Hi all,
I've played quite a bit of Avatar Mode Multiplayer in Shogun 2 and have gathered some conclusions on this new and daring implementation CA have carried out. This thread regards the Veteran System aspects. In this review I will be highlighting the problems of the system.
Firstly, the Shogun 2 Veteran system does not fully adhere to historical accuracy. For example, having veteran Ashigaru units which have a large stat and ability buff almost contradicts the point of the unit. Historically speaking, peasants were never meant to become flagship regiments of the army and thus vetting them does not give a realistic representation of Japanese military. Realism is fun and seems to be a self-proclaimed hallmark of CA's projects, but here they've failed to carry through.
The next problem is the use of the Veteran system by users, ultimately due to CA's poor implementation. Veteran units should not be common - they are veterans because relative to other units they are superior in experience and presumably skill - and therefore having large amounts of them in your army nullifies the Veteran nature of them; they aren't unique or special anymore, which I gather is what CA intended them to be.
This overuse of Veterans also conflicts with the purpose of other Avatar Mode perks: in particular Retainers. The purpose of Retainers is to give skill/ability buffs usually to a majority of the army or a particular area of the army, why then are Veteran units being used for the same purpose? I.e. being 'spammed' in order to give the certain parts of the army an overall stat superiority - this is the Retainer system's job not the Veteran System's job.
The exploits of the Veteran system have drastic implications on the battlefield. It makes gameplay so much more about stat buff rather than in-battle tactical vision. It leads to a player being able to vastly improve 1 area of their army (imagine Sword Veteran 'spam' + Sword Infantry Retainers - I have some Katana Veterans in this situation with around 30 attack and yet I am able to bring around 8 of these in a 14k match??) and this makes for battles which are so much more extreme and rushed. Weaknesses and strengths in armies are amplified to high levels, this means the weak areas of an army are very quickly crushed, hence the rushed nature of battles.
Overall, the Veteran System fails to act as what it was meant to be: a system for individual units. It currently acts as something that can be used on aggregate scale, thus conflicting its role with the Retainer System. Veterans make for extreme gameplay, with players have extreme weaknesses and strengths in certain areas of their army meaning a much more rushed battle as both extreme strengths erradicate extreme weaknesses quickly. Some Veterans are not historically accurate either and thus taint the aura of Japanese warfare that is meant to be depicted by the game. CA need to rethink the implementation of this system for future games.
Possible solutions to make Veterans rarer and more suitable could entail:
- Limiting the amount of Veterans one can bring (perhaps increasing with each money level, e.g. 1 for 5k, 3 for 10k, 5 for 14k).
- Forcing a player to spend more skill points at the same time which therefore increases the price of Veterans (perhaps each level up would force a player to spend 3 skill points instead of 1)
- Increasing customisability in terms of appearence and perhaps linking it more to the acquired Veteran skills of the unit - this is just to make Veterans more exclusive than normal units and more individually cherishable (e.g. armour shape/size depending on armour upgrades, horse type depending on speed upgrades, spear head shape/quality depending on attack upgrades, etc, etc).
- Removing Veteran status from peasant-standard (Ashigaru and Loan) units or at least limiting how much these units can level up - perhaps they can only gain certain types of upgrades?
What are your views?
Evan