Printable View
Now that some people legally have the demo, I am creating this thread for them to post any impressions they have of the demo and to discuss the demo.
To avoid profileration of threads, please use this thread for this topic.
Please do not discuss acquiring the game illegally here.
To start the ball rolling - can anyone comment on game speed (specifically kill rates and movement speeds)? Specifically, how they compared to RTW?
Meh, tbh I was just playing not really taking any notes. It seemed alot like RTW tbh. :inquisitive:
Also I thought you campaign guys might be interested in this screen:
http://www.freewebs.com/monarch1/gmt.gif
French cav charged right on to my stakes....
But blood looks great, animations very cool, user interface virtually the same as rtw. Also cannons look sweet, when they load them that rocks, if they do a NTW3 on MTW2, that'll look great.
Erm, can't think of much else to say lol. Its hard to test unit speeds because for example in agincourt you just sit their whilst frenchies charge at you lol.
I'm sure the French cavalry is scripted to fight as such
Scripted to charge...but onto my stakes...I wasn't aware they has kamikaze guys in medieval france (and ones that didn't even kill anyone in the process)
Btw, the tutorial said different type of units get different shaped banners, as I said I just raced round winning the battles, but can someone confirm this? IMO thats pretty cool :)
Ran it on medium setting and ran very good.
I was really surprised.
Tutorial Battle: was slightly pointless IMO but on the other hand I'm a TW vet so it is useless for us
Pavia: Awesome battles this.
Just hearing the german accent is just awesome.
Seeing the cavalry charge your landsknechter was slightly fun but the real fun was when you see your zweihander in action.
They are just as cool as we had imagine.
Also the first time I saw some finishing moves was from these guys.
Needless to say they can turn a unit into a bloody pile of corpses very fast.
Agincourt: Oh this battles was a bit tough on my computer but still fine.
The french infantry almost destroyed me but then I noticed that I had billmen ready so I was saved.
The music is great and so is the sound.
Graphics even on Medium looks wonderful.
The animations are so much better.
The AI is scripted like hell but in times where I felt that it could act on it's own I felt it was better.
Movement and kill-rates are fine now too.
Gotta remember that your troops have alot of bonuses compared to the enemy and still they lasted longer then in RTW.
I say M2TW is looking very very good
Some screens from Pavia
https://img182.imageshack.us/img182/207/1dx6.th.jpghttps://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8705/2or4.th.jpghttps://img207.imageshack.us/img207/899/3cv6.th.jpg
https://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7650/4ni3.th.jpghttps://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6511/5su8.th.jpghttps://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6880/6ye1.th.jpg
https://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2522/7mu2.th.jpg
Its not up for download legally, only way to legally get it through PC Gamer magazine lol. So I thinks its fine to asume which way your getting in :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Lord Zoro Savage
Anyway, we need a mod for this, I want some custom battles :2thumbsup:
Btw, are any of the already announced mods looking at this? Its their first chance to get some actually textures are however it works lol, I hope they're going through this :2thumbsup:
Edit: Oh ye I have a question, those musketeers you see firing in TB666's screenshot, in game you can see their bullets, you can't see bullets in NTW2, but thats set a good 300 years later. I know squat about early fire arms, but could you see the bullets back then firing from the guns?
Since the historical battles are scripted and the units all seem to have increased experience I don't think they would be a very good indicator.
Indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Furious Mental
All your units in Agincourt have 3 gold chevrons while the enemy have 1 bronze.
They don't stand a chance.
Still the battle last longer then in RTW with the same settings
Are there custom battles in the demo?
I have done some test on running speed. I tried my best to find some flat pieces of terrain and make sure the units stayed at max warmed up so fatigue didnt reduce speed. There is still no way to mod the demo so testing is therefore a bit limited.
But here are the numbers I have come up for infantry (might try and test later today with the single cavalry)
Light infantry (in this case archers) ran at a speed of about 240 meters/minute. Heavily armoured units like dismounted knights did 180 meters/minute.
Im still not sure there is a movement class in between them but I did get some results for militia halberds (classed as heavy infantry but very little armour) that suggests they could be right in between at around 210 meters/minute.
So for those who dont know what these numbers mean:
In MTW running speed was 133/166/200 meters/minute for dismounted knights/heavy inf/light inf.
In BI it was around 250/300 for heavy inf/light inf. Which was a 10% reduction from RTW.
So it appears running speed has been reduced by around 20%
Killing speed is pretty difficult to say. In Agincourt we have English valor 7 units versus French valor 1. Some French units rout pretty quickly while others dont. A guess would be that its slowed down a bit from RTW, but these units are also heavily armoured, and heavy units in RTW didnt die quickly either.
CBR
Thank you for the testing CBR
Any info on where this 'virtual' demo is pls?
Legally you can get it from PC GAMER MAGAZINE,illegally i can not say.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aenarion
Ah I see ok thanks. :)
So it is again scripted battles with high valour units? How is that supposed to give an indication (about AI and gameplay) wether it will be worth buying the game?
Perhaps I know enough already, I've got a download link and I am not even interested in using it. (I won't share the link, so don't bother asking.)
Have fun everybody! :medievalcheers:
Just browsing around some of the demo files, and I Found this in the preference folder:
[multiplayer]
hotseat_autoresolve_battles = 0
hotseat_disable_console = 1
hotseat_disable_papal_elections = 0
hotseat_save_prefs = 0
hotseat_update_ai_camera = 0
hotseat_validate_diplomacy = 1
A multiplayer campaign?
:gah:
Infantry marching has not been changed so still the 100 meters/minute.
The heavy cavalry in Pavia did just about 375 meters/minute running which IIRC would be 20% less than BI.
CBR
Heres the unit stats (unmodified by experience, etc) for the units in the demo.
A:attack
m:missile attack
D:Defence
EAA:Efective against armor
C:Charge
Landsknecht Pikemen. A:14 D:6 C:4
Arquebusiers A:8 (m16+EAA) D:4 C:1
Halberd militia A:12+EAA D:6 C:1
Zwei Hander A:18+EAA D:19 C:4
Culvern A:63 (Against buildings 230) D:9 C:0
Sword and buckler men A:21 D:20 C:3
Muskereers A:8 (m21+EAA) D:4 C:1
Gendarmes A:12 D:27 C:13
Pikemen A:12 D:5 C:3
Voulgar A:14+EAA D:14 C:2
Scots Guard A:24 (m13+EAA) D:20 C:3
Dismounted Chivalric Kinghts A:21 D:26 C:3
Crossbowmen A:8 (m5 +EAA) D:10 C:1
Sergeant Spearmen A:17 D:14 C:2
Chilvalric Knights A:15 D:25 C:13
Dismounted Noble Knights A:22+EAA D:22 C:4
Heavy Billmen A:16+EAA D:17 C:3
Yeoman Archer A: 10 (m8) D:9 C:3
I havent included any of the tutorial units or the general units. Also note that units like Halberd Militia can form spear walls making them better than their stats would suggest.
In regards to the demo, I already like it more than RTW, even with the extra experience etc thats the units get. Pavia was an excellent battle, and one I almost lost, which was a surprise (got an average victory in the end) considering I consider myself something of a master, as I've been playing since Shogun was released.
I can't really tell exactly but it *seems* as though missile units hav greater range. The longbowmen on Agincourt and the Scots Guards at Pavia are like artillery (and of course the artillery can fire pretty far too). The arquebusiers, and more so, musketeers also seem to be able shoot pretty far as well, definitely further than in MTW, although I haven't checked to see how much damage they deal out at long range.
It sounds like Pavia is much less scripted, so that should give a better idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duke John
I think Pavia is scripted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi
The start of the Pavia battle is scripted (the French calvary charge into your Pikes) but after that it seems to be down to the AI.
Agincourt is completely scripted.
Pavia is pretty much scripted as well.
However still some AI is there.
The cannons will always fire on the unit closes to it is something I have noticed.
Well to give an example for the Pavia battle, I sent my Generals unit (my only calvary unit) off to deal with the cannons. The remenants of the French calvary disengaged from the melee that they were in and gave chase.
Hello,
the demo doesn't work on my PC, because I have an Athlon XP without SSE2. :embarassed: Only CPUs with SSE2 are supported. :dizzy2: Do you know a solution? How can I fix that problem? I wanna also test the game.
Thank you,
Best Regards
|Heerbann|_Di3Hard
The demo is hard on my computer (p4 2.8, 1 Gb RAM ati 9600 256mb). I cant play without lag even on the lowest settings. It is still a great experience. I love the sound and feel of the gunpowder units. There is blood splashing when you hit the enemy! Cool feature but it is not beauterful on my computer.
/G
how did you guys get the demo :help: where can i get it
Moderator edit: To the best of my knowledge, the demo is legally available from the US PC Gamer. Let's keep this thread to gameplay issues, not how to get the demo.
There is nothing you can do about it except buy a new computer. Possibly the full game won't have this SSE2 (extended SSE instruction set) requirement since it isn't mentioned in the minimum game requirements.Quote:
Originally Posted by |Heerbann|_Di3Hard
What is SSE2?
The pain in the ass of Athlon users :P
So Pentium users (like me) at last get to shout "in your face athlon boy!" at all the snobby AMD users? ~;)
AMD Athlon XP Barton cores have SSE2. Not a big chance there, Mount Suribachi :laugh4:
I dont know too much about AMD processors but I have the AMD 64 X2 4200. Does this have the SSE2?Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine
Wow, I'm startled. I installed the demo expecting to get a slideshow, but I actually get a passable frame-rate on my P IV 2.53GHz, 512Mb RAM, Ti4200 64Mb system. It gets a little choppy on Pavia when the cannons fire, but that's about it. What a pleasant suprise.
This is on low settings, admittedly, so I still intend to upgrade.
If that 64 stands for "64-bit", then you should be able to play the demo.Quote:
Originally Posted by shifty157
Yeah it is 64-bit. Thanks for the good news.Quote:
Originally Posted by Faenaris
To be honest, I don't think this demo is really intended for Total War veterans. It's more for people who are unfamiliar with the series and want a general impression of the graphics and gameplay. That's why it doesn't show things like the AI or any standard battles that you'll have on the campaign map, as it's generally a means of attracting new customers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duke John
For diehard fans, the demo should only really be an hors-d'oeuvre for the full-blown game. Also remember that this demo features part of a relatively old version of the game (i.e. beta-stage). Several graphics bugs, AI errors, as well as performance and hardware issues that may since have been fixed will still be in it. That's why they' use historical battles that have scripted AI, to make this less obvious. It also doesn't matter to CA if not everyone can run the demo with their processors, as long as the full game works (at least I hope everyone will be able to run the full version, it would be bloody stupid of CA otherwise).
As I say, I don't think any of us should really be using the demo to make up our mind on Medieval II. This is for people who want to know if the general gameplay formula and graphics appeal to them.
Well speaking as a TW-vet I played the demo to see how it works on my computer.
Considering that my specs are:
2.3Ghz Celeron
512 MB
128mb Radeon 9800pro
I was very surprised when I could run the demo on medium setting and still it was smooth.
That alone determined the fact that I will be getting M2TW.
So the demo had some use(not to mention that the demo is alot of fun).
But you are right that the demo is mainly for new people.
Well, I was a bit excited to see all of this demo stuff when I logged on, but my heart sank when I realised my old trusty Athlon 2700+ wasn't going to cut the mustard. Gah!
Looking at the minimum specs thread, and looking at the readme from the demo that was posted over at the twcenter, I'm pretty sure us Athlon users are shut out of the loop as far as the main game goes as well - they both state 'Pentium 4® (1500MHz) or equivalent AMD® processor'. Pre demo we assumed this meant the AMD prcessor had to be the equivalent of 1.5mhz and that would be OK, but now it transpires this actually means equivalent to Pentium 4 full stop - ie needs the SSE2 instruction set.
Meh, I could be wrong, but why code the battles for the demo using a better technology than is used for the retail game? I hope I'm wrong for the sake of all of us with slightly older processors.
Well I'd have hoped that by the time the full game is finished, the guys at Creative Assembly would have programmed the engine to make it available to Athlon XP users. I mean they should have the time for it, and losing around 25% of all potential customers by failing to do so would be just plain retarded.
I'd have thought that CA would have enough sense not to do something like that. Also, remember that this is probably a slightly older build of the engine, with several incompatibility issues and graphics bugs that should hopefully be fixed by now.
THat isn't correct. I have a Barton 3000+ but these crappy CPU doesn't have SSE2. :shame:Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine
https://img135.imageshack.us/img135/...ton3000mu3.jpg
All I saw in the forums, that is the 3 month old Games Convention Leipzig Demo. Very old.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kor Khan
Its a good demo, although it's not for most people who've played any full version of total war before.
The graphics are amazing, and it runs better than i thought it would.
Although, has anyone noticed how knights sometimes kind of 'hover' above the ground when they're dead?
Hmm, my good old XP2400+ refuses to work because of SSE2, even though it's a bit more than the equivalent of an 1,5GHz Celeron, even without SSE2...
Anyway, I might get that fancy Core 2 Duo this week already, though I originally planned on getting it later...:sweatdrop:
Well, I sincerly hope you're right for the sake of that 25% mate!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kor Khan
As it happens irrespective of all this I ordered a new PC last week, so by the time the game hits the shops I'll be in posession of a machine capable of running it regardless of what version of SSE is required.
Unless they decide it's only compatable with Direct X 10 of course! :laugh4:
Yep, the floating dead problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maizel
Hopefully this is fixed now.
I want to see a 3vs3 or 4vs4. I don't need to see the fights man vs man. You don't have the time to take a look at the eye candy. 99% of time you zoomed out. I was in Leipzig and saw the demo there. The different textures per men in the units makes it more difficult to recognize the correct unit type. And the gamer need uber strong hardware for more then 5000 soldiers. 2 facts, why I don't like the graphics so much. Sometimes less is more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maizel
My bad. I just checked, my CPU doesn't have SSE2 as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by |Heerbann|_Di3Hard
I simply can't believe I won't be able to play M2TW with my machine. Curses..:furious3:
ok so my rig barely meets the min. req for the game.. here I try to run this demo at low settings for everythin' in graphics department.. runs smooth and all.. but. but everythin' looks like Quake 2 lol
blokey models with washed out textures.. everythin' besides the sky is so 1996ish and I ain't wastin' hundreds of dollars for just one game.
btw, RTW looks and runs better on my system. I can do med-high and everythin' looks shiny! the RTW UI is much cleaner and brighter. same goes for the unit cards and the general feel.. the only thin' that was better in the demo graphics wise is the grass! but then I do have it set on low in RTW as well.. so maybe it's not better after all! oh and the sky looks kinda cool until ya see the supernova.. eer I mean the big bright fuzzy ball of white in the sky... yes and the units movement speed is x10 of normal. any less and the game pauses!
then again, just like in RTW I spend most of my time zoomed out to get a better grasp of the battlefield and the graphics don't bother me as much. I'll try to run the demo on med-low next time.. Rome is my fav time period anyhow...
It's not x10, it's 1.0. It then goes to 2.0 and 3.0.
Ranges for arqs in Pavia seems to be 120 meters and 150 meters for longbows in Agincourt.
CBR
I just can't believe CA would make the game to require SSE2! I certainly won't upgrade my rig just for this game.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine
My impressions.
I was very impressed as most have said it looks good. I ran it in highest just to see it (lagged alot) looked awesome. Even on medium you can still see it fairly accurately. Which is where I run it and it runs fine and I don't have a top end rig.
No this is not for total war vets, two scripted battles and a tutorial will not tell you every single detail. This is like most demos though what a demo is, it's a demonstartion of what is in game. It's pretty good demonstration.
Tutorial, rather easy, similiar to RTW but I advise you play it just to get used to camera. It's not bad just different
Agincourt- Fairly easy once you play through it. Your first time there is a nice scripted surprise I won't spoil.
Pavai- Challenging. I have been eaten time and time again I love it. I have won twice. One time I died they cannoned my General who was not even closest unit, though likely this was a accident still funny.
I am more impressed by my ally's AI who sometimes wins and sends help and sometimes is utterly beaten (surprises in a battle amazing I know)
Also I like that it's a challenge. Let's face it in Rome if you knew how to flank you won. Even in non scripted parts the comp is clearly not afraid of attacking. It is exhilirating to try to manage all over place and hope you can hold out long enough. I enjoyed it throughly. So MTW get's my :2thumbsup:
The battles are very nice and messy.
I have a Sempron 2800 cpu , I am hoping that it will run the demo, can anyone with more tech savvy help me with that query. Being a resident of Australia we will not get the pcgamer magazine till the end of November as we are at least 2 months behind in overseas maagzines getting here which has the MTW2 demo I believe.
I think the demo was very realistic (battle speed, kill rates, movement speed) and it was also fun. I played it on my dad's laptop so I could play it at full graphics and no lag at all. Agincourt was very challenging. That was an awesome demo in my opinion. Blood sprays were cool, good music, nice sound effects.
The battle speed... what do you guys think of that one. Units appear to move slower than in RTW. Some units steamroll others which I guess is alright.
The one problem I had was with the camera on Hastings. Horses were a bit fat too (they looked like ponies).
Is the starcraft UI back, or are those tabs in the screenshots default?
I can't wait to get my hands on the demo, in any event.
It doesn't make any sense...
I used auto-detect, the game placed the settings to medium, and I did Hastings.
LAG! Disgustingly putrid lag. I have above-average requirements, I play on medium performance, and yet I lag! Someone explain this!
Well I faced the lag. I played Pavia, didn't use a lick of strategy, and still won. The old CTRL-A right click strategy still seems effective here...
The demo is heavily scripted, the enemy comes in waves instead of all at once, it is made so that people can feel challenged but still win.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kourutsu
Plus it is an old build, you will notice that it is one of the newer blogs where they claim that they have done a lot of work on "blobbing" or whatever they call it, and they claim to have done said work "this week". Considering this demo was made over a month ago, this feature will not have been included.
Got my issue today and played around....
First off, one can eliminate a lot of lag by turning off shadows completely. I turned it off and voila!, game runs smooth as butter on high settings with a P4 3.0Ghz GeForce 6600 255mb vid card and 1gig RAM.
Next... one can use the Minimal UI to make it MTW/STW style. Very very nice and useful.
Kill rates and unit speeds are pretty good from what I have seen - units don't move too fast and kill rates aren't bad when one plays with a more even field (as in Pavia). Will get more when I play more...
I hope this means that hotseat MP is possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Taliferno
After all, that is very simple type of MP to make (no synchornized moves, no network code, etc...).
I agree that this is scripted. However I tried ctrl-a and lost quite a few times. Though i've heard diff reports from diff people. I think i've played Pavai now 9 times and won 3, so i'm like 1 for 3 :). haha.
I also agree that while a great game I'm pretty sure CA has improved it greatly.
Lastly I'm sure even though the demo is fun and the game good I'm sure some people will find some aspect to complain about if they really want to but all in all great demo great game ahead, I personally won't need any mods :) (well maybe a time one, i like years over turns)
I'm running a well above average rig and the game just looks stunning, although oddly I experienced some lag on Hastings.
However after removing the grass (I'm not a fan of grass that appears in clumps and criss-cross lines anyway) I didn't have any trouble at all, apart from in the cases where the flags seemed to stutter a little.
I seem to remember the Rome demo having a similar problem, though- is this just because the game hasn't been optimised yet (which I believe they do last?).
As for the game itself, I was impressed. It seemed a little clunky to begin with and the older sounding chap who did the battle intros sounded like my old Egyptology lecturer at uni, prompting me to skip the intos completely.
However the speed appears to have been slowed down noticeably- having needed to press pause alot in RTW, it was a refreshing change to only need to press pause to examine the troops and textures.
I tried using all the graphical settings and have to say that even on medium the detail and the look was more than good enough.
It all seemed darker, grittier and more adult than the bright colours of Rome, which I welcome entirely, and certainly the dark clouds of Agincourt and the beautiful sunrise of Pavia added a whole new dimension to the atmosphere.
The much-hyped 'finishing moves' were subtle enough and varied enough to avoid turning it into something arcadey, although I did notice one of them involved the foot knight spinning around to deliver the blow, something which makes me wince whenever I see it. Perhaps they should modify it so that in attempting to do so, the perpetrator gets stabbed in the back or side.
I was happy to see some injured men crawling away from the melee, and standing back a little the ebb and flow looked satisfyingly brutal and natural.
I was interested to see the clothing and armour of troops become splattered with mud and blood, although on the mounted knights especially the blood reminded me of the fire effect on troops in RTW.
I can't really comment on the AI as a result of the scripting, although in one case at Pavia my flank was turned quite effectively with a feigned pike assault on the right, only for Gendarmes to burst from the trees on the left.
On the other hand, a unit of French Heavy infantry tried chasing my general all over the field unsupported and increasingly isolated.
After the initial assaults which I feel where the scripted ones the other French attacks that were reacting to my movements tended to be well executed and troops well supported by each other.
The use of the stakes at Agincourt was interesting- no knights have as yet managed to charge into them, but that isn't really the point- they avoid them, and thus avoid the archers, which is. Some foot troops did attempt to pick their way through them but their formation was so dispersed when they reached the other side that they were torn apart by the billmen I had ordered forward to wait for them.
The movement speed and killing rates do seem to have been decreased and, as mentioned, even when it got hectic I was never forced to use the pause button. There was always plenty of time to assess the situation, and "holding" a unit by engaging it with another worked for far longer than in RTW.
The sounds themselves were fine. The music didn't particularly stand out for me although I did use Vercingetorix's idx extractor to unpack the sound files and noticed that several of the generic soldier sounds were RTW names- EQUITE17, for example, or HASTATI09.
I'm heartened by this demo, and, bearing in mind the game should have been fine tuned since this, I'm now very excited.
A hotseat MP campaign would be a very nice feature IMO. It's one I requested ages ago at the .com.Quote:
Originally Posted by Taliferno
...
It is a CPU extension developed by Intel. The AMD socket A CPUs don't have it ( 32Bit AMD proccessors). And I have the last version of that CPU :embarassed:Quote:
Originally Posted by screwtype
Yeah, somebody asked the same question earlier in the thread and got a reply, so I deleted the question.Quote:
Originally Posted by |Heerbann|_Di3Hard
Thanks for the answer though. I have a 64 bit AMD so hopefully the game will work for me...
My main problem will probably be the graphics card. Anyone tested it with Gainward Geforce FC5700 256DDR? I think I'll need an upgrade anyway.
Before I write my impressions from the demo I just wanted to give my rig, as I was afraid I wouldn't be able to run M2:TW.
Pentium 4, 2,66 GHz
1024 MB RAM
Nvidia Geforce4 Ti4200
I ran it on medium settings and everything was smooth as hell. Looked ugly too, especially the units with bad textures and all blurry. So I manually changed those settings and it looks and plays nice now. Good that I can put off my computer upgrade a little longer and not have M2:TW force me to do it.
Cheers!
Ituralde
The demo looks pretty cool so far imo.
In bi/rtw only a very few units had the "anti-armour" ability, in mtw2 itll be ofc much more like mtw, lots of units are strong against armoured units.
The movement speed looks pretty good 2 to me, not too fast but not too slow either.
I cant really say much about the AI, Agincourt is completely scripted. I tried to test the AI, i left the start positions you have by the stakes and withdrawed about 100 meters back and took a hill but it didnt really work , cause the AI just followed my straight away... too much scripts..
Pavia was better, after the cav-charge at the beginning there were only a few scripts, eg the art the cav that pulled back after the reinforcement arrived. I faced Spearmen and when i tried to flank them with my general-cav-unit they turned around and faced me so that i couldnt charge them. Pretty cool.
But the demo is not made for TW vets, there isnt even a possibility to play a custom battle, a real pity :embarassed:
I play on highest details (Athlon 64 3500+, Geforce 7800 GT and 2048 MB RAM and the graphics are just wonderfull, same with the animations, everything is so smoothly and fluent, ive never seen this before in a strategy game.
If their are some cool MP-Features like friendlist, decent block buttons that actually work and no more crappy gs servers and most of all a good balance and a great gameplay like mtw this game will be a hit :P
Try a video driver updateQuote:
Originally Posted by Kourutsu
and make sure your graphic cards support the thingie version 2 feature (pixel shader?- I forgoit, can't be bothered to look) otherwise set it to 1.0.
Is it becaus I don't have the newest drivers for Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb or it is becaus of the graphic card, but I do get a blank screen and ''no signal'' warning.
I can access into the game and even run the tutorial but then that message.
Ive played it, on all highest settings, the graphics were great, and the combat. The kill rates are slightly down, but not much, as are the movement speeds. The coats of arms and non-clone armies are the best feature, I never thought I would notice them that much, but they are really a good feature.
The thing that I didnt like, is the cavalry. As I expected, they are underpowered, where they should have been better than in Rome (the stirrup thing). In Pavia, I charged the french forces coming to my right, not the pikemen, but the dismounted knights, with my heavy general's bodyguard, and sustained heavy causualties, whereas such a charge should have mowed those infantry. I really hope this is fixed.
Great so far.
Best bit was when the French cannons in pavia took out their own KING!:oops: Thats pretty much won the battle for me or lost it for the french.:2thumbsup:
Also more I play, more it looks more like the BKB super mod.
Played the Battle of Pavia 5 times now as it really offers some challenges and options instead of just having to sit there and wait as was the case with the Agincourt battle. I won four times the last one was even a close victory although their general died on my landsknechts in the first assault, I kind of took it too easy from then on and typed something in the forum too while playing so I lost a lot of men.
The one time I didn't win I scored a Draw, I think because the time ran out on me. Saved me, I guess, since I was down to my Generals Bodyguard, while the French still had roughly 30 Gendarmes and their General on the field.
I really like the demo, first off because it helped me see whether my system would be able to run Medieval 2 and I'm surprised that it does so well.
The battles are a lot of fun to play and the feeling is much better as it was with the Rome Demo. Still my soldiers sometimes don't really obey my orders or kind of hesitat a moment before reacting on them, which is a bit annoying. Also my Arquebusiers seem to slip out of my control from time to time.
Kill ratio and morale are at a nice level once again, which had me surprised in my first Pavia battle where I was counting on fast routing of the enemies but instead got pinned and flanked by the advancing French forces. So the AI, when not scripted acts well on its own. I often got caugth off guard by some cavalry unit that I overlooked and which consequently attacked my weak spots. It was also nice to see that Landsknechts are only capable of killing cavalry, anything else attacks them and they're torn to shreds and I'm not even speaking about missile fire.
The only thing that I noticed and really bugged me is the fact that the shortcuts for formations don't seem to work. No matter how often I press shift + 1 they just won't move into a single line. Those were the only times I had to pause then, because I had to bring up the interface with the formations and select them there. Besides that the speed of the game is good. Slow enough for tactical decisions but still fast enough to not get boring. Although the Battle always threw enemies at you from the very beginning, so I guess a usual battle should play out a little slower still.
Well, that's all for now.
Cheers!
Ituralde
The dismounted knights are very heavy infantry with polearms, they should trash an unsupported cavalry charge. Cavalry in Rome was waaaaaay overpowered anyway, so I'm pleased at this development.Quote:
In Pavia, I charged the french forces coming to my right, not the pikemen, but the dismounted knights, with my heavy general's bodyguard, and sustained heavy causualties, whereas such a charge should have mowed those infantry. I really hope this is fixed.
I seem to be running into this problem from the readme:
VIDEO ISSUES
Monitor Display
Monitor display goes black when the game resolution is set to a value
that the monitor cannot display. The game can only detect the video
modes supported by the graphics card not the monitor. Should you find
you have set the resolution and cannot run the demo, in order to reset
the resolution open the medieval2.preference.cfg file found in the
demo installation directory in a text editor.
Change the following lines to match below:
battle_resolution = 1024 768
Excuse me, but my monitor can handle more than 1024 x 768!
Also when I open the medieval2.preference.cfg file all I have is this
[video]
widescreen=0
shouldnt there be more, or do I add the line (rather than change it) ?
BTW I tried the auto detect settings and my video setting are on medium
Any thoughts?
How does one update a video driver?Quote:
Originally Posted by Maizel
And my card is a Radeon X600.
I hope this all comes out good in the end, if not, its off to buy World of Warcraft...AND I WANT TO KEEP MY SOUL!