Launcher Poll Results

[Wikiman]

One other thing to keep in mind is that the people who voted on this poll are those who had downloaded the leaked 1.2 patch and thus are much more likely to be STW-playing TW addicts than the general populace...

Only about 1000 of each set of poll responses are from the leaked 1.2.

-wikiman

[sapi]

1000?

That's far less than I expected, but I stand corrected

I guess in looking for a way to make sense of some of those results I got a [s]little bit[/b] confused

6k seems a bit few to be currently running the game, or at least that's what I thought; it'll be interesting to see if that number increases as magazines put the patch on their cover discs to help those who aren't on broadband....

[crpcarrot]

like i said earlier before you pass judgement about the vets maybe you should consider that some of us have changed out mind. if this question was asked before M2 before RTW1.2 how different would the polls be.

also the questions kept repeating . must have answered the same question 3 times just to see if i'll get one i didnt get before. it seemed to be skipping randomly. also consider there will be players still playing STQ,MTW & RTW who dont even have M2TW. none of them are included in this poll.

this poll is only a poll of M2TW player not the whole TW fanbase

[Didz]

also the questions kept repeating . must have answered the same question 3 times just to see if i'll get one i didnt get before.

I noticed that.

It seems to ask the same questions, sometimes immediately after you just Voted, and then throws in a random new one you have never seen before.

Also, even when it says its finished you can still carry on voting as it just seems to loop through a random selection of questions. Not sure if its actually logging these repeated votes, but if it is, then it must be screwing the stats.

I must have voted on some questions five or six times.

[crpcarrot]

looking at the fll list i voted on some multiple times and some i never even saw

[TinCow]

6k seems a bit few to be currently running the game, or at least that's what I thought; it'll be interesting to see if that number increases as magazines put the patch on their cover discs to help those who aren't on broadband....

Keep in mind that not everyone who has the patch clicks on the polls. I personally have never done so.

[pike master]

so i take it that the poll will be updated later then after more download the patch.

i wonder what kind of fantasy total war CA has planned.8)

[Doug-Thompson]

I can see the numbers now. Thanks.

[fenir]

I updated to patch, both leaked, and offical, haven't done any poll?

Where is this poll?

fenir

[Didz]

Where is this poll?

Its an integral part of the new launcher.

[fenir]

wow that was quick response, hello Didz.

I was just talking to you in the other thread :P~

hmmm perhap i should have started the game before installing my mod back in?

Bugger.


fenir

[Didz]

Hi Fenir,

Yes I recognised the name....as for the poll I don't know if there is another means of accessing it which avoids the necessity to go through the launcher but thats where I found it.

[Jokerkaaos]

also the questions kept repeating . must have answered the same question 3 times just to see if i'll get one i didnt get before. it seemed to be skipping randomly.

Yes, I noticed this when I got the leaked patch. I voted on the same question multiple times to see if there were new ones, as they seemed to repeat randomly.

I also recall that several of the questions had NO answer that I found suitable. This is another way of using polls to get certain results. People will either skip the question or pick the one they think is closest to their true opinion.

Unless they do something a lot more scientific, I would caution CA against using these poll numbers to make any decisions at all (and I say that without even looking at the results).

[andrewt]

Another factor is that a lot more people are interested in the campaign than the battles themselves. I found Rome's tactical battles to be too arcadey and unbalanced in favor of cavalry but the campaign map was better than MTW's. It wasn't that well fleshed out because it's the first game that used that style. MTW2's campaign map is a lot more fleshed out.

I echo what others have said. I like the combination of the campaign and battles but I can't be bothered doing battles that have no effect on the campaign game.

[Foz]

Keep in mind that not everyone who has the patch clicks on the polls. I personally have never done so.

Likewise. I'm actually very impatient when it comes to launching my game, so still use the shortcut to the exe to launch my mod, which of course disables the intro movies so I don't have to blast them with ESC all the time either. When I want to play, I want to play now, not after I sit through 3 minutes of promotional material. I honestly don't need that stuff to remind me who makes the cool game I'm playing.

[[oR.osiris]]

The people that are interested in multiplayer are likely the people that play multiplayer competitively in other games. My playing partner and I play a FPS game competitively and so for us it is only natural that we would want to play multiplayer. As much fun as campaign mode might be I play this game for the feeling of beating down other people, not some AI. It is frustrating to see the multiplayer aspect of the TW series be so completely neglected. Its funny that none of the polls had a question like "Do you think that Gamespy is the worst possibly company to subcontract multiplayer connectivity to?" because I'm sure the results would be 99.95% "yes". Gamespy has been horrid in every TW game as well as in other games and I don't know how companies can keep giving them their business.

[Puzz3D]

People who didn't buy M2 don't get to vote in the pole. They certainly wouldn't vote that M2 was the best in the series because if they thought that they would have purchased it. I'm not suprised that M2 MP is only drawing 6.2% because of its current state. The lobby alone, just to mention one aspect of it, is a shadow of what it once was.

The objective of MP battles is to pit your skill against other humans individually or in team battles to see who is more skilled. That's what gives the battles meaning, but the game itself has to meet a high standard in terms of playbalance, stability and tactical depth for that objective to be achieved. At one time in the past, Total War achieved this standard. I agree that if the battle gameplay is mostly one of determining the best units then it isn't of much interest except as a novelty.

[Nelson]

The objective of MP battles is to pit your skill against other humans individually or in team battles to see who is more skilled. That's what gives the battles meaning, but the game itself has to meet a high standard in terms of playbalance, stability and tactical depth for that objective to be achieved. At one time in the past, Total War achieved this standard. I agree that if the battle gameplay is mostly one of determining the best units then it isn't of much interest except as a novelty.

If both sides in MP agreed to use the very same order of battle, wouldn't the game be decided by skill? Or is it not possible for both sides to use the same faction?

[Yun Dog]

If both sides in MP agreed to use the very same order of battle, wouldn't the game be decided by skill? Or is it not possible for both sides to use the same faction?

last time i checked both sides cant pick the same faction

this was fixed in MTWVI MP but then lost... dont know if it was in rome MP cause I walked at that point


basically MP has been downgraded to the status of a lame dog

other 'features' were nerfed also like AI opponents

[pike master]

same factions for both opponents would help considerably i think. it was a major plus in mtw/vi but rome would not allow it.

[CeltiberoMordred]

I didn't see any poll either in launcher. Is it only available for english version?

[sapi]

Does your m2tw shortcut point to medieval2.exe or launcher.exe?

[Didz]

"Do you think that Gamespy is the worst possibly company to subcontract multiplayer connectivity to?" because I'm sure the results would be 99.95% "yes". Gamespy has been horrid in every TW game as well as in other games and I don't know how companies can keep giving them their business.

Absolutely, I avoid buying any multi-player game that uses Gamespy as a rip-off agent.

Which basically means most of my multi-player expereince is either via Blizzard or PBEM.

[CeltiberoMordred]

Does your m2tw shortcut point to medieval2.exe or launcher.exe?

The shortcut aim to medieval2.exe

There isn't any file named "launcher.exe" in my M2TW folder, nor in subfolders.

I've been using both leaked 1.2 and official 1.2 patch.

Running the game from the DVD doesn't show me anything special:

[sapi]

There isn't any file named "launcher.exe" in my M2TW folder, nor in subfolders.

Are you sure that you've got the patch installed (this is probably a no-brainer, but check the options menu)?

Otherwise, it might be missing from non-english versions of the patch...

[SadCat]

My virus scanner has a fit when it hits Gamespy. So it is off the computer now. So no MP for me. SadCat

[Kobal2fr]

As much as I dislike having to admit it, Puzz3d (bitterly) makes a good point there.

Obviously, if the polling thingy requires people to 1) have bought M2TW and 2) have kept on playing it until patch 1.2 (meaning all the way through the whole period during which the game was... less than spectacular, shall we say), the results are bound to be skewed.

[CeltiberoMordred]

Are you sure that you've got the patch installed (this is probably a no-brainer, but check the options menu)?

Otherwise, it might be missing from non-english versions of the patch...

I'm pretty sure. I know every TW title, each folder structure and most of files since STW. I'm a modder and betatester of TW games, so yes, it's a bit no-brainer, but a question that should be answered. Yes. I'm using 1.2.

Never mind, we are used to miss features in non-english versions of TW games.

[TinCow]

As much as I dislike having to admit it, Puzz3d (bitterly) makes a good point there.

Obviously, if the polling thingy requires people to 1) have bought M2TW and 2) have kept on playing it until patch 1.2 (meaning all the way through the whole period during which the game was... less than spectacular, shall we say), the results are bound to be skewed.

This is a good point, but keep in mind that people who haven't played M2TW 1.2 haven't seen the game at its peak (so far). It cuts both ways. For those STW/MTW fans who never even bought the game, how can they honestly say it isn't the best?

[Kobal2fr]

I think it's a pretty safe assumption to say that the people who stormed off at the mere sight of RTW (or, god forbid, MTW/VI) because it was NOT THE SAME GAME (insert lots of expletives, punctuation, spelling errors, the works ) or MORE OF THE SAME (idem) are gone for good and probably won't come back, even for a Shogun remake (you know, because... it just wouldn't be the same. Or it would be just the same. You get the idea )

But the peeps who did like Rome, but disliked or quit playing M2TW for some reason (I myself have kept it on the shelf, waiting for the Antitrait bug to get fixed. I was counting on it by mid-2008, it's already done, right when my exams are almost over. I'm a happy French camper. /sidetrack), or those who just don't have a system good enough to run it properly etc won't influence the results, nor will they be able to express why they disliked it/what they felt was lacking, what would make them reconsider etc...

In short, it's a safe bet to say that whatever's in the game right now, the people who're still there after what, 6 months ? might just like them :)

But now I'll shut up, because the results Caliban posted suit me just fine.Yet trust on me to call it BLATANTLY UNFAIR if the MP numbers suddenly rise up when all *I* want are new campaigns, VnVs, agents, SP-friendly units etc