With just days to go until the launch of Total War: Three Kingdoms DLC, developer Creative Assembly has dangled a big old carrot in front of us, revealing that there are some exciting goodies to come soon.
Associate community manager at the studio, James High, has revealed in a blog post that, building on Total War players’ preferences for big DLC and plenty of replayability, the game will soon offer a new type of downloadable content: “Chapter Packs”. These take inspiration from the game’s rich source material, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, to give the player a wealth of new starting positions – and the many opportunities that come with them.
High explains that the packs will create new starting positions based on notable chapters from the tale, adding in both new faces and those familiar from the main game. It’ll also add objectives and features that reflect the events in that chapter. In terms of size, these Chapter Packs will offer something between Culture and Campaign packs.
Perhaps most interestingly, High discusses the idea that eventually, when you begin a new campaign, you will be able to decide where to jump in to the legendary tale of the Three Kingdoms. Each narrative point will throw different challenges, plots, and heroes, sometimes in older or younger stages of their lives, at you to tackle. Mastering “a raft of new mechanics” and playable factions will be key, as you’ll be battling across the huge in-game map of third century China.
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The studio will also release a modding tool – the Assembly Kit – soon after launch, so Total War-mongerers, both seasoned and fresh to the fight, can start workshopping some exciting new content for themselves very shortly. Perhaps we’ll see another Total War camera mod very soon, to help us get up close and personal to some spectacular spear-play.
Total War: Three Kingdoms will drop on May 23, but you can get it pre-loading from 6pm BST on May 20 if you just want to jump in as soon as it arrives. In the meantime, head over to our Total War: Three Kingdoms review.