What do you want in next TW title?! What?!

[General SupaCrunk]

Vote

[General SupaCrunk]

I go for ''Babylon, Carthage, Ancient Egypt etc.''

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I voted for Karl the Great because it's an interesting time period and it could connect RTW and MTW time periods!

[Azlahn]

Can't vote, but I would go for Africa. It wouldn't necessarily make for the best or most interesting gameplay, but I would sincerely find it refreshing. Sub-Saharan Africa has so far been severely underrepresented in any game worth of mention. (The only counter example I can think of would be Command & Conquer.) Not that I wouldn't love any of the other options. A few on which to comment:

Shogun 2: To sate my combined nostalgia and raging nihongofilia.
China (warring kindoms): Always found this period interesting. "Hero" anyone?

In addition to this I would like to see the 16th and 17th centuries covered. Maybe also something not thought of at all, for example the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages (I'm an archaeologist ;)), Pacific Isles, Post-Apocalyptic Earth, whatsoever. Those would probably have to be modifications as they would come into conflict with CA's style. I also have a few ideas for a warcraft modification, again mostly due to nostalgia (war1 & 2).

[Fisherking]

Have not voted!

My first choice would be from 1500 to 1700. Musket and Pike, Age of Exploration and all that good stuff. Great Ships, Privateers, Vast Colonies and lots of petty wars.

Now you have a close second listed above. Karl Der Groß/Charlemagne
but I would run it into the early medieval period…say 1100...for no particularly good reasons.
The dark ages through the Viking times is all…but just think of all the factions!

[gollum]

Hi,
I would like TW to leave the tried and tested formula and exlpore more possibilities, like;

- FPS or fighting/adventure games inspired from established TW themes (STW: Geisha, MTW: paladin, RTW: centurion etc)

- A true RTS inspired by established TW themes and developed within a TW framework, were there is no morale, no fatigue and no situational combat parameters - something in other words to make C&C or Blizzard tremble.

If CA is resolved to stay within the TW concept, then, i would like a TotalWar that will cover 2500 years of history as well as the Earth, Mars venus and Andromeda in one campaign, starting from the stone age and teching up all the way to motherships and photon guns, with war waged on earth and beyond. possible technologies may be:

.The time machine, with witch you can import war technologies from one period to another - say tanks in medieval japan to have samurai tank cavalry and airdrop planes during the 12th century enabling you to assault the Holy Land with paratrooper crusaders (literaly "heaven sent").

.Personality transcendental electromagnetic hijack, enabling the summoning of a historical personality to the present time to lead your armies. Players can thus take the place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Richard the Lionheart, George Washington, Bob the Clubman and Rexor the Alien.

.Panspermia operations; sow life in other planets and guide it over centuries of evolution with the use of UFOs and other high tech vehicles to ensure future allies for your faction.

!it burnsus!

[Sol Invictus]

I voted Rome 2. I feel that CA can do much better than the first try. Also, Galley fight! I was tempted by 1800-1870, but I figure the first expansion for ETW will cover much of that. I would also like a 1600-1700. Hopefully the second expansion for ETW will cover some of that.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I think Rome could be a very interesting option if CA would take a slightly different approach from the original. With more factions or a better way of representing Rebels as minor factions, the fragmented barbarian states could be better represented. Plus the barbarian units could be easily improved from Rome so that they're not all half-naked clones.

[lenin96]

Hi,
I would like TW to leave the tried and tested formula and exlpore more possibilities, like;

- FPS or fighting/adventure games inspired from established TW themes (STW: Geisha, MTW: paladin, RTW: centurion etc)

Then the Total War series would cease to exist.

Hi,
- A true RTS inspired by established TW themes and developed within a TW framework, were there is no morale, no fatigue and no situational combat parameters - something in other words to make C&C or Blizzard tremble.

If thats what you would rather play than a total war game there are many already to choose from, leave it to other companies, not CA.

Hi,
If CA is resolved to stay within the TW concept, then, i would like a TotalWar that will cover 2500 years of history as well as the Earth, Mars venus and Andromeda in one campaign, starting from the stone age and teching up all the way to motherships and photon guns, with war waged on earth and beyond. possible technologies may be:

The amount of time it would take, people will probaly forget it was being made. And I don't want a game like this being made in a couple of years, imagine how incomplete it would be.

Hi,
.The time machine, with witch you can import war technologies from one period to another - say tanks in medieval japan to have samurai tank cavalry and airdrop planes during the 12th century enabling you to assault the Holy Land with paratrooper crusaders (literaly "heaven sent").

That would be like CA adding machine guns and nuclear missiles to Rome Total war.

Hi,
Personality transcendental electromagnetic hijack, enabling the summoning of a historical personality to the present time to lead your armies. Players can thus take the place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Richard the Lionheart, George Washington, Bob the Clubman and Rexor the Alien.

That would also be extremely unrealistic, even though CA gives romans ninjas and flaming pigs, they wouldn't go to far.

Hi,
Panspermia operations; sow life in other planets and guide it over centuries of evolution with the use of UFOs and other high tech vehicles to ensure future allies for your faction.

Then play Spore.

Total War games will always be Total war games.

[Lord Nelson]

Personally, I am sick to death of Rome and shogun and medieval, I'm tired of the computer having super-spearman or super cavalry. I would like to see the time frame move forward and not back.

I know people have commented on this but I see a lot of "it cant be done" attitudes. (this isnt a rant honest) I bet when they first said they were making an RTS combined with a turn-based game, people had the same attitude "oh they'll never do it, it cant be done" but the fact is they have and look how its turned out.

Im not saying they have to do world war 1 or 2 or anything. Im just saying I would like to do something different rather than the same old charge of cavalry or spearmen or whatever. Even if they have to abandon the old ways of doing it then so be it, if it makes for a better game.

The old saying is "you cant make an omlette without breaking eggs" And the same is true for this company. They are going to have to scrap the forumla and think of something new. Once they have done shogun again, and done Rome and re-done medieval and empire for about the 50th time.

This formula will have to end or it will get too predictable.

[Sheogorath]

Ur: Total War ;)

[gollum]

Then the Total War series would cease to exist.

That would be less tragic but i guess it depends who you ask.

If thats what you would rather play than a total war game there are many already to choose from, leave it to other companies, not CA.

Straight from the horses mouth eh?

The amount of time it would take, people will probaly forget it was being made. And I don't want a game like this being made in a couple of years, imagine how incomplete it would be.

Well setting aside that this is exactly what is happening right now and that experienced players are calling releases *large scale public beta testing*, you are right.

That would be like CA adding machine guns and nuclear missiles to Rome Total war.

That would also be extremely unrealistic, even though CA gives romans ninjas and flaming pigs, they wouldn't go to far.

Far is a relative concept - i dont know about you but for me it would make more sense for cavalry in RTW to have been spacecraft - then there would be a good excuse for the turning radii and the damage they do.

Then play Spore.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion including me and you, thanks for the suggestion but when i direly need somebody s opinion i tend to ask for it.

Total War games will always be Total war games.

Well, setting aside that you and i dont have a clue if thats true, there is the tiny issue of what TW games have become. If you see no change whatsoever in the series over the years, then good for you.

!it burnsus!

[lenin96]

Personally, I am sick to death of Rome and shogun and medieval, I'm tired of the computer having super-spearman or super cavalry. I would like to see the time frame move forward and not back.

I know people have commented on this but I see a lot of "it cant be done" attitudes. (this isnt a rant honest) I bet when they first said they were making an RTS combined with a turn-based game, people had the same attitude "oh they'll never do it, it cant be done" but the fact is they have and look how its turned out.

Im not saying they have to do world war 1 or 2 or anything. Im just saying I would like to do something different rather than the same old charge of cavalry or spearmen or whatever. Even if they have to abandon the old ways of doing it then so be it, if it makes for a better game.

The old saying is "you cant make an omlette without breaking eggs" And the same is true for this company. They are going to have to scrap the forumla and think of something new. Once they have done shogun again, and done Rome and re-done medieval and empire for about the 50th time.

This formula will have to end or it will get too predictable.

I think a Total war game set where melee weapons were not commonly used could be done, but Total War is not ready yet, I doubt even the ETW engine will be able to do it probaly. And I never get tired of spearmen and cavalry, I will still play RTW even in 4 years time when CA will anounce the next Total war game after the one after ETW.

[Sir Beane]

Well, setting aside that you and i dont have a clue if thats true, there is the tiny issue of what TW games have become. If you see no change whatsoever in the series over the years, then good for you.

!it burnsus!

I have definitely seen a change in the Total War series. The games have increased in scope, graphical quality, variety and ambition.

Sure Shogun was a good game. It got a lot right. But when you compare it to Medieval 2, it looks pretty small. A handful of factions, handful of unit types, one country.

Modern Total War games aren't perfect, clearly. But they are in a class of their own, doing something no other series does, or even attempts.

CA are good at making strategy games with battlefield combat. In my oppinion they shouldn't try to cross over into other genres. Have you ever played one of the Total Warrior series? They are ok games, but that is it, they don't do anything special.

Your suggestions show a lot of imagination, and they have impressive scope and sound like they would be fun to play, but they wouldn't be Total War. (Not to mention a game like that would take so long to be released it would likely go the way of Duke Nukem)

For the next Total War game I would like CA to stick to their strengths and build on what they have already accomplished. I want the same style of game but bigger, more detailed, more variety, more complexity, more depth.

I agree thet if they decide to make another sequel game they run the risk of getting stuck a rut and endlessly repeating the same 4 historical periods. However there is plenty of history and geography out there they have yet to cover.

However so far my suggestions have been a little boring, and a little like a rant.

So now for something completely different!

Blimps! Zeppelins! Airships! Balloons! I've run out of synonyms!

Yes that's right. CA added in naval combat, so now I would like to see air combat. But not planes, planes are too fast for the Total War style. Zeppelins are perfect, like warships but flying.

Battles would be fought in 3D, high above the ground. You could use a high altitude to your advantage by bombing the enemy for above. Airships would try and outmanoevere each other to gain the height and wind advantage.

It may not be realistic, but the sight of two gigantic flying machines bombarding each other with broadsides and falling out of the sky trailing flames and smoke would be an extremely impressive sight.

You could use clouds to your advantage by masking your location from enemy ships, much like forests on land. During seiges zeppelins could be used to provide artillery support or to flat out bomb a city to the ground if they forget to build anti-air defenses.

The best bit about airships is that they fit right in with a real historic setting. If we fudge the details a bit then airships look reasonably at home with the industrial revolution.

Of course this will never happen unless CA decide that 'Steampunk' is the way to go with the next game, but I can hope.

[gollum]

I have definitely seen a change in the Total War series. The games have increased in scope, graphical quality, variety and ambition.

Very true. They also increased in number of bugs contained (RTW had only about 200% more bugs than MTW) as well as in fantasy units and drastically decreased in playtesting time prior to release and patches released.

Note, that i do not mention whether gameplay balance increased or decreased, since this is a *relative concept*, meaning that if you market correctly anything is acceptable.

Sure Shogun was a good game. It got a lot right. But when you compare it to Medieval 2, it looks pretty small. A handful of factions, handful of unit types, one country.

Your suggestions show a lot of imagination, and they have impressive scope and sound like they would be fun to play, but they wouldn't be Total War.

This is clearly a contradiction on your part - my suggestions are exactly meant to address the bigger better faster concept the TW series is so fondly embracing. People who find Shogun small, should be enthusiastic.

(Not to mention a game like that would take so long to be released it would likely go the way of Duke Nukem)

Oh, i wouldnt worry about that - CA releases their games incomplete anyway, whether they need two more years like MTW, two more decades like RTW or two more centuries like M2TW to reach completion.

I agree thet if they decide to make another sequel game they run the risk of getting stuck a rut and endlessly repeating the same 4 historical periods. However there is plenty of history and geography out there they have yet to cover.

There certainly are - but they are probably too small by CAs and CAs fanbase standards by now.

!it burnsus!

[The Blind Samurai]

Well i voted for Shogun 2 total war i would honestly like to control hundreds of Noble Samurai to fight against peasants and the mongol horde

also Rome 2 total war would be interesting with the trade theaters and all and galley fights would be great

But What about Greece i mean the war with persia is epic
like you could play the battle of Thermopylae and win

[Noncommunist]

Could you have a New Zealand Total War? I guess it would start sometime around the mid 1700s and by the early 1800s, muskets would be introduced. Then, in the 1840s, the British would begin fighting. The British found it extremely difficult to defeat the maori forts and I'm not sure if they were ever taken. However, the British eventually won by undermining the economic base that sustained the Maori. It seems like it could be an interesting place for a TW game.

[Sheogorath]

I think that's a bit small for a TW game...maybe as part of an expansion it'd be good, though.

It seems a waste of resources to dedicate an entire TW game to such a local, and relatively brief, conflict.

[Noncommunist]

I guess it would be rather small but Japan was also a fairly small place. Maybe it could stretch back to the 1300s when they settled the islands. So then you could go out and start settlements as you take over parts of the islands.

I guess it probably would function better as an expansion since Total War scales are usually pretty big unlike in the Shogun. Though I still can't see where it would fit unless they made Pacific:Total War.

[Sheogorath]

But Shogun was set in an era when Japan was divided, with a whole slew of factions. And spanned hundreds of years.

There's also the fact that, as I recall, the British never had more than a few thousand soldiers on the island at a time.

[Noncommunist]

There were probably dozens of tribes on the islands and it could extend for hundreds of years. Though before the muskets, there were no distance weapons. I guess that could be a bit of a challenge as you would only have melee infantry for a while. Then I guess you would obtain them like the Apaches and Chichimecs acquire them. They also seem to have picked up a European ship in the 1830s and conquered the Marioris on the Chatham Islands. I'm not sure how they got the ship.

As for the British, they had 18,000 troops according to wikipedia.

[Fisherking]

They would be some fun little wars for an expansion maybe, with some very interesting tactics. They did give the government troops a real pain, but the outcome was never in question. It was also quite late…1830s or 40s I think…

It was the 1800s before they managed to get Briton to take them as a Colony…

As to the ship…I think you have to blame Yankee seal hunters…

[Oaty]

I'm all for the asian theatre but I feel CA would be more inclined to do a shogun 2 if they were going to do asia

[Megas Methuselah]

I went for Ancient Egypt, as I'd like a bronze age TW in the Middle-East, but I also like the thought of a 1800's worldwide mod. That'd be sweeeeet, too.

[Samurai Waki]

While I did put in for Shogun:2 which would be dream come true for me. If CA plans on furthering the time line, they still have technically a lot of unused space.

Personally, if CA re-uses it's engine at least twice per game, then naturally the next phase in Gun-Powdered Warfare would be something like Victoria: Total War. A timeline that still uses much the same tactics as the previous, but would run somewhere between 1830-1914. Really, this was a very interesting time period, and chock full of Conflict, between both Empires, Colonial Struggles, Emerging nations trying to find their way, and so forth. Plus, you get the benefit of pretty dramatic battles, just in sheer terms of the manpower used, and emerging technologies like rifles and much longer ranged cannons, etc. I mean, the tactics used by armies during this period were complete madness, and 50,000 men could easily be butchered in a day of conflict if you weren't a very good commander.

You also a lot of social upheavel, and unrest, so being able to manage an Empire, and having to deal with Anarchists, Communists, Social Liberals, market liberals, Social Conservatives, Market Conservatives, Nationalists, and the lot would probably keep you and your enemies fairly occupied, so it would take a real effort to go-a-conquerin'. Especially if you were to play a faction like Austro-Hungary or Russia.

The Sea Combat system wouldn't necessarily go to waste either, because you have enough timeline to see Ships of the Line being replaced by Iron-Clads, which in turn near the end of the scenario get replaced by Deep Draught Juggernauts and Destroyers. Which I think would be so much more fun, than seeing two wooden Junks on the Sea of Japan shout insults at each other, and each go their own way.

Anyway, just an opinion.

[hoom]

I want to see some type of Ancient China:Total War next.

Also I'd like to see sort of Space:Total War, something like Master of Orion II but with Total War type realtime battles using thousands of space-ships

Aotearoa:Total War I always thought could be really cool but it would have to be scaled up much larger than reality vs the normal case where battles are scaled down.

[Fisherking]

I want to see some type of Ancient China:Total War next.

Also I'd like to see sort of Space:Total War, something like Master of Orion II but with Total War type realtime battles using thousands of space-ships

Aotearoa:Total War I always thought could be really cool but it would have to be scaled up much larger than reality vs the normal case where battles are scaled down.

Just for me, I am afraid that a Galactic: Total War, or if you will a Star Wars: Total War is up on my list, right next to Sponge Bob: Total War…

[Martok]

Personally, my two primary choices remain either ancient China or ancient Greece. Both are periods that haven't had a lot of coverage in strategy games, and the battles in both eras would lend themselves well to TW-style gameplay.

[caravel]

Pardon me for putting my head back and yawning...

I'm all for another developer producing TW-like games, rather than continuing down the current route of the "same old same old". It would be good to see something a long the lines of STW or MTW with the same type of map and truly tactical battles where factors such as weather, fatigue, wind, cover and terrain all play a part. With balanced unit types and a strong AI, instead of highly imbalanced factions fielding super units and sub par AI.

[Praxil]

I'm eagerly waiting for "Asian" theme after ETW. Once that is done and if it ever will be done, then after that or before that they MUST release Rome 2 Total War.