Bassilisk

Yaaay I get the first comment! Maybe adding options for religion, rebellions, and multiplayer rts battles would be options. I really like the idea of the option for players to come back into the game as another nation, awesome idea! I will think more about which settings would make good additions, and look forward to reading other peoples ideas!

I appreciate the discussion, and now your coming up with some good ideas! I am asking and hoping that they make this kind of stuff very moveable and give the tools for creating this stuff if they dont include it

I would love to hear the devs thought on this subject and my proposition

To go against your point, who is to say that the AI isn't as good or stronger than a human on the grand strategy aspect, so AI control of your map campaign would be the same as AI controlling battles. It is to a say, a mute point. That is why I propose options, options my friend 🙂. If you don't want AI to control grand campaign map, then by God never let them! lol. But if someone desires to let them control the map for a second, even the entire game, let them! I think the option (or at least making it easy to mod into the game) is what counts. It would be fun to see if someone lets the AI control all the campaign map for them, while they do every battle, or vise versa. I think it should (could) be an option before the multiplayer campaign starts to let players decide if they want the option at the beginning. Example is game mode at beginning has option to turn off or on player direct battles, that way both sides win. You win because you could have the whole game without this option, others win because they can turn this option on or off. Even in game you could have it turned on and you never use it. I understand the devs not wanting (or people waiting for the game) to delay the game for this because it could take some work, but I would be happy if it was a dlc even, or even it the tools were left open for someone to mod it in. Having it at some point would not detract at all from your experience of the game, it would only be helpful to add to others gameplay.

Glad you are thinking about this, makes for good discussion. That is why I say have the option for AI to take over while you are at battle, solves a lot of problems. Also it makes picking the battles you go into super important. With AI royal court able to control your campaign while in battle it makes you able to do as many or as few real battles as you want. Pick their stances right before you go into battle (option to fight real battle, then 10 seconds to pick what stances AI should take). Also this option to do real battles in multiplayer should be an option to turn on and off, that way you would get it how you like, and I and others would get the option to have the option of fighting real time battles if we desire. AI does the map organically already, why not let them get a 10-20 minute window for you with preselected stances on how they should approach the campaign? I am sure modders would make this even more in depth and give more options for the AI and better AI options. I kind of see myself only picking a few battles, like your suggested 3 or so tactical battles. If i have a major fight with a country of equal power and armies then I might want to personally control the battle plans and let the AI take over the map for a bit. Or maybe there is a huge battle of 4 or 5 countries and armies and I want to indulge in the chaos, then again i might let the AI control the map for a bit. But yes I would often auto-resolve if I need to be looking at the bigger picture of the campaign at the moment, or if I see i have a huge battle advantage. For fun though, could you imagine getting into a fight with another player and having a huge advantage, so you auto resolve, but they choose to battle and win? Maybe the AI does decent on the map for them and you lose a huge battle to a army half the size (or something like that)? Or role reverse and you take to the battlefield and win a huge upset that turns the tides of war? Again AI controlling your campaign map could do you justice....or they could fail miserably on your plane...risk? reward? it should (hopefully) be in your hands to decide

I think somewhere between 5-20 mins, depending on the size of the armies, the play style, and if it is a siege or not. I also think that there should be a way to leave the battle at any time, say if you are winning significantly and you want the AI to auto resolve/take over command of the battle. Also it would be cool if while in battle, in like one of the corners of the screen, significant campaign information come up. Like if in the battle, someone attacks, it would show up in the top right corner that you are under attack. Then you could leave the battle to computer and go back to main map. Or if any other major options come up. Again though, it would be fun to be in battle and someone offer you a ally pact. They would have to wait till the battle is over for your reply and it would say something like "the ruler is engaged in combat and will give an answer after the battle"...or the dubious AI that you let take over while in battle would make the decision for you depending on what preset you set it to. 🙂 i think it would be awesome to give AI directives while you go into a very important battle and then you emerge to see what happened, what you need to do now, what you need to fix, or what routes you need to go after the AI did some decisons or lack of decisions.

I appreciate your thoughts on the topic William Blake. I do have an idea that would make it plausible if not fun to have tactical battles. The idea is that when you choose to fight a battle in person, you have one of your royal court make strategic decisions for you on the main map whilst you battle. You could have options like "focus on economy", "focus on military", "conquer this terrirtory", "focus on defense", and other options that would let the AI royal court/royal court member take command of the main map while you go into battle. This would give another depth to the game and would make it so you have to choose wisely which battles you fight personally and would also make it more realistic that while you are away at battle, someone else (AI) would take over court for you while you are in battle. I think this idea would work very well. Yes the AI would do some things you might not like, or they may not play just like you would, but it would give the options for real time battles for the players to personally engage in whilst AI is playing the main map for you. Tell me what you think, open to hear from lots of people on this idea

One of the games I have loved the most in this genre is Medieval Total War the first one....if only it had multiplayer campaigns....Anyway the game had options to upgrade weapons and armor which would give you bonuses in combat. I liked this idea as it gave depth so that each troup/army was able to have or not have multiple upgrades. Would be cool to see this mechanic add layers to battles, both auto-resolve and ones you personally command

Well they dont have to be incredible, I would be satisfied with a better version of koh1, doesnt have to be groundbreaking, just fun and have some skill to it

Not the actual rts style battles, as it stands now battles in multiplayer are always auto resolve instead of having choice between of auto resolve or personally command troops.

I would really like the option for multiplayer campaign to have real time battles. I understand that this is now not an option, but would love for it to either be implemented or made to be easily modded into the game. Options to have the rest of the multiplayer campaign pause when players enter battle, or option for the map to continue when players choose to go into battle would be awesome. An idea I have for when a player chooses to go into battle and the map continues is to have the AI/Court take over and select from a set of stances like aggressive, defensive, passive, or other options as to what the AI should do while you are in battle. Also important options can wait till after the battle for you to decide or you choose to let the AI/Court deal with important choices while you are away. Please comment what you think?

As we heard in live stream there wont be battles in multiplayer. However maybe someone can mod this? Would love to have battles in multiplayer, keep the over map going on while you battle, and all decisions big map decisions would be halted until battle is over then they would be available to make decisions, or could have one of your knights make the decisions for you and you tell then what stance they should take for these? Thoughts or other ideas?

Already thinking it would be so cool to have a fantasy overhaul mode, like lord of the rings, or a general fantasy overhaul with trolls, magic, different races, and so forth, I know it would take a while but with it being very moddible and in the right hands something like that could happen

Please comment, let us be a voice for those who cannot speak among us, those being the poor, downtrodden, left out, war elephants. They cannot speak for themselves, but if they could they would say, "include us, bring us into the game, let us trample the enemy underfoot for you my lord and let us skewer the foes on our mighty tusks for you my liege". Please #bringtheelephants

Please comment, let us be a voice for those who cannot speak among us, those being the poor, downtrodden, left out, war elephants. They cannot speak for themselves, but if they could they would say, "include us, bring us into the game, let us trample the enemy underfoot for you my lord and let us skewer the foes on our mighty tusks for you my liege". Please #bringtheelephants

We want the war elephants!!! Nothing like a medieval game with the enemy cowering in a base and you bring out...the war elephants!!! #bringtheelephants

I would kike to see some battle scenes as well. Also would like to know how they plan to do those in multiplayer

I'll be waiting for the live stream to hear more and will read more but for now I get ththe first cooment.... muahhahah

Would love to see the option for players to join partway through the game and take over an AI. Whether it's a random AI or a vote or something, and also option to toggle on and off of people joining midway through

I got fingers crossed maybe my face will be in the game

I am super excited for multiplayer!!!! I am buying 3 copies for myself and friends already to play when released. I would love for availability of smaller maps that way games can be played regular and still be shorter. I hope for more player available in future like up to 16? Maybe custom maps allowed? I like the idea of having saved games as apossibility. Hmm I'll think of some good questions as this is the whole reason I'm looking forward to the game.

I think yes people should be able to join over AI but have a vote, or option to let game be open to joiners or closed so no one can join. If people leave AI takes over

I am really only looking forward to multiplayer. It seems there are no really good grand strategy games that are more than 2 players. I played medieval total war the original and only dreamed about it being multiplayer. I think for amount of people and how to play should have options and be decided at the beginning. Whether teams like 1on1 or 5on5, or more my cup of tea of free for all with like 10 players. I think games should be anywhere from 30mins for a small map, up to like 5 hours for a large map with lots of people. Yes AI should controll countries but this should be an option to do all human for small maps or a mix for larger but whatever the match creator wants in the begining. Truly this game has potential to revolutionize rts/grand strategy with good single player and multiplayer. I would be devastated if they didnt put out really good multiplayer. The games I like to point out for reference is medieval total war for what a game could be like that should/could have had multiplayer and been awesome, or age of conquest IV which was strategy like risk and multiplayer which was great but lacked depth and rts battles

Or I think a better option is you pick and choose which battles to fight as main map will not be paused but continue. You can zoom from battle to main map, back and forth. Or if you want to focus only on battle have an AI marshal, prince, or governor take charge in your absence

I am sure you thought this through already, but just in case, player testing might help with a whole slew of things to see what works and what doesnt. (Even if it's a closed beta)