How good Napoleon TW will be?

[gollum]

A little bit in the trend of the Parliament (as of late), here is (yet another) poll. However i ask the kind tolerance of my fellow orgahs for this choice, as it is the first i ever inititated, and in any case i sincerely find the subject matter of interest:

How good you estimate Napoleon will be?

Please if able and willing give out your reasons for your choice.

And to start: I think Napoleon will be bad because CA still does not think that their fanbase can punish them in the sales department for the low quality games they deliver for the last (almost) 5 years.

It follows that they might play with the same cards they have done in the recent past. It is quite possible actually that such an estimation might be correct judging by the amount of support Empire gets in other forums.

[Zild]

Clearly it all depends on how much (if any) of the writing is done by Captain Fishpants...

[Krusader]

If NTW tanks, it might be the end of CA.
That's why I think they are at least trying to make NTW better than ETW when released. Hence my "Mmm, okay".

[Fisherking]

I will be optimistic and say it will be good.

They have taken some big hits with ETW.

I think they will be careful with NTW.

[Yun Dog]

All those BAI problems your experiencing with Empires, will still be there in Napoleon.

The CAI wont be as bad because it will all be scripted and linear, hence alot easier to make appear challenging, and smarter, the first time at least (if you like that sort of preset path where the whole thing is engineered - I guess you will love NTW).

But - check out the MP historical senario battles - all totally setup, and they didnt even make those a challenge - so what hope is there for Nappies

The inability of the BAI to even challenge you will mean nappies will be a cake walk, a milk run, and even with the ability to preset the odds against the player by stacking the AI, I would be surprised if you suffer a single loss during a very boring and predicatable campaign.

If it tanks it will be the end of CA? we can only hope. And like in nature another company will fill this niche with a fresh approach.

Because if ETW is the culmination of 5 years of the progression of TW. Then CAs idea of what this game should be and how it should play and mine are vastly different.

Imagine playing Company of Heros and the enemy AI didnt fight back but ran aimlessly in circles in front of your guns - the equiv of ETW & M2TW battles, sorry but a tactical wargame where the AI doesnt know how to fight, and the CAI cant win its own game - is not a game - and there have been way too many people accepting this for too long, and here we are.


so good riddence .

[Cecil XIX]

I voted 'good' soley due to the introduction of attrition due to supply, something this series has needed since Medieval I.

[antisocialmunky]

It'd all be fine if you added Napoleon fighting the Martian Tripods.

[Suraknar]

From what I understand it will be the first of a new series, which will be story driven rather than open ended as we have been accustomed in the Campaign games.

So I have a hunch that they are changing direction, there is many people who enjoyed playing the Road to Independence rather than the Full Campaign in ETW... So it seems like NTW will be made up of several Story driven Mini Campaigns rather than Full Campaign. I guess there is more new players than Vet players that are influencing the polls and surveys which in turn influence the direction CA takes...

Honestly thought, the only issue I have with ETW, is the Economical systems approach (which I always end up modding). Other than that I have no complaints.

Will NTW be good or bad, I can't say, all I know is that it will be different. I will certainly give it a try.

[Zild]

Because if ETW is the culmination of 5 years of the progression of TW. Then CAs idea of what this game should be and how it should play and mine are vastly different.

*Ahem* Don't you mean closer to ten years? It amuses me that players who joined in the RTW / M2TW era think it has been going downhill since then, when the players from the STW / MTW era were saying the same thing at the time!

I voted 'good' soley due to the introduction of attrition due to supply, something this series has needed since Medieval I.

I too have long desired such a system. I do applaud CA for the features they have added to the series (except that turns now take four times as long to complete!), as in some ways I can appreciate the change in format from free to scripted campaigns; I certainly do not envy the tasks CA face in programming AI (especially a free rather than scripted AI). Unfortunately pretty graphics are far easier to program and a bigger turn-on for the lowest common denominator, so in business terms I fully understand their decision to focus on this area of late. People who care more about challenging battles and campaigns will just have to vote with their feet - assuming there is anywhere for us to go to!

[loony]

I think it will be OK.
If CA could program an AI that could be a challenge to a human, they would not be doing computer games. They can't, so we won't have a challenging BAI. And we should not expect that.

I hope they will manage to plug obviuos holes, especially in unwillingness to retreat, pre-battle deployment and untimed attacks of the AI.

However, they could, hopefully, make the CAI challenging. And the linearity of the game (nappy vs the rest) will make it much easier. Therefore, I am looking forward to 1 interesting campaign and maybe 2 more.

And then maybe mods...?

[Suraknar]

I just think they need to change the Approach with which they are trying to make the AI challenging.

Instead of beefing it up witch cheats so that it gives the impression that it is more efficient than the player, it could be made a bit more chaotic and adaptive in an attempt to make it more unpredictable.

I think the problem with the AI right now is that it is too predictable and hence does not present any challenge, if you raise the diffuclty of the game you only get more of the same..but it remains the same.

[Bellicin]

Voted "Good" since I'm an eternal optimist who found E:TW to be "Mmm, okay" and is still hoping for improvement with the next game.

They did implement some great new features in E:TW that I liked a lot and were improvements from previous titles. Tradingtheatres, a government that you could control more or less at will and revolutions all tickle my fance anyway.

The problem as I see it (and obviously many others) is that the game quickly gets boring due to the poor AI, both CAI and BAI. After trying a few campaigns I find myself bored after a couple of dozen turns seeing as I can pretty much do what I want in every zone if I play my cards right. Sure, the CAI is aggressive but it's also incredibly stupid and easy to outsmart. While I can plan for endless turns ahead it seems the CAI will only put up a fight for the next turn. Hopefully that's something they will look into for N:TW.

Kind regards

[Yun Dog]

*Ahem* Don't you mean closer to ten years? It amuses me that players who joined in the RTW / M2TW era think it has been going downhill since then, when the players from the STW / MTW era were saying the same thing at the time!

Dont you think I know that I was here. But STW and MTW were good games, and it was the changes that came alongside the new map and graphics in RTW that was the begining of the demise

*A hem yourself*

[Zild]

I guess we're working on different clocks - you by title release times and me by start of development times. (Also, I certainly did not mean that things went downhill from STW to MTW - quite the opposite - although the VI bugs made the latter unplayable for me so I guess that was the start of the downward trend.)

So whilst both technically correct, your statement is clearer but mine more scathing!

[Crazed Rabbit]

With optimism, I voted "mmm, ok".

More cynically (realistically) I expect it to be 'bad'.

CR

[HopAlongBunny]

Gah!

That's my vote and I'm sticking to it:p

I hope it's simply amazing but I won't be buying on release.

The AI might be aided by a "story driven"/scripted campaign; it will simply do what it it must.
The battle AI will become key.

Good luck CA.

[caravel]

although the VI bugs made the latter unplayable for me

VI bugs?

[Braden]

I put "hmm..ok" mainly as I'm looking forward to the added content AND (hopefully) fixes for E:TW...I could honestly care less for the N:TW campaign...like I didn't for Alexander.

[gollum]

A heavily skewed Gaussian "bell" curve thus far.

[Wishazu]

I voted "Bad", mostly because that is just what I have come to expect from the series since STW/MTW. I don`t really care about new fangled features, just AI, I want to be challenged and treated roughly This is something that hasn`t happened since MTW.

P.S I did enjoy the addition of Naval battles in ETW, very pretty.

[antisocialmunky]

It just means that the center is floating somewhere between okay and bad.

[Joker II]

I'd rather vote when the game is released ! Otherwise, it's pure speculation

[Wishazu]

I'd rather vote when the game is released ! Otherwise, it's pure speculation

Is that not kind of the point of this poll?

[Wishazu]

EDIT: wierd, bizarre, delayed double post

[gollum]

Speculation and Expectation are exactly the points of this poll. Hence why it closes in early 2010, at about the same time the game is expected to be out.

[Monk]

I can hold nothing but the lowest of expectations after the heights promised and the valleys delivered.

[antisocialmunky]

The poll is quite statistically perfect right now. Lol.

[Ethelred Unread]

I voted good, optimistically.

As previous posters have said, it really does come down to BAI and CAI.

The gfx are very pretty though!

[Zild]

VI bugs?

Well, one bug but a big one: Very frequent CTDs.

It was a shame because after VI added the functionality of (1) being able to save pre-battle and (2) being able to order units and reinforcements pre-battle, I found it impossible to return to the old MTW - and yet I suspect it was one of these features that caused the CTDs!

Of course, it was still the best game ever.

[Durallan]

I put mm ok, I probably should have put bad, because ETW still crashes for me on Vista Home Premium 64bit, apparently alot of people have the problem, but ca doesn't acknowledge it and won't bother fixing it so ETW still randomly crashes for me, so again, why should I expect better from NTW