RE: Empire Total War (Full Version)

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JudgeDredd -> RE: Empire Total War (3/7/2009 5:11:16 PM)

Well, I have some vouchers to spend at Game (my wifes parents always get me game vouchers!), and I know there aint much else in there. I could hold onto them, but there's nothing on the horizon (that will be in Game stores) that looks like interesting me.

tbh T, if someone who likes WitP can like this then it's got to be worth a punt.



Crimguy -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 2:46:52 AM)

I think the Steam rants are a bit overblown. I installed Steam when HL2 came out. Here I am 2 years later and had the urge to fire it up. New computer - no problem. I was able to log in and download the game and was playing in short order.

I do have a fat pipe and can download at 2MB/sec. I can imagine being infuriated if I had a dial-up or 128k dsl.



Phatguy -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 2:59:38 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

I think the Steam rants are a bit overblown. I installed Steam when HL2 came out. Here I am 2 years later and had the urge to fire it up. New computer - no problem. I was able to log in and download the game and was playing in short order.

I do have a fat pipe and can download at 2MB/sec. I can imagine being infuriated if I had a dial-up or 128k dsl.



Well, Some like you never had a problem...Some have..It's the luck of the draw



mack2 -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 3:45:28 AM)

It installed fine for me today. Took about 10 minutes to install it from the disks no problems, and then add the 2 special forces packs.



JudgeDredd -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 8:24:04 AM)

Just wanted to add I installed it and activated it fine (retail version). Ran it, went into a quick seige battle it it bombed to desktop, no error nothing. I thought "oh no"

I fired it up again and it's been running for varying lengths ever since without a single crash to desktop.

It looks amazing with everything on high and I see no slow downs at all which is amazing given the graphics and the number of units.

Currently I am playing the Road to Independence scenario which, I hear, is more of a tutorial scenario in so much as it's showing you the game piecemeal

The first part of the RtI scenario you get a few units, little to do in the way of building, lots of income and take a village from the Indians, next step take a couple of villages and fight the French. Next "chapter", build a fleet and take a far off town...that kind of thing. So it's easing you in...and with good reason. I've heard plenty of people starting the Grand Campaign and thinking "OMG...what do I do".

As for the AI? In the RtI scenario, it isn't too clever...but I think people are saying you are meant to win these scenarios so you can learn the game. I have heard the tactical AI is a mixed bag in the Grand Campaign and it's not too bad strategically.

It is gorgeous though.



doomtrader -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 8:54:24 AM)

It took me three hours to install my special units retail version.
The good thing is that I can play in english even if I bough polish version :)
Also I can play without DVD inserted.

The bad thing is that I can only play with the lowest details and comparing it to everything maximized in Medieval II, Empire looks worse.
I've got ATI X1950Pro (with February 2009 drivers) and Core Duo 6300, so my PC is not most modern but is also not a piece of junk.

My overall opinion is generally positive and I think that after few things will be patched, the game will be very good and with some mods it will be great. Good work CA



Joram -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 9:39:46 AM)

I haven't had any issues with Steam really but the game itself is a bit of a nightmare.  Besides looking gorgeous, it is extraordinairily buggy.  And I don't just mean typos.  Here's a quick list that affected me in my first weekend of play.

A) AI constantly rushes out of the fort to attack you when you besiege it
B) Line of sight issues in such the AI will think it has a line of site to fire at you but it doesn't.  I have seen the AI demolish it's own fort with cannon because of this.
C) Lots of pathing issues in combat including units split up and being spread out over the map.  When you try to attack it your units can't always figure out where to go.
D) Passive strategic AI.  <- This may vary by level but it's extremely passive on 'normal'.  On Hard I've seen some improvement but not much.
E) Trade zone bugs where your fleet either doesn't get the benefit from trade or actually can get stuck.
F) And the most recent one to annoy me is spending half a day on the 4th RTI scenario only for not one but both saves I had made get corrupted for it thus crashing the whole game.

I won't even get into the balance issues because that's more subjective but I'm seriously disappointed with the state of the game on release.  There are a lot of things I want to like and think this game can be good soon but if you are on the fence, I suggest waiting a few more weeks or you'll just get frustrated with it.



JudgeDredd -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 11:28:58 AM)

quote:

...but I'm seriously disappointed with the state of the game on release


I don't know why, m8...it's the norm.

Some of the stuff you've pointed out I haven't noticed yet, but I will say...
1) Yep...AI does rush out. Amazing really. You'd think they would be happy to sit behind the walls and bombard...there's enough canons there and that means the pressure would be on the player to get into the fort. What a bizarre programming path. Why oh why would you want to leave the safety of the fort if you could bombard the troops with your canon?

2) I have seen issues where the AI hides some units...but they always seem to be too little and do something too late. Last night I found them with my Cav and moved my Cav away and moved my troops forward...the enemy basically sat there whilst I shelled them with Arty, then moved forward and attacked but I feel they should've moved sooner.

I am playing RtI which is meant to be (apparently) a tutorial and so not very challenging. nor have I ramped the AI up...but I suspect ramping the AI up may give it more units and resources...not necessarily make it smarter.

I will definitely post here if I find out otherwise.

Sieges are the worst though. Just move your troops in a kind of "Zulu" fashion around the main gate and wait for them to come out!

I have seen some positives though. I mean keeping some units back it does, although it doesn't determine when is best to do this, so it's not always a smart move. Also hiding units...but again, too little and they don't appear to do much of anything and when they do, it's too late.

I think I'll stop commenting now [:D] until I get to ramp it up and try it on harder, but I don't want to do that until after this "tutorial".



undercovergeek -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 12:21:34 PM)

what are you playing it on JD? spec wise i mean



Joram -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 12:22:19 PM)

Agreed, and I'm embarrassed I helped perpetuate that norm, lol.

I actually like the AI trying to trick you into rushing into it's hidden units.  One of the few instances where I was mildly impressed with the AI but once you figure out the pattern, there's no challenge.   I got surprised exactly once, sorta since my advance was cautious anyway.

Yeah, it feels like there are two primary tools they used to help increase the difficulty.  The tactical battles in general are much faster than before.  Too fast in my opinion.  You have no time to think really especially if the AI goes on the attack.  On the strategic side the AI seems to get a ton of bonus resources.  I'm not terribly concerned about that up to a point.  But since tactical battles are more closely balanced (which would be good except its to the point of battles almost being dull) the resources making the vast quantity of troops available on the strategic side are a bit over the top.




JudgeDredd -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 1:31:26 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

what are you playing it on JD? spec wise i mean

Windows XP SP3
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.33Ghz
4GB Ram
nVidia 8800GT 512MB OC2



Phatguy -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 2:51:20 PM)

Well,  putting in a solid 30+ hours into this game gave me some insights.

The RTI campaign is interesting but at one point the French just keep full stacks in Quebec and Montreal. As the American, I can barely field  a 3/4 full stack without going broke. Not very realistic as the French never had the population the colonies had.

Main campaign..Some have had problems controlling the naval portion but I found it to be very easy and a bit fun, even though not too realistic.
The AI has some problems  in the overall campaign with it's timidity, although I do like the fact that you are not in constant war and the AI does not DOW at the drop of the hat. I Dont like the fact that the AI comes out and attacks you in sieges. The land battles take some getting used to after the chaos that was the earlier TW game battles. I do like the fact that elite units die just as easily as conscripts, just not as fast(better accuracy,faster rate of fire).No more super-uber units like the previous games. Cavalry dont fly across the battlefield anymore..Terrain obstacles actually impede cavalry quite a bit.

The trade income is too large I think.. I tried the United Provinces and after taking over 1 province in Europe and 2 Spanish provinces in the new world I was rolling around in money, making over 10,000 profit per turn by 1710. While In my Autrian campaign, I control the base provinces, the whole of the Balkans and Greece along with Constantinople plus throwing in most of the Italian penninsula and i'm only making about 3,000 profit to build up everything. In my opinion the tax revenue is fine, its the trade revenue thats seriously out of control.

Diplomacy is a lot better. Nations dont hate you forever and will take decent peace treaties. I had Spain declare war on me when the king died(war of Spanish Succesion) I managed to take both of it's Italian provinces as they were a bit occupied by Morocco suddenly declaring war on them, along with England, Portugal and United Provinces. They took a quick peace treaty from me as there was no way to get to thier Italian provinces. But the diplomacy can be wonky too. Poland declared war on France. Neither was part of a defensive treaty so it was just those two. Nothing I could see they could fight over.


So far no game crashes but it did freeze up for 1 minute in a big battle. I thought of cold reboot but as I was getting ready it started up again.

And yes, CA did something idiotic that is really really inexcusable. The saved games are in a hidden folder deep in your system. I use Vista. Vista gives you a save folder.Why they refused to use that but stuck it in the appdata folder is beyond me.Also to compound the problem, they did not include a delete game button. Why? Thats not something that is just missed.



undercovergeek -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 4:01:56 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd


quote:

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

what are you playing it on JD? spec wise i mean

Windows XP SP3
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.33Ghz
4GB Ram
nVidia 8800GT 512MB OC2


quote:

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

what are you playing it on JD? spec wise i mean

Windows XP SP3
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.33Ghz
4GB Ram
nVidia 8800GT 512MB OC2


hmmm its my graphics card thats letting my end down - im mostly medium and low but the thing still looks beautiful - almost temptedto return to desk top for a high end ish rig



Terminus -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 4:18:38 PM)

Out of curiousity, where IS that damn save game folder?



doomtrader -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 4:29:09 PM)

Terminus: AFAIK in AppData folder.
Hidden far from your eyes.



Terminus -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 4:34:30 PM)

And that folder is where, exactly? I completely agree that the save game function (both in terms of the UI and where it puts the files) is a big fat minus.



doomtrader -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 4:45:13 PM)

It might be something like:
c:\Documents and Settings\your_login\Application Data\

I think that this folder is set to hidden



Terminus -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 4:50:29 PM)

Found it, thanks. Whoever thought of this placement should be fired out of a siege mortar![:@]



JudgeDredd -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 5:21:48 PM)

At least that would give you a reason to USe a seige mortar...gawd knows there's no need for them in-game!



Phatguy -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 7:15:05 PM)

And continuing my Steam rant...My wonderful steam decided to download Empire:total war a few minutes ago..... Yes, the full version, not the patch....Never mind that I have the retail version on my system, which I registered last Wednsday and I have had no issues with the games so far.. I really hate steam..hopefully when I shut down steam it didnt screw my install over.... blech



undercovergeek -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 7:19:01 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Found it, thanks. Whoever thought of this placement should be fired out of a siege mortar![:@]


is this where it keeps your saved battles for you to watch later?



barbarossa2 -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 7:20:50 PM)

I keep thinking about getting Total War: Empire, but I hear their "pirate" stack is horribly unrealistic and that pirates are so powerful it unbalances the game. The fort defense/attack AI has also been reported to be weak.

I may wait to get the game until the first patch comes out as is my policy now with most games, as I don't enjoy being someone's playtester just to get my hands on it first.



Phatguy -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 9:15:30 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: barbarossa2

I keep thinking about getting Total War: Empire, but I hear their "pirate" stack is horribly unrealistic and that pirates are so powerful it unbalances the game. The fort defense/attack AI has also been reported to be weak.

I may wait to get the game until the first patch comes out as is my policy now with most games, as I don't enjoy being someone's playtester just to get my hands on it first.


Pirate are a big problem but there are only a few big stacks..many single and double units doing the piraty thing..A concerted effort to stop the pirates is pretty easy, just time and cost consuming..Don't expect to trounce the big stacks until around '18-25 when you start popping out the bigger gun ships.



JudgeDredd -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 9:43:03 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

And continuing my Steam rant...My wonderful steam decided to download Empire:total war a few minutes ago..... Yes, the full version, not the patch....Never mind that I have the retail version on my system, which I registered last Wednsday and I have had no issues with the games so far.. I really hate steam..hopefully when I shut down steam it didnt screw my install over.... blech

I've NEVER seen that happen! I have the retail version and it just downloaded an update...that was all!



Terminus -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 10:15:29 PM)

Same here... Sounds somewhat unbelievable...

Anyway, just use Steam in offline mode. No problems...



Terminus -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 10:26:43 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker


quote:

ORIGINAL: barbarossa2

I keep thinking about getting Total War: Empire, but I hear their "pirate" stack is horribly unrealistic and that pirates are so powerful it unbalances the game. The fort defense/attack AI has also been reported to be weak.

I may wait to get the game until the first patch comes out as is my policy now with most games, as I don't enjoy being someone's playtester just to get my hands on it first.


Pirate are a big problem but there are only a few big stacks..many single and double units doing the piraty thing..A concerted effort to stop the pirates is pretty easy, just time and cost consuming..Don't expect to trounce the big stacks until around '18-25 when you start popping out the bigger gun ships.


With a little bit of luck and a little bit of skill, you can kill the first big Carib pirate stack on turn 2 when playing as the Brits.



Greybriar -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 11:05:52 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

And continuing my Steam rant...My wonderful steam decided to download Empire:total war a few minutes ago..... Yes, the full version, not the patch....Never mind that I have the retail version on my system, which I registered last Wednsday and I have had no issues with the games so far.. I really hate steam..hopefully when I shut down steam it didnt screw my install over.... blech


I don't know where I found this, but according to Kellie:

quote:

Thursday Mar 05, 2009
Solving Common Issues with Empire: Total War

We’ve noticed some common issues as people begin to install and play Empire: Total War. The helpful folks in our customer service department have just published a new knowledge base article with answers and tips to help you along.

1) Nvidia Drivers.

a. After the game was finished, Nvidia released a new set of drivers which we were unable to test before release. Unfortunately this has caused some incompatibilities with the game. We recommend that you roll back to the previous drivers until this is resolved (located here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_182.06_whql.html)

2) STEAM installation issues

a. There are a couple of known issues with STEAM that occur when the servers get very busy.

i. Sometimes downloads will pause whilst downloading from the STEAM servers, the download should eventually restart. However you can force restart the download by selecting pause and then restarting the download using the right mouse button and selecting the appropriate option.

ii. After STEAM downloads the game, sometimes the game cache doesn’t update. In such circumstances, simply quit and restart the STEAM client. This restarts the process and allows the installation to complete.

iii. After a complete installation, sometimes the activation will fail due to the servers being very busy. Usually waiting 5 minutes and trying again solves this issue. If that doesn’t work please close STEAM and restart the client.

iv. Despite having a boxed version, Steam appears to be downloading the whole game. Answer to this here on Customer Services http://help.sega.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=516&nav=0,6,165

STEAM have identified a fix that will correct the majority of problems here that will be implemented ASAP today. In the meantime quitting and restarting STEAM is the best way to resolve these issues.

3) FAT32 (Portable Hard Drive/Old Hard Drive)

a. Due to the large size of the game, FAT32 will not work with the title. You are unlikely to have a FAT32 drive unless you have an old hard disk which you have installed STEAM to, or are using a portable drive. You can fix this problem by converting the hard drive by using any partition tool such as Partition Magic or the Microsoft Tool found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881. We recommend backing up any data on your hard disc before using any partition tool.


I hope that helps you out.



Terminus -> RE: Empire Total War (3/10/2009 11:09:52 PM)

I stand corrected... Weird bug...



Phatguy -> RE: Empire Total War (3/11/2009 3:49:53 AM)

see?  I might be old and my eyesight may be failing a bit but I know what I saw!!! lol..

The weird and wacky world of Steam



Titanwarrior89 -> RE: Empire Total War (3/13/2009 12:41:42 AM)

I went out and bought it.  Played it some and so far it seems to be a fairly decent game(overall).  Based on history but it is not historical.[:)]



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