Anyone still playing Medieval II?

*le necro*

I still play Medieval 2, I modded the game to make the Mongols and Timurids come much earlier as it is too easy otherwise (I play VH/VH always). Playing as the Turks or Egyptians when the Mongols come in 1180 and the Timurids come in around 1300 is quite challenging.

I just got the game for Christmas on the App Store

The problem though is that it takes lots of time to unlock new factions

You can follow this guide on twcenter.net to quick unlock all the factions. It's been awhile, but as I recall it worked for me the last time I tried it.

Have for getting all medieval on Europe; it's a great game. I've played it as recently as last summer.

Quintillus said:

You can follow this guide on twcenter.net to quick unlock all the factions. It's been awhile, but as I recall it worked for me the last time I tried it.

Have for getting all medieval on Europe; it's a great game. I've played it as recently as last summer.

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Thanks for the tip ! Although problem is that I already tried it and it won't let me edit the file for some reason...

Guess I'll play the play the game the way it was made to be

IIRC knocking a faction out of the game unlocks them for play in a new campaign (except Mongols, Timurids, Papal States ofc).

M2TW is the best of the series and even though I'm terrible at it, I absolutely love it. The global politics are the best of the series with how all the Catholic countries are connected by the Pope and all the less than legitimate tactics used to secure favor from the Papacy really give the game an authentic feel.

CELTICEMPIRE said:

M2TW is the best of the series and even though I'm terrible at it, I absolutely love it. The global politics are the best of the series with how all the Catholic countries are connected by the Pope and all the less than legitimate tactics used to secure favor from the Papacy really give the game an authentic feel.

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Ha, as I play on VH/VH only the diplomacy is non-functional. Catholic factions add an extra layer of challenge as the Pope doesn't care at all when other Catholics attack you, but you will be excommunicated for defending yourself.

It is always fun when I get to march on Rome and kill the Pope, though the fact that you can't eject the Papal states from the game is annoying.

The diplomacy is flawed at higher at campaign difficulties. There's an inbuilt malus to diplomatic relations related to each territory you take. Can't remember in which file that is. Though diplomacy is much better in Med 2 to manipulate if you know what you are doing. It helps you get feed back in regards to what the ai thinks in the screen. Which is an enourmous improvement over Rome 1 which didn't give you any feedback. That game is very schizoid in relation to diplomacy ( though better when using the Alexander.exe over Rome.exe or BI.exe especially in mods as that is very similar to what they programmed in Med 2/Kingdoms.

The real way to improve diplomacy in Med2 is to run a hotseat campaign with real people. Something I must try myself and there are quite a few hotseat campaigns running on twcenter if you have alook there. Then this game really will shine. Though with the later games the diplomacy is very much improved with alliances with the ai being very strong here Rome 2 especially shines. But in the later games they dropped the hotseat function.

gimley_gunner said:

The diplomacy is flawed at higher at campaign difficulties.

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I don't consider it flawed, I need everyone to be at war with me all the time or it isn't challenging.

I may or may not do one of those hotseats actually. Seems like a big time investment, and also there's the matter of me not having the original Medieval 2 installed right now (got the EB2 mod instead, which is much better).

EB2 is mod foldered so it uses its own folder for the mod files without messing with the original Med 2 files.

To launch mods on Steam
Right click on Med 2 in your Steam Library go to prpeties and click on Set Launch Options

--features.mod=mods/place name of mod here

so EB2 is
--features.mod=mods/EBII

So you just need to replace when required. if using the disc version just use the relevant shorcut from med 2 or Kingdoms.exe to luanch.

I haven't got EB2 installed at the moment so I don't know if they have included the required settings for hotseat functionality. from the get go.
Otherwise look at this link for adding it.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?668118-Hot-to-unlock-hotseat-in-medieval-2-total-war-gold-edition-(-steam-version)

Set your limits and rules for the campaign and you are away. Yes less people playing does make it easier to manage but people have run campaigns with all factions played by humans. Someone drops out and they find a replacement.

For Eb2 you could easily have a two player hotseat Carthage v Rome or three player Sauromatae, Pahlava and Saka Rauka for a "way of the horse" co op campaign for instance.

For vannila The Kingdoms Britania campaign is Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Norway and England.

If you really want to make Med 2 hard just use auto resolve and at VH that will be quite vicious atleast giving the ai a chance. But on the battle field the human can easily out match the ai most times.

What I wish they'd add is online multiplayer with more than 2 players. Two of my friends and I are into Total War, and the online multiplayer saves time over co-op which really adds up, but we can't have a game with all three of us in it since AFAIK even as of Rome II they don't allow 3 players online. Maybe Attila does? I'm not really interested in Warhammer as I never played those games.

Medieval II is still a favorite, the timeframe is great, and the game's held up well with time all said. For the diplomacy/factions and non-splintered Rome alone I don't think I could go back to Rome I after having played Rome II, but Medieval II is still a good time. I'd be curious to see what they'd put into a Medieval III - and it wouldn't surprise me if that were the next game in the series.

Edit: Nope, looks like Attila doesn't have it. This is probably the one feature that could make the next historical Total War game an first-patch buy for my friends and I (because let's be honest, Total War always needs a patch or two), rather than a "this will have a 75% sale in a couple years and we still have 12 factions we haven't played in Rome II" buy.

Quintillus said:

What I wish they'd add is online multiplayer with more than 2 players. Two of my friends and I are into Total War, and the online multiplayer saves time over co-op which really adds up, but we can't have a game with all three of us in it since AFAIK even as of Rome II they don't allow 3 players online. Maybe Attila does? I'm not really interested in Warhammer as I never played those games.

Medieval II is still a favorite, the timeframe is great, and the game's held up well with time all said. For the diplomacy/factions and non-splintered Rome alone I don't think I could go back to Rome I after having played Rome II, but Medieval II is still a good time. I'd be curious to see what they'd put into a Medieval III - and it wouldn't surprise me if that were the next game in the series.

Edit: Nope, looks like Attila doesn't have it. This is probably the one feature that could make the next historical Total War game an first-patch buy for my friends and I (because let's be honest, Total War always needs a patch or two), rather than a "this will have a 75% sale in a couple years and we still have 12 factions we haven't played in Rome II" buy.

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I honestly think Medieval 2 was one of the best in the series so far. If they made a Medieval 3 with better graphics, better timeframe ( 2 years per turn was just too much) and a little more historical accuracy, it would be amaying

I think a lot of us are hoping for a M3TW. It's got to be on the horizon... way too much money being left on the table if they don't do it. I just hope they do it well.

My dream's for Renaissance: Total War. Fills the gap between M2 and Empire; play as one of dozens of factions from the Aztecs to Astrakhan, slowly transition from the old ways to gunpowder armies, battle at Lepanto, Nördlingen, Pavia, Tunis, Malta, Tenochtitlan, or Chaldiran. Pike blocks, cuirassiers, galleys, gendarmes, musketeers, Cossacks, hussars...there's so much you could do with it.

There's certainly an audience. A lot of times, Medieval II is still on the Top 100 Played Games (at that specific point in time) on Steam, and it's been out for nearly 10 years, and a high percentage of its early sales would've been disc-based copies.

Renaissance would be interesting, and could be a nice new-timeframe entry into the series. My guess though, is that they'll go Medieval III, and then perhaps a Renaissance expansion/standalone expansion, a la Empire --> Napoleon, or Rome II --> Attila. They've done two non-sequels in a row now (if you count Attila as distinct), so revisiting a previous entry seems likely, and Medieval II is the obvious choice to make a sequel of due to both its popularity and age. After that, Empire's enough newer that they'd have a nice time slot for a new entry before revisiting it.

Yea I agree that Rennaisance would be interesting, but I personally have always prefered sword combat instead of gunpowder combat. I didn`t even play Empire and Napoleon Totol war. There`s nothing like using your heavy infantry to tie down an enemy unit and then charging from the back with your heavy cav

Leonidas34 said:

Yea I agree that Rennaisance would be interesting, but I personally have always prefered sword combat instead of gunpowder combat. I didn`t even play Empire and Napoleon Totol war. There`s nothing like using your heavy infantry to tie down an enemy unit and then charging from the back with your heavy cav

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The beauty of the Renaissance in Total War is that, as long as you end it before the mid-17th century, it's a balance of melee and gunpowder warfare, and arquebusiers would be just another unit instead of the dominant force on the battlefield.

I would love a Pike & Shot Total War game. One of my favorite mods for Rome Total War was "With Fire and Sword" set during the 17th century in Eastern Europe. Disciplined blocks of pikemen and musketeers facing off against massed charged by Winged Hussars.