Interesting total war news

[Grim.Reaper]

Interesting read...concerning pharaoh, they are focusing on free core content versus paid dlc.  They will also be issuing partial refunds to people because they are also reducing cost of the game.  If you bought deluxe or dynasty version that promised dlc, seems like part of the refund, I guess we will see.

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/message-from-total-war-leadership-dec-2023/

[SirAndrewD]

Yeesh, interesting is one word to use for it.

Shocking's another. 

That kind of statement read between the lines demonstrates that prior to this debacle there was a major echo chamber in the exec staff at CA. 

[Gusington]

Wow. We can call that progress, to a point. Now release Total War: Medieval 3, CA...as I and 1000s of other dorks have been begging for 

[SirAndrewD]

Wow. We can call that progress, to a point. Now release Total War: Medieval 3, CA...as I and 1000s of other dorks have been begging for 

If they have the resources for it.

Sega already ate $100k from Hyenas, the low sales of Pharaoh clearly were sunken cost and led to layoffs, and now what money they did make is going to be reduced due to refunds which just digs that hole deeper. 

That's not a healthy prospect for the development of a proper AAA main sequence title coming up, especially since they're now going to kill an added revenue stream off Pharaoh by gutting the paid DLC model at least for the first releases.

[Grim.Reaper]

I am in the minority, much prefer they focus on new content versus having multiple versions of the same thing, especially a third version of medieval.  Certainly liked it and I am sure a lot of current fan base would love it, just doesn't seem to expand on things and prefer to have something new or that will move the engine forward to things like American civil war and such.

[Gusington]

^CA seems to agree with you.

If they have been developing a true AAA historical title it has most likely been in development for many years already...like Hyenas :/

[W8taminute]

Oh well, another squandered opportunitay.

[Destraex]

I would describe total war as so:

Originally a game that tried to make tabletop wargaming more realistic and life like by making it both real time and animated. From this it regressed and became more tabletop like and finally more like a simple board game with a tonne of random made up campaign mechanics with very little progress on the original dream of animating and getting more realism out of tabletop battles. Total War just seems like a huge missed opportunity that never reached its natural conclusion and instead got hijacked and forced to change direction to suite ehat seems to have been a new influx of developers that had little passion for wargaming and a lot of passion for random rules so they could roll dice and have a laugh at the history and wargaming grogs.

In short I would not use total war games to show somebody how I thought combat was carried out to our best estimation from a given period. I treat total war games more like hollywood these days. Huge grains of salt and knowledge that the level of effort when it comes to the history probably runs along the lines of "its just a game", we sacrificed everything to make sure it was fun.

What I would say is that by now in 2023, I should have seen more realism and more clarity of animation. All I see are "fun" hollywood kind of "inspired by" rather than "based on a true story" kind of enthusiasm. It's lip service to the likes of us grogs.

[Skoop]

I'd be happy with empire 2 along with medieval 3.  We never got the total war Victoria that everyone wanted either.  Still a lot to do with this franchise.

[Tripoli]

I think Total War could do a course correction to develop a more realistic combat model. I believe the engine itself is fundamentally sound.  They just need to change it to use realistic tactics and results

[Grim.Reaper]

I bought my dynasty version from fanatical, not steam, and they indicated they will be processing their refunds next week. I know the announcement said it but nice to see even the third parties honoring as well, which I know must be a pain for them.

Say what you will about total war and their leadership, but this has been a nice gesture and hopefully more good things to come.

[Gusington]

^It's a great gesture. But they wouldn't have to make it if they were operating better for the last few years.

I say this as a CA fan boi since the original Shogun. I take no pleasure in it.

[Grim.Reaper]

^It's a great gesture. But they wouldn't have to make it if they were operating better for the last few years.

I say this as a CA fan boi since the original Shogun. I take no pleasure in it.

Not everyone is perfect, they saw room for improvement and addressed it. Other companies often care less and wouldn't admit it or provide refunds.  I am far from a fanboy of total war but I just don't get all the hate on them and all the disappointment that they don't release every game two or three times.  Not sure they ever stated their audience was folks who wanted ultimate realism, of course they are trying to cater to an audience that might make them the most money.

[Gusington]

^It's not entirely that at all. Have you seen some of the responses their comms team put out over the last few months?

[Grim.Reaper]

^It's not entirely that at all. Have you seen some of the responses their comms team put out over the last few months?

Nope, what were they?