Gamespot Q & A

[Sir Beane]

Go here for a question and answer interview with CA.

Credit to bloodshed for finding this!

There's a lot of good info about the way trade and economy work in the game.

In addition to this, we've introduced trade theatres. These are sea regions that are located in various areas of the globe including the East Indies and the Ivory Coast. These regions are rich in tradable resources and can be controlled by placing merchant fleets on trading outposts. The more merchant ships you have active on these outposts, the more profit you glean from them. Of course, these routes and regions are also subject to raiding, and there can be fierce rivalry over the monopoly of trading posts across the theatres. This provides an excellent springboard for naval engagements throughout the campaign.

There's also a mention of pirates! Arrr!

Commerce-raiding a rival nation's trade routes on land and sea is a very effective strategy to boost your own coffers, whilst inflicting hefty damage to an enemy's economy. So yes, players will have every opportunity to construct fleets specifically for naval piracy.

Similarly, pirates are a faction in the game in their own right, and they will attack and plunder the trade routes that they come across, including those of the player, throughout the campaign. You can stamp them out, but lawlessness in certain regions can see them reemerge.

Sounds like good stuff!

[Familyguy1]

Loved it, expect a demo is the next day or two.
:)

[Phog_of_War]

Sounds juicy.

I'm off to Gamespot (even though I hate GS )

[Polemists]

The more merchant ships you have active on these outposts, the more profit you glean from them.

This sounds smiliar to the merchant mechanic of MTW2, except it's merchant ships rather then merchants.


The raiding sounds interesting but I hope it's well orchestrated raids, and pirates and not annoying.

It's fine to be attacked, even having your trading lane threatened but if it's one little pirate ship attacking entire fleets of merchant ships every 3-4 turns that'd get aggrivating.

expect a demo is the next day or two.

I hope so, sadly the demo I didn't see mentioned in the article :(

[knoddy]

hehe sounds good. how cool would it be you could build a small fleet and sail them under a pirate banner and attack non enemy ships for money :)

i guess we wont find out for sure

until a




demo....


isnt that right polemists :)

[Sir Beane]

hehe sounds good. how cool would it be you could build a small fleet and sail them under a pirate banner and attack non enemy ships for money :)

i guess we wont find out for sure

until a




demo....


isnt that right polemists :)

You see this Polemists? You are dragging other people along with you now. Have you no shame?

[Wausser]

He isn't the only soldier in the Demo Legion




We

want

a

Demo

[Polemists]

That's right demo legions,

They can't stop us,

Like a great tide of DEMO , we are storming through every defense of patience they have....haha :)



I think Pirate fleets would be fun......


in a



DEMO

[CBR]

I'm wondering what this means:

JR: We no longer have the AI controlling any of the player's units--your own reinforcements come onto the battlefield one by one (with up to 20 at any one time), and you control all of them. Allied AI nations who reinforce the player always remain under AI control.

So uhm that means only one army of 20 units on the battlefield max or up to 40 units total?


CBR

[Noir]

Prolly the former

[Sir Beane]

I'm wondering what this means:

So uhm that means only one army of 20 units on the battlefield max or up to 40 units total?


CBR

20 units on the battlefield max, with reinforcement units coming in as you lose units. Much like how it worked in Medieval.

[CBR]

Yeah it does not sound like an improvement to me. Then we risk having to play very long battles killing off one stack at a time just like MTW...


CBR

[Sir Beane]

Yeah it does not sound like an improvement to me. Then we risk having to play very long battles killing off one stack at a time just like MTW...


CBR

It also means the AI can probably use its superior numbers to crush our armies and then take out the reinforcements as they enter one by one.

If the A.I is so much improved in ETW then why can't the A.I control our units for us if we want it to?

[pevergreen]

I disagree. I believe it is the same as RTW/M2TW. You can only control 20, the AI can control twenty per army (allied/enemy)

The spill over will wait outside the playable area.

[Sir Beane]

I disagree. I believe it is the same as RTW/M2TW. You can only control 20, the AI can control twenty per army (allied/enemy)

The spill over will wait outside the playable area.

Probably, but that still means that if the battle is three stacks of enemy troops and three stacks of player troops the A.I will have a three to one advantage in numbers because the player cannot bring in reinforcements.

Unless of course the A.I is limited to twenty men also.

[CBR]

It also means the AI can probably use its superior numbers to crush our armies and then take out the reinforcements as they enter one by one.

That is assuming the AI is so good that it even has a chance at defeating a player in a 20v20 unit fight


CBR

[batemonkey]

I hope that we've misunderstood that would be rubbish (and a step backwards)

[Sir Beane]

That is assuming the AI is so good that it even has a chance at defeating a player in a 20v20 unit fight


CBR

True. I shouldn't complain about the A.I having advantages really. It needs all the help it can get.

[Fisherking]

True. I shouldn't complain about the A.I having advantages really. It needs all the help it can get.

Or it did in M2 except for Timur's boys! Who were a tiny bit overpowered don't you think?

Then there is the part about not expecting European style armies to over power the Native American Tribes!

Morale penalties? Individuals with an armor factor equivalent to an M-1 tank?

Now I don’t think that is what the elephants had, mind you!

I am sure one of those babies would have crushed a Battalion of M-1s…

But I sure as heck am hoping that with the improved AI, they need not resort to super units and exploit’s the player can’t access.

[Ituralde]

Yeah it does not sound like an improvement to me. Then we risk having to play very long battles killing off one stack at a time just like MTW...


CBR

That's one thing I really loved about Medieval. You had these epic battles where you actually had to regroup after fending of the first wave of attackers. You could also use your reinforcements more strategically, for example send tired units or those that are out of ammo to retreat and have fresh reinforcements join you.

I took the comment to mean that the old system will come back, so I'm really hoping for it.

[USS Providence 1972]

Go here for a question and answer interview with CA.

Credit to bloodshed for finding this!

There's a lot of good info about the way trade and economy work in the game.


There's also a mention of pirates! Arrr!



Sounds like good stuff!

There seem to be several major improvements in this game from previous editions. The most obvious is the naval aspect. Trade seems to deeper. One tidbit from the article is the ability to trade technology. That would seem to be a quicker way to obtain technology than the old way of taking several turns to research it. Diplomacy also is much improved. Instead of having diplomats roaming all over the globe it is now centralized.

I'm curious to see how the monarchy vs republic aspect of the game will play out. Is Great Britain the only republic at the beginning of the game?

The article mentions they are currently in beta. Will they release a demo before they finish with beta testing?

I've played total war from the beginning, looking forward to this one.

[Megas Methuselah]

If you had multiple stacks, couldn't you just grant the other two to AI control?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Looks to be better then the past Total War games, I will probably buy it within the first month barring any unforeseen major glitches arising or patching needed.

[Polemists]

In the past AI has had a option of being controlled by you or the AI regardless of how many stacks you bring.

The questions is whether they drift in again one at a time or if they are going to be another army in the distance that arrives when you do.

No one knows really, so we shall see.

in

the

DEMO

[Sir Beane]

In the past AI has had a option of being controlled by you or the AI regardless of how many stacks you bring.

The questions is whether they drift in again one at a time or if they are going to be another army in the distance that arrives when you do.

No one knows really, so we shall see.

in

the

DEMO

I think the interview is implying they drift in one at a time. I agree with otehrs saying this could lead to extremely long, drawn out battles. Especially if there are multiple stacks involved on each side.

[hoom]

As the campaign progresses, players can now access this rich political tapestry via a new panel which lets them see at a glance how each nation is regarded by others, and how they regard their rivals. Players can also see which events or factors have created the current state of relations between nations.
...The AI has a far better recollection of previous events than ever before, and it will bear grudges or honor sacrifices.

I'm hopeful that this works out well like it sounds.
I've seen some comment about the Diplomatic options being much the same as Rome/M2 but thats ok as long as they actually work and/or we can figure out why they work in the way that they actually do (which would allow players to alter their play style to gain better outcomes).

Ooh this too

The campaign map AI has also been completely rewritten and acts to achieve longer-term goals and specific war aims.

Particularly cool would be if we could potentially find out some of those goals via Rakes or something?

[Sir Beane]

I'm hopeful that this works out well like it sounds.
I've seen some comment about the Diplomatic options being much the same as Rome/M2 but thats ok as long as they actually work and/or we can figure out why they work in the way that they actually do (which would allow players to alter their play style to gain better outcomes).

Ooh this too

Particularly cool would be if we could potentially find out some of those goals via Rakes or something?

It would be fantastic if rakes could be used to find out long term goals and strategies rather than just info about units and cities. I always felt that the spies in previous games were pretty rubbish given the amount of info that spies in real life manage to collect.

It would be a lot of fun slowly building up a network of spies and informants in an enemy factions, gradually learning their goals and plans and where they keep the treasury. Then using that info to foil it all and flatten them!

[Polemists]

As the campaign progresses, players can now access this rich political tapestry via a new panel which lets them see at a glance how each nation is regarded by others, and how they regard their rivals. Players can also see which events or factors have created the current state of relations between nations.

I'm as hopeful as next guy but not sure how this will be all that different then say MTW2's diplomacy screen.

Where you pop it , you see Denmark, Allies, Enemies, and then if you click on faction if gives you something like trust worthy or not or some such. Then if your friendly or not.

I'd like to see your knowledge of a faction increase though as you put more rakes into more cities of the enemy.

So at first you may just know, army build ups, then building lists, then technology trees, future war plans, etc.

Of course I am probably hoping for more then the AI is capable of at this point, I just think it would be neat if say you knew faction A was about to go to war with faction B in 5 turns, in the Caribean and you could swoop in and use it your advantage.

[Sir Beane]

I'm as hopeful as next guy but not sure how this will be all that different then say MTW2's diplomacy screen.

Where you pop it , you see Denmark, Allies, Enemies, and then if you click on faction if gives you something like trust worthy or not or some such. Then if your friendly or not.

I'd like to see your knowledge of a faction increase though as you put more rakes into more cities of the enemy.

So at first you may just know, army build ups, then building lists, then technology trees, future war plans, etc.

Of course I am probably hoping for more then the AI is capable of at this point, I just think it would be neat if say you knew faction A was about to go to war with faction B in 5 turns, in the Caribean and you could swoop in and use it your advantage.

I think the difference is that not only can you see what otehr nations think of a paticular nation you can also see what that nation thinks of every other faction.

So for emaple France:

France
Britain: Hates, Is hated by
Austria: Ambivalent, is liked by
Prussia: Hates, is hated by

So you can see who hates who and who likes who and then organise alliances accordingly.

[Polemists]

but are you sure it's going to be that elaborate?

I mean when you entered a diplomacy screen of MTW2 you'd see

France
Alliances:


At war with:




I mean is it really that different?