Octopus Overlords

The game releases on 23 May, but for a change there are reviews out already and the "influencers" are streaming the game.



Steam
I'll probably be buying it next week, because apparently I can't not own a Total War game.

I'm excited about this one enough to take the day off to play, which I haven't done in a while.

Early playthroughs I've seen have looked good, and I think this might be a good balance between the fantasy of Warhammer, and the usual historical bent of the Total War games.

Tried to stay up for the rollout last night at 2am my time, but alas, after my heart attack I'm still on a lot of medication that makes me tired and for the first time I just had to call it quits rather than stay up late to play a new game.

Anyway, only played through a bit this morning so far, starting as Liu Bei, but seems absolutely great so far. I knew going into it there were a lot of changes to the gameplay to add elements from the Rot3K, but they also added things like armies now carrying and needing military supplies to function which is a first in a Total War game and is a nice addition.

The things they added for Rot3K are also excellent so far. Generals are very powerful on the battlefield, even more so than in Warhammer, but interestingly there is an option when you start a new game to switch it to a more traditional Total War game where generals are more realistic like previous Total War games, not killing machines. Another cool feature is generals can issue duels on the battlefield where the two selected generals will fight without interference.

Anyway, I'm going to keep playing now, but, short of a complete collapse of the AI later, this seems like a gorgeous new addition to the Total War series, especially if you've played any Rot3K games before and know the characters.

Edit:
I was honestly getting a little lost in the UI as they changed a lot of things with it, but pro tip: there's a round button with an "i" on it in the upper right corner that turns on an information overlay which lets you mouse over every section of the UI currently visible and get a detailed popup of what that part of the UI is telling you.

This Total War is pretty nuts, in a good way. I'm well into my first game, and factions are just declaring war on each other left and right, every turn. It's crazy.

Sepiche wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 11:49 am they also added things like armies now carrying and needing military supplies to function which is a first in a Total War game and is a nice addition.

This is the first Total War game I've played in a long long while, and I'm really surprised the military supplies are a new feature. It feels like such a natural and essential game mechanic.

I was wary about buying this one at full price since I wasn't sure I'd really stick with it, but it's really got me hooked.

wonderpug wrote: ↑Fri Jun 21, 2019 8:48 am This is the first Total War game I've played in a long long while, and I'm really surprised the military supplies are a new feature. It feels like such a natural and essential game mechanic.

There was an attrition system where you could take damage if you were in the wrong stance in enemy territory, but this new system basically gives you a few turns before the attrition kicks in.

Patch 1.1.0

Highlights
This update addresses a number of areas, many of which have been reported by players. Some major areas of focus include:

• Stability (reduced crashes)
• Many battle AI fixes and behavioural improvements
• Further tweaks to vassalisation rules in order to reduce Yuan Shao’s vassal dominance
• Improved tutorialisation
• Improved UI with key tooltips added (e.g. Food breakdown)
• Babies are now more likely to be born from marriages
• UI can now be scaled up to 200% for 1440p (2k resolution)
• Mousing over settlement names no longer causes performance stutter in the campaign map

It's about time they put Yuan Shao in his place.

The Furious Wild DLC is out today.