Demo out on 22 February 2011

[Vlad The Impaler]

I started the download just now (got late home, some idiot let himself arrested and I have to visit him)

If I am shutting down steam, tomorrow it will resume or I have to let the PC downloading all night long?

[Gregoshi]

I've messed around a bit with the campaign tutorial, but have yet to try a battle. The atmosphere and music are great as Kage mentioned. So far, the campaign map is very channeling. I am hoping this still allows for a variety of battle terrain (woods, hills, etc), but the demo will not help determining that.

So far, I like what I've seen.

BTW, this is a great demo by adding a mini campaign rather than just a battle or two. Nice work CA.

[antisocialmunky]

It looks like they finally have a Total War that seems polished. The Encyclopedia is very Civesque. Hopefully htis game will be the Civ4 of the franchise rather than the Civ5.

[Cecil XIX]

I lost the final battle tutorial. My coordination was all wrong, and the enemy ended up slaughtering my units piecemeal as they attempted to storm the castle. I hope the AI does as well in other battles.

[drone]

Any idea if the battle AI is scripted for the tutorial?

[Vlad The Impaler]

well seems their servers are great, I downloaded the demo in 20 minutes or so.

first impression is that the game is moving great. although I have a great PC I always had a sense of fragility playing Empire (and a CTD that I never explained although I put all IT from my workplace team to seek the cause because at some point I suspected my PC) so I hope that the game will be the same. if will be easy modable it will be even better.

the game is moving great and that fog of war with old shoggy map looks nice.

[quadalpha]

I think at least part of the tutorial AI has to be scripted. They wouldn't hang out their archers/gunpowder out to dry like in the second tutorial battle.

Also, don't besiege the second province you take. It'll try to do strange things with tutorial battle, and afterwards you'd get stuck if you tried to assault.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Downloading now, next to the Dragon Age 2 demo. It's gonna take me days lol

Not even sure why I'm bothering though, with the campaign restricted to autoresolve. CA is going to keep the real AI under wraps...

[Cecil XIX]

Any idea if the battle AI is scripted for the tutorial?

According to a mod on the official site the AI "is not technically 'on.'" I would say your suspicion is warranted, Alexander. It sure does look like they're hiding something...

[knoddy]

well off to a good start. froze at the spalsh screen so i restarted now my steam is trying to update my demo :S

edit: can any1 confirm if theres an update for hte demo i cant really afford to download it again cos of some stupid steam issue ill go over my limit

[Pinxit]

I had some fun recording from the demo and found this, lol:

[TosaInu]

Nice demo, it's smoother than the NTW one.

[DthB4Dishonor]

Kagemusha thanks a LOT for that review and the screen shots. I have to live vicariously through you and others until my new PC gets delivered.

[DthB4Dishonor]

I had some fun recording from the demo and found this, lol:

Hahaha, that is hilarious. Tough little guy. That is a really impressive little detail and makes me ever hopeful that the game will be epic.

[antisocialmunky]

That castle siege is actually somewhat hard.

Some of the pathing issues from ETW are still there like units turning sideways to shoot at walls. Mostly everything works as expect, smooth, and quite fun. :)

Doesn't seem to require any extra oom from the hardware compared to NTW. But then again, the armies aren't that big. Definitely like the new mechanics. It feels quite a lot more polished like NTW. Basically like NTW with swords.

Can't really talk about the AI other than that its not MIITW completely retarded for the most part.

[Hunter KIng George]

Very impressed with the demo...runs smoothly, looks terrific, I think they are finally on to somethig great in the making.

Wow...

[PanzerJaeger]

Can anything be deduced about the pacing and battle mechanics from the demo? Do you think the gameplay will yield rewarding multiplayer battles?

[xploring]

Read comments over at official forum saying units often rout within 30 seconds when unevenly matched (e.g. katana vs spear) and battle felt rushed. I haven't got a good enough computer to play yet, hopefully it's not like how some described, I am pretty clumsy with maneuvering units.

[PanzerJaeger]

Just played the demo. I first played the historical battle and then played through the campaign. To be more precise, I played through the part that worked. It hung up on the "defend your trade route" command and never let me progress further. I was so wholly disinterested that I didn't bother playing through again.

It's all just so much lipstick on a pig of a battle engine. Insta-routing, poor pacing, super speeds, and unit reaction issues are all back with a vengeance and they've added some new head scratchers as well. (Why are my non-routing cavalry all running in opposite directions?) And as usual in the newer titles, don't bother zooming in to watch the cool animations they worked so hard on, as the battle will be decided before you have a chance to zoom back out. Arcade-ish would be a compliment.

What is really frustrating is that you can tell how much work they put into the details. The armor, animations, landscapes, and a hundred other aspects of the game are brilliant, but they fail to all come together to create an overall enjoyable experience. What is the point of all the special abilities and formations if the battle progresses so fast that you cannot make use of them? Why even bother to incorporate an exhaustion system, when it is practically meaningless to the game? (Changing the default from walk to run is indicative of the role exhaustion now plays in the engine.)

Yes it is far more polished and has a nifty dictionary, but the battles themselves are just awful - much worse than Empire and a far cry from the original.

I'm sure they will sell millions of copies, but if this is a representation of the game play we can anticipate, they won't be selling one to me.

[pevergreen]

Yes it is far more polished and has a nifty dictionary, but the battles themselves are just awful - much worse than Empire and a far cry from the original.

+1

Over way too fast

[knoddy]

(Why are my non-routing cavalry all running in opposite directions?)

if u take a closer look you will find that are ridderless horses obviously a new and quite nice addition. riders were often unhorsed and killed while the horses were still alive. I would love to see if cavalry units can be dismounted in battle but not die and fight on foot. would be quite cool hehe.


ALso i saw no instant routing. every battle ive fought so far units fight for quite a while b4 routing. the only units i saw rout quite quickly was when i charged my cav at some archers. they got mown down quite fast.

[Nigel]

From the screenshots, the Battle Replay button seems to be active in the demo. If this is true, I have a question to those who already have the demo: can we now rewind during a replay or is it like in NTW, that the replays only run forward with no chance of rewinding and looking at crucial moments several times from different angles ?

Seems my question from yesterday got lost in all those posts, so I am just quoting it here again.
Has anyone tried to rewind their replays yet ?

[TosaInu]

I've seen the replay buttons, but haven't watched any: was a bit rushed at 1:30 am.

Mounted units can dismount in open battle, but haven't done so yet. This demo feels faster than NTW on the same hardware.

[knoddy]

Mounted units can dismount in open battle, but haven't done so yet. This demo feels faster than NTW on the same hardware.

Not what he was refering too. if you fight a battle watch your cavalry, zoom in, i watched it not 10 minutes ago in the seige battle, and in the historical battle, men get killed in the melee and the horses run wild, but they are still part of the group and so it looks quite odd, but next time u wonder why ur cav is running round like mad check bet they are riderless horses, nice touch imo just make them not part of your group of cav once dismounted.

[Kagemusha]

Taking a better look at the campaign tutorial "Chosokabe" now.

Here is the campaign map.As you can see the fog of war is created bit like the old STW map:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is some basic movement,camera rotation etc. Next we go to unit recruitment panel:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Kagemusha]

Taking a better look at the campaign tutorial "Chosokabe" now.

Here is the campaign map.As you can see the fog of war is created bit like the old STW map:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is some basic movement,camera rotation etc. Next we go to unit recruitment panel:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

next turn the tutorial makes me build a archery dojo, thus enabling me to build samurai archers.Here is the building panel:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Revolting Friendship]

Yeah, battles are faster than lightspeed, yari ashigaru does indeed pull out their swords for melee and the horses are rediculously huge.

Slow down the battles, de-emphasise this retarded rock, paper, siccors-gameplay, let the yari ashigaru fight with their spears and make the horses smaller and I'll be very happy about this game.

As for the rest; the music, the graphical quality in both campaign and battles, the style and atmosphere, the campaign layout; all very very well done. A big step ahead from what I can see, and while the CAI seemed a bit passive, it didn't perform badly and I suspect it was also limited by the confines of the demo campaign.

[Kagemusha]

Yeah, battles are faster than lightspeed, yari ashigaru does indeed pull out their swords for melee and the horses are rediculously huge.

Slow down the battles, de-emphasise this retarded rock, paper, siccors-gameplay, let the yari ashigaru fight with their spears and make the horses smaller and I'll be very happy about this game.

As for the rest; the music, the graphical quality in both campaign and battles, the style and atmosphere, the campaign layout; all very very well done. A big step ahead from what I can see, and while the CAI seemed a bit passive, it didn't perform badly and I suspect it was also limited by the confines of the demo campaign.

So maybe there is need for little tweaking old friend?

[antisocialmunky]

Yeah, the kill rates are a little ridiculous. I fear it may not be feasible to change it so late in the game. Don't know how this will effect the AI or the tech tree so I think we're going to have to live with it. Likewise, the tech tree may do a bit to help the combat situation. Also, I think you had much better troops to win the first tutorial battle so that probably skews the experience.

Also, I think the unit sizes are on large instead of ultra by default so I question whether or not it will slow down once units get bigger and you go for deeper formations. I also think that the Katana samurai need to be harder to recruit. That's one of the things about the old STW. You mostly had spear vs spear with the odd No Dachi or to carve them up so the RPS wasn't so obvious.

I think it is okay. I've had samurai units hold on for quite a long time in the castle siege. The ashigaru routed in about 3 minutes after being mobbed by a horde or archers, and the katana samurai lasted a good 10 minutes or so.

[Jochi Khan]

Seems my question from yesterday got lost in all those posts, so I am just quoting it here again.
Has anyone tried to rewind their replays yet ?

Battle replay buttons....

Pause..Play..Forward..Fast Forward.