My number one fear about 3K2

Rewan#2358

As I had a dreadful realization and I just need to get it out of my chest.

For the love of all that is holy and pure in this world CA : do not center 3K2 around a 220+ startdate. I know what people said about "oh it's shameful to kill support before we actually get to the Three Kingdom Period proper" but please. again. PLEASE. Just stick to a Rise of the Warlord start date.

190 / 194 are the most popular startdates in 3K for a good reason.

Bright_Eyes#6116

I completely agree Rewan. I really hope it contains the 190 or 194 start date.

I think a later start date would be a disaster game design wise. And I think a lot of people who say its not real 3K until its 220 AD have no idea what they are talking about.

united84#8186

It is a known fact that Total War games in general is fun in the early to mid game where every factions are still weak. Same applies to TW3K, which makes the 190 vanilla campaign the best.

However, the sequel will most likely start after the Battle of Chibi. My reason for this;

1. Liu Bei is already being hinted as the main focus. In the moving on announcement, there is an unknown dude wielding dual swords. The only famous person having that trait and worth marketing material is Liu Bei. Dev also mentioned Liu Bei being the most popular faction. In addition, Liu Bei is the only faction out of the 3 Kings, not receiving a major update in TW3K.

2. People expect the actual Three Kingdoms era. If the sequel starts in 190 without the 3K era, I think it will be a potential shitshow which could be worse than Hyenas. The best solution is to feature a 190 start date and 3K era but this will mean a big endeavor as CA would need to make more characters which I think will not happen. Featuring only 3K era is safer and less labor intensive.

3. Testbed. They already did a 190 with TW3K. A 211 with Liu Bei owning Jingzhou will be likely and for CA to experiment on newer features. Kinda like Rome 2 versus Attila situation.

LESAMA#5456

190 would be the way to go! I for instance like the conflict between yuan shao and cao cao. With new mechanics and such wouldn’t want to miss out on that epic conflict.

Vin362#6699

I don't think anyone was asking for the game to focus solely on a 220 start date but wanted one included in a Three Kingdoms game before we got anything like the Eight Princes.

Before anyone brings up the mechanic of having three seats of power no that doesn't count as Three Kingdoms imo.

mitthrawnuruodo#4895

Welll... it depends on what kind of game it is.

Even a 220+ start date will work very well if the gameplay was designed from the perspective a single character (e.g. ROTK X / CK) or around each court's internal factions or individual clans (e.g. Cao princes, Sima clan etc).

But yeah, I would also prefer, even for the gameplay I mentioned above, for the start date to be earlier.

SophistsBane#6350

I am worried that no one will buy it after remembering the disaster of ROTK 1. I am heavily not considering buying it because if they **** the bed again, they'll pack up and leave the game for dead. I am a hardcore Romance Koei's ROTK is the epitome of the story and they have hardly any DLCs, especially ones that determine the continued support of the game.