Gameplay Videos

[zoner16]

The removal of agents was announced by the devs themselves. The removal of trade agreement too. But none except Legend talked about the removal of ambush, edicts, army traditions, etc.

His video was largely shared precisely because he listed methodically all the features that were removed while other Youtubers *conveniently forgot to mention any of this and just repeated Jack Lusted talking point in officials CA videos.

I was particularly shocked about the removal of ambush because it is a feature I like a lot as implemented in Rome 2. Also people were very angry about it as it felt as a new rip-off after CA had gutted siege battles in Warhammer.

You're right. It was ambushes that Legend found out about. I misremembered that.

However, I still do not agree that there's some kind of conspiracy among every other Youtuber to cover it up. They all had things they focused on for likes and dislikes, and given the reaction to the ambush removal elsewhere (Reddit, forums, etc), it seems that a lot of people wouldn't have noticed anyways (despite the stances being visible in another video), so its entirely possible it was just missed.

It's always important to take information from a variety of sources, and I look forward to listening to Legend's opinion on this. However given that I've had to come down on both Legend's previous videos and Darren about things they missed and in Darren's case, misinformation he was spreading (albeit unintentionally), I would not say they're in any way less likely to screw up on reporting the whole truth, just in the opposite direction. Just because someone is more critical does not mean they're inherently more truthful.

EDIT: Here are some more videos

Interview with PartyElite-


Interview with several Youtubers, filmed and commented by MrSmartDonkey-


MrSmartDonkey campaign gameplay footage-


MilkandcookiesTW thoughts and criticisms-


Some thoughts from these:

While I see the reasoning why naval battles aren't as important as some of the other features, I feel that unless the autoresolve has some method of influence other than generic troop strength, it's going to completely misrepresent what made factions like Sun Jian and Liu Biao so competitive. If there are dedicated marine units that can be used to better control the waterways, or perhaps general skills that help, I can see it being somewhat mitigated. Essentially, a faction that wants to control the great rivers should actually invest in real river control, rather than just redirect ground forces. If nothing like that is in the base game, it'll be a black mark that I wave at CA every time they try to announce something. River control has to factor into the strategic gameplay if you want to do this period justice. The reason very few battles were fought on the river was because Wu essentially won the waterborne war in the first couple decades of the conflict, and everyone else had to play by their rules for years.

They do at least say that they want to do naval again in a different time period. Obviously those are just words right now, but it's at least it's an acknowledgement.

Not tying the points of interest to battle maps was a missed opportunity. It's nice that they're there, and it'll help me orient myself when playing the campaign, but I was really hoping at least some of the most interesting ones, like Mount Bailang or Tong Pass had special maps.

I think them shooting for Romance mode heroes being able to fight one or two units as a baseline is reasonable. A general's bodyguard would probably be in a similar situation, but more dependent on the unit type it was fighting.

The statement about the UI I find myself mostly agreeing with greatly. The red and green icons end up hiding more information from me and are far less immersive than the old banners. I've honestly had a hard time telling what the state of the units on the battlefield is at a glance compared to past titles. While they're easy to pick out at a distance, they are very much difficult to actually read. The Unit Cards have the same problem but are less egregious about it. I think mainly the foggy unit model on the neutral background is primarily what is making them less easy to discern. Highlighting the unit equipment is nice and all, but the equipment doesn't pop very well. It's especially egregious for cavalry. Ultimately they also don't mesh well with the artstyle of the rest of the game, which went for a mix of clear colors and ink strokes for basic information and the very well defined paintings for important pieces.