Must admit that I dont pay any attention at all to PC "professional" reviews anymore, not since a certain mainstream magazine gave Hellgate London 94%
**EMPIRE TOTAL WAR**
- Thread starter bakes0310
- Start date
Must admit that I dont pay any attention at all to PC "professional" reviews anymore, not since a certain mainstream magazine gave Hellgate London 94%
They do indeed, they still dont make it as hard as it will be once CA fixes the naval invasions but if you are finding it too easy get Quixotes mod and Darthsmod and then try
They do indeed, they still dont make it as hard as it will be once CA fixes the naval invasions but if you are finding it too easy get Quixotes mod and Darthsmod and then try
Looks like the latest versions clash now. I'm trying out just Quixote's mod.
I use both, I have just edited the mods so that I get what I like from both of them and combined them into a single mod.
Another person here who has been beset with problems following the latest patch.
If any of you are having CTD or white screens AFTER battles, I found a work around from doing a bit of googling. It seems that there are issues with the sound caching (should be fixed in the next update) but you can prevent the crash by turning off the sound effects when the battle is finished. i.e. when you have defeated your foe and you have the option to continue to mow them all down with your cavalry or leave the battle, before you leave just go into the options and turn off the sound. This enabled me to finally take Algiers!
If any of you are having CTD or white screens AFTER battles, I found a work around from doing a bit of googling. It seems that there are issues with the sound caching (should be fixed in the next update) but you can prevent the crash by turning off the sound effects when the battle is finished. i.e. when you have defeated your foe and you have the option to continue to mow them all down with your cavalry or leave the battle, before you leave just go into the options and turn off the sound. This enabled me to finally take Algiers!
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So far, I have experienced two types of CTDs. The first one was to do with units merging so I just try not to do it in order to avoid the crashing. The other though, seems to happen randomly at a fairly late stage of certain saved games of mine. This, I dont know how to avoid since I cant sense the cause.
Either way though, this game looks unfinished in so many aspects that its just a real shame given the potential it has. I also cant grasp the idea of why would the battle graphics look so simplistic and yet the loading times would be massive compared to any of the previous two TW games(despite exceeding the system requerements of the game by miles). I mean MTW2 runs for me way faster at the highest possible settings than this quasimodo of a game at lowest.
This game is one big scam! Looks like CA just tried to cash on this TW release and probably go for games in a very different field.
Either way though, this game looks unfinished in so many aspects that its just a real shame given the potential it has. I also cant grasp the idea of why would the battle graphics look so simplistic and yet the loading times would be massive compared to any of the previous two TW games(despite exceeding the system requerements of the game by miles). I mean MTW2 runs for me way faster at the highest possible settings than this quasimodo of a game at lowest.
This game is one big scam! Looks like CA just tried to cash on this TW release and probably go for games in a very different field.
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The latest patch seems to have fixed my post-battle crashes so that leaves me with no major problems.
All the people who were having the same problem as me, with naval battles crashing at the victory screen on the campaign map, you should give it another try.
All the people who were having the same problem as me, with naval battles crashing at the victory screen on the campaign map, you should give it another try.
Heh a lot of people must have been scared off from buying this game by this thread. Performance certainly seems to be a luck of the draw. I noticed that some patches fix the game for some and break it for others. This has also been my personal experience.
When it does work however, the game is overall not much of an improvement to M2TW. Visually, there may now be more special effects, but they've lost all the interesting melee animations and it's the return of the clone army. Textures and model detail is no more improved either.
The campaign map is fortunately a good improvement, giving a lot more historical accuracy; There are a lot less fort sieges; Naval warfare is a lot more interesting; Economic and Military towns are completely seperate now; Diplomacy is done through a menu rather than via journeying diplomats. The AI is none the wiser though.
Right now, I'm going to finish my campaign, but overall M2TW was definitely a more enjoyable experience that I'd rather go back to. Battles with swords, arrows and charging cavalry are definitely more interesting. ETW cavalry are far less essential as their charging impact on infantry is nowhere near as pronounced and they are shredded by bayonets. Musket wars are quite a passive experience as all you do is continually manage their formation so they're shooting as many enemies as possible. In M2TW you would be microing your infantry everywhere to support losing units. And cavalry would be charged in at opportune moments, knowing that they'd make a difference to whom won the slugout.
I can see why reviewers rated this game as the best of the series though. The pretty explosions and sound effects are all it takes to woo RTS reviewers these days. They all want a more passive experience that they can just watch. Take Dawn of War 2 for example - a game that is essentially a stripped down Company of Heroes, yet it still has an 85 on metacritic. While Age of Empires 3 and similar RTSs are given 70-85s due to their old style - even though they offer much more intersting gameplay that keeps you on your toes all the time.
Anyway I think I've said enough. I only writ this to verbalise (in text..) what I've kept on my mind for a while now.
When it does work however, the game is overall not much of an improvement to M2TW. Visually, there may now be more special effects, but they've lost all the interesting melee animations and it's the return of the clone army. Textures and model detail is no more improved either.
The campaign map is fortunately a good improvement, giving a lot more historical accuracy; There are a lot less fort sieges; Naval warfare is a lot more interesting; Economic and Military towns are completely seperate now; Diplomacy is done through a menu rather than via journeying diplomats. The AI is none the wiser though.
Right now, I'm going to finish my campaign, but overall M2TW was definitely a more enjoyable experience that I'd rather go back to. Battles with swords, arrows and charging cavalry are definitely more interesting. ETW cavalry are far less essential as their charging impact on infantry is nowhere near as pronounced and they are shredded by bayonets. Musket wars are quite a passive experience as all you do is continually manage their formation so they're shooting as many enemies as possible. In M2TW you would be microing your infantry everywhere to support losing units. And cavalry would be charged in at opportune moments, knowing that they'd make a difference to whom won the slugout.
I can see why reviewers rated this game as the best of the series though. The pretty explosions and sound effects are all it takes to woo RTS reviewers these days. They all want a more passive experience that they can just watch. Take Dawn of War 2 for example - a game that is essentially a stripped down Company of Heroes, yet it still has an 85 on metacritic. While Age of Empires 3 and similar RTSs are given 70-85s due to their old style - even though they offer much more intersting gameplay that keeps you on your toes all the time.
Anyway I think I've said enough. I only writ this to verbalise (in text..) what I've kept on my mind for a while now.
Had just about everything with this game - crashes to desktop, corrupted save when CTD while saving, unfinished battles because of bugs, exploitable bugs during battles, unrecoverable economic situations when game decides you still loose thousands on upkeep of an army that no longer exists for several turns etc.
I had battles where enemy's last unit would just sit in a building and refuse to come out and unless I had large enough footman unit to overpower them in inside-building melee or artillery to tun the building into rubble we would just stand there for an hour looking at each other through window, waiting for their 5 militia to win battle against my 100 horse cavalery just because they wouldn't come out and play.
I had units I couldn't move on the map, for no reason, they would just cease to be clickable for full turn.
I had units that would forget their command in the middle of the battle for no reason. You'd tell them to hide behind wall, they would jump through the wall, turn at 90 degress to their enemy, walk 5 steps and stop, not anywhere close to their destination waiting to get slaughtered.
Had artillery unit hidden behind hill, field and forest, not a single enemy soldier in sight. They shot twice, tried to move them, turns out their pulling horses died of unknown cause in less than 5 minutes.
Had unit of horsemen lost to a map bug where they would get stuck while riding next to stairs to armoury. Few riders would get stuck up to their knees in stairs and the rest of the unit just wouldn't move without them.
Decided life is too short to be free alpha tester.
I had battles where enemy's last unit would just sit in a building and refuse to come out and unless I had large enough footman unit to overpower them in inside-building melee or artillery to tun the building into rubble we would just stand there for an hour looking at each other through window, waiting for their 5 militia to win battle against my 100 horse cavalery just because they wouldn't come out and play.
I had units I couldn't move on the map, for no reason, they would just cease to be clickable for full turn.
I had units that would forget their command in the middle of the battle for no reason. You'd tell them to hide behind wall, they would jump through the wall, turn at 90 degress to their enemy, walk 5 steps and stop, not anywhere close to their destination waiting to get slaughtered.
Had artillery unit hidden behind hill, field and forest, not a single enemy soldier in sight. They shot twice, tried to move them, turns out their pulling horses died of unknown cause in less than 5 minutes.
Had unit of horsemen lost to a map bug where they would get stuck while riding next to stairs to armoury. Few riders would get stuck up to their knees in stairs and the rest of the unit just wouldn't move without them.
Decided life is too short to be free alpha tester.
Mods are the solution to this, much as how the mods in the past TW games vastly improved them. The melee animations when fighting inside buildings are pretty cool
I no longer have the clone armies either and my army textures and model are vastly improved over vanilla Empire.
Mind you, I do have 15 mods installed now
I have opted not to download the latest patch as my game runs fine as it is and I am not sure from the patchnotes that the latest patch will be all that help to me.
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I didn't think you had much choice WRT downloading patches. Doesn't steam make you download it before you can play?
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I have had no problems at all with this game apart from footsoldiers hiding in buildings and my many, many cavalry just staring at them until time runs out (and I lose!).
But no other bugs whatsoever. And yes the game is awesome.
But no other bugs whatsoever. And yes the game is awesome.
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I still haven't got round to ordering this and I will defo hold off until a total realism mod is out. You guys should have realised that it's the potential in the game that makes it what it is, not what the game is upon release day. It was obviously released before it was ready. It was the same with Med 2 - it took 3 official patches and about 12 months for a decent mod to appear that addressed most of the in-game issues and bugs. Features and mods are still being added today. Empire will be like that I'm sure, but it will grow!
I think it may be a little longer in regards to the time frame before this game fulfills its potential
I've had Rome and Med 2 total war since their release dates, and although they had their niggles when they were released, they were no where near as bad as Empire on release
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bar the crashes and bugs, ETW is unfinished big time. MTW2 was not like that and its better looking graphics ran much faster at my PC than the ones which ETW offers. CA would have to do some serious patching to sort this mess out and ill be very surprised if they bother(due to the cost involved).