THIS IS IT - The Reckoning of Total War and the Future of CA

[@Jaeger_89]

Total War is suffering from the same problem most AAA franchises do: the constant change into a frozen, canned, ready-to-eat and bland product, within a very beautiful and shiny package. And ofc, expensive...

[@sauromatae9728]

Total war is not even a good product. It is objectively worse with every new game. Worse models, worse textures, worse animations, worse diversity

[@quisshmoov6313]

It's just CA at this point. Paradox went through a similar situation and now they make bundles and cheaper sales. Also they bugfix and release solid dlc. Civilization has always been affordable and the best.

[@BrandonGiordano]

It's an industry problem. That's why people were hating Larian for making Baldur's Gate 3 "too good"

[@Lekirius]

​@@BrandonGiordanointeresting. Tell me more about it pls.

[@Blu-el3je]

yep! Larian showing genuine passion for their gamers and product vs. the standard AAA approach. CA is a one trick trick pony. They are shooting their pony by doing this @@BrandonGiordano

[@rafaelrmaier]

To me, CA's biggest mistake was moving to yearly releases. It's like, instead of using their surplus money to make better, bigger games, they just turned on the factory of half-assed products

[@robertsteiner4696]

Yep, and they fail to see the reason they were successful in the first place was BECAUSE of the longer dev cycles making more complete games. Now we have WH 3, a complete and total nonsensical mess of a game that costs more than before for less content, and them "accidentally" ruining mod compatability for older games that make them better than the slop they push out now. It's all by design. Don't let them and the CA fanboys gaslight you into thinking otherwise.

[@BMC2]

Quality > quantity But someone at CA didn't agree and only looked at games as a thing you release yearly like call of duty

[@NoirMorter]

An RTS Ubisoft.

[@denniswiggins3816]

It's almost like EA has taken them over. Kind of like Madden has minor changes and a roster update and charges you for a new game. They often take out features and then add them back claiming its a new selling point in the next edition.

[@fobo3361]

A tale as old as time, cod, sports games, ubisoft, when will they learn

[@JHorsti]

This Hyenas shooter has got to be the most cringe inducing thing I have seen today. It's like the design team purposefully tried to create the most generic, pandering and 'quirky' character design as possible. What a soulless piece of corporate garbage CA has become.

[@mr.cuddlesworth3144]

And to think this is what will "lead them to the light". I blame SEGA.

[@Booklat1]

i can't see someone drop more interesting/better looking similar games to play hyenas tbh

[@geoffwitt4227]

I think they hired a woke team to attract girls and LGBTQ+ players. We should boycott and bomb this one.

[@Alastorm8]

Imagine making a game that combines the concept of Lawbreakers with the cringeworthiness of Battleborn and thinking it will be financially viable. If i was the CEO of CA I would be purging whoever greenlit this project.

[@the11382]

@@Alastorm8 Yeah, do they really expect to compete in an already saturated market?

[@beretman27]

Fall of the Samurai made me so excited for a potential 19th century Europe. But it never came. Imagine Victoria 3 with actual battles! That would be amazing.

[@AndysTake]

The dream lives on.

[@totalwar1793]

Check out the Total FoTS mod

[@brandonzzz9924]

As much as I love Victoria 3 (almost 800 hours worth of love), I don't think anything past Empire: Total War would be a mechanically worthwhile battle experience. Not even considering how to makes war machines balanced, artillery was by far the most important part of warfare in the Victorian age. I've had my fun with a manually controlled arty piece and a single spearman wiping full stacks off the face of the Rome 2 map, but I don't see how Total War battles would work with trench infantry, low tactics battles that took place during the rise of nationalism. Naval battles ported in from Empire with the addition of steam ships that negate wind penalties would be amazing with little additional work, land battles would have to be ahistorical to feel satisfying. I think that CA would make a Victorian age Total War play more like Warhammer than a historical title, and I don't think I would like that. That being said, if modders made a Total War/V3 mod, it would probably be amazing! I wish CA would hire the DeI team as their historical team and make phenomenal games from release, because the modders for this game are top notch, world's best IMO.

[@baird5682]

A start in 1800's and end after WW1

[@cyllananassan9159]

PARADOX ISNT ANY BETTER, THEY dont even spend money on graphics, they still PEDDLING A 2013 GAME, with a subscription!!!!!!!, in 2023.....they are scum too

[@stevenrizzo6221]

I dearly miss how much longer the battles lasted in Rome and Medieval. It allowed you to actually pan in and enjoy the carnage.

[@mikefisher2673]

Had few running battles in those games, had one battle in Rome that opposing army marched off the field and they were attacking too.

[@liofalba]

Tbh, I tried medieval and the battles felt like an absolute slog.

[@stevenrizzo6221]

@@liofalba I can believe that. My point is they are too fast now. Units die too fast, route too quickly, etc.

[@Rango390]

@@stevenrizzo6221I mean I'd like to see how long soldiers would last when they have a dragon come in and wipe out half your unit in the blink of an eye. Warhammer makes since why battles don't last long. I'll agree that we haven't had a good historical title I'd say since napoleon total war

[@Carnakrox]

For me all Total War Games battles are too fast, i never played without a mod that increase battle duration.

[@vulcanjoe8258]

“They can do better, because they have done better” - man that hits right in the soul of any long term TW player.

[@duckheadbob]

Except the devs have said "we don't have the money todo better". And if you aren't a child and dont think they're lying, it kinda pokes a big hole in this line of thinking.

[@buzter8135]

​@@duckheadbob People like you are the reason this franchise will stay on the gutter.

[@sonofthebearking3335]

​@@duckheadbob money isn't the problem when they could do frequent dev diaries and crowd funding. They chose the path of the cryptic, and possibly lazy, [e]AAA [Nasir] company.

[@darkranger116]

@@duckheadbob Yeah, gee, i wonder where all their money is going? Certainly not in the pockets of the investment firms? Surely not. lol.

[@alexstuart7605]

@@darkranger116 Never forget in 1916 Henry ford tried to utilise the obscene 60 million profit of the ford motor company (over $168 billion today) to lower the cost of the product to benefit the consumer, and raise the wages of his employees to benefit the workforce. aaaannnd was then promptly sued by some of his investors ...aaaaannd lost. The judge commenting: "A business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders. The powers of the directors are to be employed for that end. The discretion of directors is to be exercised in the choice of means to attain that end, and does not extend to a change in the end itself, to the reduction of profits, or to the non-distribution of profits among stockholders in order to devote them to other purposes..." (cheers for the quote wikipedia) ...So essentially the precedent has been firmly, and LEGALLY set. All we can hope for is for companies and their investors to have kind hearts, generous souls, and to care about their customers. So yeah.... good luck to us the consumer... ahahahaha (god we're so fkd)

[@PikeEnthusiast]

Had absolutely no clue CA Sophia was listening to playerbase. Good on them for making the game a little more unique from Troy!

[@AndysTake]

Exactly! I hope to see them do so even further, and my faith in them has increased :)

[@benh2678]

If I'm not mistaken, it was them who made the Rise of the Republic dlc, in 2018, which is the best part of Rome II

[@Rudtrack]

I didn't know this either! Tempted to just buy the game just to show that listening to your players pays off

[@nessunolaerziade788]

Yeah it is really a nice thing which i'd love to encourage somehow, however I think that the missing Mesopotamian factions is just impossible to bear, i would love to play the game but at least they should propose a future free dlc that contains them -if they don't have time to include them in the base game.

[@ilof_0]

they seem to care. hop tho see more like this. it gives me hope for total war

[@PattyOflan88]

This truly is the "Year of the Boycott" and im here for it. Consumers are tired of half baked products, shoe horned divisive politics, and being completely ignored or worse insulted whenever we have an issue with a product. Times are real damn hard for a lot of us right now, so its easy to not spend money on a product.....and if youve been participating in any of the other boycotts this year, its 1. Even easier since youve become used to changing your buying habits recently 2. Some of these boycotts are being talked about on an international scale, and we're already seeing some companies squirm, and the little guy is quite ready to see another corpo squirm, cope and seethe.

[@feliksssander1554]

The WarThunder community successfully review bombed and boycotted the developer Gaijin not to long ago, worked very well, turns out once you cut of the cash flow they begin to get anxious.... I really hopes this works, my first game was medieval 2, my standards were set quite high, i enjoyed Rome 2 but it wish it had the med2 mechanics i grew up with. Best of luck!

[@ddjay1363]

Yep. If a company is producing a bad product, fleecing the customer or insulting the customer then don't buy. Bud light lost over $30bn in market cap because of this. Stop giving CA money and then they will sit up and listen.

[@PattyOflan88]

@@ddjay1363 what are you saying you're not super hyped for the hero shooter with drag queens in it *insert insult*!!!!!???

[@ddjay1363]

@@PattyOflan88 Hehehe... err, yeh! ;-)

[@Leo-ok3uj]

It’s time, not for the workers, but for the consumers to rise and break the chains

[@mike990]

I love how in 2023, we are celebrating a Total War game having...wait for it: Diverse and colorful unit banners and cards lol. I guess that's the level we've been reduced to.

[@AndysTake]

It is sad, but... it's a positive improvement from the past 7 years is all I'm saying here, and that it actually is an in-development turn-around which is something you rarely see!

[@Carnakrox]

Pharaoh have a lot o new/improved features: dynamic weather in battle, dynamic fire in battle, the outpost system, the religion system, the civilization collapse system, the battle stance system, the armor durability system.

[@SomalianDuke]

😂😂

[@kashual]

brutal reality of CA

[@simonedagostino9358]

Which btw look exactly like those of Rome II...

[@revere0311]

Just mind blown that the community wants Medieval 3 and they haven’t produced it. After Rome 2, and it’s inevitable success, seemed logical to have MW3

[@brycehoward4139]

We’ll they had two cash cows on the horizon like three kingdoms and before we knew it Warhammer they also had Attila and Brittania which both didn’t sell asl well as they liked it kept users playing then 3Kingdoms and Warhammer sold amazingly and you’ve seen the change after

[@robertsteiner4696]

Let's be real, with CA's current practices....do you *really* think they can pull it off? I for one, don't. They would botch it just like they did 3 Kingdoms and try to make it fantasy and ruin the gameplay loop because of it.

[@revere0311]

@@robertsteiner4696 I get that lol. it took Rome 2 awhile, but the game turned out great. The engine is aged. The games have all looked the same since Attila.

[@TheXNuahs]

Total war Warhammer with a medieval skin? You actually want that? I suppose it would follow the pattern of stripping mechanics and content though... Medieval 3 = Warhammer TW (which is already stripped of Medieval 2 mechanics) minus the magic, fantasy creatures and single unit entities... I can guarantee you that will look awful side by side to medieval 2.

[@isaacsantos6200]

As long as it doesn't end up like Rome 2

[@MrBell-iq3sm]

I wish TW had serious competition on the market. With competition, CA wouldn't be so shameless.

[@AndysTake]

I'd also love to see some competition, if only for the games to hopefully improve one another

[@MrBell-iq3sm]

@@AndysTake There should be a game that works like a Paradox game, but with less of their usual complexity and a real time system, plus the battles of course, instead of a turn base system. This would make the game unique enough to stand out, and it would fix some problems TW has. Armies and fleets couldn't simply make maneuvers only possible because it's their turn to move,

[@davidstansbury9309]

​@MrBell-iq3sm paradox does have theat game. Knights of Sovereign 2. It's a dumbed down version of CK3 campaign with dumbed down RTS battles. It's not a true competitor to Total War yet. Hopefully more competitive options arise. Grand Tactician Civil War is a good small studio option.

[@garrettoliveto7483]

100%

[@GermanOlle]

@@davidstansbury9309You mean Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign. ;)

[@abhinandanbanerjee5471]

At this point, as a historical fan, I kind of want CA to die before it gets to make a Medieval 3 which they will inevitably turn into another shite show.

[@TomLokiFab]

Hahaha couldn't agree more. I would have stig to saga games while the big teams are working on wh3 with the announcement that after wh3, a medieval 3 is next or an Empire 2

[@owenlindkvist5355]

Don't need to be a historical fan for that. As a fan of both avenues, it doesn't feel like CA anymore

[@PopularesVox]

I don't think you do really, and even if genuine in that statement, reflect how you would play past Total War games without CA and a disc. We are trapped in this mad world, of handing over money for a product that cannot be used offline and is entirely dependent on the sales company to still be around. These games titles are not truly bought but leased and its an avenue that the industry want to make even more blatant with monthly subscriptions to be able to play.

[@owenlindkvist5355]

@@PopularesVox Remove the cringe attempt at a rhetoric, and I agree with the specifics. Stay way from the slacktivist groups, comrade

[@marcusappelberg369]

1212 is much better than Medieval 3 from CA will be.

[@animegaming4057]

Where total war slipped for me, where my eyes opened to their greed, was three kingdoms, where Assembly announced that they gave up on fixing the game. I like the game, and I’ll continue to play it, as I like every total war game, it’s got some issues that now will never be addressed. Since then, I’ve bought every game, every dlc on sale. Never payed full price since, since my money isn’t going to furthering game development and improvement.

[@JC-uz3ey]

same, never buy full price. these games are overpriced.

[@linming5610]

Whats use is their resentment for people buying on sale when the alternative is them not buying or pirating the game in worst cases.

[@jlam9788]

To this day that botched announcement irks me. There was still so much potential in 3K and yet it was squandered.

[@sonofthebearking3335]

After several bad years financially for me, I was just about to fiiiinally afford, justify, and buy 3 Kingdoms; I had been so interested in trying the new systems mentioned. Then they dropped it. I am so glad I didn't buy it. I only eventually bought WH3 because a very dear friend had a roommate that semester whose computer he could BORROW to play it with me, and mods comprised most of our Immortal Empires experience. Now, if CA lowers the price for Shadows of Change and commits to the old ways once again, I'll buy it as a show of good faith, but I don't have much of that in them anymore.

[@onsholo]

After they fucked us with Three Kingdoms I just stopped paying at all for anything from CA

[@daisnrelfarsson1237]

I severly miss the generals speaches. The small cinematic pan over your army you "made", and in Medieval 2 worked hard for, as the general gets them hyped for a fight just made it feel more epic.

[@snickle1980]

And remember...They may have the Moon People on their side, but we have lovely hats! Those hats will protect us from their fearsome gaze!

[@TonyTrunzo]

every thing has to be woke now so they will not go to the old games... THREADS

[@archieforber7201]

What has killed the series for me is the immersion. At no point did I feel like a Chinese warlord bent on reuniting the empire. Nor did I feel like a stalwart dwarf holding back the green tide. I miss the feeling of an imperious 18th century general kicking the crap out of the French and that of a medieval king advancing the banner of god. Best of all was the feeling of being a feudal Japanese lord beset on all sides by enemies, hurling my precious samurai into the fray. But then my advisor storms into my camp. “Our men are running from the battlefield. A SHAMEFUR DISPLAY!”

[@stefchemacrae5540]

I’m glad somebody else remembers the bullshit Attila future hardware line.

[@AndysTake]

Never forget, I say!

[@ZubiForce]

They are making some mistake that can be lethal in the long run.

[@ginkiba3]

The games have definitely declined in character; the cinematic events, the building system, an in-depth economy, the population you had in number, the random character changes, it's almost all gone and it's a real shame.

[@Person0fColor]

@kidb6276that’s what ruined the total war franchise in the first place. Warhammer was their first Fantasy War game and they haven’t made a realistic one since. Troy 3 kingdoms both play like warhammer just a bunch of blobs running into each other. Any one who finds enjoyment out of this is really just being given a diluted version of what TW used to be. The warhammer bandwagon was just that a bandwagon

[@ЭрэлДьяконов-в1ъ]

Now CA looks like Western Roman Empire too big to innovate

[@eneas9038]

Yeah, but i dont see the mongols coming in to replace them and give us better strategy games. No other studios does strategy games following the total war style. So i fear we are stuck with CA for a while

[@christopherboye5498]

@@eneas9038 none wants to make big budget strategy games because it's a niche genre.

[@stirpsromana]

@@eneas9038 True, but not for long. I may be no one, just a random dude, but someday I'll make a spiritual sucessor game to TW. Just need to make the right contacts

[@CAPTJOHN78]

​@@stirpsromanago , i believe in you

[@krullet3560]

@@christopherboye5498 I'd be fine with a low/medium budget total war clone in 2.5D. Maybe there is a brave and talented indie studio out there that's up for the job

[@keizervanenerc5180]

Yeah i do believe CA Sophia has a passion and dedication to their game developement that the "upper management" and "main studios" lack. Unfortunately for them the core of the game: the engine, some hardcoded things like the hero let factions (even if not larger than life heroes), etc are fundamentally not like most of the historical community would prefer it. And so no matter how many "nice to have" little features they add (like the better banners and unit cards), they cannot change the fundemental problems we have with current Total War.

[@AndysTake]

I fear the same but I hope not. Seems strange that factions should be hard coded to be led by heroes - I think they've only pivoted to that because it makes sense in these examples where there are several people from the same nation. That's of course also how games like Crusader Kings does it, where you ultimate play the person, not the nation

[@Carnakrox]

​@@AndysTake Due to big hit that is Warhammer its affected all CA products, you can call it Warhammer effect.

[@keizervanenerc5180]

@@AndysTake didn't they update the engine with warhammer and/or 3K. And Troy and Pharao are made on that build of the engine and so are stuck with the heroes?

[@rorschach1985ify]

Fully agree and for me the one of the worst features is the Armor health system which looks and sounds bad because it makes heavy infantry feel useless and more annoying to keep around. I would prefer if instead they look at the older titles like the original Med 1 where Armor was affected by by the environment than some gamey health point system. Like sandstorms cause heavy armored units to get their joints clogged up with sand causing them more fatigue, or rain making some armor and clothes wet and soggy hindering their moment and causing rust for some where the armor would be depleted more from the environment than for being used for it's intended purpose.

[@warrensnell4370]

Great to hear that Sofia has actually made improvements based on feedback! Now if only we could get rid of the hero-leaders and get back to proper factions with family trees and in-depth provinces. I would love medieval 2 style main settlements with Empire-style outlying towns.

[@theSleepingSaxon]

Happy to tell you Pharaoh leaders have bodyguards (that you can customize) fyi. No single entity lords. Would love for family trees to return.

[@warrensnell4370]

@@theSleepingSaxon Thanks for bringing that up! Reading back, I didn’t make myself clear enough. My objection is not solely to the single-entity battle heroes, but to the faction being built entirely around a historical/mythological figure. Not only do single-entities feel wrong to me on a historical total war battlefield, but playing campaign as an individual leader as opposed to a faction or nation (whether it be a clan with a family tree or even a republic from empire) would feel dissatisfying for me.

[@theSleepingSaxon]

@@warrensnell4370 Lol, you're fine, it clicked after I posted that you most likely meant campaign-wise instead of battles. Yeah, I miss being the faction as a whole and witnessing the life stories of not just the starting lord, but his son, his grand son, his grandson's bastard child, etc. Those are the campaigns that really stick with you.

[@Prophetofthe8thLegion]

Hero leaders work for fantasy settings where the setting doesn’t exist without said characters but yes please I want total war back

[@honestlordcommissarbrighte7921]

Let Total War die, ditch CA and migrate like the nomadic tribes in search of new pastures. We've had our fun, we're no longer the target of their products, but at least we can decide where our money is better spent.

[@loowick4074]

There are no other pastures. But im willing to starve than give CA another coin.

[@thadsul]

Mutiny! From now on we sail as pirates 😎🏴‍☠️

[@lukasz85122]

Well said !

[@flextape7323]

there ain't no other fucking place, otherwise no one would be here

[@VilleMarjeta]

Manorlords is coming soon, it is the promised land!

[@Mr-tr1wc]

Let us not look over the fact that SEGA has just bought Rovio (Angry Birds studio) and now they are trying to refill that space in the reserves...

[@ser_squire]

I believe as Total War crashes and burns in the UK, CA Sofia will lift up the torch and build some incredible Total War titles.

[@Zhohan-]

Yeah I like their team and I’d like the developers there to make their own studio and make strategy games. Their Rome 2 DLC campaigns had so much more effort put into them compared to CA. The England HQ sucks now.

[@Konstantin1318]

Kinda want to buy Pharaoh because CA Sofia actually listens to feedback and I want to support them to show that "Yeah, this is what I want". But then again I'm pretty sure it won't change the upper management at main studio so I don't want to support CA as a whole until they make drastic changes to the company. Why can't we have nice things anymore :(

[@AndysTake]

Let's see how Pharaoh actually turns out before judging it :)

[@SomalianDuke]

Yeah i am waiting for reviews

[@matteslambertus7684]

It must be boycotted at every cost!!! There is no excuse for any TW game to not feature a more than two player campaign. This is by far the most important feature to have come into existance and any upcoming TW game without this MUST fail, or it will never be a standard feature. Anyone buying Pharao will purposely contribute to the deterioration of TW, so just DON´T!!!

[@AdrianGrave]

They only listen to feedback pre-release... they did the same during Total Warhammer 2 with elven shields.. it's good for advertising.

[@TonyTrunzo]

every thing has to be woke now so they will not go to the old games... THREADS

[@erhabik]

It's about time CA works on a Medieval 3 Total War, going back to classic mechanics and improving diplomacy and battle system than the previous historical titles!

[@Barrystue]

I would love a new historical game with TK style diplomacy

[@NakedOwl501]

I would prefer they not ruin the memory of Med II.

[@Barrystue]

@@NakedOwl501 I don’t have such weaknesses But yeah i didn’t grow up playing it so my gen Z “I need good graphics” brain just can’t fully enjoy it

[@MarktheRude]

Not going to happen. They would need a new engine for it and they're probably haemorrhaging money as it is. And that overwatch-copy-shooter is going to probably tank their studio.

[@lebendystraw3683]

​@@NakedOwl501fr I'm kinda right with you.

[@Z-1991]

CA just did the impossible, they joined historical and fantasy fans to make them get back into senses or die with the overpriced products. And glad to see that CA Sofia literally listen to the community, but i would like them to delay Pharaoh and add Mesopotamia or Troy map to launch game, otherwise it won't be good received. They made Knights of Honor and the best DLC's for Rome 2, so they're a really competent team.

[@TheTrueAdept]

It's not CA's mistake, it's their publisher and their stockholders' desire for that insane RoI.

[@cmdrpanorpa8631]

Honestly, after seeing this, Pharoah looks like it could be a great game, I'll still wait until it releases to see if I want it, but it has the potential to be a great game I think.

[@AndysTake]

I hope so, at least we're seeing a promising development :)

[@pascaldifolco4611]

You mean TW Dung Beetle ? Really looking like shite, saga level

[@artje90]

The cashgrab that will be pharaoh ill be missing and i'm 100% sure it will follow 3 kingdoms

[@tommyv997]

Then it gets abandoned within a year.

[@matteslambertus7684]

It must be boycotted at every cost!!! There is no excuse for any TW game to not feature a more than two player campaign. This is by far the most important feature to have come into existance and any upcoming TW game without this MUST fail, or it will never be a standard feature. Anyone buying Pharao will purposely contribute to the deterioration of TW, so just DON´T!!!

[@shreksnow1918]

Too bad there’s no competitors that fill the same/similar niche. It’s really weird how you don’t see other games that are functionally identical Total War like you do for Age of Empires, StarCraft, and Command and Conquer.

[@BittermanAndy]

Right? It's such an obviously good formula, and literally nobody else (to my knowledge) has ever tried it.

[@gordonbaker9039]

@@BittermanAndy Crusader Kings Three I just picked up for 30 bucks as it’s a smaller title. Downside no in person battles. Upside you can never get to that steamroll point in the campaign map it’s a nightmare all the way to the sweet end.

[@markwatson8714]

@@BittermanAndy Imperial Glory is the closest I can think of, though that was back in 2005.

[@SirCanuckelhead]

Check out stormgate. They are old star craft devs who have set out from blizzard to make a new rts. It has been many years and the game is still not out. This is due to the ai. These games that have a ton of ai pathing takes an insane amount of time, years just for pathing. This makes the market incredibly hard to get into and more sad when the established ones start to decline.

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

One good example for the state of the industry is Cyberpunk 2077. They spent 7 months of development only working in those Gameplay Ads. Instead of working on the game, the developers spent worked most of the time satisfying the Marketing Department. If developers keep cutting on the game and spending more in marketing, this will keep happening.

[@vortex1603]

Not really, the devs of Cyberpunk 2077 worked hard for patching the game after the catastrophic release in december 2020. They spent 2 years of fixing bugs and regained the trust of gamers without releasing a single DLC. The new DLC "Phantom of Liberty" is now highly expected by the community.

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

@@vortex1603 I know bro. They changed everything about the game in the DLC. I'm gonna play it. They can't change most of the rushed content in the world though. Think of how much better would it have been if they had worked on the foundations of the game instead of the first few key scenes. Once again, it is an interesting story, an interesting world, interesting quests. But, the issue was how the higher ups decided to market the game. Let's be real here, there was no need to raise so much expectations of the game. It is CD Projekt Red, the creators of Witcher 3. It was going to sell a lot. If they had worked on polishing the game instead of working so hard on advertising the first parts of the game, It could have been them getting the same level of recognition as Baldur's gate is now. The only reason CyberPunk got back in popularity is because of the anime. Remember how dead the game was before it.

[@vortex1603]

@@rumplstiltztinkerstein Not really, the ambition of the devs was too high at the beginning. It's not entierly the fault of marketing. The frequent official patches and the modding community were the things that keeped the game alive. The anime just brought new players. CD Projekt, like Hello Games (No Man Sky), is a rare exemple of redemption in gaming industry.

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

@@vortex1603 If you are just going to ignore what I said then have a nice day. I'm not wasting my time with this.

[@vortex1603]

@@rumplstiltztinkerstein Because the statement in your first comment was wrong. Cyberpunk 2077 is not a good exemple to describe the gaming industry in 2023 or for being compared with the evolution of Total War. It's not the marketing the probleme in TW, it's the leading teams and the executives.

[@xzardas541]

With each game there is less and less of Total War in them. No more sea battles. No more deep roleplay of medieval 2. No more agent action cutscenes. No more troop upgrades that show on battlemap. No more city upgrades being visible on world map. The war is still the same, there is just less in it.

[@sonofthebearking3335]

Hear hear ye and despair

[@Person0fColor]

That’s because they don’t make “total war” games anymore they make “warhammer total war” games 😂😂😂😂 CA is literally making mobile gaming garbage and charging $60 bucks for vanilla and who knows how much DLC 😂😂😂😂 The warhammer fans killed this franchise

[@fallenswan1670]

Just note: SEGA bought CA in 2005 - CA is part of SEGA Europe. They tell to CA what they must or must not to do. SEGA want maximum profit. They do not care too much about quality of games... But it is interesting if that side office in eastern Europe actually does better Total War games than main studio...

[@berserker4940]

My late grandmother took me to the mall as a boy and I saw a medieval CD-rom game on the shelf in an electronic store. It was Medieval Total War 1. It was $12

[@Person0fColor]

I picked up Shogun 1 back in 2001 in a “Funco land” discount bin for $20. Best 20 bucks I ever spent.

[@Loalrikowki]

How many of CA's staff who are developers are even still around who worked on Empire or Medieval 2? I don't think there's any institutional memory of how to even reproduce the old ways.

[@FinsterCS]

I‘m subbed to this channel so I can get a balanced perspective because I share a similar TW background to ol Andy here but I disagree with how he feels about the product. I think that Warhammer is a very well made product and in a lot of ways, I even think you‘d agree with me. The variation of unit types, faction mechanics (results may vary lol), magic, etc. I agree the product is more streamlined and I definitely agree that it‘s overpriced! But imo CA isn‘t so much a company making a worse product and charging more, but making less of it and charging more. I‘m hoping for a good Medieval 3 launch in the coming years of us letting our voices be heard, this DLC noise won‘t stop, Pharaoh is frankly dead already unless Sofia pulls the biggest comeback in game development history. Since Empire/Napoleon, Warhammer has been the best thing they‘ve made and with what‘s on the horizon Medieval 3 or Empire 2 are gonna be the only things that can bring back a strong historic Total War.

[@KJW1996]

Ever since Empire, Modding for their Games has become an absolute chore, in Medieval 2 if you wanted to play all the Factions, you could by editing the .txt file, it was simple and streamlined as Steam's Source Engine! With Empire and after, you have to mess around with the Startpos.esf File which can lead to errors and complications if you haven't sit down a patiently researched the thousands of threads on Total War Forums to comprehend how to program them, most people I know in the community started calling this files "Asspos.esf" Files for a reason! I don't think CA wants to streamline Modding, especially when it comes to Factions as they're the hardest to make playable! Couldn't possibly imagine why ***Day One Faction Packs, and Future Faction Packs! Let's think about this for a moment, before Empire, we had Rome 1, which had an Expansions called "Alexander and Barbarian Invasion", it was new content that added more replayability, now Medieval 2, they had Expansions which was called Kingdoms, and that had Americas, Teutonic, Britannia, and Crusades! 4 Different Campaigns! All which had new Units! Then we have Empire, which not only released as a buggy mess, but also released 'The Warpath Campaign' DLC, as was mentioned in the video the Game was abandoned a year for Napoleon TW! Which was essentially a Expansion to Empire, but sold as a Full Price Game that fixed the Bugs of Empire! And this is only the start of it, because they did the same thing with Rome 2 with Attila! With Shogun 2 however, they locked two factions behind a paywall (Ikko Ikki and Hattori) day one if you didn't get the "limited edition"! They also sold two Unit Packs; "Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack" and "Saints and Heroes Unit Pack" adds ten new hero units for multiplayer and single-player game modes. Along with this DLC pack came a patch which fixed several bugs and revamped unit balancing in multiplayer game modes (bit weird to sell a patch with the content). They also sold 2 Expansions, Rise of the Samurai, and Fall of the Samurai, thankfully they didn't separate them as their own Games, because that'll be stupid! But with Rome 2 and Attila, both those games were nothing but Faction Packs for content! When a Modder released an All Factions Mod, there were Factions that were already premade but never playable, they already had voice lines and units named, Desert Kingdoms Faction Pack being one example! Though Rome 2 did have Expansions, they were nothing different from the Main Campaign! Attila was arguably better by adding in early Medieval setting with Charlamagne, plus even though CA fixed Rome 2 by just copying and pasting the systems from Attila, why couldn't they make it just one Game? Why do they have to sell Expansions as separate Games? not only it bloats their stupid Launcher, but divides their development teams for these games! Which they just leave dead! Looking at you Thrones of Britannia! Ultimately, they need to stop selling content that's already in the game, the Community been criticising them about this for decades and they keep selling us these games in bits and pieces, I stopped buying their games until they fix their practices. I play the old Games and I rather do considering how more timeless these games are in their gameplay, than the dated and streamlined designs they've been doing to their games, I like Empire and Shogun 2, but my goodness if they had the systems from Medieval 2 it would've made them better, then again comparing the Modding between post and pre Empire is very glaring, most mods pre-Empire were Expansion Mods like 'Lord of the Rings' where as Mods post-Empire were mostly ones that fixed their mess! If CA doesn't start changing for the better, then it's only a matter of time before they sink.

[@mattgardiner614]

Good points. I recently increased my unit sizes in Empire using preference_scripts. I was also wanting to use pfm to re-name some units, change where a few units were recruitable from, and import a few units from a dlc into grand campaign, but couldn't figure it out.

[@KJW1996]

​@@mattgardiner614 adding Units and or changing their stats is relatively easy, though I don't know why CA keeps changing how it works on game by game basis which is absolutely annoying, for example in Shogun 2 there these Wako Units which are essentially Pirate Units, and there's a Warehouse called 'Pirate Lair', so what I did is made them recruitable from that Building for immersive purposes, as Wako were hired as Mercenaries for Warlords at times. The way you do this (and I suppose it'll work for other units) is by editing: building_units_allowed_tables units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions_tables "additional_building_level_requirement" in 'units_table' (You don't need this if you already got it set in 'building_units_allowed_tables', but if you want to add extra layers of immersion like I did, I made Bow Samurai also require 'Sword School' for recruitment because Samurai historically were proficient in all martial arts, so I made them also effective in melee combat, but they're limited to recruit though and expensive) and finally you need to edit 'units_to_groupings_military_permissions_tables', now this is important as it allows you to take the Wako Units classed as "pirates" to "japan" basicaly making it avalible to recruit by all Clans and not just Wako itself, I believe this is what also allows you to pull Units from other DLCs into the Main Game. Because without this edit I was unable to get them to be recruited from the Pirate Lair building. But that's for Units, the hardest is the Factions, they're hardcoded to be unplayable, and unless you know how to program code to override it, like 'Sara Teme' on the TW Forums ( www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?806066-How-to-make-any-faction-playable-quick-and-comfortable-way-All-campaigns ), she managed to make a 'All Factions Playable Mod' but to do it takes some BS amount of programing!

[@danthemantis3878]

Great Video, Great Information, and It's amazing to see the Total War Community standing up for the games we all love. CA has been an absolute shambles for a while now, and its always been a problem. As a NTW Mod Developer, I have personal experience with working with other people to try and force CA into doing shit for once. Look at the scenario that happened not too long ago - 12th Gen stopped working for NTW, and thousands started signing petitions, the Total War Discord was flooded, and Content Creators forced the issue more and more until CA FINALLY decided to do something. Unfortunately, this 'something' they did was a perfect example of modern CA. > The Update was very small - and almost definitely a one-line-of-code job > They removed chat for... some reason. Many believe it was to save money so they don't have to renew fees for something, I don't know that much about it and I don't know CA's reasons for it (however I do know that its stupid and everyone hates their decision) > They broke sound for Cannons and Muskets, of course the most important sounds for the game - this very clearly shows the fact they didn't give a fuck and that they simply did not test the patch before they released it because it would be so goddamn obvious from one playtest. This lead to further campaigning from the community for them to fix their game that people actually payed money for (I know, crazy isn't it). Oh yeah, best of all, they release a new update and replaced the missing sounds with Shogun 2 sounds. ??? > Broke multiple mod launchers, leading to the death of mods like LME4 and Darthmod who have absent developers > Broke sound pathing, meaning that its even harder for modders to change their shit sounds with actual good ones > Gave themselves a pat on the back and then left to never touch the game again Fantastic work from CA. The FCN Dev Team, of 5 unpaid people (including myself) who have little free time, at the time half going through exams and being legally classed as CHILDREN, were able to find and fix all these problems - this was all listed and reported to CA devs and Feedback Forum posts. To no response. Mods will always be the heart and soul of Total War games. That's the fact. And its honestly disgusting that a Million Dollar World-Renowned Game Development Company is being completely outdone by unpaid groups of historical fanatics. I'm not just talking Field Command, or NTW3, or NTW-Based Mods, but EVERY mod in the Total War Community. No one is making money from modding these games. Rant over, haha - its something that pisses me off to no degree. At least, if they could, CA should make their games way easier to mod. Like if they gave out modding applications or something for all their games, it would basically be free game development. Or better yet, if they CONTACTED mod developers and asked them to help them out, give them some pay and let their team in to make the game how it should be made, not for as much money as possible. If they keep the shit up that they are currently doing, well, the Total War Community may just go to... Total War - with CA. And i'll leave it at that. Love all you readers, and sorry for the Textspam haha

[@mattgardiner614]

Nice to hear a modder's perspective. Any mod for NTW currently available on moddb that you were part of? Which one? Would love to chat about it and modding in general.

[@oilslick7010]

"CA should make their games way easier to mod" This! I can't understand how CA doesn't see the potential for this kind of symbiosis. CA couldn't hope to create all the flavour content and alternative mechanics that thousands of modders could if they had to pay people to do it anyway, yet modders WILL make that content regardless of how easy it is. So why not accept that and make it into a streamlined process for those modders instead? Definition of win-win.... That would mean that we have to stop blaming devs for being lazy and 'letting modders do all the work', though. We can't have our cake and eat it too: you either pay for dev made content OR you get it for free from modders

[@danthemantis3878]

@@mattgardiner614 Thanks, I’ve been right in the middle of it for a while now so unfortunately I know a lot about the topic haha I own and lead the development for Field Command: Napoleon (FCN)

[@danthemantis3878]

@@oilslick7010 it’s a weird kinda mesh if it were to happen - however we all know it probably won’t. I mean, it would be amazing, but CA / SEGA realistically aren’t the kind of studio that would be up for it. Maybe if CA was the small business they were before then I could see it happening, because back in the Total War Golden Era mods weren’t too much of a thing to really recognise, but if it was the same size and enthusiasm as the modding scene right now, and it was the CA back then, I think they would be up for it. But they aren’t :(

[@mattgardiner614]

@@danthemantis3878 Oh, cool! Heard of it. Is there a grand campaign or is is just for battles?

[@RustyCrowHK]

This is a trend of every big company: 1. they pay too much for the uselss managements which they know even know what their base product is. 2. they keep looking for a greater sales each years, back to point 1 and the reality of the inflation, they charge more that which they couldnt even catch up the expectation what the price should be.

[@snickle1980]

I remember creative assembly. Rome 2 was the last game i bought from them. It was a perfectly fine game, but you could see the writing was on the wall. Happens all the time with these larger companies. It's now only a matter of time before someone takes their place. When EA dropped the ball on SimCity 2013, Someone else came around the fill the gap, and we have Cities Skylines. A few years from now, a smaller developer will come along and take up the vacuum that CA left in this gaming genre. I'm looking forward to whatever these smaller companies will have to offer.

[@Person0fColor]

Total War Warhammer killed the entire franchise. Literally Rome 2 as the last hood Total War modded it’s exceptional but warhammer is absolute dog trash

[@Mordred86]

I just wish some other company would rise up and challenge CA at their own game.

[@schippes24]

11:08 I'm really looking forward to manorlords. They want to do total war like fights, but the scale will be way smaller, because the setting is smaller. It'll be a mixture of anno and total war and I really have high hopes so far! Look it up and keep an eye on it!

[@denniswiggins3816]

They were originally respected as a producer of semi-historical grand strategy war games. Things really went south when they got the Warhammer license. Everything was about hyping and milking that license. They came with a ready made Warhammer fan base they could exploit. They subsequently have thrown their old historical war game fans under the bus.

[@Person0fColor]

Yes yes yes this is it this is what killed TW. They went in for the built in fanbase and it did work because those warhammer total wars have some of the biggest fanbase of any TW game. However none of those fans from Warhammer went back and played the old total war games, I still play Rome 2 Shogun 2 Medieval 2 and Empire it just depends on what I’m reading history wise that month lolz, they were only here to play warhammer TW. When the very first warhammer came out the Vets could see the writing on the wall. Pixilated Apollo, a TW youtuber, actually made a video about how he would never ever ever play Troy, Warhammer or 3 Kingsoms and he doesn’t posts any of those on his channels 😂😂😂😂 only historical TW games. My man. Now that the warhammer craze is done no is going to buy the latest TW. Not the warhammer guys because they were never real TW fans and the actual TW fans are not gunna play this crap we are still playing Rome and Shogun 2 😂. Now CA lost both consumer bases. They ignored their actual gamer base the real TW fans in favor of short term gains on 3 war hammer titles and wouldn’t you know outside those titles no one plays TW games anymore. I just finished a Rome 2 “Empire Divided” campaign as the Gallic Romans and I’m on ROTR at the moment. CA sold out their real fans for quick money and now the whole thing is going dump because this franchise is butt now 😂😂😂

[@Person0fColor]

The best thing honestly for CA is to turn into the swerve and make another warhammer total war game to get their warhammer fanbsse back because the historical guys are not going to buy this hot stinky dump

[@krullet3560]

I really want to see the next Sofia game. Pharaoh is sadly not a setting I'm interested in at all. I just hope they survive this long enough to make a game in a setting people want.

[@thomascarlyle8015]

Remember the "uniform editor" that was supposed to come with Empire or Napoleon? It's crazy to think how much better even the quality old games could have been if CA wasn't already experiencing this case of executive-itus. Fingers crossed for a Sea-Peoples DLC :P

[@Albukhshi]

While I commend CA Sophia for listening to the fans, I can't help but think that they have an uphill battle, jsut to get it back to where RTW or M2TW were. Consider all the features long gone since then, which made battles so dynamic and fun to play. And consider how few of them are left. For now, I'll have to remain guarded, and not be optimistic: I commend their efforts, but they got a lot of work to do, and I don't know if they'll be able to do it and save what's left of CA's reputation.

[@Carnakrox]

A point a lot of People failed to note is that Pharaoh is six turn per year total war, in a longer campaign that last 120 turns is equal to only 20 years in timeline. I don't see a point in making a family management tree for to short time period, the sons of you faction leader born in turn 1 only is going to come in age(assuming 16 years) in turn 96.

[@cohortes1095]

I feel like CA will try its best to sweep this under the rug with a free DLC.

[@r30413]

You overestimate them.

[@sonofthebearking3335]

Nothing is free Now we get 'rewarded' with cool hero units if we make an account i.e. give them information.

[@Jack_Stones]

Its actually amazin to hear about the new banners in Pharoah, I must've missed this news. I'm glad to see Sofia are listening

[@flynnbailey530]

as someone that came into the franchise with empire, the part of me that desperatlly want's another powder and shot era total war game is alwase locked in combat with the part of me that knows they'd probably fuck it up.

[@sonofthebearking3335]

Aye, same.

[@TheManofthecross]

they will and i got in to the franchise with empire total war. guns is the way to go.

[@hata5966]

CA has fallen since they released a game with noodle projectile. I couldn't remember which one but how on earth could you mess up on arrow visual.

[@braydoxastora5584]

CA should have known better to raise taxes when public order isnt high

[@sonofthebearking3335]

My thoughts exactly

[@Person0fColor]

Ummm rise taxes anyway crushed the rebellion and everyone is happy for another 20 turns 😂

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Big agree. I might actually have bought the last two Warhammer DLCs, but the base game still isn't fixed from when it got messed up by the transition to 3.

[@sonofthebearking3335]

Right? I could have enjoyed WH2 for years to come via mods, and now the reverse update with Ogres has left the game so purposely unoptimized that it can't run large Manual battles anymore even with all mods turned OFF. Undoubtedly a tactic to encourage us to buy WH3.

[@Person0fColor]

@@sonofthebearking3335warhammer killed the total war franchise 😂 Sorry but Total war and Total war Warhammer are two totally different things. Warhammer TW had one of the largest player bases. Not because it was a good total war game but because it was part of the warhammer bandwagon. Legions of real total war players saw exactly what was happening with Warhammer TW 1 and haven’t been back since. All the players that were playing Warhammer TW were only doing so because it was Warhammer which is why that audience can’t be relied upon to bolster sells of Troy, 3 Kingdoms and now Pharaoh. Warhammer was a gravy train and it killed the TW franchise. Now we get stuck with Troy and Pharaoh yeah! 😂

[@sonofthebearking3335]

@@Person0fColor '😂'

[@TheBranchez]

The trouble is that even with all this "uproar" there is still many, many people that will pre order DLCs and buy them at full price. Even tho I have enjoyed and played pretty much all TW games since the beginning I don't think I've ever bought their game in full price let alone bloody DLCs. They simply do not deserve it. Their DLC policy is one of the worst that I have ever seen. And I do believe that even the previous prices were horrible. But many people just jumped to eat whatever shit came out of CA . . .

[@udozocklein6023]

their dlc policy is "normal" for this genre, but i do agree on everything else. the pre-order people ruin everything in many games

[@cookiecola5852]

Iam sure those CA zealots that demand the stop to any critics will get what they deserve I cant wait to read the forum

[@Person0fColor]

Yes they are called Warhammer fans. Warhammer total war had one of the largest player bases and it destroyed the old total war player base. Many total war fans walked away then and there I was one of them. The Warhammer total wars are absolute dog trash long scum and yet people are paying $200 for the game and all DLC $200? What a rip off

[@Admiralofthedeeps]

I've just realised how long I've been playing Medieval 2 and Empire 😅 Amazing games with infinite replayability.

[@daelinproudmore5068]

KICK STARTER AN ALTERNATIVE- RT battles, Turn based Campaign, Historical. If my business venture works shortly I'd considered donating a hefty amount to it.

[@emiltuil8335]

You always manage to make me feel optimistic about future total war titles and the series in general where I otherwise wouldn't be. Thank you Andy for your great videos

[@AndysTake]

Thank you Emil, that warms my heart :)

[@MrValkilmer35]

I really miss the more in-depth economic aspects of populations and food production and the various buildings we use to be able to do in Rome Total War and Med 2. the three buildings for minor settlements thing is getting a bit stale at this point.

[@huginstarkstrom]

In Rome 1 I sometimes scrolled into an archer unit and watched the arrows fly. Now, the graphics are more polished, but the game is less general and more fast clicker, so you cannot do that anymore. Also any good formation will be interrupted by magic. I really enjoyed battles in Rome II and Attila, in WH I often autoresolve.

[@jeambeam3173]

Then just don't play Warhammer. Also your not using mods to extend the fights. Also magic doesn't just instally destroy a line formation

[@qreamiepeanutbutter1215]

Rome 2’s battle ai is horse shit, how can you enjoy watching it?

[@huginstarkstrom]

@@jeambeam3173 no mods, but yes, I stopped playing WH. I just pointed out, WHY.

[@IchWeissNichtMehrBescheid]

Yeah warhammer is just an auto resolve game. I like a LOT about the game, except the battles. They are just so boring and feel like a sandbox

[@mattcat83]

CA stopped caring about their fanbase with anti-consumer practices over a decade ago. What's amazing is that the community just tolerates it and enables them.

[@wolfhound6396]

First war thunder now Total war there’s a revolution brewing in gaming community, and now I really want to play napoleon total war.

[@srdjan455]

I don't get it, they make a DLC pack which is bigger than previous DLC packs. So naturally it should cost more right? Whats the issue?

[@Shifou974]

On one hand, I saw how CA had pulled Rome II back from the dead to be a game that I can actually enjoy and I want them to do that again. On the other hand, I'm starting to think that either the game series dies or CA radically changes its strategy.

[@gnth9552]

I long for a day where you can choose to fight or auto-resolve based on what's fun for you, rather than calculating whether auto-resolve is actually broken in your favour or against you. Fixing old games is not worth the investment, I get that. There won't be enough new customers just because the shadows are addressed. But this combat calculation will carry over into all of their upcoming titles and keeps forcing you to cheese a mechanic that's supposed to be a mere time-saver.

[@karelwolf998]

with regards to CA listening, tbh the only time I saw them listening was CA Sophia with changes made to Troy (except for truth behind the myth stuff, which just seems like a higher up decision) and changes so far made to Pharaoh (banners, unit UI)

[@Shogunofthewaffles]

Empires fall because of an idea, outcry, or money. -my brain not even 2 minutes ago

[@jtoegi]

We are in the midst of cultural revolution for CA and I'm over here just vibing.

[@captaintitus4637]

Me too

[@princeowiredu2022]

5:02 what game is playing in the background. it looks sick

[@Z-1991]

That's Medieval 2.

[@FatBunny168]

population mechanic and THE BANNERS!!!! 3K total war got the banners right! They look epic

[@AndysTake]

True!

[@saosaoldian6742]

I have not paid full price for a video game in years. If it’s not 50% off or more I don’t need it but I practice delayed gratification.

[@Vlix223]

No bigwig running the company will ever see this perspective, they probably don't even know what "pc games" are truly. All that matters are dollar dollar to them

[@veronho1ness]

The very reason I have not bought their new products. CA has gone from 'Total War' to 'Total Garbage.' I only play the older titles with their mods.

[@durnham]

As mentioned, Total War at this stage isn't even Total War, the series died with after Atilla. Pharoah will just put the nail in the coffin. Just a reskinned version of Troy to squeeze a penny out of their oldest fans one last time

[@Person0fColor]

Yup warhammer killed the franchise. We should’ve been more adamant about that. There was tons of pushback from the TW community when warhammer dropped but between sales and the player base the warhammer fan bois won out. CA went on to cater to them for 5 years straight and left the old school TW fans wanting. Then they threw us a bone and made Troy 😂 and 3 kingdoms 😂 and now Pharaoh😂. Warhammer fans did not go back and become old school TW fans they only played warhammer because it was warhammer and then they bounced meanwhile the real total war fans are stuck with this garbage. This is just one last chance to get a little bit of money. Absolutely crazy to think if they just made a good “REAL” total war game they could be right back on top but the creators have zero idea how to make a total war game 😂 You can thank your warhammer buddies theh came over and took from us Total war and now we have nothing 😂

[@luelee6168]

Its the business model at Sega. Its a major corporation which means not only does it now have many more expenses than before but who's primary goal is to produce profit for it's shareholders. They sold out on us and like idiots we were expecting more than what we originally received.

[@Icamtaimbro]

i think that there is room for a new company to mimic CA's work and create there own RTS, hopefully with the same graphical level and scale level.

[@clinthenness7186]

They messed up the campaign map back at Rome 2 and I have not been back. They need to go back to the top down view on campaign map.

[@ilof_0]

"medieval 2 remastered" would be the best selling total war game if its easy modable and the mistakes done in "rome 1 remastered" are avoided. anyone disagreeing? i mean just look at the steam stats for the 20 year old game! insane!!!

[@AndysTake]

Yup! Medieval 2 Remastered is a must!

[@Person0fColor]

But what about TW warhammer. If all we do is make historical TW how are we gunna get the warhammer mouth breathing money?

[@JL-zn4mr]

Record inflation everywhere coupled with a pressure for higher wages and salaries for employees.... what did people think companies were going to do when their costs go up? Increased operational and production costs always get passed on the the consumer via increased prices....

[@mikealpha2611]

Med 2 is a great historical game and I am really OK with the gamification of the Warhammer Total War games since they are very different and it is meant to appeal to a simpler strategy game audience. My big issue is games like Atilla good ideas but never finished.

[@Person0fColor]

Warhammer total war games appeal is very different and meant to appeal to an audience that ain’t as strategically savvy? Then why okay Total war? Why dumb down total war for the rest of us to please people who were not even playing the game to begin with? They were just chasing that Warhammer money and in the process destroyed Total war. Total War Warhammer is for fans of total war who don’t like strategy 😂😂😂😂😂 Why play then? Imagine if they dumb downed A e combat to make it “easier” for one group of players over the other? That’s would destroy the franchise which is exactly what happened here

[@donaldcrawfordiii554]

I think it is to late for CA. CA is broken, and like all corporations need to make a profit. Have to back and fix things, CA would lose money. CA is not the only thing out there. My thoughts on CA; NUTS

[@alpha-0874]

The background footage really made me want to jump back into TW Napoleon

[@AndysTake]

it's still such a banger, bro

[@augustus8825]

Great video aside, how did you get such beautiful and smooth Medieval 2 footage? I have a beefy setup but even with the LAA patch it's choppy as all hell.

[@AndysTake]

You'll find out soon ;)

[@skitkjell85]

Apart from being an excellent game, Baldur's Gate 3 might actually bring some much needed change to how things work. One can only hope at least. It's pretty obvious people are fed up with this crap. The negative reactions from AAA-developers on the release of BG3 is a pretty good sign they knew what kind of shitstorm it would bring from players xD And I love it. I've lost all interest in buying another TW title in the future. And I probably ain't alone.

[@astellios1748]

I will not pay 25€ for a dlc, so good it cant be, because for 60€ i get a full game with 170h playtime. The real joke is here that CA argues with production cost but it isnt a miracle thing that only happen to CA, community have less money too and devs want more money... sh!t on CA.

[@abbald]

Yes. The banners make so much difference. Why they didnt do it befor. Maybe it was uncommon in this time period? I hope pharao will survive.

[@AndysTake]

Thing is, they somehow didn't even have banners in Medieval 2, so I'm really glad they're making it a core part of the game. That way we have proper physics for them, unlike Medieval 2 for example, where the mod banners are very stiff (but still awesome to have)

[@abbald]

@@AndysTake Oh. I didnt know that. Played the game too long ago.

[@snickle1980]

We outnumber them by a large margin, but this might drive them to fool-hearty defiance! Be careful! They have been lulled into a false sense of security by a few feet of defensive wall, as if that will protect them. Many times have i faced Creative Assembly and many times have I beaten them. When we win, this victory will be _YOURS_ as much as mine. And remember...They may have the _Moon people_ on their side, but we have Lovely hats! Those hats will shield us from their fearsome gaze!

[@RhobarBlack-n7v]

I think the lack of battle animations and formations is what makes new historical titles like Troy not historical at all and ultimately makes games bad.

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

Well historical-ish is the best you can get, since you can dominate the entire maps in the game with factions that would have died.

[@mombasatimmy9211]

Thanks

[@AndysTake]

Wow, thank you! :)

[@SheepStrategos]

Ok at this point CA Sofia is the hero of the story.

[@EddRad]

... than dont buy it "but i want it now mommy!" well than buy it. If you want to influence the price, dont buy it on release and preorder, wait some time, play something else. They are calculating with a margin of people willing to pay high prices, and somebody will, than the price drops to "ok" so most buy it. if there expected buying number is way to low, they will lower the price. this discussion is not new, its there in magic the gathering with the every month set thing going on and with dlcs in paradox interactive games and so on. but the answer is still the same, dont buy it out of protest. the reviews on steam doesnt mater, if you still paid the price.

[@mrssirens]

Let it die, they won't fix or make things better. If they die then maybe some better studio will pick up the license down the line.

[@Red-S-267]

Honestly I like the newer total wars to a degree but frankly the fact that I have had to mod in formations with all the warhammer games despite 3k showing that they could do formations still and even implement pike and shot... but with bows. is ridiculous. Same with the lack of matched animations that we had in.. Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2, and Rome 2. Diplomacy has gotten so much better but I haven't liked provinces as much since like... Shogun 2 when you could have a port even if the city wasn't like next to water. And what is with gun units feeling so subpar? Even modded-in gun units feel so weak compared to Fall of the Samurai. I remember when a bullet could kill someone in one shot. That is not to say that all units are bad as I think a lot of great things have been done in warhammer just gun infantry in particular feel bad. No fire by rank or deploy stakes with any vanilla unit doesn't help. I don't really mind the removal of populations but I do miss food a little. I see why they would remove it because population and food could become really annoying trying to build your armies if you have themes and I remember one shogun 2 campaign where I did awesome and just could not grow enough food despite having the majority of Japan with upgraded farms.

[@cyberpunk59]

You know what they say : "It is TOTAL WAR!"

[@ernestexner466]

My problem is that publishers are charging more for less on faction content. Where in the world are the Assyrians? The Hebrews?? Oh yeah, behind a future DLC paywall! Let my people go!! It's like releasing a Rome Total War game with just early Republican Rome, late Carthage, Sparta, and Parthia.

[@a-a-ron3542]

I liked that some of the earlier games had true easy modes that could be played super campy with a legit turtle strategy. I like immersing in time periods, not necessarily playing a game that will challenge me, as life is challenging enough. Also, modability. Med 2 was my favorite because you could mod it however you wanted it

[@COMMANDandConquer199]

This is what no competition gets consumers. CA have no incentive whatsoever to keep up the quality and content, because they know they're the only ones who are offering the Total War experience. There is no other game AAA, Indie or otherwise that has what Total War does.

[@FatBunny168]

let it die then. Modders will fix the game LIKE EVERY GODDAMN TOTAL WAR SERIES TITLE!

[@rahardiankasada2374]

What BGM that u used ? 13:14

[@randallbokma2619]

One of my greatest gaming wishes is a new Empire Total War, i know its probably never going to happen though

[@mattgardiner614]

Yes, and I've spent many an hour imagining what it SHOULD look like in my head. 😂😂

[@sonofthebearking3335]

Aye.

[@tiranito]

Yep, want a sequel so bad.

[@Person0fColor]

@@mattgardiner614okay 😂

[@MrlspPrt]

A channel (I lost the video reference, sorry) said CA is getting money from the British government because they posed as an "indie studio", so higher costs are being covered already by British tax payers. Also, CA has the habit of attacking fans when they complain for something, I remember when people got mad about having female generals im Rome II and a woman from CA said "if you don't like it, don't buy it after several years people bought. I personally don't care about that, but I felt they were attacking consumers.

[@AngryHistorian87]

Thank you for mentioning Attila. It's a great game, but its optimization is HORRIBLE. What is CA thinking ignoring its player base?

[@somebody2344]

Volound asked a senior CA developer the age-old question: “What gets in the way of real progress and improvement?” for Total War. Here is a frank and poignant answer. The main problem with TW, as I understand it, is that CA hasn't put enough time into the engine and tools, so it's a hell of a hassle to work with, making implementing any new ideas more cumbersome than it should be. Therefore, people are less likely to try to make major changes. Honestly, most of their own engines are like this to some extent, it's not the worst I've seen, but the argument about bad tools becomes an excuse after every release, and they always say that next time they'll actually do something about it... Another problem... How should I put it... There are a lot of great people in CA, but there are people who are deeply mediocre. Some of them have been there literally for decades and occupy high positions. I don't know if they really don't realize their uselessness or if they just don't have the courage to get rid of them. Sometimes they move from one position to another, and then management seems to that it solved the problem. As for TW, I will say one thing (and you probably don't want to hear it): she makes good money consistently, a reliable source of income for the company. Last I heard, they tend to do 2-3 million in sales, which is nothing compared to big blockbusters, but it's decent. Before Hyenas, I was told that this is why CA is Sega's most profitable studio. It's a fairly niche story, although it's very profitable, probably too niche for anyone to have much incentive to try and compete, and also means that CA doesn't have much incentive to change the formula much or do anything differently.