Possible Final TW Game?

[andrewt]

I'm not sure how the TW series can incorporate tanks and especially planes in its RTS portion without a major overhaul. Then again, we've had 2 major overhauls of the campaign map while the battle portion is basically the same as Shogun's.

[BharatRakshak]

I hope TW builds an Asia-centric game for the ancient and medieval time periods. Asia technically might be large and consist of several factions, but I don't think there is a market (yet) particularly aimed at China map only or India map only, this may change in due time.

[Nelson]

I really don't think that the TW model is set up at all for these wars. If you want the grand strat map then you can't have the real time battles because each section of the front is huge, (=lots o' regions) and the battles take months, whereas prior to 1900 (most) battles could be fought decisivelyin a day, or a couple of days.

If you have smaller battles for specific objectives then where is the strategic importance after each battle? You would be fighting constantly and each turn on the strat map would be one day - which isn't practical for a game purporting to be ww1 TW or ww2 TW.

This is true. 20th century warfare is not compatible with Total War's strategic and tactical scaling. The game would have to extrapolate tiny tactical skirmishes into front rupturing major victories on the strategic map.

In modern warfare tactics are still important battle by battle but are insignificant compared to industrial might and staying power. Something might be doable that would allow tactical fights to exist with strategic maneuvers but it couldn't be TW as we know it.

Empires is not the end of the line. FBE is spot on. If Total War keeps on making money, CA will keep on making Total War.

[JRCDave]

1815 to 1906 would be a good time period. Pre-dreadnought with longer ranges for rifled muskets and eventually the Maxim. I would like the RTBattle option of digging in and of course all units would have the option to spread out. Pre dreadnought battles were envisioned at ranges of less than 5000 yards. I think it would be fun to advance the Zulu to high tech status with the option to buy western advisers or send students to university. Would provide the option to reverse western Imperialism or maybe the French or Germans would eclipse Britain. What if Germany moved east at a earlier time or Russia procured a warm water Port or France ignored the Monroe Doctrine or Britain went in on the side of the South. The possibilities are endless. What if you played as the USA and could stave off the civil war or no matter what, the war starts in 1861. How about China actually getting it's act together and fending off the west and establishing a Constitutional Monarchy or Republic. The tech tree would be fun and give the opportunity to really have some lopsided battles. Anybody remember Omdurman? Needle gun vs. Spencer. You could concentrate on industrializing the South prior to the civil war and abolish slavery early and then dominate the North. I get chills just thinking about Imperialism: Total War or ITW. Maybe CA will read this and I can get a royalty on the Name.

[The_Reckoning]

Something which would be interesting would be a game which incorporates all of the 'old world'. Dark Ages. All of Africa, Europe and Asia. No Americas.

They could easily do it. There are mods for MEII which extend the map plenty in scale..

[Rhyfelwyr]

I think PC games are going to struggle in general. PC's are too diverse and complex for games to be reliable on them. I upgraded my PC in anticipation of ETW, and I can't play it because of the BSOD. I would rather just have a console and know the game I get will work on it.

[a-e]

I suppose the ultimate goal would be a game that stretches from rome to around 1850. Would be complex game, but what a game!

[MikeV]

I just posted in another thread about the latest patch and how it isn't exactly making the good folks who paid money for this game happy. I have not downloaded it and will just deal with my occasional crash.

But I have a certain fear that this may be the last breath of a dieing gaming genre. With the appearant frustration felt by many (I know, vocal minority, but this seems to be a tather LARGE minority), the almost impossibility to develope software compatable with so many variations of machines, and, most importantly, the current economic downturn, will this be the last of the Total War series? I mean, what time period would be the next title that could save CA existence? I have really enjoyed the games since Shogun, but it is going to be very difficult for me to be one of those "as soon as it hits the shelves" buyers that the gaming industry rely on....

What's your thoughts?

I don't know if they'll continue making them, but it looks like I'll stop buying them. All sizzle and no substance just doesn't do it for me.

I gave up on Paradox's engine because I just got too bored waiting on their "real time" clock to tick on. I've been increasingly irritated by the inconsistencies and errors of the GUI in this engine, the lack of any credible AI, and now the closed binary format that has to be cracked just to mod this beast. (The M2:TW "counted string" format was bad enough, but this one is just nuts.)

I've done my share of finding and documenting the bugs, so you know I have a reasonably high pain threshold. But for me, this one just isn't any ... fun.

[antisocialmunky]

Its hard to mod because CA wanted it to be modded a certain way. They just didn't have the mod SDK ready at release... like everything else :-p

[hoom]

1815 to 1906 would be a good time period

Your description of this time period sounds pretty intriguing.
Its also got NZ maori wars, opening & rapid power rise of Japan & a bunch of other interesting bits.
This is probably about the only period I can think of a global TW working.

I think I'd like to see CA do a more focussed smaller scale game though, one where getting everything right is more doable.

[antisocialmunky]

BTW, I couldn't find the RTW tank vs nazgul video on youtube. I could only find this: http://fr.xfire.com/video/797ed/

[ChaosLord]

If R:TW and then M2:TW didn't sound a death knoll, I don't think E:TWs relatively few issues are going to do it. Personally i'm hoping the next one goes back into ancient warfare, still waiting for a Three Kingdoms TW.

[hellenes]

Any time I play World In Conflict I can hear it scream "MODERN TOTAL WAR" and if it had a campaign map it would be exactly that....
Rember that all TW games are on a scale...why not WWII? I just hope to live to see a WWII TW game...the era has been represented miserably in pathetic Dune2 clones...

[Tully Bascombe]

WW1 or even WW2 are highly doable. The basic concept would be pretty much the same, the real time battles would just play like Men of War or World in Conflict.

Simulating battles that stretched out for hundreds of miles would be difficult. How would you do that? Could battle maps be linked together so you could play sectors of a battle seperately yet as if they were being fought simulataneously? Also you'd need to expand the capacity of the engine to handle more units. Finally there's the problem of handling air warfare.

[hellenes]

Simulating battles that stretched out for hundreds of miles would be difficult. How would you do that? Could battle maps be linked together so you could play sectors of a battle seperately yet as if they were being fought simulataneously? Also you'd need to expand the capacity of the engine to handle more units. Finally there's the problem of handling air warfare.

Just play the World In conflict demo....aircraft is handled there pretty well...

[NimitsTexan]

Aside from Anti-Helo Fighter Sweeps and Helo v Helo dogfights, World at War ignores the air war completely (no AWACs, no fighter intercepts, no radar-guided SAMs, etc.)

[PanzerJaeger]

Would absolutely love a WW2 version, although as others have said, not sure how it would happen. Anything is possible though. Didn't they put WW1 on a questionare about the next TW?

Ed. Also there's a built in sales base that buys any WW2 themed game.. of which I'm a part.

[Rufus]

How about this: The next Total War game could cover a new period of history or revisit one from a previous game, but the innovation could be the addition of a 3rd level of gameplay to the current strategic campaign and tactical battles. The new type of gameplay would be the incorporation of a RPG and/or action element. This may not be too far-fetched given CA's foray into console games and the success of other historical-themed action/RPG games like Assassin's Creed, not to mention the mission-based element of RTI, M2TW and RTW.

Think about it: Let's say they re-do Shogun, but add a new element where each turn gives you the opportunity not only to plot strategy and fight tactical battles, but also perform missions on an individual basis, perhaps as a ninja or samurai leader of some sort, and the missions make a difference for you in the strategic and tactical levels. For example, maybe you're a ninja on an assassination mission, and rather than "auto-resolve" it, you actually have to infiltrate your target's city and kill him using an interface similar to action or RPG games.

It could work in other eras too. In ETW's timeframe, you could role-play a Sharpe-type character. In RTW, think of plotlines and characters similar to those of the HBO show "Rome."

It might sound cheesy on first blush but could make these games even more immersive, and a way to revisit previous eras like Shogun and do something really different from the original.