TW4 what do you want?

[GonZ]

We're getting a better picture now on the expansion pack for Rome. But unless I'm mistaken there's no official news about a future TW game. Spartan Warrior aside...

What do players want next?

What would you call it? Which era and location would you set it in? What functionality do you cry out for? What innovations can be made?

I suspect there’ll be no consensus. But I’d love to hear peoples views.

--

I apologise if this is dragging up a previous forum topic but pre any official announcement, this is our chance to influence, and the more we talk about it the better imo.

[Franconicus]

TW4 must have

Naval battles
airplanes
bigger variaty of units
better diplomacy
commanders with clearer personality
more historical battles
choclate icecream
heidi klum
babes
ferraris

Did I miss anything?

[Brutus]

I would like Religion: Total War, set in Europe and surrounding regions in the 16th (and maybe early 17th) century. In this the religious conviction of your ruler (faction leader) would have a huge consequence on diplomacy with other factions, the loyalty of your subjects, the morale of your soldiers and the loyalty of your family or generals. The battle engine would have to stay, but gunpowder units would be an enourmous addition (although "phalanx"-warfare would remain in the game as well). Of course naval battles would have to be implemented, as well as many, many more historical regions and cities, a new 'family' system, which doesn't only implement the royal family itself (maybe different styles of rule for different factions?). All units would be region specific (or mercenaries), and cities and castles would be based on their real appearance (making them all unique). Finally, many of the features of MTW (like factions emerging, family members revolting and marrying of princesses to forge alliances) would have to come back. By the way, being able to choose the name of your childeren (giving the real historical feel by having a name run for generations in the family) as well as being able to choose your governors and generals from the nobility originally attached to a specific region, would be very nice.

Well, many more ideas, but that's it for now.

[ichi]

For an historical period I'd like to see something Greek or maybe Persian, perhaps 1500-200 BC.

Actually I'd like to see the series try a less historical approach for once, something with a little fantasy, maybe Atlantean or other pre-historical period.

or how about Old Testament Total War?

ichi

[Kagemusha]

I would like to see WWI or WWII totalwar.I think that would be a great challence for the developers

[Conqueror]

So long as it doesn't have firearms, it's good. I can enjoy firearms in strat games only if it's set at least WW1 era or later, and I don't want "Total WW" since that theme's done to death and because I think that TW series is better kept to the old days of swords n' spears.

That said, I think the warring states era of China would be an interesting theme for a TW title.

As for features that I'd like to see:

- Supply lines. This is one of the most important stratetic weaknesses of an invading army and it's a great shame that it hasn't been included in TW yet. It should be possible to try to capture or destroy your enemy's supplies. You would need to dedicate units to guard the supplies for your own troops. An underprotected supply train would attract brigands.

- Option to use scorched earth strategy. This could be combined with the raiding of supplies to totally screw up an invasion force.

- Naval battles in 3D battle map with player control over ships.

- A diplomacy system where alliances can be formed specifically against a faction. Ie factions A and B team up against faction X. Perhaps complete with agreement over how to divide the captured provinces. Also there should be a way ask your ally to attack a specific province of your common enemy.

- It should be possible to ask a faction to break their alliance, trade rights, etc to another faction. Or to "persuade" a faction to stop attacking another faction.

- If you keep making diplomatic agreements and breaking them, then there should be consequences. Other factions would no longer take your word for anything, so you could not get any more alliances and other beneficial agreements from them. Also, executing all the populations you conquer should earn you a bad reputation which would also hurt you diplomatically.

- When a faction is aggressively expansionistic, other factions might take note and gang up on it.

- Populations for provinces should be divided to separate figures for slaves, free men, and wealthy men/nobility. Units that are based on particular social class should only be recruited from that class (ie no recruiting of knights from peasants). If a province doesn't have enough citizens of required class then that unit can't be trained there untill the number has grown.

- Similarly, there should be a population of horses, camels, elephants, etc for each province. You could only train mounted units if there is enough mounts available. The rate of recovering their number could be increased by dedicating resources to breeding the animals.

- Technology such as better ship-types, siege engines, composite bows, fortification techniques, etc could be aquired from other factions and adopted. For example, faction A might lack the knowledge of how to build and operate ballistas. They face faction B in battle and suffer ballistas being used against them. Then they send agents to bribe some engineers of faction B to change sides and build ballistas for them. Faction A from then on is able to train their own ballista units.

- Developement of better units should require use of earlier units. It's not good if you can just skip the basic light infantry units, build the big barracks building and start producing the elite light infantry. In order to unlock the more advanced units, you should have made actual use of similar lower quality units in the battle field. Of corse, this would not be required for units that should be available to a faction at the start date.

- Terrain should be more varied and also it should be more significant, especially when it comes to movement of cavalry. Infantry and archers could be moved to places where cavalry can't reach them easily, hence giving them good tactical position.

- It should be possible to set forests on fire. Any units hiding in the forest would be killed, but the fire could also spread and kill your own units if you're not careful! Wind direction should be important factor when using fire. Also, burning buildings in cities should be a real danger to the army in the city, and fires should lower populations. It should be possible to try to burn down major parts of another faction's settlement like you can sabotage specific buildings in RTW.

[SomeNick]

So long as it doesn't have firearms, it's good. I can enjoy firearms in strat games only if it's set at least WW1 era or later, and I don't want "Total WW" since that theme's done to death and because I think that TW series is better kept to the old days of swords n' spears.

That said, I think the warring states era of China would be an interesting theme for a TW title.

As for features that I'd like to see:

- Supply lines. This is one of the most important stratetic weaknesses of an invading army and it's a great shame that it hasn't been included in TW yet. It should be possible to try to capture or destroy your enemy's supplies. You would need to dedicate units to guard the supplies for your own troops. An underprotected supply train would attract brigands.

- Option to use scorched earth strategy. This could be combined with the raiding of supplies to totally screw up an invasion force.

- Naval battles in 3D battle map with player control over ships.

- A diplomacy system where alliances can be formed specifically against a faction. Ie factions A and B team up against faction X. Perhaps complete with agreement over how to divide the captured provinces. Also there should be a way ask your ally to attack a specific province of your common enemy.

- It should be possible to ask a faction to break their alliance, trade rights, etc to another faction. Or to "persuade" a faction to stop attacking another faction.

- If you keep making diplomatic agreements and breaking them, then there should be consequences. Other factions would no longer take your word for anything, so you could not get any more alliances and other beneficial agreements from them. Also, executing all the populations you conquer should earn you a bad reputation which would also hurt you diplomatically.

- When a faction is aggressively expansionistic, other factions might take note and gang up on it.

- Populations for provinces should be divided to separate figures for slaves, free men, and wealthy men/nobility. Units that are based on particular social class should only be recruited from that class (ie no recruiting of knights from peasants). If a province doesn't have enough citizens of required class then that unit can't be trained there untill the number has grown.

- Similarly, there should be a population of horses, camels, elephants, etc for each province. You could only train mounted units if there is enough mounts available. The rate of recovering their number could be increased by dedicating resources to breeding the animals.

- Technology such as better ship-types, siege engines, composite bows, fortification techniques, etc could be aquired from other factions and adopted. For example, faction A might lack the knowledge of how to build and operate ballistas. They face faction B in battle and suffer ballistas being used against them. Then they send agents to bribe some engineers of faction B to change sides and build ballistas for them. Faction A from then on is able to train their own ballista units.

- Developement of better units should require use of earlier units. It's not good if you can just skip the basic light infantry units, build the big barracks building and start producing the elite light infantry. In order to unlock the more advanced units, you should have made actual use of similar lower quality units in the battle field. Of corse, this would not be required for units that should be available to a faction at the start date.

- Terrain should be more varied and also it should be more significant, especially when it comes to movement of cavalry. Infantry and archers could be moved to places where cavalry can't reach them easily, hence giving them good tactical position.

- It should be possible to set forests on fire. Any units hiding in the forest would be killed, but the fire could also spread and kill your own units if you're not careful! Wind direction should be important factor when using fire. Also, burning buildings in cities should be a real danger to the army in the city, and fires should lower populations. It should be possible to try to burn down major parts of another faction's settlement like you can sabotage specific buildings in RTW.

I want this. As those of you who are familiar in any way with my posts would probably know anyway.

I think a pre RTW period game would be good too.

Couldn't be bothered remembering other features I'd like at the moment but I do know that if they made MTWII and STWII and maybe some Napoleonic TW game they would sell just as well or even better than all the others. The mods are there or nearly there to show how popular these eras would be afterall.

[Mouzafphaerre]

So long as it doesn't have firearms, it's good. I can enjoy firearms in strat games only if it's set at least WW1 era or later, and I don't want "Total WW" since that theme's done to death and because I think that TW series is better kept to the old days of swords n' spears.

That said, I think the warring states era of China would be an interesting theme for a TW title.

As for features that I'd like to see:

- Supply lines. This is one of the most important stratetic weaknesses of an invading army and it's a great shame that it hasn't been included in TW yet. It should be possible to try to capture or destroy your enemy's supplies. You would need to dedicate units to guard the supplies for your own troops. An underprotected supply train would attract brigands.

- Option to use scorched earth strategy. This could be combined with the raiding of supplies to totally screw up an invasion force.

- Naval battles in 3D battle map with player control over ships.

- A diplomacy system where alliances can be formed specifically against a faction. Ie factions A and B team up against faction X. Perhaps complete with agreement over how to divide the captured provinces. Also there should be a way ask your ally to attack a specific province of your common enemy.

- It should be possible to ask a faction to break their alliance, trade rights, etc to another faction. Or to "persuade" a faction to stop attacking another faction.

- If you keep making diplomatic agreements and breaking them, then there should be consequences. Other factions would no longer take your word for anything, so you could not get any more alliances and other beneficial agreements from them. Also, executing all the populations you conquer should earn you a bad reputation which would also hurt you diplomatically.

- When a faction is aggressively expansionistic, other factions might take note and gang up on it.

- Populations for provinces should be divided to separate figures for slaves, free men, and wealthy men/nobility. Units that are based on particular social class should only be recruited from that class (ie no recruiting of knights from peasants). If a province doesn't have enough citizens of required class then that unit can't be trained there untill the number has grown.

- Similarly, there should be a population of horses, camels, elephants, etc for each province. You could only train mounted units if there is enough mounts available. The rate of recovering their number could be increased by dedicating resources to breeding the animals.

- Technology such as better ship-types, siege engines, composite bows, fortification techniques, etc could be aquired from other factions and adopted. For example, faction A might lack the knowledge of how to build and operate ballistas. They face faction B in battle and suffer ballistas being used against them. Then they send agents to bribe some engineers of faction B to change sides and build ballistas for them. Faction A from then on is able to train their own ballista units.

- Developement of better units should require use of earlier units. It's not good if you can just skip the basic light infantry units, build the big barracks building and start producing the elite light infantry. In order to unlock the more advanced units, you should have made actual use of similar lower quality units in the battle field. Of corse, this would not be required for units that should be available to a faction at the start date.

- Terrain should be more varied and also it should be more significant, especially when it comes to movement of cavalry. Infantry and archers could be moved to places where cavalry can't reach them easily, hence giving them good tactical position.

- It should be possible to set forests on fire. Any units hiding in the forest would be killed, but the fire could also spread and kill your own units if you're not careful! Wind direction should be important factor when using fire. Also, burning buildings in cities should be a real danger to the army in the city, and fires should lower populations. It should be possible to try to burn down major parts of another faction's settlement like you can sabotage specific buildings in RTW.

.
Great ideas. May I add true siege equipments and wall towers, which wn't operate unless you really man them and won't magically change sides simply walking a unit thrugh them. And of course the very existence of the I in AI.
.

[Viking]

For an historical period I'd like to see something Greek or maybe Persian, perhaps 1500-200 BC.

That would be nice.
I don`t wan`t a total war game that goes forward in time(from the RTW time period), rather backwards.

Perhaps the expansion would be "Alexandrian Invasion", where you have to fight of the maniac!

[cunctator]

Bronze Age:Total War
1600-1100BC

[Random_butter]

For an historical period I'd like to see something Greek or maybe Persian, perhaps 1500-200 BC.

I like to see something set in the Ersian Wars aswell. Maybe something like MTW where you had different eras in the Middle Ages. So we could have Trojan wars(Bronze Age) then Dark Ages and then Golden AGe with all the city states.

But something in Greece during the Persian Wars would be great, since i am just after finishing Tom Holland's Persian Fire and it really got me interested in the whole Persina War.

[xemitg]

TW4 must have

Naval battles
airplanes
bigger variaty of units
better diplomacy
commanders with clearer personality
more historical battles
choclate icecream
heidi klum
babes
ferraris

Did I miss anything?

The last four better be in there no matter what game it is.

I wish the combat would have more detail in it. Perhaps every soldier would look a little different. It would be awesome to have things like limbs being hacked off and riders being knocked off their horses and continue fighting. Gore and blood wouldn’t be the center piece of the game. However, if a soldier gets chopped in the arm, naturally his arm should fall off. I fear a Greek based game would be too similar to RTW. My vote would be back to Asia for a Chinese campaign or of the like. It just needs to be different and unique from the past TW games.

[Al Khalifah]

Look at the Total War sequence...

STW: Begins in 1530
WI: Some starting positions in 1490
MTW: 1086 - 1492
VI: 798 - 1066
RTW: 272 bc - 41
BI: circa 360 - 590

I'm guessing something before R:TW then.
Maybe Greece: Total War, with Dorian Invasion expansion pack.

[Craterus]

Look at the Total War sequence...

STW: Begins in 1530
WI: Some starting positions in 1490
MTW: 1086 - 1492
VI: 798 - 1066
RTW: 272 bc - 41
BI: circa 360 - 590

I'm guessing something before R:TW then.
Maybe Greece: Total War, with Dorian Invasion expansion pack.

RTW: 270bc - 5 bc (It's definitely 270. I'm not sure about the 5 part; I made that up.)

I like Bronze Age.

I like sword and spear, not guns.

[Drisos]

I don't want it.

I will only cost us more STW-players...

[Basiliscus]

Well for something not done before, why not something along the lines of the carving up of Africa by the major European powers in the 19th century? This might give people a chance to play as natives or any one of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Ottomans etc. What you all think of that?

Or perhaps the Chinese colonies around the same period, Boxer rebellion et al?

Perhaps even Aztec/Inca TW would work, Cortez/Pizarro and associated cronies. They could happen like a scripted event like the Mongol invasion in MTW.

If it wasn't for AOE3, an American colonies TW might work

[cunctator]

Atztec/Inca:TW is my second choice. The spanish invasion would offer aa unseen variety in gameplay.

[Wishazu]

My personal request would be a Greek focused game, i.e the peloponnesian war etc. however i dont really mind what time period they go for next time as long as the following features are included.

Improved Battlefield AI
More depth to negotiations
Naval Battles(If imperial glory can have em, then why not total war?)
Loyalty feature from medieval(i liked spying on my generals to discover who was plotting against me)
Civil wars^^^ that pretty much goes hand in hand with the loyalty thingy :)
Factions Re-emerging
Multiplayer campaign

[Enoch]

I agree with the ones that want another go in the Medieval period.
A Medieval TW2 with the Rome: TW engine... what a treat that would have been!!!
Another wish would be Crusades: TW

[LestaT]

A china total war seems to be the greater choice and would be great especially during the warring states period but maybe a different look at ancient kingdom around the south east asia (vietnam , cambodia area now) or during the 14th-15th century which includes old malaccan sultanate and the coming of western power such as dutch , portugeese and english .

[Upxl]

Well for something not done before, why not something along the lines of the carving up of Africa by the major European powers in the 19th century? This might give people a chance to play as natives or any one of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Ottomans etc. What you all think of that?

Must say I like it.

My opinion is that they should keep the melee approach.
To heavy guns could really ruin the game.

I wouldn't mind to see a remake of RTW
If the AI on campaign /battle map improves greatly.
With more realistic (world)diplomacy

[RemusAvenged]

China's Warring States Time Period
MesoAmerican (Aztec, Mayan et al)
India or SE Asia

[Majikos]

Isralite: Total War would be cool. It could have all the features from BI. It would be amazing playing the Isralites as a horde looking for the promise land. Factions would include Isralites, Canaanites, Moabites, Hittiesand Egyptians. There could be settlements like Jericho and Sodom & Gomorrah. Religion would range from Judaism to the semite gods like Baal and Ishtar.
(did i spell Isralite right?? No offense to anyone intended if i did!)

[Hannibal Barca]

Han Total War anyone? Dating from pre-Han (building said empire) and post-Han (Three Kingdoms) and everything inbetween.

A remake of Shogun Total War with RTW engine and graphics would be nice, or a campaign with all of the orient (China, Japan, Mongolia, etc.)

Or, Mongolia Total War, beginning with Genghis Khans expansion of the largest empire in exsistence, or as the nations trying to get in Mongolia's way/trying to forge their own worldwide empire.

[WhiteProphecy]

more different spartan units

or change how they look please!!! not just in red robes!!
and you can make a new unit, but not where its goddish attack and defence, you have to pay for how much training (attack & deffence) the new unit you make has.
um

i game like Spartan Total Warrior, but with up to atleast 2 player campaign

[Barbarian_King_1]

A Three Kingdoms with possible Mongol invasion add on, mod, etc. would make China would make an excellent topic. It is different than the others, could cover more time, include more difficult terrain, and would not be that hard to create, ie. cheap for the company.

I agree with many of the previous entries. A better AI, and greater gamout of responses in diplomacy. I for one always want to behead my losing generals, especially when the battle is won, and they run, and take everyone else with them. Why is that not an option? Another portion would be sandbox. Why not include a map maker, random, etc. and start with one province. In addition would like online strategic play, with yes, unfortunately uncommanded (auto) battles.

I like naval combat too, but it would not be as useful in this mod. Maybe riverboats mmmm. No not paddlewheelers, before I start taking shots across my rigging.

The Middle Kingdom could be a wonderful place to play, I mean fight, I mean conquer. I am sure I am not saying anything new, but there is my two ducals, oops wrong period.

The Original Barbarian King

[Papewaio]

TW1: Shogun
TW2: Mongol Invasion
TW3: MTW
TW4: Viking Invasion
TW5: RTW

So we want to go back in time and change Viking Invasion (incidentally the only one in the series I havn't played)...

[Samurai Waki]

I'd have to go with Imperial: TW covering the time from the Spanish Discovery of the Americas to roughly the end of the American Civil War/Franco-Prussian War. Although, I'd like to see a more realistic format, were things really were the way that they were, up until the point you decide to screw up history. I've seen enough of the Late BCs-1500s AD, and would like to move foreward instead of back.

I would Also Like to See

Completely Revamped Trade System: If you're nation can produce it, you can trade things with other nations for it.

Completely Revamped AI: I would like to see an AI that actually learns from it's mistakes, and forms it's own complex battle plans for each individual nation, according to what kinds of units it has available to it.

Completely Revamped Diplomacy Model: Meaning, instead of sending around a Diplomatic Agent, you can just click which faction you want to have a diplomatic deal with, whatever the distances from your capital to their capital, determines how long it will take to get your message there and back.

No More Turns!: I'd like to see a game, that doesn't use a turn based system, this would allow players to be on their toes at all times. It takes a certain amount of in game time to construct new buildings within cities, or train new units, in real time. Also, this would allow for realistic marching distances between cities.

Assigning Governors to foreign provinces: Because the Scope of the Game is so large, you can actually Assign Governors to take care of domestic issues in your far away provinces. This includes building up your Colonies, and raising foreign levies. This would allow you to manage whatever aspect of the game that you want (trade, military Expeditions, and Diplomacy), while you're governors are doing all the little important things in the background, that are relatively unimportant to you, but vastly important to your nations success. Also, Governors would gain traits over time that would either be good or bad for sed province... this includes all out rebellion.

Map of the World: The entire world would be represented, and with it, every major, and many minor civilization with it, each with unique units, and military, or cultural doctrines.

Religion: Bring God to the Savages, or re-populate areas with citizens of your own ilk. This includes things like Inquisitions, and dare I say it... genocide. This would greatly upset other nations that are not of the same thought-process, or religion that you are, and they may even declare war outright war.

Complex Campaigns: This includes supply lines and attrition, and when you march your armies into enemy territories you can assign them certain missions, including raising farms, and small communities, or attempting to sack the provincial capital, you may also order your general in command to take a defensive position, or seek your enemies offensively. If a battle ensues, it is completely up to you to take command, but if you don't, and the General under control of the AI has good command traits, you may well win the day, without taking atrocious losses.

Improved Battle Controls: If you take over command of your troops, you are no longer god and can't see everything. The Battles are fairly first person... and some 3rd Person. You can order cavalry to screen your line, or poke at enemy offensive or defensive positions to find out where they are the weakest. You only know what you're up against until the enemy is right in your sight. Of course with advent of later technology, things like air balloons, and good telescopes will be available at your disposal. Basically, your underlings do the fighting for you, you tell them where to go, and where to attack, and the AI would figure out the rest. This would mean that you might get frustrated with a fresh lieutenant that doesn't know exactley what he's doing, but with time, and if he doesn't die, he'll learn to do things that will put an edge on the enemy.

Chaos Theory and Corealis Affect: The rotation of the Earth, geologic location, and position of the planet vs. the sun... mean seasonal changes, according to time and location, Barometric Pressure, Humidity, and Elevation. Also things like Weather Patterns develop regularly that you can use to your advantage... or your enemies will know how to use to theirs.

Hmmmm.... can't really think of too many other things... Naval Battles, going along the same line, as my Improved Battle Controls suggestion would be nice though too.

Wazikashi

[Burnzy]

Hopefully: Colonisation: Total War (Picking up where MTW left off and going through to 1800(ish) - This would let me live out my dream of being born during this period with memories of the future, hindsight = Me saying "Longbow > Musket God damn it!")

Realistically: Hellenistic: Total War. (Rome engine with new skins, a few little features and maybe the Indus - Yawn - Unless its expansion was the Roman struggle for dominance of the Italian peninsular)

Alternatively: MMORPG: Total War (Strictly profit I'd expect)

--

Can't help but think of it though - Setting off from Spain with a small fleet to fight the exotic and mysterious peoples of the Americas and taking home huge amounts of loot, with constant skirmishes with other Catholic powers, possibly a high speed chase around Cape Horn where the sink rate is 99% .

Some other brilliant features which would add huge amounts of realism:

1. Different stages of war/aggressiveness, ie: total tar, skirmishes, war at sea/distant provinces. Total war is and was a rare thing, look at the Falkland Islands - Strictly provincial and wasn't total war, these things happen and I'd love it to be incorporated into the TW games.

2. Looting after battles! Why not?! It happened! Not only gold and valuables, but also weapons and armour - the game could translate this to weapon/armor upgrades like those of the armouries built in provinces. The amount and quality depending on the slain enemy, however.

3. Further enhanced diplomacy. Use your imagination, I'm talking ultimatums, pacts over territories ("You invade Belgium, and I'll invade you!" sort of thing) and many others.

4. Lots more which I can't think of off the top of my head!

Total War games really do have unlimited potential, if CA could only tap into even a quarter of it in the next game, it would easily drive me crazy like the previous titles .

[Franconicus]

Bribing should be changed. It should not be possible to bribe FMs or other loyal troops. But it should be possible to bribe mercs that serve the enemy even before a battle.
You should also be able to have joined actions with your allies. It should be possible to coordinate plans and to exchange units.