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Sheogorath
12-12-2008, 03:38
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56333

Looks like I got my wish. :sweatdrop:

TevashSzat
12-12-2008, 03:39
Well, I suppose it would be better for the game to be delayed rather than get released with lots of bugs and such.

Megas Methuselah
12-12-2008, 04:37
Oh, thank God. If CA needs more time, then I grant it! :snobby:

As long as it's released by early summer...

pevergreen
12-12-2008, 05:10
Good. One month to fix MP? :grin2:

Mailman653
12-12-2008, 05:36
Noooo....I won't be able to buy it in March :drama1:

Martok
12-12-2008, 06:08
Nice find, Sheogorath! I hope you don't mind, but I've altered the thread title a bit and am going to pin this at the top of the forum for a while. :bow:



Well, I suppose it would be better for the game to be delayed rather than get released with lots of bugs and such.
Seconded. :yes:

Sheogorath
12-12-2008, 07:09
S'alright, Martok.

Furthermore, this is my second sticky on the org. I feel special :laugh4:

And I think I made my feelings clear on this subject a while ago in a separate topic, but, to clarify, I do indeed approve of all necessary delays such as should be required in order to provide us with a superior gaming experience.

Terraforce
12-12-2008, 08:47
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56333

At least it will give them a bit more time to polish the game up.

Praxil
12-12-2008, 09:07
Great news, good.

If this means that they will manage to build the game to even a bit more closer to being a "complete" game, then it's all good.

I hope that even after this, if the game is still not ready then that the publisher will push the release date even further. I mean Mercenaries 2 supposed to be released almost exactly one year before their actual release, and when they released it despite the extra time given it's still incredibly uncompleted game.

PBI
12-12-2008, 10:01
Hmm :inquisitive:

Delays this close to release smack of the game being nowhere near finished.

I have a nasty sneaking suspicion that CA may have made the game too ambitious, and bitten off more than they can chew.

rajpoot
12-12-2008, 10:15
Well, well, well, all this delay......it better be worth it.

Sheogorath
12-12-2008, 10:30
Missed the sticky, guys? :P

Ja'chyra
12-12-2008, 10:39
Delays are never good, not for the company and not for the customer.

Project plans should be set in the beginning that are achievable and any movement of those plane shows that something is not going as expected. If CA set a release date of February then they obviously thought they would have a complete game by then, if they have had to move it back then they've obviously encountered problems. So saying that a delay is good is a load of rubbish really.

RexCroatorum
12-12-2008, 12:08
I dont know what you people think about this game but for me it seems that this would be the greatest strategy game EVER, it is the most compleate game ever and I am so excited to play it, and if it means they would fix all problems and give us the best, then hell ya, prolong it for five months.:shame::2thumbsup:

By the way, does anyone know would it be possible to play the game after 1800, couse that is the most chalenging years:help::help:

Schiltrom
12-12-2008, 13:02
I think it's until early 1800s.
Still... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I was gonna save my money from Christmas for this. I just know I'm not going to be able to resist MoH Heroes 2 till then. *dribbles*

Sol Invictus
12-12-2008, 18:00
RexCroatorum, the game ends in 1799 and a winner is declared, but we can continue to play as long as we want but there will be no Tech advances or Character aging and such.

kingsnake
12-12-2008, 18:59
Their delaying to add a campaign 1 vs 1 multiplayer mode WOOO!!!

"Significantly the additional time will also allow us to implement the underlying technology for a much desired feature (thanks to your feedback!); a multiplayer campaign mode. An opportunity to participate in the 1 versus 1 multiplayer campaign mode beta will be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release."

from http://www.sega.co.uk/empire/gameinfo/news.php?n=2775

kingsnake
12-12-2008, 19:01
They are delaying ETW to add this new mode!!!

It's only going to be 1vs1 though, but better than nothing!!!

http://www.sega.co.uk/empire/gameinfo/news.php?n=2775

:balloon2::balloon2::balloon2::balloon2::balloon2::balloon2::balloon2::balloon2::balloon2:

Mailman653
12-12-2008, 19:02
MP campaign....hmm....I hope it comes with a save feature, not everyone can play a whole campaign in one sit down but it does sounds like an awesome feature.

JR-
12-12-2008, 19:23
fantastic news. :)

BeeSting
12-12-2008, 19:37
This is great news. It's about time.

IsItStillThere
12-12-2008, 20:43
I guess I win the pool.:idea2:



March 2009 might be a better guess.

a reply from a thread back in jan. 2008. Folks were hoping back then for a 2008 release.

IsItStillThere
12-12-2008, 20:46
very interesting news...1vs1 is be a great start, maybe multiple players in an expansion pack

darrin42
12-12-2008, 20:56
Brill news! This new feature sounds really cool actually lol. A Multiplayer Campaign mode sounds so much fun! And great to see their taking the extra time to make the game perfect as well!

andrewt
12-12-2008, 21:14
Good. I hope they do better on balancing and bug fixing this time around compared to their last few installments.

Megas Methuselah
12-12-2008, 21:17
Missed the sticky, guys? :P

Oh, that's where the thread went. I thought this one was a bit different, and was wondering why Martok deleted my post...:clown:

EDIT: Wait, now the threads are merged. Heh.

andrewt
12-12-2008, 21:18
Delays are never good, not for the company and not for the customer.

Project plans should be set in the beginning that are achievable and any movement of those plane shows that something is not going as expected. If CA set a release date of February then they obviously thought they would have a complete game by then, if they have had to move it back then they've obviously encountered problems. So saying that a delay is good is a load of rubbish really.


Except when you compare CA's polish with Blizzard's. Almost all the posters here know that Rome and Medieval 2 should've been delayed by at least a few months to fix all sorts of balance issues and bugs. Hearing that Empire is delayed gives us hope that CA is now really trying to give this game some polish instead of releasing something early in an unfinished state.

gardibolt
12-12-2008, 21:28
Although if there are in fact problems, a single month is hardly enough time to resolve them properly.

anders
12-12-2008, 23:34
that is A GOOD THING. much betterr to wait a month or two for a better, less buggy game than to have M2TW pre-patch again..

sassbarman
12-12-2008, 23:37
multiplayer campaign mode i just :daisy: my pants!

Pinxit
12-13-2008, 01:20
Brill news! This new feature sounds really cool actually lol. A Multiplayer Campaign mode sounds so much fun! And great to see their taking the extra time to make the game perfect as well!

I will destroy you all!

What I do wonder is how they will solve the problem of time. There will obviously be a lot of AI factions and having that in mind, how fun will it be for me as to wait until a 1 hour battle between my human opponent and my AI opponent takes place? Will I be able to observe their battle? Or is it the old fashioned "Tea time, call me when you are done".

TevashSzat
12-13-2008, 01:34
Like everyone above, this seems really neat and may help revitalize a what I perceive to be small TW multiplayer community

Ishmael
12-13-2008, 04:49
2 things:

1. Do you think it's likely that it will just be autoresolved battles to start with? Or do you think they would do battles by agreement?

2. Im a bit worried by the phrasing here. In particular, "allow us to implement the underlying technology", and "will be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release." This suggests to me that it wont be available upon release, but in a patch or something. Yet again, i may be completely wrong. Whats everybody else's opinions?

Still, it looks very promising, especially as they are calling the 1 v 1 a beta. We can but hope for more...(dramatic music) :laugh4:

Alexander the Pretty Good
12-13-2008, 05:27
I wonder if you actually fight battles head to head or if it's just like hotseat...

Martok
12-13-2008, 06:47
....


[Martok is speechless]


:jawdrop:

Martok
12-13-2008, 06:48
By the way, I'm merging this with the thread announcing the delay. The two topics are closely interrelated, plus this is also a sticky-worthy announcement. :yes:

Martok
12-13-2008, 06:53
Thread merged with existing (stickied) thread on the same topic. ~:)

Polemists
12-13-2008, 08:39
Sorry but not behind this not in the slighest.

First there is the obvious fact that you need not give out concreate dates if you expect delays. Which leads to the idea that CA has either made a mistake or taken on more then they can.

Either way, it's bad. I never had a single problem with MTW, MTW 2 or RTW that was insurmountable, I may be in the minority but judging by reviews I read in magazines, I doubt it. If someone took all the comments, improvements, and ideas that this forum had for games and put them in pre release it would take YEARS, to do a game that would even please 20% of this forum.

Then you look at the very idea that the so called "Vaulted feature" has no implementation upon release and is nothing more then a poorly made side feature that will be poorly maintained. I think you will all be very disappointed.

This would be the equivelent of players asking for naval combat in MTW 2, and the devs saying, sure, 1v1, post launch. Before empire's engine, before they took time to research, before they took time to playtest.

Again I am not against Multiplayer Campaign maps but so far CA has had a "We won't put it in, unless we put it in right" kind of attitude. Why change now?

I am highly disappointed. The actual month in and of itself is irrelevant, the reasons behind it stink of SEGA's hand. (The guys behind Spartan and Viking)

Maybe this is a rant, but I still think this is a bad move by CA.

Ituralde
12-13-2008, 12:20
2. Im a bit worried by the phrasing here. In particular, "allow us to implement the underlying technology", and "will be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release." This suggests to me that it wont be available upon release, but in a patch or something. Yet again, i may be completely wrong. Whats everybody else's opinions?


The way I read it, and the way it is explained here for those who speak German:
http://www.gamestar.de/news/pc/strategie/rundenstrategie/1951979/empire_total_war.html

It is indeed only the foundation that is being laid in the game. The actual Multiplayer Campaign will come with an additional patch some time later. Maybe Summer 2009 or something like that. I hate to spoil your fun guys, but so far it's one month delay without an immediate result. Just more waiting it seems. Well, I have time! :beam:

Fisherking
12-13-2008, 14:18
There must be other problems that require a fix before release. The fact that they are putting in a beta version of a multiplayer campaign is just a way to ease the sting a bit, I think.

The trouble is that CA is so closed mouthed about it… So we will see the game in March…maybe…

It would be better if there was a little more in depth information on the thing. It could be that the modifications are all in conjunction with making the game operate with the multiplayer mode or it could be other problems. Either way it would just be nice to know.

It doesn’t seem that any of the CA people are rushing in to explain though, does it?

I love this Sires and think that CA does an over all, outstanding job, but being a loyal fan it would be nice if they shared a bit more information with us on the reason for the delay.

Polemists
12-13-2008, 14:27
Yes, so how many weeks has it been since we were supposed to get dev diary 4, 3? Who thinks they are keeping it to themselves just to prolong marketing as now they have a whole other month and no public advertisment to feed.

Fisherking
12-13-2008, 14:37
Sorry to double post but I just read the German Article.

From what I get from it, (and my German is far from perfect) it says they wanted the additional time to look for bugs and balance the game…possibly because the multiplayer mode is going into the game???

The multiplayer mode will not be include in the release but later added, but they found it good that CA was adding it from the wishes of their fans.

Wishazu
12-13-2008, 22:02
If the multiplayer campaign is implemented correctly then I may consider falling back in love with the Total war series. Even if the MP campaign is only 1v1 at least I will be able to crush my brothers empire beneath my bootheel. :)

General SupaCrunk
12-14-2008, 19:15
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Megas Methuselah
12-14-2008, 22:44
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes.

Sir Beane
12-16-2008, 19:30
One good thing that could come from a 1 vs 1 campaign is that we will be able to see poor, hapless fools attempt to take on Askthepizzaguy and his insane, bloody blitz tactics. Truly a glorious and gory spectacle the likes of which hasn't been seen since Rome decided to pit lions against helpless christians. :laugh4:

Thermal
12-17-2008, 02:00
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/938/938189p1.html

:grin: one v one but a good start

Belgolas
12-17-2008, 02:12
yup but adding it also delayed the game one month.

Thermal
12-17-2008, 02:30
yup but adding it also delayed the game one month.

small price to pay IMO

Thermal
12-17-2008, 02:44
LOL i realize theres already a thread on this, sorry, either merge or delete, thanks

Martok
12-17-2008, 08:23
No problem. Threads merged. ~:)

hellenes
12-17-2008, 09:25
After this all the "perfect "AI" pipedreamers can stop whining....

Polemists
12-17-2008, 09:34
After this all the gamers who actually wanted a release date on time as promised and a campaign multiplayer that actually works will keep whining.

Oh, and on release day, when the multiplayer add on is not released and wont' be released till July, the other whiners can continue on again.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, this is a unwise move on CA's part in my view. Of course they can do what they want, because they have no competition in this game market and even if they delayed it a year people would still buy it cause it's the only decent turn based strategy game being made.

I just expected more out of CA, sadly disappointed. For those of you saying it's only a month, keep in mind this is the FIRST delay, there's nothing to stop them delaying it another month.

hellenes
12-17-2008, 11:57
After this all the gamers who actually wanted a release date on time as promised and a campaign multiplayer that actually works will keep whining.

Oh, and on release day, when the multiplayer add on is not released and wont' be released till July, the other whiners can continue on again.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, this is a unwise move on CA's part in my view. Of course they can do what they want, because they have no competition in this game market and even if they delayed it a year people would still buy it cause it's the only decent turn based strategy game being made.

I just expected more out of CA, sadly disappointed. For those of you saying it's only a month, keep in mind this is the FIRST delay, there's nothing to stop them delaying it another month.

I would take a delay over a rushed half finished product any day of the week...

Polemists
12-17-2008, 12:39
I would take a delay over a rushed half finished product any day of the week...

That's the whole point, if they would have alloted thier time correctly, they wouldn't need to delay because it would be a finished product. Now you have no idea your getting a finished product, even if you wait a year, whatever the problem in question is, may still not be fixed.

The prefectionists can praise this delay all they want, just don't expect the rest of us to be happy about it. (I am a naysayer, I admit. :no:)

SirGrotius
12-17-2008, 19:30
That's amazing. I don't know if it's been answered, but we definitely need a save. Will all battles be auto-resolved unless you're fighting against the other person?

Martok
12-17-2008, 22:47
That's amazing. I don't know if it's been answered, but we definitely need a save. Will all battles be auto-resolved unless you're fighting against the other person?
I believe that will be a key question. Whether or not we can manually fight out battles -- and if so, which ones -- is going to be a big determinant of how the MP campaign plays.

Thermal
12-17-2008, 23:59
The prefectionists can praise this delay all they want, just don't expect the rest of us to be happy about it. (I am a naysayer, I admit. :no:)

but its only a month for tons more experience! if it was going to add 3 months or more i would be very unhappy about it, but its within a proximity i can cope with, longs it isnt delayed too much more, all games tend to be later than there target anyway, im not to bothered about prefection, but maximization to an extent where possible is rather nice :2thumbsup:

i imagine its all over an online lobby where the players do most of the campaign in one sitting, though i'm sure they'll be battles and a save facility, if CA know anything about there target market, they'll know this is important too :yes: regardless, i'd still go online for the campaign alone, and mods/patches will likely expand it to more than 1 v 1, though IMHO it would be too much hassle to have more than say 4 people, as getting turns done would be as tiresome as hot-seating


a good idea to me would be that all battles against the computer are auto resolved, and battles between the human players are fought, so players arent waiting endlessly for the other player to fight against the CPU

Wishazu
12-18-2008, 01:22
I believe that will be a key question. Whether or not we can manually fight out battles -- and if so, which ones -- is going to be a big determinant of how the MP campaign plays.

It would seem kinda pointless to me to include a feature that the fans have been crying out for since Shogun and then water it down by removing half the experience of the game - fighting the actual battles.

Megas Methuselah
12-18-2008, 02:35
@Wishazu

Yes, I agree. However, if all battles are playable, then the multiplayer campaign will most probably be a very time-consuming affair. Is that good or bad?


I just expected more out of CA, sadly disappointed. For those of you saying it's only a month, keep in mind this is the FIRST delay, there's nothing to stop them delaying it another month.

Simmer down. Let's take a leaf out of Methuselah's book and look on the bright side of the whole situation: this gives you one more month (maybe more?) to enjoy wine and girls before ETW clutches your heart forever.

Besides, as long as the game is released by summer, I'm not whining. If everyone else is, well, it's not my concern. :clown:

Pinxit
12-18-2008, 14:34
@Wishazu

Yes, I agree. However, if all battles are playable, then the multiplayer campaign will most probably be a very time-consuming affair. Is that good or bad?

Good or bad? Awesome! I want one game to last for months. This shouldnt require both players online at the same time. The game running constantly one month is not an option. What they need to do is to let the player install a puny software that sleeps until the other player is done doing his turn. Then, if the other player isnt currently playing, the ending of a turn will notify this puny software which then alerts you. Sort of like an email. "Its your turn"-message, even if you are not playing the game.
This way you could have lots of different on going matches with several players, and the tiny puny small software will alert you when its your turn and in which save it is in your turn. Possibly launch the game just by clicking on the "alert"-thingy.

Thermal
12-18-2008, 19:53
but its only a month for tons more experience! if it was going to add 3 months or more i would be very unhappy about it, but its within a proximity i can cope with, longs it isnt delayed too much more, all games tend to be later than there target anyway, im not to bothered about prefection, but maximization to an extent where possible is rather nice :2thumbsup:

i imagine its all over an online lobby where the players do most of the campaign in one sitting, though i'm sure they'll be battles and a save facility, if CA know anything about there target market, they'll know this is important too :yes: regardless, i'd still go online for the campaign alone, and mods/patches will likely expand it to more than 1 v 1, though IMHO it would be too much hassle to have more than say 4 people, as getting turns done would be as tiresome as hot-seating


a good idea to me would be that all battles against the computer are auto resolved, and battles between the human players are fought, so players arent waiting endlessly for the other player to fight against the CPU

i agree with him :yes:

Megas Methuselah
12-18-2008, 21:40
@777Ares777

But I want to fight the AI. I never trusted Auto-Resolve battles before because I could win a battle easily where the auto-resolve would lose. Not kool.

Sheogorath
12-19-2008, 00:23
@777Ares777

But I want to fight the AI. I never trusted Auto-Resolve battles before because I could win a battle easily where the auto-resolve would lose. Not kool.

I've always been wary of Autoresolve. I dont use it unless it's like, less than a quarter red and the enemy is all mounted archers while I have only infantry or something like that, which would involve hours of chasing dudes around the map.

It doesn't seem to like me, for some reason. It hands out 'LOL DEVASTATING DEFEAT' more often that I care, and applies casualties to random units. Which annoys me. Especially when it spares the newly trained peasants and takes out half a unit of elite archers.

Thermal
12-19-2008, 00:51
@777Ares777

But I want to fight the AI. I never trusted Auto-Resolve battles before because I could win a battle easily where the auto-resolve would lose. Not kool.

I agree however

1: you'd still be able to fight against the human player, the VITAL feature :yes:
2: you could easily put the battle differculty on easy, same with campaign if it works similiarily, meaning greater chance of winning auto resolve while having a challenge against your human opponent
3: the AI is being re vamped, so the auto resolve feature could be improved to be fairer
4: vitally, the other player wont have to wait ages on turns where you end up having 1 more or more battles, if these campaigns are to run smoothly, long battles where the other has finished there turn long back would annoy me massively and waste time


I think the good outway the bad, as there aren't many other suggestions that i see working, still get the good fights, but by making AI easier it solves those auto resolve problems and increases the campaigns speed :2thumbsup:

ULC
12-19-2008, 01:05
I've always been wary of Autoresolve. I dont use it unless it's like, less than a quarter red and the enemy is all mounted archers while I have only infantry or something like that, which would involve hours of chasing dudes around the map.

It doesn't seem to like me, for some reason. It hands out 'LOL DEVASTATING DEFEAT' more often that I care, and applies casualties to random units. Which annoys me. Especially when it spares the newly trained peasants and takes out half a unit of elite archers.

I can attest to this - Nothing is more irriating to lose men from units you'd have not used during the battle (I usually have an elite reserve) or lose to a stack half the size of yours (or worse, losing to a stack 5 times your size when you know if you fought it you'd win :wall:)

And I've had worse then 'LOL DEVASTATING DEFEAT'. I think the computer said "roflcopter" once late at night when I was tired and just wanted a campaign to end so I was in an autresolve frenzy - one autoresovle later and I find my frontier in shambles and the interior of my Empire in danger...from frenchmen...

But still, the idea of online multiplayer campaigns is worth drooling over. I honestly want to see more on this though before I drool further - because if history tells, I'll be wiping that spit away and burying ETW somewhere in the nether realms of my CD rack...

Thermal
12-19-2008, 01:10
Yeah i'm with YLC and sheo, on Rome total war with carthage or selucids, don't you notice when fighting auto-resolves when u have elephants they always do loads of damage to them

i.e

one battle i outnumber romans carthage vs scipii

i win, but out of my 2 units of elephants, lose at least 3/4 of them, my other units are barely touched, lol

Sir Beane
12-19-2008, 01:26
Yeah i'm with YLC and sheo, on Rome total war with carthage or selucids, don't you notice when fighting auto-resolves when u have elephants they always do loads of damage to them

i.e

one battle i outnumber romans carthage vs scipii

i win, but out of my 2 units of elephants, lose at least 3/4 of them, my other units are barely touched, lol

That's because the A.I recognises the ferocity and strength of the mighty war elephant and rightly focuses their pathetic power into defeating your heroic pachyderms.

Sure they might lose the battle because of it, but they can die with the honor of having defeated the mightiest beast of all.

Megas Methuselah
12-19-2008, 20:46
It doesn't seem to like me, for some reason. It hands out 'LOL DEVASTATING DEFEAT' more often that I care, and applies casualties to random units. Which annoys me. Especially when it spares the newly trained peasants and takes out half a unit of elite archers.

When you're playing as a horse-archer faction, auto-resolve is out of the question. Losing a completely one-sided battle against a half-stack of untrained peasants and militia is ridiculous, especially when it could have been a victory in less than 5 minutes had you played it out yourself.

:wall:


Sure they might lose the battle because of it, but they can die with the honor of having defeated the mightiest beast of all.

No man can ask for a more honourable death. :clown:

Sir Beane
12-20-2008, 21:32
I hate autoresolve with a burning passion. But i'll be damned if it isn't much much better at taking cities than I am. Taking a huge city with cannon towers and a few hundred archers as defense? No problem! We'll do it and only lose one man!

I would love to know how the A.I thinks that is possible. Because I've yet to be able to do it. It can even take cities when 99% of its army consists of cavalry, and the rest in one unit of peasants with a ladder.

Fisherking
12-20-2008, 21:53
I hate autoresolve with a burning passion. But i'll be damned if it isn't much much better at taking cities than I am. Taking a huge city with cannon towers and a few hundred archers as defense? No problem! We'll do it and only lose one man!

I would love to know how the A.I thinks that is possible. Because I've yet to be able to do it. It can even take cities when 99% of its army consists of cavalry, and the rest in one unit of peasants with a ladder.


:inquisitive:No! It really just depends on what your units are and what is there. Most of the time Auto resolve is better than attacking, but some units it just rates too high. Never ever auto resolve against their darned elephants, and if you auto resolve against dismounted knights and their ilk expect to pay a heavy price.

I once attacked Jerusalem with two or three stacks and auto resolved. They didn’t seem to have any full units there and only about a half stack at that, but what they did have were a couple of elephants. I had the right men for the job and should have been a walk in the park. Instead I lost three generals and most of my troops. I took like 2000 casualties to those two elephants that I hardly noticed when I attacked…and of course all the javelin throwers were skirmishers so in the auto resolve they counted for almost nothing.

It is some what the same with armored swordsmen. It doesn’t seem to matter that you have 10 crossbowmen and some good cavalry, they are going to cost you disproportionate casualties.

I expect that Empire will be no different than the other TW games in that regard…there will be some units that you just should not auto resolve against.
:wall:

Wishazu
12-21-2008, 02:09
@777Ares777

But I want to fight the AI. I never trusted Auto-Resolve battles before because I could win a battle easily where the auto-resolve would lose. Not kool.

There is no need to auto resolve battles at all with a 1v1 campaign. Simply have the other player command the AI faction`s army for the battles. That way no one is going to be sitting around doing nothing. The other player will certainly be trying his hardest to cause as much damage to your army as possible.

ULC
12-21-2008, 02:30
There is no need to auto resolve battles at all with a 1v1 campaign. Simply have the other player command the AI faction`s army for the battles. That way no one is going to be sitting around doing nothing. The other player will certainly be trying his hardest to cause as much damage to your army as possible.

Under most circumstances, yes, but if both players are dealing with the same Faction, then the one who gets to control the AI army will try a more Pyrrhic battle IMHO, rather then play his best.

PBI
12-21-2008, 02:44
I hate autoresolve with a burning passion. But i'll be damned if it isn't much much better at taking cities than I am. Taking a huge city with cannon towers and a few hundred archers as defense? No problem! We'll do it and only lose one man!

I would love to know how the A.I thinks that is possible. Because I've yet to be able to do it. It can even take cities when 99% of its army consists of cavalry, and the rest in one unit of peasants with a ladder.

Hmph, don't try this on Stainless Steel. Basically, anything less than overwhelming odds in your favour, and an autoresolved assault which looks good on paper is likely to end in "Crushing Defeat".

But I would certainly like for autoresolve in Empire to be a bit smarter than it is at present. At the moment it seems to place too much emphasis on bare stats and not enough on factors like range and mobility, hence why units like horse archers and artillery are so weak in autoresolve.

It would also be nice if I could give the "autoresolve commander" at least some rudimentary instructions, like "in this routine field battle against a much weaker enemy, do not send my only artillery crew to get slaughtered, since I can't replace them and will need them for the next siege. Send in the expendable heavy infantry first."

In fact, something after the fashion of the promised strategic priorities for the battle AI might be good; so you could direct whether to inflict a few losses as a show of resistance and withdraw, or fight to the last man.

ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88
12-22-2008, 22:20
So I have to wait 1 month so they can add something I do not have interest for, nor have time for? :laugh4::inquisitive:



Hontestly, could be good idea and bring up the MP community. But we said that about RTW and M2TW, and look how they turned out....

I think many people will come around, since this, after all, is what a lot of people wanted.

Martok
12-23-2008, 07:30
I think many people will come around, since this, after all, is what a lot of people wanted.
Indeed. I'll probably be one of them. ~;)

My old roommate (who's also a TW fan) is already teasing me that his Grande Armée is going to beat my Redcoats into the dirt. Of course, he's gravely mistaken. ~D

Polemists
12-23-2008, 08:18
I think CA understands and most players will find that the main attraction as Martok stated will be friend v friend. So you can settle that score about who's the better general you've had since shogun :laugh4:

Random players against each other always presents challenges. Do you put time limits on turns? Time limits in battles? Because in the end if there is not some way to force Player B to end turn, battle, etc, the turn will just never end.

Friend against Friend is easier because you can just harass them over chat to hurry up :2thumbsup:

Megas Methuselah
12-28-2008, 09:54
Indeed. I'll probably be one of them. :wink:

My old roommate (who's also a TW fan) is already teasing me that his Grande Armée is going to beat my Redcoats into the dirt. Of course, he's gravely mistaken.

Yeah, he's gravely mistaken. My Mohawk warbands will have overrun you first! :skull:


Of course, the one bad thing about this is players who are spoil sports and quit too easily. They'll hate being vassals, minor powers, or giving up their colonies and trying to claw their way back to the top, so they'll leave. ArgH!

Wishazu
01-02-2009, 20:52
I`ll only ever be intending to play a 1v1 campaign with my brother, father and maybe a few people from here. Against my brother will always be a bitter fight to the very end.

ETWUnofficial
01-14-2009, 21:18
I'm feeling pretty positive about the delay. On the one hand, yes, it could mean that CA are in a complete mess and have bitten off way more than they can chew, but on the other I think it can be looked at as quite promising.

I don't think we need to be worry so much about bugs from the previous games, and I would be surprised if the multiplayer feature is going to be tacked on in this one swift extra month (it's the shortest month of the year, people!) or so.

I might write a blog about this actually, it's really quite an interesting topic.

Sir Beane
01-14-2009, 21:28
I'm feeling pretty positive about the delay. On the one hand, yes, it could mean that CA are in a complete mess and have bitten off way more than they can chew, but on the other I think it can be looked at as quite promising.

I don't think we need to be worry so much about bugs from the previous games, and I would be surprised if the multiplayer feature is going to be tacked on in this one swift extra month (it's the shortest month of the year, people!) or so.

I might write a blog about this actually, it's really quite an interesting topic.

It's nice to see someone else who is positive about the delay. I feared I was in a minority. I to believe that this delay is probably a good thing and nothing to worry about.

On a side note, nice fansite! It's very professional, informative and easy to navigate. Good job!

Lastly, welcome to the Org!

ETWUnofficial
01-15-2009, 01:51
It's nice to see someone else who is positive about the delay. I feared I was in a minority. I to believe that this delay is probably a good thing and nothing to worry about.

On a side note, nice fansite! It's very professional, informative and easy to navigate. Good job!

Lastly, welcome to the Org!

Ah, thanks Sir Beane :2thumbsup:

I did write a blog about it in the end, it's here if anyone wants to check it out: http://www.empire-total-war.org/2009/01/good-things-come-to-those-who/

I can't wait to find out how this all pans out - do they release in March, or delay further? Will it be full of bugs or will it melt all of our faces in sheer awesomeness?

Personally, as long as it is face meltingly awesome, I don't mind how long it takes them. Long live CA!

Ishmael
01-15-2009, 03:16
Good or bad? Awesome! I want one game to last for months. This shouldnt require both players online at the same time. The game running constantly one month is not an option. What they need to do is to let the player install a puny software that sleeps until the other player is done doing his turn. Then, if the other player isnt currently playing, the ending of a turn will notify this puny software which then alerts you. Sort of like an email. "Its your turn"-message, even if you are not playing the game.
This way you could have lots of different on going matches with several players, and the tiny puny small software will alert you when its your turn and in which save it is in your turn. Possibly launch the game just by clicking on the "alert"-thingy.

I actually quite like this idea-i do something similar with chess! It would, as Pinxit said, let you have a few games going at once if you wanted, and you wouldn't have to co-ordinate times. The only problem would be the battles, but maybe you could just wait until the other person is on or autoresolve (unlike many TW players, i dont believe autoresolving is a heinous crime punishable by death:beam:)

On a different note, do you think it would be possible to make another human a protectorate? If so, my friends should look forward to a slow and humiliating crushing of their independence *evil laugh* :laugh4:

Pinxit
01-16-2009, 02:10
I actually quite like this idea-i do something similar with chess! It would, as Pinxit said, let you have a few games going at once if you wanted, and you wouldn't have to co-ordinate times. The only problem would be the battles, but maybe you could just wait until the other person is on or autoresolve (unlike many TW players, i dont believe autoresolving is a heinous crime punishable by death:beam:)

On a different note, do you think it would be possible to make another human a protectorate? If so, my friends should look forward to a slow and humiliating crushing of their independence *evil laugh* :laugh4:

Battles would not be a problem. The puny software I told you about should be able to display if some of the people you are currently playing is in "waiting" mode. Or somehting similiar. If both players are in "waiting" mode the software would alert both players that the battle is ready to be played.

Polemists
01-17-2009, 09:04
Yes....that is a good idea....another good idea....would be for CA to gives us a demo right about.......now........now?.....now? *looks around*.....okay soon would be good.

geala
01-20-2009, 13:19
In a German magazin (PC Games) nowadays there is an article about E:TW, they sent 4 normal players to test the game. The results are interesting but probably not new and known (manually loading of ship cannons, clumsy movement, very weak cavalry and something like this). The information in the article is of course weeks old. But the article gives 6th of March as release date and says that CA did not confirm a multiplayer campaign. I'm not very interested in a multiplayer campaign but after the article I question myself how sure it is that it is in the game.

Martok
01-20-2009, 14:45
Well given that it's been confirmed (http://www.sega.com/empire/gameinfo/news.php?n=2776) on the official website -- indeed, including an MP campaign is one of the reasons CA delayed the game in the first place -- I think we can safely say it will be in. ~:)

Fisherking
01-20-2009, 15:24
In a German magazin (PC Games) nowadays there is an article about E:TW, they sent 4 normal players to test the game. The results are interesting but probably not new and known (manually loading of ship cannons, clumsy movement, very weak cavalry and something like this). The information in the article is of course weeks old. But the article gives 6th of March as release date and says that CA did not confirm a multiplayer campaign. I'm not very interested in a multiplayer campaign but after the article I question myself how sure it is that it is in the game.


Germans being German, when CA announced that they were delaying the game until march, the German Official Site put up 6 March.

It is the only site that lists it so, and I have checked them all, but I attributed it to the German character and desire for efficiency and precision.

However, I can’t say that I share their optimism.:laugh4:

It is an English Company we are talking about after all.:yes:

It is simply a matter of cultural differences! :juggle2: