Medieval Total War II: CONFIRMED

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-01-11 01:01am

Link

A sword day! A red day! Ere the sun rises!

*ahem*

Wrong movie. Erm ...

Our cavalry will ride em down like flies. Send in the horse. Full attack.

(info gotten from SB.com thread).

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-11 01:07am

Oh my fucking god, I am sold.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-01-11 01:42am

Quick! Fetch me my rubber E3 pants. I fear I may need them before opening that link!

Darth Quorthon · Post by **Darth Quorthon** » 2006-01-11 01:44am

Sounds fucking awesome, Creative Assembly has not disappointed me yet. Hopefully it won't be too long coming.

By the way, have you guys tried the Chivalry: Total War mod for Rome: Total War yet? It's a medieval mod for RTW. It's still in beta, but I think it has a lot of promise. Might be just the thing to tide us over until the new game arrives.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-01-11 02:55am

*squeals like fangirl; explodes*

Finally, I'll be able to get back to fantasizing about hot chicks and stuff again.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-01-11 03:54am

Hallelujah, Saladin and desert warfare, here I come.
If there is no desert combat

, then I'm still getting it, I know a lot more about medieval combat than bronze age tactics (Short swords aside).
Freekin Sweet

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-01-11 06:57am

Yay! I only hope that they don't screw up all the little touches that made Medival units fun and unique (like for instance some units being capable of dismounting, others having both good close range and long range capability - in comparison, except a few rare cases, Rome's units are very specialised, and those rare cases are more of a flavor unit then actual regular combatants). Plus it's a era with more fun anyway.

The little nationalist in me would like it if they moved the starting period to around 1000 tho, so that the banner of the Kingdom of Croatia could be raised over all of Europe (and beyond).

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2006-01-11 07:21am

Chivalry is okay. A decent mod but no RTR or EB.

Though I sure hope they update the graphics with bump mapping, stronger spectacular lighting and the works, that battle AI really needs to be fixed and upgraded.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-01-11 07:42am

Shit already a new one? I'm still occasionally playing RTW

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-11 08:44am

And now I definantly need a new computer. I bought RTW but I simply couldn't enjoy it knowing that I was missing out on the large army sizes and unjerky graphics that my friends had.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-01-11 08:44am

They probably will change as little as possible in the units regard so as not to alienate the legions of fans of the original. From my old Medieval II thread, my wishes-

I think only 3 (since we know from Rome that they're willing to speculate, hence Seleucid Silver Shield Legionaries), 5, and 2 are likely additions.

So, my wishlist- this is aside from the obvious continued graphical improvements.

1. Improved unit sizes. Even if you cranked up the unit size to huge on Rome, a full stack army was still, depending on the historical time period, far smaller than real-life legions. Make the options big enough so that you can emulate the amounts of men that took place in typical battles exactly rather than being a maybe faithful, maybe not representation.

2. Retain the family tree from Rome: Total War. It works perfectly for the Kings, Sultans and Emperors of the time period.

3. Improve the Roman Empire's (Eastern) unit options in the late game. You had very few options in the late game as the Byzantine Greeks because of the historical of Byzantine's decline by the "Late" Age or whatever it was called (I can't remember). This is perfectly fine if you're starting a game in the "Late" Age, but if you're playing a full game from 1087 all the way to 1453, then there is an overwhelming liklihood that decline of Constantinople in the face of the Ottoman Turks (and the sacking of Constantinople by Crusaders, for that matter) simply will not happen. It sucked in Medieval having to stick with obsolete Kataphraktoi and similar units when everyone else gets some improved options.

I don't care- speculate!

4. Add some blood splatter and other gory effects to the battles. Make it look like a scene out of Braveheart or something. The addition of wounded men crawling around after the fighting between two units is over would be awesome.

5. Bring back the rousing speeches from the original Rome. They really cheaped out on BI by not giving you the same quality of speeches that depended on the enemy you were fighting and the traits of the general.

6. Improve marching speeds to be more in line with what troops were actually capable of. It shouldn't take several years to get from one city to another.

Anyone got some other ideas?

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-01-11 08:50am

For those who have only played Rome and would like to know the potential units at their command early:

Link

I'm sure they'll change a few units around though.

One thing I'm hoping for is for each Western faction's Feudal, Chivalric and Gothic Knights to look different. Or, for units of Knights to be mixed in varieties of armor of the relevant period.

And they should dispense with the few gunpowder units (except for artillery, of course)- the technology wasn't mature enough for them to be a replacement for bows, crossbows and arbalests and I found them useless in the last game.

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2006-01-11 08:58am

On the flipside of realistic unit sizes you must remember that a legion 60 centuries of 80 men or 10 cohorts of 480 men, plus attachments of cavallry and auxilla. How do you protary this organization? 60 flexible tactical units, or 6 units without the distinguishing flexibility of the legions? Splittable units? In real life there would subordinates - centurions and tribunes you could trust. That's for Romans anyways; medieval soldiers would generally not be as well organized but certainly they had something - many were professionals after all.

Edited - 10 cohorts in a Imperial legion, not 6. Also not noted is that First Cohorts have 960 men.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-01-11 10:14am

Vympel wrote:2. Retain the family tree from Rome: Total War. It works perfectly for the Kings, Sultans and Emperors of the time period.

Personally, I would like that they bring back something alike Medival's system - especialy Princesses being an actual unit to be used for your nefarious political schemes. However some additions from Rome would come in handy. One of those is the family tree screen. Unlike Rome however, you should be rather bound in your choice of sucsessors since the entire concept of adopted sons being equal to natural ones has fallen out of favor (or there should be family-wide loyality penalties if you do things that go against custom). Toning down the negative trait gaining would also be nice (in Rome, by the time they get older, almost all generals aquire at least some crippleing negative traits and a lot are totaly ruined by near-random negative ones). Trait generation should also be tied to genetics somewhat stronger then in Rome, but less then in original Medival.

Gaining land thru marriage and skillful, erm, retireing, of key family members of a opposing court should give you more of a chance for gaining land (for this done almost right see Crusader Kings).

3. Improve the Roman Empire's (Eastern) unit options in the late game. You had very few options in the late game as the Byzantine Greeks because of the historical of Byzantine's decline by the "Late" Age or whatever it was called (I can't remember). This is perfectly fine if you're starting a game in the "Late" Age, but if you're playing a full game from 1087 all the way to 1453, then there is an overwhelming liklihood that decline of Constantinople in the face of the Ottoman Turks (and the sacking of Constantinople by Crusaders, for that matter) simply will not happen. It sucked in Medieval having to stick with obsolete Kataphraktoi and similar units when everyone else gets some improved options.

I don't care- speculate!

Agreed. Overall balancing of units should happen, however more by addition of units to certain Kingdoms then by removing. One of the good examples is the above, another would be the total lack of even decent infantry for Russia (except Druzina Cavalry which can dismount into Feudal Knights, but even then they are obsoleted - can not be built any more - by mid game, plus since they are dual use they are far more expensive then usual) which is painful if you manage to expand beyond adverseries with similar cavalry heavy armies. Real armies adapt at least somewhat to such situations and would never have such large gaps in unit capabilities.

4. Add some blood splatter and other gory effects to the battles. Make it look like a scene out of Braveheart or something. The addition of wounded men crawling around after the fighting between two units is over would be awesome.

Too much graphicly expensive for now

5. Bring back the rousing speeches from the original Rome. They really cheaped out on BI by not giving you the same quality of speeches that depended on the enemy you were fighting and the traits of the general.

Agreed!

6. Improve marching speeds to be more in line with what troops were actually capable of. It shouldn't take several years to get from one city to another.

Moving to season/turn should be enough while maintaining current marching speed.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-11 10:34am

Nitpick

mmar wrote:
4. Add some blood splatter and other gory effects to the battles. Make it look like a scene out of Braveheart or something. The addition of wounded men crawling around after the fighting between two units is over would be awesome.
Too much graphicly expensive for now

Not really, you can easily create small prescripted animations, and if its after the fighting, the graphics card can have a little break running those low detail animations.

LongVin · Post by **LongVin** » 2006-01-11 12:24pm

Truly a glorious day for all gamers.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-01-11 01:03pm

Ace Pace wrote:Nitpick

mmar wrote:
4. Add some blood splatter and other gory effects to the battles. Make it look like a scene out of Braveheart or something. The addition of wounded men crawling around after the fighting between two units is over would be awesome.
Too much graphicly expensive for now
Not really, you can easily create small prescripted animations, and if its after the fighting, the graphics card can have a little break running those low detail animations.

Its the explanations developers used in their FAQ where a similar question was asked about Rome. I think it has more to do with them wanting to have relativly modest requirements then top-of-the-line computers not being able to handle it. I don't think that will change unless Medival II is planned to come out something stupid in the future, like late 2008 or later.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-01-11 01:04pm

The piles of dead legionares aren't good enough, you guys need the ground to be red too?

Also, that might increase their ESRB rating...

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-01-11 08:56pm

I think the ESRB rating is the main reason. Adding some blood splatter wouldn't be taxing at all. Myth had plenty of it way back in '98 (IIRC), after all.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-01-12 12:47am

Good old Myth. Man that series ruled ...... what I loved most about it was keeping your individual men alive so they became veterans. Hella fun to have the same men you started with (since they all had individual names) by the end of the game.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2006-01-12 12:58am

Vympel wrote:Good old Myth. Man that series ruled ...... what I loved most about it was keeping your individual men alive so they became veterans. Hella fun to have the same men you started with (since they all had individual names) by the end of the game.

I liked the es'ploding zombies...

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2006-01-12 09:44am

I just jumped with joy, literally.

Christ I'm such a nerd.