Where is the game going?

[Dayve]

Can't give the AI financial bonuses, it would be impossible to get started. It's difficult as it is, with the AI being programmed to destroy the player at all cost and not accept peace ever, but you can handle it because once you destroy their army they can't make another for a while... but neither can you, you're as bankrupt as they are for quite a while.

If they got bonuses then they could just pump out army after army while you are a sitting duck.

[Hooahguy]

the system that the EB team puts in place is very good. they dont get a huge bonus, only enough to make sure they dont go under in debt.
i think its a bit late to make major changes to the AI, so i think this is the next best thing.

[Dayve]

The EB system was horrid, but necessary, and there were no alternatives.

The AI throws 4 full stack armies of good and/or decent troops at you every single turn because they get tens of thousands in aid from a script every turn, resulting in a very boring game once you get 50 or 60 turns in.

I can't say this enough... the series may be called Total War, but with everything else that has been implemented, like diplomacy, the option to strangle your opponents economically, sabotage, isolation, everything, is proof that these games aren't meant to be just about constant warfare and huge battles being fought every single turn.

Don't know about anybody else, but if i have to fight a battle every turn, i abandon a campaign very quickly.

[Megas Methuselah]

The EB system was horrid, but necessary, and there were no alternatives.

The AI throws 4 full stack armies of good and/or decent troops at you every single turn because they get tens of thousands in aid from a script every turn, resulting in a very boring game once you get 50 or 60 turns in.

I can't say this enough... the series may be called Total War, but with everything else that has been implemented, like diplomacy, the option to strangle your opponents economically, sabotage, isolation, everything, is proof that these games aren't meant to be just about constant warfare and huge battles being fought every single turn.

Don't know about anybody else, but if i have to fight a battle every turn, i abandon a campaign very quickly.

Yeah, that hit it dead-on.

[Owen Glyndwr]

As much as many people would hate to hear it. I think that if I had to choose between the real-time battles, and an actually realistic working and complex political system in which the AI behaved sanely and logically, I'd go with the politics. Sure fighting massive battles is just plain awesome, but battles that have no meaning, to me, are completely arbitrary and boring.

[Fisherking]

As much as many people would hate to hear it. I think that if I had to choose between the real-time battles, and an actually realistic working and complex political system in which the AI behaved sanely and logically, I'd go with the politics. Sure fighting massive battles is just plain awesome, but battles that have no meaning, to me, are completely arbitrary and boring.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Yet the trend has been in the opposite direction.

Some of this has been a simple misunderstanding of what the players are looking for, and CA has seemed to be listening.

I pray that they still are and can move the game back to a political, economic, & military model, in that order and not just all war all the time.

Players who like all war are free to declare war on everyone as they choose,(something everyone seems to forget), however, those who want something else can not turn off the idiocy and play a different kind of game in its current state.

[Turbosatan]

Some of this has been a simple misunderstanding of what the players are looking for, and CA has seemed to be listening.

I pray that they still are and can move the game back to a political, economic, & military model, in that order and not just all war all the time.
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C'mon guys, you're talking like MTW1 was Europa Universalis. In which TW game have they had a "political, economic & military model, in that order"? 'Cos I sure as Hell must've missed it.

I found the last two games a complete & utter turn-off meself, because there was nothing to do apart from micromanage vast amounts of frankly boring stuff. Which I suppose is why I like Empire so much, because it sort of kinda maybe a bit feels like MTW1 with Caravel's (late of this parish) Pocket Mod installed: levelled playing field & simplified unit-building tree that even the computer can manage, so you can quickly get into some fights & kill some stuff against decent opponents.

With ETW, for all the criticism & the bugs I think they've got the battles back to a standard where you actually have to, you know, concentrate, which I think is why they've only paid lip-service (though a flashy, possibly intriguing lip-service) to the Empire Total Accountant side of the game. The Empire Total Accountant side of the game is there but it feels bolted on. You can tell, it's not the point of the game. It plays sometimes like some kind of cut-down shareware Windows 95 strategy game. Which is fine. If I wanted a game like that, I'd have bought one without the word "WAR" in the title.

Sorry to go on but sometimes I feel like you guys are making a category error, in that you are saying "This part of the game is underdeveloped, it should be changed". Whereas I've got the feeling it was meant to be that way from the start. Which is fine. I didn't develop the game, so I really can't comment on what it was meant to be like. Who can?

Not saying that my opinion is right, but just mentioning that maybe the party line isn't necessarily unanimous either.

I've got this creeping feeling reading the forums that most of the problems are not with this game expressly, but rather the image people had in their heads of what the game was going to be like, & the disconnect between the two.

[Furunculus]

I wholeheartedly agree!

Yet the trend has been in the opposite direction.

Some of this has been a simple misunderstanding of what the players are looking for, and CA has seemed to be listening.

I pray that they still are and can move the game back to a political, economic, & military model, in that order and not just all war all the time.

Players who like all war are free to declare war on everyone as they choose,(something everyone seems to forget), however, those who want something else can not turn off the idiocy and play a different kind of game in its current state.

agreed, this series has always been about the strategic map to me.