I sometimes flake on linking my Gameshark stuff, but here’s my recent Q&A with Creative Assembly about the upcoming Empire: Total War. This is the game highest on my radar for 2009.
Empire: Total War Q&A
December 5th, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · 6 Comments · Creative Assembly, Gameshark
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I thought Kieran was great. Those email Q&As really depend on the interviewee.
I’m especially glad to see that they are aware that the level of micro-management was excessive last time around.
Now if they also have a usability designer take a good hard look at the interface for their battle engine, this might be /the/ game, I’m looking forward to. I’m getting tired of having to whirl and spin around my mouse – both for controlling the units and the camera. Why can’t I just have a single keyboard shortcut for making a group of units charge directly forward, for instance?
Wait, they’ll charge properly if the screen is lined up right – is that what you’re saying?
That’s huge… must go subjugate Lithuania now.
Krupo: “Wait, they’ll charge properly if the screen is lined up right – is that what you’re saying?”
I maaay be misinterpreting what is perhaps a hint of sarcasm, there;-) However, as I my description was entirely opaque – at the risk of boring you with details – let me clarify: Sometimes, in the heat of the battle, I’d simply like to be able to order a whole battle-line of units to *charge*. As far as I remember, to order a charge, I have to explicitly click a particular enemy unit. Right? When I’ve already lined up my battle-line to face the enemy, why do I need to do this? I simply want to invoke in my men a sudden urge to run straight forward for as long as they can go, yelling swear-words at the top of their lungs, and presumably waving their swords/axes/rabbits in a frightening manner; and then hacking to bits everything that they meet on their way.
It’s perhaps a small issue, but in my opinion this is one example of a user-interface, which could need a user-friendliness make-over. Much more so than as concerns their graphics, for instance, which is already fantastic. (Don’t get me wrong. I really like the Total War games, and they’re much better in the usability-department than most strategy games.)
Well, it may simply be my terrible RTS-skills… I should probably stick with turn-based games.
No sarcasm, actually – I was lamenting the way units will sometimes randomly line up in the ‘wrong’ direction.
I’ve had pretty good luck with lining up battles lines and having them charge in the general direction of the enemy.
Set up the line, march them in the right direction, hit “R” when they’re getting close – running equals charge, right?
Good times.
Also, for Troy, I’ve started experimenting with my own mp3s for M2TW… so far so random. Had to start with the Hip. ;)
Krupo: “Set up the line, march them in the right direction, hit “R” when they’re getting close – running equals charge, right?”
That’s what I thought, as well. But as far as I can understand, no. (See http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=74178).
BTW – my apologies for hijacking the thread to discuss my TW-failings.