The Official Hopes, Dreams and Fears Topic

[Sheogorath]

A simple idea here, list what you hope will be in the game, what you wish would be in the game but probably (or certainly) wont be, and what you dont want in the game, but probably will be.

To kick things off...

Hopes,

Drummers, flag/standard bearers, fifers and so forth. Preferably with animations and sound. Maybe a special Ottoman Janissary Band unit that'd act sort of like a crusader cross or one of the Italian States banner dealies.

Realistic grenadiers. From what I know, grenadiers weren't solely occupied with chucking bombs at people, even early on, they had muskets.

Accurate presentation of uniforms. I'm not calling for absolutely %100 accuracy here, but with the blog note about 'clone armies' it makes me a bit nervous that the Guard and Grenadier units are going to look sloppy, when the idea behind such units was to make every soldier look as much alike as possible. I can see non-elite formations allowing for variations in uniform (to a degree), but Gold help the Russian Lifeguard who accidentally got the wrong color button at the quartermaster.

A variety of ships. I dont want just 'sloop, frigate, Ship of the Line', I want everything from corvette upwards. 'Ship of the Line' should be split from 3rd-1st rates.

Realistic ship damage extending beyond 'LOL SHOOT THEIR SAILS WITH CHAINSHOT'. If a shot cripples a ships rudder, it shouldnt be able to steer. If the aft castle gets raked with grapeshot, there might be some coordination issues while the officers try to sort out which bits are the ex-captains bits.


Dreams,

Visible variation in unit skill. Guardsmen, grenadiers and experienced linesmen should be able to hold a pretty solid line when marching. Militia units, new conscripts and so on would probably tend to lag behind/get a bit ahead, resulting in a more ragged line. It may suprise some, but walking in a straight line at an even pace is suprisingly difficult on pretty much anything but a paved surface. :P
Likewise, the ability to deliver a volley. A highly trained unit could pretty much fire all at once, whereas a less experienced unit would deliver its volley over a space of (up to) a second or two. Maybe more.
It'd be nice if highly experienced/trained units could use the 'rank and file' system, where one rank fires, then another rank advances while it reloads, fires, and so on.

Differing morale and skill schemes based on nations. The Spanish (during the Napoleonic Wars) were famous for routing quickly when in a disadvantageous situation, but quickly reorganizing. Which is probably what kept the French from killing all of them.
The Russians, on the other hand, tended to stick to a spot until they were all dead. Their line troops were also rather famous for being truly horrible shots, while being some of the most feared troops in Europe when it came to a melee battle. After all, it was Suvurov that said, "The bullet is an idiot, the bayonet is a fine chap." (or one of the other ten thousand translations of that quote)
The British were known for having quite accurate linesmen (and, in general, for their acceptance of the rifle on a large scale before anybody else).
Seeing differences in cavalry would be nice too. Russian horses were smaller, but tended to have better endurance than the big ol' European warhorses, who were generally better on the charge, due to their superior weight.

Galleys. As much as it was the 'Age of Sail', galleys still played a huge role in the Mediterranean and Baltic. They really couldnt stand up to a Ship of the Line in open water, but in certain environments they had a distinct advantage. And the Russians and Swedes had tons of them.

Sharpshooters in Jaeger units. Historically, nations typically issued a certain number of rifles within their jaeger/skirmisher/light units, to designated sharpshooters. A few units (the British 95th Rifles probably being some of the more famous) were issued entirely with rifles, but they tended to be pretty rare in the games period.


Fears,

Bear cavalry, British rocket men, and Swedish Warrior Monks.

Naval combat ending up like IG.

Berserker AI charging infantry head on with cavalry.

Over effective cavalry. Sure, heavy cavalry was still a force to be feared, but I promise that if your unit of lifeguard curiassiers charges headlong into a formation of fresh, disciplined infantry, they're going to die. Lancer units should be the ONLY ones able to take infantry head-on, and then only by the charge/retreat scheme.

[rajpoot]

Most of the listed hopes I'm sure are going to be realized, some of them like drummers infact have been confirmed. The dreams I fear, won't be :(
I have always thought men would look distinct if they a few extra model insted of skins. I mean, it will make a whole lot of difference if the individual has the same uniform as the next one but is a mite taller. The formations would look a lot more realistic too then......I never understood why do they not have soldiers with difference in their hights or, their build......
Again, sharpshooters I doubt we shall see. Perhaps as a whole specific unit, but not interspread with others, the screenshots don't show any 'different looking' units in the columns of musketeers.
Of the fears, we have rocketships in there, and probably they'll be in use many times more than they ever were in reality.

My own fear; We won't have larger unit scales, the same old 200 men at the most on huge.
And that my computer will never be able to run this game anyway. lol.

[sassbarman]

Honestly the only dream i have is that there will actually be some sort of challenge from the a.i. for the expierenced player. I hadn't played med 2 for probably close to 4 months or so and just recently
started up a new campaigne as the moors, and was immediately reminded of how inept the a.i. is in this game.

[Marius Dynamite]

Dreams,

I just really want the diplomacy to be a lot better. I would like to see Wars be declared, given a name then allies declaring what they will do in the war, or if they will back out of their alliance and remain neutral. When the war is won territory captured should be divided up between the victors, depending on both common sense and how much each faction contributed to victory. For example, if France declares war on Spain and captures territory in the pyrenees and Spain asks Britain for help then the territory won back should go to Spain and not Britain, but Britain should recieve more of the reparation money from France. France decides wether to go into Total War or to admit it cannot beat the alliance and pay the reparations.

Its just a dream though because I cant imagine being Spain, asking the British AI for help in the pyrenees and them sending significant help within a reasonable time in the total war engine, although I think these kind of things should be in Total War games by now.

[Dutch_guy]

I'm still hoping for some sort of a Glorious Achievements mode, by far my prefered mode in MTW.

[Martok]

I definitely second wanting a competent AI (both on *and* off the battlefield), as well as a robust diplomacy system.

By "robust", I don't necessarily mean a diplomacy model where you have tons of different diplomatic options (although that would certainly be nice), but in that when you form an alliance with a faction, that it actually means something. Allies shouldn't backstab you unless they have a very good reason to do, *and* actually have a reasonable chance of winning. I don't want to see a repeat of MTW where small factions with only 1-2 provinces decide to backstab their superpower ally (who has 30 provinces).

I'm still hoping for some sort of a Glorious Achievements mode, by far my prefered mode in MTW.

That would be lovely as well. I don't want to have to conquer half the map in order to "win".

[Andres]

I'm also hoping for a glorious achievement mode. And a better diplomacy, pretty much like Martok described it.

And a battlefield AI like in MTW or STW.

[Quintus.JC]

Different starting periods would be nice, although I would want this much more in Medieval III or Rome II. Sometimes you wish to start at a certain period e.g discovery of gunpowder in MII and Marian Reforms in Rome, and you want to take full advantage of it, but by the time you get to that time the campaign is practically finished. KOEI's Romance of the three kingdoms series have the option of different starting periods and I think it's great.

[Veho Nex]

I wanna know, can the ships ram each other? I know it wasnt always the best choice but it worked sometimes. Even did up till ww1.

[SirGrotius]

Hopes: Visceral combat a la MTW1, slower pace, great gun battles

Dreams: A deep diplomacy system; being able to form squares

Fears: MTW2 with firearms and sea battles appended

[A Nerd]

Someone said that they would like more field battles and not all seige battles. I agree with this, siege battles become way boring and seem all the same after a while. I likes the STW way of haveing a field battle before you were able to take the city...that doesn't seem too unrealistic, does it? The AI hiding in the cities and not moving about makes me feel quite sad!(and bored!)

[Sheogorath]

Someone said that they would like more field battles and not all seige battles. I agree with this, siege battles become way boring and seem all the same after a while. I likes the STW way of haveing a field battle before you were able to take the city...that doesn't seem too unrealistic, does it? The AI hiding in the cities and not moving about makes me feel quite sad!(and bored!)

To my knowledge, the era of siege battles was pretty much gone by this point. Forts were still used to guard ports and so forth, but they were mostly geared towards fending off ships in that case. Cannons and artillery were simply too effective at this point.

Field fortifications were the new big thing. Building redoubts and so forth prior to the battle to stick your cannons in and so forth.

[BigTex]

Glorious Achievement mode

Oh, and an AI on very hard mode that can actually wipe the floor with me, bend me over a table and turn my faction into a jailhouse I love my edit button.

Everything else is just fluff, so long as it functions and remains historical.

[Sheogorath]

Glorious Achievement mode

Oh, and an AI on very hard mode that can actually wipe the floor with me, bend me over a table and turn my faction into a jailhouse I love my edit button.

Everything else is just fluff, so long as it functions and remains historical.

Which ties into diplomacy quite well.
Being a protectorate might actually MEAN something in ETW :P

[ljperreira]

To my knowledge, the era of siege battles was pretty much gone by this point. Forts were still used to guard ports and so forth, but they were mostly geared towards fending off ships in that case. Cannons and artillery were simply too effective at this point.

Field fortifications were the new big thing. Building redoubts and so forth prior to the battle to stick your cannons in and so forth.

There were a few sieges during the Napoleonic war (for example, the first and second siege of Almeida, Portugal), but they wouldnt have lasted as long as sieges from the medieval time period. Cannons and artillery were quite effective, but so were some of the methods used to counteract this, such as star fortifications and such.

Anyhow, two of my "hopes" for ETW is the inclusion of Marines, and ship to shore attacks on shore batteries (Naval landing parties), or ship to shore attacks on basically anything .....would it be too much to ask to hear sailors singing sea shanties as they worked?

[Polemists]

My only fear is that nations will act completely eradaic again


Ex:

Hello my name is Milan.

I will never have more then three cities, but I will manage to train over 8000 crossbow men to send against you. Nothing else really, just crossbowmen. I always entire into alliances, and will always betray you, even when it's in my interest not to.




I mean I don't want to see the 13 colonies sailing a fleet over to england and invading london


Otherwise diplomacy is always nice.

[rajpoot]

Anyhow, two of my "hopes" for ETW is the inclusion of Marines, and ship to shore attacks on shore batteries (Naval landing parties), or ship to shore attacks on basically anything .....would it be too much to ask to hear sailors singing sea shanties as they worked?

They've already said ship to shore attacks are not happening......if there was one thing that could have made Empire absolutly flawless, it would have been being able to attack forts using ships.....but it's not in there. I must confess this was one thing I too wanted alot.