What the teams are working on 17/03/2017

[Deleted User]

Hey everyone, it’s time again to update you on what’s going on across the Total War teams here at CA. This is part of a semi-regular series of posts which will briefly keep you up-to-date with what each Total War team is currently working on, and you can see a short summary on each below. There are some important things to bear in mind though:

1. We can’t always say exactly what titles are being developed because games might not be announced yet, and we need to remind everyone that plans always change in development and that can lead to titles being altered, moved or even cancelled. So this post should always be taken as subject to change.
2. We’d like to be able to tell you more about what’s going on behind the studio doors, and this is part of that, but if we see this is overly upsetting or confusing people, then we’ll drop it and think of something else.
3. The studio staff working on each team varies over time as the production ramps up/down or enters different stages of development. Not all teams are equal in size, and staffers will move between projects as they are needed.
4. I will update it as often as I can, and I might lock or heavily moderate the comments in this thread in the future, just so that people can see better when it is updated. You can always start another thread if you’d like to discuss the update.

Arena Team – Total War: ARENA

Total War: ARENA continues its closed Alpha stage and we are running invite-only test weekends around once per month. These are primarily technical tests that allow us to test the game infrastructure as well as new content. Player feedback from these tests is essential in helping prepare the game for Closed Beta.
In December a few of the ARENA team braved the freezing cold of Moscow to present the game to the crowds at the first ever Wargaming Fest event (you can see the highlights here). After they had returned to a relatively tropical UK, work has continued including building a tutorial; refining elements of the UI, rewards and match-making; and making progress on new battlefields, units and Commanders…..more info on all that to come.

To stay fully up to date on the game, head to the Total War: ARENA Facebook Page and Wargaming’s official ARENA homepage.

Historical Team – Unannounced Total War Title

Our next major historical release is now in full production with the game design locked and asset creation fully underway. The game retains the same strong focus on character design that infused previous major releases, with the key personalities of the period in particular being an early priority for us now; as such there are some vibrant and striking renders plastered around the studio, with eye-catching combat animations garnering some serious attention too.

New Content Team – Total War: WARHAMMER DLC and Free-LC

Obviously the new content team have been very busy recently working on Both Isabella Von Carstein, as well as our even bigger Free-LC Bretonnia! Both of which are now available to download and enjoy here. Bretonnia in particular has been really popular and we’re very pleased by the passionate response.

While the majority of the dev team is busy working on DLC and free content plans for the sequel; given the success of our DLC so far, we are also looking at further possible content for the current game.

Warhammer Team – Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy

Excitement continues to build amongst the development team as the second part of the trilogy comes together, particularly as the distinctive races take shape and their playstyles solidify in campaign and battle. We’re equally excited at the prospect of sharing details about the game’s gigantic scale and content with our community and wider fanbase, as those plans come together in parallel.

As always, our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) have all the latest Total War: WARHAMMER news when the time is right.

Black Ops Task Team – Unannounced Total War Title

As you may have read in the last update, we’ve recently being conducting investigations into whether we can produce additional stand-alone follow-ups or DLC for release before the next major historical title in the series. Initial plans are promising and now Jack Lusted and veteran team members from the ROME II and ATTILA new content teams have formed a new Total War team to investigate further.

We’ll update this as often as we can and I hope we’ve piqued your excitement for upcoming Total War titles!
Total War Team signing out.

Patrikseve#8733

Cool looking forward to it all

urbanmech

While the majority of the dev team is busy working on DLC and free content plans for the sequel; given the success of our DLC so far, we are also looking at further possible content for the current game.

Yes! More legendary lords and units for the Empire provinces and new legendary lords (Sisters of Twilight and Ariel) for the Wood Elves please!

Argon

Cool can't wait for all those things

obippo#5152

more content for game 1 wohooooooooooo

mitthrawnuruodo#4895

While I am looking forward to the new stuff, it is all the more annoying that this "announcement" was lot of words about absolutely nothing.

How about you guys stop with these pointless teases, and only make announcements when you actually have something worth announcing? You are not a kickstarted shady indie dev that needs to remind their backers every month that they have not yet run off with the money. We trust you enough already!

KhorneFlakes

Take a look at chaos please both sp and mp they are really underwhelming

FrigMannaia

mitthrawnuruodo said:

While I am looking forward to the new stuff, it is all the more annoying that this "announcement" was lot of words about absolutely nothing.

How about you guys stop with these pointless teases, and only make announcements when you actually have something worth announcing? You are not a kickstarted shady indie dev that needs to remind their backers every month that they have not yet run off with the money. We trust you enough already!

Duuuude chiiiiill!!!

In-detail info will be shared at the appropriate time, not now. Moreover in this announcement there's a lot of info worth announcing:
- Our next major historical release is now in full production with the game design locked and asset creation fully underway;
- given the success of our DLC so far, we are also looking at further possible content for the current game;
- the second part of the trilogy comes together, particularly as the distinctive races take shape and their playstyles solidify in campaign and battle;
- we’ve recently being conducting investigations into whether we can produce additional stand-alone follow-ups or DLC for release before the next major historical title in the series.

Isn't this enough for you?

Do you actually expect that they will waste a better timing and opportunity for a more effective announcement by revealing all their future plans in detail in one forum post (with all respects to forum posts )?

Patience is bitter, but its fruits are sweet.

FrigMannaia

Btw awesome info guys. I'm getting more excited every day for the future of this franchise! All aboard "TW train"!!

neoiq5719#7437

FrigMannaia said:

mitthrawnuruodo said:

While I am looking forward to the new stuff, it is all the more annoying that this "announcement" was lot of words about absolutely nothing.

How about you guys stop with these pointless teases, and only make announcements when you actually have something worth announcing? You are not a kickstarted shady indie dev that needs to remind their backers every month that they have not yet run off with the money. We trust you enough already!

Duuuude chiiiiill!!!

In-detail info will be shared at the appropriate time, not now. Moreover in this announcement there's a lot of info worth announcing:
- Our next major historical release is now in full production with the game design locked and asset creation fully underway;
- given the success of our DLC so far, we are also looking at further possible content for the current game;
- the second part of the trilogy comes together, particularly as the distinctive races take shape and their playstyles solidify in campaign and battle;
- we’ve recently being conducting investigations into whether we can produce additional stand-alone follow-ups or DLC for release before the next major historical title in the series.

Isn't this enough for you?

Do you actually expect that they will waste a better timing and opportunity for a more effective announcement by revealing all their future plans in detail in one forum post (with all respects to forum posts )?

Patience is bitter, but its fruits are sweet.

We already knew about all this so I guess mitthrawnuruodo was right on point

Yakinton#1016

yes wohoo!

While the majority of the dev team is busy working on DLC and free content plans for the sequel; given the success of our DLC so far, we are also looking at further possible content for the current game.

Empire vs greenskin LP and Dogs of War race pack please!

Ratatoing

I think these teases are pretty nice. They keep the community updated about the stage of development of their incoming games. I can't see nothing wrong with that.

This update made me think that imho, the next historical game may be set in the renascence. That's the historical period with the most well known historical personalities from art, science, politics and philosophy. So There is a reason for making it a priority.

Rainbowcera

Looking forward to what you are going to create for TW:W and its sequels. My favorite race is the Skaven, and I hope that the next game includes them, regardless I'll buy everything otherwise.

bennymcl

Looks good!!! What about Terry? ... Lol

DreadedNorwegian

AAAAAH! Words cannot descrive how happy I am! You made my weekend ca! So glad to hear that we are gettinge mor historical dlc, more warhammer dlc and that both warhammer and the next historical games are comming alone nicely

MrMecH

I like that we will have more content for tww game1. There have a lot of thing they can add in such as missing units, minor faction, painting features, seige improvement, legendary heroes, big event quest.

CnConrad

Always appreciate the info, even if it is nothing concrete, it still helps me visualize what the future will bring.


Also @JackLustedCA !!!! Can't wait to see where he is going with his team. He is a fan favorite.

DreadedNorwegian

MrMecH said:

I like that we will have more content for tww game1. There have a lot of thing they can add in such as missing units, minor faction, painting features, seige improvement, legendary heroes, big event quest.

I just hope the fact that the dlcs have been selling well means that they can give something back to us in the way of mor free dlc, even after the "old friend" frlc.

Nodosa

CA_Whelan said:

Black Ops Task Team – Unannounced Total War Title

As you may have read in the last update, we’ve recently being conducting investigations into whether we can produce additional stand-alone follow-ups or DLC for release before the next major historical title in the series. Initial plans are promising and now Jack Lusted and veteran team members from the ROME II and ATTILA new content teams have formed a new Total War team to investigate further.

Oh please, tell us what it is! I cant wait, this is the most interesting news in the entire announcement, as it is as secretive as the next historical total war game. The only thing that comes to my mind is adding a totally new campaign in Rome 2......like in China.

Astraeus#6689

CA_Whelan said:

Black Ops Task Team – Unannounced Total War Title

As you may have read in the last update, we’ve recently being conducting investigations into whether we can produce additional stand-alone follow-ups or DLC for release before the next major historical title in the series. Initial plans are promising and now Jack Lusted and veteran team members from the ROME II and ATTILA new content teams have formed a new Total War team to investigate further.

I'm surprised you have staff to spare for this! Investigations with who? I'm guessing not your fanbase here? Surely it's time to move forwards not backwards and direct all your resources into polishing and optimising TWW2 and the new "sssssh" franchise - not churn out a last few Attilla/Rome2 mini-campaigns or dlcs just for the sake of it...

nordoM#6636

CA_Whelan said:

Warhammer Team – Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy

Excitement continues to build amongst the development team as the second part of the trilogy comes together, particularly as the distinctive races take shape and their playstyles solidify in campaign and battle. We’re equally excited at the prospect of sharing details about the game’s gigantic scale and content with our community and wider fanbase, as those plans come together in parallel.

As always, our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) have all the latest Total War: WARHAMMER news when the time is right.

I think you can not get any closer, beside an all out confirmation, to saying an that an official announcement is near, than this.
Can't wait for March 31!

Warfiend81

Thanks for the update. Great to hear both games are really coming along. Can't wait to hear more. Hopefully on the 31st!

DreadedNorwegian

Astraeus said:

CA_Whelan said:

Black Ops Task Team – Unannounced Total War Title

As you may have read in the last update, we’ve recently being conducting investigations into whether we can produce additional stand-alone follow-ups or DLC for release before the next major historical title in the series. Initial plans are promising and now Jack Lusted and veteran team members from the ROME II and ATTILA new content teams have formed a new Total War team to investigate further.

I'm surprised you have staff to spare for this! Investigations with who? I'm guessing not your fanbase here? Surely it's time to move forwards not backwards and direct all your resources into polishing and optimising TWW2 and the new "sssssh" franchise - not churn out a last few Attilla/Rome2 mini-campaigns or dlcs just for the sake of it...

They are most likely doing it because the total war franchise first and foremost is a historical rts series, and my guess is that they want to fill the loong gap beteen the last historical game (attila) and the next game (sometime 2019/2020?) with dlc for the latest historical games. That way they can kepp us hisotyry fans happy, and keep being a historical game developer, while at the same time focus on warhammer to keep those fans happy as well. They way I see it it is a win win for all.

Sughdian Warrior

Our next major historical release is now in full production with the game design locked and asset creation fully underway. The game retains the same strong focus on character design that infused previous major releases, with the key personalities of the period in particular being an early priority for us now; as such there are some vibrant and striking renders plastered around the studio, with eye-catching combat animations garnering some serious attention too.

Eye-catching combat animations - that don't force soldiers to slide around, I hope?
In any case, this sort of comments bring back the memories from Rome II's launch. All flashy, a lot of attention to elaborate animations and so on. Most of which had to be changed later on. We were promised epic beach landings and combined land and sea battles, which then turned out to be very limited features. I don't mean to question your effort, but I sincerely hope, that we get some proper depth this time in the game. Even if the map is quarter of what we got with Rome II. More depth and features is always better than the shallowness we got with Rome II's release, with almost the entire world map and umpteen cut-and-paste factions. And the AI... I don't even know what to expect. Hopefully an AI that can confidently find its way around the game, and not a game tailored and feature-starved, to work around the AI, so that it can't make stupid choices.
I do want a recruitment system tied to population, I do want to manage my own garrisons and I do want to move around a single unit around the map. And without a general, thankyouverymuch. If I change my mind, I'll just add a general manually. Please remove these silly limitations wherever they are, that were obviously put there to cater for the AI.

Ivanek

I know you are moving on, but could you please take a hard look at multiplayer co-op campaign stability in Total War: Warhammer?

My PC takes ages to load the game from SSD (loading Shogun 2 was fast), and the game often crashes.
This combination is horrible!

The crashes mainly happen when disbanding units, and as Brettonnia that's something we often have to do whenever peasant upkeep becomes too high.

I like the game for the rest, though a 3 player co-op game would also be very, very welcome

Also about the maximum time per turn, I'd prefer to have this set to low, but sometimes you need more time.
Could you maybe make it a maximum for 5 turns? This way it evens out

Keep up the good work! I really like how Shogun 2 and Warhammer play like really different games (and I love both).

Trebron55

Please tell me that the Black ops team is working on figuring out how can they implement a WH40K title in Total War. I'd give anything for a game where I can field several thousand imperial guards along a few hundred space marines against some hive tyrants or daemon princes. Ohh my god, can you imagine Warlord titans obliterating whole units in a few shots, or brawling with daemons or stompas? Baneblades rolling over hundreds of tyranids?

It would be the definition on Nerdgasm.

(Technically you can use many assets and mechanics from the fantasy Warhammmer. Spells, daemons, monstous units, fear and terror mechanics even some graphical assets from orcs and chaos )

BillyRuffian#6250

Trebron55 said:

Please tell me that the Black ops team is working on figuring out how can they implement a WH40K title in Total War. I'd give anything for a game where I can field several thousand imperial guards along a few hundred space marines against some hive tyrants or daemon princes. Ohh my god, can you imagine Warlord titans obliterating whole units in a few shots, or brawling with daemons or stompas? Baneblades rolling over hundreds of tyranids?

It would be the definition on Nerdgasm.

(Technically you can use many assets and mechanics from the fantasy Warhammmer. Spells, daemons, monstous units, fear and terror mechanics even some graphical assets from orcs and chaos )

I should think it's extremely unlikely when SEGA is releasing Dawn of War III fairly soon.

Cancle

Ty for sharing. Will the next hotfix/patch come soon?
There are some fairly easy to fix confirmed bugs right now and some additional balance changes would be golden please.

Trebron55

BillyRuffian said:

Trebron55 said:

Please tell me that the Black ops team is working on figuring out how can they implement a WH40K title in Total War. I'd give anything for a game where I can field several thousand imperial guards along a few hundred space marines against some hive tyrants or daemon princes. Ohh my god, can you imagine Warlord titans obliterating whole units in a few shots, or brawling with daemons or stompas? Baneblades rolling over hundreds of tyranids?

It would be the definition on Nerdgasm.

(Technically you can use many assets and mechanics from the fantasy Warhammmer. Spells, daemons, monstous units, fear and terror mechanics even some graphical assets from orcs and chaos )

I should think it's extremely unlikely when SEGA is releasing Dawn of War III fairly soon.

Actually both games are owned by sega. I don't know if the IP rights stay at the developer or the publisher but if the publisher then it's possible that they already have huge piles of assets from the other game.

Yet I understand your point, and while I'd give anything for a total war version, I most likely won't even buy DoW 3. It simply does not look or feel like 40k.

Raeltharion

I have many Hope for Warhammer Total War

DLC with TWO RACE : Skaven Vs Lezardmen , with the north of Old World's jungle and pyramids of Tlaqua, Cuexotl and Theotiqua

A third Lord(women) for Wood Elves, why not? Drycha ? Or the Sister of Twilight (Naetra and Arahan)?

But My favorit is Dark Elf. I love Druchii. Maybe one day

Torak#3837

More dlc release for the first game a excitement for the second as playstyle for campaign and battle are being finalized. Skaven hype either way yes yes!