Desired Features, old and new

[Servius]

I don't know if we've already had a thread like this, but I know there's not a stickied one, so without further ado, please list gameplay features you would like to see in MTW2. Suggest old favorites from the past that got nixed somewhere along the line, or ones you wish had always been there. Lets try to keep it possitive. No need for bashing here, just what you'd like to see. Short and sweet. Here are some of my desires:

A morale meter on the unit card
A fatigue meter on the unit card
A battle-map speed slidebar
A hotkey that allows you to change unit facing with one click (+ the hotkey)
Different battlefield terrain types that affect different units in different ways
Morale penalty effects for packing too many units in a small space
Morale penalty effects for assigning units too many orders in a given period of time
Morale penalty effects for taking missile fire
Moreale boosting effect when the commander is nearby (visual aura)
Defense bonuses for spear-units based on rank depth
Individual range calculations for each shooter in a missile unit
Range (and maybe damage) boosting effects when shooting downhill
Charge speed boosting effect when charging downhill (all unit types)
Allow all units to use the Wedge formation
Allow provincial governorships to be granted to any unit (title-system)
Do not deduct construction resources until the unit/building is actually under construction
Allow royal marriages to princesses to increase the liklihood that heirs will have good stats

[Cowhead418]

Some off the top of my head:

Alliances to actually mean something
Mutual protection pacts
The ability to create a multiple-faction alliance
MTW system of owning a province (either you did or you didn't) Entering another province is a declaration of war
More movement points for agents - I don't want to have to wait six years for my diplomat to reach the Scythians to ask for an alliance
Battles in the city streets with rebels
The ability to hold councils with your advisors to discuss political and military strategies
More exploitation of the terrain on the campaign map
More weather effects
Tradeable goods to have a function other than just money-making
A better use for princesses
Individual units that are more able to respond to various situations on the battlefield
The STW-style record of generals though it should not have as much impact on the command as it did in STW
When civil wars occur, the other side you don't choose to back should act as a coordinated group and like another faction, not as a split group of rebels
The awesome atmospheric battlefields of STW
More interesting sieges - more options, ability to go see it on the battlefield
No suicidal or idiotic AI generals who throw their lives away (taken from another thread)
STW-style movies! I loved those!

[Grimmy]

I would like to see a change to tactical battles. When an enemy army routs, you can "release to persue". By that I mean, in order to have a general break of formation and persue the enemy to slaughter them, you issue a "release to persue" command (button) and then give up control of your army as they go forth to slaughter.

Otherwise, the army would have to keep formation and advance in good order, rank and file.

This would add a level of tactical "deciet" and tension. Is the enemy army really breaking and running in rout? or are they baiting you into comming after them so they can rally and turn on your men as they are now out of formation and easier to take apart?

Also, I'd like to see a disciplen effect much like morale that is tested per unit during a fight. If a unit is facing an enemy unit that breaks and routs..will that unit "release to persue" without orders to do so, or even against orders not to do so?

Kinda like the saxon shield wall that was holding back successive waves of norman cavalry and foot charges that finally got baited into breaking ranks and going after the enemy they thought was routing, but then turned on them and ...

I'm thinking it was the Battle of Hastings, but not sure on the name.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

A 'Advance' order for multiple units to adance in formation. (to meet the enemy) It can be done now but it is way too fiddly and you are one mouseclick away from disaster if you get it wrong.

The speech to go on during the deployment phase. I kinda like the speeches but I never listen to them because I tire of waiting for the old codger to finish. If he could do his speech while I'm spending a few minutes placing my troops that would be so much better. Not too much to ask, I hope.

A Grognard mode With the Arcade mode rarely used by most people and it's features accesible by the ordinary options already, and with CA already aiming at the massmarket, how about a mode for us die hard wargamers? Stuff like slowing down the battles, units with combat values according to their historical effectiveness rather then for balancing purposes. Etc. etc.

[Joshwa]

I'd like to see more diplomatic options, off the top of my head

*In GA mode, it should be harder to conquer and hold enemy provinces; there should be a hell of a lot of rebellions, the support cost of troops in that province should be higher, and the previous owner should get 'guerilla' troops to harass the occupiers.
*Vassal kingdoms. If you beat another faction, you can demand they pay you money/provide you with troops. You could also take all their heirs off them as hostages. If they decide to attack after that they'd better make damn sure they win!
*A 'Royal Court' system, where your diplomats follow foreign kings around, instead of you having to hunt them down every time you want to petition.
*The ability to decide which captured units to ransom back, and which to dispose of/cripple. Im thinking of Turkish Horses archers here!
*Being able to move through another factions territory without invading. This could either be because you are so big they don't dare oppose you, or by paying them.
*The option to demand territory/money from a faction when they sue for peace.
*different kinds of alliance. Non-aggression pacts, Trade agreements etc. It would be cool if a whole bunch of factions could group together in one big trading league, for example.
*A different system for battle outcomes; If you massively outnumber the enemy, but they take, say, half of your army with them, that would count as a technical victory for you, and a moral victory for them. Troops who suffer crushing defeats 'remember' this, and will be de-moralised the next time they fight. Conversely, troops on a winning streak will have a morale bonus. 'Hit and run' attacks would also be good, with you sending a few units to harass the enemy, retreating, and it NOT counting as a defeat for you, so long as you kill more of them that they do of you.

[Dutch_guy]

Ok, here are some idea's

-would like to be able to save my better campaign battles in the form of a replay.

-I would like the options of ransoming,killing the ringleaders or mercy back, also I'd want to have the option of killing enemy prisoners at the time when the battle is still in progress ( so you can cripple your enemy even If you might lose the battle )

-a Glorious achievement mode, GA, or an improved version of it - suggestions?

-I'd like to see the historical units or Heroes come back from Medieval Total war.

-To be able to wipe out factions with assassins in the mTW style, however balance it so that it isn't as easy as in Medieval but not as impossible as in Rome.

-Larger battle maps, which have more details on it ( think different sorts of terrain etc. ) and can actually be the difference between losing or winning a battle.

-Better weather effects + the corresponding penalties or bonuses, meaning archers have a decreased effectiveness in the rain, camels get bonuses in a sand storm, decreased sight in fog ( think fog of war ).

-Supply lines, which I incidentally did see in a Rome total war trailer / screenshot.

-Make retraining harder, aka make it take as long as is necessary, so given a unit is 100 men strong it should take longer retraining if it has 20 units than that it should take if it had 90 units.

-You shouldn't be able to load a full stack in just one boat, I'd rather have the Medieval system of naval transportation than the Rome one, which says a lot.

-Make certain strategic positions a priority to defend for the AI, meaning that the AI should cover bridges or mountain passes or built castles / forts in those area's.

-An improved diplomacy system, catholics should have an easier time negotiation with fellow believers than with Orthodox or Muslim factions and Vice-versa.

-Armies should be able to cover more distance in your own province than in enemy provinces ( Stolen from another thread, Thanks )

-Rebels hunting should not take more time than fighting battles against the current enemy super power.

-Civil Wars need to return, period.

-Alliances should be there for a reason, and allies should help each other if one of the factions in that alliance ask for help, also backstabbing or cancelling an alliance at a very very bad time for your ally, should result in a loss of ...prestige or influence , loyalty or something of that kind.

-Make the AI form armies rather than 3 unit border patrol
Meaning it should form stacks rather than forming various little armies.

-AI armies should always be led by a general - that general would NOT have to be a family member.

-Bring back the feature to assign titles to generals, governors, maybe expand that feature - suggestions ?

Well thats all I could think of at the moment.

Will maybe edit this thread of post new brain waves in this thread.

[ivoignob]

A lot of usefull things were said already. Some of them were already part of previous Total War games.
Well I wish those messages back, which informed you if a king of another faction has died. In MTW for example a glorious faction could become very weak as soon as a king with high influence died and the heir was rather weak. You should be able to get informed of such a great incidence without your spies sneaking around as word would spread.

[Trithemius]

A lot of usefull things were said already. Some of them were already part of previous Total War games.
Well I wish those messages back, which informed you if a king of another faction has died. In MTW for example a glorious faction could become very weak as soon as a king with high influence died and the heir was rather weak. You should be able to get informed of such a great incidence without your spies sneaking around as word would spread.

I agree with this.

I'd also like some "assumed diplomacy" to be going on. Even if my bishops and princesses aren't in a given territory, I'd like to think I could hear something about what's going on there. News might have travelled slow, but with turns that last a year or more it should travel a bit! I suppose it could be thought of as a bit of thinning in some parts of the 'fog of war' or something? Having some idea of who controls what from turn to turn seems fairly reasonable?

[Furious Mental]

An undo button so that I don't have to reload a saved game if I accidentally send an army to a place I don't want it to be.

[Powermonger]

I'd like a 'lock formation' function which allows you to set your armies formation and then press 'CTRL + SHIFT + L' and the formation would be temporarily saves. When you move your army and need for them reform up again you can just press 'CTRL + L' and they rearrange themselves as required.

This should've been in when STW was released, hopefully they will correct this in MTW2 finally.

[Servius]

Good point about the Glorious Achievement mode, I forgot about that but really liked it in MTW.

I also wish I could have the abilities of spies from MTW, but without them always getting killed by guard towers, and without them necessarily pissing the people in the province off. In MTW, if you got a spy in foreign land, you sometimes got reports when the AI was going to attack a certain province ahead of time. I thougth that was SO cool. I think spies should have the following missions that you can send them on:

Intelligenc-gathering - The spy does not upset the populace, he just gathers information about army stacks and cities in the province AND reports of faction plans (like future invasion plans)

Civic Disturbance - Spy doesn't provide any intel, but does irritate the public, making them more prone to rebel againt their current faction

Sabotage - Spy can try to destroy certain buildings in a city/castle

Waylay - Spy can try to slow the movement speed of an army stack

Assassinate - Spy can try to kill the head of a unit (doesn't have to be the head of an army stack).

Personally, I would prefer to have one special operations agent (ala Ninja) rather than two (Spy and Assassin).

I'd also like all unit types to have the basic traits like Command, Piety, Loyalty, Acumen, Dread (MTW style). This, combined with the ability to grant governorships and other cool titles (as you could do in MTW) would be really cool I think.

Lastly (for this post) I'd like the birthrates of family members to be independent of all game events again, rather than linking it to the number of provinces.

[SpencerH]

My biggest desire is options. I want to be able to switch from the RTW RTS-style game (which I dont want to play) to a 'realism'-style game with fatigue and morale indicators and where where cavalry can actually run down routed inf units (for example).

[Nelson]

Castles occasionally had moats and drawbridges. If gates can be made to open and close surely a bridge can made that goes up and down. If a nearby water source is available, castles should be able to have moats.

To cross the moat it would need to be filled. If we can have troops dig mines to collapse walls we can have them fill moats in much the same way.

Start digging the moats, CA!

I would also like to receive a message during battle to tell me whenever an important vassal has done something noteworthy, dying for example. Something like “My lord, his Grace the Duke of Argyle has fallen!” or “My liege, the Prince your son flees like a frightened nun!”.

[Nelson]

Duplicate post.

[DensterNY]

A lot of usefull things were said already. Some of them were already part of previous Total War games.
Well I wish those messages back, which informed you if a king of another faction has died. In MTW for example a glorious faction could become very weak as soon as a king with high influence died and the heir was rather weak. You should be able to get informed of such a great incidence without your spies sneaking around as word would spread.

Yeah, that is a great part of MTW having the influence of a nation/empire carried upon the name of its King. Whenever there was a transition in rulers for a nation that I was interested in acquiring I would quickly attack their weakest provinces to create chaos and lack of confidence in their king. After a round of two of this it most likely cause mass rebellions which I'd pick apart.

[Trithemius]

I'd like a 'lock formation' function which allows you to set your armies formation and then press 'CTRL + SHIFT + L' and the formation would be temporarily saves. When you move your army and need for them reform up again you can just press 'CTRL + L' and they rearrange themselves as required.

This should've been in when STW was released, hopefully they will correct this in MTW2 finally.

You can ALT+move to preserve formation in RTW (maybe after a patching, I don't remember if it was in 1.0); or do you mean more control over formations?

It'd be neat to be able to store formations and then have your army enter in column and deploy, but I just like watching that sort of thing... >_>

[Powermonger]

You can ALT+move to preserve formation in RTW (maybe after a patching, I don't remember if it was in 1.0); or do you mean more control over formations?

It'd be neat to be able to store formations and then have your army enter in column and deploy, but I just like watching that sort of thing... >_>

More control over formations really. The ALT+Click is okay but a bit clumsy and is only good for maintaining facing and formation if all units are grouped together. It's not much good though if you move some units out of the formation to pursue a enemy unit but then want the whole army to reform again.

You need some way of temporarily saving a formation so you can instantly reorganise your whole army once a battle begins. You're given the 1-9 group formations, the CTRL+L would be just a custom one of them.

[spmetla]

I'd like additional cities, towns, and villages within each province. They can be attacked and held just as the ones currently in RTW and upgraded but they don't give control of the provice as the "capital would". The Captal I believe would be the centre of trade and commerce of course. This would allow for the situation of "outremer" after the fall of Jerusaleum when Acre was all that was left in palastine of the kingdom of Jerusaleam.

it would allow people to sack more cities and because of the new castle/city desicion making thingy they would be able to have both within a province. Also for the smaller unwalled towns and villages they would be of course prime targets for true raiding.

I'd also like to see actual blood on the battlefield. I realize they want to mass market this game and I'm not requesting exploding heads or limbs spurting blood like fountains, instead I'd at least like to see bloodied weapons and armor and pools of blood around corpses.

City combat needs to be improved units get seperated and mixed up and wont march into certain areas. I'd also like to be able raze certain parts of cities, lets say that the enemy retreats to the town square/citadel and waits for me there I could then have my troops set fire to the buildings I do have control of, thatway I could either tempt the enemy out or abandon the siege but have left the city in ruins.

I'd like to expand and promote certain industries. I saw that in MTW it look as if they were planning to do this but didn't and I'd like to see this explored again. That way I could promote the wine industries of france, the glass industry of venice instead of merely passing those base products off to interior provinces or other ports.

I want the ability to have additional contigents to my armies show up in my battles as well but not as reinforcements but as part of my battle line, that way I could have lets say the infantry under command of so and so the left wing of cavalry by sir so and so while I lead the right wing of cav. The way reinforcements are now doesn't really help me at all because they act as two different armies instead of as one. Would make mulitiple stack invasions better.

When I commit nobles to crusades they should be able to return without having completed their objectevis. Many knights abandoned the siege of antioch (some founded the principality of edessa) others went home. Richard the Lionheart didn't take Jerusaleum but went home.

I'd also like marriages to mean more. If I had princess X marry so and so of Germany and that general happened to rebel then I could go to war a bit more legitatmetly and hopefully not get excommunicated.

I'll think of more...

[Furious Mental]

If possible I would get rid of provinces altogether and simply have dynamic national boundaries that function in a manner similar to those in Civ and Rise of Nations. Almost certainly impossible, however.

[spmetla]

I'd also like agents to be able to sabatoge seige equipment and also for the building of siege equipment to require nearby woods or a nearby port. I'd like catapults and onagers to be built as siege equipment. I don't believe that they were used as actual artillery for regular field battles all too often.

As others have mentioned I'd like to see supply lines. It'd allow scorched earth tactics (maybe a build option for a general) and perhaps units such as light cavalry and infantry would get bonuses for foraging and be able to acquire food better (bit goofy but it could work).

I'd like to be able to demolish enemy watchtowers. I want farms to appear on the strategic map so I can go and burn their crops in the summer to ruin their income.

I want ports to be able to function more like cities so that they can be siezed and attacked as well as upgraded with walls. \

I'd like to push ladders off my walls.

I'd like to be able to function sort of as a pirate by being able to steal from caravans and shiplines that I block with my armies and ships.

I'd like to see hostages for agents and family memebers that get captured so I could pay randsom for them. I'd also like to be able to have my family members act as diplomats as well.

I want the transport of troops over sea to require a certain number of ships to transport more troops. A single bireme cant transport a whole army (althoughI guess it could over a 6 month period).

I want cav to be able to dismount. Before battles would be fine.

I'd like to be able to try and build ramparts up to smaller walls (common tactic for smaller towns.

Wooden walls should also be able to hold troops on the wall and have ladders brought against them.

I'd want the crusading orders to appear independtly as sort of friendly rebels/allies in a sense, able to build their own forts/castles.

Battle maps to vary in size according to the size of the forces.

An option to turn the radar off along with scout cavalry (lightly armed and armored fast).

And of course a smart AI on the battlefield and strategic map. No more hmm everyone else in my army died at the gates but I feel my general will do better Charge!

[Ulysses]

WANTED:

-a MUCH MORE challenging campmap-AI, which I can edit for myself(this was the weakest point in the vanilla game, my four-year-old son and my granny could always win this game...)

-same for the battle AI, which was almost "OK" in the original game

-better control system, maybe like in RON: left mouse-choose a unit; middle mouse-choose all units of same type; right mouse-send unit to; right mouse drag-give direction for target spot; right mouse drag+wheel; change formations depth; right mouse drag+left clicks-change formations..., and a better zoom out

-better scripting language for formations, where every unittype is known correctly by the engine(in vanilla MTW the engine couldn't distinguish between artillery and missile-units or between extraheavy-inf. and rus-spears...)

-a economic, techn., diplomatic and rel. campmap-system which is worth it's name, maybe a little like in CIV, but with resources and more complex structures for different strats

-many different types of agents, but only 1-3 of each of them

-much heavier sieges, where siege-equipment is needed, and with heavy losses for the attacker

-an editor for scripting and modding almost every aspect of the game

-an improved system for character-creation, only real actions of the player should influence the general's characters, more rebellions as consequences of bad ruling

-more turns in the game, more epic character

-the devastating atmosphere of the original MTW

[Servius]

Man, having mod tools come with the game would be so cool. Ooo ooo, I just thought of something:

Factional traits (i.e. Culture). You know how your king and heirs can gain vices or virtues through their actions, but they eventually die, and maybe only some remnant of certain behaviors lives on in their heirs. Well what if each faction (basically, you) had a "culture" that developed vices and virtues over time, based on the decisions you (the player) made. These characteristics would carry on throughout the length of your campaign; they would not die with your current king. You could change them over time if you got vices you didn't like, but it should take as long to undo a vice as it took to get that vice. Now I think that would be pretty badass.

[cannon_fodder]

An undo button so that I don't have to reload a saved game if I accidentally send an army to a place I don't want it to be.

x2

Absolutely no reason why such a simple and necessary feature shouldn't be present. The only thing that can happen is the army is ambushed, right? And you could easily load your game after this event anyway, exploiting the system.

I think campaign map turns should be taken simultaneously, as it is a better reflection of real life. From what I've heard, 2 armies in ancient and medieval times could maneuver near each other for long periods, each trying to gain an advantageous position. So, essentially, they would only actually engage each other when each side thought they could win the battle. This would help with the whole "small number of decisive battles" thing, and solve our accidental move woes.

Coupled with setting states or behaviours to campaign map units, so much more would be possible. For example, you could set a unit to "engage at will", "avoid engagement", "retreat upon contact" (for scouts, etc.). Also, with the AI making decisions on a smaller scale than before, there would be a greater impression of a chain of command, which is mostly absent at present.

[Ulysses]

Man, having mod tools come with the game would be so cool. Ooo ooo, I just thought of something:

Factional traits (i.e. Culture).

This was something I wanted to realize in one of my mods, but I despaired on the weak campmap-AI, what makes me shutdown all my modding-projects...

You know how your king and heirs can gain vices or virtues through their actions, but they eventually die, and maybe only some remnant of certain behaviors lives on in their heirs. Well what if each faction (basically, you) had a "culture" that developed vices and virtues over time, based on the decisions you (the player) made. These characteristics would carry on throughout the length of your campaign; they would not die with your current king. You could change them over time if you got vices you didn't like, but it should take as long to undo a vice as it took to get that vice. Now I think that would be pretty badass.

Nice ideas, but I would resolve it more individually: Generals would gain military traits, while gouvernors would gain the acumen maybe piety stuff. Or you could bring totally new traits like strength , intelligence into play. I would have thousands of suggestions for this part of the game...

[DensterNY]

One definite improvement that I would like to see is in sieges... Although I wholeheartedly loved MTW the sieges were pretty bad which wasn't a problem as you fought 95% of the time in the field.

In Rome, we had much more elaborate sieges but you had to fight them all the time which proved to be a long and tedious process. One primary reason was because you'd get stuck on walls fighting enemies who are supposed to be running for their lives but still standing there fighting it out with you to the death. I've had peasants holding off heavy infantry for 5-10 minutes simply because fighting on the walls meant only a few people could engage at the same time.

[Louis VI the Fat]

A naval battle engine.


Also this:

I'd like a 'lock formation' function which allows you to set your armies formation and then press 'CTRL + SHIFT + L' and the formation would be temporarily saves. When you move your army and need for them reform up again you can just press 'CTRL + L' and they rearrange themselves as required.

[Kraxis]

An easier way to turn the entire army.

, and . simply doesn't work very well or fast. The old system for that was simple and easy to use.

[mfberg]

A unit upgrade system to retrain units into the next unit up the scale. for example train spearmen once up to Feudal Sgts, then up to Chivalric Sgts and finally up to Pikes or Gothic Sgts.

Ransoms

A tournament system to allow your units to fight with and against other factions units and your own units, less killing, but the same VnV effects.

They need to make it easier for a non-player faction to make enough money to survive, including deleting units, and trade/smuggling deals with other countries and rebel countries.

mfberg

[Kraxis]

A unit upgrade system to retrain units into the next unit up the scale. for example train spearmen once up to Feudal Sgts, then up to Chivalric Sgts and finally up to Pikes or Gothic Sgts.

I would just prefer that upgrades are retained as per the amount of men in the unit. Meaning no more 2 silver chevron units retrained from 5 survivors to a full unit without a dilution of the experience.

[DensterNY]

Playing football with some friends the other day, which in essence is related to a traditional battlefield, I thought of some features that I'd love to see incorporated into the new Total War games.

Allow units to fight at different tempos as opposed to just having charge or engage. My idea is that in battle commanders can direct their men to press harder which should improve their attack values, perhaps lower defense value a little and also cause a little more fatigue. Units could also be directed to fight more defensively which would mean less killing but would be effective in holding an enemy.

Second, allow minute adjustments to your formations. For instance, allow me to select a unit then have them move forward a meter or backwards a meter or perhaps turn inward 15 degrees while keeping formation. Right now making even the smallest adjustment often means breaking formation and perhaps giving a flank to an enemy even if you just wanted to turn slightly. However, if you could control your formations more precisely then you could pull off magnificent manuevers like Hannibal used.