What we would like to see in ETW.....

[GFX707]

-The ability for the AI to actually accept peace at times that would be good for it (implied by change/merge of AI but its still a Want)

Presumably you meant "The ability for the AI to actually accept peace at times that would be good for it (and then not declare war on you again the very next turn)"

Hope that makes it a bit more clear.

[Patriote]

- Making the game a REAL turn-based game. IN RTW and M2TW, it is possible to move a little at the time to spot things or try sneaking stuff.

- Having more options like in STW and MTW when one of your territories was invaded. This way it would be possible to react to an invasion or maybe instead remain in your city and fortified it

- Reduce as much as possible micromanagement because of agents. It was fine with STW and then MTW also but the huge map of RTW and M2TW really makes this headache.

- Come back to 4 TPY system but one turn income like in STW. Was very challenging to budget your money (because fields were being taxed only in fall right) although if proven to be the case, trade could bring income every turn.

- Make commanding armies more realistic, where you virtually decided a battle plan with troops placed under subordinate commanders (not dumb ones this time please!) where it is possible to given them specific orders (eg. when signal X is given, move to point A, turn your forces facing left and envelop the enemy army's flank)

- When new order must be given to troops, use a system of couriers and reports which would take time, might be misinterpreted by the subordinate commander or even intercepted by the enemy ! No more of this god all-mighty flying all-viewing camera.

A better morale/cohesion system for units and their organization (a cohesion system such as in Waterloo, Napoleon's Last Battle would be simple and nice) Because having 100 horsemen running through 200 infantrymen without anybody being hurt or any formation messed up is completely stupid and impossible.

More realistic political governments with titles such as ministers, generals, dukes/barons/counts, royal families, important religious characters, with historical succession laws for kingdoms and fiefdoms. Thus a governor could be named for a specific region instead of having to allocated a family for every town (cities could probably be ruled by lesser administrators I guess)

A more realistic way of constituing armies where units where raised to be part of of sub-unit itself part of the main army. Also include OOB (Orders of battle) for army instead of a stack with 20 units in without any specified functions between units.

As well as developing cities with buildings, new technologies or social/military/politic improvement should become available after specific buildings are build or events happened (time required could be hidden to the player and would depend on various factors) Such as the Marian reforms in RTW but on a much larger scale and subjects.

An historically inspired logistic system and possible negative effects if armies get out of supply (desertion, disorganization, illness, etc)

Much deeper diplomatic system and strategic agents (spy network, religious agents, princesses and royal marriages, etc)

[NagatsukaShumi]

1) PIRATES! I am talking about proper Pirates here, not just rebellious ships, I want annoying little fella's who hound my trade routes (maybe not attacking trade ships if they don't feature, but causing a disruption of your trade route instead) and require my attention, the grand age of Piracy is in the timeframe, so I want Blackbeard to blow some holes in please. Hiring your own privateers would also be quite good, maybe if your hire them they only disrupt other countries trade and not yours, who knows, but I was rum drinking swashbucklers!

2) Ability to rename ships, it's nothing huge but I liked naming my ships in Sid Meier's Pirates and let me add my own touch to the game.

3) As has been touched on, do not make the games so rigid that nobody can make mods about anything but gunpowder era, allow hands weapons to still work well enough to equip lots with them etc

4) Increase the diplomatic options and re-work it. It's certainly improved but a similar base as the one in EU would be quite good, where viewing your reputation is quite simple, if needs be for immersion just make it avasilable through an advisor who is mointoring relations with other factions. In EU, people don't just attack you, they usually do it because you have a poor reputation world wide or you've been rude to them, it works very well (though can be improved) but is a good base.

5) More than one start date, let me fight the Napoleonic Wars and Wars of Independance, rather than waiting for them, by which time the world will be completely different.

6) Glorious Achievements, let me win by conquering everything, but don't force me to do that. Alot of players like to sit and play realistically, MTW's GA's allowed you to win without going nuts, this was a great feature.

7) Stick to the turn baded campaign, it works very well.

[Polemists]

Charges.

No i'm not talking about calvary, I am talking about infantry. Proper Bayonet charges. With how long it takes to reload the musket it was not uncommon to have your side charge the other while they were reloading. I want to see them be, brutal, bloody, and useful.

Other then that I will be happy.

[Furious Mental]

- Ability to send ships to support land armies in battles around coastal forts, or along major rivers, etc.

- For the love of God, the ability to dismount cavalry during a battle! With the addition of the ability to garrison buildings on the battlefield, place troops behind cover, etc, it would make dragoons actually useful since they could ride out to seize strong points and then defend them on foot.

[pevergreen]

Group unit AI and enemy AI

If you group units together, let them form walls etc

[Rodion Romanovich]

I would like to see:

TACTICAL MAP:
- most important thing is AI and a base consisting of a stable, simple, well balanced, and well working battle system, like in STW. The required game skills should be about being a good tactician, not about knowing much about the special abilities of strange exotic units with warcries, shieldwalls and phalanx formation.

- to this, only make one major addition that wasn't in STW/MTW1: field fortifications. They are the only major feature of warfare that was not yet introduced in STW/MTW1. Stakes, caltrops, trenches, barricades etc. Add this, in combination with bringing back the STW and MTW importance of taking advantage of the terrain, and the result is a game where both the natural and artifical terrain become crucial elements of the battles. I would also like to see larger battle maps with adding the camp of each army, important roads, river crossings and villages, and a necessity to protect the camp during the battle in order to not lose supplies etc., and a need to control the road to be able to advance and be able to receive reinforcements (using a similar reinforcement feature as in RTW). During deployment, you could select an area where you wish to set up camp, and another area for where to deploy your troops.

- make sure most defeated armies can retreat mostly intact, so battles mostly end with casualty ratios such as 2%-5% except in more crucial battles with 5-40% or similar, and only an occasional slaughter with 10%-80%. Armies should be worn down more by supply problems than combat casualties! NOTE: if an orderly retreating army and a half-routing one don't look too much different, this can also be used to finally allow the player to use fake retreats.

- make the AI capable of using cavalry properly for harassing, just as good as a human player can do it. Let the AI very seldom use cavalry for pure charges.

- obviously: assaults on star fort cities! A good element of this would be moats, which one can choose to fill with stones and earth on the strategy map, in order to be able to approach the fort from more directions than just the gate. Also add so navies camped outside a coastal fort can take part in pounding it!

- lift the limit on number of units in an army to perhaps 100 instead of 20! Make players able to go to battle with 100 units as long as they can afford to muster them! In RTW and MTW2, most battles are 20 units vs 20 units - not much variety there. I would like to see a lot of variation in strength and almost never see armies full to the limit the game makes. Handling around 100 units should be not problem in battle (just make 5 rows with 20 in each on the bottom of the screen, or 3 rows with 30 or something), especially if there are good group formations available so you can command them as groups instead of individual units!

- IMPORTANT! make it possible to activate and deactivate "fire at will" for all selected ranged units even if also some non-ranged units are included in the current selection. Example: I want the entire left flank to open fire, but I have 4 pike and 1 cavalry unit there that I manually have to deselect after drawing a selection around the rest, before I can press the 'A' key. With RTW, this was the case, and in multiplayer this was immensely annoying and could sometimes lose a battle! And in a ranged combat game, it will become even more important than in RTW!


STRATEGY MAP:

- add desertion, attrition and supply lines. Add a system where a connected line of small forts must be controlled up to very close behind the army if it is to be supplied that turn. It shouldn't be possible to march straight into Russia without dropping off garrisons along the way and having severe trouble keeping the supply routes and roads covered properly.

- add so that armies with low supply and deep in foreign lands are somewhat understrength when going to battle. Some units will not be able to take part in it but instead be in their camp. Also make those troops that do fight be a bit tired from start if they have marched far.

- create an impressive diplomacy system where you don't fully control and can tax conquered land until either your enemy has signed a peace treaty with you (or you've controlled and garrisoned the province for at least 10 years). This way there won't be unhistorical conflicts with attempts to conquer entire countries: something that very seldom happened in this period. Also make sure a strong alliance is almost always formed against anyone trying to conquer an entire country, that refuses to accept a peace treaty after conquering about 1/3rd or 2/3rds of the country (unless the country is very small that is).

- add "casus belli", without which you get a reputation penalty for attacking another country.

- make it extremely difficult to maintain a good enough economy to keep large armies mustered even in peace time. Make sure the AI too decommissions ships and disbands regiments in peace time!