We've heard your feedback and we are looking for ways to improve visibility on Q&A answers. Going forward, when we will be holding Q&A events, answers will be available on the CA Community as well.
Thank you, everyone, who had the opportunity to join us for the live Q&A event with Todor Nikolov and Teodor Kozhukov!
Q: I see in the dev blog. That troy will be available as a faction in greece, Will the trojan war play a role in events or the narrative of the campaigns?
Teodor K: We've tried to create a sandbox where the Trojan War can very much happen, but we're not forcing it.
Q: who will be in game from troy total war
Todor N: Agamemnon and Menelaus are in the Mycenae faction.
Hector, Paris and Aeneas are in the Troy faction.
Ajax & Diomedes are in the Boeotians faction.
Achilles, Odysseus, Rhesus, Sarpedon and Memnon each lead their own minor faction.
Q: Will Troy’s factions’ features also be implemented in Pharaoh ?
I really enjoyed the parangon system, assuwa league, ancient tracian (tray-shian) gods, etc, features in Troy. Will they remain in the new update for Pharaoh ?
Thanks !
Todor N: Factions and gameplay features had to be reworked to fit the gameplay rules of Pharaoh. You will however likely recognise some of them in the Ancient Legacies of the Aegean Royal Tradition.
Q:Will minor factions from Troy get their unique mechanics ported to Pharaoh?
Todor N: Unfortunately, the faction mechanics in Troy back then were not planned to be used anywhere else but in Troy, so if we wanted to have them in Pharaoh that would mean implementation from scratch in most places. The idea behind the Minor Factions is to provide you with additional starting positions and put you in the shoes of a faction that you perhaps wanted to play as.
Q: How will you make the minor factions appealing to play with?
Todor N: We will be relying mostly on their starting position which often puts you in a situation different from the ones of major factions. Playing in the great desert west of Egypt means that you will have to balance between colonising settlements and protecting your lands against Desert Nomads. Playing on Cyprus as Alashiya means that you have a lot of bronze, but you will need to trade for your food. You could take up a cozy and safe spot at the edge of the map or place yourself between some major players and try to survive.
Q:Minor Faction - Unique identities/leaders
As someone who has been calling for a playable Merneptah since the map flyover trailer, I am beyond excited at the prospect of the grand old man laying down the law with his mace in-game. Obviously he has a unique character model already. My question concerns the other minor factions, such as Setnakhte (who currently has a generic Egyptian general skin). Whilst minor factions will not have unique rosters/mechanics, will their faction leader have a unique visual appearance? Thank you.
Todor N: Some of them will have unique models, for example the Aegean playable factions and one in Egypt will have art that you can recognise as coming Troy. Setnakhte exactly will also have unique art.
In regard to art in the Aegean we are listened to feedback and toned down the representation of characters such as Hector to make them bit more realistic and historically authentic.
Q:Will all the minor factions have their custom models as well or will they all be generic generals
Todor N: Some of them will have unique models, for example the Aegean playable factions and one in Egypt will have art that you can recognise as coming Troy. Setnakhte exactly will also have unique art. In regard to art in the Aegean we are listened to feedback and toned down the representation of characters such as Hector to make them bit more realistic and historically authentic.
Q: Will minor factions have unique models for their faction leaders?
Todor N: That would be a total of 10 factions and some of those might have more than one unique model for their characters.
Q:Which mechanics will minor factions have access to?
Hi, first off all a big thank you for the ongoing support of Pharaoh! I really feel this is the right choice moving forward with the total war franchise we all love!
With regard to minor factions which campaign mechanics will they have access to and where will they be limited compared to major factions with regard to unique units, unique unit models, unique faction leader model, throne room, tech tree etc.
In case of limitations will minor factions copy mechanics from major parent cultures? For example will minor factions have legacies copied from parent cultures or will they have no legacies at all?
Todor N: Minor factions have access to any feature that can be accessed by multiple factions, like Royal Tradition, Court and Ancient Legacies. They can participate in civil wars, become pretenders vassalize other factions and rule as the king of the Hittites, the Pharaoh in Egypt, the Aegean Wanax or the Mesopotamian King of the Universe.
Q:How many factions in Total?
We have currently 4 egyption factions, 2 Hittite 2 canaanite and 2 sea people.
We get 25 minor factions. It is however not clear to me how many greek, assyrian, Babylonian factions we get. One per culture? Or 2? There would be some overlap with the minor faction i guess. Would they use the parent faction faction mechancis?
Teodor K: We added 5 minor factions per big cultural region - so 5 for Egypt, 5 for Hatti, 5 for Canaan, 5 for the Aegean and 5 for Mesopotamia.
There are 4 major factions in Egypt, 2 in Canaan, 2 in Hatti, 2 in Mesopotamia, 2 in the Aegean and 2 Sea Peoples.
25 minor factions and 14 major factions for a total of 39.
They can all be part of a Royal Tradition, gain the throne, unlock an Ancient Legacy, participate in the Court. Some of the major ones are locked to a Royal Tradition. Babylon can only participate in Mesopotamian Royal Tradition as they hold the Court position of the King of Babylon in the Mesopotamian Court.
Q:Can we get Ea-nāṣir?
As an Easter Egg?
Todor N: There is an EA-STER Egg… or two… Copper buyers beware! In all seriousness we cannot afford not to honour the purveyour of the finest copper on this side of the Euphrates! Be on the lookout. Only yesterday during my ongoing playthrough I got reinforced by a gentleman leading some Akkadian hunters who was called Ea Nasir…
Q:Assyria (Hanigalbat) and Assyria (minor)
I’m just wondering what’s the main difference between these two factions , are they going to be two Assyrian factions ? Is one a hybrid Assyrian and Mitanni while the minor faction is Assyrian heartland. Or is Hanigalbat faction should pretty much be the Mittani.
Todor N: Hanigalbat are an Assyrian faction built on the remnants of old Mitanni kingdom. We assume that the Mitanni are pretty much assimilated by the Assyrians at this point as there is no evidence to the contrary. Hanigalbat was chosen to be a major faction as the character of Ninurta Apal Ekur is related to it. Historically, after a victorious Assyrian king, Tukulti-Ninurta was assassinated by his sons, there were a few quite incapable kings. Ninurta defeated one of them and claimed the throne for himself. We wanted to try and tell this story in the game.
Q:Just making sure I read the blog correctly that Merneptah will be unlocked as a playable faction with 28 other factions!Like how will he play like since he is scripted to die around turn 22?
Todor N: Merneptah is no longer scripted - he can die of natural causes, due to assassination or fall in battle. Via customisation options you can increase the amount of Turns per Year to 12, which can make him live very, very long time. Or just make him immortal.
Q:Will the mesopotamian factions have their equivalent of the sea people or desert tribes?
Just curious to see if they'll face the same difficulties as the mediterranean factions
Todor N: Invaders do not spare Mesopotamia. You can expect Elamites from the east, Ahlamu desert tribesmen from the southwest and proto-Urartians from the North
Q:Will Achilles be able to switch skins?
Between his base skin and God-Forged armor
Teodor K: We've actually gotten Achilles a new more-historical set of armour - that's what he'll use.
Q:Homer vs Linear B?
Really excited about this. I see from your blog post you've chosen to rely on the Homeric Cycle for the Aegean factions. I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on why you've chosen to go with using epic poetry to build the factions. Will you be using any other sources too? It would be really exciting to see the Linear B documents come to life, particularly because the tablets have a lot of cool details about trade and administration in the region at the time (especially Crete, which I was hoping would be a playable faction)
Thanks for being so open with the community in the development process. Can't wait to see how it all turns out!
Todor N: We opted to go with Homer as he provides us with a set of famous characters that we ourselves are excited to see come to life (once again) in an environment that is closer to history. We had a hard time finding suitable Mycenaean replacements and our alternative was to go with made-up names which we thought is the better approach.
Q:How many Native Rosters will be added?
How many Native Rosters will be introduced across the new territories added to the game? When will we find out the names and how many units will each one will have?
Teodor K: New Realms are 8 in total - so 8 new native rosters (1 for each). This allowed us to give Thracians, Elamites and Ahlamu their own native roster!
Q:Penthesilea & Memnon?
I really wish these two horde factions could be included in the game as well.
Todor N: Memnon does feature in the game as a character, although he is now much closer to his mythical homeland of Aethiopia. Penthesilea, unfortunately is not in the game, as Amazons seem to go beyond the borders of Bronze Age authenticity. The only horde factions in the game are the Peleset and the Sherden
Q:How will the now on-map sea peoples exactly work?
Since the Lukka, Ekwesh, and Denyen are now coming from playable parts of the map.
Todor N: Sea Peoples will now be spawned and be controlled by the Campaign AI. This means that they might decide to occupy settlements instead of the ordinary sacking and razing. This is closer to history, as some of the Sea Peoples very likely chose to settle down instead of burning everything and sailing towards the sunset. Also we had player feedback condemning the Sea Peoples as annoyingly scripted and we wanted them to act a bit more logically. We currently at the point where we are trying to find the right balance, let’s see how close we can get.
Q:Can we have the music trailer in the intro of the game
I am a weirdo that see every intro every time I open the game, however the music in the trailer is SO MUCH BETTER that the one in the game, can we have the game trailer, please, pretty please?
Steve: I can answer this one! The trailer music won’t be making its way into the game itself as it’s not really cohesive with the rest of the music in the game, BUT we have already made it available to download for free so you can listen to it whenever you like: https://dashboard.totalwar.com/home
Q:Will minor factions be able to participate in their regions' Civil Wars?
And will they have access to the same 'paths' as the major factions?
Todor N: Absolutely Yes, to both answers
Q:Will the Anatolian swordsmen from A Total War Saga Troy be in the new update under the faction Troy?
Teodor K: Yes, but they're called Assuwan Swordsmen now.
Q:would you consider letting us choose our starting position, + other major factions' starting positions?
Teodor K: It's something we'd love to do, but we currently can't.
Q:I was wondering will there be any new Monotheism gods with the new update ?
Todor N: No, Akhenaten is the only god.
Q:clone generals are gone?
I love the game but I'm very annoyed by the clone generals who all look the same. now that you will also include the family tree, have you introduced any new different skins? It would be nice to have different armor and colors too. Thank you
Todor N: We are working to improve the situation as we speak, I hope our efforts will suffice.
Q:Will the playable factions from release be renamed along the lines of the new playable factions?
The new playable major and minor factions (with the exceptions of Setnakhte and Merneptah) all have geographical or dynastic names, rather than being named after a single faction leader such as Ramesses, Irsu, or Kurunta. Will we see the older playable factions renamed after their local territory or capital cities to bring them in line with the new ones? It might be a bit weird otherwise, especially with faction leader mortality, to see a "Bay" faction 40 years after Bay's kicked the bucket.
Todor N: The faction names related to characters, e.g. Ramesses, will update their names to reflect their current leader as well as the first leader in the line of faction leaders. The latter is visible in Diplomacy.
Q:Will there be end-of-campaign cutscenes for minor factions?
at least for the culture of belonging. Thanx
Todor N: There are different victory movies for different cultures, yes.
Q:Minor factions and how they will stand out
Will the minor factions now included in the game have any unique units and/or aesthetics that will set them apart a bit? For example, will the Cimmerians borrow any "Amazon" units from Total War: Troy? Will the Libu factions have Libu faction leaders or Egyptian ones? Will the Lullubi ("warlike mountain people" per Wikipedia) and Igihalkid (Elamite dynasty) factions be depicted accordingly in some way? Of course, minor factions are just that, minor. But it would be interesting if some sort of flavor, even if small, are added to the ones that represent different cultures of the time period.
Todor N: Some factions will have unique art for their faction leaders and access to unique units, provided by landmark buildings in their territories. The visuals of the rest will be corresponding to their culture.
Q:Will there be Minoans in the game?
Todor N: Minoan civilisation at this team was already in decline and being overtaken by Mycenaeans, so the answer is no.
Q:Trojan war
Can we have a cinematic intro when the trojan war start?
and there will be an event to start such war? maybe with a choice to trigger the historical war or going a different way
Todor N: The Trojan War is not an actual event in the game, it is very likely to happen naturally as Achaeans tend to dislike Trojans. In early-to-mid campaign expect fleets to sail across the winedark sea towards the walls of sacred Ilion. Nothing labels it as the Trojan War.
Q:Concerning cavalry
Although I do enjoy the addition, was there any influence in terms of having mounted cavalry for just one faction, any historical claim or idea that would create that possibility, or just creative liberty in this case?
Ty for all your hard work, guys;)
Todor N: I will be completely frank here and say that there is no evidence that we should have horsemen in the game apart from player feedback that unit diversity is lacking. This is the most important reasons behind the inclusion of horse and camel riders.
Q:Will the Cimmerians have foot archers?
One of my frustrations of depictions of Scytho-Sarmatian cultures in past iterations of Total War games is that they did not have foot archers in their unit rosters. Their rosters would be 90% cavalry based and with basic defensive units such as spearmen and axemen, but no foot archers with whom I could defend settlements. It seems historically strange that steppe factions wouldn't have dismounted archers to defend their camps and settlements.
Teodor K: Their starting location's native roster has skirmishers and archers on foot.
Q:Will the cimmerians be playable in custom battles?
Todor N: No, Cimmerians as other minor factions are available in the campaign only. But do not worry, you can access all of their units in Custom battle as they are relying on Anatolian Native units and a mixture of Urartu and Cimmerian. Generals coming from Troy will also be present as characters in Custom battle.
We also have a few updates for you based on your feedback from the previous Q&A, focused on the expanded map:
Q:Will we be able to move our capital in this expanded map?
Q:Turning on Deities, Courts, and Legacies Earlier
Title says it all, really. Blocking the deities, courts, and legacies panel is great for beginners or those like me who like to be eased into that kind of thing so as not to have an info overload on first turn.
However, I noticed that some people were annoyed that there wasn't a setting in the campaign customizations to allow these features to be accessible at the start of a campaign.
Q:I recently got into Pharaoh and have been really enjoying it so far, but didn't like that the campaign map got noticeably darker and less vibrant when I reached the Crisis civilization stage.
While I understand that one of the main themes of Pharaoh is the Bronze Age Collapse, and the map getting more bleak is supposed to represent how detrimental it was for the nations that went through it, I personally really love how aesthetically pleasing the Prosperity campaign map looks in comparison to the Crisis campaign map.
Therefore, I was wondering if it would be possible for us to get a setting to either keep it dynamic as it is now, or choose which of the three campaign map tones we prefer. This way, players like myself could properly enjoy their preferred version of the rather beautiful campaign map for the entire campaign, rather than portions of it.
Doubtless another reason why this was done was to not have the campaign go completely off the rails within the first 18 turns, but I know some people are masochists and they want that. Hopefully that's possible :)
Todor N: We have discussed these and decided to implement these changes. As far as I know, moving your capital is already available in the game for the QA team to test.
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ADMINCA-Pingu#2295
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