Empire total war

[oliveira8]

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.
What exactly is wrong with Steam downloading patches for you? CAn you tell whats wrong with that? I'll tell you what. ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING! If a patch is broken blame the developer cause they a bunch of twats.
- 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?
The "this game is currently unavaliable" message is cause your game is trying to be updated. Restart steam and the game will update voila! Fixed.
- It is the only DRM that requires you create an account with it before you can install your game
So does Impulse and GFWL.
- 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.
Sorry that never happened. What happens is that you got the game a day before the game is released in your country. Thats not Steam fault, thats the place you bought the game fault for sending the game before it got released.
- 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?
Right click on steam->Press Exit->job done. How hard...how terribly hard...

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.

Wait wait? Steam? You do remenber EA's DRM dont you? THE ONE THAT FUCKING STOPS YOU FROM PLAYING A GAME WHEN YOU REACH THE INSTALLATION CAP? Really...last time I saw I could play the games I have for Steam whenever I want without worring that someday I will reach installation cap...So Half Life 2 is a quirky game that is too crap to sell on it self? Or Left 4 Dead? Portal? Empire:Total War? Rome:Total War? Medieval 2:Total War? World of Goo?Dawn of War 1? Dawn of War 2? Audiosurf? Fallout 3? Call of Duty 4?Company of Heroes? Civilization 4? Bioshock?Deus Ex?

I could go on you know. Steam has 621 games for sale but I guess they all quirky and to crap to sell for themselfs...


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

All your moaning comes from someone that doesnt know how to work with Steam.

I told you and will tell again. Get used to Steam, Impulse and GFWL cause they arent going away. If you want theres 3 consoles on the market go buy them.

So stop bitching about it, mail Valve ways they can upgrade Steam and learn to use it.

 

[Sisyphus0]

I don't understand why people complain about steam so much. I never have any issues, it downloads fast, YOU CAN TURN OFF AUTO UPDATES *durr*, you don't need the cd, easy to connect to friends, ect. I buy all my games on steam and impulse now, never had an issue, apparently some of you need to learn how to use simple applications.

Anyway, empire hasn't held my attention at all. And the total war series is by far my favorite line of games. I've been playing the third age lately, a lotr mod for m2:tw, it brought me back into the game. I can't wait for the mods for empire though, vanilla total war is usually shitty, I just wish they focused on the AI this time instead of graphics.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Anyone here play as Maratha? The first campaign I played as and I gotta say, if this was a competitive game, I would say maratha is IMBALANCED - you can have enough schools and scholars to max out your tech tree faster than any other faction (and it's pretty apparent when you double everyone's prestige) - you have so much trade resources that you make about 100k through trade once you start upgrading those ports, the mughal empire is a bunch of pushovers and you can take them down real quickly (the hard part, is keeping people under control).

Your generals bodyguard are FUCKING ELEPHANTS and they destroy infantry (though, only in the initial charge, but it's enough to route them). The cavalry has charge bonuses of 20 and the camels and elephants scare the shit out of horses which basically makes them "Western General Assassin's" - and since no one will be bothering you in india you can build up a force and navy to go over and conquer Europe and then maybe some islands in the Americas.

 

[ElephantGuts]

No, it's not really worth it. It's just 5 units you'll hardly ever see. And this is coming from someone who was really hyped about the game's released and did get the Special Forces version thinking how it's barely any more money.

And I agree that now is a good time to get the game. I stopped playing for awhile because of how unfinished the game was when it was released, but just started playing after this latest patch. It fixed a lot and CA is still going to be patching it so the game's much more fun now.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Oh hey, while we're here, anyone know any good reason to EVER use Quicklime shells?

I mean, once you have Percussive Shells and Carcass shot, I saw no reason to ever waste time on this Quicklime tech except to get the Polymath achievement :\

Is "Quicklime" the new "Dead Cow Ammo" that was in Medieval? It's a shame that it replaces carcass.

 

[SimuLord]

Oh hey, while we're here, anyone know any good reason to EVER use Quicklime shells?

I mean, once you have Percussive Shells and Carcass shot, I saw no reason to ever waste time on this Quicklime tech except to get the Polymath achievement :\

Is "Quicklime" the new "Dead Cow Ammo" that was in Medieval? It's a shame that it replaces carcass.

I find that sticking a few quicklime shells right in the middle of an enemy troop formation is a pretty good way to reduce their ranks before they reach my lines. Pound-for-pound I get more kills with it than with anything else besides canister shot at less risk to my troops.

 

[Laughing Man]

hat exactly is wrong with Steam downloading patches for you? CAn you tell whats wrong with that? I'll tell you what. ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING! If a patch is broken blame the developer cause they a bunch of twats.

I hope to god you don't maintain your own computer because what you just said ranks as one of the most stupid things I have ever heard.

1). If your computer ain't broke you don't fix it, that means that if you have no issue with drivers, or the games you are running you don't go ahead and install new software. Developers even tell you not to install patches unless you are having specific issues. STEAM by passes that totally.

2). You see no issue with a program going online, downloading whatever it wants and then installing it without ANY user input... really.. seriously please don't tell me you see no problem with that?

The "this game is currently unavaliable" message is cause your game is trying to be updated. Restart steam and the game will update voila! Fixed.

Oh yeah that's far better than the double click icon and play game instantly option. STEAM has decided that this game needs to be worked on so you can bugger off until STEAM determines it is alright for you to play it and there was me thinking that I had bought the game and installed it on MY computer.

So does Impulse and GFWL.

Neither of which I use so...

Sorry that never happened. What happens is that you got the game a day before the game is released in your country. Thats not Steam fault, thats the place you bought the game fault for sending the game before it got released.

Please don't talk down to me it aggravates me more than anything else and please do not for a god damn second tell me what did and did not happen. I purchased the game, I had the game and STEAM told me I couldn't play it. Remove STEAM and the game runs so that leaves the fault squarely at STEAM'S doorstep.

Wait wait? Steam? You do remenber EA's DRM dont you? THE ONE THAT FUCKING STOPS YOU FROM PLAYING A GAME WHEN YOU REACH THE INSTALLATION CAP?

Yes I also remember that at no point did it stop me from installing or running the game. At no point did it attempt to go online and download a patch without first asking me. At no point did it tell me that my game was unavaliable and I would have to come back in ten minutes time once it had finished doing whatever the hell it had decided it wanted to do first.

I've played all the big name titles, and had to deal with all the various DRMs that they have decided to include and of all of them STEAM is still the only one that time and again sticks it's nose in and tells me to bugger off because it has decided I can't play the game right now.

Rome:Total War? Medieval 2:Total War? World of Goo?Dawn of War 1? Dawn of War 2? Audiosurf? Fallout 3? Call of Duty 4?Company of Heroes? Civilization 4? Bioshock?Deus Ex?

None of them require STEAM at installation so have fuck all to do with STEAM beyond the fact that if you're stupid enough you can buy them off STEAM and then let it dictate weather you get to play them or not.

 

[oliveira8]

hat exactly is wrong with Steam downloading patches for you? CAn you tell whats wrong with that? I'll tell you what. ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING! If a patch is broken blame the developer cause they a bunch of twats.

I hope to god you don't maintain your own computer because what you just said ranks as one of the most stupid things I have ever heard.

1). If your computer ain't broke you don't fix it, that means that if you have no issue with drivers, or the games you are running you don't go ahead and install new software. Developers even tell you not to install patches unless you are having specific issues. STEAM by passes that totally.

2). You see no issue with a program going online, downloading whatever it wants and then installing it without ANY user input... really.. seriously please don't tell me you see no problem with that?

Nope I see no problem in a program updating my games, with fixes and adding more content to the game. If you have a problem with patches please destroy your computer now, cause you no PC gamer. Patches are released for a reason you know? And only asstwat companies manage to broke games by releasing patches. The only patch that Steam released that ruined a game I had, was Empire:Total War that borked up the sound, which..AH! Look! CAuse CA released a patch it got fixed! Also you can turn off the auto-update in Steam options or just play your games in "Offline Mode."

And Valve always said to Developers that put patches on Steam to make sure they fully work. If the patch breaks your game complain to the Developer or send an email to Valve so they can rollback your game.

LEARN TO USE STEAM

The "this game is currently unavaliable" message is cause your game is trying to be updated. Restart steam and the game will update voila! Fixed.

Oh yeah that's far better than the double click icon and play game instantly option. STEAM has decided that this game needs to be worked on so you can bugger off until STEAM determines it is alright for you to play it and there was me thinking that I had bought the game and installed it on MY computer.

Yes you installed the game on your computer, the installation was done but when Steam started downloading the updated you decided to start playing the game completly fucking the process in betewen. Restart Steam and lot it download the patch/update/Whatever.

LEARN TO USE STEAM

So does Impulse and GFWL.

Neither of which I use so...
Then shut up about Steam requiring one.

Sorry that never happened. What happens is that you got the game a day before the game is released in your country. Thats not Steam fault, thats the place you bought the game fault for sending the game before it got released.

Please don't talk down to me it aggravates me more than anything else and please do not for a god damn second tell me what did and did not happen. I purchased the game, I had the game and STEAM told me I couldn't play it. Remove STEAM and the game runs so that leaves the fault squarely at STEAM'S doorstep.

No if the game requires Steam to run it, if you remove Steam it wont run. This was the case of Dawn of War 2, were people pre-purshaced the game from other retailers, got the game 1 day early and cause DoW2 requires Steam activation they had to wait 1 day so the game was unlocked on Steam database, which ironically which was the day that DOW2 was suppose to be released.

RETAILERS FAULT!

Wait wait? Steam? You do remenber EA's DRM dont you? THE ONE THAT FUCKING STOPS YOU FROM PLAYING A GAME WHEN YOU REACH THE INSTALLATION CAP?

Yes I also remember that at no point did it stop me from installing or running the game. At no point did it attempt to go online and download a patch without first asking me. At no point did it tell me that my game was unavaliable and I would have to come back in ten minutes time once it had finished doing whatever the hell it had decided it wanted to do first.

I've played all the big name titles, and had to deal with all the various DRMs that they have decided to include and of all of them STEAM is still the only one that time and again sticks it's nose in and tells me to bugger off because it has decided I can't play the game right now.

Nor does Steam. The only time I have to wait to play a game is when he needs to update. Something that EA's DRM also did when you installed the game.

LEARN TO USE STEAM[/b]

Rome:Total War? Medieval 2:Total War? World of Goo?Dawn of War 1? Dawn of War 2? Audiosurf? Fallout 3? Call of Duty 4?Company of Heroes? Civilization 4? Bioshock?Deus Ex?

None of them require STEAM at installation so have fuck all to do with STEAM beyond the fact that if you're stupid enough you can buy them off STEAM and then let it dictate weather you get to play them or not.

But Half Life 2, Ep1 and Ep2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat:Source, COunter-Strike Source, Red Orchestra, DAwn of War 2, Football Manager, FEAR 2, Empire:Total War are all quirky games that are too crap to sell for themselfs then? Okay, if you say so.

But for real now. Learn to use it and stop crying cause it updates your games for free and 99% of the time it fixes games crashes and adds more content to your games.

5 years ago you had to wait 3 hours to Steam finish download the newest client update, which was almost everyday to play Half Life 2. Now it takes 5 seconds which is the time to open Steam and click on the game you want to play.

 

[johnman]

Ok this simple question turned into an Anti-steam rant. I shall contribute by saying Steam is the most important program on my computer, and that your arguments agaist it are flawed as Laughing man has pointed out.

If your all for having to ask permission to play the game after you have used 3 intalls then go ahead, but dont dont rip on a program that does so much for Pc gaming because its not your idea of perfection.

 

[Laughing Man]

But for real now. Learn to use it and stop crying cause it updates your games for free and 99% of the time it fixes games crashes and adds more content to your games.

LOL learn the difference between 'learn to use' and 'learn to deal'. Their is nothing to learn about STEAM that will get round the problems and faults I have listed and since the only reason I have STEAM is because it is required by certain games I own then that means the last thing I should have to be doing is 'learning to deal' with it. STEAM should sit there and do it's job and never at any point ever dictate what I can and cannot do with my games. At the moment it doesn't do that.

It's that level of dictation that brings such vocal outrage against any other form of DRM but somehow because it's STEAM it seems to be acceptable. I just don't get that...

Anyway last response on this subject apologies to the OP for high jacking this thread.

Back on topic, the additional units that the Special Forces pack give you are fairly unnoticable within the game. Infact if it wasn't for the small change to the launch icon when you install them you probably wouldn't even notice that they were there. Saying that the little campaign map you get is quite nice and was actually helpful in locating some of the regions required for the successful completion of my British Campaign. Mind you that alone is not worth the extra £5 I paid for it.