What if TW ended...

[Durallan]

For all those asia fanatics I wouldn't be disheartened, mainly because they have done so much in europe I would imagine they are getting rather tired of it no doubt, RTW, M2TW, ETW, NTW.

No doubt the next game will be something along the lines of STW 2 or somewhere in asia, which will be a nice change, although it must be something they can do with their naval engine seeing they spent so much time developing that I would imagine they would be annoyed if they couldn't use that in some way in the next game.

[Belgolas]

ha! I can name plenty of time periods that CA hasn't gotten into. Who ever thinks an ancient Asian time period wouldn't be interesting is completly wrong as I think it is more interesting than Rome. You have MASSIVE armies and more caulters and religions than Europe. You could even do the mongol expansion where there were multiple nations that could have sprung up. The mongol wars are estimated at killing over 40 million (battle, massacre, flooding, and famine). There were also several naval battles in varios places although not as important as the gundpoweder age but still lots of potential.

There is also ancient greece, ancient egypt, babylons, aztecs, myans, tons of african nations, etc etc etc......... Don't tell me there arn't more than Rome, Medieval,and Japan which is just a very tiny part of Asia. There is so much more to explore.

[hoom]

Time and investment is all that's needed for a competitor to the TW games.

Substantially more time & investment than is required for any other game type.
&/or some seriously over-achieving coders.

I think Crytek is probably the only currently known studio I could buy taking it on with any chance of success.
Perhaps some other nobodies out of Eastern Europe? (but there are only so many of those that can happen)

[Ethelred Unread]

Perhaps some other nobodies out of Eastern Europe? (but there are only so many of those that can happen)

Agree completely, hence the lack of competition for CA in this area so far.

I too think that it'll be an eastern european company or how long do we have to wait until China's game developers get up and running?

[nafod]

I really don't think TW applies to well to anytime period that doesn't cover multiple nations with the reasonable prospect of all out warfare, or at least expansionist aims.

For instance I'm a huge American Civil War enthusiast but think it would best be served as a scenarrio ala Kingdoms. How much fun would playing one of two factions be? Plus the whole battle system doesn't seem to adept at handling engagements that lasted multiple days. Ala Gettysburg....

July 1st - the I Corp of the ANV beats back Bufords Calvary and the 1st and 11th corp of the AOP (these forces retreat South, cross the Potomac and end their turn right next to the Rebel capital of Richmond VA.

July 2nd - the Remaining 5 corps of the AOP attack the I Corp of the ANV (The II Corp arrives as reinforcements). Things were going well for the Rebels until an artillery battery turned 180 to fire at an errant union calvary brigade and took out Ambrose Powell Hill. The I corp of the ANV retreats accross the appalachians ending up in the area of Columbus Ohio. The II corp retreats N to Albany NY. In the meantime the 1st and 11th corp of the AOP along with Buford's calvary lay seige to Richmond VA.

July 3rd - Longstreets III Corp of the ANV arrives to perform Pickett's charge. It's a slaughter as expected and this stack retreats south west towards Lynchburg VA. The AOP does not pursue the rebels as their calvary ranks seem to have mysteriously thinned considerably while trying to run down routing enemies.

July 4th - Someone trys to move a gunboat up the Mississippi to blockade Vicksburg MS and the game crashes.

Using Empire as the current example for how well CA can craft a gunpowder battle, I must say I was disappointed. In M2TW the gunpowder implementation was fun, it was a curiousity that came along late game and was a welcome change from the trebs and catapults.

Additionally I found the battles of M2TW and RTW much more interesting, the BAI seemed to handle melee combat much better. As an orderly assault or, in the case of missile superiority, wait till they come to us strategy seemed to fit those in place at the time much better than Empire's charge calvary at artillery and make the infantry dither about aimlessly.

[marcusbrutus]

They could keep reworking MTW forever for all I care. Bring on M3TW, M4TW, M5TW... I want better AI, you can add your own wish list.

[Veresov]

The series for me has ended. Going to Steam, limited moddability, and a horrible gameplay experience with Empire did it for me. I was a loyal preorder customer prior to Empire.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

The interesting periods for CA to portray are near limitless. The amount of periods that CA can promote successfully to a mass market is frightfully small.

Average Joe is a dumbass.
"ZOMG Samurai, ZOMG, kniggets, ZOMG Romans, ZOMG, Kniggets again, ZOMG muskets" is about as much recognition as could be squeezed out of Average Joe for the previous titles in the series. Anything more obscure then that and marketeers would be having headaches. Personally, I think they might be a smidge lazy not to try. Build it and they will come. It's a risk, and when millions are spend risks are avoided.

Even stuff like the Pelopponessian Wars or Thirty Years' War would be somewhat hard to pitch because not much is known about it by Average Joe. And these are among the most significant and iconic wars in human history! You can forget about a TW game about the Khmer Empire! I'm amazed they even dared tackle the age of Marlborough and Louis XIV. I doubt it would have happened if it weren't for the American War of Independence being included in the sales pitch!

So we re-fight familiar wars at Gettysburg, St.Lo, Waterloo, Cannae or Agincourt for the umpteenth time.

[Quirinus]

Personal wish is for CA to do Rome again, on a new engine. RTW is a good game, but there was also a lot of wasted potential...

[Wishazu]

I think that if CA are going to revisit any of their previous titles' time periods then I think Rome TW2 will be the most likely candidate. Think about it, you have various different cultures and religions and the naval engine won't be wasted.

Besides, I think Naval battles will be more fun in this period, you won't have to worry about the wind powering your ships for a start.