Americans, how is Kingdoms?

[_Tristan_]

Any link to that mod ?

[Doug-Thompson]

there is a CA (developed in house) mod featured on twcenter site that retrofits kingdom campaign unit balance and many features to the main campaign.

Link?

[Jambo]

Here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118430

[Slaists]

Link?

sorry, had to run away from my desk right after I wrote the note. however, I see, the link is already here in the thread.

[gardibolt]

I just checked Amazon and my estimated delivery date is between Oct 5 and Oct 12!! Well, I still need to finish a campaign anyway so that'll give me time to do it. I did get the link for the free download of Shogun, so that'll give me something else to fool with.

[rebelscum]

I did get the link for the free download of Shogun,

Where? Is that from amazon?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I bought it in the Netherlands (see screenshot thread)

[rvg]

Personally, I won't be buying Kingdoms until the vanilla game is in a better working order. Maybe a couple of patches from now when its price sufficiently dips.

It's really not a question of money though as much as it is a question of quality.

[Odin]

Personally, I won't be buying Kingdoms until the vanilla game is in a better working order. Maybe a couple of patches from now when its price sufficiently dips.

It's really not a question of money though as much as it is a question of quality.

Not exclusive to Total war mind you, but I will wait. All those "pre order customers" and downloaders thank you in advance for play testing the bugs out and reporting them back to the dev team.

Makes my purchase much easier.

[Doug-Thompson]

First impression:

Spanish Dragoons are wonderful.

P.S. Something's been done to the main campaign: It took 20 minutes to change v1.002.001 into v1.003 before "Kingdoms" could be installed.

You don't have to install all four "Kingdoms" campaigns. You can pick and choose.

[Xehh II]

Strange

[Goofball]

I'm getting the game tomorrow. Can't wait.

Question: Do I have to install over an unpatched M2TW install, or can I install over a 1.2 patched install?

[gardibolt]

Where? Is that from amazon?

Yes, they had a deal where if you preordered Kingdoms you got a free download of Shogun. But I don't see that on the Kingdoms page any more, so maybe that has expired.

[Bob the Insane]

Well, finally picked it up from Gamestop, they where stacking on the shelves this evening...

Installing now....

2 DVDs!!

[Bob the Insane]

Wow, this is one long install...

First it installed 1.3 which, considering is is only supposed to be for compatability, takes ages (though i guess it would incorporate 1.1 and 1.2)...

Then it installs each of the four campaigns as a separate install...

The addition to the readme is as follows:

Last Updated: 2007-05-30
v1.3


Medieval II: TW v1.3 contains the following changes:

Core Medieval II settlement data updated to function correctly with Medieval II: Kingdoms.
Fixes some instances of floating settlements in Medieval II: TW and Medieval II: Kingdoms.
Updates version number to 1.3

[Gorm]

I preorder my games through Gamestop because there's one within walking distance, probably a bit over a mile from my house. The "release date" is always the "ship date" and I get games the next day.

I live in a remote part of Colorado and can't afford to take time off work to drive 2 or more hours one-way to get to the nearest Gamestop. Darn.

[Guyus Germanicus]

I live in a remote part of Colorado and can't afford to take time off work to drive 2 or more hours one-way to get to the nearest Gamestop. Darn.

Hey Gorm!

I'm living in Lakewood [Denver metro, west].

To answer the thread question - I ordered my copy yesterday and Amazon says I should get delivery sometime between Sept 7-11.

Don't need Shogun as I got a copy on CD when I bought the ERAS package.

I've been to Monte Vista. Nice country down there. Used to do some hunting in the Sagauche mtns.

[Rhedd]

Playing as Wales, and listening to the new music, makes me so happy I could cry.

Kingdoms is, for me, as good as M2TW times ten!

Now leave me alone so I can go back to playing. ^_^

[alpaca]

A more technical question: Do you have to restart the game in order to change the campaign? And does each campaign have its own folder and can be chosen through the launcher?

[Jack Lusted]

And does each campaign have its own folder

Yes.

and can be chosen through the launcher?

Yes.

[Bob the Insane]

Do you have to restart the game in order to change the campaign?

Yes... (unless I missed something)...

It is a lot like playing mods, which I guess is exactly what these are in a way...

[Doug-Thompson]

Bob didn't miss anything. You have to restart.

Yes, it installs over the patched game, but I don't know about installing over mods.

Only had a very brief try at it last night.

The expanson alone takes up another 3 GB of hard drive space, I believe, if you install all four campaigns.

Hotseat mode is great. Can't wait to put it on a full campaign with the mod.

[Bob the Insane]

I installed it over a M2TW 1.2 install that includes Stainless Steel, Lands to Conquor, The Long Road and Clouds over Europe...

There does not seem to be any problems...

[rebelscum]

Yes, they had a deal where if you preordered Kingdoms you got a free download of Shogun. But I don't see that on the Kingdoms page any more, so maybe that has expired.

thanks, bit of a shame that, its the only TW I haven't played.

As to pre-ordering, I've never pre-ordered in my life, I always wait for first patch before i even go to buy, then usually get a bundled/expanded edition.
My MTW2 came with a little lead soldier and a bunch of extras.

[Doug-Thompson]

Biggest initial impression: You can't go blitzing across the world so easily, at least not in the Teutonic game.

I'm playing Novogorod, and decided to kick the Teutonic Knights out of their northern provinces. So far, so good, but it's been nothing like the happy trail of self-fueling loot and plunder I'd come to expect from every Total War game so far.

In MTW2, I installed the game, picked the Spanish and immediately knew what to do: Kick the Moors out of Iberia, crush the Portugese as soon as they angered the Pope, loot all those cities and go crusading across North Africa. Unstoppable.

After unlocking the other factions, I picked the Egyptians and immediately knew what to do: Go blitzing up the Levant coast, loot all those cities and wipe out the Turks and the Byzantines. Unstoppable.

This is different. I kicked the Teuts in the first significant battle, no problem. Boyar sons and their javelins are wonderful. However, I am not rolling in cash and even when I kick the Teuts out of Russia, their core provinces are behind the Lituanians. I'll have to go through Lithuania just to get to the rest of them.

I'm allied to both the Danes and the Mongols at the moment, but the Danes are rather hard to please. I made a gift of 100 florins one turn, which they took, but the second 100 florin gift left then disgruntled, wanting more.

At least they'll lose their reputation when they backstab me.

The campaign AI's not improved. They attacked to relieve a besieged city that could have held out for eight turns and got massacred. Saved me a long siege. Now I'm about to wipe out a handful of unsupported war monks who wandered by my recently captured castle — with well more than 100 Kazaks. I won't lose a man.

[Mad Mac]

The AI doesn't seem notably changed, except that they do build more balanced armies now. However, the mini-campaigns are set up much better than the Grand Campaign--the new maps aren't that much smaller than the grand campaign map, but you have far fewer factions.

So instead of a legion of small isolated factions harassing each other with peasents and spear militia, you have a smaller number of established, powerful factions who all have a pretty good starting position. Makes the gameplay a lot more interesting, and skips the tedious build-up phase were the human player quickly gobbles up rebel settlements and becomes a super-power in 30 turns.

Starting with the Aztecs or Mayans to give a specific example, there's a lot of rebel cities floating around, but they tend to be guarded by 12-15 units of troops that are about as good as anything you can rummage up. Putting down rebels requires an actual investment of time and resources on your part, and you've got plenty of neighbors who could come strolling in at any time, so you have to balance fighting rebels with making sure your kingdom is secure.

[Jason X]

as i'm currently considering whether to buy kingdoms (and as a long time lurker in these parts), i followed that mod link with interest.

and i must say, that's not a bad mode of operation for CA.

let me explain: because it's a mod, it 's not officially supported and therefore doesn't have to go through the whole QA process and thereby hold up the commercial release.

on the other hand, because it's a CA employee doing the modding, they've had access to Kingdoms for longer and the community gets something they want and need much quicker.

i say

[HoreTore]

The most important question of all:

Is there a go-buy-yourself-a-new-gfx-card-you-cheap-bastard feature in it? Ie. can you turn the graphics even more down than vanilla?

If not, then I'll have to hold off buying it for at least a few months...

[Doug-Thompson]

I'll check tonight, but the graphics are even more refined, if anything. It is beautiful. I thoroughly doubt it demands even less, graphically speaking.

[Doug-Thompson]

Wait a minute. The "readme" was posted. Here's the minimum video requirements:

- 128MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support
and the latest drivers. Must be 100% DirectX® 9.0c
compatible*. The Nvidia® GeForce 4 Ti 4400 or the
ATI Radeon® 9600 SE is the recommended minimum video card.

- Monitor must be able to display 1024x768 resolution or
above.

If you have an AGP video slot, I can highly recommend the Nvidia 7600 GT. The game looks beautiful on in and plays extremely well. The card costs $130 (US) and I wouldn't spend any more than that for an AGP card. Better to get a new computer with a motherboard with PCI Express slots on it.