Multiplayer servers fix

CA_Ella

We were aware of issues with the SHOGUN II multiplayer servers and have been working on a fix to allow players to continue to battle for Japan online. This fix should now be live.

MrYellow

Great that the server issues were fixed... but on the topic of issues in the multiplayer:

1st:
It goes without saying that paid DLC Units should had never been allowed in a competitive multiplayer game.
Those who buy Rise of the Samurai, Sengoku Jidai, Saints and Heroes or the Ikko Ikko DLC all get more powerful and cost efficient units, not to mention a lot of very powerful exclusive retainers! Thus putting anyone who does not pay for the DLCs at a handicap.
Different time period units should not have been mixed toguether neither, not only does this makes balancing even harder, but also takes away from immersion.

2nd:
On the retainers topic; They ALL should have been easier to unlock by being directly linked to Territories on the Avatar Map, eventually a few special ones linked to Archivements. None should have been linked to random post battle drops, much less to FULL armor sets where obtaining each individual piece is itself based on RNG. One can play a million battles and still be as unlucky as to not get some of the arguably most important retainers, leaving you with a handicap on the multiplayer based purely on luck.
I don't see the point neither on having what basically are "Tiered Retainers" (same function just better bonus). Let alone paid DLC retainers.

3rd:
Capping units... This should have been done with all units in my opinion. No one should be allowed to field an entire army of the same exact unit, making certain retainers extremely OP and making said build very hard to counter with anything other than an specialized anti-build, thus further increasing the luck element, where battles are won already on the army selection screen.
All units should have been capped at around 6 (some at even less), as well as having a Unit-Class cap too, like for example max 10 calv, max 10 swords, etc, etc thus forcing melee spammers and in particular cav spammers to at least mix up their units a little; A unit and class cap would also automatically help balance out certain retainers selection.

4th:
New players disadvantage. A new player with only ashigaru units unlocked (even if said new player is very skillful) has almost 0 chance to win a battle vs a more leveled up player (even if said player is less skillful), as the ashigaru units will simply rout as soon as the fight start.
In my opinion all basic samurai units (bow, yari, katana, and yari cav) should have been available from level 0 to all players. This would even up the field early on and give everyone a fairer chance. Clan specialization should instead be about unlocking higher tier (specialized) units and upgrades, not starting ones.

5th:
The inclusion of dojos on the different maps is overall a great idea, as it prevents camping and red lining. However not all dojos are created equal and their positioning and randomness make for some unfair situations sometimes, when one dojo of arguably less importance is closer to one player, while another dojo of arguably higher value is closer to the other player.
All dojos should simply be equally accessible to both players at the start of the game, being it ultimately up to said players to focus or not on capturing or neutralizing them.
On the same topic, Bow Dojo should give both accuracy and reload speed, and do NOT give ammo-resupply for 2 reasons:
- Most games end so fast that you hardly ever run out of ammo, making the ammo resupply mechanic (and even the extended ammo upgrades) rather pointless most of the time.
- In the special case of the enemy spamming cav and bow cav, it becomes the complete opposite, this dojo and its resupply ability becomes OP. To counter a cav rush with a balanced army you are basically forced to go for the hills and/or forest in order to have a fighting chance vs said cheese army, however, since the bow dojo gives infinite ammo resupply then we are sadly forced in stead to try and neutralize it and thus end up out in the open near the dojo where we are an easy target, the alternative is to simply ignore it and go to the woods and die from infinite arrows or lose anyway because of the dojo capture timer.

6th:
Naval battles on vanilla Shogun 2 are a mess. Yet they are necessary in order to unlock all land regions (thus all units and retainers) on the Avatar Conquest map.
I think this was a mistake; Siege battles are neither required nor ranked, why then make Naval ones both things, when they are arguably worse than Siege?! Don't get me wrong I don't think they should be removed, just make them not ranked, and let us move move our avatar to the islands regardless of water territories being unlocked or not.

7th:
Why allow Public Groups to be selected as Clans? This makes the whole Clan Competition feature rather pointless as zerg clans have a clear advantage over smaller private ones. Small steps to alleviate this were taken such as the implementation of losing points by losing battles and such, but that ain't enough.
Only private groups should have counted as Clans from the beginning, and only Officers (owners) of said groups should have been able to activate them and select clan specialisation in game. There should have been an option to disband the group as a clan, and/or of changing clan specialization!

8th:
Another thing greatly missing is the option to reset veteran skills like we can do with our general. This would allow players to be more experimental with their units and builds, and reduce the amount of grind. As well as to add another clan token sink.

9th:
Movement speed is way too fast, and time to kill extremely low, resulting in most matches lasting less than 5 minutes. There is little room for tactics and strategy, and too much focus on pure micro and luck (army composition).

10th:
Special abilities. They work for General and Heroes, but i don't think they should be a part of regular units. I would much rather see elite/top tier units just have access to special formations and/or some passive aura-debuffs/buffs.
This change would actually help with the previous point, as by toning down the power-cap of certain units we would balance them sightly; as well as end up making battles a tad slowed as result... thus sightly removing some of the micro element in favor of more macro.
Said change would also add to the immersion as this is after all a historical Total War tittle not a fantasy one.


Anyways...all of this and more was said back in the days, yet not enough action was taken.
Other than that, i think Shogun 2 is still one of the best total war games ever, i am actually astonished by how much this game has endured the test of time!
It also has in my opinion the most polished and engaging multiplayer of any other total war to date! Its a shame it never got the necessary official support post launch to take its competitive multiplayer scene to the next level.

JacquestheApostate

It's my favorite too. See signature block.

BillyRuffian

The game probably limits units size when you have less memory.

Hackod

Servers not stability.

JacquestheApostate

Game freezes and crashes. Somebody on another post mentioned doesn't work with Win10. Is that true?