Who thinks this could work and would be a good idea?

[Just A Girl]

Ok as MTW 2 is coming.
i was thinking of New aspects that could have been implimented.

And the bigest improvement i could wish for "apart from AI" Would be A MP campaign mode.

A campaign would need 2 players in the begining before you start.
And then the game would begin much the same way.
With all but the 2 players controlled by the AI.

the Map would be real time,
With 1 year lasting aproximatly 4-6 mins. (adequate time for most to compleate the essentials)

Movement would be regulated much like RTW, with specific movment rates.

Battles would need to be accosiated with the real time in the Campaign map.
and as such the campaing map will not progress 1 year whilst a battle is underway.

Now lets say some 1 els wishes to Join, your game whilst you are already there.
I beleve this would be possible.
And the new player should be asigned one of the AI controlled armys. And pick up from there.

This new player could then March in to the feild of battle, And Join in "provided he was close enough"
As he would only get to moove 1ce as a year will not pass whilst a battle is underway.

I beleve this would make an EXELENT mp campain.
And hope that its Possible,
I also hope that CA May read this post,
And think about Implimenting such a campaign For MTW 2 Or prehaps its expantion.

I really think its a good Idea.

Hope more agree

[Reenk Roink]

It's a good idea, but the only thing is, wouldn't that be so long? I mean those games would last forever, and what if someone needs to leave.?

Ah well, for people who can devote enough time to a good sitting, it would be great. Probably not me though, I get yelled at when I stay on the computer for 20 minutes.

... ... ... ... ...

[Just A Girl]

Well Its much the same In ACES high.
Wher an on going war. well just keeps on going...

People leave and then when they come back they notice they dont own that base any more.
you could also have it Clan based.
Where the 1st time you join a game You are named the king of those people,
then as the room fills up there could be dosens of people playing as the same people.
And with out the abilaty to change Unless you extrodite them. Thus providing you with Loyal followers,
Extroditing people would make them become A rebel faction that has to aly itself with one of the other clans "As it were"
within a specified number of years.

This Mp campaign could be hosted on a specific server and have only 1 or 2 servers of its kind.

thus ensuring that there will always be a steady suply of people in the game Fighting for there clan.
This would allow people to come and go as they please.

Happy in the knowlage that theres some 1 there.

I beleve that could work.

And as for how long the game would last...

I really dont think it would end

[Yun Dog]

what would the other players be doing, while one of the players has a battle? against the AI

waiting....

how long can battles take.... 1/2 an hour or so with set up


I would get bored waiting that long.... what if one player had several battles in a row and the other player none



I think this is the fatal flau of the MP campaign

what the solution :all battles would have to be autoresolved

its the only one I can think of

[Just A Girl]

Battles could be delayed untill the end of the year.
the begining of the new year the battle would start.
Allowing people who are not in battle to try and micromanage there lands There would be NO AI help whatsoever.
given the 4-6 mins year time,
the aditional time provided when others are in battle could prove invaluable to a well maintained country/province(S)

On the other hand.
this time could also be used to march men in to battles that have already begun.

and messages of diplomacy could be issued Only if there is a battle in progress.
Thus eliviating the boredom, by making the people who arent in battle, need to think about what to do next.

Time limits could also be imposed on the attackers in any given battle.
thus allowing people to know precicley how long they could be waiting for at the most.

combining all this should eliviate if not remove the boredome,
And allow people to actualy do Every thing they need to even in a situation where the years roll on regardless of what you have managed to acomplish.

its also a bit realistic that you have more time to concentrate on your own problems When 2 of your enemys are fighting.

[Yun Dog]

+ you could have the option of watching the battle - lets say if you were allies with the other Human player

ya i thought about the battles resolved at end of turn - so lets say its the end of my turn and I have 6 battles with the AI?

and you have none and its early game so ... how much micro can you do with 2 provinces

and next turn i have another 6

not trying to be mr negative just trying to be devils advocate because Id like to see a mp campaign one day too

edit: this comes from playing HOI2 which has a quite challenging AI by the way,

anyway playing a multiplayer campaign one of my allies was having war after war so he kept stopping time to give orders - fair enough - but I was building up waiting for 1939 which was 2 years away - that 2 years took 2 days of him playing and me staring at the screen - waiting... that really sucked

[Just A Girl]

I agree watching battles would also help eliviate boredome.

But i was thinking more along the lines of...

20 regions, and 20 provinces on each region.

When you 1st start.
You are crowned the king of your Region's clan.
and you take any province you chose from that region.
the other 19 provinces in the region that your clan owns, would be controlled by the AI. untill more people join.

"each other clan would need 1 member 1st before your clan would gain its second member."

as each new person joins they replace an ai general. and become second in line to the throne.

Any battles the AI has vs the AI would be auto calculated. So no waiting on there part.

You would only be able to controll your general/King's army
So any men you create that arent in your stack would become Under your command But AI controlled.
so any battles they would fight vs ai would be auto calculated.

Given the above conditions. It would be impossible for there to be more than 1 delay per year.
as all the battles could be played at the same time,

And it would also be improbable for any human players to attempt more than 1 battle a year That would not be autocalculated.

Remember
AI vs AI = auto calc,
Human vs human= Battle,
human vs Ai = battle.

it would be unwize for human players to send in there valuable AI controlled units to fight vs a human opponent.
as we all know on avarage in the TW games the AI sux.

so the delay for each year Under this format would be Minimal.

Sonds good yet?

[Yun Dog]

Yep the key fact in that is the controlling one army rule

How would people feel about only controlling one army and how hard would it be to code for partial human control over one regions armies

I put these questions out there to the masses

personally i like the idea - you have your one personal kings army - its full of units you build up and gain experience, perhaps even rename

you use that army to fight the main conlicts and use the others for garrisons etc

perhaps once you gained more provinces/or won more battles you could earn a prince and have 2 armies

but the key is keeping control over the amount of time taken for battles at the end of the turn is guarenteed to be no longer than x minutes

maybe the rule should be each player AI included can have a maximum of 1 battle per year/round?

but then you could still be attacked by a number of AI opponents meaning you would in fact have several battles

[Just A Girl]

Gaining more provinces would be The main aim of the game,

This is where Your AI units would come in usefull.
As you could use them to defend your provinces, And use your army to attack other player's AI controlled armys.
Or even better, A human players stack!

This would still mean that the delay at the begining of a year would only be the length of the longest battle that happend.

You would be able to Moove Your AI controlled units where ever you liked. But you would not controll them in battle.

also you could take units out of the AI controlled stacks and replenish your men with them.
Once in your stack the AI would no longer controll that unit.
and once out of your stack You no longer controll a unit...

So the AI units you make will just stay where they are unless you moove them after making them.
But You wont be able to command them personaly in battle.

Each human player will be able to build these AI stacks.
For defence of a province. for replenishing his own stack, or even for attacks on other Ai controlled provinces.

So its not like you wouldnt be able to comand them to attack a province,
As i said they will be yours to command, but contorlled by the AI.

This i beleve would be The best solution for A MP campaign.

And with modernday technolagy I beleve it is possible.

And with this format there could be 400 players online at any given time.
This may sound like a huge strain on a server,
but in all honesty.
It should not be.


I do hoppe some 1 at CA makes notes of this.
And prehaps even decide to utilize my ideas.
Along with any Good ideas that Have been/ May be added to the psot.

[Yun Dog]

the more i think about it - the more i like it

it would be just like MP is now - currently you only field one army against a human opponent in either 1v1 - 4v4

this would be the same but played out over a huge campaign map

I LIKE IT

[Just A Girl]

Exactly :)

Also loosing a battle would not end the game for you.
mearly force you back to a diferent province.

All 20 of your clans men could be traped on 1 province after a huge attack on al fronts against you.

This would be better than being eliminated from the game if your main province is lost.

And who disnt think it was Plausable.
Or just didnt like it...

you guys have reasons?

[Aetius the Last Roman]

I personally don't think it is plausible.

Just the idea of time constraints sounds a bit aggravating.

Even if there is only one major army, waiting 1/2 an hour to keep playing sounds a bit to much like a test of patience for me.

However all that said, innovation it always good.

[Just A Girl]

I think you havent read all the posts
Aetius the Last Roman.

Although i do that at times so all is forgiven.

[King Yngvar]

I think this is a great idea, however, the years would have to last longer than 4-6 mins, cuz there would always be a battle if the server was filled with people. A year could last a couple of hours for example, allowing you to move across the entire map within that year while not producing much more within that year. This would allow the game to continiue as before while a battle is on. And as I see it, these games would take endless time before being over, so it would be better not to end up conquering Europe with swords in the year 3000.

[Monarch]

Ity's a nice idea, I'm sorry I didn't read your mid thread posts, just the starter. However Total War....Real Time Campaign Map, do those words even go? Well I like your suggestions, however this would require almost a new game in terms of campaign, I think this would onloy work if SP was the same. And I dont think CA will ever stray away from the successful TBS campaigns, RTS battles formula.

[Just A Girl]

The mid posts adress alot of the problesms that may arize from such a system.
So they are as importaint if not more so than the ones that proceded them.

they also adress the time per year and delays others would suffer when battles comence.

I must admit that.
so it would be better not to end up conquering Europe with swords in the year 3000.
is a legitemate point.

but personally id ont mind if the dates arent that clever.

the campaign could also be reset at a predefined date.
and the clan who has higest % of land at that date would win.


To get a good idea of what my sudgetion is You really would need to read the majoraty of the posts.

and as it would be a MP campaign,
it would not affect the SP campaign, which could be played in the usual manner.
and neither would it affect the conventional MP battles.

Prehaps the idea is ahead of its time slightly.

But i hope to see something of this nature implimented some time in the near future.

"goes to play with c++"

[King Yngvar]

the campaign could also be reset at a predefined date.
and the clan who has higest % of land at that date would win

Sounds reasonable... Anyways, I think the chances that CA will go for a multiplayer campaign is slim, MP hasn't really been their priority in the past...

[Mangudai]

What if mp campaigns could be run on an independent server. Players could log in and do one turn per day. Players can log on and off at their convienience. If a player doesn't due his/her turn by a certain deadline, then the AI would play for them.

Play by email format works well for two player turn based games. For more than two players I think something else is needed.