Golden YakBurnished BovineThe sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered Userregular
Think of it as taking the great elements of combat that the TW franchise is known for and bestowing them on another franchise that is also beloved by many. I love Warhammer but I've never played any of the TW series, because real history setting games aren't at all appealing to me - this game'll be my first TW game. I'm into it.
0
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Think of it as taking the great elements of combat that the TW franchise is known for and bestowing them on another franchise that is also beloved by many. I love Warhammer but I've never played any of the TW series, because real history setting games aren't at all appealing to me - this game'll be my first TW game. I'm into it.
Now if only the War Game guys would make a 40k Epic game.
Think of it as taking the great elements of combat that the TW franchise is known for and bestowing them on another franchise that is also beloved by many. I love Warhammer but I've never played any of the TW series, because real history setting games aren't at all appealing to me - this game'll be my first TW game. I'm into it.
Now if only the War Game guys would make a 40k Epic game.
Because Relic doesn't seem to be doing shit.
Yeah. I would love to see a 40k game similar to Wargame: Red Dragon
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
0
Options
AlazullYour body is not a temple, it's an amusement park.Enjoy the ride.Registered Userregular
I just hope they fix character family trees. In attilla you will have generals and children that are not on the tree. Just hope you don't have to assassinate him I suppose.
In terms of the leaders of your faction, there are no family trees.
Karl Franz/Carlstein/Dorf king/Ork Boss can't have a wife or children or truly die I don't think.
I don't know if other generals have family trees. It would be nice to see a family tree for them, even a streamlined functional tree like in Shogun 2 (or Atilla I think).
Yeah, you really wouldn't have a family tree for your faction leaders, but there are lower rank commanders and for most armies it makes sense that there are factions. For example, I could see a big thing for Empire being to manage your Elector Counts, and while Thorgrim is the High King of the Dwarfs each hold has its own King who rules absolutely over his hold so keeping them appeased makes sense.
My concerns are how they'll balance the armies, and hope that a lot of that comes from outside of combat type stuff. For example, I'd like to see Dwarfs take a long time to train, be expensive for base units, replenish slowly, move on the campaign map slowly and also are more susceptible to ambush. They should be more about defending what they have, but taking anything is dangerous and costly both in resources and lives.
User name Alazull on Steam, PSN, Nintenders, Epic, etc.
0
Options
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited September 2015
This is taking Warhammer (WH 40K) and taking away the hundreds of pages of rule books, measuring every units movement, rolling every unit damage, taking all day playing a game, spending hundreds of dollars in miniatures, and leaving behind the awesome parts of WH.
Seriously, this is the game I wanted every since TW Shogun first came out.
I just hope they fix character family trees. In attilla you will have generals and children that are not on the tree. Just hope you don't have to assassinate him I suppose.
In terms of the leaders of your faction, there are no family trees.
Karl Franz/Carlstein/Dorf king/Ork Boss can't have a wife or children or truly die I don't think.
I don't know if other generals have family trees. It would be nice to see a family tree for them, even a streamlined functional tree like in Shogun 2 (or Atilla I think).
Yeah, you really wouldn't have a family tree for your faction leaders, but there are lower rank commanders and for most armies it makes sense that there are factions. For example, I could see a big thing for Empire being to manage your Elector Counts, and while Thorgrim is the High King of the Dwarfs each hold has its own King who rules absolutely over his hold so keeping them appeased makes sense.
My concerns are how they'll balance the armies, and hope that a lot of that comes from outside of combat type stuff. For example, I'd like to see Dwarfs take a long time to train, be expensive for base units, replenish slowly, move on the campaign map slowly and also are more susceptible to ambush. They should be more about defending what they have, but taking anything is dangerous and costly both in resources and lives.
Racial bonuses for Dwarves against anyone who has committed aggression against them. The Great Book of Grudges in action.
I just hope they fix character family trees. In attilla you will have generals and children that are not on the tree. Just hope you don't have to assassinate him I suppose.
In terms of the leaders of your faction, there are no family trees.
Karl Franz/Carlstein/Dorf king/Ork Boss can't have a wife or children or truly die I don't think.
I don't know if other generals have family trees. It would be nice to see a family tree for them, even a streamlined functional tree like in Shogun 2 (or Atilla I think).
Yeah, you really wouldn't have a family tree for your faction leaders, but there are lower rank commanders and for most armies it makes sense that there are factions. For example, I could see a big thing for Empire being to manage your Elector Counts, and while Thorgrim is the High King of the Dwarfs each hold has its own King who rules absolutely over his hold so keeping them appeased makes sense.
My concerns are how they'll balance the armies, and hope that a lot of that comes from outside of combat type stuff. For example, I'd like to see Dwarfs take a long time to train, be expensive for base units, replenish slowly, move on the campaign map slowly and also are more susceptible to ambush. They should be more about defending what they have, but taking anything is dangerous and costly both in resources and lives.
Racial bonuses for Dwarves against anyone who has committed aggression against them.has an ancestor that shorted them three gold on a construction project done centuries ago because someone counted the amount wrong. The Great Book of Grudges in action.
Think of it as taking the great elements of combat that the TW franchise is known for and bestowing them on another franchise that is also beloved by many. I love Warhammer but I've never played any of the TW series, because real history setting games aren't at all appealing to me - this game'll be my first TW game. I'm into it.
Oh yeah, I understnad that a lot of people like that universe, and I have played some warhammer PC games. Its just that TW was heading in one direction that I loved in its infancy, and that was vastly unexplored in that depth. Like, you would have to go to Civilization, to get all the diplomacy and historical references etc. and all the information about the world at that time, not just units descriptions. And while the engine is being improved, wich results in a much better experiencie, and I imagine Shogun II is simply better than its predecesors reagarding graphics, combat mechanics etc. I feel the world they are in is each time shallower, and as they transition into full fantasy mode, I fear the old unique spot that they used to hit is going to be empty. I dont resent fantasy or shallow games, I play them all the time, Im just sad that the team is moving away from what I personally enjoyed about the game, and I couldnt find anywhere else.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
A map, I think. Weren't they talking about how the three games of the trilogy would create an interlocked map?
+1
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Yeh.
The map will have campaign missions that might unlock when certain conditions are met or just through progression.
I still really don't like that bottom UI. It looks better, but it was a clusterfuck when you tried to put two armies together. I don't know why they have to keep it in the middle and waste the space between it and the unit avatar. Why not just go the Shogun 2 way, lower it, connect it to the avatar circle?
Although I do really like the Battle For Middle Earth way of having hero and unit abilities be on a ring around an avatar. I also still don't like how it looks like status update happen in turns in the same space. Like the top middle of the card is reserved for being fired at by range and in melee and forced marching, but instead of separating the two and putting them in separate places, it has to cycle. That's dumb.
spoilered for big
See all those markings with the sword and arrows? They're in the same spot. They at the very least have space for one other status on each side. why don't they use it?
Shogun 2 also had this problem even though it had space for more status effects. Why change it? Even the minimal UI from Medieval 2 used it's unit card space more efficiently.
Btw those unit cards look really nice. They're probably stolen straight from the Warhammer Fantasy Codices, but they look nice.
A lot of UI design is a mystery to me. On the one hand I know that these things are done by professionals and that it's a thousand times easier to pretend like you know everything than to actually do something, but so many games seem to have UIs that just waste a lot of space, or make it hard to see or read things, or otherwise are just worse than UIs in other games, in ways that seem like they could be easily fixed, and I just don't know what to think. The most egregious example of this is Company of Heroes 2, with a UI that's just a fucking mess compared to the original game.
+1
Options
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
A lot of UI design is a mystery to me. On the one hand I know that these things are done by professionals and that it's a thousand times easier to pretend like you know everything than to actually do something, but so many games seem to have UIs that just waste a lot of space, or make it hard to see or read things, or otherwise are just worse than UIs in other games, in ways that seem like they could be easily fixed, and I just don't know what to think. The most egregious example of this is Company of Heroes 2, with a UI that's just a fucking mess compared to the original game.
UIX is a relatively new discipline, both in terms of scientific research and general software development. It's really grown in the past decade (particularly with the rise of Apple products), but for the most part it's been underappreciated and frankly not well understood. There are still a lot of places where people try to "save money" by having their coders also be the people who design the interfaces. Especially if, prior to recent years, you couldn't produce any hard evidence that a particular design or methodology would actually produce a better end-user experience. The result is that you get software that basically conforms to two principles: 1) what is the easiest thing to code, 2) what makes sense to the person doing the coding.
Another big hurdle is that there is only so much time and money, and frankly any good design will undergo several iterations before it would be considered "good", whether that be a prolonged design phase, extended user testing, etc. etc. etc. Many companies simply don't want to spend that time or money getting to that place before releasing a "viable" product.
In gaming terms, this is the difference between a studio like Blizzard and a studio like Creative Assembly. The former produce games that have a lot more "polish" simply because they don't want to treat their customers as paying beta testers. And if they don't get it right the first time, they are willing to expend considerable time and resources after the product is released in order to fix the problems. I can speak from personal experience that you can have something that you think users will want to use in a particular way, something that was even validated by your selected pre-testers, only to discover that the larger customer base wants to do it another way for whatever reasons. So you have a choice to either maintain the status quo or to invest the resources to change it for the sake of your customer base. Resources which could potentially go into making brand new features and functionality instead (or simply pocketed entirely).
+1
Options
Mego Thor"I say thee...NAY!"Registered Userregular
The recent humble bundle made me give Shogun 2 a shot.
I fucking hate it.
The game seems mechanically sound, the factions are interesting and varied, but even at reasonable difficulty levels I get absolutely drowned in war declarations. I tried out the Ikko Ikki, and within 30 turns a literal two thirds of the mainlands were at war with me, with five big factions bearing down on my cities with multiple full stacks of units while I could barely afford the upkeep for a single one. I figured that that particular start might be extra difficult and tried one of the island clans, but even then I was declared war on by every single faction I met, including one over the ocean that proceeded to land a full stack on my most distant, undefended city.
I know these games are called Total War, but I would at least like a little bit of agency about the factions I choose to fight!
The recent humble bundle made me give Shogun 2 a shot.
I fucking hate it.
The game seems mechanically sound, the factions are interesting and varied, but even at reasonable difficulty levels I get absolutely drowned in war declarations. I tried out the Ikko Ikki, and within 30 turns a literal two thirds of the mainlands were at war with me, with five big factions bearing down on my cities with multiple full stacks of units while I could barely afford the upkeep for a single one. I figured that that particular start might be extra difficult and tried one of the island clans, but even then I was declared war on by every single faction I met, including one over the ocean that proceeded to land a full stack on my most distant, undefended city.
I know these games are called Total War, but I would at least like a little bit of agency about the factions I choose to fight!
The Ikko Ikki makes everyone hate them because they are a unique religion and them spreading (by existing) it causes riots and rebellions everywhere. Its why you start with two heavily fortified mountainous provinces.
Have you tried trade agreements, defensive alliances and outright bribery? One of the first things I do when I start a new game is see who around me is most amenable to diplomacy and start working on that asap. Having an ally nearby is a massive boon and is not all that tough to set up. Some factions are more willing to negotiate than others, obviously, but getting a solid ally or two early on is a great way to stave off aggression. It been a while since I've played Shogun 2, but in Rome 2 I was able to secure a couple strong allies early on which prevented my otherwise not greatly positioned Macedonia from being gobbled up by the Greeks.
If I would have tried standing alone from the get go I wouldn't have made it past 40 turns.
Honestly though, any central clan in Shogun 2 is super difficult.
With Ikko-ikki the trick is generally to beeline for religious tech, it's a powerful tool on defence, and makes offense easier.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
+2
Options
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
Shogun 2 is much game better compared to Rome II, and is a significant improvement over the original title.
With regards to Rome II; it's like CA took 1 step forward, and 10 steps back with its game design. If it retained the UI design and gameplay mechanics from Shogun II, it would've been a vastly superior game.
I really agree
The whole "only armies led by generals" thing is REALLY throwing me for a loop when I try to play it
The recent humble bundle made me give Shogun 2 a shot.
I fucking hate it.
The game seems mechanically sound, the factions are interesting and varied, but even at reasonable difficulty levels I get absolutely drowned in war declarations. I tried out the Ikko Ikki, and within 30 turns a literal two thirds of the mainlands were at war with me, with five big factions bearing down on my cities with multiple full stacks of units while I could barely afford the upkeep for a single one. I figured that that particular start might be extra difficult and tried one of the island clans, but even then I was declared war on by every single faction I met, including one over the ocean that proceeded to land a full stack on my most distant, undefended city.
I know these games are called Total War, but I would at least like a little bit of agency about the factions I choose to fight!
Ikko Ikki are a bad choice
If you're playing someone like the Shimazu or the Chosokabe, taking their home islands is a major priority. It gives you plenty of resources and lets you have an easily defensible base from which to launch further attacks
You don't have to fight everyone you meet, usually once you discover someone, establishing trade is a priority, and once they like you enough, signing alliances and such (especially with people you eventually discover from the other side of the country!) will help keep you from fighting too many wars at once
Eventually the whole thing does devolve into "fuck everyone fight em all" but the mid-game is all about careful diplomacy
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited September 2015
I like the "fuck everyone fight em all" bits in Shogun 2. It probably the only Total War Game where the mid-late game and late game isn't easily cheesed. In every other Total War including Med II, the games go like this:
Challenging difficult beginning->easier midgame->steamroll late game
Shogun 2 and FOTS (Depending if you go Republic or low on alignment allies) usually has
If you have something like Darthmod or a simple "keep allies during realm divide" mod it feels more fair. If they're stuck on Kyushu or Oshu (the bottom islands) without a preestablished navy they'll probably just be jerking off but if they're on Honshu (the big island) then they'll actually come and help.
Not having a navy is the worst in Shogun 2. Due to Japan being an Archipelago, and having like 60% of it's landmass invadable by water, and navies being rather fast it sucks if you're primarily land force army fighting someone with a giant navy. They can block you from straits to go from island to island. They can and will kill your trade. If big enough, they'll station themselves in such a way that they will blockade you from getting ships or trying to escape with a stack of dudes on a ship.
Edit: also yeah choose Shimazu or Chokosabe first and try to make friends and trade with people. Once you actually have resources trading becomes much more lucrative and more people will want to trade with you.
If you play as Shimazu or Chokosabe or Mori, be sure to park a ship - any kind of ship - on the four western trade nodes. Try to get the next one to the east as well.
Get there with small ships first, and put trade ships there when you can.
0
Options
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
The trade routes are one of the few things that aren't that great about Shogun 2. It's almost better if they don't exist at all, because they're way too powerful and yet so easy to cheese.
And yeah @Vic you totally chose the wrong faction for a first go-round. =P Maybe try a more powerful one early on, or one that isn't stuck in the quagmire that is the middle of Honshu and doesn't have a huge diplomacy penalty.
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
edited September 2015
I have tried five times now to play a campaign as the Huns in Attila
And I just
fucking
can't
I like the UI a lot more than Rome 2's, but ho-lee shit I can't figure out how the fuck you're supposed to play that faction well and most of the other factions just don't interest me at all
I got it for cheap so I'm not mad I bought it but christ
It's this incredibly irritating feeling where I think I'm missing something really obvious about the strategy here but it's just so completely different from how I play these games that I don't get it
I have tried five times now to play a campaign as the Huns in Attila
And I just
fucking
can't
I like the UI a lot more than Rome 2's, but ho-lee shit I can't figure out how the fuck you're supposed to play that faction well and most of the other factions just don't interest me at all
I got it for cheap so I'm not mad I bought it but christ
It's this incredibly irritating feeling where I think I'm missing something really obvious about the strategy here but it's just so completely different from how I play these games that I don't get it
Keep the starting regions from being razed. You want to loot them and level up your generals. If you beeline down the Stat tree you get +growth. This is a MUST for late game growth and survival. Get farm, trade/industry on all your hordes asap. Every time you raze a territory you get like +25 growth. I grouped hordes in twos and frog leaped with them. One horde sits to replenish and grow, the other attacks/razes.
You want to avoid going down the military tech at first. Upkeep costs on advanced calvary is unsustainable with "tier 1" buildings. Mass infantry for raiding towns and walls in the early game. Even bow calvary are surprisingly great at charging the flanks of the enemy lines and causing them to route. Don't be afraid to do it. I can provide more input if you need.
0
Options
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
The wait for Total War: Hammer is far from over. Creative Assembly’s strategic take on the Warhammer Fantasy world will be with us on April 28th but, as is traditional, the preorder incentives and collector’s edition malarkey has already begun. Below, you’ll find a video showcasing the Chaos Warriors, growly-voiced corruptions intent on spreading their unholy powers across the world. They’ll make up the first DLC for the game but if you’re willing to put down the money before release, they’ll be included with your copy of the game. Details of that and a preposterous special edition (it includes a drinking horn and functional whetstone) below.
Before I gripe about preordering in general and day-one DLC as ‘reward’ specifically, here’s what the Chaos Warriors pack includes:
The Chaos Warriors Race Pack brings a new race with its own new Legendary Lords, units, mounts, items, quest chains and mechanics to Total War™: WARHAMMER®, such as:
• Three new playable Legendary Lords.
• New Chaos Warrior mounts, units and monsters.
• New quests, magic items and abilities.
• New horde campaign playstyle.
More in the article itself
So, it appears as though I'll get to play as Chaos from the start after all! Unlike the other factions Chaos gets three Leader choices instead of two, I don't know who all of them are but I have a pretty good idea who one is...
Eeeeh Sigvald! *feints*
It looks like the Chaos Dragon Ogre might be one of the others, so there's no telling who the third might be.
I'll probably pre-order the game even if I wasn't going to before (I probably was) always a little bit disappointing they don't just put stuff like this in the actual game but if the game is good enough it can be forgiven.
Lord_Asmodeus on
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Three new Legendary Lords.
Lead the Chaos Warriors as one of three new Legendary Lords, each with their own unique bonuses:
Sigvald the Magnificent:
Beautiful from birth, Sigvald’s fondness for hedonistic excess saw him exiled from his tribe but also gained him a powerful patron: Slaanesh. Now, he heads an army devoted to himself. Slaying anything he deems ugly or unsavoury, he fights as much for his perverse ego as he does for Slaanesh.
Kholek Suneater:
Kholek Suneater is a formidable figure to behold. A gigantic Dragon Ogre, believed by many to be the second eldest of all Dragon Ogres, he towers over the battlefield swinging his gigantic hammer with ease. He is considered by some to be a God.
Archaon the Everchosen:
A former Sigmarite Templar, Archaon stumbled upon an ancient doctrine that contained within the secrets of his faith. Renouncing his allegiance to Sigmar he journeyed north to the dreaded Chaos Wastes to offer his service to the Chaos Gods. Here, the Ruinous Powers gave him their blessing to set out on his quest to become the Everchosen; the Lord of the End Times.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
0
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited October 2015
This is fucking dumb
At least wait after launch to sell us factions
They don't learn shit
Edit: If we can pre-order Chaos, I assume the assets are in the game already and they're just witholding it from us.
I was actually gung-ho about buying all the expansions and not having Chaos at first. I thought they would be like Med II's mongols. But they're fucking in the game already. Why do we have to pre-order or pay for them?
Edit: If we can pre-order Chaos, I assume the assets are in the game already and they're just witholding it from us.
I was actually gung-ho about buying all the expansions and not having Chaos at first. I thought they would be like Med II's mongols. But they're fucking in the game already. Why do we have to pre-order or pay for them?
Well, gamers are not entitled to everything a company makes before launch. The cost of making it is not zero, new factions represent time and effort put forward by the devs.
I'm not keen on the idea either, but CA very well may have crunched numbers and decided that they couldn't afford more than 4 factions at launch.
I hate stupid preorders, but I also hate "if it ships with the game I should get it for free"
Edit: If we can pre-order Chaos, I assume the assets are in the game already and they're just witholding it from us.
I was actually gung-ho about buying all the expansions and not having Chaos at first. I thought they would be like Med II's mongols. But they're fucking in the game already. Why do we have to pre-order or pay for them?
Look at it this way: This game will cost you probably $60. 25 years ago, a big game like this would have cost you $50. Considering the rate of inflation, that's a pretty sweet deal.
Yeah, I don't like the idea of paying more but I also realize the cost of games has gone up and the price has not. Devs have to make up that lost money somehow.
Now, some of them push things to far, for sure. But I don't feel like this is one of those cases.
+1
Options
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
My dream game is still a Warhammer 40k Total War game. I know people have such an aversion to firearm heavy games (in TW), but you'd have stuff like devastator squads laying down heavy bolter fire while shit like grey knights and assault squads charge/jetpack into xenos. Squad lead could be a captain or something calling in orbital bombardments or drop pods. Just think the Relic Dawn of War games on a massive scale. It'd be glorious.
But fantasy Warhammer will do.
Are you the magic man?
+2
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
My dream game is still a Warhammer 40k Total War game. I know people have such an aversion to firearm heavy games (in TW), but you'd have stuff like devastator squads laying down heavy bolter fire while shit like grey knights and assault squads charge/jetpack into xenos. Squad lead could be a captain or something calling in orbital bombardments or drop pods. Just think the Relic Dawn of War games on a massive scale. It'd be glorious.
But fantasy Warhammer will do.
Dawn of War 3 was(/is?) supposed to do that. Though Relic hasn't been saying anything about it lately so I don't know.
This is Sega pushing this preorder bullshit for sure. Screw them. Also, Relic is out of my good graces after CoH 2. Those microtransaction commanders and War Spoils make my skin crawl. But I digress.
I will probably preorder Warhammer. Not because I support the shameful practice, but because there will probably be a 25% off code for GMG before it releases and I just can't pass up those savings. I feel bad, but yeah. Its like, the game may not be playable at launch because CA, but at the same time I want to play it before the next batch of decent sales come up which will take a while. It sucks.
There's a timeline, and it was the same for Attila, same reason I preordered that despite locking vikings.
Cheap preorder ---> unplayable release (not usually for 'second gen' games like Napolean and Attila) ---> patch to be playable, so its go time ---> months later you get sales equal to the preorder one, but now you also don't have the DLC.
Also, it might have been a hoax but apparently the mod tools for Attila had references to a Charlemagne expansion. We'll have to wait and find out. It would certainly be an impressive DLC. More like a Fall of the Samurai expansion, it sounds like!
I've never seen these mythical "unplayable releases".
Rome 2 worked just fine from day one. Sure, they've changed the game a lot since then, but it worked fine from the start.
The recent humble bundle made me give Shogun 2 a shot.
I fucking hate it.
The game seems mechanically sound, the factions are interesting and varied, but even at reasonable difficulty levels I get absolutely drowned in war declarations. I tried out the Ikko Ikki, and within 30 turns a literal two thirds of the mainlands were at war with me, with five big factions bearing down on my cities with multiple full stacks of units while I could barely afford the upkeep for a single one. I figured that that particular start might be extra difficult and tried one of the island clans, but even then I was declared war on by every single faction I met, including one over the ocean that proceeded to land a full stack on my most distant, undefended city.
I know these games are called Total War, but I would at least like a little bit of agency about the factions I choose to fight!
The Ikko Ikki makes everyone hate them because they are a unique religion and them spreading (by existing) it causes riots and rebellions everywhere. Its why you start with two heavily fortified mountainous provinces.
Ikko Ikki is literally super-tough mod, to the point that even modding does not make the faction an easier playthrough.
By contrast, clans like the Shimazu (particularly them, since they basically start on the far end of Kyushu and only have neighbors in one direction, and sweet trade pacts in the other) will face none of those issues: other clans like or are generally neutral towards them, they have a normal military recruitment system (the Ikko Ikki don't). Realm divide is, by design, overly harsh (just to basically extend the endgame--to have reached realm divide successfully, you will have needed complete or near-complete domination over every other clan in the game).
The fact that you ran into issues with another clan is kind of surprising (there are some other pariah-like clans though). Which one is it?
Posts
Now if only the War Game guys would make a 40k Epic game.
Because Relic doesn't seem to be doing shit.
Yeah. I would love to see a 40k game similar to Wargame: Red Dragon
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Yeah, you really wouldn't have a family tree for your faction leaders, but there are lower rank commanders and for most armies it makes sense that there are factions. For example, I could see a big thing for Empire being to manage your Elector Counts, and while Thorgrim is the High King of the Dwarfs each hold has its own King who rules absolutely over his hold so keeping them appeased makes sense.
My concerns are how they'll balance the armies, and hope that a lot of that comes from outside of combat type stuff. For example, I'd like to see Dwarfs take a long time to train, be expensive for base units, replenish slowly, move on the campaign map slowly and also are more susceptible to ambush. They should be more about defending what they have, but taking anything is dangerous and costly both in resources and lives.
Seriously, this is the game I wanted every since TW Shogun first came out.
Racial bonuses for Dwarves against anyone who has committed aggression against them. The Great Book of Grudges in action.
Oh yeah, I understnad that a lot of people like that universe, and I have played some warhammer PC games. Its just that TW was heading in one direction that I loved in its infancy, and that was vastly unexplored in that depth. Like, you would have to go to Civilization, to get all the diplomacy and historical references etc. and all the information about the world at that time, not just units descriptions. And while the engine is being improved, wich results in a much better experiencie, and I imagine Shogun II is simply better than its predecesors reagarding graphics, combat mechanics etc. I feel the world they are in is each time shallower, and as they transition into full fantasy mode, I fear the old unique spot that they used to hit is going to be empty. I dont resent fantasy or shallow games, I play them all the time, Im just sad that the team is moving away from what I personally enjoyed about the game, and I couldnt find anywhere else.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
The map will have campaign missions that might unlock when certain conditions are met or just through progression.
I still really don't like that bottom UI. It looks better, but it was a clusterfuck when you tried to put two armies together. I don't know why they have to keep it in the middle and waste the space between it and the unit avatar. Why not just go the Shogun 2 way, lower it, connect it to the avatar circle?
Although I do really like the Battle For Middle Earth way of having hero and unit abilities be on a ring around an avatar. I also still don't like how it looks like status update happen in turns in the same space. Like the top middle of the card is reserved for being fired at by range and in melee and forced marching, but instead of separating the two and putting them in separate places, it has to cycle. That's dumb.
spoilered for big
Shogun 2 also had this problem even though it had space for more status effects. Why change it? Even the minimal UI from Medieval 2 used it's unit card space more efficiently.
Btw those unit cards look really nice. They're probably stolen straight from the Warhammer Fantasy Codices, but they look nice.
UIX is a relatively new discipline, both in terms of scientific research and general software development. It's really grown in the past decade (particularly with the rise of Apple products), but for the most part it's been underappreciated and frankly not well understood. There are still a lot of places where people try to "save money" by having their coders also be the people who design the interfaces. Especially if, prior to recent years, you couldn't produce any hard evidence that a particular design or methodology would actually produce a better end-user experience. The result is that you get software that basically conforms to two principles: 1) what is the easiest thing to code, 2) what makes sense to the person doing the coding.
Another big hurdle is that there is only so much time and money, and frankly any good design will undergo several iterations before it would be considered "good", whether that be a prolonged design phase, extended user testing, etc. etc. etc. Many companies simply don't want to spend that time or money getting to that place before releasing a "viable" product.
In gaming terms, this is the difference between a studio like Blizzard and a studio like Creative Assembly. The former produce games that have a lot more "polish" simply because they don't want to treat their customers as paying beta testers. And if they don't get it right the first time, they are willing to expend considerable time and resources after the product is released in order to fix the problems. I can speak from personal experience that you can have something that you think users will want to use in a particular way, something that was even validated by your selected pre-testers, only to discover that the larger customer base wants to do it another way for whatever reasons. So you have a choice to either maintain the status quo or to invest the resources to change it for the sake of your customer base. Resources which could potentially go into making brand new features and functionality instead (or simply pocketed entirely).
This looks incredible. Glad to see someone is giving the Old World some love.
I fucking hate it.
The game seems mechanically sound, the factions are interesting and varied, but even at reasonable difficulty levels I get absolutely drowned in war declarations. I tried out the Ikko Ikki, and within 30 turns a literal two thirds of the mainlands were at war with me, with five big factions bearing down on my cities with multiple full stacks of units while I could barely afford the upkeep for a single one. I figured that that particular start might be extra difficult and tried one of the island clans, but even then I was declared war on by every single faction I met, including one over the ocean that proceeded to land a full stack on my most distant, undefended city.
I know these games are called Total War, but I would at least like a little bit of agency about the factions I choose to fight!
The Ikko Ikki makes everyone hate them because they are a unique religion and them spreading (by existing) it causes riots and rebellions everywhere. Its why you start with two heavily fortified mountainous provinces.
If I would have tried standing alone from the get go I wouldn't have made it past 40 turns.
With Ikko-ikki the trick is generally to beeline for religious tech, it's a powerful tool on defence, and makes offense easier.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I really agree
The whole "only armies led by generals" thing is REALLY throwing me for a loop when I try to play it
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Ikko Ikki are a bad choice
If you're playing someone like the Shimazu or the Chosokabe, taking their home islands is a major priority. It gives you plenty of resources and lets you have an easily defensible base from which to launch further attacks
You don't have to fight everyone you meet, usually once you discover someone, establishing trade is a priority, and once they like you enough, signing alliances and such (especially with people you eventually discover from the other side of the country!) will help keep you from fighting too many wars at once
Eventually the whole thing does devolve into "fuck everyone fight em all" but the mid-game is all about careful diplomacy
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Challenging difficult beginning->easier midgame->steamroll late game
Shogun 2 and FOTS (Depending if you go Republic or low on alignment allies) usually has
Challenging beginning=>Easier midgame=>Challenging endgame
If you have something like Darthmod or a simple "keep allies during realm divide" mod it feels more fair. If they're stuck on Kyushu or Oshu (the bottom islands) without a preestablished navy they'll probably just be jerking off but if they're on Honshu (the big island) then they'll actually come and help.
Not having a navy is the worst in Shogun 2. Due to Japan being an Archipelago, and having like 60% of it's landmass invadable by water, and navies being rather fast it sucks if you're primarily land force army fighting someone with a giant navy. They can block you from straits to go from island to island. They can and will kill your trade. If big enough, they'll station themselves in such a way that they will blockade you from getting ships or trying to escape with a stack of dudes on a ship.
Edit: also yeah choose Shimazu or Chokosabe first and try to make friends and trade with people. Once you actually have resources trading becomes much more lucrative and more people will want to trade with you.
Get there with small ships first, and put trade ships there when you can.
And yeah @Vic you totally chose the wrong faction for a first go-round. =P Maybe try a more powerful one early on, or one that isn't stuck in the quagmire that is the middle of Honshu and doesn't have a huge diplomacy penalty.
And I just
fucking
can't
I like the UI a lot more than Rome 2's, but ho-lee shit I can't figure out how the fuck you're supposed to play that faction well and most of the other factions just don't interest me at all
I got it for cheap so I'm not mad I bought it but christ
It's this incredibly irritating feeling where I think I'm missing something really obvious about the strategy here but it's just so completely different from how I play these games that I don't get it
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Keep the starting regions from being razed. You want to loot them and level up your generals. If you beeline down the Stat tree you get +growth. This is a MUST for late game growth and survival. Get farm, trade/industry on all your hordes asap. Every time you raze a territory you get like +25 growth. I grouped hordes in twos and frog leaped with them. One horde sits to replenish and grow, the other attacks/razes.
You want to avoid going down the military tech at first. Upkeep costs on advanced calvary is unsustainable with "tier 1" buildings. Mass infantry for raiding towns and walls in the early game. Even bow calvary are surprisingly great at charging the flanks of the enemy lines and causing them to route. Don't be afraid to do it. I can provide more input if you need.
More in the article itself
So, it appears as though I'll get to play as Chaos from the start after all! Unlike the other factions Chaos gets three Leader choices instead of two, I don't know who all of them are but I have a pretty good idea who one is...
Eeeeh Sigvald! *feints*
It looks like the Chaos Dragon Ogre might be one of the others, so there's no telling who the third might be.
I'll probably pre-order the game even if I wasn't going to before (I probably was) always a little bit disappointing they don't just put stuff like this in the actual game but if the game is good enough it can be forgiven.
Rome 2: Finished the tutorial and prologue, gave up when I was stuck in a back and forth with the enemy.
I want to get this, but I hate the non-battle slogs.
EDIT - Which is why I just picked Rome 2 back up to give it another shot. I have a GTX 980 now, so I get to see the game at full blast now.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/404010/
Three new Legendary Lords.
Lead the Chaos Warriors as one of three new Legendary Lords, each with their own unique bonuses:
Sigvald the Magnificent:
Beautiful from birth, Sigvald’s fondness for hedonistic excess saw him exiled from his tribe but also gained him a powerful patron: Slaanesh. Now, he heads an army devoted to himself. Slaying anything he deems ugly or unsavoury, he fights as much for his perverse ego as he does for Slaanesh.
Kholek Suneater:
Kholek Suneater is a formidable figure to behold. A gigantic Dragon Ogre, believed by many to be the second eldest of all Dragon Ogres, he towers over the battlefield swinging his gigantic hammer with ease. He is considered by some to be a God.
Archaon the Everchosen:
A former Sigmarite Templar, Archaon stumbled upon an ancient doctrine that contained within the secrets of his faith. Renouncing his allegiance to Sigmar he journeyed north to the dreaded Chaos Wastes to offer his service to the Chaos Gods. Here, the Ruinous Powers gave him their blessing to set out on his quest to become the Everchosen; the Lord of the End Times.
At least wait after launch to sell us factions
They don't learn shit
Edit: If we can pre-order Chaos, I assume the assets are in the game already and they're just witholding it from us.
I was actually gung-ho about buying all the expansions and not having Chaos at first. I thought they would be like Med II's mongols. But they're fucking in the game already. Why do we have to pre-order or pay for them?
Well, gamers are not entitled to everything a company makes before launch. The cost of making it is not zero, new factions represent time and effort put forward by the devs.
I'm not keen on the idea either, but CA very well may have crunched numbers and decided that they couldn't afford more than 4 factions at launch.
I hate stupid preorders, but I also hate "if it ships with the game I should get it for free"
Look at it this way: This game will cost you probably $60. 25 years ago, a big game like this would have cost you $50. Considering the rate of inflation, that's a pretty sweet deal.
Now, some of them push things to far, for sure. But I don't feel like this is one of those cases.
But fantasy Warhammer will do.
Dawn of War 3 was(/is?) supposed to do that. Though Relic hasn't been saying anything about it lately so I don't know.
I will probably preorder Warhammer. Not because I support the shameful practice, but because there will probably be a 25% off code for GMG before it releases and I just can't pass up those savings. I feel bad, but yeah. Its like, the game may not be playable at launch because CA, but at the same time I want to play it before the next batch of decent sales come up which will take a while. It sucks.
There's a timeline, and it was the same for Attila, same reason I preordered that despite locking vikings.
Cheap preorder ---> unplayable release (not usually for 'second gen' games like Napolean and Attila) ---> patch to be playable, so its go time ---> months later you get sales equal to the preorder one, but now you also don't have the DLC.
Also, it might have been a hoax but apparently the mod tools for Attila had references to a Charlemagne expansion. We'll have to wait and find out. It would certainly be an impressive DLC. More like a Fall of the Samurai expansion, it sounds like!
Rome 2 worked just fine from day one. Sure, they've changed the game a lot since then, but it worked fine from the start.
Ikko Ikki is literally super-tough mod, to the point that even modding does not make the faction an easier playthrough.
By contrast, clans like the Shimazu (particularly them, since they basically start on the far end of Kyushu and only have neighbors in one direction, and sweet trade pacts in the other) will face none of those issues: other clans like or are generally neutral towards them, they have a normal military recruitment system (the Ikko Ikki don't). Realm divide is, by design, overly harsh (just to basically extend the endgame--to have reached realm divide successfully, you will have needed complete or near-complete domination over every other clan in the game).
The fact that you ran into issues with another clan is kind of surprising (there are some other pariah-like clans though). Which one is it?