Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
Read comments over at official forum saying units often rout within 30 seconds when unevenly matched (e.g. katana vs spear) and battle felt rushed. I haven't got a good enough computer to play yet, hopefully it's not like how some described, I am pretty clumsy with maneuvering units.
Last edited by xploring; 02-23-2011 at 08:05.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
Just played the demo. I first played the historical battle and then played through the campaign. To be more precise, I played through the part that worked. It hung up on the "defend your trade route" command and never let me progress further. I was so wholly disinterested that I didn't bother playing through again.
It's all just so much lipstick on a pig of a battle engine. Insta-routing, poor pacing, super speeds, and unit reaction issues are all back with a vengeance and they've added some new head scratchers as well. (Why are my non-routing cavalry all running in opposite directions?) And as usual in the newer titles, don't bother zooming in to watch the cool animations they worked so hard on, as the battle will be decided before you have a chance to zoom back out. Arcade-ish would be a compliment.
What is really frustrating is that you can tell how much work they put into the details. The armor, animations, landscapes, and a hundred other aspects of the game are brilliant, but they fail to all come together to create an overall enjoyable experience. What is the point of all the special abilities and formations if the battle progresses so fast that you cannot make use of them? Why even bother to incorporate an exhaustion system, when it is practically meaningless to the game? (Changing the default from walk to run is indicative of the role exhaustion now plays in the engine.)
Yes it is far more polished and has a nifty dictionary, but the battles themselves are just awful - much worse than Empire and a far cry from the original.
I'm sure they will sell millions of copies, but if this is a representation of the game play we can anticipate, they won't be selling one to me.
Last edited by PanzerJaeger; 02-23-2011 at 09:25.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
+1Originally Posted by PanzerJaeger
Over way too fast
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
if u take a closer look you will find that are ridderless horses obviously a new and quite nice addition. riders were often unhorsed and killed while the horses were still alive. I would love to see if cavalry units can be dismounted in battle but not die and fight on foot. would be quite cool hehe.
ALso i saw no instant routing. every battle ive fought so far units fight for quite a while b4 routing. the only units i saw rout quite quickly was when i charged my cav at some archers. they got mown down quite fast.
"How come i cant make friends like that"
"You need to get out more"
"Im in another galaxy, how much more out can i get"
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
After playing the demo this pretty much nails it for me.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
On my first pass through the campaign, after I built my first ship and discovered the nearby trade port I then took the ship I built on a trip down the coast. Subsequently, when the tutorial wanted me to combine my ship with new ones to defend my trade route I could not order it to do anything at all. I was stuck.
I restared but this time left the ship you're told to build right where the tutorial told me to send it on its first voyage. Later, when the trade route needed protecting, I was indeed able to move it to join the new ships and proceed with the campaign.
The castle assault was no cakewalk. In fact, I failed miserably to capture the place. Now, I will say that I did a simple direct assault and never tried to be the least bit clever. I wanted to see how the AI would react to an Ambrose Burnside/John Bell Hood style attack. It chewed me up and spat me out.
I need to play more before weighing in on the battle speed/lethality question. Thus far though I haven't been put off by anything but the siege guns that I couldn't get to fire at the castle...
Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like bananas.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
American Civil War humor. Hilarious :)
"Après moi le déluge"
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
FYI. "Semi-official" confirmation that AA is not in fact implemented in the demo but will be in the release.
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...l=1#post103820The Engine doesn't have AA supported yet, its in the final release so dont worry guys.
This leaves me (semi) relieved.
Last edited by Barkhorn1x; 02-23-2011 at 19:27.
"Après moi le déluge"
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
Hmm, that siege was quite the clusterfark.
I had no idea where to attack, I shot the gate to 100% damage but still couldn't enter through it. Didn't seem to matter since climbing walls seems pretty straight forward while carrying a long spear, and takes about 10 seconds. Wouldn't want generation deficient attention span to quit playing, right?
Guess you can use the bow hero to shoot a bit, they have longer range and can attack where there's no tower? I did get a few opportunities to shoot at yari units inside the walls without getting shot at with samurai archers, regardless.
Eventually I sent my katana samurai up the walls at the gates, they didn't open, the katanas lost against yaris, I think half of them were ashigerus even. The AI had sent his cavalry and at least one unit of yaris out to die before that, before I even reached the walls. Then I sent my yaris up and suddenly the enemy started running out the gates, shattered. I have no idea what happened at that point. Suddenly I won the battle without being anywhere near the keep-thingie.
Some of these games takes a while getting used to, but I can't say I'm impressed after this.
I like how there seems to be a lot of choke points on the map though.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
The demo is nothing impressive. It feels like a reskinned NTW.
I hope for better things in the original.
Ja mata, TosaInu. You will forever be remembered.
Proud
Been to:
Swords Made of Letters - 1938. The war is looming in France - and Alexandre Reythier does not have much time left to protect his country. A novel set before the war.
A Painted Shield of Honour - 1313. Templar Knights in France are in grave danger. Can they be saved?
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
More semi-official bits from the moderator at at the .COM site:
So...GOLD!To my knowledge there isn't any released material from the gold version yet as it only went gold a few days ago and the magazines/computer sites tend to run a week or two behind real time.
From this page:
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...889#post103889As Mark said the demo is like a "lite" version of the full game in order to keep it as small as possible so just because something isn't in the demo doesn't mean it won't be in the full game.
This is why a lot of the graphical features are not included.
"Après moi le déluge"
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
Seems like run speed is back to RTW levels. Walk is the fastest in any Total War game so far. Unless I did something wrong in the tests I just ran...
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
Really? This leaves me much more concerned. To me it comes across as though the AI is in such a poor state that they couldn't include it in the demo.
and New Zealand.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
I believe he is is referring to AA, Anti-Aliasing, not the Artificial Intelligence.Really? This leaves me much more concerned. To me it comes across as though the AI is in such a poor state that they couldn't include it in the demo.
If you use the link Kagemusha posted, the mod will allow you to see how the Campaign AI acts by itself. However, if you would like to see the Battle AI in action I believe we have to wait until release.
RIP Tosa, I can't believe you are gone, but we will never forget you
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
If you want to try more mods released for the demo, please visit the S2TW modding area and go this thread.I have gathered there the mods released so far: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...s-for-the-demo.
Ja Mata Tosainu Sama.
Re: Demo out on 22 February 2011
Correct - Anti-Alaising takes care of the jaggies and makes everything look better on higher resolutions.
BTW, using the Camp mod and playing a conservative slow build up of buildings and tech only ensured my clans destruction by the agressive and strong Miyoshi clan. So that is "interesting".
"Après moi le déluge"
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