Ivan the Terrible

Let's be honest: virtually the entire world outside of a little more than half of the United States is anti-Republican, at least in the GOP's present form.

Yep. I've had to restart before I even finished with the north; I overreached myself, and two huge Gaulish armies appeared out of nowhere and annihilated the bulk of my troops. Very frustrating.

On an unrelated note to the topic of this thread.... That's a real pity. It's an interesting concept and you could see the very beginning of it's development in some of FFG's dialogue, but it never went anywhere. As it was, she was one of the most under-developed NPCs. I wonder if MCA kept those dialogues around, or if they just ended up on the scrap heap? On subject again, the 20-25 year olds are the first generation that grew up with video games already in existence. I can't speak for others in that group, but for me, that means I've been gaming since I was old enough to conceivably do so. It's in the blood by now.

Big problem is that it steps on too many toes, in regards to people's conception of Revan and the Exile. It not only requires they be of opposite gender, as you mentioned, but requires them to mutually agree they should have a child. Why would a Dark Side Revan have a child with a Light Side Exile, or vice versa? If Revan is Light Side and the player thinks of him/her as having a romance with Bastila/Carth (or similiar for the Exile and his/her possible love interests), wouldn't it kinda hit the concept behind the character to have him/her get down to some mattress dancing with another character? And my Dark Side Revan killed Jolee.

24.00

Thanks for posting this. Ended up downloading it and playing it a bunch today, and I like it. I've gotta say, I really like what they've done with the Romans; that is, consolidated them into one faction while stripping them of most of their cities and leaving them much weaker. While I always liked playing the Romans, it's normally just so easy, what with all your flanks perpetually protected by three other powerful factions who won't ever surprise attack you. Now, playing on the hardest difficulty levels, the Romans are actually proving quite a struggle. I'm slowly pushing a seemingly unending tide of Gauls beyond the Alps, and unlike in vanilla R:TW, they're actually putting up a fight.

Of course not. In reality, Obsidian is trying to drive us away by the fluoridation of our water and thereby the corruption of our precious bodily fluids.

Darth Gorth.... Sounds right.

Sounds horrible. Truly horrible.

I really think forcing Zaalbar to kill Mission tops any list of the most depraved Dark Side acts in the KOTOR games. Some other actions may kill more people or destroy more lives....but forcing someone to kill their own best friend, who also happens to be a fourteen year old girl? That's just pure sadism. Nevertheless, after the initial shock, I have to confess to laughing myself sick. Never did like Mission, and frankly, after all the times she said 'bantha poo-doo', I felt she deserved whatever she got.

....has monstrously huge thighs and a fugly face combined with tentacles sticking out of her head.

Nothing I've seen causes this to make sense for me. Developers don't have time to chat. So? We really don't expect them to chat; most drop-ins are just welcome visits, and I doubt many people view them as an obligation from the Developers to the fans. If Developers don't show up it would be disappointing, but certainly wouldn't shatter the entire meaning of the board. They don't have a community manager. So? Make some user mods, keep one or two 'official' mods to police them and prevent abuse, and voila, problem solved. If the boards were being repeatedly, grossly spammed into oblivion I might understand....but really, this is a comparitively mild board. What's the problem? As for criticism of the game? Big whoop. If you don't like the bashers, ignore them; there's just as many people who have legitimate criticism, as well as legitimate praise. If this is the 'unofficial' reason why this is happening, it seems incredibly short-sighted....not to mention overly sensitive.

Dubbing, in movies or games, is evil. Subtitles are better, and understanding the original spoken language best of all.

That's what I preferred. It was astonishing how many of the King's less 'gifted' heirs were ready and willing to fling their cavalry units directly at an enemy line of spearmen without any support. Brave lads, all of them.

I really can't understand the point of it.

My one gripe about Medieval: at points, for no reason whatsoever, your entire Empire (even with extra low taxes and having been conquered for quite some time) would suddenly slip into the red revolt risk. You'd find yourself facing about three resurgent factions with gigantic armies of the best troops available surging down on hopelessly outmatched garrisons across the map, while more regular and manageable Rebels tied down any reinforcements which might have saved the day. My game as Russia was completely destroyed this way; I simply couldn't cope with every territory in the empire revolting at once for no apparent reason. What it's faults, if I kept taxes down and a sizeable garrison in place, I could always manage revolts in Rome, and when a city rebelled against me I could understand why it happened and how to fix it.

I really have to give online play for Rome a try one of these times. I've always stuck with single player. In single player, an elephant battle usually consisted of sitting at a distance pelting the enemy with arrows until you ran out, then charging them and watching the entire army break and run the moment the elephants hit....usually accompanied by light cavalry to chase down the survivors. It was strangely amusing to be repeatedly attacked by gigantic Egyptian armies and yet annihilate every one with literally not a single casualty on your side. I agree, btw, that in regards to gameplay Rome is a dramatic step back from M:TW. It all just feels too quick and easy.

Have you played Carthage prior to the patch? Three units of armoured elephants could single-handedly decimate pretty much any army thrown up against them. I beat the game with Carthage easily, and virtually every army I fielded was outnumbered massively. With the patch, though, they're nowhere near as effective.

Same. I evaluated all the options: 1) Destroying modern civilization so everyone can be free. Uhhhh...no. An interesting option, but even beyond the obvious damage done, I don't follow the logic that destroying the biggest, baddest dictator around is going to make anyone free. More likely, the result will just be a bunch of petty feudal dictatorships scattered across the world....which, given Tong's connections with a powerful underworld syndicate, may be exactly what he had in mind. Nix that idea. I have to admit, though, I really enjoyed watching Bob Page freaking out as he saw what I was trying to do. 2) The Illuminati were tempting, if only because they seemed to offer the greatest chance for a return to normality....but I couldn't help thinking of all the subtle hints about the Illuminati's true nature sprinkled throughout the game. In the end, I just felt like Morgan Everett was completely untrustworthy, and I wasn't sold on his idea of a 'benevolent conspiracy', even if he believed it himself (which is questionable.) Absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that. 3) Helios. Programmed to bring peace and prosperity to the world and looking to use you to understand what human beings want. Unlike the Illuminati, quite likely incapable of being corrupted by power; it lacks all ambition, if we're to believe it, and exists only to see the human race thrive. The possible negative is a 1984 scenario....or, for the pen-and-paper RPGers out there, more accurately a Paranoia scenario. The gigantic, borderline-inhuman, all-powerful computer thinking it knows what's best for the world and incapable of being stopped by anyone or anything. On the other hand, the positive might just be a new beginning for the whole human race; a completely objective and ambitionless ruler with the compassion of a good human being (I played J.C. Denton as a goodie two-shoes, rarely killing anyone unless I had to) and the limitless knowledge and cold logic of an A.I., all rolled into the spitting image of the truly enlightened despot. Between the three, it was the only one which offered a leap forward rather than a return to the status quo or a stunning fall backwards into medieval barbarism. But I still felt uneasy picking it; unchecked power in the hands of anyone or anything is an incredibly risky gamble, and the idea of any dictatorship never sits well with me. Still, it was a great philosophical dilemma, and I've wavered between all three options at different points.

(As I say in the description, and as should be obvious from the topic, this post is filled with SPOILERS. Don't say I didn't warn you if you haven't played Deus Ex. ) The options: - Destroy Area 51. With it's destruction, world communications end, ushering in a new Dark Age. Modern society as we know it collapses, but so do the dominating Illuminati and Majestic 12 oligarchies, giving people a chance for true freedom. - Join the Illuminati. Brings us back to 20th century Capitalism; the rich few dominate the poor many, the Illuminati rules the world from the shadows, and while true freedom may not be likely, most of the world is at least safe and secure. - Merge with Helios. A benevolent (yet all-powerful) dictatorship, with a mixture of the cold rationality of a sentient machine and the understanding of a human being, hopefully bring a new age of peace and enlightenment out of the chaos of petty human ambitions. Which did you choose, and why?

True, true. Of course, some differences with reality always have to end up in wargames to keep it playable; I'd hate to think of a wargame where every time I try and pull a German division back, the computer pulls a Hitler and reverses my order. Or, for that matter, I'd hate to be taken out and shot every time I lost a campaign for the Soviets.

Yep. They also have an open grab (without the interference of the other Roman factions) on pretty much every Wonder of the World. The rule I follow, btw, to keep myself with a steady supply of cash: make one or two major cities to build up your best armies, and then keep the rest only producing rank-and-file troops. That way, you can devote those cities to building nothing but ports, merchant's quarters, roads, temples that increase tradeabe goods, and the like. The first time I won the game (with the Brutii), I had far more money than I could ever hope to spend.

Non-grognards don't know the meaning of 'complicated' until they've had to take into account the weather, supply lines, fatigue, morale, unit strength, and air support of every German division across the length and breadth of the Soviet Union, circa June 1942, before they plan their next attack.

Probably not. RPGers have never given a good goddamn about graphics.

To anyone that's saying Rome: Total War is complicated: Don't buy the game Victoria.