Sorry From CA - Current State of the Game and What Happens Next

[Lemur]

I can't see these kinds of issues being fixed by patches & hot-fixes.....

Yeah, I was saying to a RL friend, who is new to the TW world, that CA is okay with eventually fixing bugs, but they have never, ever fixed a design problem in an existing game.

And a lot of what ails R2 appears to be fundamental to design.

I've spent most of my time in the campaign, and there's a whole lot of "Huh?" going on.

Why do I need to click through three sliding screens to perform an upgrade on a general? Why?

And the general lack of cues and feedback ... that's just bad design. Carthage had an epic civil war last night. Why? I have no idea. The Hanna Montana dynasty had ~20% control of the Senators. This was nowhere near the trigger point, by my understanding. None of the other factions had massive control. The "Other Families" had ~50% control. So ... civil war? Why? Who knows?

[Hooahguy]

Yeah, I was saying to a RL friend, who is new to the TW world, that CA is okay with eventually fixing bugs, but they have never, ever fixed a design problem in an existing game.

And a lot of what ails R2 appears to be fundamental to design.

I've spent most of my time in the campaign, and there's a whole lot of "Huh?" going on.

Why do I need to click through three sliding screens to perform an upgrade on a general? Why?

And the general lack of cues and feedback ... that's just bad design. Carthage had an epic civil war last night. Why? I have no idea. The Hanna Montana dynasty had ~20% control of the Senators. This was nowhere near the trigger point, by my understanding. None of the other factions had massive control. The "Other Families" had ~50% control. So ... civil war? Why? Who knows?

And to piggy back off of that, I think the political system is great in concept, but poorly executed. For example, I think a power-struggle is about to start between my faction leader and the next in line, another general. My FL has about 60 gravitas and the other guy has about 80. But nowhere does it say what happens when someone reaches 100, and I dont even know which one is part of "my family." No idea where to see my family list/tree. In the end I sent the rival general first into a siege and he was killed. Overall, great ideas, poor execution.

[Lemur]

Overall, great ideas, poor execution.

Nothing's quite as tacked-on and Early Atari-style as, say, the railroad transport screen in FotS. But a lot of it is close. Damn close.

[BroskiDerpman]

Do you know how that works? Never got to really start up FoTS yet.

[Azi Tohak]

It seems to me this game had a deadline set a year ago, and no one with the cojones to say "that just won't work" as the game neared release. So many of the little pieces (the traits and faction politics) sound like such fun, but they're too poorly done to be interesting. I need more time with naval combat to pass judgement but my initial thought is it's a circus.

I enjoy the army stances, the look of the map (I am the 98%, and even the game turns aren't terrible when I think of the enormous number of factions) but not the enormous UI in battles.

Azi

[BroskiDerpman]

It's the ui... Ahhhhhhh it burns m'lord!

I wished CA reconsidered redoing the ai with important functions hidden in other buttons. Plus the modern minimal ui gets on my nerves,I thought CA learned from Shogun 2 and designed the ui that way. It was immersive and functional.

[a completely inoffensive name]

The more I read about this game, the more of a joke it becomes. Like most AAA titles.

CA has never had a real competitor. The Total Wars are a unique blend and because there are so many apologists and marketing (hence the 40% larger budget), they honestly do not have to improve anything but graphics.

I don't know what the solution is, other than to simply not buy R2 and not buy the next game on principle unless there is a public beta or until the *actual* reviews come out, post-release.