Med2 Preview Event... the answers

[Soulflame]

I am going to insert the complied list from the other thread, so it's easily understandable, what answer you were looking for. -Archer

So here is the compiled list of questions. It's obviously very long, I tried to combine questions so that they can tell a story about a single subject and don't answer just with yes or no. I can probably skip the 'large questions', as I think those will probably get some coverage time by the developers as they are big changes that are a large part of Med2.
I hope I can get some stuff answered without asking as well, just by playing (mostly the campaign and battle stuff)
It's all very abbreviated since I don't like making set questions in advance. So most are just keywords so I know in what direction to ask.

==================
Modding:
1. Harcoded Limits. Which removed, altered etc.
2. Faction Limits (21? 30?)
3. In-game map/campaign/battle editor?
4. AI moddable? In which fashion?
5. Any mod tools planned? (editors, import/export etc)
6. Playermade cutscenes? Tools?
7. 3d format same as RTW? How about the individuality of soldiers?
8. Fatigue moddable?
9. Movement speed per unit moddable? Chance to hit? (killrate)
10. Example(s) of something that wasn’t moddable in RTW, but is in Med2

Battle:
1. AI improved?
2. Siege AI improved? Sieges, Town squares and low garrisons
3. Artillery on walls? Artillery fortifications? Tower range + Rate of fire
4. Unit speeds & Kill ratios
5. ‘squeezed to tight’ penalty?
6. Fatigue, easier to see in battle?
7. Ship battles? Ship AI?
8. Heat/armor penalty?
9. Siege weapons? Still sap/ladders etc?
10. Pathfinding

Campaign & Mechanics:
1. Generals promoted with titles at will like MTW?
2. Which (21?) factions are playable? Which after modding and which after unlocking? (Aztecs only ones in America? How many mongol factions?)
3. Faction unlocking mechanism the same as RTW? First 5 playable factions ‘more enjoyable’ (more work done), or ‘intro’?
4. Supply/Food system that was once slated for RTW?
5. Recruitment Pools; how does the AI cope and how much does it impact the game?
6. Transition of late game units? (Gunpowder event?). Techtree from American factions like barbarians in RTW? Balanced against the rest?
7. Nationwide economy policy settings?
8. Possible to instigate a coup and kill the king for a new royal line like MTW?
9. Repetition/balance concerning factions; some factions always lose?
10. Re-emerging factions?
11. Civil war, how does it work?
12. Land-bridges? Where are all of them? Always usable?
13. Weather
14. Turn/no more years?
15. How much of America is accessible?
16. Era’s in the game? (like MTW, early, late, high)
17. Different mercenaries over time?
18. Crusading armies, what happens upon failing? And what on winning? Control?
19. Pathfinding
20. Rebels/Brigands. Rebellion still puts army outside city?
21. Invading Army; Pillage & Burn?
22. King’s Trait affects Kingdom?
23. Ballistics changed?
24. Unconventional weapons? (Poison + Greek fire) Elephant cannons? Which faction?
25. Squalor still in, how much impact?
26. Deserting troops?
27. Missions, which, can you choose between multiple? Alternate win possible with mission points?
28. Characters; Russia has ‘dread’, England ‘chivalry’, no more management & influence.. why? Retinue’s exchangeable like RTW?
29. City view altered?
30. Feudalism in?


Religion:
1. Protestantism in the game?
2. Orthodox religion overshadowed? (no Jihad or Crusades)
3. What can you do as Pope? Examples. Multiple popes possible?
4. Can the Paupacy be captures/destroyed/become proctorate?
5. Heretics, Inquisitors, Priests etc. Inquisitors not buildable?

Other:
1. Which Historical Battles?
2. More custom battle maps?
3. Online ranking?
4. Battle replays like in MTW?
5. Interface changes?

System:
1. Game Requirements; minimum, recommended and 4vs4 multiplayer
2. Demo release? Store release?
3. Dual Core support? 64 bit support? SLI, Crossfire, multiple monitors?
4. Map with the game like RTW?
5. Expansions small and fast like Alexander, or bigger and store like BI?

Large questions;
1. Diplomacy? AI, changes, interface.
2. What changed in trade/economics?
3. Castles vs cities. Small towns? Role of fortifications increased? (tower/forts)
4. Improved Assassination & Espionage?
5. New agents? Roles?

==================

I hope I can get it all done and also still play the game a bit :p.

Cheers,

Harm - aka Soulflame

Heya people,

So I'm just back from the preview event (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...&page=1&pp=20). I still have to write out all my notes into something readable (I think all the people there can attest that my scribbling isn't the most legible of writings), but I don't want you to go empty handed today.

The event;
First off, a big thank you to all people involved in the preview, I had a great time and I definately learned a lot about Medieval, CA and Atari.
The people present from CA England were;
Ian Roxburgh (Marketing)
Mark Sutherns (Marketing)
James Whitston (Game/Historical battle designer)
From Atari Benelux;
Johan de Windt (Senior Product Manager)
Wouter van Vugt (Executive PR)
There was also a lady from Sega present, but she was very busy dealing with stuff, and the other half of the time I was talking to other people. So I didn't get to meet her.

I was also considered important enough that I was actually allowed to personally interview the CA people in advance of the presentations, as they 'really wanted to get to know the community and answer the questions they have'. Since I was the only one from the 'community' there (the rest were all game press), I got this special opportunity. It did however cut back on the time I could see the non-demo part of the game in action, but I think the questions were more important.

Allright, so here are some brief, major points. I'll make a bigger post tomorrow with some more stuff. Some questions (mostly the modding ones), they weren't sure about, since that's neary all done in Australia. The CA people present gave me their emailaddresses so I could email those questions later and they will get the answer from CA Australia (they said they could get answers probably within a week).


==========
*There are 21 factions, namely;
England, Holy Roman Empire, France, Venice, Spain => these 5 are starting factions.
Milan, Sicily, Hungary, Russia, Egypt, Moors, Danes, Scotland, Portugal, Byzantynes, Turkey, Poland => these are unlockable factions
Aztecs, Mongols, Timmerids, Papal States => These are non-playable in campaign, but you can play them in custom battles.
The reason those 4 are non playable is obvious; Aztecs appear through the discovery of America, the Mongols and Timmerids are invasion armies and Papal states involves the Pope.
*Unit speeds and kill speeds have been decreases;
I can't really put it in numbers, but it *is* down.
*There are 8 Historical Battles planned, I have played a demo which had the Battle of Avincourt (the famous battle which involves a lot of arrows and mud :p) and the battle of Pavia (where you play the HRE with Spain AI allies versus the French).
*A public demo is in the works and nearing completion
*They are aiming for minimum specs of; P4 1.8 Ghz Geforce4 128.
*Cow launching is IN!
*Timmerids get the funky rocket launchers
*Generals can't be given titles like in Med 1
*No eras like in Med1, there is only one campaign period.
*Campaign battle replay... is uncertain. It *was* in, but they all thought it might have been recently removed. They asked if I thought it was an important feature. Since this question was asked multiple times, and I personally felt it is really nice as well, I said we would all really like it and they responded that they will try to convey that to CA Australia and hope they put it in.
==========

Allright, more coming tomorrow...
Cheers all,

Harm - aka Soulflame

[Darsh]

*Unit speeds and kill speeds have been decreases;

a great news and the most important news for me

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

I had hoped that the minimum specs would be a tad lower then that .
Good thing that CA is good at making alot of graphical options.
Hope it is optimised well.

[BKB]

Real shame about the titles, I was really hoping they would restore them.

[The Lord Of Dance]

Damn... I have a 1.8 ghz. Guess I'll have to overclock it, but I have a good video card, so I should be fine.

No titles!? Extreme bummer.

[The Thracian]

Looking forward to see the rest of the answers. Shame about the titles and generally the infomation given by CA Seems good and promising.

[Crusader Invasion]

You can launch cows?!!?!?! Like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?!!?! Is this just a joke? :hmmm:

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

You can launch cows?!!?!?! Like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?!!?! Is this just a joke? :hmmm:

Monty python took that from history actually.
In the commentaries for the film they talked about how they read about some seiges where the attackers catapulted in diseased cows into the castle(or city) with the hope that disease would spread and the defenders would be forced to give up.
And other case they read it was the opposite, it was the defenders that catapulted out animals from their castle. This was intended to make the attackers think that they had so much food that they can give it away thus hoping to discourage the attackers from continuing the seige.

[DougyM]

You can launch cows?!!?!?! Like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?!!?! Is this just a joke? :hmmm:

Yes monty python did it, but it happened a lot in history.

Get a couple large farm animals, slaughter them, let them get a bit.... toxic.... then huck them over the walls and watch your enemy get infections and diseases trying to deal with them.

Couple things that would happen:

Men trying to dispose of them would loose moral and probly get infections (id loose moral if i had to hack up a rotten corps and drag it around)
If left it could poison the surrounding land and any water nearby
People in a siege would be starving and might try and eat it... getting all sorts of lovely diseases for their trouble.

And scotlands confirmed as a playable faction.
And with a decent selection of starting factions it shouldnt be too annoying unlocking the rest (without mods)

[Der_Zenturio]

So glad to read that the killing speed seems to be slower! That's a real relief!

Hmm but it's a bit disappointing about the titles, was really hoping that they'd have revived that old MTW1 feature.

Thanks for thinking of us Soulflame...

[Trajan]

Good job Soulflame, you've done this community a great service.

[Obershutze]

Give this guy some rep.

[RZZZA]

"*They are aiming for minimum specs of; P4 1.8 Ghz Geforce4 128."

Argh! Yowch, that hurts.

"*Generals can't be given titles like in Med 1"

Oh no! That stings...

"*No eras like in Med1, there is only one campaign period."

Damn! Thar she blows...

Everything else sounds good.

Give this guy some rep.

Okay, since he got my titles question answered.

edit: er...double post for some reason, please delete the post above me

[Eird-Way]

Come on, guys, we all know this is what we're waiting to upgrade for.

I am seriously getting the feeling that this will be at least as good as RTW in every conceivable way. The reduced kill-rates is a good sign. I would assume that they want guys to stay alive longer in order to display their teh maxx comboz, but that means there's liable to be more room for modders to reduce kill speeds even further, and approximate historical casualty ratios better.

Did you see any units routing? If, in their graphical shallowness, they included a "Run Away!" animation, this would be something modders could speed up and put an end to post-battle annihilation.

It's not really CRUCIAL, but I have to say that a campaign replay feature would be outstanding. How many custom battles have you really gotten emotionally involved in? There's just so much more variety and drama in the campaign.

Wait . . . Venice is standard, but Byzantium is unlockable? What are they smoking there? Not that it matters because "all-factions" mods will be up within 12 hours, I'm sure.

[Pelayo]

A pitty the titles are out, I wonder what we can do with not so loyal generals.And I'd hoped the historical battles to be in the form of an historical campaign like they did in MTW with the 100 years war, the crusades, barbarossa and stuff like that, with victory giving access to the next battle (not like they did in RTW).

[Spiff]

I wonder if by geforce 4 or higher they mean geforce 4MX or TI.. i doubt the game would require pixel shader support to be honest though

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

I wonder if by geforce 4 or higher they mean geforce 4MX or TI.. i doubt the game would require pixel shader support to be honest though

Well we have seen in some pics that water is now pixel shaded but maybe you can turn it off.

[Crynos]

Will AI be actually intelligent this time around? Heres to hoping they said yes

[Big War Bird]

Will AI be actually intelligent this time around? Heres to hoping they said yes

I think we say with a good deal of confidence that that the AI couldn't actually get worse. :tooth:

So glad to hear that the battles have been slowed down. This increased the chance of me buying this on the release date by 100%

I'm not too dissapointed about the titles being gone, we still have the retinue system that did much the same thing for generals don't we? Come to think of it I haven't heard anything about the retinues.

[Roman-Warrior]

That geforce, how is that in comparison to my Radeon X700?

-Wes