MTW question

[gaiusjulii]

I have been gagging to play RTW ever since it came out and only recently at great expense went and upgraded my comp and started playing RTW and lets just say its different, any better?? Personally I think of MTW and RTW as 2 seprate types of game a bit like the hobbit and LOTR . I do like the new Campaign map style but everything else well its just not Total war and the whole squaler things just sucks ass . I have been playing MTW since it was released and upgraded to VI day it was released and I have never looked back, in my eyes MTW is like a ugly Girlfirend that does everything for you, she may not look great but by god you love her.... and I have recently started playing my first ever Mod which is XL and its awesome and really sorted out some of the minor discrepencies out for me like the english channel is actually now a Barrier I love you XL

so all in all you really need to play this game. Oh and dont play Medieval without the VI its not that great and auto Manage on tax is AWFUL. MTW VI is far superior.

One more quick thing if you are really into your diplomacy then you will be disapointed as there might aswell be none In MTW thats the one thing i can say RTW did get right

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Just to add to all the great information that has been added so far - another thing that is different is the tech trees. Compared to Rome it is much more complex. Often it require more than one building to gain a unit - for example - Feudal Knights require a Royal Estate and a Armourers Workshop to create them.

Another thing worth noting is the slower speed of the battle. M:TW provides a much longer time before units route enabling one to be able to use their tactical skills against the foe prior the the battle being over.

Although, among all of the superb positives there are a a negative. On this side of the argument there is the control style. For an RTS player, such as myself, it was rather hard to get used to at first, but, on the positive side of things, I soon enough I got used to it and managed to be able coordinate my troops successfully, or at least, almost successfully! The battle tutorials helped here!

I'm quite sure that you will enjoy this old time classic Caius - I most certainly have enjoyed it much more than I have Rome, despite it's many strengths.

[Martok]

One more quick thing if you are really into your diplomacy then you will be disapointed as there might aswell be none In MTW thats the one thing i can say RTW did get right

I must repectfully diagree with you there. In my experience, diplomacy in *all* the TW games is mostly broken. Yes, Rome and Medieval 2 has more features and options, but the AI is unable to properly take advantage of them, and its actions are just as bizarre and nonsensical as in Shogun & MTW.

I'll grant you that diplomacy in Medieval 2 is a little more transparent and easier to understand, but that doesn't mean you can actually have meaningful interaction with the other factions. It should be noted that others have said they find M2's diplomacy to be quite good, so perhaps I've just been unlucky in this regard. However, I remain extremely doubtful that it's any great improvement over the first three Total War titles.

@Omanes: You raise very good points about MTW's battles -- both the good and the bad. I've found the battle pace (in terms of both movement speeds and kill speeds) to be pretty close to what I consider ideal. It's maybe just a tad slow (especially in massive battles), but I much prefer that to too fast.

You're also right about the control scheme and combat interface not being the most user-friendly. While it wasn't overly difficult for me to pick up and get used to, I also can't deny that Rome and Medieval 2 are much better in this regard -- I find their battle UI to be much more intuitive and easy to use.

[drone]

@Omanes: You raise very good points about MTW's battles -- both the good and the bad. I've found the battle pace (in terms of both movement speeds and kill speeds) to be pretty close to what I consider ideal. It's maybe just a tad slow (especially in massive battles), but I much prefer that to too fast.

On this note, the advantage goes to MTW because you get a choice. If you want the battle to go faster, you can adjust the slider bar to speed up the action. RTW did not give you the option to slow it down, so you were stuck with the 2 minute clickfest. I will give CA the benefit of the doubt here, I can imagine problems with controlled 3D graphics and animations. But the ability to choose the battle pace is nice in MTW.

[caravel]

I must repectfully diagree with you there. In my experience, diplomacy in *all* the TW games is mostly broken. Yes, Rome and Medieval 2 has more features and options, but the AI is unable to properly take advantage of them, and its actions are just as bizarre and nonsensical as in Shogun & MTW.

The RTW diplomacy is easily the most abysmal I've yet encountered. It is both inconsistent and worthless. The AI simply has no idea that it exists but appears to be working on two non communicative levels. The military machine goes about it's business while the diplomats run about trying to negotiate whatever seems to spring into their little minds. Such as the classic:

Proposal: "Please do not attack! "

Demand: "Accept or we will attack "

Literally nothing is accepted unless you add a sufficient cash bribe. In fact while the diplomats are approaching you with offers of a ceasefire, trade rights or an alliance, their armies have other ideas and are heading your way to attack one of your settlements the next turn.

[gaiusjulii]

Okay After reading the Recent comments on the Whole Diplomacy can of worms I unintentionally opened I would like to retract my Statement and Blame my Obviously wrong Ideas on lack of PLaying time In RTW which i have subsequently stopped playing to go Back to my beloved MTW WIth XL Mod Update. DUe to Boredom with RTW.... wow a whole 3 weeks Not bad lol

[Martok]

@ Cambyses: Yeah, it's as if the right hand doesn't know (or care) what the left hand is doing. It's almost as if the campaign military AI and the diplomacy AI aren't even aware of each other's existence.

@ gaiusjulii No worries. I doubt many here would blame you for having given up on Rome after only a short time.

[The Unknown Guy]

you know, I bought MTW gold instead of Rome by sheer chance, aka, my laptop being old, and MTW gold being ten € instead of the 40€ asked for Rome. It appears I got lucky... :p

All that said, I downloaded the "forever" theme from Jack Van Dyck´s page, and it´s çuite good