Empire: Total War...Vanilla or Modded?

[Overslop]

Finally gonna have a real stab at getting into this. Gonna play through the Road To Independence campaign as a warm-up for the Grand Campaign.

Is it worth playing through the game first time without mods or just go straight into a modded version? Is DarthMod the best or would anybody recommend something different if going down the latter route?

 

[Swi1ch]

Finally gonna have a real stab at getting into this. Gonna play through the Road To Independence campaign as a warm-up for the Grand Campaign.

Is it worth playing through the game first time without mods or just go straight into a modded version? Is DarthMod the best or would anybody recommend something different if going down the latter route?

I'm STILL waiting on this to come down enough for me to buy. I did play it at my friends, and without darthmod the game is basically broken and worthless.

Edit. RTI is pointless IMO, just jump into the Grand Campaign so you can set it up how you like instead of running with what they give you.

 

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

I finally gave up on Empire after my well to do British Empire was bankrupted for the umpteenth time by a small Spanish rubber dinghy parking on the trade lanes out in the Indian Ocean.

I played Empire a lot (according to Steam), but in the end Vanilla is like smashing your head against a brick wall. I've never tried the mods, but they can't be any worse.

 

[Doggie2k]

Darthmod and Additional Units Mod (AUM) is what brought me back to this game after not playing it for a year. It still has many bugs ie. siege battles is about as much fun as slamming your head on your desk and full stack of AI doing nothing whilst I take their cities.

So its still a cluster **** from CA But DM has improved the battle AI and diplomacy greatly which has made the game quite a challenge. AUM has put some variatation into the game as well which CA was too lazy to do.

You can probably tell I'm not a fan of CA

 

[atpbx]

They broke the economy with the first major patch and I dont think its been fixed since, even after mods I find its virtually unplayable as a serious RTS.

 

[philstanbridge]

As far as I'm concerned the ultimate mod for a grand campaign in Empires is to be found here:- http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=246153

 

[sammo62]

Most disappointing game of all time for me. I don't get why they went from the M2TW campaign map graphics, to a more cartoony, awful looking style which is a system hog even on my spec. The slow mouse scroll on the campaign map is actually my biggest bugbear with the game.

 

[z3r0]

I finally gave up on Empire after my well to do British Empire was bankrupted for the umpteenth time by a small Spanish rubber dinghy parking on the trade lanes out in the Indian Ocean.

I played Empire a lot (according to Steam), but in the end Vanilla is like smashing your head against a brick wall. I've never tried the mods, but they can't be any worse.

/sigh

Agreed.

 

[Vimes]

I too gave up playing ETW and indeed it put me of for quite a while before buying NTW, which I have for around £13.
Regardless of the bugs and issues that I had when I first bought ETW I realised that I prefer to play a map where the battles etc are fought of Europe.
I have yet to start a campaign with NTW but at least it looks a little better than NTW did.
I just wished that they were remaking RTW than Shogun though

 

[mushroomsoup]

darthmod ultimate commander edition works great, makes the game playable. its still pretty uneconomical on your system though...

 

[Overslop]

Looks like Darth Mod version is the way to go then, cheers lads.

 

[Old Man]

Finally gonna have a real stab at getting into this. Gonna play through the Road To Independence campaign as a warm-up for the Grand Campaign.

Is it worth playing through the game first time without mods or just go straight into a modded version? Is DarthMod the best or would anybody recommend something different if going down the latter route?

You should look over here to see what's the best to go for:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/

 

[Edrof]

Considering how much playtime I clocked up on ALL of the previous Total War games I've playe Empire about 4 hours before it all became clear that it was a total rubbish heap, like the other posters have said.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Just to give a more balenced view, I enjoyed ETW and have played the long campaign a few times. It starts a bit boring but gets better as you build up a range of artillary.