Blood Pack and Hattori Clan DLC announced and released today!

[Mighty_Matt]

So the options are no blood at all or an over the top Tarantino/Rodrigez level of blood?

Wasn't the community feedback that we wanted some gore for realisms' sake? It was for me anyway...



How much is this DLC? I'm not going to go on and on about how wrong DLC is, but since it makes no strategic changes to gameplay and adds no content (to make the game longer), it shouldn't be more than £1

[katana_samurai]

Hi folks,
Hmmmmmm maybe STW 2 is getting interesting for me.......... BLOOD and GORE LoL.
I`m wondering why they`ve waited so long to realese a Blood and Gore mod, but i`ts welcome.
Now we need one for ETW and NTW. LOL

PS: I`m from Germany..........sooooooo maybe someone from Austria or Swizz, wonder how??

Just visit the beautiful "Amazon"es and don`t ".com"e too early..........

Wo ein Wille, da auch ein Weg

[lawandorder82]

"Supply and demand nothing in life is free you are not entitled to anything

[Carolus Magnus]

"Supply and demand nothing in life is free you are not entitled to anything

Yeah, that's why Web browsers are so damn expensive, lol. There's such a thing as a "loss leader" where a company gives something away or sells it below cost, to generate customer loyalty or sales of more-profitable products and services. CA used to give away free units for Rome, etc. 'cuz it drove eyeballs to their website so they could more effectively market their new titles to their customers. Repeating your point umpteen times in the same thread is really really lame, btw, especially if you don't know what you're talking about.

[_anomaly]

Yeah, that's why Web browsers are so damn expensive, lol. There's such a thing as a "loss leader" where a company gives something away or sells it below cost, to generate customer loyalty or sales of more-profitable products and services. CA used to give away free units for Rome, etc. 'cuz it drove eyeballs to their website so they could more effectively market their new titles to their customers. Repeating your point umpteen times in the same thread is really really lame, btw, especially if you don't know what you're talking about.

supply and demand you are not entitled to anything there's no such thing as a free lunch

[Captain Arrrgh!]

No CA! This is unacceptable! You have crossed the friggen line with this one! You are selling us a graphical option that was available in previous titles, an option that we users have been able to mod in the game ourselves for generations, that we've been asking for since Empire to be RETURNED to the series. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE, AND DOWNRIGHT DIRTY AND A SLAP TO THE FACE TO YOUR CONSUMERS.

That was the rant, now for the truth.
First, blood has only been in the game once, with Medieval 2, plus its xpacks. It has not been in a single title before or after, with the exception of pixelated blood pools in Shogun 1.

Second. No, blood hasn't been succesfully modded into any of the titles like we see with the Blood Pack. Some modders changed the decal pattern, and hue for Medieval, and there was a nice, though very limited musket ball impact spurt modded into Empire, but that's it. No limb severing or decapitations, no creating bloodied skin decals from nothing. A single guy from Russia, if memory serves, made some decap animations but gave up, as every single model and its accompanying animation would have to be changed. The Blood Pack has all these things, plus some additional animations and very good sound effects.
The Blood Pack is a bit over the top, but for two bucks, it's very well worth it. If it were legal, many of us would chip in and give some money to our favorite modders, so we shouldn't be minging about doing so for the people that actually brought us the game.

An a positive note, another great effect is that the spurting blood from the dying opponent gets the victorious opponent bloody. This is great; in Medieval a warrior would only get bloody upon recieving a hit, but now fighters get showered in the gore of the people they slay.

For memories and lulz I loaded up the Sekigahra map with the blood pack. People, it was epic, holding the river to the left, zooming the camera in with heads and arms flying across the bloodied screen, it was some crazy, messy, violent sheet going on.

[Éorl]

So, re-name it Shogun2: Total Gore.

(term burrowed from a seasoned modder)

Sounds as silly as it is.

[Neige]

Lol, just a few years ago demanding extra money to include blood textures would have been an outrage. Oh well, times be changin, wallets be thinnin.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Cutting content out (playable Hattori) in order to sell it later? Why aren't I shocked. Now CA has definitely sunk to new lows.

[Faiakas]

I believe the issue here isn't the price (1,5€).Sure its really cheap.
The thing is the behaviour and prospective how CA treats TW Community.
Sure the blood pack is something that adds new excitement and it was asked by the community for long time. CA had 2 options:

1) Make it for free and give it to Community (with a nice marketing text about Community's devotion for all these years, from the first Shogun till now)
2) Make a DLC and sell it.

I just wondered which of the 2 above options would bring more profit to CA ?

Don't get me wrong but being in the sales for many years , customers always appreciate option (1) and are willing to support Companies and their future products when they see such actions.

Regards.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

This is great news

[PROMETHEUS ts]

Good afternoon,

Hot off the back of yesterday’s announcement of the Fall of the Samurai standalone expansion, we are thrilled to announce more brand new Downloadable Content for Total War: Shogun 2.

For years, fans have been requesting blood and gore in our games. We’ve decided to rise to that challenge. We’re therefore today announcing the Blood Pack for Shogun 2 – an exhibition of cinematic blood and gore - bringing decapitations, limb-removal and all kinds of splatters to the battlefield. We’ve put a lot of effort into new particle effects, unit animations and visual tweaks to introduce a really visceral experience.



We’re not fans of doing things by half-measures so we’ve gone all-out in our depiction of battlefield violence. Expect to see buckets of the red stuff!

Please note, that this content has a higher age rating than Total War: Shogun 2. In PEGI regions, it’s 18+ and rated M in North America. Unfortunately the Blood Pack is not available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The Blood Pack will also be compatible with the upcoming Fall of the Samurai and any existing or future Shogun 2 DLC, as well as the core game.

We’re also thrilled to announce the release of the Hattori Clan for Shogun 2. Originally available as part of the Limited Edition, we’ve taken the decision to release this clan to a wider audience in response to keen customer demand.



If you opt to purchase the Hattori pack, you’ll get the most powerful battlefield ninja available, an extra historical battle scenario, extra armour and an XP injection for your Avatar. The Hattori Clan can be played in single and multiplayer campaigns and in online battles.

That’s not everything as far as Shogun 2 goes, either. We’re expecting to be able to bring you some more news soon about what we’re working on next. All I can say is this: you won’t be disappointed.
The content is available on Steam right now from the following links:

Blood Pack
Hattori Clan DLC

Enjoy!
The Creative Assembly

****

We’re also releasing a title update for Total War: Shogun 2 alongside this DLC, tweaking both the core game and the Rise of the Samurai downloadable campaign:

Rise of the Samurai

• Fixed forum issue enabling players to exceed the maximum veteran slot limit
• Fixed bug where Chosokabe Daikyu Samurai couldn't be recruited
• Fixed bug where Realism mode wasn’t being saved
• Fixed bug where players had to add an extra unit to ready up after a classic MP battle
• Fixed bug where replay battle type didn’t update correctly when switching between types
• Fixed issue with Invite Friends and Weather tickboxes
• Fixed bug where duplicate experienced and veteran units displayed incorrect cost
• State Academy entry in Encylopaedia now displays correctly
• Fixed bug where remaining funds did not update when player switches sides in a siege battle
• Fixed crash bug when starting a 1v3 on a 2v2 map
• Fixed bug where grouped units could not be given orders after rallying from a rout
• Fixed issue where players with a full unit roster could still click ‘add to army’
• Fixed bug where the cutscene after the Nagashino historical battle caused a lockup
• Fixed bug where clearing then loading an army containing Hero units prevented Hero units from appearing as selectable units on the unit selection group

Retainers

• Infantry officer: retainer’s effect is +2 instead of +1
• Yari master: Reduce spear defence from 3 to 2
• Unabalanced spears: reduced effect from -3 to -2 (the counter to yari master)
• Stricken unholy forge: tweaked to affect all monk units
• World weary: morale penalty removed
• European gun smith: Tweaked to affect reload
• Way of the Ikko-Ikki: +10% now affects monks and ashigaru, with +2 melee defence rather than +3
• Rennyo’s teachings: Morale boost now +1 rather than +2 and +3 melee defence rather than +4

Unit categories

Spear and naginata units are now distinct so that spear retainers do not benefit naginata units. This affects a number of overpowered army/retainer combinations to reduce their effectiveness.

Units

• Samurai Archers reduced in cost by 50 koku
• Great Guard cap raised to 2
• Matchlocks reduced in cost as they are now less effective with previous friendly fire fixes
• Naginata Warrior Monk Cavalry capped to 3 max to reduce potency

How bout the bug of renaming the units "befoure" the description and not after?

[Captain Arrrgh!]

I believe the issue here isn't the price (1,5€).Sure its really cheap.
The thing is the behaviour and prospective how CA treats TW Community.
Sure the blood pack is something that adds new excitement and it was asked by the community for long time. CA had 2 options:

1) Make it for free and give it to Community (with a nice marketing text about Community's devotion for all these years, from the first Shogun till now)
2) Make a DLC and sell it.

I just wondered which of the 2 above options would bring more profit to CA ?

Don't get me wrong but being in the sales for many years , customers always appreciate option (1) and are willing to support Companies and their future products when they see such actions.

Regards.

Actually, this is a good point. Everyone recall how Epic released not one but four free goodies packs for Unreal Tournament and it its sequels. Tonnes of free swag that really made me loyal to them, even after the theft that was UTk03. While I'm not complaining about the pittance of the cost for the Blood Pack, let's look at it this way; if even just half of the total sales for Shogun 2 went an paid two dollars for the Blood Pack, that's still an incredible amount of revenue for somethig so small.
Once again, I'm personally not feeling angry about charging for the Blood Pack, but I can see how CA could have made this a 'thank you consumer' patch and done really well for pr.

BTW, as a correction to another poster, no CA didn't hand out tonnes of free skins for Rome. They offered one, a crappy Spartan skin which was just a pre existing corinthian helm on a prexisting hoplite's torso. Not even worth the dl.

[BAGRAT 7]

this is "blood" pack? no, it sucks

[boatie]

To alienate or tick off a portion of your customer base, even if it is like 5% for $2, good strategy CA! Reading this thread and others, on this and other forums (such as steam), and its obvious that a portion of the customer base feels exactly like this.

The most important factor in the relationship between a company and its customer is trust. Once you introduce doubt to undermine that trust - the company want my money, it doesn't care how it gets it from me - you destroy the relationship. I own Shogun II, I love coop to play with buddies, but I have no interest in the DLCs, updates, etc. because I have no interest in supporting this company's current view of its customer base. Fleece them and they will come. Good perspective.

[The Awesome Boy]

Stop Complaining!!

It´s awesome!!

[Éorl]

WE'VE WAITED FOR BLOOD AND GORE FOR SO MANY YEARS - BUT WHY HASN'T CA INCLUDED ENTRAILS TO BE RIPPED OUT AND SPILLED ALL OVER THE GROUND, OR AN EYE-POKING MOVE WITH NAGYNATAS THAT DRIVES THE SAMURAI'S EYE OUT THROUGH THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. AND WHY THE HELL DO THE SAMURAI DIE EXPLODING IN GUSHES OF 10 LITRES OF BLOOD, BUT WITH A SERENE EXPRESSION ON THEIR FACES?

Better?

This is so silly...

What's more, this is so creative, like in assembly...

I stand by my claim that this mediocre at best addition was produced to silence the demands for some silly blood and gore effects once and for all, so that CA can finally become creative again and introduce stunning gameplay features and finally acknowledge the humble demands of people that have a passion for the games that goes deeper and way beyond mere flashy effects and graphics extravaganza (which will wear off so easily).

[Himster]

What is going on with the world?
1.50 has people crying like little girls?
It's cool, lots of blood japanese style (have you never seen an anime before?), what did you expect, it's a game, think of constructive feedback.

There has been interesting feedback, like moddable campaign maps, a free DLC for the TWC community to reward us (that'd be a nice christmas present, but it's a silly thing to expect like greedy children).

[flexter]

Love the blood pack thanks CA! the game is so much more immersive now

[OCWife]

Rome 2 better be released as a free patch to Rome 1, after all it'll basically be the same with graphical improvements and new minor features.

C'mon kids, stop being spoiled freeloaders and get over yourselves. When I was your age, I had to pay $4000 for a computer that could only run text adventures, nowadays you kids can play text adventures for free online using free computers in public libraries with free Internet. At least the hippie protesters of my time were all high. Many of todays "Occupy" protesters are actually clean and sober! What has the world come to? They should have never outlawed spanking.