Patch 3!

[joe4iz]

Had my first CTD since installing the patch. 1740 time frame on a long campaign. This is genereally where I started to run into problems prior to the patch. Offloading troops into a friendly port and the game crashed when I clicked the units off the ship. Never had that happen before. All of my crashes were due to sealanes and second rates (or so it would appear).

[Skott]

I noticed when I want to hire a general or admiral now for one of my stacks it says I cant (there's a sentence saying why this may be because of) but it lets me do it anyway. Kinda weird. Anyone else run into that? Its not a problem as far as I'm concerned as long as I can hire them, which I can, but I didnt have this issue before the patch.

Oh, and for the first time ever the Barbary States offered me a peace treaty! They wanted 41,000 though but still they offered! Never had them offer in a campaign before. I like that.

[anweRU]

Here are a few observations 8 turns into a GB H/M campaign:

- The Artificial Intelligence is declaring war in a Non-Intelligent manner, in fresh games as well as old ones. As GB, I was surprised when Holland declared war on me at the end of Turn 7. I thought it was becasue I had Flanders. I reloaded the autosave, and re-tried. This time, Holland declared war on Courland instead. Huh? Apparently, we're back to the non-sensical wars of METW2.

- As GB (Hard/Medium), I'm somewhat behind where I was at the same turn. I can't blitz this time. I am not recruiting as many units so I can invest in my economy. I'm also constrained by the increased resistance, which is tying down my armies. Also, I couldn't unload Flanders to UP, like I did pre-patch, so I'm stuck with it. Hence, I have not been able to launch an attack on India.

- The Ottomans actually captured Moldovia back from the Poles, yeah! They lost Bosnia and Serbia to Austria, boo. But Bosnia's capital is under siege, I don't know by whom. I'll find out in a couple of turns (rebels or Ottomans). I don't see as many Turkish naval stacks - I think the Ottoman AI is finally recruiting land units, instead of useless ships.

- The AI is capturing regions, but losing them promptly due to the increased resistance & rebellions. Russia destroyed the Crimean Khanate by turn 3, but the Crimean Khanate re-emerged by turn 7! Sweden lost Karelia to rebels.

- The massive native stacks have not yet made an appearance. The Iriquois and Cherokee declared war on the 13 colonies on turn 1, but have not been able to capture anything yet. I just started to send military techs over to the 13, so I hope they'll be able to hold the line.

[Skott]

Another thing I have noticed. Every time I take a region that puts me next to a region controlled by a another faction that I wasnt next door to before, or not at war with, that faction now turns around and declares war on me real quick. Not sure if this is now a common thing to expect or just particular to my current GB campaign. I need to test it more to find out. Past TW games had this happen alot and ETW didnt do this until the latest patch. If this is going to be the common occurance then this will make it hard to stay out of wars. Good or bad depending on how one looks at it I guess.

[Fisherking]

Declarations of War now seem to be where they were in M2TW.

If they are indifferent to you then they will likely go to war.

Some my like this at the upper difficulty levels, but I was doing a post patch game set on easy to see how it goes.

There are some positive things to note in the game mechanics but I will leave that for later.

Right now the belligerence and aggressively of the other factions is over the top.

[AussieGiant]

It certainly takes me a moment to get passed the: "It's too easy and the AI isn't agressive enough."

To now:

"The AI is too aggressive and is not not behaving sensibly."

I mean for god sake, without outlining anyone's specific requirements set on the topic how is CA meant to magically "know" just what is too hard or too easy for everyone?

Maybe the difficulty settings are relevant now.

Anyway:

I certainly noticed a surprise which fits in with what Skott said. In my Prussian H/M Prestige campaign, UP and I traded for decades and were friendly, although they never took the offer to ally, which was interesting. Keep in mind I have never been allied with anyone in the entire campaign (year 1760) on Hard campaign settings.

So I finally took Hannover and gained a common boarder with them...bang they declared war on me and parked a nice well compiled army with a 5 star general just on my side of the boarder in Hannover... bastards

I'm on Hard...so it's been hard.

What can I say...maybe everyone needs to readjust their own skills to the definitions of what the words Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard mean.

[antisocialmunky]

The sense of things I've gotten is that Easy and Normal are both too hard and the AI seems to try and declare war ever X amount of turns on a neighboring faction that it doesn't like likes the least... which makes no sense.

Compare this to Civ 4 where diplomacy with AI is quite fun, rational, memorable, and easily 40% of the game.

[Discoman]

It certainly takes me a moment to get passed the: "It's too easy and the AI isn't agressive enough."

To now:

"The AI is too aggressive and is not not behaving sensibly."

I mean for god sake, without outlining anyone's specific requirements set on the topic how is CA meant to magically "know" just what is too hard or too easy for everyone?

Maybe the difficulty settings are relevant now.

Well it's annoying that intelligent diplomacy is advertised and is no longer present. I was playing as Sweden and had Persia and the Maratha Confed. declare war even though I was in very good standing with both nations. In the end it didn't matter because I ended up killing off both nations.

Also, if really weak nations are going to attack a superpower, they should really do it as an alliance rather than just one country. I mean the AI should know who's the enemies of their enemies and say, "Hmm if we both declare war at the same time we'd really stand a greater chance then doing it individually 20 years apart"

In example Mysore declares war on me, not after I take over northern India, not after Marathas declare, but only when they're the only faction left in India and they only have two places do they decide to declare war.

I guess the only reasonable way to fix what I'm talking about would be to make the "Enemy of my Enemy is my friend" attribute override the "Territorial Expansion" attribute.

[AussieGiant]

Well it's annoying that intelligent diplomacy is advertised and is no longer present. I was playing as Sweden and had Persia and the Maratha Confed. declare war even though I was in very good standing with both nations. In the end it didn't matter because I ended up killing off both nations.

Also, if really weak nations are going to attack a superpower, they should really do it as an alliance rather than just one country. I mean the AI should know who's the enemies of their enemies and say, "Hmm if we both declare war at the same time we'd really stand a greater chance then doing it individually 20 years apart"

In example Mysore declares war on me, not after I take over northern India, not after Marathas declare, but only when they're the only faction left in India and they only have two places do they decide to declare war.

I guess the only reasonable way to fix what I'm talking about would be to make the "Enemy of my Enemy is my friend" attribute override the "Territorial Expansion" attribute.

All good points Discoman. It does seem they have made a bit of a slap dash change at the moment, and there needs to be some fine tuning going forward in the next series of patches.

[Eusebius86]

Well it's annoying that intelligent diplomacy is advertised and is no longer present. I was playing as Sweden and had Persia and the Maratha Confed. declare war even though I was in very good standing with both nations. In the end it didn't matter because I ended up killing off both nations.

Also, if really weak nations are going to attack a superpower, they should really do it as an alliance rather than just one country. I mean the AI should know who's the enemies of their enemies and say, "Hmm if we both declare war at the same time we'd really stand a greater chance then doing it individually 20 years apart"

In example Mysore declares war on me, not after I take over northern India, not after Marathas declare, but only when they're the only faction left in India and they only have two places do they decide to declare war.

I guess the only reasonable way to fix what I'm talking about would be to make the "Enemy of my Enemy is my friend" attribute override the "Territorial Expansion" attribute.

I don't mind an agressive and expanionistic AI, but not on all difficulty levels. I just played a campaign on Easy as Austria, and every single one of my neighbors, save bavaria, declared war on me by turn 10. GB and UP even broke our alliances, after giving them gifts. The AI shouldn't be so quick to declare war and break alliances. Also, when the AI declares war, it is doing so in a stupid way. I reduced Poland to one poor territory, and forced them to make peace. They declared war 8 turns later, but only sent a 2 unit stack after me, when I had a 10 unit one right next door...

[Dead Guy]

Well I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the changes, even though saying it's save game compatible is a real stretch, as many have pointed out. I went from earning almost 150k to -60k per turn after patching. I had to ditch nearly all my fleets, managed to keep about 2 stacks in america and maybe 3 stacks in India and maybe 6 stacks in Europe. The first turn Spain and Marathas declare war on me, I've been trading with them for the entire campaign. Quebec declared too. It was basically impossible to continue without retreating from an entire theater or something on that scale.

Starting a new campaign, however, works very well I think. Lots of wars very early but the alliances seem to hold, I like it so far. I think it's sad that the american factions always seem to join their protectors after at most 10 turns...

[loony]

In my last campaign as Poland (started after patch), the nastiest agressor is Courland. The bastards managed to get into a war with most of Europe and I have NO IDEA where they get the cash to fund all that. They have a full stack in sweden, another one running around moscow and the third one banging me in Vilnius :-(

[anweRU]

Some positive observations from my post-patch scratch H/M GB campaign:
- The minor factions are not super-powers anymore. By 1711, they seem to have enough units for a single full stack to defend their home countries. Wurtemburg & Savoy are not steam-rollering France anymore. And they have been able to defend themselves, so they haven't been nerfed too much either.
- France is still alive and kicking.
- The Native American factions are much more realistic. Still a tad too aggressive early in the game, but the 13 Colonies managed to protect themselves for most of the time, losing only the Carolinas and Virginia.
- I probably have conquered only half the provinces I did in my pre-patch GB campaign. I can fund only two full stacks, though I am slowly putting together two half-stacks (one each in India and NA) to support the main stacks.

Back to my pet peave about this patch: The AI is back to METW2 - all AI factions will declare war on you eventually, if you have a bordering province. Holland should not attack GB on turn 7; France and Spain breaking their alliances early on is plain silly. The AI should try some diplomacy first to get the province it needs for its victory conditions, as it tried to pre-patch. The pre-patch problem with AI diplomacy was that it was stuck in an endless loop, and there were no penalties for refusing an AI offer.

I would like to see the AI offers back, with relations worsening until they become hostile, then the AI declares war.

[AussieGiant]

That sounds similar to my H/M Prestige Campaign with Prussia.

Although when UP declared war on me I did have 14 provinces in central Europe and was clearly the biggest threat on the continent. So now that I think about it, it does start to make sense.

I also had about the same amount of military power as you mention and was far and away greater than any other single Empire.

[MikeV]

So the stuttering videos have been fixed? That's funny, I've not had this problem at all since the previous patch so I'd assumed they'd been fixed then.


Of course, they're stuttering again now......

Mine too ... I'd be happy if they gave us an option in the preferences.empire_script.txt file to disable them.

Why on earth do CA bother to make these patches when for evrything they fix, they break something else?

I would expect people who make games for a living to know what they're doing.

Two reasons:

1. The quality standard for software is now the one from Micro$oft: "Crappy Is Good Enough."
2. Game companies are full of wannabe Hollywood types , game programmers are wannabe rock stars ... instead of competent software engineers

And it shows in the results. Makes you want to cry. Or at least take your money elsewhere.

"If you are a dee (programmer), please don't marry a dee (game company).
'Cause then your kids (programs) will be ... dee dee dee."

[anweRU]

Is it my imagination, or has the advancement of gentlemen been slowed down? Pre-patch, my gentlemen would get bonus research points rather fast. At the least, they would get the basic 1 point characteristic (factory master, armchair general, etc) when they researched a tech in the relevant area for the first time.

In my current post-patch GB campaign, my gentlemen have been, shall we say, rather slow learners. I have five of them, and the only one gaining anything is Isaac Newton, who will die of old age shortly (I finally reached the 31st turn).

[Marquis of Roland]

Is it my imagination, or has the advancement of gentlemen been slowed down? Pre-patch, my gentlemen would get bonus research points rather fast. At the least, they would get the basic 1 point characteristic (factory master, armchair general, etc) when they researched a tech in the relevant area for the first time.

In my current post-patch GB campaign, my gentlemen have been, shall we say, rather slow learners. I have five of them, and the only one gaining anything is Isaac Newton, who will die of old age shortly (I finally reached the 31st turn).

I noticed this too. I'm cool with that though, I thought research went too quickly before (and still does).

I also notice the opposite for religious npcs. They spawn with 6 to 8 stars. I never had a gentleman spawn with more than 4 (3 is the norm).

The game spawns more historical figures throughout the game now. As Prussia I got Kurt Christoph von Schwerin and Hans Joachim von Zieten as generals and Immanuel Kant as a gentleman, around the 1750's. Frederick the Great's nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II, spawned in the 1760's.

[AussieGiant]

How do you get the historical General's again?

[MikeV]

without outlining anyone's specific requirements set on the topic how is CA meant to magically "know" just what is too hard or too easy for everyone?

Maybe the difficulty settings are relevant now.

...

maybe everyone needs to readjust their own skills to the definitions of what the words Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard mean.

I'd settle for them documenting what they mean: what parameter values change with each setting, what criteria the AI algorithms use, etc.
Like the preferences file parameters.

That way, we'd all know exactly how the settings affect the app.

Some folks enjoy spending weeks or months trying to reverse engineer these things. I'd rather just read the design documentation. Then again, I'm a geek.

[AussieGiant]

You're just taking all the fun out of trying to find out MikeV

Certainly some basic explanation of what is different between each level of difficulty would help. But even then you are giving away various ways of beating the AI.

That would be bad for all those who say this game is too easy.

[MikeV]

You're just taking all the fun out of trying to find out MikeV

Certainly some basic explanation of what is different between each level of difficulty would help. But even then you are giving away various ways of beating the AI.

That would be bad for all those who say this game is too easy.

Well, to paraphrase a recent infamous US President: it depends on what your meaning of "fun" is

For me, it's the opportunity to explore various "what if" alternatives. It's not unusual for me to use the same campaign to make one set of decisions, then back up 10 or 20 turns and try another (I tend to keep a lot of save files, which also helps cope with the various & sundry CTD problems). But, that's just my approach.

Initially, I had hoped that E:TW would provide an interesting simulation of early Industrial Age warfare. Bugs aside, it turns out to be just a game: lots of eye candy, and a rather flaccid AI at both the campaign and tactical levels. Oh, well.

[Marquis of Roland]

How do you get the historical General's again?

Well I started recruiting the actual General's unit instead of promoting from existing units for the extra command star but then I got Immanuel Kant as a gentleman so I'm pretty sure its because of the patch. You haven't gotten any historical characters yet in your campaign?

[AussieGiant]

Well I started recruiting the actual General's unit instead of promoting from existing units for the extra command star but then I got Immanuel Kant as a gentleman so I'm pretty sure its because of the patch. You haven't gotten any historical characters yet in your campaign?

No I haven't gotten any historical generals. At least I don't think I have. Do they spawn automatically or just when you recruit one from the recruitment screen?

[Marquis of Roland]

No I haven't gotten any historical generals. At least I don't think I have. Do they spawn automatically or just when you recruit one from the recruitment screen?

No, they didn't spawn automatically, they're just regular general units recruited in normal fashion, nothing special about them except they have historical names. I still get generals with names I don't recognize, but I only know the names of a few of the Prussian generals of that time, so I'm not sure whether some are just randomly generated or actually historical people. I think it might depend on the year you recruit.

I recruited a new general in 1776, and its frickin' Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. I was LMAO. Well, I guess it could happen, the Thirteen Colonies didn't revolt in my game yet, so I'm guessing von Steuben decided to stay home?

What faction are you, Aussie?

[AussieGiant]

I'm also playing Prussia, that is also what gotmy attention when you wrote about it further up the page.

Ok so I'm doing things correctly. Sometimes I wonder if I can't see certain buttons and things going on in the UI.

Thanks for your help.

[Veresov]

The BAI seems out of kilter.

The AI seems to have forgotten how to fire their rifles and melee rush instead. Cavalry are riding right into those cavalry barracades and dying.