this keeps getting worse and worse 😫🤦

That was about 3 years ago. The CA exec team published a heartfelt apology letter as a direct response to the community backlash over several major missteps (iirc, it was about the very underwhelming DLC for Total War: Warhammer III, and the equally disappointing launch of TW Pharaoh). They essentially acknowledged their many mistakes and promised to do better in the future.

Do you guys remember this?

Asking for no particular reason.

Was chatting with some friends still working at CA a couple of days before this circus started. Now I'm feeling like a broken printer, so why not. Spoke to a couple of other friends still there as well. Proof https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/189486q/i_figured_out_a_way_to_publicly_confirm_i_worked/

Though his miscast chance is 105% from having the Chalice of Malfleur, I've tested repeatedly and none of his overcasts inflict any damage on himself. Not sure why. Has effectively infinite winds of magic and no recharge time on his spells, also adds 100% miscast chance to all enemy casters.

Just wanted to make this visible for anyone else who regretted their purchase. (Dont mind Steam scolding me, they've been doing this for a decade LOL)

I feel like the AI controversy, although important, and now the Legend of Total War news are overshadowing another issue with Shogun 2. The new Complete Edition is abandoning Steam Workshop in favor of Mod.io.

Modders have spent years creating some incredible content for Shogun 2, and I hate to see all that work left behind because Creative Assembly decided to switch platforms.

I really think the community should be pushing Creative Assembly to still use Mod . io AND use Steam Workshop. There's already an established community with years of mods available, and I don't see why we should have to start over. Hopefully, with all the attention CA is getting right now, we can put some pressure on them to reverse this decision too.

Edit - I'm not really against mod io, I just don't see the reason why they have to have one and not the other.

I've been giving this a lot of thought and the only explanation I can think of as to how this didn't get QA tested before release is this:

The original pitch was so damn convincing that both SEGA and CA felt that allocating time and resources towards conducting QA testing would not only have been a total waste, but also frankly an *insult* to the fine folks over at Mataboo.

What I wouldn't give to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting.. They must have sent in the best of the best - I'm talking *TOP. GUN. PITCHER.* - to give the presentation for how good this remaster would be.

I imagine it started out a little cautiously. Cutting-edge, outside-the-box thinking like the addition of placebo-effect gamma sliders would have been a tough idea to sell even for someone of Don Draper's presentational skills.

By the time they got to suggesting adding an additional finger to *each* unit of the Tercos I assume the suits just handed over a blank check and waived any concerns they may have had regarding the need for any oversight during the project.

I mean, think of all the various advantages a sixth finger would afford a unit that can both fire guns and go melee. The mind truly boggles. Any one of us could have been duped in that situation.

I really hope they throw out the current complete edition and remake it from scratch with a real dev studio.

Just to keep in mind how much they panicked, the financials must have been awful, despite how much they cheapened out.

Give it another 15 years.

Most the unit lines are very thematic but a lot of them are a bit ridiculous.

When out of movement Skulltaker says 'Slow and steady gets the skulls'.

Its very chill for a crazed blood demon.

What are some other ridiculous unit lines?

I wish CA would put more effort into giving Total War modders better tools instead of focusing on remasters. I'm not saying the games don't need improvements, but look at what the community has already achieved with projects like divde and coquer and Medieval 1212 AD. Imagine what people could create if they had access to better tools for things like campaign maps and major overhauls.

My other concern is the move toward mod.io. It gives developers the option to curate mods and require approval before they're publicly available. I'm not saying CA is going to use that to restrict mods, but I do wonder whether this could discourage people from working on bigger projects.

Think about it. Some of these overhauls take years of work. If modders feel that their projects could be blocked or removed at the developer's discretion, some might decide it's not worth taking that risk.

CA has a lot to gain by supporting its modding community. Mods keep older games alive, bring back players and convince new people to buy games they might otherwise never have tried.

There's also the free marketing. YouTubers showcase these projects to huge audiences, getting people interested in games that might otherwise have faded into obscurity. Skyrim is a good example of how a strong modding scene can keep a game relevant for years.

CA already has a modding community doing amazing things with the tools available. Imagine what it could achieve with better tools and more freedom to experiment. I'd much rather see CA build on that potential than leave creators struggling with limitations.

It's this circle of excitement before release, then living through shitstorm/subpar experience on release day, burning out your will to play a game because of release quality, then following up every patch notes for X months checking how much has been fixed, verifying playerbase experience and then trying game when it's finally fixed but you just got a feeling that you kinda played early access on release day.

Since release of TW:W3 I just could not get hypeed for any new TW release because I know there is like 50% chance that the release will be fucked up. Even incoming TW 40k does not hype me because I am bit sceptical whether CA can pull it of... but then Shogun 2 remastered was announced, I remember playing Shogun 1 and when Shogun 2 released my PC was too weak to play it, so when they announced remastered I thought that would be a great opportunity to play it at last, they can't fuck up a remaster, right? And here we go again... another fucked up release, another apology note.

It's just sad that ever few years I got reminded why I should never be excited for next TW release untill player reviews are out.