New blog at the .com

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

http://totalwardev.blogspot.com/

Some very good read in that

[Giurza]

very good stuff..
mhm... I have one question though, in the battle AI part he talks about unit size and he sais

the magic numbers are and should be really be happy to see them make a return in M2TW.

what does he mean by magic numbers? I played it all but what does he mean by MAGIC NUMBERS?
huh?

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

what does he mean by magic numbers? I played it all but what does he mean by MAGIC NUMBERS?
huh?

I think it means that all units have the same size.
Infantry one size, archers one, cavarly one.
This is instead of the other way where size depended on the unit.

[ghost665]

i think that this statement might indicate that the magic numbers are actually programming etc..

The brilliant Russian programmer Dmytro strolled over and indicated he had found a way to allow the unit to maintain speed toward each waypoint, we had a play with the numbers and “WOW” just like STW and MTW.

[Chuffy]

I like how they seem to have listened to the community a lot and they addressing important issues like AI and campmap easiness...yet they just say one ambigious statement; "You will also be happy to know that you cant simply steam roll the map once you take a large number of regions, the campaign has been balanced to ensure that maintaining a large empire is a tricky balancing act." which is VERY good to hear...but I for one would actually like to know the details of this. How is maintaining a large empire been made difficult, what has been changed so we cant steamroll factions etc?

All I'm saying is that I'd like to see some evidence or explanation.

[Giurza]

yet another thingy I would like to ask you about....

So right now you use cavalry for their charge and best to flank, no longer can you just push through infantry unable to make contact with your horsie.

what does THAT mean? if this means that the cavalry is no longer able to push through the ranks of infantry (like we alread saw in vids) then it s**cks... cavalry WOULD push through the ranks of infantry (unless it is spear inf, but even then some penetration would be achieved)
can some one say it untrue? please enlighten me... I am little bit uneasy about this one

[TenkiSoratoti]

yet another thingy I would like to ask you about....

what does THAT mean? if this means that the cavalry is no longer able to push through the ranks of infantry (like we alread saw in vids) then it s**cks... cavalry WOULD push through the ranks of infantry (unless it is spear inf, but even then some penetration would be achieved)
can some one say it untrue? please enlighten me... I am little bit uneasy about this one

I think what he meant is that cavalry will need to be used with far more tactical finesse because they were too powerful in Rome. Two units of cavalry could defeat a whole army of infantry, for example. And horses do have feelings so charging head onto into a bunch of men with sharp things isn't always going to end up with the intended results.

[z2ei]

It likely means that once you take over a number of provinces, the game rachets your loyalty down to hell like it did in MTW. Argh.

As far as cavalry goes, it owned everything in Rome. They probably mean that you'll have to think about when and where to charge your cavalry, and not just charge charge charge. Charging head on to the enemy at full strength is a bad idea, but if they're weakened first by artillery/missile fire or skirmishing, or engaged on the flanks, you'll get better results.

[smoke]

It likely means that once you take over a number of provinces, the game rachets your loyalty down to hell like it did in MTW. Argh.

Cool. Should be a challenge!

[Turdetanian]

Anyway I have some much anticipated news for the multiplayer crowd, but you will need to wait for the next blog. Oh it will be happy days!

A I not sure if I understand theese last words (I am not an english speaker) but this words mean that demo can be announced or inclusve released in next week?

[Giurza]

Anyway I have some much anticipated news for the multiplayer crowd, but you will need to wait for the next blog. Oh it will be happy days!

A I not sure if I understand theese last words (I am not an english speaker) but this words mean that demo can be announced or inclusve released in next week?

actually this would mean (though it doesn't) the introduction of multiplayer campaign... it was and still is the most anticipated feature...

[DougyM]

actually this would mean (though it doesn't) the introduction of multiplayer campaign... it was and still is the most anticipated feature...

Seeing as how the player base has never stated what they want the most in MP i dont see how you are stating its a MP campaign.

Personaly id much prefer ballanced armies and better maps.....

does that mean I go stating that as the communities view of MP?

no.

[Lusted]

Or it just means he's going to talk about the mp side of things in the next blog, and hopefully say things are more balanced for multiplayer.

[a_swiss_pikeman]

Awesome, taking the whole map is going to be challenging. Thats the sweet news but i am going still going to do it.

[Chuffy]

It looks like the campaign game has gotten a huge graphical upgrade, which is awesome. I think that graphics are really more important to gameplay than people think, it draws your subconscious mind in to the world more, making it seem more real.

The thing is looking at the campmap it doesn't look that detailed...EB's map actually looks a lot nicer...just because theres more stuff going on.

Also the whole thing about forests swaying and waves crashing was in RTW. :p

[Ano2]

MTW 's campaign map is far better looking than Eb's imo. it has lots of detail, and the fewer cities should help gameplay really well. I prefer having one city/castle being key to a large amount of area, ince it makes the fighting seem so much more epic, and allows for more field battles.

[Hodor]

Eliminating cavalry blobbing sounds like a great change.

In RTW, you could easily steamroll enemy spearmen with very little losses by simply having 3 or more units of cavalry frontally charge them as a "stampede", which greatly reduced the tactical difficulty of city battles. I'd be very glad to see that changed.

[Eird-Way]

The talk about cavalry behavior has sold me. I am now officially 100% pro-CA. Bugged cavalry charges are by far the worst feature in RTW (everything else has been satisfied by modders). If real cavalry charges were as rare in MTW2 as they are in RTW, the game would be absolutely worthless. I've ranted time and time again about the lancers in BI to no avail, but no one seems to understand that the "charge bonus" is nothing other than extra attack points added to one attack under VERY SPECIFIC circumstances that the AI almost never achieves. If this were the case in the age of stirrups . . .

BUT, that bit about "cavalry useful only when charging" has got me sold.

[Khozemnian]

All sounds good and in place but judging from the reviews these boys sound a bit jaded by the hype....dont get me wrong, whats good is good BUT if theres something wrong it seems it wasnt to be mentioned.

Anyway, I hope its as good as they make it out to be.

[Matty_P]

yeah, wasn't there also the same sort of 'BLAH BLAH LOLz, DIS GAME RAWKz' from the devs last time. (i.e. Rome?)