Medieval 2: Total War Screenshots
Here are fourteen new screenshots from Medieval 2: Total War, Creative Assembly's strategy game sequel which is due in November.
-
loboca
replyAnyone know how much of an upgraded engine this is over Rome:TW? or is this just Medieval redux with the Rome engine?
-
Quite a bit, taken from the faq: http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotalwarfrm55.showMessage?topicID=1127.topic
Part Two - The Battle Engine
Q. What engine does Medieval 2 use?
A. For Medieval 2 we’ve stripped down and totally refurbished the Rome engine. Medieval 2’s engine includes a complete upgrade of the battlefield rendering system, new methods for building and rendering cities while the combat animation system has also been heavily revised.
Q. How does the Medieval 2 engine compare in technical terms, to Rome: Total War?
A. The engine is almost completely unrecognisable compared to Rome. Overall textures are done to a much higher level, in fact, in general the texture resolution and polygon count is at least double those of Rome. The amount of detail in some the textures are amazing, right down to the names of programmers inscribed on gravestones in the city churchyard.
Q. So what are the most striking differences?
A. The improvements are evident the second you fire up your first battle. One of the first things you'll notice is that in Medieval 2 the armies of clones that have been evident in the Total War series until now, have been removed. Units are now made up of soldiers that are individuals. Each model is constructed from a variety of heads, bodies and limbs. The engine combines these together to make each man far more unique. On top of this there are also multiple variants for shields and weapons too, so each soldier has character and each unit of men looks and behaves like a realistic group of soldiers. Armour and weapon upgrades are also evident when you look on your units in battle. This introduces some individuality to the soldiers in order to ramp up the realism and immersion of the huge battles.
The rendering of settlements is also vastly improved. The period is known for its monumental castles and cities and we set out to do them justice by ensuring that we represent them in-game in a far more realistic manner then has previously been seen in the Total War series. In Medieval 2 cities and castles will be built around the environment, incorporating cliffs and slopes in their layout. This not only makes for a far more realistic representation of settlements, it also introduces new layers of strategy when it comes to siege situations.
Q. How exactly has the combat animation system improved?
A. We’ve made some huge strides here. We’ve captured 1000’s of mo-capped animations which allows us to create synchronized attacks with defenses and fatalities. Sequenced attack combos also allow the soldier to string together attacks to cut a swathe through his opponents. A swordsman might do a swing to the left, a swing to the right, followed by a stab to the stomach knocking his opponent down. He might then spin around, and deliver a merciless finishing strike to the enemy while he’s lying helpless on the ground.
Attack failures have also been added so that a strike is deflected when blocked successfully by a defender. This makes the combat feel more solid thanks to the direct cause-and-effect visual feedback. You’ll see these kind of moves being executed all over the battlefield and as soldiers fall you’ll see those still standing continually scanning their surroundings for their next kill. These kind of touches make the huge scale battles so much more realistic and immersive whether you’re zoomed in on the front line or looking on from a distance.
There are also heaps of animation variants, so men standing around can fidget when idle, taunt from the back of a melee when winning and look around in fear when outnumbered. These give visual cues as to the mental state of each individual and add emotive depth to the battlefield experience.
Q. What new terrain advantages are being implemented and how?
A. In general, there will be more terrain features on the battlefield, with impassable cliffs and banks, walls and hedges and more buildings. The wise commander will be able to use these features to great advantage to protect his flanks and front, and to disrupt enemy manoeuvres.
Q. How big will Medieval 2's battles become?
A. At this stage it’s impossible to put an exact figure on it the maximum size of a battle. However, as always, Total War is scalable to the hardware you have available. -
-
