Yet another chance to ask CA some questions.

[Myrddraal]

In the near future, we hope to be organising some interviews with CA devs (many thanks to The Shogun for this opportunity). So I have a basic idea of what are the most pressing questions for the community, but I thought I'd give you all a chance to add your own input anyway.

I'm not making any guarantees here. There may be questions CA don't want to answer, in which case we won't ask them, and we can't ask for everything so no guarantees.

Just take advantage of this situation, but don't get upset if we don't ask your question.

[Martok]

Well obviously, a big question is how much has the AI (both combat AI and empire AI) been improved? Will it avoid obvious mistakes like charging cavalry head-on into spears/pikes? Will it manage its armies better so that we fight fewer but more decisive battles (instead of a bunch of minor skirmishes against little 2-unit stacks)? Will the AI take into consideration the overall strength of a faction before attacking it, instead of only looking for immediate weaknesses? (In essence, will it be able to take the "long view", as it were?)

Have the unit walking speeds been toned down from Rome? (And if so, by how much?) Has the penalty for "stacking" units on the battlefield been re-instated?

Are civil wars and factions re-emergences in?

Will there be an option to disable the "New World" portion of the map?

What happens to Crusade/Jihad armies that are beat by another faction to that province? Do they simply disappear? And does the faction leader lose Influence as in the original MTW (if the Crusade/Jihad fails)?

[Leet Eriksson]

Are Eras in?

Will there be Early, High, Late eras?

Will it be possible to play the mongol factions? (timurids, golden horde, mongols)

[TB666]

Are Eras in?

Will there be Early, High, Late eras?

Will it be possible to play the mongol factions? (timurids, golden horde, mongols)

Only in MP and no(not without modding them so they are there at the start of the game)

[highlanddave]

in the entrance hall i started a little thread on this subject. can we get ca to make a modding disk?

i would buy a disk on strictly modding if ca would be so kind to make one. especially since the new m2tw will bring on new opportunities and difficulties compared to the last total war games. the disk might include some instruction and some tools for modifying the game. tools like a battlefield tool, a unit painter/modeler, a map maker, etc. modification is a selling point for total war games and it would be nice if more players were given an opportunity to try their ideas.

[The Blind Samurai]

so i cant play them in skrimish mode

will the english get muskets

who will get the rocket lanchers

[Leet Eriksson]

Only in MP and no(not without modding them so they are there at the start of the game)

No mongols is immensely lame, but i won't complain, hopefully we get them in an expansion i know it can be modded to have them in, but preset factions are very pretty much more fleshed out than factions modded in.

[Duke John]

Will CA support the modding community by providing a model/animation importer/exporter tool?

[Jambo]

Myrddraal, when is this scheduled for?

Anyway, here are a few of my burning questions:

Campaign map questions:

1. Has the AI been improved in terms of defending its cities/castles? More specifically, with all the new and impressive fortifications, will the AI defend them with more than one unit of militia and a general, say?
   
2. Related to the above, how will sieges tie in with the new recruitment system? i.e. will it be possible for the AI to raise an army prior to or during a siege for the purpose of siege defence?
   
3. When attacking will the AI try more multi-stack attacks?
   
4. Is auto-resolve be tied to battle difficulty or will this still be tied to campaign difficulty?
   
5. What will change as the difficulty level is increased (campaign and battle)?
   
6. What steps, if any, have CA taken to raise the challenge as the game progresses and the human player's faction inevitably becomes the powerhouse?

Tactical battles:

1. What steps have CA taken to improve AI army cohesion, how the missile troops behave and the general timing of the cavalry charge?
   
2. Are there any changes to how the general behaves as part of the AI army?

That concludes my short selection. ;)

[antiwup]

one thing i noticed about rome total war was its lack of battlefields to fight on in custom battle mode. in med2 will there be many fields to chose from like in the original medieval and will there be a custom map mode too?

one thing i would have liked to have seen is a fortification mode where during a battle you can dig in or create improvised defenses like stakes or small wooden ramparts or trenches.

another thing i would like to see added is a video cut scene for naval battles

i think ambushes should be better like you can ambush an army in a camp or hit them while they march in column down a road.

i would also like to see a mode where you can sit an army in a town after it lost men in battle and fill its ranks over turns but lose skill points. a regiment lost 120 men than moves into a town sits for a turn or two and recruits 120 replacements but loses some skills dropping it down in experiance.

any way no matter what, this game will kick ass!

one more thing cannon on top of elephants is stupid and should not be used heavily hek it shouldn't be in the game! next thing you now there will be unicorns and ogres if there are cannon on elephants that should be kept to a rare minimum.

[CountArach]

Will the AI support you in a war if you are allied? If so, will AI factions take into account your alliances before attacking you?

Also if you break an alliance/an AI faction breaks theirs will everyone trust them less?

[Soulflame]

I can answer some of these from the preview event;

one thing i noticed about rome total war was its lack of battlefields to fight on in custom battle mode. in med2 will there be many fields to chose from like in the original medieval and will there be a custom map mode too?

Yes, there will be more battlefields and yes there will be an (unsupported) battlemap editor

one thing i would have liked to have seen is a fortification mode where during a battle you can dig in or create improvised defenses like stakes or small wooden ramparts or trenches.

Not sure, but the english longbowmen might be able to put stakes in front of them (at least in the historical battle they were there)

another thing i would like to see added is a video cut scene for naval battles

i think ambushes should be better like you can ambush an army in a camp or hit them while they march in column down a road.

No idea about these

i would also like to see a mode where you can sit an army in a town after it lost men in battle and fill its ranks over turns but lose skill points. a regiment lost 120 men than moves into a town sits for a turn or two and recruits 120 replacements but loses some skills dropping it down in experiance.

This was already in Rome; if you retrained a unit, the experience (and armor if the original unit had some upgraded things not available in the settlement where you retrained) got dilluted.
So it's a safe bet to say that's in like in Rome.

one more thing cannon on top of elephants is stupid and should not be used heavily hek it shouldn't be in the game! next thing you now there will be unicorns and ogres if there are cannon on elephants that should be kept to a rare minimum.

I actually did ask about it and they said they wouldn't have put it in unless there were at least some referances to them in history.

Will the AI support you in a war if you are allied? If so, will AI factions take into account your alliances before attacking you?

Also if you break an alliance/an AI faction breaks theirs will everyone trust them less?

The diplomatic AI will be taking into account more things, although I'm not sure if it takes these into account. It will look at economic and military strength, your relationship with them, and some others.
I'm heavily speculation here, but it might be nice and possible that if you are allied, part of those variables are added up (ie military strength is your own strength + some factor * allies strength). I have absolutely no idea if this is true, but it would be nice and at least seems like a reasonable idea.

[rory_20_uk]

First off, AI:

My pet hate, right up there with the general pciking a fight with a Macedonian Phalanx again is the AI deciding to load up a 20 stack army onto an old scow of a bireme and somehow expect it to get to land.

There's been situations where the army could embark and disembark in one turn if done right. Sadly it was done wrong, with the army onboard on my coast.

Have CA either taken a look at the AI improvements around and used them, or are they going to promise to do a better job themselves (e.g. in battles and unit procurement).

Is there anything resembling population movement between cities?

Will units continue to behave around the central figure (i.e. will units altering direction all still have to change position, rather than just the leader doing so).

Will good governors automaticaly become corrupt pleasure whores after a few years of doing a good job - even if the faction leader is in the same city?

Can there be differing levels of movement according to terrain? Can some types get over hilly / moutainous / sandy terrain that are impassable to others.

[The Blind Samurai]

will there be decaption as a fishing move

[shifty157]

Any progress on this Myrdraal?

[Sun of Chersonesos]

will you be able to retrain mercenaries at your settlements, and how will it work?

[Sun of Chersonesos]

thats a good point you made there Denizar, i do get rather annoyed that i cant bribe the army in RTW if im under seige.even though its the cowardly way. i would also like to see that the faction heir and faction leader can get bribed coz in RTW they cant

[Denizar]

On the other hand, the only way bribing can be used is disbanding or making the enemy army join your forces. It would be great if you could bribe the enemy king so that he gives you a city, or signs a ceasefire. I think the R:TW game was generally very short on the diplomacy side. So if it is possible could you please ask what new diplomatic choices we will get?

One more thing - when we bribed an enemy army the forces that were compatible to our faction joined us and the others got disbanded. I didn't think this really made a lot of sense. We should be able to choose whether we want the army to join us or disband. Any chance this might be possible in M2TW?

[Sun of Chersonesos]

interesting point denizar

[Sun of Chersonesos]

will we be able to rename settlements, captains and generals?

[Nelson]

Will any castles or cities have moats?

A simple little interrogatory sentence requiring no more than a Boolean response. It should be easy to answer. Yes or No will suffice. I thought about elaborating the query to cover drawbridges and moat filling and crossing but honestly just knowing moats are in or out would be enough.

Has this has been revealed already and I missed it? This isn't a very esoteric subject. It’s not like I’m asking about the length of a Mongol arrow or the average number of links in a chain mace chain. Lots of people associate moats with medieval castles.

[Dutch_guy]

Myrddraal, any chance you could let us know when the questions are asked ?

And answered of course !

[IrishArmenian]

What kind of Expanshuns will be releesed?
What is the Facshun limit?
Will there be eras?
Will the Orthodoxy get mishuns from the Patriarch?
What kind of defenses will be made for cities?
Will Constantinople have Greek fire in the walls?

[Ultras DVSC]

Will there be eras?

There won't be any eras, just the main campaign, it's been already confirmed several times.

[ChewieTobbacca]

There won't be any eras, just the main campaign, it's been already confirmed several times.

There will be eras for multiplayer apparently

[Vuk]

Will Constantinople have Greek fire in the walls?

GOOD QUESTION!!!

[todorp]

Will we have a SAVE between battles as we had it in MTW?

Late in the game some times I had to fight 3-4 critical battles per turn which I could not afford to authoresolve. The time is 3am and/or RTW CTD ( ) after hours of hard work.

[Martok]

Will we have a SAVE between battles as we had it in MTW?

Late in the game some times I had to fight 3-4 critical battles per turn which I could not afford to authresolve. The time is 3am and/or RTW CTD ( ) after hours of hard work.

Hey, good catch, todorp! I can't believe I hadn't thought to ask about that myself.

[econ21]

Will we have a SAVE between battles as we had it in MTW?

Why should we not have that feature? We have it in RTW.

[Sarmatian]

This is not so important, but will there be illogical traits again?
Same person being spartan and glutton, or extremely loyal and flexible?