| Religion
1. Protestantism isn't in as far as they knew, which was also confirmed in one of the developer diaries I think (¿?).
2. Although catholic factions do have some extra content when it comes to the Pope, religion is very important in the whole game. Heresy is 'the new squalor' (my words) and Jihads and Crusades will still affect you in some ways (like them wandering through your lands).
3. Once your cardinal/bishop etc (all upgraded priests), becomes the Pope, he's out of your control. So it doesn't give you anything exclusive, but it will have a large affect on the standings with the Pope and Papal States. Meaning right after your priest became a Pope, you have a few more 'liberties', like you can attack a catholic faction and get away with it easier then before.
But technically there is nothing different from your Pope and another Pope. If you have a good relationship with a Pope that didn't come from you, you can do the same.
There is also only 1 Pope, there can't be multiple in the game.
4. Theorectically it's possible, although I don't know if the Pope will easily become a protectorate/captured. I asked if Heresy could become so abundant that it could destroy the Papal states, and he said there wasn't anything in the game that specifically prohibits that stuff. So he threw down the gauntlet there; I said I'd try to do a campaign some day to try and get heresy to destroy the world (by not building religion buildings, assassinating priests and sabotaging and destroying churches from other factions).. sounds like a fun challenge hehe
5. Inquisitors this time a round are Papal states only. Bishops and Cardinals etc are just upgraded priest. You can't build Bishops and Cardinals straight away.
System
1. The only real number I got were 1.8 Ghz Gf4 128 for minimum specs
2. Demo release is soon (probably the demo I played) and Store release is probably somewhere in November
3. They weren't sure about all this, so this will get forwarded
4. They weren't sure about all this, so this will get forwarded
5. They said that although Alexander was the first expansion to be released online, they couldn't imagine that they would not do that again somewhere in the future. They also said that the website will get even better and more important in the future. On the question on wether that meant we could look forward to downloadable textures (like spartan hoplites for Rome) or historical battles, they said that although they hadn't heard of that, that it could perhaps be possible. So here's to hoping!
Other
1. There will be 8 Historical Battles, including Avincourt and Pavia (both in the demo I played) and the battle at Hastings.
2. There will be more custom maps and there will be an unsupported battle editor to make your own battles, similar to Rome.
3. As far as they know nothing has been said about online rankings.
4. Like I explained in my starting post; they weren't sure if it was still in or not in the current build. It was in in one of the previous builds, and they would try to convey to CA Australia that it is something we'd like to see.
5. There are changes, but I didn't get to play the whole game, and even then it's pretty large to just note down all the interface changes. One option that's in is 'minimized ui', which basically removes almost everything from your battlescreen except the action. If you are able to work with that ui or you already almost certainly won, then it's nice.
Large questions
1. This question was so large that I actually didn't ask it, but want to refer to the developer diary on the .com, that basically covers nearly all there is to know about diplomacy
2. This was also a big question. One particular point is merchants. Like has been revealed before, they can occupy a trade resource for extra income, even one outside your own borders. Merchants can fight between them if 2 meet (if you put a merchant on an already occupied trade resource), but something I found more insteresting, merchants can generate monopolies. If you have a 2 normal silver mines you get some income (like 10 or something per mine... completely random number) now if you move a merchant onto one of them, you can get 20 from that mine (again, random number) if you move another merchant on the other mine, you don't get 20+20, but something like 30+30... So the more merchants on the same trade resource, the better income you'll get.
3. The main differences between castles and cities have already been revealed; castles can produce better units and cities generate more income. What I didn't yet know was that guilds can only be built in cities, not in castles (and yes, they will get destroyed if you switch your town from city to castle). Castles (1 ring of defense) (3 anillos defensivos se refiere a 3 muros defensivos, x si alguien no lo ha pillao) can be upgraded into fortresses (Fortaleza)(2 rings) and then citadels (Ciudadela)(3 rings).
You might also want to build more fortications like watchtowers and forts (Torres de vigilancia y fuertes, como en el Rome) around the campaign map, because of the vulnerability of cities, and the improved (mejorada) AI which would give you more reason to make these or suffer the consequences (although I didn't get to confirm that.. so if it's true..).
4. One of the 'improvements' of Assassination and espionage are the movies that are back. I didn't have time to ask in depth since these were the final questions I asked and it already was about an hour after the official closing time of the event ;).
5. I already discussed merchants, and priests/bishops/cardinals. One last new agent type are Princesses. These act very similarr to Med1; they are diplomats that can also be used to marry, to generals or to factions etc. They now also get traits and such which help with diplomacy and such.
The Demo Experience
So in between talking to CA and Atari I had a chance to play a demo. It consisted of a Tutorial, 2 Historical battles and a movie.
Tutorial;
This is basically like the Rome Tutorial. You begin with 4 units (general, archers, cavalry and footmen) and have to follow the instructions from the battle helper. I personally liked the Rome Tutorial more, but I can't really say why.
Battle of Avincourt (Es Agincourt, gracias, TeBaS)
I actually failed the first time I tried. I was winning but then the king died and my whole army routed... oops :p.
The second time I did win. The stakes from the longbowmen were quite usefull, even regular soldiers had trouble moving between them. They did look a bit large, but I'm no historian to know if they are the right size or not. The longbowmen didn't seem overpowered or anything. Most french battallions reached my line quite easily, but already were worn a bit in morale and fatigue.
The battle was decent, but I liked the second battle more. One thing that I did see once that I hope will be different in the final game, is that I saw the effect that was also sometimes in Rome; half of a battallion would attack a unit and the other half of the battallion would be a bit back, waiting or something. I only saw it once, but it is something I (and I think many others) didn't really like in Rome. Of course this was only a beta build, but still.
Battle of Pavia
This was a much more complex battle, although I did win it the first time around. You play the Holy Roman Empire with Spanish Allies against the French.
In this battle I saw some nice AI movement; somewhere in the battle I sent my Arquebusiers to attack a unit of cavalry and hope to provoke them. They did come, and when I moved my pikemen in front of my Arquebusiers and some Zweihanders on position to flank, the cavalry veered off just before the wall of pikes and ran through the Zeihanders and incurring pretty heavy loses before regrouping. In the meantime, one of my units west of that routed under cannon fire and severe losses, and the enemy battallion were coming up on the rear of the pikemen. I made a gamble to send in a half decimated unit of mine to hold that enemy betallion long enough for my Arquebusiers to keep hitting the enemy cavalry while I tried to position the Zeihanders left and pikeman to protect them.
It paid off, the west unit did reach the pikemen, but shortly after the cavalry routed and caused panic across the enemy and caused me to win.
So I was pleasantly surprised by the tactics the AI used in this battle. although part of it, especially the beginning, was scripted, I do think that headon charges on pikes by cavalry is something that wasn't just something for this battle.
The sound were pretty good in both battles. Especially in Pavia where the cannons and Arquebusiers fired stuff and people screaming...
Some final thoughts
I must admit that there are some things that I want to see differently before release if possible. I am a bit disappointed there can be no civil wars, titels to generals, that the mongols are just an invasion force and not playable (maybe with heavy modding.. although that's not certain), the removal of eras, rebels still kicking you out of cities, and perhaps some more.
I did see improvement in the AI and a reduction in speed/killing rate (although like I said, not sure if it's enough for some people), and there are some nice siege changes like towers only working with a unit near them.
(luego opina un poco, pero no es muy interesante)
FIN |