Medieval II: Total War Official Thread

[cunobelinus]

will this be running on a 32 bit system or 64 bit and is it ganna be along time till realease.

[scotchedpommes]

Charge assassins to wipe out enemy generals and witness their cold-hearted killing first-hand with assassination movie sequences.

Nice feature of Shogun being brought back.

[Craterus]

I think I will need a new computer, but I doubt I'll get one unless I pay for it myself.

Looks great though and although I've never really enjoyed the Medieval era, I think this will be the incentive for me to get into it and learn.

[Moinllieon]

Nice feature of Shogun being brought back.

Depends on how they handled it. More often than not, I just got tired of watching those movies and turned them all off. Hopefully they did a better job of implementing those.

[Grey_Fox]

From an IGN interview:

IGNPC: What civilizations will be represented? What are some of the defining abilities and units of some of your favorite civilizations? Any cool historical battles to take advantage of these civilizations?

Bob Smith:There will be 21 playable factions for custom battle and multiplayer. England, France, Scotland, Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Milan, Venice, Papal States, Sicily, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Byzantium, The Turks, Egypt, The Moors, The Mongols, The Tumurids, The Aztecs.

We've included several factions that weren't included in the original Medieval; examples being Scotland, Venice and Portugal.

The final lineup of playable factions is still to be decided, however there will be a rich variety of factions to play, each with their own unique units and abilities that add a great deal of variation to the grand campaign experience.

As an example, Scotland start with the English breathing down their necks, so they will have to keep their heads down, bide their time, and seek allies. Scotland's army will be a mixed bag of solid lowland spearmen and fierce but unreliable highlanders. They'll have to work hard diplomatically at the start to avoid being overrun by the English, but if they can become the dominant power in Britain, they have a base to expand and seek wider domination.

[Kraxis]

Depends on how they handled it. More often than not, I just got tired of watching those movies and turned them all off. Hopefully they did a better job of implementing those.

So did I, but when MTW came around I missed them terribly, and of course the throneroom. So I just hope they good... They add just a little bit of atmosphere and that can be important.

I'm not terribly afraid of the specs. MTW didn't demand that much more than STW since it was on the same engine. It is clear that this is a refined and suped-up version of the RTW engine, so I doubt it should be scary.

Winter 2006 (from Sega website)? Now here in Denmark that means early in the year, meaning NOW. So I wonder if we are going to see this in the stores in a few months?

From the pictures I have noticed at least three different helmets of the French footknights and five shields, all jumbled together. Thus it seems there is no predetermined skin but rather a mix of parts. That is good. And think about it... In another shot we can see two men of the same unit, one with an iron helmet and one with a leather helmet. I'm getting positive feelings towards equipment upgrades here... Could be they are now going to be visible?

Also I like that they will parry and be more alive. While RTW had something of an early version of this, it was not good, and in fact only made it look somewhat odd.

Btw, have anyone noticed that the Militia Sergeants have returned in one of the shots.

Screen of officer/general...
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/800/80...g_3334170.html

Very intersting tidbit from the interview.

Priests can be used to spread your religion in their surrounding areas. However, they may turn heretic, in which case they fall under AI control and spread heresy instead, undermining the established religion. If you are deemed to have a problem with heresy in your lands, the Pope may send out an Inquisitor to deal with the situation. As well as reducing heresy, these characters may also denounce nearby characters, and have them tried and executed. Senior Catholic priests can become Cardinals, giving the player influence in the Papacy, and they can even get elected Pope, improving their original faction's standing with the Papal States.

[scotchedpommes]

From the pictures I have noticed at least three different helmets of the French footknights and five shields, all jumbled together. Thus it seems there is no predetermined skin but rather a mix of parts. That is good. And think about it... In another shot we can see two men of the same unit, one with an iron helmet and one with a leather helmet. I'm getting positive feelings towards equipment upgrades here... Could be they are now going to be visible?

Also I like that they will parry and be more alive. While RTW had something of an early version of this, it was not good, and in fact only made it look somewhat odd.

Am still inclined to be sceptical about this, because originally RTW was shown to
have a more advanced version.

You can see in these:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

[TB666]

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Those weren't suppose to be in-game shoots.
They were most likely gonna be used as a intro movie or something.
These however are suppose to be in-game.

[ajaxfetish]

Wow.









That looks amazing. I've got zero complaints about going back to my favorite historical period except that I might not be playing for a couple years (gotta save up for a new machine).

hmmm . . . a few observations

--The differentiation of the units looks fantastic, especially the unique-looking officer, not to mention the beauty of the scenery and buildings and everything else.

--From the IGN interview: weapon and armour upgrades will be visible on your troops=supercool.

--The 21 playable factions (nothing to say there aren't other nonplayable ones as well!) are for the multiplayer system. They haven't finalized the factions for the campaign game. However, of those listed for multiplayer, they cover all playable factions in the original game (with the exception of the Aragonese who were only playable after the expansion), and they include some that were unplayable (Mongols and Pope), Some that were only available in expansions (Scotland, Portugal, and a 2nd Italian faction were in XL, not sure about Supermod and Medmod's extra factions), and the Tumurids and Aztecs, completely new as far as I know.

Possible gripes (of course the AI, diplomacy, etc. are much more important than either of these but I haven't heard enough yet to comment)

--In the trebuchet pictures, what's keeping the rocks in those slings as they're fired? Shouldn't the other end of the rope still be attached to the end of the throwing arm??

--Swordsmen performing spin moves to finish their enemies sounds a lot more like Hollywood than medieval combat. grrr.

Ajax

[Adrian II]

Despite sharing some peoples' questions or doubts about specs, the AI, battle speed, diplomacy ectetera, I must say some of the announced features are enough to make my mouth water.

Hurling dead animals into cities, now there's a thought for the weekend.

And the new, 'historically correct' option to have your Priest become Cardinal or even Pope, thus enhancing your faction's power and standing, is in one word: brilliant.

[Kraxis]

Am still inclined to be sceptical about this, because originally RTW was shown to
have a more advanced version.

You can see in these:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

As TB666 said...

The shots are from a promotional video, I believe an online version for when Rome had no real ingame movies. They quickly came and presented the game in the proper fashion with hardly a change. Those shots are not intended to give an impression of how the game would look.

There were no non-clone ingame shots of Rome...

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Did anyone else read the part in the IGN interview about setting up puppet popes?

I'm going to go on an excom frenzy, exorcise those papacy demons from MTW.

[CrownOfSwords]

Yes i remember that also... I was really bummed out that arrows didnt stick in the guys I thought that would be an awesome feature hopefully they will implement that into this game. These screenshots appear more to be taken from the game and not from a promotional video, I think they know their mistake lasttime which pissed alot of us off. I love the individual characters! What Ive always wanted out of this game. The blood thing is pretty cool to same with dirt, possibly in the rain they will get all muddy and it will be gruesome ha. It would nice to see weapons get bloodied also. I really hope that it is true also to be able to build castles, and upgrade them too hopefully. But i guess my dream still cant be completed unless some modder takes it onto himself once the game is released to be able to march my armies to china and do battle there. Im not sure about the whole America thing, the Aztecs were terrified of the Spaniards at first by never seeing horses and believing them gods, which may be the only real reason the Spaniards stood a chance in the battle. Also id like to see SHIP BATTLES!!! if we ever get them.. great though this has made my day. -CoS

[scotchedpommes]

As TB666 said...

The shots are from a promotional video, I believe an online version for when Rome had no real ingame movies. They quickly came and presented the game in the proper fashion with hardly a change. Those shots are not intended to give an impression of how the game would look.

There were no non-clone ingame shots of Rome...

[Took those shots from the video included on the VI disc. Even despite the
differences, it does appear similar to the game engine, enough so for me to
think it was an early engine, as opposed to simply being a rendered sequence.]

In any case, I doubt my current system will be capable of handling this new
game. Have enough problems running RTW as it is.