Empire: Total War review - experience thread

[Minischoles]

My biggest gripe right now is the same BS they pulled with RTW and MTW2, and thats giving the PC players stupidly high bonuses. I mean when you're up against a city with no ports no way of trading and you've been periodically destroying their outlying cities, yet its still got full stack armies sitting there and keeps them maintained and builds more. It means to even stand a chance of taking them down i've got to put my entire campaign against another faction on hold purely to annihilate this one tiny city.

[wautd]

People over at TWCenter have already cracked the game's code to make all factions playable AND make all the Special Forces Edition-specific troops playable (all it takes is deleting one unpacked file) in the vanilla game (so much for all the whining about CA doing that). Cheers for modders in what is so far the least moddable TW game yet.

Is there a reason why CA appears to have done there best to make it difficult to mod? You'd assume that a game that is easy to mod a big sale pitch to their game.

[Stark]

Is there a reason they make buggy as fuck games?

Same answer; they're fucking incompetent.

[ray245]

Is there a reason they make buggy as fuck games?

Same answer; they're fucking incompetent.

Or they want to save money by using their customers as beta-testers?

[Vympel]

The level of stuttering I'm getting on the campaign map all of a sudden is just ludicrous. I can't scroll anywhere without stutter, whereas the first few days of play it was silky smooth. It's quite infuriating. Many people, even with rigs way better than mine, are reporting this. Seriously, what the fuck.

[ray245]

The level of stuttering I'm getting on the campaign map all of a sudden is just ludicrous. I can't scroll anywhere without stutter, whereas the first few days of play it was silky smooth. It's quite infuriating. Many people, even with rigs way better than mine, are reporting this. Seriously, what the fuck.

Which is why the only total war game that can be said to be complete is a Total war mod.

[CaptHawkeye]

The level of stuttering I'm getting on the campaign map all of a sudden is just ludicrous. I can't scroll anywhere without stutter, whereas the first few days of play it was silky smooth. It's quite infuriating. Many people, even with rigs way better than mine, are reporting this. Seriously, what the fuck.

It's weird how the game just flips a coin to decide how it's going to perform today. It's not like it even looks that much better than M2.

I've noticed the worst stuttering seems to happen after an hour or so of play. Didn't someone here mention the game has a memory leak somewhere?

[AniThyng]

The level of stuttering I'm getting on the campaign map all of a sudden is just ludicrous. I can't scroll anywhere without stutter, whereas the first few days of play it was silky smooth. It's quite infuriating. Many people, even with rigs way better than mine, are reporting this. Seriously, what the fuck.

It's weird how the game just flips a coin to decide how it's going to perform today. It's not like it even looks that much better than M2.

I've noticed the worst stuttering seems to happen after an hour or so of play. Didn't someone here mention the game has a memory leak somewhere?

It seems a little wierd, but I think MW2 actually looked better - melee combat in ETW in particular looks worse, and I'm pretty sure MTW had more variety in the faces.

Am I the only one who wishes they kept the pseudo-risk style shogun/MTW1 map rather then the micro heavy stuttering inept AI shit we get now?

[Steel]

Am I the only one who wishes they kept the pseudo-risk style shogun/MTW1 map rather then the micro heavy stuttering inept AI shit we get now?

I played shogun, medieval 1, Rome and MTW2, and I massively preferred the risk style map. The new one adds no strategic depth while introducing lots of fiddling. On top of that the fact that its now made the AI more incompetent really doesn't help.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Nice to see that the patch they released to supposedly fix a lot of these problems did absolutely nothing to fix the AI-turn CTD.

[CaptHawkeye]

Their's a lot of other things it probably didn't fix too.

It's actually pretty scary that people are telling me the game only looks a little better than M2 on high settings. Where the fucking hell are all my frames going? Is CA so massively stupid that it can't spot and contain obvious memory leaks early in development? Does any of this surprise Hawkeye? Will Dr. Manhattan put it away already? Find out on the next TALES OF INTEREST.

[Thanas]

Fuck this.

I have now experienced the same problem three times in a row - if I recruit a large Navy and place it in the Drydock, then click on the drydock, game freezes and CTDs.

[GuppyShark]

Nice to see that the patch they released to supposedly fix a lot of these problems did absolutely nothing to fix the AI-turn CTD.

My housemate picked the game up too and this is the only bug we've both experienced.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

It's amazing that it wasn't their absolute #1 top critical bug fix, given that a lot of people are experiencing it and it's completely game-stopping. There is no workaround, no fix, no other option than to either sit here twiddling my thumbs staring at my save file until they decide to fix it or start a new campaign, in which case the bug will just eventually show up again in the new game.

I'm extremely tolerant of bugs, quirks, oddities, weird random issues and even the odd random CTD (such as clicking on a fleet while looking at the game funny), but this is just jaw-dropping incompetence at work. I guess they're hell-bent on competing with Rockstar's GTAIV.

[GuppyShark]

It's amazing that it wasn't their absolute #1 top critical bug fix, given that a lot of people are experiencing it and it's completely game-stopping. There is no workaround, no fix, no other option than to either sit here twiddling my thumbs staring at my save file until they decide to fix it or start a new campaign, in which case the bug will just eventually show up again in the new game.

I agree that it's definately a show stopper, but there are workarounds - my housemate and I have both experienced it in our current games, but we've both been able to continue playing. I did it by reverting to my savegame of a turn before, and he got through it by trying it a few times until it worked.

I personally believe it is somehow related to trading regions, as when I experienced it was after I agreed to switch some regions with a nation and I think it screwed up an ally's AI.

It's far from my intention to be a CA apologist in this thread but if I can offer advice I'll give it.

WHERE IS THE BLOOD HUH HUH? MEDIEVAL HAD BLOOD! I miss it, I'm doing horrible horrible things to the enemy and they just fall down and go sleep or something.

[AniThyng]

Their's a lot of other things it probably didn't fix too.

It's actually pretty scary that people are telling me the game only looks a little better than M2 on high settings. Where the fucking hell are all my frames going? Is CA so massively stupid that it can't spot and contain obvious memory leaks early in development? Does any of this surprise Hawkeye? Will Dr. Manhattan put it away already? Find out on the next TALES OF INTEREST.

It's even more frightening when I consider that I played MTW2 at medium-high on a X1950, and now I've got a brand new HD4850 - ETW looks worse while being laggier. Good show! (and the terrible load times - wtf's up with that? MTW2 certainly did not suffer from such an issue)

I played shogun, medieval 1, Rome and MTW2, and I massively preferred the risk style map. The new one adds no strategic depth while introducing lots of fiddling. On top of that the fact that its now made the AI more incompetent really doesn't help.

Indeed! The AI is clearly unable to deal with the possibilities offered by the Rome-style map, and ultimately all it gains us is time-wasting micro and army movement. I want to play epic battles and watch my army turn from green recruits to harderned veterans, not chase bandits all across the map and spend turn after turn walking.

[Thanas]

Their's a lot of other things it probably didn't fix too.

It's actually pretty scary that people are telling me the game only looks a little better than M2 on high settings. Where the fucking hell are all my frames going? Is CA so massively stupid that it can't spot and contain obvious memory leaks early in development? Does any of this surprise Hawkeye? Will Dr. Manhattan put it away already? Find out on the next TALES OF INTEREST.

It's even more frightening when I consider that I played MTW2 at medium-high on a X1950, and now I've got a brand new HD4850 - ETW looks worse while being laggier. Good show! (and the terrible load times - wtf's up with that? MTW2 certainly did not suffer from such an issue)

I think the trouble here is that CA is not just one studio. For example, they have the studio in England and the Studio in Australia. Both develop their own titles, the english studio RTW and ETW, whereas the Australian one MTW1 and MTW2. That, and of course SEGA is in dire straits and needs cash fast, which is why they probably skimped on betatesting and rushed the game.



*****************
There is also another fact that pisses me off immensely as a historian - the game was clearly geared towards the British. They get five unique units. Meanwhile, Spain gets one. Same for most other factions. You bet I was looking forward to play the great regiments of france, spain and prussia...and I get none of them. I do not want to play redcoats whose army never ranked among the top five in history for that period, dammit.

Also, the unit descriptions are a joke. For example, the king of Prussia is described as a "chap" in one. Did they just hire an idiot to write those? Meanwhile, the Santissima Trinidad is hailed as the model for the heavy first rate (120 guns), when in fact it had over 136/144 guns and had four gundecks, not three as the model the game uses.

Finally, looking at the descriptions, you encounter the same problem - suddenly the British had the best army in the world. One example: looking at the descriptions for rifles, apparently only the brits employed marksmen. Nice of CA to completely skip any mention of the french light infantry doctrine which was in fact copied by the British etc...

Honestly, the whole game looks like a half-assed job filled with a lot of RAHRAH GO BRITS! bull.

[Darth Wong]

Well, I haven't bought it yet, and it looks like I might as well bide my time. From the sounds of it, the game is so buggy that it will need two or three patches to become playable.

[weemadando]

As soon as one of the patches fixes the AI campaign cheat I'll be keen to play it again.

Another issue - I had Prussia offering to swap me Courtland (which I'd just conquered) for East Prussia (their fucking home province) for about 12 years. Every turn they'd make the offer and each time it would get sweeter and sweeter with a little more cash or tech thrown in.

Seriously - you want to trade me your massive developed home province for this shitty microstate? I'd say yes, but then I'd have a non-contiguous province and that just seems like a bad idea. Still, that's some weird behaviour.

[ray245]

There is also another fact that pisses me off immensely as a historian - the game was clearly geared towards the British. They get five unique units. Meanwhile, Spain gets one. Same for most other factions. You bet I was looking forward to play the great regiments of france, spain and prussia...and I get none of them. I do not want to play redcoats whose army never ranked among the top five in history for that period, dammit.

Also, the unit descriptions are a joke. For example, the king of Prussia is described as a "chap" in one. Did they just hire an idiot to write those? Meanwhile, the Santissima Trinidad is hailed as the model for the heavy first rate (120 guns), when in fact it had over 136/144 guns and had four gundecks, not three as the model the game uses.

Finally, looking at the descriptions, you encounter the same problem - suddenly the British had the best army in the world. One example: looking at the descriptions for rifles, apparently only the brits employed marksmen. Nice of CA to completely skip any mention of the french light infantry doctrine which was in fact copied by the British etc...

Honestly, the whole game looks like a half-assed job filled with a lot of RAHRAH GO BRITS! bull.

Although when we take a look at all the Total forums, you can basically see that CA is pandering to all the pseudo-history fans and etc. A very conservative (in gaming terms) fan base I may add, where many more reasonable solution was shouted down saying that no one can support such a game.

Take for example, the stupid 20 units limit in the grand campaign, nevermind the fact that modders have modified the demo to allow them to command more than 20 units and yet you have fans that says allowing us to command more than 20 units against the AI will crash the game and no one's computer can support it.

Also, you can forget about asking for certain optional stuff, because those idiots will forget the point of making things optional.

[ray245]

I thought it might be interesting for you guys to see this, a comparison of stats between the line Infantry of every major nation. Perhaps people with more knowledge about the 18th century will be able to see how should CA re-balance the stats?

Why didn't CA bother to hire some historians before they make their game? Especially when so many people are willingly to volunteer themselves back during the development process of Rome total war.

[wautd]

I thought it might be interesting for you guys to see this, a comparison of stats between the line Infantry of every major nation.

Neat, I didn't realized there were differences between the nations.

Well, I'm enjoying the game at least. Had some minor bugs and only CTD'd once, but it's still my favorite game at the moment. Finished the road to independence and now I've started a grand campaign with the United Provinces (actually, I've started it for the second time after a grotesque failure in the beginning of the first time).

If there is one annoyance it's bizarre unit pathfinding or when a regiment doesn't feel like taking cover behind a wall for some reason.

[Lazarus]

Had a bug no one's mentioned yet; I ordered a fleet with a couple galleons in onto a trade port owned by an enemy, I sunk the enemy fleet and then my fleet wouldn't leave. Every time I click anywhere on the map, the dude goes 'that's land, sir' which is ironic but infuriating. Had to disband the entire fleet.

Why are people moaning about microing taxes? Auto-manage. Job done.

Also had a battle earlier where the enemy was reinforced by a single unit of infantry directly behind my position. I sent a cav unit to run them down, but next thing I know my generals dead. My guns had decided to turn round and fire on this other unit, straight into my general's cav.

Concerning the British emphasis, stop whining, every single popular culture 18th century tv show/film focuses on Britain, the vast majority of the audience couldn't give a fuck about poland-lithuania or whoever and sure as hell aren't going to play through a campaign as them. It's not like France and Spain have been completely neglected.

[PeZook]

Concerning the British emphasis, stop whining, every single popular culture 18th century tv show/film focuses on Britain, the vast majority of the audience couldn't give a fuck about poland-lithuania or whoever and sure as hell aren't going to play through a campaign as them. It's not like France and Spain have been completely neglected.

And that's the reason to give everyone else cloned units? "Nobody's gonna play as these other stupid mooks anyway"?

It's funny that anybody could consider fucking Prussia, France or Spain to be "whoever"

[Minischoles]

Concerning the British emphasis, stop whining, every single popular culture 18th century tv show/film focuses on Britain, the vast majority of the audience couldn't give a fuck about poland-lithuania or whoever and sure as hell aren't going to play through a campaign as them. It's not like France and Spain have been completely neglected.

And that's the reason to give everyone else cloned units? "Nobody's gonna play as these other stupid mooks anyway"?

It's funny that anybody could consider fucking Prussia, France or Spain to be "whoever"

Its the kind of thinking you can envision a group of CA employees having as they sit around a table spitballing ideas for a new game.

And I do know there is an automanage feature, but since the auto manage feature has almost universally sucked in every TW game to date, be damned if i'm trying it just to get bit in the arse again.