Why do Total War Games getting unrealistic?

[CagatayKhan]

Game have unblanced multi and unrealsitic fantasitc units. phalanx german pikes , most ranged germenic archers , germenic shock cav, unbeateble germenic melle cavs , huscalrs ,overrated armour. etc.. Total war are getting fantasy game. Next game will Warhammer Total war..

[sleepyx732]

They aren't anymore unrealistic then they've always been. As far as unit diversity goes, they probably don't want another repeat of Empire.

Why the hell do people care about this so much? CA has never claimed to be making historical simulators.

[Humble Warrior]

Why the hell do people care about this so much? CA has never claimed to be making historical simulators.

Why? because that`s what they always portray when they sell their games.

They don`t have to directly claim. They always market their games across as realistic, as historical. Every single one. Just because you don`t care doesn`t make it any less true.

[Yerevan]

Just because you don`t care doesn`t make it any less true.

Nicely said. Hey Humble, sorry for the off topic, but do you draw those comics yourself (the ones in your signature) or are they cut up ?

[Darios]

Game have unblanced multi and unrealsitic fantasitc units. phalanx german pikes , most ranged germenic archers , germenic shock cav, unbeateble germenic melle cavs , huscalrs ,overrated armour. etc.. Total war are getting fantasy game. Next game will Warhammer Total war..

I agree that CA has vastly overused its core Germanic roster and the game feels rather "empty" as a result, but the most serious issues right now in ATW involve the broken imperium/diplomacy, cheap CAI workarounds that present the illusion of a challenge by having every faction on the campaign map zero in on your faction and attack you even from all the way across the map, as well as the horrendously unbalanced gameplay (why are the Sassanids infinitely more powerful than the ERE?). There also seems to be a big disconnect between the team at CA that patches games and the team that creates new games because I am encountering a ton of issues in Attila that were previously fixed in Rome 2 with patches. (ex: the overwhelming amount of money minor factions get...I'm currently more afraid of the Garamantians than I am of the Goths.)

I love many of the new features (family trees/4 TPY/razing/horde mechanics) in Attila and they are steps in the right direction, but the honeymoon phase for Attila has passed and I am noticing the above mentioned gameplay breaking issues in every new campaign that I try to play. Until these problems are fixed, ATW is essentially a bad game.

[Roboute Guilliman]

In CAs defense, none of their games have been historical. I do feel tho, they did a very poor job at the unit rosters. All of them are boring and generic.

And Warhammer total war is a blessing, some might not like it, some will love it. They wont be able to deviate from lore much there. And no clone armies. If you play Orcs, it will be a different experience than playing Night Goblins. No generic units really possible there...

[RGA]

I agree that CA has vastly overused its core Germanic roster and the game feels rather "empty" as a result, but the most serious issues right now in ATW involve the broken imperium/diplomacy, cheap CAI workarounds that present the illusion of a challenge by having every faction on the campaign map zero in on your faction and attack you even from all the way across the map, as well as the horrendously unbalanced gameplay (why are the Sassanids infinitely more powerful than the ERE?). There also seems to be a big disconnect between the team at CA that patches games and the team that creates new games because I am encountering a ton of issues in Attila that were previously fixed in Rome 2 with patches. (ex: the overwhelming amount of money minor factions get...I'm currently more afraid of the Garamantians than I am of the Goths.)

I love many of the new features (family trees/4 TPY/razing/horde mechanics) in Attila and they are steps in the right direction, but the honeymoon phase for Attila has passed and I am noticing the above mentioned gameplay breaking issues in every new campaign that I try to play. Until these problems are fixed, ATW is essentially a bad game.

It's good and bad at the same time. While no one could argue that the current game has terrible balancing issues, the prospect of having them fixed is actually pretty bright. Balancing is known to be extraordinarily time-consuming and requires tons of testing, which is, for CA and their daily-paid teams, a bad news. For us on the other hand, we don't have a fixed deadline to deal with, we have plenty times more voluntary testers which demand nothing in return. Given enough time, the game will be balanced and would, I believe, turn out to be one of the best Total war games ever made.

I would rather have a badly balanced game that takes months if not years to fixed, than a buggy game which stays half-broken forever (read: Empire and to a much lesser extent, Rome 2).

[Humble Warrior]

Nicely said. Hey Humble, sorry for the off topic, but do you draw those comics yourself (the ones in your signature) or are they cut up ?

I quickly make (draw) them when I have the time and\or inclination.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

There were German phalanx pikes in Barbarian Invasion, too. And giant hulking bear men who could literally destroy an entire enemy army by themselves. And Roman ninjas. And chariot ballistas.

I feel like we have gotten significantly more realistic, if not more accurate.

[Darios]

It's good and bad at the same time. While no one could argue that the current game has terrible balancing issues, the prospect of having them fixed is actually pretty bright. Balancing is known to be extraordinarily time-consuming and requires tons of testing, which is, for CA and their daily-paid teams, a bad news. For us on the other hand, we don't have a fixed deadline to deal with, we have plenty times more voluntary testers which demand nothing in return. Given enough time, the game will be balanced and would, I believe, turn out to be one of the best Total war games ever made.

I would rather have a badly balanced game that takes months if not years to fixed, than a buggy game which stays half-broken forever (read: Empire and to a much lesser extent, Rome 2).

Yes, I do totally understand how the game reached this point. It takes hours upon hours of testing and retesting in order to get things right and I am pretty sure that CA did not have the time or manpower to properly test their game before release. It's a normal thing in the gaming industry for games to be released in a bad state for this reason. I understand that it's going to take a while to fix, but it is the duty of the TWC to help make CA aware of these issues.

ATW has the potential of becoming the best Total War game ever because unlike Rome 2, the game itself has a very solid base. It simply needs to be patched, tweaked, and built upon.

In the future CA would wise to have an open beta for a select group of customers who pre-order so that they can work together to get the most obvious bugs and balancing issues taken care of before the official release.

[CagatayKhan]

Huns must play infantries . Germans plays with cav+ phalanx as a Alexander MAcedon Army. Game mechanic are epic fail.. I talk abour multi. Lots of units are in AD 800-1200.. I can play third age .But I want to realism in historical name game. Empire ,Napoleon,Med2 are more historcal game.

[Darios]

Huns must play infantries . Germans plays with cav+ phalanx as a Alexander MAcedon Army. Game mechanic are epic fail.. I talk abour multi. Lots of units are in AD 800-1200.. I can play third age .But I want to realism in historical name game. Empire ,Napoleon,Med2 are more historcal game.

The Huns were the first great Turkic nomadic people to invade Europe, therefore they were also rather different from those who would come after them (Avari, Pechenegs, Polovtsi, etc) by not staying on the steppes and migrating into Pannonia and Germania. By the 440s the Huns had become largely Germanicized and a majority of the Huns were infantry fighting on foot. The Hunnic roster in ATW reflects the vast sway of conquered peoples (most of them being infantry based people) into their empire. It's very well done in my opinion.

I don't like the Germanic phalanxes at all and I think that the developers took Jordanes a little too literally when he mentioned "pikes." The Germanic tribes having superior cavalry to the Alans/Sarmatians is also immersion breaking. I don't mind the later period units that some of the factions get though, it's very possible that we will see DLC campaigns that take place slightly later on the timeline.

[RGA]

Huns must play infantries . Germans plays with cav+ phalanx as a Alexander MAcedon Army. Game mechanic are epic fail.. I talk abour multi. Lots of units are in AD 800-1200.. I can play third age .But I want to realism in historical name game. Empire ,Napoleon,Med2 are more historcal game.

I myself consider Empire and Napoleon the least historically authentic Total war games. The units might be correct, but the battle feeling is simply wrong. There is no column attack, artillery is unimportant, siege warfare is non-existant, two lines of infantry shoot each other to death, cavalry is useless, etc.

[Humble Warrior]

I myself consider Empire and Napoleon the least historically authentic Total war games. The units might be correct, but the battle feeling is simply wrong. There is no column attack, artillery is unimportant, siege warfare is non-existant, two lines of infantry shoot each other to death, cavalry is useless, etc.

Even in napoleon, sieges are still ludicrous (I got it free). I never bought Nappy in protest about Empire. I still wonder how people who say they`re hobby is 18th century warfare were happy to stay with sieges as they were. I agree about artillery as well, which is basically a broken mess, especially once the lines start moving, then it all goes to pot. Only ships in work pretty much as intended and are quite enjoyable for the most part. Had people whined more, instead of just accepting it, CA might`ve fixed it.

[Abdülmecid I]

IMO, TW games are not getting unrealistic, because they were already unrealistic. Bronze Age chariots are not supposed to get crushed, if they're hit by a head of a dead Brit. On the other hand, since R2, I have a feeling that the formation of the empires is more unrealistic than they used to. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there's no strategic differences between regions now, but I find their expansion really awkward.

There were German phalanx pikes in Barbarian Invasion

Nah, phalanx formation was not present in BI, you're probably thinking of the German Spear Warbands of R1.

[Aeratus]

RTW was the game that started the trend. Historical accuracy and realism in RTW was the all-time low. Even in multiplayer, back in those days, people would play as Egypt and spam 20x desert cavalry.

The more recent games are actually much better in terms of accuracy and realism.

[Yerevan]

ATW has the potential of becoming the best Total War game ever because unlike Rome 2, the game itself has a very solid base. It simply needs to be patched, tweaked, and built upon.

I feel the same about Attila. It's the reason why even if I just play it very occasionally at the moment I trust TW modders to transform the game into a fun and immersive game.
But at the moment there are too many things happening on the campaign and battle map that makes me shout wtf and close the game.

I quickly make (draw) them when I have the time and\or inclination.

They are nice. I don't know how many you have but brought together they would make a nice comics about Atilla's absurd world. Something funny to read when the game will be fixed.

[Giant Death Robot]

Yeah, I miss the days of Rome 1, where we had such historically accurate units as head throwers, a city of amazons, hulking berzerkers who sent people flying, Ramses II-era egyptians in 300 BC, flaming pigs, etc. To say nothing of silly factions like ''Gaul'' ''Greek City States'' ''Germania'' or Rome being split in three independant families which made no sense.

Attila is not 100% accurate, of course. My main beef is how everyone from Spain to Poland is germanic, they should have included a Celtic roster at the very least. Franks having quality shock cavalry is a bit weird too, as is the Sassanid powerhouse and the Roman empires being so weak (the latter of which is more to give players a challenge, I assume). But compared to the above, which is just pure fantasy? Attila is definitely much better.

[CagatayKhan]

IMO, TW games are not getting unrealistic, because they were already unrealistic. Bronze Age chariots are not supposed to get crushed, if they're hit by a head of a dead Brit. On the other hand, since R2, I have a feeling that the formation of the empires is more unrealistic than they used to. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there's no strategic differences between regions now, but I find their expansion really awkward. Nah, phalanx formation was not present in BI, you're probably thinking of the German Spear Warbands of R1.

I always love Med1 -Med2 ,Empire (just campign),Shogun2,Napelon. I hate rome 2,attila..I know a game cant be totaly realstic.. But I cant see seriousness such as Med 1-2,Napoleon.. It is a too child game.

[Lord Tranquilizer]

I've never gotten the picture that any total war game have ever been historical accurate game or been portrayed as one. The game is simply (in my understating) uses historical time periods and events as an foundation to build and shape their games. It's also very hard to make an historical accurate game because what is accurate and what is not is a highly debated subject and new discovery's changes the way we look at history. But I can agree with you that they should try to lean a bit more towards making their games a bit more historically plausible but in my opinion not to much. I like when I can shape history and do silly things like marching around in Africa with my Viking army in my opinion that is one of the fun parts of the game. But I also enjoy mods like divide et impera when everything feels a bit more serious.