Demo Discussion Thread

[pyradyn]

96% just finished my breakfast and I am ready to kick my own nations ass woot! I do not care I will be a traitor for ETW! Plus I get to send the French to Davey Jones locker

[InsaneApache]

Give it a minute or two, it will.

[pyradyn]

91 posts in 5 hours.....wow lol

[MK_MadMick]

Mines all over the shop regarding speed, but at least its at 6%. I'm off out tonight so I'll be playing tomorrow methinks. :(

[Don Esteban]

I have a tough decision...

Empire Demo or night out drinking with the boys?

I think going out has to win but I suspect a drunken attempt to play at 2am is on the cards

[Zatoichi]

Oh rude words! It's happened to me again - this time I got to 52% before it reverted back to 'Download starting'. GAH! The innernets hate me!

Still, third time's a charm.

[Greyblades]

Hmm... I went to the dentist for an hour and it went form 2% with no kb/s showing to 40% at average 100kb/s

[Zatoichi]

Hey, maybe that'll work for me too - I'm off to the dentist! Any dentist will do!

[Terraforce]

2.5 MB/s 67%

[Rhyfelwyr]

I played through the full land tutorial and half the naval tutorial but I got a blue screen crash?!?!

Anyway, it looked good so far, but the camera seems a little awkward compared to the previous titles. Still the graphics are astounding!

[Greyblades]

Hey, maybe that'll work for me too - I'm off to the dentist! Any dentist will do!

Its amazing what having clean(ish) teeth will do.
[edit] woo 50% through... ok I'm going to stop posting percentages before it gets silly.

[Divine Wind]

My UK & Ireland steam server went to around 30kb/s 5 minutes ago. Changed to East Coast server, and its now very steady at 600 kb/s with 36% downloaded. Thanks!

[pyradyn]

So just played land battle and decided well lets just test how good this AI is. I did what not General would have done I marched on the Heavy American position fortified by 3 Artillery divisions. I sent my Cavalry around to flank. In most Tw this would sadly work. Well We marched and engaged kept them busy was going to be all over when my Cav met the rear. To my amazement the AI too 2 line infantry in reserve and their cavalry to meet my flanking force. My cavalry took out theirs but was routed by the Line infantry volleys. It was not to bad I can still try to take the ground except not only did the AI counter my Flank they followed with one of their own. The American flanked me and I was fighting 2 fronts. I Finlay ordered a charge and pushed the Americans across the river where they regrouped and came back at me in full force exchanging volleys before charging my forces. I am happy I lost ^_^ because I knowingly did something stupid and the AI took advantage of it. YAY! now to go back and really right that battle :P

[Gregoshi]

I was at about 2 MB/s during the download with my FiOS (fiber optic) service. The download went pretty fast.

Alas, for me, that was the only thing that was fast. My computer meets minimum spec but the demo was pretty much unplayable. Load screens were over 5 minutes (I know because I was microwaving some food). Even changing screen resolutions took nearly 5 minutes the first time - the second time the demo hung (not responding). I did have the tutorial up for a few minutes - looked great but it was at higher display setting and was a slide show with screen updates in the 1-3 second per frame range. I'll give it a shot later on when I have some more time and see if I can get anything reasonable acceptable at the lowest settings, but I guess I'm probably going to have to wait until I can get a new machine.

BTW, my specs:

P4 2.53mHz
1 mb RAM (max my motherboard supports)
Radeon X1300 (512mb RAM)
Window XP SP3

[Relic]

Forgive me for this fellas but...
"OMG! WOOT! WOOT!"

It's finally out!

[Fisherking]

After finely getting the download to restart I got a result of half the previous time…it is now below 14 min. But my wife and kids are all home now…so I don’t know about reports.

Odd thing though, I didn’t get a download screen this time, only a bar and I can’t shop servers…what is up with that?

[Monk]

What a horribly optimized demo you've decided to give the masses, CA. I'd have rathered listened to the complaints of everyone who wanted one than played this. My experience is the same as Greg's, however my specs are much better than his.

3ghz CPU
GeForce 9600 GT
4gb RAM
Windows Vista

With these specs I was experiencing load times of 5 min. The battles ran great, but the load times were horrid. Loading into battle, loading out of battle, changing graphics options, getting to the main menu. It didn't matter, it all took a solid 5 min.

I finished the download around 12pm and have been wrestling with it for the passed 45 min. I didn't play the land battle to it's finish because quite frankly by the time I got into the battle I didn't care anymore. getting out of battle is just as much of a fiasco. If anyone knows what's causing this and how to fix it, i'm all ears. If its simply the game...

What about battles, you may be asking. Well, combat animations are really sloppy. Cavalry charge into a unit, but if the cavalry charges and envelopes the unit, sometimes the horsemen who didnt hit the line just keep riding instead of stopping to fight. As if they are chasing a ghost they'll go on for a long time. Melee animations look unfinished. Artillery crews get stuck in animations while they move back around the cannon to get out of the way, gliding around. Were these things seen in M2? Maybe. But not to this extent.

I couldn't tell you how the AI performed, i was too distracted by the buggy animations.

I really hope this was some sort of earlier build, CA. This was ridiculous.

[pyradyn]

The animations I have to say yes were sloppy, as for long load times I am having lag which is really sad because my computer is not some little rinky dink,

Specs:
AMD 64 Duel Core Processor 3.2 GH 6000+
Geforce 9800
2 GB RAM
Windows XP Pro

[Discoman]

I have 2.8ghz and a double core
Nvidia XFX 8600 GTS (512mb)
2 gigs of Ram

The loading screens were too damn long! I got 5 minutes the first time and later it took around 2 minutes. I was a bit annoyed at the camera controls as When I zoomed it then got horribly slow and my constant zooming in and out didn't help. I didn't really notice the animations mainly because I was too preoccupied looking for a way to flank those bloody yanks. The AI seems all there.... except when my men decided to go in one straight line by accident.

I really loved the Ship Battle, except for the sudden turning of the ship...

[ToeAndno]

Quick reminder:

These are historic battles and so the AI is scripted mostly. This will not give a clear view on how the AI will be in the full game

[Vuk]

Quick reminder:

These are historic battles and so the AI is scripted mostly. This will not give a clear view on how the AI will be in the full game

BS, things like fighting animations, the way that soldiers switch formations, etc is not scripted. I am very disappointed.

[ToeAndno]

I wasn't talking about animations

[scipiosgoblin]

THIS SUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

I get all the wat to the battle tutorial load screen. I got up to answer the phone. I hear the demo start talking. I come back and look at the screen. It's stuck on the load screen. I can hear the demo. I can move units (God knows where) and shoot. But I can't see anything but the blasted Load screen which is stuck with a tiny bit left to load.

I guess my computer can't handle it. I guess I won't be playing ETW for a year.

Crap!

[The Fuzz]

Well, my computer barely meets minimum specs, so...

*cancels download*

Gonna play me some Broken Crescent.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Hm, not quite what I was expecting. I'm reporting the same problems as everyone else regarding load screens and the like. Framerate on the land battle map (haven't tried sea yet) and even the opening movie was pretty low. The battle itself was somewhat enjoyable although, again, the framerate dampened. I turned the graphic settings down pretty low, too.

That said, I'd like to remind everybody that it's just a demo and that CA has been working on this for a number of years, even pushing the release date back a few times. Have faith, guys.

[Monk]

Hm, not quite what I was expecting. I'm reporting the same problems as everyone else regarding load screens and the like. Framerate on the land battle map (haven't tried sea yet) and even the opening movie was pretty low. The battle itself was somewhat enjoyable although, again, the framerate dampened. I turned the graphic settings down pretty low, too.

That said, I'd like to remind everybody that it's just a demo and that CA has been working on this for a number of years, even pushing the release date back a few times. Have faith, guys.

The demo was reportedly pulled back into studio to recieve more work to "make it ready and releasable". I'm afraid there's not much that can make me optimistic about the game as a whole if I have to suffer through wait times anywhere close to these. Unless CA comes on these forums and specifically tells me those problems are not in the main game, or other members report that, I highly doubt I will be purchasing the game.

The demo of any game has one main purpose which is to sell you on the full product, whatever that may be. This demo did everything but that.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

OK, my impressions.

Loading times were bad, which is a bad way to earn a first impression.

Played the land tutorial - piece of cake, but fairly well made. It might have skimped a bit on the tactics part of the fight - it mentioned nothing of flanking. It did illustrate how effective cover could be though. Nice introduction to land battles.

Then the naval tutorial - also very little meat in the "how to win" department. There should be something that skips the camera controls if you've played the other tutorial (and vice versa).

Then the naval battle - I felt like I wasn't doing a lot to affecte the battle. If my ships were faster (stupid battleship slugfest :/) I could've crossed the T's of the two french navies right off the bat. Lost 2 ships of 6, sunk or forced to surrender all 7 French ships. Graphics look great. I'd prefer frigates. ~:P

Then finally the land battle. I figured I'd do what I was supposed to and flank the Americans using the other ford to the left. Marched out, no problems started taking fire from American skirmishers, but my light infantry put them away. (Sidenote, there's a "skirmish" button for them but it didn't seem to make them spread out or do anything). Then ran into the main force of infantry (I think the AI shifted them over after it saw I moved to the other ford, which may or may not be scripted). Put my line up against theirs while I worked their flank with my grenadiers and light infantry, eventually forced them back.

Some time during this point the enemy arty took out all my horse artillery (which seem useless) and my general (guess I shouldn't have left him in the open). My cavalry was also pretty beat up.

With my British and Hessian line infantry shot ragged but the Americans essentially done, I sent my cav and light infantry against the remaining American dragoons and arty. Mopping up took some time but was just annoying.

didn't like:
>hand to hand animations seem weak. When a line of infantry crashes into another, it doesn't seem to do much - I would imagine the defender would lose many at the onset, when stuck by a whole bunch of bayonets. The defender doesn't. :/
>the light infantry of both sides can deploy anti-cav stakes. That's all fine and good, but it will apparently kill cavalry that walks through it, even if they're fully aware of it. Lost most of a hussars unit this way (though only realized a while after when I zoomed in on the stakes for chuckles. :/)
> useless tissue-paper horse arty

did like
> AI doesn't seem awful, though it's hard to tell in scripted fights.
> It's cool lining up infantry to fire at each other, though expensive really quickly.
> small crackling skirmishes between a few units

[Sheogorath]

And now the server issues begin.

I got to %30 before my download stopped. Now it says it's 'updating' and went down to %0

My friend over in Scotland reported a similar thing happening at almost exactly the same time.

ITS AS IF A MILLION FANBOYS SUDDENLY CRIED OUT IN PAIN

[Vuk]

I have cancelled my preorder. The game does not run correctly and stinks. That is why I said CA should have spent more time developing it. I could tell by what the reviews said that it was an unfinished product. I realise that I posted the thread pretty late, but I think that they should have made the decision and delayed it a month or two more. It is not close to complete.

[peacemaker]

gah. i warned myself not to visit this thread till ive played the demo since i want to try and get this thing all by myself before seeing your strategies...the demo is SO SLOW!!! or maybe it's just my internet connection...Steam said there was a demo and a big button "play now!" but i just closed that and am hopefully resuming the original demo from this morning. 29% so far after a few hours...hopefully it'll be done by tonight.