It looks like this one might finally happen. Gamespot is good for something. 7 free screenshots.
If you have Gamespot Complete I am sure there is a Nakednews type version of these screenshots with an accompanying nude commentator describing the game’s features. Us cheap bastards will have to settle for the freebies.
I wish someone at Sierra would announce that there may be an announcement about this one at E3. :wink:
Huh? We announced this game in 2001…
We’ll be showing the game at E3. We showed it at our event last week.
I know, I know…It has been too long in coming that’s all. Plus, 2001 was what 7 or 8 years ago?
I want to know when Civil War Generals III is coming out.
Does this have a castle building component or do you just get the square in a square castle type in the screenshots?
By the way Game-developers-writing-games-that-have-castles:
I just read the definitive (and boringest) treatise on Castles from ancient times until the “hey these castles aren’t working too good anymore” days and let me tell you something:
Five percent of the castles profiled were the square in a square type. Most of them had funky shapes that contoured the land.
So quit it with the boring castle designs.
I am trying to incite a riot at different spots throughout the internet so some info might be leaked, but to no avail.
I am hearing a lot of “more to come”. All I am saying is that it has been in development a while and I am looking forward to it. I have been checking this guy’s site at strategyplanet for a couple of years. Until the last few days, it had been pretty much a ghost town with its owner stating that he was not dead every few months. I gave up on dedicated forums for all games since the speculation vs. relevant info ratio is 1048:1.
My point/question is: I know development cycles have stretched and, as the LotR series is an important property, it needs to be handled appropriately. Some developers give alpha shots, concept art, and/or developer logs. Others clam up like a game’s development was marked C.I.A.: confidential.
Why announce a game and then release little to no information on it for 2+ years?
Is there not a risk of people losing interest and forgetting about it?
Heh, I guess that’s because every sane knight would build his castle on a hill or mountain top, not on a plain where it obstructs valuable farmland and is perhaps subject to floods or fire from adjacent hills…
Then again, the designers would have to build a more complex engine that could handle movement up and down slopes, give the appropriate terrain bonuses or penalties, and restrict passages for approaching troops depending on their number and type.
Sounds much harder to me than just plunking down a square castle on a plain, as the LOTR3 screenshots show. Which is probably why we don’t see it. But I agree, based on those screenshots I hope the sieges are just a sideshow and the meat is in the strategic game.
I have to say I’m excited about this game, but I’m also disappointed that companies keep giving us the same game over and over and over.
I mean, how many “rule a kingdom from a high level and do some fighting” games do we have at this point? There are at least 6 current games that have this basic outline.
Why can’t I get just one “micromanage a medieval town and run your castle” game? I mean, Europa 1400 is a REALLY good first step in this direction, but it’s not enough.
And Stronghold is ok in the design a castle and micromanage your town department, but it’s also not enough.
Somebody needs to merge Europa 1400 and Stronghold into a 3D castle building medieval town running fiesta of joy.
Castle editor is included and offers much more than “square in a square” castle design ability, though still short of the real variety seen across Europe.
The playing of the game is quite different from other RTS’s on the Kingdom level. There are hundreds and hundreds of unique vassals at your service, but only a few lands to assign them to. What vassal you establish on what land is a huge strategic element, but can be executed very quickly. I’ve never played anything quite like it except when my kid made me play “Magic” with him.
The game is currently at pre-alpha with progress being made quickly. An open beta is scheduled for later this year.
Civil War Generals III is still “on the backburner.”
Woohoo!!! Thanks Marweas!! That’s all I require. A little peek now and again. Well, that and weekly personal, emails from Zeb Cook. Now I can shut my friggin’ yapper for a few weeks.
Civil War Generals III is still “on the backburner.”
Ouch! This is a good example of what I had feared for LotR III. A game is rumored or may have been announced, you hear no word for an extended period, and then someone says it is “on hold” or something similair.
Adam, don’t mind Tyler, he only ever talks about LotR3.
Am I coming off as offending my good friends at Sierra? :wink: I love Sierra. I bring up a couple of legitimate concerns which may be liberally laced with sarcasm and I am branded as a troublemaker. Spoofy apologized for me in some thread and now my Birmingham brother. I am so misunderstood.
No worries. I’ll take all the rabid Lords fans I can muster!
Tay Tay should know I’m kidding. my sweet little tay tay
Can I take offense for being lumped in with “rabid” LotR fans? :wink: I am just looking forward to a decent castle/city/peon management game with the occasional siege and slaughtering of innocent townsfolk. If you can give us something similair to that, then I will never question the wisdom of Sierra again.
[PM Jason McMaster]Jason, I know you were kidding. I am trying to drum up some controversy which we can then turn into hits on our site. Like East coast/West coast rappers do and translate it into album sales. So just play along and these simps at Qt3 will be none the wiser. [/PM Jason McMaster]
This needs to be on the “Why I play games” poll. Because it is.
I guess we’ll have to tak eyou off the list then. While there is plenty of siege and slaughter of innocents, there is a purposeful lack of “peon” management. Our research uncovered a startling fact overlooked by most RTS’s - real leaders don’t deal with peons. That’s what vassals are for. ;)
See there, another nasty little fact I was completely unaware of. At this rate, I may actually know what the game is going to be like before long. Wait a minute here. You didn’t just change the name from peon to vassal did you? :wink:
I am all for an elimination of peon mgmt. It works in some titles (AoM for one) and does not bother me as it does others. Warlords Battlecry II cut it down somewhat and I was perfectly happy with that, too. Kohan had none of it and I loved that game. As long as I do not have just one giant Lord which I must slap around to keep from eating people, I think I will be deliriously happy.
I wish I could get this at my job…where I’m the peon being managed.
:-(
Dammit, why didn’t WE think of that?!?! ;)
Actually, the kingdom level of the game reminds me very much of MtG. You have “parcels” of land, each of which supports one Vassal. A vassal can be in charge of military, farming, the church, or a merchant. How the parcel of land is developed stems from the type of vassal running it. Since there are over 1000 unique vassals, how you apportion the vassals available to you on the parcels you have sets up the framework for the military conflicts. Then you take the forces available down to the battle level, and there the fun really gets medieval. Siege engines, crumbling walls, catapults, and even clouds that cast shadows on the terrain as they float by.