GDR preview posted.

[Laertes]

Games Domain preview (http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/previews/may01/swe.html), apparently based on an alpha version.

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He is justly served; It is a poison temper'd by himself.

[Anssi Hakkinen]

Thank you, Laertes-san. Now...

http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/previews/may01/swe03.gif

/me is totally knocked out.

By all the great Gods of Japan!!! This is everything! Everything! Undoubtedly the most important preview yet. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/eek.gif http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/eek.gif

Edited for more comments once my heart stopped pounding and the news was on the mainpage.

Several new points:WM and YA are not available in the Mongol campaign. (This may have been stated before...)New victory conditions and varying starting dates for the original campaign are possible; this may be the extent of the "campaign editor".The new custom battles and mini-campaigns are detailed, and listed above. One (Imjin) is situated in what presumably is Hideyoshi's Korean Invasion. Yay!Enhanced diplomacy means (as far as we know) more opportunities for three-or-more-clan battles.[/list]

Looking... Good.

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"The unhappiest of all unhappy states is the republic or principality which cannot accept peace and cannot tolerate war."
- Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli

[This message has been edited by Anssi Hakkinen (edited 05-02-2001).]

[solypsist]

love the flowchart..this is virgin, untapped territory for my photoshop!

nice review, and though much of it didn;t come as a big surprise to me



[This message has been edited by solypsist (edited 05-03-2001).]

[candidgamera]

L.
Thanks for posting.
This is great.

[Takeda Shingen]

I like the flow chart and the historical battles are good too.Now i get to play Sekigahara and see if Mitsunari can win maybe.

Michael

[Zen Blade]

Shingen,

Note on historical battles...

you will probably only be able to play as tokugawa. I would love to be able to play as Asai at Anegawa, but EA is unlikely to allow you to choose who to play as. (look at the earlier historic battles)

-Zen Blade

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Zen Blade Asai
Red Devil
Last of the RSG
Clan Tenki Council-Unity

[Karhu]

Wow! All this and three-way battles too...

[TosaInu]

Hello Zen-Blade,

I don't know about the historical campaigns, but be assured that the historical battles can be changed very easy, you want Asai at Anegawa in the historical battle?

Go to the shogun main folder. Open battle\batinit\historical battles. Here you'll see folders with the name of every available historical battle: you want Anegawa, make either a back-up of that folder or make a copy in the historical battle folder and name it Asai Anegawa (this will add the extra battle permanentely to your list).

Open Asai Anegawa, you'll see adf and bdf files. Open these files with note or wordpad (can be assigned permanentely to that application/always open with this program). Change Anegawa.bdf to Asai Anegawa.bdf (same name as the folder). Open Asai Anegawa.bdf, at the bottom you'll see:

Player::"Oda Nobunaga_xzy" 3 3 LOCAL "Nobunaga" 0 true
20042 6594 180

Player::"Asai Nagamasa_xzy" 0 0 ARTIFICIAL "Asai" 0 false
17679 32779 0

Just switch Local and Artificial the result will be this:

Player::"Oda Nobunaga_xzy" 3 3 ARTIFICIAL "Nobunaga" 0 true
20042 6594 180
Player::"Asai Nagamasa_xzy" 0 0 LOCAL "Asai" 0 false
17679 32779 0

A long story for a simple job, forgive me.

I think it will be possible to edit the campaigns too (didn't ca promise a campaign editor?)


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Ja mata
Toda MizuTosaInu
Daimyo Takiyama Shi

http://www.takiyama.cjb.com

[Obake]

As I have not yet been able to check out the preview, I am assuming that we will be losing the YA and WM's in addition to losing the guns.

I know that the communities concensus was that guns would not be available to the "Mongol" troop set, but have we heard anything definitive? (forgive me if I'm missing something here)

Beyond that, this is promising to live up to most of our expectations. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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Obake

I warned you, but did you listen? Ohh, no...it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it?

[Erado San]

Yes, we have in Question Time 3. Guns are out in the Mongols Campaign.

[Obake]

Thanks Erado!

I actually got a chance to take a look at the review last night (my time) and was quite impressed with what I saw. I can't wait to see what Soly does with that flow chart.

One item that I found very interesting in one of the screenshots was that ALL Japanese troop types will now be available for the Sengoku Campaign (or was that custom, can't remember).

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Obake

I warned you, but did you listen? Ohh, no...it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it?

[Laertes]

*shrug* We'll see.

I'm curious as to what was done to help three-way battles and other diplomatic foo. Maybe requests to attack a given province that turn? That would fit the simultaneous orders arrangement, and would leave open the possibility of betrayal -- not showing up, for instance, leaving the dupe's army to be destroyed.

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He is justly served; It is a poison temper'd by himself.

[Obake]

Sure makes honoring that alliance more important doesn't it Laertes? lol

I remember them saying early on that there would be penalties for breaking alliances. It'll be interesting to see what impact (if any) stealing generals will have on an alliance.

The other thing that I noticed when perusing the review last night was that Mongol reinforcements would not be under our direct control when playing as the Mongols. Not sure I like that.

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Obake

I warned you, but did you listen? Ohh, no...it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it?

[Alastair]

It does say "May 2001" on the release date, but does anyone know if this is just an estimate to appease the crowds or if it is actually the release date?

[Anssi Hakkinen]

Unfortunately, nobody knows the release date... And this may include the developers.

In any case, *any* release date should be treated as an estimate at best. It's impossible to know how much changes have to be made after beta testing and QA. I would figure it's late May if it's May, though.

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"The unhappiest of all unhappy states is the republic or principality which cannot accept peace and cannot tolerate war."
- Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli

[Shiro]

What an amazing preview. I can not wait to play the new campaigns. I want to try everything!

*froths*

[Alastair]

Somehow I think that was more a post-count post than a post with a point. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

[Shiro]

Good point. I'll make myself more clear about what in particular brought me to a state in which spittle drips from my mouth.

Okay first of all, I'm pleased to note that an alpha copy actaully exists and that the info we have is not made up just for the point of getting Shogun junkies to froth. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/tongue.gif Secondly, the author of the article, Shaun Woodcock, makes it very clear that it is very different to play as the Mongols than as the Japanese. I'm glad to know that a completely new experience is in order.

I was slightly worried about the comments about the editer. The previews says that it could be slicker. Considering this is a preview, everything is always positive. I would hate for it to turn out to be a wash when I get my greedy little hands on the game.

Last of all, by the time you have as many posts as me, you start to run out of interesting things to say. The Samurai and Samurai Heros usually have the most to say.

Caught me, DP!

[This message has been edited by Shiro (edited 05-07-2001).]

[Dark Phoenix]

Shiro what does Arthur have to do with the preview. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/tongue.gif

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DoragonPhoenix of the Clan Doragon

[Dunhill]

Has anyone said anything about the multiplayer qualities yet, as in testing?

[Magyar Khan]

maybe that new experience is what i am doing most of the games. micromanaging many horses into a complete chaos and rip the heart out the enemies army to ensure victory.

it will be glad to see who is ready for that. it would be an honour if all players return to the old japanese units and i am remy-like playing with my Mongols.

trample trample trample

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http://home-4.worldonline.nl/%7Et543201/web-mongol/mongol-images/mongolsmiley.gif Quote Although the enemy moves fast, a mongol arrow will kill him at last[/QUOTE]