Swoosh's ideas for improving mp mtw2

Ideas to improve totalwar multiplayer.

Lets start at the beginning when you logon

Foyer:

Visually the totalwar foyer should be visually appealing, this was true of shogun and mtw1 but was lost in rome and mtw2. My advice is to stay away from black and darker colours and go for a lighter colour set like the previous titles that had the most appealing and visually pleasing foyers.

The option to add chat rooms (with passwords if needed) was a great feature of the totalwar foyer and enjoyed by much of the community especially on tournament days. It is sorely missed.

The chat area should be larger without the need to click and block views of the games setup.

Interaction with players should be easy like click a name and then that becomes a whisper to that player, hold control and click multiple players for a multi whisper.

Crazy ideas for foyer:

With clans registered on a ladder or similar system their could be a clan chat window or tab, this would be a great tool for clans assisting clan communication (examples of this sort of system can be seen in the world of warcraft guild tab).

Friends lists easy - example added friend mike simpson result= "mike simpson has come online" showing in the chat window, this could also auto add clan members if the clans were added to a ladder or registered somehow.


Setting up games:

At the moment setting up games is cumbersome ill give examples..

At the moment the host can set the number of players but not the number of teams this should be added to the front setup screen (the same page as the number of players option) along with the option to setup team florins on the first setup screen.

After playing the totalwar series online for 6 years and having played thosands of games the one cry rings out everytime someone enters your game you dont know or you enter someones game who doesent know you, NO ARTY! Basically 99% of the totalwar community dont want artillery in their online games, a tick box to remove artillery from the army selection by the host would be a great addition and save the players having to type this every game. the same goes for elephants but we cant have too many options so id skip that 1 but artillery option would be very nice.


Ladder System:

Again going back to shogun which included a ladder system with the option of compeditive and friendly play options, a similar system would be great but would also allow for the registration of clans and clan chat or even clan window/tab.

Crazy ideas for Ladder System: 5 game winning streak your general unit gains a virtue perhaps selectable that he will have in all compeditive games till your general is captured or killed, then you would have to get say a 5 game win streak to get a virtue back, of course this 5 game win streak would only inculde matches where you gained honor or valour by fighting an opponent in a similar or higher position on the ladder.


Maps:

The map selection for multiplayer at the moment is very dissapointing usually resulting in 80% of games being played on a flat grass map, perhaps maps designed for 1v1 2v2 3v3 4v4 play could be designed if not by ca then by a ca map making competition for the community map makers to have your map if it wins or comes runner up in the 1v1 or 2v2 etc category being added to the next patch. We have tried to create map packs in the past and they just dont work without it being in some official release.

Game mechanics:

At the moment the game has some control issues caused by the move to 3d (rometotalwar onwards) for example if i move a unit to the flank of my enemy and 1 or 2 of the men in my unit clip an enemy unit the whole unit will stop its movement and become unresponsive, more control is needed if its just 1 or 2 men causing this problem. like the unit maintaining speed and formation and the 1 or 2 men stuck in the enemy unit TRYING to run through, but the bulk of the unit is uneffected.

Currently when you move archers or other missle units when they reach their destination they are still "marching" for several seconds after they all reach their destination, faster unit reformation is needed especially with missle units is needed when they reach their destination.

Also when charging infantry sometimes only the front ranks will charge into combat leaving the rest of the unit far behind where they will stand fragmenting battle lines and becoming unresponsive, perhaps making the unit reassemble formation at the contact point with the enemy unit would work.

When a missle unit is being fired upon and taking losses they are constantly repositioning (especially gunpowder units) this would be much better if the units just stood still and continued what they were doing.

Balance:

I wont go into this much as their are far too many different units to include, personally i think the series is missing the ANTI CAVALRY- CAVALRY UNIT like the yari cavalry which was faster than other cavalry and could beat all cavalry but not infantry (this was a great balancing unit) i understand such a unit may not be possible now with so many factions available but i can dream :)

Generals abilities:

Currently we have rally which is nice but i would personally like to see another option added perhaps a faction ability, this ability would have area effect near the general unit such as HOLD THE LINE! slight increase in morale for surrounding units for a short duration of time with a 3 minute cooldown.

So example Roman Generals: Hold the line! slight increase in morale for a short duration (area effect) 3 minute cooldown.
Gaul Generals: Attack! slight increase in attack stat for a short duration (area effect) 3 minute cooldown.

Abilities like warcry were introduced in rome but i feel the general unit gives it more focus and adds to the tactical options in the game and with a 3 minute cooldown it must be well timed for good effect and adds more flavour to each seperate faction.

Final thoughts:

The foyer issue is of great importance and almost everyone ive spoken with in the community (and i can chat alot :P ) wants a foyer of similar quality to the early totalwar games and has been really unhappy with the foyers from the release of rome onward, this is an important issue because the foyer is the place the community communicates and is of the utmost importance.

So what i hope for

Improved foyer and game setup options.

multiplayer maps.

Ladder system with clan options.

Improved unit control (see game mechanics)

General unit unique abilities as per faction or winning streaks on a compeditive ladder.

They are not radical steps but ones im sure the totalwar community would greatly appreciate, never can so many units be balanced and thats ok players will always have their preffered armies/setups but these small improvements will go a long way to bringing the totalwar series up to scratch in multiplayer im sure to the joy of many of the fans.

I would like a far better lobby (as you say). They put loads of stuff in the Launcher, why not put that in the lobby?
Some sort of way where you can download MP mods and maps and install them into the game directly (with restart, but atleast make it go automatic). This way mods and maps are used by a bigger part of the community.

Furthermore I would like the game speed slowed down, goes a bit too fast now imo. Sometimes units rout in seconds ... but then sometimes units don't rout at all.



And I must say I like the ideas on abilities for generals. However I wouldn't do it per faction I would do it per account (very crazy idea).
You can custom build your very own general:
8 different heads (from other units)
4 different bodies
3 different horses
And most importantly different colours

That way everyone is different. I can temporary add morale, you can take it from me, while Gawain can increase attack.
Next to that there can be loads of different abilities. With different strenghts, you can choose for a strong one, which takes some time to load, but has a good effect, or you can choose to make it weaker so that you can use it more often.
But then it is a crazy idea.

Also you might want to post it here:
http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic...-Feedback.html

That's where CA looks more, I doubt they often visit here ... or atleast I think they visit that more often.

hiya swoosh!

agreed on the foyer and game set up. things were not broke in the earlier titles, so why change them now?

the biggest thing is fix the lag. make the game compatible with old amd chipsets too, or state that you cannot play mp with different cpus. i think thats were most of the lag comes from.

also, you should be able to take the same faction on both teams and be able to change the weather.

:balloon2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by t1master

also, you should be able to take the same faction on both teams and be able to change the weather.

---

Agreed. We asked for this in MTW and got it, why it was 'lost' again is really quite annoying. Weather was worked around by choosing 'arid' maps since 'lush' and 'temperate' maps had random weather. Fine day should mean fine day.

I'd also like to see a far greater map choice and an easy way install them so everyone would make the effort. A random generator is a good idea, only the host needs the map but the map is still 'random' and I always thought created maps offered much better gameplay options

......Orda

Interesting poitns Swoosh.


I would jsut liek to say the ladder rankining idea should be implemented. Dawn of War/ warcraft 3?

One similar to that. All we have at the moment is a basic lobby which is well, featurless.

I will post some more poitns later but time is rpessed as of now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Swoosh So

Generals abilities:

Currently we have rally which is nice but i would personally like to see another option added perhaps a faction ability, this ability would have area effect near the general unit such as HOLD THE LINE! slight increase in morale for surrounding units for a short duration of time with a 3 minute cooldown.

So example Roman Generals: Hold the line! slight increase in morale for a short duration (area effect) 3 minute cooldown.
Gaul Generals: Attack! slight increase in attack stat for a short duration (area effect) 3 minute cooldown.

Abilities like warcry were introduced in rome but i feel the general unit gives it more focus and adds to the tactical options in the game and with a 3 minute cooldown it must be well timed for good effect and adds more flavour to each seperate faction.

---

I think the current rally ability for general's bodyguards already grants temporary morale bonuses for nearby troops, as well as adding penalties for nearby enemy troops.

And I agree with t1, although I'd prefer the implementation of reliable basics of the game like actual playability and a functioning lobby, before 'bells and whistles' like customisation features.