Total War series fans

[Galaril]

Here is something ran across to today online. The Total War Eras Collection. it has ALL the TW games from Shogun allt he way to the Alexander game pack they just released. So that is three full games and four expansion packs. It also has a pretty good looking book with it (manual) It is coming out at the end of the month for around $50. But I bet it there will be deals around.

hxxp://www.totalwar.com/us/newsandpress.html

[Buccaneer]

After I get done with my OOTP career, I plan on playing another game of Civ4 then I want to do Shogun again. I hadn't played that in a few years and sort of nostalgic for it. Do you know if anyone has ever done anything with that (mod, etc.) since MTW came out?

[Eaglesfan27]

I bought this today because I never played Shogun (or its expansion) or Rome: Total War and its expansions. It includes every expansion and each of the three games. The manual is actually quite nice and it is a total of 275 pages and it includes each of the original manuals in order of publication. This was a very nice feature as I've found myself growing tired of printing out electronic manuals included with older games "Gold editions." Also, a bonus media disk and a few cool looking posters. Since, I've never played Shogun or Rome, I think it is going to be well worth the price. I'm looking forward to diving into Shogun some tonight.

[jbmagic]

Rome Total War didnt do well. The Ai was weaker than in MTW.

MTW is the best in the series.

[Eaglesfan27]

Rome Total War didnt do well. The Ai was weaker than in MTW.

MTW is the best in the series.

From everything I've read, with the total realism mod, the AI is at least decent.

[Eaglesfan27]

While I debated on a new thread so that more people will see this, hopefully someone who can help me will see my problem in this thread.

When I'm starting Shogun, I'm getting a blank screen with the music playing in the background. I seem to be having trouble seeing the videos. I have all of the most recent drivers for my video card. One time, after exiting, it went straight to the start menu, but I exited the program because I wanted to try to figure out why the opening video isn't playing.

Any ideas?

[SunDevil]

Welcome to the Total War Series. Even with a collection they still manage to capture the experience of booting up one of their games, like it is when they are first released. :)

[Eaglesfan27]

I found a "read me" included with the game, and apparently the flickering screens that I'm experiencing is a "known" issue with the newest ATI cards that use Catalyst drivers. There is no posted solution to this known problem. Now, I just have to see if this makes the game unplayable for me, or the problem remains limited to menus..

Edited to add: I might try playing Shogun only on my laptop which has older drivers, if the problem persists.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ok, this is pissing me off. I finally gave up playing Shogun on my newer computer. It plays ok on my laptop. However, I had a good game of medieval going on my newer computer. I started in 1087 and was doing well with England. Now, it is crashing EVERY time I hit 1205 (which is the transition point of an era.) I can't figure out why it is doing this, but it is very frustrating as I've invested some time and am doing very well in this game.

[jbmagic]

Ok, this is pissing me off. I finally gave up playing Shogun on my newer computer. It plays ok on my laptop. However, I had a good game of medieval going on my newer computer. I started in 1087 and was doing well with England. Now, it is crashing EVERY time I hit 1205 (which is the transition point of an era.) I can't figure out why it is doing this, but it is very frustrating as I've invested some time and am doing very well in this game.

To be safe, Be sure you have the latest patch version.

I am not familar if the Total War series is already updated to the latest patch.

[Eaglesfan27]

To be safe, Be sure you have the latest patch version.

I am not familar if the Total War series is already updated to the latest patch.

It's already patched as far as they are going to go. Apparently, from the boards these crashes just happen sometimes, and maybe related to having too new of a graphics card (like Shogun.) So, I started playing Rome Total War over the last few hours and had a lot more fun with the tutorial than I thought I would. Definitely, the most fun tutorial of the 3 games..

Hopefully, I don't start getting crashes with this game on the new computer.

[Buccaneer]

What was it like playing Shogun again after Medieval?

[Eaglesfan27]

What was it like playing Shogun again after Medieval?

Well it didn't work on my newest computer. It didn't work on my laptop either, but fortunately it works on my oldest desktop. I had never played Shogun before. I played Medieval first, and I think Medieval is my favorite. However, there are things about Shogun I definitely like, and I'm a big fan of the historical setting. I guess my biggest gripe about Shogun is the AI doesn't seem quite as challenging as Medieval, however, this could be due in part to having gone through the learning curve with Medieval. I'm actually playing Rome: Total War with the realism mod the most right now. Buying this collection (and playing Rome for the first time) has certainly stirred my interest in seeing how Medieval 2 turns out.

[Grammaticus]

Can't help, I have never played Shogun.

But Rome Total War is one of the best games I've ever played.

[tanglewood]

I played Shogun when it first came out and thought it was amazing. Skipped Medieval beacause the setting didn't interest me much, then bought Rome which I thought was very good but really, really easy. The Total Realism update however has catapulted Rome to a great game too.

[tanglewood]

Dola

I am horribly dissapointed that they've gone back to medieval for the next in the series. I think the fedual Japan setting is so much more interesting. I'd have wanted them to go back and do Shogun 2, or try some other setting like a 19th century Napoleonic/Imperial game or ancient China.

[Groundhog]

Dola

I am horribly dissapointed that they've gone back to medieval for the next in the series. I think the fedual Japan setting is so much more interesting. I'd have wanted them to go back and do Shogun 2, or try some other setting like a 19th century Napoleonic/Imperial game or ancient China.

Preach on. Shogun: Total War 2 is a wet dream of mine.

[Buccaneer]

Preach on. Shogun: Total War 2 is a wet dream of mine.

That would be up there. The greatest, however, would be American Civil War: Total War.

[GrantDawg]

That would be up there. The greatest, however, would be American Civil War: Total War.


Yes. Very much yes.

[Coffee Warlord]

Dola

I am horribly dissapointed that they've gone back to medieval for the next in the series. I think the fedual Japan setting is so much more interesting. I'd have wanted them to go back and do Shogun 2, or try some other setting like a 19th century Napoleonic/Imperial game or ancient China.

Bah, Medieval is where it's at.

Unfortunately, they have totally butchered the new version, to the point where it's possible I won't even buy the damn game.

[Eaglesfan27]

Bah, Medieval is where it's at.

Unfortunately, they have totally butchered the new version, to the point where it's possible I won't even buy the damn game.

Where is that info coming from? I'm getting excited about Medieval 2, and am interested in reading info that might temper or quell that excitement if it is warranted.

[Coffee Warlord]

Where is that info coming from? I'm getting excited about Medieval 2, and am interested in reading info that might temper or quell that excitement if it is warranted.

Alright, from the devs themselves (and causing a major uproar on the forums over there)...here's the biggest issue I have.


- Years are gone, replaced with only turn numbers.
- Royal family members still age at 1 year / turn.
- The game is slated to span 200-225 turns. Starting in 1087 (or rather, turn 1) and running through the 1500's.

Now, do the math there. We've got damn near 500 years of history spanning 200 turns. You're gonna go from spearmen to full plate knights and muskets in 30 seconds flat. Add to the fact that, since your nobles age at a totally seperate rate, you can theoretically have like 3 kings spanning your entire dynasty.

Some people might find this alright. I happen to love long, drawn out games, with a rich and full dynasty. The role playing aspects of the game are totally butchered with these decisions. Not to mention I don't give a rats ass about the whole Americas thing, and fear that it is going to take up wayyyy too much of the game. Screw gunpowder era stuff, I like the focus on the Medieval portion of Medieval.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ahh, that does sound irritating at the very least. I'll have to check out the forums over there and see what other issues might be present that might detract from the game for me.

[Anthony]

even in the game the gunpowder troops aren't that effective. they're mainly to reduce the morale of the other side's troops cuz the guns scares the warriors.

i'll buy it first thing, i don't care - it can be modded into shape. i want the same thing out of this game that CW does, but i love this series so much and i love the medieval period a LOT so i'll take what i can get.

[Buccaneer]

I just loaded up Shogun again, then come to find out that it doesn't work on XP. I found a blurb about running it in Win95 compatible mode but you must include all of the linked files as well. I don't know what they are so it looks like I won't be playing this.

[tanglewood]

Dola

I am horribly dissapointed that they've gone back to medieval for the next in the series. I think the fedual Japan setting is so much more interesting. I'd have wanted them to go back and do Shogun 2, or try some other setting like a 19th century Napoleonic/Imperial game or ancient China.

Looks like part of that wish came true...

http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tm.asp?m=177222

[Buccaneer]

You are not going to believe this but after 6+ hours of work, I finally got Shogun to work. What I did was to cobble together spare parts and put them into my (old) extra CPU that still had Win98 on it. Once I got all of the parts working, I still had a ways to go. It's a 233Mhz CPU with 256mb RAM. The video card was a 16mb Voodoo3 so I thought I would upgrade that card. I got a 64mb GeForce4 MX from a friend because it was a PCI card whereas my spare card was AGP. Once I got the box to read my flash stick, I used the latest nvidia drivers. Win98 worked great with the upgrade but Shogun (with v1.12) did not (the battle part would crawl and could not use the mouse to move/pan). I recalled that there were specific drivers that worked with Shogun (according to Erado San) so I dug down deep and found an old nvidia 6.18 driver and used that instead of 91.something. Didn't work obviously because the old driver did not recognize the newer card. So after all that, I put the Voodoo3 card back in, pointed it to the 3dfx driver and it worked! After loading up a battle, I could move/pan smoothly. The moral of the story is if you want to play non-XP games that are very specific about graphics, just go back in time and make the PC look like it's 1999.

[jbmagic]

Medieval 2: Total War Demo was release.
http://videogames.yahoo.com/predownload?eid=486551

Hopefully the AI will be strong like the original MTW was.

Rome total war AI was a joke.

[Izulde]

Replacing years with turns?

Okay that just turned MTW2 into a no buy for me. I'll stick with CK, thanks, and hope CK2 comes out sometime.

[Grammaticus]

Medieval 2: Total War Demo was release.
http://videogames.yahoo.com/predownload?eid=486551

Hopefully the AI will be strong like the original MTW was.

Rome total war AI was a joke.

Did you play RTW on the most difficult settings. It was not bad when played that way. The only part I thought was a push over was the naval combat and use of ships by the AI.

[Groundhog]

Did you play RTW on the most difficult settings. It was not bad when played that way. The only part I thought was a push over was the naval combat and use of ships by the AI.

I disagree - it was still pretty woeful. Far too easy to lure the cavalry away from the infantry and then decimate them, and also FAR too easy to attack then AI's side and especially rear flank with cavalry.

The AI needs to be more defensive and reactionary, though that's easier said than done. I must say that this was never a major issue in Shogun: Total War though, as the AI usually coped pretty well when you tried to split it's army or attack it's flanks.

[jbmagic]

The gold demo is out now.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/medieval2totalwar/download.html?sid=6160580

[jbmagic]

The game come out This Tuesday

Best Buy will have it for 49.99 and you get a free $10 gift card.

Who is getting MTW 2?

[Galaril]

Alreadt pre ordered it from NWS online store for 44.99. Had some store credit;)