November 2001

Screenshots From Total War 2 - Wednesday, November 28, 2001
Apart from the release of Patch 1.02 Beta, this new week was full of new previews from the world of Medieval: Total War, the sequel to Shogun. The first article is by WorthPlaying.Com and here one can read loads of information on the new game as well as see some art screens from it. ToTheGame.Com has also published some exclusive in-game screenshots from the next Total War game. They are really interesting, take a look here. In addition there are also some wonderful concept art from the sequel at GameSpot UK.


Moreover, Solypsist is organising a tournament for Sword Dojo members only. Read more about it here and enlist for the event at this post.

Terazawa

Patch 1.02 Beta is Out! - Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Finally after weeks of testing, tweaking and hard work, patch 1.02 for Shogun: The Mongol Invasion is out and one can say that it is the biggest and best patch ever created for this game! The success of the patch has to be attributed to the beta testing team who have been working day and night on it. Much thanks to MizuErado, MizuDOC, MizuTosaInu, MizuYuuki, MizuKraellin, Terazawa, Obake, Magyar Khan and Kocmoc. Now enough talking, grab the patch from here! Be sure to read the Erado's tactical reader on the patch.

The list of changes is awesome and this is only and overview:

  1. All units have been reviewed for balancing. Major changes have been made to gun units and cavalry, but literally every unit has been looked at very closely. There are now separate default stats for online and offline play. In online play, Mongol HCAV and LCAV now have 48 troops instead of 60. This is a major improvement in the balancing for online Mongol battles. In offline play, all units still have 60 troops, but their other statistics have been vastly improved as well.

  2. The negative effect of gun units shooting over obstacles has been reduced. It is still present, but far less of a problem than before. Also the number of secondary casualties has been reduced when units are behind the targeted unit.

  3. Editing troop stats and projectile stats is now available for Single Play and Friendly online battles only! In Competitive battles the improved default stats are now used. Note that when you want to play a friendly with customized stats, the game will go out of sync if not all the players involved in the battle use the exact same stats.

  4. To the troopstats file we already knew, one more editable stat has been added. You can now edit the troop number for each unit type in the last column.

  5. The fatigue issue has been solved. Units now tire by the same rate as we remember from STW.

  6. The bug resulting in units marching VERY quickly when double clicking or hitting CTRL-R has been solved. This was closely related to issue #4 above.

  7. Multiplayer morale has been changed back to the settings as in the original Shogun: Total War release. No longer does your army have a morale boost to start with. The multiplayer is now more challenging and it is easier to rout the enemy. (The #1 Issue we all wanted fixed, and it works like a dream!!)

  8. Upgrade costs for weapons and armor have increased slightly. (Together with the Morale being solved this reduces the strength of the Ashi rush big-time!!)

  9. Musketeers, Warrior Monks, Korean Skirmishers, Mongol Light Cavalry and Mongol Heavy Cavalry are more expensive in multiplayer to balance their abilities.

  10. Reinforcement start points have been reviewed to enhance realism.

  11. It is now possible to play Mongol Vs Mongol and Early Japanese Vs Early Japanese games (4 players maximum per race, with up to 8 players in total per game). (Great fun! You can also mix the armies and play a 2v2 with one Mongol and one Jap army on each side!!)

  12. Minimum multiplayer game time is now 10 minutes.


General:

  1. Hidden units cannot be seen by attacking units (apart from the general's unit).

  2. A series of code fixes have been made to improve stability. (Among others these prevent some Stratmap issues)

  3. A few minor text improvements have been implemented (Japanese only). Please see unzip gold.zip for instruction on how to install these changes.

Terazawa

Activision To Publish Total War 2 - Thursday, November 22, 2001
Activision has stated that it will publish Medieval: Total War (previously known as Crusader: Total War)which is Creative Assembly's forthcoming sequel to Shogun: Total War, which was previously published by Electronic Arts. The game is to be released in 2002.

Creative Assembly declined to state on why Activision is publishing the game instead of Electronic Arts. But Tim Ansell, founder and director of The Creative Assembly said these words: "We are very excited at the prospect of working with Activision on Medieval: Total War. They have the drive and ambition we are looking for in a publisher to build Total War into the number-one historical RTS franchise. In Activision, we have found a publisher who understands what Total War is about. Shogun: Total War was just the beginning. We have exciting plans for Medieval: Total War and beyond."

These words really make the future of the Total War saga look bright!

Terazawa