Shogun Totalwar 2 (whats the game plan here)

[Swoosh So]

Ok so empire was the mammoth title with the largest map an introduction of the mp campaign (brilliant) although just 1v1, massive amount of factions and units.

Shogun2 will have 8 factions? a small map. Now im sure they are going to go all out on the graphics improvements. But graphics aside what does shogun2 bring to the series that we havent seen before.

Weve seen night battles already (and we know theyre not so interesting) weve seen game modes in multiplayer that failed day one in the shogun expansion. This is totalwar not quake3.

So whats the game plan here? Surely it cant be all about graphics. Im hoping that theyre going for a feature heavy game, adding new features in and adding old features from past games that somehow were lost in the scope of empire and other titles.

We can forget the throne room, i saw a video of mike simpson saying he hated the process of putting it in the game and will never attempt it again. So what do we have left to add? Ai controlled reinforcements? what else? Better mp campaign 2v2+? so far i just see a promise that you and a friend can play a campaign coop or mp.

A mutliplayer Foyer where we can communicate with other players? (Essential). Let me tell you i was in ntw the other day and fancied a mp campaign then it dawned on me that the only way i could set one up was to visit a 3rd party forum and ask for an opponent. Its really poor for a mp game to have this kind of setup. You cant start a mp campaign v some random that joins the game you have to be able to speak to the person and discuss things like how many hours you plan to play that night . LF opponent with 3 hours to play european campaign 3 min turns other options to be discussed. You cant even convey that message to the players online. If a friend from say shogun returns to the game and is online in ntw the only way ill ever know is if they guess my steam name? an guess that im playing ntw? this just is not acceptable. You cant even host a game with password get your friends in then release the password to the lobby for others to join! Its really frustrating.

Sea/Land battles i have to say im not convinced ill like this and i know its too early to say but moving ships aroung with troops in and dropping them off on islands the whole thing just sounds like a part of the game id like to autoresolve.

Dont read into this post as CA bashing (its not) im trying to think of the gameplan of ca for shogun2 and what new and old features we will see in the game.

Any ideas?

[Kagemusha]

What i hope is with the limited scope of the game. The things the developers should focus would be the AI, both campaing and battle map. If they want to follow teaching of Sun Tzu, then multiple factors should effect battles. Second thing would be diplomacy as that is the one real weak point totalwar games have always had. The diplomacy should allow the player to open routes of expansion. It should be not just some formality, which never give any real results. Last i would really like to see more then 8 clans playable. In matter of fact if i could decide each and every clan in the map would be playable. This would give player endless variations and strategic situations. Research wise there is nothing stopping developers from doing so as there is enough information for every major clan to be created as faction.

[Shibumi]

I will prefer if they did absolutely nothing inventive, but rather focused on doing a good job on what they have.

Game formula works, no need to tamper much with it.

Work on balance of units and factions, a smooth flow on the battlefield, eliminate major bugs... If CA would just get that part right I would buy the game. No reason to add something "new and spectacular" "just because".

[Swoosh So]

What about a return to the faction heirs and family and marrying your sons and daughters to other clans? in etw and ntw theres none of that and you just have generals.

I agree they dont need anything spectacular but id like to see many of the lost features of the game make it back in. and certainly improve on whats there.

[caravel]

I would like to see "Civil Wars" - as they were in MTW(1) - reintroduced. It would add a new dynamic to see clans effectively split in to two (or perhaps more?) and engage in a power struggle between, i.e., two or more heirs/taisho/the daimyo.

As far as other features are concerned, I would hope they'd keep it simple, but that's unlikely.

[A Nerd]

I would like the strat map 'downgraded' to 2D or something that closely resembles it, if that is possible. Simple is better, the AI managed simple STW quite well. They say the AI is getting an overhaul but that has been said before. I don't mind the number of playable factions, there will probably alot of unplayable ones as well. I just hope the unplayable factions don't act like they did in ETW. If compared to STW, they were merely ronin factions that did nothing. At least the ronin were agressive. One province factions that actually make some sort of effort to spread their influence across the map (or that of an ally or the like) would be much better than just another province/city to conquer. Melee at sea sounds fun, as long as it isn't represented as it is when one ship boards another in ETW. A ship being remenicent to a map when melee starts self ordering the fighting would be much better than having it done for you. It is like watching auto resolve basically. Crews rather than producable units fight it out is also somewhat lame. A land/sea combo melee system should involve more than that. Please no siege fests either! I miss the sweeping, tactic hungry land battles of STW and MTW!

[Mars]

Hey Susie, long time that i wrote something here... in the first place, its back to the roots.

I know many people who really did love the old japanese style, so do i. In my opinion there is just one way to plan the game, and im sure its gonne be the direction. Massiv Multiplayer, i ask for it since 10 years or even more... im sure that there is no way around, it might be for console or PC, it doest matter.

Quick games where u can choose your army, and find your opponent, without spending tons of time to get a game up. Just look at WC3 oder SC2, thats the way and if CA is smart, they will focus on this.
The old phrase, that SP are a lot more and more worth than MP....

The campaign will be part, no doubt, maybe even some seebattles...

Whats about fog of war, can i see more scouting, could there be a delay before your Teammates see what u see?
Well, this you can ofcourse avoid with TS or something else, but still, the communication will be quite hard.

MP-Campaign is something we got and noone really play it, since (and this was obvious before) its so damn time consuming.
On the other hand i ask myself, if the game can be still complex and playable in a quick run?

Anyway, TW wont really bring anything new, and to be honest, was there anything new since Shogun and MTW? I think no, its more or less the same all the time.
The real problem is and was always the same, if your any good, you run out of good opponents. This was the major problem at the times as i played, not enough people online, just 200-300 in the peak.
And mostly crap player, so it got boring.

Whatever, i wish u all some good fun with the new game, maybe i drop in and give it a go once again.


Koc

[Swoosh So]

Hey mike, Ive been playing some ntw with amp and actually its a decent totalwar release. was just the period that we really dident like and is why it took so long to get into it on the grand scale of things it comes just after mtw1 on the how good is it in mp ladder. Its quite different from other totalwars in terms of tactics and takes a while to get into. The MP campaigns are quite popular but not with the usual MP crowd although every time ive got one of them to play it they have had fun and the main foyer contains around a steady 20 battles which isent bad considering theres a ton of players still playing empire. While it cant compare with the likes of sc2 i think its fair to say that it does compare with games like dawn of war that has a similar amount of battles hosted. The main problem the game has and the reason NTW isent booming online is the complete lack of a chat foyer theres nothing! you can only talk in the game setup or ingame or bloody steam! :\ For most veteran totalwar players thats like the worst thing CA could have done to the series i mean my god they give a mp campaign and finally a good game and they take away the chat foyer. CA are in edinburgh tonight doing a Q&A session ive a good mind to go picket them with a sign that calls for a MP chat lobby :p


Anyway get yourself on msn from time to time and hope to see u in shogun2 or ill have to find another wolf to help trim the fat of our clanmates in 2v2 practices :)

[Mars]

Im probably too bad for all you hardcore player out there, at least pretty rusty... Same with my english skills, did wrote and talk for some years just german.

In the end, i run a new Company, 2 kids, 4hours sleep a night, i did my sailturn at last, so i had my 12 months break and now back for work.
What i try to say, less time to play a computer game unless i take a year off again its almost impossible that you will see me online ;)

MSN i have on from time to time, mostly if i travel. I promise i gonna put it on more often ;)

Koc

[Gregoshi]

Hello Koc. It's good to see you pop in here to share a few words, if only briefly.

[andrewt]

I hope they rework diplomacy. I saw a GoogleTechTalk with Soren Johnson and some of the "unfun, unfair" AI stuff he talked about is exactly the type of AI that the Total War series has. The one that comes to mind the most is how the AI in TW is hard-coded to dogpile on the player eventually.

http://apolyton.net/content.php/80-P...-Soren-Johnson