Empire total war

[johnman]

Well i am considering buying the above game, but am intrigued by the special forces pack for only £5 more. But as I read it, it adds about 5 more units of dubious usefullness and not much more. So anyone out there with special forces and know wether its worth the extra money?

 

[bue519]

No, no, no, and especially no.

 

[SteveDave]

No it is not.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Nope, it's just not worth it and could actually conflict with a lot of mods you WILL get.

 

[SimuLord]

The Special Forces pack is a shameless cash grab, nothing more. I'd steer clear of it. It's actually a good time to get into Empire, though---the latest patch smooths out just about all of the game-breaking release-day bugs, and Creative Assembly has promised a few more free gameplay upgrade patches (they're following Valve's model rather than Bethesda's. Thank the gods.)

People forget that Rome wasn't truly playable until 1.2 (Empire's currently at 1.2) and didn't become the best-of-all-time masterpiece that it is until 1.5. If Empire follows that same track I won't complain in the slightest.

 

[johnman]

Thanks for the swift and conclusive replies :0
i was just wondering if it added more than a few units and was not documented.
I loved Rome, but i could never get into medievil 2.

 

[Laughing Man]

The game is still bust and in a major major way.

I've been playing as United Province and had just set up a peace treaty with some dudes who owned most of the African regions after taking half their territory. I had to back off to re group, repair damage and check on my finances. I was making about 1,000 per turn. I decided to save and quit.

Went to play today, after an hour of dicking about with that pile of crap that is Steam (another story) I finally got the new patch and loaded up my game only to find that everything was the same apart from my per turn cash turn over which had gone from the +1,000 per turn to - 62,000 per turn.

The game is still busted simple as.

 

[Danny Ocean]

The game is still bust and in a major major way.

I've been playing as United Province and had just set up a peace treaty with some dudes who owned most of the African regions
Buh? Africa's in this game? Do you mean the trade regions?
after taking half their territory. I had to back off to re group, repair damage and check on my finances. I was making about 1,000 per turn. I decided to save and quit.

Went to play today, after an hour of dicking about with that pile of crap that is Steam (another story) I finally got the new patch and loaded up my game only to find that everything was the same apart from my per turn cash turn over which had gone from the +1,000 per turn to - 62,000 per turn.

The game is still busted simple as.
Well no, if you read the update news it tells you that they've altered the monetary system to reduce the ridiculous amounts of money it's possible to make after a few dozen turns. Really, If I maxed out all the taxes for all my regions, I'd be making over 75k a turn, and when you get to that level it's just dull. Maybe you should manage your money better?

 

[Smokeydubbs]

Huh, I was wondering why my newest campaign was harder to get a good cash flow.

 

[SimuLord]

The game is still bust and in a major major way.

I've been playing as United Province and had just set up a peace treaty with some dudes who owned most of the African regions
Buh? Africa's in this game? Do you mean the trade regions?
after taking half their territory. I had to back off to re group, repair damage and check on my finances. I was making about 1,000 per turn. I decided to save and quit.

Went to play today, after an hour of dicking about with that pile of crap that is Steam (another story) I finally got the new patch and loaded up my game only to find that everything was the same apart from my per turn cash turn over which had gone from the +1,000 per turn to - 62,000 per turn.

The game is still busted simple as.
Well no, if you read the update news it tells you that they've altered the monetary system to reduce the ridiculous amounts of money it's possible to make after a few dozen turns. Really, If I maxed out all the taxes for all my regions, I'd be making over 75k a turn, and when you get to that level it's just dull. Maybe you should manage your money better?

Indeed, I've found that the changes in the patch are very nice as far as taking a game that was WAY too fucking easy (and not just because I could safely leave my coasts undefended due to the naval invasion AI bug) and fixing it. I was making more money than I could ever reasonably hope to spend and I'd reached the point where I was autoresolving all my battles because there wasn't much point in playing out a three-full-stack vs. Flintlock Citizens battle on the full map. The steamroller effect's always been Total War's Achilles heel and it's nice to see something being done about it.

 

[Laughing Man]

Well no, if you read the update news it tells you that they've altered the monetary system to reduce the ridiculous amounts of money it's possible to make after a few dozen turns. Really, If I maxed out all the taxes for all my regions, I'd be making over 75k a turn, and when you get to that level it's just dull. Maybe you should manage your money better?

Or perhaps the makers should

a). Not go ahead and assume that everyone is playing the dumb as horse shite standard version of their game.
b). Instead of gimping the player and effectively fucking over a game which I have invested over 100 turns in maybe they should have spent a bit of time on ohhhh making the AI smarter, I guess it's easier to reduce your tax income than it is to go through the AI and make it smarter.
c). Deliver the patch on a medium that forces you to fucking download and install before it will run the bloody game, oh and FYI this is what STEAM says about the patch

May 1, 2009 - Empire: Total War Update Released

Updates to Empire: Total War have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Crash Fixes


Fix deployed for error with greyed out background and no interface selections being possible when clicking tick box on Failed to Join Game message in multiplayer

I don't see any fucking mention of changes to the mechanics of the games monetary system.

I run Empire with the Darthmod mod installed so shockingly enough the Tax rate income I had was required to run an army large enough to take on the ferocious enemy AI who more often than not have armies with four or more full stacks and actually attack weak spots rather than sitting inside their cities waiting for you to come and attack them.

What those wankers at CA have done is taken a game that worked, and worked a hell of a lot better than the original toss they threw in the consumers face, and broken it, in a half arsed attempt to make the game harder.

So prior to this patch, the game was fine, along come CA and break it... well done guys well done.

I'll clarify I am not pissed at the patch, they want to patch the game fine go ahead and patch it I am pissed at the fact that this game is associated with that complete turd fest that is STEAM. That I had to dick about for an hour because STEAM decided it just had to install the latest patch for the game before it would run. That no option or for that matter any decent info was given prior, during or after the patch and that I had to find out that this patch, this god damn patch that STEAM just refused to do anything until it had installed, would effectively take my game and kick it clean in the stones.

Oh and the patch still doesn't fix the stupid slow down on the campagin map in the later game or the CTD when you move late game ships about the map.

 

[oliveira8]

*snip*

PSSSSST! Its the other update!

Spoiler

Crash Fixes


Fixed crash when disbanding generals unit

Fix for crash on trying to merge ships from port into ships next to port

Fixed rare crash relating to boarding

Fixed crash to do with reinforcing armies

Fixed crash on revolution video attempting to play

Fixed crash for double clicking on sinking ship on campaign map

Fix for crash on merging units but moving into fort before army arrives

Fixed several crashes related to rakes

Fixed crashes relating to battles when running Czech or German versions of the game

Fixed crash on moving army into region of faction player has military access and then cancelling military access

Fixed crash on trying to exchange ships between 2 fleets

Fixed crash on spamming move orders to puckle guns locked in melee combat

Fixed hard lock on inviting host to their own MP game

Fix to prevent loading of mod causing crash post patch

Various end turn crash bugs fixed

Fixes to crash bugs relating to completion of revolutions

Some fixes relating to merging and disbanding

Fix for several crashes in land battles

Several crashes relating to attacking cities fixed

Several load save game crashes fixed


Campaign

Armies now placed correctly on battlefields in relation to campaign

Fix for nearby ships sometimes not being included as reinforcements for battles

Fix for incorrect numbers sometimes showing on trade routes

Units with limits on how many can be recruited now show how many are available

Various fixes relating to rakes and infiltrating

Fixes relating to problems moving armies/merging into army's right next to settlements

Various trade bug fixes

Fix for moving agent from settlement moving army instead of agent

Fix for several bugs relating to military access and armies being in regions

Fix for tattered flags appearing on fleet/armies even when at full strength/fully repaired

Fix for sallying out armies breaking siege at times even when losing the battle

Fix for bugs relating to capturing ships on returning to campaign map from naval battle


Land Battle

Improvements to path finding have been made

Some fixes to units not garrisoning buildings

Fort gate ownership made clearer with faction flags appearing at the gatehouse

Fix for problem relating to artillery unlimbering after being ordered to limber

Fix for puckle guns moving on their own in some circumstances

Fix for big slowdown in unit movement on some battle maps in the Road to Independence episodes

Fix for missile cavalry not reloading when out of combat

Jaegers now have muskets instead of incorrect rifles, Prussian Jaegers keep rifles

Quebec episodic land battle fixed ground type in deployment area

Fix for unrealistic numbers when ending a land battle by quitting on the battle results screen


Naval Battle

Several fixes for ships clipping into each other

Improvements to boarding have been made. Crew is more fluid in attack and more resolute in defence. Men survive long fall and officers join in the boarding attack

Crew uniforms improved to make identification of the crew type and faction easier

Defending ship is not allowed to fire cannons anymore during boarding procedure

Improved naval grouping UI and group movement made

Improvements made to ship collisions to reduce chance of ships getting stuck

Fix for sail damage not being shown when volumetric effects turned on


Multiplayer

Various fixes for joining games/game lobby issues

Fixes for problems relating to spectators being kicked/locking up on other players joining games in certain instances

Long riflemen and winged hussars removed from early era battles

Fix for insufficient funds always showing on unit cards even when enough money is available

Player name is now displayed on unit tooltips

Team chat is now displayed in a different colour


AI

Basic fix for AI being unable to move army by fleet

Aggression of factions in campaign improved, as well as tweaks to diplomacy

Improvements to campaign AI relating to its waging of wars, recruitment and movement of armies

Improvements made to battle AI to make it more reactive, use buildings better as well as squares and rakes

Siege battle AI improvements made

Improvements to naval AI to make it bunch up less, its use of galleys and long range units such as bomb ketches


Miscellaneous

Delete save game button added to save game list

View replays button added to single player Play Battle menu

Various sound fixes and improvements

Various incorrect text messages fixed

Fixes to various graphical glitches with display of walls

Fixes made for stuttering videos

Fix for several game option settings not being saved correctly, including settings such as floating flags

Fix for unit voices/attack confirmation being heard for all units in an alliance instead of just for the player?s army

Armour and shield values are now added into melee defence value shown on unit cards

Lots of other small and minor bug fixes


Balancing

Land unit recruitment cost in campaign has been increased, with higher cost on higher difficulty level

Ship recruitment and upkeep costs have been increased in campaign

Various balancing and cost adjustments to improve multiplayer land battle balance

Ship costing improvements made for both campaign and multiplayer

Economic tweaks have been made to campaign to reduce amount of money made in later part of campaign


Extra Note

We are aware of an issue with community created maps that results in a crash when someone without the map tries to join the game. This crash will be fixed in the next patch

Further work is being done on improving AI Naval invasion behaviour and this will be included in the next upgrade patch

P.S: Stop bitching about Steam. It works. Get used to it.

I think you rather have Games for Windows LIVE in every game...

 

[Laughing Man]

PSSSSST! Its the other update!

and how does knowing this change the fact that STEAM still goes ahead and installs the patch with no confirmation and no prior info about what the patch does until it is too late? All reading the info from the 29th instead of the 1st would have done is told me about the changes two hours before I found out about them over at the CA forums and that would still have been 30 minutes after it had installed the bloody patch and hence 30 minutes too late for me to do anything about it.

P.S: Stop bitching about Steam. It works. Get used to it.

No it fucking doesn't.

- I don't play any of the games on it in multiplayer.
- I don't play buy any games from it's store
- If I want a fancy interface to group my games together I have Rocket dock for that which looks better, uses less resource and is far more mod-able

So for me STEAM is nothing more than a big lump of DRM with a fancy interface.

- It is the only DRM that forces you to download and install patches before it will let you run the game.
- It is the only DRM I have found that uses the error message 'this game is currently unavaliable' Uh what the fuck? has that part of my harddrive gone on holiday or something?
- It is the only DRM that requires you create an account with it before you can install your game
- I legally purchase a game yet because it arrived from the Play.com one day before release I can't run it because STEAM says it is not released in my region yet. Yup I legally own the game, the disc, the right to play it yet this jumped up lump of DRM says I can't play it. I've NEVER encountered that and I got Spore two days before its release.
- It behaves like DRM, I have my reg tweaked to kill all programs instantly when I shut my computer down yet for some reason STEAM seems to be the only program that requires a user confirmation before it can be killed.... why is that then? What does it do that is so much more important that I have to tell it to fuck off personally?

It's comical really of all the DRM that I've encountered STEAM is the one that has systematically put the brakes on me playing my legally purchased, legally installed games more than any other. Yet because it has a fancy interface and lets you stick a personal account on it and allows you to buy cheap quirky games that are usually too crap to sell on their own merit people seem to think it is the second coming.

Oh and GFWL is crap as well but at least people can see that's crap.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

This game crashes so much for me its unplayable. I really don't know what to tell you here.

 

[oliveira8]

PSSSSST! Its the other update!

and how does knowing this change the fact that STEAM still goes ahead and installs the patch with no confirmation and no prior info about what the patch does until it is too late? All reading the info from the 29th instead of the 1st would have done is told me about the changes two hours before I found out about them over at the CA forums and that would still have been 30 minutes after it had installed the bloody patch and hence 30 minutes too late for me to do anything about it.

Actually you can read the patch notes 10 minutes before it starts download.

But Steam auto downloads all patches to your games. Also why you complaining about Steam installing a patch that fixes the game?

Also get used with Steam, the future of PC gaming goes trough programs like Steam, Impulse and GFWL. If you dont like them theres always consoles to be played.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

PSSSSST! Its the other update!

and how does knowing this change the fact that STEAM still goes ahead and installs the patch with no confirmation and no prior info about what the patch does until it is too late? All reading the info from the 29th instead of the 1st would have done is told me about the changes two hours before I found out about them over at the CA forums and that would still have been 30 minutes after it had installed the bloody patch and hence 30 minutes too late for me to do anything about it.

Well, thats what mods are for I guess. Can't you just disband your massive military and focus on defense and economic growth till you turn it around?

 

[oliveira8]

If you really really liked Rome and Medieval 2 Total war as much as i do (and i like them allot, i have played them both many many times and i am in fact actually playing it now) then i would suggest you don't buy the game at all. It was a failed attempt at a good Total war game. The game feels nothing like Rome or Medieval 2 in the way it plays, and it's not because the game takes place in another period of history, the game simply does not feel like a total war game that's all.

Strange...heard the same thing about Medieval 2...Actually Medieval 2 is no game. Stainless Steel mod is the game...

CA since Medieval 1 is yet to release a game in working conditions out of the box.

 

[Laughing Man]

But Steam auto downloads all patches to your games. Also why you complaining about Steam installing a patch that fixes the game?

because it doesn't fix it.

If you've been playing vanilla Empire then maybe it 'fixes' it but I've been playing Darthmod Empire for the last few weeks and that mod resolved the AI issues long ago without screwing up the money and finances. The things it didn't fix where the slowdown on the campaign and the CTD caused by moving late game ships, mind you neither did this latest patch from CA

Well, thats what mods are for I guess. Can't you just disband your massive military and focus on defense and economic growth till you turn it around?

No because the mod I am playing means my enemy is aggressive and has large multi stack armies that attack weak spots rather than sitting about idle. I was being attacked on two fronts I had to broker a peace treaty with one side so that I can move my African forces back to Europe to deal with this new enemy. If I disband just to break even then they will walk right over me. The game was a challenge as it was because of the mods I was using, all this patch has done is taken something that was a challenge and made it impossible.

 

[Xan Krieger]

P.S: Stop bitching about Steam. It works. Get used to it.

No it fucking doesn't.

- I don't play any of the games on it in multiplayer.
- I don't play buy any games from it's store
- If I want a fancy interface to group my games together I have Rocket dock for that which looks better, uses less resource and is far more mod-able

So for me STEAM is nothing more than a big lump of DRM with a fancy interface.

- It is the only DRM that forces you to download and install patches before it will let you run the game.
- It is the only DRM I have found that uses the error message 'this game is currently unavaliable' Uh what the fuck? has that part of my harddrive gone on holiday or something?
- It is the only DRM that requires you create an account with it before you can install your game
- I legally purchase a game yet because it arrived from the Play.com one day before release I can't run it because STEAM says it is not released in my region yet. Yup I legally own the game, the disc, the right to play it yet this jumped up lump of DRM says I can't play it. I've NEVER encountered that and I got Spore two days before its release.
- It behaves like DRM, I have my reg tweaked to kill all programs instantly when I shut my computer down yet for some reason STEAM seems to be the only program that requires a user confirmation before it can be killed.... why is that then? What does it do that is so much more important that I have to tell it to fuck off personally?

It's comical really of all the DRM that I've encountered STEAM is the one that has systematically put the brakes on me playing my legally purchased, legally installed games more than any other. Yet because it has a fancy interface and lets you stick a personal account on it and allows you to buy cheap quirky games that are usually too crap to sell on their own merit people seem to think it is the second coming.

Oh and GFWL is crap as well but at least people can see that's crap.

I agree entirely. Steam to me is just needless adware. My recent problem with it is when I installed Dawn of War 2 it downloaded it instead of installing it from the disk. I started it, went to church to help them fix a few computers, came back and it was still downloading!

 

[ConstantJoe]

My game always crashes after 20 or so turns. It's a real kick in the penis.