Anyone else a little worried by the interviews?!

[Satyr]

I have not heard one word about gameplay improvements. All I hear is how beautiful the game is now. I am starting to get pretty worried after reading a couple of those with not one word about the AI. Should I be worried or do the Aussies have it all under control?

[screwtype]

They've said they're working hard on both the battle and campaign AI. They've said, IIRC, that they're working to streamline the interface. They've said there'll be more detail and therefore more tactical options on the battlemap. I mean, what would you like them to say?

The only thing I read that bothered me this time around was the phrase "finishing moves". Have they gone right overboard with the animation? I hope not.

Anyhow, we've only had a couple of preliminary interviews so far, I'm sure we'll be learning more about the game as time goes on, and then we'll have a better idea where things are headed.

[Furious Mental]

What they've said regarding "finishing moves" is that if soldier 1 knocks soldier 2 off his feet soldier 1 will plunge his sword/ spear/ axe whatever into soldier 2 to finish him off. This is a perfectly realistic addition and is a big improvement on the hilarious phenomenon in Rome where you would see soldier 1 knocking soldier 2 onto his arse, only for soldier 1 stand there while soldier 2 gets back on his feet and stabs soldier 1 in the gut.

[TB666]

I think the majority of the interviews is actually about new features, like the princesses, assassin videos, the new city/castle system, battle system, The new world conquests, the new merchant unit and mud and blood.

[Watchman]

Marketing talk. Gotta get the low-brow end of potential customers interested, you know.

[Trithemius]

Marketing talk. Gotta get the low-brow end of potential customers interested, you know.

It might be true, but these people pay the same price that you and I pay for the game - even if they don't spend half their waking hours arguing with people about the military history of Sweden or the equipment of lanciarii on these forums. ;)

[Puzz3D]

What they've said regarding "finishing moves" is that if soldier 1 knocks soldier 2 off his feet soldier 1 will plunge his sword/ spear/ axe whatever into soldier 2 to finish him off. This is a perfectly realistic addition and is a big improvement on the hilarious phenomenon in Rome where you would see soldier 1 knocking soldier 2 onto his arse, only for soldier 1 stand there while soldier 2 gets back on his feet and stabs soldier 1 in the gut.

So every knockdown is now a kill? Is MTW2 going to have the hilarious phenomenon where a soldier is invulnerable while he's performing his finishing move?

I want to hear if the AI has stopped making frontal charges it can't win.

I want to hear if archers still prefer to melee rather than shoot.

I want to hear if the AI army fights as a whole instead of piecemeal.

I want to hear if the AI will stop chasing cavalry with slow infantry units that have no chance of catching the cavalry.

I want to know if skirmishers can be used as they were historically out in front of your melee infantry instead of having to be kept behind it.

I want to hear if the AI will protect the flanks of its army.

I want to hear if the AI general has stopped attacking units he shouldn't.

I want to hear if the AI can now manage fatigue properly.

I want ot hear if AI units that engage in city streets will stop the men in the unit who are not actually fighting from constantly running and getting exhauted.

I want to know if the fatigue indicator will be put back on the unit icons.

I want to hear if the main AI army will wait for its reinforcements before attacking.

I want to hear if you are going to have time during battle to coordinate most of your individual units.

I want to know if using a tactical reserve during the battle is going to be viable.

I want to hear how much time is going to be allowed for flanking in hammer and anvil type tactics.

I want to hear how much time is being allowed for a unit to come to the aid of a fighting unit in trouble.

I want to hear if "streamlined interface" means less controllable modes for units.

I want to hear if the delay to orders has been removed.

I want to hear if a speed setting below "normal speed" is going to be offered.

I want to know if attacker and defender will have separate denari settings.

I want to know if the mouseover info in the army purchase screen is going to be fixed so that it displays the correct info for weapon and armor upgrades.

I want to know if any individual units are going to be intentionally overpowered to balance factions in the SP campaign to the detriment of MP gameplay.

I want to know if the men will suddenly go into slow motion when they fight the way they currently do in RTW/BI. This reduces the number of combat cycles which increases the uncertainty in the combat results. We don't need more uncertainty in combat results. The amount of uncertainty in STW with it's 60 man units was about right.

I want to know if battlefield upgrades will be removed from MP. They are detrimental to the gameplay, and were removed in MTW/VI.

I want to know if there will be a 60 man unit size rather than 40 then jumping to 80 for the next setting.

I want to know if artillery is going to stop being so unrealistically accurate.

I want to know if castle battles are actually going to work instead of being buggy as they are in RTW/BI.

I want to know if all the important strategic parameters are going to be saved and reinstated in a save/load cycle.

I want to know if seasonal weather conditions are going to be important in planning attacks as they once were in this series.

I want to hear if the bias favoring the AI in auto-resolve battles has been removed on normal difficulty.

I want to know if you can play historical battles and get anything close to historical results when the historical tactics of that battle are employed.

[Orda Khan]

So every knockdown is now a kill? Is MTW2 going to have the hilarious phenomenon where a soldier is invulnerable while he's performing his finishing move?

I want to hear if the AI has stopped making frontal charges it can't win.

I want to hear if archers still prefer to melee rather than shoot.

I want to hear if the AI army fights as a whole instead of piecemeal.

I want to hear if the AI will stop chasing cavalry with slow infantry units that have no chance of catching the cavalry.

I want to know if skirmishers can be used as they were historically out in front of your melee infantry instead of having to be kept behind it.

I want to hear if the AI will protect the flanks of its army.

I want to hear if the AI general has stopped attacking units he shouldn't.

I want to hear if the AI can now manage fatigue properly.

I want ot hear if AI units that engage in city streets will stop the men in the unit who are not actually fighting from constantly running and getting exhauted.

I want to know if the fatigue indicator will be put back on the unit icons.

I want to hear if the main AI army will wait for its reinforcements before attacking.

I want to hear if you are going to have time during battle to coordinate most of your individual units.

I want to know if using a tactical reserve during the battle is going to be viable.

I want to hear how much time is going to be allowed for flanking in hammer and anvil type tactics.

I want to hear how much time is being allowed for a unit to come to the aid of a fighting unit in trouble.

I want to hear if "streamlined interface" means less controllable modes for units.

I want to hear if the delay to orders has been removed.

I want to hear if a speed setting below "normal speed" is going to be offered.

I want to know if attacker and defender will have separate denari settings.

I want to know if the mouseover info in the army purchase screen is going to be fixed so that it displays the correct info for weapon and armor upgrades.

I want to know if any individual units are going to be intentionally overpowered to balance factions in the SP campaign to the detriment of MP gameplay.

I want to know if the men will suddenly go into slow motion when they fight the way they currently do in RTW/BI. This reduces the number of combat cycles which increases the uncertainty in the combat results. We don't need more uncertainty in combat results. The amount of uncertainty in STW with it's 60 man units was about right.

I want to know if battlefield upgrades will be removed from MP. They are detrimental to the gameplay, and were removed in MTW/VI.

I want to know if there will be a 60 man unit size rather than 40 then jumping to 80 for the next setting.

I want to know if artillery is going to stop being so unrealistically accurate.

I want to know if castle battles are actually going to work instead of being buggy as they are in RTW/BI.

I want to know if all the important strategic parameters are going to be saved and reinstated in a save/load cycle.

I want to know if seasonal weather conditions are going to be important in planning attacks as they once were in this series.

I want to hear if the bias favoring the AI in auto-resolve battles has been removed on normal difficulty.

I want to know if you can play historical battles and get anything close to historical results when the historical tactics of that battle are employed.

Do you honestly expect answers to all these questions? I can not remember CA ever giving such detailed information so why would I expect it this time?

With regards to the AI and reinforcements, I agree entirely, wouldn't it be great to see the main force delay until they arrive. The thing is it never has, STW saw units entering from various places on the map AFTER the main force was routing. In MTW it was worse, the reinforcements all appeared from the same point so you routed the main army and camped on the edge of the map slaughtering all the units that tried to enter the map

..........Orda

[Voigtkampf]

Do you honestly expect answers to all these questions?
..........Orda

Of course he is not. He hits the nerve, though, with his questions that are rather sarcastic and somewhat bitter/filled with disappointment. I feel exactly the same, and these questions are far more interesting to me than the number of polygons the soldiers are comprised of.

We’ll get the answers to those when we get the game.

[screwtype]

I want to know when CA are going to put Puzz on their design team!!!

[Bob the Insane]

I want to hear if the main AI army will wait for its reinforcements before attacking.

On this one point, this is a hardware limitation... If the game decides that your hardware can't handle 3000+ units on the field at once it will delay reinforcement until sufficient causalties have been sustained but one or both sides to allow the machine to handle them.

You can disable this feature being going into your Preference.txt and setting Unlimited_Troops to True (or something like that, I can't remember the exact setting right now), but if you have a battle between multiple full stacks be prepared for a side show...

To be honest when I stopped expecting historical reinactments from CA and started looking for a fun, historical based game I start appricating the TW series a lot more. It's "Hollywood History"...

I do however agree with the various observations about the battlefield AI and is "limitations"...

I am however optimistic as I have seen the improvements that BI and the latest patch has made with the Battlefield AI now appearing to be remotely competent (not particularly challenging, but less prone to outright stupidity)...

[Gen_Lee]

On this one point, this is a hardware limitation... If the game decides that your hardware can't handle 3000+ units on the field at once it will delay reinforcement until sufficient causalties have been sustained but one or both sides to allow the machine to handle them.

You can disable this feature being going into your Preference.txt and setting Unlimited_Troops to True (or something like that, I can't remember the exact setting right now), but if you have a battle between multiple full stacks be prepared for a side show...

To be honest when I stopped expecting historical reinactments from CA and started looking for a fun, historical based game I start appricating the TW series a lot more. It's "Hollywood History"...

I do however agree with the various observations about the battlefield AI and is "limitations"...

I am however optimistic as I have seen the improvements that BI and the latest patch has made with the Battlefield AI now appearing to be remotely competent (not particularly challenging, but less prone to outright stupidity)...

Ot, You should see what Darth's acomplished with His latest mod v6.8:)

[screwtype]

What they've said regarding "finishing moves" is that if soldier 1 knocks soldier 2 off his feet soldier 1 will plunge his sword/ spear/ axe whatever into soldier 2 to finish him off.

No, actually, the Ca spokesman made mention of the attacker "spinning around" before delivering the finishing blow.

I don't think too many soldiers fighting for their lives would stop to execute a pirouette before delivering the coup de gras, do you?

[Xiahou]

I've gotta admit, I havent heard much to get my hopes up about since they announced the game. I loved MTW/VI and was looking forward to it with updated graphics and a new strat map, but since then I havent heard much that hasnt sounded disappointing. Well, here's hoping.

[fallen851]

In case you missed the finishing moves thread...

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=61341

I really hope finishing moves are no including... it wasn't like knights spent days with trainers working on "finishing moves" or anything.

[Pomerium]

What they've said regarding "finishing moves" is that if soldier 1 knocks soldier 2 off his feet soldier 1 will plunge his sword/ spear/ axe whatever into soldier 2 to finish him off. This is a perfectly realistic addition and is a big improvement on the hilarious phenomenon in Rome where you would see soldier 1 knocking soldier 2 onto his arse, only for soldier 1 stand there while soldier 2 gets back on his feet and stabs soldier 1 in the gut.

I would gladly give up on improved graphics for a vastly improved AI. The eye candy is all well and good, but it sounds to me that they are almost at the point of going overboard on battlefield graphics.
I want more of a challenge in a fight then visual enjoyment.
I see that I am starting to sound like Puzz " I want..."
There is some frustration there but I don't want to vent.

As far a improving a challenge.
Haven't tried multiplayers on line, I feel that 56k modem wouldn't be much fun. cheap I know!

[Furious Mental]

The finishing move is killing the bloke on the ground! That's perfectly realistic. Besides the spinning I really don't see what the problem is. For some reason though this seems to have become some kind of icon for attacks on CA, as though people actually prefer the robot soldiers of RTW.

[screwtype]

Besides the spinning I really don't see what the problem is.

That's like saying, besides the corruption this politician is really honest.

No-one has a problem with "finishing moves" per se. The concern is whether or not these moves are going to be exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Talk of soldiers "spinning around" like rap dancers before delivering the final blow is clearly a cause for concern.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

What they've said regarding "finishing moves" is that if soldier 1 knocks soldier 2 off his feet soldier 1 will plunge his sword/ spear/ axe whatever into soldier 2 to finish him off. This is a perfectly realistic addition and is a big improvement on the hilarious phenomenon in Rome where you would see soldier 1 knocking soldier 2 onto his arse, only for soldier 1 stand there while soldier 2 gets back on his feet and stabs soldier 1 in the gut.

If you increase a unit's defence skill and / or attack value (+experience bonus to both attack and defence skill), you will see that once a unit is on the ground, the attacker (who knocked his opponent to the floor), if positioned correctly, will finish him off as he begins to get up. That is at least a realistic feature IMO, because naturally anyone trying to stagger to his feet in any sort of armour would be vunerable to incoming blows, which may well prove fatal.

However, this debate regarding finishing moves and the concern over the AI is indeed that...concerning. After witnessing the berserker animations in both BI and RTW (was this included with patch v1.3/v1.4?), they were at first impressive. Especially during sieges where a berserker (once in bloodlust mode and uncontrollable) would hack his way through wavering opponents, using sending them flying into the air, even more so on walls some distance up.

However, these berserker animations soon become repetitive and almost appear as fantasy; how would anyone - regardless of weapon skill - be able to string together perfectly-timed combo attacks? Doing so would leave the attacker open and vunerable to counter-attacks from those surounding him probably on more than one occasion.

I haven't played Spartan: Total Warrior, but after reading the console reviews for XBox, PS & Gamecube, I could soon picture what audience the game was primarily aimed at. I don't want to sound as though I'm criticising an unreleased product, but I seriously hope the finishing moves to be included in MTW2 were not influenced by Spartan: Total Warrior.

On the other hand, I like the sound of the increased chances of units parrying blows and then launching their own counter-attacks. As mentioned before, if you increase the defnce skill of your units in RTW, you will see them dodge, shuffle, parry more frequently. More importantly, however, they will actually react almost instantaneously to an incoming attack when in close quarters, depending upon defence skill, unit animations and so on.

As for the AI, well it would be good to see an improvement of the vanilla AI in RTW. Although to be fair to CA, the AI was improved marginally through its patches, changes and fixes. However, as mentioned numerous times already in this topic, the AI has never really offered a seriously challenging test of skill which many would at least expect to appear in MTW2.

[Dead Moroz]

I have not heard one word about gameplay improvements. All I hear is how beautiful the game is now. I am starting to get pretty worried after reading a couple of those with not one word about the AI. Should I be worried or do the Aussies have it all under control?

Yes, they have it all under control and won't let it escape to the masses.