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[mainiac]

The game's AI is being programmed according to Sun Tzu's Art of War. As one of the core foundations for this kind of mix of melee and ranged warfare, Sun Tzu is an obvious starting point, but what was particularly revealing is how much Sun Tzu talks like a programmer. If, for example, you outnumber the enemy more than five-to-one, Sun Tzu recommends an enveloping move. If you outnumber the enemy two-to-one, he prefers a direct engagement.

I'm more concerned about the AI walking into really obvious traps.  RTW had better AI then any that followed, but it was still fell for really obvious traps (please, walk right here into the center of my C shaped formation!).  And roman infantry tactics are much more AI friendly then the Art of War.  After all, romans won quite a few battles with generals who were complete incompetents.

[warhammer651]

Yeah, hopefully now the AI is smart enough to keep alliances and try some tactics.

Or at least when betraying someone, they should actually launch a massive invasion as a declaration of war instead of, you know, send 1 row boat to blockade a port or something similarly stupid. It's foolish to hope for this seeing as the developers seem unwilling to make the campaign A.I challenging at all, but I'd like a more complex system to rebellions and the loyalty system : If your peasantry revolts, they might encourage neighbouring regions to revolt, and if nobles/generals that are malcontent with your rule, might actually form a new faction and claim independence/become a vassal state to a neighbouring enemy!

As I recall, Rome: Barbarian invasion did exactly this.

[Mephansteras]

I'm looking forward to this. Shogun was always my favorite Total War game (never tried Empire, the time period doesn't interest me). Sounds like they'll be adding in a lot of clan politics to this one, so that could be really cool.

[umiman]

Huzzah! They're putting pre-battle speeches back in!

And also hero units.

[Heron TSG]

Huzzah! They're putting pre-battle speeches back in!

They took those out in Empire/Napoleon? Those were some of my favorite parts!

[KaelGotDwarves]

Huzzah! They're putting pre-battle speeches back in!

And also hero units.

I don't know how I'll feel this time around about one heroic samurai holding back the entire goddamn enemy army on the bridge, just because he's that epic of a badass.

[umiman]

Huzzah! They're putting pre-battle speeches back in!

They took those out in Empire/Napoleon? Those were some of my favorite parts!

Yeah they did. Such a dick move!

Kael: You've got something against badassery in games?

[Nolor]

Huzzah! They're putting pre-battle speeches back in!

The trait-specific speech bits were great, especially the incompetent ones. Lack of pre-battle speeches in Empire was what made me say, "Yeah, this doesn't appeal to me."

[KaelGotDwarves]

Kael: You've got something against badassery in games?

Well, launching into bridge/sieges/routs to farm a legendary swordsman and then have him hold off an entire army at a bridge seems a little extreme in a game that prides itself on somewhat realistic strategery.

But then again there are legendary geisha that kill entire armies so...

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, hopefully now the AI is smart enough to keep alliances and try some tactics.

Or at least when betraying someone, they should actually launch a massive invasion as a declaration of war instead of, you know, send 1 row boat to blockade a port or something similarly stupid. It's foolish to hope for this seeing as the developers seem unwilling to make the campaign A.I challenging at all, but I'd like a more complex system to rebellions and the loyalty system : If your peasantry revolts, they might encourage neighbouring regions to revolt, and if nobles/generals that are malcontent with your rule, might actually form a new faction and claim independence/become a vassal state to a neighbouring enemy!

As I recall, Rome: Barbarian invasion did exactly this.

Medieval 2: Total War had generals that would revolt/join enemy factions.  They never formed their own factions though.  If they didn't join the enemy they'd become above-average bandits.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

Wow, never expected Shogun: TW 2... I just bought and started playing Medieval: TW 2 after a long break from Rome: TW.

[umiman]

Kael: You've got something against badassery in games?

Well, launching into bridge/sieges/routs to farm a legendary swordsman and then have him hold off an entire army at a bridge seems a little extreme in a game that prides itself on somewhat realistic strategery.

But then again there are legendary geisha that kill entire armies so...

Aww... psh. If the total war was really about realistic stratedegeberry, every unit would be falling sick.... wheels wouldn't fit other wagons and cannons.... your own units would kill each other very often... you could never invade Russia as you'd run out of supplies... it'll take weeks to get an order across provinces... you can't look around the battlefield and are only limited by the first person view of the general.

Real life sucks. Bring on the badassery I say! I want dragon riding ninja wizards with laser eye bears catapulting into Mt. Doom. In Japan. Yes.... okay maybe not so much.

[KaelGotDwarves]

I actually wouldn't mind a game with proper supply chains and delayed orders as they traveled, but then again EU3 only goes so far and my perfect game hasn't been made yet. Also, I play dwarf fortress

What they need to do is have unit combat experience play more of a role than simply spamming new well-trained units near the front lines. TOtal War: Empire had the nice option to name different regiments which aided immersion, but it was always better to spam new units and keep the battle hardened ones on defense.

That's what I hated about Empire, it was too easy to train new troops in a province and there was very low strategy on the map. The AI was functionally retarded on the campaign map and in battles.

Although I somewhat want to see ninjas appearing out of thick grass and trees on the battlefield and routing groups of peasants.

[janekk]

First gameplay video!

[Fikes]

I am a little disappointed with that video. They put way too much focus on the graphics and then said "Don't judge us too harshly for how it looks".

They also still haven't created a better system for moving groups of units. I hated the fact that you select a c-shape of infantry and tell them to move they always default back into a single line. Ground Control had so much better of a system.

I also hope they bring back regions, rather than move points. It drives me crazy to try and keep my diplomat exploring.

I did buy Empire and had a fair amount of fun with it. I got it when you could also get Rome for free on Steam. I figured I pirated and played RTW and M2TW enough to justify buying their new game.