E3 Q&A from Steeven
UPDATED 05/29: Updated list and added bulleting.
Hi, I'm going to post what is to be, more or less, everything we've learned from Steeven in his topic so far. For easy viewing. As more comes, I may add it if I'm on boards again soon. This is easier than slogging through all those question posts. Here it is:
... That's all for now. If you think I missed anything or if anything unneccesary in there, just post. This isn't much of a resource, but it's nice to have all this information centralized in one place. Anywho, I'm off to bed. Hope this thread isn't a disappointment.
- The game is Alpha right now and like 60% done.
.- What CA has done so far are mostly the basics, like the units, modelling and skinning etc. They were now going to work on the AI and that they'll have till winter to work on that. (Because almost all other work on the game is done now, sooner then expected)
.- CA does not like the Napoleonic Era because of the implementation of those tactics. Its too hard to code, but if the hardware gets better it would be possible.
.- The maps are really huge and that the fighting looks more natural, not so mechanical like in Rome.
.- There are over 250 units and those are moddable.
.- The battle map was amazing. The city was huge and it was great to look at it.
.- "While I was firing my catapults, tribuchets and cannons against the mighty walls, I suddenly was surprised by a counter attack of heavy horses on my archers and guys with guns. They defended themselves quite well because I put them in a deep formation. I send it some heavy infantry and cavalry to defend them and they routed. Meanwhile the walls broke down and the enemy came storming out, while mine had to run uphill to counter them. It was great to see them fighting, really entertaining! It looked so beatiful and smooth, not arcade at all." <-- good news for AI (assuming this charge wasn't scripted)
.- The Aztec faction will be massive, like a huge army of peasants and it won't be easy to conquer them.
.- If you can run Rome:Total War on Very High Settings, you can run Medieval 2: Total War on Medium settings easily. (for those who don't already know. note the word "easily")
.- The fight continued longer than the ones in Rome, but still it was kinda fast. I guess if you implement tactics you can change the outcome of a fight pretty soon, like I did.
.- That the units themselves were not so fast, but that must have been of the huge terrain they have to walk. In my opinion the walking speed of soldiers and horses is good.
.- I think this will be the first time that battles are going to be amazing to watch and I have high hopes for the time they have left to spend in the tweaking of the AI.
.- The units really get mixed up. It is not an option to just roll your whole line of troops forward and wait for it to clash with the other mass, like in Rome. You have to use tactics , the terrain and the units you have to win a battle.
.- "Realistically, the heavy cavalry did not wait for it to be slaughtered but retreated when my heave stuff came near and took out a few. But the damage had already been done by then." <-- this is new, compared to other TW games.
.- The battles are far from static and are really alive.
.- The castle I attacked was really, really huge and then you had all the terrain outside too wich was just too much. (i think he means "too much" in a good way...)
.- [When my troops attack,] Its so natural, almost if your looking a movie or something. The units in Rome sometimes acted strange when attacking, or while being attacked, that only 3 soldiers were engaging and the rest was sleeping, but I did not see any of that in M2.
.- I did not notice any pathfinding problems, but I couldn't see for very long though. I asked the Sega guy about pathfinding, he admitted it was crappy in Rome and it will be fixed in M2.
.- I had handgunners and the smoke was awesome. Like cool looking plumes of smoke slowly rising up in the air.
.- On E3 there was the alpha-version and I too saw some clipping bugs and misplaced texturing, but that's pretty normal for alpha-stuff.
.- The dead horses are NOT obstacles for infantry units. It could be because the game is still alpha, but in the battle Steevan played the infantry ran right through them.
.- The guy could not show Steevan that pathfinding was indeed fixed, but he promised it will be. So we have to keep on eye on that.
.- He promised that just clashing a army into the others is a thing you won't see anymore. And well, if he said they are working untill winter on the AI, I understand he can't really comment on that.
.- "I'm quite surprised he admitted the Rome AI was crappy in the long run." <-
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Originally Posted by Lord Tomyris
