Medieval II: Total War
| Medieval 2: Total War | |
|---|---|
| File:Mtw1.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | Creative Assembly |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | November 14, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time tactics, Turn-based strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multi-player |
Medieval 2: Total War is the indirect sequel to 2002's Medieval: Total War, and the fourth game in the critically acclaimed Total War series from The Creative Assembly. It was announced on 20th January, 2006. The game will be released on November 14th, 2006. A demo of the game was released on october 10 2006 featuring the a tutorial of the battle of hastings, the battle of pavia and the battle of agincourt.
The game will be set between the years 1080 and 1530. Like the previous game, it will focus on medieval warfare, religion and politics in Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia. However, unlike its predecessor, the timeframe stretches into the era of the historical discovery of the New World; accordingly, this becomes part of the campaign map, with the Aztec Empire faction to represent the native peoples of Central America.
Features
Religion
in Medieval 2: Total War the Pope can excommunicate Catholic factions that do not bend to his will sufficiently. As the game progresses, players will be able to develop their religious characters to the point where they can even get their own cardinal elected as Pope. He can also grant Crusades to various factions/settlements. Spreading one's religion is also a major part of the game, for example by putting priests in enemy settlements, where he will convert the population, and may cause riots and unrest in the settlement (as well as gaining the priest's owner popularity with the Pope for "spreading the word of God"). How the player interacts with the Pope will determine your standing with him; if the player listens to his demands, the Pope will like him and grant benefits; if the player ignores him, the Pope may excommunicate him.
When the existing Pope dies (for whatever reason), a new Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. If the player has a cardinal of sufficiently high rank, he may be a candidate in the election. The player can then negotiate with the other factions to get them to vote for his man, or the player can agree to vote for theirs. The player will be able to bribe or bully other factions to vote for his candidate or sell his vote to the highest bidder. The new Pope will remember who voted for him and who against, so how to cast one's vote requires some consideration if the player is unsure of winning himself.
If a region is deemed to be too heretical, the Pope may send an inquisitor to stamp out the problem. However, in the process the inquisitor could accuse generals The major religions pertaining to the varied cultures during the Middle Ages include:
Also, there will be features such as sectarian break-offs from major religions, resulting in heresy, especially as the game ends slightly after Protestant Reformation; heresies will likely be similar to how they were in Medieval 1, in that they operated similar to the standard religions. Other religions, notably Judaism, do not make an appearance, as no nation featured followed Judaism.
Crusades will be far more of an “event” in Medieval 2 than they were in the original Medieval. The Pope will commission a crusade that all Catholic factions then have the option to join. The faction that captures the target first will gain considerable prestige and wealth, as well as significantly boosting its standing with the Pope. As the player gains more influence with the Pope he can begin to request the Pope call Crusades on specific targets of the player's choosing. The player will choose one general to lead the crusade, assuming they participate. All units under that general get double movement distance and do not need upkeep. If taking the target takes too long, however, units may begin to desert.
Jihads can be called by Muslim imams with a sufficient religion rating. They can be called against settlements owned by non-Muslim factions that have significant Muslim populations. Once a character decides to go on Jihad, he’ll have a range of low cost religious troops that he can recruit to the cause.
Diplomacy
As in the original Medieval: Total War, diplomacy will be dramatically different from diplomacy from Rome: Total War. The original game featured diplomacy using emissaries and princesses to achieve political gain. The diplomacy system in Medieval 2 has been improved to give the player a lot more information about how the AI player feels both about them, and about the offer on the table. The diplomacy screen includes an array of new information, including how the other faction feels towards the player. When making an offer, there is an onscreen display showing how fair the AI considers the offer to be. The AI will be better inclined towards the player if he makes fair or generous offers, but sometimes the player will be able to force them to accept unfavourable deals. Finally, after the deal is made, there’s audio and visual feedback about how the diplomatic rival felt about the transaction.
As in Medieval: Total War, the player will have access to a host of characters to aid in the acquisition of power. The original Medieval had priests, bishops, cardinals, inquisitors, imams and alims that the different religions could use to spread the faith, improve loyalty, or root out heretics. The player also had access to assassins to kill troublesome foes (or his own disloyal generals) and some factions could use princesses to forge an alliance through marriage. Medieval 2 will most likely incorporate many of these aspects to allow the creation of an empire not only through military conquest, but through skillful diplomacy involving religion, marriage, or assassination.
Campaign
The developers for Medieval 2 introduced a new system for developing settlements, a new recruitment system, an enhanced system for the treatment of religion, enhanced diplomacy, new trade options, improved missions, improved sabotage and espionage, improved AI, new tech tree buildings and more. The campaign map will be somewhat similar to that seen in Rome but with enhancements, and later in the game the map expands to offer the opportunity to discover and conquer the Americas.
Conquering the Americas will grant the faction that does so great rewards, such as the economic benefits of finding exotic new resources and goods as well as gold. Catholic factions will find their standing with the Pope increased as their faith is spread to the population there. Lastly, being the first faction to conquer the Aztecs will put the faction in a strong position to defend against other invading factions.
Medieval 2 introduces the option for players to develop their settlements either as a city or as castle. They both offer advantages, and it is a question of balancing the use of your settlements to suit such factors as map location, proximity to possible enemy factions and whether the player adopts a militaristic or economic approach to expansion.
Castles emphasize the military; factions with many castles become extremely potent militarily and require less management, but are weaker economically. Meanwhile, cities result in a reliance on dubious militias or mercenaries to protect them, but provide great economic resources. As a result, the level of strategy required for economic and territorial expansion will be increased.
One of the most significant additions to the tech tree in Medieval 2 is the addition of Guild halls. There will be various different types of guilds that give different bonuses to the faction's settlements. Each city can have only one guild that will give local bonuses to that city. For example, the assassin’s guild will increase the skill of assassins.
Some guilds will grant access to extra units as well. In addition, each faction can have one master guild for each guild type that gives greater bonuses, some of which may apply across all of a faction’s cities. Lastly, it is possible to build a grandmaster guild that acts as a global HQ for that guild type. There can only be one grandmaster building for each guild in the world, so the faction that constructs it first will have an advantage in that particular area.
The player is now able to train multiple units per turn from a recruitment pool. As the settlement or city grows in size, more recruitment slots will become available.
Agents and Characters
All agent characters have attributes that develop the more the faction puts them to use in the campaign game. Princesses, for example, have a Charm attribute that governs their success in diplomacy and the likelihood that a proposal in marriage will be accepted. There will also be a whole new set of traits for characters, along with a number of primary attributes.
One major addition is the idea of "Chivalry" and "Dread" that effectively decide how a character is perceived, thus giving characters far more distinct personalities. Like all traits and attributes, characters develop these through their actions in the game. For example, when a general captures a city, the player will have the option to peacefully occupy the city or to exterminate the population. The option that is taken will determine how the general's personality develops. Leaders with a high "Chivalry" level will inspire loyalty in those around them, while high "Dread" lords can terrify their followers and the enemy alike.
Lastly, Medieval 2 will include a new type of character called "merchantmen". These characters will be able to lay claim to resource deposits located around the campaign map, or even to seize deposits controlled by other factions by force.
There will be videos for assassination, as well as ones for spying and sabotage.
Turn System
Although details on the new turn system are sketchy at best, developers have confirmed that Medieval 2 will no longer use seasons or years as its means of keeping track of time. Rather a system of "turns" will be devised, with each turn representing a certain, perhaps undefined, amount of time. For example, the game will not begin in the year 1080 and end in 1530, but instead will begin on turn 1 and end on turn 225, although players can keep playing past that point if they wish. There are still summer and winter turns from Rome: Total War.
AI
Much criticism on Medieval 2 total war's predecessor Rome Total War was based on the AI and its intelligence in both battle and campaign map. Problems with the AI such as rarely attacking by sea and randomly attacking the player for no logical reason have frustrated many total war players, but Creative Assembly claims that things will be different in Medieval 2. In Medieval 2, the AI will attack according to its diplomatic position, as mentioned in the Diplomacy section. AI will no longer pick a random faction to attack, but will use strategy to decide the best thing to do: Wage war or keep peace. Although this aspect of the AI will be much improved from the older games in the series, it is still unconfirmed whether the AI will still attack by sea more often or not.
Battle System
One of the main focuses on the Total War franchise is its incorporation of battle within the greater sphere of gameplay. Battle normally consists of two or more factions fighting each other. Medieval 2 is expected to have a similar battle style as its predecessor, Medieval: Total War, but incorporating Rome: Total War battle features such as complex formations, special abilities, and so forth. Battles could be fought on the grander scale with nation versus nation, without using all your memory on the computer, but it is not expected to be limited to that only. The player must also fend off bandits and rebels from their own territory as well as managing diplomacy or war if need be. Battle is an integral part of the Medieval 2 experience, but it's up to the player whether or not to pursue battle to achieve their own goals.
Factions
Early release screenshots of the campaign map show the following factions and faction colors. There are 21 total factions, 17 of which are playable. 5 factions are playable from the beginning:
- The Kingdom of England - yellow and red (red dominant)
- The Holy Roman Empire - yellow and black
- The French - light blue and white
- The Republic of Venice - dark brick red and yellow
- The Spanish - yellow and red (yellow dominant)
The rest have to be unlocked:
- The Egyptians (Presumably the Fatimid dynasty (Early Period), Ayyubid dynasty (High Period) and finally the Mamluks (Late Period)) - tanish/yellow and black
- The Byzantine Empire - purple and white
- The Moors also known as Almohads - orange and white
- The Scots - dark blue and white
- The Danes - red and white (red dominant)
- The Portuguese - light blue and white (white dominant)
- The Poles - red and white (white dominant)
- The Milanese - green and white
- The Sicilians - white and black
- The Russians - dark blue and red
- The Hungarians - orange and green
- The Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Turks - green and yellow
Also, certain factions appear during the campaign game (called Emerging Factions) and are unplayable:
- The Aztec Empire - light blue and yellow
- The Timurids - black and red
- The Mongols - dark green and tan/white (?)
- The Papacy (non-playable) - yellow and white
- The Rebel Provinces are also a faction, represented on the campaign map by the same grey colors as in previous games.
Note - see the Komnenian army for more information on the Byzantine army of the crusading period.
Technical
Following complaints that the soldiers appeared to be clones in the previous entry in the series, Rome: Total War, the developer, The Creative Assembly, now has devised a system that will allow soldiers to look different from one another.
Picking randomly from 5 to 7 heads, 3 torsos, 3 sets of legs, 3 sets of arms, and 10 different shield designs, so no two soldiers will look the same. For instance, knights will have different coats-of-arms, some soldiers will have beards and others will not, and so forth. Details will also be improved- for example, over time armies' weapons will show wear and soon they will be covered with muck, dirt, or blood adding to the graphical realism.
It has also been said that the game's physics and animation system will be revised. For instance, a soldier who gets speared in the leg will fall realistically, and not simply roll over. The battlefield and city rendering system has also been overhauled. Per pixel lighting has also been mentioned as a feature in the new game engine by the developers.
Also, to increase the fighting realism, units will choose from a variety of attacks and use parries and blocks. These actions will be strung together using motion-captured actions, making unique and realistic attack combos. Therefore, the fighting will be much more fluid and believable. "Troops block and parry attack moves and string together deadly combo attacks and finishing moves before scanning the battlefield for their next kill." For example, they will not continually slice in one spot, but they will stab or slash the enemy to finish them off. Additionally to add to the realism, swords and spears are shown to go through soldiers on the battlefield sometimes when they die in gameplay videos, much different than earlier Total War games.