14 DAY TRIAL // A member of the development team working on the upcoming strategy title Shogun 2: Total War has said that the team has a free hand to delay the game as long as the Artificial Intelligence which powers the computer opponents is not perfect.
Talking to the New Zeeland based Gameplanet Craig Laycock, who is the community manager working at The Creative Assembly, has said, “Mike Simpson, our creative director, has basically said, ‘This game is not going out the door until the AI is perfect'.”
The Creative Assembly man has described some of the steps that the development team is taking in order to make sure that the Artificial Intelligence is up to the expectations of gamers when Shogun 2 is launched.
He added, “There’s the line-of-sight stuff we’re introducing – basically, if any of our designers are playing the game and see something stupid, it’s like everyone stops. Everyone gets around the PC to have a look at it, and see what can we do to fix it. We want to get it so there’s nothing stupid happening in the game.”
The last two big releases in the Total War series, Empire and Napoleon, were heavily criticized on launch because of the poor performance of computer opponents, while reviewers praised the historical flavor and the game mechanics.
The Creative Assembly has delivered patches and expansions for both titles that have made the situation better but long time fans long for the quality they have seen in the original Shogun and in the first Medieval title.
Publisher SEGA currently has Shogun 2: Total War linked to a February 2011 launch date but the above mentioned statements might mean that the development team is free to negotiate pushing that date back as long as they are not satisfied with the A.I.
Shogun 2 will see the series return to its roots, albeit with improvements like naval battles, bigger battles and the addition of hero units.