Preview in German PCGames magazine!

I'm just sorry for all of you people living in... wherever you live where your magazines don't give you M2: TW goodness whenever you go to buy them, like it's the case in Germany.
Just picked up the PCGames and they visitied CA in the UK to play some Medieval 2: Total War and they made an 8 page long article about it, so if you can get that magazine go out and grab it!

Let's just skip all the yadda-yadda about new graphics and everything they're babbling about and go right for the important stuff: The AI! Yes, you read correct there mate, some info on the AI. Well at least the battlefield AI seems to have greatly improved accordinge to the reviewers and they gave some examples:
-Knights use woods as cover to outflank some Longbowmen and avoiding their stakes
-The enemy starting fake attacks to lure you into his own missile range
-The enemy withdraws coherently to the inner defense system of a castle, if it has multiple defenses.

There's also a video on the DVD where they interview Mark Sutherns who explains them stuff about M2:TW and points out that AI has been improved. At the end they talk with Mike Simpson, who makes a point of stating that one aspect of the game that can always be improved is the AI and that it is an importat aspect that is very dear to him and he is happy that because of the serial character of Total War you have a total of 7 years experience with the AI. He also says that M2:TW comes pretty close to perfection this time around, while saying that there's always room for improvement until you have reached true virtual reality. Sounds good, I think!

Concerning new information, it's basically just small things:
For example they show a big campaign map shot in the magazine with the mini-map uncovered and judging from the positions of the factions it looks like the starting positions of every faction. You can even see across to America and where the Aztecs are at. As has been speculated about other screenshots the blob left of the UK is indeed Florida, south of it is the Yucatan peninsula with some Aztecs on them and further south is the eastern-most tip of Brazil, in-between those areas seems to be water.

In the video you can see how infantry navigates through stakes that are deployed on the battlefied. You see how a princess with a max charm rating marries an enemy general, who immediatelly switches sides. You also see one merchant destroying another merchant and occupying his resource.

The discovery of America will be some kind of World event where the game tells you to watch the Atlantic a little bit more closely. You can then build certain structures that allow you to build ocean-faring vessels, which will be highly expensive but will eventually bring you to the New World.

Event movies are now available for everything: Assasination, Sabotage, Marriage, Cardinal gets elected as Pope. The Pope will be giving out missions by the way as will your Noble Council you don't have to complete those missions thouhg, but they don't say anything about penalties which might or might not exist.

Another screenshot shows a unit of pikemen with the first row knealing down while the back rows are pointing their pikes over their comrades heads. Don't wanna charge into that.

Edit: One thing I forgot is that you can ransom back all of your prisoners. When the battle is over you get a scroll that shows you how many prisoners you captured and how much money you can ransom them for. At the bottom there is a total and you get three decisions: Free them! Ransom them! Kill them! Those options will definetly affect your Chivalry/Dread rating.

Well, that pretty much wraps it up. The interview with Mike Simpson where he talks about the whole Total War series is highly interesting I think, besides the information on M2:TW. So once again, if you can get a copy of PCGames magazin, go out and get it!

Cheers!

Ituralde

sounds great. i like the ransom thing. but when you auto resolve...what will happen to the prisoners than. because in MTW1 the general himself decided that and it sometimes ransomed back a king or a prince while i would have exterminated that fellow

Sounds like the AI is extremely important to them which is very good to hear.
By the sound of things M2TW will easily be the best TW game ever made.

Sounds good. I'm hoping the Strat Map AI has been significantly boosted as well.

Oj... what if... what if all the doubters are wrong, and CA get this perfect?

*trembles in fear of CA's Dark Riders of Marketing actually having keen-edged blades*

Thanks very much for taking the time to summarise all this Ituralde!

All sounds pretty cool.
since you have seen the starting positions, do the aztecs control the entirety of the new world at the start of the game, or are there rebel provinces there, or another faction?

They're situated on the Yucatan peninsula. The other provinces appear to be rebels.

Quote:

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-Knights use woods as cover to outflank some Longbowmen and avoiding their stakes

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provided this is coded and not coincidence: cavalry sucks in woods, so what happens if there are enemy units in there ?

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-The enemy starting fake attacks to lure you into his own missile range

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using what units ? archers I hope ? this could just as well point to indecisive units moving back and forward under your missile fire, unable to decide whether they should attack or retreat. This "luring" was already present in previous TW games.

But I guess it's good that they mension AI. I'll have to see it with my own eyes before I believe it though.

Those exact same thoughts went through my head as I read that preview and even as I posted it. I just repeated what was said by the magazine and of course you can always look at something positive or negative. It could be true that it'll turn out like you said, but hopefully it'll turn out to be a good AI. :2thumbsup:

Cannot wait for the game to com out. I really cannot wait. All of this sounds great, and my imajination is currently toying with all of the new tools and featurs.

I actually hope that the AI is good enough that I get decimated in my first battle against them. I had come into the TW series with Rome and after completing a full campaign I bought MTW I and when I entered the battlefield I expected another easy victory since I had grown accustomed to Rome's ineffectual AI. To my utter surprise, the MTW AI could fight and the Celtic rebels I faced routed my English detachment easily and instantly I knew this was an entirely different animal that I was dealing with.

So hopefully with MTW2 I'll be pleasantly surprised again with an enemy who knows how to command an army and win.

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provided this is coded and not coincidence: cavalry sucks in woods, so what happens if there are enemy units in there ?

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It didn't get me enthusiastic either. It was just one battle that was interpreted by someone who doesn't know the AI behind it. For all we know the cavalry might just be coded to avoid stakes at all costs and the woods happened to be next to the stakes. The cavalry didn't use the woods as cover, it might have simply tried to avoid the stakes. I hope that is the case since AI cavalry entering woods is bad.

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-The enemy starting fake attacks to lure you into his own missile range

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Could be very good as this might mean that the AI finally recognizes a missile shoot-out again. It wouldn't be medieval if battles didn't start with crossbows and bows loosing volleys before the general advance. I just hope that the AI cavalry flank attack gets timed better.

Hey, thanks for that synopsis Ituralde. I'm sure there are plenty of us here who can't read German so that's very nice of you to post a summary for us ~:)

As for the content - glad to hear something about the AI at last, but as others have said I'll be waiting until the game is released and assessed by the community before jumping to any conclusions.

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Originally Posted by The Stranger

sounds great. i like the ransom thing. but when you auto resolve...what will happen to the prisoners than. because in MTW1 the general himself decided that and it sometimes ransomed back a king or a prince while i would have exterminated that fellow

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It's possible it'd work like the menu after capturing a settlement in RTW; the options sound very similar. Whether it'll be possible to execute prisoners on the battlefield I don't know, though I loved executing every last captured enemy if the battle was going against me.

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Originally Posted by Tamur

Oj... what if... what if all the doubters are wrong, and CA get this perfect?

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Then I'll sound the advance as much, if not more so, than I now sound retreat.