Another Next Total War Poll

[hoom]

Shogun 2.
Keep it small, keep it tight, make it work properly.

[PBI]

Ideally I would like Asia or WWI in that order, if they could be done right.

Realistically I seriously doubt either would be done very well, so maybe it would be better to go for Rome or Shogun 2; as hoom said, I would rather have a game which is not too ambitious in scope and which is well implemented than something which tries to be the "best game ever" and falls short. Also, I care sufficiently little about the settings that I won't mind giving it a miss if it's another mess, but enough that I would be interested in playing the game if it is good.

The only setting I would be really iffy about is Medieval 3, I don't see what could be added by revisiting the setting yet again. I would probably be inclined not to bother with it unless it turns out to be really great.

In any event I think the next game is likely the franchise's last chance; CA badly needs to repair the damage done by ETW, and I think breaking the series of progressively more unfinished games we have had since Rome with a slick, finished game with realistic ambitions is more important than the specific setting.

[Durallan]

IDK if I'd buy an asian total war, I might buy Rome Total War 2, but I think they should do Shogun 2 (or Asia) depends how far away the release date is, I guess itd be around 2011, so I'd probably buy it, buut I dunno, while I'd probably prefer something in europe or the entire world, I think all the people that really want the asia setting deserve something by now

[antisocialmunky]

East Asia or WWI.

[hoom]

In further explanation of my earlier statement: The prospect of a WWI:TW scares the crap out of me.
I can barely conceive of how that could possibly work, let alone for CA to execute such a massive change to the needed level of polish.

I could potentially go for a Greece:TW with Greek infighting, colonisation, Carthage vs. Syracuse (?), Persian invasion, Trireme battles etc.

I really don't want to see the TW series stagnate into doing the same periods over & over.
Its definitely too soon for a return to Medieval (M2 was already too soon!) & Rome but I think its best for the next one to 'rebirth' the series by going back to Shogun, probably Greece following after S2.

Shogun 2.
Keep it small, keep it tight, make it work properly.

[pevergreen]

Shogun if it looked awesome, or Rome.

[peacemaker]

I have a feeling it's going to be an Asian:TW. CA isn't going to want to put the brand new engine to waste, and This way they'll be able to implement some gunpowder units.

Keep it small, keep it tight, make it work properly.

And my E:TW folder is only what? 10gb? Look at the maps. That doesn't look like it's going to be too small.

[hoom]

I mean small as in the scope of the project ie plan something that can be relatively easily completed & made to work properly.

Part of the reason that CA is really the only company making TWish games is that nobody else is crazy enough to make games of such sweeping scale & many features that must pose massive technical/programming challenges.

They have mostly pulled it off in the past but the launch quality of Empire, residual bugs (including many lingering in previous TW games) & increasing fan hostility shows that they've been getting too ambitious so its time to cut back to something more manageable with more focus on producing a good game.

[Braden]

Asia: TW

I’d go for that, a semi-revisit of Shogun. Similar to E:TW and N:TW however in that the main game (i.e. the Empire game) is the full Asian sub-continent, China warring states, India the whole gambit…dammit you could even include Mongols again and the Americas (in line with the claims the Chinese visited first).

THEN the expansion would be full Shogun II…simples see *squeak*

Keeps the same game engine, same format as current games…main then an expansion…and keeps us oldies hooked as we wait to revisit Shogun again but with *shock* 3D animations!!

I’d post on the official forums but ezboards and me just don’t get along (in other words all my logins don’t work anymore).

So, feel free to suggest on those boards anyone if you want….

If they did this, kept the engine the SAME, keep all the FIXES they’ve put out for Empire and just concentrated on getting the units right, maps right and the last remaining game play issues right…CA could win us back.

They mustn’t try to re-invent the wheel again, Empire was clearly too much of a leap over Medieval II for them (lords knows why though)…keep what works NOW in the new game, we don’t need any concentration on “greater enhanced graphics” or “advanced particle systems”.

Just get the GAME PLAY right!

[IsItStillThere]

Shogun 2.
Keep it small, keep it tight, make it work properly.

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto!!!

I think as the series has evolved, the games have gotten bigger, more bloated, and more difficult to balance and program AI for.

[sassbarman]

shogun 2 for me to please.

Totally agree with the idea mentioned above about keeping it focused and tight, get the core game working right then maybe expand features and such with dlc.

[caravel]

*Sigh* the division of Asia/Shogun into Asia and Shogun II is pointless. They won't make Shogun II anyway so it should have been just Asia: Total War. Shogun II could easily have been the expansion or whatever. As it stands R2TW will win that poll.

Personally I'd like to see either S2TW or ATW. I would only buy if it were totally free of Steam and any other intrusive copy protection or "phone home" software.

[Krusader]

I'd wish for Shogun 2, but compared to Rome2 or WW1 it would not sell too much copies for SEGA's tastes.

[Fisherking]

Well, I guess we need to face it.

Once upon a time hard-core gamers were a force in the market. They bought the high-end machines and the games that ran on them.

There were a lot of studios but they all gradually dwindled. They were bought out, went under, or taken over.

Today it is the mass market and casual gamers that seem to rule the roost.

The time, effort, and heart are not going into these games. It is no longer the feel of the game but the dazzle of the graphics that matter.

Realism is just something for 3D shooters and Historical Accuracy only applies to the lines of Airplanes.

Most only have enough grasp of history and geography to know that Rome was a long time ago and Europe isn’t a province of Canada.

So, just expect Rome II and when they are up to it WWII...

[Khorak]

Well, I guess we need to face it.

Once upon a time hard-core gamers were a force in the market. They bought the high-end machines and the games that ran on them.

There were a lot of studios but they all gradually dwindled. They were bought out, went under, or taken over.

Today it is the mass market and casual gamers that seem to rule the roost.

The time, effort, and heart are not going into these games. It is no longer the feel of the game but the dazzle of the graphics that matter.

Realism is just something for 3D shooters and Historical Accuracy only applies to the lines of Airplanes.

Most only have enough grasp of history and geography to know that Rome was a long time ago and Europe isn’t a province of Canada.

So, just expect Rome II and when they are up to it WWII...

*checks watch*
Wow, I didn't know it was time for condemnations of the supposed 'casual gamer' already. Ah, the good old days, where there were thousands of studios all working selflessly with no thought of making massive piles of money out of gamers who were pure hearted and true.

Oh no wait, that's so wrong I can actually hear the universe screaming out a big no in response. Mass market has always ruled the roost, and just because the market itself is now so large you can pretend you're a unique and special 'hardcore' snowflake doesn't suddenly make casual gamers a new phenomenon. It's so-called 'casual gamers' who've been dragging your backside along with them since the NES in the mid eighties, not the other way around.

[caravel]

Fisherking actually made a good post and it does sum things up well. Some of you are perhaps too young to know how the gaming industry started out.

Once upon a time hard-core gamers were a force in the market. They bought the high-end machines and the games that ran on them.

This is absolutely true. There was a time when there were hardcore gamers only. Nowadays just about every device can play some kind of game whereas back then you needed a decent PC with a 3D accelerator card or a dedicated console. When I was a lad, my parents would not even let me have an Atari because someone told them that they "break the TV". Being a gamer was being against the system. Everyone disapproved. Parents, teachers, the general public, siblings, even friends. My father expected me to be out on the football pitch, he could not understand gaming or the need for it. Any negative press read in the newspaper or seen on TV about gaming was taken as an excuse to limit my time playing games. I had to be a hardcore gamer.

There were a lot of studios but they all gradually dwindled. They were bought out, went under, or taken over.

This is true as well. Some of the best studios in fact were bought out and then went under or were laid off by the new owners. The small studios innovated and the big publishers simply bought them out and milked the frachise to death. This went on and on until it created the current gaming market.

There are so many developers consigned to history now that it's hard to keep track of them all. In most cases the takeovers of these small stuidios by the big boys such as EA and SEGA has also seen a decline in innovation. Games are now less revolutionary and more formulaic. They stick to what sells and annual profits are the primary concern. Smaller studios try to revolutionise the market and make a name for themselves, this is what keeps good quality games in the pipeline. It is this innovation and originality that has dried up in recent years.

Today it is the mass market and casual gamers that seem to rule the roost.

Nowadays with so many devices capable of running games and the attraction of multiplatform, it's sad that the games industry has gone the same way as the music industry. It is targeted at the widest possible audience and thus is nothing special. It's rather like trying to cook a meal that everyone will like. You will realise that person x does not like tomatoes and that person y dislikes chilli, and person z is not overly keen on spices. What you end up with is something bland, unoriginal and uninspired that is trying to cater for too many tastes. This is what the commerical music industry is like and this is also where gaming is heading.

The time, effort, and heart are not going into these games. It is no longer the feel of the game but the dazzle of the graphics that matter.

The marketing of new games is mostly about screenshots and short demos. Without the revolutionary graphics games will score low with the reviewers and will not impress when it comes to screenshots. This is why the visuals are the main focus. When a potential customer is reading a magazine review it's all "book by the cover". They cannot really make an assessement on AI or gameplay at that point.

Realism is just something for 3D shooters and Historical Accuracy only applies to the lines of Airplanes.

I'm not entirely convinced that TW needs "realism" in the sense of realistic terrain and graphical violence. The realism required is at the physical level, i.e. trajectories, windage, weather, fatigue, morale atc. TW game have lacked any semblance of this since MTW and for other games, except simulations, this kind of realism is never a priority. TW has followed the same path, where 'realism' has become purely visual.

Most only have enough grasp of history and geography to know that Rome was a long time ago and Europe isn’t a province of Canada.

Somewhat of a generalisation. I don't think historical accuracy is the real issue. I would not care if CA made Dungeons & Dragons - Total War, so long as the tactical battles and proper physics, balanced units and gameplay returned with better support for the MP community.

So, just expect Rome II and when they are up to it WWII...

R2TW will probably be next, WWI and WWII would be unworkable IMHO, due to the unsuitability of the TW engine. Other types of games can do that better.

[gardibolt]

Well, this part is kind of ridiculous:

Well, I guess we need to face it.

Once upon a time hard-core gamers were a force in the market. They bought the high-end machines and the games that ran on them.

My computer is dual core, blah blah blah, about a year and a half old, runs M2TW on all the highest settings, Can You Run It insists I more than meet all minimum specs, but it's actually too poor to run E:TW, at all. I figured, maybe low settings, but nothing, at all, zippo. With this game, CA has moved way beyond what the casual gamer is capable of, unless your idea of the casual gamer is buying the latest Alienware Deluxe every three months. It's clearly intended ONLY for the hardcorest of the hardcore gamers because no one with a casual computer rig can play it.

[al Roumi]

Frankly, I don't mind -as long as they do this:

Keep it small, keep it tight, make it work properly.

...but I'm finding it hard ot be excited about another TW game right now.

Plus, what on earth would be the fun in a WW1 battle game? Inching your trench closer to theirs? Lets face it, the campaign strategy side of the game will be shocking compared to the alternatives, eg from Paradox.