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2024/04/13 15:31:08
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay Launch Trailer 4/9/24
A little disappointed with the dwarf content.
Airship supercool. Slayer stuff, OK I guess. Malakai - meh, we've already got a Slayer lord.
I'd have preferred a dedicated engineer lord, and I dunno, mining golems as either monstrous infantry or monster units for a bit more variety in the roster.
2024/04/26 05:43:26
Subject: Re:Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/05/01 16:31:52
Subject: Re:Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
Having a blast with Tamurkhan's campaign, having briefly started last night. Going to try to follow the path that his Warhammer Forge book laid out, rather than his objectives being to eliminate Kholek, Goldtooth and a third faction that I can't recall at the moment.
His chieftain recruitment tactic is pretty neat and really adds some roster diversity.
Didn't try Elspeth or Makaisson yet. Feel like Elspeth's campaign will be easy, with Nuln cushioned as it is between the mountains and Karl Franz and various other Elector Counts.
Makaisson's campaign might be wild fun,being more or less surrounded by Demons, Norsca and Skaven, with only minor Kislev factions on his border.
Debated starting a Epidemius campaign, but I've do so many campaigns in that area that its kind of played out for me.
Interested in trying out a Slayer-King campaign as well, since they just got so many Slayer upgrades.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/05/01 16:39:27
Subject: Re:Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
You know, I really wish they had campaign mode where you could start as a custom legendary lord for each faction. Make the normal legendary lords recruitable by defeating/confederating them as normal.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Grey Templar wrote: You know, I really wish they had campaign mode where you could start as a custom legendary lord for each faction. Make the normal legendary lords recruitable by defeating/confederating them as normal.
You kind of can with Mods :
1. Mixu’s Faction Unlocker- Makes all minor factions playable.
2. Recruit defeated Legenday Lords - Allows the recruitment of Legendary lords of your faction that have had their faction destroyed.
But yeah, I understand the sentiment. Total War has been character focused since 2015’s Attila, possibly to its detriment in some cases.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/05/02 10:03:28
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
I'd love to see a campaign that just has 1 of each race on the campaign map with fewer regions. Something that's grand but more "I can actually complete this and fight most races without giving up half my life to do so"
Meh, I was kind of excited for the DLC, but when it was broken into 3 separate packs that cumulatively are reasonably expensive, I think I'll sit it out until they're in the bargain bin
Overread wrote: I'd love to see a campaign that just has 1 of each race on the campaign map with fewer regions. Something that's grand but more "I can actually complete this and fight most races without giving up half my life to do so"
I'd like to see a campaign where things are a bit more lore friendly for the AI races, give them the ability to power up without conquering half the map. It's always been weird to me that the map starts out with everyone where they should be, then within a few turns everyone has gone insane in conquering everything and you have things like Drycha randomly owning half of the Empire.
So maybe the AI races focus more on economy and alliances rather than conquering and confederation, so that when you as the player start to conquer them they aren't a pushover but also haven't expanded in a way that feels weird.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/05/04 02:55:52
2024/05/04 03:58:28
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
AllSeeingSkink wrote: Meh, I was kind of excited for the DLC, but when it was broken into 3 separate packs that cumulatively are reasonably expensive, I think I'll sit it out until they're in the bargain bin
I'm not sure I follow.
You can buy the three parts of the DLC as a single package for significantly less (15% discount on the price of all three individually). And if you buy one part of it, and want to buy the other two later, you can get them at a discount. It's $9 for the individual packs, or $23 for the combined package, which is less than the other large DLC packages.
What exactly do you not like about the way that the prices are structured?
2024/05/04 05:02:33
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
AllSeeingSkink wrote: Meh, I was kind of excited for the DLC, but when it was broken into 3 separate packs that cumulatively are reasonably expensive, I think I'll sit it out until they're in the bargain bin
I'm not sure I follow.
You can buy the three parts of the DLC as a single package for significantly less (15% discount on the price of all three individually). And if you buy one part of it, and want to buy the other two later, you can get them at a discount. It's $9 for the individual packs, or $23 for the combined package, which is less than the other large DLC packages.
What exactly do you not like about the way that the prices are structured?
Maybe it's an Australian pricing thing? The individuals are $15AUD, the combined is $38AUD, it just doesn't feel to me like a 3 lord DLC is worth that much, so if I loved one of the other races maybe I'd be excited enough to buy an individual lord for $15 but I don't have a great deal of excitement about it. The Chaos Dwarfs DLC was $35 and brought with it an entire new race. Champions of Chaos was $25 and brought 4x Lords. It also doesn't feel like a Warden and the Paunch which turned O&G from boring to fun, or a Silence and Fury that brought a whole new flavour to Lizardmen and made Beastmen interesting.
Maybe I'm missing what is so great about this DLC? Happy to be proven wrong, I haven't been paying a great deal of attention to Warhammer 3 recently so maybe I'm just not seeing it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/05/04 05:04:32
2024/05/04 05:36:53
Subject: Re:Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
I guess it's not a huge difference, they're both similar in price to the Chaos Dwarfs, over here TOD is a couple of bucks more expensive than Chaos Stunties, over there it's a couple of bucks cheaper. What was Champions of Chaos over there? As TOD seems (to me at least) be more similar to Champions than it is to Evil Stunties.
Does TOD change much in how those races play? I guess I was most interested in how it changes Dwarfs, as I like Dwarfs but find them boring to play a campaign with. But I was expecting a $25-ish dollar DLC rather than something that's $38 and that put me off.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/05/04 05:46:52
2024/05/04 10:48:59
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
So maybe the AI races focus more on economy and alliances rather than conquering and confederation, so that when you as the player start to conquer them they aren't a pushover but also haven't expanded in a way that feels weird.
The problem is that at its core Total War has always been a conquest game.
It's always been about being a game where you get into fights and come into the 3D battleworld to play out those fights. The other issue is if you stop the AI expanding and have it focus on other areas, you have to stop the player expanding too. Otherwise the player will conquer a few provinces and then be nigh unstoppable very early on in the game.
The other thing is game complexity, if you try and build a super detailed combat game; and political game; and empire building game all into one you can end up with something that has a LOT of simulation going on, but which is so complex its overwhelming to some and creates a very different play experience.
Honestly I think if you want a more political game you'd be looking closer to a Crusader Kings engine and setup. Where combat is a side element and politics and other elements come to the fore. Though even that can be tricky with a fantasy game where some factions are 100% against others and will not come ot the table to discuss things at all. IF a barbarian tribe comes out of the Chaos Wastes, they won't be politically allying with anyone save for those that are already attuned to Chaos; otherwise they will steamroll through everyone with combat as their main focus.
Conquest game for the player, but the basics are there for it to be more nuanced for the AI.
Like, instead of random small AI lord conquering all the land around them become your primary enemy, they could build a strong economy and strong alliances and trade which lets them build their settlements to a higher tier than the player with a more expansionist focus, thus making them harder to conquer. Their alliances will mean that instead of the player just fighting them and wiping them out in 2 turns, they can get meaningful support from their nearby allies (which kind of already happens but it is never central to the AI's strategy). Then once you've wiped them out, they can come back in the form of rebellions.
An AI with a single province could be quite hard to conquer if they had a few high tier armies spread across the province with high tier settlements that have solid garrisons and surrounding allies that will come to help them when you attack.
These features already exist in the game, but in reality what happens is a few AI factions snowball so that by turn 50 it's gone from 250 factions down to less than 100 and you have factions taking over swathes of land where lore wise they shouldn't be.
I'm not even saying that should be the main campaign mode, just saying to have it as an option the same way we have 10 different end game crisis as an option. It'd be nice to get to location X and have the expected faction in location X instead of being conquered by Grimgor or Thorgrim or whatever.
I'd even be totally fine if the AI cheated to make it more lore friendly, it's not like the AI doesn't cheat already.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/05/04 11:51:44
2024/05/07 11:33:09
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
AllSeeingSkink wrote: I guess it's not a huge difference, they're both similar in price to the Chaos Dwarfs, over here TOD is a couple of bucks more expensive than Chaos Stunties, over there it's a couple of bucks cheaper. What was Champions of Chaos over there? As TOD seems (to me at least) be more similar to Champions than it is to Evil Stunties.
Does TOD change much in how those races play? I guess I was most interested in how it changes Dwarfs, as I like Dwarfs but find them boring to play a campaign with. But I was expecting a $25-ish dollar DLC rather than something that's $38 and that put me off.
By all accounts the dwarfs at least received a major overhaul. Lots of new Slayer units (dragonslayer hero, demonslayer lord, legendary hero, legendary lord (Malakai Makaisson), goblinhewer, doomseekers, and Long Drong's Slayer Pirates), finally a proper centerpiece unit with the battle zeppelin, and a major overhaul of the Grudge system that encourages a more active playstyle. Oh, and Gotrek and Felix got updated.
Apparently you can make a (regular) cannon doomstack with grapeshot now, as well.
2024/05/20 17:41:07
Subject: Re:Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
Not sure if its a mod I'm running, or this patch made them super powerful(it certainly buffed them), but Dwarfs of the non-Chaos variety are dominating the map in my most recent campaigns.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/05/20 19:37:25
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
That was somewhat true in mine. Malaki seems to struggle (though I'd put that at map position).
Belegar tends to confederate the lesser dwarf factions, while Ungrim and the High King consolidate their local area well, but eventually slog into a grinding stalemate against chaos dwarfs and/or skaven (down south). Greenskins and ogres just evaporate.
Though in my Empire campaign Belegar got stuck in Athel Loren- took out Durthu and the Oak of Ages, but ended up in an attrition war in southern Bretonnia against Orion. Unfortunately for him he took Grenstat from the Bloody Hands (who declared war on me early and would send an army every 20-30 turns), and to solidify my claim on the Empire I had to conquer it back.
Efficiency is the highest virtue.
2024/05/23 16:50:33
Subject: Re:Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/05/24 04:21:28
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Thrones of Decay 4/30/24 Release Date
Voss wrote: That was somewhat true in mine. Malaki seems to struggle (though I'd put that at map position).
Belegar tends to confederate the lesser dwarf factions, while Ungrim and the High King consolidate their local area well, but eventually slog into a grinding stalemate against chaos dwarfs and/or skaven (down south). Greenskins and ogres just evaporate.
Though in my Empire campaign Belegar got stuck in Athel Loren- took out Durthu and the Oak of Ages, but ended up in an attrition war in southern Bretonnia against Orion. Unfortunately for him he took Grenstat from the Bloody Hands (who declared war on me early and would send an army every 20-30 turns), and to solidify my claim on the Empire I had to conquer it back.
Yeah Malakai is in a target-rich environment.
Throt, Throgg, Azazel, Wulfrik, Daniel, Epidemius, Archaon, and that Chaos Dwarf are all right next-door. That plus anti-player bias all mean you get stuck in right away.
At least if you take out Throt right away your south flank is reasonably secure with Kislev guarding it pretty well so you can focus on taking over Norsca and defend in the east/north.
You can get the Bill King Band back together pretty easily though (except Snorri who's not in the game - just rename a generic slayer character I guess?), which is kinda cool.
Oh, and cannon grapeshot doomstack really is a thing, only slightly overshadowed because battle zeppelins are stupid good.
2024/05/24 11:04:13
Subject: Total War : Warhammer 3 - Karanak Trailer pg 51
We get a dog. Meanwhile in WHTW 1 we got bretonia...
Would've been nice if we would've gotten Tilea /Estalia...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units." Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?" Chaos marines players: "Since when are Daemonengines 30k models and why do i have NO droppods now?" GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!" Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.
Facebook post on the Total War page : " Khorne, Ogre Kingdoms, Greenskins- 2024. Thanks for attending our E3 Press Conference. Learn more, June 26th."
Karanak coming June 25th to all players. Not sure if its something where you have to have a Total War account or it will just show up on Steam or whatever other platform as a free DLC
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/06/21 16:20:17
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/06/26 17:26:44
Subject: Re:Total War :Warhammer 3 - Karanak DLC June 25th, Khorne, Ogres, Greenskins update news on Jun 26th.
Ogres: Golgfag and an unnamed legendary hero, some sort of vultures and thundertusk
Khorne: Skulltaker, an unnamed Legendary lord, Slaughterbrute
O+G’s : Gorbad Ironclaw
Every faction will get reworked at some point and there is supposedly a lot still in development.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2024/06/26 19:32:43
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/07/28 16:51:27
Subject: Total War :Warhammer 3 - “What’s Next?” Video pg 51
TWW3 is their cash cow right now. As long as they keep putting out quality content like they have and don't backslide into Shadows bs, that's OK by me.
2024/07/28 20:26:35
Subject: Total War :Warhammer 3 - “What’s Next?” Video pg 51
Bran Dawri wrote: TWW3 is their cash cow right now. As long as they keep putting out quality content like they have and don't backslide into Shadows bs, that's OK by me.
Pretty sure Total War is their only real income generator?
I AM A MARINE PLAYER
"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos
"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001
Bran Dawri wrote: TWW3 is their cash cow right now. As long as they keep putting out quality content like they have and don't backslide into Shadows bs, that's OK by me.
Pretty sure Total War is their only real income generator?
Shouldn't have wasted millions on hyenas then...
But then again CA is not very bright as a company, nor in it's behaviour.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units." Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?" Chaos marines players: "Since when are Daemonengines 30k models and why do i have NO droppods now?" GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!" Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.
2024/07/29 10:05:11
Subject: Total War :Warhammer 3 - “What’s Next?” Video pg 51
I can understand how they would invest in something like Hyenas. The money you can get from online competitive shooter games is insane. The return on investment IF you get it right is big big money. Way more than RTS/TBS hybrids can generate.
Sure in the end Hyenas didn't work and they canned the project, but I can see how it would get approval if they were looking to expand into a more lucrative market using the income that the Warhammer games (and others) have secured for them over the last few years.
It's a shame that they couldn't have sunk the money into a brand new engine for TW games; but at least they didn't sink everything into Hyenas and it appears they still have a core who can work on further TW games and keep the company going.
It's similar to how EA had their regular income from sports games and in their day used that to buy up other studios - expanding into other markets to grow.
Overread wrote: I can understand how they would invest in something like Hyenas. The money you can get from online competitive shooter games is insane. The return on investment IF you get it right is big big money. Way more than RTS/TBS hybrids can generate.
And requires actual talent in coding, netcode and you know shooter knowledge, NVM beeing so good that they would need to be able to beat a lot of big names. A company that has leaked massivly talent mind you.
Sure in the end Hyenas didn't work and they canned the project, but I can see how it would get approval if they were looking to expand into a more lucrative market using the income that the Warhammer games (and others) have secured for them over the last few years.
It's a shame that they couldn't have sunk the money into a brand new engine for TW games; but at least they didn't sink everything into Hyenas and it appears they still have a core who can work on further TW games and keep the company going.
It's similar to how EA had their regular income from sports games and in their day used that to buy up other studios - expanding into other markets to grow.
And look how many of those studios are still around, NVM that EA has the money only because they do what is in essence illegal gambling in their sports games.
And CA, dear little CA would've needed an engine update since RTW 2 the latest.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units." Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?" Chaos marines players: "Since when are Daemonengines 30k models and why do i have NO droppods now?" GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!" Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.
2024/07/30 10:36:57
Subject: Total War :Warhammer 3 - “What’s Next?” Video pg 51
Bran Dawri wrote: TWW3 is their cash cow right now. As long as they keep putting out quality content like they have and don't backslide into Shadows bs, that's OK by me.
Pretty sure Total War is their only real income generator?
Shouldn't have wasted millions on hyenas then...
But then again CA is not very bright as a company, nor in it's behaviour.
Also like many game companies it seems to have thought the Covid boost to them was sustainable when people went back to work and kept spending money on expanding.
Now they are under strict control - which could be good or bad.
I AM A MARINE PLAYER
"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos
"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001
This patch also includes a number of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements, including a rework of the definitions for our rollback builds on Steam, which will make it easier to identify and select the version you need, should you need it.
Here’s a glimpse of what’s new:
A new feature for the Dwarfs: The Deeps
A rework of the Chaos Cult feature
A new small 'global' feature: Unusual Locations
An update to the Cathay's Ivory Road feature
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/09/10 22:53:33
Subject: Re:Total War :Warhammer 3 - (“What’s Next?” Video pg 51, Patch 5.2 8/20)
Ogres : Yhetees, Golgfag mechanics
Khorne : A new generic lord, 2 Legendary Heroes - Scylla Anfingrimm and Skarr Bloodwrath, with an insinuation of Skullreapers/Wrathmongers
Next major patch after 5.3 : Bretonnia rework, Kislev rework, smaller plans with an ancillary item system, chaos invasion end content, plans subject to change. Egrimm Van Horstman mentioned.
Missed anything about Orcs, but there is a FW Gargantuan squig miniature on the table, if that means anything. Couldn’t make out anything else on the table or if it pertains to any clues about whats coming.
Edit: Gorbad can experiment with different units in his army, unlocking new abilities. Savage Orc Shaman coming and Wurzzag starting further south now with some sort of new mechanic/playstyle.
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2024/09/10 23:15:08
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
2024/10/23 19:36:07
Subject: Re:Total War :Warhammer 3 - (“What’s Next?” Video pg 51, Patch 5.2 8/20)
Special note from this small novella, spoilered below:
Special thanks to CatholicAlcoholic
That's not my gamer tag, but I definitely feel seen. Thank you for the representation, Creative Assembly.
Also, Grave Guard with Halberds finally getting added!!
Also, Also :
Additionally, we're introducing the concept of randomly dropped unique ancillaries, which are extra rare and come with particularly zesty effects such as a map that grants massively increased campaign movement at the cost of a small chance to get lost and warp to nearby random regions - in total 6 new unique items will be coming in 5.3 alongside the generic ancillaries."
That sounds fun.
Spoiler:
Hello everyone, Mitch here, Design Director on Total War: Warhammer III, back with another dev blog - this time for patch 5.3!
Having now seen your reaction to patch 5.2 I can say it’s been really wonderful; it was inspiring to see all of your reactions to the new content, reworks and fixes and in particular your excitement for the future of the game. Speaking of the future, we’re already well underway with patch 5.3 and so I’ll walk you through the changes and additions coming as part of our next patch, before that touching on the topic of game balance as well as taking the chance to acknowledge some of the feedback we’ve seen following 5.2 and our recent Dev Chat video where among other things we asked for more of your thoughts.
Your Feedback
We've asked a few times and in a few places for more of your feedback because it helps us shape what we do and I think we owe it to you where possible to highlight where this impacts us and what decisions we actually make because of your feedback. I called out in the Dev Chat video a few things that are "on the list". These are high priority items that we've seen a lot of feedback on, or feel quite strongly about ourselves. It's important to note that that list wasn't exhaustive, just illustrative, of some of the things we'd like to tackle. Something else we noted in the video was that not everything you ask for is going to be possible in the patches, with the notable example being new characters - these take a huge amount of time and effort and a much greater portion of the team's involvement to create compared to anything else we do, that's why you'll find new lords and characters in our DLC's and also released for free alongside them - just as you will for our next release! Creating them as part of the DLC allows us the lead time we need to do all of the work to model and animate them, bring in the voice actors, etc. It's just not feasible for patches and that's why we wanted to set your expectations with this for our interim updates.
Moving back to the topic of your feedback, one of the major points we see consistently is game balance. This topic is multi-faceted and can really apply to most aspects of the game, but in particular I want to let you know we have heard your feedback loud and clear on both the Control (Public Order) and the Corruption systems, and we agree with you. When such core systems aren't performing like we want them to it can understandably have a big impact on the challenge the game provides (another topic we do hear your feedback on), and so both these items are high priority for us to tackle going forward - albeit not in Patch 5.3.
I don't have too much information to share just yet on what our plans are with these features, but the complexity of dealing with both of these mechanics is larger than you might think. They are both core game systems that affect every single race in the game, and each faction's relationship with these systems can be, and often is, unique. So it’s not enough for us to just say "Control is too easy a system to manage" and that we’ll increase all negative sources, for example - that might improve one faction's situation and make the system more challenging, but may ruin another’s. Each race, and in some cases specific factions, needs to be considered in how they currently interact with these systems and then balanced accordingly; for one faction that might mean too many positive sources from their technology tree, for others it may mean their building tree provides too many bonuses, and so on. So without going in to too much detail, I want us to be thorough and take a really deep look at both of these systems. They're long standing Total War features and I think they suffer from a legacy of being carried from game to game without a real deep dive into what their place in the game actually entails. I could (and probably will) write further Dev Blogs on these topics closer to when we begin to make progress, as they can certainly fill up an entire blog with just me generating some initial design thoughts, let alone a detailed overview. So in summary, there is a lot of work required to tackle these issues across the whole game. It’s a challenge we’re up for and I want to thank you for your feedback in asking us to make these a high priority, so stay tuned for more on that in future patches.
Just one last thing on the topic of game balance before we dive into the Patch 5.3 changes, I want to mention quickly the ancillary rebalance I have talked about in our previous developer video. We intended for this to be a part of Patch 5.3, but it now won't be. I know that may be disappointing to hear but in the interest of transparency we wanted to let you know not only what we are releasing for you, but also the work we're doing that doesn't make the cut, so you can better understand our priorities and that we are working towards things that may not always be visible. This is a normal part of game development, it's very common and many pieces of work we start won't make the final cut for a number of reasons. One of our designers Will has written in more detail below about what we've tried so far with the ancillary system and where we might take it going forward. Ordinarily you don't always see the work we do that doesn't make the release, but particularly where it pertains to elements of your feedback that we're actively asking for I think it's really important to let you know what work is ongoing towards addressing your points. This is an example of us hearing your feedback on things like balance and game challenge, before making moves to address it (at least in one smaller area). However the ancillary rebalance just hasn't hit our quality threshold where we're happy to release it yet, so stay tuned for more on it in future.
Patch 5.3
I’ll share with you now a look at our next patch. The first thing you’ll notice below is that we’ve made changes and additions to two core Ogre Kingdom’s features. As you’ll likely be aware we have Ogre Kingdom’s content coming in our next DLC. So with that in mind we wanted to take the chance now to improve certain aspects of the race ready for when more content arrives. As I mentioned we'll talk briefly about what we've been doing with the ancillary system, and that we're adding in some new interesting items. On top of all that we’ll be continuing our work on improving battle maps in our second tree cluster update, we’ve also got a fairly big balance update to battle coming, and last but not least we've heard you really enjoyed the new units in Patch 5.2, so we’ve added another one - and this time for Vampire Counts.
Ogre Kingdoms – Mercenary Recruitment Rework
The way the mercenary system works for Ogres in WH3 as opposed to WH2 came with certain improvements, however also missed the mark in a number of ways and we saw a lot of feedback asking for certain aspects of how it worked in WH2 to return, but with the additional UI/UX improvements WH3 brought. As such we’ve made a number of changes and additions to how Ogre mercenary recruitment now works:
Increased the Ogre mercenary unit cap per army to 3 from 1
Ogre mercenary pools now replenish at a rate of 1 unit every 5 turns
The quality of mercenary units available now depends on the tier of the Ogre camp
More mercenary units are now available from Ogre camps, including:
Ogre Bulls
Ogre Bulls (Dual Weapons)
Maneaters (Ogre Pistols)
Mournfang Cavalry
Ogre Giant
Ogre Kingdoms – Bounties
We’ll be taking the theme of “Mercenary Contracts” and doing much more with it in the DLC, as such we’ve renamed the existing Contracts feature to “Bounties” ready for when that happens. Along with that we’ve made a number of changes and improvements:
We’ve added a new more thematic UI, as seen below!
We’ve changed the 10 turn generation into a rolling objective "Bounty" system
The feature was previously only available every 10 turns which wasn’t very interactive, instead we’ve now made it so that Bounties are more of an interest more consistently
All objectives are now available continually, instead of only being able to select a single one
The gameplay for Bounties is now more opportunistic in nature and you don’t have to accept a single mission but instead can tackle any and all Bounties at your leisure
Ancillary System Rebalance & New Items
"Originally, as part of this patch, we wanted to release our first cycle of re-balanced ancillaries alongside a selection of brand new ancillaries to round out the item pools. We approached this idea from a systemic angle, defining new backend tools to help us start the long process of cracking away at the balance of the hundreds of ancillaries found across the game. With our goal being to set sustainable practices that allow us to simultaneously work through our backlog as well as assist in balancing upcoming content.
We built this primarily around a power budgeting matrix, where we spent an item's budget (derived from how rare it is) on effects to ensure that an item always had a value consummate with its rarity. Alongside this, we added modifiers that allow us to deliberately create outliers following specific design restrictions. This allowed us to track down items that were far more or less rare than expected, and massage them into more appropriate brackets. Alongside adjusting the effects of the items, we had the goal of bringing in some of the new tech the game has seen since its inception (Barrier as a defensive stat? Yes please!).
The first part of this re-balance was planned to be released as part of Patch 5.3, but when we presented it to our internal feedback channels, the message we got back was loud and clear. We hadn't hit the mark. We take that kind of feedback seriously, so we've made the decision to delay this content while we take that feedback and interrogate our approach.
Here are some of the key things we found in the feedback.
The difference between a high value common and a low value uncommon could be far too slim
In that system, an item valued at 29 uniqueness (highest value common) and 30 uniqueness (lowest value uncommon) was only a single point. We're interrogating leaving larger "air gaps" in the values we assign to rarities, to ensure that each jump in quality is a notable increase in power.
The value of specific effects was out of proportion with what they perceived as valuable.
We've got a list of effects to re-review on this topic.
Some effects don't feel good standing alone (spell resistance)
We're finding effects like these some "partners" in other effects to help make more universally useful items.
There are certain items that were considered iconic (partially due to having very powerful effects) that were brought too low by the balance adjustments.
We're interrogating how high we're willing to go within our existing categories and considering the potential impact of a new tier of rarity.
That doesn't mean we're leaving you empty handed however.
Patch 5.3 will still contain 18 new generic ancillaries, which drop only for relevant factions. To help you outfit your gun-toters, bow-slingers and blowpipe-blasters with improvements to their ranged performance. Additionally, we're introducing the concept of randomly dropped unique ancillaries, which are extra rare and come with particularly zesty effects such as a map that grants massively increased campaign movement at the cost of a small chance to get lost and warp to nearby random regions - in total 6 new unique items will be coming in 5.3 alongside the generic ancillaries."
- Will
Battle Map Tree Cluster Update (Continued)
As you will have seen in patch 5.2 we’ve started the initiative to update the trees in certain battle maps making them look more natural and offering better tactical options, or removing them entirely where they were not needed. We’re continuing this effort into 5.3 and have made a number of changes to an additional 46 battle maps, and as we’ve mentioned previously this will be an ongoing improvement to our maps.
Battle Balance Update
We're making a number of changes to battle balance, so now a word from our battle designer Ben on what to expect:
"In patch 5.3 we're shifting the multiplayer meta slightly by introducing some small (and not so small) changes to just about every faction in the game. These tweaks aim to correct outlying units in various rosters and bring them back in-line with what both we and the community expect to see. Beyond this, our aim is to keep the experience feeling fresh by shifting the faction meta around slightly.
Special thanks to CatholicAlcoholic and the rest of the team who puts together the community sourced balance thread, as it's a brilliant way for us to temperature check the meta of the battle side of the game alongside our own balance tests, feedback, opinions and metrics. Also special thanks to our affiliated content creators for putting out videos and sending in feedback that highlight where our battle balance could be improved.
Some highlights include:
Several changes to Nakai's innate attributes and army effects in campaign (Vanguard Deployment, Woodsman, Terror)
A small rework to the Black Coach's abilities (the now intensify based on how many nearby enemies have been killed)
Additional effects for the spell "Glean Magic" (Spell Mastery on self, Silence for the enemy)
Buffs to the Skullcannon and Blood Shrine to make them more credible threats
A rework to the Wildwood Rangers' "Guardians of the Wildwood" ability
Nerfs to Kislev, specifically some gentle MP cost increases and a reduction to the War Sleds' collision power
Daemonic locus abilities have been increased to 55m range to work better on Ultra unit size
Small rework on how the Ark of Sotek deals it's damage
More leadership for Ghost-type units
More large units feature collision attacks (Tomb Scorpion, K'daii Destroyer, Toad Dragon and more)
Even more buffs for the Chariot of the Gods.
As ever, if you have any feedback regarding battle balance, be sure to hit up our forum. We are always lurking and reading.
- Ben"
New Unit - Grave Guard (Halberds)
We know everyone really enjoyed when we added the new Orcs & Goblins units with weapon variants in patch 5.2 and adding small new additions like that is something we’d like to continue doing where possible. As such we’ve now added a new unit for Vampire Counts, the Grave Guard with Halberds! Ready to shore up the undead against the relentless onslaught of cavalry, dragons and everything in-between (and at a much more reasonable price point than those haughty Blood Knights).
That's all from me today, once again thanks for reading and please do continue providing us with your feedback. We're looking forward to when you can get your hands on Patch 5.3 which is coming this October.
Cheers,
Mitch
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