Now we had a lot of 'this sucks' topics, what are you looking forward to?

[CIaagent11]

I think it will be cool that diplomacy works now. You can fight wars with the factions you choose.
(Or circumstances choose, but youre not always figthing who you share borders with.)
Like being the Holy Roman Empire (of German Nation) and being at war with Milan or Denmark, but not France and Poland.

No more steamroll. I've read that it will be complicated to maintain a great nation.

Through gunpowder and new world conquest the later game is exiting.

Also I want to see the new units, and campaign map.
My problem with Rome was that I had done and tryed everything and there was nothing new.
Battles became the same everytime fastly.
Medieval 2 will bring a lot of fresh air, it will be the RTW fun plus medieval flaire plus new features.

The graphic looks less "comic" and is more real, without only focusing on graphics, like it has become way to common lately.

Your thoughts.

[SnArF|D]

I really want to be able to hunker down without expanding for a while, something that was difficult to say the least in RTW. I personally found it unrealistic and quite annoying haveing to conquer new cities so quickly.

I'm just going to build up my forces while squeezing every drop out of my settlements, then unleash hell on the world.

[Kanfoosh]

Problem is paying the up-keep with the income of 1-3 provinces for an army big enough to be an actual threat

[SnArF|D]

Exactly. I could build up my economy 1st and build units at a slower pace, but if the AI's aggressive and attacks quickly, then well that could be a problem.

[GVP]

I'm looking forward to finally playing a slavic faction.The Slavs in BI weren't playable and I didn't play Medival 1.
A more realistic diplomacy. I RTW I hated the fact, that when a faction defeated another faction they went to war the next turn even if they had no hope of victory.
Kinghts in shining armour.
Bigger role of religion.
Better AI, at leats I hope.
Agent movies.
AND of course conquering the world in a difrent time period.

[nameless]

Exactly. I could build up my economy 1st and build units at a slower pace, but if the AI's aggressive and attacks quickly, then well that could be a problem.

Well don't forget about the Pope. So long as you have good standing with the pope none of the nations would dare attack you less they be excommunicated and then attacked.

Other nations I'm not so sure but I'm pretty sure they improved the system (Specifically the missions which states that it figures out what's the best course of action for you and such).

[drak10687]

well, since there werent really proffessional armies at the time, unleass you are at war, you SHOULD NOT have a large standing army, neither should the ai. After a conquest, the army should be dissbaned, or dissassembled. But I doubt it will be like that. Players will be tempted to keep conquering if most of their army is left, or will be too scared to dissban their army in fear of the ai attaking, or just not wanting to "loose" all those precious troops.

[Darkragnar]

well, since there werent really proffessional armies at the time, unleass you are at war, you SHOULD NOT have a large standing army, neither should the ai. After a conquest, the army should be dissbaned, or dissassembled. But I doubt it will be like that. Players will be tempted to keep conquering if most of their army is left, or will be too scared to dissban their army in fear of the ai attaking, or just not wanting to "loose" all those precious troops.

The Thing is u loose all your experianced men, back then after a Army was Disbanded all the War Hardned Vetran's Returend to their Respected work and when the army was asked to Reassemble they Returend again to fight , but u cant Train Exp Troops Or High Valour Troop's in TW games,ull keep getting an Army Recurit's if u keep Disbanding the ARmy in Harvesting Season.



Im really looking forward to see all thoese Combat Animation's, i dont have a powerful computer but im willing to play the game even if i have to mod 8-10 men per unit just to play the game.

[Ringeck]

Plenty of full-time soldiers around, but that's perhaps not what you mean by professional? Remember, the republican army of most of RTW's time period was not permanent and standing either, and there was plenty of regional part-time auxilia even in imperial times. Not to mention the other factions' militaries.

• I look forward to the promised improved battlefield AI and more realistic unit movement (especially cavalry).
• I look forward to the new strategic campaign, with promised better AI and a situation with a more interesting faction distribution than in Rome.
• I look forward to what seems like a greater variety of troop types.
• I look forward to a game that (while I still think there is a lot of nonsense stuff) don't seem to have something quite as wonky as the RTW Egyptians history-wise.
• I look forward to modding all I don't like away :-)

[Little Legionaire]

• I look forward to the promised improved battlefield AI and more realistic unit movement (especially cavalry).
• I look forward to the new strategic campaign, with promised better AI and a situation with a more interesting faction distribution than in Rome.
• I look forward to what seems like a greater variety of troop types.
• I look forward to a game that (while I still think there is a lot of nonsense stuff) don't seem to have something quite as wonky as the RTW Egyptians history-wise.
• I look forward to modding all I don't like away :-)

Complete good list Ringeck. I hope CA took her lesson from their faults in RTW.

[CIaagent11]

(...) you SHOULD NOT have a large standing army, neither should the ai. After a conquest, the army should be dissbaned, (...)

Not trying to be nasty here, drak10687.
But I dont even want that. Its a computer game!
Kings in the medieval ages didnt control troops on a Flat Screen.

I want to build an army, lead them in battle and see them getting better.
Not disband people and fight with unexperienced peasants all the time.
Maybe its not Realistic, but is there someone here who got tired of all that
uber-realism in RTR? I went back to RTW, where Egypt is called Egypt, and its fine.

[drak10687]

yeah, I meant proffessional as in a stading army ready to be fielded in a moments notice. Most professionals were mercenaries though, no? And even though there were plenty of mercs most of the army in time of war would still be composed of peasants called up by the king, no?

back to topic:
I'm looking forward to better balanced, hence more interesting MP (hopefully)
I'm looking forward to reading threads of historicaly savy people arguing about missed/missrepresented details by CA (and learning something)
I'm looking forward to trying it out on my new laptop
I'm looking forward to being really anxious to try it out when its finaly out

[Ringeck]

yeah, I meant proffessional as in a stading army ready to be fielded in a moments notice. Most professionals were mercenaries though, no? And even though there were plenty of mercs most of the army in time of war would still be composed of peasants called up by the king, no?

Too much variety in the medieval period to give a real answer to that. There were always permanent units, though, even in the smaller kingdoms (even the real standing armies of the early modern period took a while to call up, as did imperial roman armies if they were called from their peacetime postings). And the muster would probably be relatively big (depending on where, why and when an army was called), but most of those would hardly be pitchfork-armed peasants. That's another thing I like, by the way - we have seen units cards for "peasant archers", "peasant spearmen", etc...acceptably equipped mustered infantry instead of those silly pitchfork. Some regions should also have "peasant cavalry" of varying quality, but I haven't seen any.

[Korinthos Hoplites]

I hope they make some good skins, RTW's skins were so simple and unrealistic...

The rest of my hopes is the same as yours

[xxax]

Actually in the start nobels didn't have to pay tax because they were in charge of protecting the country. Later Mercenaries were in ,due to modern tactics and they didn't disband quickly (when the Turks started to attack; you needed a force on stand-by). Then when Absolutism started, nobels had to start paying taxes and a professional army was formed.

On-topic
1. Better AI
2. Diplomacy (if someone wants a ceasefire, let him not attack the first turn)
3. better cavalry charge's
4. better seige's

i want Rome part 2: Bigger, Better and Uncut

[Ringeck]

Actually in the start nobels didn't have to pay tax because they were in charge of protecting the country. Later Mercenaries were in ,due to modern tactics and they didn't disband quickly (when the Turks started to attack; you needed a force on stand-by). Then when Absolutism started, nobels had to start paying taxes and a professional army was formed.

Again, oversimplification. The osmannic-turkish army had quite a few feudal contigents itself - the elite sipahis, for example, held military fiefs in exactly the same way as some knights did in medieval and early modern Europe - and the the poles did brilliantly in the 17th century with their feudal organization. Mercenaries were common from 500 to 1500, depending on region.

[Emperor of Europe]

Most of all I'm looking forward to a better diplomatic system and a faction AI that thinks strategically instead of just attacking every neighbour.

rgds/EoE

[Tzar]

Most of all I'm looking forward to a better diplomatic system and a faction AI that thinks strategically instead of just attacking every neighbour.

rgds/EoE

You just take my words

[Spiff]

Im looking forward to hopefuly seeing diplomacy mean something - eg 'we wont attack you because you are allied with this nearby power nation', things like that.

Also the graphical improvements, got to love those.

[Germanicus75]

I'm looking forward to the whole thing ;-)
But seriously, one thing I'd like to see is for provinces to be able to have more than one settlement, so you can have a town or city with tributary settlements and grow them. You could see a single farm or hamlet one day grow into a big city. In the Arthurian mod they've made it possible to expand a mere fishing village into a full settlement. But there you can only have one settlement per province, of course.