NTW- PC Zone preview (David Brown)

[amritochates]

NTW- PC Zone preview (David Brown)

This includes quite a bit that has already been talked about in previous posts in the NTW thread, but does include a couple of minor points not covered so far. So here goes:

First of all it is an Expand alone campaign, i.e. Empire is not necessary to play NTW but Napoleon will integrate into Empire if present, adding units and new tech trees.
(Well I guess CA finally gave up on empire- doubt it if further patches will be made – pure conjecture on my part)

3 campaigns
Italy (1796-1797)
Middle-East/Egypt (1798 - 1801)
Mastery of Europe (Grand Campaign) (1805 - 1812)
Story based campaign similar to RTW-Alex and RTI
Ends in 1812 with his exile to Elba, the Hundred Days was considered too complex to portray as a campaign.
2 week turns to represent strategic depth

Smaller areas with more emphasis on villages and towns, a conscious de-emphasis on large provinces with single settlements.
3 kinds of settlements – economic/industrial/intellectual

322 unique units, though some custom battles only, with enhanced cinematographic effects (64 different faces on lowest settings) along with larger unit settings.

Finite pool of generals (they are no longer promoted) with unique traits.

AI Upgrade- new AI director system with short term campaign objectives- some of which hopefully it will try and actually achieve.

Rake is converted into spy with option to sabotage.

Lesser emphasis on naval warfare- though option to repair ships at sea added.

Finally a chain of supply has been added particularly for napoleon’s Russian campaign. Though one can mitigate the effects by building supply depots which may be captured or destroyed effectively starving out an army without fighting it- AI exploit anyone??

Finally the best is yet to come:

“CA claims Napoleon is made to appeal to a broader base, in fact the emphasis is on smaller scale campaigns instead of Grand campaigns to appeal to regular strategy players”- read RTS players. Well its official CA no longer wants the Grog nards to play this- nasty nasty Grog nards spreading lies about our precious !!.

If they don’t get the allusion here’s a hint that even the most thick headed amongst us will be able to get from ever so friendly reviewer:

“I can’t help it if the bugs other people experienced didn’t happen to me. Of course that and other issues have since been fixed even if some of us still haven’t had any issues of note”

[gollum]

Originally posted by amritochates
“CA claims Napoleon is made to appeal to a broader base, in fact the emphasis is on smaller scale campaigns instead of Grand campaigns to appeal to regular strategy players”

Really? I always thought that as far as TW was concerned the expansions were more for the "grognard" - at least the best of them like Viking Invasion, Barbarian Invasion and to a certain extent Kingdoms were. They had more strategic depth, were more challenging, more well thought out, more historically plausible (and accurate) had better battlefield balance and were technically better as they constituted the "final" patch for the core game - ok but this last one is not the case with Napoleon other than the visuals and hopefully AI.

Maybe it wouldn't make sense as a marketing declaration to come out and say that it is a product for more dedicated long term TW fans - either that or some very rigorous definitions are needed about what CA means by "broader base" and "regular strategy players". I at least can't tell who they mean from this statement.

Thanks for the info and the interesting reading of the subtext amritochates.

[amritochates]

Thanks for the compliment.

The very fact that NTW is, as noted above an expand alone campaign (the first of its kind) is sufficient to discern the way in which CA is hoping to disassociate NTW from empire so as to avoid the odium that ETW generated.

Expect more of this in the future.

[gollum]

Originally posted by amritochates
The very fact that NTW is, as noted above an expand alone campaign (the first of its kind) is sufficient to discern the way in which CA is hoping to disassociate NTW from empire so as to avoid the odium that ETW generated.

Interesting view. It could be simpler though; maybe they just dissasociate the expansion from the core game in order to charge full price and avoid making it an extra patch for the core game at the same time; two birds with one stone.

Thanks for the compliment.

You're welcome.

[amritochates]

Interesting view. It could be simpler though; maybe they just dissasociate the expansion from the core game in order to charge full price and avoid making it an extra patch for the core game at the same time; two birds with one stone.- gollum

I personally would have believed the same if not for Mike Simpson and his now infamous blog post:

"However overdoing the criticism (For example I think a 67% user score on Metacritic is unfair), has the opposite effect to what is intended. Gamers (and reviewers. retailers, marketeers and publishing execs) will be put off Total War. That could mean fewer sales and less money to spend on adding quality to the games.

Anyway, I started this by saying I’d rather be fixing the game than talking about it. That’s true, but talking about it is a pretty good second best. I’ll start with the 1.5 patch and AI on the next update, and then go on to talk about Napoleon - what it is, why it’s the size it is, how that affects the price."

[antisocialmunky]

Link to preview:

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/napoleo...81915535505078

Intersting Bits:

Creative Assembly are claiming that Napoleon will appeal to a broader base than any other game in the Total War franchise. The focus on smaller-scale campaigns instead of distant grand strategy will, they say, make it more appealing to regular strategy players. Ones who like to micro- rather than macro-manage, perhaps. This is the sort of thing we can only determine after playing the game first-hand, so we won’t comment on the validity of these claims just yet.

Having said that, it does make sense that people put off by the sheer scale of the grand campaign will be more likely to embrace a cut-down version. Those who weren’t enamoured with Empire won’t find this expansion changing their minds. However, the smaller scale, extra development, and tweaks made to the engine might be enough to convince you that it isn’t a wreck after all.

There’ll be up to 322 unique units in the game, although some of these will only be usable when playing certain historical scenarios. Interestingly, for those of you who are interested in military history, you might also notice some real-life regiments that are still around dotted about the place. To accommodate so many different varieties of unit, there’ll be an increase in the number of soldiers visible on screen during the battles.




Speaking of the battles, Creative Assembly have been stressing how they’ve wanted to make the battles feel and look more realistic. Smoke, rain and different environmental effects will all have more of a part to play this time round. For example, fight in the rain and there’s the chance that your gunpowder will become sodden, leading to the odd misfire that could have a big impact on the battle. Position the camera near cannons or cavalry charges and you might just see your view juddering about, adding to the cinematic feel of the battles.

As for the units on the field itself, the generals will have been buffed with new abilities. However, Creative Assembly have contradicted themselves a little with this.

The PR folks told us these new abilities will make us want to get the generals involved in combat a lot more frequently, instead of employing the usual tactic of hiding them at the back to make sure they don’t snuff it. However, they also tell us that the method of recruiting generals will be different, as they’ll be drawn from a finite pool instead of just created out of any unit you like.