Empire: Total War

Edward64 · 02-15-2009, 08:22 AM

I don't buy alot of PC games nowadays but this one really caught my eye and will be out early Mar. Its got the American Revolution plus 3D naval battles. (Unfortunately, not sure if it will play on my X200 but that's a different issue).

Amazon.com: Empire: Total War: Windows XP: Video Games

For reviews (see bottom of page):
Empire: Total War, Empire: Total War PC, | GamesRadar

Anyone else excited about this?

Grammaticus · 02-15-2009, 08:26 AM

I've been watching this one and looking forward to the release.

The other titles in the Total War series are excellent games.

rowech · 02-15-2009, 08:59 AM

If I had a machine that could handle this, I'd be in line the day it comes out.

Calis · 02-15-2009, 10:04 AM

I'll definitely be picking this one up. I've been less than excited about the settings in their last couple games, but I'm anxious to try this one out.

Hope the naval battles live up to my expectations.

Think I'll be grabbing the Steam version.

Edward64 · 02-15-2009, 10:12 AM

Does anyone know if this will play on a notebook integrated gpu x4500 or a desktop integrated x3100?

I have found where it says 1GB and Directx9 but no practical information.

Grammaticus · 02-15-2009, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward64

Does anyone know if this will play on a notebook integrated gpu x4500 or a desktop integrated x3100?

I have found where it says 1GB and Directx9 but no practical information.

From the TotalWar site (minimum specs):

http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/2009/...ecs-confirmed/

Operating System: Windows XP 32(service pack 2), Windows Vista 32 OS.
Processor: 2.4 GHz Single Core Intel or AMD equivalent processor.
System Memory: 1GB RAM (XP) 2GB RAM (Vista).
Graphics Card: 256MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card (shader 2.0 or higher).
Sound Card: Directx9.0c compatible sound card.
Windows compatible mouse & keyboard.
15 GB free uncompressed hard drive space.

Edward64 · 02-15-2009, 10:59 AM

It looks as if my X200 w/gma x4500 can handle this game ... somewhat suspicious.

Laptop-Computers: First Benchmarks; Upcoming Centrino 2 under Test; GMA X4500 vs. GMA X3100

Quote:

Also, there is a first benchmark that has compared the current integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics used in Santa Rosa Refresh platform with upcoming integrated GMA X4500 used in upcoming Centrino 2 platform.

Additionally, “The GMA X4500 Graphic Chipset supports DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0. There is a 100% increase over the existing GMA X3100”.

Deattribution · 02-15-2009, 11:29 AM

I'd say it would probably play, but I don't know if I'd expect too good of a performance.

Galaril · 02-15-2009, 11:38 AM

When is this due to come out?

DaddyTorgo · 02-15-2009, 11:58 AM

hella excited!

Calis · 02-15-2009, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaril

When is this due to come out?

Think it's supposed to be on shelves March 4th.

rowech · 02-15-2009, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

From the TotalWar site (minimum specs):

http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/2009/...ecs-confirmed/

Operating System: Windows XP 32(service pack 2), Windows Vista 32 OS.
Processor: 2.4 GHz Single Core Intel or AMD equivalent processor.
System Memory: 1GB RAM (XP) 2GB RAM (Vista).
Graphics Card: 256MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card (shader 2.0 or higher).
Sound Card: Directx9.0c compatible sound card.
Windows compatible mouse & keyboard.
15 GB free uncompressed hard drive space.

That shader thing is what kills me with every game.

DaddyTorgo · 02-15-2009, 01:46 PM

i can play medieval II so i'm assuming i'll be okay with this, but i'll wait on a demo

Radii · 02-15-2009, 01:49 PM

I'm looking forward to this more than any other game that's coming out this year. I love the total war series in general, and this setting and the naval battles have me hyped up for this installment more than usual. My computer meets the minimum requirements but doesn't exceed them by much. I may end up upgrading my RAM and video card for this.

Radii · 02-20-2009, 07:24 PM

Empire: Total War™ Demo on Steam

Quote:

The Empire: Total War demo will take you through the basics of land and naval command and then let you loose on two historic scenarios. As one of the greatest British development studios, The Creative Assembly invites you to try Empire: Total War from the position of their "home" side! Playing as the British Empire, you'll take on the American Army in the pivotal "Battle of Brandywine Creek" and then the French Navy in the decisive "Battle of Lagos."

Downloading now!

cartman · 02-20-2009, 07:30 PM

I'm looking forward to this as well. Not as much as Arma 2 and Op Flash 2, but this looks solid.

DaddyTorgo · 02-20-2009, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radii

Empire: Total War™ Demo on Steam

Downloading now!

oh sweet sexy loving!

DaddyTorgo · 02-20-2009, 09:41 PM

the fact that it won't behave and alt-tab is pissing me off

Edward64 · 02-20-2009, 10:25 PM

Keep us updated on your thoughts of the demo. I would also appreciate your system config, performance etc.

cartman · 02-20-2009, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward64

Keep us updated on your thoughts of the demo. I would also appreciate your system config, performance etc.

I played the land one, haven't played the sea battle yet.

I liked the battle. It seemed better paced than the Rome battles. Or, more to the point, more realistically paced.

The system I played on was:

Vista SP1
Quad-core Q6600 2.4Ghz
nVidia 8800GTS 512MB
2GB RAM
running at 1900X1280 resolution on my primary monitor

Radii · 02-21-2009, 12:15 AM

I did the tutorial for the sea battle so far. Initial comments:

1) Load times seem long compared to other total war games
2) Alt-tab is not working for me either, pretty much hung my system. I hope this is a temporary issue with the demo.
3) The graphics are amazing. I haven't changed any of the settings at all yet. My response time in the tutorial was fine but of course the tutorial doesn't have a whole lot going on.
4) If you zoom in you can see the people on the ship. Get close to another ship and you'll see your guys pull out rifles and start firing. Sink another ship and you'll see everyone on the ship bail out and dive into the water.

Can't really go into much more detail just from the tutorial, time to try out the scenario

XP SP2
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
nVidia Geforce 7950 GT 512 MB vid card
Running at 1600x1200 resolution.

I am expecting to upgrade my video card for this game, it'd be the first thing I've had to upgrade in 1 1/2 years of owning this PC, which is about standard for me. I want to wait until I have problems first though.

Edward64 · 02-21-2009, 07:43 AM

FYI in case you didn't already know about this gaming forum (offshoot from GG). A thread on the game.

Octopus Overlords • View topic - Empire: Total War Demo Is Out

Apathetic Lurker · 02-21-2009, 08:26 AM

Dont like steam but installed it just to try the demo.

Positives:
Well, paced.
Nice graphics
EYE CANDY

Negatives:
steam
post battle report seems sparse,but maybe thats just for the demo
bugs,bugs,bugs

I also heard that they got rid of the individual taxation for the towns and moved everything into one lump sum financial thing. Not sure if this is good. To me it seems that CA is playing to the pimple faced twitch crowd by just glossing over the strategic portions and sticking them into the corner so the ADD crowd wont have to suffer through thinking to much....

Samdari · 02-23-2009, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

To me it seems that CA is playing to the pimple faced twitch crowd by just glossing over the strategic portions and sticking them into the corner so the ADD crowd wont have to suffer through thinking to much....

That would be disappointing to me. I read how that was a huge emphasis for them vs. Rome, beefing up the strategic portion of the game. I hope that ends up not just being marketing blather.

DaddyTorgo · 02-23-2009, 08:13 AM

that would indeed be very dissapointing!

I didn't get a chance to try tweaking the graphics to see if I could get it playing responsive enough to see if I would enjoy it...but i'm still hoping it'll be okay.

Apathetic Lurker · 02-23-2009, 08:19 AM

Yeah, Im hoping that what I wrote is wrong too, but judging on how the series has gone from Shogun on out, I'm not holding my breath..

Hopefully,the strategic portion wont be too castrated

SportsDino · 02-23-2009, 08:22 AM

I spend most of my time in the strategic view, so I hope they haven't gimped it. The 'dumbification' of games is very annoying.

gstelmack · 02-23-2009, 08:24 AM

For me, Shogun was the last one where the strategic game interested me. Medieval was okay, but they kept making it harder and harder to maintain expansion, which may be realistic but wasn't that much fun. The battles are what really interest me, and I'd like to see the strategic portion streamlined a bit. It's too tedious stepping through each city each turn to see what you need to address, and I never could figure out the economy enough to keep from going broke.

I really enjoyed fighting the battles. There's a bit of a Gettysburg feel now that they're mostly firearms battles, and that's another game I'd love to see updated to run correctly on Vista.

DaddyTorgo · 02-23-2009, 08:30 AM

I think Medieval is great as far as difficulty of expansion. In my saved game (which I still hope to/need to rescue off my borked-HD), I have conquered a good 2/3 of Scandanavia, all the channel coast and poking over and down into Denmark, and about 3/4 of France, all of Scotland, and all of Ireland, and I think it's still in the 1300's.

SportsDino · 02-23-2009, 01:49 PM

The battles are the point, but the logistics and history freak inside me likes to think he is running a nation (in a simplified way anyway). Battles are the highlight of the game, but constant battles would lose my attention (I skip the historical battles for instance and play just campaign).

I'd love for the strategy side to get some upgrades. If TW used even a fraction of its strategic gameplay options more intelligently (in the AI and some subtle tweaks to how things work) it would be even more amazing. But the group of gamers that play things as a game outnumber the roleplayers tremendously... although both sides would probably find the game much more interesting if it played more like a history and less like a game. Good and Interesting AI is hard though.

DaddyTorgo · 02-23-2009, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportsDino

The battles are the point, but the logistics and history freak inside me likes to think he is running a nation (in a simplified way anyway). Battles are the highlight of the game, but constant battles would lose my attention (I skip the historical battles for instance and play just campaign).

I'd love for the strategy side to get some upgrades. If TW used even a fraction of its strategic gameplay options more intelligently (in the AI and some subtle tweaks to how things work) it would be even more amazing. But the group of gamers that play things as a game outnumber the roleplayers tremendously... although both sides would probably find the game much more interesting if it played more like a history and less like a game. Good and Interesting AI is hard though.

+1

I like to get more wrapped up in the details of my dynasty and its expansion than in any individual battle - most the time I just auto-resolve the battles to be honest. Unless I have a ton of free time on my hands.

Galaril · 02-23-2009, 04:03 PM

Does anyone know how many playable races (factions) there will be. I see they have announced 11 so far.

Anthony · 02-23-2009, 04:40 PM

i always begin a campaign in a TW game playing out the initial battles against the weaker Rebel factions to get the hang of it and to ensure i get the territory so i can start expansion. then the 2nd time through a new campaign i just auto-sim the battles and focus on the overall big picture (plotting moves, deciding whether to attack neutral/allied factions, deciding what to build, etc). i can't say the auto-sim does a better or worse job than i do, to the point where its zero sum so i might as well let the game auto-sim. i like having the option to manually control a battle if i want but am glad i'm not forced to.

ColtCrazy · 02-23-2009, 06:57 PM

I usually take over battles when I'm on the defensive, especially when I'm outnumbered. I've found a do a better job of either pulling out a win or taking as any of the bastards with me as I can before I fall.

When I'm on the offensive, it depends. If I feel my tactics would help, I'll do it but if I think the computer can handle it without losing too much more than fodder I pass.

Defensive battles are more fun IMO

Grammaticus · 02-23-2009, 07:29 PM

I usually go into it thinking that I will sim a lot of the battles, but end up running them anyway. I just can't resist. But I love the strategic part too.

gstelmack · 02-23-2009, 07:56 PM

I had too much fun in Shogun parking my gunpowder units on a hill and mowing down the enemy as they approached, or taking out large chunks of enemies on the original Medieval with some archers on a hill whittling away an approaching army, to not control most battles myself, unless I have a huge advantage. They've taken away some of the missile advantages, although I'm curious to see how it will play out in Empire, but I still generally feel like I can inflict more damage on the enemy army before being routed or win with much fewer casualties than if I just let the battle playout. And that can be important for future battles with maintaining unit cohesion, plus not having to buy new units.

SportsDino · 02-24-2009, 10:48 AM

I sim the battles any middling captain can easily take care of, I tend to fight the epic ones, interesting sieges (siege warfare actually is one of the dreariest battles if its an obvious win and I end up getting so bored the auto-sim ends up with less casualties).... I also have a love of fighting the lost causes battles for the hope of pulling something out of it or making a great last stand. In MTW:2 I've had the occaisonal crusade where I play as if the army just wants to get home and is trying to fight its way back towards Europe, pretty fun if very inefficient gameplay.

So anyway, I see it as the strategic game opens up all sorts of creative options that can enhance the tactical game, if you get imaginative. But TW is a very easy game to 'power game' and make the strategic mode uninteresting, unfortunately this is aided by the unrealistic AI behavior (artificially set up to be easy if your a small nation, and hard if you are a large expansive nation), and various gimp factors (like stationary generals getting all sorts of negative traits, or getting lots of money automatically leads to all your governors being spendaholic gay men) they put in to try and spice up the game aspects, but often just force you closer and closer to the single style of play that makes games boring.

I'm starting to think they should make games with a giant options switch that says:
- I'm a child who wants to play "I win!" and look at pretty graphics and killzorz everything with my basic gameplay of doom.
- I'm a power gamer who is going to find every trick to beat the game, and the more you screw with the gameplay and AI to try and best me the easier I will find ways to exploit it.
- I'm a dude just trying to dick around, make the game fit its theming more than trying to help me win or beat me, even if it may make the game too hard or too easy if I play like a robot.

So for TW, in the third case this means an AI that tries to run its country realistically, if its completely outclasses it begs forgiveness if it offends your massive honking army of doom, if it has an edge over you it attacks. It schemes all the time against everyone, not just follows a script for providing a challenge to the player (when you have a game where most of the diplomacy options fail during average gameplay and you need to follow specific playing style to use those options, you might as well just remove the diplomacy from the game). Obviously, its hard to make good AI rather than just scripting out a basic gameplay arc.

Eaglesfan27 · 02-24-2009, 11:20 AM

I've always controlled every battle which is why I've never completely finished a campaign in Medieval 2. I have finished Rome campaigns doing that.

Greyroofoo · 02-24-2009, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've always controlled every battle which is why I've never completely finished a campaign in Medieval 2. I have finished Rome campaigns doing that.

I think that's a mental illness.

You should find yourself a doctor or something.

DaddyTorgo · 02-24-2009, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

I think that's a mental illness.

You should find yourself a doctor or something.

a shrink?

I bet I know this guy on my messageboard who could recommend one...

gstelmack · 02-24-2009, 12:24 PM

The battles are where all the fun is at!

Finally figured out how to get my ships to all move together last night. And then after trying to cross the T of the first row when reaching the end, I let them cross MY T 'cause I wasn't paying attention to the front of their line. Now if this would just stop crashing after the second or third battle, I'd be having even more fun.

Eaglesfan27 · 02-24-2009, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gstelmack

The battles are where all the fun is at!

Exactly. I find the battles to be the most enjoyable aspect of the game by a wide margin so I see no reason to sim them. I prefer other games for more of a global strategy game.

gstelmack · 02-24-2009, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Exactly. I find the battles to be the most enjoyable aspect of the game by a wide margin so I see no reason to sim them. I prefer other games for more of a global strategy game.

My feelings as well. If I wanted grand strategy, I'd play Civ IV. The strategy part is nothing more than a way to have a dynamic campaign for the battles. The only other game that has a similar combat structure is Sid Meier's Gettysburgh, and that is now long in the tooth. I don't have many other options for the tactical part.

atatange1 · 03-02-2009, 11:15 PM

I have pre-ordered Empire, and am wondering what to do with the demo. Will the full game install over it? Also, how do you get multiple units to march in the formation that I have set them up in?

gstelmack · 03-04-2009, 10:33 AM

Game is out today, although I've got a few piled in front of it before I order it (Fallout 3, and IL-2: 1946 is getting a lot of playing time). However, from a Q&A at Empire: Total War Live Q&A // PC /// Eurogamer - Games Reviews, News and More:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Q&A

Kieran Brigden: The multiplayer campaign mode will be a post release feature of Empire Total War. We are going to release it as a beta shortly after the game's come out. The campaign mode allows two friends (or mortal enemies) to play against one another and the AI through the Grand Campaign mode. Players will be given the option of fighting every battle as the enemy, meaning whoever your friend fights wherever in the world it will always be the two of involved in a deathmatch. It's an awesome new feature and one we've been keen to do for a while. The basic code is there, now we're getting the rest sorted!

That would be SWEET!

DaddyTorgo · 03-04-2009, 10:41 AM

i need to "stress test" my laptop with the AV and firewall off and everything closed down and tweak the graphics options to make sure I can get the game to be responsive enough to justify a purchase

SportsDino · 03-04-2009, 10:51 AM

Oh I wish I didn't have so much work to do this weekend. This game will probably suck down all my time if I get it.

Greyroofoo · 03-04-2009, 10:54 AM

Downloading from Steam now!

CleBrownsfan · 03-04-2009, 12:12 PM

I need impressions on this one once you guys get the some game play in. I've been following this for a while now but really don't "need" another game as I'm having a hard time finding time to play the games I have

Calis · 03-04-2009, 06:03 PM

Bah, I set it to start downloading before I left for work and something must have happened that interrupted it. Restarting it now and plan to dive into it pretty extensively over the next few days.

02-15-2009, 11:58 AM	#10
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	hella excited! Last edited by DaddyTorgo : 02-15-2009 at 12:03 PM.

02-20-2009, 07:30 PM	#16
cartman Death Herald Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Le stelle la notte sono grandi e luminose nel cuore profondo del Texas	I'm looking forward to this as well. Not as much as Arma 2 and Op Flash 2, but this looks solid. __________________ Thinkin' of a master plan 'Cuz ain't nuthin' but sweat inside my hand So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent So I dig deeper but still comin' up with lint

02-20-2009, 09:41 PM	#18
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	the fact that it won't behave and alt-tab is pissing me off Last edited by DaddyTorgo : 02-20-2009 at 09:44 PM.

02-21-2009, 12:15 AM	#21
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I did the tutorial for the sea battle so far. Initial comments: 1) Load times seem long compared to other total war games 2) Alt-tab is not working for me either, pretty much hung my system. I hope this is a temporary issue with the demo. 3) The graphics are amazing. I haven't changed any of the settings at all yet. My response time in the tutorial was fine but of course the tutorial doesn't have a whole lot going on. 4) If you zoom in you can see the people on the ship. Get close to another ship and you'll see your guys pull out rifles and start firing. Sink another ship and you'll see everyone on the ship bail out and dive into the water. Can't really go into much more detail just from the tutorial, time to try out the scenario XP SP2 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 2 GB RAM nVidia Geforce 7950 GT 512 MB vid card Running at 1600x1200 resolution. I am expecting to upgrade my video card for this game, it'd be the first thing I've had to upgrade in 1 1/2 years of owning this PC, which is about standard for me. I want to wait until I have problems first though. Last edited by Radii : 02-21-2009 at 12:15 AM.

02-21-2009, 07:43 AM	#22
Edward64 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2005	FYI in case you didn't already know about this gaming forum (offshoot from GG). A thread on the game. Octopus Overlords • View topic - Empire: Total War Demo Is Out Last edited by Edward64 : 02-21-2009 at 07:43 AM.

02-15-2009, 08:26 AM	#2
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	I've been watching this one and looking forward to the release. The other titles in the Total War series are excellent games.

02-15-2009, 08:59 AM	#3
rowech Pro Starter Join Date: Feb 2006	If I had a machine that could handle this, I'd be in line the day it comes out.

02-15-2009, 10:04 AM	#4
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	I'll definitely be picking this one up. I've been less than excited about the settings in their last couple games, but I'm anxious to try this one out. Hope the naval battles live up to my expectations. Think I'll be grabbing the Steam version.

02-15-2009, 10:12 AM	#5
Edward64 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2005	Does anyone know if this will play on a notebook integrated gpu x4500 or a desktop integrated x3100? I have found where it says 1GB and Directx9 but no practical information.

02-15-2009, 11:29 AM	#8
Deattribution College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2003	I'd say it would probably play, but I don't know if I'd expect too good of a performance.

02-15-2009, 11:38 AM	#9
Galaril Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2004	When is this due to come out?

02-15-2009, 01:46 PM	#13
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	i can play medieval II so i'm assuming i'll be okay with this, but i'll wait on a demo

02-15-2009, 01:49 PM	#14
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I'm looking forward to this more than any other game that's coming out this year. I love the total war series in general, and this setting and the naval battles have me hyped up for this installment more than usual. My computer meets the minimum requirements but doesn't exceed them by much. I may end up upgrading my RAM and video card for this.

02-20-2009, 10:25 PM	#19
Edward64 Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2005	Keep us updated on your thoughts of the demo. I would also appreciate your system config, performance etc.

02-21-2009, 08:26 AM	#23
Apathetic Lurker College Prospect Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Buffalo,NY	Dont like steam but installed it just to try the demo. Positives: Well, paced. Nice graphics EYE CANDY Negatives: steam post battle report seems sparse,but maybe thats just for the demo bugs,bugs,bugs I also heard that they got rid of the individual taxation for the towns and moved everything into one lump sum financial thing. Not sure if this is good. To me it seems that CA is playing to the pimple faced twitch crowd by just glossing over the strategic portions and sticking them into the corner so the ADD crowd wont have to suffer through thinking to much....

02-23-2009, 08:13 AM	#25
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	that would indeed be very dissapointing! I didn't get a chance to try tweaking the graphics to see if I could get it playing responsive enough to see if I would enjoy it...but i'm still hoping it'll be okay.

02-23-2009, 08:19 AM	#26
Apathetic Lurker College Prospect Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Buffalo,NY	Yeah, Im hoping that what I wrote is wrong too, but judging on how the series has gone from Shogun on out, I'm not holding my breath.. Hopefully,the strategic portion wont be too castrated

02-23-2009, 08:22 AM	#27
SportsDino College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2001	I spend most of my time in the strategic view, so I hope they haven't gimped it. The 'dumbification' of games is very annoying.

02-23-2009, 08:24 AM	#28
gstelmack Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Cary, NC	For me, Shogun was the last one where the strategic game interested me. Medieval was okay, but they kept making it harder and harder to maintain expansion, which may be realistic but wasn't that much fun. The battles are what really interest me, and I'd like to see the strategic portion streamlined a bit. It's too tedious stepping through each city each turn to see what you need to address, and I never could figure out the economy enough to keep from going broke. I really enjoyed fighting the battles. There's a bit of a Gettysburg feel now that they're mostly firearms battles, and that's another game I'd love to see updated to run correctly on Vista. __________________ -- Greg -- Author of various FOF utilities

02-23-2009, 08:30 AM	#29
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	I think Medieval is great as far as difficulty of expansion. In my saved game (which I still hope to/need to rescue off my borked-HD), I have conquered a good 2/3 of Scandanavia, all the channel coast and poking over and down into Denmark, and about 3/4 of France, all of Scotland, and all of Ireland, and I think it's still in the 1300's.

02-23-2009, 01:49 PM	#30
SportsDino College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2001	The battles are the point, but the logistics and history freak inside me likes to think he is running a nation (in a simplified way anyway). Battles are the highlight of the game, but constant battles would lose my attention (I skip the historical battles for instance and play just campaign). I'd love for the strategy side to get some upgrades. If TW used even a fraction of its strategic gameplay options more intelligently (in the AI and some subtle tweaks to how things work) it would be even more amazing. But the group of gamers that play things as a game outnumber the roleplayers tremendously... although both sides would probably find the game much more interesting if it played more like a history and less like a game. Good and Interesting AI is hard though.

02-23-2009, 04:03 PM	#32
Galaril Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2004	Does anyone know how many playable races (factions) there will be. I see they have announced 11 so far.

02-23-2009, 04:40 PM	#33
Anthony Banned Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Astoria, NY, USA	i always begin a campaign in a TW game playing out the initial battles against the weaker Rebel factions to get the hang of it and to ensure i get the territory so i can start expansion. then the 2nd time through a new campaign i just auto-sim the battles and focus on the overall big picture (plotting moves, deciding whether to attack neutral/allied factions, deciding what to build, etc). i can't say the auto-sim does a better or worse job than i do, to the point where its zero sum so i might as well let the game auto-sim. i like having the option to manually control a battle if i want but am glad i'm not forced to.

02-23-2009, 06:57 PM	#34
ColtCrazy College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Midwest	I usually take over battles when I'm on the defensive, especially when I'm outnumbered. I've found a do a better job of either pulling out a win or taking as any of the bastards with me as I can before I fall. When I'm on the offensive, it depends. If I feel my tactics would help, I'll do it but if I think the computer can handle it without losing too much more than fodder I pass. Defensive battles are more fun IMO

02-23-2009, 07:29 PM	#35
Grammaticus Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tennessee	I usually go into it thinking that I will sim a lot of the battles, but end up running them anyway. I just can't resist. But I love the strategic part too.

02-23-2009, 07:56 PM	#36
gstelmack Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Cary, NC	I had too much fun in Shogun parking my gunpowder units on a hill and mowing down the enemy as they approached, or taking out large chunks of enemies on the original Medieval with some archers on a hill whittling away an approaching army, to not control most battles myself, unless I have a huge advantage. They've taken away some of the missile advantages, although I'm curious to see how it will play out in Empire, but I still generally feel like I can inflict more damage on the enemy army before being routed or win with much fewer casualties than if I just let the battle playout. And that can be important for future battles with maintaining unit cohesion, plus not having to buy new units. __________________ -- Greg -- Author of various FOF utilities

02-24-2009, 10:48 AM	#37
SportsDino College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2001	I sim the battles any middling captain can easily take care of, I tend to fight the epic ones, interesting sieges (siege warfare actually is one of the dreariest battles if its an obvious win and I end up getting so bored the auto-sim ends up with less casualties).... I also have a love of fighting the lost causes battles for the hope of pulling something out of it or making a great last stand. In MTW:2 I've had the occaisonal crusade where I play as if the army just wants to get home and is trying to fight its way back towards Europe, pretty fun if very inefficient gameplay. So anyway, I see it as the strategic game opens up all sorts of creative options that can enhance the tactical game, if you get imaginative. But TW is a very easy game to 'power game' and make the strategic mode uninteresting, unfortunately this is aided by the unrealistic AI behavior (artificially set up to be easy if your a small nation, and hard if you are a large expansive nation), and various gimp factors (like stationary generals getting all sorts of negative traits, or getting lots of money automatically leads to all your governors being spendaholic gay men) they put in to try and spice up the game aspects, but often just force you closer and closer to the single style of play that makes games boring. I'm starting to think they should make games with a giant options switch that says: - I'm a child who wants to play "I win!" and look at pretty graphics and killzorz everything with my basic gameplay of doom. - I'm a power gamer who is going to find every trick to beat the game, and the more you screw with the gameplay and AI to try and best me the easier I will find ways to exploit it. - I'm a dude just trying to dick around, make the game fit its theming more than trying to help me win or beat me, even if it may make the game too hard or too easy if I play like a robot. So for TW, in the third case this means an AI that tries to run its country realistically, if its completely outclasses it begs forgiveness if it offends your massive honking army of doom, if it has an edge over you it attacks. It schemes all the time against everyone, not just follows a script for providing a challenge to the player (when you have a game where most of the diplomacy options fail during average gameplay and you need to follow specific playing style to use those options, you might as well just remove the diplomacy from the game). Obviously, its hard to make good AI rather than just scripting out a basic gameplay arc.

02-24-2009, 11:20 AM	#38
Eaglesfan27 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: New Jersey	I've always controlled every battle which is why I've never completely finished a campaign in Medieval 2. I have finished Rome campaigns doing that. __________________ Retired GM of the eNFL 2007 Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles (19-0 record.) GM of the WOOF 2006 Doggie Bowl Champion Atlantic City Gamblers. GM of the IHOF 2019 and 2022 IHOF Bowl Champion Asheville Axemen.

02-24-2009, 12:24 PM	#41
gstelmack Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Cary, NC	The battles are where all the fun is at! Finally figured out how to get my ships to all move together last night. And then after trying to cross the T of the first row when reaching the end, I let them cross MY T 'cause I wasn't paying attention to the front of their line. Now if this would just stop crashing after the second or third battle, I'd be having even more fun. __________________ -- Greg -- Author of various FOF utilities

03-02-2009, 11:15 PM	#44
atatange1 High School JV Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: WA state	I have pre-ordered Empire, and am wondering what to do with the demo. Will the full game install over it? Also, how do you get multiple units to march in the formation that I have set them up in? Last edited by atatange1 : 03-02-2009 at 11:18 PM.

03-04-2009, 10:41 AM	#46
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	i need to "stress test" my laptop with the AV and firewall off and everything closed down and tweak the graphics options to make sure I can get the game to be responsive enough to justify a purchase

03-04-2009, 10:51 AM	#47
SportsDino College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2001	Oh I wish I didn't have so much work to do this weekend. This game will probably suck down all my time if I get it.

03-04-2009, 10:54 AM	#48
Greyroofoo Pro Starter Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Alabama	Downloading from Steam now!

03-04-2009, 12:12 PM	#49
CleBrownsfan Pro Rookie Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: C-Town	I need impressions on this one once you guys get the some game play in. I've been following this for a while now but really don't "need" another game as I'm having a hard time finding time to play the games I have __________________ *XBox Gamertag:* Pronk32 FOOL-X - Cleveland Naps FOOL - Cleveland Cyclones SLOP - Cuyahoga Spiders

03-04-2009, 06:03 PM	#50
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	Bah, I set it to start downloading before I left for work and something must have happened that interrupted it. Restarting it now and plan to dive into it pretty extensively over the next few days.