A Total War Saga: Thrones Of Britannia delayed into May
To make it better, y'see
If you've already ordered in a hog to roast in celebration of A Total War Saga: Thrones Of Britannia's launch, you might want to get your meat man on the blower. Developers Creative Assembly today announced that they will not launch the historical strategy game on April 19th, as had been the plan, as they want more time to polish it up. Thrones Of Britannia is now slated to launch on May 3rd, which isn't much later really. But a fortnight is long enough that you probably wouldn't want a hog in the shed the whole time. Give the butcher a bell.
Creative Assembly explain in today's announcement that, y'know, they want more time to make it good - especially as this is to be the first of the new Total War Saga subseries. For those who demand more specifics (or perhaps had concerns after reading and watching previews), they detail some big things they're working on.
"These changes will include some quality-of-life UI improvements, such as showing the player a breakdown of sources contributing to their current War Fervour level. We're also implementing multiple shades of plus-and-minus effects regarding different levels of food, and how each level interacts with upkeep and supplies.
"We're doing some more balancing work on the campaign AI, chiefly regarding its aggression levels on different difficulty settings, and the number (and composition) of the armies it recruits. Generals will also change in appearance as they age, which is reflected in their portraits.
"Perhaps the biggest area we're focusing on is battle. We're making some improvements to the AI's flanking behaviour, and we're addressing the way the AI targets enemy units, to better account for intervening units blocking charge pathways. We're also tweaking certain animation sets so that soldiers now hold their shields out as they walk, reinforcing the shield-wall focus of the age, and ensuring they better maintain unit coherency on the move.
"We've looked at some of the default unit-states from Warhammer, and as a result we're implementing toggles in the options menu so you can choose which states you wish to be on by default (such as always-run, skirmish and guard modes). On top of that, we're making a whole raft of alterations to numerous aspects of battle, including (but not limited to): collision damage, unit stats, maximum drag-out widths, collision radii, unit mass and spacing, and we'll be removing an experimental feature you may've seen at work in game footage where units were slowed by missile fire, as this was affecting the coherency of the targeted unit's formation. In aggregate, these changes are making combat feel tighter and more attuned to the age."
See? They want more time to make it good. I told you.
In the meantime, do read our Adam's Thrones Of Britannia preview to see what it's all about. "It might be the leanest and meanest game in Creative Assembly's long-running strategy series," he says. Fancy.