This game is becoming more complex and detailed every week!

Announcements will be made in the future but we do have plans to make this an extremely moddable game.

Modders, start your engines.

On your marks!

Empire will feature up to 10,000 units at once in Land Battles. These are handled with approximately 20 unit cards.

Approximately? What?

The next challenge was getting ships to move across that water in a way that at least felt and looked realistic. And then on top of that make them sink in a way that looked real. In the end we created a system that gave ships appropriate buoyancy and, when the ship was holed, made it take on water in a way that looked great.

Oh my! Better and better.

Strategy Informer: Will we see a demo before the official game release? If yes, when can we expect to see it?

Creative Assembly: It’s too early to speculate at this point.

Sods.

For example; competing nations’ warships will fight over trade routes and access to the seas. We now have “Trade Theatres” (Such as the East Indies, East Africa, the Ivory coast and South America) where the main objective is to monopolise the trade goods produced there and ship them back to your home ports, without the enemy getting their hands on it. Supporting your overseas colonies and invasions of other continents will require shipping of troops and protecting them with your navies. Failure to protect transported troops will result in disaster unless you manage to avoid enemy shipping.

I can see myself slogging and loathing this and I'm sure other people will.

Agents have been reduced in number, made more important and overhauled. Now we have Gentlemen who can turn their hand to increasing the speed of your nation’s research, steal enemy technology or duel with enemy Gentlemen and Rakes. Meanwhile Rakes will assassinate, sabotage and spy on armies.

Sounds a bit childish. Why not call Rakes, Agent's, and Gentlemens, Spies. Or just have them put into one. Because spies at this time are more likely to steal enemy technology and what the hell is a Rake!

"what the hell is a Rake!"

A "Rake" is an old-fashioned word for someone without too many morals.

"ensuring that fighting the French *actually feels like* fighting the French, as opposed to battling Native Americans, or other factions who might and should behave very differently - in terms of how they form, how they move and use the units and special abilities under their disposal, and how they react to the player's actions."

Brilliant!

"I can see myself slogging and loathing this and I'm sure other people will."

I'd imagine that they'll have a trade system like in Call to Power II.

[This message has been edited by Guy Fawkes (edited 09-05-2008 @ 03:33 PM).]

I hope they don't just lump all Native Americans together.

This is newsied on both front pages.
http://medieval2.heavengames.com/
http://rtw.heavengames.com/
Thanks for the heads up Stormer.

I'm not sure about the trade routes Trottski. Up till now, a player could make a very strong empire without bother to recruit even a single ship. Now if a player wants to be strong, they'll have to put a bit of effort in there too.

Where it says gentlemen will be put up as spies or maybe assasians I wonder how he's going to do that. Sleep with the French's king daughter.

I don't want a gentlemen turning out like Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

Gentlemen should just be captains or recruitable generals. Their current role makes little sense.

I'm liking the sound of the agents- stealing technology and such could turn into great fun

Sounds too Civ-ish to me.

I too think Gentlemen and Rakes sounds too childish. We have had Spies and Assassins since MTW. Let's keep it that way.

Andalus, your out-of-date, maybe a change is better.

"We have had Spies and Assassins since MTW."

Well, in Medieval II: Kingdoms Americas Campaign, there were Guides, Explorers etc.

Besides, I'm sure we'll be able to mod the agents' names fairly easily.

Andalus, your out-of-date, maybe a change is better.

Change is never better.

No change is good sometimes like When I changed my old pc to a newer one.

Change is never better.

Are you sure you don't want change I couldn't stomach having Shogun 5: Total War in successive years with no changing to the medieval period, Ancient Rome and etc :P

Looking good so far...

[This message has been edited by Scipii (edited 09-07-2008 @ 00:28 AM).]

Ah, Scipii got it in one.

I didn't really mean nothing should ever change. But when a system works fine, there is no need to make an unnecessary change. The thing is, it's not even the concept, so much. I just think the names of the agents sound ridiculous. But as Guy said:

I'm sure we'll be able to mod the agents' names fairly easily.

I for one will be doing that the moment I install it.

But despite my comments, this really is looking good. From what we have seen, it will put all other games in the shade. I just don't want it to be spoiled by overcomplication. All things need change, but there should still be that plain simple essence of the TW game.

Dont worry.
Overcomplication is not on our agenda.
Our ambition on this game has been to give the player more choices and more interaction, but simplifying the process of manangement, and making things more imediately obvious.
Hopefully you'll agree when you finally get a chance to play the game.

That's very encouraging news Intrepid.

I for one look forward to the changes and additions that are going to be a part of E:TW. Of course when it comes out the pc I have now is nowhere near capable of handling it, so I'll probably stick EB and later EB2 until I get a new rig.

*whistles*

Can't wait for ETW, looking forward to it.

Your up early DU.

Thanks, Intrepid
IMO, Rakes and Gentlemen seem to fit more with the theme and their roles. Rakes area combined spy and assassin, after all (To be honest, the two professions merged into a grey area ), and what other name could you have for the function the Gentlemen? An inventor? Hm...

Thanks Intrepid, encouraging news, I like the names of the agents, better than just the original spy and assassin

"Sounds too Civ-ish to me."

Oh, I don't know, I've always kinda liked Civ-style games.

EDIT:

"the main objective is to monopolise the trade goods produced there and ship them back to your home ports, without the enemy getting their hands on it."

I'd imagine that this will be like Call to Power II. So you can pirate your enemies' trade routes by moving an army (land) or navy (sea) onto them, appropriating all revenue they would produce that turn for you.

[This message has been edited by Guy Fawkes (edited 09-08-2008 @ 01:45 PM).]

i agree with the above -- 'rakes' and 'gentlemen' sounds a bit too fantastic to me. there was nothing wrong with the more generic spy, assassin, explorer tags w/o it getting all dopey!

I think that the idea of Gentlemen and Rakes does seem a bit strange, but I think CA could take this break from tradition and do something with it. I like the idea of a system that allows you to spawn a single type of agent, and let his attributes sort out what he becomes (similar to the Chivalry/Dread system in M2). A Man might be trained in a city with high unrest and have more "dread", and therefore would be better at spying and assassinating, where as a man trained in a city with a high level town hall or government center would become a more effective diplomat. Obviously there are some logical flaws to the idea of hitman-diplomats, but I think the duality that CA took with their generals in M2 was a great step forward as regards to strategic gaming, and I'd love to see that taken further.

Oh, I don't know, I've always kinda liked Civ-style games.

Even the annoying dink dink tune the spies make when they move.

and what other name could you have for the function the Gentlemen? An inventor?

Errm. Spy or a maybe a kinda like a Agent. And he walks around the map more stealthily then a spy.