things that you wish to be fixed in MTW?

[BurnAndKill]

for me, most important would probably be

- the sea battles... seems outcomes are chaotic, a dhow sinks 3 caravels just like that, seems speed and numbers matter and valor + unit type does not

- the rebellions, they should be peasants mostly, some archers, spearmen, woodsmen or some other primitive local units like vikings, whatever. but scores of advanced knights out of nowhere in early period, etc. makes no sense at all. since the 1.1 patch tried to make them a real challenge, I would happily fight 3000 peasants and 2000 other instead.

- end to freak rebellion epidemics after 60% of Europe is taken... not a bad idea but seriously tune it down lol, it's unplayable

- additional personality traits, but less of them per character... the characters are mostly freaks because of too many traits, it's hard to keep up with them. and having a prince go coward for one rout I think is a bit much... at least won battles should cure it.

- the 1.1 patch sometimes brings personality trait modifiers to battlefield, most of the time not, especially with simple skilled attacker etc. bonuses, or that's my game anyway so the fix should be finished. especially as it seems to me AI does not share the problem, judging by autoresolves I've done

- higher loyalty standard for players also. since the AI keeps a 150% standard and is constantly broke or for whatever reason don't build much units, let's have challenge... getting 60% of Europe in 60 years every time gets boring and I don't like the idea of combat bonuses to AI one bit, well that's just me I guess...

- more MTW babes and maybe personality traits for them too? getting the princes laid is half the fun for me... having a nagging wife might impact a prince's cruelty for sure long as it's not overdone

off top of my head, can't think of anything more now

[ShellShock]

Dragging pieces on the campaign map. First you have to click on it, then you have to click and hold, and drag it, then you release it, and if it is not positioned just right, zing, it goes back to where it started. Grrrrrr! Especially when I play as the English and own the oceans - my armies move from old Blighty to the middle east in one fell swoop. Well they would if I could move the damn pieces!

[BalkanTourist]

"- end to freak rebellion epidemics after 60% of Europe is taken... not a bad idea but seriously tune it down lol, it's unplayable".

I feel your pain. It used to happen to me all the time. It never does anymore.
First: always build the happy buildings. For instance if I just gain a new province I'll tech it up as follows: towers and upgrade, fort, port, town watch and +20%; then keep, church, chapter house/mosque, ribbat, tavern, +40%; castle, brothel, reliquary, +60% and so on.
Second: always keep 2 priests, an assasin and a spy in all your provinces.
Third: I never use my King to fight, except in the beginning. I always attack one neighboring country in first turn - example - Egypt attacks Turks, or Almohads attack Valencia, Aragon, Spain. If you have the lands of at least one of your neighbours you'll never run out of money - you've got money, you've won 75% of the game. Anyway, I let my king stay in my capital-coastal province and he never fights. Build a strong Navy.

Trust me, you'll never have loyalty problems. I guard Portugal with 100 peasants and have not had problems like I used to before.

My wish is for better diplomacy:
-paying tributes
-negotiating joint attacks
-vassal states
-asking for assistance
-better trade

[Fragony]

Diplomacy should be fixed.

I would like to be able to order an army, click on Armenia for example, say what I want to have and let the provinces build and armies move on it's own.

M: TW has a serious memory leak making the mouse inresponsive, I HATE having to pick up an agent or army 10 times and they just keep dropping, VERY annoying when you have to cross the map.

More exclusive units, less generic ones. Most of the catholics are fun to play but their armies are boring, we need more variety. Poland for example can build feudal sergeants AND armoured spearman, it takes away the flavour. Personally I roleplay, if I play england I use Feudal units and let them gain valour in battle, when I play france I use chivalric units. Not every christian faction should get the chivalric units.

[Soulflame]

Against the rebellion problem, I try to tech up to a religious building and make 200 peasants. It seems that loyalty depends on the number of units in a province (and not on the unit type). 2 sets of peasants cost 100 to make and 24 maintenance I think, so you'll get that back in 1 year. If this is still not enough, lower the tax a bit (I mean, if you have 60% of the map, you have bulking treasures too, at least I always have).

And I always have 1 or 2 outdated armies moving behind my main force which stay in conquered provinces for a while to get people used to me.

As to sea battles, try to mix fleets; put in some fast ones and some slow ones and such. Usually you'll have no problem then.

@ Czar:
While keeping your king away from battle may give some advantage, it will also diminish the royal line bit by bit. They won't get alot of command if daddy is a chicken and won't fight, nor much dread for that matter. Besides, the royal generals are a free way to get high command generals (you don't need to train them in battle since they get characterics much like their father, so if he has alot of command, good bet his son will be good too when he's born, without having even won 1 battle yet!)
I prefer to make to work on the royal line... this is turn helps with loyalty too (just kill some prisoners every once in a while and he'll get dread-related V&V)

[Boris of Bohemia]

When your 85-year old king dies, and your 60 year old heir who has been married for 40 years takes over, you should get a mature family. How do you enter that unfreeze command?

[Quietus]

I agree with Shellshock about moving units It is tedious when you have to move it across a large continent.

But with regards to rebellion, all you really need is a number of things.

1) Kings must be in a perfect central position relative to your empire.

2) You MUST have complete control of sea lanes (ideally 2 per sea lane, so you don't have to pay too much upkeep). If you ever have to initiate a war. Sink ALL the enemy ships before you make any attacks on land. This is extremely crucial. The presence of enemy will potentially cut off a lot of you province from your king. What you do is position you stack of ships about 2 more than than the enemy ships. In one turn attack simultaneously. Enemy ships are sunk. You can proceed on fighting, no rebellions, no problem

For the rest, do as Czar ivan with spies, religious agents, forts, churches, and buildings.

One other thing that can improve MTW or RTW for that matter is eliminate the reforming factions. When a player succeeds, he is rewarded with province and all it entails. When the dead factions suddenly reforms, the player doesn't feel rewarded, in fact players feel punished. Thus, it is bad for gaming psychology.

Wishlist
-AI picks better units and balanced AI armies.
-Huge penalty for breaking alliances/pact (such as getting a terrible vice; or not being trusted by other factions for a period of time). Should be applicable to AI too.
-EXPENSIVE buildings and units thus money isn't too easy.
-Some limit when it comes to training elite units (such as time to train, number of units you can train at the same time)

That's all I can think of right now

[Silver Rusher]

I think Medieval Total War should have had multiplayer campaigns, and RTW should have too. Hey, let's put that in an RTW expansion pack!

[Soulflame]

I think Medieval Total War should have had multiplayer campaigns, and RTW should have too. Hey, let's put that in an RTW expansion pack!

I second that! I would absolutely love a multiplayer campaign...

[Phatose]

Sea battles: Ok, so, they're abstracted. That's ok. It's a land battle game. However, having them abstracted by a drunken, insane, brain damaged chimpanzee isn't ok. Seriously - mod the game, give yourself boats with ranking of 30 in all catergories, rename it nuclear submarine - then watch as your nuclear submarine gets sunk by 2 rowboats. Almost as bad as Civ, where pikemen somehow manage to defeat stealth bombers.

Sea lanes: A sea lane shouldn't be blocked the turn an enemy ship moves into it. To prevent the catch me if you can mobile naval blockades, but also to make actually controlling the seas, not just temporarily possessing them, the goal.

Horsemen: Men on horses attacking routing troops should mow them down. No stopping, no tag, certainly no 'chase the last man, kill him, smoke a cigarette'. Running away from horse should be very very bad.

Scattering: If a unit's morale goes down super low, and their retreat is cut off, the unit should just fall apart into chaos and scatter, each man heading for the nearest edge of the map.

Diplomacy: It should be at least minorly enforceable, without the sudden 'everybody hates you point'. I don't expect beauty - this isn't U.N. 1320, but it would be nice if you could do the basics, co-ordinate attacks, and whatnot.

Trade: I'd generally limit the value of exporting to a province by the income of that province. Parts of north Africa paying 221 florins in taxes on honey when the province has nothing but sand makes very little sense.

Movement: Really, I'd like it so you could pop up a destination window in the corner, select a province, and drag/drop units into that window to move them to the province. Moving large armies across the map via sea lanes is painful.

Summary scrolls: Include checkboxes at the side (show Cavalary/infanty/ect) for agents as well. Be able to see and issue build orders from the province summary list screens. Perhaps adding icons to provinces who's governors have income/loyalty affecting V&Vs would be nice too.

[Adrian II]

Some good suggestions there, BurnAndKill. I've noticed (when using save game) that the AI lets you win your naval battles more easily after you've lost your land battles and vice versa.

However, there aren't so many freak outcomes. If you take a closer look at your naval battles you'll find that command strength weighs in and that it's exactly the reason why the dhow would sink those caravels. Also, if you run from a given sea instead of attacking the enemy ships there, you have a bigger chance of losing one or more ships.

Rebel armies could be made up of peasants, archers, woodsmen and the like, but they should be led by one serious high-valour unit, let's say a 5-star chivalric men-in-arms general whose morale bonus is enough to give those expendables +1 morale or something, to reflect their anger towards the occupying forces. And you're right, it doesn't spoil your sense of proportion if they come at you 5000 strong. Historically that would be more correct than the s***load of fully upgraded knights, pav arbalasters and the like you get presently.

As to freak rebellions, you better get organized and have them occur in predictable times and places by withdrawing your garrison from some more marginal provinces and setting taxes there to unbearable levels. Once the Italians, Sicilians or whatever reappear, you have a fully upgraded army standing by dying to meet them. Resurrections and rebellions are fun, I often end up with one more high-powered general for beating them to a pulp.

Personality traits is one area where the game fails, and you're right it's unfair seeing your king dispatched as a "good runner" for losing a single battle where you get almost no opportunity to undo that reputation. The alliance system is flawed, too. For instance towards endgame you can send an entire army of ems running around the Med chasing skirts for your royalty, but it's no use because daddy says no all the time.

Now since this is my first post let me see how it comes at out the business end.

[Sir Toma of Spain]

One thing i'd like to see improved is the fact that generals get opposite traits. like a devout atheist (it happens after you use a lot of inquisitors) or a famously brave good runner. It really annoys me when this happens

I also like the idea of a multiplayer campaign

[JR-]

I second that! I would absolutely love a multiplayer campaign...

thirded.......

[McGowan]

I also would like a multiplayer campaign.

Right now, however, I am righting because my new game as the Polish has infuriated me. There are AI problems, and then there are AI problems. Why why why does the Byzantine Empire always seem to want the steppe more than it's own rich provinces, which it happily abandons to the Turks, Egyptians, or whoever wants to grab them? There's a serious problem when by the 12th turn of my game, the Byzantines own Lithuania, but not Constantinople.

[fester]

nice post, I'll give it a try

"- end to freak rebellion epidemics after 60% of Europe is taken... not a bad idea but seriously tune it down lol, it's unplayable".

I feel your pain. It used to happen to me all the time. It never does anymore.
First: always build the happy buildings. For instance if I just gain a new province I'll tech it up as follows: towers and upgrade, fort, port, town watch and +20%; then keep, church, chapter house/mosque, ribbat, tavern, +40%; castle, brothel, reliquary, +60% and so on.
Second: always keep 2 priests, an assasin and a spy in all your provinces.
Third: I never use my King to fight, except in the beginning. I always attack one neighboring country in first turn - example - Egypt attacks Turks, or Almohads attack Valencia, Aragon, Spain. If you have the lands of at least one of your neighbours you'll never run out of money - you've got money, you've won 75% of the game. Anyway, I let my king stay in my capital-coastal province and he never fights. Build a strong Navy.

Trust me, you'll never have loyalty problems. I guard Portugal with 100 peasants and have not had problems like I used to before.

My wish is for better diplomacy:
-paying tributes
-negotiating joint attacks
-vassal states
-asking for assistance
-better trade