StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Developer Diary feature with screenshots of the diplomacy screen added to the main site. Looks the same as R:TW, but the dev diary goes into more detail.

Another unit update, the Spanish Jinete:

Influenced by both Iberian and Moorish light cavalry traditions, Jinetes have abandoned heavy armour and lances in favour of light armour and javelins. These well trained horsemen are fast and manoeuvrable, capable of employing a shooting circle tactic enabling riders to create a continuous cycle of firing. Jinetes hurl their javelins before closing in and fighting with their cavalry swords.

Speaking of Iberian javelin units. I can't to see some Almughavars in action. Hopefully they included them it M2TW2.

check the gallery there's music.

I hate the jinetes and the other horse archer units because they always lenghten a already decided battle by their retarded skirmishing thing. I hope they fix the AI so that it acts more resonably with them. If everything else is dead, for fucks sakes, retreat rather then spening all your ammo to kill one or two more of my guys and then get slaughtered by cavalry when they finaly fucking manage to catch up and in the process frustrating me to no end because I just spent 10 minutes running down your retarded ass after more then 1000 of your men were slaughtered and the battle indicator being fully on my side.

Either they should fix the AI to make them more sane (no, 2 units of jinets will not manage to defeat my well balanced full stack army no matter what they do so why don't they fucking retreat?) or make them somewhat slower so that they can be caught more easily.

Awsome, in those diplomacy screens, I'm the Brit Diplomat Okay, maybe not, but still the same name, heh

And the music is very nice as well.

Creative Assembly isn't the best at doing AI, it seems. But they get by with the gaming satisfaction of crushing your enemies, even if they are too easy to kill sometimes.

Take sieges- man does the AI suck at defending against assaults.

Vympel wrote:Creative Assembly isn't the best at doing AI, it seems. But they get by with the gaming satisfaction of crushing your enemies, even if they are too easy to kill sometimes.

Take sieges- man does the AI suck at defending against assaults.

I love the way the enemy makes no effort whatsoever to retake towers that you've captured. You could have one unit of peasants running around his entire wall perimeter capturing every tower, and they could have ten units of heavy infantry sitting on the ground inside the walls, making no attempt to climb up and kill the intruders. Once you kill the men who start on the walls, no more will be sent up no matter how absurd the result.

Also, he never tries to block streets with phalanx troops. Instead, he tends to move them into the city square, where there's plenty of room to maneuver and flank them.

And then of course there's the "walking all around the perimeter of the city while getting killed by wall archers" thing when the computer is attacking and you're defending. But let's face it, you can't be totally realistic or you'd be constantly besieging rather than taking places by storm, which is far more entertaining.

Darth Wong wrote:
And then of course there's the "walking all around the perimeter of the city while getting killed by wall archers" thing when the computer is attacking and you're defending. But let's face it, you can't be totally realistic or you'd be constantly besieging rather than taking places by storm, which is far more entertaining.

Did that work for you in BI? Because for me it was pretty wonky- sometimes they'd do it, sometimes they wouldn't.

Vympel wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:
And then of course there's the "walking all around the perimeter of the city while getting killed by wall archers" thing when the computer is attacking and you're defending. But let's face it, you can't be totally realistic or you'd be constantly besieging rather than taking places by storm, which is far more entertaining.

Did that work for you in BI? Because for me it was pretty wonky- sometimes they'd do it, sometimes they wouldn't.

I mean the way they walk around once they get inside the city. The AI in BI improved so that they wouldn't just march around the perimeter of the city on the outside, but when they get inside they usually want to attack the citadel from more than one direction, which often means that large portions of their army take a long winding route to get to the citadel, and don't stay far enough from the walls to avoid the inward-firing wall archers. By the time they get to the citadel they're tired and demoralized from casualties, hence easy to route.

But I don't know how I would have won the WRE campaign without the enemy having stupid assault tactics, because I was so often massively outnumbered.

New update, Culverins:

The Culverin is a type of cannon used by many factions including Milan. Used first in the Holy Roman Empire in the late 14th century, it utilizes advanced metallurgy techniques, superior construction and better trained crews, managing to outrange and outshoot nearly all preceding artillery. Able to fire powerful shots, the culverin is devastating against enemy walls and punishing against enemy troops if it can hit them!

They've also added an FAQ.

New M2TW screenshots here:

Link

The quality is substantially less than the ones we've seen before- looks more like Rome- they must be trying to keep the framerate up for actual play.

Anyway, there's some good looks at the campaign map.

Looks like what, about 110 regions total(not counting the Aztecs)?

image

What the hells is that? Mobile Prayer platform?

Teh TRUE CROSS (TM). Nutty crusaders alledegdly carried (or wheeled) them into battle. Probably gives massive moral bonus to all or certain kinds of units in the vicinity.

They had the morale-boosting battlefield priest units in BI, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that they have these "true cross" things.

Darth Wong wrote:They had the morale-boosting battlefield priest units in BI, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that they have these "true cross" things.

You doubt the veracity of the True Cross? Oh, we are so setting you on fire for Heresy!

At least it makes a little sense that troops would see the cross and be enheartened by the fact they are killing and pillaging for Christianity's sake.

You try explaining the concepts of a strategic counterattack and logistical interdiction to a medieval grunt. Just point at the True Cross instead.

Knights Templar unit added to the gallery:

The Templar’s fearsome and uncompromising order was formed shortly after the First Crusade to protect pilgrims. Despite their origins, the order became hugely wealthy and operated the first banking system in Europe. This wealth allowed them to establish chapter houses within which they hone their skills to a high degree. Armed with formidable skill and faith, woe betide anyone who stands against these brothers when they take the field.

God WILLS it!

Sweet- too bad can't watch them in HD though .. stupid registration.

I really missed the assassination videos of the original Shogun TW. Looks like they've also added videos for everyone else too.

A new podcast is available, talking about cities and castles in M2TW, guilds, unique faction buildings, and the new method of recruiting.

The new method of recruiting is elaborated on as there being a force pool in a city/castle (the larger each is, the more men you can recruit) from which you can draw eligible men. You can build up a massive army in the space of a single turn if you have the money to and the men to do so- which is fantastic as we no longer have to sped several years of game time recruiting a huge army- we can instead spend that time campaigning

Vympel wrote:A new podcast is available, talking about cities and castles in M2TW, guilds, unique faction buildings, and the new method of recruiting.

The new method of recruiting is elaborated on as there being a force pool in a city/castle (the larger each is, the more men you can recruit) from which you can draw eligible men. You can build up a massive army in the space of a single turn if you have the money to and the men to do so- which is fantastic as we no longer have to sped several years of game time recruiting a huge army- we can instead spend that time campaigning

Thank the Maker. It looks like The Creative Assembly looked at SPQR 6 for inspiration...

Doubled. Mind you, 0-turn recruitment mini-mods have been around since the beginning of RTW, before 1.2 even - SQPR is simply the biggest, may be the only, mod to include it in a complete mod package.