More optimistic news from E3 (for the optimists)

[Reenk Roink]

New article. Positive. Impression of better AI. Other goodness.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

E3 06: Medieval 2: Total War Impressions
We get more info from developer Creative Assembly on the latest, and prettiest, game in the acclaimed Total War strategy series.
By Jason Ocampo, GameSpot
Posted May 10, 2006 7:58 pm PT

LOS ANGELES--Sega and Creative Assembly are showing off Medieval 2: Total War, the next game in the popular strategy series that melds turn-based and real-time gameplay. Medieval 2 returns back to the Middle Ages of European history, as you'll get to lead one of more than 20 countries--from England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and more--as it attempts to conquer the whole of Europe, and even the Americas. Like its predecessors, Medieval 2 will feature a turn-based strategic campaign where you'll make decisions from what sorts of armies to raise, which countries to ally with, and where to invade next. Then, when armies meet, you can switch to a real-time 3D view of the battle and command your men yourself. That's all well and good, but what's new in Medieval 2?

Creative Assembly has 40 team members in its Brisbane, Australia, studio working on the game, which is the largest team for a Total War game yet. It sounds like the company has been busy, too, as this isn't a simple sequel. Apparently, the company rebuilt the battle engine from scratch to allow for even more amounts of detail and animation, and to also get rid of one of the major problems in Rome: Total War: The fact that armies in Rome all looked like soldiers cloned from a single man. Now the armies look incredibly detailed and varied, and the combat animations are even more organic and realistic. When armies meet, there's a wide variety of motions that you'll see as individual soldiers battle. You'll also see a soldier defeat a threat, then look left and right for his next victim. It all looks amazing, and Medieval 2 promises to be more than a mere graphical upgrade, as well.

The good news is also that the artificial intelligence should be smarter, according to the developers. They've worked on this a lot, and we saw it in the game, as the French army (controlled by the computer) realized its mounted knights were under English longbow fire and moved them to the woods for some protection. The French knights were seen then using the woods as cover to move up and try to hit the English from the side. The AI will know how to use the environment better, and this includes recognizing the new impassable terrain in the game. There are more than 250 unique units in the game, each with special abilities, such as the English longbow ability to place spikes down before a battle, protecting them from charges by mounted knights.

There are a slew of improvements on the strategic map. For starters, the textures have been upped considerably, and the map looks prettier more than ever. More importantly, there's a new economic system that requires you to select a role for each of your provinces. If you build a city in a province, you'll boost your economy and gain more money from the increased trade. But you'll also need to put castles in some of your provinces to recruit armies. The recruiting system has been improved, so now you can raise armies in a single year, rather than having to slowly build them over the course of decades. This means that you can suddenly go from peace to total war in just a few years in the game.

That's just the tip of the iceberg with Medieval 2. There are a ton of other improvements in the game that have yet to be revealed. This certainly looks like it'll be one of the biggest strategy games of the year, as well as one of the prettiest, so we'll be sure to bring you more coverage of this title in the future.

-GameSpot

And the most important paragraph:

The good news is also that the artificial intelligence should be smarter, according to the developers. They've worked on this a lot, and we saw it in the game, as the French army (controlled by the computer) realized its mounted knights were under English longbow fire and moved them to the woods for some protection. The French knights were seen then using the woods as cover to move up and try to hit the English from the side. The AI will know how to use the environment better, and this includes recognizing the new impassable terrain in the game. There are more than 250 unique units in the game, each with special abilities, such as the English longbow ability to place spikes down before a battle, protecting them from charges by mounted knights.

[Furious Mental]

"so now you can raise armies in a single year, rather than having to slowly build them over the course of decades. "

Now this is interesting. A major departure from the recruitment system we're used to. I'm surprised they hadn't mentioned this before.

[ZombieFriedNuts]

Build army until you don’t have money left, start war, go into debt, take some city’s, disband army, economy gives more money, go out of debt.
I love the idea

[edyzmedieval]

It's a good optimistic article.

[Mikeus Caesar]

'now you can raise armies in a single year, rather than having to slowly build them over the course of decades'

FINALLY! All of my campaigns in the past have horrendously slow because i refuse to fight without my perfect army of choice, and now that i can raise all my men in one go instead of waiting 20 years, Europe shall fall before me!

[The_Doctor]

The guy at the .com who had been to E3 said:

Oh and another thing, I forgot to talk about the new recruitment system. You can recruit lots of units in a single turn at a single city but each type has a seperate pool that is determined by the city, buildings in the city, your govenors traits etc etc. so for instance you could raise 6 spearmen and/or 2 Hobilars. Of course you need the money as well. I think this is a real step forward for the series.

[Gregoshi]

Excellent news about raising armies! Now I wonder if you can bleed the population dry of warriors if you recruit too heavily and fight too many wars. I also like what is being said about the AI improvements.

[scorillo]

WOW ...with this improval and everything,I can start thinking about a RTW2 how it would be

[scorillo]

edit
double post

[scorillo]

[Zalmoxis]

WOW ...with this improval and everything,I can start thinking about a RTW2 how it would be

Or STW2!

[GiantMonkeyMan]

some great new there! i am actually kinda getting exited about this game and i hope i won't be too disapointed like RTW was for me... (thank god for EB and RTR though )

[Lord Adherbal]

Build army until you don’t have money left, start war, go into debt, take some city’s, disband army, economy gives more money, go out of debt.
I love the idea

I fail to see the problem there. In fact, disbanding armies after the war is very realistic.

[edyzmedieval]

WoW my God!! It's very cool.
Can't wait for MTW II.

[Ciaran]

I like the idea. I wonder, though, whether massive recruitment will have an influence of population happiness, preferably a negative one. I can´t imagine the citizens liking all the young, healthy workers going off to war.

[Furious Mental]

Depends. No doubt farmers were not too keen to be conscripted for military service. Yet on the other hand professional soldiers would have been more than happy to get the job, and the townsfolk would probably have been happy either for their families to have the income or, alternatively, be free from the trouble the loutish mercenary bastards cause

[Watchman]

That depends a whole lot on the specific circumstances. The more independent the peasantry, the better motivated to fight they tended to be particularly on the defensive (since it was, you know, their land). Urban centers - "free cities" and "freetowns" - that had bought themselves free from the normal feudal system in particular could produce highly motivated and capable militia forces. Forested areas with few restrictions on hunting rights (ie. not reserved as royal or aristocratic hunting reservations, rare) tended to turn up hardy folk many of whom were familiar with the bow. Forested areas with restrictions on hunting rights could still turn up hardy folk many of whom were familiar with the bow - amnesty to criminals in return of military service being a common practice...

Conversely the struggling poor farmers of rough hinterlands - mountains and other highlands in particular - were often only too happy to "go out into the world" to better their fortunes as soldiers, not rarely becoming professional mercenaries. The Swiss would probably be the most famous example.

In any case military obligations tended to be an integral part of the feudal "social contract" between the rulers and their subjects (and the legal details, which the commoners were usually quite pedantic about, tended to be rather exact when it came to periods of obligatory service, armament requirements and so on) - it would have been regarded as perfectly normal to be called to serve under arms. Moreover, a campaign was always an opportunity to get rich quick on loot and plunder if things went well, and upon occasion to even better one's status a bit.

[screwtype]

I like the idea. I wonder, though, whether massive recruitment will have an influence of population happiness, preferably a negative one. I can´t imagine the citizens liking all the young, healthy workers going off to war.

Actually, that's how it worked in one my all time favourite strategy games, Lords of the Realm II.

In that game, your popularity in each province is measured by the number of hearts, if the hearts falls below 5 the province is very likely to revolt with truly catastrophic consequences (as anyone who has played the game can testify).

You recruit from a province in groups of 50 and each 50 citizens you take knocks off 5 hearts (from memory) from your total. Usually you have no more than about 30-35 hearts total so it's dangerous to recruit more than about 250 citizens at a time. You can't take it right down to 5 hearts because random events every month also affect the number of hearts in a province.

You are also not allowed to recruit more than half the remaining citizens from a province in the one turn.

Sounds like M2TW has taken a leaf out of LOTR's book which is a good thing. Now if only they would knock off some of the other great ideas from that game which made it one of the all time strategy classics!

[Divinus Arma]

The guy at the .com who had been to E3 said:

Oh and another thing, I forgot to talk about the new recruitment system. You can recruit lots of units in a single turn at a single city but each type has a seperate pool that is determined by the city, buildings in the city, your govenors traits etc etc. so for instance you could raise 6 spearmen and/or 2 Hobilars. Of course you need the money as well. I think this is a real step forward for the series.

NO MORE UBER ARMIES??? You mean we... we... we...have to use our elite units wisely??????


THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!

*gets really excited now*

If we keep hearing good news like this (no more uber armies, better AI, etc) then I will definetly be using my student loans for a new computer.

Not for school mind you... though that is a great excuse.

[Ciaran]

Depends. No doubt farmers were not too keen to be conscripted for military service. Yet on the other hand professional soldiers would have been more than happy to get the job, and the townsfolk would probably have been happy either for their families to have the income or, alternatively, be free from the trouble the loutish mercenary bastards cause

Maybe I was a bit vague. Not every recruitment should cause unrest, a moderate bit of it, as has been mentioned, gets the good-for-nothings off the streets, after all, and might even increase happiness. I was referring to massive recruitment, turn after turn, literally draining the city.

[Watchman]

The issue with that wouldn't be unrest as such. It'd be the simple fact of economical impossibility, as the vast majority of rank-and-file were feudal levies who had to abandon their day jobs (agriculture and various crafts) for the duration of the service. All the more so as feudal warlords tended to be pretty strapped for cash, and hence unable to keep their levies under the colours too long after the term of feudal obligations ended (since the troops had to be paid after this, or they'd simply go home). Mercenaries had the same issue.

'Course, loot and pillage of a well-running campaign made a pretty good incentive for the men to stay in the army...

Not every recruitment should cause unrest, a moderate bit of it, as has been mentioned, gets the good-for-nothings off the streets, after all, and might even increase happiness.

Eh, these are medieval armies we're talking about, not the dragooned prisoners-in-uniforms of the musket-and-bayonet period. The soldiers had to provide their own gear (and training) for the most part. Street scum would be entirely useless as fighting men - without equipement, training, discipline or cohesion. The formations of any quality came from assorted organized militia systems, particularly from the towns. The burghers and villeins could at least equip themselves, and men from the same settlement (be it a tiny hamlet or a major city) who knew each other, could trust each other, had trained together, and spoke the same regional dialect at least had some degree of unit cohesion and "knit" - qualities particularly important for infantry having to stand up to a cavalry charge.

The assorted underclass "undesirables" would however tend to follow armies on their own account in the hopes of making some money, and could presumably be useful for such noncombat duties as ravaging the countryside (medieval armies could get oddly organized about pillaging and burning villages; presumably in order to waste minimum of time and effort in each).

[Furious Mental]

I was talking more about mercenaries. They basically were loutish ....







Edited for language

[Mooks]

Easy...Drop off all your mercs in enemy territory then boost up your border patrol...Have your enemys deal with tha "loutish ....".

Of course, mercs werent all that bad, most of the time they were the elite part of the battlefield. Just too expensive to keep around that much.

And there wasnt much formal training in Medieval times, but that doesnt mean you cant invent it



Edited for language.

[Watchman]

The mercs weren't too big of a problem so long as they were in your army. It was when they weren't drawing salary from someone when they got troublesome, as they had a very unpleasant tendency to "live off the land" (read as turn to stark banditry and pillaging) between gigs. During the HYW considerable swathes of northern France were often in the state of virtual anarchy thanks to freebooting unemployed mercenary armies.

[Furious Mental]

That's what I'm talking about. People wouldn't have wanted jobless mercenaries hanging around stealing their food.

[A.Saturnus]

Redoing the recruitment system could be - if done well - a large improvement to the game. The tedious recruitment phases of the earlier games were one reason why I always took so long to complete campaigns.

[Trax]

The recruiting system has been improved, so now you can raise armies in a single year, rather than having to slowly build them over the course of decades.

It seems I still have to buy this game and a new computer too

[paullus]

Actually, that's how it worked in one my all time favourite strategy games, Lords of the Realm II.

In that game, your popularity in each province is measured by the number of hearts, if the hearts falls below 5 the province is very likely to revolt with truly catastrophic consequences (as anyone who has played the game can testify).

You recruit from a province in groups of 50 and each 50 citizens you take knocks off 5 hearts (from memory) from your total. Usually you have no more than about 30-35 hearts total so it's dangerous to recruit more than about 250 citizens at a time. You can't take it right down to 5 hearts because random events every month also affect the number of hearts in a province.

You are also not allowed to recruit more than half the remaining citizens from a province in the one turn.

Sounds like M2TW has taken a leaf out of LOTR's book which is a good thing. Now if only they would knock off some of the other great ideas from that game which made it one of the all time strategy classics!

Lords of the Realm! Now those were the days! You could burn crops and destroy mining operations, population affected economic production, you had to plan your campaigns around the winter and the harvest (unless you had a big enough population), not to mention those gloriously beautiful 2d battles! It'd be great if TW incorporated some of the better aspects of Lords.