Empire: Total War

[HaemishM]

Tweaked the settings a little on my home machine to get it to run better. Found good results by switching the shader to Shader 3 (Low). It still looked absolutely fantastic but ran well. I love the feel of the infantry lines, since the age of muskets is my favorite period of wargaming. The battlefield FEELS much bigger than Medieval 2, probably because of the insane amount of terrain. The load times are still awful and I hope they patch that quick. It locked up on me during the naval battles and seems to hitch going from battles to the menu.

[Yoru]

Man I hope someone makes a mod for this so I can do some American Civil War scenarios. It's been way too long since we've had a good ACW wargame.

[Big Gulp]

The load times are still awful and I hope they patch that quick. It locked up on me during the naval battles and seems to hitch going from battles to the menu.

I think that may be an artifact of the the insane amount of compression they used to get the game down to a somewhat more reasonable download size.  At least I hope so.

And ditto on the civil war.  But if any mod makers are going to do that I hope they could find a way to put in trenches.

[Teleku]

And ditto on the civil war.  But if any mod makers are going to do that I hope they could find a way to put in trenches.

Probably the best way for them to attempt that would be for them to copy Sid Meier's Gettysburg  (god I enjoyed that game), and make it so that the longer you leave a regiment standing in place, the more and more it will build up a barricade or entrench itself.  Might be a chore to pull off graphically, but shouldn't be to hard for behind the scenes number crunching.

I also concur in that I'm really missing having a good ACW game.

[eldaec]

I'd really like to see these guys attempt a fantasy or sci-fi total war. Basically anything where they have create the combat balance and design the world themselves.

I suspect it might not be as good as the best Total War games, but I'm just interested to see what would happen.

Plus it's not as if anyone else is even attempting to make non-shitty wargames (no, DoW doesn't count).

[NowhereMan]

I don't think I'm going to be playing this without a nice big upgrade. On loading the CGI at the beginning was running slow The actual game loads, when the progress bar is half full it starts flickering and I get the audio tutorial instructions and my cursor changes to in-game (complete with turning into an X on moving somewhere that's not a valid point) however I'm just left with the loading screen and flickering progress bar. On lowest settings. Drivers and stuff are upgraded so I suspect it's just some hardware problem.

[Engels]

I'm not entirely convinced about the fun aspect of the ground war in this one. The shooting distances are so long that there's no good visual feedback other than the icon's status and/or zooming in real close. I'm probably alone in disliking that, but oh well. Also, I'm finding that its harder to tell when a unit is about to run. I had some random cavalry unit off in a corner somewhere flee because I didn't notice that the enemy, far closer to the bulk of my main forces, was fireing on it for some strategically random reason.

[Big Gulp]

I'm not entirely convinced about the fun aspect of the ground war in this one. The shooting distances are so long that there's no good visual feedback other than the icon's status and/or zooming in real close. I'm probably alone in disliking that, but oh well. Also, I'm finding that its harder to tell when a unit is about to run. I had some random cavalry unit off in a corner somewhere flee because I didn't notice that the enemy, far closer to the bulk of my main forces, was fireing on it for some strategically random reason.

I already preordered, so rethinking my purchase would be a waste of time.  I think before I can make a real judgement about the game I'll need to start up a long campaign, since I never really play the set piece battles by themselves.  One thing I didn't like about the demo was the lack of setting up your formations before the battle begins, but I don't think that'll be an issue with a campaign.

[Ghambit]

Was anyone else as grossly disappointed with this demo as I was?  This had to be one of the worst, smallest, and woefully inadequate representations of a game that I've ever seen.  Their marketing guy should be shot.... with a black powder musket for that matter, and then keel hauled.

Not only was the demo too short and too easy, but it never touched upon the many varied strategic and tactical intricacies inherent to the game.  It's like they assumed everyone knows Total War and how uber Empire will be, so why waste time and money on a quality demo.  The tutorials were garbage, and largely left it up to the player to realize the game.   Two measly little skirmishes that were stupidly easy?  cmon now.

There was no pre-skirmish strategic placement, no resource spending, very little real depth to the demo play at all before during and after.  Not only that, but they had absolutely no campaign-oriented play in the demo at ALL.... and that's pretty much 75% of the game right there.  Where's the dang turn-based portion?  The coop?  The MP?  Bah..  garbage demo

I'm still gonna play it mind you, 'cause I'm a TW geek... but I've already had to quell naysayers who have never played the genre due to the lackluster demo.  Such a shame for a title that intends on making the perfect marriage between turn-based and RTS play in a MP/coop atmosphere.

<sigh>  I've gotta assume the delay had something to do with this.  They had some problems with the campaign engine specifically in the MP aspect, so likely that didnt make it into the demo or they scrapped it altogether.  For sake of time they released the demo roughshod.  'Cause this steaming pile is worthless imo.

[Rasix]

I couldn't stand the load times.  By the time it fired up, I just quit out. 

[pants]

Not only was the demo too short and too easy, but it never touched upon the many varied strategic and tactical intricacies inherent to the game.  It's like they assumed everyone knows Total War and how uber Empire will be, so why waste time and money on a quality demo.  The tutorials were garbage, and largely left it up to the player to realize the game.   Two measly little skirmishes that were stupidly easy?  cmon now.

There was no pre-skirmish strategic placement, no resource spending, very little real depth to the demo play at all before during and after.  Not only that, but they had absolutely no campaign-oriented play in the demo at ALL.... and that's pretty much 75% of the game right there.  Where's the dang turn-based portion?  The coop?  The MP?  Bah..  garbage demo

Its been a while, so my memory may be playing up, but I seem to remember this is standard for Total War demos.  They don't bother showing any of the campaign stuff in any of their demos, instead showing just 1-2 set battles.  Sure that was the case in Rome and Medieval 2...

[Ghambit]

Not only was the demo too short and too easy, but it never touched upon the many varied strategic and tactical intricacies inherent to the game.  It's like they assumed everyone knows Total War and how uber Empire will be, so why waste time and money on a quality demo.  The tutorials were garbage, and largely left it up to the player to realize the game.   Two measly little skirmishes that were stupidly easy?  cmon now.

There was no pre-skirmish strategic placement, no resource spending, very little real depth to the demo play at all before during and after.  Not only that, but they had absolutely no campaign-oriented play in the demo at ALL.... and that's pretty much 75% of the game right there.  Where's the dang turn-based portion?  The coop?  The MP?  Bah..  garbage demo

Its been a while, so my memory may be playing up, but I seem to remember this is standard for Total War demos.  They don't bother showing any of the campaign stuff in any of their demos, instead showing just 1-2 set battles.  Sure that was the case in Rome and Medieval 2...

No, you're right... that IS their style.  You're kinda thrown to the wolves both in the demo and in the actual games.  Those that figure it out are successful, those that dont shelf the game.  Problem is, in today's market it's not good business and since they're designing a "paradigm shift" into this game it'd help to be more aware of it in the demo.  It's not like it's a carbon-copy of all the other Total War games; it's totally different really.

[HaemishM]

The demo was made for TW vets for sure. I had little trouble with it from a gameplay perspective, as it actually improved on the old interface. The technical aspects of it were total shit, though. If you aren't even going to get the damn demo to run worth a damn and you aren't going to target new customers over the old grognards who'd likely buy it anyway, why the fuck even do a demo?

[Engels]

Hmm, my load times were civilized. Not great, mind you, but compared to, for example, Vanguard or Flight Simulator X, it was a snap. Also, the graphics were fine without tweaking. Running a 8800 GT on a C2D 6750, which is 'middle of the road' hardware. One thing that might have made a difference in load times is that I'm running el cheapo intel ICH9R Raid 5 with 4 disks.

[Ghambit]

The demo was made for TW vets for sure. I had little trouble with it from a gameplay perspective, as it actually improved on the old interface. The technical aspects of it were total shit, though. If you aren't even going to get the damn demo to run worth a damn and you aren't going to target new customers over the old grognards who'd likely buy it anyway, why the fuck even do a demo?

I've actually told people to just torrent or disc-copy the game when it comes out if they want a real taste for the reasons you just said. (and that's something I never do) 

Matter of fact... doesnt TW ALLOW copied games as long as it's LAN multiplayer and/or single-player only?  Perhaps that was their thinking in their craptastic demo, I dunno.  I'm still blaming the multiplayer-coop delay though.

[Ghambit]

update:

in case you all werent aware...  the game isnt going to release with the MP Campaign (coop and vs.)  feature. that's the reason they had to delay the release, and the reason they took that particular feature off the website.  It's written into the game but it's not totally ready and will have to be patched in later in a 2 player beta.  You'll have the usual Total War MP skirmishes with the added features of ranked Steam and upgradeable units, but no turn-based portion.

So, all that groundbreaking design is now out the window until they patch it in... if they ever do   

[Baldrake]

But surely nobody's dumb enough to play Total War games before the first patch is out reguardless...?

[HaemishM]

/raises hand

Shit, I'm jonesing for it. I'm not that concerned about the MP campaign, and the actual playing I did with the demo was awesome. I just hope the goddamn thing doesn't have such horrible load times. I pre-ordered and I never do that anymore. So if it kicks me in the junk, I probably deserve it.

[Big Gulp]

/raises hand

Shit, I'm jonesing for it. I'm not that concerned about the MP campaign, and the actual playing I did with the demo was awesome. I just hope the goddamn thing doesn't have such horrible load times. I pre-ordered and I never do that anymore. So if it kicks me in the junk, I probably deserve it.

Same here.  People are more of a hassle than they're worth anyway, so I'll be ignoring the MP campaign also.

[Paelos]

I really wish they would put a "medium" length into these games. "Short" is too short with only 15 regions, but "Long" is annoying as hell to micromanage with 45 regions.

30 would be just perfect in my book, or do yall enjoy the 45 region games?

[Grand Design]

I did a 'short' campaign with the intentions of posting it in the radicalthon (sp?) and so far it has blossomed into a pretty long game that has taken two full days. 

I could have ended it relatively quickly, but I have an insatiable desire to make the French suffer for as long as possible.

[Falwell]

Just pre ordered finally. Hell, they even got me for the elite units 69.99 deal on steam.

I'm not a massive fan of the colonial days, but TW hasn't done me wrong yet.

[Big Gulp]

30 would be just perfect in my book, or do yall enjoy the 45 region games?

Well, I'm anal retentive and enjoy the micro-management aspects in these games, so yeah, I enjoy it.  Even when I've beaten the campaign I usually keep going just to see how much I can conquer before massive unrest/time ends the game for me.

[HaemishM]

I think I've only played the "short" campaign, and that can take weeks and months depending on playtime.

[Paelos]

Long games always get to the point where I'm dealing with 30ish regions, 10 spies, 5-6 assassins, and 4 roaming armies that are moving across the map, not to mention construction updates on 10-15 cities a turn, plus managing troop upkeep for the economy and strangling about 20 merchant nodes. At that point 1 turn is taking 30 minutes just to get everything independently moved around, and I just get horribly bored waiting for the inevitable. I mean at this point, nothing can stop me except the minor annoyances of moving my individual units around.

It gets kinda clunky and slow for me. I think better tools to use your agents would help, or maybe giving all the units a little more movement distance per turn. I mean we're covering 6 month periods per turn, and they can barely move 100 miles on paved roads? That always confused me.

[Grand Design]

It gets kinda clunky and slow for me. I think better tools to use your agents would help...

This aspect was probably the biggest learning curve in Total War for me.  As a Civ vet, I was a little shocked that I was not prompted to either take action or ignore each turn per unit.  I've had to learn to survey each city and army for 'hidden' units after I load a game that I played even the day before.  As a new player, unfamiliar with the units, it was very daunting. 

I did read somewhere that there is a new system for managing units.  I think its something like a queue that lists your units and allows you to go to each.  Of course, this functionality already exists in Medieval, but its not easy to find or use, being split among types - it's not really useful to have to open the queue for each unit type.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

[Falwell]

With the steam launch a mere couple of hours away (and me stuck at work) I'm debating on a starting faction.

England and the U.S. are the popular choices of course, but I think I'm going to start this one with a faction a bit more out of the way. Hmm..

Mother Russia is probably gonna be the winner.

Also, anyone know if unlockable factions will be present in this offering?

[dusematic]

Just pre ordered finally. Hell, they even got me for the elite units 69.99 deal on steam.

I'm not a massive fan of the colonial days, but TW hasn't done me wrong yet.

Wouldn't call paying $20 for 6 additional units a "deal."

[Draegan]

IF I were to buy a game in the next week or two it would be this or SF4.  Decisions... Decisions...

[HaemishM]

It's been downloading on my computer at home since about 4:45 a.m. I am so ready for work to be over so I can play this thing. My first choice of faction will likely be Austria or Prussia. They were so inept during the Seven Years War, but they are the faction I've got half a miniature army painted up.

[Big Gulp]

It's been downloading on my computer at home since about 4:45 a.m. I am so ready for work to be over so I can play this thing. My first choice of faction will likely be Austria or Prussia. They were so inept during the Seven Years War, but they are the faction I've got half a miniature army painted up.

Yeah, I'm only getting like 100K a second.  Guess I just won't get to play 'til tomorrow.  Definitely playing Prussia.  The challenge of being small and surrounded is just to great for me to pass up.

[Sky]

1280x720? M2 supported 16:10 but not 16:9 :( Fiancee would love the series.

[Paelos]

I'm on the fence with this one for two reasons. One, my computer is older and I'm worried a bit on the performance side in things like naval battles. Two, if it's not much different than Medieval 2, I'm not really interested enough in the time period to worry about upgrading until it goes on sale. Also, from what I can recall the early editions are unbalanced and buggy as hell.

So, for those of you playing it early, give us a heads up on your opinions in that regard please.

[Big Gulp]

Two, if it's not much different than Medieval 2, I'm not really interested enough in the time period to worry about upgrading until it goes on sale.

Have you played the demo?  Gunpowder alone drastically changes the game.  Every unit has a highlighted "area of effective fire" cone in front of them, so it's not like they're archers you can just place anywhere and can fire in an upward arc; they need to be faced properly.  That's a fairly drastic change.  Naval combat?  Fairly drastic change.

[NowhereMan]

Let us know what sieges are like. The idea of sending a forlorn hope into the mouth of cannon and musket fire greatly appeals to me. Also anyone who isn't excited about the period should consider reading a couple of Sharpe novels (or watching some of the episodes if you like Sean Bean and cannot tolerate 90's British budgets. It's ) A bit of trashy Napoleonic fiction brings the magic alive and I'm definitely getting this, even if it turns out to be almost Medieval 2 with naval combat.

As soon as I get a new PC *sigh*