Demo impressions and discussion (everyone please post here)

[the_mango55]

It doesn't make any sense...

I used auto-detect, the game placed the settings to medium, and I did Hastings.

LAG! Disgustingly putrid lag. I have above-average requirements, I play on medium performance, and yet I lag! Someone explain this!

Well I faced the lag. I played Pavia, didn't use a lick of strategy, and still won. The old CTRL-A right click strategy still seems effective here...

The demo is heavily scripted, the enemy comes in waves instead of all at once, it is made so that people can feel challenged but still win.

Plus it is an old build, you will notice that it is one of the newer blogs where they claim that they have done a lot of work on "blobbing" or whatever they call it, and they claim to have done said work "this week". Considering this demo was made over a month ago, this feature will not have been included.

[ChewieTobbacca]

Got my issue today and played around....

First off, one can eliminate a lot of lag by turning off shadows completely. I turned it off and voila!, game runs smooth as butter on high settings with a P4 3.0Ghz GeForce 6600 255mb vid card and 1gig RAM.

Next... one can use the Minimal UI to make it MTW/STW style. Very very nice and useful.

Kill rates and unit speeds are pretty good from what I have seen - units don't move too fast and kill rates aren't bad when one plays with a more even field (as in Pavia). Will get more when I play more...

[player1]

Just browsing around some of the demo files, and I Found this in the preference folder:

[multiplayer]
hotseat_autoresolve_battles = 0
hotseat_disable_console = 1
hotseat_disable_papal_elections = 0
hotseat_save_prefs = 0
hotseat_update_ai_camera = 0
hotseat_validate_diplomacy = 1

A multiplayer campaign?

I hope this means that hotseat MP is possible.
After all, that is very simple type of MP to make (no synchornized moves, no network code, etc...).

[Polemists]

I agree that this is scripted. However I tried ctrl-a and lost quite a few times. Though i've heard diff reports from diff people. I think i've played Pavai now 9 times and won 3, so i'm like 1 for 3 :). haha.

I also agree that while a great game I'm pretty sure CA has improved it greatly.

Lastly I'm sure even though the demo is fun and the game good I'm sure some people will find some aspect to complain about if they really want to but all in all great demo great game ahead, I personally won't need any mods :) (well maybe a time one, i like years over turns)

[Dave1984]

I'm running a well above average rig and the game just looks stunning, although oddly I experienced some lag on Hastings.
However after removing the grass (I'm not a fan of grass that appears in clumps and criss-cross lines anyway) I didn't have any trouble at all, apart from in the cases where the flags seemed to stutter a little.
I seem to remember the Rome demo having a similar problem, though- is this just because the game hasn't been optimised yet (which I believe they do last?).

As for the game itself, I was impressed. It seemed a little clunky to begin with and the older sounding chap who did the battle intros sounded like my old Egyptology lecturer at uni, prompting me to skip the intos completely.

However the speed appears to have been slowed down noticeably- having needed to press pause alot in RTW, it was a refreshing change to only need to press pause to examine the troops and textures.
I tried using all the graphical settings and have to say that even on medium the detail and the look was more than good enough.
It all seemed darker, grittier and more adult than the bright colours of Rome, which I welcome entirely, and certainly the dark clouds of Agincourt and the beautiful sunrise of Pavia added a whole new dimension to the atmosphere.

The much-hyped 'finishing moves' were subtle enough and varied enough to avoid turning it into something arcadey, although I did notice one of them involved the foot knight spinning around to deliver the blow, something which makes me wince whenever I see it. Perhaps they should modify it so that in attempting to do so, the perpetrator gets stabbed in the back or side.
I was happy to see some injured men crawling away from the melee, and standing back a little the ebb and flow looked satisfyingly brutal and natural.
I was interested to see the clothing and armour of troops become splattered with mud and blood, although on the mounted knights especially the blood reminded me of the fire effect on troops in RTW.

I can't really comment on the AI as a result of the scripting, although in one case at Pavia my flank was turned quite effectively with a feigned pike assault on the right, only for Gendarmes to burst from the trees on the left.
On the other hand, a unit of French Heavy infantry tried chasing my general all over the field unsupported and increasingly isolated.
After the initial assaults which I feel where the scripted ones the other French attacks that were reacting to my movements tended to be well executed and troops well supported by each other.

The use of the stakes at Agincourt was interesting- no knights have as yet managed to charge into them, but that isn't really the point- they avoid them, and thus avoid the archers, which is. Some foot troops did attempt to pick their way through them but their formation was so dispersed when they reached the other side that they were torn apart by the billmen I had ordered forward to wait for them.

The movement speed and killing rates do seem to have been decreased and, as mentioned, even when it got hectic I was never forced to use the pause button. There was always plenty of time to assess the situation, and "holding" a unit by engaging it with another worked for far longer than in RTW.

The sounds themselves were fine. The music didn't particularly stand out for me although I did use Vercingetorix's idx extractor to unpack the sound files and noticed that several of the generic soldier sounds were RTW names- EQUITE17, for example, or HASTATI09.

I'm heartened by this demo, and, bearing in mind the game should have been fine tuned since this, I'm now very excited.

[screwtype]

Just browsing around some of the demo files, and I Found this in the preference folder:

[multiplayer]
hotseat_autoresolve_battles = 0
hotseat_disable_console = 1
hotseat_disable_papal_elections = 0
hotseat_save_prefs = 0
hotseat_update_ai_camera = 0
hotseat_validate_diplomacy = 1

A multiplayer campaign?

A hotseat MP campaign would be a very nice feature IMO. It's one I requested ages ago at the .com.

[screwtype]

...

[|Heerbann|_Di3Hard]

What's SSE2?

It is a CPU extension developed by Intel. The AMD socket A CPUs don't have it ( 32Bit AMD proccessors). And I have the last version of that CPU

[screwtype]

It is a CPU extension developed by Intel. The AMD socket A CPUs don't have it ( 32Bit AMD proccessors). And I have the last version of that CPU

Yeah, somebody asked the same question earlier in the thread and got a reply, so I deleted the question.

Thanks for the answer though. I have a 64 bit AMD so hopefully the game will work for me...

[Ringeck]

My main problem will probably be the graphics card. Anyone tested it with Gainward Geforce FC5700 256DDR? I think I'll need an upgrade anyway.

[Ituralde]

Before I write my impressions from the demo I just wanted to give my rig, as I was afraid I wouldn't be able to run M2:TW.
Pentium 4, 2,66 GHz
1024 MB RAM
Nvidia Geforce4 Ti4200

I ran it on medium settings and everything was smooth as hell. Looked ugly too, especially the units with bad textures and all blurry. So I manually changed those settings and it looks and plays nice now. Good that I can put off my computer upgrade a little longer and not have M2:TW force me to do it.

Cheers!

Ituralde

[Denali]

The demo looks pretty cool so far imo.
In bi/rtw only a very few units had the "anti-armour" ability, in mtw2 itll be ofc much more like mtw, lots of units are strong against armoured units.

The movement speed looks pretty good 2 to me, not too fast but not too slow either.
I cant really say much about the AI, Agincourt is completely scripted. I tried to test the AI, i left the start positions you have by the stakes and withdrawed about 100 meters back and took a hill but it didnt really work , cause the AI just followed my straight away... too much scripts..

Pavia was better, after the cav-charge at the beginning there were only a few scripts, eg the art the cav that pulled back after the reinforcement arrived. I faced Spearmen and when i tried to flank them with my general-cav-unit they turned around and faced me so that i couldnt charge them. Pretty cool.

But the demo is not made for TW vets, there isnt even a possibility to play a custom battle, a real pity

I play on highest details (Athlon 64 3500+, Geforce 7800 GT and 2048 MB RAM and the graphics are just wonderfull, same with the animations, everything is so smoothly and fluent, ive never seen this before in a strategy game.

If their are some cool MP-Features like friendlist, decent block buttons that actually work and no more crappy gs servers and most of all a good balance and a great gameplay like mtw this game will be a hit :P

[Maizel]

It doesn't make any sense...

I used auto-detect, the game placed the settings to medium, and I did Hastings.

LAG! Disgustingly putrid lag. I have above-average requirements, I play on medium performance, and yet I lag! Someone explain this!

Well I faced the lag. I played Pavia, didn't use a lick of strategy, and still won. The old CTRL-A right click strategy still seems effective here...

Try a video driver update

and make sure your graphic cards support the thingie version 2 feature (pixel shader?- I forgoit, can't be bothered to look) otherwise set it to 1.0.

[Fenix7]

Is it becaus I don't have the newest drivers for Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb or it is becaus of the graphic card, but I do get a blank screen and ''no signal'' warning.

I can access into the game and even run the tutorial but then that message.

[Ibn Munqidh]

Ive played it, on all highest settings, the graphics were great, and the combat. The kill rates are slightly down, but not much, as are the movement speeds. The coats of arms and non-clone armies are the best feature, I never thought I would notice them that much, but they are really a good feature.

The thing that I didnt like, is the cavalry. As I expected, they are underpowered, where they should have been better than in Rome (the stirrup thing). In Pavia, I charged the french forces coming to my right, not the pikemen, but the dismounted knights, with my heavy general's bodyguard, and sustained heavy causualties, whereas such a charge should have mowed those infantry. I really hope this is fixed.

[shootfast]

Great so far.

Best bit was when the French cannons in pavia took out their own KING! Thats pretty much won the battle for me or lost it for the french.

Also more I play, more it looks more like the BKB super mod.

[Ituralde]

Played the Battle of Pavia 5 times now as it really offers some challenges and options instead of just having to sit there and wait as was the case with the Agincourt battle. I won four times the last one was even a close victory although their general died on my landsknechts in the first assault, I kind of took it too easy from then on and typed something in the forum too while playing so I lost a lot of men.
The one time I didn't win I scored a Draw, I think because the time ran out on me. Saved me, I guess, since I was down to my Generals Bodyguard, while the French still had roughly 30 Gendarmes and their General on the field.

I really like the demo, first off because it helped me see whether my system would be able to run Medieval 2 and I'm surprised that it does so well.
The battles are a lot of fun to play and the feeling is much better as it was with the Rome Demo. Still my soldiers sometimes don't really obey my orders or kind of hesitat a moment before reacting on them, which is a bit annoying. Also my Arquebusiers seem to slip out of my control from time to time.

Kill ratio and morale are at a nice level once again, which had me surprised in my first Pavia battle where I was counting on fast routing of the enemies but instead got pinned and flanked by the advancing French forces. So the AI, when not scripted acts well on its own. I often got caugth off guard by some cavalry unit that I overlooked and which consequently attacked my weak spots. It was also nice to see that Landsknechts are only capable of killing cavalry, anything else attacks them and they're torn to shreds and I'm not even speaking about missile fire.

The only thing that I noticed and really bugged me is the fact that the shortcuts for formations don't seem to work. No matter how often I press shift + 1 they just won't move into a single line. Those were the only times I had to pause then, because I had to bring up the interface with the formations and select them there. Besides that the speed of the game is good. Slow enough for tactical decisions but still fast enough to not get boring. Although the Battle always threw enemies at you from the very beginning, so I guess a usual battle should play out a little slower still.

Well, that's all for now.

Cheers!

Ituralde

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

In Pavia, I charged the french forces coming to my right, not the pikemen, but the dismounted knights, with my heavy general's bodyguard, and sustained heavy causualties, whereas such a charge should have mowed those infantry. I really hope this is fixed.

The dismounted knights are very heavy infantry with polearms, they should trash an unsupported cavalry charge. Cavalry in Rome was waaaaaay overpowered anyway, so I'm pleased at this development.

[SpencerH]

I seem to be running into this problem from the readme:

VIDEO ISSUES

Monitor Display

Monitor display goes black when the game resolution is set to a value
that the monitor cannot display. The game can only detect the video
modes supported by the graphics card not the monitor. Should you find
you have set the resolution and cannot run the demo, in order to reset
the resolution open the medieval2.preference.cfg file found in the
demo installation directory in a text editor.

Change the following lines to match below:

battle_resolution = 1024 768


Excuse me, but my monitor can handle more than 1024 x 768!

Also when I open the medieval2.preference.cfg file all I have is this

[video]
widescreen=0


shouldnt there be more, or do I add the line (rather than change it) ?

BTW I tried the auto detect settings and my video setting are on medium

Any thoughts?

[Kourutsu]

Try a video driver update

and make sure your graphic cards support the thingie version 2 feature (pixel shader?- I forgoit, can't be bothered to look) otherwise set it to 1.0.

How does one update a video driver?

And my card is a Radeon X600.

I hope this all comes out good in the end, if not, its off to buy World of Warcraft...AND I WANT TO KEEP MY SOUL!

[BaldwinIV]

The demo looks great! I played all battles and the new stuff in MTW 2 is even better than I expected!
I was also surprised that the game runs not bad on my computer even on high graphic details.
My PC:
CPU - Intel Celeron 2.66 GHz
Memory - 512 MB RAM
Video Card - A 9550 GE, 256 MB
I'll buy another 512 MB RAM and a big Hard disc.

[doc_bean]

How does one update a video driver?

And my card is a Radeon X600.

I hope this all comes out good in the end, if not, its off to buy World of Warcraft...AND I WANT TO KEEP MY SOUL!

go to the ati website (google ati or something) go to drivers (possibly support) download the latest cataclyst drivers, have fun.

[R'as al Ghul]

I seem to be running into this problem from the readme:
Change the following lines to match below:
battle_resolution = 1024 768
Also when I open the medieval2.preference.cfg file all I have is this
[video]
widescreen=0

shouldnt there be more, or do I add the line (rather than change it) ?
Any thoughts?

Try to do a search for "battle_resolution" in the demo folder. If that doesn't return anything I'd just add the line and try to run a battle.
If it works with the added line you can work your way up by editing the line to the next logical value.
Disclaimer: I can't run the demo.

[drone]

I can't run the demo either (older Athlon), but I might want to look through the files to get a feel for the moddability when the demo is legal to download. Is it possible to change the valour settings for the units in the demo? I would assume so, and this might give a better feel for the kill rates.

[Fenix7]

Driver update for Radeon or Nvidia will do the trick. I've solved my problem that way.

Ok, about the demo. I don't have anything to say against graphics. They are marvelous, but let's focus to the game engine.

Cavalry charges head on, on heavy infantry units are nothing but insanity. This is ok, but they are dying a bit quickly.

Secondly it seems to me that when units are not supported well are routing pretty easily. This is ok as well.

Melee battles. They seem a bit fast to me, but won't claim anything atm. I wrote this after playing the demo for 20 minutes and now I'm rushing to work, so this is very rough and biased description of the demo.

The main thing which have pleasently surprised me is that I don't have any lag even on medium settings despite I have ''only'' Pentium 4 2,6 ghz, 1024 mb and radeon 9600 pro 128 mb.

[Dave1984]

Driver update for Radeon or Nvidia will do the trick. I've solved my problem that way.

Absolutely, I was pretty concerned when I booted it up the first time and was getting a fair bit of lag, esp. on my system but after I updated my drivers it plays on the highest settings as smooth as my baby son's cheeks.

[SpencerH]

Try to do a search for "battle_resolution" in the demo folder. If that doesn't return anything I'd just add the line and try to run a battle.
If it works with the added line you can work your way up by editing the line to the next logical value.
Disclaimer: I can't run the demo.

The file is easy to find, its just that it doesnt contain any info (aside from the "widescreen = 0". Adding the line "battle_resolution = 1024 768" does nothing (except give me another major crash - number 6 or 7 so far).

Maybe someone with a working version can look in the medieval2.preference.cfg file and see what they have there.

[SpencerH]

As it turns out you MUST HAVE the most recent drivers for the Radeon 9800 for the cfg file to be properly set up. Now to see if it works !!

[Orda Khan]

So CA have decided to make a game that supports only Intel CPU's and newer AMD? Nobody minds adding some RAM or even, perhaps, a Graphics card.

Solution.......New PC? Spend loads of money that should be directed to better use? Only to find that MTW II is a bit of a let down?
Maybe I'll buy it in a year or two, when I can justify spending the money....and when possibly my PC meets the requirements.

Or I can hope this SSE2 issue is confined to the demo and not the game. Answers to this question is what I think we all need. I could care less what the demo is like, we can all pretty much work that out

......Orda

[SpencerH]

I only played the tutorial so far, does it seem dark to anyone else?