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[Mech#4]

I look forward to those units being added to the Skaven. Having Jezzails will be a lot of fun for dealing with enemies from a distance.


I have found this comment from Grace_CA on Reddit, so tempering some excitement would seem prudent.
"Hi guys – I have to say that some of these VO lines and units were a surprise to me as well… To be honest, our next Lords Pack isn’t due out until 2019 for a start, so while I appreciate the excitement you might want to hang onto it (although our next Campaign Pack will be out this year although not until later in the year).

In terms of the units, it seems as though we’ve had VO lines recorded for every unit we’ve briefly mentioned thinking about doing. With audio, once you’ve got someone in, it makes sense to do as much as possible in one go, so a lot of units that we’ve thought about doing have been recorded in case. All of those have been bundled together and that’s why there may be lines for units which we currently have no plans to do (but that doesn’t mean it’ll never happen).

Hope that makes sense – hate to be a buzzkill, but figured honesty is the best policy here!"

[Teneb]

Yeah, some modders were talking about the same thing: CA probably was saving costs by recording a bunch of lines at once. There are a few unused ones for cut High Elf RoRs. Still, it gives us an idea of what will eventually come as far as the base units go.

[umiman]

At least they told us, better than just praying for some DLC and never knowing when it'll drop.

[sambojin]

It makes me wonder if I'll ever really have to buy another Total War. I mean, the RoTK period in China is my jam, but I'm still not nearly as excited for an entire new game as I am for updates to TW: Warhammer, and I haven't really even played it much yet.

[umiman]

CA posted this in response to people wondering why DLC takes so long: https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/8xp4dq/why_the_extra_wait_for_new_dlc/

Back in May 2016 when we first launched Warhammer 1 we were treading on some very new and exciting ground for the Total War series. Which if I'm honest was also a little scary not knowing how our passionate fans would take to us dipping our toes into a fantasy setting and trying a few new things that would change up the game as we knew it whilst still trying to remain true to our roots of a deep empire strategy builder with real-time battles.

A few months on and we had received a really positive reception regarding the game’s core design pillar of asymmetric design between our core races. This really started to breed excitement and confidence across the team in our work and particularly in me to keep pushing the DLC design in this direction with the new content team.

Call of the Beastmen marked the games first major DLC drop and gave us a chance to add something new an exciting to experience. I knew early on that beyond the characters and units of the race the pack needed something a little extra to set it apart from what now seems like our very conservative initial races, so mini campaign aside which we have since changed our approach on, the addition of making the Beastmen vanguard deploy en masse as a whole army really changed things up for us. This small but simple inclusion was quite radical at the time for Total War and seems very little now but it set the tone for what we would deliver in the future and allow us to become more experimental and daring in our designs (see Tomb Kings where money was removed from recruiting units). Of course we added much more than that, with hidden encampments, some rather nifty Minotaur rolling attack animations, the Full Moon mechanic and a novel and thematic way to conclude the campaign with the Fall of a Man final battle.

With each subsequent DLC we looked at new ways of adding even more, whether that be through new campaign mechanics like Amber, or Chivalry, the addition of new Legendary Lords with unique faction effects, skills and starting locations, or more complete army rosters with added lores of magic. All the while addressing any bugs and balancing issues. Doing this all had an effect on the time in which it took to create each new pack, whether it be the art time to create the environments and characters, audio to voice them or the design and code to make all the new content function. But in general each project was getting bigger in size, requiring more members of staff to be involved and taking more time to create and test before it was ready for release.

Then came Norsca, the finale of Warhammer 1 and the Foundation update. This was to be the opportunity to create a fitting end to the first game, up the ante for what was to come in Warhammer 2 and go back and spruce up a few of the old cast, in particular Chaos. With Norsca being made at the same time as Warhammer 2 but still using the Warhammer 1 code base, it caused us a whole host of issues when trying to merge them which we have explained at great depth in past blogs and it certainly put us back when first embarking on new content, but it is by no means the reason why our newer DLCs are now taking longer to create.

One of the main contributors in the added time is the addition of Mortal Empires. Having in essence a second grand campaign with 40+ starting characters alongside the Vortex campaign’s 16 simply takes longer for us as a team to build a second startpos, add all the new content and mechanics whilst also doing the same in the Vortex, with its feature set, extras and improvements over Warhammer 1. Each of these massive campaigns certainly has its own unique nuances when being updated and built, whether that be through the geography of the map, available characters and races or missions and events that unfold. We work closely with Games Workshop on all of these plans to ensure they stay true and faithful to the lore, and of course everything is tested and balanced before we can release.

Likewise with the added design depth and flavour of the new campaign and battle mechanics introduced by the second game, all of this adds on that bit of extra time. Things like Army abilities and Rites simply didn't exist in the first game, but they are now staples of what is required now in the current game. The same can be said of the Vortex ritual movies in the campaign and the bold new race mechanics which are diverse across all races and now even stretch to the new individual Lords with the release of the Queen and the Crone.

As a team we want to keep pushing the envelope on design and quality, whilst also bringing you new fresh experiences, but this does come at a cost, and one of time to design and implement. Sure we could do less new things and keep it more like the first game in terms of scope, to keep things coming out at a slightly quicker rate but I think we would be doing you, the lore and ourselves a major disservice.

We also think about user reviews on Warhammer 1 which do complain about the amount of DLC. Obviously we couldn’t add new content to the game without DLC, but we think getting the balance right is important.

Hence this is why we take that bit longer now to get things right, unique and packed full of content. Because believe you me as a gamer myself I know what it feels like to want to get your hands on something new that you have such a passionate interest in and so nothing makes me happier than to get each new DLC released and into your hands as quickly as possible so you can play it for hours on end.

I hope this shows where we as a team have come from with your help and input, how things have changed from game 1 to 2 and where we are heading next in bringing you further deep and meaningful content. Warhammer Fantasy Battles offers so many amazing characters, stories and places, I feel like we have still only scratched the surface in what we can do technically but also the adventures and experiences we can offer you in leading your favourite characters and races.

Rich

[Teneb]

Despite that, you can still see some people expressing their displeasure in that thread, mostly skaven and lizardmen players.

Anyway, I hope the campaign pack is for Araby instead of Dogs of War, because only the colonies are in the Vortex map and it would be kind of awkward if that was the case. I do know some people with only TWW2

[Tack]

Sartosa suddenly becomes a major player.


Also, not sure if i’m alone in being fairly lukewarm about rites.

[Levi]

Diplomacy is funny.  I'm playing Tyrian of the High Elves.

>Cult of Pleasure:  Boo WAR!
>Har Ganeth:  Boo, WAR!
>Clan Rictus:  Squeek, WAR!
*Tyrian proceeds to wipe out half of CuP.*
> Cult of pleasure:  Peace, please?
*Tyrian kills one stack of ratmen*
>Clan Rictus:  Squeek, peace?
*Tyrian lays siege to one city of Har Ganeth.
>Har Ganeth:  Peace?


Edit:  Also I've got a question.  I've been playing for a while and Archaon still hasn't shown up in my game(Mortal Empires).  Does he not show up until the last chaos stack has been defeated or something? 

[Burnt Pies]

Archie showing up is dependent entirely on how big your empire is. Last I played, it was 55 total towns to convince him to show up. This is different to how it worked in TWW1, where he'd show up regardless after a set amount of time.

[Levi]

Archie showing up is dependent entirely on how big your empire is. Last I played, it was 55 total towns to convince him to show up. This is different to how it worked in TWW1, where he'd show up regardless after a set amount of time.

Ahhhh, okay thanks!  Yeah that is a lot different than I was expecting. 

[Teneb]

I am mostly sure you also need to wipe the previous Chaos wave for the next to arrive.

[Teneb]

In Rome 2 news, the Ancestral Update is available as a beta.

Listing it from the video: It makes the game prettier, adds the hide foliage option, adds family trees, reworks agents, supposedly improves the ai, adds more skills to generals, "and more...".

EDIT: Full notes, I think

[scriver]

Welp, time to go full Carthaginian again I guess!

[Hanslanda]

Time to be surprise Iceni again. I like to make big armies in Britain, then sail to Egypt and stuff, to start EXTREME long range wars.

[Mech#4]

Time to be surprise Iceni again. I like to make big armies in Britain, then sail to Egypt and stuff, to start EXTREME long range wars.

Have you, by chance, read the "A Scotsmen in Egypt" let's play?