sigh for me the game feels dead

[AMP]

why do 90% of the people online say rank 9 vets? do that many people really don't know just because a unit is rank 9 doesn't mean all skills are spent on it?

[Graphic]

why do 90% of the people online say rank 9 vets? do that many people really don't know just because a unit is rank 9 doesn't mean all skills are spent on it?

When you're only level 4 without even all the units unlocked, and practically no veterans of your own to speak of, that minor detail is hardly relevant. Just like at lvl 8 when the other guy has vet 9 matchlock monks and GG, and you don't. Missing skill point or no, you still lose.

The problem with Shogun 2's MP is the whole avatar conquest set-up. Persistent vets and rank advantages in an RTS was a really, really stupid idea. I don't know what they were thinking; maybe trying to have some kind of TW version of CoD unlocks. The stupidity is compounded by absolutely non-existent matchmaking.

For the next game, just retainers and avatar skill upgrades/visual customization is enough. Add a matchmaking system more sophisticated than "first player the game finds", and then we'll be doing good.

[Magyar Khan]

yup in basic the vets system is nice but CA is just not teh party being able to do this good enough.....

i like the avatar and in a way its even balanced.... a small miracle.... and the stupidity that pre patch vets are better then after patch vets... lol what a mess


and also that some points spend do whats intented and others dont.... im so uncertain about my own army.... or the retainers... people suggesting to put them again in their slots cuz some may not work after a while....

[RTKAbu]

In the begin i had hopes many bugs would be resolved fast, but now i given up. The avatar type battles are awesome, the general tree is good, the retainers got potential, but the veterans break the balance, they are so bugged, and some abilitys are so strong, while others are so useless, those abiltys themselves made the game a 'ranged' game where everything else just is a side-thing. I think CA was something to optimistic, they implemented to much additional things, while now i look back on it, the avatar general tree and the retainers are enough already, the valour and sword and shield upgrades of the past would have been good also in combination with the general tree and a good amount of retainers.

It could have been good, but not with this CA who the last years makes a habit of releasing beta games.

Of cource i dont even mention the fail of the clan competition, the ladder fail, the cheat options which can make youre opponents drop, and the whole mm setup problems.

[AMP]

When you're only level 4 without even all the units unlocked, and practically no veterans of your own to speak of, that minor detail is hardly relevant. Just like at lvl 8 when the other guy has vet 9 matchlock monks and GG, and you don't. Missing skill point or no, you still lose.

The problem with Shogun 2's MP is the whole avatar conquest set-up. Persistent vets and rank advantages in an RTS was a really, really stupid idea. I don't know what they were thinking; maybe trying to have some kind of TW version of CoD unlocks. The stupidity is compounded by absolutely non-existent matchmaking.

For the next game, just retainers and avatar skill upgrades/visual customization is enough. Add a matchmaking system more sophisticated than "first player the game finds", and then we'll be doing good.

Most vets are missing more than just a skill point when you're talking about playing with v9 monks and v9 ggs and those that do spend all points are really pissing away some koku when playing @ 14k...

When my buddy wolf fast started out playing this about a month ago his first 5 games all of which were against higher ranks ALL d/c'ed on him, but of course he's xp'ed with TW and rank doesn't = skill.

STW2 is more about build than skill, but that's the future for ya and some people I talked to like it this way sadly... I prefer it be more on how you use the units on the battlefield and not a dice roll.

I like the Avatar idea, but it's just out of balance in areas with things like... a melee gen with no counters to worry about when playing against low ranks and vets getting free fatigue reduction that new players don't have the luxary of just yet

Matchlocks are abit op but can be countered by low ranks same with great guards, just most of course don't know what to do. Any game that I start out playing I never minded getting spanked alot because I would learn from it. At least the online harassment isn't like other RTS games I played, so you don't have to worry about people rubbing it in when they spank you, but things like that never got to me anyway.

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

They're still fixing,I would wait for the pathces.How can you say that people are too greedy now?

. This is what gaming has become in today's world of greedy people, it's human nature

[UglyJun]

They're still fixing,I would wait for the pathces.How can you say that people are too greedy now?

. This is what gaming has become in today's world of greedy people, it's human nature

Greed has nothing to do with human nature its learned, encouraged but is not natural ok
and no they have never adreesed the basic problems since stw we still waiting for patches in that game!!

[Cu'Roi]

what abu said is almost exactly my sentiments. but i don't think that they put too much new stuff in the game at all, in the 90s updating graphics, re-skinning, tweaking the GUI, and selling it over for 50 dollars as a "standalone expansion (which is an oxymoronic term invented by marketing to increase the price by 20 dollars)" would not fly (except for maybe a sports game). in fact one of the main reasons this game feel any different than gunpowder is because the setting has changed so radically, once they start releasing medieval 3 and rtw 2 in 2012 and 2013 respectively it will become obvious how these new games are nothing but mods in terms of new content.

instead the problem with this game and every TW since i started playing online is chronically short development times. I'm fairly certain CA actually has some of the best programmers in the entire world (no exaggeration) but a 1 year development cycle is proving - not that it needed proving - is proving that that even the most modest additions and improvements are impossible to implement, no matter what your budget or talent level. the time is just not there. and that is assuming extremely good management, when in fact indications are rather opposite.

lets face it, avatar system and ladder and clan comp were the 3 main selling points of this game. and, despite the fact that 3 months after release none of those actually work as intended, these changes have a large impact on the way the game plays but from a developmental perspective none of this is ground breaking, not even close. a system of unlocks and RPG like progression has already been done by dozens of other companies in dozens of other games. A ladder is even more basic. to implement these things is simply a matter of following in the foot steps of other games and developers that have already led the way. but they can't even do that within the allotted time.

the series is stagnant for the foreseeable future and there are only a couple hopes:

1) a billionaire buys the franchise and personally funds development out of pocket (see: ted turner with gods and generals)
2) blizzard buys the series
3) bungie software (the company that made one of the first if not the first true RTT in 1996) decides to go back to basics, thumb their noses at the MS overlords who want a new halo clone over and over, and make a RTT that exposes TW for the amateur effort it really is and i can leave this garbage game for a real software developer who's release date is, and i quote, "when it's done."

in other words i'm saying the series is ****** and it won't get better.

[||GUNSLINGER||]

I was so excited when in an interview a few months before launch CA said that every game they focus massively on one aspect every time they create a game and this time (finally) it was multiplayer. But instead of making a really solid, bug-free, balanced, competitive multiplayer experience they tried to do way to much for the time they spent on it - if they wanted to do all of the campaign MP and Avatar and MM that they did they should have spent another 6 months or more getting it right, BETA's, community involvement etc. If they weren't prepared to put in that time then they should have just made a more basic but solid and balanced MP experience and made it simple but fun. I was shocked how difficult it was to just jump in and play when I first tried it and I'm sure that put so many people off. Then the pathetic state of bugs/crashes/drops etc if you actually stick it out put off all but the most persistent lovers of the game who can battle through it. In my opinion they ruined multiplayer before they even started.

I really thought STW2 was going to get me back into TW properly (I played religiously/exclusively from STW until end of VI era) but I played STW2 for 2 weeks and whenever I go online now and try MM and face absurdly superior armies, or drops if I do start doing well, or crashes whenever the hell it feels like it I just think what's the point this is hardly much fun and go back to other games. I still play Company of Heroes and over FIVE years down the line they just released the best patch yet for balancing which has been in a 6 stage BETA for 4 months getting it right!! Relic weren't perfect and messed up a few times down the line but they know what keeps people playing multiplayer and all these years later there are still thousands of people playing at any one time and it really is a fantastic illustration on how solid support from the developer keeps an RTS going at a high and competitive level many years down the line.

Creative Assembly once again just don't care about multiplayer - when they actually say they will focus on it they think mass of features and gimmicks is enough when they need to understand that a few basic things done very well is what an MP experience needs! And if they do want to add extra features then make damn sure they are properly developed!!

I'll stop ranting now, sad days.