Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai

[Pegultagol]

Just fyi, greenmangaming is selling this game 33% off, this expansion would perhaps be more appealing at $19.99 for some of you.

http://www.greenmangaming.com/games/strategy/shogun-2-fall-samurai/

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Best TW since Rome. Not that I bothered playing any TW game after Rome, but really, get it. It's great. You can buy a cheap Steam-Key at www.intkeys.com for something like 17€.

 

[Topher]

I had a blast playing co-op in S:TW2 but after completing one game (more or less) I just can't muster up any interest to go back, whereas I kept coming back to M:TW1 again and again. It's got a lot of great features, features that I wish Medieval had but the game just feel's, for lack of a better term, soulless. It's doesn't fire up an historical excitement nor the the actual battles appeal to me, perhaps that's due to a lack of unit/faction diversity.

*Haha, that acronym for the first Medieval Total War produced a parrot.

 

[poocolator]

What an ugly campaign map. Looks so anemic.

 

[Trash]

Yo Morgoth, how quickly does intkeys usually deliver? 12 euros is a steal.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Yo Morgoth, how quickly does intkeys usually deliver? 12 euros is a steal.

Oh fuck they've already become cheaper.

Took everything between 30 minutes and 3 hours for me.

 

[Trash]

Thanks. I'll give 'em a try then.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

What I found most important is that you switch off Vsynch, set Shadows to medium, no Tesselation, no Soft shadows, and most of the rest to High instead of Ultra (Ultra seems to be bugged in some cases. Except Particles and Sky which I use with Ultra). Framerate on my ancient Q6600 with GTX 560 is now ~47 fps even with larger battles.

Alas, it seems the game only uses 1 core of your CPu to full extend. In this day and age quite outrageous...

 

[anus_pounder]

So anyone on steam want to play co-op with me ?

 

[bonescraper]

I should add that the visuals are incredibly demanding. I have a 2500k and geforce 570, with most stuff set to max bar Vert. S. and SSAO, and a woodland battle set during a rainstorm absolutely annihilated my frame rate.

Sucks to be you. It's running silky smooth on my old E6400 + 460GTX :p

Anyway, the game is harder than i previously thought. On my first playthrough, after taking approximately 9 provinces, everyone suddenly declared war on me (along with my trusted allies, despite our very good relations (180+)). One of them changed sides and went to support the Emprah, while the other one broke our alliance and supported that bastard. And all that happened when i was still in the midway to realm divide. While i had the means to fend them off for quite some time, i eventually ran out of money and had to start over.

And now i'm struggling to get the very first provinces... seems like i lucked out on my first try.

 

[bonescraper]

I think you're talking about vanilla S2, not FotS.

I'm playing a FPS http://steamcommunity.com/id/bonescraper666/screenshot/594714175151047255/?

I think you can't into reading comprehension? Can anyone choose to ally himself with either the Emperor or the Shogun in vanilla S2?

 

[bonescraper]

Sorry, I just read up to "suddenly everyone declared war on me", which suggests you're a shitty player if it happened in FotS

On what basis? I had two allies, which suddenly, for no apparent reason, declared war on me. I always focus on diplomacy and economy first. But in FotS diplomacy is broken, it just doesn't work. No matter how good relationships i have, other clans can betray me without any reason or warning in a matter of one turn.

In vanilla S2 i managed to keep my allies on my side for the entire campaign. Form the first turn to the very last. I was so awfully rich i could offer them 5.000 koku every second turn to maintain good relationships. Scripted events or not, diplomacy worked just fine. And the AI behavior was fairly reasonable. In FotS you just depend on luck instead of diplomacy.

 

[bonescraper]

Realm Divide is a stupid idea (it gives additional challenge, and that's good, but it's retarded anyway), but yeah, i probably should make war with everyone when it kicks in, cause that's what hardkore kodeksers do, right?

You're probably a moran who allied with the opposite side. There's no discernable reason why members of one power bloc would betray each other during the new realm divide - they do precisely the opposite, regardless of previous relations. Either that or a small minority of factions are scripted to switch allegiance, possibly the ones near the middle of the map.

Regardless, Vanguard Event>Realm Divide.

No, retard. I allied with the other 2 playable clans supporting the Shogun. These were the only ones that actually survived anyway. They had my front and back covered. Too bad i don't have the saves to fucking show you black on white how an ally with 200+ points in relationships can flip-flop in a matter of 1 fucking turn. And that was no fucking "vanguard event". There never was any indication they're going to stab me like that. Vanilla S2 warns you when this kind of scripted event happens and i had no warnings in FotS. And what's funnier, if someone breaks an alliance or a trade agreement, you're penalized for it. So stop making shit up, diplomacy is broken and that's a fact. I'm not the first one to notice that.

And all that happened BEFORE RD FFS. Reading comprehension again?

 

[bonescraper]

Your colossal butthurt is tremendously entertaining.

I'm far from being butthurt, but if that thought makes you happy, then that's fine with me.

But to the point.

Regardless, my point regarding your diplomatic acrobatics in vanilla was that if you're sinking 5000gp every second turn into longtime allies to keep them from betraying you, then A: the diplomacy is manifestly not "working just fine" and B: you're an imbecile for not simply putting a fraction of those costs into conquering them instead. Nothing to do with being hardkkkore - which is in fact the entire point of Realm Divide and why it's a fucking stupid idea in the first place. If I wanted to grind full stacks and throw diplomacy out the window I'd simply play on VH. The Vanguard event is superior to vanilla RD since, whilst it has the same irritating effect of nullifying diplomacy for the next half of the campaign, it makes more sense in the context of the setting and other factions' pre-existing allegiances.

My diplomacy worked just fine until i conquered everyone on Honshu without any serious effort. I kept my allies on my side as long as i wanted, and as long as i found that necessary. I stopped giving them money when i was ready to kick their sorry butts. They were basically my pawns 'till the end, as i controlled them through my alliances accordingly to my expansion plans. You see, i'd rather fight with one clan at a time. And as i said, money was not an issue. If you like to fight on multiple fronts at once, in a huge clusterfuck, that's fine. I'd rather spare myself all that unnecessary micromanagement, and instead focus on hammering down my way in a more subtle fashion.

RD is a retarded concept, but at least it makes the game a bit more challenging. Otherwise, it would be piss-easy to beat. Regardless, its disadvantages can be easily nullified for as long as you like.

I reached Realm Divide with over 350.000 koku in my treasury. I could even support my enemies with cash just for shits and giggles at that point. So i couldn't care less about those 5k every 2 turns And on the minimap you can clearly see my only enemy at that point (pink) and one of my allies (black).

I kept my allies by my side 'till their very end. Realm Divide was a breeze. Especially with all that trade income. (Przyjaźń = Friendship, Uwielbienie = Adoration, Wrogość = Hostility)

As I said, Threats of War warnings exist in both vanilla S2 and FotS. If you went from +200 to War in a single turn, were on the same side, did not see them vassalized, were playing before the Vanguard Event, and your diplomacy screen showed no new variables, then it's probably a bug.

Then it's a bug. Way to fucking go, you master of deduction So, if there's a diplomacy bug, diplomacy isn't working as intended.

Everything I've experienced points to diplomacy being at least as good as S2 and superior if you take scripted events into account. Perhaps you're suffering from some sort of derangement.

I never had any issues with S2's performance, so you might also be suffering from some kind of derangement. Derp.

 

[bonescraper]

Congratulations, you just "proved" how much better vanilla S2's diplomatic AI was by pointlessly wasting obscene amounts of cash to keep "allies" from invading you when you could've just destroyed them, then convincing yourself that you were some grand strategist subtly manuipulating your clueless pawns.

Nope, haha. It turns out that you're the "shitty player" who can't into diplomacy and economy

It must've been such a shock to have to lower your standards for FotS, where the AI isn't programmed to automatically go to max hostility with the player after 15 provinces.

In conclusion, either: FotS had a bug or you were too much of a bonehead to keep track of diplomatic values. In either scenario it's still better than vanilla, where broken AI is an intentional feature

All of the above is just your own feeble imagination making shit up, because you can't comprehend the idea of long-lasting alliances and trade agreements

And it proves that you either can't into reading comprehension, or you simply didn't read my initial post

 

[bonescraper]

It's either my way or the highway, you bonehead moran.

Sure thing Chief. Keep them posts comin'.

 

[Trash]

Got the unlock code from intkeys tonight. Worked like a charm. Thanks for the recommendation, Morgoth. Played the expansion for a bit and must say it's 12 euros well spend. Fun new mechanics, factions and units. Artstyle and music is rather spectacular. AI already raped me a few turns into the campaign on hard so I don't feel like it's (much) easier. Naval bombardment is kewl. Only 6 factions sounds a bit small but CA once again have made another three retailer exclusive. Will probably turn up as dlc in the near future. Hadn't played Shogun 2 a whole lot lately and must say that I'm also impressed by how they patched the game. Runs extremely smooth now and they really improved quite a few of the mechanics.

 

[commie]

Got the unlock code from intkeys tonight. Worked like a charm. Thanks for the recommendation, Morgoth. Played the expansion for a bit and must say it's 12 euros well spend. Fun new mechanics, factions and units. Artstyle and music is rather spectacular. AI already raped me a few turns into the campaign on hard so I don't feel like it's (much) easier. Naval bombardment is kewl. Only 6 factions sounds a bit small but CA once again have made another three retailer exclusive. Will probably turn up as dlc in the near future. Hadn't played Shogun 2 a whole lot lately and must say that I'm also impressed by how they patched the game. Runs extremely smooth now and they really improved quite a few of the mechanics.

Fuck, I thought I got all the factions with the regular pre-order. I'd forgotten about CA's bullshit

Maybe you shouldn't have bought the HYPE.....

 

[commie]

Good reply.

Also now I understand your lack of enthusiasm for ARRPEEGEES.....

Seems that Shogun II in it's entirety is quite an improvement from the last few titles anyway. I think I'm getting my interest back.

 

[Raghar]

One of problems with Shogun 2 is they don't use amount of population available. Considering number of armies lost in one game, it would be threatening to whole Japanese population. Large battles in Japan were 2000 vs 6000, and were relatively rare. They are killing that many soldiers every turn.

Another glaring problem is training of Damyo and generals. Either it goes into combat, and they removed skill gain for leaders of other armies participating, or they don't have any skills. Training between battles is nonexistent.

 

[Steve]

Bought it off from Intkeys (thanks Morgoth), so far this is probably the best vanilla total war campaign I've played, I like how this time around you have to invest for a proper navy if you dont want your coastal cities to be continuously bombarded, it would've been nice to be able to build railroads anywhere instead of the pre-set provinces but oh well.

Great modding potential too, hopefully CA snaps out of their bullshit.