Total War: Shogun 2 and the lessons 2k should learn from The Creative Assembly

[Teodosio]

In the end the reason I still have so much faith for Civ 5 and I groan when I start up a campaign for TW is because Civ 5 is incredibly moddable.

If there is one design decision we really have to commend Jon Shafer on, its that Civ can be fixed easily, by both the team and by the fans. Say what you will about how broken Civ 5 is, the fact is that in a year, things will most likely be sorted out.


On the other hand, Empire is still a buggy broken permafried mess with no hope of salvation.

Take that for what its worth.

It is worth a lot, I agree 200%!

 

[Kamamura]

I wouldn't say broken AI is 'easily fixed'. Building a solid AI is incredibly difficult task, the more complex the game rules are.

 

[Maniacal]

Speaking of the AI, .Mitch. at TWC has been modding the demo to try and unlock what he can, including the AI. The AI in the demo is not the final AI and apparently when fully unlocked and set up appears to be decent. Only the full game will truly show how good it is (or isn't), but its actually promising this time.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=429849

 

[Kamamura]

Yea, I have heard people saying this every time from RTW on. I would bet the AI will be as crappy as ever - expecially the Campaign AI. It was always "promising this time" - and always will be. The process is called "wishful thinking".

 

[EmpireOfCats]

My problem with Civ is that they are clearly choosing the path of the "lets make it easy to attract more players".

This. When everything is said and done, months after release, this is the reason why I still can't warm to Civ V the way I burn for Civ IV: It's been dumbed down. If I want dumbed down, I'll watch TV (with the exception of Fringe, which I note has been moved to the Friday death slot).

Unfortunately, this seems to be the entertainment trend. The most telling thing I read in the run-up to the Oscars was that studios were luke-warm about "Inception" because it was considered "too intelligent" (for example http://www.hollywood.com/news/MindFood_Is_Inception_Too_Smart_For_Audiences/7005876). So I guess the next step will be computer games in 3D.

Ask me again why I hardly ever go see films anymore.

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

This. When everything is said and done, months after release, this is the reason why I still can't warm to Civ V the way I burn for Civ IV: It's been dumbed down. If I want dumbed down, I'll watch TV (with the exception of Fringe, which I note has been moved to the Friday death slot).

Unfortunately, this seems to be the entertainment trend. The most telling thing I read in the run-up to the Oscars was that studios were luke-warm about "Inception" because it was considered "too intelligent" (for example http://www.hollywood.com/news/MindFood_Is_Inception_Too_Smart_For_Audiences/7005876). So I guess the next step will be computer games in 3D.

Ask me again why I hardly ever go see films anymore.

Yeah, good shows always end up dead and bad shows live for ever. The exceptions being Chuck, Castle, and House. What's worse is many companies (I'm looking at you Fox) cancel shows because they're afraid they'll never take off, but won't sell the rights because they're afraid they'll take of. Um... What? Logic fail.

Yea, I have heard people saying this every time from RTW on. I would bet the AI will be as crappy as ever - expecially the Campaign AI. It was always "promising this time" - and always will be. The process is called "wishful thinking".

Yea but this time we actually get to play around with parts of the AI before release. It has issues (*cough*notclimbingladders*cough*) but it looks halfway decent and I'm sure the more game breaking issues (Such as not being able to conduct the offense on a siege at all) will be fixed. (Heck it even knows what to do but it is incapable of giving the order to actually climb the walls)

Here we go, the AI in action:http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=429849

 

[kiwitt]

MTW is one of my all time favourites.

Me too !!!

I also have every edition. R:TW was the big downer for me. I expected it to get better with M2:TW and it didn't ....

 

[Becephalus]

Personally I think CA is a bunch of crap and I loved STW and MTW, but RTW and MTW2 were both in need of huge patching, most of which never occurred, and ETW was barely worth playing. The AI was terrible.

A few mod projects really made RTW a lot of fun, but the vanilla was just stupid. Sounds just like 2k to me, what would they learn?

 

[Nekator]

These were exactly my thoughts when i played the Shogun 2 Demo. They improved the strengths of the game and made it atmospheric. Just the opposite of which was done with Civ V (or Dragon Age 2 for that matter).

 

[Fabiano79]

These were exactly my thoughts when i played the Shogun 2 Demo. They improved the strengths of the game and made it atmospheric. Just the opposite of which was done with Civ V (or Dragon Age 2 for that matter).

Yep, I tried the DA 2 demo and damn...Im so disappointed.

I loved the first DA, it was like playing Baldurs Gate with a 2010 graphics.

DA 2 looks and feels like a console action RPG.

 

[Ciek]

I play Total War games if I want a great cinematic battle experience, with great leaders shouting to their troops, Huge sieges, seeing my weapons of mass destruction i.e. siege engines of whichever game in the series you're talking about. I play Civ or Age of Empires for actual tactical and economic build-up. Total War for me has never been about being tactically minded, It's been for the great cinematic quality that just plain doesn't exist in any incarnation of Civ.

Side-Note: You can get some insane kill-to-death ratios if you know how to manipulate the AI in Rome: Total War or Barbarian Invasion, especially in city-siege situations. Also my favorite Total War campaigns have been R:TW Barbarian Invasion, MIITW: Kingdoms Campaigns Britannia and Teutonic.