TW4 what do you want?

[GonZ]

We're getting a better picture now on the expansion pack for Rome. But unless I'm mistaken there's no official news about a future TW game. Spartan Warrior aside...

What do players want next?

What would you call it? Which era and location would you set it in? What functionality do you cry out for? What innovations can be made?

I suspect there’ll be no consensus. But I’d love to hear peoples views.

--

I apologise if this is dragging up a previous forum topic but pre any official announcement, this is our chance to influence, and the more we talk about it the better imo.

[Franconicus]

TW4 must have

Naval battles
airplanes
bigger variaty of units
better diplomacy
commanders with clearer personality
more historical battles
choclate icecream
heidi klum
babes
ferraris

Did I miss anything?

[Brutus]

I would like Religion: Total War, set in Europe and surrounding regions in the 16th (and maybe early 17th) century. In this the religious conviction of your ruler (faction leader) would have a huge consequence on diplomacy with other factions, the loyalty of your subjects, the morale of your soldiers and the loyalty of your family or generals. The battle engine would have to stay, but gunpowder units would be an enourmous addition (although "phalanx"-warfare would remain in the game as well). Of course naval battles would have to be implemented, as well as many, many more historical regions and cities, a new 'family' system, which doesn't only implement the royal family itself (maybe different styles of rule for different factions?). All units would be region specific (or mercenaries), and cities and castles would be based on their real appearance (making them all unique). Finally, many of the features of MTW (like factions emerging, family members revolting and marrying of princesses to forge alliances) would have to come back. By the way, being able to choose the name of your childeren (giving the real historical feel by having a name run for generations in the family) as well as being able to choose your governors and generals from the nobility originally attached to a specific region, would be very nice.

Well, many more ideas, but that's it for now.

[ichi]

For an historical period I'd like to see something Greek or maybe Persian, perhaps 1500-200 BC.

Actually I'd like to see the series try a less historical approach for once, something with a little fantasy, maybe Atlantean or other pre-historical period.

or how about Old Testament Total War?

ichi

[Kagemusha]

I would like to see WWI or WWII totalwar.I think that would be a great challence for the developers

[xemitg]

TW4 must have

Naval battles
airplanes
bigger variaty of units
better diplomacy
commanders with clearer personality
more historical battles
choclate icecream
heidi klum
babes
ferraris

Did I miss anything?

The last four better be in there no matter what game it is.

I wish the combat would have more detail in it. Perhaps every soldier would look a little different. It would be awesome to have things like limbs being hacked off and riders being knocked off their horses and continue fighting. Gore and blood wouldn’t be the center piece of the game. However, if a soldier gets chopped in the arm, naturally his arm should fall off. I fear a Greek based game would be too similar to RTW. My vote would be back to Asia for a Chinese campaign or of the like. It just needs to be different and unique from the past TW games.

[Conqueror]

So long as it doesn't have firearms, it's good. I can enjoy firearms in strat games only if it's set at least WW1 era or later, and I don't want "Total WW" since that theme's done to death and because I think that TW series is better kept to the old days of swords n' spears.

That said, I think the warring states era of China would be an interesting theme for a TW title.

As for features that I'd like to see:

- Supply lines. This is one of the most important stratetic weaknesses of an invading army and it's a great shame that it hasn't been included in TW yet. It should be possible to try to capture or destroy your enemy's supplies. You would need to dedicate units to guard the supplies for your own troops. An underprotected supply train would attract brigands.

- Option to use scorched earth strategy. This could be combined with the raiding of supplies to totally screw up an invasion force.

- Naval battles in 3D battle map with player control over ships.

- A diplomacy system where alliances can be formed specifically against a faction. Ie factions A and B team up against faction X. Perhaps complete with agreement over how to divide the captured provinces. Also there should be a way ask your ally to attack a specific province of your common enemy.

- It should be possible to ask a faction to break their alliance, trade rights, etc to another faction. Or to "persuade" a faction to stop attacking another faction.

- If you keep making diplomatic agreements and breaking them, then there should be consequences. Other factions would no longer take your word for anything, so you could not get any more alliances and other beneficial agreements from them. Also, executing all the populations you conquer should earn you a bad reputation which would also hurt you diplomatically.

- When a faction is aggressively expansionistic, other factions might take note and gang up on it.

- Populations for provinces should be divided to separate figures for slaves, free men, and wealthy men/nobility. Units that are based on particular social class should only be recruited from that class (ie no recruiting of knights from peasants). If a province doesn't have enough citizens of required class then that unit can't be trained there untill the number has grown.

- Similarly, there should be a population of horses, camels, elephants, etc for each province. You could only train mounted units if there is enough mounts available. The rate of recovering their number could be increased by dedicating resources to breeding the animals.

- Technology such as better ship-types, siege engines, composite bows, fortification techniques, etc could be aquired from other factions and adopted. For example, faction A might lack the knowledge of how to build and operate ballistas. They face faction B in battle and suffer ballistas being used against them. Then they send agents to bribe some engineers of faction B to change sides and build ballistas for them. Faction A from then on is able to train their own ballista units.

- Developement of better units should require use of earlier units. It's not good if you can just skip the basic light infantry units, build the big barracks building and start producing the elite light infantry. In order to unlock the more advanced units, you should have made actual use of similar lower quality units in the battle field. Of corse, this would not be required for units that should be available to a faction at the start date.

- Terrain should be more varied and also it should be more significant, especially when it comes to movement of cavalry. Infantry and archers could be moved to places where cavalry can't reach them easily, hence giving them good tactical position.

- It should be possible to set forests on fire. Any units hiding in the forest would be killed, but the fire could also spread and kill your own units if you're not careful! Wind direction should be important factor when using fire. Also, burning buildings in cities should be a real danger to the army in the city, and fires should lower populations. It should be possible to try to burn down major parts of another faction's settlement like you can sabotage specific buildings in RTW.

[Viking]

For an historical period I'd like to see something Greek or maybe Persian, perhaps 1500-200 BC.

That would be nice.
I don`t wan`t a total war game that goes forward in time(from the RTW time period), rather backwards.

Perhaps the expansion would be "Alexandrian Invasion", where you have to fight of the maniac!

[cunctator]

Bronze Age:Total War
1600-1100BC

[Oaty]

Egypt Total war. At least they would'nt need to revamp too many units

In all reality though China Total War for me

[Martok]

1st choice: Fantasy TW
2nd choice: Hellenic/Persian TW (during the Bronze Age, of course)
3rd choice: China TW (during the Spring & Autumn period).

[mfberg]

You have forgotton:

Stone Age:Total War

mfberg

[Volstag]

My obligatory comments:

I think the engine works best with pre-gunpowder, or, more specifically, pre-Industrial Revolution conflicts. While a WWI or WWII Total War would be interesting, it would require a radical departure from their current design. The scale of such engagements is, IMO, beyond the capability of the engine (as written) to handle: hundreds of thousands of combatants, air-power, long range artillery, fronts that are dozens of miles long, battles lasting days/weeks, etc. How would they handle submarine warfare, strategic bombing? In addition, there would be several thousand different unit types.

While they could probably get away with conflicts such as the American Civil War, Franco-Prussian War, Napoleonic wars, etc, for me, personally, the major attraction of the TW series is that they focus on eras/conflicts that receive relatively limited "treatment" in the computer gaming industry -- and, hence, I'd like to see them continue that trend.

-V

[Colovion]

Anything, as long as it's free of bugs. If CA doesn't get paid to test it enough then release a frickin open beta!

You hear that?

RELEASE AN OPEN BETA

that should assuage any obvious bugs which we have the most delightful time of discovering 5 minutes after installing the game

Oh and more CA support on the forums; more accountability. I'd rather actually feel like teh developers are standing behind their game with smiling faces instead of hiding in a corner hoping and praying for mercy.

[Templar Knight]

16th-18th Centuries

[edyzmedieval]

Medieval Total War 2 with:

many features from RTW
improved diplomacy and AI
diplomacy must have that offer screen
improved trade and more trade goods
more units
more factions

..........

[Shambles]

For a campaign
Id like The entier world involved,
With eskimo warriors,
And australian aberigenees and stuff.
"you cant realy prove they dint exist, So idf like them in"

More diversety in units,
And restrictions to tech tree so not all people can build same
A historicaly acurat game "to some degree considering ive just added Eskimos and stuff"
Not set to any specific time period,
But at the same time Prety loyal to historical events,
"obviously if the french are already dead, Cant have A French specific event"
And Bring back the chess board movement of Shogun and MTW

Better music for ambiance, "it really can make or break a game"
STW battel feel.
But more of a MTW campaign map and economics controll.
Id like Rome TW type gfx. But also a option to drop down To the old STW gfx style for lower end users,

Many more historical battles, Whch also incorporate in to campaign mode,
I.e
if in May 1500 Some 1 had attaked osama. With a specific army In real life,
then they attack osama in campaign mode at that date with that specific army Just as in real life. Only difrence being The defending army "you" See how you would have coped with it when theres more to think about than Just win the battle,

Better ways of defending your ports, And blocking emnissarys From entering by upgrading, But also abilaty to train Better emnisarys or assasins exetera Who can get past the security,

More Upgrades and diftern boat units,
With Amount of crew on board a ship being a factor as to how many shots it can shoot or how quickly, So as to make a better nortical battle.

Abilaty to dictate unit size, Default size of 120 for instance,
But you decide you can oly afoard a unit of 58,
You should be able to Create a unit of 58,

4 turns in one year,

And a better trading system,
Allowing you to set the price you want for your goods,
And qualaty of workman ship, (poor workman ship = less wages for crafts men "yes they should be involved and so should salary)
So buyers would take in to concideration Price and qualaty then evaluate which was best value for money,
The computer ai should also be adjusting its prices to try and beat yours,
but the computer would not be able to find out how much you are selling your goods for Unless that particular faction has purchased goods from you or has a spy in your trading province, Or by word of mouth Several months after you changed your prices,
The same should apply to human players.

I spose i could go on and on :)
But I dont want Some 1 els to make a winner of a game from my ideas and make a fortune,
Becous id be prety Agrivated if i bought the game and said HEY thats what i said,.

Oh It should be called Ultimate Toatl war

ShambleS

[Franconicus]

Maybe an imperialism TW; that could include the whole world.
And the battle maps should have more details. Trenches, Swamps, Hedges, Creeks ...
Weather should be as good as MTW, maybe with fog!

[IliaDN]

Aztecs TW , heh , that can be funny.

[PseRamesses]

1. My wet dream: The Great Empires period, 1600-330bc, including facs like Egypt, Babylonia (Kassite), Mittani, Hittite, Assyria, Judah, Phoenicia, Urartu, Persia, Minoans, Nubians, Libyans etc etc and all the Mycenaean kingdoms of Greece etc. Basically a bronze age scenario spanning three disctinct periods/ parts.
2. or a Hellenic game divided into three parts; City states 800-500bc, Classical 500-356bc and finally Hellenistic 356-30bc much like HTW but on a much larger scale.
3. or maybe China although that game would IMO span a too lengthy period of time to be interesting.

Personally I´d like to create an Egyptian mod spanning from the unification ca. 3150bc to 525 bc when incorporated into the Assyrian empire/ or end with the New Kingdom at 1069 bc. This epic one should be divided into 5 distinct eras; Old-, Middle- and New Kingdom plus the 1st and 2nd Intermediate periods.

[dimitrios the samian]

[SIZE=4]MESOPOTAMIA TOTAL WAR [/SIZE] starting with Sumeria and progressing thru to the twilight of the Assyrian Empire .

[xemitg]

Unless we want a game similar to RTW, we need to avoid things like egypt total war or greek total war. It would be just an update of RTW. Unless if that’s what everybody wants...

[Craterus]

I like that time period.

It's part of the reason I never got Medievil; I don't know much about the time period. It doesn't interest me.

[Al Khalifah]

Look at the Total War sequence...

STW: Begins in 1530
WI: Some starting positions in 1490
MTW: 1086 - 1492
VI: 798 - 1066
RTW: 272 bc - 41
BI: circa 360 - 590

I'm guessing something before R:TW then.
Maybe Greece: Total War, with Dorian Invasion expansion pack.

[PseRamesses]

Unless we want a game similar to RTW, we need to avoid things like egypt total war or greek total war. It would be just an update of RTW. Unless if that’s what everybody wants...

Then, what have we left? Europe 1500-1800 ad? A Chinese TW? An american indian/ Atec/ Inca game? Or what? The main thing with the TW-series is to exploit and cover the main conflict periods in human history. I suggested a bronze age game just because it´s nothing like RTW at all. Warfare was very diffenrent and honor was a key element. Skirmishing is another key to ancient warfare not at all like the Roman era with organized warfare. I do realise that for people that finds history obsolete or dull this would be a bad choice.
My other suggestion regarding a game based around Egypt is just my personal flavour based on over 15 years of studying egyptology and I think it wouldn´t be that popular amongst the gaming community.
However, a TW-game covering the ancient empires that I suggested, roughly 2000-1000 bc, would be a killer IMO. Before the TW-series evolve into more modern warfare 15th, 16th, 17th centuries the game needs to be better, smarter AI, more complex reality settings like attrition, logistics etc etc. That the TW series would attempt to release a "modern" (18th and 19th cetury) warfare game would be the end of this great serie. There are to many good games covering this era already on the market.

[Shambles]

I told u No specific time period,
Start form neanderthal man,
And work your way up.
at 4 turns per year with the game i described youd be Verry lucky to make it all the way thru to the sengoku jidai period.

ULTIMATE TOTAL WAR!!!!

[dimitrios the samian]

BABYLON TOTAL WAR

[Craterus]

Look at the Total War sequence...

STW: Begins in 1530
WI: Some starting positions in 1490
MTW: 1086 - 1492
VI: 798 - 1066
RTW: 272 bc - 41
BI: circa 360 - 590

I'm guessing something before R:TW then.
Maybe Greece: Total War, with Dorian Invasion expansion pack.

RTW: 270bc - 5 bc (It's definitely 270. I'm not sure about the 5 part; I made that up.)

I like Bronze Age.

I like sword and spear, not guns.

[Drisos]

I don't want it.

I will only cost us more STW-players...

[Basiliscus]

Well for something not done before, why not something along the lines of the carving up of Africa by the major European powers in the 19th century? This might give people a chance to play as natives or any one of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Ottomans etc. What you all think of that?

Or perhaps the Chinese colonies around the same period, Boxer rebellion et al?

Perhaps even Aztec/Inca TW would work, Cortez/Pizarro and associated cronies. They could happen like a scripted event like the Mongol invasion in MTW.

If it wasn't for AOE3, an American colonies TW might work