Empire: Totally Screwed-Up

[rainless]

General Britwad was upset...

He'd been expecting an easy battle against the Spanish in the F'N tutorial...

But the four hours it took him to install the game due to random f-ups by the development team had made him nervous ( http://help.sega.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=516&nav=0,6,165 ), and the Spaniards were starting to show some resilience...

Again and again he called on his indestructible infantry to lead bayonet charge after bayonet charge... the enemy was stabbed, grounded, shot once they got on the ground, and occasionally cut in half...

...but each time they somehow managed to make it to their feet. This was a battle Purgatory. No one would ever live... but no one could ever die. Supernatural Specter Tactics were outside of Britwad's Oxford education...

Yet a general he was... It turns out the only reason the Spanish refused to go down was because he wasn't killing the Spanish that the game WANTED to go down...

Instead he had followed a group of routed Spaniards into the forest and attempted to hack them to pieces amongst the assorted shrubbery... But the REAL enemy was just sitting on the battlefield getting canons fired at them and waiting to be stabbed...

So Britwad sighed... gathered his troops... and ordered one of his men to throw a rock at them.

The entire Spanish army and all members of their parliament collapsed. And that's why today Madrid is known as New England...
-----------------------------------------------------------------

THE F***ING TUTORIAL WAS GLITCHY! WHAT THE HELL!

I can't wait to see what horrors await me in the naval tutorial... or what shear madness in the Grand Campaign will cause me to throw my HDTV out the window...

They better hurry the hell up with that patch...

[SteveLord]

Is this what you spent lastnight doing? Writing?

My thoughts. The tutorial is stupidly short and almost useless. It takes 5 minutes to finish. Ok, so its just for the "Battle" part of the game, but it still shows you squat. None of the campaigns have the traditional style of guiding you initially like any other strategy game.

Am I the only one that doesn't understand unit pathfinding? I mean...I know its hard in strategy games to get units to navigate obstacles, but this game is out in the wide open. I tell units to attack another unit to the east...and they start moving north. It's seriously this ass backwards almost all the time.

Artillery. Does a cannon ball dropping on your head seriously do nothing? Because that is how they behave in this game. Maybe 1 out of every 5 direct hits will kill 1 unit. I found out later that switching the ammo types to explosive and canister help this. Maybe this a design thing....but seriously. A freakin cannonball is a cannonball.

Which brings me to the next thing. Animations are not what I would expect from a 2009 game. Look at Dawn of War's 2004 fighting animations compared to this. Yes, DoW is on a smaller scale, but I was expecting something better. Even LOTR BFME's cavalry would trample over infantry when charging instead of getting stuck together like some kind of spider web victim.

Technical gripe. No ALT TABing support? Serious? If it weren't for Steam Friends, you'd have no way to make contact with anyone without closing the entire game. This should be standard in every game.

My game did crash once too.

If I ever get Volume 1 of the Instructional Encyclopedia or achieve a Master's Degree, I'll comment on the campaign.

[rainless]

Is this what you spent lastnight doing? Writing?

No. General Britwad was SLEEPING after taking four hours to install, one hour to update, and 45 minutes to unglitch the tutorial.

It SAYS it supports Alt-Tab right when you start up... but who can be certain?

This patch is going to take ANOTHER nine hours to install... because it's going to take like 6 gigs just to fix all this sh**

[SteveLord]

ALT TAB doesn't go anywhere for me or my friend I played with lastnight. The retail install didn't take long considering it was 2 discs.

[blitzkrieg1110]

Haha, not gonna lie, this cracked me up :p, mainly because I've had some of this happen to me.

The install for just the DEMO took me forever. Starting the game up, I swear I looked at the legal print for 10 minutes before it did anything (I'm lucky I had some patience, I was about to CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill the process).

Then, I was in for more surprises, as it takes like 5 minutes to load each mission/tutorial only to find the game crashes to desktop about 2 minutes into the land battle that's provided in the demo.

Holy........crap......

[rainless]

Haha, not gonna lie, this cracked me up :p, mainly because I've had some of this happen to me.

The install for just the DEMO took me forever. Starting the game up, I swear I looked at the legal print for 10 minutes before it did anything (I'm lucky I had some patience, I was about to CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill the process).

Then, I was in for more surprises, as it takes like 5 minutes to load each mission/tutorial only to find the game crashes to desktop about 2 minutes into the land battle that's provided in the demo.

Holy........crap......

Everyone has had a different experience so far. And NONE of those experiences have been... ideal.


ALT TAB doesn't go anywhere for me or my friend I played with lastnight. The retail install didn't take long considering it was 2 discs.

Are you thinking of SHIFT-Tab? The Steam frontend thing?

THAT works just fine.

[Remove]

The demo was a horid loading nightmare. The lock ups it caused from the simplest of task was insane.

I've been really waiting for this game but always wait a week or so before I buy anything these days. Really glad I've not wasted any time on it yet.

[rainless]

http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/3628/first-empire-total-war-patch-coming-today

Sega announced today that it would be rolling out the first of a series of updates for Empire: Total War. The first patch will be released today with a variety of fixes, including:

- Fixed Alt-Tab issue which prevents players from switching away from a full screen window
- Fixed text rendering for certain resolutions
- Fixed localized font overrun issues.
- Fixed a variety of crash and memory leak issues
- Fixed a variety of multiplayer client lock
- Fixed trade nodes for those nations with resource in home region which caused unprofitable trade theatre routes eg: Sweden and Marathas.

[Leviathan41]

^^ Good news! :thup:

One good thing is that since they are using Steamworks, they can update the game whenever and as often as they need to, much like Valve does with their games. They don't have to hold several updates back and release a downloadable patch, they can get the fixes out when they are ready to go.

They also said there will be another update out early next week.

[rainless]

^^ Good news! :thup:

One good thing is that since they are using Steamworks, they can update the game whenever and as often as they need to, much like Valve does with their games. They don't have to hold several updates back and release a downloadable patch, they can get the fixes out when they are ready to go.

They also said there will be another update out early next week.

I didn't actually see the "fix for text at certain resolutions"... I still can't read a damned thing on the screen. Also... the voices always cut-off on me in mid-sentence... weird.

[lordkosc]

well I patched mine, and it seems to work better but my 2 save games are gone...

oh well time to re-start the road to independence.

also load times for me are now at a constant 15-20 seconds per battle map.

[Vengance_01]

I really want to buy this game, but man the bugs scare me.

[SteveLord]

I really want to buy this game, but man the bugs scare me.

I havent played it enough to notice anything major or even an excessive amount yet. The game has A reviews across the board from sites and publications. The Naval combat is the common gripe.

[lordkosc]

I sorta like the naval combat.

[squads]

The first iteration of naval combat was bound to be lacking somewhat. They have perfected ground combat quite well though.

I got my game in from Gogamer today, so I should be spending countless hours toiling at campaigns in short order.

[rainless]

The first iteration of naval combat was bound to be lacking somewhat. They have perfected ground combat quite well though.

I got my game in from Gogamer today, so I should be spending countless hours toiling at campaigns in short order.

Road to Independence seems kinda long... Then again I haven't had much time.

[squads]

Road to Independence seems kinda long... Then again I haven't had much time.

"Kinda long" doesn't even begin to describe full campaigns. I would estimate they took me 50-70 hours to complete in Rome or Medieval II. Epic battles and sieges alone can take 20 to 30 minutes. The game can eat up whole days of your life and you will have amnesia for the event (like those sleep medicines that make you sleep-walk/drive).

Honestly, I am kind of afraid to start playing. I fear commitment. :-/

[rainless]

Where are you guys at in the Road to Independence? (For those who opted to do that...)

I'm at Episode 3 Mission 3 now... I've just been asked to construct a navy.

"Kinda long" doesn't even begin to describe full campaigns. I would estimate they took me 50-70 hours to complete in Rome or Medieval II. Epic battles and sieges alone can take 20 to 30 minutes. The game can eat up whole days of your life and you will have amnesia for the event (like those sleep medicines that make you sleep-walk/drive).

Honestly, I am kind of afraid to start playing. I fear commitment. :-/

Road to Independence is fine. They've broken everything down to Chapters and episodes... so I finish a chapter or two and then just save and pick it up later.

[lordkosc]

Sadly after I build my Navy , I get a crash to desktop, EVERY TIME...

well , I finally completed the road to independence, it was very satisfying :D

BUT , I didn't get the AMERICAN HERO achievement.... wtf?

[rainless]

Sadly after I build my Navy , I get a crash to desktop, EVERY TIME...

well , I finally completed the road to independence, it was very satisfying :D

BUT , I didn't get the AMERICAN HERO achievement.... wtf?

Well you're gonna hate this... I got it NOW.

Right after *before* I built the Navy. I haven't even FOUGHT anybody yet... There's not even an America yet! :)

I beat the French out of Fort Nicaragua or whatever it is... and they gave it to me.

EDIT: Whoops! My bad. I got "Founding Father" not "American Hero"

[Dak9767]

I'm at a point in the main campaign where the games crashes at the same point everytime. I load the game click the watch to finish my turn and it goes through all the nations just to crash after the pirates turn is finished. This has been the biggest waste of $50 I've seen in awhile.

[Springbok]

I haven't had any crashes, but the game isn't what I was initially hoping for! I thought the new world would be completely unexplored, but when you start up the campaign it seems everyone has already bitten off a chunk.

I'm thinking about starting a new game using one of the Indian factions, the thought of war elephants storming America's shores is pretty hillarious. What country did you guys pick?

[Hardin]

What a great game...until it locks up in the middle of naval combat! I chose Great Britain. I captured Paris early in the game(they left it completely defenseless and this is on medium difficulty to). France still had Alsace-Lorraine so they weren't destroyed yet. I didn't want to kill them so soon so I asked for peace and they accepted. I later traded Paris to Spain in exchange for New Mexico, Gibraltar, Sardinia, some other region, a few techs, and lots of gold. Later on I gave Gibraltar back to them in exchange for more tech and more gold and now they are very friendly with me. I guess they don't mind that I'm Protestant anymore. France was later destroyed and I'm slowing taking their former lands in the new world. I haven't set my sights on India yet, but I should soon.

[Springbok]

Had my first crash to desktop yesterday during naval combat, I right clicked on an enemy ship to auto attack and it froze instantly.

I gotta say, I love the look of the sails in the wind, and seeing guys jump overboard! I want to get one of those triple-deck ships!

[BRIMCV]

My game is crashing everytime I declare war, Im getting really annoyed ive installed this game 5times to try and resolve the issues and sometimes it works i get a few years further and bang crash bang desktop.

For a release the game is wayy to Unstable IMO.

[rainless]

My game is crashing everytime I declare war, Im getting really annoyed ive installed this game 5times to try and resolve the issues and sometimes it works i get a few years further and bang crash bang desktop.

For a release the game is wayy to Unstable IMO.

Supposed to be another patch this week.

I've also had no crashes... and I've done naval combat now.

Must be some combination of hardware.

[BRIMCV]

I got to year 1740ish and its then it just goes wacky declared war on the Pueblo Nations and it crashes also over in India the same game will continue each turn but i cant invade or anything.

[Hardin]

Sometimes I wonder if this game has artificial intelligence or artificial ignorance. They'll leave their cities unguarded, and they do a poor job at sieging your cities. They constantly march their units back and forth causing them to tire quickly. But I do have some occasional challenges. Navy pathfinding needs some work as well, my ships get piled up and get move.

[rainless]

I really like the way they slowly introduce buttons and features in the Road to Independence... though I wish all buttons were available at all times and they just HIGHLIGHTED them when they wanted to introduce something new as opposed to graying them out until they want you to use them.

It kind of gives a limited impression of what the game's all about until they make the buttons available.

I think a good example is the dockyard... If you upgrade to a dockyard and you have a couple of ships, there are buttons that allow your armies to embark. I just happened to get curious about what the buttons did and I was able to discover how the feature worked on my own... at the same time the tutorial lady happily explained that I could also use the button to combine armies.

Can't wait to get to use some Agents so I can find out what THAT tab is all about.

[Hardin]

Rainless you probably haven't gotten far enough in the campaign yet to see most of the crashes. It's 1794 right now in my campaign and it's pretty bad. Battles wont load, it'll just crash randomly in the campaign map, and I can't even click on one of my shipyards because it crashes every time I click there.

[rainless]

Rainless you probably haven't gotten far enough in the campaign yet to see most of the crashes. It's 1794 right now in my campaign and it's pretty bad. Battles wont load, it'll just crash randomly in the campaign map, and I can't even click on one of my shipyards because it crashes every time I click there.

Yeah there's still plenty of glitches. I can't even get garrisoned forces outside of houses.

Fortunately a patch is supposed to be on its way this week.

I must've screwed-up somewhere because I can't get past this one part in Road to Independence for the life of me. I might have to start the episode over again.

[lordkosc]

this thing needs patches, i am taking a break till it gets some...

[Albaholic]

My saved game is completely useless. I was about to finish the world domination campaign as Russia. I was simply going to load an older save when I found that the auto save kicked in after my quick save. both of which will not load.

[rainless]

My saved game is completely useless. I was about to finish the world domination campaign as Russia. I was simply going to load an older save when I found that the auto save kicked in after my quick save. both of which will not load.

Exactly why I always do multiple saves... ESPECIALLY in strategy games.

Never EVER rely on quicksave.

Not for any game...

...EVER!

There was a guy who only used quicksave in Oblivion.

...OBLIVION.

Guess what happened to him...

[SteveLord]

I've only done land battles with friends. So far there's been no severe bugs.

[Albaholic]

Exactly why I always do multiple saves... ESPECIALLY in strategy games.

Never EVER rely on quicksave.

Not for any game...

...EVER!

There was a guy who only used quicksave in Oblivion.

...OBLIVION.

Guess what happened to him...

Point taken. I started over again. Conquered most of Europe (this time doing three separate saves each time) Then I began to turn my attention to America and India. The game started crashing on me and corrupting 2/3 of my saves. Forget it, I'm done. I might start again once more patches come out for this game.

[rainless]

I FINISHED EPISODE 2 of the ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE!

[DominicJ]

Mine has crashed once, completed the short campaign as Sweden and am now just killing time in a long campaign as Austria.
Captured all the specifics and other territories, and am just expanding randomly, the barbary pirates annoyed me.

I generaly dont do the "battle" bit, being useless at it, even with my vastly oversized armies, General, 4 24lb howitzers, 3 heavy cav and the rest line infantry.
I've also only really done Europe, not having any colonies elsewhere.
They could be a factor with crashing.