Opinion Is Creative Assembly about to pull a fast one on us (again)? (Total War Three Kingdoms)

Derrick01

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So earlier tonight I opened youtube and their little algorithm showed me this video about Three Kingdoms Total War from about a week ago.



Clickbaity title aside after watching it I couldn't really refute the primary concerns of the video which take up most of the first 50-60% I would say, namely the AI, the bugs and the overall poor presentation of the battle part of the game. He uses footage from multiple youtubers who were invited to a preview event around that time (this person is actually blacklisted by CA and the first comment in the video he explains why. TLDR, he's a former CA dev who called them out in 2017 for certain things in warhammer) and clearly shows and explains some extremely worrying things like the duel system being completely broken. For example in order to duel, which can apparently be started no matter how far away forces are, the generals have to "meet up" and depending on where you all are this results in the enemy (or you!) charging ahead alone into a sea of arrows from other units. In the video he shows instances where an enemy general even left a closed fort alone just to do a duel, which is suicide. There are a slew of other AI issues shown too like enemy armies not adjusting to your moves and choosing to stick in a defensive spot whether they have 3 units or 8 to defend with, or them positioning archers right behind a gate that gets broken down. There are also bugs that have been in the series for YEARS that have made their way into this game based on footage.

This is concerning because the game is out in a month, technically a little less because of Feb. being shorter. The youtuber guesses the build they played on was probably late Dec/early Jan. which seems about right for preview events. So that leaves ~2 months for them to fix some really glaring issues. The realist in me says that's not possible and we're in for an...interesting launch to put it nicely. I phrased the thread the way I did not necessarily because CA is doing anything nefarious that I know of, but this studio does have a history of some questionable decisions. Things like making blood and gore paid DLC for most TW games or their infamous Rome Total War 2 reveal (check the comments for a laugh)


But on the less sketchy side of things, and the first video talks about this too, are the odd things that always seem to plague this series. Why have some bugs been ignored for years and years and appear in multiple titles? We criticize Bethesda for this so it's only fair to do it to CA too. Why is AI so frequently an issue when modders have more or less solved a huge part of it in the past? These games, the main ones at least, are built off of each other and yet there's so little growth to them. Battle sizes in this TW game seem smaller than ever with armies seemingly topping out at around 2k soldiers, which is on par with games in the series from 10+ years ago. And they charge a full $60 for these games which they didn't back when some of those older TW games came out.

I don't want to seem like I'm calling for an uprising or anything. They do deserve a chance to actually release the game and then we'll see how much of this applies, but it's hard to think a lot of these issues will be fixed by launch. And if it sucks it's going to devastate me because this used to literally be my dream game. Dynasty Warriors all those years ago got me really into the Three Kingdoms story, so much that I even bought the books DW and RotK are based on. As much fun as I had with a few RotK games I would say to myself "It'd be amazing if CA ever made a Total War in this" although I never actually expected it to happen. Rome 2 launching so horribly hurt bad enough, this would be like the final nail in the "dreams can come true" coffin.
 

Alextended

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It's an all new game with all new content, of course they're gonna charge 60 at launch, it's a high budget production like any. If you think they're bad games you just don't buy them rather than claim they should be cheaper to match your opinion (they will be cheaper eventually). Hopefully they'll iron out some of the bigger issues but I wouldn't expect this to be any kind of reinvention for the series, it's clearly another iteration on a formula that works for them and fans of their games (most of the time) and is rather unique to boot with combined turn based and real time segments, the different features and balance like the smaller armies simply makes it different to other games in the series rather than be an objectively worse direction. I'm sure duels will have options related to them or get changed/added to down the line if people really find them bad as they currently are, maybe they already have options youtubers simply didn't delve into.
 
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Hektor

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We'll have to see.

I used to be a huge Total War fan around Rome and Medieval 2, but then Empire released and it was incredibly issue ridden, resulting in me barely ever playing it. Then Shogun came around and everything was fine again, but it didn't pull me quite in, and then Rome 2, which i was really excited for, was a dumpster fire of epic proportions at launch, haven't played it to this very day because of it.

It took until Total Warhammer for me to really get into the franchise again.

Would be a shame if they'd fuck this one up too, especially as i already had a preorder on voidu.
 
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lashman

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We'll have to see.

I used to be a huge Total War fan around Rome and Medieval 2, but then Empire released and it was incredibly issue ridden, resulting in me barely ever playing it. Then Shogun came around and everything was fine again, but it didn't pull me quite in, and then Rome 2, which i was really excited for, was a dumpster fire of epic proportions at launch, haven't played it to this very day because of it.

It took until Total Warhammer for me to really get into the franchise again.

Would be a shame if they'd fuck this one up too, especially as i already had a preorder on voidu.
here's hoping they learned their lesson with Rome 2 (and both Total Warhammers which were actually good even at launch)
 

Ge0force

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I've only played the two Warhammer games so far, spent hundreds of hours in these games. But I'm not sure this game is for me. The setting doesn't pick my interest at all.
 
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Derrick01

Derrick01

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It's an all new game with all new content, of course they're gonna charge 60 at launch, it's a high budget production like any. If you think they're bad games you just don't buy them rather than claim they should be cheaper to match your opinion (they will be cheaper eventually). Hopefully they'll iron out some of the bigger issues but I wouldn't expect this to be any kind of reinvention for the series, it's clearly another iteration on a formula that works for them and fans of their games (most of the time) and is rather unique to boot with combined turn based and real time segments, the different features and balance like the smaller armies simply makes it different to other games in the series rather than be an objectively worse direction. I'm sure duels will have options related to them or get changed/added to down the line if people really find them bad as they currently are, maybe they already have options youtubers simply didn't delve into.
I brought up the price because that's one of the only things that has grown in the series over the years. Battle sizes have stayed more or less the same, and if anything seem to have taken a small step back in this game because of the (purposely) overpowered generals taking up an extra unit slot and not having bodyguards. I can't even say the graphics have necessarily improved. Compared to the recent warhammer stuff it looks like those games got all of the budget while this one looks worse and the soldiers often don't even make contact with each other when fighting.

Then you have all of their questionable DLC practices on top of that. I just feel like we should be demanding a little more from them for all they're demanding from us. $60 is a AAA price, so the game shouldn't look so bad and janky in motion. It definitely shouldn't have bugs that have been in multiple titles and gone ignored.
 
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prudis

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Well its Total Wat game .... they are always bit unbalanced and borked at launch .. and i guess over all these years , i got kinda use to the aproach of wait at least till Year 1 for both content and polish.

What i like is they are actually trying to play with some new things even with historical TW , so thats a good thing ... really enjoyed the idea of a horde gameplay that Attila brought ...As for the duels i will probably play the "classical" version anyway first before the "romance" mode anyway ... so no much of a big deal for my first playthrough.

Overall I wasnt reallly ever fan of the actual battle part (part of it was being low-end gamer back in the pre-Medieval2 days) and alwyas played mostly the strategy map gameplay with autoresolve and used battles only rarery when it was needed
 
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Derrick01

Derrick01

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You're welcome everyone ;)

No but really this is a good move. The game clearly needs more time in the oven.
 
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Hektor

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Good news i guess, but the fact that this is already the second delay is kinda worrying nonetheless.
 
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