Comparison of Support from CA

[LestaT]

Can this be done ?

1. Game like RPG style multiplayer.
a) Choose a tribe/faction, start as sargeant maybe.
b) Choose 'profession' to command (archers/cavalry etc)

2. Roam from town to town (and cities) gathering allies or getting 'mission'
from Governors (to eliminate rebels etc) using RPG style map (?)

3. More mission successfully concluded recieved more money to upgrade or
add troops.

4. Battles are fought on battle map like Single Player version.

5. After certain level maybe get promoted to captain and can 'hire/command'
other type of unit (so now command maybe sword & archer).

6. Chatroom replace diplomat type speeces where aliiances can be forged.

7. Bribe can also be included to maybe 'backstab' ally during battle with other
faction.

Well, this is a basic idea and I'm not really sure where to put this post actually. Feel free to comment or to add suggestion.

[Puzz3D]

Can this be done ?

1. Game like RPG style multiplayer.
a) Choose a tribe/faction, start as sargeant maybe.
b) Choose 'profession' to command (archers/cavalry etc)

2. Roam from town to town (and cities) gathering allies or getting 'mission'
from Governors (to eliminate rebels etc) using RPG style map (?)

3. More mission successfully concluded recieved more money to upgrade or
add troops.

I suppose it could be done, but I hope it isn't done. That type of game has a snowball effect where after a while you are practically unbeatable. STW, MTW and RTW multiplayer is set up so that ideally you go to the battlefield with the same combat power as your opponent every time. The idea is that you win if you play better, and not because you have a stronger army. The introduction of many unit types in MTW and now RTW that are not properly cost balanced has meant you have to figure out the most cost efficient units so as not to be at a disadvantage.

[Sp00n]

After readin Shoguns post lets hope the patch will be worth the wait, I cant help getting the feeling of deja vu though as wasnt Rome going to also be worth the wait.
Lets hope im wrong as I love the Total wars games as much as anyone.

Please get it right this time CA as I doubt the community will give you another chance, we dont want to have to wait further for an addon that only cures the original game.

MizuSp00n

[Tomisama]

Maybe to give hope for a proper fix, a little reinforcement.

At least to my observation:

The shelves are full of Rome boxes that don’t seem to be moving, even in the Christmas rush!

And, direct competition is hot on their heels (Magitech and Slitherine).

They really do have to get it right this time…

[baz]

Thanks for posting that CBR, Obake is a wise man. I appreciate that there are some great arguments on why CA are not as forthcoming as they could be .. the point is here that there are some issues that need to be shared with the community as it is in the interest of the the development for the game. There should clever enough to censor what we are told and what we are not, and they should also be clever enough to realise we need to be told something.

The fact that CA published possible developments that were interpreted, in the end, as false promises because they did not work out was obviously a massive error, and i fully agree we should not be told anything that is not certain. What i do not understand is that they are missing out on a huge amount of feedback because somebody did not realise we only need to know so much .. getting constructive feedback from people who play for thousands of hours is better than any testing that is possible in house. In contrast at SI Games the forum is speciafically called "BUGS", there is a thread at the top, which clearly states that your thread will be closed/deleted if it is a repeat or is not actually a bug. the forum is strict and accepts no flaming/debating. It just simply identifies bugs and helps the developers to re create them in their debugging environment, which the patrons accept. This way the development team is able use the feedback from users and identify problems by letting the users send them the effected matches/careers (3d battles/campaigns for TW) via an FTP server where necessary.

My main point here is that the only reason CA have got any constructive feedback is because we got off our asses to provide it for them, without any encouragement whatsoever. What is really stopping them from opening a "bugs" forum and policing it like they do at SI games. Surely any business man can see that this is in the benefit of both parties, both consumer and creator! The consumer gets a little insight into the actual state of certain problems and the creator gets a greater understanding of what needs to be fixed.

I can not see any disadvantages to this strategy, can you? everybody is a winner!

[Shahed]

...

[Puzz3D]

.. the point is here that there are some issues that need to be shared with the community as it is in the interest of the the development for the game.

I'm not sure which issues you are referring to, but CA isn't about to develop their game in a public forum. They read the forums, and have made that general statement about fixing as many of the reported problems as they can in one patch. Apparently, only one patch is to be done because the patching process takes a long time to complete. A bug forum would have been good to have because the bug threads became too long to read after a while, and, maybe if the bugs were nicely tabulated as they are in that example you posted, someone from CA would check off things as they got fixed.

Maybe this game is too ambitious, and beyond the scope of the investment. It didn't help multiplayer that Activision changed the GameSpy software shortly before RTW was released. You can probably get all the major bugs resolved in a single patch, but I don't see how the gameplay can be brought to the level desired by the older community members in a single patch. You are always going to have something less than you want in this regard with the limited patching policy, and there is no consensus in the community on what that gameplay should be anyway.

[baz]

When i say issues that need to be shared i am talking about general responses to the problems we find. Lets pretend that somebody posted a bug in R:TW in the forum but unfortunately it was not explained very well, perhaps english is not the primary language of that individual .. How does that person know he is being listened to ...?

At SI games a tester will simply say "Thank you, this is noted" to acknowledge that the thread has been looked at and will also go into further detail if needed to recreate the bug for themselves. This demonstrates that this has been looked into and keeps the consumer happy. This attitude is extremely helpful because it also prevents future rants about the same topic by other patrons. At present you get no acknowledgement whatsoever from anybody when you post a thread, all you can do is pray that the CA people who apparently look at the forums actually took the time to investigate. My point is that CA are not helping themselves, all i am talking about is a bit of dialoque with the company, not for them to develop the game on the forums.

I agree gameplay is an unsolved mystery, but how can we ever be expected to agree upon "a gameplay" when we have spent the first three months of release complaining about issues that could be dealt with far more efficiently. Just take a look at the threads here and see how many discussions there are regarding gameplay!

My suggestion would be to open a "bugs" forum at .com and employ several moderators to acknowledge threads and then pass information onto the developers via someone like "The Shogun". Then the moderators can update the threads with the progress on that issue that has come back from CA via "The Shogun". The bug investigators (made up role name) will get the added work of having to reply to each bug request with details but they will also gain an advantage by getting all the bugs on plates in the first place. Obviously CA can be cautious in their feedback but i am sure they would be capable of that. Would it be that hard to implement? again i say it but i think everyone would be a winner and more people would be discussing tactics here not ripping the game to pieces.

Unfortunately to see the SI games bugs forum you have to register but i do suggest you go see how it is run as it is hard to describe, how bad can it be if they are able to release a patch in under a month after initial release!

This game is ambitious and at the moment perhaps too much so, but i am a firm believer in if you dont give something the best possible chance of sucess then you are not going to get the best possible results!