CA: What we're up to (31.08.2011)

[CraigTW]

Hi guys,

Bit of a short update this week, as things are very busy at CA towers in the run-up to the Rise of the Samurai release. It’s a big project with lots of people working on it, and right now we’re putting the final touches and polish to it ready for release in September.

Just to fill you in on what we’re up to this week - we’re currently putting together a campaign diary blog for you guys, which will hopefully make for interesting reading for those of you interested in what the new Rise of the Samurai campaign offers. I’m playing as one of the Fujiwara clans.

By the way, regarding the content of the campaign, you’ll find play centres much more around the system of allegiance. Each province has an allegiance rating which can be influenced. Provinces more aligned to your family are less likely to be unhappy. Agents play a big part in controlling this.

There are four new agent types: Shiabyoshi, Junsatsushi, Monomi and Sou. I’ll go into more detail on each in my campaign diary.

Also this week, I’ve been playing with some of the new units which will be available in the campaign, and in multiplayer. The “Tetsubo Monk Hero” unit is awesome. You’re capped to just one of them, but they have huge clubs, with which they beat their opponents. They’re pretty tenacious, and have a lot of lasting power on the battlefield. That’s countered by their limited upgrades, and their limited numbers. I had a battle against multiplayer designer Ian Roxburgh earlier and they survived (almost) to the bitter end, despite being right in the mix.

Oh, by the way - did you see this preview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun today? We had the folks in on Thursday to take a look at the campaign, and they got to see our patch notes for the first time. Remember, the patch will be released for free at the same time we release Rise of the Samurai.

While I’m talking patch notes, we’re up to eight A4 pages worth of them. They include AI tweaks, fixes to cavalry bugs, optimisation tweaks, changes to multiplayer (including new clan competition browser options, unit caps, 11 new maps, unit balancing, costing and veteran tweaks – plus much more).

Next week I’ll spill the beans on the campaign diary (when I’ve won or lost, it could still go either way!). Do you have any burning questions you’d like answering? I’ll do my best to address them in the next update.

Talk to you next week!

Best regards,

Craig.

[IGdood]

AWESOME

[panzerschreck]

Are the 11 new maps available in Custom battle?
Because, I don't know why, CA likes to make a lot of map in multiplayer but very few in custom battle...

[CraigTW]

Are the 11 new maps available in Custom battle?
Because, I don't know why, CA likes to make a lot of map in multiplayer but very few in custom battle...

Yes, they will be

[panzerschreck]

Yes, they will be

That's great, thanks for the answer, I am sure it will make a lot of people buy. May I suggest to you and CA team, for the mysterious next title of total war, to make as soon as the game is released, all the maps of multiplayer available also in custom battle?
I think it is an attempt of most players.
Thanks

[Robin de Bodemloze]

Yes, they will be

Will there be more battle maps in campaign? I guess the siege battles will be different thanks to the palisade type fortifications?

[storm20200]

Any chance of a telling us if we can expect the patch+DLC around the first half of september or the second half? Greatly looking forward to it.

[CraigTW]

Any chance of a telling us if we can expect the patch+DLC around the first half of september or the second half? Greatly looking forward to it.

We honestly don't know yet. But it will be September

[storm20200]

We honestly don't know yet. But it will be September

K no problem, I'll look forward to playing it by the 30th of september

[SuicideNooch]

Awesome news, cant wait to get a comprehensive list of ALL the new units.

[No0dle]

Thanks for the update.

Will the upcoming patch fix the blurry directx11 mode?

[IGdood]

That article is very well-written. I had to pull out a dictionary.

$5 that we'll get it September 30th!

[Jackie_fish]

hey craig i sent you a message on official forum about beta in case you didn't see thanks

[helmersen]

I would very much like to know about when we can expect to hear anything new about the next Total War game

[Erwin Rommel]

Hey Craig, this is an easy request.

Your screenshots that are stored in the Total war website,

http://www.totalwar.com/screenshots

when you press download and the hopes of getting a full high resolution image, I end up with this.... small picture.

[CraigTW]

Hey Craig, this is an easy request.

Your screenshots that are stored in the Total war website,

http://www.totalwar.com/screenshots

when you press download and the hopes of getting a full high resolution image, I end up with this.... small picture.

Ah, yes, that's not ideal. I'll ask SEGA web team what the deal is with that.

[Charsi]

Allegiance system sounds interesting and bears some resemblance to past friendship/past grievances we occasionally see in S2. Any plans to retrofit this sort of thing into vanilla gameplay?

Also:

While I’m talking patch notes, we’re up to eight A4 pages worth of them. They include AI tweaks, fixes to cavalry bugs, optimisation tweaks, changes to multiplayer (including new clan competition browser options, unit caps, 11 new maps, unit balancing, costing and veteran tweaks – plus much more).

I thought based on your last update you were actually going to release some notes :-/ wtb...

Also:

There are four new agent types: Shiabyoshi, Junsatsushi, Monomi and Sou. I’ll go into more detail on each in my campaign diary.

I think you need to spend some of that diary time differentiating these units from the ones they very clearly evolve into by the time of the Sengoku Jidai. Monomi reads almost exactly like Ninja for example. Sou is a monk. I really want to hear how they are _different_, otherwise you might as well be making a sales pitch of units that I dont need to buy a DLC for.

[helmersen]

I think the Hotseat feature should be added back into the Total war games! Please add them back, Craig

[Krazy_Welsh_Lad]

I really hope its released before september 23rd as im off to Uni then so wont play for atleast 2 weeks probally (btw i havent got a clue how or why this is underlined :S) please CA

[Morray]

New castle maps!

Woot!