kinda hard to implement as top notch AI is needed/loads of scripting and it all get quite complicated. But it would be cool. Wouldn't it?

[Ludens]

Quote[/b] (Chimpyang @ Mar. 06 2004,21:02)]hmm....it mihgt also be fun to split up your army...so that the AI controls half of it...with specific orders of course....and you ca nget on with fighting your own little corner whilst the AI helps you....ie you pinning the enemy and a AI controlled general sweeps in from behind.
This would kinda hard to implement as top notch AI is needed/loads of scripting and it all get quite complicated. But it would be cool. Wouldn't it?
I'd say that it would be vital, if you were to see the battle through the eyes of your general. If you can only command troops in direct line of sight, you must be able to designate lieutenants who will see to it that the troops outside your visual range are doing what you want them to do, like flanking the enemy or simply holding their part of the field. It would be a magnificent feature if the AI lieutenants are truly intelligent. It would be a disaster if they aren't, but I trust CA to make sure they are.

Of course, this assumes there will be a feature that enables you to fight the battle from the generals point of view, but since some of the circulating rumours have recently been denied, I am not sure what to think. Is there any news from CA yet?