M2TW recommendation

[caravel]

Historically, M2TW is on a DVD.

Actually they wasted two DVDs on Mine is on two DVDs.

[gollum]

Mine is on two DVDs.

Oh tempora, o mores

!it burnsus!

[Tony Furze]

I'm giving it a go...I really am. I've got the Gold Edition-the only one available in Leeds when my brother went there for some work related business. (Leeds-Doncaster-Dublin-Karachi,Pakistan...that's some journey)

In spite of System Requirements giving my new pc a clean bill of health for M2TW + Kingdoms, there are just so many issues with running it.

To play "properly" I've had to undergo the MIB memory blackout of all previous experiences with MTW VI, XL and Shogun Warlords, etc,etc. To approach with a fresh mind. (Caravel gave me a good piece of advice about this on the RTW board when I asked there.)

The Campaign reminds me more and more of Knights of Honor-there's a kind of depth/complexity to it that can be quite fascinating.It's more interesting and colourful than RTW-which I will try again after this experience with M2TW. I have a hunch RTW will come out better...

The battles,well, this I suppose is what sold the game originally. I can see the point about Disney:it's more entertainment than real battle strategy as in MTW VI. Having said that, old habits die hard: I have a tendency to zoom out to see my units as a whole in lines as in Shogun/MTW; rather than zooming into the action.

Since the battles seem to have been designed to watch, it's a wonder a replay utility was not provided for the Campaigns battles.

I'm looking at the possibilities of roleplay, and narrative with M2TW at present.


But,Oh! I miss MTW VI immensely!

[Peasant Phill]

That's quite enough disuasion for the moment. I guess I won't consider getting M2TW for some time now.

Empire Total War probably won't be an improvement either. It's hard to be hopefull when you see the trend in the series.

[Geezer57]

So, from this discussion, I guess there are no mods for M2TW or RTW that successfully fix the combat systems?

[caravel]

Well, the combat system for M2TW cannot be changed back to how it was before as that would be a fundamental change. IIRC fights between men in previous TW games involved the two meeting and then the usual attack defence calculations taking place. I'm not sure how this works, but it may be based on "attack rounds" or some such system. The M2TW system sees the combat based on the animations themselves. So a weapon is literally swung and hits or misses an enemy. In previous titles the swings and thrusts were cosmetic. This new system introduced a lot of bugs where certain units could not hit other units due to the types of swing etc. This has been addressed in patches but not fully resolved AFAIK.

RTW does not have this system so you can work with it and improve it somewhat through modding, but it still falls short due to pathetic battlefield AI and numerous bugs, especially pathfinding bugs in sieges. Unit movement rate, kill rate and other factors such as morale, fatigue, height and weather are also messed up in RTW. It's very much shock and rout tactics and battles are all over in a matter of minutes. Some mods address this but I've yet to see any mod that has fixed all of these issues.

The fact still remains, that if you want to play the tactical battles you don't have much choice. STW and MTW are still the best there is.

[Martok]

The fact still remains, that if you want to play the tactical battles you don't have much choice. STW and MTW are still the best there is.

QFT

I won't say that Medieval 2 was a bad game per se. Taken by itself, it can be pretty entertaining; and for those who never played STW and/or MTW, they'll probably never even know what they're missing.

For those of us who *have* played [either or both of] the two older games, though, most of us would find M2TW lacking. In terms of AI and atmosphere/immersion factor, the later games just cannot compare to Shogun & Medieval IMHO.