First impressions on mp

[Lusted]

First off whilst i may have been playing the series since STw, i have only been playing mp since Rome.

I hated RTW mp due to the uber units, and ultra-fast routing.

Now i just played my first M2TW mp game. 10000 each, me as England, them as France. We both choose balanced armies, mine a mix of billmen, longbowmen and some knights, his a mix of dimsounted knights, noble cavalry, pikemen and cannons. I loose narrowly, i suffer 96% casualties, my opponent 86%, the deciding point of the battle was a long melee in the middle between my infantry and his before his superior cavalry made the difference. Battles last a long time, movement speeds are very good as well.

From my first impression i would say that mp is MUCH better than RTWs.

[Puzz3D]

I loose narrowly, i suffer 96% casualties, my opponent 86%, the deciding point of the battle was a long melee in the middle between my infantry and his before his superior cavalry made the difference.

Such high casualties suggest the gameplay is now a battle of attrition. In the last Samurai Wars 3v3 MP battle for MTW/VI which was very closely fought the total losses for each player were:

Winners: 68%, 67%, 84%
Losers: 86%, 88%, 81%

[Lusted]

They are indeed, his higher quality infantry gave him the edge in the battle, and because our armies were well balanced it was basically just grnd each other down. If my cavalry hadn't been killed by his so early on i could have sued them to flank. Instead thats what he did with his, cavalry may be less powerful than in RTw, but they are still battle deciders.

[|Heerbann|_Di3Hard]

We played too MP. Our clan impressions:

- The battles are much better than in RTW (speed and unit behavior )

- Elefants are too strong. They destroyed 5 or 6 units. Very annoying.

- 3vs3 was impossible. Has had anyone other experience? At least 3vs3 lagfree is mandatory needed.

- We missed the exhaustions bars and the units exhaust too slowly. I had one unit, that marched over the half battlefield, was fighting until only 6men left and they was still fresh o_O

- In my opinion there are too less maps.

Something about the unit selection. If one team has already a faction the other cannot choose it or the game cannot be started. Why they don't remove these faction from the panel?

[Puzz3D]

They are indeed, his higher quality infantry gave him the edge in the battle, and because our armies were well balanced it was basically just grnd each other down.

This type of gameplay will not bring back the STW community. Also, it doesn't appear that those factions are balanced if he had the better infantry and the better cavalry. Since factions cannot be chosen by more than one player, it's important to have balanced factions. In STW all factions are the same, and in MTW factions can be chosen more than once.

[Lusted]

He had the better infantry because he chose more high quality infatry than i did. The factionas are all pretty well balanced, i just went more for numbers in my selection instead of quality.

[Espionage]

Just had my first match against somebody who picked the French vs my English. This is my first ever multiplayer game with the total war series, and I'm bloody impressed. Perfect sync, almost thought I was playing off-line.

And a nice victory to boot ; )

[Orda Khan]

We played too MP. Our clan impressions:

- The battles are much better than in RTW (speed and unit behavior )

- Elefants are too strong. They destroyed 5 or 6 units. Very annoying.

- 3vs3 was impossible. Has had anyone other experience? At least 3vs3 lagfree is mandatory needed.

- We missed the exhaustions bars and the units exhaust too slowly. I had one unit, that marched over the half battlefield, was fighting until only 6men left and they was still fresh o_O

- In my opinion there are too less maps.

Something about the unit selection. If one team has already a faction the other cannot choose it or the game cannot be started. Why they don't remove these faction from the panel?

Some disappointing issues here........
I suspected 3v3 would be hard or impossible. Sorry that is not good enough to bring back old players. Clan challenges at 2v2??

Still fresh after a long march and a long fight? Can't say that sounds promising either.

Back to the one player one faction nonsense? That was fixed in MTW and appeared again in RTW.....and it is STILL the same. So if we want a faction v faction team battle we are screwed. WOW, fantastic news

........Orda

[x-dANGEr]

Any news about Athlon XP compatibility issues?

[NihilisticCow]

Athlon XP's lag badly online... works fine single player, but at a total crawl online... Not sure if there's anything to try except replacing processor, motherboard etc.

[Monarch]

I had a 2v2 and everyone got into game pretty quickly, and yet it still lagged like hell. :(

[Spartanian]

ati x1950xtx
amd 5000 dc
2gig ram..........and cant play 2v2 without lag..not to mention a 3v3 or 4v4..
When i see some guys host a 4v4 i just cant believe that they can play that..
I tried all settings but allwys lag,when its moore then 4000 units

maybe a amd issue???anyone got the same prob ??

[|Heerbann|_Di3Hard]

Still fresh after a long march and a long fight? Can't say that sounds promising either.

We played again this evening. Now the exhaustion was okay. Yesterday we played over Hamachi and LAN. Maybe there are other values. That makes hope.

[t1master]

how is the chat? can you easily highlight your friends/clan and have a nice private chat??? i don't expect the throwback to shoggy, but mtw:vi had a fully functional chat lobby. is it the same confusion that rome is/was????

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

MP might not be bad from what I hear from here and other places, though I will have to try it for myself when MTW2 comes out here in the US Monday or Tuesday then..

[Motep]

wow...sounds pretty good...ive never played multiplayer...beacause i do not know how...how do i play multiplayer?

[x-dANGEr]

Athlon XP's lag badly online... works fine single player, but at a total crawl online... Not sure if there's anything to try except replacing processor, motherboard etc.

I can't see the reason of that.. If the game doesn't lag in SP, it has no reason to lag in MP, except of bandwidth problems, of which you're confiriming that they aren't the problem..

[hoetje]

PLayed my first ever mp-battle in a total war game,a 3v3

It was a very close defeat,(enemy had 30 men left :s),but it lagged quite a bit.Wait a minute,you guys are saying there can't be two HRE's in one battle?
I did it yesterday

[Orda Khan]

Wait a minute,you guys are saying there can't be two HRE's in one battle?
I did it yesterday

Can you expand on this please hoetje? It was one of the best fixes in MTW when more than one player could select the same faction. RTW MP would not allow this, yet it was possible to create an historical battle and field more than one army per faction. If CA have fixed this for MP it is great news.

How bad was the lag in the 3v3? Was it considerably worse than the lag people are reporting even in 2v2?

I am a bit concerned by the initial comments on battles, victory seems to be very marginal with losses very close on both sides. Could it be the case that battles have become too attritional? I would not want to see battles decided by only a few men standing at the end.

Has anyone tried XP Athlon v Intel to check how that runs?

......Orda

[Monarch]

I can't see the reason of that.. If the game doesn't lag in SP, it has no reason to lag in MP, except of bandwidth problems, of which you're confiriming that they aren't the problem..

Err, it does have more reason to lag. I don't lag at all in sp, but do mp. My internets a decent broadband setup, besides I would have lagged badly in rome if its internet related.

[tibilicus]

The game play is much improved. If you STW players don't want to come back due to niggles in the lobby your choice.

But it is a greater improvment to RTW. I never played STW online can't say. But instead of listening to other people get in the lobby and try it yourself m8's.

Tib

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

The game play is much improved. If you STW players don't want to come back due to niggles in the lobby your choice.

But it is a greater improvment to RTW. I never played STW online can't say. But instead of listening to other people get in the lobby and try it yourself m8's.

Tib

I wasted my money with RTW, and worse, I wasted quite a bit of time.
I can probably live with a bad lobby if the gameplay is good. Just better than RTW is not good enough, I want at least as good as MTW/VI 2.01.

Part of gameplay being good are:
- being able to play 3v3 or 4v4 without lag
- good balance
- good speed so that it's a tactical game, not a lump it all mass click fest

Unfortunately, there is no chance that the two latter can be assessed properly until a couple of months, minimum. Until then, I'll read what you write and have fun playing other games...

(and when January comes, EU3 will be out... so maybe I just pass alltogether anyway)

Louis,

[LadyAnn]

We played too MP. Our clan impressions:

- The battles are much better than in RTW (speed and unit behavior )

- Elefants are too strong. They destroyed 5 or 6 units. Very annoying.

- 3vs3 was impossible. Has had anyone other experience? At least 3vs3 lagfree is mandatory needed.

- We missed the exhaustions bars and the units exhaust too slowly. I had one unit, that marched over the half battlefield, was fighting until only 6men left and they was still fresh o_O

- In my opinion there are too less maps.

Something about the unit selection. If one team has already a faction the other cannot choose it or the game cannot be started. Why they don't remove these faction from the panel?

It is early too say any unit is too strong. I am sure by the time i could play M2TW, my Elephant Corp will easily be destroyed. :)

Not only 3x3, 4x4 is a must.

Hmmmm deja vu? In RTW, it was the same until a patch, that once a faction is chosen, it cannot be chosen again. This must be fixed.

Anniep

[LadyAnn]

Err, it does have more reason to lag. I don't lag at all in sp, but do mp. My internets a decent broadband setup, besides I would have lagged badly in rome if its internet related.

Yes, In SP, you have only 1 computer to worry about: your own. In MP, like in the real army, the march is of the slowest. Also, in MP, we have to syncrhonize between players.

Anniep

[tibilicus]

The lobby lag can be explained quite simply. Like most games when a lobby goes up there always laggy/annoyng for a few days. No doubt this will chnage soon

Tib

[Puzz3D]

The game play is much improved. If you STW players don't want to come back due to niggles in the lobby your choice.

I expect CA to maintain the standard of play they set with the first game. It would be to the benefit of all the players if CA did that.

But it is a greater improvment to RTW. I never played STW online can't say. But instead of listening to other people get in the lobby and try it yourself m8's.

Better than RTW isn't good enough. It's already clear that M2TW MP is not up to the standard set by STW. I know a lot of vets that have left Total War MP, and I have too much respect for their intelligence to suggest that they play an inferior game.

[Cheetah]

Back to the one player one faction nonsense? ........Orda

BI works the same way (one player one faction) and it works well. Basically it is forcing the players to play with different faction and to find factions that work well together. Lot more factions are played this way.

[Cheetah]

This type of gameplay will not bring back the STW community. Also, it doesn't appear that those factions are balanced if he had the better infantry and the better cavalry. Since factions cannot be chosen by more than one player, it's important to have balanced factions. In STW all factions are the same, and in MTW factions can be chosen more than once.

We dont know as yet whether MTW2 factions are balenced or not. It seems though that there are similar factions like: Milanese/Venicians, Hungary/Poland, perhaps even more.

Also, there were many battles in MTW which ended in a war of attrition dozens of tired men slugging out in a true last man standing situation. I even remember that once we had to chase out one, yes one man that was still fighting in a 4v4 to get victory!!!
IMO this kind of situation is expectable with infantry heavy armies led by equal generals. The problem starts when mistakes cannot be punished and the player who makes these mistakes cannot be chainrouted. However, we do not this as yet.

[tibilicus]

I expect CA to maintain the standard of play they set with the first game. It would be to the benefit of all the players if CA did that.


Better than RTW isn't good enough. It's already clear that M2TW MP is not up to the standard set by STW. I know a lot of vets that have left Total War MP, and I have too much respect for their intelligence to suggest that they play an inferior game.

Well m8 some times you just got to live with things. I for one am not a particuarlar fan of CA. RTW was awful agreed but you might have to live with the fact we may never return to those days. It's their choice give it a wirl see if they like it or go by third hand opinions.


Tib

[Monarch]

Better than RTW isn't good enough. It's already clear that M2TW MP is not up to the standard set by STW. I know a lot of vets that have left Total War MP, and I have too much respect for their intelligence to suggest that they play an inferior game.

Shogun had like 12 units in the whole game, M2TW has over 100, factions with all different units. I think one man and his dog could balance the amount of units shogun has. You shouldn't be comparing M2 to Shogun because Shogun isn't even 100th of the scale that Medieval 2 is.

I'm not saying Shoguns not good, I never played it however I'm just saying its very unfair comparing to two. Also, I am one of those people who likes variety in their games, different factions, different units, different strategies, Shogun seems to not have much variation. I wouldn't usually say that because I've not played the game but since you're judging M2 without playing it I guess fairs fair.

"I expect CA to maintain the standard of play they set with the first game. It would be to the benefit of all the players if CA did that."

Please clarify this point, I don't really understand it properly