Is it just me, or do all cities look like villages ?

All settlements seem to have the same structure with a few buildings and a church
It's a bit unusual seeing a capital city like paris have the same composition.

What's the reason to this ? Is there an explanation as to why ?

My impression is that the battles don't take place inside the cities themselves but in and around the towns and villages on the outskirts.

Why? Probably because rendering a large city realistically (with all of the problems of pathfinding that CA have) was too much of a problem.

That's too bad, they should have at least tried to show the cities in the background, i just see more small towns.

And Napoleonic battles, with soldiers in neat long line, is not very practical for closed street cities. It would probably require a specific IA and engine adaptation

Whether or not it is practical doesn't matter. I agree with SeizeVictus, With Rome Total war, or Medieval Total war you would fight through the streets. If we come to any closer modern war totalwar games it will have to be done. We are only a 100 years from the great war. Which is maybe two games away.

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The Best Offence, Is A Strong Defence

Originally Posted by BOIASD

Whether or not it is practical doesn't matter.

I'd say being practical is fairly important...because if it's not practical to get into the game, it's not going to be in the game.

Towns were in earlier versions of the game and provoked plenty of complaints because of the problems with unit pathfinding through the maze of streets and because all of the towns looked the same. I'm guessing the developers decided it was easier to avoid them this time around, which is why we got small villages and forts.

And on your last point, I'd be surprised if they did try to develop a full-blown WWI version of TW. The change in the style of warfare from large formations marching across the battlefield to fighting from highly defensive, static trench systems really doesn't suit the game engine.

[Before you point to the WWI mod for N:TW, I'm pretty sure that even the mod's developers would admit the limitations of the game engine prevent it being properly representing the period.]

Originally Posted by BOIASD

Which is maybe two games away.

Two games is a long time in video gaming...

Originally Posted by BOIASD

We are only a 100 years from the great war. Which is maybe two games away. The next game is either the Great War or Victorian Total War (Empire 2 Total war).

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The Best Offence, Is A Strong Defence

Stuff gets messed up when they get too big is why. If you look out the map you will see a small city.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Originally Posted by The Hedge Knight

Stuff gets messed up when they get too big is why. If you look out the map you will see a small city.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Maybe, but one of the things CA should've done was made towns grander, with more buildings. Like the Battle of Lodi.

Originally Posted by The Hedge Knight

Stuff gets messed up when they get too big is why. If you look out the map you will see a small city.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have yet to see such a large assortment of buildings.

Its not a vanilla map

They should make it this way: Real sized cities, and when battle starts there, units with 200 men would be reduced to 50 men, and cavalry would dismount and got carbines.
Would you like it this way more?

Originally Posted by TheRomanRuler

They should make it this way: Real sized cities, and when battle starts there, units with 200 men would be reduced to 50 men, and cavalry would dismount and got carbines.
Would you like it this way more?

Or everyone just hire some Indian mercs and duke it out medieval style.

I had the impression that the battlefields werer better in Napoleon than in empire but after the modifications like darth , Empires battlefields in General are far superior than Napoleons,i generally hate Napoleons battlefields which are a game destroyer, they all look the same, slopes hills and mountains on the background ,especially mountains NEVER appear and most of the terrains have those enormous trees in certain areas and the battelefields are more or less FLAT , no imagination at all.

But flat battlefields are good for this type of warfare.

Especially since CA doesn't actually know how to do slopes properly.

Originally Posted by Double A

But flat battlefields are good for this type of warfare.

Especially since CA doesn't actually know how to do slopes properly.

Not at all, iam not talking about hilly areas but naturally sloped areas, even in the most falt areas on earth you will not see the total flatness of NTW, Empire makes a better job , especially after mods i think.
And with this kind of flatness you cannot exploit the area in any strategic way, there are some areas that have some slopes but not so many there are too little and the battlefields lack imagination, they are almost all the same thing with slight variations.
The vegetation also is not natural , the trees are enormous for eg.

Always flat? There are many custom battles with slopes.

Originally Posted by Steph

Always flat? There are many custom battles with slopes.

Yes iam talking about the campaign battles since custom battles are not my concern

the cities are in the background, but they're tiny and as well.