Must See Thread Over at the Center...

...I hope it is OK to post this here. Here is a VERY informative thread by a chap who took part in today's SEGA Community Event:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=228248

Here is one of my exchanges with him - emphasis added:

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Originally Posted by Barkhorn1x
Good news and thank you for your feedback. Rep to you.

I must ask one more question, tho' - from your comments it sounds as tho' changes are still in progress and yet - the game is due for release one week from Tuesday in Europe. Do you have any reason to suspect that another delay is in store?

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No more delays. The retail version is already done. You'll get the first patch on the 4th via steam.

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Nice find. + imaginary rep!

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It is now possible to save campaign battle replays.

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:daisy: yes.

You would definitely get rep if we had any over here. :laugh4: This is some good stuff, although a lot of it was known (or suspected) already.

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

You would definitely get rep if we had any over here. :laugh4: This is some good stuff, although a lot of it was known (or suspected) already.

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We've suspected some of this stuff for a while, but it's great to see it cemented in stone.

Also I'm amazed. A patch on day one? Someone's been listening to our complaints! :yes:

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Originally Posted by Monk

We've suspected some of this stuff for a while, but it's great to see it cemented in stone.

Also I'm amazed. A patch on day one? Someone's been listening to our complaints! :yes:

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If they are releasing a patch on day one why on earth don't they just put it in the retail version? Or has that already shipped to shops?

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

If they are releasing a patch on day one why on earth don't they just put it in the retail version? Or has that already shipped to shops?

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We've getting very close to the day the game hits. Amazon is promising that they will send their copies out ON the fourth. CA may have already sent the gold version of the game out and to try to implement changes now would foul the entire shipping system up.

2 vs 2 custom battles?

Some sort of sick joke?

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Originally Posted by tibilicus

2 vs 2 custom battles?

Some sort of sick joke?

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Ouch! I missed this on my first read through. They can't possibly be serious can they? 2 vs. 2 is puny.

Seems there's always good news and bad news, I was much more fixed on the other, campaign oriented news and must have skimmed over that. 2v2... Hm. Doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room does it? :shame:

Kinda disappointed in that. I used to love playing 3v3s in VI.

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Thamis couldn't give me much information about this, but it seems the game won't be as easy to mod as previous games.
But he said that they would release modding tools of some sorts sooner or later (I hope sooner ^^)

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:no:

CR

Later on the guy also mentions that apparently only the 12 playable factions are available for multiplayer and custom battles.

He also mentions that the 12 main factions have very similar units.

I'm not sure if anything higher than 3vs3 would work for the newest game... maybe the maps were too small? I mean most maps probably aren't wide open plains so it would be really annoying to attempt fitting 6 armies with lined infantry together.

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Originally Posted by Discoman

I'm not sure if anything higher than 3vs3 would work for the newest game... maybe the maps were too small? I mean most maps probably aren't wide open plains so it would be really annoying to attempt fitting 6 armies with lined infantry together.

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The maps are meant to be much bigger than Med 2 though, and I've played 4 vs. 4 on that with no problems.

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

Later on the guy also mentions that apparently only the 12 playable factions are available for multiplayer and custom battles.

He also mentions that the 12 main factions have very similar units.

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See, I really don't think that's a negative. In STW all factions didn't have similar units, they had the same units but it was still an amazingly fun experience.

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Originally Posted by Monk

See, I really don't think that's a negative. In STW all factions didn't have similar units, they had the same units but it was still an amazingly fun experience.

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I didn't mean it as a negative, just as a statement :2thumbsup:. Indeed it would be odd if the major European powers didn't have similar units, given that they all used the same technology and units at the time. Gone are the days of every man bringing his own uniform and weapon.

Giving everyone the same troops also goes a long way to preventing balance issues between factions.

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

I didn't mean it as a negative, just as a statement :2thumbsup:. Indeed it would be odd if the major European powers didn't have similar units, given that they all used the same technology and units at the time. Gone are the days of every man bringing his own uniform and weapon.

Giving everyone the same troops also goes a long way to preventing balance issues between factions.

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Ah my bad, misread your intent! :bow:

Indeed it does. While I am pretty bummed we're limited to the "main" factions for MP I really don't mind in the long run, mainly because as you said it will help a lot with balance issues and not having to worry about that one guy who just can't decide which of the fifty he wants to play! :skull:

Lots of good info in there - thanks!

I especially like how he said the demo seemed like old code, and how the game currently looks and runs much better. Plus the fact that there is already a patch lined up for release day to address some of the last minute issues too.

Max 2v2 ?? Oh yeah I got it: improved multiplayer modes right?


CBR

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Originally Posted by Monk

Seems there's always good news and bad news, I was much more fixed on the other, campaign oriented news and must have skimmed over that. 2v2... Hm. Doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room does it? :shame:

Kinda disappointed in that. I used to love playing 3v3s in VI.

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If this is needed true the death of the Multiplayer game will happen before it's even started. 3 vs 3 is the standard format for all clan matches, if you can't have more than 2 vs 2 the game will lack substantial substance.

And it was 4v4 as standard in MTW. We get better and better hardware and somehow we end up with less anyway.

RTW started out with 3v3 max but was changed to 4v4 in the patch IIRC. Maybe this 2v2 thing will change but it just sorta kills MP if not.


CBR

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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

:no:

CR

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Won't be as easy doesn't neccessarily translate as less moddable, it just means its harder than before, but its never stopped the community.

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Originally Posted by CBR

And it was 4v4 as standard in MTW. We get better and better hardware and somehow we end up with less anyway.

RTW started out with 3v3 max but was changed to 4v4 in the patch IIRC. Maybe this 2v2 thing will change but it just sorta kills MP if not.


CBR

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Indeed. :no:

I was led to believe maps were going to be much bigger in this version and they were really working hard on the MP.... guess they say that every time. :shame:

I guess its good news that all the MP factions will have similar units, as it will likely force at least some balance, but I don't think 2v2 is acceptable at all.


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You should keep the naval battles small (at least for now) or else they will be lagging like hell (with 30+ ships)

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...I think, that the demo was really really old. It seemed quite outdated compared to the full game.

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This was part of one of his posts which made me feel much better about the quality of the game. :2thumbsup:

I guess I'll just wait for it to get hella cheap on steam.

will patches etc be released anywhere other than steam, i really wanna do as little as possible with steam, but if im forced to connect to download patches im going to be a sad panda

It's the old supply and demand argument. The demo got released to places other then the demo site in a few days, and I'm sure etw patch will follow suit. You can get it on steam of course but i'm sure you can get it else where to.

I only hope CA is being logical. As much as I want a patch i'd rather small 100 or 200mb patches then a 3 gig patch that takes me another 3 days after I get the main game.

If the patch is that big or similiar i'll just skip it till later, or download it into a seperate fill and add it myself.


The news was not that discouraging to me, I knew most of this.

Again the diplomatic, government, tech, trade and other sides have been beefed up to make the game different each time you play it. Rather then i'm going to play egypt because they have 4 new buildings and 10 new units that Rome dosn't. With revoultions, tech, and changing governments I am optomistic that each game will play out quite dramatically different. Similiar to RTWBI (which I enjoyed).

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Originally Posted by Polemists

It's the old supply and demand argument. The demo got released to places other then the demo site in a few days, and I'm sure etw patch will follow suit. You can get it on steam of course but i'm sure you can get it else where to.

I only hope CA is being logical. As much as I want a patch i'd rather small 100 or 200mb patches then a 3 gig patch that takes me another 3 days after I get the main game.

If the patch is that big or similiar i'll just skip it till later, or download it into a seperate fill and add it myself.


The news was not that discouraging to me, I knew most of this.

Again the diplomatic, government, tech, trade and other sides have been beefed up to make the game different each time you play it. Rather then i'm going to play egypt because they have 4 new buildings and 10 new units that Rome dosn't. With revoultions, tech, and changing governments I am optomistic that each game will play out quite dramatically different. Similiar to RTWBI (which I enjoyed).

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i guess the advantage is that the day 1 patch wont be required to play the game, so u can still play and enjoy without downloading or even while downloading. Again i see steam being a problem because it prolly wont let u play the game without downloading. God i think they made a bad decision. hopefully u can tell it not to update then just download from a 3rd party site and play at teh same time.

yay for the wonder that is steam! /sarcasm off


edit: oh and other cool thing. because of how awesome steam is, my house hold has to either download the demo and any patches 3 times or just have it on 1 pc. both my housemates and i have ordered collectors editions but neither of them have played the demo cos they cbf downloading the demo and using up to 6 gig of our download limit. yay!

There are 4v4 maps, but they are purely available for multiplayer.

Well that should appease the mp crowd.

The crowd that dosn't want to be forced to download the patch

and the crowd that dosn't want to see a 1-2 gig patch tho

still await answers.