Are they doing big updates for this game, any plans maybe for KoH III?

[Adesrin]

What's the deal with this game, abandoned, still often updated, maybe 3rd game in the plans? Anyone informed?

This game is still only game on the market that has potential to compete vs Total War games.

[Varainger]

No

Post-release development an thus patching ended and dev(s) went onto a new project.

It wasn't communicated as necessarily definitive, but most likely is.

Speculation part:
Likely didn't get enough sales for the publisher to invest some more (below 800.000/a million). Comunication could have been better and better organised from pre- to post-release in my opinion. There was also crisis the last two years in the gaming industry regarding financing and this game probably fell prey to ensure to stay afloat. Maybe THQNordic isn't the right publisher for such a game, keeping in mind what type of games they seem to otherwise release.

[Adesrin]

Originally posted by Varainger:

No

Post-release development an thus patching ended and dev(s) went onto a new project.

It wasn't communicated as necessarily definitive, but most likely is.

Speculation part:
Likely didn't get enough sales for the publisher to invest some more (below 800.000/a million). There was also crisis the last two years in the gaming industry regarding financing and this game probably fell prey to ensure to stay afloat. Maybe THQNordic isn't the right publisher for such a game, keeping in mind what type of games they seem to otherwise release.

Makes sense but it's a big pity for gaming because Total War games really do need some competition not only so they have to try harder and not hold monopoly over this RTS+TurnBased hybrid but also the gaming get's some more fresh alternatives for this type genre, which is still let's be real, highly popular.

KoH2 was ok game, just lacked edge in depth and mechanics to stand out more.

[Varainger]

Originally posted by Adesrin:

Originally posted by Varainger:

No

Post-release development an thus patching ended and dev(s) went onto a new project.

It wasn't communicated as necessarily definitive, but most likely is.

Speculation part:
Likely didn't get enough sales for the publisher to invest some more (below 800.000/a million). There was also crisis the last two years in the gaming industry regarding financing and this game probably fell prey to ensure to stay afloat. Maybe THQNordic isn't the right publisher for such a game, keeping in mind what type of games they seem to otherwise release.

Makes sense but it's a big pity for gaming because Total War games really do need some competition not only so they have to try harder and not hold monopoly over this RTS+TurnBased hybrid but also the gaming get's some more fresh alternatives for this type genre, which is still let's be real, highly popular.

KoH2 was ok game, just lacked edge in depth and mechanics to stand out more.

I''d say they are already an alternative of sorts to TW, but not the same as TW.

They are a small dev studio and require publishers for investing.

To directly compete with Total War should probably be not the aim, since they don't seem to have the finances available that were required for that nor the expertise as a big studio, yet. Its a huge ask to offer that hybrid of strategy plus tactical experience. You can see that already by the fact how tactical battles are a) not included in multiplayer and b) got worse at least visually in my opinion. Shining by being a different game to Total War is probably easier to achieve, just doing apparent similar things, but in a special way.

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Regarding mechanics overall i might disagree and got the impression that a lot of the new and quite innovative features were a bit hard to discover and not well enough communicated.

I found them more 'by accident', then by knowing about them. Maybe also an interface design question in how intuitive some things are and how easy to discover for the player.

The Royal Libray could have maybe been more prominent and used by the devs to introduce players to the game features and new content introduced by patches.
I feel its terribly important nowadays for games to be easily accessible IF you want to reach high sales numbers, which is not an argument against complex mechanics by the way, as players like to discover and learn.

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Anyway, i'd guess if there were a KOH 3, now that the KoH brand got some attention again, they might need to change/reform some things that appear like part of the KoH core concept:

Things like the (medieval and imersive looking, but inaccurate) map as such (which seems to confuse some type of players), the originally good idea to have random placement of ressources (why not both instead, options are always good to have), the idea for it to have relatively short campaigns (also initally good, but players that invest a good bit in new games (financially and emotionally) might prefer longer campaigns. Longer campaigns and game impressions can also be good for brand-bonding. Incerasing the acceptance of the knights council by getting its own window for council actions (there is only so much features you can cram into a tiny bit of the display at the top) or scraping that and having a council, high nobles and vassals in some form more relevant and expanded on. Another point to work on seems the not-governed -province-thus-malus feature should probably be optional, maybe more complex or at least explained/tale driven.

And all that without losing its KOH specific vibe and impressions.
To remain still different enough to other games and thus keep its own remarkable brand.

In the end it's all about a good interface (for the customer, not the graphic designer), intuitive/findable mechanics and first of all finances to start all that and that latter part is likely most lacking, apart from finding the right and competent personal to in anyway seriously compete in the strategy game market and especially with/against Creative Assembly and Sega. I doubt there is a lack of ideas.



Just my guesses and opinions..