TW4 what do you want?

[The Darkhorn]

In truth, I'd really love to see MTW redone with suggestions listed and any improvements from RTW (which I haven't played yet...I'm waiting for it to get cheaper....plus I'm elbow deep into MTW).

One thing some of y'all may be missing about the chaos of a large ACW or Napoleonic battle (in which there was actually lots of hand to hand to combat - no rifles yet - in fact bayonet charge was the basic idea) is the SMOKE. Wouldn't a TW battle be great if you could barely see? Talk about a challenge!

[The Darkhorn]

But what I really would like to play: the whole ancient times, with all of Eurasia, and North Africa, from the first great cultures to the dark ages, Arthur's times, perhaps. 2000 B.C. - 1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.

Now, that would be something!!!!

I also wondered about a Middle Earth:Total War, covering some of the stuff from the Semarillion (I know it isn't spelled right) as well as the War of the Ring. I imagine aquireing the rights to that would be hell.

[Breeze]

I agree with most posts no guns!! it has to stay in a time period where they dont have them I'd like to see it as mod friendly as possible to add as many mods to it as u like, I'd also like to see more religion and political penalties. I dont want to see it going the way of magic with special abilities at all. however I would love to see more movement keys where we could rehearse flanking in the heat of battle just have certain units bbreak away for a deeper flank thing sof that nature Id also like to see unit production continue even as you are under seige

[SomeNick]

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.

I want this. As those of you who are familiar in any way with my posts would probably know anyway.

I think a pre RTW period game would be good too.

Couldn't be bothered remembering other features I'd like at the moment but I do know that if they made MTWII and STWII and maybe some Napoleonic TW game they would sell just as well or even better than all the others. The mods are there or nearly there to show how popular these eras would be afterall.

[Upxl]

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?

Must say I like it.

My opinion is that they should keep the melee approach.
To heavy guns could really ruin the game.

I wouldn't mind to see a remake of RTW
If the AI on campaign /battle map improves greatly.
With more realistic (world)diplomacy

[matteus the inbred]

Colonial Total War? sounds good, until someone develops Gatling Guns...

Chinese Warring States is a fascinating period with lots of wacky units like scythed chariots and guys with enormous spiky dagger-axes, plus many interesting and often highly genocidal experiments with gunpowder rather later on (9th century?)

i have a number of DBM wargames army lists describing Chinese armies of the period if anyone ambitious fancied 'modding' it...

[RemusAvenged]

China's Warring States Time Period
MesoAmerican (Aztec, Mayan et al)
India or SE Asia

[The Darkhorn]

China's Warring States Time Period
MesoAmerican (Aztec, Mayan et al)
India or SE Asia

Yeah, one based on India is an underdone idea. It would actually be quite interesting. AH once had a boardgame called MAHARAJA, which was very, very similar to it's BRITANNIA game. Both were excellent, and while VI British campaign reminds me of the latter, a version or mod of the former would be great too. But, I wonder if you would bring it all the way up to the times with colonial powers and their "factories" like the MAHARAJA board game did?

[scooter_the_shooter]

I'd like to see a colonial tw; spanning from the spannish and aztecs to the American revoloution.

[Breeze]

I'd like to see the older MTW made with the RTW engine where you could utilize the cities. And id like to see more difinitive things on the 2D map larger areas for the actual battles where using area's with more trees would be possible. I'd like toi see the batttles be more dynamic where cities burned and troops were affected by this, Id like to see traps in the fields or in the cities as you entered traps within a city,, I'd like to see moats with Crocs!! and Id like to see the ability to burn a field by creating traps within it as well. These items and things may need conditional factors for them to be employed correctly but they sure would be nice

[Maedhros]

Middle Earth or Silmarillion aren't options. That was apparently explored but one of their developers in another post indicated somebody with deep pockets had bought the rights.

Which is sad because the War of the Rings games on the market now don't do Tolkiens world justice. They look like every other lame real time game. This is the best engine for any strategy game.

It could still be cool if they could get the rights to the big war near the end of the second age, or the contest between Arthdain (and Cardolan, Rhudaur) vs. Angmar.

Anything from the Silmarillion would be spectacular, since the scale was so much bigger.

these are unlikely so an early part of the warring states period would be good. That would also give us a break from Europe and make a return to Greece or Assyria later seem fresher in a future game.

[Duke John]

I trust CA that they will come up with an interesting period and the game is moddable, so all I would like to see is a decent AI, that has been given the priority it deserves in a strategy/tactical game.

[Martok]

Middle Earth or Silmarillion aren't options. That was apparently explored but one of their developers in another post indicated somebody with deep pockets had bought the rights.

That would be EA. In addition to Jackson's movies, they've now also secured the rights to all of Tolkien's published works. This is what allows them to focus the sequel to Battle for Middle-Earth on the War of the Ring's "northern theatre" (elves, dwarves, Dol Goldur, etc.).

Which is sad because the War of the Rings games on the market now don't do Tolkiens world justice. They look like every other lame real time game. This is the best engine for any strategy game.

It could still be cool if they could get the rights to the big war near the end of the second age, or the contest between Arthdain (and Cardolan, Rhudaur) vs. Angmar.

Anything from the Silmarillion would be spectacular, since the scale was so much bigger.

these are unlikely so an early part of the warring states period would be good. That would also give us a break from Europe and make a return to Greece or Assyria later seem fresher in a future game.

I agree that the next TW game should either be in a fantasy setting or based during China's Warring Sates period--and that the next game after that should be something like Bronze Age: Total War, focusing on the Greeks, Persians, etc.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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.

.
Great ideas. May I add true siege equipments and wall towers, which wn't operate unless you really man them and won't magically change sides simply walking a unit thrugh them. And of course the very existence of the I in AI.
.

[Rilder]

How about a sort of

"Dawn of Man: Total War"

Were each "tribe" starts out as a small villiage and the biggest armies starting out are small hunting parties with like 60 men max... maby add an "ages" system that allows you the progress thru the ages from warring tribes to mighty cilvizations

Also you should be able to "found" settlements and when it starts there should be very little like 20 settlements in all, maby 30 each held by a different faction

also throw in an in deth tech tree that makes the decisions you chose that make your culture.. you could start out as a tribe and work your way up to greek, eastern and all the different cultures neer the beginning of RTW

immagine working your way up from a tribe and turning into a greek culture and trying to follow the steps of alexander

[Maedhros]

Civ Building is great, but that game works best in Civilization and a couple other games. The primary focus of this series is the battles, and the lead up to them. It is about the fighting and warring. Not strictly the building of the culture.

Culture, and city management are factors but they take a second seat.

As much as I love to build, I don't think it is the best focus for this particular series of games. It would mean reinventing the game, and potentially losing its essence.

There is also the number of games already focusing there and the amount of money behind them.
=======================================
Early warring states or a unique fantasy game. Perhaps a fantasy game can be spun into a movie later.....for extra dev bucks. Restore some credibility and quality to game based movies.

Oh, and detailed naval battles. Similar to the land fights in scale and visual effect.....

Please

[Martok]

Civ Building is great, but that game works best in Civilization and a couple other games. The primary focus of this series is the battles, and the lead up to them. It is about the fighting and warring. Not strictly the building of the culture.

Culture, and city management are factors but they take a second seat.

As much as I love to build, I don't think it is the best focus for this particular series of games. It would mean reinventing the game, and potentially losing its essence.

There is also the number of games already focusing there and the amount of money behind them.
=======================================
Early warring states or a unique fantasy game. Perhaps a fantasy game can be spun into a movie later.....for extra dev bucks. Restore some credibility and quality to game based movies.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Oh, and detailed naval battles. Similar to the land fights in scale and visual effect.....

Please

I agree this would be a great feature. Even more than that, however, I fervently hope that CA finally adds something long wished-for among TW fans: a multiplayer campaign. Nothing like pitting one's empires against each other (in addition to your armies)!

[Random_butter]

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

I like to see something set in the Ersian Wars aswell. Maybe something like MTW where you had different eras in the Middle Ages. So we could have Trojan wars(Bronze Age) then Dark Ages and then Golden AGe with all the city states.

But something in Greece during the Persian Wars would be great, since i am just after finishing Tom Holland's Persian Fire and it really got me interested in the whole Persina War.

[Majikos]

Isralite: Total War would be cool. It could have all the features from BI. It would be amazing playing the Isralites as a horde looking for the promise land. Factions would include Isralites, Canaanites, Moabites, Hittiesand Egyptians. There could be settlements like Jericho and Sodom & Gomorrah. Religion would range from Judaism to the semite gods like Baal and Ishtar.
(did i spell Isralite right?? No offense to anyone intended if i did!)

[Helgi]

But what I really would like to play: the whole ancient times, with all of Eurasia, and North Africa, from the first great cultures to the dark ages, Arthur's times, perhaps. 2000 B.C. - 1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.

This would be great, but set it up with the RTW engine and break it into chapters like in MTW

[Kickius Buttius]

As many people have said already, I would love to see Tolkein translated into the TW engine. It is a shame that this cannot be so.

Ancient China or something along those lines is, I think, the way to go. I would also be very excited about the Greek city states, although such a game might bear too much of a resemblance to Rome for the taste of the marketing department.

Alternately, it might be interesting to see the scale reduced in campaign terms while maintaining the size of the battles. In other words, a campaign map that focuses upon a smaller area (say, Greece and the near coast of Turkey) in greater detail. This scale would allow more terrain details on the campaign level, in turn allowing greater manuevering in order to ensure that your forces start in optimum position on the battle map.

It is absolutely essential that naval battles be able to be controlled as land battles are. Autoresolving is a mess!

[Hannibal Barca]

Han Total War anyone? Dating from pre-Han (building said empire) and post-Han (Three Kingdoms) and everything inbetween.

A remake of Shogun Total War with RTW engine and graphics would be nice, or a campaign with all of the orient (China, Japan, Mongolia, etc.)

Or, Mongolia Total War, beginning with Genghis Khans expansion of the largest empire in exsistence, or as the nations trying to get in Mongolia's way/trying to forge their own worldwide empire.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Some interesting ideas. This thread is from the Total War forums. Its their general debate as to what the next Total War should be based upon (need to read it myself ). Thought you might wish to know other suggestions / mods / ideas etc from other TW'ers

[WhiteProphecy]

more different spartan units

or change how they look please!!! not just in red robes!!
and you can make a new unit, but not where its goddish attack and defence, you have to pay for how much training (attack & deffence) the new unit you make has.
um

i game like Spartan Total Warrior, but with up to atleast 2 player campaign

[Dimeola]

I would dearly love to see a new version of STW...with a huge map...turns for smaller time period......maybe a TW developers/modders kit included. Would love to see a fantasy setting like Hyboria....just dont think it would sell well enough.
dim

[Reidy]

1) Renaissance : Total War - 1453 to 1745
Expansion: Napoleonic Invasion 1790 to 1816

OR

2) Empire : Total War with several different campaigns - one for the americas, one for africa and one for asia (and maybe europe)
Expansion: Nationalist Invasion (american war of independance).

[boastj]

World total war
with every type of unit you can think of

[boastj]

and villages in provinces

[rvg]

I want TW4 to be the revisited MTW with better graphics, and more advances economy and tactical battles.

[Mangudai]

A lot of my ideas have already been said. I agree with most of Conquerer's suggestions. The thing I would like to see improved the most are your options on the campaign map. Presently the only viable strategy is to besiege cities. I'd like raiding to be a profitable activity.

For example, I think you should be able to click on any army on the field and options would pop up. Forage area, Pillage area, etc. Using these options would cost some movement points, but your army wouldn't have to sit completely still.

The game already models the fertility of map squares, and models devestation reasonably well. What I want to see is the attacker make some money. For example you get a pop up saying "Your forces have stolen 192 denarii worth of cattle", or "Your forces have caputured a trade caravan worth 264 denarii", and so on.

Also 90% of the population in a region should live outside the city, so raiders could exterminate some or capture some slaves without occupying the region.

Also attackers should have the ability to "blockade" a mine and confiscate the revenue from it.

I'd love for it to be worthwhile to send small bands into enemy territory, or have a large stack of invaders spread out and sweep the country. At present its more efficient to just have one big stack go besiege the city ASAP.

It looks like CA started to include supply and logistics but gave up on it mid-development. It would be nice to have these aspects in the game. But, there is a lot to be said for keeping the economy simple and based entirely on one cash standard. If we had to micro-manage livestock, the game might not be as fun.