Lack of Information

[PSYCHO V]

As Jack said: ITS NOT BEING RELEASED IN MARCH!
ok?

Anyway more info is being drip fed every month.
Think about all the things you dont know about Empire yet and think how long that information will take to be released. Might give you an idea of when we are releasing?
If it doesnt it will keep you busy until we do.

Thanks Interpid.

Not sure how much clearer you guys can make this?
What's not to understand when one says TBA?

my2bob

[Csargo]

As Jack said: ITS NOT BEING RELEASED IN MARCH!
ok?

Anyway more info is being drip fed every month.
Think about all the things you dont know about Empire yet and think how long that information will take to be released. Might give you an idea of when we are releasing?
If it doesnt it will keep you busy until we do.

Oh you'll get more than wallpapers between now and March.

Well it's almost March and there's nothing new...

I assume your post was directed at me. k thx. I assumed there would be some new info this month, but I haven't noticed anything new.

[Templar Knight]

Oh you'll get more than wallpapers between now and March.

hmm, thats that out the window then, unless we get an update today

[Jack Lusted]

Well I'd call the FAQs more than wallpapers.

[rajpoot]

What FAQs?? I can't see any.......where? where?

Edit 1 : Refreashing the tw blog and the tw.com page every one minute.......still nothing new.....
Edit 2 : All right, it's officially the 1st of March, 12:03 am here now, and I still can't see the FAQs..............dissapointing..... :(

well well, I hope there's a surprise tomorrow morning........

[pevergreen]

8 pm nearly on the first here

[Jack Lusted]

I was referring to the FAQS we have been doing, but yes there will be a new one soon.

[rajpoot]

Oh right.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But when??!! It already is March!

[Martok]

Patience, grasshopper. We might need to give it another week or two (even though I know you don't want to).

[YellowMelon]

I love how new games are like crack to us!

Kyolic still can make me Your pessimism warms my heart.

Still though, TBA is pretty indicative. Nobody can predict how long it will take to make the game unless you are making the game, and even then do you ever really know? This is a new engine, it's not as easy as the conversion from RTW to M2TW, and let me say, that is a good thing! All the best to the dev team. As my friend willy tells us: "Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast" ;)

A bone here and there will qualm the potential for TW fanatical anxiety-induced uni-bombings.

Unfortunately wallpapers and screen shots don't do it for me. I like stomach candy, not eye candy ;) Do you have some? No? Ah, FAQ me! Literally, do it. Hehehe. I'll stop talking now.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Take your time CA!

It is a little bit hypocritical of use here who tell you to take more time with developing your games to iron out bugs etc, and then hound you for a FAQ a few hours after the date set.

[YellowMelon]

Not that I care for the tidbits that are released whenever, but I don't find that hypocritical at all. Releasing the game is completely separate from releasing screenies, FAQ and whatnot. You have to do that otherwise people will lose interest, and you want to maintain if not elevate that interest come the TBA release date. It's marketing.

[Furious Mental]

On top of which if question marks are left over the game before it is released we are more likely to be unpleasantly surprised when it is released, because it is the good aspects of the game that are talked up. A classic example for practically any game is

Q: "How convenient will the game be for modding?"
A: "This will definitely be the most moddable game in the series, if not genre, we've made loads of improvements."
Q: "What are they?"
A: *runs away*

[Csargo]

I was referring to the FAQS we have been doing, but yes there will be a new one soon.

I realized now that you were talking about the FAQ from Jan.

[Jack Lusted]

On top of which if question marks are left over the game before it is released we are more likely to be unpleasantly surprised when it is released, because it is the good aspects of the game that are talked up. A classic example for practically any game is

Q: "How convenient will the game be for modding?"
A: "This will definitely be the most moddable game in the series, if not genre, we've made loads of improvements."
Q: "What are they?"
A: *runs away*

Oh you'll get answers to those questions closer to release. Atm all we can say is that it will be more moddable, we'll get into the specifics closer to release. We just can't answer them now due to the fact the game is still being made and things could change between now and release so if we gave specific info now, we might have to redo all the info closer to release. Patience, you will hear more about modding before Empire gets released.

[YellowMelon]

And if they change things and people buy the game, they go "False marketing! Rawr!"

Then troll for a while, get tired, and fall asleep somewhere.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Jack didn't say March 2008 you no0bz101
.

[YellowMelon]

How are they noobs for not knowing that?

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Psst! Sarcasm.
.

[Puzz3D]

Oh you'll get answers to those questions closer to release. Atm all we can say is that it will be more moddable, we'll get into the specifics closer to release.

Well the Kingdoms patch is close to release since it has been sent off to SEGA QA, but Creative Assembly will still not say what issues have an have not been addressed. They certainly know at this point what was fixed and what wasn't fixed. All Sensei will say is that as many issues as possible were addressed.

Based on the experience with CA's marketing of RTW and M2TW, CA does withhold information about the game which reduces people's ability to make an informed purchasing decision. I and many other players I know were unpleasantly surprised with RTW when we played it, and I read everything that CA posted about it prior to purchasing the game.

[rajpoot]

Based on the experience with CA's marketing of RTW and M2TW, CA does withhold information about the game which reduces people's ability to make an informed purchasing decision.

Everyone does that........I'm not saying that it is right or wrong, but the fact is, that any merchant who wishes to sell his ware will tell you all that is good, and forget to quote the nasty bits.....


btw, it is getting really very depressing, it sure seems the game might well be delayed till '09 end........ :(

[Martok]

btw, it is getting really very depressing, it sure seems the game might well be delayed till '09 end........ :(

I'd *much* rather prefer that, as opposed to the game being released too soon and being full of bugs. Not that anyone enjoys a game's release being pushed back, but often times that's the best thing for it. There's been too many PC titles rushed out the door before they were really ready....including both RTW & M2TW.

So again, I counsel patience. I know it's not easy to wait, but we want a game that's as complete as possible. In my experience, a game that's released sooner but requires massive patching is far, far worse than a game that takes an extra 6-12 months for fine-tuning.

[Puzz3D]

Everyone does that........I'm not saying that it is right or wrong, but the fact is, that any merchant who wishes to sell his ware will tell you all that is good, and forget to quote the nasty bits.....

That's right, and everyone should be concerned that they are going to get burned by Empire Total War.

I'll have to buy a new computer to play ETW. You think I'm going to do that just because CA employees say the game is going to be good? Of course not because they have the NDA over them which prevents them from providing objective information, and the consequence is that you cannot make an informed purchasing decision until many months after the game is released when the problems become apparent. I waited on purchasing M2TW, and I sure am glad that I didn't buy it despite the claim that it was going to be a tactical extravaganza.

[Wolf_Kyolic]

I know it's not easy to wait, but we want a game that's as complete as possible. In my experience, a game that's released sooner but requires massive patching is far, far worse than a game that takes an extra 6-12 months for fine-tuning.

Massive patching is required anyway, even if CA releases it on 2010. And that massive patching won't solve problems 100%. Some bugs will remain there forever.

Because:

Some bits of the game are not under their control anymore since Rome. It is about huge cpu calculations + animations and CA is not able to synch those properly. Archer range bug for example. You get shot by enemy archers although you are out of range by yards because the animation has to be completed (lmao). MTW2 was released on 2006 and that is not still fixed since 2 years!!!!

Because: they do not know how to fix it. At least they do not know how to fix it without writing some several hundred thousand lines of codes.

A new engine needs to be coded from scratch. I doubt that will be done and even if it is done, I doubt they will succseed coding it in a bug free way. If doing that was not beyond their capacity, they would have done it before and make everyone shut up.

That archer range bug is only one example. A 90 florins cost peasant unit holds vs an 600 florins cost elite sword unit for 5 mins is an other example. Peasants use knives and that moves quicker than the swords. So in that sense they hold vs an elite cav or inf unit for several minutes. That means a BROKEN engine.

Those calculations + animations related bugs will be there forever. Game is simply broken since Rome. However majority of the SP peeps do not realise that and CA can sell millions of copies without any problems. You just pay for a faulty product.

There are some CA employees who read this forum and they post here. If one of them comes and proves me wrong I will apolagize. But that will not happen. None of them will answer to this post.

Oh most probably they can come and answer like this but: "You will never see any of those past INCORRECTABLE bugs in ETW".

Then I might answer like this: "You know how many times we heard that before? Honestly, how many times? 20? 30?........"

Oh btw please make ETW expansion 6 separated parts this time. That is a much better deal than 4 seprated parts of Kingdoms. Keeps it much more tighter.

[pevergreen]

They are building a new engine, the screenshots alone prove that.

M2:TW has not had 2 years of work put into it since release, that point is wrong. They release 2-3 patches and no more, moved on to the next project.

The longest ive ever seen a company stay with a product is Blizzard, a few weeks ago patch 1.21b came out for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (an expansion pack), I wouldnt doubt it was around the 50th patch.

A new engine needs to be coded from scratch. I doubt that will be done and even if it is done, I doubt they will succseed coding it in a bug free way. If doing that was not beyond their capacity, they would have done it before and make everyone shut up.

Insulting their finished products is one thing, insulting their abilities is another. When you manage to code a game like M2TW, maybe you can talk like that to them?

That archer range bug is only one example. A 90 florins cost peasant unit holds vs an 600 florins cost elite sword unit for 5 mins is an other example. Peasants use knives and that moves quicker than the swords. So in that sense they hold vs an elite cav or inf unit for several minutes. That means a BROKEN engine.

I have played M2:TW extensively on patch 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. I have never encountered that bug.

Those calculations + animations related bugs will be there forever. Game is simply broken since Rome. However majority of the SP peeps do not realise that and CA can sell millions of copies without any problems. You just pay for a faulty product.

The engine is not perfect. No engine ever is. M2:TW and RTW are on the same engine, therefore same type of problems and limitations.

There are some CA employees who read this forum and they post here. If one of them comes and proves me wrong I will apolagize. But that will not happen. None of them will answer to this post.

As far as I understand:
- There is nothing for them to answer to, you haven't asked questions, only told answers
- They have no reason to respond if you attack their abilities
- This isn't their official forums, so less reason to spend their time here
- As far as I know, there is no Public Relations type person for CA who spends all day reading these types of posts.

I have no doubt someone will read your post. However I agree with you when you say they won't respond. I dont think it's worth their time.

[The Shogun]

Hi guys just thought I would pop in and say hi. I know it's frustrating when there is a lack of information regarding a game release. Being a keen gamer myself I am often in the same boat as you chaps waiting for any news or feature lists etc. As soon as we can get some more info out to you we will and please keep an eye on www.totalwar.com for as this will be the first place for resources and updates.

Once again sorry I don't have any more news for you just yet but I did just want to pop in and say hi and hang in there, it will be worth the wait.

[rajpoot]

I thought it was the TW blog where all the FAQs came first.........

[Wolf_Kyolic]

Dear CA,

Please give pevergreen a free copy of ETW. He really deserved it.

[Caius]

Poor CA guys, they are sieged by us.

Guys, lets have some good patience and wait.

[YellowMelon]

I will buy nothing but Shogun reincarnate!

Actually I have enjoyed TW all the way along despite its shortcomings. Still better than every other game of its genre (of which there aren't many).