Although details on the new turn system are sketchy at best, developers have confirmed that Medieval 2 will no longer use seasons or years as its means of keeping track of time. Rather a system of "turns" will be devised, with each turn representing a certain, perhaps undefined, amount of time.
For example, the game will not begin in the year 1080 and end in 1520, but instead will begin on turn 1 and end on turn 225, although players can keep playing past that point if they so wish. Reasons for this are unclear. It has been postulated that because the European encounter with the Aztecs fell so close to the ending date of the game, the developers felt that the turn system needed to be changed to allow players to visit the New World much earlier. Others say that the new system will allow the player to have a greater influence over certain events (the appearance of certain factions, the development of gunpowder or the outbreak of the Black Death). Whatever the motive may have been, the decison to abandon the old system was met with protest from many hardcore fans who saw it as a rejection of the historical tradition of the Total War games and part of a shift towards more "clickfest" type strategy games.
