Total War: General discussion.

I haven't played a TW game in a while. I've been playing more of Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron lately.

Qui odoratus est qui fecit.

Same XD

Ah yes, Paradox Interactive games.

Notorious for sometimes offering their best base games at a discount—or even for free—but actually makes money from the loads and loads of DLC for those same games. I guess that's where Creative Assembly copied the sales tactic of selling the base game at a 75% discount while not doing the same for DLC—even during Steam Sales. (So much for "complete editions," eh?)

I was tempted to try out Stellaris (thanks to the recommendations of a friend IRL who saw a bunch of YouTubers play the game—including a couple of Total War YouTubers), until I looked at the game's Steam page and found out it was being marketed in a similar manner as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (and Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet, as mentioned in this Jimquisition video)—with multiple tiers of the same product.

That killed whatever interest I had real quick...

Back on-topic (sort of):

Never thought I would feel a similar sentiment with a Chinese, especially with a Magnificent Bastard like Cao Cao. Then again...

A good mantra to live by with each game of Total War.

edited 7th Jun '18 9:25:53 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

Total War diplomacy used to be more honest.

And then they attack you anyway, and get excommunicated.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

You're aware that the tiered content is purely cosmetic, right?

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/281990/Stellaris/

OK, explain to me what the "Nova" and "Galaxy" editions are for, and what kind of additional content they offer.

edited 7th Jun '18 9:29:09 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

Nova edition gives you a soundtrack for your steam music player, a forum icon and an exclusive portrait. Galaxy edition gives you that plus Ebook, Digital Collector's Book, a signed wallpaper and an exclusive forum avatar. None of it is required for the gameplay.

edited 7th Jun '18 9:34:13 AM by Eldrake

5 big changes coming to Total War: Three Kingdoms

Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)

Well, can't wait to see lionheartx10, HeirOfCarthage and perhaps SurrealBeliefs get Early Access and stream their TW: Three Kingdoms games on YouTube, since it'll be a long, LONG^{link context} a recent, memetic Japanese commercial that happens to have a story and an Ear Worm time before I can play that (and get the inevitable DLC).

x2 and x4: Um... OK. My mistake. Though I was expecting either edition to include some or all of the DLC that does affect gameplay, such as the Story Packs or Species Packs, or expansions like Apocalypse and Utopia. But even the Nova and Galaxy editions aren't that complete? It doesn't help that those two editions don't outright state their contents on the Steam page—and those contents are otherwise available as DLC.

I Need a Freaking Drink.

edited 7th Jun '18 10:27:43 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

And that's why you wait until Steam sales in order to get multiple Paradox DLC packs. Stellaris is sure to be on sale in the summer so you can probably pick up it and all of its DL Cs for a pretty low price.

And speaking of Three Kingdoms, anyone else hoping we can eventually get the soundtrack of that trailer music? I really like that song.

edited 7th Jun '18 12:40:38 PM by theLibrarian

Yeaaaaaaaah, Paradox's whatever edition content never includes gameplay stuff, at most cosmetic stuff

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The narrator guy's pronunciation is killing me inside, though. Also, some thoughts:

• The graphics look kinda unpolished compared to the promotional materials for the previous titles. Considering that we're in pre-alpha, I'm hoping that the final product will look slick.
• Banners and unit animations look better than they did in the Cao Cao trailer.
• The English voice acting is quite decent, though I'm hoping for a Mandarin audio option.
• They seem to be using the Warhammer melee system for massed combat, and... I'm not sure how to feel about that. I know that a lot of people are unhappy with the way matched combat was handled in Rome II and Attila, but I felt that Shogun 2 got the look and feel just right, and that's something we'll potentially be losing. The cavalry charge looks awesome, though.
• That Lu Bu vs Xiahou Dun duel. Wow. Also confirms that mounted heroes can be knocked off their horses.
• "Unique formation types". Hmm.
• Counterweight trebuchets breaching the walls of Xiapi. My inner history geek is getting all sorts of weird feels. The Chinese were still using traction trebuchets in this period, and there's no way you're knocking down their city walls, which were twenty solid metres of brick and rammed earth, without modern artillery or an industrial excavator. Even as late as the Second Opium War, the British had trouble trying to breach them with Armstrong Guns firing explosive shells. All in the name of game balance, though, and I'm glad that the grappling hook animation is back. (My family are fans of John Woo's Red Cliff, and I'd half-expected them to scale the walls by using their shields as ramps)
• The UI seems to be going for a modern-ish look with some ink wash effects. I'd hoped that CA's art team could adapt traditional styles like they did in Shogun 2, but as someone who used to do part-time graphic design work, I understand that not everything translates well to the needs of the UI. (Fun fact: the art in Shogun 2 was based on the later Edo-era ukiyo-e woodblock style, since Sengoku-era Japanese art was nearly identical to the Chinese style).

edited 8th Jun '18 1:33:33 PM by eagleoftheninth

Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)

Yes, but I suppose they'd have to thin the walls for balance reasons.

Either way this looks great, and there's gonna be a lot of people who are glad about the sieges no longer being a mad charge at one wall.

This is the TW general thread, we were playing all the other games that weren't like that!

edited 8th Jun '18 1:45:13 PM by VutherA

Also also:

• Hybrid weapon units a la Shades and Lothern Sea Guards are making a comeback (yes I know about the Spice Guards in Attila, no I haven't unlocked them yet)
• Confirmed hero types: Guardian (tank/damage-soaking focus), Commander (unit buffer), Strategist (gives access to formations), Vanguard (not explained but seems to be oriented towards offensive melee)
• The mid-battle taunts are a glorious addition and really lend the combat a sense of character. Can't wait to see how the character interaction system is going to be implemented.
• Winning a duel grants temporary but massive stat boosts to your units, as well as a permanent morale penalty to the vanquished. We know that characters can die permanently in Romance mode, but we still don't know how that's going to work exactly.

Update: This is gonna sound weird but I just remembered that one of my block neighbours does indeed have the surname "Cao". So I gave him a poke on Telegram to confirm and no, it's not pronounced that way.

edited 8th Jun '18 3:52:48 PM by eagleoftheninth

Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)

Smack talk best talk

It's possible to loot Red Hare? Also, did Xiahou Dun just pursue Lu Bu?

If there's a good reason for my Total War-playing RL friend (the same one who recommended Stellaris) to finally get/build a gaming PC of his own, that video alone would probably be it.

But I still want to see Zhang He in that game.

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

Isn't Cao like Anglicized spelling for Tsao?

Kind of like how Kungfutse is called Confucious in english speaking countries and Tšingis Khan is called Ghengis Khan?

edited 8th Jun '18 11:41:23 PM by SpookyMask

Chinese has a lot of phonemes that are difficult to transliterate in English - Hanyu Pinyin is really just a rough approximation. The "C" here is a post-alveolar consonant (with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth just behind the teeth) that sounds a bit like a mix between the English "th-" and "ch-".

Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)

On a different note, you can apparently redeem a 25% discount on Empire Divided via Total War Access until June 10.

(*sighs*) Please tell me they're not doing it to weasel out of the next Steam Sale...

edited 9th Jun '18 7:07:39 AM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

The duel looks great, anyone have an idea what happens to the rest of the army while it's happening?

Do all the troops stand around, politely waiting while they duke it out or do you have split your attention between the fight and commanding the troops

edited 9th Jun '18 10:06:46 PM by jormis29

I don't think they've said which is the case, but I'm assuming commanding your other troops will remain since the duels don't have to end in a death, thus one would assume morale plays the other part which could be affected by the rest of the battle.

...also probably because if that's not the case, people are going to demand something be done with the duel option being a "long unskippable cutscene" button.

Decided to pick up Attila along with all the DLC during the July 4th sale on Steam. Been having a great time with the game. Started an Eastern Roman Empire playthrough where I managed to kill Alaric (with Emperor Arcadius's bodyguards personally delivering the killing blow) on turn 4, chased the second Visigoth army into the Western Roman Empire where it was annihilated outside of Ravenna, and made a defensive alliance with, of all factions, the Huns. Any faction that declares war on me gets beaten up by them while I build economy and I keep my personal horde happy with fat payouts.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Very nice politicking there ;3

But my efforts at a Chaos campaign in Warhammer II's Mortal Empires has been bearing a lot of fruit. The Norscans are down to five settlements with only one army left. I only have Archaon and one low-level army led by a Chaos Sorcerer of Shadow, but hopefully I'll be able to defend Norsca from the Empire and Kislev until I can get Sigvald and Kholek. I guess I can run around and raid places with Archaon to build up population in my Horde, at least before I start my true invasion.

Edited by theLibrarian on Jul 9th 2018 at 11:15:02 AM