How would CA being more open about their Development be a negative?

**Puzz3D** · 06-20-2005, 18:12

Originally Posted by Spartiate

@ IceTorque

If this is true then they will get my money

"The built-in AI is a multilevel system capable of imitating behavioral models of a human player as well as modeling behavioral stereotypes of known military leaders. Its implementation is based on organic synthesis of modified fuzzy logic systems, a wide range of optimization methods and criterion functions, based on the foundation of centuries of military history. "

Sounds like the AI that RTW is missing.

CA has left the door open for a competitor to come in and grab their former core market. Before STW was released, CA claimed that they would have a "learning" AI in the game, and that the turn based part of the game had simultaneous turns. Neither of these things turned out to be true, and as players eventually discovered. Now it's 5 years later and the game still doesn't have these features. In addition, problems such as suicide generals, which was eventually corrected in the first engine, are back in RTW. Both realism and historical accuracy have also declined, and the game no longer saves the full game state in a savegame file. How can a strategy game not save the entire gamestate and claim to be a serious game? This savegame issue is something else that players had to uncover for themselves. Total war gameplay has gone backwards while competitors gain ground on making a similar game. Of course, a competitor is going to have to be really skilled to develop such a complex game and have it all work correctly in the timeframe that games are usually developed these days. Even CA missed the original release date of STW by something like 18 months.

**Colovion** · 06-20-2005, 20:26

come buy our game

"Total War: Lowest Common Denominator"

**HarunTaiwan** · 06-22-2005, 12:26

Ignore your core customers at your own risk.

**BrutalDictatorship** · 06-22-2005, 21:21

until CA addresses the loadgame/seige bug I do not consider their public relations "improving"...

sorry, i simply will not be manipulated into forgetting about this gamebreaking issue.

until this is fixed, the game is not working as intended....

this is not something that can just be looked over...

**Old Celt** · 06-22-2005, 21:45

Originally Posted by BrutalDictatorship

until CA addresses the loadgame/seige bug I do not consider their public relations "improving"...

sorry, i simply will not be manipulated into forgetting about this gamebreaking issue.

until this is fixed, the game is not working as intended....

this is not something that can just be looked over...

Ho ho! But it CAN be overlooked! I'm thinking that it WILL be overlooked because fixing it will be an admission that the problem exists, and AFAIK, no official CA staff member has even acknowledged save / load as an actual bug! I don't think you were around for the whole controversy when it was most heated, but things got so bad there were bannings and thread locking and deletions on certain sites just for the mere mention of the "issue". Eventually, most of the complainants (who were always labeled as whiners) were driven off by the fanboys and big stick mods. Talk of save / load was pretty much halted here too. Mark my words that it will be halted again if you talk about it too much because it upsets the devs and then they tell whatever site management they won't post there anymore unless they quell the dissent. Faced with that choice, the "whining" forum members are expendable.

If there really was any concern over the strategy element of the game, a hot patch would have been an easy decision: DO IT!!! But the needs/wants of the few were never enough to change a thing. The only thing that will change it, is the amount of sales made.

**BrutalDictatorship** · 06-22-2005, 21:57

well...I was around months ago for the big controversy and the problem has still not been addressed.

Point is, until this problem is fixed, big stick mods everywhere can expect to continue dealing with massive amounts of "whiners".

**Colovion** · 06-22-2005, 21:59

this thread isn't about the save/load bug

but if you want - you can discuss the reason for CA being harshly anal retentive about discussing it in an open manner with those who notice such problems

**Gregoshi** · 06-23-2005, 02:58

Originally Posted by Old Celt

Talk of save / load was pretty much halted here too. Mark my words that it will be halted again if you talk about it too much because it upsets the devs and then they tell whatever site management they won't post there anymore unless they quell the dissent. Faced with that choice, the "whining" forum members are expendable.

Not quite. The decision was ours alone. The reason? Too many threads discussing the same issue with the same set of "whiners" repeatedly saying the same things over and over. It gets tiresome, it drowns out all other discussion, and creates a general foul mood in the forum due to this last point: many of those "whiner" posts were disrespectful rants that violated forum rules on multiple counts. Constructive discussion of the issue was never a problem.

**Papewaio** · 06-23-2005, 03:09

Join the dots by answering the questions.

10 points for the first person who explains what the acronym NDA stands for.

20 points for the first person who gives the legal meaning for it and the penalties that are standard for breaking it (slight clue here

)

30 points for the first person who can explain an NDA in layman terms.

In this case the GOLDEN RULE of commerce applies:
He who holds the gold, makes the rules.

20 Bonus points: So guys who holds the gold? The developers or the publishers.