The Next Total War

RavinMadd · Apr 6, 2017

LagCat said: ↑

Aaaaand we have an answer to the Total War Historical question.... https://www.totalwar.com/blog/quick-word-on-historical-titles/
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Not really an answer, more like: Yes we are working on something and we have an expert to advise us on it, but we can't tell you what just yet. But it is a location we have not done before.

So most likely its China. They sort of covered India with Empire Total War, but as far as I know they have not touched China yet. They can also make a lot more money from selling the game there.

Manco · Apr 6, 2017

RavinMadd said: ↑

Not really an answer, more like: Yes we are working on something and we have an expert to advise us on it, but we can't tell you what just yet. But it is a location we have not done before.

So most likely its China. They sort of covered India with Empire Total War, but as far as I know they have not touched China yet. They can also make a lot more money from selling the game there.
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China or WW1 both surprised if it is anything else.

Orcinus · Apr 7, 2017

Manco said: ↑

I hope the next historical TW game will be set in China, The 3 kingdoms.
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I also long for a new TW game based in China, but I kinda want to see it take place during the Spring & Autumn Period

That time right before the Warring States Period

Also want to see the return of Avatar Conquest (it even fits the setting, imo!)

Orcinus · Apr 8, 2017

Manco · Apr 9, 2017

Orcinus said: ↑

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Mongols would be a great DLC for China TW.

Aspius · Jun 8, 2017

What The Teams Are Working On 07-06-17
https://www.totalwar.com/blog/what-the-teams-are-working-on-07-06-17/

Hope you enjoyed all the WARHAMMER II details from the press and Youtubers last week. As you can imagine, E3 is nearly upon us and we will have some big reveals and game footage arriving, so stay tuned to our social media and forums where Grace and myself will be sharing all the news as it turns up.

While we are naturally very excited for our fantasy Total War title coming up, we now have 3 historical projects in full production, so the next few months should be pretty interesting for strategy fans of all tastes.

So as we get warmed up for E3, we thought it would be good to share a little about what the teams are working on in the meantime.
Let’s take a look…

ARENA TEAM
Alpha testing continues, and if you have been getting involved on the test weekends you’ll have seen some interesting developments. Not least of which the new and fiercely contested Hadrian’s Wall map, which debuted a couple of weeks ago.

E3 will also be a big event for ARENA, so check us out on the show floor to go hands on with the latest build and tune into the official Facebook page for more info as it arrives.

NEW CONTENT TEAM
The ‘Old Friend’ will indeed be our next content drop for WARHAMMER, it’s tied to an event later in the summer. I know there’s some excitement, but it’s just a small thing that we wanted to do. Think along the lines of the Blood Knight Free-LC, rather than lords or anything. Not saying it’s a unit specifically, but that sort of scale addition to the game. The event gave us the chance to do something, so we took it.

Having said that, I can say it won’t be the last addition to WARHAMMER. As mentioned in the previous blog a few months ago, we’d been thinking about what sort of content could be added to the first game, and what that might be. We’ve hit on something we think is a pretty good opportunity to add some more content to the game, so there will be a new Race Pack released later in the year, before WARHAMMER II is released.

No, it’s not Kislev (sorry!), but the New Content team have got some rather unique gameplay mechanics for this new Race, and it will come with a small update to the main game and a Free-LC drop. This particular Free-LC will benefit not only main game owners, but also DLC owners too this time.
Otherwise, the New Content team are in the early concept and design stages for the first WARHAMMER II DLC out post-launch.

WARHAMMER II TEAM
We were really pleased that everyone who came to see the game recently enjoyed their time with our E3 Demo. This is the build that we’re taking to E3 next week in Los Angeles and features a flyover of some of the new campaign map and then a hands-on battle to get to grips with. If you are making your way to the expo centre we’d love to say hi, stop by at our Lizardmen-inspired temple stand in the West Hall, stand 4300.

Back in the studio, the game is really starting to come together and the last few months have seen more and more play tests being run as the new features get implemented. We’re now in a position where full play-throughs are possible and that’s helping the team focus on the individuality of the new playable races and the way in which they wrestle for control of the Vortex. The fluid way this can unfold to a huge variety of possible outcomes in the grand campaign is providing for some dramatic war stories by the coffee machine already.

HISTORICAL NEW CONTENT TEAM
The most recent project team to kick into full production is now working on a particularly large Campaign Pack DLC for one of our more recent historical releases. It’s an expansion we’ve been wanting to do for a while now, so very happy that we’ve been able to get it into the schedule for later in the year.

At the moment, this team is building art content and working on the update for the main game needed to accommodate the new expansion. We will certainly be sharing more details when we can.

Some concept art from one of the historical art teams

HISTORICAL TEAM
Development on the next major historical release continues apace, with the team focusing on some fantastic UI and environmental work recently to capture the mood of this unique setting, that we’ve yet to explore in any previous Total War game.

Other areas that are progressing nicely are the important character relations that occur between the major personalities in the game. Now the designers can start modelling the various interactions and gameplay impacts the proposed features will have. Elsewhere, the campaign map is starting to come together in some new and visually exciting ways. Obviously, it will help set the tone and immersion for the whole game, and the artists have done an incredible job in realising the style we’re going for.

HISTORICAL FLASHPOINT TEAM
We’re pleased to say that our plans for a new stand-alone title have come to fruition, and this team are now in full production on an exciting new release. We are planning to set this in an era we have already visited, but will cover a particular period we are very fond of and haven’t done enough justice to yet.

We’ve been thinking a lot about how our major releases cover eras, our character-based follow-ups span the events of iconic lives (like Napoleon, or Attila), but that we are also interested in flashpoint moments. Those shorter, intense periods where events could have unfolded in any direction, dramatically changing the course of history in only a handful of months or years.

‘Fall of the Samurai’ being based on the Boshin War is a great example of this, and we are planning this new title to be similar in intent. It will also arrive before the next major historical title that the team above are working on.
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Aspius · Aug 18, 2017

From a Q&A

You can think of us as having 3 different types of standalone Total War game:

Eras (massive major releases in the series)
Characters (spin-offs from Eras based on famous historical individuals)
Sagas (spin-offs from Eras based on pivotal historical events)
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Thought it could be interesting to see.

Aspius · Nov 4, 2017

With Mortal Empires released last week, there’s a hotfix on the way for that Chaos Invasion issue some people are having. We want to make sure that’s sorted out before we add more Total War: WARHAMMER content.

However, in this week’s blog we wanted to take a moment to look at our Historical projects; because you’re about to hear a lot more about them.
The next year is packed with new stuff and, as we ramp up for some big announcements, I took a moment to chat with our history project directors; Maya, Jack and Janos…

Maya, I’ll start with your team as we’re going to hear from you guys first, and soon too. Without giving the game away, what are you up to?

Maya: Well we’re working on a campaign expansion for one of our older games, probably the biggest historical one CA’s done we think. We’ve been working on our project for the best part of a year, and with not long to go we’re well into testing now with nearly all the content in. And yes, it’s going to be the next Total War announcement, which is exciting for us!

We can say it’s for one of our slightly older games though?

Maya: Yes, and the first time we’ve gone back to a game so long after release. That in itself is very new territory and something we’re keen to explore as a studio, because it opens up lots of exciting future projects if it’s successful.

There’s a lot of people still playing this particular game, but there’s also lot more we haven’t even touched in that era yet, some really incredible stories and events that defined history.

What are you looking forward to most about the release?

Maya: Well of course we want players to get a big kick out of the new expansion, but I think seeing people’s reaction to the big free update we’re making to the main game at the same time will be really interesting. It’s great to be able to go back and look at a whole area of the game and make some changes.

Jack, your team is working on our first Total War Saga game, we’ve had one work in progress screenshot from it, that people seemed to decode pretty quickly, can we expect to see any more soon?

Jack: Maybe we weren’t as obscure with that as we could have been… We’re coming out after Maya’s project, so a little while till release yet, but we’re hoping to announce relatively soon, so everyone will see a lot more then. Or at least know for sure what we’re making.
And the idea behind Sagas is to spin off from a previous game?

Jack: Yes. The idea is to take those flashpoints of history that make for great geo-political set-ups for TW games, but are more focused in scale than a new tentpole Era game. Doesn’t make them ‘small’ though, we’re working on a campaign map that’s the size of Shogun 2. And that focus allows us to create greater depth too. A tighter focus means a higher resolution of detail.

But it is a follow-on title, not a new game entirely?

Jack: It’s a new game in that it’s substantial and stand-alone sure, but it’s like Fall of the Samurai following-on from Shogun 2. We’re taking the base from a previous game, overhauling it and adding new content, but not reinventing the wheel. It’s an extension or magnification of the previous game’s time period, so of course there’s some cross over. And that allows us to add even more new content. Fall of the Samurai is a great example really.

And it’s new territory for your team too, not just being a Saga game, but given your previous project?

Jack: In a way yes, we’ve all worked on all sorts of TW games in the past, but I guess our last official release as a team was the Age of Charlemagne expansion for Attila. So it’s certainly different to be working on a self-contained game, that will be in a box on shelves. I’ve been chatting with the marketing guys recently about packfront designs, which is novel!

Anything you can tell me about the subject of the game to tide us over and generate endless speculation?

Jack: It’s a period and place I’ve wanted to make a game about for years, so yes I’m excited. As I came from the community as a modder originally, I know there’s going to be some hardcore fans out there who will like what we’re doing. And then enjoy pulling it apart and modding it…
Oh, and beware the crow.

Last but not least, Janos, expectation is going to weigh pretty heavy on your team, being responsible for the first new historical Era title since 2013? And a whole new time period we’ve never been to?

Janos: Expectation is high, but so is the excitement amongst the team here. A brand new era brings a completely different look and feel to this Total War game.

We’ve ramped up to the final team size in the past few months, so things are moving along steadily with daily visible progress. For example, it’s nice to see, after having researched historical city-layouts for months, it all coming together in the game. There are still placeholder grey boxes here and there, but the atmosphere is already outstanding and gameplay feels strong.

So things are really moving at the moment?

Janos: They are indeed. We’ve been in the mocap studio a lot recently, it’s in a big warehouse here in Horsham, just a short walk from our studio. A good portion of the team have been down there, because our stunt men are drawing quite a crowd with what they’re doing. We always work with professionals, but this time around we’re taking a much more ambitious approach to mocap than we have with previous historical total war games. We invested extra time, effort, and external experts to get the maximum impact. I’m sure fans will be impressed when they see these fully realised animations in the actual game.

A brand new Era though, got to be easy to guess?

Janos: There are plenty of eras Total War’s not been to yet, so I wouldn’t say that. But sure there’s some more obvious ones we see people excited about, and we’re going to be excited too. We have a big list, it’s easy to come up with a big list. We have our favourites, some of them are relatively obscure. And we have eras on that list we’ve already been to, that we want to go to again.

Mike Simpson gave an interview years ago that we see fans quote all the time, where he says he doesn’t think we’ll do a “3”. That is a long time ago. We’ve changed our minds a hundred times on that since, so all bets are off when we’re thinking of our next game.

But this one, will be brand new, and that means we can explore interesting new concepts while still bringing what makes it ‘Total War’ to the game.
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Aspius · Nov 6, 2017

So, CA made an interesting post relating their next release on twitter. It's gonna be a DLC for Rome 2. It was a 8 second video showing the Rome 2 logo with dust falling from it. It was also followed by this text "Is this the end of the Empire? Or just the beginning…".

https://twitter.com/totalwar/status/927551144293027841

Aspius · Nov 10, 2017

Allright the next release will as said before be a DLC for Rome 2. It's called an "Empire Divided" and focuses on the 3rd century crisis.

Release is on 30th November

Aspius · Nov 30, 2017

The DLC Empire Divided for Rome 2 have been released

Aspius · Feb 20, 2018

Aspius · Mar 20, 2018

WHAT THE TEAMS ARE WORKING ON – Spring 2018

It’s been a long hard winter for the Total War teams, but there’s not been a lot of hibernating with Empire Divided, Tomb Kings and Desert Kingdoms all sprouting through the snow. What’s more, there’s a new crop of releases just starting to blossom, and even a new team being added for an interesting new project.

Can you feel that chill wind still blowing from the North though?

SAGA TEAM – THRONES OF BRITANNIA

The Thrones of Britannia team is hard at work on the game, making final tweaks to features as well as focusing on bug fixing and balancing. We’ve been receiving regular feedback from both internal testers and our special veteran group of testers, and making changes and adjustments based on that.

Two weeks ago, journalists and youtubers got the opportunity to play and capture footage from an early version of the game. Soon you’ll start to see these preview features and videos appear, revealing more on certain playable factions, more on the mid-game and including some changes that we’ve implemented since the first ‘hands-on’ articles landed in February.

Now, as we approach the final stretch of development on Thrones, you can expect to start seeing regular glimpses of gameplay and we’ll also kick off some livestreaming.

HISTORICAL TEAM – THREE KINGDOMS:

The cat’s out of the bag, Total War: THREE KINGDOMS will be our next major historical Total War game. A couple of months back we were finally able to reveal the game to the world and we’re glad so many of the community shared that feeling of excitement. Three Kingdoms China is a period we have been asked to explore for years now and it’s always great to be able to announce a project that so many Total War fans have been vocal about.

THREE KINGDOMS will be the first Total War game to tackle ancient Chinese warfare, and we’re working on some seriously cool content that both ticks the historical authenticity box and brings some exciting new stuff to the Total War formula.

Development is continuing full speed ahead and we’ll have lots of exciting news to share with you in the coming months.

ARENA TEAM – OPEN BETA:

Hannibal has led us into Open Beta! With Carthage as a brand new faction, we’re kicking off our Open Beta testing (which you can join here totalwararena.net) with 3 new maps, 2 new commanders, custom battles and lots of mechanical and balance changes.

We’re going to be busy looking at your feedback over the coming weeks, but we’re also looking at the addition of Ranked mode and a new Barbarian commander, check out our official social channels and weekly developer livestreams to hear about those.

FANTASY NEW CONTENT TEAM – NORSCA & MORE:
Since Rise of the Tomb Kings releasing earlier this year it’s fair to say we’ve had no down time as our focus has been very much on Norsca and ensuring we meet our May date to implement it within WARHAMMER II.

As you may have read about already, Norsca has been a bit of beast in terms of wrestling it into shape for WARHAMMER II, with a good chunk of the project being rebuilt from scratch to work with WARHAMMER II’s code base. In doing this it has given us the opportunity to revisit a few aspects of the race and gear them up for their first tastes of sacking and razing the lands of the New World, in the forms of new technologies and Monster Hunts.

Beyond the campaign side of things we have been bringing Norsca up to par with the WH II races for battles and also re-introducing the 30th Birthday Regiments of Renown for you to play with. We plan to tie all of this in with the next DLC for WARHAMMER II which we can confirm will be a ‘Lords Pack’, in a similar vein to the King & the Warlord for the first game.

HISTORICAL NEW CONTENT TEAM – CAMPAIGN NEXT:

With the successful release of Desert Kingdoms and Empire Divided, ROME II has come a long way, but there’s more action and free content to come yet. One big win has been the reduction of players who have problems with mods crashing their game, by creating roll back builds for those who want to use older mods, and the new mod filter for those that want to play new content without forgetting old mods may still be enabled and might cause issues.

We’ve also looked at all of the fan feedback from Empire Divided through to Desert Kingdoms and feel we have a good understanding of things we need to address in the next content release for ROME II. We plan to line this up with the next campaign pack that we feel will be a fresh take on campaign packs for ROME II as well as a very exciting feature for the Free-LC that will release alongside it.

FANTASY TEAM – PRE-PRODUCTION:

Currently in early pre-production, it is dark and quiet in this team’s corner of the studio. Visitors do not dally long.

ACCESS TEAM – SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT:

This is an exciting new adventure for CA. We’re currently working on something exclusive for Total War Access members. We’re looking at innovative ways to reward players for their continued support of our projects, and this team is creating something that does just that!

So not really a Total War game such as you’re used to, but if you like thinking strategically and stretching your tactical muscle you should be interested in what we’re up to. We’ll let you know when we’re ready to test it, as we’d love to hear what you think.
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Aspius · Jun 6, 2018

What the Teams are Working On June 2018

The Total War teams have been very busy with some very exciting stuff in the time since we last updated you, and with E3 on the horizon you can be sure there’s plenty to look forward to.

Without further ado, let’s turn you over to the teams themselves…

Saga Team – Thrones of Britannia

With the first big balancing patch now out there and serving up a bit more challenge to players (along with a number of other improvements), the team has begun working on something new for Thrones of Britannia.

Those who have been craving a little more gore as they raid, pillage and, conquer will be pleased to hear that a Blood Pack is currently in development. It will be similar in scope to the Blood & Burning pack for Attila, sharing some of its effects, along with new content created just for Thrones.

It’s going to be ready this summer (most likely July) and we’re planning to make it available for free to players that already own Blood & Burning for Attila. We’ll release more details on it closer to the time, along with a more general update on future plans for the game.

Historical Team – THREE KINGDOMS

A few months back we were finally able to reveal the Total War: THREE KINGDOMS to the world and we’re glad so many of the community share that feeling of excitement. Three Kingdoms China is a period we have been asked to explore for years now, and it’s always great to be able to announce a project that a huge number of Total War players have been desperate for.

THREE KINGDOMS will be the first Total War game to tackle ancient Chinese warfare, so everyone on the dev team here is thrilled to be bringing this epic period to life and delivering an awe-inspiring sandbox for players to conquer.

We’ll have lots of exciting news to share with you in the coming months, and it all starts later this week. With E3 just around the corner, keep your eyes on our social channels for all things THREE KINGDOMS over the coming days and beyond.

ARENA Team – player-led game updates

Currently the ARENA team is working on lots of player-led changes. We recently increased the general progression speed of the game, and we’re launching lots of small-scale experimental tests with the community to help improve the matchmaking. We also recently launched season two of our developer livestream series The War Room with a brand-new player-led format.

Alongside this, we’re still working on Ranked mode, a new Barbarian commander (coming soon to the battlefield), and another faction. We’ll be hosting a public test server of Ranked mode soon, so if you’re interested in the more competitive side of Total War: ARENA then be sure to stop by, especially with the numerous official and community tournaments currently going on.

To stay up to date on ARENA news, be sure to follow the Total War: ARENA Facebook and Twitter and tune in for the livestreams on Facebook and Twitch.

Fantasy New Content Team – WARHAMMER II

The Queen & The Crone is the latest release from the Fantasy New Content Team, which also added a wealth of content for the Mortal Empires campaign. Not only that but we also breathed some life into older factions. This time we focused on the Dwarfs and the much-requested move for Ungrim Ironfist to start in his rightful place in Karak Kadrin, not to mention the Bone Giant being released alongside the Skull for the Skull Throne promotion (so if you own Tomb Kings, you now own the Bone Giant).

Please note that this week we’ll be opening a public beta to fix some of the known issues that we mentioned in the patch notes last week – keep an eye on our social media channels if you want to opt in.

As for what we’re up to next: what we can say is that we’re working on the next campaign pack for Total War: WARHAMMER II, but it’s a little while off yet.

Historical New Content Team – ROME II

As we mentioned in the last blog, we’re currently working on a big feature as the free content update for the next campaign pack for Total War: ROME II, which we’ll be opening for a public beta once we’ve announced the content of our new campaign pack. This helps us to ensure that we’re giving all of you the chance to get hands-on with a new feature that will affect the entirety of ROME II’s Grand Campaign. We’ll be sharing more on this very soon…

Apart from the Free-LC, the historical new content team is also developing a campaign pack set in a specific location and time period. This particular combination of time and space has barely been touched by ROME II’s current content and comes with a very detailed new campaign map, brand new units, and factions familiar and new. There are also a number of new gameplay mechanics that aim to explore other ways of conducting total war in ROME II.

Fantasy Team – pre-production

The Fantasy Team has begun pre-production for their next game, and it’s taking them to some dark, dark places. We fear they may never return – not with minds and souls intact, at least.

We’ll update you with more details when it’s safe to approach them.
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Aspius · Nov 1, 2018

What the Teams are Working on October 2018

It’s October, and as usual the Total War teams have all been hard at work on their projects – take a look at what they’ve been up to here.

Saga Team – Thrones of Britannia

After spending some time reviewing community feedback and looking at how the last update has impacted the game, we’re now just about to lock down our plan for the next Thrones update. We’ll be able to share more details on what we have in mind in the next blog, until then make sure your make yourself heard.

What would you like to see adjusted? What do you think should be left untouched? Let us know here.

Historical Team – THREE KINGDOMS

We’re just over five months from launch now and the game is in its most intensive development period. We’ve executed some major overhauls of classic Total War features – such as Diplomacy and empire management – and built some entirely new ones, such as the ecosystem of character relationships, and the impact this has on campaign and battle gameplay.

Which is – granted – a case of us telling, not showing, but that’s all about to change as we enter the stage where the campaign game is looking close to final, and we start showing it off in earnest.

When we begin marketing a Total War game, we always start with battle as that’s the area that tends to get solidified earlier on, and there are some nice technical innovations going on under the hood this time around. Cavalry units actually wheel around with a real sense of inertia and momentum now. Infantry units consisting of hundreds of entities move and rearrange themselves on the field in a more ‘human’ fashion when given orders. And there’s more besides.

Once we’ve introduced battle, we roll into showing off the grand campaign, the part of the game that gives context and greater purpose to battle, and defines the stakes of each battle’s outcome. It happens this way around because there’s a metric ton of interlocking features in the campaign game that rely on each other to give you a representative picture of gameplay. Between art, UI design and functionality, campaign system interoperability and a hundred other aspects, there’s a lot of stuff to come together – and be proven out via testing – to show even a modest part of it working according to the vision. That’s doubly true of 3K, as there’s fundamental system redesigns and entirely new features in the mix.

We’re getting quite close to that point now. Our feature-set is locked, and we’re in the bug-squashing, balancing and polishing stage. There’s still plenty of work to do, but the crosshairs are sharpening up nicely.

Vampire Coast for Warhammer II is next on the release list, so no doubt you’ll have seen that this is our current marketing focus. Once Luthor Harkon and chums have set sail, we’ll be rolling out 3K content in earnest. From mid-November, you can expect to see an increasing number of videos, blogs and let’s plays detailing campaign gameplay. This will kick off with a two-parter scrutinising diplomacy, and how much broader and more deeply functional it’s become (spoiler: region-trading is the very least of its features). We’ll follow up on Diplomacy with videos covering many areas of the campaign game, and we’ll be demonstrating more battle gameplay too.

In the new year, Youtubers and Press will get hands-on time with the campaign to form their own opinions, and before launch, they’ll have access to the full game. So in short, if you’re wondering where all the 3K gameplay videos are, they’re just around the corner.

Arena Team – Ability Swapping

When the last blog went out, we were reviewing the upcoming ability swapping feature. We’re happy to say, this is now live, and includes some huge changes to the initial system based in-part on community feedback, so thanks!

The Ability Swapping feature went out in Patch 3.1.14. Currently available to Tier IX and X, the system organises Unit Abilities based on Faction, but allows players to swap abilities between Units within this bracket. This is live now, so be sure to check it out and let us know what you think.

We’ve also been working on an update to our points system. After carefully poring over lengthy posts about elephants, spotting and capture points, we’ve decided to overhaul the balance of points to make it fairer. We’ll have the full details on this soon, so keep an eye on our social channels.

Looking slightly further ahead, we are working on a new technical back-end that loads the battle in steps, allowing players to deploy while the back-end is still loading. This should mean less time on the loading screen and more time for tactics. This system is currently undergoing compatibility testing on lots of different hardware setups, but good progress is being made and we’re looking to deploy it in the near future.

Fantasy New Content Team – WARHAMMER II

We’re tidying up the last bits and bobs in Vampire Coast right now, and doing a whole load of playtesting, and we’re genuinely looking forward to hearing people’s reactions when it launches. If you’ve been following its development, you’ll probably have seen the list of features we put up on the Steam page, and maybe tuned into some of the Everchosen Tournament battles at the weekend, but one thing we’re proud of is just how differently they play to other factions.

As a sort of hybrid between horde and settled factions, they’re a very novel bunch. The Legendary Lords, with their developable ships, means that you can carry your recruitment and infrastructure bonuses with you, and you’re not really tied to territorial capture. You can roam land and sea, setting up Pirate Coves for income, attempting to defeat other notorious captains, and generally leading a nomadic and piratey existence. Or, you can choose to capture territory and develop it, playing in a more traditional way and painting the map your colour, if that’s the way you want to play it.

In the Eye of the Vortex campaign, The Vampire Coast Legendary Lords aren’t out to save the world or destroy it. They’re in it for the infamy, their own personal narrative objectives, and of course control of Amanar, the great Merwyrm. How and when you pursue those goals is kind of up to you. They’re a very unique faction in that regard.

Fantasy Team – pre-production

For now, no news is good news. The wheels are turning and pre-production carries on apace. We’d love to be able to share more with you soon but it’s going to be a while yet. Hold tight and trust in Sigmar.
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Aspius · Dec 10, 2018

What the Teams are Working on November 2018

The end of the year is fast approaching, but the Total War teams are all still hard at work – check out what November had in store for our various titles below.

Don’t forget that we can’t always give you hard dates as to when releases will be ready, but stay tuned to our forums and social media for news as soon as we can release it.

Saga Team – Thrones of Britannia

A new update for Thrones is being worked on by the Saga team. In this, they’re aiming to build on some existing mechanics and also address some player feedback from the last update. We chatted to one of the designers about just a couple of improvements that players can look forward to in December:

“In answer to a common request, the new update will implement a new Political Difficulty option. We understand that some players like to challenge themselves with political manoeuvring, while others prefer to stay away from such back-stabbing. You can now tweak this area of the game separately from Campaign Difficulty. The politics system is also undergoing some other changes, particularly in the events that come about as the result of political actions.

Estates have also been reworked to play a more meaningful role within the game. The benefits Estates provide now depend on the person who runs them. Accumulating traits will now determine a general’s “main” trait category, which will in turn affect the way estates are managed by that character. Additionally, your generals have caught up with the times and will now demand land from you (in the form of estates) in exchange for further support (mission rewards).

These are just two areas that will be receiving an upgrade in the winter patch. There’ll be more to come in the next few weeks so stay tuned.”

Also, the team’s been debating the next SAGA game with a keen eye on player feedback and ideas have begun to form around the potential for a new historical flashpoint ! While we’re itching to shout it from the rooftops, because it’s so awesome – and unexpected – we’ll be keeping Mum until next year.

Historical Team – THREE KINGDOMS

Plenty of playtesting, bugfixing, and polishing going on at the moment as we enter the final stretch with THREE KINGDOMS, and it’s really starting to shine.

You may’ve noticed in our recent diplomacy video a few frames of the faction rank screen. Ranking plays an important role in your rise to ultimate power in ancient China, and directly informs how the end game begins to play out in Total War: THREE KINGDOMS.

As a warlord captures and expands settlements, or constructs special buildings in those settlements, they’ll gain prestige, which is what advances their faction rank. Each rank unlocks a new suite of bonuses affecting many aspects of the campaign game, such as improving the satisfaction levels of characters in your faction, increasing the amount of administrators, spies and armies you can employ, new diplomatic options, and more besides.

The top rank is, of course, emperor. Once you reach this level, you can proclaim yourself such, and your capital city becomes your seat of power. Up to three warlords can proclaim themselves emperor, however, so other warlords may beat you to it. However, emperorship can also be earned by capturing the capital of another emperor. As soon as you become emperor, any other self-proclaimed emperors you’re in an alliance with will cease to be your ally.

Moreover, as soon as three new emperors proclaim themselves, the existing child-emperor, Xian of the Han Empire, will abdicate his position. Xian is controlled by Dong Zhuo at the beginning of the game, and control of him – along with his loyal Han Empire as a vassal state – will pass to whoever captures Dong Zhuo’s capital city. Over the course of the campaign, and before three new emperors are proclaimed, control of Xian and vassalage of the Han Empire may well pass between multiple warlords, as they conquer the controlling Warlord’s capital.

For ultimate victory, however, only a single emperor can rule over China. If you’re in the end game and vying for supremacy with two others, you’ll need to capture their capitals, or perhaps subdue them into abdicating their emperorship by other means – a mighty show of military force may do it, for example. Or, if you’re lucky enough to command a loyal vassal who captures an emperor’s seat, he’ll pass the emperorship to you.

There can be only one!

If you’d like to know more about ranks and how to cement your position as emperor, take a look at our recent Rally Point stream here.

THREE KINGDOMS – New Content Team
There’s still work to be done on the early adopter bonus content, but while they finish up with Yellow Turban Rebellion, the 3K New Content Team has been beginning pre-production and planning on the next post-launch content packs. As with our previous titles, we’ll be aiming to support 3K with a variety of free-LC and DLC. With the Three Kingdoms period to play with, the team have got some really cool options on the table. Again, more on what they’re working on next year.

ARENA Team – the sun sets

You may have heard that ARENA is ending live service in February 2019. For the full announcement and FAQ, please see here.

Thank you to everyone who played ARENA – you built up a very passionate and enthusiastic community with a strong connection to the Dev team. As thanks, we do have some Total War gifts for those of you who played with us in closed beta or open beta on the Wargaming Game Center, so be sure to check out the FAQ linked above.

Although ARENA live service is ending, many of the technological advancements made as part of the service infrastructure will live on, and the developers will continue to work their magic on other Total War projects.

Again, thank you all for the passion, insight, and encouragement you’ve shared with us.

Fantasy New Content Team – WARHAMMER II

With Curse of the Vampire Coast leaving the CA port as of a few weeks ago, we couldn’t be happier with how it’s been received by the fans. All of us in the Fantasy New Content team had great fun while fans speculated during the Legendary Lord reveals, right through to reading all the feedback on your first playthroughs.

We’re not resting on our laurels, though, and are taking the time to look at the fan feedback following its release and at Total War: WARHAMMER II in general with a view to releasing an open beta before we all break for the holidays to fix a few bugs, update the Total War: WARHAMMER I races’ skills trees to be more in line with their Total War: WARHAMMER II counterparts, and do some general quality of life fixes to ensure you have something new to get stuck into over the festive season.

Launcher Team – launcher update

As some of you may remember, we recently announced a beta for the new Total War Launcher. Since then, the launcher team have been working hard on the feedback you have provided and are looking to release an update for the launcher beta soon.

To learn more about the launcher and how to sign up to the beta, check out our blog.

Fantasy Team – pre-production

The Fantasy team is in a world of their own. It is a dark world, pulled apart by ceaseless conflict, but this is where the magic happens. No more news for now.

Historical New Content Team – ROME II
The guys have been gathering player feedback following the launch of Total War: ROME II – Rise of the Republic, and are looking at releasing a patch in the coming weeks to address a few issues that the mod community have been experiencing. They wish everyone playing ROME II over the holidays a wonderful Saturnalia!

Total War Access team
We briefly mentioned this back in March, but work continues apace on the Access Team’s secret tactical project. Suffice to say, it’s a diversion from the norm and exciting stuff. More concrete news on this when we’re more ready next year!
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MagnusEffect · Dec 11, 2018

Britannia really soured my feelings for the franchise. I don't understand how you take a truly GREAT game like Shogun 2 and then proceed to fuck up in all the ways that made that game great. I hope they fix it. Just the fact that vassals could steal territory you were trying to capture was incredibly annoying. It made having vassals more of hindrance than a help.

Aspius · Jan 31, 2019

What the Teams are Working on January 2019

It’s a new year, and the Total War teams have plenty on their plates already. See below for what everyone’s been up to since we last updated you!

Saga Team – Thrones of Britannia

Since the last What the Teams are Working On blog post, the Saga team has been busy with the Steel & Statecraft update for Thrones of Britannia. The patch was deployed towards the end of 2018 and introduced a number of improvements as well as some new content to the game, including two new settlement maps. We’re really pleased to hear that it’s made a positive difference to so many players’ experiences.

If you haven’t already, make sure you watch this review of the update from HForHavoc. Over the holidays, the team monitored player feedback and put out a small follow-up update that included a few additional fixes early this year.

During the next few months we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on Thrones and how the update is working out while the Saga team switches gears to begin laying the groundwork for the next Saga title.

Historical Team – THREE KINGDOMS

Soon, the release of the next major Total War historical title will be upon us – the first in over five years.

The THREE KINGDOMS devs are working hard on finishing the game as release day approaches, with lots of bugfixing and polishing in progress.

We recently released not one but two gameplay videos: the spies gameplay reveal video, which was followed up by an in-depth AMA on the subject over at the Total War Reddit (don’t worry about wading through all the posts yourself – we’ve published a handy summary blog post here), and a let’s play looking at heroes and the guanxi system.

Furthermore, the THREE KINGDOMS preview embargo lifted last week, meaning you can now find out what everyone from the industry press to community content creators thought when they were finally able to get hands-on with the game.

THREE KINGDOMS is undoubtably the deepest Total War game we’ve ever made, with only a fraction of the strategic complexities you’re capable of encountering as part of any given THREE KINGDOMS campaign having been revealed thus far – so stay tuned!

THREE KINGDOMS – New Content Team
The New Content Team is currently putting the finishing touches on the Yellow Turban Rebellion as we write, and you can look forward to being shown gameplay of this early adopter bonus content closer to launch. However, the designers have already started the planning and pre-production of future post-launch DLC and free-LC, which is important in helping determine our upcoming schedule.

Naturally, the Three Kingdoms period supplies us with plenty of exciting sources of inspiration. While we’ve a plan for the first couple of releases, as we get further out we’ll be seeing what content resonates best with the community and tweaking our plans accordingly. If you’d like to hear more, we’ll be releasing a blog post specifically about post-release support for Three Kingdoms in the coming weeks.

Fantasy New Content Team – WARHAMMER II

It’s going to be a quiet few months from us in the Fantasy New Content Team while we scheme and plot beneath the surface. We vow to resurface soon, and when we do expect some cold-blooded and explosive content… but of course that’s after the release of the highly anticipated THREE KINGDOMS from our comrades in the Historical Team!

Our focus most recently has been the Festag Update that we put in beta in December and released to all players on Monday. You can read all about the changes here, which we recommend as it’s a pretty hefty update. If you’re encountering any issues after downloading the update, please let us know over at our support forums here.

Launcher Team – launcher update

Another thing we’ll be pushing live to you all will be the new launcher for Total War: WARHAMMER II, which is also currently in beta. This will be coming to all players within the next few weeks. If you want to try it out now, you can learn more and find out how to sign up here.

We want to thank the players who took the time to test and give us feedback on the new launcher. The development team has been hard at work addressing the issues reported by the community, and we will be updating the launcher beta for our other games very soon.

Fantasy Team – pre-production

The Fantasy Team have been extremely busy this month. Back-to-back meetings and intense workshops have taken place, but as yet there are still no acceptable suggestions for cryptic references to include in the what the teams are working on blog post. We’ll try harder next month, but there won’t be any actual news for a while as pre-production keeps on keeping on.

Access Team – secret project

Work on the Access Team’s secret project is progressing in leaps and bounds, and we’re all excited by how it’s putting a new and exciting spin on all things Total War. Expect to get some more specific information on the subject soon…

Finally, make sure to sign up to Total War Access to get all the latest Total War updates!
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Aspius · Mar 3, 2019

What the Teams are Working on February 2019

Creative Assembly is now the biggest studio in the UK – incredibly, we’re more than three times bigger than we were when Alien: Isolation and Total War: ROME II released. So what are we up to now?

Must be time for another dose of what the teams are working on!

Saga Team – new project

There’s been a flurry of visits to our Sofia studio recently. In fact, members of the team just got back from being there all week – all because there have been some exciting developments as production continues apace.

While Sofia works across all sorts of Creative Assembly projects, their biggest is our next Saga title. This week we passed milestone one on this game and we’re starting to see more and more of what it will look like. We’re becoming incredibly excited to be able to share more about this project with you in the coming year – stay tuned!

Historical Team – THREE KINGDOMS

As you know, we’ve bought ourselves a little more time for THREE KINGDOMS by shifting the launch date to May 23rd, and it’s been gratifying to hear many of the responses from players who’d rather wait a little longer and get a more finely-honed game – because that’s absolutely the plan. Alongside the usual debugging and polishing business, we’re seeing what else we can fit in and there are definitely a few plum items on the list we’ve wanted to do, as well as a number that players are asking for. More on these as they bed in!

One little overhaul we haven’t talked about yet is the new autoresolver in THREE KINGDOMS. We’ve completely redesigned the system that calculates and displays the battle prediction in the pre-battle panel to be entirely deterministic. This means that when you choose to delegate a battle and you’re predicted, say, a pyrrhic victory, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

You can also get a capsule view of the balance of power simply by selecting your army and mousing over another. This works for both friendly and enemy armies, so you don’t need to declare war and burn up action points approaching and attacking an army to get optics on the outcome. As you can imagine, this all of this takes a lot of guesswork (not to mention a measure of save scumming) out of autoresolved battles.
一会儿见!

THREE KINGDOMS – New Content Team

With excellent progress having been made on the Yellow Turban Rebellion DLC (and help lent to the main Total War: THREE KINGDOMS team where possible following the release date move), the THREE KINGDOMS New Content Team has now set their sights on their next endeavour: further post-launch content.

We’ll be releasing more information about this in a dedicated blog post soon, so keep an eye out!

Fantasy New Content Team – WARHAMMER II

As we said in the last what the teams are working on blog, the Fantasy New Content Team is powering away at a Lord Pack DLC – which we can confirm will be the next content released for the Total War series!

You may have noticed that we sometimes include Old World Updates alongside our DLC releases, and this DLC is no exception as we are working on a bespoke new feature for one of the WARHAMMER I races that’ll have you bending the knee.

Launcher Team – launcher update

You probably noticed a new experience when you launched your last Total War game…

Introducing the new Total War launcher, which now supports the following games: Total War: ATTILA, Total War: ROME II, Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA, Total War: WARHAMMER, and Total War: WARHAMMER II (with more to come).
A few notable enhancements include:

An improved UI for the Mod Manager including a bigger layout, Steam workshop mod description panel, and filters

The ability to change the load order of mods

The latest news, trailers, and DLC for your favourite Total War games

See the full details in our blog post here.

We’d also like to extend another big thank you to our early adopters, who gave us valuable feedback in the early stages of development. And the work doesn’t stop here: we’re committed to continuing to improve your launcher experience over time as well as rolling out new features.

If you’re experiencing any issues using the launcher, please read through the end of the blog post for an FAQ and troubleshooting tips to see if there is a solution to your problem. You can also find these in this thread on our forums, where you can leave us feedback and suggestions – it’d be great to hear from you.

Fantasy Team – pre-production

The Fantasy Team is still very much hard at work in pre-production for their next project.

This month they’ve been slaving over a hot (for February) mocap studio, with some excellent performances by our resident mocap artists now in the can and waiting to have that all-important digital flesh applied to their bones. Or perhaps more bones, or indeed flesh. After all, some things just can’t be legally motion captured…

Don’t get any funny ideas, though – that picture above is unrelated to their recent endeavours. However, if you’d like to find out more about motion capture at CA, check out this article and video over on the Creative Assembly blog.

Access Team – secret project

The Access Team’s project is ramping up testing this month as we get ready for announce later this year. We’re very excited to share our secret project with you all as it’s a new genre for Total War and has been a real passion project for the developers involved. Keep watching this space, and if you want to hear more about our latest Total War updates and news, sign up to Total War Access.

Beyond Total War
But all that is just what we have cooking for Total War – we’ve also got a team working on a brand-new FPS, which you might have caught wind of already.

In short, there’s lots of thrilling stuff going on – and we’re hiring. If you want to join us in making some incredible games, head over to our careers page.
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Aspius · Sep 19, 2019

The next Total War Saga game will be about Troy

A Total War Saga: TROY will reconstruct one of the greatest stories ever told. Inspired by Homer’s Iliad, TROY will let you forge a heroic legacy in the late Bronze Age, the furthest back in time the Total War franchise has ever travelled.

TROY will challenge you to uncover the truth behind Homer’s Iliad. An epic tale mixing legend with history, you will peel back the layers of fable, of gods and monsters, to reveal the truths that might have inspired them.

In TROY, the fate of Aegean civilisation will be in your hands – each choice you make will shape the lands from the mythical heights of Mount Olympus to the arid deserts of Lemnos. Experience history as it might have happened or shape the legend for yourself in this unique chapter of Total War.

The battlefields will tremble under the feet of renowned warriors like Achilles and Hector but it will take more than brute force alone to lay claim to the legendary city of Troy. You will need to deftly manage a barter economy, conduct diplomacy among friends and foes, and direct the beliefs of your people in the worship of the gods, all before etching your name in the annals of history.
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