E3 Preview

[Gregoshi]

yaaawn. wake me up when they say something beyond graphics, like AI or "character pogression".

The last several sentences addressed AI issues. They discussed both campaign AI (passive faction issues) and battle AI (improved situation recognition and "thinking" alternative tactics in unclear situations).

I agree with hoom on the fire arrow "research". "Hmmm, what if we lit up the arrows before we fire them?" "Brilliant idea Q-ito! The daimyo's koku has been well spent!"

I'd like to have heard a little more detail on the battle demo. "...our first company's morale flagged and eventually broke..." Does "eventually" mean seconds (like RTW) or tens of seconds (STW/MTW)? It sounded like a rather short demo, but did it feel like STW or RTW?

Interesting things in the E3 preview. I will be interested to hear impressions from several different sources to get a better overall feel of the game at this early stage.

[Nobunaga]

I really hope that CA can deliver this time around ... Failing will affect CA's reputation greatly.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I really hope that CA can deliver this time around ... Failing will affect CA's reputation greatly.

I doubt it. Enough people keep coming back for more no matter what they do...

[darius_d]

The last several sentences addressed AI issues. They discussed both campaign AI (passive faction issues) and battle AI (improved situation recognition and "thinking" alternative tactics in unclear situations).

You're right. I think they have a challenge to match battle quality (in terms of challenge) to be on par with Shogun 1. At least they have all the code and parameters.

[Barkhorn1x]

I will be interested to hear impressions from several different sources to get a better overall feel of the game at this early stage.

This demo sounds exactly like the IGN preview - so they must have been watching the same one. And this may indicate that they were watching a scripted presentation. Not that this really means anything at this early stage. Perhaps later build demos will allow the reviewers to comment on the similarities/differences between STW and STW2. But we know these gaming sites are much too fan boish and overawed by eye candy to give anyone a decent overview of what is truly important - game play.

I am cautiously optomistic here as at least CA is saying the right things:
- More tightly focused
- Less units, more differentiation
- Deeper cultural presentation
- Improved Strat and Tac AI ***


***Caveat = CA has said this for every game since RTW - and have really failed to deliver. Can we trust them this time?

[Gregoshi]

***Caveat = CA has said this for every game since RTW - and have really failed to deliver. Can we trust them this time?

Here's hoping the smaller scope and tighter focus will allow them a better chance of delivering. With the other games their feature technology outstriped their ability to keep the AI up to the task.

Regarding the demo, even if it is the same demo, each review will take away something different. So hopefully between them all we may get a clearer picture.

[andrewt]

I think the biggest improvement CA can make to the campaign AI is to make the player feel as just another faction in the campaign. In previous games, it's just too obvious that it's the player versus all the AI. I believe CA had something hard coded where the player must always be in a war with at least one AI faction at any given time. If the player isn't, one AI faction (even allies), would have a huge probability of declaring war.

[The Black Ship]

The article I read mentions returning to the rock-paper-scissors combat format that worked so well for STW (at least in MP). Granted the AI was predictable in Shogun, can't remember how many tiime Hojo died out in the first year of my Takeda campaigns, but I must say I enjoyed that game more than any subsequent titles.

And bridges battles...lol, you could hold of all of Japan with a few Yari on stand ground..hee hee I'm having flash backs.

[antisocialmunky]

LOL @ "I want R2:TW" comment :-D

[Gregoshi]

It is going to be a loooong wait for S2TW. It has only been about a week since the news and I keep looking and waiting for more news or tidbits about the game. I have to relax and forget about it for a while - let the news come in its due time. In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with a STW campaign or two.