110°

Doing more with less

It's a basic tenet of strategy and tactics to rely on things to work when you want them to. If you have a gazillion unit types, this can get difficult.

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nightmaremode.net
Xof5362d ago

Ah, Europa Universalis. Many a good strategy game has been ruined by godawful GUI.

Gotta love an article for praising Shogun 2. Definitely a good game. But I would argue that it's not really doing "more" with less, simply because the basic mechanics of strategy we're left to play with are less than or equal to that of the genre's "mean." Which is to say, it's sorely limited in options. Obviously, there's a LOT lacking in terms of diplomacy and empire-building on the strategy map, but even tactical battles are fairly simple. Would be cool if there were ways to build stuff mid-battle (anti-cavalry spikes, traps, etc), start forest-fires, or bribe enemy generals. Or even random elements like tsunamis, sudden thunderstorms, bandit attacks, etc., etc.

And, of course, obligatory, "Why isn't the AI in strategy (or any other game) better NOW than it was a decade ago?" comment.

Anyway, good read.

banjadude5362d ago

Your second paragraph, I want implemented in future TW games IMMEDIATELY! Especially, if Creative Assembly goes back to the Colonial era, they definitely should give us more options to make use of the environment and build stuff mid-battle!

Xof5362d ago

It was a pretty glaring ommission for Shogun 2, alone. I mean, this is a game set in the same space of time when, in reality, Hashiba built a fortress in the middle of the battle just to make the enemy go, "Oh, shit!" and piss themselves (Ichiya Castle).

Yet in the game, all we can really do is move units.

The Total War series started out as a hugely innovative set of games... but is just stagnant, lately. We've been getting more and more of the same, and less and less of the revolutionary ideas that made the early games such amazing successes.

smilydude135362d ago

After playing Medieval 2: Stainless Steel & Empire for hundreds of hours I find I am seriously wanting more depth to the franchise. The battles have become rather predictable & boring at this point and Creative Assembly doesn't seem to have tried to do anything drastic to rectify it.

I'd like to have the unit cap removed, to be honest. Or at the very least improve upon the Kingdoms reinforcement system. I know 20 units is hard enough to manage by itself but it severely limits the options I have for formations and maneuvers. For instance if I have a high number of peasants I can't use them to compliment my army of Samurai as cannon fodder because they take up valuable unit spots. This leads to the only battles happening being between expensive armies comprised entirely of elite units & lower end units being a waste of money.

I also feel that they need to focus on A.I as you can defeat it by simply setting up spears in front of your bowmen and watch as the army slowly walks into range of your arrows, clashes with spearmen, and is quickly routed. I'd also like to agree that they need to implement battlements in a more dynamic manner.

And that's not even touching the multitude of problems plaguing the campaign. Total War has started to become monotonous & repetitive for me and it is in dire need of some massive innovation & added depth and if they don't do something different in their next installment I don't think I will be purchasing it. What makes this even more vexing is that they refuse to properly support their wonderful modding community that I'm sure would be able to minimize a number of the problems if allowed.

50°

EA Lays Off Staff Across All Battlefield Studios Following Record-Breaking Battlefield 6 Launch

EA is laying off an unknown number of individuals from across its Battlefield teams, including workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios, IGN understands.

46d ago Replies(1)
peppeaccardo45d ago

When logic meets EA it generates anti-matter ..... so try not to apply it in any meaningful way. Entropy is what matters in there !!

badz14945d ago

cue the apologist saying that these are mostly just contractors hired for this specific project bla bla bla

HyperMoused45d ago

TTK for BF employees needs adjusting

50°

EA makes layoffs at Skate developer Full Circle

The free-to-play reboot topped 15 million players in under three weeks, but EA now claims it needs to reshape the development team.

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gamedeveloper.com
Profchaos57d ago

The community warned them this would happen but nope they knew better they continued with the live service push the made the art style cartoonish and this is the result

isarai_lee56d ago

It's always so bizarre when studios announce something super early in development under the suggestion of forming the game to player feedback, and then they push against all feedback heading straight for the cliff while everyone is warning them along the way

badboyz0957d ago (Edited 57d ago )

🤣🤣🤣

50°

US Lawmakers Urge Review Of EA Sale

The Congressional Labor Caucus sent a letter to the FTC warning the debt-financed, largely PIF-owned deal could be bad news for workers

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aftermath.site
Trilithon91d ago

lol ya think? they're sending all that work to the cheaper labor market as soon as possible. and FYI, that labor market has exploded in the last 5-10 years. They have enough people to replace every single job. But honestly, EA is over filled with useless upper management as it is. You could probably trim 25% of their staff with no real loss in production. They aren't gamers, they're business execs. Just look at how many AI related jobs they're already starting to post. Its also hilarious that PIF owns Battle field 6

lodossrage91d ago (Edited 91d ago )

Wait,

The same congress that attacked Lina Khan when she fought the Microsoft Activision purchase.
The same congress that allowed Disney to buy 90% of Fox
The same congress that allowed Liv Golf to buy the PGA
The same congress that sits back while Paramount tries a hostile takeover despite losing the bid for Warner Bros.

NOW, the suddenly cares about doing what's "right" for works? Yeah, right.

thorstein91d ago

No. There were elections and some of the scum were replaced.

TheColbertinator90d ago

Different elections. Different scum. Same results.

rlow191d ago

i know its a long shot, but i hope this gets shot down.

ZwVw90d ago

EA now owned by The Saudis and Ubisoft to inevitably be owned by China. In hindsight, once EA and Ubisoft started having their financial woes, they should have pulled a Koei Tecmo/Bandai Namco by merging their operations into one.