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  1. #1
    Senior Member Senior Member ReluctantSamurai's Avatar
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    Default Has anything really changed from CA?

    I'm afraid the bottom line for CA is summarized here:

    "Week one sales of the title were nearly double those of both Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War, and is the first in the series’ to claim the Top 40 top spot. It also becomes the first PC exclusive title to reach the top since Football Manager 2008 in October 2007 – another Sega PC title."

    [from a March report posted at IGN.com]

    "If you make a hit game, you make good money out of it. But you only need to fail once or twice in a row and you're dead."

    [a quote from Mike Simpson, the creative director for CA as quoted by the BBC in a March interview]

    Obviously, with sales at the top of the charts, I don't expect anything will change anytime soon.....
    High Plains Drifter

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    Member Member Didz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Has anything really changed from CA?

    That doesn't surprise me, because unlike their previous titles they are finally tapping the Napoleonic Wargame market, the single biggest area of historical interest in the world with millions of potential customers, who like me have been waiting for a decent historical computer wargame for decades.

    Problem is, if your going to tap that market and keep it then your game better damned well be historically accurate, because these guys are going to rip it to shreds if its not, and once the word is out that your a bunch of ignorant idiots who can't be bothered to do your research then you won't get a second bite of the cherry.
    Last edited by Didz; 07-11-2009 at 15:41.
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    Senior Member Senior Member ReluctantSamurai's Avatar
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    Default Has anything really changed from CA?

    and once the word is out that your a bunch of ignorant idiots who can't be bothered to do your research then you won't get a second bite of the cherry.
    Judging from the increase in sales of ETW over the previous two releases, a lot of folks disagree with that. Don't get me wrong.......I'm of the same sentiment as you. I just think it's going to take a competitor to step in and do something better for people to compare to.

    While I fully appreciate that CA is in the business to make money (and oh, btw, here's a game for you folks to play), and that it is impossible to please everyone, one would think that after all this time, and with the experienced garnered from previous releases, that a more flexible game could have been produced.

    By that I mean more option settings that actually determine gameplay. I design campaigns and scenarios for an old WWII game that has a much less complex game engine, and far fewer resources available for a modder to work with. Yet I, and others like me can create scenarios and campaigns that are fulfilling to all players both n00b's and veterans.

    I just can't understand why CA cannot do something similar with a much more advanced game engine and a horde of experience from previous releases
    High Plains Drifter

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    Member Member Didz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Has anything really changed from CA?

    Quote Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai View Post
    Judging from the increase in sales of ETW over the previous two releases, a lot of folks disagree with that. Don't get me wrong.......
    Well I bought it because I believed the sales spin that it was a historical strategy game. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else with an interest in wargaming or history, and the only reason I'm still playing it is because I found some mods to correct most of the errors, and managed to work out how to switch off all the fantasy units.

    I've bought every TW titles so far, but this will probably be the last one, you can only get treated like a idiot so often.
    Didz
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    Senior Member Senior Member Fisherking's Avatar
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    Default Re: Has anything really changed from CA?

    Quote Originally Posted by Didz View Post
    Well I bought it because I believed the sales spin that it was a historical strategy game. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else with an interest in wargaming or history, and the only reason I'm still playing it is because I found some mods to correct most of the errors, and managed to work out how to switch off all the fantasy units.

    I've bought every TW titles so far, but this will probably be the last one, you can only get treated like a idiot so often.
    Which are you calling fantasy units?

    There are things they have done in the game that disturb me and from a decent beginning, less the crashes and bugs of course, I see it getting farther and farther away.

    I have tried to figure out why some things are ignored or even changes from the historical without much reason behind it.

    Why do the French lack light dragoons but have rifles. Why does Austria lack rifles other than the air rifles and that is only two units. They also lack regular dragoons, at least in Europe.

    Some of the things just seem totally subjective and I can’t see any reason for it, game play or anything else.

    It would seem they are searching for their audience but only see the three hecklers in the back row and are trying to please all the wrong people.
    Last edited by Fisherking; 07-12-2009 at 08:15.


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  6. #6
    Member Member Didz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Has anything really changed from CA?

    Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
    Which are you calling fantasy units?
    Basically, any unit which would not have been available to the faction in question at the time depicted, or which would not be capable of being used in the role that the game allows it to be used in.

    So, for example I have currently turned off. Native America Artillery, Native American Lancers, Bomb-Ketches and Rocket Ships. The main things I wanted to be rid of were the bomb-ketches and rocket ships, which are basically only in the game as a sop to the American flag and could never have been used in the way depicted by the game.

    Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
    I have tried to figure out why some things are ignored or even changes from the historical without much reason behind it.
    I know what you mean. The sad fact is that if they just stuck to the historical theme the results would be far more playable and interesting. For example: Why depict the Royal Ecossais in kilts when their real uniform was just as distinctive and interesting?

    To me such things are insulting, its basically the game company saying we think that your all too stupid to cope with a game that's historically accurate so to make it easier for you to understand and play we are going to give you the 'dumbed-down' version. Its terribly demeaning to be treated like an idiot, and as a customer I object to it, but its a common trait when producing products for the American market particularly when the supplier is an American company, and you get it a lot in film and entertainment industry. For example the title of the film 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone' had to be changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' and the entire film re-dubbed for American audiences just because the American distributors thought their audiences would be confused, and yet a Frenchman, German or Dutchman who did not even speak the language managed to understand it.

    The other driving force behind a lot of these changes is of course the multi-player sub-game. Something that I don't have the slightest interest in and will never play but seems to be 'the tail thats wagging the dog' on a lot of these ridiculous 'play-balancing' idea's. Personally, I have nothing against the multi-player sub-game as long as it doesn't have any impact on the actual game itself. So, if they want to stick fantasy units and over-powered rowing boats in the MP game, I have no problems with that as long as they don't appear in the campaign. Just give the MP community their own version of the unit tables or something, then you can stick whatever you like in there and I don't give a monkey's.
    Last edited by Didz; 07-12-2009 at 10:31.
    Didz
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  7. #7
    Senior Member Senior Member ReluctantSamurai's Avatar
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    Default Has anything really changed from CA?

    I've bought every TW titles so far, but this will probably be the last one, you can only get treated like a idiot so often.
    I reached that point with M2 and gave it away to a friend...........RTW only gets played because of all the mods, and the only one that gets played with any regularity is Samurai Warlords...........

    I have tried to figure out why some things are ignored or even changes from the historical without much reason behind it.
    I do not mind ahistorical units or situations that may be placed in a game. They can make for fun diversions when you get tired of the same old, same old. But there should be in-game functions to turn them off when you don't want them.

    The other driving force behind a lot of these changes is of course the multi-player sub-game. Something that I don't have the slightest interest in and will never play but seems to be 'the tail thats wagging the dog' on a lot of these ridiculous 'play-balancing' idea's.
    I might agree with that, but........that's where the money is and, whether one likes it or not, that is the bottom line.
    High Plains Drifter

  8. #8
    A Livonian Rebel Member Slaists's Avatar
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    Default Re: Has anything really changed from CA?

    Quote Originally Posted by Didz View Post
    Basically, any unit which would not have been available to the faction in question at the time depicted, or which would not be capable of being used in the role that the game allows it to be used in.

    So, for example I have currently turned off. Native America Artillery, Native American Lancers, Bomb-Ketches and Rocket Ships. The main things I wanted to be rid of were the bomb-ketches and rocket ships, which are basically only in the game as a sop to the American flag and could never have been used in the way depicted by the game.
    Hmm, the first "bomb vessel" (aka bomb ketch) "Bombarde" was built by the French in 1681. So why would you say bomb-ketches were ahistorical (in terms of availability) in the game period of ETW?

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