Multiplayer blog is up

[TB666]

http://totalwardev.blogspot.com/
Enjoy

[Sun of Chersonesos]

oo thanks

[Sun of Chersonesos]

interesting, a lot of secrets revealed about multiplayer there, much more balanced, host has control so no more max 6 unit type or whatever, i also like the look of those scenario's

[Spino]

Blobbing officially defined!

For those that responded to the last blog and were a little confused about blobbing definitions, the only issue I see with blobbing is that currently you can place one of your units on top of another of your units for combat advantage. We have done all we can to ensure that when a number of units are located on top of one another they are penalized and fight poorly. This is done through mechanics not combat modifiers and looks and feels very realistic and more importantly, balanced. Unit’s will be able to move on top of each other to ensure they can move through tight squeezes but they won’t be able to fight effectively when they do so.

[Furious Mental]

"We have done all we can to ensure that when a number of units are located on top of one another they are penalized and fight poorly."

Interesting

[econ21]

Well, according to my reading of the blog, blobbing seems to have two definitions - stacking one unit on-top of another to make a blob with no disadvantages; and massing cavalry together in a group (blob) to throw against the enemy. Neither apparently is going to pay off in M2TW, which is good news and progress over RTW.

I've never tried multiplayer, but some of the changes from RTW mentioned sound welcome from a single player perspective: e.g. making cavalry dependent on the charge, increasing their vulnerability to missiles and nerfing the Cantabrian circle a little.

[Puzz3D]

It sounds great. That's an interesting solution to the gamespeed issue that retains the fast gameplay for those that want it. If the fatigue and morale levels are well chosen, I would expect many former multiplayers to return to online play.

[Tamur]

This is done through mechanics not combat modifiers...

Not only a solution but a realistic one! Excellent, this is hopeful news.

[Basileus]

Goods news, i wont get my hopes up though need to try it first.

[econ21]

That's an interesting solution to the gamespeed issue that retains the fast gameplay for those that want it.

Crikey, I don't want to rain on your parade when you are making a rare upbeat post, but are you sure there is a solution to the gamespeed issue in the blog? I totally missed it on the first reading, read your post and went back - all I can find is a reference to four unit size settings, with the larger ones taking longer to play. But it's by no means obvious that a larger a unit size will be associated with slower movement speeds or kill rates. A larger unit size will lead to a longer game just because there is more to kill.

Or am I missing something here?

[x-dANGEr]

Anxious.. TOo damn anxious..

Though, am worried about the unit size thing..

[CBR]

Well, they certainly have worked and thought more about MP for M2TW so that is good. The added max unit stuff is something I dont like though as its not needed for the 10K that they have balanced the game for.

With the unit sizes I have seen in screenshots, large and huge setting is gonna be off limit for 4v4 games anyway: huge will be impossible and large only for uber high end pc's.


CBR

[ChewieTobbacca]

The added amx unit stuff is good though to prevent people who like to spam certain units that are very powerful if money isn't an issue

[CBR]

Yes but if money isnt the issue the game isnt going to be balanced anyway. Some faction will always have the most powerful unit, leaving the other factions with upgrading weaker units. Max 4 did not save MTW from being unbalanced because of that. Having no max just makes the unbalance more obvious but its still there.


CBR

[Nobunaga]

happy days

[Guillaume le Batard]

"This is done through mechanics not combat modifiers... "

Not only a solution but a realistic one! Excellent, this is hopeful news.

Can anyone help me out, and explain to me what the difference between mechanics and modifiers is, and why this is a good thing?

Guillaume

[CBR]

Can anyone help me out, and explain to me what the difference between mechanics and modifiers is, and why this is a good thing?

Guillaume

I guess he means that by modifier its done in an artificial way by giving units a a negative combat modifier. By mechanic its done by say making soldiers move out and not fight at all or something similar. The modifier is a direct (but more abstract) way of doing it and the mechanic is an indirect way trying to achieve the same result and in this case he sees the mechanic as the best way.


CBR

[DukeofSerbia]

Elephants for Timurids look good.

Cavalry Balance: No longer is there a need to cap cavalry, they kill on the charge but when they stop they are easy targets. Like infantry they cannot be selected and moved as an indestructible mass ”blob”. If you find your cavalry surrounded by enemy units and try and get out of there - bad luck, you are just too big to be missed, even peasants will thrust at your mount. Best of all missiles love cavalry, such big juicy targets, how can you miss.

Peasants/Serfs can't beat knights in any situation in open battle (except if is not in marche).

[screwtype]

Crikey, I don't want to rain on your parade when you are making a rare upbeat post, but are you sure there is a solution to the gamespeed issue in the blog? I totally missed it on the first reading, read your post and went back - all I can find is a reference to four unit size settings, with the larger ones taking longer to play. But it's by no means obvious that a larger a unit size will be associated with slower movement speeds or kill rates. A larger unit size will lead to a longer game just because there is more to kill.

Or am I missing something here?

Yes, it's hard to interpret what that paragraph means. Actually, I'm rather concerned that it says the "RTW speed" will be in there at all - because the standard RTW speed is a farce in my view. And if the only thing that is there to give you more time to react is more soldiers to kill, this sounds like very bad news indeed.

And even if combat *is* slower with larger unit sizes - which seems doubtful when I think about it - then it's still no consolation for people with lower spec machines who can't play using the bigger unit sizes.

[Orb]

Atrocious punctuation from CA. "era's" indeed.

That said, I'm optimistic about most of the things.

[CBR]

I remember one CA dev (in early RTW days) telling people just to use larger unit size if they thought killing speed was too high. I guess that opinion has not changed.


CBR

[Sun of Chersonesos]

Anxious.. TOo damn anxious..

Though, am worried about the unit size thing..

i agree, it said that something like the small size was a bit larger than RTW's medium, in which case it's not necessarily small and i cant imagine what these huge will be like.

[CeltiberoMordred]

If half of this stuff is true, it will be worth coming back to multiplayer :).

I miss they don't tell anything about max. number of players (6/8), nor if we can play against same faction (French Vs French).

I will wait for those fatigue and morale modifiers, but overall they are very good news.

[Bob the Insane]

Peasants/Serfs can't beat knights in any situation in open battle (except if is not in marche).

I am sure the the lone knight surrounded by a 100 or so angry peasants with pitch forks would not be too quick to agree with you there...

I think it would be only right that the best unit used poorly would/should be vunerable to even the worst unit used correctly...

[CeltiberoMordred]

A standing horse is easy to kill as well...

[screwtype]

I remember one CA dev (in early RTW days) telling people just to use larger unit size if they thought killing speed was too high. I guess that opinion has not changed.


CBR

I'm afraid you're right. After all the hype, it sounds from this blog as though they have well and truly abandoned their original fanbase in favour of the RTS paradigm.

I hope that's not the case, but that's what this sounds like to me.

Which means that once again we would have to rely on the modders to try and find kludgy fixes to the ridiculous game speed. If that's how things turn out, I may finally have to part company with the TW series.

[Monarch]

Dam, I was thinking I'd get this on mid range settings, but I now I know small unit size is same as normal on rome, I guess that just dropped to low :/

Apart from that, this blog has made my day. Especially info abou maknig the annoying game unbalancing upgrades less useful.

[Bob the Insane]

I think the kill speed will have slowed down, at least a little. Otherwise there would be no time to complete those fancy new animations and kill moves...

[t1master]

just need the demo to see how the battles play out....

did they mention anything about the lobby and being able to make sense of the chat, both in game and in the lobby.

i think a few more old timers would have stuck around if chat was more userfriendly in rtw...

[Monarch]

I think old timers would work out how to press t for chat mate ;)

I think it was more the game they where put off by, not the chat system ;)