Ideas from the "Total War" games...

[Newbtler]

I was playing Medieval: Total war and was wondering:

why can't CM get some of its features?

There are so many cool things in this game that could be "copied" and simply put in the CM engine.

(Just like the Asians did in the past with some cars' mechanics)

1.) A very nice effect is that you can't move in the map too far ahead of your men, as in real life. You can't simply look from your enemy position, nor go there and look at their armor, or see where exactly your shells land.

Imagine what an effect could this have in CM: you can see tanks in distance and you can't recognize them exactly; you can see some enemy infantry and you can look at them clearly only when meters away and suddenly you can hear them saying phrases in their languages.

It could make the game much more "deep".

In order to see better, you should move some friendly units closer to the enemy.

I really think it would be a great boost to the game.

2.) Infantry; in Medieval they look almost 2d, but they represent exactly 1 man. Sure they're not fully 3d but who cares? 1 man for every man in a squad. IIRC, Total war can handle as many as 10.000 men and without stuttering or slowing down.

I don't really these could be added to the CM:AK game but maybe in the next game...

What do you think?

Ciao,

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Big fan of Total War myself.

1) A good idea though I always turn this option off because while it is a crummy way to simulate LOS (nice addition for CM LOS, though) it get's in the way of navigating between dispered units. You can't scroll the map to a unit a bit further along the line. So you'd have to click o it on the map which is not always possible or you have to find the unit you want in a list. I often got units mixed up and got disorientated as the camera went haring off in a different direction.

2)Not practical yet. The men are as of yet still 2D in Total War though Rome Total War will be using 3d models, so graphically it's doable. However the behaviour demanded of a block of pikemen is different from that of a squad of riflemen. If my platoons of Paras would line up in 6 deep rows I'll hang myself from my mouse cord. The CC series almost got it right but had relativly simple terrain. GI and EYSA got infantry AI badly wrong and suffered from this. If I order my platoon sergeant into a house and the rest of the unit stands outside smoking a fag I'll cry.