New interview - only 5 starting factions !

[Doug-Thompson]

Unlocking factions in R:TW was not a problem, because winning a game as a Roman was a piece of cake.

There's been some speculation on what the five starting factions are. I'm sure somebody's already mentioned the five factions listed on the official website, which look like the frontrunners:

Byz (Greek Orthodox)
HRE (North European Catholic)
England (North European Catholic)
The Papacy (South Europeand Catholic)
Egypt (Islam)

============

I think the purpose of the "unlock" features is to keep a new player from picking some faction he likes for outside, historical or sentimental reasons, then getting clobbered. People with bad first impressions rarely get addicted.

[TB666]

The papacy won't be playable.
They are like the senate in RTW.

[Doug-Thompson]

The papacy won't be playable.
They are like the senate in RTW.

Back like they were in M:TW, ehh, only moreso.

[Leet Eriksson]

the best bet for a south european faction would be either italy or spain.

[Ignoramus]

I, for one, am annoyed about this. In BI, when I trying editing the text files to make the Burgundii
and the Lombardi playable, the game crashes.

=========

However, they did say there were "17 playable factions". Now if this is true, then surely this an improvement over Rome.

[Mount Suribachi]

I suggest you have a look for R T Smith in the credits of previous TW titles before calling Bob Smith "new". He's got a bit of a track record where these games are concerned, you know.

I have posted before here, and on other forums, what a legend RT Smith is to those of us old enough to remember classic games like Arnhem, Desert Rats, Tobruk & Ancient Battles.

But that doesn't alter the fact that we keep reading in interviews about this "new" feature of impassible terrain.

I'm just surprised & disapointed that after all the furore over unlockable factions in RTW that we have it again in MTW2

[scotchedpommes]

Not really sure why CA would take this approach. The original Medieval allowed you to play 2 different game types, 3 different eras, and all factions unlocked from the start. This was bad how?

For those who forget, in the original MTW, all minor factions were initially unplayable.
This required a text edit.

[As for the arrangement with this game, provinces and map specifics concern me
more than the text edit.]

[City walls]

I see it like this

new players-Unlocking factions

Mid players-Follow papacy missions

hardcore players-Conquer the world

[Magestryn]

I actually think they are knowing full well that people will go and modify the game, but they would at least like to have you see some of the opening sequences to show off all of the hard work they have done

[Pras the Reaper]

But that doesn't alter the fact that we keep reading in interviews about this "new" feature of impassible terrain.

My quick and dirty analysis...

The communication flow for games usually goes something along these lines:

developer -> studio marketing -> publisher marketing -> journalist -> editor

As you've all pointed out a mistake has been made. It could have been made at any step in the chain. Bob has worked on every Total War game to date. If you had to put money on where the mistake was made, how many of you would bet on it having being Bob?

I know I was mortified when I read on these forums some of the stuff I was supposed to have said in a magazine article around January. It was only afterwards that I realised that what I said had been edited, translated for a Belgian games mag, re-edited and then translated back into English.

[edyzmedieval]

Basically, what Pras is saying, that the magazines are editing intentionally the articles?

[econ21]

No, he's saying that journalists and PR people don't always report accurately.

I've experienced it personally twice before.

Once was in university politics - it was simply amazing, person A would say "X" and the student newspaper would report person B (in the same party) said "not X" (when they had said no such thing). And not just once, but on virtually every single instance we were reported. Now this was just student politics and student journalism but it made me fear for what goes on in the real world.

The other case was when an academic unit I worked in hired a journalist to present its research. It was just hopeless. What was reported was either completely vacuous or completely wrong. In the end, we had to write the stuff ourselves and politely bid the journalist farewell.

I'm not sure what's going on, but part of it is that the reporters do not have the necessary technical knowledge to understand what they are talking about. Kind of like if you asked me to report something you said in Romanian or something. They use their own words and end up distorting the message horribly.

[Dutch_guy]

Well to be honest I don't see the problem, as long as we can play the other factions by editing a simple text file then that's it.

I think the purpose of the "unlock" features is to keep a new player from picking some faction he likes for outside, historical or sentimental reasons, then getting clobbered. People with bad first impressions rarely get addicted.

Well, I think it's just there to keep the player playing, give him some sort of a objective other than conquering the twenty needed cities. That simple.

[danfda]

Well to be honest I don't see the problem, as long as we can play the other factions by editing a simple text file then that's it.



Well, I think it's just there to keep the player playing, give him some sort of a objective other than conquering the twenty needed cities. That simple.

Do you mean like glorious achievements? I've heard that was an effective way to keep players involved.

[Dutch_guy]

Do you mean like glorious achievements? I've heard that was an effective way to keep players involved.

I was giving my own opinion on Doug's theory of why there'd only be 5 starting factions, he basically stated it would be more new-comer friendly, I stated it was probably done to give players some sort of objective to complete - some sort of a mission, or goal.

So I didn't exactly mean glorious achievements, but you have heard correctly, it is an excellent way to keep players involved. And I for one, am hoping to see the GAs back in M2TW.

[doc_bean]

No, he's saying that journalists and PR people don't always report accurately.

I've experienced it personally twice before.

Once was in university politics - it was simply amazing, person A would say "X" and the student newspaper would report person B (in the same party) said "not X" (when they had said no such thing). And not just once, but on virtually every single instance we were reported. Now this was just student politics and student journalism but it made me fear for what goes on in the real world.

The other case was when an academic unit I worked in hired a journalist to present its research. It was just hopeless. What was reported was either completely vacuous or completely wrong. In the end, we had to write the stuff ourselves and politely bid the journalist farewell.

I'm not sure what's going on, but part of it is that the reporters do not have the necessary technical knowledge to understand what they are talking about. Kind of like if you asked me to report something you said in Romanian or something. They use their own words and end up distorting the message horribly.

I think you're giving people to much credit. I once was interviewed and found my words totally twisted in the newspaper (with a bunch of made up stuff) I complained in a public forum the journalist could moderate and quickly found the entire rant deleted and I got an angry email from the guy in question. When i asked him why he did it he said my real answer didn't make for an interesting story...

[Mount Suribachi]

There's a reason I rate journalists above (below?) politicians and lawyers on my scum-of-the-earth-o-meter. Every experience I, and people I know, have had with them has been overwhelmingly negative

[Vladimir]

I know I was mortified when I read on these forums some of the stuff I was supposed to have said in a magazine article around January. It was only afterwards that I realised that what I said had been edited, translated for a Belgian games mag, re-edited and then translated back into English.

That's amazing! I wonder what the margin of error was for each modification. Not to mention the intentional distortions.

[danfda]

I was giving my own opinion on Doug's theory of why there'd only be 5 starting factions, he basically stated it would be more new-comer friendly, I stated it was probably done to give players some sort of objective to complete - some sort of a mission, or goal.

So I didn't exactly mean glorious achievements, but you have heard correctly, it is an excellent way to keep players involved. And I for one, am hoping to see the GAs back in M2TW.

Yeah, I should've added a [/sarcasm] tag.

I, too, hope frevently there will be a GA mode. IMO its part of the reason MTW was is so special. Has any dev said yay or nay with regards to GA?

If nay, someone should mod them in...

[The Wizard]

*slaps forehead*

[TB666]

Here are the 5 starting factions.
https://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2...ndcampaign.jpg
England, France, HRE, Venice and Spain.

[Martok]

Here are the 5 starting factions.
https://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y2...ndcampaign.jpg
England, France, HRE, Venice and Spain.

Thanks TB666. (Where'd you find that screeshot, btw?)

All good factions, but they're also all Catholic. What about the Byzantines and the Muslims? Hard to believe they'd be left out of the starting line-up entirely. *sigh* Oh well....

[TB666]

Found it here
http://pff.swrebellion.com/index.php?topic=4646.0

[Midnight]

That's surprising. I'd have thought that some non-Catholics would get a look in, but apparently not.

[Martok]

Appreciate the link, TB666. I actually like the screenshot of the French provinces. It looks like CA has toned down the cartoon colors of Rome's map and given M2's map a bit of grittier feel.

That's surprising. I'd have thought that some non-Catholics would get a look in, but apparently not.

Yeah me too. I understand the English, the French, and even the HRE making the "first 5"; but I figured for the other 2 they'd grab one of the Muslim factions (Egyptians would probably be the best candidate) and for sure add the Byzantines! To not include them in the initial 5 factions simply baffles me.

This feeling is further reinforced when the Spanish and Venetians are in the initial list. While I think both factions will certainly be fun to play (I love the Spanish in the original MTW), I'm in absolute disbelief that they would be among the initial 5 factions, yet the Byz and Muslims aren't.

[hoetje]

I never thought Venice would be a starting faction

[Leet Eriksson]

what no danes

Well i hope they make the short campaigns real real short, maybe have one of frances objectives to conquer the british, that way you march on their 3 small provinces rushing them and unlocking all the factions

[professorspatula]

Well according to that screenshot the short campaign for the English is apparently capture 45 regions and Jerusalem, so that's a fair bit longer than the RTW short campaigns. Makes me think the rate of expansion/speed of strategy part could be quite swift if that's a short campaign.

To be fair, if that's from the demo version, we don't 100% know that's the final 5 starting factions. It might be for the demo, they don't want you to play as various factions until the game hits the shops. To keep the file size down, perhaps many of the eastern factions don't have their full compliment of units in the demo file. I'm obviously just clutching at straws though.

[TB666]

Well according to that screenshot the short campaign for the English is apparently capture 45 regions and Jerusalem, so that's a fair bit longer than the RTW short campaigns.

Actually that's the big campaign.
He doesn't have the short campaign button checked .

[Callatian]

Thanks TB666. (Where'd you find that screeshot, btw?)

Here?

http://pff.swrebellion.com/index.php?board=42.0