Americans, how is Kingdoms? [Archive]

Bob the Insane

08-28-2007, 19:20

Just checked out Best Buy and Gamestop, not in yet... Hopefully tomorrow...

As a brit living in the states I have noted that while release dates are often slightly earlier they are often not as reliable and, I guess due to the size of the place, it is often the luck of the draw whether your shop gets it in on time...

Kraggenmor

08-28-2007, 19:43

The stores I've called around here are all saying that it shipped today and so should be in tomorrow.

I'm pretty eager for it but, I think either way -download or buy the box - I still won't be able to play it til tomorrow.

Come to think of it; the way M2 consumed my time after I got it for Christmas, it might be better if I wait til Friday. It's a three day weekend here in the States. ;)

antisocialmunky

08-28-2007, 19:45

I havent' seen it ANYWHERE... Just found out that it should have been released today even though I'm waiting for a MT2W:GOLD Edition with M2 and Kingdoms.

Doug-Thompson

08-28-2007, 20:00

Just had a talk with the guys at the local Gamestop. They hate the way companies make a big deal about the release date — because the first units don't ship until the next day. So the downloaders will have the first crack at it.

Monsieur Alphonse

08-28-2007, 21:30

There is a guy at TWC (avatar Antioch) who has posted the first screenies. He bought the game in Sweden.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=117983&page=5 (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=117983&page=1)

Ferret

08-28-2007, 21:55

Thanks Alphonse

Proletariat

08-28-2007, 22:00

Any positive experiences with buying it via download? I'd like to play it now, because I'm impatient, but I also like having the discs. If there aren't any considerable draw backs, I might just download it tonight, but the only other time I've bought a game via download, it only allowed three activations of the game. That's pretty lame since I know I'll inevitably screw up game files while tweaking things and I'd like as many installs as I need.

edyzmedieval

08-28-2007, 22:00

Swedes and Norwegians always get TW games first. :inquisitive:

The Teacher

08-28-2007, 22:28

not wanting to sound like a troll.... *deep breath* but please can only people with screenies post here.

*ducks to avoid irony of death*

*lurks*

Aquitaine

08-28-2007, 22:41

Direct2Drive only allows some number of activations but if you're like me and frequently reformat/reinstall/rebuild then you just email them and whine about it and they give you pretty much an unlimited number of re-activations each time you ask.

Just installing now (had to go out for a while) and don't know how much time I'll have to play it, but hopefully I'll be able to post some impressions and screenshots.

Patricius

08-28-2007, 23:37

Direct to Drive is not useful for me sadly, as Windows is installed on an old and tiny hard disk and I am too lazy to move it.

Ice

08-28-2007, 23:44

Gorm

08-29-2007, 00:17

ARRGH! My pre-order with Amazon here in the US says it is in stock on Sept. 2 and deliver between Sept. 11 and 17. :bigcry:

andrewt

08-29-2007, 03:55

I preorder my games through Gamestop because there's one within walking distance, probably a bit over a mile from my house. The "release date" is always the "ship date" and I get games the next day.

And I'm surprised how little this game was talked about the previous week, it seems people forgot today is ship date. Didn't see any new threads here until this one and didn't see any of the game sites have any new article about it.

Benandorf

08-29-2007, 04:47

Don't download it. I downloaded MTWII and it was a pain in the ass for support and getting stuff to work.

Edit: I did use steam though.

I actually had an opposite experience with M2:TW over Steam. In fact, I've liked it so much (no scrounging around to find disks and constantly changing them out of my only CD/DVD Drive, YAY!) I plan to get RTW:Complete and Kingdoms from there.

I say that disks are annoying, if you have a fast internet the best way to go would be downloading it.

phonicsmonkey

08-29-2007, 04:52

I would have used Steam but for reasons unknown M2TW was unavailable over Steam to persons living in Australia:thumbsdown:

Rhedd

08-29-2007, 06:58

I actually had an opposite experience with M2:TW over Steam. In fact, I've liked it so much (no scrounging around to find disks and constantly changing them out of my only CD/DVD Drive, YAY!) I plan to get RTW:Complete and Kingdoms from there..That's good to hear, because as I understand it, a retail boxed version of Kingdoms won't recognize the fact that you own the Steam version of M2TW, and a Steam version of Kingdoms won't play nice with a retail box of M2TW.

I'm sorry, but you couldn't pay me to buy things off of Steam. It's full of peculiarities.

Slaists

08-29-2007, 14:38

Downloaded the whole log (7 GB) last nite and had a shot at a Jerusalem campaign for an hour before heading to bed way too late.

Here is the first thing that jumped at me: passive strategic AI all over... Egyptians, being at war with me, had 5 stacks wandering around my provinces around Jerusalem for 10 turns and not attacking anything... with the manpower they had there they should have been able to seriously threaten at least one of my cities/castles there, but nada...

_Tristan_

08-29-2007, 14:58

FactionHeir

08-29-2007, 15:06

PseRamesses

08-29-2007, 15:08

Swedes and Norwegians always get TW games first. :inquisitive:
Yup, I´m drooling over my copy right now. Just home from work and installing as I post, he he!

_Tristan_

08-29-2007, 15:25

Considering how "patch" 1.3 (you know, the one which doesn't fix anything but just makes the two games compatible with each other) makes no actual difference from 1.2, I wouldn't be surprised if the exact same bugs exist in Kingdoms as in vanilla M2TW.

Yes, but Kingdoms AFAIK includes some of the work done by Lusted (notably rebalancing units) and I would have thought that his taking part would have given some results in other fields of the game...

FactionHeir

08-29-2007, 15:27

The kingdoms rebalance does not directly apply to the grand campaign however, as the same unit in kingdoms may have different stats between campaigns.

_Tristan_

08-29-2007, 15:30

The kingdoms rebalance does not directly apply to the grand campaign however, as the same unit in kingdoms may have different stats between campaigns.

Yes but as stated by Pserameses, it was playing on of the mini-campaigns that he encountered strat-AI problems... So it might negate all the fun the rebalancing could have created...

alpaca

08-29-2007, 15:30

Yes, but Kingdoms AFAIK includes some of the work done by Lusted (notably rebalancing units) and I would have thought that his taking part would have given some results in other fields of the game...
The units were rebalanced by Palamedes, not by Lusted. The balance was partly tested in Lusted's mod to get more feedback on it pre-release.

As for the passive AI: What did you expect? I expected it to be exactly the same as in M2TW

FactionHeir

08-29-2007, 15:33

The units were rebalanced by Palamedes, not by Lusted. The balance was partly tested in Lusted's mod to get more feedback on it pre-release.

As for the passive AI: What did you expect? I expected it to be exactly the same as in M2TW

What he said.
A few more units (and their graphical models, effects) and the campaign maps.

Slaists

08-29-2007, 15:46

The kingdoms rebalance does not directly apply to the grand campaign however, as the same unit in kingdoms may have different stats between campaigns.

there is a CA (developed in house) mod featured on twcenter site that retrofits kingdom campaign unit balance and many features to the main campaign.

_Tristan_

08-29-2007, 15:47

Any link to that mod ?

Doug-Thompson

08-29-2007, 15:55

there is a CA (developed in house) mod featured on twcenter site that retrofits kingdom campaign unit balance and many features to the main campaign.

Link?

Jambo

08-29-2007, 16:08

Here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118430

Slaists

08-29-2007, 16:43

Link?

sorry, had to run away from my desk right after I wrote the note. however, I see, the link is already here in the thread.

gardibolt

08-29-2007, 16:48

I just checked Amazon and my estimated delivery date is between Oct 5 and Oct 12!! Well, I still need to finish a campaign anyway so that'll give me time to do it. I did get the link for the free download of Shogun, so that'll give me something else to fool with. :book:

rebelscum

08-29-2007, 16:53

I did get the link for the free download of Shogun,
Where? Is that from amazon?

Monsieur Alphonse

08-29-2007, 17:59

I bought it in the Netherlands (see screenshot thread)

rvg

08-29-2007, 19:05

Odin

08-29-2007, 19:13

Personally, I won't be buying Kingdoms until the vanilla game is in a better working order. Maybe a couple of patches from now when its price sufficiently dips.

It's really not a question of money though as much as it is a question of quality.

:thumbsup:

Not exclusive to Total war mind you, but I will wait. All those "pre order customers" and downloaders thank you in advance for play testing the bugs out and reporting them back to the dev team.

Makes my purchase much easier.

Doug-Thompson

08-29-2007, 22:12

First impression:

Spanish Dragoons are wonderful.

P.S. Something's been done to the main campaign: It took 20 minutes to change v1.002.001 into v1.003 before "Kingdoms" could be installed.

You don't have to install all four "Kingdoms" campaigns. You can pick and choose.

Xehh II

08-29-2007, 22:44

Strange

Goofball

08-29-2007, 22:52

I'm getting the game tomorrow. Can't wait.

Question: Do I have to install over an unpatched M2TW install, or can I install over a 1.2 patched install?

gardibolt

08-29-2007, 23:06

Where? Is that from amazon?

Yes, they had a deal where if you preordered Kingdoms you got a free download of Shogun. But I don't see that on the Kingdoms page any more, so maybe that has expired.

Bob the Insane

08-30-2007, 00:23

Well, finally picked it up from Gamestop, they where stacking on the shelves this evening...

Installing now....

2 DVDs!!

Bob the Insane

08-30-2007, 00:47

Wow, this is one long install...

First it installed 1.3 which, considering is is only supposed to be for compatability, takes ages (though i guess it would incorporate 1.1 and 1.2)...

Then it installs each of the four campaigns as a separate install...

The addition to the readme is as follows:

Last Updated: 2007-05-30
v1.3

Medieval II: TW v1.3 contains the following changes:

Core Medieval II settlement data updated to function correctly with Medieval II: Kingdoms.
Fixes some instances of floating settlements in Medieval II: TW and Medieval II: Kingdoms.
Updates version number to 1.3

Gorm

08-30-2007, 00:51

I preorder my games through Gamestop because there's one within walking distance, probably a bit over a mile from my house. The "release date" is always the "ship date" and I get games the next day.

I live in a remote part of Colorado and can't afford to take time off work to drive 2 or more hours one-way to get to the nearest Gamestop. Darn.

Guyus Germanicus

08-30-2007, 06:16

I live in a remote part of Colorado and can't afford to take time off work to drive 2 or more hours one-way to get to the nearest Gamestop. Darn.

Hey Gorm! ~:wave:

I'm living in Lakewood [Denver metro, west].

To answer the thread question - I ordered my copy yesterday and Amazon says I should get delivery sometime between Sept 7-11.

Don't need Shogun as I got a copy on CD when I bought the ERAS package.

I've been to Monte Vista. Nice country down there. Used to do some hunting in the Sagauche mtns.

Rhedd

08-30-2007, 10:20

Playing as Wales, and listening to the new music, makes me so happy I could cry.

Kingdoms is, for me, as good as M2TW times ten!

Now leave me alone so I can go back to playing. ^_^

alpaca

08-30-2007, 13:03

A more technical question: Do you have to restart the game in order to change the campaign? And does each campaign have its own folder and can be chosen through the launcher?

Jack Lusted

08-30-2007, 13:07

And does each campaign have its own folder

Yes.

and can be chosen through the launcher?

Yes.

Bob the Insane

08-30-2007, 13:13

Do you have to restart the game in order to change the campaign?

Yes... (unless I missed something)...

It is a lot like playing mods, which I guess is exactly what these are in a way...

Doug-Thompson

08-30-2007, 13:21

Bob didn't miss anything. You have to restart.

Yes, it installs over the patched game, but I don't know about installing over mods.

Only had a very brief try at it last night.

The expanson alone takes up another 3 GB of hard drive space, I believe, if you install all four campaigns.

Hotseat mode is great. Can't wait to put it on a full campaign with the mod.

Bob the Insane

08-30-2007, 13:31

I installed it over a M2TW 1.2 install that includes Stainless Steel, Lands to Conquor, The Long Road and Clouds over Europe...

There does not seem to be any problems...

rebelscum

08-30-2007, 14:57

Yes, they had a deal where if you preordered Kingdoms you got a free download of Shogun. But I don't see that on the Kingdoms page any more, so maybe that has expired.
thanks, bit of a shame that, its the only TW I haven't played.

As to pre-ordering, I've never pre-ordered in my life, I always wait for first patch before i even go to buy, then usually get a bundled/expanded edition.
My MTW2 came with a little lead soldier and a bunch of extras.

Doug-Thompson

08-30-2007, 15:58

Biggest initial impression: You can't go blitzing across the world so easily, at least not in the Teutonic game.

I'm playing Novogorod, and decided to kick the Teutonic Knights out of their northern provinces. So far, so good, but it's been nothing like the happy trail of self-fueling loot and plunder I'd come to expect from every Total War game so far.

In MTW2, I installed the game, picked the Spanish and immediately knew what to do: Kick the Moors out of Iberia, crush the Portugese as soon as they angered the Pope, loot all those cities and go crusading across North Africa. Unstoppable.

After unlocking the other factions, I picked the Egyptians and immediately knew what to do: Go blitzing up the Levant coast, loot all those cities and wipe out the Turks and the Byzantines. Unstoppable.

This is different. I kicked the Teuts in the first significant battle, no problem. Boyar sons and their javelins are wonderful. However, I am not rolling in cash and even when I kick the Teuts out of Russia, their core provinces are behind the Lituanians. I'll have to go through Lithuania just to get to the rest of them.

I'm allied to both the Danes and the Mongols at the moment, but the Danes are rather hard to please. I made a gift of 100 florins one turn, which they took, but the second 100 florin gift left then disgruntled, wanting more.

At least they'll lose their reputation when they backstab me.

The campaign AI's not improved. They attacked to relieve a besieged city that could have held out for eight turns and got massacred. Saved me a long siege. Now I'm about to wipe out a handful of unsupported war monks who wandered by my recently captured castle — with well more than 100 Kazaks. I won't lose a man.

Mad Mac

08-30-2007, 16:35

The AI doesn't seem notably changed, except that they do build more balanced armies now. However, the mini-campaigns are set up much better than the Grand Campaign--the new maps aren't that much smaller than the grand campaign map, but you have far fewer factions.

So instead of a legion of small isolated factions harassing each other with peasents and spear militia, you have a smaller number of established, powerful factions who all have a pretty good starting position. Makes the gameplay a lot more interesting, and skips the tedious build-up phase were the human player quickly gobbles up rebel settlements and becomes a super-power in 30 turns.

Starting with the Aztecs or Mayans to give a specific example, there's a lot of rebel cities floating around, but they tend to be guarded by 12-15 units of troops that are about as good as anything you can rummage up. Putting down rebels requires an actual investment of time and resources on your part, and you've got plenty of neighbors who could come strolling in at any time, so you have to balance fighting rebels with making sure your kingdom is secure.

Jason X

08-30-2007, 17:34

as i'm currently considering whether to buy kingdoms (and as a long time lurker in these parts), i followed that mod link with interest.

and i must say, that's not a bad mode of operation for CA.

let me explain: because it's a mod, it 's not officially supported and therefore doesn't have to go through the whole QA process and thereby hold up the commercial release.

on the other hand, because it's a CA employee doing the modding, they've had access to Kingdoms for longer and the community gets something they want and need much quicker.

i say :2thumbsup:

HoreTore

08-30-2007, 19:23

The most important question of all:

Is there a go-buy-yourself-a-new-gfx-card-you-cheap-bastard feature in it? Ie. can you turn the graphics even more down than vanilla?

If not, then I'll have to hold off buying it for at least a few months... ~:mecry:

Doug-Thompson

08-30-2007, 19:54

I'll check tonight, but the graphics are even more refined, if anything. It is beautiful. I thoroughly doubt it demands even less, graphically speaking.

Doug-Thompson

08-30-2007, 19:58

Wait a minute. The "readme" was posted. Here's the minimum video requirements:

- 128MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support
and the latest drivers. Must be 100% DirectX® 9.0c
compatible*. The Nvidia® GeForce 4 Ti 4400 or the
ATI Radeon® 9600 SE is the recommended minimum video card.

- Monitor must be able to display 1024x768 resolution or
above.

If you have an AGP video slot, I can highly recommend the Nvidia 7600 GT. The game looks beautiful on in and plays extremely well. The card costs $130 (US) and I wouldn't spend any more than that for an AGP card. Better to get a new computer with a motherboard with PCI Express slots on it.

alpaca

08-30-2007, 20:01

Ok, one more: Can we now play hotseat without auto-resolving defensive battles against the AI?

Doug-Thompson

08-30-2007, 20:07

Yes. The Teutons attacked me, although it wasn't a situation where I was in siege, and I fought them. I had to click off the "auto-resolve all battles" option on the campaign before it began.

alpaca

08-31-2007, 00:11

Yes. The Teutons attacked me, although it wasn't a situation where I was in siege, and I fought them. I had to click off the "auto-resolve all battles" option on the campaign before it began.
Ah that's great news, now we can finally properly use the control command in scripts again :yes:

TinCow

08-31-2007, 13:38

Does Kingdoms make any changes to the Grand Campaign?

TeutonicKnight

08-31-2007, 14:03

I'm a good ways into an Americas campaign, and I have to say so far I'm really enjoying it. Playing as a right nasty bastard, I've eliminated the Mayans while maintaining strong and peaceful relations with the Mexican civilizations including the Aztecs. I've secured all the rebel provinces from Vera Cruz to the Yucatan. I then moved up to Florida, and I've taken the Eastern half of the USA.

In terms of military, I think it's excellent. The overpowering might of Spain is significantly tempered by half-size units, and hard to get recruitment requirements. I rely heavily on mercenary troops, and I have to command every battle to conserve my Spanish strength. Gunpowder seems more effective than in 1.02, but still not as powerful as good old crossbowmen when you ignore the massive morale hit the natives take. Artillery is likewise totally over the top in relation to native fortifications. One salvo pretty much destroys any section of the wall (or tower) you want down.

I'm preparing my big offense against the Aztec Empire now. They have been leading the charts pretty much the whole game and have taken out a couple of their neighboring factions, so I expect they are rolling in money. They also have a huge number of stacks floating around, so this will be a hell of a campaign. I'm just waiting until my North America pacification has settled down.

If the other campaigns are as good as this one, I'll be really impressed. :)

FactionHeir

08-31-2007, 14:50

Does Kingdoms make any changes to the Grand Campaign?

I would say no, although that's based on the responses I've read so far.

TinCow

08-31-2007, 14:55

I would say no, although that's based on the responses I've read so far.

Hmph. :furious3:

FH, since you're a modding guru, does it look like the additional features (upgradeable forts, controlling multiple armies in the same battle, etc.) can be modded into the GC? I'm trying to decide whether to buy Kingdoms, but I have relatively little interest in campaigns with a very small number of factions. Maybe if someone modded the Britannia campaign to give it over a dozen factions, I might be interested.

Antagonist

08-31-2007, 14:56

Haven't installed it, but one nice thing that struck me leafing through the manual was that within the body of the text itself, discussing "SDK Tools" (the Unpacker, Battle and Cinematic Editors) they talk about the mod community and provide links to the Org and TWC. A nice little nod.

Antagonist

FactionHeir

08-31-2007, 14:59

Hmph. :furious3:

FH, since you're a modding guru, does it look like the additional features (upgradeable forts, controlling multiple armies in the same battle, etc.) can be modded into the GC? I'm trying to decide whether to buy Kingdoms, but I have relatively little interest in campaigns with a very small number of factions. Maybe if someone modded the Britannia campaign to give it over a dozen factions, I might be interested.

This (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=90841) was recently posted at the Citadel and sounds promising, but its hard to tell at this point, whether the exact features as in Kingdoms will thus be enabled in M2TW or just an off-shoot that is somewhat similar but not fully functional. Especially in regards to hotseat and army control for instance. I would probably wait for people to discuss the modding aspect of kingdoms and whether the features can be properly applied back to M2TW first. My guess is, that it wouldn't be entirely possible without modding the exe (which is somewhat illegal according to Lusted)

seneschal.the

08-31-2007, 16:32

I love the campaign in the americas, having only played 3 hours of it and briefly checking through the other campaigns. Overall this is a very good and solid expansion, the new campaigns all look very interesting.

However... The AI is still broken, campaign and battle map. Nothing in standard M2:TW is fixed, bugs with traits and ancillaries and unit stats are as usual. I haven't had a single crash though after 3 hours of nonstop play so it is not all bad. Unfortunately CA has confirmed in the E:TW previews that the AI used in M2 is a mishmash of different AIs that interfere with eachother and it needs a complete rewrite to work properly (which won't happen until Empire). :(

But if you enjoy M2 then Kingdoms is a must. The new maps and great and units are awesome. And it looks very pretty if you got the hardware.

Goofball

08-31-2007, 17:58

Yes, it installs over the patched game, but I don't know about installing over mods.

Will it install over the unpatched game, or do I have to install 1.2 first?

Graphic

08-31-2007, 18:38

It's awesome. Love the new music, the bad-ass looking Teutons, the Apache. Probably one of the better and larger expansion packs ever.

Kraggenmor

08-31-2007, 19:52

I'm finding myself concerned that Gamestop, Best Buy and, Circuit City are all still listing the Kingdoms expansion as 'not yet available.'

I'm trying to decide if I should bother stopping by the stores just to check, I would expect their websites to be accurate this many days after release.

(I'm in Phoenix, Az btw)

Goofball

08-31-2007, 20:39

Will it install over the unpatched game, or do I have to install 1.2 first?

Answered my own question. It automatically applies 1.2 before installing Kingdoms.

Man is this a long install (starting from scratch). 1 hr 15 minutes so far, and Kingdoms hasn<t even started installing yet...

Graphic

08-31-2007, 20:47

TeutonicKnight

08-31-2007, 20:49

Answered my own question. It automatically applies 1.2 before installing Kingdoms.

Man is this a long install (starting from scratch). 1 hr 15 minutes so far, and Kingdoms hasn<t even started installing yet...

Eh, it only took me 20 minutes to install everything. I was sacking Mayan cities 30 minutes in. :yes:

And yes, that was both discs, all campaigns.

Proletariat

08-31-2007, 20:49

My first impression has been great. My main issue so far is being a little overwhelmed by just what campaign/faction to start with, almost all of them look awesome. Definitely bodes well for tons of replay value. I was very happy with BI when it came out, but this, at least initially, has definitely raised the bar for expansions.

The special objectives for each campaign are a great touch. I think they're already covered in the individual campaign previews that were released, so I won't repeat them in full here, but if anyone has some specific questions or screen shot requests I'll try and get to them in between rounds of my Crusades campaign tonight.

mkirchner

08-31-2007, 22:24

Bought mine today (friday) at Wal Mart. The only problem was in installing it. It would install the Americas campaign then it would lock up. I would then start over and install the British one. After it was done it would lock up again same for the other two. After installing each one on their own they all seemed to work. I even defragged and cleaned my hard drive before I attempted to restart. In closing Installing was a pain but the game plays great.

Goofball

08-31-2007, 22:34

Eh, it only took me 20 minutes to install everything. I was sacking Mayan cities 30 minutes in. :yes:

And yes, that was both discs, all campaigns.

I was installing on my new laptop that I've had for less than a week. So I had to install M2TW, then patch 1.2, then Kingdoms. Yes, once it got to installing just Kingdoms it was fast, but man, 1.2 takes a hell of a long time...

Zoring

09-01-2007, 05:22

I assume us Australians will get it in 6 months, like Medieval II, even though that was made in Australia... sigh

sirnoob

09-01-2007, 09:56

i can't believe some american shops don't have it when my game and woolworths had it on release (31st)

Nikos_Rouvelas

09-01-2007, 15:38

I got it on Thursday. First Impressions:
Pikeman no longer walk like old women with walkers
Varangian guard are insane now
Greek firethrowers o_0

Doug-Thompson

09-02-2007, 07:38

Well, I just had an extremely enjoyable evening.

My 10-year-old son is playing a hotseat game with me where he is the Teutonic Knights and I was his ally, the Danes. When why saw him enjoying himself so much and said he could stay up until 10 p.m., he cheered.

He had to autoresolve his fights and I help him with his economy, but it's been a great night.

Khorak

09-02-2007, 08:40

Thank god for the retrofit mod. I had no idea this expansion did squat to the grand campaign, I couldn't really care less about the added ones.

I would recommend the Retrofit mod without reservation, for little more than the balance changes. You will be overjoyed to find that peasants are now the entirely useless cannon fodder distraction they should be (the next lowest unit, Town Militia, will mince them), and while cavalry are still relatively powerful, they do not simply chew through anything and everything they can make a charge against.