Truth. First time I’ve had a problem with DRM since the days of SecureROM, and it brings back some bad memories.
No, China number five! Taiwan number one! USA number two!
According to certain historical sources they were very powerful.
Mmm, so I was planning to play this in Romance mode, which seems really fun. However:
1- I’m getting a new machine next week, and I play in 1080p, so I should be able to play this on Ultra or maybe High-Ultra setting anyway.
2- The game has a new unit size “extreme” with 25% more soldiers per unit than ultra.
3- Records mode has soldiers along with the generals, making for up to 6 more units in play.
4- I think the maximum numbers of soldiers in a battlefield will be about 15-20k
So, the idea of playing a battle with 20k soldiers on-screen is tempting me to move towards records mode.
And now I’ll have to watch Hero again, won’t I?
Last night I learned how deadly Chinese archers are in one of my battles. I had about a 40% more powerful army but I only had one archer unit and a lot of calvary. My opponents strength rating was weaker but he had a force of of about 60% archery units and they were deadly and decimated my troops. I initially won with I think a ‘Close Victory’, said fuck that I can do better and replayed the battle only to end with a ‘Pyhrric Victory’. Gulp.
Otherwise I am loving the game so far. Total War games are strategy games about spectacle and Creative Assembly was firing on all cylinders here. The on-boarding and organic tutorial aspects have been spot on; helpful but never getting in the player’s way and the UI (including the F1 explanatory overlay) is wonderful.
This morning I had to think long and hard if I could come up with an adequate excuse to stay home from work to keep playing. Responsibility prevailed, but barely.
Supposedly they made the archers strong but limited their armor. Cunning stat helps armor. Strategist generals help archers somehow? I don’t know if that’s because they can recruit catas and crossbows
I tried a Liu bei which is like normal tw, albeit a bit slow in healing.
Tried a kong Rong tall mode but man… stupid events fire and I lose my capital. Gonna have to retry.
I hate blob melee fights and the unit cards are way too small at 3840x. They need bigger ui scale, 130% not enough
Man, I checked the specs you need to run this at 4K…
I’m so happy with my 1080p monitor. I know I will have to upgrade, but not until 4K at high capable graphic cards are affordable…
Runs 50 FPS with a 1070 on medium, no problem.
I like maxing settings (or getting as close to it as I can get) on TW games. I think they look significantly more impressive with all the detail in.
That director has a new movie out called Shadow that’s set during the Three Kingdom’s period and is fantastic.
I haven’t seen a new Zhang Yimou movie in so long. I don’t even remember one being advertised in the US since Curse of the Golden Flower.
Yeah, we were really lucky to find out about it a day before it left theaters here (yesterday was the last day it was in Seattle).
So I really enjoyed Shogun 2 and still feel its the pinnacle of the Total War series.
How does this stack up against it? My general knowledge of China and its history is very weak. So would I find this time period interesting?
I didn’t play Shogun 2 very much, so I might get some of this wrong, but I feel that there is a bit more variation in armies in this one (though still, obviously, much less variation than in Warhammer). There is definitely a deeper strategy element with a much more enhanced diplomacy system and court system. The battles, though, probably play out roughly the same as Shogun 2.
I doubt that a lack of knowledge of Chinese history is going to hamstring you at all, though.
lordkosc
I think it’s a pretty good fit for Shogun II players. Visually, they share the same half-fantastic aesthetic. The map layout is also similar, with lots of mountains and forests creating pathways and choke points between provinces.
Most factions share a unit roster, with distinctions based on weapons and battlefield roles. I don’t know if there’s anything comparable to the Ashigari-Samurai split in Shogun. So far, it looks like heroes fill the elite role. In general, fiddling with the hero system does feel reminiscent of grooming super-agents in Shogun II.
It also seems to share a narrative and geographic focus. The story events pull the factions into conflict at the center of the map. The kingdom formation mechanic sounds similar to realm divide.
Wow, I wish I had turned on the “Records” post-process filter (not to be confused with Records mode) earlier. It turns the game from painfully vibrant to actually nice looking. Obviously extremely subjective, though.
I have to admit that the default “Romance” post-process filter is kind of off-putting to me.
Random question - is there an option to disable the animation for the tech tree? I know it’s like 4 seconds long, but it’s like the default “show cinematic battle intros” in AoW3. Neat a few times and then you wish it wasn’t a feature at all.
This game hit 170k concurrent players peak today.
That’s a lot of concurrent players. Hats off to CA!
As a former colorist, I am extremely pleased they actually decided to implemnt two different color corrections depending of the overall feel of the game.
I went and watched a video, and I like both, though, so I’ll probably keep each mode distinct just for variety.